Protected: quotes from my past.

First of all, let me state that I do not plan to debate over any of these. The point is to show the intellectual change that I have been through, the journey of changing and evolving and abandoning old ideas that I had previously held so dear. Most of these are actually realizations and discoveries that took anywhere from a week to several months to accept.

I AM indeed embarrassed by some of these, but I don’t regret them. That’s how I got to where I am today, and my past positions have had some influence to some extent on my present, so I’m definitely very thankful for it. Sure, I could have arrived at my current conclusions some other way, but this is my past, and I am not going to stay stuck on it and wish I had arrived via another path, ’cause that can never happen. This is it. This is my past, my present that will determine my future stances.

Anyways…

May 24, 2005, age 14 years 3 months
“I don’t think there is a god. I’m pretty sure of it. God is just a figment of human imagination. Someone just made it up and passed it down generation to generation, and before long, everyone believed in this fictional creature and this changed their lives.”
(personal archives)

June 3, 2005, age 14 years 3 months
“I have a dream – that although I accept all religions, that the world is an all-atheist planet. I am not going to force them cruelly, or persuade them to be atheist, like me. I just have a hope, a dream that I know will never come true… anything wrong with that?”
(personal archives)

June 4, 2005, age 14 years 3 months
“I know that there is no scientific proof of god’s not existing, but the fact that there is no proof of god’s existence is proof to me. I don’t want to convert people’s minds, I just want to know what is true and what is false.”
(personal archives)

June 11, 2005, age 14 years 3 months
“If believing in god makes other people happy, I have no objection to that. I do, however, want people to know god doesn’t exist, but that they can continue believing he does… I am not anti-religious. I don’t use any sort of anti-religious propaganda, like many other atheists do.”
(personal archives)

April 22, 2006, age 15 years 2 months
“A year ago, the answer dawned on me, after long years of observing the world beyond the sky, the unyielding, and yet, mysterious, space.
I had left the dark of religion, the implacable night in which the rest of the world lived in; I had taken the final steps towards an everlasting realm where God did not exist, a realm where the world believed in pure science.
As I walked towards the warm sunrise, I felt the soft sand welcoming me. It was beautiful.
I had become an atheist.
And I would always be. For all time that exists. ”
(personal document)

April 27, 2006, age 15 years 2 months
“This is my theory about religion – God does not exist. I have been realizing that I am atheist over a period of a year. I think God is a figment of human imagination. He was invented to scare people out of doing bad things. This made people self-centered, as they do not do good things for others, they just want to be sent to heaven when they die. I do good things not because God is watching, but because that is a morale of society. I think all people are good at heart, they sometimes are just stubborn and resistant to change.
Even though I am an atheist, I will always remember my Sikh past, and I will never remove my kara.”
(personal document)

“It was the night of March 27, 2006 and I stood staring at my reflection in the mirror, a lock of hair in my hand. Sure, I have snipped off bits and pieces several times before, but this was different. This time it was going to be visible. I had cut off a part of my front hair, creating bangs.
Why? … partly to cut myself off from all clutches of Sikhism.”
(personal document)

July 31, 2006, age 15 years 5 months
“I NEVER read a single holy book of ANY religion in my life, but I still practice being a good human! In that way, my beliefs of society’s morals are stronger than ALL religious people since I never had to read a book to learn the morals, I learnt them on my own!… I do good things, I help others – why? NOT because I want to get closer to god (as in Sikhism) or because I’m scared of going to hell. I do good deeds and try to avoid hurting others simply because of the sake of others and I care about the morals of society!”
(abandoned private blog)

“There is NO way I can handle it being kept inside of me – imagine what it will be like in a few years! This utter despise of it will just increase EXPONENTIALLY – no exaggeration here!
I realized something else – I NEVER read a single holy book, but I still know the morals of society. Where did that come from? Was I BORN knowing those morals? Although I’m starting to DISBELIEVE in the morals of society – I believe the impulse not to do bad comes from the CARING INSTINCT for others we all have inside. Religion is simply a way to evilly manipulate those people whose caring instincts are HIDDEN inside due to events in their life. Those people do bad because their caring instincts are hidden, and religion actually makes them do WORSE since religion makes people self-centered.
I now believe that we are all born with a BLANK mind and as we grow, we are influenced by events and people.”
(abandoned private blog)

