My Work Is Done!

Well kids, that just about wraps up my literary career!

I have spent the better part of a half-century (50 years) looking at the various quagmires human beings have subjected themselves to... and as a result, I wrote four (4) books about what religion and superstition have done to us!!!!

Thinking that four books were too much to read all at once... I condensed the series into highlights of my books plus new material that has presented itself over the past few months!

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"Although my proposition that our "Consciousness/Sentience" is the presence of what we call  "God“ (?)  within us,   (a Soul)  it is not, in any way, a scientifically established fact! (And I’m not a scientist by any stretch of imagination either!)

Actually, the whole concept of a "SOUL" appears to be outside the purview of the scientific method anyway... since any evidence for the existence of a ‘Prime Mover’ is "Ab Extra!"  (‘From without!’)

But we do present more than enough circumstantial evidence for this hypothesis to make it fall within the realm of possibility!"

* ALSO: I must ask you not to assume that this book is about anything that is being peddled by Michael Behe over at “The Discovery Institute!”

Thank You: - Allan W. Janssen.

Saturday Morning Confusion: The Afterlife!

Is there any scientific proof that... after life... there is no heaven or hell?

Allan: 

Well, yes. In fact, there is a simple and blindingly obvious proof, but it’s not the sort of proof that many people are willing to accept since it conflicts with their childhood indoctrination and/or conflicts with what they really, really want to be true.

Before I present the proof, however, there are two important things that you need to keep in mind:

1. The complete and utter lack of any consistent, objective evidence for an afterlife is, in and of itself, evidence against an afterlife. Not proof mind, you, but certainly evidence.
2. Seriously, if you don’t have any good evidence for an afterlife in the first place, why would it matter if nobody can prove that there isn’t an afterlife? At best, asking somebody to provide evidence that an afterlife doesn’t exist is an admission that you don’t have any evidence to support your belief in an afterlife in the first place and are relying entirely on wishful thinking.

Still with me? All right, here is your proof:

1. For there to be an afterlife, our consciousness must be capable of surviving apart from our physical bodies (call it a “soul” or a “spirit” or what have you).
2. And if our consciousness is capable of surviving apart from our physical bodies, it can’t be generated by or produced by or be wholly dependent on our physical bodies (and certainly not by any one particular part of our bodies). We should, for example, be able to damage or even replace a toe or an arm or a lung or a heart and not have our consciousness be affected (assuming we don’t die in the process).
3. And this is generally what we find to be the case, with one glaring exception — our brains. Every other part of our body can be damaged or even replaced without our consciousness being affected, but not our brain. If our brains are damaged, our entire personality can change. We become, in effect, completely different persons. And, while practically any organ in the body can be replaced without changing who we are (they can even transplant faces now), does anybody imagine that if it were possible to receive a brain transplant that our consciousness with the new brain would match that of the previous brain?
4. Therefore, since it appears that our consciousness is inextricably and indelibly linked to our physical brains, that would indicate that our consciousness cannot exist independently of our bodies and therefore cannot survive the death of our bodies. And if our consciousnesses cannot exist without our bodies, then there cannot be any such thing as an “afterlife.” 

And, there you go! What further proof could you possibly want?

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Well, what about my idea that we humans are just conduits for a Cosmic Consciousness!!!!!  ALLAN! (THE GOD TRILOGY! (4 book series) Hardcover Edition )  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGBHZF4H?binding=hardcover&ref=dbs_dp_sirpi

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OK, OK, so maybe this isn’t absolute proof that there is no such thing as an afterlife. 

After all, I suppose one could come up with all sorts of hypotheticals to explain the known facts while still preserving the possibility of an afterlife, such as, oh, I dunno, that our brains are just “receivers” for our consciousness that are being broadcast from some other dimensional plane (whatever the heck that means) and brain damage is like what happens when a radio has a damaged antenna and the signal gets all static-y or something. 

Or maybe there exists some sort of all-powerful “immaterial pure spirit” (whatever the heck that actually means) that somehow exists “outside of time and space” ("ab extra" -  A.W.J.) that for some unknown reason wants to make it seem as though our brains create our consciousness for reasons of its own. 

You get the idea!

Barry Goldberg, Author of the "Common Sense Atheism" series of books

Just for the hell of it!

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What the Hell!

 “No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.”

“I’ve started telling everyone about the benefits of eating dried grapes. It’s all about 'raisin' awareness.”

“I saw an ad for burial plots, but that’s the last thing I need.”

“Police were summoned to a day-care center where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.”

“A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.”

“England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.”

“French pancakes give me the crepes.”

“Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who could not control her pupils?”

“I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.”

“I was wondering why that frisbee was getting bigger. Then it hit me!”

Get COVID..., or go to hell!

 THIS my friends, is why I don't like any form of organized religion:

New Orleans Archdiocese Asks Catholics to Avoid Johnson & Johnson COVID Vaccine!

Basically, they don't want their parishioners to get a life-saving vaccination against COVID 19 because they are using medicine derived from an aborted fetus back in 1970!

In a statement on Friday, the archdiocese noted that while deciding whether to receive the vaccine is an individual choice, that “the latest vaccine from Janssen/Johnson & Johnson is morally compromised as it uses the abortion-derived cell line in development and production of the vaccine as well as the testing.”

While a number of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have used cells originally derived from an aborted fetus in the 1970s, the archdiocese argues that Johnson & Johnson “extensive use” is worse than that of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which used the cells lines only to test their vaccines, according to Religion News Service. This makes the “connection to abortion … extremely remote,” in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the statement argues, recommending that Catholics choose one of those instead, if provided a choice.

Yes, boys and girls, ya might get COVID-19 and die because of a religious belief...,     BUT AT LEAST YA WON'T GO TO HELL! 

The way I see it anyway!