The Atheist Photographer @theatheistphotographer - Tumblr Blog

Day 365 — Happy New Year!

We are born into a pitiless universe, facing steep odds against life-enabling order and in constant jeopardy of falling apart. We were shaped by a force that is ruthlessly competitive. We are made from crooked timber, vulnerable to illusions, self-centeredness, and at times astounding stupidity.

We will never have a perfect world, and it would be dangerous to seek one. But there is no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing.

This heroic story is not just another myth. Myths are fictions, but this one is true—true to the best of our knowledge, which is the only truth we can have. We believe it because we have reasons to believe it. As we learn more, we can show which parts of the story continue to be true, and which ones false—as any of them might be, and any could become.

And the story belongs not to any tribe but to all of humanity—to any sentient creature with the power of reason and the urge to persist in its being. For it requires only the convictions that life is better than death, health is better than sickness, abundance is better than want, freedom is better than coercion, happiness is better than suffering, and knowledge is better than superstition and ignorance.

Excerpt: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Steven Pinker

Day 364 — Funeral by Funeral

“As has been said about science, sometimes society advances funeral by funeral.”

Excerpt: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Steven Pinker

Max Planck was a German theoretical physicist. 'Planck's principle' is the view that scientific change does not occur because individual scientists change their mind, but rather that successive generations of scientists have different views.

Photo: St Kilda Cemetery

Day 363 — Etona

The Etona was built in 1899 as a mission boat for the Anglican church.

As completed, the vessel had a small wheelhouse only on the upper deck, and rather basic quarters below. In the forepart of the boat there was a saloon, while the after cabin was a small chapel. The boat was intended to operate regular trips from Morgan to either Mannum or Remark along the Murray River, stopping off at towns and settlements along the way for services. The minister on board doubled as the captain.

The forward saloon was used as living quarters by the travelling minister, though once a year the Bishop, and sometimes his wife too, would join Etona for a trip. At these times, they had the use of the forward saloon. while the minister had to make do with other quarters. Later an extra cabin was built on the upper deck behind the wheelhouse.

In 1912 Etona was sold to Captain Archie Connor, of Boundary Bend in Victoria, and became a fishing boat. At times she was also used to carry cargo, particularly fruit during the picking season. Connor used Etona until 1944, when she was abandoned on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. Her wheelhouse was removed, and became a chicken house.

It seemed the old steamer was doomed to destruction, but in September 1956 she was brought back into service again when there was major flooding along the rivers. Etona was hurriedly reactivated for mercy missions along the Murrumbidgee, which in places was up to 60 miles/38km wide. Once the floods subsided. Etona was again abandoned at Boundary Bend.

In September 1961, Etona was purchased by a syndicate from Echuca, headed by solicitor lan Stewart and chemist Phil Symons. They refloated the boat, got the engine working again, then made the trip to Echuca. Throughout the week-long journey, the pumps worked continuously to keep the old boat afloat.

On arrival at Echuca, Etona was hauled up on the old slipway at Moama, and restoration work to return the boat to its original external appearance began in February 1962, and was completed late in 1965. Internally the boat was fitted out to carry numerous passengers in several cabins.

Since then Etona has travelled extensively, and in 1999 returned to Milang to celebrate the centenary of its building. When not in use, Etona is berthed downstream from the Echuca Wharf.

Photo: One of my earliest photographs taken at age 8 with a Kodak Box Brownie. Etona at Echuca, 1965.

Day 362 — Time & Tide II

“Life has no meaning a priori… It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

Photo: 2.5 second exposure

Day 361 — Slant

Since the Enlightenment unfolded in the late 18th century, life expectancy across the world has risen from 30 to 71, and in the more fortunate countries to 81. When the Enlightenment began, a third of the children born in the richest parts of the world died before their fifth birthday; today, that fate befalls 6 percent of the children in the poorest parts. Their mothers, too, were freed from tragedy: one percent in the richest countries did not live to see their newborns, a rate triple that of the poorest countries today, which continues to fall. In those poor countries, lethal infectious diseases are in steady decline, some of them afflicting just a few dozen people a year, soon to follow smallpox into extinction.

Excerpt: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Steven Pinker

Photo: Williamstown Cemetery

Day 360 — Lily II

"The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." — Jack London, San Francisco Bulletin, 1916

Day 359 — Nativity

“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.” — Shirley Temple

Photo: Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

Day 358 — Rose VI

RESUMÉ By Dorothy Parker

Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren’t lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live.

Day 357 — Import II

Secular Buddhism is a broad term for a form of Buddhism based on humanist, skeptical, and agnostic values, valuing pragmatism and (often) naturalism, eschewing beliefs in the supernatural or paranormal.

Day 356 — Into the Woods II

Trees are always a relief after people. — Black Swan Green, David Mitchell

Day 355 — Gardenia

Suddenly nothing in the world seemed to Guy more glamorous than homosexuality, as romantic as heady white gardenias nested in polished green leaves. — Our Young Man, Edmund White

You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation. — Billie Holiday

Murderess, murderess, he whispers to himself. It has an allure, a scent almost. Hothouse gardenias. Lurid, but also furtive. He imagines himself breathing it as he draws Grace towards him, pressing his mouth against her. Murderess. He applies it to her throat like a brand. — Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood

Day 354 — Chaos

“It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause.” ― David Hume

Day 353 — Oyster

“But the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.” ― David Hume, On Suicide

Day 352 — Arum XVII

As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion? ― Stephen King

Day 351 — Jesus Christ Loves You

Freedom is the first 5 minutes when I was born crying, naked, without name, without sin, without directions, without human hatred. — Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)

Five minutes after your birth, they will decide your name, your nationality, your religion and your sect, you will spend your life fighting and stupidly defending things that you didn't choose. —Ziad Al Rahbani (1956- )

Day 350 — Taking a Punt

Even diseases that are not obliterated are being decimated. Between 2000 and 2015, the number of deaths from malaria (which in the past killed half the people who had ever lived) fell by 60 percent. The World Health Organization has adopted a plan to reduce the rate by another 90 percent by 2030, and to eliminate it from thirty-five of the ninety-seven countries in which it is endemic today (just as it was eliminated from the United States, where it had been endemic until 1951).

Excerpt: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Steven Pinker

Photo: Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne

Day 349 — Car Trouble

"I remember H. G. Wells, who was a kind of twentieth-century Voltaire, saying that he daren't drive a car in France, because the temptation to run over a priest would be too strong for him." — Kenneth Clark, Civilisation (1969), ch. 10: The Smile of Reason

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

The Atheist Photographer