Friday, September 3, 2010

I'm Going to See Hitchens!!


A random web search for "hitchens" (which I rarely do), led me to hitchensweb.com, a site that keeps tracks of all his writings and news. There, I saw an advertisement for an upcoming debate starring Hitchens and Tariq Ramadan entitled "Is Islam a religion of peace?" I couldn't believe it, it was upcoming and I now had the chance to see Hitchens live! So I quickly got my tickets. I can't wait to see Hitchens live in action. I really thought that after he got diagnosed with cancer that I would never get the chance to see him. Now I'm excited and relieved knowing I'll get a chance to see my hero before he dies. I just hope he doesn't die before the debate.

I'm excited about the topic of the debate too. "Is Islam a religion of peace?" is an interesting question. I'm already convinced that it's not. I have long discussions with friends about the utter disgust that the Qur'an has for Jews, Christians, and most importantly, non-believers. It's no wonders there is so much fanaticism among Muslims. I hope that chemotherapy has not dulled Hitchens' intellect and wit and I hope that he brings it to this debate. I wonder if he'll be signing autographs afterward, I have two of Hitchens' books that can be signed, but I'm nervous because he has a tough criteria for signing books. He wants a receipt present as proof that you bought the book. Also I don't have his new memoir and I wonder if he'll only want to sign that. Anyhow I'm really excited that I'm actually going to be seeing my hero Christopher Hitchens! This is like seeing your favorite band or celebrity level satisfaction.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Summer's almost gone.


While studying and sharpening up my IT skills I've burned out a little bit and need to take a writing break. There's a heat wave blanketing the city. Temps are in the mid-90s. I've been stuck home for the past several days. There really is no reason to go out in this oppressive heat. Why would I want to swelter outside in the heat and humidity? The only reason I can think of would be to rejoice in what will probably be the last time temperatures are in the 90s until next summer. Heat waves always make it feel like summer. I've always liked the way summer felt. Some of my greatest memories have been during the summer. I like warm weather. I have a new appreciation for the fall but it's never an easy transition from hot to cold for me. I always want summer to last a little longer.

Don't go away summer! Last until October please!

I used to think really hot summers meant really cold winters followed. I hate especially cold winters. A little snow is OK. I don't have to drive and I don't live in a house so I don't have to shovel anything. We want it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. NY in the winter appears more urban. There aren't any green patches to contradict the concrete. The concrete wins. I'm in so much debt that I might not even be able to go shopping this fall to get new clothes. I'll have to come up with new ways to recycle my old looks. I kind of gotten out of the whole fashion thing recently anyway, but the urge does pop up from time to time.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Anthony's Nose


I just got back from camping upstate on a mountain called Anthony's Nose with my friend. It's about 900 feet high or so so it isn't technically a "mountain" (a mountain has to be 1000 ft high) but more like a hill. It sits across the Hudson river from Bear Mountain. As soon as I first saw it about 6 years ago I've always wanted to climb it, and this weekend I finally did. It's a nice little 30 minute or so hike to the top, and there are beautiful views of the Hudson Valley from some of the lookout points. It's so good to get out of the city to visit nature once in a while. I love the Hudson Valley and the Catskill mountain area. I feel this deep connection to the Northeastern part of the U.S. for some reason, and I'm really attached to the land here. It's probably because I was born in the Northeast.



Camping upstate has become an annual ritual for me. There is a bus that takes you from the Port Authority near Times Square to Bear Mountain State Park in a little over an hour. I love how on the return trip, you go from the wilderness to being left off right on 8th avenue in Midtown Manhattan, and experience such a dramatic change of environment.

Making a fire and sleeping outdoors is always a nice way to experience the way our ancestors lived for millennia, minus the packaged foods. The weather was perfect although a little chilly at night and a little too hot on Sunday. But either way we were blessed with fair weather, and clear skies that allowed us to see the stars that the city hides away. Although, Bear Mountain State Park, isn't far enough outside the city to see enough stars. At only 40 miles north of NYC, it sits at the edge of the NYC metropolitan area. Another 40 or 50 miles or so upstate is required to really see the stars.

I'd like to try camping in Autumn or even Winter one time. All I have to do is wait a few months and still want to go camping.

Friday, August 27, 2010

More Debates About God, and Religion


Here are some interesting debates on YouTube about God and religion, check them out:





Part 2:




From the Center for Inquiry:

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Seven Deadly Sins


Long is the way. And hard, that out of hell leads up to light.
-John Milton

When I was in high school I became obsessed with the movie "Seven". It's about a serial killer who kills his victims according to the seven deadly sins. The movie is a very dark portrait of a decaying American city, filled with crime, despair and awash in sin. I loved it and it had a profound affect on my during my adolescents. I wanted to do what the killer did, and rid the world of evil people. I've grown out of this fantasy over the years, and now that I'm older and know a great deal more about religion, I can reflect on the movie and its theme.

