Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist - The F.S.A.

qw left this comment to my quick response:

Its certainly reasonable to say we have no way to scientifically or experimentally answer this question. However to say the question is a waste of time suggests it's irrelevant.

From the perspective of someone who states that there is no other power or force outside of the current known natural universe it does not seem rational to brush this concept aside without atleast having given its implications the necessary weight in ones overall view of the universe as a whole.

The fact that the answer cannot be proven does not make the question one that is not worth giving consideration. Without a reasonable explaination for the natural realm coming into existence without something outside the natural realm causing it, there seems to be a pretty large hole in the belief that no power outside the natural realm exists.

To which I answer, what's wrong with I don't know? We have a pretty good theory, the Big Bang, that expains how things got here.

“Our universe began in a hot dense state which began, and still is expanding. In this initial event, all the matter in our universe was created with approximately 80% hydrogen and 20% helium.” (source)

Now, it doesn't tell us why matter started expanding, and there are different hypotheses (sp) for that, but what's wrong with saying I don't know. It's called being intellectually honest. And I would take that over false truths.

For example, way back when, people suffered from all kinds of diseases. They naturally asked, why did I get sick, and there were maky answers including: You have a demon inside of you that needs to be cast out. Say this prayer, dip your head in holy water, and don't forget to tithe on your way out

However, we now have a very good theory about how people get sick, they get it from germs. In terms of cancer and other diseases, we still don't completely know how that works, but at least we're being intellectually honest about it and working towards that.

What you're implying, qw, is that god (or some other supernatural entity) created the universe or started the big bang, or spurted milk from her bosom. If you accept that, then you must ask yourself, What came before god? Is there another god, that created him. Then who created that other god, and so on, and so forth. All these things are completely untenable, and untestable. If you say that god exists outside of the natural world, then that's also useless because all we have is the natural world to experiment on and observe.

Tags:

Singla Ma had a post up celebrating the fact that 600 black men graduated from Morehouse today. While I congratulate all those men who graduated from Morehouse, it does stir up some ambivalent emotions in me about HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). Initially founded as a way for blacks to obtain an education when predominantly white schools denied them access, they are now generally open to students of all races.

My feelings of ambivalence stems from the fact that I feel that mosts blacks go to HBCUs for the wrong reasons. They go to be surronded by others who are like them, who talk like them, who think like them, and who are proud to be black like them. Why is that so wrong? Because going to college is about opening yourself up to other possibilities and perspectives. You shouldn't be trying to shield yourself from the real world. The real world isn't made up of all blacks, and learning to handle yourself in a diverse environment is key to "making it".

That's partly my problem with the NAACP. When I was applying for scholarships, I found that the only scholarships that the NAACP had for non-members were exclusively for HBCUs (I think that's changed now). To me, that sent the wrong message. It sent a message of us vs them. That we need to insulate ourselves from the world and from other races. I didn't like that at all. Why not work to increase the % of blacks at prestigious universities around the world? Why limit ourselves to just HBCUs? We can be "black and proud" and attend Harvard, Yale, and Princeton too.

We should go out and engage the world, be agents of change, work our ass off just like the person next to us. Through determination, hard-work, and a little bit of luck, we can do it.

I'm not trying to disparage the education that those men received, or that anyone else received at an HBCU. As many will most likely point out, going to an ivy league school is not a guarentee of success. But in a world where being black and in my case, being an immigrant can be deterents to success, shouldn't we strive for the best? Going to a "name-brand" school can open up opportunities the world over. Shouldn't we aim for a day when Harvard will be 20% black, 20% hispanic, 20% white, 20% asian, and 20% other? Isn't that worth striving for?

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freedumb said:

Frank, I'm guessing you tackled this question before, but do you not believe in some greater power that started everything off?

I'm not a believer in a specific god(s), nor do I believe a specific religion is "right," however, I do believe that something or someone triggered the very first quark (or whatever the smallest form of matter/energy there is).

