Step Away From the Book!

Posted by JCE

If Authors Guild executive director, Paul Aitken has his way, soon reading out loud will be considered a copyright violation.

As reported over on CNet yesterday, copyright holders are kicking up a stink about the newly introduced speech synthesis capability added to the second-generation Kindle ebook reader from Amazon. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the executive director of the Authors Guild, Paul Aitken, made the claim that by reading the book out loud Amazon was claiming “an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.”

Hmmm....somehow this seems so fitting for a country that has devalued education in favor of lawsuits time and time again. Reading aloud to children is an integral part of how they learn the language, not to mention millions of visually impaired individuals who depend on this medium for entertainment and information.

Way to go, Mr. Aitken. Thank you so very much for letting us know just exactly where the priority of education sits.

h/t bit-tech

Kids Are Talking – Are We Listening?

Posted by JCE

This past weekend I attended a meeting to discuss Kids and Atheism. It is a vast topic and became apparent during the meeting that more discussion is needed on the subject. The nature of Atheism does not lend itself to community connectivity and parents struggle when facing the task of managing outside religious influences while raising children.

My own children are ages 14 and 20 so the issues that affect them have changed significantly. Where I once made an effort to limit the pressure directed toward them from well-intentioned, religious family members now I find that we are talking about religion in a much more abstract fashion. My son is in middle school and much to my surprise he mentioned that, for the most part, there are two main groups in his school: Christians and Atheists. It surprised me because I am certain that the percentage of Atheists in our community is no where near half, so this tells me that many of the children claiming to be Atheists are living in homes where the parents profess a religious affiliation.

Although many of these children may be identifying themselves as Atheists due to the paradox of rebellious conformity that seems to accompany adolescence, there must be at least a small percentage that have actually thought about the issue and reached this conclusion. The bigger issue, though, is the fact that children are talking about it. According to my son several discussions have taken place and the children are content to express their views without feeling the pressure to ‘be right’ as often is felt when these discussions take place in the presence of authority figures. Sadly, adult interference seems to stifle free exchange of ideas rather than encourage it.

As a parent, my only concern is that the information be exchanged is accurate and that the message of tolerance and understanding prevails. Again, children seem to have a much better grasp on this than adults do and I have no intention of disrupting what sounds like productive discussion. My purpose in posting this is to let other parents know – believers and non-believers alike – that your kids are talking. It is our job to listen to them. Ask your child how they feel about religion; ask them how their friends feel. You may be surprised by the insightful answers you get.


Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction. - Annie Sullivan

Jimmy Carter: A Better Man

Posted by JCE

Catching up on Daily Shows, I watched the episode from January 27, which included former President Jimmy Carter as the guest. Mr. Carter is now 84 but remains the soft-spoken gentleman I remember from my childhood. As president, he faced a mountain of problems and upon leaving office he was considered one of our more ineffective leaders. He has since proven otherwise. Watching the segment with Jon Stewart a few things jumped out at me:

First, Mr. Carter may not (or may) have known at the time just how globally interactive our world would become and his efforts in improving foreign relations paved the way for future leaders in negotiating efforts. Had he not secured segments of the middle-east as our allies, our current economic plight would be much different indeed and most likely would not have held off this long. He has subsequently served as an adviser to the current administration and the two prior. He made a personal commitment to improve human rights and has stuck to his word. He could have retired many years ago and allowed the world to move on without him particularly in the aftermath of so much negative feedback but he did not and the world is a far better place for it.

Second, although a deeply religious man, he successfully negotiated peace contracts with countries whose religious beliefs differ greatly from his own. Unlike many of the squawking politicians and religious leaders we hear from today, Mr. Carter is secure in his faith and does not become offended when someone does not profess to share his beliefs. He simply sees faith as a personal matter and respecting that has allowed him to bring together cultures who would rather bomb one another than seek understanding and peace.

He sees this world as something greater than himself, he feels that all humans have the inherent right to be treated humanely and has quietly and steadfastly worked to achieve that one simple goal. A goal we should all share regardless of belief or non.

No matter your personal belief in the reason you are here, it is not to tear one another apart.

Support Your Local Weatherperson

Posted by JCE

Time and time again I hear local weatherpersons disparaged as having a dream job: They get to be wrong and still collect a huge salary. (This may have shifted a bit given recent economic events and the dream job may now belong to Wall Street CEO's.)

While I can understand the frustration that goes along with inaccurate weather predictions it does always stun me a little that many of these people willingly equate meteorologists with psychics and never consider the science behind either. Meteorologists are actually trained to study weather patterns and most have sophisticated equipment used to monitor weather related activity all over the world. The fact that the local weatherperson may be off by 1/2 inch on the snowfall in my area does not bother me. The fact that the information was given to me a week ago and updated regularly through satellite images beamed down to them from space and it actually snowed on the day they said it would amazes me!! My parents used to use the Farmer's Almanac to predict weather or their aching joints. We have come a long way indeed.

