Tag Archives: Religion

Oregon – 1 step forward & 2 steps back

Oregon is considering adding 2 items to the ballot this year.  1 is to allow non-heterosexual couples to marry, and the other is to allow bakers, florists, caterers, or any other business to discriminate against them under religious exemptions, in effect by stating that since their religious beliefs forbid gay & lesbian marriage, then they shouldn’t be forced to do business with them due to their religious beliefs.

If I were a retailer, couldn’t I use the same law to say that I don’t want gays & lesbians in my business?  If I were a developer or landlord, couldn’t I keep them out of my properties & neighborhoods?  And could a doctor refuse to treat them if they need emergency medical services?  What about keeping slaves, since the Bible, and therefore their religion condones slavery?  Acceptance of slavery is all over the Old Testaments & appears more than once in the New Testament as well.

If slavery is an antiquated Biblical idea that we’ve overcome, how about our negativity & discrimination toward gays & lesbians?

We can’t make laws to require everyone to come together as one in our society & care at least as much for each other as we do ourselves.  Besides being a hippie Utopian dream, we raise our young to be warlike, animalistic, reptilian-brained creatures who seem to have no compassion for anything but their own needs & desires, and we look at those ideas as being non-rewarding socialism unless we give it of our own volition in dribs & drabs of charity to make ourselves feel good, but we shouldn’t be making laws that continue to separate us from each other using standards applied unequally to segments within our society.  That is the definition of discrimination in a nutshell.

It’s hard to believe that in 2014, we’re still fighting that battle.  Besides, I’ve always said that gays & lesbians have the right to get married & be as miserable as the rest of us married people.

The 3 Commandments

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Forget the 10 Commandments — George Carlin has already downsized those to 2 anyway.  Here’s the 3 Commandments we Americans should adhere to — all Americans should have:

#1) Access to adequate & free medical care, regardless of income level.  Sure, those with money will have access to faster & better care, but that’s capitalism.

#2) Adequate & safe minimum free housing, if they can’t afford it.  Not slums, but decent accommodations.

#3) Free adequate & nutritious food, should they not be able to afford it.  Nobody in America should be starving or malnourished, but it’s happening.

I’m not saying they should live like kings, but they should have safe & adequate medical care, housing & food free of charge to some degree.

If they’re sheltered & working, whether in a rusty trailer, an old apartment, a suburban home or a mansion, they should have access to free basic medical care paid for by our government.  No, it might not performed by the greatest specialists in the world, but it’s adequate medical care & they should be able to get what they need, including any medicine or surgical procedure in a timely manner.

If they NEED shelter, whether working or not, they should have free (if unemployed) or low-cost access (if employed) to at least an apartment or trailer that provides the minimum adequate shelter for their family size, i.e., 2 people per bedroom & 3 people per bath.  I’m not talking about a high-rise condo or a home in your neighborhood (NIMBY, you know), but safe & adequate shelter somewhere, paid for by our government via our taxes, and also subsidized by deleting unnecessary government programs & other political “pork” projects that serve to help no one but the rich & privileged, who don’t need our help at all.  I’ve been a long-time advocate for a bipartisan government agency that is given a mandate to delete a certain portion of Federal spending each year.

If they don’t have food, they should have access to getting free meals when needed.  I’m not saying steak & or a premium vegan menu, just adequate nutritious hot meals 3 times a day.

Why?  Because we’re all in the same boat.  We’re all human, and we’re all Americans.  We all have compassion in our minds, but we seem to oppress it as much as possible.  “Hmmm”, as The Church Lady might have once said: What would Jesus do?

How do we pay for all this?  Simple — downsize the overblown military starting first with their ridiculous defense spending (we have more military spending than the next 10 kazillion countries combined) & their overblown worldwide presence (we don’t need air bases in many of these places we have them, including many in America); cut out all the “political pork” programs we subsidize annually (mostly hidden inside of bills that have nothing to do with them); heavily raise taxes on the wealthy & on corporations & remove their tax breaks that limit that tax; nail the large estates (I say that’s those over $2 million) with a hefty estate tax & disallow all the breaks they use to get out of it; levy a small flat minimum tax on all religions (I know — separation of church & state, but I can dream, can’t I?); eliminate the subsidies & expenditures we make for people & programs that obviously don’t need it (we have a National Helium Reserve that’s costed us billions that they’ve been trying to delete for appx 20 years now with no luck); and eliminate all those gov’t agencies that employ people with overblown salaries who do pretty much next to nothing but live off the gov’t teat, the same teat they don’t want the poor to partake upon.  And a final salvo the GOP-ers will like — pay the Earned Income Credit in 12 monthly checks instead of a big check they simply blow once a year — look at all the interest the gov’t will make floating it for a year.

