A journey to free one man’s mind
The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas is out Oct 1! Pre-order Here.
I got my copy today, thanks to the wonderful Ariane Sherine.
My first observation, as I eagerly began to read the book, was that I should not open this beautifully presented volume at night, for my laughter would surely awaken the neighbours! Ah, such are the perils of modern apartments and paper thin walls. Read the rest of this entry »
The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas is the ideal Christmas present – it’s funny and thoughtful and full of your favourite atheists, and with 42 contributions there’s something for everyone. Amazon are currently selling it at 35% off (just £8.44 for a hardback with free delivery). It’s fairly clean and friendly too, so is suitable for almost anyone, and it’s also full of jokes from page 1 onwards, as well as quotes from great atheists throughout history.
You can also join the Facebook Group, and be happy that a purchase will also contribute to the Terrence Higgins Trust, and help to provide even more people with HIV testing, medical advice, legal advice and emotional support.
Everywhere I look, these days, I see men and women worrying about relationships. Some of the most common worries are:
There are many more, and each one of them are valid concerns to the people that profess them, but I have decided that, in my next relationship, I don’t want them to apply to me. Read the rest of this entry »
Life is just a dream…
Or so they tell me.
Personally, I feel that life is not a dream, but it is shaped by perceptions.
What forms perceptions? Where do they come from? Why is my perception of the universe different from one person’s, yet remarkably similar to that of another?
One of the thoughts that have been invading my mind of late has been about morality. It’s been distracting me enough that I can’t even write much for NaNo! So I figured I should try to work on it with a little help… Cuz, y’know I’ll get by with a little help from my friends!
Morality is subjective. While one person may believe monogamy is morally right, another may not, as an example. Of course, there are people for whom morality is not important, but I’m not thinking of extremes or criminal behaviour in this case.
What I’m trying to understand, and I hope I can with a little bit of good natured discussion, flame and drama free, is why it does not seem morally questionable for some people to impose their morals on others.
I have my morals, and I live by them. Some things I do, others would not agree with, of this I am positive. Others also do things that I don’t agree with, but I can’t seem to connect in my own head, a reasonable and moral train of thought that will allow me to tell them that they shouldn’t do the things I don’t agree with, unless there is a law against it, and that too, it has to be a law I agree with… Yes, I’m quite nuts, sometimes…
So, I open the floor to you, my wise and educated friends, to help me with this particular quandary 
11/11 at 11
What if the Nazis had won?
They say history is written by the winner, and to a great extent, that is true, but if they would have won, one of the things that would have happened is that there would be no acceptance of another colour, race, religion, or lifestyle. We would all be straight blue eyed blondes, or dead.
Many men and women died to prevent that.
They died in preserving the foundation for our way of life today.
We must remember those men and women who are always on active duty. Those who laid down their lives to help form the world we live in today.
Spreading the blatant prejudice that is inherent in trying to ban marriages for those who are not like you, does not honour the fallen, because any statement that gives one human being more rights than another is the beginnings of selecting a new master race.
We are not all the same. And those who want everyone to believe the same thing, and be the same? Well… It’s been tried, and too many have died to stop it already.
Unless, of course, you think Hitler should have won, and we should all be Aryans. And yeah, if you do, then you are allowed to think that, because of the freedoms you enjoy.
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind…War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
~ John F. Kennedy
Of course, there is more to this, in history. There are things the Alliance didn’t do properly at the end of the war, and I am making this very black and white, but, as it is my journal, and these are my opinions, I can do it, again, because of the freedoms I enjoy.
A friend of mine posted this image:
And I was struck by it because to me, the Empire and the death star was always a right wing symbol, and a very left wing symbol superimposed on it made me laugh…
But the person who posted it seemed to think that the Empire and the Death Star embodied liberalism.
So I’m going to put this to the vote, to see what others think:
The Monk Mayo asked the Sixth patriarch: “What is Zen?”
The Patriarch replied: “when your mind is not dwelling on the dualism of good and evil, what is your original face before you were born?”
Your face before you were born.
In my quest for an emancipated mind, I found this Koan. It stopped me, figuratively speaking, mid-stride. My mind flew directly to the works of Don Miguel Ruiz, and the word “Agreements” appeared before my eyes.
I interpret the “birth” in this question as the forming of a personality. The emerging of a mature person from a childhood they had no control over. The birth process began the first time right and wrong didn’t make sense, but had to be adhered to.
As an example, imagine the child of a religious homophobe. That parent will teach the child his or her own prejudices, even though they make no sense to the child. So the child, most often, grows up with the same unreasoning hatred as the parent.
To find my face before similar (but not as extreme as the example) lessons were taught to me by the world, is the starting point of my journey. Re-learning right from wrong is my re-birth. I want to keep that face. That mask-less visage that loves freely, and lives joyfully, secure in the knowledge that right and wrong are not fuzzy constructs imposed by ancient texts that seem to change based on interpretation and translation, or social norms that have not evolved with society.
Of course, that last bit is just my opinion 
But I digress.
This question is now my purpose. To emancipate my mind, and find my original face. The tricky part, however, comes in keeping it while the world around me continues to dance to its own tune.
Every journey starts with a first step.
That step is often visualised as placing a foot on a road or path of some sort. I like to be a little different in my visualisations.
The first step, for me, comes long before my feet go anywhere. It’s the preparation for the journey I have decided to undertake. Packing, reading maps, that kind of thing. For this journey, though, the idea is to tear up the map of neural links that are in my mind.
But how do I do that?
The first step is to ask “Why?” at every step of my day.
“Why did I say that?”
“Why do I feel that way about this person?”
“Why do I like this food?”
“Why do my feet go that way when I walk?”
All of these are valid questions, and need to be asked if I’m going to figure out the details of where I came from.
But why am I so interested in where I came from? Because without that information; without those buried details that tell me how the neural links were formed, I have no idea how to break them.
As an example; I recently asked myself why I’m so interested in doing this. Why would I want to break out of such a safe comfort zone. After a lot of bravado, followed by honest soul searching and analysis, I finally came to a conclusion that mirrors my professional views: Just because I’ve done something that way for years, doesn’t make it the right way.
So I’ve started to abandon all of my little rituals. The kind of thing I’m talking about isn’t religious. It’s the order in which I may do things when I go to sleep, or when I wake up in the morning. I’m mixing it up, and proving to myself that the way I’ve been thus far may not be the only way there is. If I discover that I was doing something the best way, then I’ll resume that ritual, but if not, then I’ll try until I find a better way.
Of course, this is the beginning of a journey. The difficult part will come when I examine my beliefs and opinions. Those things will be harder to change, if I feel they need to.
This is my path, my route, my journey, my first step. I’ve made it tangible, something I can do physically, rather than something purely in my head. Why have I chosen this as my first step?
When a person is released from prison, they may walk free, but often they carry that prison in their mind for years. Freedom, after a life of enforced order, is a very scary thing.
Yes, it’s a scary journey, but it’s the one I’ve chosen. I will be happier in my own mind when I know that the thoughts are mind, and that all of the neural links in there are approved… I like a clean map
Freedom.
So many people claim to have it.
But what is it, really?
More to follow…