Not So Heavenly?

In the past, I've alluded to how perverse of a concept hell is and to how ridiculous it is for God and religious leaders alike to hold this as a threat over people. But, while I've held the common criteria for getting into heaven to be equally asinine, I've been fairly willing to go along with the idea that heaven would be a nice place if it actually existed. After further consideration, though, I'm not so sure.

Heaven is generally held to be the perfect afterlife destination filled with nothing but sheer joy and contentment. Paradise. Xanadu. Sounds quite fetching, doesn't it? But have you ever stopped to consider what it would take for such a place to be perfect for even one person, let alone untold billions?

Think about it. What would you want? I'm sure you'd want all your friends and family there, for starters. Well, we could have a problem already. What if some of your loved ones didn't make the cut? You'd miss them for all eternity. I suppose God could always make clones or illusions of them, but that wouldn't be the same. Or he could erase your memories of them, or simply make you not miss them. But then he'd be fiddling around with your mind, and you would no longer be you. Would you be okay with some alternate version of you getting to enjoy eternity when the real you had to earn it in the material world? Would you be okay with God deciding what makes you happy and what doesn't? Wouldn't that be nixing your free will?

Just gonna make a few minor adjustments...

Those are some of the problems that could easily arise when considering the desires of a single person. How rapidly would the problems multiply when you toss a crapload of other people into the mix? Each would face the same problems of coping with the painful absences. But what about conflicts of interest? To use a simple example of just one such conflict, imagine two men are in love with the same woman. Who gets her? Do they have to share her, and will their minds also be altered so that they don't mind the sharing? How does the woman feel about it? Does she prefer one? Both? Neither? Someone else?

What about sex in general? Is the desire for sex suddenly erased, or is it one giant orgasmic free-for-all? How would your spouse feel about you sexing everyone up? How would you feel about your spouse doing the same?

I suppose you could solve a lot of these conflicting desire problems by giving everyone their own personal, individual heavens. But then each person would be isolated, they'd be interacting only with fake versions of other people, and we start right back with that set of problems.

Well, dammit, it all seemed real enough just a minute ago...

As far as I can tell, any way you slice it, something would have to be fake. Either you would be fake, having your mind and desires altered, or your surroundings (e.g. the other people) would be fake. Heaven would be filled with illusions. Fantasies. Wouldn't it stand to reason, then, that heaven itself is nothing more than a fantasy?

This is a problem, of course, because fantasies never compare to reality. Ask Inception or Star Trek's holodecks. Hell, ask yourself. When does fantasizing no longer cut it for you? At what point do you have to have the real thing?

Now, believe me, I'm not at all against fantasizing. I do it all the time. It's a nice escape, and it can certainly be fun for a while. But it never trumps reality. And what I find most troubling about the heaven fantasy is that many people, "aided" by religion, try their damnedest to make it trump their actual lives.

In heaven, it never stops spinning

Yes, the world can be a rough place. Reality sucks sometimes. Retreating into fantasies can be a way of coping, but ultimately, it's only a delay. Sooner or later, you have to come back down to reality. Some people retreat so far into the heaven fantasy that they disregard their actual lives as meaningless. They allow the fantasy to become the true existence, effectively treating reality as the mirage. It's a total reversal--and a desperate one. Not only have they deluded themselves, but they also can no longer deal with anyone who challenges their delusions. They can only interact with people who play into their fantasies, and that may be the saddest state of all.

All of this fantasizing and enabling of others' destructive fantasies takes a lot of effort, and it's all in the wrong direction. Imagine how much better our lives could be if we concentrated those efforts on actually improving this world instead of trying to escape from it. Reality is often harsh, but it's not fixed. It can be improved if enough people focus their efforts in the right direction. Earth may never be heaven, but it could be a reality that isn't so terrible. And we know it actually exists. That's gotta count for something.

Fear...Fear is My Ally

Well I've been slacking again with the posting, so it's time to get back on the horse, at least for one day. So strap in, readers, as this one's bound to offend (hi, religious folk!).

If you recognize my title as a discarded quote from Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace previews, congratulations, you're as sorry as I am. But it seemed an appropriate one for the discussion at hand and a likely secret mantra of religious leaders around the world. Whenever their other methods of controlling you are in doubt, fear is their ace in the hole.

