After a rather long and hard process of narrowing a list down of colleges, I have finally arrived at my decision…SUNY Stony Brook!
I was undecided for quite awhile, choosing between SUNY Binghamton or SUNY Stony Brook, and location was the ultimate decider. I currently live about 4 hours away from BU, while I live about 20-25 mins away from SBU (depending on traffic). The academic system between the two schools is awfully similar as well, considering they both under the “SUNY” network of schools. Apparently this makes me a “SeaWolf” as supposed to a “Bearcat” if I went to BU.
I have already put my deposit down (which is a bit expensive if you ask me) so basically the decision is final, since the deposit is non-refundable :). I wanted a university that focused largely on academics, and everything else came secondary. That is what I found with SBU. Another determing factor was visiting the campus of SBU. A few days ago, I went to SBU for the entire day with my sister (she is already enrolled there as well), and sat in on a couple classes as well as walked around the campus. I really loved the atmosphere of the school, it was well designed architecture wise, the campus seemed relatively quiet and one of the major things I noticed was the freedom given to the students. This is obviously common knowledge, but the difference between the High School setting and a University setting is quite dramatic. In a High School, there is essentially no freedom, everyone must follow the rules, or face some sort of discipline. The teachers are paid to be more than simply educators, but baby-sitters as well. They walk students through every lesson, holding their hand, making sure they know certain miscellaneous unimportant facts that will show up on the extremely easy tests given out every couple weeks or so. There is no room for intellectuals in such a setting, rather a High School building is positively a harmful enviroment both physically and mentally for any intellectual. The work is often nothing more than time consuming nonsense that is redundant.
That all changes when it comes to the University. The students are no longer regarded as “children” but rather, adults. The professors don’t care if a student arrives late to class, doesn’t pay attention or don’t complete the work. Your performance just doesn’t matter to them. This removes that “baby-sitting” mentality of High School teachers, as those who put in the effort and get the work done will succeed, and it is entirely dependant on the particular student. I am aware that most reading this will say, “well obviously,” but, that runs the danger of underestimating the change.
Change is what most people want these days, from politics to social life, change has become a term of “cliche-esque proportion.” But, there is no better word to describe the leap from High School to the University, it is the change that any intellectual will welcome with open arms, and hopefully an open mind.
Tags: sbu, stony, stonybrook, suny, sunystonybrook
I live in a culturally Christian Nation, America. This great nation was founded by secular intellectuals, but it was populated by religious fools. That of course is something we all have to live with. Most modern businesses all market toward the Christian year, and working at a Target store lets one view this first hand. The entire store changes based on the next holiday, and for the most part, only for the Christian Holidays. But being raised in a culturally Christian nation has its perks. Take for example, Peeps. What a great creation, anyone who has ever ate one knows exactly what I am talking about. You couldn’t get far without noticing the nice pastel colored designs of bunnies, rabbits and such. I have absolutely no problem with such festivities, rather, I enjoy egg hunts very much. However, the Christianity based reasons behind Easter are disgusting and immoral.
What exactly is Easter celebrating?
The point behind Easter is a two part answer. First, it is in celebration of the sacrifice of Jesus. Most Christians believe that Jesus died for the original sin (Adam and Eve) and now for all the sins they will commit in the future. Simply keeping faith in Jesus will guarantee one’s place in heaven alongside Jesus. Secondly, it is in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion. Now that we have that part settled, let us move onto why it is disgusting and immoral.
Most Christians regard Jesus’ sacrifice as the greatest one can make. There would be no point to Christianity if Jesus did not die for the sins of the people. It implies first, that people are born with the guilt of the original sin. The original sin is what caused Adam and Eve to be removed from the Garden of Eden. By them merely disobeying god, they were removed from paradise. This is something I struggle with understanding how someone could come to terms with this. What does original sin have to do with anyone except those who committed with it? Why is anyone else guilty for a crime they were never alive for, had no chance to either commit themselves or prevent it. How is it even possible for such guilt to go through each generation of humanity? The answer is indeed rather simple, it doesn’t. Adam and Eve could have been pedophiles who raped babies and committed genocide, but their sins are their own and are only their responsibility. Such is the same with a modern case. If my parents were frauds and charlatans who took the hard earned money of others and spent in wastefully on their own whims, and then they went on a mass murder spree, what does that have to do with me? In our modern systems of justice, nowhere is it found that if, a parent can’t serve their own sentences, that their child is thus responsible due to them being descendants of them. This sort of teaching is immoral, and unjust, the only sins I should be responsible for are the ones I commit or have the chance in preventing, nothing more and nothing less.
