Freethinker's corner

I will not go quietly into the night!

recent posts

about

  • Christianity is Anti-human

     

    Matthew 10:35-37

    “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

    And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

    He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

    Not exactly family oriented, Jesus made it clear that father and mother, son and daughter, were to be abandoned and despised.

    Matthew 8:21-22
    And another of his disciples said unto him, “Suffer me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said unto him, “Follow me and let the dead bury their dead.”

    Not only did he urge any who would follow to abandon family, even if they died, you were expected to ignore it.

    And certainly those who would visit the followers, or Jesus himself, from the family should not expect a warm welcome:

    Matthew 12:46-50
    While he yet talked to the people, behold his mother and brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, “Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with you.” But he answered and said, “Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, “Behold, my mother and my brethren! For whoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

    And there’s more anti-family statements:

    Matthew 19:29 (NIV)
    “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

    Luke 9:61,62
    Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good bye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

    Luke 14:26
    “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple.”

    The family is not all that popular for that true Christian, a follower of Christ that has been called to serve.

    That is not all that is suggested that followers should consider:

     

    Matthew 19:12
    “For there are eunuchs, that were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are eunuchs, that were made eunuchs by men: and there are eunuchs, that made themselves eunuchs [castrated themselves] for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”

    Is this Jesus’ concept of family planning? Leaves something to be desired.

    Free speech? Forget it:

    Mark 3:28-29
    “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”

    So, you can commit the most horrendous crimes, including murder and genocide, and be forgiven, but speak against one part of the Trinity, and you’ve had it buster!

    Women suffer greatly in this patriarchal oriented religion:

    1 Timothy 2:11-15
    “A woman should learn [from men] in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.”

    Keep thy place woman lest God smite thee!

    Humans’ are denigrated throughout the Bible. Human intelligence, and skills, even taking pride, are frowned upon.

    Psalm 118:8
    It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

    Jeremiah 17:5 (IV)
    This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

    Jeremiah 10:14,15
    The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power. Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.

    1 Corinthians 1:18-19 (NIV)
    For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

    What the fundies usually say is if you don’t believe, you can’t understand. This is used as an excuse when you have them on the ropes and they can’t come up with good sound arguments to counter yours. “You haven’t interpreted it properly” they cry. Interpretation is in the mind of the interpreter, this is why so many Christians have been prompted to commit hideous moral crimes by someone who has learned to manipulate them.

    Disabled? Forget it:

    Deuteronomy 23:1 (KJV)
    He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

    This seems to contradict what Jesus said about becoming a eunuch, but there are numerous contradictions throughout the Bible, and that is not what this blog is about.

    Slavery was presented throughout the Old Testament in a casual way, indicating it was an accepted practice. Even Jesus spoke of it:

    Matthew 24:45-51 (NASB)
    “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

    Children do not fare well in the Bible:

    Genesis 22:2 (NIV)
    Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

    At the last moment God announced he was just joking, and had commanded him to kill his son as a test of his loyalty.

    Genesis 38:7
    But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death.

    Proverbs 20:30
    Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being.

    Exodus 20:5
    “… for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”

    Exodus 20:29,30 (NIV)
    “You must give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day.”

    What the, are we talking sacrifice here? Human sacrifice?

    Deuteronomy 21:18-21
    If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of the town. They shall say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death...

    Gee, I can see all the Bible thumpers rushing to find quotes that contradict these, love to hear them. Contradictions prove that the Bible is flawed.

    Deuteronomy 2:34
    And we took all [Sihon’s] cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain.

    And the most famous one of all:

    2 Kings 2:23-24
    From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths    .

    All for just for stating the obvious.

    Want more, go here.

  • GOP Presidential Hopefuls Seek to Instill Christian Nation

         One name keeps coming up when “Christian Nation” is spoken in reference to todays GOP presidential hopefuls. That Name is David Barton. David Barton believes that the founding fathers established this nation as a Christian Nation and has twisted history in an effort to prove it. 

         Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, and Mike Huckabee all point to David Barton, describing him as the greatest historian of our time. David Barton claims that the founding fathers meant for America to be a Christian Nation and that our government should return to biblical principles.