The seven deadly sins are not mentioned in the Bible, or by Jesus, they came about hundreds of years later in the 4th century by a monk named Evagrius Ponticus. They're an interesting list of vices that I won't dwell too deep into. They are:

Lust
Gluttony
Greed
Sloth
Wrath
Envy
Pride

I haven't read much literature about the seven deadly sins, but I might in the future. The movie is what I'm focusing on. It's suppose to be New York, before gentrification, before there was a Starbucks on every corner and million dollar condos were being built right next to housing projects. But New York is never mentioned in the movie, and the city is suppose to be a large anonymous American city, a template that could substitute for any large urban center. I loved how dark they made the movie. Seven was the darkest movie I had ever seen up until that point. Even the score was extremely dark and moody. The director used these low camera angles, and very low, dim lighting that is often pierced by bright yellow flash lights. We never see much of the cityscape, but only close ups of its more uglier districts. Every day it rains during the scenes in the movie, kind of like what's been going on in NY for the past 4 days. Rain rain rain. It's pouring rain now. The weather reminded me of the movie Seven and I guess that's why I wanted to write this post.

On the seven sins, the killer finds one person that exemplifies each sin to its extreme. An obese man, obviously guilty of gluttony; a lawyer filled with greed; a drug addict and pedophile guilty of sloth; a prostitute - lust; a beautiful model full of pride. The last two sins are part of the twist ending, and killers plan for himself to die. I see the movie as an example of how religion can make a man go absolutely insane with obsession and to find a perverse way to justify murder. I mean the killer was probably insane already, but religion gave him the justification he needed to torture and kill his victims. In his eyes, they were guilty of sin, of violating God's laws, and he was doing God's work by killing them. He thought God was on his side. He believed he was chosen by God to commit the murders he did: a martyr for God. Christopher Hitchens ponders what limits will people put on themselves when committing evil acts if they think they have God on their side. He makes the argument that when people think God is on their side, they will stop at nothing. No amount of violence or death is too much for the believer who thinks God is on their side, it justifies everything that might otherwise be deemed immoral.

And the movie "Seven" shows exactly how that can be true.


"One pound of flesh, no more no less, no cartilage no bone but only flesh, this task done...and he would go free."



Monday, August 23, 2010

Transitions


Today is the first somewhat cool day of the summer, indicating that Fall is just around the corner. I turned my air conditioner off, didn't need it. Opening the window does just as good. It's gray and rainy out. This type of weather pretty much guarantees a depressing mood, but strangely enough I felt motivated and a bit happy this morning.

I don't want to bore you with my petty little feelings so I'll get to some issues. I was reading the Qur'an recently and noticed how easy it is to find messages in it inciting hatred towards the nonbelievers. One can pretty much pick a random page from the Qur'an, and start reading, and within a few pages find some nasty descriptions of the nonbeliever. There is a part that clearly says the nonbeliever should be thrown into fire. Maybe that's a metaphor. Even if a Muslim isn't actually going to throw an infidel into fire, the hatred behind sanctioning such an act is enough.

Then there's the Qur'an on women. It clearly says men are better than women because Allah made one better than the other. So women were designed with a flaw in them that men don't have. I wonder if this means for everyone without exception? There seems to be a recurring theme regarding Allah as the shit. Allah is constantly praised over and over to the point where redundancy becomes overkill. It makes me sick. Can he do now wrong? Is there anything that he is capable of doing that isn't absolutely perfect? Muslims don't think so. I've already established that Allah is not the most beneficial or merciful in past posts. He sounds more like a sadistic, ego maniacal character made up in the mind of a desert Arab, however noble he is said to have been.

The Mosque controversy continues and has now become a full blown national issue. I know that block where it is to be placed. A friend of mine used to live there. Truthfully, yes it is not at ground zero. If I wasn't against religion so much I wouldn't care about the location. Since I've read about and done my research on the Qur'an, and Islam, I do not think that Islam is a religion of peace. It seems to equate the nonbeliever with being a lier, and a despicable person, full of hate and rage. "Hell with you and those that follow you, every one" the "holy" Qur'an says about the nonbeliever (Surah 38:85). It shows no mercy for those who don't accept what they consider to be revealed truth. Many Muslims even have sympathy towards non Muslims (the misguided). It is not a very tolerant philosophy Islam is. At all.

The largest source of material I use against Islam is the Qur'an itself. Ridding the world of this menace would do society an enormous favor. Have I become an anti-theist? Pretty much.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Summer 2010


Oh what a long hot Summer it's been. I was hoping for some Summer love, but it just didn't happen. Summer won't be over for another month, so who knows. Maybe they'll be some Autumn love. Maybe there won't be any at all. I dated one girl this Summer, but it didn't result in anything significant. This was a Summer without love.

I went on vacation in the beginning of the Summer to Asia, which made it a little different this year. I hung out a lot, but spent a lot of time alone. I didn't have work this Summer which was weird. I am always a bit depressed when the Summer ends. It used to be caused by going back to school in the Fall but now it's mostly about the weather changing and getting colder. I've learned to appreciate the Fall a little more recently. The transition from hot to cold, abundance to scarcity. Wearing jackets and sweaters. I won't be shopping this Fall because money is too scarce for me. I'll have to recycle old looks and try to make them look new. Anyhow, longing for Summer to stay at the end of August is something I do annually, it's a part of me.

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