John

"Religion. It's given people hope in a world torn apart by religion." -Jon Stewart
Or
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If you don't get my (now old) display name then I apologize for my ambiguity. The name is a play on my top 2 friends' display names. Gage set his name to "♥BlOnDeS-hAvE-mOrE-fUn♥" and then Noah set his name to "Brunettes do Blondes in the rear", and so I, being the one who always takes it to the next level (and too far) and who makes unnecessarily intricate jokes that no one gets, changed mine to "♥Whites enslave browns and whip them♥" because my current default pic features me with white hair and Noah is a brunnete (brown) and I wanted to make a funny joke. Noah does penis to anus with Gage, so I make him my slave and whip him. Nothing racist about that. Maybe something a little weird about that, but definitely nothing racist about that. I am not a racist. Seriously. You better believe me, you nigger. I'm done. (Also, if my display name is somehow racist, then Cody's ("Blondes are part of the Super Race NOAH!!!!") is undoubtedly more racist.)
I'm an atheist -- I don't believe in a higher power. God doesn't believe in a power higher than himself either, because he's the highest power... and so God is an atheist. If atheism's good enough for God, it's good enough for me.[/joke]
I'll just let you know a little bit about me. My name's John, and I'm a sophomore at Milwaukee High School of the Arts. I'm interested in a lot of things, particularly writing, filmmaking, marine biology, architecture, and the culinary arts. I'm a philosopher, and an atheist activist. I like to debate; I can argue anything (according to one of my therapists). I try to be one of Nietzsche's overmen*. I am also an altruistic hedonist -- this could be considered the main source of my ethics. If you want to know any more read my blog, which I try to update more than once every day on average (although I often fall short of this goal). If you read my blog even occasionally, please subscribe. You will make me very happy. To contact me you can hit me up here on MySpace or AIM (My AIM screename is "johnpritzlaff"...) or email me at johnpritzlaff at gmail dot com.
-John Pritzlaff
*As far as the concept relates to the "death of God" and the need for a new system of morality (although the meaning of the term "overman" has been misconstrued over the years, particularly by Hitler, and I have nothing to do with that nonsense).
A few things I've said...
"Anything's possible: The only impossibility is for something other than the only impossibility to be impossible. Otherwise stated, the only impossibility is impossibility itself." "Be sure of nothing. Do not deal in absolutes. To be certain is to be ignorant." "Tolerate adversity, for the adversity is bound to be correct half the time." "Do not fear death. Death is what gives life it's meaning. Not because something happens when you die, but because without the reality of death you would not be able to appreciate the reality of life." "In all things be optimistic. Results depend less on the problem than on your reaction to it. In every situation, the one variable you can always change is your attitude. If you have the right attitude, nothing can hurt you. Every day can be perfect." "I believe that there is a certain level of wisdom, which most intelligent people can and do achieve, that grants its user both the knowledge of what is right and the knowledge that it is right to do what is right, that it is beneficial and in the user's best interest to put other people's interests first on occasion, in order to serve oneself. This is not selfishness, except in the sense that the self is symbolizing the selves of the people the user helps." "Never mistake passion for fundamentalism, confidence for dogmatics, respect for justice, or religion for reality." "I disagree with what you say, and yet I'm glad you say it. A rational person always needs to hear words of opposition, because a rational person will always be open to the possibility -- however small -- that they're wrong. I need you to keep disagreeing with me; otherwise, if I am wrong, I may never see the truth. Thank you for your dissent. And don't worry, I will return the favor." "Saying that you shouldn't be an atheist because Stalin was an atheist is like saying that you should eat more meat because Hitler was a vegetarian. (This has a double meaning because, just as Hitler (contrary to popular opinion) wasn't really a vegetarian, Stalin wasn't really an atheist, at least not by my definition.)" "At least in hell you can get a light." "It's pronounced 'buy-bull' for a reason." "Most people believe that optimism is a little naive, because the reality is that most of the world is negative. But I believe that pessimism is naive, because the less people are pessimistic, the more optimism makes sense." "I think the best of all worlds would be one where, instead of making conclusions first and then looking for evidence to support their conclusions, people would look at the evidence first and then make conclusions that the evidence supports." "I'm not scared of hell for the same reason that I'm not scared of dragons." "Many people say TV rots your brain, and that books are better. But let's really think about this. If a picture's worth a thousand words, and film is just a bunch of pictures in sequence, then a half hour of TV should be better for your brain than a novel!" "Perhaps at the quantum level, there is a river of time that flows in the opposite direction than ours does. This would explain why in quantum physics, effects sometimes happen without a cause -- because they would really be effects happening before the cause, since the events would be happening in the opposite order from ours. More likely, though, everything I just said is bullshit." "Do not let nationalism skew your thoughts. Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you. Governments, though necessary, by their very nature corrupt human freedom." "The meaning and purpose of life in all its forms is to spread consciousness throughout the universe, liberating all matter." "What do you call two doctors that aren't sure whether God exists? Diagnostics." "Do not waste this life waiting for the next, because it might not be real. Salvation equals slavation." "If you think philosophy is just opinion, you're wrong. That's just my opinion, though." "I enjoy the finer things in life, like taking a nice dump." "Live life by the book, just make sure you're the author." "The most evil thing about evil is that sometimes it actually wins." "Philosophers have ideas. And one of my scariest ideas as a philosopher is that everyone 'gets it' except us philosophers. I'm scared that we go around analyzing things while other people just live, and in the process we miss out on the real meaning of life." "The original values of our country will always have a place in my heart, and because of that I am forced to question the current values of our administration." "The easiest way to achieve happiness is to help others achieve it at the same time." "My name's John and in my spare time I cut down theists with Occam's Razor." "Do not fear death. A single consciousness can never be conscious of the fact that it's unconscious." [variation:]"Do not fear death. A single consciousness can never be conscious once it becomes unconscious, and so it can never be conscious of the fact that it is dead." "Without rationality there is only rationalization." "The essence of humanity can be found in the fact that some people see a yellow light as a warning to slow down while others see it as a reason to speed up." "Two wrongs only make a right when committing the second wrong leaves the world in a better place and not committing it would." "It's not that to be a good critic you have to be harsh, it's that most people in this world aren't critical enough." "Total pacifism is ultimately an immoral philosophy. An eye for an eye doesn't make the whole world blind... An eye for an eye makes the whole world one-eyed. Violence is often the wrong response, and it's never the ideal response, but sometimes it is the necessary response." Prayer is not being kept out of schools. Students can pray all they want. What is kept out of schools is mandatory, compulsory prayer, where students are forced to pray. Funny how religious people feel like their rights are being violated when we tell them they aren't allowed to violate everybody else's rights." -All quotes by me.
Most people who believe in god think it's a devastating argument to say that atheists believe that something came from nothing -- that the universe exists without a creator. What you almost never hear anyone talk about is the fact that those people believe the same thing atheists do, because they believe that god always existed, that he was not created, that he came out of nothing. Both possibilities (a universe without a creator and a creator without a creator) are improbable, but the atheist's is less improbable since he doesn't posit a complex, intelligent creator, and therefore the atheist's belief is more likely to be correct.
-John
Religion does many good things. The good things that religion does, however, can easily be done without religion. For instance, an atheist has just as much reason to feed the poor as a religious person does (in fact, an atheist's reasons for feeding the poor might even be more noble, since an atheist does not believe that he or she will go to hell if he or she is bad).
Religion also does many bad things. And the bad things religion does cannot often be done without religious faith. For instance, you will never hear of an atheist suicide bomber, since no atheist believes in an afterlife, or at least no atheist believes that an afterlife is likely to exist.
In order for certain very good things to happen, one could use religion, but one does not need religion for them to happen. But in order for certain very bad things to happen, one needs religion.
Non-science = nonsense
If you have a problem with this picture... tell me why, cuz I don't see why anybody would have a problem with it. I mean that's what Christians believe, isn't it really? Ya know?
"I am the lonely, misquoted genii."
"Sanity is not statistical"
-George Orwell, 1984
"We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them 'religious'; otherwise, they are likely to be called 'mad', 'psychotic' or 'delusional'... Clearly there is sanity in numbers."
-Sam Harris, The End of Faith
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"While I respect the Judeo-Christian ethic, as well as the Eastern philosophies and of course the teachings of Mohammed, I find that organised religion has corrupted those beliefs to justify countless atrocities throughout history. If I were to attend church, I'd be a hypocrite." --Hyde from That 70's Show
"...a scientific theory is not an ideology; it aims at explaining nature, not telling us what to do. Evolutionary biology did not oblige Hitler to kill Jews any more than nuclear physics mandates Kim Jong-Il to acquire the atomic bomb. And the theory of gravity does not require that you go jump off a bridge." --Petter Olofsson
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." --Bertrand Russell
"When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness.... No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever.... I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it." --H.L. Mencken
(Thank god I'm an atheist!)
A lot of people think I take my atheism too seriously. Maybe I do, but I only do it because I think that the whole religious debate is very important for the future of the world. Right now, we have a situation in the middle east that could easily turn into a nuclear world war, with the Muslims, Jews, and Christians deeply interested in the Temple Mount. If I offend you with my opinions, either ignore me or bring it up, and I will be happy to debate it with you. The only other thing I can say is, don't take my seriousness to seriously.