Sunday Sermon.
There is an awesome process going on here. It's cyclical nature seems to be hinted at in all.We thinking beings noticed this by the seasons, the tides, the phases of the moon, the repetitive nature of life itself.
But we came to be thinking beings by being social beings, and societies have leaders, societies have authority.For us, it is only natural to assume that the cyclical process of the universe is run by authority.
If some of us call the process GOD, it is natural for us to anthropomorphize that process and have that process be 'the decider' of our fate.
There is NO appeal to this ultimate authority, which is fate. At the same time there is Earthly authority, natural authority that we can see in leaders of packs, herds and flocks of animals and birds, which I'm sure is an extention of the authority of parents.
BUT with religion, there can be an appeal to an organized 'reflection' of spiritual authority. With religion we can connect parental authority to 'fate' through a hierarchy which becomes it's own purpose.
This is a double edged sword as authority not only grants favors, it demands compliance, submission.
The idea is that, ONLY with submission, can come favors BUT as with all authority comes corruption and the authority becomes self-serving, loses its original purpose of 'peace and love to all mankind' to 'bring us together' and replaces that with "you must obey".
What we 'are obeying' here is someone's interpretation of 'that, that is good' corrupted to be, 'that that is GODLY'. The only trouble with this is that the process, or fate or God, is NOT fair, it is not necessarilly good. Authority is not necessarilly just.
Can't you almost hear the theists whispering, "YES, but OUR religion is the best model, the least corrupt, join us, join us..."
10 comments:
If god said it, it must be right.
But how can we be sure god said it ?
The Bible?
Who wrote the Bible?
God?
People?
People inspired by god ?
Oh...I see, god wrote the book, but he used ghostwriters.
Still, god wrote the Bible ?
Are you implying that Jesus is the equivalent of an anthropomorphized extrapolation of nature, in the form of Rod Blagojevich?
mac.. the word 'GOD' is just the answer to the question, "Why are we here?"
mac and Asylum Seeker.
Every booklet is simply the 'tradition' part of whichever religion we are discussing.
Jesus is simply a tradition. The stories include elements of what a god ought to be able to do. Water into wine, healing the sick, raising the dead etc.
The three in one God of the Catholics is the Father(ultimate authority, the process of the universe, fate), the Son,(tradition) and the Holy Ghost(believer's faith, the authority that the body of the church gives to believer's to believe).
Considering that Jesus is the exact same name as Joshua which means Savior, and they go to some length to disguise this*, there were probably several Jesus's at that time.
They translate Jesus as Yehoshua or Yeshua and tell us that it means 'God's help' or somesuch.
Similarly they tell us, when talking of myth that the Greek name Zeus is like his given name, but Zeus was just the ancient Greek name for God.(think Deus and such, ultimately meaning 'sky').
So,
Zeus wrote the Bible ?
Kinky shit, man ;-)
I agree...it's all a mind game with religion. I don't believe all people of religion are purposely playing this game, most are victims of the game.
I'm taking my ball and going home !
Yea, mac.
I don't know if 'victim' is the right word.
Social Christians get things to do, get things done for them and get and give support.
Society Christians(for the sake of distinction) would be 'well-off', small businessmen and such who hire the social Christians(they know who is naughty and who is nice) and they 'deal' with each other under the auspices of being religious.
We can picute a scene where the town drunk/wife beater gets a job after repenting muchly to the pastor, showing up in church, showing up at the food bank etc.
The pastor puts in a good word for him to prospective employers.
It's all very, in the name of GOD(the process of life) because the 'sinner' gets to repent to the community(church), gets forgiven(a job), but is under control of his new boss and the pastor. He is in submission.
It's a very social thing and I'm sure that if you want to get along in a small town, you pretty much have to be a member of the local church to 'get along', to take your place in the hierarchy, submitting to the law, the politicos, the clergy and the business.
"Can't you almost hear the theists whispering, "YES, but OUR religion is the best model, the least corrupt, join us, join us..."
posted by pboyfloyd at 11:15 AM on Dec 14, 2008"
Growing up in Jewish neighborhood (about 60%, with most of the rest Catholic), no Saturday (Shabbas) went by without one or two visits from earnest young men (never women in those days) wanting to engage in conversation to tell us "the good news" and, usually, to offer us a copy of the New Testament. My Catholic friends (mostly Italian) often remarked that they rarely made the (potentially dangerous) mistake of coming to their houses. Although this doesn't happen (at least to me) much any more, my wife, who is Lutheran, is constantly accosted by friends (?) and acquaintances wanting to show her the right way to be born again. This usually requires joining their church and, incidentally, leaving hers.
Does it occur to any of us that Christianity, at least in this country, suggests a huge Ponzi Scheme? It is probably true that most proselytizing occurs because the only affirmation that a believer can get is if everyone else agrees with their particular religious viewpoint, but, it seems to me, that there is also a need to replenish the supply of "sheep" in the Pastor's flock to maintain the flow of cash support and the supply of "rustlers" to go out and scare up some more sheep. (Pun intended)
Some Jehova Witness's used to come by at 10 on Wednesday mornings because I didn't 'actually' deter them and would give them coffee.
I 'argued' with them good naturedly to hear their 'position'.
Seems that they had a strategy to, first deny any problematic verses. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" for example.
Then, if you knew the verse ... 18.22 as I recall, they'd grandiously look it up in their 'true' version and hum and haw.
Ahhh.. not a witch, a sorceress! The fact that witchburnings were based on this snippet of 'God's truth' seems to be totally lost to them, hey, that was those darn Catholics.
We are, apparently, all supposed to imagine historical facts such as these to be the outcome of living in funny old times and having funny old ideas.
Incredible.
When the JW's climb up on my porch, I tell 'em,
"Get the fuck off my property!"
...the Mormons are incrementally less intolerable.
Some Jehova Witness's used to come by at 10 on Wednesday mornings because I didn't 'actually' deter them and would give them coffee.
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a few years ago while dating my wife I put out a Halloween display on my front porch that consisted of a barrier of police tape (friend on the force) a chalk outline on the concrete and a scattering of Watchtowers. She married me anyway - there is indeed a lid for every pot...
Pliny..
"I LIKE IT!"
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