The Priest: I don’t think there’s any such thing as an atheist. Everyone believes in God. I knew someone who claimed to be an atheist once. He claimed not to believe in God despite all our conversations. But we went to the beach one day, and he got caught in a rip and found himself being dragged out to sea. And guess what — he called on God to save him. So much for atheism.

Me: For my part, I don’t think there’s any such thing as a believer in God. For example, you think it’s terrible to kill someone. Why would that be, when their spirit just goes somewhere else? Secretly, I think you suspect there’s no life after this, and you muster your faith every day just to keep that suspicion at bay. And you’re right that people do turn to religion in times of crisis. That’s because that’s when people reason most poorly.

Priest: You think reason is good, and it is, as long as you listen to God. You need to remember that the foolishness of God is wiser than men.

Me: Unless God doesn’t exist, in which case all the foolishness belongs to yourself.

Holy crap! Bush’s approval ratings sink to 29% in the new Harris poll, the first to break the psychologically important 30% barrier. Even if this poll is an outlier, this is a very big deal.

I think we’re now seeing the second part of a two-parter. In part one, more and more voters became convinced that Bush was an ineffective president due to the mounting evidence of incompetence, and despite the cheerleading from the press, other Americans, and the Bush Administration itself. The floor can only go so low in this phase because there exists a perception that the president is basically trustworthy and competent, and political non-participants will still ‘approve’ because they just think what (they think) everyone else thinks.

But in part two, which probably started with Katrina, the public perception shifts. As more people distrust and despise the president, the bandwagon effect pulls the inattentive ‘approvers’ into the ‘disapprove’ camp. The floor, long sinking, now drops out entirely.

I’ve predicted 25% by August, but Junior might just beat that. I’ll leave the prediction where it is for now; I’m aware that it gets asymptotically more difficult to lose each new point. Still, Chimpy may surprise us all.

I don’t know why I’m fascinated by this topic. Maybe because it’s like watching sleepers wake.

Update: I have just noticed that the maker of this wonderful chart is going to have to redo the graphic to accommodate the lower scores. Amazing.

Someone’s done pictures of Jesus standing near people in various professions.

Which leads me to the inevitable question first posed by Dostoyevski: If a loving God exists, how could he allow someone to do such trite and glurgy representations of his son?

Still, I’m somewhat impressed by the quality of the artwork, if not the composition. The artist claims he started from no art background at age 50 (sort of like Howard Finster), and I gotta say, the likenesses are pretty good. I think I might recognise the guy modelling for Jesus in a crowd.

I don’t think he’s covered all the bases yet though. He’s done ‘Clown’ and ‘Forest Ranger’, but while he’s at it, maybe he could cover:
– Rodeo Clown: Jesus with the hat; priceless.
– Stripper: Jesus stuffing a twenty into a G-string.
– PhD student: Jesus puts a comforting hand on sobbing student’s shoulder when positive results are not forthcoming. Or watches helplessly as student slits wrists.

Everyone talks about Occam’s Razor (especially me), but nobody ever does anything about it, except for sometimes spell it differently (Ockham’s), or invoke it menacingly in discussions on religion (especially me).

So for a change, I thought I’d let the dinosaurs discuss it. They’re doing the best they can, given their brain capacity.

The Google Maps for Europe have come up, and they’re really something. Want to see the Eiffel Tower? Here you go.

That’s quite the resolution. I think I can count the people in the queue. Any closer and they’d have to get release forms from everyone.

So, what are you now?

What do you mean, what am I? I’m me.

No, I mean, your beliefs. You’re a…

Oh, what box do I fit into. Come on, -isms are inherently limited. I also hate saying, “Oh, I’m a whatever“, as if that’s all there is to me. I wish we could just get rid of all the simplified boxes and accept our complexity.

Oh, so you’re an iconoclast.

Please.

No, really. Are you an atheist?

Well, for me, the case for God’s existence became less and less compelling the more I understood about critical thinking. So you could say I’m an atheist. But I also don’t believe in UFOs and fairies, and I wouldn’t go around describing myself as a non-UFO-fairy believer.

You’re a skeptic, then.

Skeptical, yes. But see, these labels are all reactions against something. I’d like to describe myself in positive terms.

Sounds like you need a new -ism, then.

What’s the rush?

Well, a vacuum is hard to sustain. You’ll need something to adhere to, unless you want to be some kind of contrarian for your whole life. What looks good?

I find myself settling on two major ideas: science and people.

Science is a way of finding out what’s really happening. You can use scientific principles to separate fact from fantasy, and build good theories about what’s going on.

People. I used to live according to a religion because a) I thought it would help me to be happy, and b) I thought it would make God happy, which, if I got to live in Heaven, would make me happy. And if there was a conflict between the two, go for b), make God happy.

For the most part, I was not unhappy in my religion until the gap between my beliefs and reality became too great (see ‘Science’, above). Having now learned a little bit about critical thinking, and with the case for God’s existence looking increasingly teetery and man-made, I have abandoned b) trying to make God happy. Instead, I’ll go with trying to make people happy (including myself) — after all, the case for the existence of other people is pretty strong. So an idea or philosophy is good if it’s good for people. Being happy and healthy is good. Helping my sons grow to be good men is good. Beating yourself up for not making God happy: not good.

I guess if you put those two values together, you get scientific humanism, which is probably what I’d identify most closely with at this stage.

Julia Sweeney is a scientific humanist, you know.

Oh, that’s good. I didn’t realise you were still here.

Was it National Abstinence Day, and no one told me?

Of course, for me, every day is Abstinence Day, so nothing new there. But I was pleased to find the page from the rather antsy folks at the Abstinence Clearinghouse. There you’ll find all the materials you need to hook up with people… and not have sex with any of them.

Here’s the news from today’s front page:

01.18.06 First Lady Laura Bush Endorses Abstinence

Well, she would, wouldn’t she?

And be sure to check out “Faces of Abstinence.” No, it’s not what you’re thinking. It’s people’s profiles. My favourite:

Darren L. Washington, Gary, IN
Secondary Virgin for 7 years

See, the Secondary Virgin is the one they bring out in case the Primary Virgin is injured.

If you can get your entry up there, I will somehow get you laid.

I’m working on mine.

I was on a crowded bus this morning, and I became aware of different sounds. There were four:

• On my right, someone’s iPod playing a jazz tune. Muted trumpet.
• On my left, a man next to me was reading a book in Arabic, possibly the Koran. He was murmuring slightly while reading.
• Two students were talking quietly in front of me, laughing.
• Behind me, the sound of the bus’s engine.

Conversation, music, religion, machines. I listened to the mix of sounds all around me, and it sounded like the world.