Why is there religion and why is it outdated.

I've already said that I'm an atheist so I guess that between this and the title you already see where this is going. I'm going to state why I think there is religion and why is it outdated.


1. Religion explained the unknown: when science wasn't as developed as nowadays the only way to explain the unknown was religion, it gave a story that made people comfortable about the formation of the world, animals and people. It also gave explanations to natural phenomena, usually the explanation was this or that god did it because someone pissed him/her off. Nowadays this is nonsense, we have perfectly reasonable scientific theories and laws that explain what happened/happens and the good thing about this is that they can be changed if they are proved wrong.

2. Religion gave a set of morals to keep the community safe: there are commandments and sins in most of religions, but if you analyze them most of them are logical things, like do not kill and things like that. That was necessary in times like Middle Ages when you had to fight to survive and religion was a mass control tool, since they were compromising their "inmortal souls". Right now this is nonsense, first, we have a set of laws that are supposed to prevent people from doing wrongs; second, we all know what is moral and what is not, we don't need religion to tell us what to do, it's just about being a nice person.

3. Religion gave security to face the death: religion promises that once you are dead you'll go to paradise or you'll reincarnate or whatever, so you felt that all that you had done in your life, all the submission, wasn't fruitless, and that you'd never be gone forever. Well, I guess it's hard to face death, to feel that it is going to finish and that there's nothing else afterwards, but then you enjoy life in a better way, you don't have constrictions and you are good for the sake of goodness and not because if you're not you're going to end up in hell. Knowing that your time here is finite can be difficult sometimes, but it's better to know than to be delusional thinking about heavens.

I don't know if it is clear enough but mainly religion is outdated because science gives better answers, because morals are inherent in human species, and because the comfort to face death is only given by the live you've lead enjoying it fully.

Things that I got lately

As long as two months ago can still be considered lately

I use to do this posts to tell you people about new music and books I buy, as it happens two months ago I did a really big purchase on Amazon, as big as this:

Yes, that's a box, a BOX.

So as you can see it is both books and music, I mean the CDs where so CHEAP I couldn't help but buying them!

Music I got lately

There were 4 CDs on that box, but as I know you can only see the one by the very excellent Mr. Frank Turner I'm gonna upload yet another picture. 

From left to right and from top to bottom: Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Says I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys, The Trick To Life - The Hoosiers and Love Ire & Song - Frank Turner.

I know it looks like a strange choice but I like it. Arctic Monkeys' ones were extremely necessary since I was going to their concert and I wanted to listen to them on the car in a decent way, I think the people who was with me in my car wasn't so happy about it because mainly it included blasting the music around, but... that's what there was. Frank's one is the one I needed the most, I've already "Poetry of the Deed" and I need to get all of them so I thought that since "Photosynthesis" is one of my favorite songs I should get the CD were it is first. Finally, I love The Hoosiers how they are so energetic and uplifting and I really like playing "The Trick Of Life" on my car, so I got their first CD, but I have to confess that since I was so overexcited with Arctic Monkeys I still have to listen to it throughly, I'll do it asap.

Books I got lately

I know you could perfectly see which books I got, but still here's another picture of them. 

A Song Of Ice And Fire Boxset and A Dance With Dragons - George R.R. Martin

Basically since I started watching the TV series I decided I needed to read the books (I should be ashamed for this maybe, but well at least I'm reading the books and not saying the TV series are better), I know buying them in bulk was a bit of a gamble if I didn't like them, but luckily I'm quite happy, for sure I enjoyed some more than others, for me A Feast For Crows was a bit more difficult to read than the others, but I can say that I'm really looking forward the next book, which I know it's going to take some time to be released... and I guess I can do nothing but wait. 

Well, that's it for now. Maybe in a short time I'll do another one of these posts... who knows!

Abbey Road (The Beatles tribute band) (Granollers 02/10/12)

When I wrote about the Arctic Monkeys' concert I said I was gonna write about every concert I'd go this year, so I need to write something about this last Friday.

On Friday I went with some friends to a place in Granollers where there was a concert. The people who were playing are a The Beatles tribute band so as you can imagine the songs they played were The Beatles' songs (also they were dressed up like The Beatles). I enjoyed the concert mainly because it's like the only chance there is to listen to The Beatles' songs live, for those who are young like me The Beatles are something really big, their songs are in our lives even if we don't know it or if we've never stopped to listen to them. The guy who played George Harrison had a really really nice voice, and in general they were pretty good, although I found their wigs disturbing, they were so weird. Anyways, I've got to thank them for keeping The Beatles music alive.

