No I’m not talking about nature.  I like that kind of green, I’m talking about this:

Like the image says: the greener, the more religious.

For anyone who doesn’t know, my country is Colombia, right there in the north leftmost “corner” of South America.

 I didn’t think we would beat Mexico.   

Got the map at Pharyngula’s, who also got the map somewhere else.

- Lonely Atheist.

Not mine.

I found this picture some days ago, while surfing through my blogroll.

Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls) and 4 other of her friends, celebrating for their new tent.  Topless.

It’s a picture that makes me smile every time I see it.  It’s natural, funny, and refreshing.

I like it because these are women like myself (normal), and they’re not afraid of doing something like that because they freaking want to, only because they lack model bodies – full, symetrical breasts with incredibly flat waists and a perfect tan.

I like it because they can use parts of their body in a fun way without hypersexualising them…

Look! their boobs are on public view! They’re out there! Hide them! You are disrespecting yourselves and tempting men!

I was recently reading a local magazine that featured a muslim woman defending their use of the Hijab (wish I could find the article online! Grrr! Sorry).  I am not going to get deep into this, I’m NOT going to talk about the religion or the culture. I just wanted to note something the woman said about the Hijab.  She basically says that by covering all her grown female parts, (mouth and ears included) she’s making sure that whenever she talks, people are paying attention to her words and not her sexuality.

Another article says:

“A female doctor, writer, electrician or plumber may be appreciated in the work environment for her skill, but is still basically seen as “just a woman.” But put her in Hijab so that what makes her a woman cannot be appraised and all of a sudden you are dealing with a person...”

Of course I’d hate to be treated as “just a woman“.  I live in a culture that  has lots of residual sexism in the minds of the average person.  The housewife, the mother, the fragile rose that needs to be protected, cared for and marked as part of the territory.  Women like to be roses and men like to own them.

I absolutely hate this, and it’s partly why I often feel like a stranger in this Latino culture I don’t belong to.  But that’s another topic.

In my opinion; It is the sexist mindset, not the fact that I am a woman what would cause people to see me as “just a woman“.

Why would I ever have to hide it?  And isn’t hiding it in such an active way actually highlighting the fact that there’s something forbidden in there?

That doesn’t mean I will post my boobs out here, or go outside in a see-through baby doll with fleshy glossy lips.  (Hypersexualised me… I’ll leave that for other times… when I’m looking for a sexual objective).

I’m a female human.  I have arms, legs eyes and boobs (o.O mind-blowing!) among a hundred other organs.  I could wish that looking at boobs was as normal as looking at hands…

Of course, in most human cultures, the breasts are sexual… and that’s cool.  But are they ONLY sexual?  The lips and tongue can be sexual and can be a BIG part of sexuality.  But, when you’re speaking or eating, are they sexual? (well, I don’t know what you’re into).

Some people tend to be very wary of women breastfeeding. But babies need to eat whenever they’re hungry, so the boob is going to pop out and scare you if you’re not expecting it.  “Boobs are only sexual” comes into your unconcious mind, and this thought, plus the sight of a baby and milk and sucking will make it Gross for you.

Boobs can be beautiful in a very artistic way.  Interesting shadows and lights.  A very nice composition.  I wouldn’t mind to be the model of this photo, and I wouldn’t feel like my privacy has been taken or that I’m being immoral or that I objectizise women or myself.

Boobs can also be left out for some fun whenever we want to, not sexual.

And finally, if we do want to use them in a sexual way, well, bring it on!

Today I ran into a person I know from uni. While talking to her I sensed how she felt the world is much worse now than say, 100 years ago. She mentioned things like pollution, overpopulation and an apparent corruption of ethics in most humans. Then she went on a religious rant about people getting away from God and such, but that’s beneath the point.

It’s not the first time I’ve heard people say that nowadays humanity is at its worst, and it’s falling even lower as we speak. And I’m not only talking about older people; It seems to be a collective perception. In Spanish, there’s a very popular saying that says “Todo Tiempo Pasado Fue Mejor”, which can be literally translated as “Every past time was better than now”. I don’t know if English speaking people have a similar saying.

Do you think that the past time was better? I don’t.

I think the world is getting better everyday. Maybe the air was less polluted back then, the rivers were cleaner, and definitely, there were fewer pregnant teenagers. However, the concept of people living quietly, respecting the neighbors, the children being obedient, while married couples never divorced, to me is like a fairy tale that has nothing to do with the real thing.

Lets take our time machine and go really back then. Cavemen could barely live, so they wouldn’t worry much about anything else that was not being killed and eating enough not to die before reproducing. The first civilizations created reservoirs of food and water, and safer living conditions. With this, they were able to go into other issues: war, diseases, hierarchy. A flu could kill you, as well as not listening to the current authority.

