Of course, as we know, there are very many more US military personnel whose lives have been radically altered, by what befell them in Iraq: beautiful young people, maimed, disfigured, incapacitated, traumatized.

And, as we perhaps know, nobody is keeping count of the Iraqi casualties.  "The surge" has been a success, as a bookkeeper might measure success.  But the death rate remains horribly high.

So, where is God in all this?  Does it matter, believing in him(her/it), praying to him(her/it)?

And Jesus Christ, "true God and true Man," who was "born of the Virgin Mary" and thus assumed all humanity: Does it matter to any of us at all what befell HIM on a Friday afternoon in the Middle East a couple of millennia ago?

Anyone who suggests that the bereaved and the wounded ought piously and obediently to be consoled by the preachers of Spring-time Easter joy is a liar.  And a cruel liar at that.

But I am quite heterodox, after all.  If you want to pray to a god who actually solves problems, you might try Thoth, or Athena, or Thor.  Their record is not stellar, however.  Plus, the murdering of many beeves upon their altars rightly does not sit well with many of us with a regard for animals and their sensibilities.

As for Jesus and his Heavenly Papa: Well, those of us with faith have heard something special in the preaching of the Gospel, and expect there is some connexion between the suffering of all of us here on Earth, including the suffering of Jesus the crucified one, and the eternal sorrowless realm of everlasting peace and beauty and joy.

The connexion is not easy to explain, however.  It has kept theologians employed for many centuries, not always profitably.  One of their cruel inventions is to deny an eternal presence in God's pleasure to the animals, which opinion fortunately we clearer-thinking heterodox types are here to condemn as so much poo.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

But we also should consider fairly that we abuse animals, fellow sentient beings, regularly, and think nothing of it, nay, assume we are entitled to their suffering and death.

The following, on the treatment of raccoon-dogs in China, was sent to me yesterday, Easter Sunday.  The video is powerful enough to make one consider that Satan, enemy of all that is good and happy, and master of deception, is indeed active amongst the exploiters of animals.

DO NOT let children see the video unsupervised.  It is a snuff film; and it is the most gruesome such thing that I have ever seen.

http://www.hsus.org/furfree/news/raccoon_dog_fur_jackets_ ...

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

"Out of the mire man made of Earth, back to the father who gave us birth." A DR original?

Is this the only way out of Iraq? Earthly death of the soul if not death of the body?

There appears to be an analogy here.

Jesus supposedly died for our sins, yet we continue to violate God's most basic laws or suggestions, and continue to invite more and more misery upon us and those innocent beings we share the Earth with.

Christians celebrate the birth of a man who advocated peace and celebrate his sacrifice for all humanity, then celebrate the ongoing "surge" in Iraq and pray for victory over a nation that did not attack us.

Now thousands of soldiers have died for our sins. Hundreds of thousands of bystanders have died for our sins. Not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but around the Earth and across every cultural divide. Death, voluntary and involuntary. Dying for humanity's sins year after year, decade after decade, century after century. And yet we continue to violate God's most basic laws.

There is not enough human blood on this Earth to satisfy the God of the Middle East. There is not enough blood on this Earth to sacrifice for our sins. Please stop feeding Him and focus on what one can do here and now to live free of suffering.

Actually, Christians ought to be beyond that, because of the Pauline understanding that by baptism, the Christian is united with Jesus Christ in Christ's "sonship," so that baptized Christians are no longer slaves but sons and heirs of God.

(And "son" is not exactly sexist.  Jesus, being male, is literally the "Son" of God; and Christians, both male and female, united with Jesus in baptism, enter into him as "Son.")

So, in principle, Christians ought to be the most laid-back people on the planet: all the hard work is done, and there is nothing now to worry about.  Inasmuch as we so often act frantic and pushy and hard-to-take, we are misunderstanding what we are.

DR's title, by the way, is taken from a hymn that is recommended to be sung during the Mass for Easter of a creative but sadly marginalized group who called themselves the Holy Order of Mans:

http://www.holyorderofmans.org/Ritual/Holy%20Seasons/east ....

I had never heard of them till now.  They are apparently no longer a truly functioning order, but there are nostalgic survivors who are maintaining the website.

One wonders what DR's connexion is.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Everything in the physical world vibrates at its own frequency, so does everything in what we call the spiritual.

