A long time ago, well certainly not more than 6,000 years ago, a young virgin petitioned the Temple of Baal because she had a startling revelation. Since her great-grandmother's time the women in her family had been keeping records of each year's harvest. The young virgin tallied up all the yields for the past 50 years, and she could see no correlation between crop yield and virgin sacrifice. Upon hearing the girl’s wonderful news, that it would no longer be necessary to spill human blood to guaranty a good harvest, the high priest looked gleefully at the child and said, "The gods be praised! Please don't reveal this sacred information until I've had a chance to consult with other priests. We will inform the community before next spring."
As the virgin skipped away the priest called a meeting of all the dignitaries in the village. He glowered around the room at the other men and shouted, "How did you let these women get away with this for four generations? If this gets out, we'll be on the streets begging for bread and water. We must neutralize this threat to our livelihood immediately."
Guess which virgin was sacrificed next spring.
Today, of course, we know that human sacrifice will not influence the good Earth God has given over for our use. Humans cannot influence climate or tides. Well . . . God can punish us if we displease him. He can wipe out thousands of unbelievers with a single tsunami. He can send hurricanes and drought to destroy the sinners. So whom do we blame? We can't sacrifice anyone, that's just forbidden. We can only warn people that their ungodly ways will bring His vengeance down upon them.
So we try to pass laws that prevent sin, and we try to eliminate the separation of church and state that that devil Thomas Jefferson foisted on us. Only then can we have peace and harmony.
There is the little matter of the Rapture. All the faithful will float to Heaven while the sinners suffer horrible catastrophes and war. So if you want to go to Heaven, here's what you have to do:
Make darn sure gay people can't get married. It doesn't count that you just consider it a sin; you have to make it a law. To Hell with separation of church and state.
Listen to all those nice people who run oil and gas companies. Global warming is a myth fostered by Godless liberals. There is no need for renewable energy; we don't have to lower greenhouse gasses. Why, even thinking about such things shows that your faith in God is not what it should be, and you won't be beaming to heaven with the rest of us.
End a woman's right to choose what a she does with her own body. Don't leave such sacred decisions up to the individual and her doctor. Your personal objection to abortion, your belief that a soul is created at conception, has to become law! And, by the way, all those welfare mothers, they’re on their own. If they have babies they can't support it's their problem. If they hadn't been sinning in the first place they wouldn't be in such a fix. If we end abortion, we will show all these parasites what God is all about. And the babies? Well . . . that's their problem. A Godly person does not care what happens to babies that are born in sin; he/she only cares about saving innocent lives.
Elect leaders that will bring about the rapture. Sure, the theology is a little fuzzy, mixing the Old Testament with Revaluations, so only the true believer can understand it. Why would God want to make such an important prophecy easy for everyone to understand? Only the saved can see the truth. Are you a bit confused? Then you might be left behind. Just say you understand, even if you don't, and God won't know the difference.
We will bring about the prophecy with innocent blood spilled in Holy wars. Oops, forget that. God told us not to make human sacrifices. Attacking Iraq is a war on terrorism; just forget that al Qaeda and the Taliban had little use for Saddam Hussein. We don't like him, so he must have had something to do with the 9/11 attacks. The prisoners we tortured, oops, interrogated, admitted that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction and it was practically in Bin Laden's pocket. We did NOT attack Iraq to settle an old family grudge. We're spreading peace and democracy throughout the Middle East by kicking the crap out of them. Who knew they'd fight back. At any rate, we'll all be floating to Heaven soon, so why should we worry?
Back to gay marriage and abortion. Until we insure these things cannot happen by changing the Constitution, we will have hurricanes, tsunamis, and all manner of plagues. Once the Constitution is changed, we'll have to find something else to blame natural disasters on. There's always somebody somewhere doing something we don't like.
Only the true believer can see the logic of these commandments. God will only reveal his truths to the saved. "Thou shall not kill" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" are deceiving, and only to be practiced under specific circumstances that born-again Christians can understand. If you are confused listen to Jerry Falwell or Jimmy Swaggart, two holy men who receive faxes directly from God daily. Don't rely on your conscience and common sense. That's the way to Hell.