After all, isn’t all of this what Jesus would do?  Funny how the right-wing chooses which of Jesus’ teachings to adhere to.  Of course, that assumes he really existed in the first place.  If he did, how come The Jerusalem Times (of that day) had all kinds of contemporary news reports & special editorials about all the other figures of history in that time, yet nothing about Jesus until 40 years after he allegedly died?  That’s a whole other blog entry.

Losing my religion

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Most Gen-Xers know the song “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M., and many thought it actually had something to do with religion & an individual parting from it.  However, it’s merely an old Southern term for a person about to get really angry, but in this case, I’d like to use it literally . . .

To believe in things like ghosts, angels & divine miracles, you’d have to believe in an afterlife in which we flourish, or at least exist on some level other than as worm food or ashes, and I (and many other intelligent people) don’t believe this as it’s a totally ridiculous premise not backed by the facts as we know them, and to believe in something (to “have faith”) against known facts is foolish.

There’s absolutely no empirical evidence that an afterlife exists, which is why you have to have “faith” that it does contrary to all the known evidence & facts we have. If there were a God who was all-knowing and all-powerful, surely he (or she — I doubt it’s a woman as I’m not the first to point out that a woman all-mighty deity wouldn’t screw things up this badly) would not leave us guessing as to whether he (or she) exists and would let us know in no uncertain terms.

Of course, other than the fact that He hasn’t shown his cards to us ( or not yet as the faithful will say), you could argue we don’t know if there’s an afterlife or not, which would fall into the realm of Agnostics, who you might say are those that are too scared to admit that there is no afterlife and prefer to sit on the fence for various reasons (fear, doubt & theory all come to mind) rather than take a position and be Atheists.

Most people want to find a reason to blame things and not take responsibility for their own fate and pawn it off to some unknown deity who controls it, like if He (or She) exists, our alleged supreme being has time to deal with every picayune issue on this planet considering that we have many billions of galaxies full of many billions of planets out there, all of which he allegedly created, and keep in mind that some people don’t even believe the Earth is more than 6,000 years old!  

Religion is for the weak, the ignorant, and those who make money from it.

As The Rev Charles once said, Luke is — not from New Jersey

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Let’s start this with something the far right can understand and appreciate — biblical scripture — Luke 9:51-56: “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.  And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.  But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.  And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’  But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’  And they went to another village.”

What this says to me is liking or hating anyone simply based upon their beliefs, race, or being different in any manner that they cannot change is prejudicial & wrong — end of discussion.  I know that religious beliefs can be changed, but that doesn’t mean they should be changed simply because they don’t agree with yours.  Heck, in my opinion, the fact that you embrace religion at all is a negative to me, but I respect your right to be ignorant as long & deeply as you want.

The biggest problem I have with the far right is that they believe their religious beliefs & their use of them for personal/financial gain & human segregation is beyond reproach, including the use of them to align groups of people against each other socially & professionally. This type of behavior is just a stone’s throw from radical Muslims who kill people whenever their religion is “blasphemed” in their eyes, or Hitler Youth for that matter — the Jews of yesterday are the social/political critics & “deviants” of today.

Intolerance seems to be the theme in many religions & politics, which tends to go against the intent of the founders of them, like Jesus, who would surely abhor the bashing of those who don’t believe the same as he did.  This is a (surely fictional) being who helped the poor, walked among the lepers, and threw out the moneychangers, all ideas that today’s Christians & Republicans don’t embrace, which is the true meaning of the work “ironic” if you ask me.

I understand that people are passionate about their religious beliefs, but I’m not, and I don’t like the level of intolerance they invoke when confronted by people like me who do not believe as they do, labeling me as a hatemonger when I point out the fact that religion is simply unproven theory and that I have no respect for the idea of it.  I don’t hate them; I simply have no respect for their ideology.

