[Vision2020] [Bulk] Re: Fantasy vs. Reality Fourth Installment

[Art Deco]

Paul writes:

"Isn't it frightening how many similarities there are between radical fundamentalists of Islam and Christianity?  If love and kindness won't work for us, then what was Jesus blathering on about?"

Bingo!!!!

The material that Paul responds to posted by the Cultmaster's attack mouse is another example of egomaniacs, megalomaniacs, delusionals, etc. hijacking the original teachings of Christ for their own purposes and agendas.

As a nonbeliever, I am painfully amused by some of those that allege they fervently believe in Jesus failing to understand the place of Christ in his/their religious tradition -- love replacing the culture of Old Testament driven hate and alienation, help/compassion replacing the culture of Old Testament scorn and cruelty.  But Christ's message was corrupted even before those who lived in his time were long dead.  Just contrast the later books of the New Testament with the simple, direct words of Christ found in the synoptic gospels (the first three books of the New Testament).


Human religious folly is a source of painful amusement because it generally leads to more cruelty, greed, corruption, and loss of civil liberties.  This is not necessarily true of all religious groups, but it certainly is true of fundamentalists in Christianity and Islam.  We have a laboratory specimen in our local midst of this classic phenomenon, the Wilson & Family's Christless Cult & Cash Machine -- (You must tolerate us since we do not tolerate anyone else).

Cultmaster Wilson has hijacked/transformed the simple love/compassion/be careful to judge others messages of Christ to one completely counter to Christ's original teachings.  And his gain of wealth, influence, and power does not lead to the spiritual elevation of his flock by their helping the unfortuantes and/or their gaining credibility by goods works and exhibiting agape.  Instead they are exhorted to smite their detractors and to waste their money building the Cultmaster's empire rather than helping the unfortunate and their helping practically to solve the problems of humankind.  Worse yet, his brand of virulent, unverifiable, charisma, authority-driven superstition is of the kind that prevents humankind from attempting to solve the huge problems of deadly human conflict, gross, worldwide environmental damage, and part of its main cause, overpopulation.

When you deal in unverifiable superstition, you can sell any crackpot theory if you are charismatic and well organized enough, especially since you are not subject to the plodding detailed work of demonstrating your assertions by observation and experimentation subject to the observation and verification by others.  

Dealing in unverifiable superstition is simpler than dealing in truth for another reason clearly stated by P. T. Barnum:  "There's one [fool/sucker] born every minute."  Religious con artistry and secular con artistry prey on the same human emotion -- the desire of the fool/sucker to get something free or at a greatly reduced price, or to get something that has an extremely low probability of being attainable.

W.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Rumelhart" <godshatter at yahoo.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 6:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] [Bulk] Re: Fantasy vs. Reality Fourth Installment


> heirdoug at netscape.net wrote:
> 
>>Imprecatory Prayer: The Intercessor’s Elephant Gun
>>By Doug Giles
>>  
>>
> 
> Don't know if this is you or not, but thought I'd answer anyway...
> 
>>One: Back President Bush and his aggressive armed attitude against 
>>terrorists and terror supporting nations. 
>>  
>>
> 
> Can't do that.  If he was trying to use the power of the law to track 
> these guys down instead of trying to clean up a mess in Iraq that had 
> little to do with 9/11, maybe I'd go for it.  If I thought it was an 
> honest mistake and we weren't torturing suspects without trials and 
> using "extraordinary rendition", maybe I could get behind him to do what 
> we can to clean up our mess.  I can back this man on Afghanistan, as 
> long as he's not doing things unilaterally, but not Iraq.  Just remember 
> that it could be argued that we are a "terror supporting" nation.  We 
> sold arms to Iran.  Our CIA trained Bin Laden.  Who knows how many other 
> dirty secrets we have hidden somewhere?
> 
>>Two: Push for cinching our borders tighter than a fat guy's belt after 
>>an ‘All-You-Can-Eat’ beef rib blow out at Tony Roma’s.
>>  
>>
> 
> I'm afraid I can't do this one, either.  Our polyglot of cultures and 
> attitudes and beliefs is our crowning strength, not a weakness.  Sure, 
> tighten security to help stop further terror attacks (while respecting 
> people's rights in the process), but don't turn us insular.  The world 
> is an interconnected global system.  we turn our backs on it at our own 
> risk.
> 
>>Three: Aggressively support the rooting out of the multitudinous 
>>terrorist cells that are concocting their villainous crap in our very 
>>own cul de sacs.
>>  
>>
> 
> I can get behind this one.  We already have systems in place to handle 
> this.  No new scary rights-removing laws needed.  Let the system work.
> 
>>Four: Make it ridiculously impossible for a pro-radical Islamic 
>>professor to pee in one of our university’s bathrooms, much less teach 
>>in one of our classrooms. 
>>  
>>
> 
> Freedom of religion.  If you can't live with it, get the fuck out.  If 
> said professor commits a crime, throw him or her in prison.  Otherwise 
> ignore their religion.  Is there some kind of a flood of radical Islamic 
> professors applying for teaching jobs I haven't heard about?
> 
>>Five: As people of faith, dust off and use what’s afforded to the 
>>believer within the Old and New Testaments, namely the imprecatory 
>>prayers.
>>  
>>
> 
> Can't do this one, either.  For one, I'm not Christian.  For another, I 
> believe that if you have a beef with someone, you should tell them to 
> their face, not try to implore some possibly-real (probably-imaginary) 
> phantom to do your dirty work for you.
> 
> Since I haven't seen anything on the news about radical Muslims, local 
> philosophy professors, or "intoleristas" being inexplicably burned to a 
> crisp by bolts of lightning, I'm assuming your God is thinking along the 
> same lines I am.
> 
> Paul
> 
> P.S.  Isn't it frightening how many similarities there are between 
> radical fundamentalists of Islam and Christianity?  If love and kindness 
> won't work for us, then what was Jesus blathering on about?
> 
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