"Will my non-swine flu vaccine work on the swine flu?
NO! Shut your hole, don't be so fuckin' stupid!
"Is it okay to eat bacon?"
Fer'christsake!
"I have some pork-belly futures?"
ARRRGGGGHHH!
"You know how some men are just pigs..?"
Oh man. Selling tickets to Euthanasia ought to be legal! I swear!
"I have faith that disease is caused by demons, will that help?"
Shut yer HOLE!
"Hey, it says in the Gospels.."
Shutthefuckup!
"One time Jesus cast demons into pigs, waitwaitwait, AND the Jews won't eat it! Co-incidence?"
(speechless)
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The Word
In the Beginning was the Word.
I think that here's a clue to the real meaning of religion that gets lost in the shuffle.
Two thousand years ago(a little less) the story of Jesus was a great leap forward in thinking.
As always, there are 'forces' allowing progress and 'forces' holding us back.(but from ''what " though?)
That's it though isn't it? We all live in the present and can look at 'mankind' or society through the eyes of an author of some book.
The forces keeping us back(from what?) are parental, the early mind-model that your mom and dad taught you. (Basically, 'here are our mind-models, slightly used, but servicable'.)
As you 'grow', battling through the 'hormone stage', being an organic 'model' too, with IT'S wants and needs, your streaming consciousness has to weed out the insane from the even more insane (sometimes such is 'free-will').
Think of it, if we imagine all the 'thoughts and ideas' of EVERYONE, what a stinky soup of boobs and cocks and hatred, lust and calculus and Jesus and magic and.. everything all mushed together.
In your streaming consciousness you, only you can make the decision to put all your money in an envelope and send it to me! (you have the ability!)
No, what I mean is that only you 'get to' build your mind-model as progressive, hopeful, forward-looking OR parental, harking back to mythological 'good ol' days'.
What I'm trying to say is that evolution has gone 'mental'(not insane) and 'the Word' is how we are trying to infect each other with the 'virus' of magical thinking or evolve our mind-models to embrace 'beyond religion'.
The Word, i.e. communication beyond 'mama said "be careful out there", is how we're evolving NOW.
But I think that the message from the past, the Old and New Testaments are crippling remnants of parental guidance gone wild, the path of the theist is a dead end, stuck in the duality that parents NEED to use as simple explanation to their children. A voice from the past.
If that means anything to you.
I think that here's a clue to the real meaning of religion that gets lost in the shuffle.
Two thousand years ago(a little less) the story of Jesus was a great leap forward in thinking.
As always, there are 'forces' allowing progress and 'forces' holding us back.(but from ''what " though?)
That's it though isn't it? We all live in the present and can look at 'mankind' or society through the eyes of an author of some book.
The forces keeping us back(from what?) are parental, the early mind-model that your mom and dad taught you. (Basically, 'here are our mind-models, slightly used, but servicable'.)
As you 'grow', battling through the 'hormone stage', being an organic 'model' too, with IT'S wants and needs, your streaming consciousness has to weed out the insane from the even more insane (sometimes such is 'free-will').
Think of it, if we imagine all the 'thoughts and ideas' of EVERYONE, what a stinky soup of boobs and cocks and hatred, lust and calculus and Jesus and magic and.. everything all mushed together.
In your streaming consciousness you, only you can make the decision to put all your money in an envelope and send it to me! (you have the ability!)
No, what I mean is that only you 'get to' build your mind-model as progressive, hopeful, forward-looking OR parental, harking back to mythological 'good ol' days'.
What I'm trying to say is that evolution has gone 'mental'(not insane) and 'the Word' is how we are trying to infect each other with the 'virus' of magical thinking or evolve our mind-models to embrace 'beyond religion'.
The Word, i.e. communication beyond 'mama said "be careful out there", is how we're evolving NOW.
But I think that the message from the past, the Old and New Testaments are crippling remnants of parental guidance gone wild, the path of the theist is a dead end, stuck in the duality that parents NEED to use as simple explanation to their children. A voice from the past.
If that means anything to you.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Spirituality EXACTLY = Mumbo Jumbo
I commented this piece to a Creationist who felt the need to call all 'seculars' hypocrites for not being religious yet being happy to take the day off, 'their' day off, to celebrate the birth of their Savior.
