I heard a fundamentalist Christian warning of the dangers of reading the Bible without having an experienced member of “his” church there to help you interpret. After all, it was the true and real word of God and so there’s no way just a simple layperson could possibly understand the subtle nuances embedded in the holy scripture.

I was so shocked at his comments that I had to actually ask him what he was talking about.

I was shocked at how similar this fundamentalist sounded to the Muslim fundamentalists explaining how just because the Koran says to cut off the hands and feet of thieves, it doesn’t really mean that and you have to have an imam interpret the text for you.

That was a big warning flag for me and it should be a big warning flag for anyone relying on others to interpret their religious texts. Here is why.

There are two possibilities. Either the text is the real word of God or it’s not. So let’s look at the two options:

Your religious text is the true word of God

If this is the case then you can be positive that God knew how to produce the text in such a way that they can’t be misinterpreted. Surely God could do something as simple as that. God would not produce scriptures in code that only those who think they know how, can interpret them. That would destroy the value of  having the word of God at all.

Your religious text is not the true word of God

If, on the other hand, the text is not the true word of God but rather a written history written and transcribed and interpreted by many over the years, then the text has already been interpreted by man, by error prone man with a purpose to spread the word. In other words, it has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Worse yet, the text may be interpreted one way but a century later may need to be interpreted again as languages change over time.

Another issue, still, is the condition of the original writings as preserved over time. The original texts were written is a way that they could not be interpreted without error. The original text had no breaks between the words, no spaces in the text. This means that the original text could have been interpreted many different ways and each way would be correct.

If these are the true words of God, then He wants us to read them as a guide, not as laws.

Beware whenever you encounter someone telling you that you can’t interpret the words, yourself. If you can’t, then your god isn’t much of a god. He can’t even write so average people can understand it. Not too likely, now is it?

Now, since it’s obvious that you should be reading the texts yourself, go out there and start reading. I suggest grabbing a Bible and reading the New Testament if you’re so inclined. It is so much easier than trudging through the books that even Jesus took with a grain of salt.

Anders Behring Breivik was arrested for the murder and destruction he brought upon the innocent people of Norway. The crimes are abominable and he deserves any justice he received. But the bigger picture isn’t so much who or where but what.

This fanatic was spewing the same hate-filled nonsensical talking points that America’s right-wing crazies in the Republican party chant. It’s becoming a thinner and thinner line between the crazies who perpetrate the crimes and those in American politics who stoke up the fear and hatred.

Yes, here in America we’ve had our Timothy McVeigh and an assortment of other conservative right-wing fanatics. We’ve got preachers burning Korans, lunatics shooting up liberal organizations, right-wing nuts killing doctors, The list goes on and on.

Americans need to ask where all this hatred is coming from.

I can tell you where it’s coming from. It comes from our right-wing politicians. We all know that to be a fact. The right is full of the most vile and hate filled nuts that you can find anywhere.

Just think for a moment that a politician puts bulls-eyes on a map of Republican home states and used the language of reloading. If this was a Democrat, nobody would vote for him. He wouldn’t have a chance of getting elected.

Conversely, Republican voters vote for these monsters all the time. The party is sick with them.

This, my fellow Americans, is where all the sickness is coming from. You’re voting for it and making it mainstream. Now, I can hear it already, about how the Democrats do it too. But that’s just not true. Any investigation shows that it’s a right-wing disease and only the Republican can quit voting for the hatred.

The latest US budget designed and approved by almost every single Republican in the House of Representatives takes food right out of the mouths of the starving and gives it to the millionaires and billionaires.

This action has horrified America enough that we are beginning to realize that we are voting for the party that is as opposite our religious and moral values as possible.

How could we have voted for this immoral party? How could we have been made into such suckers that we have voted against all that we know to be right and voted for those intent on giving our country away to the greedy and the rich?

If we don’t stop and figure out how we got here, we’ll never be able to avoid it in the future.

What went so wrong that we got the party of the greedy running our government?

I can’t speak for everyone who has accidentally voted for the party of the greedy, but I can speak for those I know and I can be pretty sure that this is the same mistake made by almost all of those voting for the Republicans.

