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“St” Paul’s Curious Book of Romans

Posted in Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, faith, history, random, religion, secularism, theology on April 18, 2016 by chouck017894

“Saint” Paul is credited with formulating the language and systematizing of doctrines of Christian theology.  His epistles are claimed to have been written to congregations of the outlying churches he is said to have founded, and these communications dealt with theology, church procedures and discipline.  The uncertain time of his birth, given as “about 3 BCE”, and the alleged time of his death in the coliseum in Rome in 68 CE do not seem to fit snugly within that particular timeframe of all writings attributed to him–especially the book of Romans.

The New Testament book of Romans has an aura of a slightly later period–most likely c. 98-100 CE. But Paul, remember, is said to have died in 68 CE.  The Jesus cult that existed in that later 98-100 timeframe was then being vigorously directed toward regimented practice, and was being cunningly implemented among the poor, slaves, soldiers and misfits.  In the later historic events Marcus Ulpius Trajanus (Trajan) became emperor in 98, and the Jews in Palestine were once again rebelling against the Empire.  The content of the book of Romans does not fit in comfortably with known historic events of c. 60+ CE, but Paul from Corinth is nonetheless credited with the work which was put in place as the sixth text in theoretical chronological order of the Epistles.  The book of Romans is the longest of the “letters” supposedly written by Paul, and is the only one in which no companion or co-author is mentioned.  From this particular text Paul is credited with having formulated the language, doctrinal system and theology which then became the game plan for the Jesus cult after 100 CE.

The promotional line regarding this Christian organizer, doctrinaire and missionary is that Paul, a Jew from Tarsus, was on his way to Damascus in Syria to track down Jews who had abandoned Judaism and turned to the Jesus cult.  On his journey he is depicted as having experienced a remarkable phenomenon–a blinding light vision of the crucified Jesus.  The incident so traumatized him that he became a passionate servant.  This encounter, which had no verifying witnesses, has an eerie similarity to Moses getting God’s message from a burning bush.

The book of Romans is described as being in seven parts, exclusive of the introduction.  The tenor of the first parts is the crafty establishment of intimidation with the theme put forth that the whole world (meaning the Roman world) stands guilty before the Creator God.  Everything which then follows is like a concentrated sales pitch for the faith system that was being completely restructured in that 100 CE timeframe and which spells out the terms for the offer which amounts to little more than a contract for salvation insuranceT

The book of Romans, like the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament, seems jarringly out of place with the general flow of the story line.  Indeed, many who read the NT find themselves wondering about contradiction in Romans in regard to what Jesus is depicted as teaching in the earlier Gospel texts (Mark and Matthew).  Whether this epistle was written in c. 60 or 100 CE, the writer claims that he had never visited the Christian community in Rome although he had long desired to do so.  From chapter one, verse 18 onward, Paul deliberately stirs up fear and, quite unlike the peaceful Jesus of earliest books who he allegedly honored, Paul launches into comments on the “wrath of God”!   The pattern is thereby set in place for passing judgement upon God’s intended diversity of life and Paul then fondles his ego with self-righteousness.  Even stranger, the assertions made in Romans actually contradict much of what is included in other letters attributed to him, such as in Corinthians, Thessalonians, Galatians, Colossians and Ephesians.  Chapter nine, for example, denies free will.  Chapter ten distorts the claim of salvation.  Chapter thirteen actually justifies rulers, even the wicked ones, as being divinely infallible, and as serving as “ministers of God.”   There is an un-Gospel flavor to the book of Romans which carries an audacious power-based inflection that is more in character with Roman Empire ideology.

Remembering the Jewish insurgency during the 98-100 CE timeframe, there is sly warning behind the author’s alleged holy assertions in chapter thirteen of Romans, as mentioned.  Here is what is said:  “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be ordained by God.  2) Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves  damnation.  3)  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.  Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:  4)  For he (implying any ruler, king, etc.) is the minister of God to thee for good.  But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not a sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

Keep in mind the Jewish problem to Rome in 98-100 timeframe when reading the rest of this Pauline propaganda.  5) “Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.  6) For this cause pay ye tribute also; for they (the rulers) are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.  7) Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to who tribute is due; custom to who custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”

At this point in this empirical-political spiel, anxiety is then craftily directed to the Ten Commandments as though those directives accented the claims just made for honoring the political top dog.  By these verses, which proclaim that “all rulers are ordained by God,” the hellish action of such “rulers” as Attila, Hitler, Anytolya Kamanni, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, etc. etc. can be excused as “ministers of God.”

Strangely, as noted here, the book of Romans presents strong contradictions to the earlier teachings that Jesus was portrayed as teaching, and the book of Romans account is not exactly in “perfect flow and harmony” with other Gospels as it is accepted by naive believers.  For example, condemnation and practiced hatreds was not a message in the earliest Mark-Matthew books of the Christian movement.

Christians of today should give pause to remember that it is an absolute certainty that “St” Paul could never have read what we know as the canonical Gospels.  However, if Paul was indeed a real person, Saul/Paul of Tarsus would likely have been familiar with the Gnostic texts from which the general ideas conveyed in the Gospels originated.  Pagan and Gnostic influences color the whole of Paul’s literary works.  And the “letters” credited to Paul are more properly defined as preachments of the newly manufactured doctrine than defined as actual correspondence.

As with the attraction of the ancient mystery schools which flourished in the earlier and general timeframe of Paul, Paul did not preach of a physical Jesus as being Christ: rather the point of the Pauline approach was in regard to the attainment of Christhood, meaning the deified consciousness which must evolve within each individual.  As Christianity is widely accepted and practiced today, however, such personal attainment is made nearly impossible to achieve.  The inference which lingers in what has become traditional Christian practice is that one’s consciousness can achieve deified status only through delegated representatives (priests, preachers, pastors, ministers, etc).  Rightfully, the purpose of any faith system should be to guide seekers in developing principled qualities throughout each person’s life.  However, that noble goal is not achievable when faith systems are persistently used as discriminatory indulgences for material power plays.  Finding “sin” in everyone else but finding little in yourself makes for easy fertilizer to use in a hierarchical faith system, but it only nourishes such things as ignorance, poverty, egocentric disdain for life diversities, unremitting warfare, etc. etc.  Such is not the avowed “narrow path” into higher consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

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Evaluating Corporate Style Monotheistic Faiths

Posted in belief, culture, faith, history, random, religion, Social with tags , , , , , , , on February 13, 2015 by chouck017894

Any man-fashioned faith system is basically designed as a power structure: it was not resolutely assembled for the benefit of mass spiritual enlightenment but is designed to broaden the faith system’s authority. Like any commercial endeavor the service that is offered is gauged by customer demand, and commercial demand is stirred up by advertising. In the faith business the product is a manufactured illusion; the merchandise offered is emotional assurance that a higher power looks after them—but that power only functions if subscribers submit, obey and partake of all the rites, rituals and ceremonies that the self-appointed authorities have set in place for business practice. Consequently those formalized procedures are cleverly fashioned to appeal to the ego of the seekers, not crafted to empower everyone’s personal connection (called “spirit”) to Creation’s Source.