August 11, 2006, age 15 years 5 months
“I hate my parents in the religious field. No, don’t get me wrong – I do thoroughly appreciate what all they have done for me other than that, but if the religion thing comes up, they just say that I don’t appreciate anything and that I’m spoiled and a conceited snob and all that crap!
I then get enraged, which is proof to them that I don’t appreciate what all they’ve done. I will say that I love them except when it comes to religion – I frickin’ hate them then! I guess I have mixed feelings, but religion is the ONE and ONLY thing I get infuriated at.
I have absolutely NO tolerance for those who assume I take things for granted! FUCK ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now my parents will go, “See? That attitude is exactly what I’m talking about. That childish, immature behavior is just so typical of you.”
Can you imagine what my rage would be like then! Every day, every minute, every second I have to restrain myself with GREAT difficulty to avoid hacking half of my hair, then they frigging call me selfish!
I feel horrible again, I hate life. Seriously, I don’t see much reason for living. Oh wait, I am strong because I am an atheist.”
(abandoned private blog)

August 26, 2006, age 15 years 6 months
“Also I criticize my beliefs all the time, I’ve discovered something else. I used to wonder – where do these ETHICS come from? Are we born with them or are they implemented in us? The answer is that ethics come from the CARING instinct we ALL have. Even a tiny ANT will DEFEND another ant because we all have an instinct to protect others of our own species. That is from where human ethics come from.

But there are people who due to a bad past, etc. – their caring instinct is HIDDEN, and then religion is using the idea of god punishing them to SCARE them out of DOING WRONG. But the truth is that religion makes them corrupt, so THAT is why we NEED a government to enforce the law and try and stop wars.”
(email message)

August 28, 2006, age 15 years 6 months
“I refuse to conform to one person’s rules unless there is a good, solid reason behind it. It is called dictatorship otherwise – I follow the law because several people have gone through each legislation twenty times and have good reasons for it. I think it is stupidity when you do something without any good reason for it.”
(email message)

September 2, 2006, age 15 years 6 months
“I am an atheist, and I always considered myself strong because I don’t rely on a god, I rely on myself. But these last few weeks, I’m down and I NEED to crutch on a god, and that’s when I let my imagination go wild and then I am a theist temporarily. I feel tremendous relief when believing that there is a god who loves me and all, but then my evangelical atheist takes over and tells me that I am being weak by relying on a god. I’m sort of confused over what to do over this. I guess my main question is – am I strong enough to take over this without clutching on a mythical puppet maker creature??”
(email message)

November 19, 2006, age 15 years 9 months
“What caused god? Then you can follow that back as many levels as you like; it is a never-ending question. I think it makes more sense to stop and say matter is eternal, instead of jumping to the idea some mysterious ghost created it. Why does god have to be the only thing that “wasn’t created”? The laws of thermodynamics state that matter cannot be created or destroyed also. The matter in the universe, in some form or the other, had to be eternal; the Big Bang was when it started to expand into the universe it is today. As for what caused the Big Bang, the answer is still a mystery, but I would rather leave the first mystery open to new answers, rather than solving it with another mystery (How did god come about?).”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post)

November 20, 2006, age 15 years 9 months
“In short, the answer [as to where morals come from] is a rationality between animals who understood they weren’t to harm each other, etc. unless for a valid reason. That basic morality got more and more complex as the creatures evolved into more intelligent beings. (Also, I think most theists have become so dependent on their god-based morality that they cannot imagine being moral without the guidance of an archaic book.)”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post)

December 15, 2006, age 15 years 9 months
“The difference between hell and the 20-year-sentence is that hell is for an eternity. Endless doom for a finite sin is infinitely injust. No god would allow scorching forever, for an eternity, all because man committed a sin. Do you not realize how injust putting people in an eternal hell for a limited sin is?”
“That’s begging the question, a logical fallacy. You assume your god created the world, then you say, “It’s here, which proves what I assumed.” I could also say, “Brahma created the world, so we don’t have any excuse to deny his existence. It’s obvious he exists since he created the world and the world clearly exists.”"
(RRS forum posts)

December 16, 2006, age 15 years 9 months
“A hard atheist does not claim to have absolute certainty of the nonexistence of god. Please study a bit about atheism. In fact, I could ask you the same thing: isn’t it arrogant to say that you as a human has searched the entire universe and has found some evidence of god? Or if you haven’t found any evidence of god but still believe in him, that’s almost the same thing as believing in fairies.”
“I strongly do not believe a god exists, but I can’t know there isn’t one. And, yes, there are two main categories of atheist – strong atheists disbelieve in the existence of a god, weak atheists have a lack of theistic belief.”
(RRS forum post)

January 4, 2007, age 15 years 10 months
“Yeah, I guess I started to question the govt the same way I questioned whether a god was necessary.
…since I’m both an anarchist and atheist, I’ve been thinking about morality… Here’s how I see it -
Past = property
Present = liberty
Future = life
Right is when you respect others rights, wrong is when you violate those.
You mess with me, you become a part of my past, you become my property, that’s why I can mess with you without justifying my actions (since I own my past). My worldview is – you don’t mess with me, I won’t mess with you. You attack me, you are giving me the right to attack you.”
(conversation)