"You gripe about non-Christians commandeering your holiday for Jesus while denying that Jesus represents an abiding faith in God.
Hey, Jim, the Winter Solstice was celebrated since humans looked up at the sky and noticed that the Sun rises in a cyclical pattern ending/starting(or dying and being reborn), a natural end to the natural year followed by a natural beginning to a new year.
If people attributed this to an otherworldly consciousness and gave it spiritual meaning, Sun-worshippers(and I don't mean beach-goers) marked the occasion by feasting, celebrating the end of the natural new year(Solstice) and perhaps praying that the Sun would climb back from it's low points on the horizon, beginning a new year.
The Sun ALWAYS started it's climb back towards summertime BUT the Sun-worshippers didn't know that, they felt that if the Sun kept getting lower down, it would eventually disappear and the world would come to an icy end.
Every year, the Sun-worshippers' prayers were answered and the Sun climbed higher in the sky, starting it's 'journey' from farther north on the horizon.
This, after three days of no apparent 'movement'.
And you think that just because early Christians hi-jacked the Winter Solstice, the natural New Year, to celebrate, not the Sun's rebirth, but your Messiah's birth instead, that we ought to just take your word that Christmas ought to be celebrated by everyone who ought to acknowledge your Messiah?
Then you, being totally ignorant of the Sun's apparent movement at the horizon, dawning at a different location, in a cycle, EVERY MORNING, you feel you have a right to call us hypocrites?
Well, I guess your religious brain-washing is complete if you have no idea of the importance of the Solstice to 'early man' as an unexplained natural phenomenon promising another growing season.
So, you see, it's not so much that people are 'hypocrites' as much as you are ignorant.
But, since you read this, you're no longer ignorant, are you? You can put it down to 'you learn something new every day' and throw the 'Christmas hypocrites' argument in the toilet. "
Anyway it got me to thinking that there were likely people celebrating the Winter Solstice putting perhaps a much MORE religious spin on it than others and some who were actually just in awe of nature and the inexplicable Sun cycles of the World (the cycles are created by the motion of the planet).
For some it would be a grand feast with a primitive lesson in astronomy for the children to pass on generation after generation but for others it would be thought of as communication with the gods, pleading for the Sun to bring the World back to life, a very spiritual thing.
Using the spiritual idea to their advantage, shamans, priests, religious leaders would tend to control their flocks by persuading them that they were in communication with the spirit that controlled the apparent movement of the Sun through the year.
They would ritualize the Winter Solstice celebration pretending (confusing themselves?) that THEY, the priests, were in communication with, controlling the gods/spirits/God, or at least attempting such control, when IN FACT they were actually controlling their population, convincing their followers that THEY(the priests) had occult knowledge/spirituality.
Christians were well aware of the power of spirituality to control the population/pray to God.
Priests were the keepers of knowledge and the arbiters of goodness in a largely ignorant World and they could hi-jack natural phenomena to their advantage disguised as spirituality.
(Say, "Hi!", to God for me oneblood, wherever you are.)
"You gripe about non-Christians commandeering your holiday for Jesus while denying that Jesus represents an abiding faith in God.
Hey, Jim, the Winter Solstice was celebrated since humans looked up at the sky and noticed that the Sun rises in a cyclical pattern ending/starting(or dying and being reborn), a natural end to the natural year followed by a natural beginning to a new year.
If people attributed this to an otherworldly consciousness and gave it spiritual meaning, Sun-worshippers(and I don't mean beach-goers) marked the occasion by feasting, celebrating the end of the natural new year(Solstice) and perhaps praying that the Sun would climb back from it's low points on the horizon, beginning a new year.
The Sun ALWAYS started it's climb back towards summertime BUT the Sun-worshippers didn't know that, they felt that if the Sun kept getting lower down, it would eventually disappear and the world would come to an icy end.
Every year, the Sun-worshippers' prayers were answered and the Sun climbed higher in the sky, starting it's 'journey' from farther north on the horizon.
This, after three days of no apparent 'movement'.
And you think that just because early Christians hi-jacked the Winter Solstice, the natural New Year, to celebrate, not the Sun's rebirth, but your Messiah's birth instead, that we ought to just take your word that Christmas ought to be celebrated by everyone who ought to acknowledge your Messiah?