Principles of righteous conduct are comparatively self-evident to any balanced mind: seek understanding, control avarice, value individuality, honor love, demonstrate compassion, respect all life, recognize that all things are interrelated, etc. For the most part the three corporate styled monotheistic faith systems of today’s western cultures choose to market the principles of caring conduct by claiming to possess favoritism of a compassionate god. The general work ethic of these sister faith systems, however, is to force their formalized concept of a God-Creator upon everyone else, which results only in constant conflicts. Thus for each of these monotheistic systems, their calls to devotion happen to exploit identical unrighteous principles: submit, obey, and resist tolerance. Notably lacking in the basic practices of these formalized faiths is any real respect for life’s intended diversity. To achieve this lack of sympathy the strategy that is traditionally used is to obstruct knowledge, curtail science, stifle natural desires, belittle intimate pleasures–in short, reduce yourself to a robotic religionist. All this is standardized by their priest-written books which are claimed to be “revealed” commandments.

What is the architectural foundation for this? It is the concept of monotheism, a doctrine that there is only one Creator-God, male of course. It is a principle which permits erecting a business machine upon the assertion that the all-embracing, all-inclusive power which created and sustains everything has censored himself to play favorites with segments of the human species that he created. This is a tactic which is then buttressed by utilizing man’s fear of death which further allows the charlatans to peddle their faith system’s insurance policy which offers a glorious afterlife in a cloud-lined country club atmosphere–but only if you follow the rules.

The three self-serving monotheistic faith systems of western cultures could never survive as a controlling power if the peace and brotherly love to which they give much lip service was really practiced by them. Instead the self-appointed representatives of heaven stimulate the egos of seekers with notions of exclusiveness. Peace and brotherly love happen to make for a limited meal ticket if such tolerance was actually allowed to be demonstrated by followers, for that would allow seekers to truly embark upon achieving personal alignment with universal power. Such freedom of spirit would deprive the self-proclaimed ambassadors of God and the public image as having been heavenly approved for godly service. Each of these three corporate styled faith systems claim to teach love, tolerance and peace, but curiously after over two millennia of these sugary claims the world has not yet witnessed any proof of such divine conduct on their part. Instead, all three by-the-book religions have to resort to whitewashing and disguising their bloody histories of violence, prejudice, deceits, contrive theatrical ceremonies, and similar excesses of shameless spiritual pretentiousness. With these pretensions each of these faith systems have shamelessly taught seekers to hate without cause.

When some faith system then attains political clout it inevitably slides into the sensuous “sins” of brutal power management which they legitimation by quoting cherry picked verses from their own priest-crafted, self-serving “holy books.” For example, does not the Torah attest that God urged the Israelites, his “chosen ones”, to slaughter the inhabitants of Canaan to attain the “Promised Land”? Indeed, the holocaust that is glorified throughout the book of Joshua is not exactly spiritually uplifting: in chapter 12 alone there is listed the killing of thirty-one kings. And for the promoters of Gospel, was not Europe brought into God’s favor by use of torture and fiery destruction during the Inquisition by self-proclaimed representatives of the Prince of Peace? And does not the Quran avow that Allah (the merciful) sent hordes of angels to slay opponents of Mohammad’s possession of Mecca? Such is the deceptive propaganda preached by all by-the-book faith systems. The uncompromising justification for any acts of brutal domination is always in the name of an alleged prejudiced holy spirit. Nowhere in such “faiths” is the truth ever acknowledged that each and every thing is manifested through and from one Source, and that each and all things are therefore interrelated and equal before that creative Source. There is, of course, no ego manipulation in teaching that truth, and thus little material or political profit is possible in promoting such truth of impartiality before the Creator.

It has been noted elsewhere in these postings that regional conditions in which these faith systems originated shaped the spiritual teachings which were worked into the political governance of tribal stability. Thus today, to the Jews and Muslims, God is still promoted as something like a bellicose tribal leader; and those “others” who are not of these implied favored people of the Creative Principle supposedly decrees “cut them off.” For example, Psalms 118:10 (among many interpretations) “…all nations surround me; in the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off…” In Christian faith, which was conceived and nourished in the militant Roman Empire, God is viewed more as a commander-in-chief, with priests, bishops and preachers placed in charge like generals over the lower ranks.

How glaringly different the by-the-book dogmatism practiced in the western cultures’ faith systems today when compared to the way the belittled Pagans approached spiritual understanding. Pagan understanding was that spiritual things are highly personal and meant to be experienced by each person individually. The reason why Pagans did not actively solicit others to join any particular sect was the belief that the impulse for spiritual enlightenment must originate within the person himself. It was not viewed as a commercial subject. The Pagans knew that the first place of one’s spiritual preparation had to be within one’s own heart. Spiritual preparation, they understood, was not something acquired through exterior pressures. To the Pagan, regardless of which small sect he or she might be drawn to, it was always accepted that those in any superior position were like elder brethren who, just as the postulate, were sharing in a similar search for divine understanding.

Also noted in these posting is the fact that those belittled Pagan cultures had much more spiritual freedom–and tolerance for each others spiritual connection–than the world has been privileged to since the programming imposed by the by-the-book monotheistic faith systems which have turned spiritual yearning into a product for sale.

Abuse of Democracy Within US Congress

Posted in culture, Government, history, life, logic, politics, random, Social, thoughts with tags , , , , , on February 4, 2015 by chouck017894

Remembering that religious right factions took over the US Republican Party in 1996, and that Republican dogmatists now (2015) control both houses of Congress, perhaps we should review their method of “progress.” The nation had thrust upon it in 2000–through dubious means which happened to be decided by five Republican-Catholic leaning Justices of the Supreme Court–confirming presidency upon a self-admitted born again believer who then quickly lied the nation into a needless and costly war, and who relished torturing captives taken in that drummed up war. After his devious eight year term in office was over the Republicans in Congress spent the next six years deliberately obstructing the bulk of law making which could have advanced the bulk of US citizens. Indeed, the 2014 Congress turned in the worst record of representation of the citizens in the nation’s history. With over half of Congress also being long-stocked by millionaires, perhaps we should look into past member’s track records.

