Colonel Panic

Sticking it in to stick it to the gays! For Jesus!

Maybe all the macho conservatives need to get gay married to each other to prove that they hate it and aren’t gay. It’s the only way to be sure.

Are we sure the increasing sperm motility rate isn’t because they are trying to get out of this country?

Viruses, Pyramid Schemes and Capitalism, oh my!

Capitalism is just a complex pyramid scheme. Change my mind.

Where can I find the used cans?

Yeah for real.

Smart TVs, Subscription services, etc.

It’s all just capitalism doing its thing, everyone racing to sell sell sell.

Maybe it is human-like intelligence. It’s dumb as shit, but have you met people?

LMAO

But yeah, I guess at its core, human intelligence and machine intelligence are both just pattern recognition, but I guess my point is that calling it “AI” gives people this false sense that it is something it is not. AI has been a thing in Sci-fi for so long that we all think of Data from Star Trek or C-3PO from Star Wars and similar. When in reality it is more akin to a robot arm in a factory doing the same task really fast and really precisely, but it isn’t some adaptable all-purpose thing yet.

I really hate that we are calling this wave of technology “AI”, because it isn’t. It is “Machine Learning” sure, but it is just brute force pattern recognition v2.0.

The desired outcomes you define and then the data you train it on both have a LOT of built-in biases.

It’s a cool technology I guess, but it’s being misused across the board. It is being overused and misused by every company with FOMO. Hoping to get some profit edge on the competition. How about we have AI replace the bullshit CEO and VP positions instead of trying to replace fast food drive through workers and Internet content.

I guess that’s nothing new for humans… One human invents the spear for fishing and the rest use them to hit each other over the head.

I think that it is quite disingenuous to imply that religion doesn’t claim it is a literal god. They do. At least the big 3 do. And all the evangelical ones do. Literal god. Literal scenarios. Not a psychological technique to find some inner peace, but a literal good vs evil reality is what they all claim.

And no that wouldn’t change my opinion on it because all of that can just as easily be achieved without religion. In fact it is far easier and better without religion skewing it all. I spent years as a kid being terrified I was broken and evil and wrong because religion told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was. And despite my best attempts I couldn’t ever get close to being the perfect little follower when it seemed like everyone else was. Spoiler, they were all faking it just like I was, because they were all afraid they weren’t good enough. It’s all performative. All of it.

It would be a shame if something bad was to happen to ya. Join Big Tony’s today. Tony is watching. Tony wants to protect you, but you have to accept him first. And you should want to offer him money because how great he is. Also if ya don’t Guido ova there’ll break ya legs, see?

Now let us all turn to page 274 and sing a praise for Tony.

Sigh… No.

I’m saying that IF it is that way it is because the god MADE IT that way as an elaborate trap to coerce worship.

I used to believe it too, not super strongly, but I just sorta accepted it since everyone around me believed it.

The thing is. Setting up a trap and then putting someone inside it and then telling them to be careful of the trap, but if they want out of the trap all they have to do is worship you is just manipulation and abuse. That isn’t actual love. “Love me or burn in the fires I created to punish you if you don’t.” isn’t love… And isn’t worthy of praise or worship. If a person did that to someone else you would call them a monster.

Yeah, you might accidentally bump into him in the hallway and he would stand his ground and gun you down for the audacity.

100%

If anything I think religion can often enable people to become awful humans.

Maybe they think they are doing “wrong things for the right reasons” (E.G. a parent beating their child and screaming “I’m doing this because I love you!”, which, surprise, is more common in religious households) OR Maybe they’ve convinced themselves that what they are doing isn’t wrong at all. The Bible commands you to stone women to death if they have sex outside marriage. So, one could convince themselves that murder isn’t murder, but justice and obeying their gods commands.

I don’t really know, because I was never a bad person in religion, so I don’t really know what goes on in people’s heads like that, but it scares me.

Using that analogy it would be like putting someone on an island, filling the water with alligators and demanding that if they serve you and love you forever you’ll ferry them back across to the mainland in your boat. But that isn’t a threat, that’s just warning them of the dangerous alligators, right?

I would call that kidnapping and domestic abuse personally. Realizing those behaviors are classic manipulation and abuse tactics helped in getting out of that insanity. I hope you can see that too.

Do you have a moment to talk about my lord and savior Big Tony? He wants to love you. Follow his every word and obey and believe and worship him or he’ll break ya legs and send yas ta swim with da fishes. Yeah, see. But he loves you.

Right?

I have decided I want to be a good person. I don’t need a sky daddy looming over me threatening torture if I do something wrong.

In fact, I would argue I’ve become a better and nicer and more accepting person after leaving religion. I was taught to basically hate LGBTQ, all the other religions, and a list of other “sins” and “wrong beliefs”…

It’s just another form of tribalism and control. I’m out. I’m gonna be over here being as kind and compassionate to my fellow humans as I can.

That sorta proves my point. That’s a thinly veiled threat. “Believe like I do or you’ll be sorry”

And to be honest with you. If a god created the universe and this system, filled it with misinformation, fake religions, lies and deceptions galore all hoping that I would somehow still bullseye a 1 in a million chance to believe exactly the right things and say the right things and do the right things out of the infinite choices available and if I don’t I get tortured for eternity… Then I don’t want any part of that god or religion. That’s evil and awful and does not deserve worship from anyone.

Why would you set up a system designed to trick and fail everyone, but have 1 correct answer hidden. One option that is the correct choice, but NO way to ever know for sure or prove it? You just have to pick one and hope you are correct. That is insane and heartless.

If your god is real and all the stories are true then either A. He is an evil god and I don’t want to worship that. Or B. He is a good god and created me to think like I do and he knew I’d have doubts and will still accept me for doing my best in an impossible scenario.

But I’m gonna go with C. gods don’t exist or don’t interact with us.

Until proven otherwise I don’t know what else to do, but I will not go back into an abusive and evil religious system that causes so much harm.

Salvation from what?

I don’t see any proof that there is a god or gods out there. Nor that there is any sort of objective morality. Nor a single shred of evidence for any of it. All the evidence is circular and answers one question while adding another. You may say the Bible says so, but how do we know the Bible is true? And you may say because God said so. So how do we know that is true? You have to assume that either a god or the Bible is true, but you can’t prove it. How do we know your God is the real one and not The Great Flying Spaghetti Monster ™️ ? You can’t prove your god any more than I could prove that. And that’s the issue.

If you can’t even prove there is a god or morality or anything then why should I assume there is anything to be saved from?

I don’t believe in gods or religions or the concept of “sin” and “salvation” at all anymore. I just can’t without some form of proof. I can’t accept the “because it is” or “because God said so” or “because Bible said so” anymore. All of those things require you to believe in them first and then add on “proofs”. But for every proof you can add there is also a proof to the contrary.

And on top of that, I am so much happier and less anxious and less worried and stressed now after getting out of all that. The constant fear and worry about my soul and eternity and salvation and converting others and all that was so much. It was painful to live like that. After letting it all go I am so much happier and at peace with myself and the universe than before. I don’t ever want to go back into a system where hellfire and brimstone is yelled at me. Or even worse a system where a god demands that I worship and love him OR ELSE SUFFER FOREVER! Because that isn’t love, it’s manipulation and control and threats and fear.

I simply can’t anymore. I burned out all my ability to ignore reality and believe elaborate stories. And I honestly don’t think I can ever go back to blindly believing it all. It feels like waking up from a fever dream.