“Only fools and dead men don't change their minds. Fools won't. Dead men can't."
Often I get accused by Creationists
that I am “closed minded” and fixed in my beliefs, so it is
pointless arguing with me because they claim they cant change my
mind.
WRONG.
DEAD WRONG.
YOU could change my mind if you have a
good reason why I should. I can't change yours because you have
already decided in advanced that it does not matter what reason I
give.
Beliefs should be tentative and subject
to obligated change if the evidence demands. We should have some way
to correct the flaws in our current perception and thus improve our
understanding – THAT would be reasonable. Because if we love truth
at all, then what should matter most is that we not allow ourselves
to be deceived. But faith is the very opposite, it requires that we
literally “make belief” that we ignore what we really do see and
pretend something is there when it apparently isn't. It means that we
fool ourselves.
It is quite common to hear people like
Creationists (and conspiracy theorists) accuse me of having the same
faults they have. This could not be further from the truth, I do not
share their flaw. Unlike creationists, I am not “closed minded” I
am a skeptic who follows practical and testable data AND I am wise
enough not to jump to the first conclusion. Unlike people of “faith”
– which is a asserted conclusion based on no evidence and defended
against all reason – people of faith are by nature demanded to
never doubt and continue believing even when all the facts conclude
their belief is incorrect. I am the exact opposite.
If given good reason, I will change my
mind. I've changed my mind before, multiple times. And that is
what I am going to talk about in this blog. I will give a brief walk
through several of the times I changed my mind on important issues – and every time it was
because the evidence drove me to change my mind.
Religion:
Christian to Godless Apistevist
This one will perhaps be the longest
story to tell, so I will keep it real short.
I was raised in a somewhat religious
family, and believed in God throughout my life since my “born-again”
experience and prayer at age 7. But all that changed when I turned 17. I never
questioned my faith, perhaps the biggest reason why is because I
never bothered to give it much thought. Despite all that time reading
the Bible, I never once considered or entertained the thought “did
that happen? How can I know that?”
Actually, the first time I questioned
my faith was when I turned 17. I knew squat about science, I was
never concerned in the slightest with the origin questions, and I
knew nothing about the theory of evolution. In fact, in my Freshmen
year I passed my only Biology class with a “C-” and we only had
one lesson that whole course about evolution, and I didn't pay the
slightest attention (c'mon, I was a lazy “C” Freshman student,
but I got my act together next year.) I only mention this because
over and over I hear Christians accuse atheists like myself that we
“lost our faith because of evolution” – I am living proof
that is bullshit. IN FACT, I did not bother to learn anything
about evolution almost eleven months AFTER I became an atheist. Like
I said, the questions about origins never seemed important to me. All
that time being an atheist who didn't know about evolution or any
other field of science, my answer would always be “I don't know,
but that answer does not mean that a god did it.”
Anyway, backing up. When I turned 17,
the very first step for me to go from theist to atheist was
questioning the problem of a omniscient god. If you think about it
for a while (really, just try), a omniscient god just does not make
any sense.
After that, the belief in a personal
god slowly crumbled. And after giving omnipotence and omnibevolence
some thought, among many other things from prayers to prophecies,
every time it just did not make sense. God was disappearing. I then
settled with Deism. But even that faded away. I was only a Deist for
6 days. Give it a little thought, and realize that if you cannot
explain the unknown of where everything comes from, you do not answer
a mystery with another mystery because that ultimately answers
nothing. Just because I did not have the answer does not mean that
the universe was magically created by some deity. It just did not
make sense. Then BOOM, I came to the conclusion that there is no god.
In the same way that I say there are no mermaids, it's because the
evidence and logic behind god is just as non-existent as mermaids.
In sum, the fact that I went from
theism to deism to atheism, it seems pretty self-evident that I am a
person whose mind can change. But it is more than that. I became a
skeptic. From then on, bold claims had to meet the burden of proof. I
decided to never take things on faith again. (If you are one of those
people who say everyone has faith in something, read this)
Gay
Marriage: Opponent to Supporter
When I was considered a Christian, I
did not agree with gay marriage – BUT NOT FOR RELIGIOUS REASONS.