There are 535 members of the United States Congress, members who are responsible for establishing the nation’s laws which are supposed to guarantee equal justice for all citizens, and which should also apply equally to the citizens’ representatives. There have always been freeloaders among the “membership,” and experts at double talk, addicts of pretentiousness, and those who do business under the table and/or behind closed doors. There have been untold episodes of conflicts of interest, endless self-promotions through a feeding trough called “ear marks,” childish tantrums of spite called “filibusters,” and even outright indifference for the nation’s Constitution. All of this can be and has been indulged in while taking a healthy salary (paid by taxpayers), self-granted government paid medical coverage, generous expense accounts, and even a self-granted pension plan (paid from tax payers’ wallets) after they exit their stint of “service”—even if only after one term. Speak of entitlements!

In other words, politics, like religion, attracts people with huge ego problems and who are divinely untroubled with any heavy personal scruples. Perhaps we should not be surprised, therefore, at these disquieting statistics of Congressional members (a sample is from 2011).

* Three members were incarcerated for assault
* Seven members were arrested for fraud
* Eight were arrested for shoplifting
* Fourteen were arrested on drug-related charges
* Twenty-one were defendants in lawsuits
* Seventy-one could not get a credit card because of bad credit
* Eighty-four had been arrested for drunk driving
* One hundred and seventeen were involved, either directly or indirectly, in bankrupting at least two businesses
* It is unclear how many were/are adulterers and/or brothel clients
* Too many in office continue to pretend that they have superior religious guidance for their material double dealings

The Founding Fathers of the United States well-knew that human nature is easily tempted. For this reason they sought to devise safeguards so every citizen of the new nation might have a better chance in the pursuit of happiness and freedom of spirit. Governing power, therefore, was not to rest in one person’s hands as in kingdoms, dictatorships or theocracies. Therefore three branches of government were specified to act as the hallowed trinity of democracy; the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. For the most part, that system has well-served a broader spectrum of people for the bulk of the nation’s 239 year history.

As religious faction have pushed more and more into the inner circles of government since 1996 (when religionists took over the Republican Party), emphasis has shifted from loyalty to a golden democracy into a furious pursuit of democratic gold for power seekers. In the process neither genuine democracy nor spiritual integrity have been enhanced. The founders of the US were altruistic, and they believed that serving in any of the three branches of government was to be taken on as an honor, not as a self-serving career move.

But from at least the late 1990s the thrust of those who have wormed their way into government positions from the Right have vigorously chopped at the very roots of democracy. And the carnival which this brand of politicians have made of politics is shown in the fact that they proved incapable of any real solutions to national problems. Instead they kept public attention muddied with faith system obsessions such as a woman’s right to choose, people’s’ lifestyles, and even who they should love. When their grab for power and materiality has been successful they shackled democratic principles in attempts to do such things as take away workers’ rights, deny senior the protection which the seniors had paid into for years, have sought to downgrade education standards, actually gave personhood rights to corporations, stolen from the poor and siphoned it to the rich, reduced environmental standards, and just sat on their hands and did nothing about gun shows where anyone could and can buy quantities of guns without any background checks.

The point of this mini review is that there is a desperate need for Congressional Reform, and that has been summed up in the proposed 28th Amendment to the US Constitution which covers the following eight considerations:

1) Term limits for Congress members consisting of twelve years only should be established, which would, however, include one of three possible options; A) two six-year Senate terms; B) six two-year House terms; C) one six-year Senate term and three two-year House terms.

2) There should be neither Tenure nor Pension provisions to Congress members for having held the honor of their office. Every Congressman receives a salary, usually with an expense account; and they continue to get paid for that past honor even after leaving office, which certainly dishonors the concept of true democracy. Indeed, a member of Congress can retire with the same yearly pay after only one term! Is that self-granted entitlement available anywhere else in the workplace?

3) Equally dishonoring of true democratic principles is the special favor Congress members bestowed upon themselves which frees “members” from participating in Social Security which is relied upon by the very people the “members” are supposed to serve. Democratic principles as conceived by the Founding Fathers require that Congress participates with the American people; that means that properly all funds which have been amassed for Congressional retirement payouts (from taxes) should always have been placed in the Social Security system just as it is for the private citizens whom they serve. That Congressional graft scheme must be corrected.

4) If Congress members want a retirement plan they may and should do as the rest of the American citizens are obliged to do and purchase that security cushion on their own. That self-granted Congressional retirement plan is but another graft scheme.

5) What average citizen has the ability to give themselves a pay raise? Why does Congress have the undemocratic clout to vote themselves a pay raise? Rightfully, Congressional pay should rise only by the lower of CPI–or by three percent. That’s what they impose on the elderly–but they have reneged even on that raise for those depending on Social Security.

6) Person elected as representatives of the people do not represent the people when they grant themselves special privileges. Another case in point, Congress enjoys a special health care system, and have excluded themselves from the Healthcare Reform which everyday citizens have to rely on. Properly the Congressional “members” should participate in the very same health care system as all other American citizens. Elected representatives are neither moral nor true to the democratic principles upon which the nation was founded by implying that they are a privileged class; they are servants of the people.

7) The legislative branch of government determines the laws of the land: that office does not mean that those in-office are above the law. Congressional members must comply equally by each and every law which Congress has imposed upon the American people. (As one little example which members slipped into law, did you know that Congressional members are exempt from being prosecuted for sexual harassment?)

8) All of these listed points considered here make it clear that the proper thing to do for true democratic governing is to void all past and present self-serving contracts of Congressmen for Congressmen, and this should be made effective immediately. The above mentioned seven points of undemocratic indulgences were self-contracted by Congress “members”–certainly their self-granted entitlements are not for the betterment of private citizens. It is crucial that American citizens stand up and confront their elected “officials” about these self-granted privileges the lawmakers enacted for themselves. These self-serving entitlements are in direct opposition to the laws they have imposed upon the rest of the nation’s citizens.

The Creator’s Demand For Diversity

Posted in belief, biological traits, culture, environment, faith, history, humanity, life, lifestyle, nature, random, science, sex, Social, thoughts with tags , , , , on February 1, 2015 by chouck017894

Man is such an egotistical creature that he believes that he can ignore Nature’s subtle warnings. Perhaps that is because our revered ego-driven, man written “holy books” happen to assure us that the human species was given dominion over all life forms on this little planet. Unfortunately, those ego-driven priest authors happened to also believe that this little planet, which they perceived to be flat, was the center of the universe. Well, that’s not exactly an in-depth assessment, and human ego is pretty much a whore.

This admittedly crude appraisal of human egotism and arrogance (and its intimate attendant, greed) was spurred by a mid-2014 report concerning the dilemma of some ordinary fish. Seems that man’s self-interest had seeped into various streams and rivers (in the Susquehanna, Delaware and Ohio river basins of the US), which resulted in turning some fish species into what was delicately termed “intersex” fish. Gasp! Some of those damned male fish were found to actually be carrying eggs! Well, let’s not start pounding the pulpits just yet. Something very basic is shown here, something which illustrates that everything which exists in Creation is composed of interchangeable polar elements and thus nothing is ever exclusively representative of one energy pole or its opposite.

