Atheists, Voltaire, Morality and God

"Hello. I am writing regarding some evangelical booklets I have recently found around my high school. They keep turning up, mostly in bathrooms, and are essentially the 'Are you a good person' cartoon from your website in comic form. I must say that I find such propaganda shameful. The implication that everyone is bound for hell fire unless they prostrate themselves before God is far worse than a death threat. The objective of this pamphlet seems to be to prey on the insecure and the unsure, first by instilling a sense of guilt, and then a sense of terror, and finally offering them what you say is the only salvation: submission. I am offended by these manipulative and coercive tactics. However, as Voltaire once said, 'I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' Though I am certainly no Voltaire, I share the same love of freedom of speech. Therefore, I cannot object in principal to the distribution of ideas simply because I believe them to be incorrect and dangerous. However, when faced with the spread of such ideas, I can combat them in another way: by providing another viewpoint. To this end, I have launched a pamphlet campaign which points out the illogical nature of your propaganda. I hope that logic and humor are enough to overcome the fear and guilt which you employ, and make people see how unlikely the existence of God truly is." Sam

Sam, I appreciate the courteous way in which you wrote (may you read this reply in the same spirit).

I also appreciate your understanding of the importance of having the free exchange of ideas. With that said, as you step in as the intellectual savior of your peers, make sure you let them know that as an atheist you believe that nothing created everything (a scientific impossibility).

If you don't believe that, and instead believe that something rather than nothing created everything (but it wasn’t God), then you’re not an atheist; you’re an agnostic.

If you are embarrassed to admit that an atheist believes that nothing created everything, you could try to redefine the word "nothing," and say that it's actually "something." That will make you feel better.

Those who read our booklet may not have had a sense of guilt, fear, and terror that you had. Remember, it was Voltaire who said, "All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God."

God gave you a conscience, and because of it you are morally responsible to Him for your thoughts, words, and your deeds. So that fear you feel is legitimate. It has driven many a rebel to a sensible submission to the God who gave him life. John 8:31-32.

"We are all responsible for everyone else - but I am more responsible than all the others. "
Alyosha Karamazov

Once you introduce the idea of function you introduce normativity. And tools - any kind - are no longer cloaked by choice. A hammer has many uses. Ask an ape!

509

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
—Charles Darwin

The preliminary signal of resistance has become thought constraint, that determines what cannot be thought in any other way, what is to be neglected or ignored, and where, inversely, redoubled effort of investigation is required. The readiness for directed perception becomes consolidated and assumes a definite form. [L. Fleck p. 123].

The unknown quality of the archive that draws together writing and being is not a temporary condition anticipating its redemption in knowledge, but a constitutive unknowability, an exteriority to the order of knowledge as Being.

Hamlet: Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 239–251

If we believed that we must try to find out what is not known, we should be better and braver and less idle than if we believed that what we do not know is impossible to find out and that we need not even try. —Socrates, The Meno.

What living and buried speech is always vibrating here . . . . what howls restrained by decorum. WW...?

Information theory is not sufficient. It doesn’t include the misunderstanding and the lie.
—hubert fichte

One must retrace an experimental protocol of thought while also showing concern for zemblantious as the sovereignty of the liminal: calling on thought itself as the horizon of efficacy of the grammatically singular.

The illiterate of the future will be ignorant of the camera and the pen alike.
—László Moholy-Nagy
The archive.

Independent Curators International (ICI) is now accepting applications for curators internationally to participate in its short-course training program, the Curatorial Intensive.

Organized from November 13-21, 2011 in association with the visual art performance organization Performa, the program will use the Performa 11 biennial (November 1–21, 2011) as a platform to explore how curating performance art is being theorized and implemented today, including logistical and conceptual concerns arising from the commissioning, production, interpretation and documentation of performance art. Working with a faculty that includes leading artists, curators, and historians, by day the 10–14 selected participants will engage in a rigorous schedule of workshops, discussions, critiques, and advisement sessions to develop individual project proposals. Participants will also have special access to Performa 11 events, including Commissions, Premieres, Projects, and educational programs.

