Stand with Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan -- with democracy and civilization against tyranny and barbarism
posted by Infidel753 at 1:05 AM
Individualist, pro-technology, pro-democracy, anti-religion. I speak only for myself and not for any ideology, movement, or party. It has been my great good fortune to live my whole life free of "spirituality" of any kind. I believe that evidence and reason are the keys to understanding reality; that technology rather than ideology or politics has been the great liberator of humanity; and that in the long run, human intelligence is the most powerful force in the universe.
God doesn't exist
Evolution happened
Global warming is real
Homosexuality is normal
Aging is a curable disease
The election was not stolen
Everything "spiritual" is a lie
Free speech is for everybody
Humans do not have "souls"
Men can't become women
Fetuses are not persons
Words are not violence
Taiwan is a nation
Pluto is a planet
18 Comments:
Gaelic Metal - interesting.
Lady M: Would you care to elaborate on the Gaelic reference? It doesn't sound particularly Celtic-influenced to me, but I'm no expert.
I quite agree with your comments on Kay's blog post about Nazis. Just wanted to say.
Sorry should have said celtic not gaelic. It is the Uilleann pipes which are a celtic instrument - the bagpipe of Ireland. It gives this music that celtic flavor.
Jenn: Thanks!
Lady M: Interesting -- I didn't notice that, but I don't know much about instruments. The band itself is Finnish, but they probably know about a wide range of musical traditions.
I wanted to thank you so very much for your comment on my blog today. I kept wondering if I needed to write a reply to her comment, but didn’t want to CUT her down totally because she has a right to her opinions. Still, I really didn’t like her attacking any of my commenters. Your reply was PERFECT! It was right on the money. Thank you. Thank you.
Lady M nails it. That is Leprechaun Metal. I'm no expert either... though I do have dual UK/Irish nationality. I once dated a "folkie"... It's like a cult. A very badly dressed cult. Think it of it like C&W with the off-key caterwauling misery turned to 11.
Infidel, very personal question, sorry... But were you ever a goth?
It's OK, you can tell me... My youth was spent lurking around goth/metal types. I then graduated to full-on Britpop but think more Suede and Pulp than Oasis or Blur...
Kay: Thanks! I do try, and it seemed like a necessary distinction to make.
NickM: Interesting. That it had an Irish sound to it didn't occur to me at all.
I was never a "goth". I was a Satanist for about fifteen years and a lot of the philosophy and aesthetics still appeal to me. A lot of "metal" music types were and are interested in Satanism, but it's not a genre of music that ever especially appealed to me, aside from a few specific bands. Nightwish originally caught my attention because of "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" -- how many bands sing about evolution? -- but they have a lot of impressive work.
I hadn't heard of them. I like the song and the group. They remind me of Mannheim Steamroller. I'll have to investigate them some more.
Glad to open up something new.....
Super blog
The only Finn worth a toss musically is Jean Sibelius. If you aren't almost moved to tears by the Seventh Symphony...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHHfvdAqvn8
...then God help you.
And that is The Berlin Phil with Herbert von Karajan holding the stick. I'm not sure if that trombone solo almost beat the second movement of Bach's Concerto for two violins...
...humanity is underated. Of course we also produced The Cheeky Girls so it's a mixed bag.
You were a Satanist? In what sense? I'm guessing more "Church of Satan" than virgin sacrifices kinda thing but please tell more because I thought you were an accountant!
The nearest I have ever got to (dis)organised religion was when my wife bought me a DVD of "The Big Lebowski". It had a thing I could sign and send-off to become ordained as a Dude-ist. I watched the movie but I never got around to sending off for the (un)holy orders which, when you think about it, is truly following the true path of The Dude. Oh, and for the past thirteen years I've been a Quaker warden. I don't attend. I just mop the floors and take bookings and stuff. On the plus side I get a very nice cottage in an area where such a property could easily cost nearly a grand a month to rent. My wife and I get that for a combined total of about 5 hours work a week. I can take a lot of sanctimonious claptrap for that rate. I mean they're OK, really. Just a bit worthy. Some of them are even atheists and just turn-up for the tea and cake (this is Cheshire, which is England tetrated) which is OK by me - apart from the inevitable crumbs. I said I do the floors.
So, that's me coming out on as to religious affiliations. I consider myself a principled agnostic which is functionally much the same as an atheist except without the commitment. Basically I don't think the God hypothesis is testable in any meaningful way. Having said that I do tend to being a Platonist WRT philosophy of mathematics but then I'm a maths geek. There is something about maths that is, well, just true in a way that nothing else really comes close to. Doing maths feels like doing magic except it's real. Some people just grok it and others don't. Try explaining the Monty Hall problem to an arts graduate... It's like pulling teeth, your own teeth and with salad tongs.
Being a Satanist and being an accountant are not mutually exclusive. I rather enjoyed the incongruity.
Yes, I was mostly a "philosophical" Satanist -- never sacrificed so much as an ant (virgin or otherwise). I was strongly influenced by LaVey's and related ideas, though I never joined any of the organizations. I never thought of it as a religion -- I called it an anti-religion, related to religion the same way a medicine is related to a disease.
If a church offered me free housing for five hours of work a week, I'd certainly consider it. I don't think any such deals are available locally, though.
In math I never got beyond basic algebra and have never heard of the Monty Hall problem, but I'm well versed in Monty Python, which offers a rich abundance of philosophical tropes of its own.
Decent song, although I feel there is still plenty of wonder to be found in the world. Even more enjoyable are the comments for this post. 🙂
These exchanges do sometimes get rather entertaining.....
Infidel: Being a Satanist and being an accountant are not mutually exclusive. I rather enjoyed the incongruity.
Sort of reminded me of...
Oskar Schindler: My father was fond of saying you need three things in life. A good doctor, a forgiving priest, and a clever accountant. The first two, I’ve never had much use for.
I do kinda grok the Satanist thing in that it's Prometheus really*. I mean God created a World (if you believe that sort of thing) that was like well bland. I know. I've seen Jehovah's Witnesses leaflets depictions of the afterlife. They look like the bastard offspring of the sort of all-inclusive holiday of my nightmares and the supremely brilliantly funny episode of Murdoch Mysteries where William Murdoch and Julia Ogden have to go, er... undercover (actually uncovered) at a nudist camp. It's great just for the camera angles. Suffice to say there is always a vase or similar placed very strategically.
*Do many cultures have an equivalent? I suspect so. I do sometimes wonder how far back I'd have to go in time to be seen as a wizard or similar just because I have C21st stuff. Yeah, I know I'd have to take one hell of a USB power-pack with me.
“To call up a demon you must learn its name. Men dreamed that, once, but now it is real in another way. You know that, Case. Your business is to learn the names of programs, the long formal names, names the owners seek to conceal. True names...”
― William Gibson, Neuromancer
Oddly enough I just thought I'd ask Quora how to summon Lucifer. For some reason It wanted me to prove I was over 13. I had to prove it via Google or Facebook. You really can't make this up.
I do kinda grok the Satanist thing in that it's Prometheus really
That's an aspect of it that some people emphasize (Satan in the Garden of Eden was a Promethean figure, encouraging humanity to acquire knowledge). To me, aside from the medicine-against-religion aspect, Satan was and is primarily the deity of rebellion against external authority over the individual. I wrote a little about it in this post and this comment.
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