Just so we are clear - I am talking in philosophical terms here - not about specific people , or any particular incidents that may or may not have happened to me in the recent ( or distant ) past. I am expressing my beliefs and comments on world affairs. No more. This is a personal opinion, and it does not change my view of my Christian friends and family, whom I love dearly. :
Christians think of themselves as a flock of sheep , following their shepherd. And truly - I cannot think of a more truthful analogy. There are few things more comforting that knowing that all the hard decisions in life are already made for you.
You don't need think about all those really tough ethical issues - like what is right and wrong exactly , and how to determine whether your construct of the universe works well or not. It's handed to you , a ready made rule book , with a knowledge expert ( priest/ pastor/ counselor ) who will help you to understand something , or just tell you to have faith when they can't explain it.
You don't need to decide if knocking on someones door to minister to them is invasive , rude, and just plain arrogant, because you are doing God's work. It's OK because it's sanctioned at the 'highest level'.
The Pope recently made a statement, that made me nearly spit out my diet coke across the desk when I read it .
There's a short news article about it here :
In short - he says that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. Say What ?
Have we forgotten the near 200 years of the crusades? Where Christians left their homelands and went somewhere else , far away , to kill people that were not Christian, in 'defense' of the faith. As if believing something different in another country and time zone threatened the fabric of the universe. Not to mention the inquisitions all over Europe. Or the hysteria that engulfed the western world when everyone was burning, drowning or hanging their neighbours for being Witches.
Clearly he hasn't been at a western airport of late , where anyone remotely looking like they are Islamic is "randomly" selected for invasive searches and degrading questioning. Persecution is all around Mr Pope, and it ain't playing favourites.
Religious intolerance stems from the belief that your religion is right to the exclusion of all others. Hmm. Since when do you have the right to tell people that what they believe is wrong, when you have no proof to the contrary?
Religious documents are not historical texts. Historical texts are verified by the existence , and "provability" of their contents through other sources. Just because someone wrote down once that a man came down from the clouds and gave him purple pills to travel through the dimensions and come out on another planet , does not make it so. It's far more likely they ate some funky mushrooms with their steak and wine at dinner.
Believing in the purple pills is your prerogative, but you have no right to judge, condemn, or persecute anyone else who does not believe what you do. Even if they believe in orange pills , and you find this blasphemous. Grow up and get over it. I don't care what your purple-pill peddler says, you have no rights to be affronted by the orange pills , and unless a person is in your house holding a gun to your head to make you do things , them believing in orange pills does not change your lifestyle, or the choices you have in your own belief structure in the slightest. Especially not if you live in a western country where your right to choose is enshrined and worshiped above most other rights.
Yes - by all means- if a man get's to kill his wife when her ankle was exposed in a breeze, because of how he interprets the orange pill's wisdom - get in there and stop him from killing his wife. Educate him on Human Rights , and how no religion, or country can ever consider itself above those Human Rights. But do not for one second fool yourself into thinking your purple pills are any better, or that you have the right to tell him that his orange pills are bad.
I like the sheep analogy - because it captures so truly the essence of religion in general. Believe what we say, follow blindly , and any troublesome questions , just put it down to 'mysterious' ways , and believe anyway. Your shepherd will keep you safe from the wolf.
Except he won't - because the shepherd is a fiction, designed by some very crafty old codgers way back when , who wanted to keep all the power and money to themselves, and all the peasants in their place. And it's been a very useful tool of state ever since. Keeping the masses away from the nasty truth that there is no eternal post-death happy space for purple pill poppers meant that the masses were far more compliant to the will of the 'ordained' representative.
So what's so bad about the truth ? For most, I think it probably boils down to the fact that it's hard work being responsible for yourself and your actions on a permanent basis. It's far easier to do what we want Monday to Saturday (or Sunday to Friday or Saturday to Thursday depending on your pill of choice) and then give that over to some divine force that will wash it all clean on the decided Holy Day ( or anytime you say sorry to the sky with your eyes closed and your hands clasped in front of you).
Very convenient, and I must be honest there are times that I dearly wished that life worked that way. I would love to be able to wipe out in one foul swoop all the nasty things I have done in my life. Everyone has times when they are not able to deal with things perfectly. But real life just ain't cut out that way. You need to face the consequences of what you do, and mostly you need to make it right with the other person involved.
No amount of praying is going to fix your shitty relationship with your neighbour/ co-worker/ mother/ father/sibling/husband / child/ aunt/ uncle/ landlord/ tenant, you need to get over there and start being nice. And if they don't take the bait , then give up and move on. It takes 2 people to make a good relationship and you can only manage your half of the deal.
I believe that all the pills are bad. All of them. But it's your right to choose if you want to believe in any given pill of any given colour. I will never tell you to change your mind as long as I believe in your right, to make your own decisions about what you believe.
Just remember - sheep don't get to make choices - so if you really consider yourself a sheep in the flock , then you need to surrender your whole life , and all it's key choices over to the will of your Pill-Peddler( because he's the one representing your shepherd) .That means you don't get to question the will of God, and how his/her representatives run their various organisations on earth. Being a sheep means doing what you are told, and trading off your personal freedoms for feeling safe. You don't get it both ways.
Personally, I feel just dandy making my own ethical choices, and I am truly a far better human being as a 'non-believer' than I ever was as a devout christian.