Let’s jump to European civilizations. The children mortality was still high as it could be, and men died in wars, and people kept dying of flu and tuberculosis. There was no freedom of speech. When the church gained more power, people died for speaking their minds. Women died for doing nothing! If you were a woman in the middle age, and someone didn’t like you, chances are they would accuse you of being a witch and you’d die. No discussion. The middle age lasted 1200 years! 1200 years and nothing changed whatsoever, no discoveries were made because of fear, so the same old things applied, and people kept dying and being abused. Renaissance and the illumination was a better time to live than middle age, sure, but the social hierarchies still played a role, the poverty killed thousands, and people kept dying of flu! Ever heard about an aunt saying they want to have their baby at home because “that’s how it was done before”?, Well, before the prenatal and perinatal death rate was HUGE. We have our babies in bubbles of protection now with the hospitals and vaccines and esterilizing practices. The prenatal and perinatal dead rate, as well as the dead rate of woman for obstetric causes is a marker of the health status of each country, and most developed countries make sure these markers stay low.

Let’s go back to the time machine and go into last century. Sexism, intolerance, and diseases. But this is when the clock starts to accelerate and the freedom is increased, and the minds start to shine.

Are you scared because of AIDS and cancer and how many people die because of it? Well, we are currently facing the lowest mortality rate ever as a species we’ve ever had. Overpopulation is a sign of our sucess as species and constitutes a new problem. As well as the obesity epidemy is a sign of our sucess at accumulating resources and safety. We’re winning too many trophies and we don’t know what to do with them. You think having a flu is easy? well, it is NOW.

Humans cause problems, but at the same time they try to fix them. Then some new problems arise, but humans are always paying attention. And the clock is moving faster than ever, and more solutions will be found. And more problems will arise.

Good or bad, humans will come up with a solution. If it means the biological beings eventually dying and humans making their way with technology and robots, that’s still a solution. Sounds scary, but, what would a person from the 18 century say about the internet?

When asked in what time would I want to reborn if I had the chance to, I would l say: Now, or maybe even: In The Future.

May the past stay very far from me.

*

Do you think the past was any better? When? and How?

If not, What do you think was the worst that has been left behind?

*

I’ll leave you with another one of the incredibly retarded flash animations that give me one-hour laughing fits every time.

The End of The World.

By the way, it’s Colombia, not Columbia.

I classify my views on politics as “Apathetic”. Most of the times the whole thing about the conflict in Colombia, and for that matter, in any part of the world, is so complicated and annoying and hopeless that I don’t feel like getting into that. It would require a lot of knowledge for throwing in an opinion that makes sense (not like everyone has a lot of knowledge, but they yell anyway). And most of the times, whatever choice of politician A or B will make no difference in my opinion, so why bother spending my brain fuel on that.

To be honest, the situation in Colombia feels so incredibly hopeless for me most of the times, that all I’ve been trying to do – as far as my memory goes, is to selfishly go away, and belong to a place where I might have a better future. Any chance of making things better in here might only happen generations from now, and it means that I will probably be dead from old age when it happens. Being a person who doesn’t believe in after life, and doesn’t plan to have children, a solution in such long term has absolutely no appeal for me, therefore, I have no bussiness spending my energy on it.

So that is my political apathy explained, in terms of selfishness.

There are sometimes, though, when something just strikes me, and gets on my nerves. Is it because it affects me more directly? Maybe. Whatever the reason, it was important enough to make me blog about it. So here we go.

Part one. COLOMBIA IS DANGEROUS, DO NOT GO IN THERE, YOU’LL DIE.

I won’t make this too long (lier), because I won’t either be able to write it, and nobody will feel like reading it anyway. Most people know Colombia is in trouble, right? It is advised against non esential travelling OR all travelling in many countries.

We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Colombia because of the high threat of terrorism and criminal activity. Terrorist, insurgent and paramilitary groups are active throughout Colombia and there is a high risk of kidnapping, including of foreigners. Traveling Page from Australia on Colombia

Traveling Page from Canada on Colombia.

The other day I was talking to someone on MSN and I jokingly said they could visit me in here. Their immediate reaction was

“columbia? dude, i don’t wanna die”

I won’t deny that a conflict has been going on for a long time; so serious it has made people die, has kept people in captivity for years, has resulted in wounded and recruited children who are still wondering what the hell is this world they were brought in. Most of these things, probably never experienced by the usual public who reads the news and watches movies, makes them feel uneasy everytime they conceive the idea of people living with it every second. Logic tells them it’s not a place they’d like to visit; being in their shoes, I probably would think the same.

After all, movies and news are not going to report the quiet times, the day to day life of a person in a city or even a small town in the country. The wow factor comes with “Collateral Damage”, “Mr and Mrs Smith”, “XXX”, and even “Bedazzled”. See Films Depicting Colombia. DRUGS, WAR, JUNGLE, GUNS.

Not blaming only the international media, it seems like the obsession of local film makers is to exploit the same subject in their own movies. DRUGS, WAR, JUNGLE, GUNS, all over again, as told by Colombians.

