Posts tagged presents
No, Virginia, There Is No God: The Naked Curmudgeon by Dan Culberson
Nov 20th
Every December many newspapers resurrect an 1897 editorial from the old New York Sun in which Francis P. Church answered the famous question from 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon.
Perhaps Virginia is grown up enough now to ask a larger, more serious question: “Please tell me the truth: Is there a God?”
Virginia, forgive us. When you were young, adults thought you needed to be protected from your fears, and we believed it would be better if you continued to believe in Santa Claus, when all reason and logic told you there was no jolly old elf.
Remember, we cannot prove a negative hypothesis. We cannot logically prove that something does not exist. So, just as we cannot prove that Santa Claus does not exist, we cannot prove that God does not exist. But just as Santa Claus is a myth created for the comfort and joy of little children to give them hope against a cold, dark Christmas night, perhaps God is another myth created for the comfort of little bands of people to give them courage against a cold, dark unknown world.
No, Virginia, all deductions and reason tell us there is no God. We have grown old and wise enough now that in our hearts we know we can no longer lay the world’s blames on someone else. We can recognize the heartbreak and tragedy that occur when something horrible or absurd results from someone acting in the name of God. Let’s face reality: Mankind created God in our own image to do our bidding, and surely the world has suffered enough from all the wars and atrocities that have occurred because people believed they alone knew the meaning of God.
Not believe in God? Yes, we do face the danger of losing a reason to be kind and do good without a belief in God. But we can rely on intelligence and common sense in order to be kind and do good, not some ancient commandment on a tablet handed down through a self-proclaimed intermediary. We are no longer frightened savages huddled in caves around a fire, we are no longer children afraid of growing up and needing the comfort of the belief in something larger than ourselves, smarter than ourselves, more grandiose than ourselves.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” makes good sense, no matter who tells us to do it. “Do unto others exactly as they did unto you” is only a short-term correction of bad activity, and it can lead to less intelligent people killing themselves all off so that we are again left with a small band of frightened savages huddled in a cave around a fire, instead of a globe-filled, worldwide band of humanity loving and helping each other for our humanity, still staring at the stars in wonder.
If God does exist, why are there so many different religions and versions of God like so many Santa Clauses at every public mall? Would God be so vain, so human, to watch such widespread pain and suffering that occurs in the name of religion?
Why do some believe only they have the authority to speak for God? Be suspicious of anyone claiming to speak on behalf of God, because that means we are again being treated like children. But we are grown up now, and our parents are dead.
Yes, what about Heaven? Of course death is frightening. After the joy of life, the idea of absolute, spine-chilling, subzero nothing is frightening to us all. But a false hope of an afterlife is as perverse as the false hope of a jolly little man squeezing down our chimneys with good cheer and presents for us all.
And what about angels and that tunnel of light at death? Well, we know how powerful our own imaginations can be, we know how “real” our dreams can be. Perhaps our minds make us dream at the moment of death to help us through that last experience of all, and just as we sometimes dream about something we heard about, read about or actually experienced, our interrupted last dream could be as common as dreams of flying or being naked in a crowd.
No God! Yes, the idea is frightening. It means we are finally responsible for our own actions, our own destiny. But it also means we have that much more responsibility to be kind and to do good while we are here.
I rest my case.
breaking: Ralph Naders Christmas book idea for Boulder and the world
Dec 7th
It is an important experiment that can spread rapidly and start something of consequence that will be fun and gain attention.
Let’s call it Bookstore by the Box.
Here’s how it works.
I’ll give you my list of book titles for your selection.
Each book title–see attached list–fills a box unopened from the publisher’s warehouse.
The average number of these book titles is twenty four.
Twenty four books of the same title.
No assortment.
You can select any box for purchase–$100 per box–(this includes shipping costs.)
On arrival, you can distribute your box or boxes either for free or at a small price per book—as you choose.
You can give them to anyone you want—individual or institutional, such as school classes or libraries.
Then you immediately become a BOOKSHAKER.
A BOOKSHAKER is a person who gives books away to family, friends and co-workers or utilizes them for door prizes at parties, fund-raising for neighborhood or community organizations, mentoring programs, libraries, texts for study groups or classrooms.
When you receive the books, you make the call.
Most people do not go around giving out books to people they know or would like to know.
A gift of one book—sure—but many books that you like of the same title—no tradition there.
So, we start a tradition and all the wonderful associations that go with it.
