My personal Philosophy of the world

This is a great poesy I love..It's a Greek poesy, but here I also have an English translation. Enjoy!

For some people the day comes
when they have to declare the great Yes
or the great No. It's clear at once who has the Yes
ready within him; and by saying it,

he goes from honor to honor, strong in his conviction.
He who refuses does not repent. Asked again,
he would still say no. Yet that no - the right no -
drags him down all his life.

Translated by Christos

Che fece .... il gran rifiuto

Σε μερικούς ανθρώπους έρχεται μια μέρα
που πρέπει το μεγάλο Ναι ή το μεγάλο το Όχι
να πούνε. Φανερώνεται αμέσως όποιος τόχει
έτοιμο μέσα του το Ναι, και λέγοντάς το πέρα

πηγαίνει στην τιμή και στην πεποίθησί του.
Ο αρνηθείς δεν μετανοιώνει. Aν ρωτιούνταν πάλι,
όχι θα ξαναέλεγε. Κι όμως τον καταβάλλει
εκείνο τ’ όχι — το σωστό — εις όλην την ζωή του.

(Από τα Ποιήματα 1897-1933, Ίκαρος 1984)

The Title "Che fece...Il gran rifiuto" come from Dante's Inferno and refers to a pope who refused his office because "scared".

Here you have a little bit of nice quotes about religion, or better Atheism:

"Religion provides the solace for the turmoil that it creates." (Byron Danelius)











''Prayer Won't Cure AIDS. Research Will.'' (American Foundation for AIDS research)

"No one is more dangerous of he who thinks his thoughts are God's thoughts" (Pino Caruso)

"If we had right men, we wouldn't need God."

"When people impute special vices to the Christian Church, they seem entirely to forget that the world (which is the only other thing there is) has these vices much more. The Church has been cruel; but the world has been much more cruel. The Church has plotted; but the world has plotted much more. The Church has been superstitious; but it has never been so superstitious as the world is when left to itself." (Chesterton)

"Religion was invented by man just as agriculture and the wheel were invented by man, and there is absolutely nothing in it to justify the belief that its inventors had the aid of higher powers, whether on this earth or elsewhere....There is no purpose here to shake the faithful, for I am completely free of the messianic itch..."  (Henry Louis Mencken).










"The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers." (Denis Diderot)












"What worries me about religion is that it teaches people to be satisfied with not understanding."  (Richard Dawkins)

"Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." (Ambrose Bierce)

"Science does not deny God; it does better; it renders Him useless." (Paul Lafargue)

"How many Christs which sacrificed people treat badly just to pray to a woody Christ. How many sacrifices forgot to remember one. If I could enter into a church I would scream: stop pray to that empty woody Christ. Start love each other" (Stefano Benni)

Today I want to talk a little bit about what I think is one of the more underrated quote.
I'm talking about Karl Marx and this quote:

"Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

The quote is usually reduced to "Religion is the opium of the people", and many people, to explain it, basically just say the meaning is "Religion is bad".
In this quote there is far more than that. Everybody can say religion is bad, and it would be just one of the thousand of voice saying that, against thousand saying the opposite. But Marx was a philosopher, and meant something else.
That quote is maybe the best analysis of religion from a social science aspect.

Religious suffering is real suffering, but to another dimension. You protest against the real suffering by going somewhere else. Marx calls the man an oppressed creature because the man is oppressed by the world!
For now, we are on the hands of "faith" (defined as the things that may happen), without any real power against nature. We are oppressed by what's going on in the world, we are oppressed by our sorrow, our pain, the bad things in our life. So we chose religion as our sight, to see what we what to see and not see what we don't want to.
Religion gives us a reason to live, an heart to a world that otherwise, would be meaningless, as it actually is. Man can not stand the greatness of a world without heart, without emotions and pain. We can not just be a random possibility of an heartless thing as the universe.

Religion gives people a refuge, a place to feel safe. Religion, as a drug, make people feel OK and don't care for what's the reality around them. Like an anaesthetic, it doesn't make them feel the pain. Which may be good sometimes, but hides from reality.
We need to have a soul, the earth can not be without soul. If we look at things as they really are, we will be shocked. We can't accept that.
So we have to find an alternative true, in which our fairy tails are real and in which everything has a reason. It's just human nature.

Humans need an opium as religion to live without killing themselves. Is the only way. Well, actually there is an other way. Realize truth and learn to accept it as it is.

From what I wrote it seems that such a thing that gives you hope is great. Everyone's happy with it, right? Right.

There is just one little thing. Accept religion is saying that mankind is still weak and childish. Is saying that we are not ready yet for reality, and we need an illusion or a fairy tail. Faith is good, but is like virginity.
Sooner or later, you have to loose it. You have to live and experience. Trying to keep faith for too much don't make you go anywhere.
Faith is like believing in Santa Claus too. It's good to believe in Santa, but when you're little. If you still believe in him when you're adult, there is a problem.
You don't want to accept reality and be an adult. You still want the world of the children, perfect.
An adult man that believe in Religion is like an adult man that believes in Santa Claus.

A perfect world would be great, but unfortunately, the world is far from being perfect.
So here it is: what will you choose?
The lie that make you feel good and stay in your perfect world, cutting out reality, or a firstly painful truth that with time will become the realization of being ready to accept the world, his good and bad things, a realization that you opened your eyes, you're out of the cave, and you can see the splendid sun of reality outside?


p.s. : the final reference is to the allegory of the cave of Plato.

In one of the film I like the most, with a lot on meanings on it, V for Vendetta, the protagonist, V, says: "Beneath this mask there is more than Flash. Beneath this mask there are Ideas, and Ideas are bullet-proof!"
For sure this is a thing that many times we repeat. You can kill a man, but his idea can walk on some others' legs, and go on. And even if a man can die and fail, an idea can not.
But is true? For sure words and Ideas are strong, and can't be killed by a bullet.
But be careful, they can be killed, as education, literature, culture, can be killed. Not with bullet, and not as easily, but they can.

If people don't remember Ideas, if they are not strong enough to pass them forward, they can be lost, and the sacrifice of many may be in vain. Every time someone don't remember what happened in the past, how people died for ideas, they die again. It's not easy, it's not simple, but we have to remember. If we really want ideas to be bullet-proof, we all have to make them so. Together, many are very strong. One can fail, his idea can die with him. But if all of us, not just one, remember them, the ideas will never die.

So please, remember, remember everything. Remember the Italian people that fought Mafia as a way of thinking and died, remember their revolution, remember people who did this worldwide. Remember those who fought for freedom and rights, remember how died in the war. Remember how fought against dictators, for their ideas. Don't make their sacrifice be in vain.
You don't have to fight and die, want I ask of you is little. Just remember. Inside yourself, with no big action. It will be enough for keep the idea alive.

An idea just need a warm heart in which to live and not be forgot.

The Egg

By: Andy Weir



You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

And that’s when you met me.

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

“My kids… my wife,” you said.

“What about them?”

“Will they be all right?”

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”

“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”

You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”

“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.

“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”

“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”

“Where you come from?” You said.

“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.

I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”

“All you. Different incarnations of you.”

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

“And you’re the millions he killed.”

“I’m Jesus?”

“And you’re everyone who followed him.”

You fell silent.

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”

You thought for a long time.

“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

And I sent you on your way.

Be careful in saying "this happened in the past". It could be true, but when you say that, you're putting the facts away, leaving no thoughts to the fact that what happen in the past, may still be present in today's world.

The reference is to the Church power in the middle age, the awful things that happened in US in the 1850s and during both the red scares. It's a reference to suppression of individuals' and workers' liberties, which happened in the "more democratic" nation of the world. But it's not just history. It shapes today's world, and in a little part could still be there. It's up to you to see it and avoid it gets bigger. Just be aware

Dehumanisation is necessary, both in war or internal protests. How can you kill somebody like you, with giving him any defence, if not thinking he is not like you, he's a middle Easter terrorist and Islamic, wanting war and not democracy, someone awful, the worst person in the world, maybe even not a person.

No, you have no other choice. In the same way, if you don't say that the protesters are violent, drug addicted boy, extremist, people will look at them and see they are like them, with the same idea and just a little bit more courage. No, if you don't Dehumanise people will all became once, all united, and that's scaring for every government, not just north Africa but US, Italy, France, all Europe and all the world. If we can see how the low and middle class are all the same, that we all have the same ideas, we would fight for something higher that wars for oil.

Government are scared, and so they divide. Propaganda. All groups that have new ideas are dangerous. All of them are to be avoid, even without looking at them. We say they are crazy, and you have to think like this too.

Just think of the world Communism. It's strong, it sounds "bad", we don't even care about it. When we hear it, we all very careful about what's going on. We have do protect ourself. But really Communism in his principles is just the best way of govern. the problem is that people are not perfect, and there will always try to take advantages. Is not communism the danger, is the uman nature.

But that doesn't mean we can't take something positive and possible from Communism.

Be aware we are in 1984. Be aware of the power of the words, and be aware that changing them, or giving them different meanings from the real one, is very dangerous, and didn't happen just in Dictatorial Russia (dictatorial, not communist), but it's happening today, in our "great democracies".

Be always aware. When a word gives you a feeling of danger, try to compensate by regarding at it like a possible very positive thing.



Be aware of the power of dehumanisation. All mankind are the same, even if for some purposes thinking someone is not is the only way to achieve the goal.





P.S. Why does it sound so bad to say "suffering people and workers of all the world, unite!"? Most of us is not the really rich class, and so the idea of more wealth to middle class should sound great to the most and very bad to the few rich one. Are you sure in some idea you have, you are not saying "I wants the rich to became more rich and me to became more poor, because this is the nature"?

Seems like you should say the opposite...playing the game of your class. Interesting.

Life is like a Dan Brown's book: wonderful, full of action and events. It's wonderful to live, to read about it. But when you reach the end of it, you may think: what was the meaning? what was the reason?

And as in a Dan Brown's book, you realise that there is no meaning. Is it just a story without reason, meaningless.

But what happen if, while you are reading the book, you ask yourself what's the meaning? You may decide to stop reading the book, or accept it's just for fun.

It's the same with life. You realise that's meaningless. We were nothing, and we'll be nothing. Our mind will die, and everything will stop. No heaven, nothing. Just nothing.

Some then decide to stop a meaningless thing. It's fine. But to accept to end in nothing is scaring and stop us. And you are just turning away from the interesting fact of a meaningless life.

But to decide to continue is more difficult, and the most important choice. You accept to live just for fun, just to live a meaningless thing, even if it's nice to live it. And when you make this choice, then you start to think for the first time.

Is not true that we are not different. The minorities are different form the Majority. At the end, everybody is different. And this is an incredible bless if we remember that different doesn't mean worst or better, just different.
Don't say "they are like us, we are all the same, we are all brother". Just say: "They're are different l...uckily. But they are not better or worst, just different" :)

At the airport: "We are pride of you".
Yes, we are pride that our son went to that country of people that don't deserve to live, and don't make us have that gusher that they've stolen and put in their territory.

Oh yes, thank to gave us more military and political power over some country and people that would like some freedom, but found in the superior occidental countries not help for democracy, but war and help for avoid democracy. Because money... is stronger. And the excuse of bring democracy works dam good with the population. Oh yeah, everybody believe that we have the right to say that we know what's the solution, no one else. Thanks for kill so many people that just ask for something they never saw thanks to us, peace. We are pride of you

A thing that I like about USA is smoking. It's not just prohibited by law for young, but it's also morally prohibited. I saw a students be very rude to another students because there was a suspect that he smoked, and say bad things to him... With this environment, not so many people smoke, young and adult too. It's not a law that will take off from society bad things. It's the population response that take off bad things. The problem is that some things are not morally wrong for everybody, and so the church and moralists fight, and so in many place you can't have legal abortion or euthanasia. They should be legal, everybody should chose., and any case is different. Just society can judge if something is wrong in any case, and society, without any law, will make the thing really illegal. 

One who believes as I do, that free intellect is the chief engine of human progress, cannot but be fundamentally opposed to Bolshevism as much as to the Church of Rome. The hopes which inspire communism are, in the main, as admirable as those instilled by the Sermon on the Mount, but they are held as fanatically and are as likely to do as much harm.
—Bertrand Russell, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, 1920, pg. 118


Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.


« The reason organized religion merits outright hostility is that, unlike belief in Russell's teapot, religion is powerful, influential, tax-exempt and systematically passed on to children too young to defend themselves. Children are not compelled to spend their formative years memorizing loony books about teapots. Government-subsidized schools don't exclude children whose parents prefer the wrong shape of teapot. Teapot-believers don't stone teapot-unbelievers, teapot-apostates, teapot-heretics and teapot-blasphemers to death. Mothers don't warn their sons off marrying teapot-shiksas whose parents believe in three teapots rather than one. People who put the milk in first don't kneecap those who put the tea in first. »

(Richard Dawkins )

My name is Claudio Arena. I'm a student, and I'm currently on an exchange year in California. I usually attend school in Italy though. I'll try to put on this blog my vision of the word, and my thoughts, hoping they will be useful to somebody. I'll try not to put details about my life, since probably nobody would care, except when they are related to thought and reflections. Hope you can enjoy it and comment. Any suggestion would be very helpful to me, and hopefully to anyone else. Thanks and good luck (to myself)!