Ever see Men In Black? Where the aliens are playing marbles with planet earth...kind of like that...in the end though, who created our creators? ;) Just a never ending question...

qw said:

I am curious from an athiest perspective how you account for the origins of the elemental units of the physical realm as we know it. The physical realm needs atleast the matter and medium that contains it to exist. That is the matter (protons, neutrons, electrons, muons, gluons, quarks, etc.) and the medium (space-time continuum).

Is there a theory about a natural process that would bring all these things into existence from a previous state where they did not exist?

I'll let Corsair the rational pirate answers both of those and I will expound once I have more time:

The answer to freedumb's questions, of course is that the origin of the universe is unknowable. Before the current universe, there is no way of knowing what rules were in effect in whatever existed before. Was up down? Black white? Did cats sleep with dogs? There is no way to know since we have to use the tools available to us today using the rules we live under today to make the observations.

So the questions is kinda a waste of time. Worry about what happened after we showed up. Since that time, scientists are getting pretty good at explaining how things work.

Also, see here for a nice summary of the Big Bang in general. That's all I have time for right now.

Claire I haven't forgotten your question/request. Please give me some more time. Thanks!

Tags: atheism

Win a free $25 Home Depot gift card from Frank the FSA!

As regular readers know, I've been trying to get a rebate from Home Depot for about a year now. It's finally come in the mail, and since my relationship with them have soured, I'm giving the gift card away to you my dear readers! Here's how it's going to work:
1. Submit a comment (with a link to your website/blog) or email me letting me know you want to be entered.
2. Anyone on my blogroll who enters will be automatically entered twice.
3. In one week's time, the winner will be chosen. I will contact the winner to make sure that they want it and get their mailing address. At that time I will announce the winner on my blog.

That's it! No muss, no fuss. So tell your friends, and family. This is the inaugural FSA give-away.

Remember, I must be able to contact you, otherwise you won't be entered. Have at it.

Tags: personal finance

Thanks to everyone for their congratulations on my last post. As to questions about what I'm going to be doing with the money, let me detail my 5 step process:

Step 1: Make sure this isn't an elaborate ruse to steal my identity. Seeing as how the individual already had my phone number, address, and knew the exact amount of my tax return (down to the last dollar), this was probably a remote chance. Either they already knew enough to steal my identity, or it was legitimate. However, I did double-check with H&R block just to be safe.

Step 2: Double-check the IRS witholding calculator to make sure that my federal income tax liability is still zero for the year. It is, so that's good, I don't have to change my exemptions.

Step 3: Talk with wife and see what we should do with the money. It was a pretty simple decision. With Emigrant Direct about to start yielding 5.15% APY, we're going to be depositing the money right away...well, almost all of it.

Step 4: Earmark $90 of the money to "splurge" on two items: getting my PS2 fixed and buying a game that my wife and I will both enjoy playing.

Step 5: Pinch ourselves to make sure we're not dreaming.

That was the 5 step process we used to determine what to do with our windfall, any thoughts on anything I've missed?

The funny thing is that net-net we're still in debt. From the $4,000 for my wife's tuition to the $4,000 for child-care expense, the $1,000 for home repairs, and another $1,000 for medical expenses. We're still in debt by $4,000 (in the form of 0% credit cards). However, at the end of the year once I get my bonus, we'll be able to save a nice chunk of it instead of just coming up even. I'm by no means complaining, but I'm just trying to keep things in perspective (it helps in resisting the urge to party like it's 1999).

Overall, this couldn't have come at a better time. Thank you H&R block. You've made our day.

Tags: personal finance

I am a grand prize winner in the HR Block double-your refund game and will be getting an additional $6000 back!!!!!!!!! Holy crap! What an absolutely fantastic day!

Sorry for the gratuitous use of exclamation points, but I'm really excited!

Tags: personal finance

I passed the first part of my test! Now, only two more to go. Helloooo big bonus (I hope).

Tags: personal

Lya, TRA has gone off the deep end. He had some really strange post up that was a typical abortion rant, but then he made this strange promise to never criticize Christianity again. It was just plain weird. Here is Ebon Musings take.

