Category: Religion

Yup, Joe Dirt thinks about this from time to time.

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The God Virus by Darrel W. Ray

God virusWhen folks ask me about my religion I have a tendency to tell them that I was raised Southern Baptist, but I am much better now. If I am in an even more playful mood I might tell them I am a Born Again Agnostic. If I am really feeling like a stinker I tell them I belong to the Church of Later Day Hedonist, and we meet every Friday down at Joe’s Bar and Grill, please join us for evening services.   Depending on the person it is either a conversational stopper or elicits a laugh and may lead to more conversation. If I am being a bit more serious I describe myself as agnostic. I choose this appellation mainly because militant atheists bother me as much as evangelic Christians or jihadists Muslims. I would like to think that what I believe is most likely true, but ultimately the answer to the god question is unknowable. I have a B.S., but no matter how much science you throw at it, the mere existence of the universe blows my mind.

It is not original with me, but I have been saying for years that religion was a form of mass psychosis. Psychosis being defined as a mental illness whereby the sufferer loses touch with reality.

Along came Dawkins, Blackmore and others Continue reading “The God Virus by Darrel W. Ray”

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Jon Stewart weighs in on the Bill Maher and Ben Affleck flap

stewart-religion-300x239Humanity Will Always Live in Chaos as Long as Organized Religion Persists

He absolutely read my mind:

“Organized religion is the worst thing that’s ever happened to human kind.

All organized religion does is provide a tool for those in power to manipulate millions to act against their own self interests. Which is exactly what you see in Christianity and Islam. People in power, using religion, to get people to act like absolute fools. People living their lives under the control of religious rules that are derived by some human’s interpretation of something they read in a book.”

I do not have a problem with faith, just how it has be kidnapped by the power structure.  I perfectly okay if you want to dance naked around a 10 foot statue of G.I. Joe.  But please to not hand me a glass of your Kool-Ade or force me to dance.

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Ben Affleck, Sam Harris, Bill Maher and Islam

I really did not know a lot about Ben Affleck before this, but after watching this episode of Bill Maher I lost a lot of respect for him. He did what a lot of folks seem to do on these types of shows, rather than reason and debate, he was loud and obnoxious in an attempt to make a point.

I am secular and I have a hard time with most religions, but Islam in particular (at least as portrayed by our media). The main reason being is the few Muslims I know personally seem like good and reasonable people. They seem to love and believe their faith as much as any Baptist from Oklahoma. In an attempt to understand the religion that is so much in the news these days I have read a couple books about Islam. At the core Islam seems full of love, care and kindness for fellow humans. I know that the Islam religion as practiced early was very tolerant of other religions.   The Islam that seems to predominate today is one of the fundamentalist ilk that does not seem to very tolerant of some very basic human rights. It seems like separation of church and state is a goal to avoid. The religion I see on the news is not tolerant of different points of views. It appears to me that much of strife in the world currently comes from the Muslim arena.

The message that Christ preached was full of love, caring and kindness also. Something seems to happen when religions move pass this “Golden Rule” core. The history of all the Abrahamic religions is not pretty. It is one of strife, conquering, destruction, intolerance and murder all the way to genocide. The history of the Catholic Church is very troubling.

My basic point of view is that life is tough, so whatever gets you through the day is fine with me as long as you don’t want me to drink your Kool-Aid. I try to be tolerant of religion, but some days I just want to scream. I really do believe that the world would be a far better place if all religions would go away. I also realize that humans have a spiritual need. I just wish there was something else besides the bloody, intolerant Abrahamic religions to fill this need for the 2 or 3 billion individuals that follow these religions.

Oh well. Here is the video. It does not even include the worse of Ben Affleck’s rants.

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The Myth of the Shattering of the Vessels

I heard this Jewish traditional myth about the Hidden Light on Kristen Tippet’s NPR show On Being.   So I went looking for it on da’ net as it was such a wonderful concept and a cc_loot_du_jourwonderful way of looking at other souls.

On the website Tikkum I found the following article How the Ari Created a Myth and Transformed Judaism

An excerpt:

“How is it that a concept rooted in medieval Jewish mysticism has so endeared itself to contemporary Jews? In order to understand this unlikely development, let us first consider the myth itself, known as “The Shattering of the Vessels” (shevirat ha-kelim).

At the beginning of time, God’s presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring this world into being, to make room for creation, He first drew in His breath, contracting Himself. From that contraction darkness was created. And when God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), the light that came into being filled the darkness, and ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial light. Continue reading “The Myth of the Shattering of the Vessels”

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My Path to Atheism by Annie Besant

A more descriptive title for this book for today might be My Path from Christianity to a New Age Religion.pathatheism_1311

Ms. Besant had a well documented intellectual journey from evangelical Christianity to Victorian Atheism to Theosophy.  Quoting from Wikipedia defining theosophy:

“Theosophy refers to systems of esoteric philosophy concerning, or investigation seeking direct knowledge of, presumed mysteries of being and nature, particularly concerning the nature of divinity.

Theosophy is considered a part of the broader field of esotericism, referring to hidden knowledge or wisdom that offers the individual enlightenment and salvation. The theosophist seeks to understand the mysteries of the universe and the bonds that unite the universe, humanity, and the divine. The goal of theosophy is to explore the origin of divinity and humanity, and the world. From investigation of those topics, theosophists try to discover a coherent description of the purpose and origin of the universe.”

Reading her book I was never convinced she was an atheist in the modern sense of the word, a rejection of belief in deities.  What she was rejecting was Christianity, Continue reading “My Path to Atheism by Annie Besant”

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Egypt – The Withering of the Arab Spring

egypt As an outsider looking in at the situation in Egypt it is very confusing.  I am going to explore my thoughts via this piece.  It would be appreciated if anyone who  had thoughts on this would comment.  It just seems like awful conflict with both sides wrong.

First allow me to admit that most of my news comes from NPR.  While many folks rant about NPR’s “Liberal” slant I find it one of the few news sources without a large bias.  So many of the news sources of our time are more opinion than news and/or have a definite bias. Since I almost never watch TV news, my other source of news is the Internet, so much of which must be taken with a grain of salt.  I do tend to browse the more liberal news/opinion sites.  To counterbalance this I do browse the BBC site almost daily to get a point of view from outside the United States.  On very rare occasions I will look at Al Jazeera site. Like most folks I am stuck in my bias silo, but I do attempt to make the occasional foray into other arenas of thought.

I have a love/hate relationship with my country.  Continue reading “Egypt – The Withering of the Arab Spring”