What Rug Thinks

One question that I have heard a lot is, "How can you be moral without God?" There is also the more offensive version of this, "You just want to sin. That's why you deny God." That second one is rather offensive remark but I try to ignore that fact. Since really they have no idea what they are saying. I assume they really mean the first statement otherwise I would just be pissed off. The question being how can I be moral and an atheist at the same time. Well, that's really simple. I live my life with a few basic rules. These rules are as follows. Life is preferable to death. Pleasure is preferable to pain. Freedom is preferable to anything. The good of the many outweigh the good of the one. (Thank you Spock!) Honesty is always the best option.  Logic outweighs emotion. Violence is only for self defence.  That's it, just 7 things to keep in mind when making decisions in my life. I think most people would agree with most of these as well. If y...

Recently there was an issue in Indiana where they set a "Religious Freedom Law" into place. This law had a section in it that allowed anyone with a religious belief to discriminate against anyone they wished. Thankfully they fixed the law and it's not longer an issue. However, it did get me thinking about discrimination in general and I have come to the conclusion that if someone doesn't understand why discrimination is wrong then they are simply a shitty human being. Let me tell you why. Let's first take a look in history and see what discrimination has gotten the human race so far. I'm not going to go back to the beginning of recorded history because I don't want to be here for years typing this up. So I'll start with the dark ages. Religious discrimination between christian nations caused an untold number of deaths due to the wars they incited. The middle east has been at war so many times I have lost track all due to the idea that one religion is b...

Disclaimer: I have chosen my words carefully on this topic and I would appreciate you doing the same. Preaching and/or derogatory comments about me or anyone else will not be accepted. The Overview: There are many misconceptions about atheism and what it means to be an atheist. I thought it would be a good idea to clear these things up right from the start. First, atheism is not a religion. This can be proven by simply looking up the definitions of the words. Atheism has nothing to do with science, politics, or any worldview (if that term even means anything). Atheism is only a stance on one subject, the belief in a god or any god. That's it. Just the one thing. Does that surprise you? Atheism does not have any special book or godma. There is no other beliefs that is necessary to be an atheist besides the rejection of the god claim. Therefore, nothing can be done in the name of atheism. Not the good things people do like donating to charity or leading a country to prosperity....

What is a good reason for going to war? Does war solve problems? When one country takes over another but most of the people die, is it still a victory? Why do we still embrace this barbaric practice? Is there a better way? There are terabytes worth of data out there from philosophers about how great war is and how much war sucks. However, I have not looked at any of it. None of it is relevant to the wars of today. Since I live in today’s world this is where I focus. First of all, let me say I support our troops. I might not agree with what they are told to do, but anyone willing to put their life on the line to protect my country has my respect and support. That does bring up a good question though. What is a good reason to send people to kill and be killed? I don’t think there is one, at least not anymore. We live in a world today were we could send a missile half way across the world and hit a target the size of a quarter. Why are we killing armies of innocent people ju...

What is the meaning of life? There are all kinds of answers to this question depending on who you ask. Some people can narrow it down to one thing family, friends, love, or money. Personally, I think they are all wrong. Family is one of the most important things for me but it’s not top of the list. Friends, come and go so they can’t really be that important. Love, while ranking high not quite there. The meaning of life is knowledge the way I see it. In very basic terms we are born, learn, pass on what we learned, and we die. All the while not realizing what we were really doing. Maybe not even realizing what has happened to them. You go through your life leaning from everything and everyone around you. You pick and choose what you learn, how you learn it, and who makes the most sense to you. Everyone figures out that if you fall it hurts. I’m sure most people have fallen and have learned this lesson. When you get older, you tell your kids to be careful. Hoping they wi...

I'm sorry everyone. Looks like I'm a day late and a dollar short. Today's topic is one that has become rather dear to my heart lately. Irrational, illogical, dumbass people and what we can do about them. We all know someone that fits this bill, but just so there is no confusion I would like to explain who these kind of people are. An irrational person leaps to conclusions with little or no supporting evidence for this conclusion. While, an illogical person will stick with their irrational conclusion even when faced with clear evidence they are wrong. Someone that is both irrational and illogical is a dumbass. Dumbasses are unable to truly think for themselves and will preach their conclusions as fact. They seem to feel a need to let everyone know they alone hold the "truth". Yet, this "truth" is a conclusion based on little to no evidence in support while there is evidence against. I don't care what anyone believes. If someone wants to hold irrat...

When I tell people I'm an Open Source enthusiast I get the same basic questions every time. This past week I went through this with someone and thought, hey that would be a good blog post. Since, I have already done one post on Linux and Android . The following is nothing more then the questions I always get and my answers to them. What is Open Source? Anyone that is from the US or familiar with our laws should be able to understand this by equating Open Source with the 1st Amendment. Let me clarify. The First Amendment is what gives US citizens freedom of speech. Open Source software is freedom to use and modify with no charge or penalties. Without infringing on patents or any other intellectual property rights. Let me use Linux as an example. Linus Torvalds wanted a version of UNIX for his home computer. Since he didn't have the money at the time he made his own using none of the original code in UNIX. Shared it free of charge to some people on the Internet basically with...