Now, to the issue of resurrection. It is physically impossible from someone to rise from the dead. Such does not even need to be pointed out. There are laws of nature that no one can control, they are there, regardless of the beliefs and faith, they are never suspended in your favor. They exist to exist and its simple as that. This is all obvious to anyone modern person with a functional and logical brain. How can Jesus absolve me of my future sins? How can he absolve me of my former sins? Let us examine this doctrine. If you commit a crime, I may pay your legal fees. If you have been awfully nice to me, maybe even serve your sentence for you. Though obviously no justice system would allow that. But that aside, I could do everything except, absolve you of your sin. I could not change the fact that you committed them. I could not forgive you for them, especially not the sins you are going to commit. Also what morally sound person would accept this? How is it moral to allow someone to die for you.
In conclusion, there is no need to be born again to Christianity, you just need to grow up, and become a mature adult. Take responsibility for your action, and only yours. Easter might be a fun holiday to celebrate culturally, but the reasons behind it are as I have established above, disgusting and immoral.
Tags: Atheism, evil, good, holy, jesus, sacrifice, sin
It is very often that people must be reminded of what exactly were the intentions and the goals of the founding fathers of America and the constitution that they wrote. People often say, “Well, America is a Christian Nation,” such piece of sheer ignorance does not even deserve a response. But considering this is a blog, and the entire point is to respond, it will get a short one. And so will this new piece of filth proposed by Sam Brownback, Senate Resolution 483.
America is NOT a Christian nation, nor was it ever intended to be. There is not a single mention of “god” or “Christianity” or “Jesus” throughout the entire U.S. constitution. The only mentions of religion are meant to exclude religion from the public arena, as it states “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust” and “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Surely, there is no room for interpretation here. It clearly states what position religion holds in government (absolutely none whatsoever). It is quite possibly the greatest achievement of the Founding Fathers, as we have entirely avoided the sort of mayhem religion causes. One needs only to glance over the history of Europe or the current politics of the Middle East to understand why religion and god must be kept separate from government and politics. Hopefully we have this now established and can move onto this “Senate Resolution 483.”
Here is the: Full Text of Senate Resolution 483 as proposed by Sam Brownback and co-sponsored by Joe Lieberman.
What this resolution proposes is that, the first week of May 2008 be recognized as “Ten Commandments Weekend.” I must now propose that this resolution is unconstitutional at its very core. The Ten Commandments hold power only over the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). They simply do not apply to any other religions, so it is therefore established this resolution is indeed “respecting an establishment of religion.”
Further, in (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971), the Surpreme Court established a 3 part “test” that determines whether a law is in violation to the 1st Amendment’s religion clauses.
- A law must have a secular purpose.
- It must have a primary effect which neither advances nor inhibits religion.
- It must avoid excessive entanglement of church and state.
If you put Sen.Res 483 through this simple test of unconstitutionality, it fails on every single step. Firstly, it serves no secular purpose whatsoever. It’s primary effect is to advance the Abrahamic religions. And it does not avoid excessive entanglement between Church and State.
Senate Resolution 483 is therefore unconstitutional going on both the words of the Founding Fathers, and the Supreme Court in 1971 when they established their “Lemon Test.”
I must urge you to write to your Senators and Representatives in Congress and make sure this Resolution does NOT get through.
Tags: Atheism, constitution, law, senate
After a rather short period, I retired the sixth version of MKDC. People wonder why I change versions so often, the reason is rather simple, I am never satisfied. So every time I get a fresh idea in my head, I draw up some plans on paper and then move to execute them on the computer.
This version is vastly different from all the other versions of MKDC. It contains a grand total of one (1) image on the entire site layout. Previous versions of MKDC have been using the code of Imageready to slice images and create a website merely comprised of floating images. The difference here is that everything is done through HTML. From the navigation down, the entire website is constructed to be a flexible system that will become a backbone for the next versions of MKDC. I have already stated my desire to learn the PHP language, and now I will undergo a few weeks of intensive self teaching of PHP in order to develop a backend/frontend system that will provide much easier to use website for its visitors and myself. I will keep everyone updated through the blog with news on the progress of the massive project that I am now undertaking. The MKDCPHPVERSION8 will be codenamed SixSixSix. Stay tuned folks!
If you missed the previous parts - Click here for Part 1 and Click here for Part 2
I often attempt and try to pinpoint the exact moment in which I left the religion of my parents, Islam. What I have realized is that, it was not just a single moment of “revelation” that no god exists, but rather a series of events which led to my ultimate decision to make leave faith. Honestly, I don’t think it is advisable to dramatically change your beliefs based on simply one event, especially on a question of life itself. A rational approach would largely consist of at the very least a couple weeks of contemplation and research.