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6 comments:
Well King George is acting like the unhappy bully he is. Can you imgage his own party not doing what he wants. God bless John McCain, John Warner and Linsey Graham, at least they have an idea about that is at stake. Not rich boy George
I don't pretend to understand most religions and the people who practice them. It all seems like a big excuse to be nasty to the people you don't like while promoting the people you do like -- it's a bunch of us-vs.-them meanness and bickering. And when our government chooses sides and prefers people of one religion over all others, we're all in big trouble.
I'm telling you, Mom, atheism is where it's at!
Kelly, atheism is just as much an act of faith as any other religion. Just as you can’t prove there is a god, you cannot prove there isn’t a god.
My faith doesn’t rely on proof, which is why it doesn’t rely on coercion. When neocons insist on teaching creationism in science class, they are admitting they have no true basis for their faith. If you have to force scientists to prove your point of view, you have no true conviction.
I recommend you read Jimmy Carter’s wonderful book “Our Endangered Values.” While I’m not now and never will be an evangelical, President Carter does explain that science, morality, compassion, and the teachings of Jesus, can co-exist. Religion has no business controlling government.
Thomas Jefferson saw the dangers. He lived in a time when government could mandate what religion was acceptable, and he knew that religion was a choice of the heart, not something that could ever be forced.
Fundamentalists are forgetting Jesus’ own teaching, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, render unto God that which is God’s.”
Imagine the worst possible religion, and then imagine it has control of the government (not much of a stretch these days.)
Separation of church and state, Thomas Jefferson’s ideal, is what prevents the worst of religions from ever controlling the government. In America we are free to believe, or not believe, what ever we want. That was a new and revolutionary idea in Jefferson’s time, and it is what prevents religion and government from corrupting each other. Right now that separation is challenged, and we can see the disastrous results.
The fault, Kelly, is in ourselves, not in our gods.
I am convinced (and I know you'll disagree with me, Mom) that religion does more harm than good in our world. There are well-meaning and good-hearted people who do charitable acts in the name of their religion, but they are far outweighed, in my opinion, by the horrible atrocities that are committed in the name of religion. It's been this way throughout the history of humanity -- we don't like you, or we're scared of you, or we don't understand you, so we will use our religion as an excuse to wipe you out. That's how al Qaeda feels about the West, and that's how our government feels about Islam (or anyone who might get in the way of their oil profits).
You can be a good, humane, ethical person without religion -- I like to think I'm living proof of that. I know this will most likely never happen, but I think the world will be a much more civilized place when humanity outgrows religion.
The flaw is not religion, but people. If there were no religion, as John Lennin speculated, people would simply find other reasons to hate each other.
Salman Rushde, an atheist, told Bill Moyers that he believes humans are hard-wired for morality, and I think he's on to something.
If there ever is peace in the world, it will be when people get over the idea that they, for any reason, are better than anyone else.
Unfortunately, Finished Last, the evangelicals are the ones out there screaming and yelling right now, and I believe it has had a disastrous effect on our government and our freedom.
A couple of weeks ago I heard Pastor John Hagee on NPR’s "Fresh Air," and he was blaming a gay pride parade that was scheduled to be held in New Orleans last year for Hurricane Katrina.
I, myself, am a Christian, and I will tell you Merry Christmas and feel no guilt. My criticism is not meant for Christianity in general. If all Christians tried to live as Jesus taught us to live, this world would be a better place.
If you had read my response to Kelly, you would know that I agree with your assessment of some atheist. Joseph Stalin was an atheist and that pretty well proves that atheists are not the answer to world peace.
The answer will come when we all learn to respect each other.
Fundamentalists, be they Christian, Muslim, or Jew, are usually decent people who just want the right to worship in their own way. Extremists, such as Hagee, are destroying America just as much as Osama Bin Laden is destroying Islam.
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