Mike Oren.com

The first portion of this entry will be a little bit different than most of my updates on my web site (the majority of my updates are simply meant to fill people in on what's been going on in my life, not give my opinions on topics); however, I read an article recently that I felt needed a response. However, if you don't want to hear my opinions on the topic (or simply don't want to listen to them, since the topic is controversial) then feel free to simply skip to my updates.

The other day, I read an interesting piece in Wired about New Atheism. Like many scientifically minded individuals, I realize how various religious beliefs can get in the way of scientific study, objectivity, and in general hold back the advance of civilization. I have also had my periods of doubt as to whether or not there is a God (after all, there is no way of proving that God exists, and by scientific reasoning you normally don't trust something exists simply because you can't disprove it--the fact that it can't be disproven simply means that there is a possibility). Still, I have not fallen in with atheism in general and still hold my belief in God and that Jesus is the savior. This article about the New Atheists though claims that such a belief is detrimental and even seems to be inclined to declare that the very notion of belief in God(s) is a great evil. It declares that we must throw away our beliefs in anything that is rooted in superstition and ancient beliefs in favor of reason. The logic behind this argument is, of course, very reasonable. Important points that are brought up are things like the Pope speaking for millions/billions of Catholics and that having weight, even though millions/billions of Catholics don't necessarily agree with the statement--so he is being given more influence/power by those on the outskirts who aren't fundamentalist Catholics. The negative effects of this are, of course, dire. Especially in the spread of AIDS/HIV throughout Africa because the Pope says that using contraception is a sin (something millions of Catholics don't agree with), but the majority of the Catholic population of Africa (and most of Africa is Catholic) take that as the word of God and refrain from the use of condoms--leading to the spread of AIDS.

Then of course we have the United States, where fundamentalist Christians have continually tried to put an end to stem cell research, which is incidentally making our nation fall behind in medical and biological science research. It should be noted that proposals to only use stem cells from fertility clinics (that are just going to be destroyed any way) have also been rejected (although the last attempt to pass it was vetoed by President Bush, since enough Congressional members had a change in thought from the original passage of the stem cell research laws). Furthermore, homosexual individuals have had their rights taken away from them due to religious beliefs. While I do not agree with that lifestyle, I do think that every person should have the right to live their life the way they choose to do so and as such I feel our nation has broken from our charter of separating church and State (although if you look at the history of the United States, we have always been a Christian nation and have always failed miserably at separating church and state--but that doesn't mean it's right to do that). Then, of course, you have the Muslims in the middle east who die in a holy war for the promised after life with virgins and all of that. Religion is clearly a problem for the advance of society. A problem for peace.

BUT religion IS necessary. The New Atheists, the majority of which are in the top 5% of the population (whether that be by social, economic, or education status--or a little bit from all three) seem to forget some basic tenants of humanity, as often happens when you're at the top and looking up. You see, humans need a thing called hope. If you remove hope from the bottom 5+% of the population, if there is no longer an after life free from their daily drudgery, if there is no longer an everlasting punishment for going against societal norms (when you're at the bottom, why does it matter if you go to jail? What have you got to lose at that point? Freedom? You were never free). If they lose that hope, lose those promises, lose that fear then society as we know it will collapse. Religion has a purpose in life that cannot be replaced by any society created law or any amount of charity. Religion is there to keep society functioning. Without it, the lowest of the low having nothing to lose and nothing to gain will either end their lives or make a desperate attempt to have something in life, leading to violent clashes that are just as bad, perhaps even worse than those that have occur ed over religion. Religion gives these people direction, purpose, hope.

It's not just the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder that requires religion though. Religion is required of people in the middle rung as well. The middle managers, office employees, etc. Life for these people are tedious--the same thing day in and day out (go to work, go home, eat dinner, watch TV, sleep, repeat). Without religion promising them something better in the afterlife, what's to keep these people working? The hope for retirement? At the current retirement age, most people are so worn out from the daily grind that retirement is just a wait until death. Sure, there are some that haven't had their bodies so worn out at that point that they are able to enjoy retirement, but they are in the minority. If there is no God and no after life, then they are simply wasting away the little time they have so that a select few can enjoy themselves and so that they, themselves, can continue living.

So, yes, religion leads to bad things, but religion disappearing from the world (at least at this point in time) would be much worse. That doesn't answer why I believe what I believe (I feel that each person should find that out on their own and shouldn't simply be told what they believe, and in that part I agree with the New Atheists--I think one of them also proposed that all major religions be taught in all schools, and I think that would be a very good thing in teaching tolerance and understanding, which will likely also lead to greater reasoning). If you really want to know why I choose to believe in God then send me an e-mail or leave a comment. Incidentally, I believe some of the problems discussed by the New Atheists can be alleviated if people stopped going to church and stopped declaring themselves Baptist, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, etc. and find their religion on their own. This way nobody is speaking for anybody else and this way nobody is being led by (possibly false) promises of a better life and all of that.

Update on what's been going on in my life: I need to get some work done for the C6 demo that I volunteered to do a sound engine for, but that hasn't been going so well--I have what I need to do for the most part, it's a matter of plugging it in to the larger program, but I'm having some issues with that because there's no design document for this project and a lot of people working on a lot of different sections, which makes it difficult to just plug in my engine, build some hooks, and be done with it (which is what I was hoping I'd be able to do...) I'm still hoping I can get it done, but I'm also having some issues getting some of the dependencies working... So we'll see how this ends up.

I'm also almost done with my user study for my audio game, and I'm hoping to write an abstract up and submit it to CHI '07s student research competition. The results from the study have been encouraging and interesting, so I'm hoping I stand a decent chance of making it into that conference, but they're standards are extremely high and while I consider the project to be very HCI-centric, I'm not sure if the reviewers will agree with me on that point. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though.

I've added drawing to my H3D application, as well as dynamically creating objects, and I've finally gotten around to having the haptic and sound properties get looked up from an image that the user can't see. So that's been going well and those features are pretty cool, but at the moment they're all pretty buggy (each one of those 3 features have a bug that I need to work out to improve performance). Still, I'm excited about that, and it looks like I may even be further along then I thought I'd be by the end of the semester (which is good, since I began thinking that I might be behind where I wanted to be by the end of the semester).

On a final note, I'm almost done with the little bit of Christmas shopping I'm doing (I bought Danielle her presents, I'll be buying Brooke something today--I know what I want to get her, and then I just need to find presents for my parents). I also think I've already chosen the charity that I will be putting the bulk of the money I set aside each year for a Christmas donation--the free medical center set up by the real life Patch Adams. I'm getting tired of just donating to the Salvation Army and places like that, so I thought this would be a good change in pace.

On a final note, for those of you not in the "know", the Nintendo Wii comes out next week (November 19th) so be excited! Due to some unexpected expenses (read: one of my college loans does not qualify for deferral), I no longer have the budget to buy it when it comes out (which is kind of okay because I wanted black and they're only releasing it in white at the moment... although I NEED my Zelda fix... and that's kind of hard to do without a Wii... but I'll survive). Plus I had figured out even before that time that my Wii money should go toward Christmas presents... unfortunately (see my last post) the current budget does not allow for me doing Christmas shopping (other than for the four people I just mentioned), so that didn't work out too well either. With the exception of those two minor issues though, my budget that I made before school started has been holding up and I still have the savings needed to get me through (as in living comfortably) to a month or two after my tax refund, when my savings fund will be replenished.