Since then his posts have been...kind weird. At first I thought it might have been some sort of sarcastic joke, but he seems sincere. I'm not really sure of what to make of it. Even his God Squad reviews are watered down. That's why I started doing the reviews myself.

It was a strange set of circumstances, that's for sure.

Tags: atheism

Lamoneyguy asked me some questions in another post:

so, I have a question. Are you convinced that there is no god? My opinion is that I don't much care. IF there is God or Gods, he/she/they are not going to determine the fate of my soul (if such thing exists) based on whether or not I believed in his/her/their existence...

sorry, follow up. If you are convinced that there is no god, what led you to that. Which side did you feel bore the burden of proof? Did you require proof of the existence of God, let alone a specific type of God? Or did you require proof of the lack of existence of God? I'm guessing whichever question was asked, no proof was discovered beyond a reasonable doubt.

The first part of your question ("Are you convinced there is no god") is basically asking me whether I subscribe to weak atheism or strong atheism. As such, I subscribe to strong atheism, which bascially says that no deities exists. So that means that I am convinced that there are no gods as there is no sufficient evidence.

That being said the burden of proof rests squarely on all theists, whether Christian, Muslim, or other. To quote Carl Sagan: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". If you are making the assertion than an anthromorphic entity has crafted the entire universe and everything in it and not only that but has specific tenets about whether or not one can eat pork, shellfish, or etc, then you're going to have to show me some real proof.

As to the second part of your question about what led me to be convinced that there is no god, I would point you to this post where I respond to an anonymous commentor who wondered how could I be an atheist given that I'm a father of three. As I mentioned in that post, the birth of my first son was actually the catalyst that made me become an atheist. Not only that, but I've always been scientifically minded and given enough time it was natural for me to question my beliefs.

I wasn't always that way though. Early in my life, I didn't really think about whether or not there is proof of god's existence, I merely accepted it as the de facto position. So I would categorize my de-conversion as a slow gradual process rather than a "eureka" type moment where I said to myself, god's existence is highly suspect.

One particular moment that got me thinking along these lines in high school was an argument I overheard between a two friends of mine. One was/is a Young Earth Creationist and he was arguing that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, a la the bible. To which my friend countered: "How can the earth be that young when we have light from stars that are million of light-years away?". To which my YEC friend had no retort (I now know that a stardard YEC argument is to claim that the speed of light is changing or some or BS like that). This was particularly eye-opening, but it still wasn't enough to get me all the way. That took the birth of my first son and that's where I am today. Atheist and loving it!

I hope I've answered your questions sufficiently. Sorry for taking so long, it's been a busy week for me. Let me know if you have anymore questions/comments/retorts. Thanks!

Tags: atheism

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busy at work. Lamoneyguy, lya, and claire I will get to your questions soon, I promise. I am not neglecting you my wonderful readers. Give me some more time. Thanks.

Tags: blogging

I mentioned before that my sister was planning on reading the "End of Faith" with me and she just told me that she's going to be able to get it. We've decided to read at about the same pace and discuss via email. I'm looking forward to this.

Tags: atheism

An anonymous commentor left this on one of my old prosper.com post.

Good comment on Prosper, but I dont understand how a father of two (or three) could watch his children being born and still be an atheist. I'm not a hater, though.

It's ironic that you mention the birth of my kids as a reason to believe in god's existence. I think what you mean is "how can you go through something so beautiful/magical/etc and still be an atheist". Well the funny thing is that the birth of my first son was one of the catalyst that eventually made me become an atheist.

The gist of it is that I realized there are consequences for my actions and that I needed to take responsibility for them. I have a precious life that needs to be taken care of, and I can't waste time praying for this and that. I needed to take action in order to to take care of my child, graduate from college, get a job, oh and keep my marriage in tact at the same time. For a 19-year old, this was daunting to say the least. But I did it. Not through "the grace of god" but by my own blood, sweat, more blood, more sweat and plenty of tears in between.