Teachers and advisors for this program include artist Mark Beasley (Curator, Performa), Klaus Biesenbach (Director, MoMA PS1, and Curator at Large, MoMA), Claire Bishop (Associate Professor, Art History, CUNY Graduate Center), RoseLee Goldberg (Founding Director and Curator, Performa), and Nancy Spector (Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation).

Application Guidelines

Visit ICI's website to apply for the Curatorial Intensive online. Applications must include a 500-word description of a program idea focused on performance that the applicant would like help in developing. This description should outline the proposal concept and any artists that the applicant is considering. Also required are a current resume; a 500–1,000 word letter of intent; and a 500-word text that describes a recent exhibition that has made an impact on the applicant. 



Fees and Scholarships

The program fee is 1,900 USD. Participants are responsible for covering travel and accommodation expenses. ICI also offers generous scholarship packages, subsidizing or eliminating the program fees and travel expenses of four participants.

About the Curatorial Intensive


This is the fourth iteration of the Curatorial Intensive, ICI's short-term, low-cost training program that offers curators the chance to develop exhibition ideas and make connections to professionals in the field. It provides the opportunity for peer-group education, forging new networks internationally. The Curatorial Intensive takes place twice annually in New York, and in other locations in conjunction with institutional partners worldwide.


The Curatorial Intensive was developed by ICI's Executive Director, Kate Fowle, who joined the organization after working as the International Curator at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Prior to her time in China, Fowle spent 6 years in San Francisco at the California College of the Arts, where she was the director of the MA Program in Curatorial Practice, which she founded in 2002 with Ralph Rugoff. 



The Curatorial Intensive is made possible, in part, by grants from Affirmation Arts, the Dedalus Foundation, the Helena Rubinstein Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; and by generous contributions from Toby Devan Lewis, James Cohan, and the supporters of ICI's Access Fund.


For more information, visit ICI's website, or contact Education & Public Programs Manager Chelsea Haines at chelsea@curatorsintl.org.

About Independent Curators International

Independent Curators International (ICI) produces exhibitions, events, publications, and training opportunities for diverse audiences around the world. In 35 years, ICI has organized 118 traveling exhibitions, profiling the work of more than 3,700 artists. The resulting networks include 621 museums, university art galleries, and art centers in 48 states and 29 countries. A catalyst for independent thinking, ICI connects emerging and established curators, artists, and institutions, to forge international networks and generate new forms of collaboration. Working across disciplines and historical precedents, the organization is a hub that provides access to the people, ideas, and practices that are key to current developments in the field, inspiring fresh ways of seeing and contextualizing contemporary art.

Just made a "to be eliminated" circle on G+.

No reciprocity, no friendship and yes I will encourage your death drive, hell I will even by the gas.

A Friendly Visit From an Atheist

I had a pleasant surprise this week. My friend Thunderf00t emailed me, and said that he was in Los Angeles and wanted to get together. Two years earlier we had a passive on-camera discussion. This time he suggested that we discuss the subject of morality.

The next day we took two chairs outside, set up two cameras and began talking about an issue which most atheists would rather avoid.

When an atheist talks about morality he has a problem. He has no basis of right or wrong, other than whether or not something is good for society. Kind of like Nazi Germany. Killing Jews was good for the Arian society. It was also legal, therefore it was morally okay in the atheist world-view.

We respectfully argued back and forth on different issues for about 20 minutes, and then something wonderful happened. Thunderf00t let me take him through the Ten Commandments as a gauge to see if he was morally good. He wasn’t. He freely admitted to being a liar, a thief, a blasphemer, and when I said,

"Jesus said, whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already with her, in his heart... ”

he smiled and (like every honest red-blooded male) pleaded guilty to the violation of the Seventh Commandment.