Wedge Issues

The easiest way to get people to vote against their own best interests and against the best interests of the country is to get them to vote primarily on wedge issues. A wedge issue is an issue that can be used to drive as a wedge between political parties. The Republicans can’t run on providing for the poor, because it would be a a lie, so they need to find something that will get people riled up enough to go and vote for a lousy candidate if he would just address the wedge issue.

The Republican voter is typically a single issue voter. This means that they are the most susceptible to being used as tools in wedge issues.

Effective Marketing

The Republican party has become experts at marketing destructive policies to the American people. Why else would you have a Tea Party out there chanting for more rights and lower taxes on the multinational corporations and billionaires? The Tea Party was created with money from the billionaires and is sponsored by billionaire dollars and marketed with billionaire money all for the purpose of getting Tea Party candidates elected who vote against the interests of Americans and all for the corporations.

Few people even realize that the original Tea Party was a revolution against multinational corporate power and now they’re out there chanting for more power and more money for the multinational corporations. You can’t tell me that’s not pretty darned impressive marketing.

Lies and Deceipt

The percentage of people who are foolish enough to be Tea Baggers is low enough that the Republican party needs more. Hence, the need to lie about what they are and what they plan to do for the billionaires.

This is not a problem limited to the Republican party. There are a few Democrats who run on Progressive principles and then vote straight ticket with the Republicans.

But, this isn’t really all about how bad the Republicans are. This essay is about how some unethical politicians and greedy billionaires can corrupt our political system. It’s not all about Republicans or Democrats. It happens to be the Republican party they have infected, but it could have just as well been the Democratic party. In fact, they’re spending billions of dollars right now, trying to corrupt that party as well.

Taking Back our Country

How on Earth are we ever going to fix this mess with so much money lines up against the American voters? How will we wrestle the media away from big money? How can we change the campaign finance laws when the Supreme Court is so obviously pro-billionaire?

This almost looks like a perfect storm. It may be too late for us to take back the country peacefully, but hopefully we will at least try before it’s too late.

The Real Issues

As I’ve pointed out, political parties don’t run on real moral issues, they run on wedge issues. This means that we voters are stuck without real issues upon which to vote.

What are the most important moral issue to you? Think about it before reading further. What is really important to you morally? Do these moral issue matter enough to affect your voting? In other words, do your morals affect your “real” life or are they just something to talk about at church?

For the vast majority of Americans, moral issues affect their daily lives. Most people try to keep morals in their lives.

Here is a short list of my moral issues. I have a much longer list but it’s not important what mine are, what matters is what your moral list looks like.

1. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, curing the sick. You know, those things Jesus says need to be part of our lives.
2. Turn the other cheek. This includes reducing the steel heel of oppressive laws in America and reducing the oppressive governments of other lands. This means no wars. Fix the system where the vast majority of those in our prisons are minorities and poor. You know, the things Jesus said we should keep in our lives.
3. Discouraging greed. Wow! There’s no end to where this could go. It’s time to get the money changers out of our religions and out of our politics.

There are plenty more, but this is a good start for discussion. Do yourself a favor and come up with your own personal list of important moral issues.

Now ask yourself, how many of those issues on your list are things you actually vote on? How can there be such a great disconnect between what you think is moral and how you vote?

Now, here is a list of wedge issues that are important but are not anywhere near the top of my list and I bet they’re not at the top of yours either:

1. Abortion. This is not a moral issue. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we need to vote on abortion. Abortions are horrible but if they’re at the top of your morals list, you might want to stop and take a second look at your morals.
2. Hate the Gay. How many times does your religious book refer to defending the downtrodden compared to the number of times it says we need to disenfranchise gays? This is a big wedge issue but is also a big moral issue as well. Should we be taking rights away from gays? What would your common sense tell you?
3. Religion in schools and in government. This wedge issue really as no place in a Christian’s political view. Christianity is opposed to the combination of politics and religion. So are our country’s founding documents. So, why would you vote based on this issue? Don’t get me wrong. There are some religions that think that politics and religions should be the same. But most Americans opposed to Muslim laws regarding this.

What are your most important wedge issues and is it wise to vote based on them while excluding the most important moral issues on your list?

Happy Easter!

by
Paul Johnson

It’s Easter season again and it’s time to think about the nature of our religions, and in particular, the nature of miracles. Easter is full of stories of miracles. In fact, the entire Bible, as most religious texts, is full of miracles. But what, exactly, is a miracle?