January 5, 2007, age 15 years 10 months
“I was agnostic atheist for about 15 years. I now don’t believe there is a god not only because of a lack of evidence, but also because I think astronomy and flaws in religion show that god does not exist.”
(RRS forum post)

January 25, 2007, age 15 years 11 months
“I just think the world would be better without a government. I’m a moderate anarchist, not a deep one.”
(conversation)

April 2, 2007, age 16 years 1 month
“Reason is not an authority, it’s stupid to call it one.
An authority by most common definitions is a being that controls others. Reason is not a “being”; nor does it control anyone. Reason, or logic in this sense, is a tool to determine validity of arguments. …

The individual atheist may need an ethic, but atheism in common does not. Different atheists will have different sources for morality – some simply follow the law of the region they are in, some avoid violating other people’s ownership rights, some avoid hurting others. It differs for the individual atheist, but atheists don’t need a common code of ethics.”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post)

April 17, 2007, age 16 years 2 months
“Corporations are not involuntary. You choose which one you want. You choose Amazon or Ebay, whichever one you want…If a corporation goes corrupt when competing, it loses its employees and customers, and goes out of business. They have to stay as honest as possible in order to keep their customers.”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post)

April 20, 2007, age 16 years 2 months
“Voluntaryism, which states that relations between people should be mutually chosen, is one of the bases of anarchocapitalism. In a voluntary free market, both the buyer and seller are benefiting from the exchange since they mutually agreed on a price.
…Market anarchy makes room for all forms of government, as long as they are voluntary. If a person wants to be socialist or capitalist, collectivist or individualist, fascist or communist, there is nothing stopping the person from forming a community with like-minded individuals, as long as the person does not force other individuals into the collective. To put it simply: if a person wants or needs a leader, let him or her choose a leader.”
(sample article for journalism class)

April 23, 2007, age 16 years 2 months
“I’m not going to initiate force on anyone, I’ll only retaliate.
I don’t have a problem with hierarchies/govts as long as they’re voluntary and don’t force others.”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post)

April 24, 2007, age 16 years 2 months
“The court is privately owned and operated and the private individual maintains the employees that serve as the jury. If someone disagreed with the rulings they can try another court.”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post about anarcho-capitalist law)

May 4, 2007, age 16 years 2 months
“Let’s go on to consider some economics of the black market. If drugs are prohibited, that doesn’t change the public desire for them at all. If drugs become more rare to obtain, the prices go up, which leads to drug dealers profiting and drug addicts becoming more poor. On the other hand, if drugs were commonplace and legal, the prices would lower and it would give drug addicts more choices which leads to drug dealers competiting against each other for profit. This then leads to even lower prices and the poor can afford them more easily. Banning drugs is not going to change the desire or addiction from them in any way.”
(excerpt from sample journalism article attacking the war on drugs)

May 15, 2007, age 16 years 2 months
“Well people in a market anarchist society would have to be a bit more alert. And the same thing can happen today with government. Corporations can often cheat their customers especially if the customers are ignorant. And the government can only stop it once the government finds out (which would usually be when the customers find out). And in a MA the customers stop patronizing the business as soon as they find out it’s corrupt.,,,
And in a market anarchy if you don’t like it you can always move to a government-regulated island. Libertarian, fascist, communist, democracy, whatever form of government you want will probably be available in a market anarchy as long as it’s all voluntary.”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post defending anarcho-capitalism)

May 21, 2007, age 16 years 3 months
“I don’t really support separation of church and state being a full-fledged market anarchist (since I’d want both church and state taken down).”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post)

June 24, 2007, age 16 years 4 months
“I’ve read the first few pages of The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand. I already know the basics of Objectivism, but I felt like reading about it in more exacting detail. While I agree with the individualism that Objectivist philosophy promotes, I do not consider myself an Objectivist, mainly because of its hostility towards anarchy.”
(abandoned blog of mine)

July 9, 2007, age 16 years 4 months
“By far my favorite [argument for anarchism] is the equal rights argument. I find it funny that a lot of people agree that everyone is equal, yet fail to realize that equal rights means that there can’t be a ruler. If everyone is equal then a group of people ruling others is unjustified. And I like Spooner’s anti-democracy quote, “A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.”"
(FreethinkingTeens post)

July 14, 2007, age 16 years 4 months
“I’m somewhat stuck between anarcho-capitalism and agorism.”
(abandoned blog)

September 21, 2007, age 16 years 7 months
“I define a government as an organization that claims a territory for itself, and uses coercion to provide some services on a monopolistic basis. The State pretends to be of a different moral status than the rest of us, and immoral things such as stealing, kidnapping, and murdering are considered acceptable when done by the State (under the labels of tax, arresting, and war). Market Anarchists simply disagree, since we believe that these things are always wrong no matter who does them.
A Market Anarchist believes that the State is immoral because it uses coercion – it threatens to extort and kidnap (arrest) you if you don’t follow the rules it made up – and it is unnecessary because everything it provides can be done much better by the market, since the market is all about voluntary trade and respecting others’ rights.”