As for the dilemma of the river fish population referred to, their altered sexual identity reflects the natural interchangeable aspects within the energy pool of all life. The home waters of the fish happen to have been blessed with hormones, but hormone-mimicking chemicals compounded by man’s arrogance and greed contributed to the identity crisis of the fish. The waste waters that man dumped into the streams carried estrogenic chemicals used in agriculture and released in animal wastes, and the internal organs of the fish which regulate the release of hormones were being redirected.

Those ancient and much revered priest myth-makers apparently were never informed by God about hormones or chromosomes or DNA, nor was it revealed to them how the chemistry of the brain actually determines a person’s physical-mental-sexual makeup. Unfortunately even today, two to three thousand years after “revealed word” was set down as sacredly unchallengeable, the blindly faithful ascribe to principles drafted by those crafty men and completely ignore what modern science research has revealed. For example, research shows that the effects of sex chromosomes and chemical sex hormones do not have an undeviating manner of lining up in strict accordance to one narrow and specific anatomical structure as hateful religious prejudices love to pretend.

Furthermore, anatomist research shows that there are naturally considerable variations in the human brain–its shape, thalamus, structure of the cerebrum, etc.–which are extremely variable and are as individual as fingerprints. This means that mental and/or sensory properties connected with brain structure may freely align within vastly different ranges, and thus no two persons will ever be exactly the same–including identical twins. So, as far as religious approval of racial or sexual expression goes, one feature was never intended to define all. To the horror of religious extremists, that almighty Creation power which is diverse and variable in shaping life forms (dare we say democratic), and which is personified as “God,” did not use a cookie cutter technique to fashion every person’s racial, physical or category in life. Instead of trying to understand that variety and diversity are the underpinnings of all Creation, they choose instead to spew endless reams of hatred from their pulpits. Stated in biblical terms, their egotism and ignorance “runneth over.”

Religious fanatics should awaken to the fact that there is an intentional alterable holy code used in the production of all life–the code of the hormonal-chromosomal-chemical “design” which decrees great necessity for diversity and variety in human physical, mental and emotional expression. This seems to be problematic only for those who choose to work themselves into melodramatic clamoring over anyone who is perceived to be too different from themselves due to their taught ego-gratifying beliefs. Certainly the endless assortments of life forms which may be observed around us shows clearly that the Creative Principle (God) holds absolutely no grudge or spite over “his” handiwork which is diverse and varied.

within these God-allowable differences there is purposely left open the allowance–the tolerance–for all expressions of life and love. The far-reaching hormone and chromosome chemicals control the total development of the body, brain and intelligence. And these continue to do so in a wide range of ways throughout the duration of each person’s lifetime. Therefore, for political and/or religious factions to pretend that some humanlike Creator expects only one narrow expression of life or love to be striven for by every individual is not true spiritual understanding, and it is not moral instruction. In fact, such an unyielding stance against life’s intended diversity and variety with Creation amounts to outright sacrilege.

Perhaps, considering the thousands of different man-invented faith systems (over 4000 have been documented), it would do well to remember what research science has also revealed through intense study. The brain contributes only two percent of a person’s body weight, but it needs and uses twenty percent of the body’s energy. But as religious fanatics and political extremists consistently prove, very little brain is needed for a body to function and bring distress upon everyone around them.

Disguised Background of Moses Epoch

Posted in belief, Bible, culture, faith, Hebrew scripture, history, prehistory, random, religion, scriptures, theology with tags , , , , , , , on January 17, 2015 by chouck017894

The timeframe upon which the Moses epoch was loosely structured was most probably c. 1576-1490 BCE. This was a particularly rough period for planet Earth and turmoil had continued for centuries following the earlier frightening event when a rogue planet-sized comet had lunged out of the skies from the general direction of planet Jupiter. Electromagnetic imbalance in the solar system resulted in interplanetary disturbances, and cultures worldwide were dramatically affected. In the following timeframe 1490-1480 BCE, for example, the royal city of Ugarit went down in flames, and in this same timeframe the cities of Troy, Knossos and the walled cities in the Indus Valley were also destroyed. Using the 1480 BCE date as anchor-point (which lasted to at least around 1200 BCE) not only the Hebrews (who were cast by priest authors as Israelites) but people everywhere suffered through worldwide calamities.

If this was the broad timeframe in which Moses allegedly heard God speak to him personally from a burning bush, he would have been around eighty years old (if he had been born c. 1576 BCE–one of the numerous dates that are debated). The approximate earlier date 1486 BCE is also often associated with the Exodus and the Moses tale. Still another date often theorized as the Moses saga is the 1480 BCE timeframe, which happened to be when Thutmose III came of age and officially became pharaoh of Egypt; until then his mother Queen Hatshepsut, wife of Thutmose II, had overseen her son’s duties in his name. (Note the mose part of the names.)

The plagues which Hebrew Scriptures (Exodus) claim was God’s way of affirming his favoritism for the Israelites and his divine prejudice against the Egyptians is largely priestly liberty with actual planetary circumstances. The plagues in the setting used for the Moses epoch were not peculiar to that narrowly focused region of the world. Worldwide upheavals in this period also plunged the Phoenician trading empire into decline due to the fall of so many trading partners. Indeed, much of this was recorded by Chaldeans, Hebrews, Greeks, Minoan Cretans, Egyptians, East Indians, Chinese, and even the South American Mayans. In the priestly accounts (as in Jeremiah 7:20) God is quoted as saying, “Look! My anger and my rage are being poured forth upon this place, upon mankind and upon domestic animals, and upon the tree of the field and upon the fruitage of the ground; and it must burn, and it will not be extinguished.” This is how holy hatred is glorified.

The unstable planetary conditions which lasted for generations were drawn upon by later priest authors for their own advantage. As portrayed by the priests, God is claimed to have spoken to Moses from a thick cloud upon Mount Sinai saying, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage (some translations incorrectly interpret this as out of the “house of slavery”). About this time, according to scriptures, God promised the Israelites that if they obeyed his “laws” (as interpreted by the priests, of course) they would prosper from what amounted to his conditional love. Thus were the Exodus 19:4-6 verses reinforced in which God supposedly said, “…you shall be to me a nation of priests and a holy nation.” The tone of this claim of selectivity rather tarnishes its credibility as spiritual truth.

The date most commonly given for the death of Moses is 1456 BCE. In the book of Deuteronomy 32:49 and 34:1, written long after the depicted wandering events (probably written by the High Priest Hilikiah in Jerusalem in seventh century BCE) Moses is averred to have died atop Mount Pisgah after viewing the Promise Land. This mount is identified with Mount Nebo, a mountain in Moab near the north end of the Dead Sea (and where later Jeremiah supposedly hid the Ark of the Covenant). This Mount was from ancient times held to be dedicated to the Sumerian-Assyrian-Babylonian god Nebo, the son of Marduk chief god of ancient Babylon, who bore the title of “Ilu-tashmit,” meaning god of revelations, and he was regarded as a soothsayer or prophet. From this the Hebrew word for prophet became nabi or nebi.

