MY DIGITAL VIRTUAL LIFE

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After I’ve completed the ‘real-life’ chores of walking the dog, eating breakfast, listening to the local weather report, and pouring my first cup of coffee, I walk into my home-office, place my smart phone in its charging cradle, and turn on my Macintosh Mini . As soon as the icons appear on screen, I click on my personal log-in avatar (the artist’s palette) and enter my pass code.  The Mac makes a few clicks and whirrs, the screen saver comes up (a picture of my sleeping Chihuahua), and my program aliases magically appear in the dock at the bottom of my monitor. I click on the Firefox icon (I hate the Safari browser that comes pre-installed as part of an OSX ‘bloatware’ package) and I enter the comfortable realm of favorite sites that I have bookmarked for easy access.  I begin with the charitable clicks on ‘The Animal Rescue Site’ and ‘The Breast Cancer Site’. Banking is next. Banking online is the bomb. My bank is only two miles from my house but it is so convenient to move my money around and pay bills online without the hassle of writing a check, or the expense of an envelope and stamp, relying on the USPS to get it to its destination. Then I check my Dashboard to see if anyone has up-voted or replied to my comments from the previous day. I check for new posts from a blogger in Belize, and one in California who are funny, keep it light and emotionally detached. Next up are my favorite Atheist blogs. It’s so nice to know that there are others with similar experiences and beliefs as mine, especially ‘Godless In Dixie’ who lives in my subdivision. We see each other occasionally but connect daily on his blog. I also follow a pastor (jimrigby.org) in Austin, TX. Go figure. After that I move on to the political blogs, one in Alaska, one in the LLANO ESTACADO, and several others obviously located in the US but without a specific regional or state address. Then I migrate to VOX where I get more varied, sophisticated, and professional news from one of my favorite real life political reporters, Ezra Klein. Next, I open up my Facebook account to see if anyone has commented or ‘liked’ my posts before I share the next cartoon ‘of great social import’ that I’ve found on-line. (I love to post the clever or misspelled signage from retailers.) Then I click on each of my 25 friends’ (mostly family members) FB pages to catch up on whatever is going on in their lives and download photos of my grandchildren, (which I later transfer to my smart phone so I can show my friend and hairdresser how big they’ve grown at my next hair appointment). I scan Twitter for pithy comments and statements and any digital photography that I can use for my screensaver program. Or I collect black and white pictures from my Twitter ‘follows and followers’ which have historical significance that I can archive. (I have no idea why this seems like a good thing to do.) After that, I check my online purchases and track their delivery schedule. Lastly, I click on the AppStore ‘updates’ to make sure my computer has the latest and greatest for it’s operating efficiency. My coffee has gone cold so I pop the remainder in the microwave and give it a good 45 second re-heat and finish up my morning online with a quick game of Klondike Solitaire. I’m usually done by 9:30 am. Finally I put my Mac Mini into ‘virtual sleep’ mode. To maintain a clean email inbox, I check my emails on my smart phone throughout the rest of the day. Sometimes my sister texts me, or my son will call. I have a Bluetooth headphone so I can make up beds, wash dishes, cook, or sit on the back porch, for hands-free convenience. I remember when the best mode for staying in touch was the telephone but that was expensive at the time and not everyone could afford one. Today it’s almost impossible not to be connected to the digital virtual world. With all the new gadgets from Google, Apple, and the advances in miniaturization and battery life, I expect to eventually be fitted for my ‘implants’ so I can be completely connected, every minute of every day, to my digital virtual life.

On Acronyms and the Future

When I was a little girl, a long long time ago, we used a few acronyms like FBI, CIA, NASA, SAC, TAC, NATO. Most acronyms had their origins in government agencies. Today there is a website devoted to acronyms, broken down into IT (information Technology), Military and Government, Business and Finance, Science and Medicine, Organizations and Schools, and Slang and Pop Culture. It's like speaking another language. {http://www.acronymfinder.com/} Soon, language will be obsolete, replaced with thought transfer via computer, and writing will be unnecessary as all our thoughts can be archived on small chips. Looks like the authors of all those SciFi (science fiction) books I read, back in the "good old days" when there were no e-readers, were right! Here's an excerpt from George Orwell's book "Nineteen Eighty Four" (1984) published in 1949.