“My family is Sikh, but I was never religious growing up, and I became a strong atheist a few years ago, and it was primarily my atheism that led to my de-conversion to anarchism. Although over the months, I’ve gone from my rabid atheist self to a more detached, yet still dedicated atheist… ”
(emailed response to a proposed interview for HS newspaper)

December 26, 2007, age 16 years 10 months
“Individuals own themselves, ownership is absolute irresponsible dominion. Using coercion against anyone except in self-defense is unjustified because coercion goes against self-ownership. All governments, even minarchies, require coercion because – a government is a monopoly (if it wasn’t a monopoly it would be a market, which is the opposite of government), and a monopoly requires coercion against any competitors. Also, governments necessarily use coercion against the people they rule – taxation is coercion since if you don’t pay your taxes, you are jailed and if you resist in self-defense, ultimately you’re shot. Same with law, etc.”
(FreethinkingTeens forum post)

January 12, 2008, age 16 years 10 months
“If the State does something that would be immoral if done by other people, the State is evil, and if it does something that would be moral if done by other people, the State is unnecessary…
I’ve noticed that every objection to MA or argument for statism fits in either one of those categories. Taxes-are-necessary in the first category, the-State-builds-roads in the second, etc.”
(forum post)

March 13, 2008, age 17 years 0 months
“Gold was found to be rather dangerous to carry around, due to its weight and value.
So people would store their gold with goldsmiths, who would then issue a paper receipt. If you got a receipt for 2 gms of gold, you could redeem the receipt for 2 gms gold.
That is the origin of paper currency.
But some goldsmiths started printing out extra receipts for gold that did not exist. He could simply increase his profits by printing out more receipts and lending them out, and earning extra interest.
If a grain warehouse lent out more grain than they had in store, that would be considered fraud. Yet it’s considered perfectly okay when the State banks do it.
This system evolved into Fractional Reserve Banking (The word “Fractional” is because they really have a fraction of the money they “lend” out).”
(draft of a presentation explaining market anarchism to economics class)

March-April 2008, age 17 years 1 month
“Theft is taking away of property without consent of the rightful owner. Property is that which is owned. Ownership is absolute, irresponsible dominion. If a person owns an object, he and only he has absolute dominion over it, which means he can do anything with it. A person who justly owns a car is justified in burning it even if others disagree. If an individual wants to grant ownership of his house to someone else, he may justly do so by any mutually voluntary means such as exchange or gift, after which he no longer owns it (Rothbard and Hoppe).”
(senior project paper debunking intellectual property)

[still going to look around for quotes from 2008, 'cause you can tell a big change. When I find them I'll put them here.]

November 22, 2008, age 17 years 9 months
“I’ve mostly abandoned concepts like self-ownership and voluntaryism, and I’m willing to work with left-anarchists and try and find a compatiblistic point. I’m not a left-wing anarchist or a right-libertarian, I’m exploring and combining viewpoints.”
(message)

December 20, 2008, age 17 years 10 months
“I am still pro-free markets, but I don’t have any problem with voluntary labor unions and syndicates emerging alongside private businesses. I find that most of the issues between different anarchists tend to boil down to semantics. Socio-anarchists promote mutual aid, which is really no different from an-cap style voluntary cooperation, for one…

I am always changing, and discovering new things and ideas and abandoning old ideas that I previously held dear, but these are my ideas for now.”
(message)

January 30, 2009, age 17 years 11 months
“The other night in a discussion I realized that there is a difference between de facto ownership and de jure ownership of an idea (the latter of which is what anti-IP people including myself, are against). When you have the idea in your head and have not given it out, you have de facto ownership of it as you are the only one who knows of it, and the idea cannot actually be manifested without a physical holder. But you definitely do not have any de jure ownership of the idea, either when you haven’t given it out, or whether you have.
And I wouldn’t say ideas and art are property, it’s the physical manifestation of those that is property.”
(BureauCrash Social forum discussion on intellectual property)

February 10, 2009, age 17 years 11 months
“In brief – might is what determines the situations, which determines the most useful/moral action. It can be a good idea to pay your taxes because the State threatens you, so in a way the “might” determines what you should do. But “might” does not justify the actions of the State, it only determines what is best for you. It only determines the situation. So yes, might does totally make right in a sense. There’s a difference between “might makes right” and “might IS right.” Might makes right, because might determines the situations you are stuck in, which in turn determine what you should do.”
(conversation)

February 14, 2009, age 17 years 11 months
“I find [self-ownership] to be just as meaningless as I’ve found the individualism/collectivism