Then you, being totally ignorant of the Sun's apparent movement at the horizon, dawning at a different location, in a cycle, EVERY MORNING, you feel you have a right to call us hypocrites?
Well, I guess your religious brain-washing is complete if you have no idea of the importance of the Solstice to 'early man' as an unexplained natural phenomenon promising another growing season.
So, you see, it's not so much that people are 'hypocrites' as much as you are ignorant.
But, since you read this, you're no longer ignorant, are you? You can put it down to 'you learn something new every day' and throw the 'Christmas hypocrites' argument in the toilet. "
Anyway it got me to thinking that there were likely people celebrating the Winter Solstice putting perhaps a much MORE religious spin on it than others and some who were actually just in awe of nature and the inexplicable Sun cycles of the World (the cycles are created by the motion of the planet).
For some it would be a grand feast with a primitive lesson in astronomy for the children to pass on generation after generation but for others it would be thought of as communication with the gods, pleading for the Sun to bring the World back to life, a very spiritual thing.
Using the spiritual idea to their advantage, shamans, priests, religious leaders would tend to control their flocks by persuading them that they were in communication with the spirit that controlled the apparent movement of the Sun through the year.
They would ritualize the Winter Solstice celebration pretending (confusing themselves?) that THEY, the priests, were in communication with, controlling the gods/spirits/God, or at least attempting such control, when IN FACT they were actually controlling their population, convincing their followers that THEY(the priests) had occult knowledge/spirituality.
Christians were well aware of the power of spirituality to control the population/pray to God.
Priests were the keepers of knowledge and the arbiters of goodness in a largely ignorant World and they could hi-jack natural phenomena to their advantage disguised as spirituality.
(Say, "Hi!", to God for me oneblood, wherever you are.)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Spirituality equals Mumbo Jumbo
I'm thinking that if you're a bullshitter you don't like to be CALLED on your bullshit.
"Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit."
Oh, well, guess that clears thing up. LOL
The English word "spirit" has many differing meanings and connotations, but commonly refers to a supernatural being or essence — transcendent and therefore metaphysical in its nature.
Really? I can't make up my mind if I'm being 'dazzled' or 'baffled' here.
Metaphysics, a branch of philosophy dealing with aspects of the ultimate nature of reality
Oh, I see, 'they' pretend to be doing a little dazzling AND a little baffling here, because following the word-trail Spirituality had to do with Metaphysics which is 'really' the study of spiritual things, isn't it? Let's see.
Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science.
So, spirituality is looking for a deeper understanding of reality, going beyond science then? How would one go about that?
Cosmology deals with the world as the totality of all phenomena in space and time.
Here we seem to be drifting away from spirituality all together.
Ontology is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations.
This branch of Metaphysics seems like a better lead to discover what spirituality is all about, yes?
After much hemming and hawing, ontologists ask, "Why does anything exist rather than nothing? (This overlaps with questions in cosmology.) "
But where is the elusive spirituality?
This drivel about cosmology and ontology seems to be going nowhere.
Let's backtrack.
Spirituality apparently concerns the supernatural which pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe.
Concepts in the supernatural domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality.
I see, so spirituality is a concept closely related to the supernatural and the supernatural is closely related to spirituality.
Ah yes, I see now, don't you?
"Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit."
Oh, well, guess that clears thing up. LOL
The English word "spirit" has many differing meanings and connotations, but commonly refers to a supernatural being or essence — transcendent and therefore metaphysical in its nature.
Really? I can't make up my mind if I'm being 'dazzled' or 'baffled' here.
Metaphysics, a branch of philosophy dealing with aspects of the ultimate nature of reality
Oh, I see, 'they' pretend to be doing a little dazzling AND a little baffling here, because following the word-trail Spirituality had to do with Metaphysics which is 'really' the study of spiritual things, isn't it? Let's see.
Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science.
So, spirituality is looking for a deeper understanding of reality, going beyond science then? How would one go about that?
Cosmology deals with the world as the totality of all phenomena in space and time.
Here we seem to be drifting away from spirituality all together.
Ontology is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations.
This branch of Metaphysics seems like a better lead to discover what spirituality is all about, yes?