This is something that all elementary schools and every church should teach, but unfortunately it is neglected.

Back 3,000 years ago (or 6,000 according to some), when the Bible begins, there were things that we humans saw that had no explanation other than being the hand of God. Today, we would see most of those miracles and realize they come from the laws of physics or the laws of nature. A simple example is the miracle of an eclipse.

So we must ask ourselves, which of those miracles that we’ve heard about thousands of years ago were really miracles and which were easily explained with the knowledge available today?

A Miracle History

Imagine that you were to see a miracle today. It’s your imagination, so imagine what you want. I’ll imagine a neighbor who has such great skill at hypnosis that he can help people regrow amputated limbs.

Over time, two things could happen.

1. Others, standing on the shoulders of giants, would find ways to do this same service, in which case it would no longer be a miracle, or
2. No one can repeat the miracle in which case it remains a miracle.

If the case was situation #1 above, then the only way that it would remain a miracle is if a group of followers demanded that this miracle worker did things differently or better than everyone else following. That burning bush was a miracle, that sunset was a miracle, that eclipse was a miracle. This would require a very dedicated following with very rigid books of examples of how their miracle worker was different.

If the case was #2 above, then after enough time the miracle would just fade away into folklore. Even books and literature reminding us of the miracle would eventually become suspect as there will eventually be no evidence of the miracle.

To summarize, history will eventually fade all miracles into obscurity. Eventually even the translated books of the translated books of the translated books of the miracle will become suspect. This is a problem that all modern day miracle-based religious books suffer with and put considerable time into trying to address.

The Miracle Impostors

As we’ve discussed above, there will often be groups who want to memorialize the miracle even if it’s proven to be less a miracle than a law of nature. How many times do you hear people explaining how “their God” did this or did that? It’s quite common.

That’s not to say that these are bad or evil people. They are trying to save the life of a religion that they believe is the only true one. They are trying to convince themselves by trying to convince others of the validity of the miracle that they can no longer prove.

God’s Solution to Forgetfulness

So, how does God go about performing miracles and keeping them around so He doesn’t have to keep proving His magical powers?

If I can start a cult with a counterfeit book of miracles and have a following that will keep the lies alive for centuries, then who will know it’s any different than the real book of miracles which no longer has evidence? No one can tell for certain that one is the real one the other is not.

It is obvious that the only solution to this forgetfulness is the constant display of miracles.

This assumes that the miracles are a fundamental part of the religion!

Let that sink in. That is the point of the entire essay. If the miracles cannot be proven then either God will recreate the miracles to keep people believing or he will put more emphasis on the other aspects of the religion.

God Knows Everything

Or, at least God knows everything there is to know about mankind.  So, why does he hide his miracles from us?

God knows that we’ll forget the miracles over time. He knows we’ll question the miracles. He knows that well-meaning cults will rise up that have their own false miracles.

He lets us forget the miracles because they are not a fundamental part of the religion.

Say What?!!! You’re saying the miracles of Lent, Good Friday, Easter are not a fundamental part of Christianity?

Yes. That’s the whole point. And, that’s why we aren’t presented with reruns of the miracles regularly.

It’s not the miracles that are the important part of Christianity, it is the underlying principles.

Now, stop, take a breath, and ask yourself, what are the fundamental underlying important principles of your religion? Is it because of the miracle that God gave his life to save you from your sins or is the important principle of your religion rules on how to live your life?

The Need for Repetition

In order for the new generations to continue to believe the miracles, they can either believe blindly or they can be privileged enough to see miracles for themselves.

Why would God let his miracles fade to the same level of validity as any hoax or cult? Because it’s not the miracle that’s important.

Who Do You Believe?

You and I live in a day when we don’t see miracles. Many people around us will try to attribute common sense things to the miracle of God but we all know they are just laws of nature. I hear the term, the miracle of a new born or the miracle of a beautiful sunset or this miracle or that, but we are expected to believe in a God that no longer shows himself to us.

Are we left trying to decide which of the countless different histories of miracles to believe and hopefully we’ll be lucky enough to choose the right one, or risk living eternity in punishment? No, that’s not the actions of any God I can imagine.

