All my favourite TV shows (and the ones I don't care for too) are coming to a grinding halt because of this writer's strike. But...and correct me if I'm wrong...but it seems to me that this strike isn't really doing anything that the networks and/or the producers of the shows, haven't already done themselves in the winter in recent years. Didn't several shows take long breaks halfway through their season for the last few years? Or don't they start a lot later and finish a lot earlier than they used to?
The one that comes to mind most is Lost. Two years ago, we'd get a few new episodes, then a week or two of reruns, then a few more new episodes, and so on like that till the end of the season. Then I guess they were listening to all the growls and complaints from their audience because they decided to do things a little differently. Last season, they had six or eight new episodes in a row, and then a looong break with nothing, and then they came back with several more new episodes to finish of their oddly broken-up season. THIS year, they decided not to even start until February! I mean...what the hell?
All I know is that, as a TV viewer, I'm pretty disappointed. I watch a lot of TV, and yes, there are some great new shows out. But come on...a season is a season. It's supposed to start no later than October and finish no sooner than May. These January to May seasons are starting to piss me off. And this writer's strike isn't helping! Get it solved people!
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Warning: read no further if you're an easily offended religious type.
As most people I am close to know, I'm an atheist. I don't generally talk about it much, but it's not because I'm embarrassed or ashamed by it. It just isn't something that's really anyone's business. And, as my mother taught me, religion and politics are subjects best left alone unless you're up for a debate.
But something I read this morning got me thinking. There's a lot of talk these days about atheism because of several new books and their very vocal authors who are keeping the topic in the mainstream. This is fine. I think it's high time the theists got a little push-back. But it made me recall several conversations I've had with people, once they find out I'm an atheist.
The first thing is that they usually get this puzzled look on their faces, as if they're surprised to discover that *I* am an atheist. You can almost hear them thinking "but..but...she's a nice person...how can she be an atheist??" Next, if they don't just drop the subject entirely, they've been known to ask me how can I be a good person if I don't believe in god? This is the question that bugs me. It's almost as if they're starting to get a little nervous of me all of a sudden, like I'm going to do something evil. I half expect them to take a step backwards away from me.
So how CAN I be a good and moral person if I don't believe in god?
My mother taught me, you naive, deluded dopes! Good parenting is ALL it takes to instill morals and decent behavior in any person. Children are naturally inclined to crave the approval of their parents and will, if guided with love, learn to behave in a societally acceptable way. Anyone who thinks that a belief in god is necessary for the development of a moral person is very, VERY much mistaken.
And Christians, who think that it was their zombie-god Jesus who brought morality to the world and saved us all (even those of us who don't care to be saved), forget that Christianity has only been around for the last 2,000 of humankind's 100,000-200,000 years on this planet, and if we hadn't learned morality by the time Jesus came along, humans wouldn't have lasted long enough to invent the story about him in the first place. Even those wackos who think the earth is only 4,000-6,000 years old can't honestly believe that humankind wouldn't have had plenty of time to extinguish themselves in the maximum 5,800 years before Jesus showed up. The population was small back then...it wouldn't have taken much, even with sticks and stones!
Of course morality doesn't come from god. That makes no sense at all. Morality comes from being a social animal that needs to get along with its neighbours in order to survive. That's it.
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