Winter Solstice 2016, Trump and "Christianity"
The Winter Solstice this year is more meaningful than any of the 0ther 79 I have experienced. Having been a Roman Catholic until 21 and then a Born Again Evangelical for many years after that I slowly discovered that it was all fake. Now I see the Pagan influence in every aspect of this season's sham celebration of the birth of Christ.
But this year we have added to the exposure of "Christianity" as a very effective take off on what humans have been doing since the beginning. We watched the same group go wild over a man who's life and values mock them as does their phony celebration.
For those of us who have shed the brainwashing of our youth the show is very amusing. The ability to feign piousness while robbing, cheating, killing, debasing sex, and so much more has been perfected so that the believers have no idea why we are laughing at them.
The human animal has changed little over the years. Greed, sex and sadism are its basic features and it uses its magnificent brain to cover this up with religious trappings.
We are in a new era now. Reality TV is being overshadowed by reality. As we destroy the planet we live on we will do it with an orgy of the worst side of the human creature dominant.
So what about politics? What about government? You tell me. I think they, like religion were just another game we played to convince ourselves that we were enlightened rather than the misguided apes that we are.
So eat drink and be merry brothers and sisters. It is all out in the open now. No need to hide it or pretend. What is good for the President is fair game for all.
Comments
On a slightly upward note
HR 1150 - Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act was amended and this week signed into law by President Obama with inserted text.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1150
and it's proving quite difficult to find any well known news sources that are reporting this.
http://www.snopes.com/2016/12/21/obama-signs-law-protecting-atheists/
The people, united, will never be defeated.
why don't you try writing your own blog rather than hijacking
mine?
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Sorry Don
but I don't see it as a hijacking.
Now our nonsense (in the eyes of the believers) is just as important this capitalistic holiday.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
???????
you are a troll
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
If it makes you feel better
to call people names, that's your business. I won't stoop that low.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Huh?
Maybe this is an ironic response, but if so I don't see it.
I think the topic is relevant to your OP, and furthers the conversation. But maybe YMVs.
I took it as
enhancement, not hijack.
But, a glorious Saturnalia to ya anyway, Don.
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
Hijacked?
I have no idea what your blog was about.
What exactly does it mean to debase sex, by the way? Masturbating too much? Too many partners? Not pretending it is holy? What?
If you don't know what you want, you deserve what you get.
If sex ain't holey,
you're doin' it wrong!
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
Honestly, Don
I think WaveyDavey's comment is very much in keeping with the theme of your essay, as I read it. JMHO.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I guess I just failed to communicate.
Sorry for that. I really don't see that anyone really understood what I wrote. It has happened before. My apologies.
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Has the smoke cleared? Up periscope--
I do believe that a man called Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth, was a holy man and forgave his murderers from the cross.
After that it is merely fairy tales fostered by the Constantine era and continues to this day.
So. Happy Madison Avenue Christmas, if you're into that jazz. I doubt too many who visit this room are.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
I don't know if I'd go that far
I believe there was a man whose name transliterates into Jesus who lived in that time frame. I believe he had some sort of religious message. I believe that when this man died (no matter how) some people jumped on the bandwagon and twisted what he said for their own purposes.
I believe that after a few hundred years a cult formed around some kind of something that was maybe related to the things he said....maybe related. I believe that in the 4th century whatever teachings he preached (if he did) were absorbed into the state (the corporatocracy of its day). I believe that anyone after that who's used his head to understand the basic message (if he had one) has been ostracized and/or condemned as a heretic.
In other words, I believe he lived and that he became the focus of a state religion. That's about it.
And that state religion would be of course, created by
Constantine at the convention of Nicaea in 325 a.d. Countless bishops convened to decide whether Jesus was either god or man. Contstantine casting the deciding vote and lo and behold -- Jesus was God. This convention legalized Christianity. There's your state religion. Prior to that, most of the early Christians were Jews that were looked upon as an odd sect of Judaism.
How crafty of Constantine. What better way to expand and consolidate power than to legalize a very large number of people, giving them legal status. Now that move commanded loyalty! Constantine didn't give a rip about God. He believed he was one as Roman Emperors do.
Of course there were cults right and left. There were some that predate Christ, such as the worship of Mithros(sp)which carries many similarities such as, virgin birth and ressurection.
Here's one for you. Riddle me this. How come the word Jew is nowhere to be found in any Christian bible? I wonder about things sometimes.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
not "Jew" but Hebrew
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
There was no longer a Judea in Constantine's time
It was all turned into Palestine by the Emperor Hadrian, a couple of centuries earlier, I believe. Maybe saying the word Jew instead of Hebrew made you an unpatriotic Roman.
Edit: Damn I say some stupid shit when I'm stoned. Like the people who were around in those times were speaking Merican.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Paganism was a lot more tolerant.
The Jews, with their monotheism, could be a nuisance when they wouldn't tolerate other Gods in their midst, but we would all be better off now if Constantine just stuck to paganism.