Many features of the Moses saga clearly indicate that the priest-written “history” actually concerns the process of energy involvement and development into matter form (Creation activity), not of some selected human leader who escorted “bound” Hebrews to a new location. Just as with the parting of water in Genesis, the waters are parted for Moses and the Israelites (elementary particles) to move into diverse and defined life archetypes. Indeed this is what is alluded in Exodus 33:20-23 where Moses, symbol of the Life Principle, is told by God, “Thou canst not see my face…” “…thou shalt see my back parts”—a clear reference to the primal condition from which life is made manifest. The fabled character of Moses can never see God’s front parts–the evolutionary results–because he symbolizes the energy action of the Life Principle up to where pre-physical energies begin to congeal and transform into material-matter form. And this is why Moses must “die” when that objective is within sight. It is therefore a certainty that “…no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.” (Deuteronomy 34:6–written c. 8th century BCE)

Among the divine mysteries of this tale none is more puzzling than the manner in which the Lord is alleged to have fed the starving Israelites in the “wilderness.” According to the priest-written account over six hundred thousand Israelites were miraculously fed with manna. The Israelites were depicted as on the verge of annihilation and a somewhat indifferent Creator sent them only a microscopic form of nourishment. As claimed in the text, “And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is Manna; for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given us to eat.” (Exodus 16:14-15) HUH? Is it wise to believe that over six hundred thousand starving persons were given “bread” as small as hoarfrost as sustenance? This story feature clearly attests that the chronicle of Exodus is not history but is allegory of the Creation process, and the “hoarfrost” refers to elementary particles being infused with subatomic elements. Everything which is made manifest as matter-form is nourished by subatomic particles.

Perhaps the most honored part of the Moses saga is of God making Moses the bearer of the Ten Commandments to the stranded Israelites. Strangely, these Commandments passed through several transformations of their own, and became guidelines for moral/ethical conduct only after 700 BCE–and which were again rewritten in 400 BCE. The earliest intention in the “Commandments” which Moses would have received and relayed from the personified Source of Creation certainly could not have been in regard to moral and ethical behavior in the “wilderness” (prototypal conditions). Moses, traditionally revered as the “Law Giver”, is depicted as having descended from an ecstatic rendezvous with the Lord on Mount Sinai. The law-giver is commonly pictured as standing erect with the “laws” which he carried etched upon two stones . This image indicates allegorically that the “laws” did not originally concern moral conduct among physical beings but concerned the principles of genetics. All that could have been decreed there in those primal circumstances (“wilderness”) would concern genetic purity–the “law” of Creation which established that like is to beget like. This is Creation’s powerful “law” which carries weight far beyond the principle of genetic reproduction; it applies equally to each individual’s thought patterns which determine each person’s lifestyle and how they interact with others. Lost in this self-serving scriptural storytelling style is that this “law” of like must beget like also brings reprisal after its own kind. Thus this “law” of reproductive energy indeed supports divine advice to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

O Holy Night

Posted in Astronomy, Atheist, belief, Christianity, culture, faith, Hebrew scripture, history, prehistory, religion, scriptures, Social, theology with tags , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2014 by chouck017894

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Invention of By-The-Book Faith Systems

Posted in Astronomy, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, Hebrew scripture, history, prehistory, random, scriptures, Social, theology with tags , , , , , , , on November 1, 2014 by chouck017894

Genuine history shows that each of the three sister monotheistic faith systems of western cultures were launched as an insurrectionary movement against established social orders, all of which had tended to honor a broad-based tolerance for diverse spiritual practices. The hard-line monotheistic faith systems which dominate western cultures today expanded and have maintained their power only by indoctrination practices which have included perceptible intimidation tactics and even terrorism (such as is brutally demonstrated in Muslim region today). These systems did not establish themselves as claimed by practicing benevolence, tolerance and compassion. In other words, the whole purpose of monotheistic practices is to establish a closed environment in which each person is conditioned to submit and obey. The means of any faith system’s empowerment is the injected subconscious fear of godly retribution which will withhold any promise of attaining a glorious afterlife. With this improvable assertion of a paradisiacal afterlife for the alleged favorites of God the “flock” is persuaded to sheepishly submit and obey. To keep faith system discipline the contention is put forth that the all-enfolding Life Principle (personified as God) favors them alone: however, this is the very antithesis of freedom, inner peace, tolerance, compassion, fairness, justice, ethics, morality, and all other true qualities which elevate spirit into an evolved state of existence.

As a consequence the formalized “religions” that we have presented to us as spiritual guidance are faith systems which are constructed and characterized by constant arguments over artificial objectives, empty symbols, phony prophets, shallow judgments of others, superficial prejudices, and pompous ritualism which intentionally keep seekers blind to our interrelationship to the rest of the universe. What this shows is that manmade faith systems are essentially geared to regulate material greed and self-promotional events, not to guide seekers into personal attunement with Creation’s forces. When man-composed “holy word” texts are primarily assertions about godly nit-picking and jealousy, accounts of wars, invasions, killings and similar irreverent acts toward interrelated intelligent beings something is tragically inappropriate for authentic spiritual enlightenment. Certainly the glorification of such stirred up conflicts with life’s intended diversity and variety only encourage the practices of self-indulgence and prejudice, and should not be held as the foundation of ethical/moral attitude for social interchange.

Only in fairly recent times has the means been established to provide the capability to check the reliability and truthfulness of Old Testament accounts. That painstaking science is biblical archaeology. For well over a century of digs throughout Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon there have been uncovered factual details of everyday life during the timeframes and events that make up the bulk of Hebrew Scriptures. The discoveries have often stunned and dismayed the archaeologists, and the implications have horrified those who desperately wish to believe that the books thought of as “holy word” were indeed God’s revealed truth. The truth that is exposed is that the books of Hebrew Scripture were actually codified in the 8th/7th century BCE–or generations after the portrayed events. And the reason for that labor of systematizing such works was the political crisis which loomed over Judah in the timeframe following the fall of the kingdom of Israel to the north which had fallen to Assyria. Thus the origin and purpose for writing the stories of “God’s chosen one’s” have to be reassessed with an eye kept upon the political crises that motivated them.

Likewise the New Testament, composed within the Roman Empire timeframe, should be reassessed with an eye on the political crisis that the Jewish fanatics in Palestine presented to the Empire. During the Roman occupation of Palestine the Jews pointed to their priest-written Hebrew Scriptures as proof that they were answerable only to God and therefore the Roman Empire had no authority over them. That belligerent attitude of exclusivity, not surprisingly, brought the Jews into constant friction with the Roman Empire, and that characteristic is still at the heart of Judaism.

