I would lie to someone who demands information I don't want to give and to which they have no right.  Refusing to answer is not a good solution, as then they assume the worst.

Pearly gates

I would much prefer there were pearly gates awaiting me than either rebirth (which I think likely but does not preserve me, only my "life spirit," whatever that might be) or extinction (a distinct possibility).

However I am too proud to let what my intellect tells me be overcome by what I would like.

When there is no note and no sign (depressive behavior is not really a sign -- unless they talk about killing themselves or the hopelessness of life) then one wonders and hopes the police do their job.

I wish the world were wealthy enough that everyone could talk to a mental health specialist at least once a month.  Absent that maybe they should put anti-depressives in the drinking water (of course that is absurd, but I do know people who are not depressive but still take anti-depressives and they are happier).

There are two things I would say to a suicides survivors:  First, do not judge.  They were depressed, and that is a disease condition -- one should not judge them any more than one would judge someone who dies of some other deadly disease.  Second, do not feel guilty -- even if the suicide note blames you.  Again, it is the disease talking.  Sometimes we think, "If only I had done such and so."  No -- we are not supermen and cannot read minds.




Well, at least that is what I've learned from my counselors (fortunately I have insurance that covers that stuff).

If there is a "God" who has a physical form, they you should get rid of the capital "G."

Scientific error

There have been a number of times respected scientists have trusted their instruments and gotten their fingers burnt.  The neutrinos traveling faster than light comes to mind.

There have also been times when the scientist believes his numbers over the rest of the scientific world, and in the end put himself on the fringe.  Room temperature superconducting comes to mind.  Here the potential profits were so great and even getting study grants so important that the people involved just refused to admit error.  They probably convinced themselves -- unless we are careful and humble it can happen to anyone.

The scientific edifice is not often in need of major demolition and repair.  Most changes happen incrementally, so whenever one has results that imply need for a major change, one should be very sure of one's data and its interpretation.  This is not something the untrained or amateur should even think of undertaking.

Pills for sleep, constipation

I'm a believer in not suffering if there is a pill available to fix the problem, but I learned the hard way that this approach should be avoided when it comes to sleep and to constipation.

Evil regimes

I think the world, or whatever part of it has the ability, has a moral obligation to stop evil regimes in the bud.  Not only do they tend to fester and infect the rest of the planet, but human decency calls out to help those they brutalize.  The fact that evil regimes in the past have been allowed to fester this way until they became calamities should teach us a lesson.

Of course it doesn't always happen -- it takes a lot of leadership and usually it requires them to present an immediate danger -- which tells us sad things about humanity.

Abuse takes many forms, and sometimes parents abuse their children and don't know it.  Ignoring the child when it wants attention, or insulting it by telling it it is bad or stupid or some such thing, or teasing the child and embarrassing it in front of others, or relentless tickling or roughhousing when the child gives "enough" signals, or, of course, punishments that involve denial of food and such.  We can even abuse a child by failing to hug it or tell it you love it and will care for it.

That abused children often (more often than we care to admit) do the same to their children is an ongoing disaster.

Sherlock Holmes had the maxim that whenever you have eliminated all the reasonable possibilities, whatever remains, no matter how unlikely, has to be the truth.

This is unscientific and illogical.  If something is highly unlikely it needs lots of its own evidence to be believable.  Just eliminating other possibilities is not enough.  There is always the "unknown" possibility -- something no one thought of.

The rational response, then, to situations where one has nothing available but unlikely things, is to say, "I don't know."

I post this because I see an awful lot of use of this fallacy by people who want to believe essentially unbelievable tales.

Insomnia

There are all sorts of books peddling all sorts of nostrums for insomnia, some of value others questionable.

The best sleep advice is to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, weekends and holidays included, have a dark and quiet and cool place to sleep, don't have a TV or reading lamp in the bedroom, and if you don't get to sleep just tell yourself you are getting rest anyway and that helps and stop worrying.

Nice clean sheets, a comfy quilt, a mattress you are comfortable on, and lots of pillows to wedge here and there (different sizes and shapes and fluffiness) too, but take care you don't end up just rearranging the blankets and sheets and pillows all night.

Finally, find out what foods and drinks contain stimulants and avoid them, and try some warm soup.  Avoid pills and alcohol -- they seem to help but are traitors.  (There are exceptions to this but it is a good general rule).

I understand that one should have a ritual before going to bed -- especially taking a warm shower or bath -- and avoid TV and computer and bright lights and even reading (although personally sometimes certain books put me to sleep).  Sleep also goes better if the room is either pitch black or you wear eye shades; they take getting use to but I carry them with me all the time in case I want to take a nap somewhere.




If you have any sort of chronic pain or cough, get up and deal with it if you can.  That can be a real bitch when you are awake and there are no distractions.

Spirit visits

Certain pain medicines I take for sciatica lead to visits by angels and ghosts and other denizens of the spirit world; it's interesting.  Whenever my sciatica won't let me sleep and I resort to them, I lie back and see what sort of tricks the spirits will try to play to convince me they are real.

Suffering

My word it seems we were born to suffer even when we have no reason to suffer.

Everyone is much nearer death than they imagine.

Evidence of God

I would like to respond to the argument that atheists would not accept any evidence that God exists short of personal revelation.


It is not correct.  There is evidence I would accept, such as an asterism in the form of the Tetragrammaton.  I would probably accept the clear occurrence of a miracle done under controlled conditions, but religionists have an excuse for why this doesn't work similar to the one psychics use -- it goes away when you control the conditions.

Or, perhaps, the Bible were really the spiritual book people say it is, and the history of religions were not so bloody and hypocritical, or if religion really did have an uplifting effect on its adherents.  This would not be as persuasive as an asterism, but it would be good evidence.

If you want to claim something so important and so extraordinary as God, you have to realize with intellectually mature adults the default is going to be skepticism.

I should stipulate -- theistic religions.

I must say, also, that personal revelation is probably the last thing I would accept.  I don't have so much ego as to think such a thing would be real instead of my own mind.

Science is not just experiments: it is also observation and thought.  Astronomers, for example, rely on mathematics and thought experiments and coming up with scenarios to explain observations (one cannot experiment on black holes, but one can study them).  Ideally one's scenario should go further than just explain observations but also predict things that observers can then go look for.

Daydreaming

I day-dream for at least a half hour every morning after I wake up but before I get up.  It is very pleasurable, and there is to my mind nothing wrong with pleasure taken in moderation.

Of course after I am up the world comes at me in force and mind wandering like that is subject to so many interruptions it becomes impossible.

Ezra and the Old Testament

Much of the OT as we have it, and the earliest parts we have, were written by priestly scribes with the Ezra return from exile.  They probably had access to older documents, and seem in many places to have made an effort to merge conflicting stories.

They also edited what they had to produce a myth of the Jews as being extremely ancient (which the ancient world accepted without questioning how unlikely that would be) and to put the priests and Jerusalem and its temple at the center of things.  The fact is the Hebrews evolved out of Canaanite tribes and the vast majority of the figures talked about (such as David), while probably based on some real figure, are extremely mythical.

At least that is what I've learned over the years.