I believe in the message of the quaint and sweet verses we read in the Bible or other religious sources, but I don't believe in them---that is, I do not believe they came from God or any supernatural source---Just like the Bible was written by MEN {and a couple of women}, all this other stuff we get though other references is the work of Mankind.
Because love and spiritual and emotional comfort are things that go beyond nature and touch the heart and mind, Man has sought fit to attach a divine, or supernatural source to their origins, and like the common folk are naught but sheep and willingly allow themselves to be guided by the lions and wolves among us, the average people throughout the centuries have gobbled up religion and the claims of their leaders that it all came from an almost human, always angry God, that gets very impatient with his children when they don't behave, but instead of spanking them, he sends plagues, terrible storms, horrible diseases, destroys cities or just sends us to burn in hell for doing things we had no idea were sins.
Little could the average people feel and reach out to animals and birds, that they too feel and possibly, with their instincts, understand love by how you treat them ~ we have all experienced this with our pets, and how they give back the love, tenderness, sweetness and devotion we give them.
Thus, like the wise people say, Mankind is really a feeling animal that just happens to think.
Unfortunately, History has shown that the common people over the centuries have done very little thinking on their own, choosing instead to blame those they themselves had elected to think on their behalf.
Hitler, reputedly, had an engraved enamel platelet on his desk that read:
How fortunate for us that the common people do not think.
Well, The Church discovered that secret thousands of years ago, and has been fooling the people ever since, and the Muslims have been doing the same since Mohammed had flown to Heaven {while Jesus was out chasing boys, just like some Biblical Michael Jackson, and calling them his ¨apostles,¨ Mohammed, in between losing himself in a cave to write down his suryahs, was out paying girls to take off their veils for his singular pleasure}.
We are so fortunate to live in a time when the dark shades of ignorance are being systematically drawn away; that we can consider animals as our fellow beings that share love and loyalty with us; and all manner of education and knowledge are available nowadays to those fortunate enough to take advantage of them, that we might be free from all this hateful superstition, persecution and suffering that religions, especially Islam and Christianity, have committed against mankind and against all Nature; that we might build a truly new religion that instead of turning people against eachother, just like Islam and Christianity have done over the centuries, it brings people together; should use the EARTH as a symbol to work and die for, instead of the cross or the crescent moon; and that makes LOVE the real, palpable God that we can depend on to make this world better for all of us, including all the higher animals---yes, Love is more patient than Time itself; LOVE heals all wounds; Love is ever merciful and compassionate; Love conquers all.
Jesus had a good idea for love, but for the last 2,000 years most Christians and the Catholic church have forgotten about Christ's love, and have emphasized God's punishment by torture in this life, and then burning in hell in the next life, for such stupid things like believing that the world is round, for forgetting to cross yourself when you pass a church, for trying new medicines like aspirin for a headache instead of praying 10 ¨our-fathers¨, or for telling a priest ¨no¨ when he demanded you reach into his pocket and pull on his member, and of course, the ¨worst sin of all,¨ to be gay and love your fellow man. So, even though Nature made you gay, the Church has determined you should be roasted alive for it, like if you were some disease-infected cockroach.
These religious closet-homosexuals, the dogmatic heirarchy, the Inquisition, the militant ¨sacred¨ orders, have been the true Nazi's, the real bastards. They have raised cruelty and hypocrisy to the highest level of human barbarity. {the incredible thing is that I have spoken to many ex-priests and seminarians, as well as my own dad who studied to be a priest, and almost all of them have said that most priests are gays, have had carnal relations with more than one boy, and have often molested children, and the events surrounding the issue of child molestation a couple of years before the last pope, John Paul II, passed away certainly attest to this assertion}.
Would I get rid of the Church, or even Islam for that matter, right away in some terrible revolution?
As a student of history, I am forced to say NO. We must keep using these religions as long as there are no viable substitutes to teach mankind about morality and self-restraint from the base hungers and passions that have brought so much horror to this earthly existence, in full view of the fact that these religions helped to cause many of them over the the millennia. We must keep them for as long as there are hundreds of millions of people in the world who have no education, live by supersition, don't have enough to eat, have no electricity or running water, no television, know nothing of the world around them. As long as a good education is not available to them the way it is for us, and for as long as the common people do not think for themselves, we must continue to rely on these traditional religions to do the job they were always supposed to do, and, in fact, in many corners of the earth, there do exist unassuming and dedicated people who take their religious work seriously and try to spread morality and spiritual comfort to the less fortunate .