Don't jump to conclusions yet, hang in there.
Gay marriage was one of those things
that did not ever interest me, it was never brought up by anyone, to
me it was completely ignorable.
It wasn't until Sophomore year in High
School that I finally gave it some thought. When a handful of
students were doing that whole “remain silent” all day thing,
whatever it is. In my Studio Arts class, my teacher brought up the
topic of gay marriage. Studio Art class is a pretty silent class, but
once in a while it can be a social class where people talk and
chit-chat as they draw. Anyway, the teacher asked the whole class who
was against gay marriage. Four other students plus myself raised our
hands. The teacher was surprised, she said “I'm kinda shocked. I
just thought artists like everyone here would've have a more open
mind.”
That remark stirred some thought. I
never once cracked open the Bible to see what it said about
“homosexual marriage,” my views towards gay marriage were
secular. So, for a couple of weeks, I gave it some thought.
Back then, I thought the entire point
of “marriage” – at least, the only reason why it was made up by
humans in the first place – was to have a child together.
Seriously, I thought that was the only reason why marriage was
invented. So based on that conception, I thought that ruled out gays
because they cannot reproduce. But a couple days later, I learned
that old people get married all the time and they can't have kids.
That was all it took to blow my idea of “marriage” out the
window. I later on heard that infertile couples marry too, but my old
idea of “marriage” was already gone.
So I then looked into the history of
“marriage.” During my search, I often heard that the gay
community wanted to “redefine” marriage... but I learned that had
happened many times. Nobody gets married for trading cattle and money
anymore. It was only recently that people married out of love and
romance. For centuries, marriage was often arranged for financial and
property reasons between families.
So now, I stand with marriage equality. They are consenting adults, they
love each other, so let them marry and they can be just as miserable as
the rest of us.
Climate
Change: Doubter to Believer
In my High school Senior Year, one of
my English classes decided to have a student debate. The topic:
climate change. We finished watching Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth,
then we decided to have a debate. Six students signed up to take the
“Climate Change is Real and Man-Made” but nobody wanted to
challenge it. So I said 'what the hell,' and decided to sign up as a
challenger.
So I did some research to find holes in
Al Gore's movie. Funny, my Auto-Shop teacher was very resourceful. He
did not fully accept climate change, and he provided several sources.
So I got to work and wrote my paper. It was perhaps the biggest paper
I ever wrote in High School, like 24 pages – I think I still have
it stored away somewhere. But for the main thesis, I decided to
tackle the claim that climate change was man-made.
Anyway, debate day came, and apparently
only one other student joined my side (she was pretty cute). So it
was 6 against 2, and we had our debate. It seemed to me that every
point my opponents made was easily shot down, but looking back that
was most likely because their research and debating skills were poor.
But in the end, I walked out of that
debate feeling like a winner. My paper was graded, I got an A++. That
amazed me, few students ever got a grade that big. I ended up sharing
that news with my Physics teacher, perhaps my favorite teacher ever.
Anyway, he was glad I got a great grade, but was disappointed I took
that side. He said to me “I am more convinced that climate change
is real than the sun coming up tomorrow.” That surprised me. I
highly respected the man, he made science exciting. So I tried to do
some research, but it was quite a struggle because all throughout
High School, I never payed attention to any of my science courses
besides Physics.
It wasn't until I enrolled in college
that I started making serious headway regarding climate change. I
spent most of my summer reading and researching science. Eventually,
well into my college year, I could not help but come to terms that
the scientific community had overwhelmingly supported climate change
and all their data and evidences fit the climate change model.
In the end, I accepted that climate
change is happening and humans are a factor. Even if humans are not
the main cause of climate change, that does not mean we don't
contribute to it. Even if our behavior and pollution contributed a
small fraction of climate change, that does not excuse anything.
Imagine a whole house was on fire, and a person pouring half a gallon
of gasoline on it. It's only a half gallon, plus the whole house is
pretty much on fire anyways, right? Wrong. It doesn't matter, even if
it's a small amount, that person is contributing to the problem, not
helping towards a solution.