WTF, George? Jar Jar blathers the whole movie, and you cut my bad-ass lines?

As I've quite painlessly shed my belief in religious claims over the past few years, I've wondered more and more how such outlandish and fantastical superstitions have enjoyed such enduring success over the centuries. If they are so unlikely to be true, how can so many people continue to believe them? I think it has to do with a few main reasons: hope, ignorance, laziness, and...wait for it...fear.

Hope is one I can't really fault anyone for. As cynical and misanthropic as I tend to be, I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of all hope. It can keep you going when nothing else can. It can inspire you. It can give you something to shoot for. On its own, it would still make much of religion eye-rollingly silly but largely benign. The only problem comes when you're talking about false hope, which can really crush your spirit when you finally identify it as false after staking so much on it. If you become too dependent on it, and it fails you, you're left with nothing. Gotta watch out for that.

Ignorance is a pretty big one, and while it may be bliss for a time, it can't last forever. In many cases, I think people turn to religious explanations because they understand so little about reality, science, and how the world actually works. There are many things that we as a species still don't know (and probably plenty that we never will), but it staggers me how much we do know that people either ignore or consciously refuse to accept. Knowledge and understanding are good things; they allow you to better deal with reality. The only things threatened by them are institutions predicated on lies. And my biggest problem with ignorance isn't so much the inability to grasp real-life concepts as it is the willfulness of said ignorance.

Okay, George. Probably best that you cut this one.

This goes hand-in-hand with laziness. Many people are just not very intellectually curious. They may not care how things work or why things are the way they are. Or they may not care why something may be right or wrong in a given situation. They prefer to be given simple, pat, unchanging answers and rules that never have to account for context, and religion is more than happy to provide them. I can certainly understand the appeal of simplicity, don't get me wrong. But the world isn't black-and-white. Doing some mental lifting is often necessary, and it really doesn't hurt that much.

And now for the big boy: fear. Fear of the unknown is a real big problem for us humans, especially fear of death. What happens when we die? Religion assuages (see: preys on) that fear by pretending it has the answer. And that answer, be it accurate or (most likely) not, is thoroughly perverse. People come to religion with an uneasy fear of nothingness and leave with a paralyzing fear of eternal torment. Nice.

I gotta ask, how is hell not blackmail? And how is heaven not bribery? Why are so many people perfectly okay with these concepts and the abhorrent lack of morality implied? In all honesty, I suspect they aren't. Because torturing people forever, especially for such absurd affronts as failing to kiss your ass and failing to believe ridiculous claims without evidence, is not the standard operating procedure for a loving being. It's the behavior of an egomaniacal, bloodthirsty sociopath. And if that's the being you're choosing to worship, you either agree with that kind of moral bankruptcy or you're scared shitless of said being. I'm guessing that, by and large, it's the latter.

Kissing Hank's Ass

Who's Hank, and why would I want to kiss his ass?

This is one of my many problems with organized religion. Any system based on fear is not a good one. Any institution that levels threats at you (directly or implied) for disagreeing with it is not a moral one. And anyone trying to sell you something without good evidence for its reliability is a bad salesman. There's nothing to see here, folks. It's all just emotional manipulation.

Alllllll that being said, I'm not trying to yell at anyone here or tell you what to believe. I'm just giving a take on religion and explaining some of my problems with it. If your system works for you, go with it. Just don't try to force it on anyone else (including your kids). If you're only pretending your system works for you, however, don't be afraid to open your mind and explore other possibilities. Other religions, science, philosophy, fiction (plenty of good ideas to be found there, too). Whatever helps you live a better life.

And if you still can't get past this fear of eternal torment business, consider this: the only just way to judge a person is by that person's character and actions. Treat other people (and all other forms of life) well. Be the best person you can be, and measure this by the real, tangible influence you have on other people and the world at large. Put reality first. If there's a just, omnipotent being waiting to judge you for this when you die, you've won. If there isn't, you've still lived a good life, helped others, and won. And if there's an all-powerful narcissist waiting to judge you on how enthusiastically you kissed his ass, why would you want to spend eternity with that prick, anyway?

