maxxworld

So here is another Mormon practice: they avoid any movies that are rated R. Even the adults. Why? Well, its easy to imagine why they think rated R movies are bad. The same reason the FCC bleeps and blurres out things on TV. Rated R movies usually have sexual content or obscene language, and the Mormons think its good to avoid bad influence.

But seriously, who are we kidding here? What sort of bad influence? Are mormons so weak and impressonable that listening to curse words leads one to use them more often? PLEASE. If anything, the resolve to be “virtuous” or whatever should make them less likely to be affected by bad movies. And they ought to give more credit to human resolve. And who cares if you use some taboo words? It is only an artificial social construction. If anything, the religious should transcend past such bullshit.

Last week, everyone our research group was getting together to watch Borat, which of course is a rated R movie. And my roommate, who is a mormon, declined to participating. I was disappointed.

Why do I care if Mormons want to censor themselves? Because it leads to ignorance. There is something to be said for being open-minded and experiencing as many things as you can. If you grow up never having scene someone serious go on a cursing rampage, and if you have never seen some nasty sex on film, what is going to happen to you? You’re being unrealistic. We live in a society that’s nasty, obscene, and absurd (by the religious view anyways. I happen to think these “obscene” things are part of human nature and we should celebrate them.) So lets get realistic and see the world for what it is.

It just gets me mad that religious people spend so much energy on something so unimportant. Let’s be more concerned about the REAL issues, like ignorance and the pain and suffering that results from it.

So I have been at BYU for about 2 and a half weeks now. I have generally observed that the natives here are much more “friendlier”. The reason I put that in quotes is because sometimes, the friendliness is so over-the-top that it seems too superficial. Here is a typical scenario:

::Maxx walks out of his apartment onto the 2nd floor balcony, and there are some people standing below on the courtyard.:::
Stranger: Oh Hi! How are you!
Me: Hi, I’m ok. You?
Stranger: I’m doing great!! What’s your name?
Me: Uh.. Maxx.. Yours?
Stranger: My name is ********. You’re with the math program here?
Me: Yeh…
Stranger: Awesome! What are you guys doing?
Me: We are still learning new stuff for the most part…
Stranger: Great!
Me: yeh..
Stranger: So do you want to join us later on? We are having a bible study and then a water balloon fight (or singing or watching some 60s movie.. etc…)
Me: Uh… actually.. no thanks..
Stranger: Aww.. why not???? So where are you from?
Me: I’m from NJ..
Stranger: Wow.. quite a trip out here huh? So do you like it here so far?
Me: Yeh.. I guess its a lot different here… I’m atheist so..
Stranger: I see… I went on missionary to Russia last year… this must like that for you! Like you were in Russia or something…
etc etc etc…

I was standing in line at McDonalds, and I ran into someone who lives right below my apartment. After the typical conversation above, he said to me,
****ApartmentMate: Isn’t America just so cool??
Me: Um…. depends on what you mean by cool?
****ApartmentMate: I mean the story of how we came to be.. this is such a great country…

I kid you not. The above conversation really happened.

The strong vibe I am getting about Mormonism so far is that the Mormons really truly believe that America is the direct result of God. The Book of Mormons tells a story of Jesus Christ visiting the US, so as far as they are concerned, USA is sort of like the new Israel, a holy land that was made democratic by the power of their God. So then why are they not outraged that America has become one of the least free democracies in the world? Do they even know this? Do they know that the Netherlands are more democratic than the USA?

This is the first post in about a month. I decided to stop writing for the summer, but I have come across something that I think will be interesting to write about.

Right now, I am in Provo, Utah at Brigham Young University (BYU), the bastion of conservative mormons. I will be living here for the next 2 months. As you know, I am a staunch atheist, so I feel like a fish out of water. You can bet I have had some contentious confrontations with the super-religious people here.

I’m in Utah to take part in a summer research program for undergraduates, called an REU. My research is in mathematical physics, and I am working with professors and grad students among with other undergraduate peers in this program. But the most interesting part is that all this is taking place at BYU, and I had no clue what this place was like until I got here.

BYU is a university founded and still funded by Mormons, a Christian sect originating out of the midwest United States in the 19th century. For a comprehensive (and probably more accurate)  explanation of Mormonism, you can check out Wikipedia, but here is what I know: Joseph Smith was an American colonialist who claimed to have visions from God, and he apparently found some golden plates in the mountains, which he promptly copied onto paper and published. Of course, no body except Smith ever saw the plates. The contents of the plates tell a story of Jews migrating to the Unites States millenia before the colonialists settled there, and apparently the Native American Indians are the jewish descendants. Furthermore, Jesus Christ apparently visited the United States after resurrection. Obviously, there are no archaeological or historical evidence for any of this. But nevertheless, this document Smith claimed to have received from God is known as The Book of Mormon, and the Mormons use it as a holy text in addition to the traditional bible.

Being in Provo, Utah is a culture shock for me. Bible scriptures written in public places, college students singing hymns during their free time, and other unbearable religious practices.  I’ve even had debates with my roommate, who is a Mormon.

The most notable part is that I was forced to sign an ‘Honor Code Agreement’ to live on campus and do research here. The code prohibits ANY use of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, pornography, profane words, rated R movies, sleeveless shirts, sandals, etc… You can see how ridiculous this is. I wouldn’t do most of those things anyways, but I disagree with it on principle.