         Mike Huckabee at the Rediscover God In America conference, stated that every American should be forced to learn from David Barton, at gunpoint, if necessary.

         Additional information on David Barton can be found here: slavery, here, and here.

         While no references to Herman Cain have been found in relation to David Barton in my search he has stated that everything should be based on biblical principles.

         David Barton promotes a “Christian Nation”, at least 3 of the presidential candidates for the GOP point to him as their historian of choice, exclaiming that he is the greatest historian of our time. This is adequate as proof that the GOP candidates desire to establish this country as a “Christian Nation”. In reality this means that these candidates would not serve the people, but instead, will serve what they see as a higher authority. In essence, the Christian religion, read church, will be in charge of national and international policy.

  • The End of Freedom of Speech, Religion

         There are many Americans that would like to convert the United States into a Christian Nation. Many falsely claim that it was established as a Christian Nation to begin with and has changed.

         Those who founded this nation from the beginning clearly meant it to be a secular state, totally neutral in religious matters. From the lack of the mention of a God in the Constitution, to the famous letter which is often quoted “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.” This treaty was signed in 1796. Note that it says states plural, all inclusive.

         “Thomas Jefferson made an interpretation of the 1st Amendment to his January 1st, 1802 letter to the Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association calling it a “wall of separation between church and State.” Madison had also written that “Strongly guarded. . . is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States.” There existed little controversy about this interpretation from our Founding Fathers.”

         From the beginning the Constitution has been attacked by theists who were dead set against the government being neutral in religious affairs. This battle continues today with politicians vying to be the most religious. Individuals like Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich, advocate mixing government with religion, using Biblical law, rather than man’s law.

         There are many who state that the restrictions on government in respect to religion only apply to the federal government. This would allow each state to establish it’s own state religion. Logically speaking, this would violate the guarantee of freedom of religion and speech for anyone who did not accept the precepts of the prevailing religion. Also, there would be no guarantee that only Christianity would establish such a state, but by gaining a majority in time, an Islamic state could be established as well. If the states could establish their own religious law applicable to those residing there how could the Federal government guarantee the right of Freedom of religion and speech for the individual?

         The pre-eminence of Federal law over State law is now well established. More so after the Civil War than before. For the United States to simply become a collection of a non-cohesive group of individual states would mean an end to Freedom of speech, freedom of religion.

         I have written on this topic before, but recent events make it necessary again. Both in the news and in exchanges I have had online, certain people of a certain religious persuasion seem intent on eliminating the concept of “Separation of Church and State” , and instituting a sectarian government.

  • The Stolen Holiday

    Pre-Christian peoples suffered greatly when the sun took it’s southern trek each year, they had to live on stored food and whatever they could find during that time of the year. Not understanding why the sun took it’s yearly trip they feared that it might never return and that they would be relegated to eternal darkness. The actual Solstice occurs yearly around the 22nd of December, the people, however, could not really see that a return of the sun was occurring until about the 25th. A yearly celebration of it’s return was timed for this day.

    Christianity, a relative newcomer to the scene, desiring to convert pagan peoples, adopted the day of the Solstice Celebration for their own holiday around the 4th century, as a celebration of Jesus’ birth. Before the 4th century Christianity did not even celebrate the birth of Jesus, as such celebrations, as the birth of an individual, was considered pagan. The fact that there was absolutely not a shred of evidence for Jesus’ birth occurring at this time was immaterial to them, just as the fact that there is no evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus is immaterial to Christians of today.

    Much of today’s Christian Celebration is of Pagan origin. The use of holly, mistletoe, Yule logs, wassail bowls, and the decorating of a tree are all of Pagan origin. The Roman holiday celebration called the Saturnalia, where an exchange of gifts occurred as well as visiting with friends,  was also assimilated into the Christian celebration.

    Why should peoples of today continue the Christian deception? Why not celebrate the earlier non-god celebration? At least the Solstice really occurs; the Sun does go on a yearly trip south, then a trip back as a result of the Earth’s tilt. Such celebrations will increasingly be less rare as many atheists and freethinkers have begun to observe them.

