Still here, and still not dead

Ah, indeed...

Excellent session today, with quite a lot of the talks touching at least peripherally on religious belief and their origin. Michael Shermer gave an excellent synopsis about why this is so prevelant. Essentially, it breaks down into three parts: the brain being wired for pattern recognition, its desire to ascribe the unknown to an active force outside of ourselves and the incredible ability of our brains to search only for evidence which appears to corroborate our beliefs, confirmation bias. I particularly remember his characterization of the brain as mere 'electric meat'. Adam Savage, one half of hte mythbusters team whom I got to briefly meet, gave a very inspiring talk about skepticism and rational thought and made no bones about his atheism, so he has just gone up a huge level in my grading scheme. Hell of a nice guy. Astronomer Dr. Phil Plait gave a very thought provoking spiel about how skepticism and how to best present skeptical views to those holding ridiculous beliefs...very interesting indeed. If any religion combined the thinking skills and the sheer humanity and kindness of this lot, I would enter their seminary. The thinking part is, I think, the main shortcoming of most religious belief.

In response to Temple's comment, I did indeed wear my Satanfish shirt with a 'no God' button pinned to it for good measure to the meeting, which went over very well. However, despite my apparel-borne taunts, still no lightening.

I am off to indulge in two dollar tequila shots, which may subsequently result in my seeing God, or at least praying to him as I drive the porcelain bus...