Flushed my purple pills and don't regret it....
Christians think of themselves as a flock of sheep , following their shepherd. And truly - I cannot think of a more truthful analogy. There are few things more comforting that knowing that all the hard decisions in life are already made for you.
You don't need think about all those really tough ethical issues - like what is right and wrong exactly , and how to determine whether your construct of the universe works well or not. It's handed to you , a ready made rule book , with a knowledge expert ( priest/ pastor/ counselor ) who will help you to understand something , or just tell you to have faith when they can't explain it.
You don't need to decide if knocking on someones door to minister to them is invasive , rude, and just plain arrogant, because you are doing God's work. It's OK because it's sanctioned at the 'highest level'.
The Pope recently made a statement, that made me nearly spit out my diet coke across the desk when I read it .
There's a short news article about it here :
In short - he says that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. Say What ?
Have we forgotten the near 200 years of the crusades? Where Christians left their homelands and went somewhere else , far away , to kill people that were not Christian, in 'defense' of the faith. As if believing something different in another country and time zone threatened the fabric of the universe. Not to mention the inquisitions all over Europe. Or the hysteria that engulfed the western world when everyone was burning, drowning or hanging their neighbours for being Witches.
Clearly he hasn't been at a western airport of late , where anyone remotely looking like they are Islamic is "randomly" selected for invasive searches and degrading questioning. Persecution is all around Mr Pope, and it ain't playing favourites.
Religious intolerance stems from the belief that your religion is right to the exclusion of all others. Hmm. Since when do you have the right to tell people that what they believe is wrong, when you have no proof to the contrary?
Religious documents are not historical texts. Historical texts are verified by the existence , and "provability" of their contents through other sources. Just because someone wrote down once that a man came down from the clouds and gave him purple pills to travel through the dimensions and come out on another planet , does not make it so. It's far more likely they ate some funky mushrooms with their steak and wine at dinner.
Believing in the purple pills is your prerogative, but you have no right to judge, condemn, or persecute anyone else who does not believe what you do. Even if they believe in orange pills , and you find this blasphemous. Grow up and get over it. I don't care what your purple-pill peddler says, you have no rights to be affronted by the orange pills , and unless a person is in your house holding a gun to your head to make you do things , them believing in orange pills does not change your lifestyle, or the choices you have in your own belief structure in the slightest. Especially not if you live in a western country where your right to choose is enshrined and worshiped above most other rights.
Yes - by all means- if a man get's to kill his wife when her ankle was exposed in a breeze, because of how he interprets the orange pill's wisdom - get in there and stop him from killing his wife. Educate him on Human Rights , and how no religion, or country can ever consider itself above those Human Rights. But do not for one second fool yourself into thinking your purple pills are any better, or that you have the right to tell him that his orange pills are bad.
I like the sheep analogy - because it captures so truly the essence of religion in general. Believe what we say, follow blindly , and any troublesome questions , just put it down to 'mysterious' ways , and believe anyway. Your shepherd will keep you safe from the wolf.
Except he won't - because the shepherd is a fiction, designed by some very crafty old codgers way back when , who wanted to keep all the power and money to themselves, and all the peasants in their place. And it's been a very useful tool of state ever since. Keeping the masses away from the nasty truth that there is no eternal post-death happy space for purple pill poppers meant that the masses were far more compliant to the will of the 'ordained' representative.
So what's so bad about the truth ? For most, I think it probably boils down to the fact that it's hard work being responsible for yourself and your actions on a permanent basis. It's far easier to do what we want Monday to Saturday (or Sunday to Friday or Saturday to Thursday depending on your pill of choice) and then give that over to some divine force that will wash it all clean on the decided Holy Day ( or anytime you say sorry to the sky with your eyes closed and your hands clasped in front of you).
Very convenient, and I must be honest there are times that I dearly wished that life worked that way. I would love to be able to wipe out in one foul swoop all the nasty things I have done in my life. Everyone has times when they are not able to deal with things perfectly. But real life just ain't cut out that way. You need to face the consequences of what you do, and mostly you need to make it right with the other person involved.
No amount of praying is going to fix your shitty relationship with your neighbour/ co-worker/ mother/ father/sibling/husband / child/ aunt/ uncle/ landlord/ tenant, you need to get over there and start being nice. And if they don't take the bait , then give up and move on. It takes 2 people to make a good relationship and you can only manage your half of the deal.
I believe that all the pills are bad. All of them. But it's your right to choose if you want to believe in any given pill of any given colour. I will never tell you to change your mind as long as I believe in your right, to make your own decisions about what you believe.
Just remember - sheep don't get to make choices - so if you really consider yourself a sheep in the flock , then you need to surrender your whole life , and all it's key choices over to the will of your Pill-Peddler( because he's the one representing your shepherd) .That means you don't get to question the will of God, and how his/her representatives run their various organisations on earth. Being a sheep means doing what you are told, and trading off your personal freedoms for feeling safe. You don't get it both ways.
Personally, I feel just dandy making my own ethical choices, and I am truly a far better human being as a 'non-believer' than I ever was as a devout christian.
Flushed my purple pills and don't regret it....
The debate about religion and human rights is among the hot topics in the world right now. In my opinion, religions also focus on fulfilling the rights over anything
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