MiloCast

This I write to all believers of all religions. To all those who hungrily latch onto conspiracy theories, UFO sightings, and “alternative and complementary medicine.” You all believe in things I do not. You are certain that your beliefs are true. You say that my failure to believe is due to my ignorance, and if only I understood things the way you do, I would believe also.

So tonight I sit and share with you what I believe. I believe that there is truth, that there are indisputable facts. I believe that many of these facts are known, and that many, many more are not. Some may never be. However, those which are not known should be sought. Answers from religion, superstition, and tradition are not useful substitutes for these truths. Accepting a belief in place of a truth is willful ignorance, which impedes the progress of the human species.

I believe that faith without evidence is not a virtue. It is responsible for hatred, unnecessary suffering, indifference, and countless murders. Any positive things credited to faith, such as charity, unconditional love, and a sense of purpose can all be found in all people, regardless of their beliefs.

I believe that all of my opinions are subject to change, should better evidence come to my attention. I believe that no idea is beyond question, or beyond critical examination.

Lastly, I believe that you are not stupid, evil, or worthy of punishment for your beliefs. I believe that your beliefs are perfectly reasonable considering your life; where you have grown, those who have surrounded you, and your conclusions drawn from looking at the world around yourself with your own eyes.

I not only ask, but humbly beg of you to question your own beliefs. If they are true, perhaps you will find proof. If they are not, perhaps you will find contradiction. If you can find neither, then you may hold or discontinue that belief as you see fit. But if you find that you can not prove or disprove your belief, please, please do not take action harmful to yourself or others based upon it. It’s just not worth it.

Sincerely,
Shawn Kenneth Milochik
Shawn@Milochik.com

July 31st, 2007

Notice: This article may be freely shared, published, presented in spoken word form, and transmitted electronically or in any other form by anyone. Please keep the entire text intact, including this notice.

They say that age brings wisdom. They say you should respect your elders. They say children should be seen and not heard. Well, just who the hell are “they,” anyway? The idea that older equals wiser is so ridiculous that it should be laughed at, not treated as insightful.

Respect must be earned. It is not awarded when you reach a certain age. Look at the amazing decrease in racism in the last generation. The largest reason for this is that the older people with the outdated views have been dying out, and the younger people have refused to perpetuate their nonsense. Remember when you were a kid? How often were you frustrated that you weren’t taken seriously because you were “just a kid”? You knew that a lot of adults were dumb. If you’re an adult now, keep that in mind when you’re talking to someone younger. I mean, as an adult, don’t you know a lot of dumb adults?

You are no different from old people or kids in diapers. The only real difference is when you were born. Obviously kids are not mature or responsible enough to do certain things like drive, handle firearms, or make decisions about which drugs they should ingest. Many senior citizens don’t have the wits about them to do the same things. But for the most part, people are people.

I’m not advocating taking orders from children, or disregarding advice from anyone with wrinkles. However, it makes more sense to listen to someone, young or old, and then decide. If you are reading this, you were once an “irrelevant” age, and hopefully you’ll live to be an “irrelevant” age again. Let’s try to spread this idea, with the hope that the whole world will benefit.

As expected, the post which caused the most feedback from people disagreeing with me was the Santa Claus article. People seem to think that lying to children is justified if it makes them happy. I am reminded of an amusing story my wife told me. When she was a little girl, her love of animals caused her to refuse to eat meat. As a result, her parents just told her she had been served fake chicken, or fake beef, and she ate it happily.

Let’s assume that parents want what’s best for their children in most cases. Her parents were probably concerned with her health, and wanted to make sure she received all the nutrients her growing body required. But is deception ever a positive thing?

Teaching children a model of the world where it’s okay to deceive people if you think you’re doing them a favor only encourages manipulation of others in the future. Like it or not, reality isn’t always what we wish it would be. But the answer is to learn to be a strong enough person to deal with it — not to pretend that our fantasy is reality.