No wonder he (and every atheist) didn't like the thought of God's existence. Being morally responsible to Him isn’t a pleasant feeling for a guilty, sin-loving sinner. I know, because I have been where he now is.

He politely listened as I told him that Jesus took his punishment upon Himself so that he could go free from God’s wrath, and he was even able to finish the Bible verse,

"For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him (trusts in Him) should not perish but shall..."

and he finished it off, "...have everlasting life.” Unlike many atheists, Thunderf00t knows his Bible.

We then had lunch together, and my son (Daniel), myself and Thunderfoot thoroughly enjoyed further discussions about things that really matter. I don't think the subject of Darwin's theory tale even came up.

It was a good time all round. After he left we prayed for God's richest blessing on this likeable, quietly spoken, sincere atheist, hoping that he will soon come to his senses and seek out the gift of everlasting life that is alone in Jesus Christ.

Here's the full video, from both of our cameras:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bn62F5pvp0&feature=player_embedded

Pic. From two years ago

The need for cultural diversity and ethical generosity do not project an immanent field of perception, thinking, interpretation, identity, and judgment; it does not actively explore the possibilities that arise when thinkers engage an idea.

How many types of nothing are there?

The best content delivery system is a human.

As the body; links thinking to the sense experience; gives no powers to divinity; it can generate no basis for morality beyond the capacity of life.

Have not all railings and bridges fallen into the water? Who could still cling to “good” and “evil”? . . . The thawing wind blows — FN

In the company of the academy. I can only think. "We shall say “Ni” to you...if you do not appease us’ (Monty Python, 1975).

How one feels in the company of the german the academy. "We shall say “Ni” to you . . . if you do not appease us." (Monty Python, 1975)

If there is no logical contradiction of difference, no repetitions, with contradiction that would be a penguin. Really!

The event is only affirmed when [one] is aware of the event let alone thought as of worthy, however most are not. Fuzzy horses!

To think something out language must be crippled, scarred, and terrified Impaled by objects. An Affair with meaning. "..."

The Atheist Experience

"Ray believes I was a 'false convert' and was never a 'true Christian' the entire time I believed I was a born-again evangelical Christian for many years. I spoke in tongues, had the many gifts of the Holy Spirit, laying-on-of-hands, the whole nine yards." Lehman

He isn't the only regular on this blog who is the sad product of the false gospel. Another person continually says that he was a Christian minister, that he read the Bible many times, and that he truly believed, until he saw the light.

But notice the above person's "evidence" of his supposed conversion. It was "gifts," when the Bible says that it is by "fruits" (not gifts) that a Christian is known.

The Scriptures list the evidential fruits of conversion as fruit of righteousness (striving to do the right thing), the fruit of praise (giving God due praise for His kindness, etc.), the fruit of thanksgiving (having a thankful heart for the "unspeakable" gift of everlasting life, etc.), the fruit of repentance (living a life of holiness—-no longer serving sin), and the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness and temperance).

Instead of possessing these fruits, the false convert is a hypocrite. He doesn't come to know the Lord because his sin still separates him from God (see Mark chapter 4). He holds onto secret sins (lust, selfishness, bitterness, etc.), and it's only a matter of time (as with Judas) until he is exposed.

Many hypocrites are not yet evident, and so they will stay within the Church among God's people—-as goats among the sheep--and will be sorted out on Judgment Day.

The reason the false convert had a false conversion is that he never found a place of biblical repentance in the first place. He never saw sin in its true light. That's why the Ten Commandments should be thundered from the pulpits of churches, and not the unbiblical "God has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life" false gospel.

You can freely read about the false gospel and its tragic effects (or listen) on www.freewonderfulbook.com

The archive certain of itself, clear in its constituency in many ways the binary opposite of representation the archive is a victim of multiple, crippling oppressions-To be more concerned with how thought might accommodate a positive, joyous understanding of the archival in all its strange permutations, raising a series of questions rather than offering solutions, proclamations, or manifestos.

Recently the body been misplaced as an impediment to our humanity in that abyssal-space of philosophy, cultural analysis, all for capital.