Hopefully by now you’re beginning to see that it’s not the miracle or the history of the miracle (Bible) that matters but what matters is how we decide to live our lives, without the miracles. Do we choose the path of “Greed is Good” (the Republican way and the Ayn Rand way) or do we choose the path of helping ourselves, our neighbors, and our world? These are the decisions we must make, and quit paying attention to the stories of miracles.

Stop with the miracles. Use the opportunity of Easter to celebrate the teachings of Jesus. Help thy neighbor, heal the sick, feed the hungry, and vote out the money changers.

Tell everyone you know to sign up and get educated about what is going on and how to help save America.

Check out the Fight Back Teach-In.

What are your thoughts? Is the USA a Christian Nation?

So, what is Jim DeMint (R-SC) doing in Honduras negotiating with a military coup leader that is not recognized by America as the legitimate government?

Hasn’t anyone told him that it’s against the constitution for Congress to get involved in foreign affairs? Oh well, nobody ever accused the Republican Congress of being interested in anything other than fulfilling their own self interests.

And, isn’t DeMint a product of the secret “C Street” cult?

Today I saw a sticker on the back window of a car that made me sad. Why was I sad?

The sticker was a picture of a tortured pained grimacing face of Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns. How very strange that we celebrate Jesus’ life by endlessly showing icons of his darkest hour.

Should Jesus come to earth today he would be shocked and horrified to see his icon in every Christian church being a cross depicting his final hours.

Jesus did many wonderful things during his life here on earth but we don’t idolize that part of his life. No. We idolize his death. Why?

Jesus spent his life helping educate people, helping the poor and downtrodden. He healed the sick, especially those without insurance. He fed the poor. He spent his life helping those struggling to survive.

Why don’t we make an icon that depicts something more representative of his life? Because it’s not what matters most to us. What matters most to us is what we can get out of it. We iconize the cross because it’s what’s in it for us. We got cleansed for our sins. We have a chip in the big game, now. How selfish!

If Jesus came to earth today he would be as hateful of most of the Christian churches as he was in The Book of Revelation. The churches don’t try to follow his teachings or his hopes. They don’t even support a national health plan that would help the sick. All the things Jesus tried to do like help the poor, are the political things almost every Christian church opposes. He would be so very disappointed.

And that makes me sad for all of us who have lost track of what Jesus thought was important in his life. We go to church and pretend to be good Christians, we give lip service, and all the while we’re too selfish and greedy to help  the sick and the poor. Helping means more than giving money. It means living the dream of Jesus. Oh, my, he would hate these churches as much as he did those before, and for much the same reasons. Sad!

So, tell me. When is the last time your church taught you about how Jesus died for your sins and when was the last time your church reminded you how important it is to feed the poor and heal the sick? If your church is anything like the many I’ve been to in the past ten years, every sermon is about being saved by Jesus’ death (the selfish sermons) and none have been about voting for the party that wants to clothe the poor and heal the sick.

What would Jesus think of your church? Sad!

Got a funny one in my email today and just had to share with you. The message:

AGREE  OR DELETE

If You Choose To Delete You Are Part Of The Problem

Me? I’m Passing It On.
It seems to get worse daily.

This is by a daughter of a murdered couple in   Raytown ,   MO , who had a Bible and Bookstore on   63rd street ….

Just one more example:

When I had to testify at the murder trial of my parents a week ago, I
was asked to raise my right hand. The bailiff started out “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”

I stood there and waited but she said nothing. She said “Do you?”

I was so stunned I blurted out “What happened to “so help me God’?”

She came back with “Do you?” I replied yes, but I was perplexed.

Then the judge said .. “You can say that if you want to.”

I stopped, raised my right hand, and finished with “So help me God!”

I told my son and daughter that when it came time for them to testify, they should do the same.

It’s no wonder we have so many problems in this country. If I’d had my wits about me I’d have told them that taking God out of the courtroom is only going to result in more criminals and murderers.

I don’t know what can be done about it, but it’s time for us to step up and DO something.

NBC this morning had a poll on this question.. They had the highest number of responses that they have ever had for one of their polls, and the percentage was the same as this:

86% to keep the words, 14% against. That is a pretty ‘commanding’ public response.