Emotional Fantasy vs. Sexual Fantasy

Well now. Been a while since my last post. And even longer since my last non-game-related post. So I'll attempt to remedy that now. I was mulling over a different topic earlier, but I think I'll save that one for another day. Probably better to go with the one that's fresher in my mind at the moment. So let's get to it.

Much is often made of the inherent differences between men and women. We look different, act different, dress different, come from different planets. Etc, etc. And it's true. There are always exceptions, of course, but I'm into making blanket statements today. Men think about sex. A lot. Women think about romance. A lot. Not exactly news, is it? Well, my take on it might be, and here it is: these wildly different preoccupations of the sexes and the fantasies they inevitably inspire are entirely comparable and should be treated as such.

In both cases, the fantasizer is not using his/her head. I mean, obviously. That's why they're called fantasies. They're not realistic. They may be emotionally or sexually gratifying, but they damn sure aren't logical. If a guy saves a girl from being mugged, chances are she's not going to race back to his place, tear her clothes off, and bang out his reward. By the same token, chances are he's not going to usher her home via handsome cab while sipping wine and reciting poetry.

Yeah, nice flower.
But where's your white horse and royal insignia?

By and large, we are downright stupid when it comes to our fantasies. Fortunately, they're relatively harmless...until we try to act them out, even on a small scale. That's when the troubles arise.

Women don't want to accept sexual advances nearly as often as men want to make said advances. That's well understood. And no one looks down on women for rejecting these advances (nor should they). But it seems to me like it's widely accepted--and even expected--to look down on men for making the advances in the first place. And the male preoccupation with sex, in particular, is heavily frowned upon.

The female preoccupation with romance, on the other hand, seems to be heavily encouraged and promoted. Even though the male response to this mirrors the female response to sex: use sparingly, only when I want it. Society sides with the ladies here. Dating/chivalry/marriage = good. Sex = bad.

Why the discrepancy? When people frequently fall into these flights of fantasy, they are simply being true to their nature. Why is this okay for women but not for men? Why is the objectification of women unconscionable and the pussification of men laudable? Double standard FTL.

I think I'm in the wrong place...

Now, I realize my female readers (all two or three of you) might cry foul on this one. You might think it's the other way around, where society actually caters more to male fantasies (in entertainment, for instance). Maybe so (though there certainly never seems to be a shortage of chick flicks). Or maybe it caters more to one sex in one arena and more to the other sex in another arena.

Either way, for both men and women, the key to handling these differing predilections is compromise. Whenever you feel like vilifying the other side, stop and think about your own moronic fantasies and just how often you try to push them on people who want nothing to do with them. Be understanding and tolerant. You can't always have your way. No matter who you are.

Is Free Will an Illusion?

Howdy. I haven't been making too much progress on my screenplay for the past several days, so you know what that means...time for another blog post.

Today I'd like to blather about a subject that seems to come up quite a lot: free will. Now that's an irritating little term that gets bandied about far too often, isn't it? What is it exactly? It seems to me that too many people want to put a lot of emphasis on the "free" part and elevate the concept to the idea that we have total freedom to make any choice we want in any situation and that by simply making the "right" choices we can ultimately make our lives whatever we want them to be.

Of course, anyone short on naivete knows this simply isn't the case. None of us is created equal. We don't all have the same opportunities or the same capacity to capitalize on them. And that's why I find it a little insulting when people harp on the idea that we always have a choice. Now, it's certainly not the case across the board, but I often find this to be the arrogant sentiment of successful people who like to attribute their success to their good decisions and your failure to your bad decisions. In reality, it's just not that simple.

A crucial part of understanding free will, naturally, is understanding the decision-making process and what goes into it. While it technically may be true that we always have a choice in the sense that we're not robots with someone else at the controls, whatever decision we make in the end is determined by a variety of factors, many of which are entirely out of our control.

Think about it. For starters, our individual brain chemistries work differently, and we have no say in the matter. I love pepperoni pizza, the color blue, and alternative rock. I didn't choose to love any of these things; I just do. I'm hard-wired with those preferences. You, on the other hand, might hate some or all of these. And not by choice on your end, either.