"Winston Smith: How's the Newspeak Committee?
Syme: Working overtime. Plusbig waste is in adjectives. Plusbig waste is timing the language to scientific advance.
Winston Smith: ...yes.
Syme: It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. You wouldn't have seen the Dictionary 10th edition, would you Smith? It's that thick.
[illustrates thickness with fingers]
Syme: The 11th Edition will be that
[narrows fingers]
Syme: thick.
Winston Smith: So, The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect?
Syme: The secret is to move from translation, to direct thought, to automatic response. No need for self-discipline. Language coming from here
[the larynx]
Syme: , not from here
[the brain]
Syme: .
Tillotson's Friend: [leans over from another table] Excuse me for intruding. But what you're saying is that we should be rid of the last vestiges of Goldsteinism when the language has been cleaned. I couldn't be more in agreement with you, brother."

"Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell

'Atheist Church' - Oxymoron

ox·y·mo·ron -1657, from Gk. oxymoron, noun use of neut. of oxymoros (adj.) "pointedly foolish," from oxys "sharp" + moros "stupid." A rhetorical device in which two seemingly contradictory words are used together for effect: “She is just a poor little rich girl.”

There are plenty of oxymorons floating around like 'a little pregnant', 'benevolent despot', 'controlled chaos', 'girly man'. Here is a site with a more comprehensive list, (http://www.oxymoronlist.com/). To me the most oxymoronic of them all is "Atheist Church". I understand that those coming down off of a religious high need some sort of interim place in which to de-convert or un-convert comfortably. Having an Atheist Church to attend, with people who can answer questions, provide that missing fellowship experience and fill the newly created void of those used to having something to do and some place to go every Sunday appeals to Atheist neophytes. However, to call an Atheist gathering place a "Church" is weird. A church is commonly known as a building that is used for "Christian religious services", the very place and thing (and dogma) that Atheists have successfully escaped. There is no need to establish an organization for Atheists that collects people and money like a traditional church does and call it an Atheist Church. Most Atheists are reticent to 'come out' publicly anyway, but I know many who get together in their homes, bringing food and watching outlandish debates like the recent Ham on Nye debate at the Creation Museum on TV, or who organize a Q&A with someone from the ACLU about local public school sanctioned proselytizing and progress of their lawsuit. Some meet in a Unitarian Universalist Church like we do in Jackson, MS because our members are spread out over three counties and we need a central location to 'get together'. (Unitarians are diverse and accepting of many beliefs and principles.) We call ourselves  "Central Mississippi Atheists Meetup Group". A little longish but descriptive. There are 2000 years too many of religious baggage connected to the word "church" to attach it to any Atheist group. Definitely an oxymoron.

I didn't watch the debate...

I didn’t watch the Ham-on-Nye debate. I spent my time cooking spaghetti sauce in my new crock pot. Besides, no one is going to change their mind over one debate no matter how persuasive or factual the presentation or how engaging the debaters. I understand, from reading the reviews, both sides felt their guy won. Depending on one's investment in belief or non-belief, their assessment of victory will always be skewed in favor of their side. There are many logical reasons to leave religion and its dogma behind, but there are also emotionally gripping reasons not to abandon "a way of life" that religious indoctrination has imprinted since childhood. And here is another facet to consider about humans changing their belief system which I had not considered…survival.

“Because beliefs are designed to enhance our ability to survive, they are biologically designed to be strongly resistant to change. To change beliefs, skeptics must address the brain’s “survival” issues of meanings and implications in addition to discussing their data.

Because a basic tenet of both skeptical thinking and scientific inquiry is that beliefs can be wrong, it is often confusing and irritating to scientists and skeptics that so many people’s beliefs do not change in the face of disconfirming evidence. How, we wonder, are people able to hold beliefs that contradict the data?”

- “Why Bad Beliefs Don’t Die” by Gregory W. Lester, Skeptical Inquirer magazine November/December 2000

This says it all for me. For many, religion is the tie that binds. Break that tie and you are faced with losing family, friends, status in community and more. I know a few who have lost their jobs and access to their children. I also know many more who choose to remain closeted out of fear. In a hyper-religious country like the US there is very little freedom if you aren't religious. Our laws guarantee "freedom of religion" but don't guarantee "freedom from religion".

Quotes from Barry Goldwater: A Conservative?

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”

“Today’s so-called ‘conservatives’ don’t even know what the word means. They think I’ve turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.”

“While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment.”

"There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "

"I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state.  The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process."

"I don't have any respect for the Religious Right. There is no place in this country for practicing religion in politics.  That goes for Falwell, Robertson and all the rest of these political preachers.  They are a detriment to the country."

- Barry Goldwater