I find it hard to discuss anything rationally or intelligently with most people on the far right, especially those who consider themselves highly religious. I don’t agree with speech that demeans a person or a particular group simply according to their race, religious choice (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, or nationality without regard for any other issue thereof, nor do I support any group of people or any person who holds those views, and I don’t believe (the fictional character of) Jesus would have either. People have been using certain archaic notions written in the Bible for centuries to justify their hate for various groups and it will probably never end.

It’s a different matter entirely to not like an idea that is detachable from a person vs not liking that a person is gay, or black, or some other condition that they can’t & shouldn’t change.

The part of Tim Tebow will be played tonight by Satan

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Tim Tebow is a loser and always has been a has-been. He’s the epitome of the Christian Right-Wingers whose holier-than-thou attitude is nothing more than wolf’s suit made of sheep’s wool.  The only reason people didn’t notice in college is because mediocrity can survive there, but once you get into the NFL with the adults, it’s a whole different game with different rules, as the Pat Sullivans and Ryan Leafs & Todd Marinovichs of the world found out, just like little Timmy found out.

If the guy was really a team player like he claims to be, he’d work on assuming a different role on the field, maybe as a gadget player, a slotback/pass option player, a tight end, whatever it takes to makes the squad & contribute positively, which he said he would do when he joined the Pats, but he says he only wants to play the 1 position he can’t play well — QB.  The guy is delusional — the rest of the league has already figured him out rather quickly & he was one of the worst passers ever, and the stats don’t lie.

He’s not nearly as good at fooling the NFL at QB as he is at fooling the religious right & snagging $50,000+ per speaking engagement. He invented “tebowing” as a marketing ploy — the guy is actually Satan in disguise — Tim is the character in the movie “The Dead Zone” who tries to become President & ends humanity by pushing the button while everyone’s drinking his Jim Jones-brand of Kool-Aid, but Christopher Walken (played by Nick Saban in this cerebral script treatment of mine) steps in & says “screw you, Tim Tebow, and Roll Tide, you MF-er”, and then Tim’s on the cover of TIME holding up a baby as a shield. That’s the real Tebow, and “only time will tell” as the band ASIA once sang decades ago.

What gets me is that the Jacksonville Jaguars owner isn’t smart enough to realize that hiring Tebow at QB couldn’t make things any worse than they already are for them (4-12 in 2013), and the attendance & resulting merch sales would go sky-high.

If Tebow is #2 on Olbermann’s World’s Worst list any night, then Shahid Khan, the stupid owner of the Jags, is #1 every night.

Paranoia or not?

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Humor me for a minute . . .

What if I told you that I believe there’s a man who’s watching me all the time, no matter what I do.  I can’t shake him out of my mind as I’m always thinking about him & what he’s doing, and I’m sure he’s infatuated with what I’m doing & sees my every move.  He doesn’t show his face, he doesn’t call me or give me any overt signs that he’s doing this, though sometimes I feel he is & I sometimes see signs of his trying to communicate with me non-verbally (though sometimes I hear his voice), but I feel and I see the results of his stalking, subconscious personality in my own eyes and deep within my psyche.  I have no proof that he’s doing this and I don’t even know who he really is and I can’t even proof that he even exists with any physical evidence of it, but I’m telling you, this guy is watching me and I have faith in it, and what’s more, I’m absolutely certain that he’s guiding my thoughts & actions & heaping sorrow or joy upon me in seemingly random fashion like he has a voodoo doll of me, strictly based upon whether he feels like doing it or not; you might say at his will & whim.  I’ve whispered & even yelled at him & I get no physical or verbal response from him, and sometimes I feel like he’s gone, then sometimes I feel he’s not, that’s he’s there & in total control of me, protecting & guiding me, and I feel he will always be there even after I die, that he will control me & my thoughts throughout eternity.

Sounds like I’ve lost my mind, right?  What if I told you I thought it was an old white man — would that help or hurt?  You’d think I’m really nuts, right.

But if I tell you that this person is God, all of sudden, it seems rational to you.  But why?

My question is, if you had not ever been exposed to religion & had grown up to rationalize your existence & your fate on your own, wouldn’t you think this was nuts?

