Miriam has this one right. Why is it that we never look within
ourselves when it comes to hate crimes and violence? My beef with
religion is not that it causes war and rape and plunder. That comes
by brutish, mindless human behavior. No, my objection to religion is
that it assumes absolutes. God, whoever God is, is Perfect.
Therefore, His words are absolute Truth. We talk about "The Word of
God", and yet we agree that words are fickle and can be vague and have
shades of meaning. Or opposite meanings. And of course there is that
pesky little problem that religious folk overlook. God, all Gods,
speak through the mouths of men....mostly men, since men seem to have
been "created" first, and are most often the head of the house, tribe,
nation and Church.
Once men have spoken the "Word of God", they must then decide whether
or not to follow that Word. Naturally anyone who chooses not to
follow the Word, or claims a different Word, must be taught the error
of their ways. The leading religions all practice "converting" other
people. Not content to follow the Word, they want to, "Share" it with
the entire world. Once again it is the use of words that cause men to
turn against men. True, the invention of Religion does provide a safe
haven for tyrants and fanatics to operate within. But these Lunatics
would find another cover if we outlawed religions. Remember, they
live under rocks and come out to bay at the moon after dark.
We used to call them Lunatics, but words change and today we call them
such names as, Mister Speaker of the House.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/18/15, ted chittenden <tchittenden@cox.net> wrote:
> Carl:
> I think both you and your mother are right. Quoting from Rod Stewart's 1977
> controversial chart entry, "The Killing of Georgie":
>
> "Never wait or hesitate.
> Get in kid before it's too late.
> You may never get another chance.
>
> Cause youth's a mask but it don't last.
> Live it long and live it fast."
> --
> Ted Chittenden
>
> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
> ---- Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com> wrote:
> The truth is that we humans can't face the truth. We play, "Let's
> Pretend", as we skip down the Yellow Brick Road toward the Emerald
> City. We can't face the truth. The Truth is that despite our amazing
> scientific advances, we can't begin to understand our Universe.
> Rather than admit it, we invent Fairy Tales to provide answers to the
> troubling unknown. Especially the unsettling truth about our
> mortality.
> To me, one of the strangest human activities is the amount of energy
> and time some people spend on practicing to believe that they will
> have life everlasting, when they are sitting about wasting the one
> life they have for certain. My mother used to say, "Whatever else
> folks choose to believe, I know that I have this one trip through
> life, for sure. So I'd better make the most out of it".
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
> On 2/14/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>> Telling the Truth About Religious Violence
>> Saturday, 14 February 2015 13:12 By Donald Kaul, OtherWords | Op-Ed
>> President Barack Obama committed the ultimate political blunder the other
>> day. He blurted out the truth.
>> Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, he warned his Christian
>> brethren
>> against "getting up on our high horse" when condemning the violence of
>> Muslim terrorists.
>> "During the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds
>> in
>> the name of Christ," he said. "In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow
>> all
>> too often was justified in the name of Christ."
>> Naturally, all hell broke loose.
>> The Rupert Murdoch army launched into full attack, supported by Rush
>> Limbaugh air strikes. Rabid Fox News commentators, foaming at the mouth,
>> fought each other for control of the mics to condemn the president's
>> remarks
>> as "un-American" and, even worse, liberal. He was derided as irreligious,
>> weak, and not a real American.
>> It was to be expected.
>> People will forgive a politician for telling lies. Sweet deceptions,
>> after
>> all, are what politics are all about. But let him speak the truth just
>> once,
>> even inadvertently, and he becomes the object of scorn, ridicule, and
>> contempt.
>> Remember the case of George Romney?
>> Running for president in 1967, he confessed that he had been
>> "brainwashed"
>> by Pentagon propaganda into believing that the Vietnam War was winnable.
>> And
>> he had been, of course, as had most of the American public at the time.
>> But as soon as Romney uttered this truthful statement, his presidential
>> hopes vanished in a blink - never to be seen again.
>> I'd like to note that this lesson wasn't lost on George's son. As nearly
>> as
>> can be determined, Mitt Romney never told the truth once during his 2012
>> campaign. He lost anyway, proving that it takes more than a lack of
>> honesty
>> to fool the American people.
>> But back to Obama. What he was trying to say, at an inter-faith event,
>> was
>> that we shouldn't hold all Muslims responsible for the acts of a relative
>> few. Christianity also has a skeleton or two in its historical closet.
>> The Christian right, which includes most of the Republicans in Congress,
>> pounced.
>> The Crusades were a righteous response to Islamic aggression, they said.
>> The
>> Inquisition? Highly overrated as an atrocity. And Jim Crow? That was "a
>> thousand years ago," said Limbaugh.
>> To which one can only say, "Oh come on."
>> The truth is, you can act as though terrorist violence against the West
>> is
>> unprovoked. But it's not. It's the bitter fruit of the past 100 years of
>> subjugation of the Arab and Muslim peoples by Western powers, thirsty for
>> the oil beneath the Middle East.
