--- author: '' category: '' date: 2009/03/08 21:07 description: '' link: '' priority: '' slug: BB788 tags: Writing title: 'I believe there is a problem ' type: text updated: 2009/03/08 21:07 url_type: '' --- Yesterday I was spammed by a new age portal called Portalmico_. The name is strange, since in spanish (their language) it means "Monkey Portal", but that the heck, after adding me to the Facebook group they wanted me to join, posting they are spammers, then leaving, I started to think... What exactly bothers me about these guys? And decided to enter their portal and see what was awaiting me behind the gates. Apparently these guys are heavily into 2012_. However, they don't expect the end of the world, but a "cosmic awakening" and they call this event "important to the whole galaxy". This seems to be caused because of a peculiarity of the mayan calendar. Whoa. And I thought the guys at `Stop, unix time!`_ were overdoing it. .. sidebar:: My views on religion I am an atheist. I know it's more polite to say agnostic, but there are real problems with that concept. If we consider agnosticism to believe there is no evidence of god's existence one way or the other, then pretty much all catholics would have to declare themselves agnostics or heretics. Why is that? Because religions requires faith. Knowledge banishes faith. If you know god exits, you can't have *faith* in god's existence. Faith is *defined* as believing *without proof* [5]_. So religion *requires* agnosticism. Yes, I know it makes no sense to you. That's your own problem. See here for a counterargument_. On the other hand, I have been accused of not being tolerant to other's religious beliefs. That is not a fair accusation. I tolerate them. On the other hand, they often believe there is a place called "hell" where I will spend eternity in pain and suffering. Mind you, I don't believe such a thing exists or that I will be there, but just for the sake of argument, let's say it does. That means they expect their god to torture me for eternity. And I am being intolerant because I say they believe in childish fantasies? I see some unbalance here between what my alleged intolerance is, and their alleged tolerance. If I am right, they are condescended to. If they are right, I burn in hell. On the other hand, if I am right, I will cease existing, so I can't gloat. If they are right, they can drink their ambrosia forever while I am tortured. What sounds more tolerant to you? .. _stop, unix time!: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/unix-lovers-to.html One would be tempted to ask, if mayans were so awesome, how come their civilization was such a mess? [1]_ But that's not it. That's not what bothers me. Brainless adoration of poor people who did their best to live their lives 600 years ago is not such a terrible thing, (even if it is not the smartest thing ever). What bothers me is the credulity. Let's see... * `Karma? `_ * `Traditional Reiki? `_ * `Angels? `_ * `Classic Platonism? `_ [2]_ * `Atlantis? Lemuria? `_ [3]_ * `Reincarnation? `_ [4]_ * `A kid that spoke at 8 months, and psychologists(!?) say he was trying to read people's auras? `_ You will be hard pressed to find a post there that's scored less than 8 in a 1/10 scale, so almost everyone seems to agree that all these things exist/ are true. In fact, the only thing that came to mind that noone there seems to believe in is hidden messages in the Torah and bigfoot, but maybe I just didn't look correctly. So, I think I now know what bothers me. The lack of taste. If you believe everything, you believe nothing in particular. If you accept everything, you are not looking for truth. If you hold all things equal, nothing is special. I find the perspective of a world where everything can be true, everything has the same value, everything is *the same*... desperate. These people sound desperate. They sound like they are adrift at sea and try to hold to any passing twig, be it a crystal, a drowned continent, or a charlatan. Dear fellows at portalmico: the only thing that make life worth living is people. Yes, people. Not god, not mayan prophecies, not angels. People. Go out, meet someone, have a nice life. What happens after that, if it is to happen at all, will do so anyway. Be good to people, and trust that god (if he exists) is worth anything and will welcome you to his best condo, because if he doesn't... well, he was not really worth adoring anyway. So, I think I come out of this diving into nonsense with a clearer, if a bit sadder mind. Yes, they are spammers. Yes, they believe childish fantasies. I hope they get better. .. [1] Come on, 80% of skeletons showing signs of severe anemia? That's **bad!** See `here `_ .. [2] "This process allows us to bypass the illusion of our tridimensional reality..." .. [3] "... the lemurians lived in a frequency matching the Fifth Dimension (5D)..." .. [4] "...cleansing and clearing can include memories and traumas from previous reincarnations..." .. [5] From the `dictionary `_: "belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact." . At least I think they mean that definition of faith. I surely hope they are not saying they have "confidence" in god? .. _2012: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Doomsday_prediction .. _portalmico: http://www.portalmico.com .. _counterargument: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/295