For a moment there, you weren’t thinking of religion, and in the context of this story, your “religious brain” didn’t exist for a little while & you used your rational thought to try and figure out why I seemed to be “insane”.

That’s what I’m thinking with all the people who say they are religious — they are totally insane, or they fail to use the brain that their God gave them.  Surely their mind knows that there is no evidence that there’s an afterlife or a supreme being/spirit, and if there is, there’s no way to obtain proof of it.  As George Carlin once said, the results we have here on earth are not worthy of the work of a supreme being who is all-wise, all-knowing & has mercy.

If there is a God who made us & all this, he surely simply doesn’t care to get involved except at random, at best.  Surely with all the billions and billions of planets out there to tend to, God has to be busy elsewhere most, if not all of the time.  Maybe this was just a science project of his that has continued to flourish unattended.  All you have to do is look at all the suffering & hate that permeates this world to know that if God does exist, it’s a hands-off approach at best.

“Miracles” are nothing more than fate/chance & have plenty of physical explanation behind them; at least they have no otherworldly explanation that they came true due to it.  Case in point — my wife’s purse fell off her closet shelf & somehow the strap caught the doorknob next to it & that’s where she found it hanging.  That probably wouldn’t happen again if she sat it up there & knocked off herself 1,000 more times trying to get it to catch the doorknob.  A miracle?  No — just luck, coincidence, nothing at all actually — it just simply happened.

And if there is a God, you won’t know until you die, and nobody has ever came back to tell us what it’s like.  If you’re thinking about the Jesus “story”, know that there are plenty of other religions that came before and after Jesus that purported to tell of a messiah sent to save everyone, and the first reports of Jesus came only some 40 years after his alleged death from someone who didn’t know him. When I found that out, I became extremely curious as to why the life or death of someone so great wasn’t even noted in his own lifetime/era?

Note that we have plenty of contemporary writings of other people who lived in that time, so people were writing things down then, although they didn’t have a ballpoint pen (or blog), and there are no writings about Jesus during his lifetime or in anybody else’s stories, at least those that were written during Jesus’ alleged lifetime.  There’s more evidence that Shakespeare exists & wrote all those plays than Jesus existed, and I highly doubt that as well (yes, I’m an Oxfordian).

We are all born atheists. It’s the stories we are told to believe as children that shape our beliefs and make us religious. We would have no need or desire for religion if it weren’t foisted upon us by our elders & the religious powers that be. We don’t need religion to be good to one another or show compassion. Being atheist helps you to understand what’s going on, that there are people & organizations who use religion to control and separate us. Atheists are smart people who use logic & common sense & are willing to take responsibility for their own actions and their own fate here on earth & don’t need to know or believe that there’s a higher power that’s doing that for them. They are brave people in that they don’t need the palliative psyche care that death is not the end, as they know that all we have is this life and we need to do better now.

When you get to the crossroads and find yourself choosing between theology & atheism, the facts & logic are all on the atheists’ side.  Being atheist, agnostic or non-religious doesn’t mean you aren’t a good person — it simply means that you don’t believe in the religious dogma of our existence or an afterlife.  A person can be kind, compassionate, trustworthy, righteous, charitable, loving, nurturing, happy — all things that are good — without religion.  The fact that religion has sold the opposite upon people is the travesty and why I’m so against it, that and that theology flies in the face of facts as we know them.

People ask why are we here and why does what we see exist, and refute any scientific reasoning of it. Scientists know based on factual study that the universe is expanding, which means that the universe we know began billions of years ago in what scientists term as the “big bang”. Yes, that’s a theory based on scientific evidence, but it beats a universe created by a white man in the sky somewhere. What created the white man? What happened before him, or before time & space began? These are questions we may never definitively answer, but throwing logic & science out the window and believing in something that makes no logical or scientific sense is an irrational 7 ignorant as it gets.

I prefer to believe that we all should help one another and I believe more in the faith of the goodness that is inherent in most of mankind that we can find love, happiness and help from our fellow travelers here on earth without a need to believe in stories written by people from 2,000 years ago who were ignorant to the basic principles & facts that we know today & who lived like many animals do now.

We don’t hold much of what people said as being relevant today only a generation or two ago — why should we believe & follow the words of people from 2,000 years ago?