    Many Christians today are unaware of the origins of their celebrations, not just of Christmas, but also of other stolen holidays, such as Easter and Valentines day. I presume that since present day knowledge of this deception is still available that early Christians were simply unable to destroy or cover-up the evidence sufficiently, though there is much evidence that they did try.

  • Immortality Anyone?

    There are people who having grown tired, having lost their youthful curiosity, having lost their dreams, long for death. They find nothing stirs within them when looking at a new day’s dawn. No new technological achievement wows them. They have ceased to feel anything positive having effectively resigned from life. Forget them.

    Those of us who relish every new discovery, every exciting invention, and can’t get enough of the enthrallment experienced when watching a new day dawn, hope it will never cease. We are disappointed when we have to acknowledge that our brief span of life, a mere flicker compared to the span of the Cosmos, must someday come to an end. We prefer to live as if it will never end, averting our gaze from the inevitable, and instead focusing on the now. That is the way to live.

    But… only the Gods have immortality… many would proclaim.

    The promise of life after death has kept religion going. Unfortunately, such promises have also lessened the value of this life, making many atrocities committed by religion possible. Why place value on a life lived in a comparative instant when immortality awaits in the next? The quicker that instant is complete the sooner immortality begins. A better method of arousing the troops to battle has never been imagined. Too bad such promises of living forever cannot be proven. Some of the descriptions of an afterlife seem less exciting than watching a gnat fly about your head, anyway.

    Even now as I write there are people who are working on “curing” death. Scientific work proceeds in the search for extended life, or life with no expiration date. Many think that the body simply has a countdown clock of sorts, which causes, with the passage of time, the body to make repairs less and less accurately. Telomeres, at the ends of DNA strands, are said to protect the accuracy of data within the DNA, and when they shorten with each division of the cell, reach a point when they can no longer protect the DNA, and cells divided thereafter are prone to error.

    There are many dire predictions of Earth’s demise. Climate change is undeniable whether normal or human made. Optimistically we can hope it will be, or can be reversed. Maybe such climate change will prove to be positive, opening new doors where others have closed. Who knows… nevertheless, let’s proceed optimistically. Imagining a exciting future is one Michio Kaku. He is a theoretical Physicist and seems to always appear where science is at the forefront.

    One reason I hope that death is cured someday is to see what becomes of the human race. What a grand experiment of nature we are. As far as we know, the most intelligent creature of the Universe. (I hope there are more, but we don’t know that yet). Certainly we are the most advanced species, intellectually, than any on Earth. Will we go on to become the dreams of science fiction writers, or will we destroy ourselves with petty concerns, wars, and apathy? Stay tuned to the next exciting episode of : THE HUMAN RACE

  • What A Superstitious Lot!

    Due to irrational fears and beliefs many superstitions are held by many people.

    For example the superstitions surrounding the common staple: Salt. Everyone has heard that you must toss a pinch of salt over your left shoulder when salt is spilled to keep bad luck away. Supposedly it goes into the face of the devil who seemingly resides there. (Why the left shoulder? The term “left” is associated with negatives in superstition.)

    The ladder presents potentially bad luck too, should you risk going under it while it is leaning against a wall. This originates from the triangle created when the ladder leans against a wall, which is like the triangle of the trinity, and to enter such an enclosed sacred area was considered a punishable offense.

    Is there anyone that doesn’t know that breaking a mirror brings 7 years bad luck? One source credits this superstition to the Romans who believed that the distortion created of a man’s image corrupted his soul when a mirror was broken. A differing superstition which thought that a man’s body rejuvenated every 7 years is the source of the time span for the broken mirror’s bad luck.

    The rabbit foot as a source of good luck? The source of this superstition seems lost in history. Some think it may be due to a rabbit’s fertility association with an ancient god called Eastre, later assimilated by the celebration of Easter by Christianity.

    Even today the lives of many are governed by these ancient superstitions. For a short list of many of the superstitions, some still held seriously by many today, go here.