Psychics on the other hand use zero scientific equipment. They simply think about what has already happened and attempt to extrapolate information based on that. Good system, it works so well that it has an astronomical fail rate.

Comparing meteorologists to crystal ball gazers is an insult to meteorologist and to ourselves. We all know enough now, thanks to our local meteorologists to identify various cloud types and get reports on astronomical activity so that the star-gazer in everyone of us can run outside and fully appreciate the heavens from earth.

Celebrate the Year of Astronomy - Hug a Meteorologist!

Why Believers are Ethically Bankrupt

Posted by JCE

Last month a delightful article by Ben Shaprio pontificated on why atheism is morally bankrupt. His reasoning was simple:

There’s only one problem: without God, there can be no moral choice. Without God, there is no capacity for free will.

Sadly for Mr. Shaprio this reasoning is wrong - millions of people are considered to have excellent morals without god and since the concept of free will is derived specifically from religion it does not apply to the issue of atheism.

On the other hand, it does beg the question as to why Christians and all other religious people are ethically bankrupt. Take any week in the news and you are bound to find numerous stories of religious committing crimes. Some of these crimes are vile, some are nuisance and some are downright odd but all of them are crimes, which makes them ethical violations.

For the purposes of this article I specifically chose the word ethics because the religious seem to have garnered a special hold on the word morals although no such mention to religion is included in the definition of either word. Linguistic evolution has deemed morals to come from biblical text and ethics from society. While both can produce equally good results, only one of them actually requires conscious thought to produce desired results.

Adherents to religion will claim moral high ground meaning they have received their instructions for behavior and consequences be damned they will abide by them. Their behavior often tramples on the rights of those around them as they seek the holy grail of approval from their master. Their doctrine of free will and operating on some kind of bizarre honor system in which they will be “punished” upon death leaves open a flood gate of shamefully unethical behavior affecting those who are forced to endure time with them during their life.

Reprehensible behavior becomes morally acceptable and absolved once they confess but the matter of ethics is never once addressed. Raping a child is never ethically acceptable. The Catholic Church, however, considers that to be a forgivable sin if only the right words of confession and promises to stop are made. Not quite good enough.

Morality is a distinctly poor system of judging character because it demands no accountability, no true responsibility for ones actions. Reading a holy text and interpreting it in order to develop a code of moral behavior creates an open system in which ALL behavior becomes acceptable. Ethics is a system that requires full accountability and there are consequences for ones actions. Consequences that may save lives or prevent the loss of innocence in another child.

So religion can keep their ‘moral’ instruction and claims of free will. I will keep my ethics and know that I am doing the right thing, that I respect the rights of others and want to benefit society and that I am accountable here and now for my actions.

Remember kids: "Morals are, in the light of reality, ethically bankrupt."

Living In Fear

Posted by JCE

Without exception, all of us are controllable by fear. Through the history of human-kind leaders have utilized this fact to their advantage and it is still used today. We respond to fear, we make decisions based on fear, we allow fear to guide our lives. And in every single instance we are wrong for doing so.

Advertisers attempt to convince us that unless we purchase Product A our lives will be less meaningful, our self-worth diminished and we will be judged negatively by our family and friends. Politicians sprinkle panic driven words in their speeches hoping to secure our vote or support of a piece of poor legislation whose real benefactors are never divulged. Leaders at all levels of society will employ fear to retain their own power and keep their respective groups from revolting and yanking their precious power away - the most alarming of these is the use of implication that without them our 'worlds' would fall into an abyss of immoral, unethical, animal-like behavior. The irony is that we already live in such circumstances thanks to the guidance of fear.

Organized religion and politics are two arenas in which we see fear tactics routinely employed as a method of controlling the populace and are so effective that any dissenting views offered to debunk some of the misconceptions are often met with outrage. Religions gets higher marks in this area simply because they encourage weekly mind feedings of their fear inspiring doctrine whereas politics is not nearly as prevalent except among the most ardent of supporters. Each group has their own spokespersons and to list them all here would take up far too much space, but names like Bill O'Reilly, the Pope, The Phelps Family, and Ann Coulter come to mind.

Eradicating this methodology is impossible but it can be contained through education and conscious decision to avoid reacting to the triggers aimed at us daily. To some extent this is easier for some more than others and it is those who I wish to reach out to with this post. The rational, skeptical, reason driven section of society needs to understand that it is very much their responsibility to speak up with news stories or local rumors threaten to spiral out of control. The events of 9/11 are an extreme example and if you remember where you were when you heard the news, you most likely also began to hear speculation without evidence cropping up about you. The days that followed also produced a near mass hysteria and falsely targeted anyone who appeared to be of middle east decent and our president ultimately offered up the clearest example of fear driven thinking - war. As skeptics we must try, where we can to calm fears through the encouragement of reason. Keeping those around us from overreacting prevents the escalation of events driven by fear and may encourage others to also attempt reason.

From flu virus to vaccines to terrorists there will always be someone reacting and trying to scare the pants off of everyone else around them who does not react the same way. Skepticism remains the single most effective weapon in the war against fear. Use it wisely.