A disturbed and disturbing relationship to time—historical, durational—is deeply imbricated with the appearance of being and artifacts in all the processes of thinking.

Nothin' to see here move along.

Nothin' to see here move along., originally uploaded by pixelsniper.

Nothin' to see here move along.

Nothin' to see here move along., originally uploaded by pixelsniper.

Nothin' to see here move along.

Nothin' to see here move along., originally uploaded by pixelsniper.

Caution: Objects in this post may be closer than they appear!

Sorel speaks that humans ‘do nothing great without the help of warmly coloured images which absorb the whole of our attention’

Be nice to friends, without them you would be a stranger.

Bestimmen von etwas als etwas!

The Definition of an Atheist

"Primate worshiper, I need your advice. When Ray says that atheists are 'fools,' is that raw hate? When he quotes (out of context, but that's another matter) Psalm 14:1 in defense of his position, does that prove that the Psalms are a reservoir of raw hate?" Steven J.

I don't hate anybody. It is clear to me that if someone believes that nothing created everything he or she is a fool (see the sidebar of this blog to see the list of the many atheists and scientists who believe that).

To believe that there was no First Cause is not only unscientific; it's unreasonable. To believe that nothing could create anything, let alone everything is absolute foolishness. And that's the position of the professing atheist.

I know that you define "nothing" as "There's nothing to eat in the fridge." By "nothing," you mean that there is something there, but you find it distasteful. Agreed.

Let's see if Psalm 14:1 is quoted in context:

"The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that does good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that does good, no, not one" (Psalm 14: 1-3).

The Word of God says the atheist is a fool. I agree wholeheartedly. There's no "raw hate." It's simply raw common sense.

In another comment, you (Steven J.) said "Ray frequently cites Psalm 14:1 as 'proof' that atheists are fools; occasionally he feigns erudition and calls us 'morons.'"

I don't cite the verse as proof that atheists are fools. It's not something that needs proving. It's self-evident.

Also, I am not aware of ever calling atheists "morons" on this blog or anywhere else--even once, let alone "occasionally". I would therefore be grateful if you could cite evidence of me doing this. If you do, I will sincerely apologize. If not, I think you owe me an apology. Thank you.

Way to go Dan!

Wait a minute! The sign doesn’t make any sense. I thought atheists didn't believe that God existed. Oops, I mean that "atheists don't see evidence for God." Oops, I mean "evidence for a god" (small "g"). Gotta get the language right.

Once again, I commend my friends at "Freedom From Religion Foundation" for letting people know that they can be good without God. All you need is to have your own definition of "good." Most people are "good" in their own eyes (see Proverbs 20:6).

You can also be happy without God. Most people know that anyway, but it's good to be reminded.

I was extremely happy without God for 22 years of my godless life. So was a friend of mine who was a millionaire at 16 years old, was world famous, and could have any girl he wanted. Who wouldn't be happy with a lifestyle like that?

The Bible makes it very clear that you and I can be real happy without God. It says that Moses choose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather that "enjoy the pleasures of sin, for a season" (see Hebrews 11:25). Sin gives pleasure. It makes us happy. See also Luke 8:14, 2 Timothy 3:4 and Titus 3:3.

This silly and unbiblical thought that we can't be happy without God is the basis of a teaching I have done for years called "Hell’s Best Kept Secret" (you may like to freely listen to it on www.livingwaters.com ). When my famous friend preached it (from my notes) on TV, our website got over one million hits the following day.

So good work Mr. Dan Barker. Keep putting those (costly) signs around the country--signs that make people think about God, and give us Christians more opportunities to share the gospel of everlasting life with a dying world.

You are doing more for the Christian cause as a professing atheist, than you did for the whole 19 years you pretended to be a Christian.

EDIT: Added: "...for letting people know that they can be good without God. All you need is to have your own definition of 'good.' Most people are 'good' in their own eyes (see Proverbs 20:6)."