Choosing to believe one thing over another simply because you’d prefer it to be true, regardless of evidence, is ignorance at best and evil at worst, and in any case often contributes to the suffering and death of innocent people. Such a strong statement requires an example. Christian missionaries in Africa teach their religious beliefs as their primary goal, even if they are providing medical care or food to the suffering. As a result, they do everything in their power to prevent any education on condom use, simply because it’s against their personal beliefs, which are based on no evidence. As a result, the area of the world most ravaged by AIDS is deprived of the single most effective and cheapest method of preventing the spread of the disease. That is a criminal act.

What would be funny if it wasn’t so sad damned sad is that religious believers do promote circumcision, because it has been shown in scientific studies to reduce the risk of transmission to a man from a woman by about 50%. So here we have a painful medical procedure with zero health benefits in the majority of cases and which exists because of religion. Further, it only prevents the spread to men, and not women. Meanwhile, condoms have been proven to be nearly 100% effective in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases of all types, and unwanted pregnancies. Evidently the faithful see more starving children being brought into a third-world country and more people suffering and dying of horrible diseases to be preferable to the distribution of condoms and the teaching of facts instead of mythology.

We learn how to be people from those around us. They teach us to walk, talk, and drive a car. So, it’s not surprising that we all do goofy things from time to time without realizing that they’re goofy. One thing that annoys me on a regular basis is people who say “I could care less.” What they mean is that they couldn’t care less, but they don’t even pay attention to the words coming out of their own mouths. Another favorite example of mine is when people say they had their car stolen or had their house burglarized. None of them meant that they actually arranged for these things to occur, but they used those words to describe the event.

Without going too much into religion, it’s obvious that the same sort of thing is happening there as well. Unless they come to their own conclusions based upon reality, people will believe what they have been taught to believe. “The other religions are wrong and mine is right, although I can’t explain why.” It’s amazing to me how this contradiction can be so invisible to billions of believers.

Have you heard the expression “there’s no rhyme or reason for that”? I understand the complaint about having no reason, but would a rhyme really be sufficient?

Parent: Why did you go up the hill? I told you not to leave the yard!

Child: Jack and Jill went up the hill.

Parent: Oh, alright then.

So just be aware of what you’re saying, and make a conscious effort to correct any lingering nonsensical phrases. Some may think this is being pedantic, but it really goes to the core purpose of language: to communicate. And I don’t buy into the whole “Oh come on, you know what I mean” excuse. It’s not a justification for laziness. The further we get from saying what we literally mean, the more potential for confusion we create.

One of the endless debates in the magic community is the book versus video controversy. Some of us prefer books, and some prefer videos. Others argue that both have their place. The most common argument against videos is that they tend to teach not only the tricks, but also the performance style of the teacher. Since we are all different, performing in the style of another has an air of falseness which is obvious to the audience, and detracts from the entertainment potential of the performer.

In this age of celebrities from sports heroes to screen idols, it is seen as normal to latch onto role-models in the media. My generation is constantly quoting lines from “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy.” The irony is that we all love those characters because they’re different from everyone else. Think back to the person in school you secretly respected. Was it the kid who didn’t care what others thought of him? Or maybe it was the teacher who truly inspired you to learn by being honest and intelligent, instead of pretending to be your buddy. Think of your favorite actor or comedian. Is it the way they can pretend to be anyone that you enjoy watching, or the fact that they make themselves part of every character they play and every joke they tell?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by others. But once you begin performing as a magician for the public, it’s time to make your magic part of yourself and yourself part of your magic. And for non-magicians, or a magician who is currently working at his day job, being yourself instead of the kind of person you think people expect you to be will probably be surprisingly effective. Give it a try.