In assessing the “holy books” of western culture faith systems, it should also be remembered that the harsh Arab regions had no prophet or written book to unite them until the timeframe of Mohammad (570?-632 Current Era). The fundamental tenets of Islam are: 1) There is one God [Allah]; 2) Man must submit and obey Allah (as Mohammad assessed it); and 3) The world will (eventually) end with a great judgment. These tenets have direct and undeniable association with Judaic and Christian systems of belief–which Mohammad had heard during his many caravan travels.

Lost in these systems’ contrived rituals, unfortunately, is the means of perceiving personal spiritual alignment with the highest essences which are the foundation of our real self. The exploration of the inner self with the motivation to establish meaningful balance with nature and the universe is not a feature of any of these three regimented and self-focused faith systems of the western world. Everything always remains focused on the faith systems themselves, which subconsciously suggest to seekers that the individual is not of any particular importance to a humanlike deity. Nothing in this form of faith system commerce is even suggestive of addressing the actual spiritual qualities which are inherent within every being. Instead every seeker is instructed to submit and obey their man-written holy book instructions but are not shown any means of opening themselves for the experience of evolving. The difference between praciting a religion and making oneself open to spiritual vitality is as different as taking or receiving. If the emphasis is on ideology and ritual, then it is religion, for religious practice can only take its authority from those who relinquish their spiritual energy to it. On the other hand, that essential spiritual quality which is the essence of each personal identity can align with Cosmic Conscience only by achieving a reflective state of consciousness, for what we term spirit is itself a reflective infrastructure component of that higher Cosmic Conscience. If personal attention is grounded in what is only an orchestrated theatrical performance then the path into the higher state of spiritual awareness remains blocked.

To be blunt: A person’s genuine spirituality begins to malfunction as soon as exterior authority is imposed upon it.

These website posts have often referred to ancient lessons which concerned Creation/cosmology and life purpose, and those lessons were once illustrated by using the universe itself as background—the use of groups of stars (constellations) to illustrate the lessons. That prehistory means of instruction was not corrupted with any pretentious claims that universal truths were accessible only through some regimented, club-like membership-only faith system. There was then no merchandising of our spiritual connection into that higher power; there were no claims of a monopoly on universal truths as made by faith systems today–systems which distinguish themselves primarily by their hostility toward each other. Mankind must awaken to the fact that there can be no expansion or attainment of spiritual enlightenment from such corporate-style by-the-book faith systems when those systems are demonstratively superficial in the universe as a whole, and are too implausible and unnatural in the technological cultures on the smaller scale. Clearly what humankind is desperately in need of is not the pretense of faith system exclusivity but a new dimension of consciousness.

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Mohammad’s By-The-Book Instructions

Posted in Atheist, belief, culture, faith, history, random, religion with tags , , , , , , , , on September 16, 2014 by chouck017894

— or —
Making Violence “Holy”

Nowhere in the Quran is there any mention that humanity exists as a broadly diverse but interrelated whole, or that humanity is, in turn, interrelated with all else in Creation. (To be fair, neither Judaic nor Christian systems are particularly instructive in this truth of Creation either.) What Mohammad chose to stress from having lived in and conditioned by the harsh desert environment was the arid belief that all factions of life are in competition for any and all necessities of continued existence. Once he took up the role as prophet, and had his visions written down in book form (as were Judaic and Christian beliefs which he had encountered in his caravan travels), his hardened tribal approach to “faith” was to stress the idea that any natural diversities and varieties of life were to be confronted aggressively. Mohammad’s preaching and teachings thus assumed the flavor of a tribal chieftain’s directives in which belief was judged by whether or not one chose to believe in Mohammad as the prophet of Allah. Anyone who did not accept his prophet status were/are rejected as kafir (disbeliever), which has become the most shameful word in Muslim devotional rhetoric.

The continuous tribal warfare conditions which prevailed through Mohammad’s youth heavily colored his instructed contempt for the kafir, and this actively encourages arrogant belief, for throughout the entire Quran there is a vigorous undercurrent of hostility and hatred. Although Allah is declared “Lord of the worlds” (as in 6:45), the obvious Allah-approved diversity and variety of those worlds and the interrelatedness of all things in Creation are nowhere acknowledged. Instead, any differences are shamelessly presented as reason enough to practice violent acts in the name of narrow belief. The Quran, credited to Mohammad, is the by-the-book reference of Islam, a faith system which ironically assesses itself as the Religion of Peace. Oddly, justification for indulging in violence is asserted repeatedly throughout its pages. Indeed, no matter how you read the Quran the path to Islamic Paradise is a bloody one. For example, there are at minimum some 109 verses which make a direct call for Muslims to war with any and all people who do not subscribe to Mohammad’s interpretation of what constitutes holy conduct. This is an ideology that completely ignores the variety and diversity of spirit which is openly proclaimed throughout Creation. And this hostility to Creation’s variety and diversity is drummed into each child’s head with repeated recitations of hostile-flavored Quran verses, such as:

* 2:216 Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not. (This devotion to violence is a constant repetition akin to the old tribal-style self-hypnotizing practice indulged in prior to going into battle; and that mesmerizing practice of cultivated hatred continues throughout the Quran.)
* 3:151 Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers (kafirs), for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority. (The “joined companions with Allah” can be twisted to include the Trinity in Christian theology, for example.)
* 4:74 Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward. (This call is for battle, and the undisguised summons to destroy and inflict death is allegedly for Allah.)
* 4:91 If they do not keep away from you or offer you peace or withdraw their hostilities, then seize them and kill them wherever they are. We give you complete authority over them. (It is always the divine “We”, inferring Allah and his self-proclaimed messenger.)
* 5:33 The only reward for those who war against Allah and his messengers and strive to commit mischief in the land is that they should be slain or crucified, have their alternate hands and feet cut off, or be banished from the land. This will be their disgrace in this world, and a great torment shall be theirs in the next except those who repent before you overpower them. Know that Allah is forgiving and merciful. (How’s that again??)
* 8:12 Then the Lord spoke to His angels and said, I will be with you. Give strength to the believers. I will send terror into the kafirs’ hearts, cut off their heads and even the tips of their fingers.
* 8:65 O Prophet, exhort the believers to fight… (Remember, this is a religion of peace.)
* 9:28 Oh, believers, only the kafirs are unclean.
* 9:29 Make war on those who have received the Scriptures (Jews and/or Christians) but do not believe in Allah or the Last Day. They do not forbid what Allah and his messenger (Mohammad) have forbidden… (Jews and Christians, in some versions of the Quran are referred to as “People of the Book”, an ironic snub to the religions which served as his models for the faith system which is also guided by-the-book.)
* 23:97 And say: Oh my Lord. I seek refuge with You from the suggestions of the evil ones (the kafirs). And I seek refuge with you, my Lord, from their presence.
* 25:52 Therefore listen not to the unbelievers (kafirs), but strive against them with the utmost strenuousness… (In other words, indulge in Jihad. Not considered in Muslim’s evaluation of this verse is that it was penned in reference to the taking of Mecca, and not a recommendation for a life style.)
* 25:77 Say to the kafirs (disbelievers): My Lord does not care for you or your prayers. You have rejected the truth, so sooner or later, a punishment will come.
* 33:60 They (the kafirs) will be cursed, and wherever they are found, they will be seized and murdered. It was Allah’s same practiece with those who came before them, and you will find no change in Allah’s ways. (Apparently Allah hated most everything he had created, but was unable to clean it up himself.)
* 40:35 They (the kafirs) who dispute the signs of Allah without authority having reached them are greatly hated by Allah and the believers. So Allah seals up every arrogant, disdainful heart and (is) despised by Allah.
* 47:4 When you encounter the kafirs on the battlefield, cut off their heads until you have throughly defeated them and then take the prisoners and tie them up firmly.
* 86:15 They (the kafirs) plot and scheme against you, and I (Allah) plot and scheme against them. Therefore deal calmly with the kafirs and leave them alone for awhile. (It is not explained what circumstances signal the renewed attacks on the kafirs.)