After much hemming and hawing, ontologists ask, "Why does anything exist rather than nothing? (This overlaps with questions in cosmology.) "
But where is the elusive spirituality?
This drivel about cosmology and ontology seems to be going nowhere.
Let's backtrack.
Spirituality apparently concerns the supernatural which pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe.
Concepts in the supernatural domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality.
I see, so spirituality is a concept closely related to the supernatural and the supernatural is closely related to spirituality.
Ah yes, I see now, don't you?
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The 'thing' is...
The thing that I detest about the Bible is how it is used by the wealthy by the church to maintain their wealth.
Whether there is a 'baby' to 'throw out with the bathwater', as far as 'the spiritual' is concerned has NOTHING to do with the wealthy and the church 'scratching each other's back'.
The Bible tells two stories. The first is about how the status quo came to be and ought to be maintained by religion.
The Jews trace their heritage, their ownership of their land back to the beginning of time through their God, who is the ultimate owner of everything. HE had, and still has the right to give and take away. HE gave the Hebrews, the Israelites, the Jews that land and only HE can take it away.
This is the Conservative Christian rant. Thoughout history, monarchs have been saying that God gave THEM their kingdoms for them to do with as they pleased.(with HIS guidance, of course.)
But EVERY Conservative Christian has 'the right' to THAT rant, everyone has the right to stand tall and say solemnly, that God gave him/her everything that they own and that only God has the right to take it away.
The Old Testament is that story of God's Chosen People and their trials and tribulations to aquire and sometimes lose the land that God gave them.
The 'thing' is, that it is just not true. I'm not denying the fact that Israelites owned that land for a period of time. I'm not denying that their stories are based on historical truth, as they remember it, when it comes to owning and losing control of that land.
What I AM denying is all the magical thinking that interweaves the stories, justifying genocide of the other inhabitants of that land and justifying their never ending ownership of it, whether they control it now or not.
Here, it is obvious to me that Christians adopted this magical thinking attitude towards any lands and wealth that they have owned, own now, and any that they may own in the future.
"God gave us this land!" (implying that as God ordained land owners they ought to 'call the shots' for everyone ON that land.)
It automatically excludes all non-believers from calling the land, or any part of the land 'theirs', obviously because if God gives and takes away land then unbelievers have no rights to it!
As the New Testament story 'testifies', the Jews God-given land is under the iron grip of the Roman Empire and the believers in Yahweh have not been able to control their God-given land for hundreds of years, the Jews have to have gotten something wrong if God is not willing to send a Messiah to cleanse their HOLY land (which God gave them) of these hideous unbelievers.
The thing is that reasonable people, kings(politicians) and priests alike can see that the only thing they can do is allow the invincible Roman Empire to rule through THEM, trying to keep their culture alive.
The priests might preach a coming Messiah because religious hope(magical thinking) is 'undying' by nature, but that Messiah BETTER ACTUALLY have GODLY powers, not just powers of persuasion which might get the Jewish nation 'put to the sword'.
Still, the priests could not stop itinerant preachers from convincing some of the population that they had magical powers, in fact 'THE POWER OF GOD'!
The New Testament is the story of one such iterinant preacher who had thought it throigh that owning a piece of land could not be the magical-thinking reason for the religion since, while they were still religious, while they sitll had God's promise, they hadn't actually owned the land for hundreds of years. Jesus made the 'move' from God's promise being an actual piece of land to a promise of a spiritual kingdom that could NEVER be taken away.
This is what makes religion palatable to the masses. The poorest of the poor can believe that they have God's kingdom in their hearts.
The wealthy can, with the masses appeased, and the collusion of the church, believe that they have rightful authority over God's land, their land, given to them since the beginning of time to do with as they wish.
Whether there is a 'baby' to 'throw out with the bathwater', as far as 'the spiritual' is concerned has NOTHING to do with the wealthy and the church 'scratching each other's back'.
The Bible tells two stories. The first is about how the status quo came to be and ought to be maintained by religion.
The Jews trace their heritage, their ownership of their land back to the beginning of time through their God, who is the ultimate owner of everything. HE had, and still has the right to give and take away. HE gave the Hebrews, the Israelites, the Jews that land and only HE can take it away.