     

  • Nature Doesn’t Care That It Doesn’t Care

    In 2005 one of the most devastating hurricanes, hurricane Katrina, struck Louisiana. In 2010 a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. In short order the mentally unstable proclaimed that these disasters were punishments for sins against God.

    Both disasters were in reality simply random acts of nature. Neither were for any purpose nor were they done with evil intent. Evil exists only as a concept in the minds of human beings.  Nature has no consciousness and is indifferent to the life which inhabits this world.

    Why were these exclamations made? Most likely to further the cause of the individual proclaiming it. Possibly an effort to make themselves appear more important in the scheme of things.

    Neither Louisiana nor Haiti were guilty of anything which would have warranted such devastation. These were simply natural disasters which can occur anywhere, anytime. Nature is neither aware, nor guided by any force. Nature is indifferent.

  • The Plastic Facade

    Façade: An artificial or deceptive front.

    Plastic:Marked by artificiality or superficiality; synthetic

    The Artificial or Synthetic Front.

    I am very familiar with the plastic front, the plastic smile, I wore it for many years as a worker in the retail sector. I served customers with a smile, greeting them day after day, finding this or that product. Even the most rude customer had to be treated with a friendly demeanor as the motto says “The customer is always right.” Sometimes it was so trying that your face felt like it might crack from the strain of maintaining the façade.

    Your face was not the only part of you that was strained. Your psyche …

    Psyche: The mind functioning as the center of thought, emotion, and behavior and consciously or unconsciously adjusting or mediating the body’s responses to the social and physical environment.

    … suffered as well.

    Pent up anger, agitation, ignored when maintaining the plastic front, built up, failing expression. There were times when you felt like reaching out and grabbing the insolent agitator by the collar and shaking them, while demanding an answer to the question “Who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that?!” But you couldn’t, not and keep working there.

    Expressing anger is a necessary release of emotion. It is part of the maintenance of a healthy psyche. Expressing it appropriately is an art, an art most people do not possess.

    The religious must maintain an exuberant countenance in their efforts to lure prospects for indoctrination. This, I know from experience, is a source of great strain. “Living in the spirit” it is called. Staying focused on the promises of religion while at the same time dealing with the stresses of daily living is extremely difficult. Yet, the façade must be continued, as to lose control would not serve the cause. Anger builds, agitation grows, but it must be closeted, restrained, remain unexpressed.

    Where I now work there is such a person. She comes in to work fairly beaming her faith. An eternal smile, a jovial nature, she seems to float down the aisles. Many have expressed the desire to slap that smile off her face, as they realize it is but plastic, forced to support the cause. As the day progresses there are signs that betray the artificial façade. As desperate as she is to maintain the false front it is nevertheless  expressed by small changes in her behavior. For one, do not cross her path as she proceeds down the aisle, for she is like a juggernaut, and will knock you to the floor rather than go around you. I fear someday she will finally explode, expressing pent up anger and agitation in an instant, instead of steadily as we all must.

    You can’t be happy all the time. There are ups and downs to every life during a busy day. Anyone who denies this is only attempting to fool themselves. I have to wonder what kind of home life these people must have, for at some time during the day, emotions such as anger must be released. Do they go home and bark at family? Does the spouse pay? Do their pillows suffer repeated beatings at night? Anguish and frustration can tear a person apart. A breaking point will eventually be approached. A high price is paid for maintaining a public façade.

  • Oh, For Goodness Sake!

    Imagine a world where everyone has sinned, committed immoral acts against some deity, yet no one is culpable. Like leaves blowing in the wind no one has control over their actions, thoughts, destiny. A world where everything is viewed as a conflict between good and evil entities, where temptation is engineered by evil to cause a downfall of the individual, and where good resists such temptation. No one can see these good and evil entities as they exist on a different plane. These beings however, work to influence thought.

    During the Dark Ages, when Christianity ruled, this imagined world, where unseen demons, or angels controlled the pattern of destiny, was a given. Superstition, fear of supernatural forces, the human capacity of imagination ran wild.