Our inherent, built-in individual preferences extend to many things, including who we're physically attracted to. As much as anyone wants to deny it, our arbitrary physical attractions very much affect the decisions we make about the relationships we enter into. It's why you put up with the hot asshole for so long and ignore the ugly sweetheart. On the other hand, you might value personality more than looks. And guess what? That might not be much of a choice, either. Maybe you're hard-wired to have that preference from the beginning. Maybe you've heard enough advice from the people in your life to realize personality matters more. Maybe you've just had your fill of abuse from dating too many assholes. You don't control what you're hard-wired for, you may or may not control what people are in your life (probably not in the case of family, for instance), and you don't control your tolerance level for abuse. So there may be some small degree of choice in there, but not nearly as much as you might think.

In the same sense that you don't control who your family is, you don't control what environment you're born into. You don't control your ethnicity or the color of your skin. You don't control your genes. In your early years, at least, you probably don't control what schools you go to. You have no choice in these matters, and all of them significantly impact your life. You don't control how naturally attractive or physically capable you are, and people will treat you differently based on your arbitrary standing in these areas. In many ways, you will likely react differently based on the way people react to you. Not much choice there, either.

Laws certainly tend to influence people's decisions, as well. Sure, you always have the choice of killing someone, but you probably don't want to go to jail. Hopefully, you're hard-wired with some empathy to prevent you from doing that anyway. But, then again, you could be hard-wired with serious psychological disorders that drive you to kill. Or you could develop them after being forced to live in a traumatic environment for long enough. Pretty sure you didn't choose that, either.

I could go on. But I won't go as far as saying that we have no choice in anything. There's a danger in going too far down that road where you could get to the point of denying all responsibility for your actions. The playing field may never be level, but it still helps to make the best possible decisions given your knowledge and range of experiences (even if you don't control what those may be). You may not control what conclusions you reach after considering something, but you can control whether or not you consider it in the first place.

And I guess that's the point I'm trying to get across with all this. Due to factors out of your control, you may or may not agree with anything I post. But I hope you choose to read it and consider it. And maybe even respond. You might just change my mind in such a way that I'll have no choice in the matter.

But for now, I'll make my point. Free will is an illusion--partially. Maybe even largely. We make decisions every day, but those decisions are based on many factors that are entirely out of our control. (If this next bit doesn't apply to you, feel free to ignore it:) I only ask that you consider this the next time you're tempted to parade around the term in an attempt to either elevate the human condition or trumpet the generosity or favor of some deity. 'Cuz I ain't buying it.

07.31.10

Well, well, well. I never saw myself as a blogger, but, after some sporadic prodding by people trying to give me career advice and some stumbling onto blog sites like this one, here I am. As an aspiring (see: wannabe) writer, I suppose it can't hurt to post some of my inane ramblings on the interwebs in hopes of getting noticed by someone in a position to make use of (see: pay me for) my talents. Actually, it probably can--and will. Chances are, I'll offend everyone who bothers to read my trash at one point or another, unintentionally or otherwise, and you'll write me off (bad pun intended) for good. So be it. I'm gonna have some fun with this.

All of that does beg the question of what one should blog about. Any little thing that pops into your head? Wouldn't that make this nothing more than a public diary? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that would probably be a bad idea. But this is probably a bad idea to begin with, so screw it.

I'll probably post here when I'm putting off any actual writing, like I'm doing now. Barely into my second screenplay, I keep finding ways to procrastinate. Shame on me.

Speaking of screenplays, a lot of what I'll probably end up writing about on here is movies, since I'm a big movie guy. Right now I feel the need to plug a film I watched the other night, Comedian. It's a documentary chronicling Jerry Seinfeld's return to stand-up after wrapping up The Greatest Show of All-Time and the rise of up-and-comer Orny Adams. It's a must-watch for anyone remotely interested in stand-up comedy, and I'd definitely recommend it to any aspiring or established artists out there. It covers a wide range of the things artists go through: confidence, self-doubt, establishing yourself, reinventing yourself, dealing with failure, dealing with success, and mustering the energy and perseverance to keep honing your craft till you get it right. It's good stuff, Seinfeld's the man, and you should watch it. Twice. A day.

That's about all for now. If anyone's actually reading this and I didn't annoy you enough, I promise I'll try harder the next time. Peace.