Just as the numerous differing versions of the Old and New Testaments, there are also differing versions and translations of the Quran. The verses cited here are just a few examples. The purpose is simply to show that there is a great deal of hatred repeatedly expressed in the texts of all three of the western worlds’ faith systems, but as shown here, the Quran expresses total hatred repeatedly and most adamantly. No one is supposed to escape from Muslim’s contempt; not Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists–or whoever is different. The implied primary directive in Islam seems to be, hate everyone who reveres the Life Principle in a different manner; a kind of kill first and ask questions later. The inherited tribal mentality and conduct in which Mohammad was raised was thus continued, and this was/is shown in regard toward women who were/are taken captive by Mohammad’s followers. The captive women could be used freely for any of the men’s sexual pleasure; the only forbidden contact was with “unclean” women as defined in Muslim law concerning menstruation. The only other technicality about using captive women as the men pleased concerned pregnant women; they were forbidden for sexual use until after she had given birth. Such freedom of sexual availability for the men was regarded as a kind of preview of the limitless pleasures that supposedly awaits in Paradise for Mohammad’s followers.

Compassion for the interrelated aspects of all life is not a concept to which the author of the Quran could relate, primarily because it was not seen as being demonstrated anywhere in the harsh desert environment in which he dwelt. Interestingly, Islam still is concentrated and flourishes primarily in the more harsh regions of Earth; and in those regions where the faith system is dominant any religious minorities which endure there suffer considerable religious intolerance. This is indisputable evidence that Islam is hardly a religion of peace and tolerance as claimed.

Further evidence of sanctioned fanatical intolerance is found in the conventional Dictionary of Islam in which the word jihad is defined as: “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Mohammad. It is an incumbent religious duty, established in the Quran and in the Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islam and for repelling evil from Muslims…”

Such is the “divine” assignment of Islam, a faith system which teaches that peace is to be violently pursued.

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A Creator’s Demand For Diversity

Posted in Atheist, belief, Christianity, culture, faith, Hebrew scripture, history, politics, random, scriptures, sex, sex taboos, Social, theology, thoughts with tags , , , , , on August 9, 2014 by chouck017894

Man is such an egotistical animal that he believes that he can ignore Nature’s subtle warnings. Perhaps that is because our revered ego-driven, man-written “holy books” happen to assure us that man was given dominion over all life forms on this little planet. Unfortuanately, those ego driven priest authors happened to also believe that this little Earth, which they perceived to be flat, was the center of all Creation. Well, that ain’t exactly an in-depth assessment, and human ego is pretty much a whore.

This admittedly crude appraisal of human egotism and arrogance (and its attendant greed) was goosed by recent reports concerning the dilemma of some ordinary fish. Seem that man’s self-interest has seeped into various streams and rivers (in the Susquehanna, Delaware and Ohio river basins in the United States), which has resulted in turning some fish species into what is delicately termed intersex fish. Gasp! Some of them damn male fish were actually found to be carrying eggs! Well, let’s not start pounding the pulpit just yet. Something very basic is shown here; something which illustrates that everything which exists in Creation is composed of interchangeable polar elements and thus nothing is ever exclusively representative of one energy pole or its opposite.

As for the dilemma of the river fish population referred to, their altered sexual identity reflects the natural interchangeable aspects within the energy pool of all life. The home waters of the fish happen to have been blessed with hormones and hormone-mimicking chemicals which were compounded by man’s arrogance and greed. The waste waters that man dumps into the streams carry estrogenic chemicals (used in agriculture and released in animal wastes), and the internal organs of the fish which regulate the release of hormones are being redirected in the fish bodies.

Those ancient and much revered priest myth makers apparently were never informed by God about hormones or chromosomes or DNA, nor was it revealed to them how the chemistry of the brain actually determines a person’s physical-mental-sexual makeup. Unfortunately even today, two to three thousand years after “revealed word” was set down as sacredly unchallengeable, the blindly faithful ascribe to principles drafted by those unenlightened men and completely ignore what modern science research has truly revealed. For example, research shows that the effects of sex chromosomes and chemical sex hormones do not have an undeviating manner of lining up in accordance to one narrow general anatomical structure as the hateful religious prejudices love to pretend.

Furthermore, anatomist research shows that there are naturally considerable variations in the human brain–in its shape, thalamus, structure of the cerebrum, etc.–which are extremely variable and are as individual as fingerprints. This means that mental and/or sensory properties connected with brain structure may freely align within vastly different ranges, and thus no two persons will ever be exactly the same–including “identical” twins. So, as far as religious approval of racial or sexual expression goes, one size was never intended to fit all. To the horror of religious extremists, that almighty power which is diverse and variable in its workings (shall we say “democratic”), and which is personified as “God,” did not use a cookie cutter technique to fashion every person’s racial, physical or sexual category in life. Those old power-hungry priest-authors were obsessed with ensuring a continuing and expanding herd of followers to provide the priests’ private livelihood, so tolerance of diversity and variety was not lucrative for them. Instead of trying to understand that variety and diversity are the underpinnings of all Creation, they chose to spew endless reams of hatred from their pulpits. Stated in biblical terms, their ignorance runneth over.