My advice to all of you, if you want to see some band live go for it, life is short and it might be a life changing experience.

Smile, it's easy

Lately I've realized that I tend to smile a lot, I stare at the things at the buildings and I find them beautiful and I smile, I see the small kids playing and they make me smile, I listen to music and it makes me smile, sometimes I think about things that make me smile. Yet, most of the people looks at me as if I was crazy just because I'm smiling and this made me think: Do I find the world beautiful and like to smile or it is just that other people don't appreciate what they have? I know people have problems, I have problems too, but when I'm listening to music or reading a novel I don't think about the problems and if whatever I'm doing gives me a reason to smile I do it. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone left their problems aside for a while and learned how to smile? Really, try it, put some music on, some music you really like and just relax, you'll either be singing it or smiling, isn't it easy?

On another note, I'm thinking about taking Proficiency exam this June, according to the people I'm my class and my teacher I'm sufficiently prepared to take it, but I'm kinda scared because I want to get a good grade and I don't know if I'll be ready to do so. I'll keep you posted about my decision.  

Health is not a game

Today I was looking for some info for work and I stumbled on a blog where they were talking about a molecule that happens to be an additive, it was a science blog so at first the comments were of scientists that knew what they were reading and what they were talking about, but afterwards the gibberish started. Lots of "mums" and other people started to post whatever they had heard about the topic, sometimes not even reading what the post said. It gave me a headache.

Usually I try not to comment on things I don't know, I might write about my view on some things but if I don't really know then I do say it, but I don't know why everyone feels qualified to talk about medicine and science, it surprises me because I don't even dare talking about my own field because I feel I don't know enough.

Basically people on that post was saying that the additives are toxic and that they make people ill. I'm not saying that all additives are innocuous, but even water is toxic at the right dose. I'm just saying that people needs to stop freaking out, that governments do control these things and that many of them expose themselves voluntarily to things that are going to kill them much faster (cigarettes, alcohol, etc). Also people tend to draw conclusions too fast linking things to diseases on the fly, if they actually knew how difficult is it to do and how time consuming and how many people you need on those studies...

Finally there was a comment that was something like "before there weren't all those illnesses like cancer or Alzheimer's". I don't really know where to start in here, I guess I should wonder when before was, was it in the 3rd century, in the 18th or in the 20th? Because one has to remember that before they hadn't the medical advances we have today so it was difficult to diagnose, also people tended to die young so some of these diseases didn't have time to appear, and finally some diseases were "unspeakable", mentally challenged people were locked away and no one died of cancer because it was a "bad illness".

Well I guess I made my point here, I don't know it infuriates me when people talk about something they don't know and are convinced they are right. I know scientific language is difficult and confusing and that, sometimes, we don't help because we start using terminology when talking to other people, but still I don't talk about computers or mobile phones because I don't know anything about them, I might say I like this or I like that, but I cannot say that some component is better than another one, the same should happen with people talking about science, but I guess that's how the internet works.

Helping other people makes you happy: Rin Tin Tiger KickStarter

If you usually read this blog (which I bet you don't) you might know that I'm kinda obsessed with music, as you can see on this post and this other one.

Fact is Rin Tin Tiger, who are an amazing band from California (I hate that all the good music is made so far away from where I live) and who some time ago where giving away an EP for free as I said here, have started a KickStarter to get their new album released. If you don't know how KickStarter works it is pretty easy, you just "donate" some money and the people who are raising it will give you something in exchange (and I think that if they don't get to the goal they are pledging for you don't need to pay, but don't rely on my word on this). Why do you need to help them? Well because helping will make you happy and because you can get some awesome music (I mean really awesome), still not convinced? Give it a listen.



So you know what you need to do, I'm definitely going to help (though I need to wait to my next paycheck, science is satisfying but it doesn't make you rich) because I already missed the opportunity of helping Barcelona and I got really upset.

One more thing, follow them on twitter so you can get all the updates! I hope I've convinced someone to help.

To my few regular readers... two posts in a week! Hahaha