I do not deny that I am an emotional creature. I was moved by their births and I love both of them dearly. I can be touched by sentimental movies and the stirring violins in Barber's Adagio for Strings. Being moved by these does not require belief in god, it merely requires me to be human.

In a similar vein, many theist will often claim, "how can you be an atheist, just look at the sunset/puppies/raindrops on roses/whiskers on kittens. Obviously god exists". I consider this to be one of the weakest argument for the existence of god and the antithesis of this (which I would consider theodicy, the problem of evil) is also one of the weakest arguments against the existence of god. I would simply point out (big thanks to Big Heathen Mike) the Ampulex compressa which is a wasp that injects poison into a roach's brain so that it can lay it's egg on the underside of the still living roach so that the larvae can eat the flesh of the still alive roach. So you've got a god that made puppies and the ampulex compressa. Not very convincing if you ask me.

Tags: atheism

We've got ourselves a good one this time around. A fellow atheist asked this question:

I'm a happy, well-adjusted atheist trying to respect what you advocate. You know as well as I that atheism is not respected by the vast majority of people in America, and I would think your readers, along with myself, would be interested in your comments about atheism's claim that there is no god.

I'm also very curious about the increasing lack of acceptance of and tolerance for views other than one's own among Americans. We are, I fear, becoming a nation of "Talibaptists," so to speak; increasingly, we pass judgment on those who disagree with us, particularly on the topic of religious belief (or lack thereof).

After pretty much disregarding the first half of the question (...interested in your comments about...there is no god), the squad goes off on a "why can't we all just get along" spiel. Here's part of what they had to say:

What we urge upon both sides in this debate is not to confuse argument or disagreement with oppression. Part of the gift of free speech is to be held to account for bad or poorly reasoned ideas.

Hey, that sounds perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, like everything else in life, easier said than done. It's also interesting how they throw in that "you have to be held accountable for bad or poorly reasoned idaes without taking a stance as to who's ideas are poorly reasoned, I'm assuming that they mean their ideas about the existence of god? Possibly, but I won't hold my breath.

Then they say this:

We believe that it is out of dialogue that a national consensus can emerge that will honor both our religious roots and national faith in the divine origins of freedom, while also honoring those whose belief is in the power of unaided human reason and a purely secular version of our civil liberties.

I'm not understanding this particular line: "our religious roots and national faith in the divine origins of freedom". If we recall, our "divine origins of freedom" didn't include the black people as part of the original package. In fact many were using the bible to support their arguments that the slave/master relationship was part of god's will. But notice what else they did in that preceding sentence. We have, "our religious roots...faith in..." juxtaposed with "those whose belief...". That implies that "hey, we're founded on Judeo/Christian ideals, but you can go ahead and believe what ever secular thing you want, *snicker*."

Maybe I'm just looking too much into it. We all know that only a rare few religious people are that smug and self-aggrandizing.

They do try to play nice at the end though, with the following:

"May those who embrace the ideal of freedom with no reference to God find a way to hear the people of faith, not as persecutors, but as fellow Americans whose faith need not be a threat to them."

When those "people of faith" stop trying to circumvent scientific progress, rewrite US history, desecrate our symbols of freedom, and feverishly attempt to hasten the end times so that those who don't believe as they do will burn for all eternity, maybe then I will see them as not a threat. Until then, no dice.

Tags: god squad atheism

Second Job
First, it looks like I won't need a second job. The inital work we did was enough to remedy the problem so I will not be on the market anytime soon. I am relieved to say the least.

Bonus and taxes
Second, I have been trying to do more research on the whole one-time bonus tax treatment in order to determine how to make sure I get my entire bonus that I am entitled to at the end of the year. I used the IRS calculator to figure out that I will not owe any federal income taxes this year. So any federal income taxes withheld from my bonus will be in error. As such, I need to change my W4 right before I get my bonus so that I can maximize my take-home bonus. This represents a nice chunk of change to have now, rather than later. Unfortunately, I don't know how much to change the exemptions on my W4 to make sure I get everything. I might just put something like 100 exemptions or something.