    Sigmund Freud proposed long ago the concept of Superego, Id, and ego. Many in psychiatry discount his work in this field as too simplistic, perhaps using a telescope where a microscope is needed. Overall, however, it does present a view describing the inner battle each human faces between the primitive desires and the social concepts of morality present in society.

    This battle between the three, Superego, Id, and Ego, unknown as a concept by primitive peoples of the Dark Ages, was instead given life as being influences from outside forces. They knew what their concept of perfection was (superego), yet many times they instead took the road to ruin, the low road (Id). In between, was the inner voice which told them that certain behaviors were not socially acceptable (Ego), but that inner voice was easily swayed either way by Superego or Id. The inner voice usually tried to mediate a way for the desires of the Id to be satisfied in a socially acceptable manner, but it often failed. The Id was given life as a demonic influence, a demon or the devil. The Superego, author of perfection, was labeled God, or angelic in nature. The poor ego, torn in between, was the individual, exercising free will, deciding between the desires of the Id, and the demands of the Superego.

    Blaming demons or devils for socially unacceptable behavior released the individual from responsibility. Not understanding the existence of an inner conflict primitive peoples transposed them upon imagined influences. “How could someone commit that act? How could they, upstanding citizens, fall to that level?” they asked. The answer became that they were not responsible for their own actions as they were tempted by demons into committing them.

    Thank goodness people have grown out of these primitive beliefs! They have come to realize the inner conflict, to accept responsibility. God or the devil no longer manipulate the actions of human beings. Human kind has come to maturity!

    Or has it?

  • The Origin of Life

    The Universe, is it eternal or did it begin in a “Big Bang”. Well, I’m getting older, but I’m not that old, so I wasn’t standing around to see. It could have very well always have been here.  No one knows but many scientists conjecture from evidence that the Universe began in some sort of infinitely compressed form which exploded into the remarkable display we see today. They even posit that they found an echo of the original explosion.

    However it originated it remains today in a state of continual change, expanding ever faster, ever farther.

    In the distant reaches of space we see vast clouds of dust, and in the midst we see the birth of new stars, perhaps new planets, maybe even future homes for life. Stars, the furnaces of the Universe, supplying vast energies, generously sharing of themselves, utilizing their vast stores of hydrogen. Without the stars, life as we know could not exist, and for more than the just the reason that they provide steady energy upon which we all depend. Vast stars, many times more massive than our friend Sol, upon the complete consumption of their hydrogen fuel, begin to collapse. Their volume, no longer able to be maintained by energy output, begins to shrink. Compression continues to a critical level, helium begins to develop,  then the star explodes… a supernova occurs. This releases enormous quantities of various heavier elements, spreading them into the ether.

    Without these heavy elements produced in the furnaces of these massive stars, rocky planets such as ours could never exist. Our very bodies would never have come to be.

    The molten remains of these stars, having been belched out eventually coagulate and form, yet, again, stars, but not just stars, but also further material which orbits these new stars and which as time passes, gathers to form planets. As more and more of these new planetary systems form, the chances increase that in at least one system one planet will form in the right orbit around the right star, producing conditions which allow organics to form.

    Scientists speculate that once conditions developed that were complementary to the formation of monomers, produced by prebiotic synthesis, which have the ability to link to other monomers and form polymer chains, RNA spontaneously arose. RNA formed which had the ability to replicate.

    At this point evolution began to act. Over the eons of time, perhaps a billion years, RNA converted to DNA. This was accomplished by the loss of one oxygen atom. DNA… capable of self-replication, and of synthesizing RNA.

    Self-replication started the evolutionary ball rolling. Natural selection favored variants of the replication process allowing for increased complexity. The various strands eventually led to  variants that had a cell enclosure which  outcompeted the various ‘naked’ variants. These cell enclosed variants eventually developed specialized functions upon combining with other cells, and multicellular forms developed. These became the first multicellular organisms.

    Well, that’s the way I see it, anyway. There are no doubt mistakes in my presentation, if that prompts an investigation then I will have been successful. There is still much work to do, many “God did it” holes to fill. There are many questions at many levels. I suppose we could quit, stop investigating, throw up our hands, return to the Dark Ages… but I hope we don’t. I find it fascinating.