Edit: On the other hand, maybe, when the Council of Nicea declared Jesus to be God-like, that was partly a compromise with paganism. Sounds good anyway.
Beware the bullshit factories.
wait, what? haven't you ever seen Jesus Christ Superstar?
The word "Jew" appears in at least one context in Matt, Mark, Luke and John:
EDIT: I should note that, not being a biblical scholar, I haven't a clue what actual Greek word is being translated to "Jews", nor whether there are english translations that say "Hebrews" in these places, nor what word is used in any translations into other languages.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
On the Side of Good..
Don, so much resonates with me. I, too, was a Catholic Altar Boy in the sense that I was indoctrinated into a form of a cult. Except for my "Wet NDE" (see my posts), I have also rejected any formalism of the doctrinalism of any doctrine relating to religion. God, sure, religion, not so much.
In a sense, we are headed into an unknown maelstrom. Swim ye laddies and lassies, find the shore yet! I'll try to meet ya there!
Bernie is a win-win.
I am agnostic leaning towards atheism
As Mulder said, I want to believe
But I have a hard time believing that any benevolent Being could sit back and watch the atrocities that humans commit against each other, especially children. Or have watched the Catholic Church slaughter millions of people because they didn't believe in their doctrine. Or watch 2,000 years of humans slaughtering and torturing people for whatever reason.
The number of children who are caught up with the sex trafficking trade wouldn't be something I could sit back and watch.
When I bring this up to any person who are religious I get the same explanation every time. "Gawd gave people free will and what they do with it will be judged after they die and stand before God" unless they stand before St. Peter first.
I was raised Catholic in Utah and I had been having doubts about the church but I finally left after the Pope said that even if a man is HIV positive he still can't use a condom because of their ideas about birth control. How many women and children were infected because of that ridiculous ruling?
Or how many children grew up in severe poverty in a family of up to 12 or more kids because of the church's stance on birth control?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
It's like the old joke:
"An agnostic is an atheist with commitment issues...".
I'm atheist. I was brought up in the marvelous absence of any religion, after my parents had been purged by their Presbyterian church after working for years to get into positions of authority in that structure (deacon/choir leader). Until they day they died, they wouldn't even discuss what happened- but that sort of thing could be the social kiss of death in small town southern America in the 50s and 60s. Glad they left all that dreck out of my upbringing.
I simply applied Occam's razor to the issue. One major tenet of *every* religion is the absolute, non-negotiable claim that every other religion is dreadfully, horribly wrong, and that if you believe in any other religion you are going to hell for sure. So the options are a) only one of the eleventy gazillion different religious sects is right, and all the others are full of shit, or b) they are *all* full of shit. I choose b as being the far simpler and therefore more likely solution, and regard the Bible as essentially a Mesopotamian Tom Clancy novel, written by committee to boot. But your mileage may vary.
I think Buddhism is an exception to that
Beware the bullshit factories.
Is it that bad?
That was well put, and applies, I think, not only to evangelical Christian voters but to most working people.
Freud said something like that as well, from time to time. Personally, I have no problem with sex (hmm, there must be a better way to say that) - but are greed and sadism *really* basic features of human nature? Or are they features of a human nature that has been warped and corrupted by a particular arrangement of society?
That might be a good analogy; but if it is, it might also imply something more hopeful than you seem to see in it. The thing about games is, when you play them (by the rules) you act differently than you do outside of the game space. The game shapes your behavior. It engages your psychic energy (libido, if you like) and channels it toward an agreed upon goal. It affects the way you interact with others and the way they interact with you.
Maybe we just need a new game?
one definition of insanity is
doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the results to change
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
ha! Too true!
...but surely you would not advocate we go back to the trees?
"If at first you don't succeed...try try again"
Talk to Wittgenstein about it.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
A very dark view of human nature, Don
Greed, malice and impulse to procreate are very much in the beginnings, continuation and probably the end of man. But don't forget empathy and altruism, which, although in short supply have existed in every era. These more positive virtues have always been overwhelmed by the grossly negative traits because the latter are so drastically foul. War is a constant in human history--even before there was history. The most ridiculous reasons have been given for initiation of war. Religion, of course, has been a prominent excuse for carnage. But atheists can and do start wars. Just think of Genghis Khan and Joe Stalin. The existence of god or gods or goddesses is always a matter of conjecture and must be assumed based on faith, not experience. Has anyone ever come back from the dead, outside of brief cardiac arrest? Why is why bible (which I don't have anyway) better than your bible. Imprinting from birth is the major reason people belong to the religion of their parents for the vast majority of believers. Because god (or dog) is a matter of faith, not science, the existence or non-existence thereof cannot be proven or disproven. Because I lack the requisite faith does not mean god doesn't exist. And the fanatical fervor of true believers does not prove god exists. Never will.
As long as our species has existed there have been wars. And there will always be wars until our species is extinct. In my mind the predominant causes of war are greed, intolerance, and lack of empathy. Animals do not start wars, with one exception: homo not-so-sapiens.