Like—starting good conversations about subjects—the beginning of all change starts with conversations.
Like—respecting peoples’ intelligence, including those who argue with you, when you give them a book which makes for a healthy reciprocity.
Like—a lasting way to gift your friends during the upcoming Holiday season.
Books last, unlike a box of chocolates.
Like—beginning a spreading method of book distribution that is decentralized, anywhere and everywhere, uncontrollable by giant box stores or excessive cost.
Like—building small communities of intelligent deliberation and self-education.
Like—proving that the gift relationship is far more fruitful than a commercial one for exchanges that matter.
Like—replacing some small talk with big talk that gets away from sound bytes and kneejerk reactions.
Like—Until you’ve experienced the joy of giving books away, you cannot imagine how rewarding it is.
Like—Enough Already!
Go to the next page and select your favorite books by the box of 24 (twenty four) books of the same title.
Check out the list.
And click here to proceed to the Bookstore by the Box.
Thank you for spreading the word and being such a good sport.
As ever,
Ralph Nader
PS: Please pass the word to friends and family.
The Bookstore by the Box offer ends midnight December 20, 2010.
Click here to make your purchase now.
Selection of books—24 or more to a box of the same title (While Supplies Last)
(HC indicates hard cover. PB indicates paperback.)
1. Cruel and Unusual by Mark Crispin Miller (2004) HC (Searing critique of Bush/Cheney’s New World Order)
2. Command Performance by Jane Alexander (2000) PB (An Actress in the Theater of Washington Politics)
3. The Cheating of America by Charles Lewis and Bill Allison (2002) HC (A galvanizing journey about tax avoidance and evasion by the Super Rich and What You Can Do About It)
4. Democracy at Risk by Jeff Gates (2001) HC (Rescuing Main Street from Wall Street)
5. The Good Years by Walter Lord (1960) PB (The best-selling rendition of America 1900 to 1914)
6. Huey Long by Harry T. Williams (1981) PB (The classic biography of the “Kingfish” and the tumultuous politics of the Twenties and Thirties from Louisiana to FDR’s Washington, D.C.)
7. Natural History of the Rich by Richard Conniff (2003) HC (Just what you can expect from the Upper Crust)
8. Women Pay More by Frances Cerra and Marcia Carroll (1993) PB (And How to Put A Stop to It—eye-opening for the men, but not the women)
9. Freedom for the Thought That We Hate by Anthony Lewis (2008) HC (A popular biography of the First Amendment and the stories and lawsuits that give it judicial spine)
10. Change for America ed. By Mark Green (2009) PB (Liberal policies—the whole nine yards)
11. We Who Dared to Say No to War by Murray Polner (2008) PB
12. Crimes of War by Richard Falk (2006) PB
13. Too Close to Call by Jeffrey Toobin. (2002) HC (The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election)
14. Uncovering Clinton by Michael Isikoff (2000) PB (A Reporter’s Story of uncovering the Lewinsky Scandal)
15. I Hate George W. Bush Reader by Clint Willis, ed. (2004) PB (part of the infelicitously titled “I Hate… series) (Leading progressives Molly Ivins, William Greider…let loose on “Shrub”)
16. The Triumph of Meanness by Nicolaus Mills (1997) HC (America’s War Against Its Better Self–returning with a vengeance in 2011.)
17. Against the Beast by John Nichols, ed. (2004) PB (A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire)
18. American Rebels by Jack Newfield, ed. (2004) PB
19. Freedom’s Power by Paul Starr (2007) HC (The True Historic Force of Liberalism)
20. Grassroots Gardening by Donna Schaper (2007) PB (Gardens for sustaining activism)
21. Kidding Around Boston by Helen Byers (2000) PB (What to Do, Where to Go, and How to Have Fun in Boston)
22. Selling Women Short by Liza Featherstone (2005) PB (The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart)
23. The Cigarette Century by Allan M. Brandt (2009) HC (The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America)
24. The Jonathan Schell Reader by Jonathan Schell (2004) PB (On the United States at War and the Fate of the Earth)
25. The Ten Minute Activist by Mission Collective (2006) PB (Easy Ways to Take Back the Planet)
26. University Inc. by Jennifer Washburn (2006) HC (The corporate corruption of Higher Education)
27. Vermont Hiking by Michael Lanza (2005) PB (Day Hikes, Kid-Friendly Trails and Backpacking Treks)