These religions at least still offer some comfort, and do some good, like run schools and hospitals, as well as teach Mankind, which is still pretty brutal, cruel, and rapacious, something about morality and decency. Afterall, the actual teachings themselves are not bad, it is the people who have been in charge that have ruined everything so that today people cannot trust their religions anymore.
The American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, etc, these are very lofty ideals and things that are really inspirational and full of hope ~ they are worthy to live and strive for, but what have most Americans themselves done in the last 200 years? Slavery of the Africans, discrimmination, War on the Mexicans and stealing all their territory north of el Rio Grande, the obliteration of Hawaiian culture and independence in order to steal the Sugar commerce, and then they stole the islands themselves, forced Christianization of the local natives in order to despoil them of their traditions and hereditary lands, the expulsion of almost all non-white immigrants, persecutions, racism, etc., oh, and I almost forgot about the genocide of the native Indians!
It is a sad fact of history that among the first Indian tribes to be murdered, and brought before the gates of extinction were the Patuxet and Wampanoag Indians that taught, and celebrated with, the Puritan Pilgrims the first Thanksgiving feast with roast turkey, over 300 years ago;
Although, as a side reference, it is true that Thanksgiving really was first celebrated by our Spanish Ancestors.
Yes, it is true: The first recorded Thanksgiving ceremony took place on September 8, 1565, when 600 Spanish settlers, under the leadership of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, landed at what is now St. Augustine, Florida, and immediately held a Mass of Thanksgiving for their safe delivery to the New World; there followed a feast and celebration.
As the La Florida colony did become part of the United States , this can be classified as the first Thanksgiving, although it was not a harvest festival.
The Spanish colonial town of San Elizario (San Elceario), near El Paso, Texas, has also been said to be the site of the first Thanksgiving to be held in what is now known as the United States , though that was also not a harvest festival. Spaniard Don Juan de Oñate ordered his expedition party to rest and conducted a mass in celebration of thanksgiving on April 30, 1598.
So, I honestly cannot believe in any of these traditional religions, anymore. They have really screwed everything up, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Invasion of Iraq, Al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein, The Iranian revolution with the Ayatollah, all the terrorism, all based on religion, and just more of the same that has gone on for more than a thousand years;
Speaking of atrocities perpetrated by religions, did you know that ASSASSIN is originally an Arabic word based on Hashish? Yes, the Islamic priests would drug out their converts on Hashish, then, when they would get sober, the priests would tell them that they had gone to heaven. Next, they would warn the new converts that if they wanted to ¨return to heaven¨ they had to perform something for God. So, they were commanded to go out and kill some non-muslims, or other enemies of Allah, especially Christians, and they would get some more Hashish. Later, they would mostly kill political figures, like some sultan or a caliph they did not like. These convert-murderers were known as Hasheshimi, or, translated to English, Assassin, or Spanish Asesino, and that is why we use the word assassin, instead of murderer or killer, to refer to someone who killed a political figure. It's all true {in case you did not know}.
And yet, in spite of all these reasons that seem to make a case for ridding ourselves of all religions, I do NOT believe in revolutions that do away with the old---they only bring more misery and destruction. History has shown this to be true time and again.
I have to believe in EVOLUTION, that Mankind eventually absorbs more Love, more learning, and I believe in giving more time to the other, poorer and more primitive savages among us to catch up. That still might take many centuries.... though, considering what ¨civilized man¨ has committed in the name of civilization, who is really qualified to separate the truly civilized from the savage?
And, in the ultimate outcome, the only ones who we can really save, if salvation is the object of your goal, is no one but ourselves.
If you give that job of ¨salvation¨ to someone else, you might end up as a Hasheshimi, a member of the Nazi party, a Commie, a gang-banger for the Bloods and Crypts, a terrorist for Al-Qaeda, or, worst of all, you might end up voting for Barack Obama!