I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn’t.

Now it is your turn.. It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God.

Therefore, I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a mess about having “In God We Trust” on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Why is the world catering to this 14%?

If you agree, pass this on, if not, simply delete…..

In God We Trust

A quick trip to snopes.com and we see that this email message has been started and restarted and restarted since 2004. If the sender had a shred of respect for his credibility, he really should verify things before forwarding them off to everyone under the sun. The questionable source of this should be enough to stop anyone with any self respect from forwarding, but alas, someone sent it to someone who sent it to me.

Obviously this fictitious author never took or failed in her civics and American History courses, either one which would have educated her about why we have and should maintain a separation of church and state.

Ms. Anonymous, have you even looked at countries where there is no separation of church and state and can you find even one that you would like to live in? How about looking at the obvious examples of church run governments, the Muslims. It is obvious, even for a closed minded fanatic, that the governments always end up exploiting religion to control the people. America’s creators were determined to ensure that there was a clear separation for just that reason. Read your history, sister.

Another example is Israel. Again, is that the kind of country you think America should be? God, I hope not. If it is, go there and leave us to a country that respects the wishes of our forefathers and respects the separation of church and state.

But, of course, there is no real Ms. Anonymous, it’s just a scam written up by someone with an agenda and sent out over and over for the past five years and people are still naive enough to continue to forward it.

Think! And do a little Snopes research before forwarding things that may make you look naive or worse. And, when you get tired of the stupidity and lies, it’s never too late to write the sender and point them to this post or just ask them politely to have a little self respect and to show you some while they’re at it.

I once had a dear friend explain to me that she believed in evolution but didn’t believe that mankind was subject to it. In my naivety, I poo pooed the notion that we could somehow be blessed with some magical powers endowed by our creator. Today, I must apologize for my failure to believe in the answer because of my discomfort with the delivery system. CLW, are you there?

Today I heard a discussion on the radio regarding the “ultimate goal” of evolution. Of course, this implies some magical forethought (or Intelligent Design) rather than a simple system of selection. But, still, what is the final phase (ultimate goal) of evolution? The final evolutionary phase of any successful species is to evolve beyond the reach of evolution. Let me explain.

All around us we see species mutating and dying off. In fact, last count I read was that we are seeing the extinction of hundreds of thousands of species every decade. Most of this is due to the success of the human race. Species that don’t do so well around humans (like many birds, wildlife like lions, ocean dwellers like dolphins) are all dying off. Species that coexist well with humans, like cockroaches, flourish.

Studies show that when a species’ parents are unhealthy (such as those under environmental pressures) they have a higher rate of birth defects. In other words, mutations increase as the species’ environmental fitness reduces.

Environmental fitness changes as the environment changes. As the environment becomes more alkali or more acidic, or more rich in oxygen or more rich in carbon or methane, the species may become less well adapted and thus experience more mutations. With the increased mutations, there is a chance that a random mutation may cause the offspring to be better adapted to the new environment and thus have a better chance of surviving, reproducing, and spreading the new, better characteristic (mutation).

I’m not talking evolution, here, but just describing what we all see around us every day. You may call it natural selection, or evolution, or God’s will, or the coming of the X-Men.

We see species change around us all the time. Just look at how good mankind has become at breeding dogs. Man made the different dog strains, not evolution. However, in the time that we’ve seen numerous breeds of dogs come and go, we’ve seen mankind stay exactly the same. There are no discernible genetic differences in mankind’s genes in our entire species’ history. We see different mixes and matches but no mutations allowing the offspring to better adapt to the environment.

Why is that? Why has mankind not evolved since we first began keeping records?

Mankind is reaching the pinnacle of evolutionary perfection. We are becoming such a well suited species that there are few mutations and none of the mutations create better suited offspring. Did God make us this way? Who knows. With no witnesses alive today to testify and no reliable history books from the dawn of mankind, your guess is as good as mine. And what’s more, what does it matter?

The better adapted a species is to its environment, the less control evolution has over it. This means that the “ultimate goal” of evolution is to produce a species that perfectly matches its environment. Of course, when it does, the environment usually changes.

]]> http://www.just-say-why.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/18/mankinds-exemption-from-evolution/feed/ 5