I love a good factual news story. I also enjoy News analysis, features, and editorial opinion from all over the English written world. As long as it is not tweaked into fiction by top-office intervention. I am a media junkie, having worked in film documentary production and TV news work for many years. The reason I moved? I became disillusioned about the media being used for honest information dissemination. As soon as I graduated in journalism, I got the hell out of news. I found the sanctuary of discovering and displaying artistic expression more fulfilling than being told we can't tell the cold hard facts of a real situation.
You wouldn't trust an tobacco industry report on the harmful effects of smoking;
You wouldn't trust an asbestos industry report on the harmful effects of asbestos;
You wouldn't trust a Uranium mining industry report on the effects of nuclear waste;
You wouldn't trust a diamond mining expert's views on the politics of Africa, I for one cannot understand why people ask for life-guidance from Christian priests who have meager understanding of a normal life in society and any political party that stops a scientist telling what he has found, is not to be trusted either.
The cold hard facts of Climate Change have been given to newsrooms for decades. I worked for Greenpeace as a volunteer when not working at TV networks. We were ignored. I wrote so many media releases and went on raids that exposed disgusting environmental destruction, but we were seen by the majority to be vandals ourselves.
The analogy of being the atheist in a crowd of theists is the same.
Some established media outlets are as useful to gather the cold hard facts of a situation, as a church is to gather scientific analysis on any given subject. I love the internet and its ability to let [almost] everyone have a voice. I read a lot of blogs about the atheist life. Makes me thankful that there are more people out there who wonder about what the cold hard facts are. We have to be able to ask the hard questions, voice our found facts, and uncover lies, deceit and evils, in power-halls and church halls.
As Carl Sagan said, "If we aren't able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us something is true, to be skeptical of those who are in authority, then we are up for grabs."
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Carl Sagan
What a driving force this guy was. Carl Sagan is my hero, plain and simple. Not because he was an atheist, though this is a advantage as well. I know I am not alone in these sentiments, but I'd like to dedicate this post to Carl Sagan.
Image courtesy: Reuters.
'Reflections on a Mote of Dust' Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
(Image from JPL/NASA).
'We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.'
Excerpted from a commencement address Carl Sagan delivered May 11, 1996.
Image courtesy: Reuters.
'Reflections on a Mote of Dust' Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
(Image from JPL/NASA).
'We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.'
Excerpted from a commencement address Carl Sagan delivered May 11, 1996.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Not God
Many times, over my 45 year or so life, I've desired an invisible friend. Someone who watched over my shoulder, guiding with whispers, bringing my good fortune and wisdoms. As anyone would, I thought the idea was pretty cool. I heard the odd hard advice come from realizing new solutions along the way, and understood, that voice, was me. Thats all.
Not God.
When I met people in far off lands who then helped me, and introduced me to others, who gave me work and a career path and even introduced me to other people; that was coincidence, networking and good fortune. Thats all.
Not God.
I thought it would be grand to be able to survive death, to stay conscious and come out the other side. I could meet all those long gone relatives and friends, kick on in some strange but glorious place where you could do anything. Hmm, rather like those places Enid Blyton wrote about in 'The Wishing Chair' and 'The Faraway Tree'. A nice dream but adults should wake up to themselves a little. It is fanciful fiction. Don't you think neurology, psychology, medical science would have a few areas of serious research into the splitting of the physical and spiritual at death if it was fact? In real life, when one dies, thats it. Thats all.
Not God.
Not God.
When I met people in far off lands who then helped me, and introduced me to others, who gave me work and a career path and even introduced me to other people; that was coincidence, networking and good fortune. Thats all.
Not God.
I thought it would be grand to be able to survive death, to stay conscious and come out the other side. I could meet all those long gone relatives and friends, kick on in some strange but glorious place where you could do anything. Hmm, rather like those places Enid Blyton wrote about in 'The Wishing Chair' and 'The Faraway Tree'. A nice dream but adults should wake up to themselves a little. It is fanciful fiction. Don't you think neurology, psychology, medical science would have a few areas of serious research into the splitting of the physical and spiritual at death if it was fact? In real life, when one dies, thats it. Thats all.
Not God.
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