This is the Conservative Christian rant. Thoughout history, monarchs have been saying that God gave THEM their kingdoms for them to do with as they pleased.(with HIS guidance, of course.)
But EVERY Conservative Christian has 'the right' to THAT rant, everyone has the right to stand tall and say solemnly, that God gave him/her everything that they own and that only God has the right to take it away.
The Old Testament is that story of God's Chosen People and their trials and tribulations to aquire and sometimes lose the land that God gave them.
The 'thing' is, that it is just not true. I'm not denying the fact that Israelites owned that land for a period of time. I'm not denying that their stories are based on historical truth, as they remember it, when it comes to owning and losing control of that land.
What I AM denying is all the magical thinking that interweaves the stories, justifying genocide of the other inhabitants of that land and justifying their never ending ownership of it, whether they control it now or not.
Here, it is obvious to me that Christians adopted this magical thinking attitude towards any lands and wealth that they have owned, own now, and any that they may own in the future.
"God gave us this land!" (implying that as God ordained land owners they ought to 'call the shots' for everyone ON that land.)
It automatically excludes all non-believers from calling the land, or any part of the land 'theirs', obviously because if God gives and takes away land then unbelievers have no rights to it!
As the New Testament story 'testifies', the Jews God-given land is under the iron grip of the Roman Empire and the believers in Yahweh have not been able to control their God-given land for hundreds of years, the Jews have to have gotten something wrong if God is not willing to send a Messiah to cleanse their HOLY land (which God gave them) of these hideous unbelievers.
The thing is that reasonable people, kings(politicians) and priests alike can see that the only thing they can do is allow the invincible Roman Empire to rule through THEM, trying to keep their culture alive.
The priests might preach a coming Messiah because religious hope(magical thinking) is 'undying' by nature, but that Messiah BETTER ACTUALLY have GODLY powers, not just powers of persuasion which might get the Jewish nation 'put to the sword'.
Still, the priests could not stop itinerant preachers from convincing some of the population that they had magical powers, in fact 'THE POWER OF GOD'!
The New Testament is the story of one such iterinant preacher who had thought it throigh that owning a piece of land could not be the magical-thinking reason for the religion since, while they were still religious, while they sitll had God's promise, they hadn't actually owned the land for hundreds of years. Jesus made the 'move' from God's promise being an actual piece of land to a promise of a spiritual kingdom that could NEVER be taken away.
This is what makes religion palatable to the masses. The poorest of the poor can believe that they have God's kingdom in their hearts.
The wealthy can, with the masses appeased, and the collusion of the church, believe that they have rightful authority over God's land, their land, given to them since the beginning of time to do with as they wish.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Once upon a time..
Once upon a time there was a God who wanted to be worshipped by everyone.
HE chose the descendants of Abraham as his vehicle to enter into the minds of everyone in the world.
HE gave Moses the LAW, the first and foremost being that Moses people should not worship any other gods on pain of death.
Moses people believed God and would put any of their people to death for not worshipping the one true God.
When Jesus preached that he was the Son of God and allowed people to worship him, the priests of God convicted Jesus of blasphemy and had him killed.
The people who worshipped Jesus said that the priests who had Jesus killed were wrong because God had just forgotten to mention that He was more of a 'three-in-one' God.
God tricked the descendants of Abraham's people into thinking that HE was just the one God when HE was actually a 'three-in-one' God and used HIS chosen people to sacrifice the Jesus part of HIMSELF to show that HE was not just God of the Jews, but God of everyone.
HE chose the descendants of Abraham as his vehicle to enter into the minds of everyone in the world.
HE gave Moses the LAW, the first and foremost being that Moses people should not worship any other gods on pain of death.
Moses people believed God and would put any of their people to death for not worshipping the one true God.
When Jesus preached that he was the Son of God and allowed people to worship him, the priests of God convicted Jesus of blasphemy and had him killed.
The people who worshipped Jesus said that the priests who had Jesus killed were wrong because God had just forgotten to mention that He was more of a 'three-in-one' God.
God tricked the descendants of Abraham's people into thinking that HE was just the one God when HE was actually a 'three-in-one' God and used HIS chosen people to sacrifice the Jesus part of HIMSELF to show that HE was not just God of the Jews, but God of everyone.
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