... just kidding.
As for Catholicism itself---well, I am reminded of a saying the writer Oscar Wilde wrote: I was born and baptized as a Catholic, and suppose that I will die as a Catholic ....but in between, I do not intend to live my life as one!
Anyway, if I profess interest in the Catholic Church, it is DEFINITELY NOT for religious reasons. Again, since I am a student of history, I have to recognize the tremendous importance the church has had in the last 2 thousand years in the history of mankind, especially Western Civilization, and deeply appreciate the art, literature and architecture that were sponsored by it. I am especially appreciative of the inspiration that the Church gave to the development of Western music. For that, I still participate----but as a student, not as a devout worshiper ~ I leave all foolish piety and hypocritical worship for the religious dumb-bells who have nothing to look forward to; have no knowledge of the wonders and beauty of the world; who have no understanding of what Love really means; who have no capacity to understand the contradiction in going to church for help, while gladly condoning murder in the name of war, or allowing the killing of a dumb kid because he smoked dope, or he impregnated your daughter---most white cops who kill minorities because they ran away from them while in the process of arrest, or had a bag of weed in their car, or for whatever meaningless reason, are said to be regular god-fearing church-goers, so how do you reconcile this contradiction? And, you know this evil goes on everywhere in the world, again, and again, and again.
Yes, religion is for people who have none of the treasures of knowledge or wisdom handed down to us over the ages, and would have nothing but despair and fear if they did not have a Church that promised them that maybe in the next life, which you have to really fool yourself to believe in, it is possible that you might have it easier.
Yes, my parents were devout Catholics, but only because they had nothing else, no higher education, never received real love from their parents or from anyone, and they were often on the verge of hunger and privation, were constantly brutalized with violence, or the psychological torture that if you did not obey your parents or any authority, God would rain terrible punishments on you, and condemn you to hell, thus fear was given instead of Christ's love; they did not see or understand the wonders of world, until they had some money to see them, and they could never understand such high concepts like astronomy, biology, physics, nor even computer literacy, and how many times did my pathetic mother tell me how boring and stupid she thought History was, and that I was wasting my time and energies away by learning something ¨so useless and a waste a time like History!¨.
The Bible itself taught me about the real difference that lies between knowledge and ignorance with proverbs like: it is a sin to cast pearls before swine, thus it is a travesty to share the light of God's wisdom unto the unlettered and unconsecrated.
Wisdom is a fount of inspiration under him who hath it; but the instruction of fools is folly!
Yes, my ancestors were ignorant as a result of poverty and privation, but they were also monumental FOOLS!
... And yet, in their old age, after they had seen some of the wonders of the world, or grew more informed of the world thanks to television and radio, mom and dad did begin to question why---maybe that everything that they had been taught was possibly not all-together true---that there was more to life than what the damned priests and governments, and their own parents, and other liars and cheaters had taught them.
Speaking of faith and devout worship, I wanted to clarify something I wrote in previous paragraphs---that I leave devout worship to the dumb-bells. Well, what I meant is that while I am not a devout worshiper, I am not really knocking down faith and devotion since they are a comfort when we don't have the answers to problems we face all the time.
I wanna make the distinction between FAITH IN WORSHIP, and those that practice FAITH IN REASON. I must express my admiration and great respect for those who all along have demonstrated the attributes of bearing Faith in Reason---you may not have the answers to the myriad problems you face, but having faith in your own abilities, in the general goodness of people you can depend on, and in the carefully reasoned out possibilities available to you when faced with a crisis that does have a solution, gets things done more so than lighting a candle to some obscure saint that has no bearing on your own life, and, furthermore, do not bother to waste time on problems that do not have solutions.
People who place faith in Reason---they are the true movers and shakers of the world, not fools who place their faith in superstitions and supernatural intervention----for too long I was one of those fools, and just wasted a good portion of my life.
That's my alibi regarding the foolishness of religious convictions, which always change according to the expediencies of the times; and the stupidity of the hypocrite severity that authority figures dole out to the ignorant and oppressed masses as punishment for things considered to be sinful during one age, but virtuous in another.
As Shakespeare wrote; Nothing is good or bad ... but thinking makes it so!
THE END
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