>> For a century the United States and its allies systematically subverted
>> any
>> suggestion of democracy in the region in favor of vicious thugs we could
>> control through bribery.
>> And when a popularly elected politician would surface every once in a
>> while,
>> we'd get rid of him and install our own puppet. Think of the popularly
>> elected Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, whom the CIA overthrew in 1953,
>> replacing him with the brutal and corrupt Shah.
>> That's the genesis of the mess we're dealing with now. Not Islam, not
>> pure
>> evil, but 100 years of Western domination.
>> In any case, it's more than a little hypocritical for the Christian right
>> to
>> be up in arms over the perversion of Christianity.
>> This is a group, after all, whose representatives in Congress have sought
>> to
>> take health insurance from the poorest workers among us. They've tried to
>> deport young Americans because their parents brought them here without
>> papers many years ago. They've supported the use of torture and fought to
>> cut off unemployment insurance to the long-term unemployed.
>> Any of that remind you of Christianity?
>> This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may
>> not
>> be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
>> DONALD KAUL
>> Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
>> ________________________________________
>> Show Comments
>> Hide Comments
>> <a href="http://truthout.disqus.com/?url=ref">View the discussion
>> thread.</a>
>> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
>> Telling the Truth About Religious Violence
>> Saturday, 14 February 2015 13:12 By Donald Kaul, OtherWords | Op-Ed
>> . font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
>> reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error!
>> Hyperlink
>> reference not valid.
>> . President Barack Obama committed the ultimate political blunder the
>> other day. He blurted out the truth.
>> . Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, he warned his Christian
>> brethren against "getting up on our high horse" when condemning the
>> violence
>> of Muslim terrorists.
>> "During the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds
>> in
>> the name of Christ," he said. "In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow
>> all
>> too often was justified in the name of Christ."
>> Naturally, all hell broke loose.
>> The Rupert Murdoch army launched into full attack, supported by Rush
>> Limbaugh air strikes. Rabid Fox News commentators, foaming at the mouth,
>> fought each other for control of the mics to condemn the president's
>> remarks
>> as "un-American" and, even worse, liberal. He was derided as irreligious,
>> weak, and not a real American.
>> It was to be expected.
>> People will forgive a politician for telling lies. Sweet deceptions,
>> after
>> all, are what politics are all about. But let him speak the truth just
>> once,
>> even inadvertently, and he becomes the object of scorn, ridicule, and
>> contempt.
>> Remember the case of George Romney?
>> Running for president in 1967, he confessed that he had been
>> "brainwashed"
>> by Pentagon propaganda into believing that the Vietnam War was winnable.
>> And
>> he had been, of course, as had most of the American public at the time.
>> But as soon as Romney uttered this truthful statement, his presidential
>> hopes vanished in a blink - never to be seen again.
>> I'd like to note that this lesson wasn't lost on George's son. As nearly
>> as
>> can be determined, Mitt Romney never told the truth once during his 2012
>> campaign. He lost anyway, proving that it takes more than a lack of
>> honesty
>> to fool the American people.
>> But back to Obama. What he was trying to say, at an inter-faith event,
>> was
>> that we shouldn't hold all Muslims responsible for the acts of a relative
>> few. Christianity also has a skeleton or two in its historical closet.
>> The Christian right, which includes most of the Republicans in Congress,
>> pounced.
>> The Crusades were a righteous response to Islamic aggression, they said.
>> The
>> Inquisition? Highly overrated as an atrocity. And Jim Crow? That was "a
>> thousand years ago," said Limbaugh.
>> To which one can only say, "Oh come on."
>> The truth is, you can act as though terrorist violence against the West
>> is
>> unprovoked. But it's not. It's the bitter fruit of the past 100 years of
>> subjugation of the Arab and Muslim peoples by Western powers, thirsty for
>> the oil beneath the Middle East.
>> For a century the United States and its allies systematically subverted
>> any
>> suggestion of democracy in the region in favor of vicious thugs we could
>> control through bribery.
>> And when a popularly elected politician would surface every once in a
>> while,
>> we'd get rid of him and install our own puppet. Think of the popularly
>> elected Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, whom the CIA overthrew in 1953,
>> replacing him with the brutal and corrupt Shah.
>> That's the genesis of the mess we're dealing with now. Not Islam, not
>> pure
>> evil, but 100 years of Western domination.
>> In any case, it's more than a little hypocritical for the Christian right
>> to
>> be up in arms over the perversion of Christianity.
>> This is a group, after all, whose representatives in Congress have sought
>> to
>> take health insurance from the poorest workers among us. They've tried to
>> deport young Americans because their parents brought them here without
>> papers many years ago. They've supported the use of torture and fought to
>> cut off unemployment insurance to the long-term unemployed.
>> Any of that remind you of Christianity?
>> This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may
>> not
>> be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
>> Donald Kaul
>> Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
>>
>> Show Comments
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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