Machines

We are machines. Complex biological machines. The average number of heart beats for mammals is 1.5 billion per lifetime. No matter what size or shape of the mammal. Big mammals have lower heart rates. Small mammals have higher. This explains the difference in lifespans between species. There is also a cellular metabolic factor which is proportional to size.

The human heart beats a higher amount of beats than the average, due to the human ability to consciously intervene in our mechanical operation by modifying diet, exercise and intervening in disease with biochemicals and surgery.

Once we accept that we are indeed mortal, mechanical entities, we can exert ourselves even more diligently in extending our lifespan by taking active interest and precautions. We are not simply pawns of some deity or victims of some cruel Fate. Each of us is a machine with various strengths and weaknesses to be developed or compensated for. Our equality lies in this very common denominator.

Practice is the process of machine maintenance and improvement.

Atheism

There is a renewed interest in atheist thought after the domination and disastrous involvement of fundamentalist theism in world affairs over the past twenty years. Running to atheism from fanaticism may be seen as a polar reactionary step away from personal evolution. However, I would prefer to face a room full of angry atheists than a room full of religious fanatics of any stripe. I think my odds of leaving a room of atheists alive are much better. The key to atheism's eventual development into secular humanism is the individual person's acceptance that he/she has only this life to live for better or worse. This places the betterment of the human race on human, not divine, shoulders. My daily practice entails looking at each day as potentially my last chance to be the kind of human being I aspire to be in each moment as it comes.