Last December, during the Christmas shopping season, I found a credit card in the parking lot of a store. There was nobody else parked near the card and it was late at night, so it seemed unlikely that the owner was around. I called directory assistance and tried to find a phone number for the name on the card, but there was no listing. I called the only person matching that last name and was told that no one with the first name lived there. Finally, I called the customer service number on the back of the card and gave the operator the information and my phone number. Several minutes later I received a call from the owner of the card. She lived nearly an hour away, which explained why I couldn’t find her using local directory assistance.

The lady had already realized it was missing and had canceled the card, but was grateful that I had made the effort to return it to her. She thanked me profusely and asked if she could send me some money as a reward. I turned down the offer and said I was glad to do it. She then said “God bless you.” To this day, I regret that I didn’t tell this nice lady that I am an atheist. Not to be abrasive, but to spread just a little awareness of the fact that most atheists are good people. Her comment implied that she just knew that it was the “goodness of the Lord” which made me honest and helpful. In the United States, polls have shown that being an atheist is the best way not to be elected to public office. Despite all other prejudices, most people would rather vote for someone gay, female, Muslim, black, hispanic, or Mormon than an atheist.

This morning, I was at the post office using the automated machine to mail a small package. I overheard two other customers complaining about the machine which sold stamps being broken. The post office wasn’t open yet, and apparently neither one of them had a credit card to use the automated machine, which also sells stamps. I bought a book of stamps using my card and they gave me cash for the stamps. One left after mailing her letter, but the other had quite a few envelopes and was still there when I had finished. She thanked me (for about the third time). I suddenly recalled the story of the lost credit card, and when I told her she was welcome (for about the third time), I mentioned that I was an atheist and just wanted to let her know that a lot of atheists are nice people. She did not seem taken aback in any way, and I left in a good mood knowing I had won a small victory for the atheist community.

Please note that these two small deeds are nothing compared to things done by other people every day, many of whom are probably a lot worse off than I am. I am in no way trying to make myself look like a hero. The only point of these stories is to ask my non-atheist readers to realize that atheism is not a dirty word, and atheists aren’t some kind of immoral hedonists. Rather, we just don’t happen to believe in the set of religious stories you do, just as you don’t believe in the stories of Muslims if you are a Christian, or the beliefs of Christians if you are a Hindu.

If you are an atheist and find yourself being thanked for something which you think is just common courtesy, consider the situation and, if appropriate, put in a plug for the atheist community. We don’t have to be confrontational about it. Let’s just let them know we’re out there, we’re just like them, and we’re nothing to scorn or fear.

I was walking around Target yesterday and I saw a product which makes me sad. It’s a DVD player which uses a subscription service to sanitize DVDs you watch. The company behind the product watches the DVDs, and marks the exact moments when profanity, nudity, violence, or gore are shown during the movie. They then add those time codes to their software. You buy the DVD and allow your children to watch it. Any “objectionable” material is automatically removed, and anyone watching can’t tell that anything is missing — unless they saw the full movie already.

The sales pitch for this Big Brother product is that you can finally watch all those great movies you’ve been wanting to see, but can’t because you have children. Apparently they don’t think much of your ability to select appropriate movies for your family viewing, time management which might allow the adults to watch these movies alone, or your judgment regarding what your own children should be watching.

I suppose if you are outraged at the thought of a visible nipple then this is music to your ears. But for those of us who make decisions based upon facts and reason, this is a huge joke. The only pleasure I take from this is that some people are evidently getting paid to watch movies and take special note of all the sex, violence, and colorful language. However, if there are actually enough people willing to pay anonymous strangers to decide what is appropriate for them and their children to watch to keep this company in business, then I fear for the future of this country.

In an excellent demonstration of why the separation of church and state is a good thing, the Israeli industry and trade leader has threatened to file charges against and fine any stores which open on June 21st for the release of the newest Harry Potter book. You see, Saturday is the Jewish sabbath. Since Christianity comes from Judaism, you’d think it would be the same for Christians. The story of why it’s Sunday is interesting, but a little off-topic for this post.

