At this very moment my boss is at a conference discussing funding for innovative health care. One stumbling block to medical research is faith-based interference with stem cell research. Sick people shouldn’t be denied treatment because some people are afraid of supernatural consequences, and find ever more creative ways to convince ignorant but well-meaning people that magic belongs on equal footing with science.

Al Stefanelli writes about the  not-so-subtle changes in the Intelligent Design website in “You Can’t Polish a Turd”.

Carla Zilber-Smith

As a skeptic and atheist, I’ve no belief in an afterlife nor do I rely on supernatural forces as an explanation for events or circumstances that arise as I go about the daily grind. We’re all just bumbling through as best we can, being the meat-sacks we are, devoid of any true “purpose” beyond that which we give ourselves.

Carla’s purpose was to entertain and educate; to put a smile on someone’s face while planting a seed in their mind. Carla lost her battle to ALS on May 21st, but she left those who loved her, and even those who may never have known her, a piece of herself exactly as she was – funny, irreverent, full of love and compassion.

Remembering people as they were when they were alive is far more comforting than imagining them as angels, or imagining some “plan” being fulfilled by their suffering and dying. Having no expectations of being able to party with my loved ones in an afterlife makes me appreciate the time I do get to spend with them even more. I’ve left a fair amount of myself behind here on teh intarwebz, and hopefully in the hearts and minds of those whose paths crossed mine at some time or another. I choose to be remembered just as I am. Just Rox… warts and all! Praise Science, I have the technology to make it so!

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” — Marcus Aurelius