To trace back my history with religion, and religious experience, it dates to around October of 2006. That was the month where I finally made the decision (I was 16 years old at the time) to devoutly follow Islam. I prayed five times a day, fasted during the “holy” month of Ramadan and followed just about every possible rule there is to Islam, (everything short of simply leaving society itself). I truly felt that, belief without evidence was virtuous, and belief when there is no evidence would be even more so virtuous. I even thought up what is known as “Pascals Wager” completely on my own, without consciously ever remembering it spoken previously. I defended my faith to anyone who tried a debate, and even started to grow out a beard. I felt a sort of complete dislike toward every other religion, and especially the non-religious, not to the point of violence, since I have never been a violent person, but simply a feeling of disgust to any non-Muslim. I must remind my readers, that this was not due to any sort of religious indoctrination from my parents. My father is a rather liberal Muslim and mother is religious, but truly did not impose it on any of her children. Previously to October 2006, I grew up a “cultural” Muslim more so than a religious one, and this is why it is important to note. I was completely sure of my faith, and simply did not listen to any argument against it, usually dismissing it as “ignorant.”
Fast forward a few months of sheer ignorance (or in other words, faith) on my part. I came across this one quotation that stuck with me to this day, and I will often quote it, or at least paraphrase it to any religious person. If everyone truly followed this model of rational inquiry, given what we know about life and the cosmos due to science, I don’t think anyone could truly be religious, and if they were, it would have to be some sort of Deist similar to Einstein.
“The pursuit of truth can only begin once you start to question and analyze every belief that you ever held dear. If a certain belief passes the tests of evidence, deduction, and logic, it should be kept and defended. ….If it doesn’t, the belief should not only be discarded, but you must also then question why you were led to believe the erroneous information in the first place.” - Socrates
As I said previously, this quote stuck with me, it forced me to reconsider my faith. It would seem like a simple enough method, but ask yourself every time you profess some belief, why do you believe what you believe, how do you know its true…those two questions are essential and will at the very least lead to one abandoning all the absurd ideas (religion and god included).
Now, once I reached this point, I became a sort of “agnostic” or fence sitter, I knew at this point, it is absurd to believe in a personal god, but what about a divine watchmaker? Coming from this background of religion, it seemed impossible that either, the universe was not designed, and secondly that life was not designed, though I knew of the theory of evolution and believed in it, I did not know that it easily answers the complexity and beauty of life and the universe. Day by day, I became opposed to Islam and modern religions in general (this was largely due to reading first the history of these religions, and then the present of them.) It is important to note that I still was not an atheist at this point, I believed in a sort of Deistic god as described by Spinoza. So you may ask, how and when did I become a full-fledged and proud atheist?
Dawkins in Lynchburg VA - Book Reading of The God Delusion
After watching that lecture, I immediately bought The God Delusion online and read the entire book within 2 nights of reading the first words. It accomplished fully and completely one of the goals Dawkins set out to do, push the fence sitters over to one side. His masterful defense of evolution, and his argument that effectively demonstrated that atheism is the only intellectual satisfying position that can be held. I thank Mr. Dawkins, for both his science work, and his work on god, his work has given me freedom from religion and god, and for that, there are no words that can describe my feeling of admiration and thanks.
Due to Dawkins, and his references to other writers, I have read the works of Bertrand Russell, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet, Stephen Hawkings and quite a few others. Every single one of those authors is someone I deeply admire for their works either on science or religion, or both. They have made me into a rational, reasonable, and more importantly, an overall happy individual. To articulate what disbelief in god does for me, I turn to a lesser known writer and poet, Robert Ingersoll.
Excerpt from, “Why I Am Agnostic” by Robert Ingersoll
When I became convinced that the Universe is natural –that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world — not even in infinite space. I was free — free to think, to express my thoughts — free to live to my own ideal — free to live for myself and those I loved — free to use all my faculties, all my senses — free to spread imagination’s wings — free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope — free to judge and determine for myself — free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the “inspired” books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past — free from popes and priests — free from all the “called” and “set apart” — free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies — free from the fear of eternal pain — free from the winged monsters of the night — free from devils, ghosts and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought — no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings — no chains for my limbs — no lashes for my back — no fires for my flesh — no master’s frown or threat — no following another’s steps — no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.
And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain — for the freedom of labor and thought — to those who fell on the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains — to those who proudly mounted scaffold’s stairs — to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn — to those by fire consumed — to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.
Let us be true to ourselves — true to the facts we know, and let us, above all things, preserve the veracity of our souls.
If there be gods we cannot help them, but we can assist our fellow-men. We cannot love the inconceivable, but we can love wife and child and friend.
We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellow-men. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine — with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy.
Tags: Atheism, islam, Religion, spirit
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