401k and taxes
This was the first month where I contributed to my 401(k). Since I was contributing the same amount as the raise I received this month, I was expecting to receive the same take-home pay as before, but I was surprised to see that it wasn't the case! Apparently, contributing to your 401(k) offsets your federal income taxes, not Social Security or Medicare! All in all, I received about $30 less. Nothing major, but surprising nonetheless.

Eating out
Last night my wife and I calculated how much we've spent eating out (I did that before). It was a sobering exercise. We are on target to spend about $3,000 /year on eating out. For groceries, we are currently at approx $5500/year. $3,000 / year at 5% for 30 years is $200,000. For 50 years, that's over $600,000!!! As a result, my wife and I have decided to try the envelope method. We will limit ourselves to $100/month for eating out. The rest will go into our nice Emigrant Direct account at 5%.

Emigrant Direct is at 5%
Emigrant direct is now at 5%. Old news, I know. However, for me this means that the rate on emigrant direct is now higher (on a nominal basis, without taking into account any tax savings/cost) than the following loans I have: my mortgage (it is an ARM though), my student loans, and my car loan. On a purely rational basis, I should not be prepaying any of these loans and putting any and all extra money into ED. However, that is not going to be the case. My car loan I currently prepay by about $1/month to round-up my monthly payment. This is surely a de-minimus level. I don't prepay my student loan right now. As for my mortgage, I plan to prepay whatever is left over in my escrow account at the end of the year. It shouldn't be too much, but I figure I paid into that to take care of the mortgage and the taxes, so I might as well earmark any excess for the mortgage. It is nice to have all my loans at a lower rate than my savings rate.

In conclusion
The future looks bright, and my cautious optimism has grown to a more general optimism. Hopefully nothing else expensive breaks in the house. Other than that, my wife and I are feeling pretty good about our financial situation right now. While not perfect, we are working on our weaknesses.

Tags: personal finance

I realize that in the hububbaloo of packing and trying to make sure you've remembered everything that certain things will be left behind. The article of clothing behind the washer, the random miscellaneous paint jars, or the long forgotten old penny.

However, please try to remember anything that you wouldn't want, say your mother to find.

As such, your old Hustler is now in the trash. I consider myself more of a Playboy kind of guy.

Tags: humor

My sister is a fundamentalist christian of the literal biblical sense. She has agreed to read "The End of Faith" (the book that's featured on the bottom right of my blog :]) with me. She has some connections and might be able to obtain free copies for both of us (as an early bday present to me), so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

I don't expect to "convert" her to atheism, but at the same time I hope to at least make her stop and think about her religious beliefs and explain my de-conversion some more.

Stay tuned, there might be some interesting email dialogue coming forth.

Tags: atheism

Evolution is a fact and a theory.

By theory I mean a scientific hypothesis that has withstood rigourous experimentation and makes testable predictions, not in the colloquail sense of "half-assed guess".
Example:

But decoding chimpanzees' DNA allowed scientists to do more than just refine their estimates of how similar humans and chimps are. It let them put the very theory of evolution to some tough new tests.

If Darwin was right, scientists should be able to use a mathematical formula to predict the number of harmful mutations in chimpanzee DNA by knowing the number of mutations in a different species' DNA and the two animals' population sizes.

"That's a very specific prediction," said Eric Lander, a geneticist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., and a leader in the chimp project.

(source)

By fact, I mean an observable phenomenom that precludes any other explanation.

Examples include:
1. Antibiotic resistant bacteria. There is a constant need to create stronger medicines as certain types of bacteria evolve resistance to existing antibiotics. That's why your doctor always tells you to finish the antibiotics they prescribe so that you don't come back with a stronger version of the initial bug.
2. Nylon-eating bacteria. Nylon was first invented in the 1930s (source). This means that the bacteria had to evolve the ability to "eat" nylon as nylon is a synthetic polymer.
3. Banana-eating butterfly in Hawaii. Bananas were introduced in Hawaii several hundred years ago, and the butterflies had to evolve specific apertures in order to eat the bananas.

Tags: evolution