Though there’s a huge difference. Hollywood movies are remarkable for their inacuracy, complete lack of research, and basically, a superficial interest to associate their terrorist characters to a real place so they feel they’ve linked their mediocre movie to reality and now they’re awesome and rich movie producers. Colombian movies about the same subject, meanwhile, are pretty acurate, as I can see what they present happening in real life, and it does. Their mistake is to portray only that side to the world. Instead of increasing the awareness over the conflict that is going on, it just makes hollywood say “Yeah, see? Jungle, war and drugs! Same thing we did!“. And now they all think they’re even more awesome movie producers. Right now they’re probably drinking expensive alcohol and congratulating each other for the 1000th time.

to be continued

I’m still in that state where I have a lot to say and don’t know how to. I have something that is making me very sad. I don’t like to cry, but I did. I have another thing that is making me very stressed, but I’m trying to control avoid it for now. However, I’m really happy and relaxed at the same time. I don’t know why.

This all means that I don’t really have a blog today. But that doesn’t mean you have to leave empty handed. I just commented to a cool blogger who made a questionary about those little differences about the places you live in. I personally enjoyed it very much; both answering it, and reading other responses.

So, If you were to switch on a Lightswitch, would it be up, or down?

Is oral sex legal in your country?

Answer away by clicking on the next link, in case you missed the one’s in the last paragraph.

19 Questions To Be Answered From All Over The World – Dissfunktional

Have a good day!

People of all cultures and ages have always asked the big question.

Well, I know the answer. My personal answer anyway, that I actually don’t recommend to follow because it’s not comforting or anything like that.

Long Post Warning!!!

I’m a curious, overthinker atheist. I like that about me. I love how I was raised catholic and after a long time of seeing and thinking, I decided I would think something else than parents, grandma and everyone else. It’s not too common to find other atheists here in Colombia, where almost everyone is Catholic. Still, I like it. Being an atheist leaves all the questions unanswered and sets you free to go anywhere. So far I’ve ended up with answers that have already been found, but it feels nice to know I got there by myself or at least that I got to think about my choice.

One of the things that really impressed me back in school was finding out about Darwin’s evolution theory. It made total sense. Later I loved learning more about Natural Selection and many other things like genetics, heritance and microbiology. It was a big help to solve questions of the type “Why do we feel pain?” “Why do we have eyes?” “Why do we like sex?”
Not THE “What For”, but, more interestingly, THE “why”.

You Are a Copy____________________

You have a pair of eyes. Where did they come from? Your genes programmed them to be there. They in turn came from your parents genes, that came from some grandparent genes, and you should be able to keep going back to the origin of eyes in the genetic pool. If we have eyes right now it means that having eyes is a feature that survived through generations, which means it should have helped or at least not interfered the REPRODUCTION process. REPRODUCTION is all what matters here.

I especially liked something I read recently about the subject, that portrays us living creatures as simple TOOLS for our genes to pass themselves on to the next generation. It makes genes look like the evil plotters whose only objective is to live forever. The genome that codes for creatures with most reproductive success is going to win. “Survival of the Fittest” is not about who lives better and longer, but who is more successful at copying themselves to the next generation.

And just when you thought she wasn’t going to get existentialist::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

So, you are only here because your ancestors were really good at reproduction. The genes that make you have fought all obstacles and survived all generations and are now here. If your genes could have feelings they would be jumping of joy after the big success that is being “alive” right now.

Also, your genes couldn’t care less about how many talents you have, how pretty or smart you are, or how happy you are, UNLESS it contributes on passing those genes you own to the next generation where you won’t be existing anymore but they will. And so on.

So, according to all I’ve said, you’re here only to reproduce sucessfully. That’s your only mission in life. All the people before you had the same exact mission and that’s the reason why you exist now.

Pretty important from an species point of view, but so pointless from a personal point of view huh?

It basically means that you’re here do do Absolutely Nothing.

…

Life is Meaningless

In the big scheme of things, nothing I accomplish in life has an objective, an impact or a reason. We popped out from the nice living system that was formed, and we’re left in a playground with no rules. Success is nothing, Failure is nothing, Pain is nothing, Happiness is nothing. It’s a big game with no winners, no instructions, no losers, a game that only cares about prolonging its own existence.

And you can’t get out of the game because there’s nothing outside, if you leave, there’s no other games to play, there’s nothing.

These are the kind of thoughts that make me want to stop thinking so much. Because I recognize them as over existentialist, pointless and insanity-drivers. But I can’t help them. And it’s hard to get distracted doing daily activities.

I guess the best way not to get depressed and crazy is to give in the illusion of a life where things matter.

When I realized this I stopped trying to convince people how cool being an atheist was, and debating with “believers.”

Now I say “Lucky Bastards”. After all, you can’t force an illusion upon yourself.

But I still love to be an Atheist.