2007-12-05
Fashion Tastes Amongst Satanists
I've complete rewritten and relaunched "Fashion Tastes Amongst Satanists" by Vexen Crabtree (2007, was 1999).
2007-06-30
Airport Internet Access
Airports are ok for internet access; whereas previous experiences have included myself paying £1 coins per minute (or fifteen) for access at a poor, difficult-to-use, clunky internet dumb terminal, nowadays there are WiFi access zones, and power points, where I can use my laptop & T-Mobile account.
You'd expect this from airports, as they are a fundamental building-block of modern globalisation, and along with coffee shops are a beacon of modernity.
But on the other extreme, why, in a world where technology and the Internet have driven people closer together and made business worldwide, are people travelling more and not less? It is not the technology at fault, but Human nature. Our instincts and drives are out-of-date. We are evolved for face-to-face contact when it is now more rational to stick to abstrac contact. Unfortunately, there are no readily available cures for Human nature.
You'd expect this from airports, as they are a fundamental building-block of modern globalisation, and along with coffee shops are a beacon of modernity.
But on the other extreme, why, in a world where technology and the Internet have driven people closer together and made business worldwide, are people travelling more and not less? It is not the technology at fault, but Human nature. Our instincts and drives are out-of-date. We are evolved for face-to-face contact when it is now more rational to stick to abstrac contact. Unfortunately, there are no readily available cures for Human nature.
2007-01-28
The Fear of Death is a Cause of Irrational Beliefs
“It is not rational arguments, but emotions, that cause belief in a future life. The most important of these emotions is fear of death.”
"Why I am not a Christian" by Bertrand Russell, p74
Child psychologists say that 'there is no death' in the world of most childen. Others in history, such as Freud, have explained that "dealing" with the learned idea of death is one of the greatest challenges of adulthood. Many, of course, "deal" with it by imagining that death is not real. That, in fact, we somehow survive death, despite that the self is the brain, and the brain dies.
The fear of death has got to be one of the biggest causes, in history, of religious beliefs. The difficulty in imagining the discontinuance of thought and the loss of all motivations, memories, life, to some seeming void, has lent itself in history to the idea that somehow we don't actually die. These "spiritual pipe dreams" (in the words of Anton LaVey) fuel irrational religious beliefs.
I've added the quote by Bertrand Russell to my page, "The Causes of Religion" by Vexen Crabtree (2007).
"Why I am not a Christian" by Bertrand Russell, p74
Child psychologists say that 'there is no death' in the world of most childen. Others in history, such as Freud, have explained that "dealing" with the learned idea of death is one of the greatest challenges of adulthood. Many, of course, "deal" with it by imagining that death is not real. That, in fact, we somehow survive death, despite that the self is the brain, and the brain dies.
The fear of death has got to be one of the biggest causes, in history, of religious beliefs. The difficulty in imagining the discontinuance of thought and the loss of all motivations, memories, life, to some seeming void, has lent itself in history to the idea that somehow we don't actually die. These "spiritual pipe dreams" (in the words of Anton LaVey) fuel irrational religious beliefs.
I've added the quote by Bertrand Russell to my page, "The Causes of Religion" by Vexen Crabtree (2007).
2007-01-04
Vexen Crabtree's New Pages in 2005
Archive of Vexen Crabtree's Live Journal entries in 2005
2007-01-01
The Taboo of Death
I have added the following text to "Death and Satanism" by Vexen Crabtree:
“We divert our attention from disease and death as much as we can; and the slaughter-houses and indecencies without end on which our life is founded are huddled out of sight and never mentioned, so that the world we recognize officially in literature and in society is a poetic fiction far handsomer and cleaner and better than the world that really is.”
"The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James, p103
The psychologist William James, above, spoke 100 years ago that normal Human beings hide death away. We clinicalize death, so that only trained professionals have anything to do with the practical side of slaughter, bodies, funerals and burials [Clark, 1993]. This denial of reality extends far and wide amongst the masses. Dead bodies do not litter the floor of battlefields in films, in computer games also corpses fade away majestically, and one's future death is hardly featured in public angst, except where the subconscious, desperate, finds expression in dreams.
The invisibility of death, the taboo of it, and the strong (largely) subconscious desire to avoid it during our reproductive years, fuels popular religion. The major religions of the world do, and always have, denied death and comforted people with the lie that we survive death. Hades, Heaven, Paradise and Nirvana are all names for the afterlife, despite the theological and philosophical impossibilities that arise.
2006-09-20
2006-09-04
Don't want to die: Why isn't the world more futuristic?
The thought of dying is impossibly tragic, I just can't imagine being nothing and not caring about anything. In the thousands of years to come, we will be able to scan a persons' neurones in their heads and build a copy of their life thoughts... basically, to digitize our thoughts and therefore live forever, by dispensing with our biological bodies.
But... why am I alive NOW, and not hundreds of years in the future when such technology is possible?
Why do I have to *die* without seeing us explore the stars and planets, without seeing where Computers will lead us, and without seeing how far technology can go?
I mean... if I didn't have commitments here, and it was safe... I would freeze myself and tell them to wake me up in 100 years. But what if war, religious fundamentalism (Christians in the USA, & Muslims in the East) disrupt the cryogenic system? What a complete waste, to die without even knowing.
When I die... I want to it to be slow, predictable, visible... not sudden, not heroic, not unforseen. I want every last thought out of life!
So... I keep fit, eat well, keep my brain busy, drink lots of water... anything, to prolong life expectancy and mental health.
But... why am I alive NOW, and not hundreds of years in the future when such technology is possible?
Why do I have to *die* without seeing us explore the stars and planets, without seeing where Computers will lead us, and without seeing how far technology can go?
I mean... if I didn't have commitments here, and it was safe... I would freeze myself and tell them to wake me up in 100 years. But what if war, religious fundamentalism (Christians in the USA, & Muslims in the East) disrupt the cryogenic system? What a complete waste, to die without even knowing.
When I die... I want to it to be slow, predictable, visible... not sudden, not heroic, not unforseen. I want every last thought out of life!
So... I keep fit, eat well, keep my brain busy, drink lots of water... anything, to prolong life expectancy and mental health.
2005-08-20
These pages were published by Vexen in 2004
Vexen Crabtree
2 new Vexen photos, the first new ones for over a year
Dream: Vexen dream he had a Delusional Fear of Zombies
New website: United Kingdom: Successes and Failures including pages:
Ontological Argument (Descartes & Anselm) is Flawed, by Vexen
Criticism of Buddhism by Vexen
"Evil is the absence of good" does not explain why God created evil
Religion and Morals
Religion and Charity
Vexen reminds people that a God wouldn't need prayer, prophets, souls, evangelists or religious buildings
Souls do not exist, by Vexen
Anti-Semitism was created by Christianity and Pages on Judaism
Historical Satanism and The Knights Templar. Deleted the Ambient Halls site
The Untermensch
Marriage and Engagement. Deleted some older pages and both games
Special religious rights should be abolished, says Vexen
Vexen on the New Age and Satanism
List of Vexen's Pages on Universalism
View an archive of Vexen's Online Diary LiveJournal posts made in 2004
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