Everything Is Nothing

If perception is truth, then there’s no such thing as truth.

— Xenocrates

The squares labeled A and B are the same shade. Click here to see proof.

Rene Descartes once posited that the only proof that we exist is the fact that we are conscious of ourselves thinking. His famous quote, “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am) has a great deal of meaning for those of us who are constantly in search of the meaning of life. I have already posited that life has no intrinsic meaning outside of what you choose to give it. In this post, I’ll go a step further to demonstrate why there is no such thing as truth.

Read more…

---

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

Atheism Exposed: Skepticism

“Sometimes the truth is inexplicable – and that is the plain and simple truth.”

– Xenocrates

Consider this: If a dog really did eat your homework, how’re you going to prove it? You could examine the bowel movement of the animal. However, assuming your homework was written on paper, it would have already become an indistinguishable, finely digested mulch at that point. The teacher’s skepticism about your story is palpable though, largely because of their inability to prove it and the unlikelihood of its occurrence. Does your teacher’s doubt about your story prove that it isn’t true? No. Yet, this is how skeptics think. They believe that whatever can be doubted is not likely to be true. Skeptical Atheists love this technique for asserting the “likely” non existence of God. While that is true on some level, it’s easily the worst way to make any kind of assertive proof of anything.

Atheism Exposed: Pragmatism

“Godlessness it seems, is not without a sense of purpose.”

– Xenocrates

Apatheism (or Pragmatic Atheism) is perhaps the most popular agnostic concept. It is less concerned with arguments for or against the existence of any god and is more concerned with living life as though there wasn’t one. This indifference to the existence of or need for god is often bound in the concept that morality and theism are mutually exclusive. While that may be inherently true, pragmatic atheists often use this as justification for their  liberal lifestyles. Then some go as far as to attempt to redefine the status quo in the pursuit of ridding the world of its mythological entrapment. Either way, whether it is taking god out of schools or reducing the value of marriage, godlessness it seems, is not without a sense of purpose.

The Anatomy of Belief

“Conflict over belief is as worthwhile as conflict over a favourite colour.”

– Xenocrates

There are many systems of belief in the world. Most beliefs are propagated by the innate compulsion of their subscribers to derive purpose from the world around them. As such, religion is effectively a moderate transmutation of mythology, philosophy and science. It attempts to be the silver bullet that is the catch-all solution for all of life’s problems. That’s why religion is the most conspicuous of all systems of belief. It attempts to explicitly fill the gaps science and philosophy do not. However, there are some dark, disturbing characteristics about religious belief that a lot of religious people are either unaware of or seem to ignore altogether. Growing up in an environment that catered to the far Christian right taught me a lot of highly valuable lessons about these characteristics. This post details the top ten most valuable lessons I’ve learned about religious cognition. Most of these I learned after intense debate and oftentimes, vicious confrontation: