I suppose it depends somewhat on what you consider an accident. For
example, when a cloud of interstellar dust and gas contracts due to its
own gravitational forces into a mass dense enough to ignite hydrogen
fusion a star is born. Is that an accident? Well, if you require
conscious direction for it to not be an accident then it is an accident.
Nevertheless, when those conditions come along every time you get a
star. So is the existence of the universe an accident? There is not the
slightest bit of evidence that it came into being due to conscious
direction, but was it inevitable like the formation of a star from a
collapsing nebula of the right mass? The answer is unknown, but I would
place my bets on a lack of conscious direction and in that case it would
be an accident if that is what we call an accident. As for its
inevitability, I'm not ready to place a bet on that.
___
Richard Dawkins
“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all
decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this
sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running
for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from
within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation,
thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this
very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the
natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons
and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people
are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find
any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has
precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no
purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
― Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life
On 7/6/2020 9:44 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Some of us are so full of ourselves that we cannot allow ourselves to
consider that this entire Experience, which we call the Universe, may
very well have come into existence quite by accident, or, that which
we sense, is but a small part of an even bigger, more vast something.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/5/20, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> wrote:
UNAC: On This Fourth of July
https://socialistaction.org/2020/07/04/unac-on-this-fourth-of-july/
July 4, 2020
On this 4th of July, Trump goes to Mount Rushmore to set off fireworks
on Indian land even though the tribal leaders have asked him to stay
away and fireworks have been banned in the area due to a drought. He
speaks at Mount Rushmore where statues have been carved of 4 white
presidents designed by a supporter of the KKK. The building of Mount
Rushmore was a desecration of the Black Hills, sacred land of the Lakota
Sioux people. It stands only 75 miles from Wounded Knee where US troops
massacred hundreds of unarmed Sioux women, children, and men. Can the
Native people truthfully celebrate freedom on this 4th of July?
On this 4th of July, Black people and their allies are in the streets
asserting that “Black Lives Matter.” Independence in 1776 did not bring
Black people freedom; they remained enslaved. Tens of millions were
killed in slavery and in the Atlantic crossing. Blacks are still being
killed in the streets and it took a mass upsurge in over 2000 cities and
towns in the US and in cities around the world for this country to even
start to make some concessions by taking down some statues of slave
owners and supporters of slavery. It took a mass upsurge for there to
begin a discussion of ending racist policing and for the democratic
right of the Black community to control the police and other
institutions in their communities. Blacks are dying from COVID-19 in
numbers far greater than their proportion in the population due to the
structural racism that deprives Black people the resources needed to
live a healthy life. Can Black people truthfully celebrate freedom on
this 4th of July?
On this 4th of July, the US, with little more than 4% of the world’s
population has about 25% of the world’s prison population. On this 4th
of July there may be as many as 100,000 prisoners in solitary
confinement in the US, some for decades while the UN says that any more
than 15 days in solitary confinement is torture. Can the victims of
mass incarceration, majority blacks, Latinx and Native American,
truthfully celebrate freedom on this 4th of July? Can the world’s most
renowned and innocent political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal celebrate the
4th of July when an overtly racist judge ordered a virtually all white
jury to hurry their July 3 deliberations to convict Mumia in order to go
home to celebrate July 4?
On this 4th of July, can the migrants and refugees who are imprisoned,
many separated from their children at the borders or the 11 million
undocumented, threatened with deportation celebrate freedom on this 4th
of July?
On this 4th of July, the US has troops in around 172 foreign countries.
The US has 20 times the number of foreign military bases as all other
countries in the world combined. In 1776, it was British imperialism
that was opposed by the first American Revolution but today it is the US
that is the main imperialist power in the world and people throughout
the world are fighting for their own self-determination and independence
from US imperialism and its puppet regimes.
On this 4th of July, people have had to isolate in their homes, or are
forced to work in their low paying “essential” jobs while being exposed
to a deadly virus as trillions of dollars are given to the rich and the
corporations to bolster a failing economy so the wealthy can maintain
their obscene life-style and wealth.
Do any of us have anything to celebrate this 4th of July? UNAC believes
we do not.
Socialist Action News
Sign up for our weekly newsletter:
Your email address
Related Articles
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
July 5, 2020
By FREDERICK DOUGLASS
“A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the
gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him,
your celebration is a sham.”
Trump’s Big Rally Fizzles, While the Movement Rises
June 30, 2020
By BARRY SHEPPARD
Trump’s first rally in months only drew a small crowd as Covid cases
skyrocket and the mass movement against racism and police brutality
continues.
Fourth International Statement of Solidarity with Anti-Racism Protests
June 20, 2020
“Our Solidarity with the Worldwide Anti-Racist Revolt”
By EXECUTIVE BUREAU OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
___
Richard Dawkins
“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all
decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this
sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are
running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being
devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying
of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time
of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the
population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In
a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic
replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to
get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice.
The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect
if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but
pitiless indifference.”
― Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life
On 7/5/2020 12:57 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Richard Dawkins speaks truth...as far as we know it to be at this
present time.
I just finished listening to a speech by Donald Trump that sounded as
if it came straight out of my grade school history book(1940-1949).
Donald Trump regaled us with stories of the four great faces carved
upon Mount Rushmore. Of course it was a Whitewash lesson as told by a
White Supremacist.
There can be no question that the Constitution was heads and shoulders
above any other documents of the day. But it did not mean that it was
cast in concrete, never to be changed. As with any document, changing
times make them obsolete, if not adjusted. And of course, that is
exactly what has happened to our Constitution. While it might be
recognized by its drafters, much of the language in the amendments
would shock some of them, and be strongly opposed by others.
And what does it do for us to raise up those Founding Fathers as if
they were perfect men? They were men of the times they lived in.
Some believed that rank and file Americans should not be allowed to
vote. Some who stood tall for the Rights of Independence were slave
owners, and did not include their human property in such Rights. And
some were certain that women should not concern themselves with Men's
Business, such as politics.
In 244 years from now, as folks look back on these troubled times, how
will they describe our actions?
Will we be trashed because we did not think in "modern terms"? Let us
respect our Founding Fathers as the men they were, struggling to carve
a nation out of a vast continent, beset on one hand by an oppressive
British King, and on the other hand facing the anger of the Indigenous
Occupants of the land they were attempting to take over.
Can't we simply accept that they did what they did due to the world as
they found it? Does that make America any less desirable as a place
to live? Does pointing out our current short comings make us any less
Americans?
And by the way, just who is Donald Trump speaking for? I was highly
embarrassed by his speech. It was a political rallying call,
declaring many dedicated Americans as a threat to our nation because
we take exception to much of Donald Trump's behavior.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/5/20, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
UNAC: On This Fourth of July
https://socialistaction.org/2020/07/04/unac-on-this-fourth-of-july/https://socialistaction.org/2020/07/04/unac-on-this-fourth-of-july/
--
___
Richard Dawkins
“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond
all
decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this
sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are
running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being
devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are
dying
of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a
time
of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the
population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored.
In
a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and
genetic
replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going
to
get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any
justice.
The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should
expect
if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing
but
pitiless indifference.”
― Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life