So, I firmly say that humans should
take responsibility. Even if our contribution to climate change is as
low as 5%, we should not add fuel to the problem. We should be
looking for solutions.
One more thing, I MUST give credit to
YouTube user potholer54 for helping a layman like me understand the
science behind climate change and recognize the BS of
climate-deniers.
9/11
Truther: WTC 7
After the terrorist attack on September
11, 2001, I accepted that we were attacked by terrorists who hijacked
airplanes.
It wasn't until I saw the film
Zeitgeist in 2003 that I started to accept the 9/11 Inside Job
conspiracy theory. I watched the whole thing, but practically
everything they showed me I kept saying to myself “that looks
normal.” I saw the cut steel beam poking out of the debris,
listened to the noise made in the elevator shafts, heard about the
red particles claimed to be thermite, but everything seemed to fit
the official story of 9/11.
The one thing that caught my attention
was WTC 7. I wondered how and why did that building fall. So for a
while, I speculated what if the official story was a cover up? So for
a while, I included myself amongst the crowd who questioned the story
behind 9/11.
Only a few weeks later I revisited the
issue, and researched the science behind WTC 7. I noted the damage it
took from the falling debris, as well as the neighboring building WTC
3 was cut in half by the falling debris. The science behind the fall
of WTC 7 was sound, and it concluded that the building came down due
to a combination of a weakened base and fire.
GMOs:
From Anti-GMO to Pro-Science
This was the latest of the thing's I
changed my mind about. In fact, I changed my mind over this in 2013.
I'm kinda embarrassed about this one.
The main thing that drew me into this
“Anti-GMO” crowd was through several Documentaries targeting GMOs
and Monsanto. Now, the things I saw spooked me. I did not understand
how the science worked, and I think it is because of that lack of
understanding (mixed with fear spread by the documentaries) is what
planted me alongside the anti-GMO/All-Organic lot (no pun intended).
The documentaries did not explain the
science at all behind GMOs, but the unknown part mixed with my anger
towards corporations like Monsanto was all they needed to trick me.
Almost immediately I joined a movement to Label GMO Foods. I
participated in a demonstration, holding up a sign, and actively
sought out signatures to get a Proposition on the ballot to label GMO
foods. That Proposition did not pass.
After the ballot casting, my activism
tired down. Before I knew it, I was caught up in my studies in
college and had no time to research into GMOs. One day a TED Talk
appeared in my watch-list. I watched it, and this brilliant scientist
briefly said in his talk that GMO's are scientific and safe and the
argument is over. I thought “WHAT? Is this guy serious?”
I did not bother researching GMO's
after that... but then another video came to light. Made by Dusty
Smith, and this was the ultimate eye-opener for me.
Dusty walked through pretty much every
argument presented by the anti-GMO lot that I was familiar with. And
just as Dusty suggested, I found time to research it myself. Turns
out, the science sides with GMO's. I was amazed, and ashamed that I
did not do this sooner. Granted, I knew he was up to my nose in
school work, so I forgive myself here.
The bad side is that a great deal of my
family and friends have strongly invested themselves in the anti-GMO
crowd. I have not shared with them my change in views because
organics has become a new religion. They speak of people like me
as if we are heretics.
But just because I am no longer against
GMO's does not mean I think Monsanto is good corporation – I think
the opposite. Nor does my change of views mean I am suddenly
anti-organics, I'm not. I still highly recommend people replace lawns
with gardens; I promote urban farming and aquaponics; and I support
the idea we should construct Vertical Farms (because it creates local
food, fuel, and jobs).
So I still maintain several organic
ideas, but I think GMO's are essential because they can be vital to
feed millions. So I am kinda the “All of the Above” guy, because
we have 7 billion people on this planet and we have to feed them all.
One last thing, I recommend watching
these two videos by Penn & Teller. I did not even know they did
this all this time. I was only concerned with watching videos on
Astrology, Religion, Area 51 and Pseudoscience.