Religious fanatics should awaken to the fact that there is a flexible holy code used in the production of all life–the code of the hormonal and chromosomal chemical “design” which decrees great necessity for diversity and variety in human physical, mental and emotional expression. This seems to be problematic only for those who choose to work themselves into melodramatic clamoring over anyone perceived to be too different from themselves due to their taught ego-titillating beliefs. Certainly the endless assortments of life forms which may be observed throughout the entire universe shows that the Creative Principle, commonly personified as “God” for manipulative reasons, holds no grudge or spite over “his” diverse and variable handiwork.

Within these God-allowable differences there is purposely left open the allowance–the tolerance–for all expressions of life and love. The hormone and chromosome chemicals control the total development of the body, brain and intelligence. And these continue to do so in a wide range of ways throughout the duration of each person’s lifetime. Therefore, for political and/or religious factions to pretend that “the Creator” expects only one narrow expression of life or love to be striven for by every individual is not true spiritual understanding, and it is not moral instruction. In fact, such an unyielding stance against life’s intended variety and diversity within Creation amounts to outright sacrilege.

As noted in earlier posts, sexual allusions are intertwined throughout the whole framework of Judeo-Christian scriptures to this day. Words such as sacrament, testament, and seminary, we have seen, are directly traceable to sexual implications. Despite their sly sexual allusions, the old scheming priest-authors and “prophets” who fathered these cults knew precious little regarding the holy secrets of sexual energy, and that ignorance proved to be blissful for them for it allowed them to practice all forms of intolerance in their drive to gain profits and control.

Perhaps the thousands of different man-invented faith systems (over 4000 have been recorded) would do well to remember what research science has also had revealed to researchers through intense study. The brain contributes only two percent of a person’s weight, but it needs and uses twenty percent of the body’s energy. But as religious fanatics and political extemists consistently prove, very little brain is needed for the body to function and bring distress upon everyone around them.

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Chopping At The Roots of Democracy

Posted in Atheist, culture, Government, history, politics, random, religion, Social, thoughts with tags , , , on July 9, 2014 by chouck017894

…or Remembering Recent Religious Attacks on Democracy
…or How America Was Led To Where We Are Today
…or Not Yesteryear’s GOP

In the United States the Republican Party fell completely under the control of the Religious Right in 1995 (as noted in the blog Diseased Politics, January 2011). With “biblical values” as their sham standard, there arose rather rapidly an increasing odor of corruption. But there had been warnings for years from concerned Republicans that the integrity of their party was in increasing peril.

As early as 1981 Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona had noted publicly, “…I can say with conviction that the religious issues of these groups have little or nothing to do with conservative or liberal politics. The uncompromising position of these groups is a divisive element that could tear apart the very spirit of our representative system, if they gain sufficient strength.” Thirteen years later, in 1994, Goldwater warned, “If they (the unscrupulous Religious Right) succeed in establishing religion as a basic Republican Party tenet, they could do us in.” (From an interview in the 1994 US News & World Report.) Senator Goldwater was deeply troubled over the Religious Right’s persistent attacks on the US Constitution and feared for the basic freedoms of the American people. And in a 1994 interview from the Washington Post, Goldwater mused, “When you say ‘radical right’ today, I think of those moneymaking ventures like Pat Robertson who are trying to take the Republican Party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss [democratic] politics goodbye.” Well, the religious right now owns the Grand Old Party and Goldwater’s warnings were proven prophetic.

Ominously, by 1995 Tom DeLay, who had become a born-again Christian in 1985, was convinced that he had been blessedly “returned to Christ,” and apparently with Christ’s influence DeLay was installed as majority whip of the House, against the wishes of House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. DeLay, so righteous and divinely principled, judged Gingrich (and the next House Speaker, Dick Amery) to be “uncommitted to Christian values.” DeLay was so divinely dogmatic in party discipline that he earned the nickname “The Hammer.” He took the nickname to his bosom, declaring that the hammer was one of the carpenter’s most valuable tools–a not-so-subtle inference that he reflected Jesus’ alleged occupation as a carpenter.

And the 1995 challenger for the minority whip position, Republican John Shadegg of Arizona, lamented, “We ceded our reform-minded principles in exchange for a …tighter grip on power.” (Shadegg went on, however, to oppose the Healthcare Reform Package, calling it a “Soviet-style health care,” and it would be tabled in October 2009.) It was in 1999 when DeLay was the House Republican Whip, that DeLay made Roy Blunt his chief deputy. Blunt, a stanch Baptist, is noted for voting in favor of mandatory school prayer, school vouchers, and for allowing the anti-democratic use of federal money (gathered from citizen taxes of every faith or no faith) to issue vouchers for private or religious schools. With DeLay and Blunt in lockstep maneuvering, the religious dominated GOP was whipped into a frenzy of wild spenders who chopped away at long-standing regulations, instigated tax cuts for their cohorts, and doled out lavish earmarks and appropriations. They were so obviously blessed.

In this same general timeframe, DeLay initiated his so-called K Street Project, a not-so-righteous endeavor to get trade associations and lobbying firms to employ Republican supporters and to be more active in raising money for the party. And DeLay’s chief deputy, Roy Blunt, faithfully acted as DeLay’s envoy to the lobbying community–all in an effort to ram a strong religious-flavored Republican agenda through Congress. Dreams of establishing a theocratic government burned fiercely in their hearts. All this web of religious wheeler-dealers helped push biblical values into Republican legislative agenda, but those sacred ties were destined to become entangled and knotted around the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal.

Abramoff, an orthodox Jew, had been a highly influential lobbyist and activist for the born again George W. Bush administration, but then Roy Blunt’s name came up in connection with the Abramoff investigation. While Blunt was dutifully opposing a woman’s right to choose and opposing gay marriages, he saw nothing un-spiritual in trying to insert language into the bill creating the Homeland Security Department which would aid the Philip Morris tobacco company. He was inspired to make it more difficult for cigarettes to be offered for sale on the internet, apparently having suddenly had it divinely revealed to him that if cigarettes were to be offered on the internet it would be a serious security threat for the nation. Of course this deep spiritual inspiration had nothing to do with the $202,909 that Philip Morris had donated to his campaign.

Unfortunately that deceitful web of pretended righteousness is still being spun over the workings of the US government today (2014). And with the self-serving Tea Party having been added to the spin of biblical values, genuine democratic principles of equal opportunity for all the nation’s diverse citizens are not likely to improve. Somehow these religionists’ tactics reminds one of the line from the children’s story–“Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”

With this parasitic image we will close with another prophetic quote from former Republican Senator Barry Goldwater: “Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on Earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.” (Italics added by this writer.) He concluded that interview with a thought on equality: “Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to [forced] conformity, and then to despotism.”

WAKE UP AMERICA! GENUINE DEMOCRACY IS UNDER ATTACK not only from foreign terrorists but more frighteningly also from within by divine deceivers.

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