The biggest inconvenience is my long hair. Apparently, guys are not allowed to have long hair or beards. The cafeteria, library, the gym, and other places will refuse me service unless I explain that I am a visitor and apologize. Thankfully, the professor who is in charge of are research group is quite liberal, and he has made some phone calls to make it easier for me.

But nevertheless, I am infuriated at the religious conservativeness here. On principle, I find this sort of censorship disgusting. What purpose does prohibiting profane words serve? Why take such a artificial social construction so seriously? If the religious are to claim that they have some superiority on the knowledge of how the universe works, they must realize this: curse words, long hair, pornography, or even drugs for that matter, is like a grain of sand in the overall scheme of the universe. How ever unpleasant it might be, human life is only a VERY VERY small part of the universe, and if there is a God, it may not even know where Earth is.

Stayed tuned for more of my misadventures of an Atheist in Provo, Utah.

“If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him.”
-Lao Tzu

This puzzling advice by the famous Chinese philosopher is perhaps the wisest words ever uttered. Can you figure out what it means?

My take on it: Don’t rely on outside influences promising to get rid of all your problems. You have to deal with it on your own. All the self-help books, motivational speakers, and religious promises are for the weak. And they don’t work. The only person that can solve all of your problems right now is you. Lao Tzu is telling us that when we run across these “Buddahs” in life, it’s better to kill them than to risk being swindled by their schemes that don’t work.

This is what I meant when I said “Religion promises false hope” couple of posts back. Any mode of thinking that believes your life can be improved by superstitious and supernatural beliefs (including prayer, divine beings, and miracles) has to be utterly worthless, not to mention duplicitous. Because we know (to the most practical and rational way that we can) that supernatural things do not exist. So if religion, or anything else, promises things in the name of supernatural beliefs, it is false hope. How can we be so sure that supernatural things do not exist? After all, there is always some slight possibility? Of course, but there is always a slight possibility for anything. For all we know, Santa Claus and the Toothfairy might still exist. Science can’t disprove that these things exist. But it doesn’t make it rational to believe in them.

I suppose what religion has to offer is very attractive. After all, how wonderful would it be if there was a divine creator who cares for us, and who rights all the wrongs. Believe me, I would want to live in a universe like that. Unfortunately, all the evidence is to the contrary. And this is the most striking part about this conversation: many people say they believe in God because they wouldn’t want to live in a world where there wasn’t one. But this isn’t even an argument. What you want the world to be and how the world actually is are two completely separate things.

The fact that that you believe in a God is NOT an opinion. It is either right or wrong. It is either fact or fiction. Yes, one is entitled to their own opinions. But one is not entitled to their own reality. We call these people delusional or crazy. As far as we know, there is an objective reality. One is not entitled to believe that he himself is Napoleon if he is not Napoleon. Likewise, one is not entitled to believe in the supernatural if there aren’t any. Religion is not a matter of taste or preference. It is a matter of truth.

Lao Tzu was truly a smart man.

In this week’s issue of The Phoenix, Swarthmore College’s weekly newspaper, the editorial writer Nathaiel Peters responded to the Virginia Tech tragedies by claiming that if we are to condemn such atrocities and have a rational ground to stand on in declaring what is right and wrong, an absolute system of morality is needed. In other words, culturally determined morality is not strong enough. Peters has been sort-of an evangelist, writing about how great Christianity is in his columns for the past semester. My criticisms at his arguments have been printed in The Pheonix twice in the past. If you have read those, you know that I find Peters’s arguments to be entirely wrong.

The reason the massacre at Virigina Tech is morally wrong is because it killed people. Killing people brings harm and suffering to not only the killed but their loved ones. What firmer rational stance do you need to judge whether certain actions are moral or not? At best, biblical morality is superfluous.

The most striking part about this conversation is that many people, even those who who are agnostic, seem to believe that without religion, morality could not exist. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, religion has been commiting some of the most atrocious violations when it comes to moral standards. Consider, for example, preaching that contraceptions are immoral to use in Sub-Saharan Africa when millions are dying of AIDS and other STDs. Condoms have been proven to be effective in preventing STDs. By preaching that these are wrong to use, Christians are in essence allowing people to die when they can be saved. What could be more immoral than that?

Moral philosophy have existed for millenia before the rise of religion. One only has to look to the Greeks for such moral systems. And morality have been evolving for decades, independent of what the Bible says. If the only source of morality was the Bible, morality would be the same now as it was thousands of years ago. But we know better now. We know that slavery is bad and that interractial marriage is ok. And we are still making progress on other issues like sexual orientation.

Of course there are those that claim that although parts of the Bible advocate slavery, genocide, and almost every other agregious crimes against humanity you can think of, other parts advocate love and harmony. But then I would say, how do you know which parts of the Bible are good and which parts are bad? Clearly, that sense of moral judgement comes from our society -something that is available to any rational person. So in that sense, Biblical morality is superfluous. We ALL know what is right and wrong. You don’t need God to tell you that muder is a bad thing.

It is time for our society to move beyond superstition. Religion not only advocates false-hope and irrationality, but also legitimizes immoral acts in the name of God. Why are the religious Right associated in politics with “values” anyway? They seem to have the least sophisticated idea about what morality is. We need to claim ethics back to the side of rationality and reason.