The book is being released worldwide at the same time. The fact that it conflicts with a day some people pretend is special is simply a coincidence, yet there is an uproar which has included a member of the Israeli government insulting the content of the book (which he undoubtedly has not yet read) and refers to people excited about the release as being “carried away like monkeys.”

Aside from the fact that this is ridiculous in general, it irritates me that shop owners and customers who do not believe the mythology behind the silly rule can find themselves inconvenienced or in trouble with the law because they want to read a book. I’m all for reading, and there’s not enough of it going on in the world. I encourage people to read the Harry Potter bookor any other book.

I’m not a big Harry Potter fan personally, although I have nothing against the series. Anything that gets more kids to read is fantastic as far as I’m concerned. Yet here we have religious people enforcing their unfounded beliefs onto others yet again — this time to attack a children’s book.

Whenever I see a rating which restricts certain material to “mature” or “adult” audiences, it really annoys the crap out of me. Both words have essentially the same meaning, which is fully-grown. The word “mature” can also refer to sexual maturity, when a person is capable of reproduction. In either case, there is no relationship between those words and depictions of sexual activity, which is what these people are really trying to warn us about with “adult content.”

Are we really so afraid of sex in our culture that we can’t even call it sex? Hiding from the issue and speaking about it in whispers behind closed doors is probably the biggest reason that young people are engaging in risky behavior in the first place — nobody is honest with them and they have to learn everything on their own. Have you ever heard an older adult say “you didn’t invent it, you know” when talking to a younger adult about sex? Apparently all the fun activities our generation is discovering are old news to our parents (don’t picture that).

We as a society have to quit pretending to be such prudes so the conversations we need to have become socially acceptable. Here’s a fun fact: “Abstinence-only” sex education has been proven to cause more unprotected sex. Why? The kids don’t know any better. Sexual appetites are completely natural, and people are going to act on them eventually. We have to stop demonizing sex and deal with it rationally. And just because something is “natural” does not necessarily make it good — we have to teach kids to avoid unwanted pregnancy and disease. But “you have to wait until you’re married” is just not working, and really not justified as a general rule. So if you have kids, educate them about the good and the bad, and don’t try to “protect” them from sex as though it was dirty.

I was eating a cup of yogurt this morning, and noticed that the label claimed that the product “may” help your digestive system. Let me ask you a question: If you saw a headache medicine which said “may relieve headache symptoms,” would you buy it? Obviously I bought the yogurt because I like to eat yogurt. But this brings up an important topic which seem to slip by most grocery shoppers.

Be aware of the fact that pseudoscience is cropping up in nearly every aisle of your local supermarket. If the advertising uses phrases like “ancient Chinese believed” or “it is said that” or “may contribute to,” understand that what they are selling is not regulated by the FDA, and is using that vague language because it is prohibited by law from making health claims. In some cases these are untested products. In other cases they have been tested and been proven not to provide the health benefits their advocates claim.

Also, do not assume that a product advertised as “natural” is necessarily good for you, or the implication that something not “100% natural” is necessarily harmful. Arsenic is natural. Don’t eat it. Drugs which allow doctors to cure diseases and prolong life were developed in a lab. They are good. A commonly overlooked fact is that herbs and vitamins are, in fact, drugs. Just because something says “herbal remedy” on the package doesn’t mean that you should take that for your illness instead of going to a doctor who actually studied for years to help you. The difference between the drugs your doctor prescribes and the stuff in those herbs is that the prescription drug has been exhaustively tested in many studies before they were allowed to sell it to you, and the dosage of the active ingredient has been precisely measured. When someone pulls some plant out of the ground and grinds it up and you ingest it, there’s no way of telling what dosage you’re getting, what else is in it, or what actual effects (desirable or undesirable) you will experience — if any at all.

The point is to remember to be skeptical. You know full well that you shouldn’t take car advertisements at face value, and you check prices in more than one store when you’re ready to buy a new TV. The same diligence is even more called for when it comes to your health.