Light waves vibrate at specific frequency for each color in the white light spectrum. Just basic science.

Forget the metaphysical and study the physical, if you can comprehend what Einstein spent the last 30 years of his life searching for or at least his desire for a unification theory. You will find youself closer to creation.

The PBS special "Elegant Universe" lays out the possibility of other dimensions and parallel universes. It will take you from Einsteins Theory of Relativity through Quantum Mechanics and on to the new String Theory. In laymans terms.

Mankinds religion is a patriarchal Mind f*#k. The curse of the earth and a superstitious 6000 year journey through a history of a man made hell.

Like the man said, free your mind and your ass will follow. If you really want to aspire to something higher, don't check your brain at the door.

I think the man/light being before his vibrational frequency resonated at the proper amplitude as to allow him to cross from this dimension in the white light band to a higher dimension on a higher plane or frequency left a way for the rest of us to warp over into the next dimension.

The highest vibrational emotion is love, the comandment that transends all of the others is love one another. The man who taught the sermon on the mound would have frowned on the striff in the Middle East. You should not covet your neighbors oil and kill him for it.

I know everything from the inquistion and the crusades was done in his name. I do not think he chooses sides or taught ethnocentricity.

If you can't find a better religion than what is being offered, make one up. That's how the main three got started. Make yourself up one that fits and don't pit one race against another, or tries to make half the species subservant to the other.
Since hell is a creation of the mind of man, unless you plan to sell absolutions or indulgences I would drop that concept also.

If you have to have a dying god, don't mix up the ascension ritual with the easter bunny or an easter egg. Get him/her beamed up clean without all the whoopla.

Try not to have one that if someone draws a cartoon of your prophet they will send suicide bombers to get you. If you have to have suicide bombers cut the 70 virgins in paradise down to a more realistic number or supply/sell some holy viagra to the volunteers.

About anything you can make up on your own will suffice if you stay away from the pitfalls of the main three we have now. If your savior has to get whacked in the end just lay it straight over on the Romans and leave the Jews out of it. Ancient Romans and unless they invent a time machine no one will be able to try to even the score.

There ya go brothers and sisters, just join ol pompeyroad's church of what's happening now!

By the way, the Roman General Pompey when he walked into the Temple and the Holy of Holy's when he conqured Jerusalem found the champer empty. He was supposed to have been stuck dead for only the high priest was allowed in there. All he found was as empty chamber. I think that should have just about pissed off about every denomination, except maybe the moonie's. I will save them until next time.

Just in case we all don't get beamed up, what about trying to clean the place up where we live?

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Canis- your animal rights advocacy looks less like thougtful commentary from a different angle and more like standard-issue PETA trolling every day.

Pompey-you remind us that there are different forms of ressurection and the rebirth of the mind to new horizens via the sacrement of the green herbs is alive and well. If I close one eye and wave my fingers I almost get where you were going with that.

Ice seems to be melting in the arctic.


Put the Carbon Back

The religous fervor of the major religions is only relevant when considering lighting the powder keg in the middle east. A polluting earth destroying product that we are killing each other over and then you add to the mix radical Islam, Judeo Christians taking sides and promoting that concentration camp called Gaza.

I only see the efficiency of it when trying to come up with a way to blow the earth up sooner. People with their mind in the 7th century are trying to establish themselves in the middle east. People only slightly more enlightened are trying to stop them and have an ulterior motive,
they want their oil.

I guess it is an innate human trait to hope for something better in another dimension, it's just not realistic, and how much time should one devote to the pursuit instead of trying to fix the realm we live in.

I have seen no environmental or ecological benifit to religion except maybe some of the early earth based religions. The caldron of oil boiling in the Middle East stirred constantly by religious dogmas with religion being the spark that will set it off, will be your ultimate ecological disaster.

If the religious institutions could all adopt the main goal of diffusing the situation in the middle east instead of staking out turf I would admit to them having some ecological benifit.

It is obvious that they are not so what benifit are they, except for the above stated being part of the problem istead of the solution.

So if you have some deep psychological need to have a religion make yourself one that fits the time and dimension we live in. It has not been established in scientific fact that there is another one. So why spend an inorinate amount of time working on something that may not be relevant to your needs.

If you look at the precepts of the three major religions they are all wierd and confusing, I have never seen anybody write about them in a way that makes sense. Smoking or not, although a little wacky backy might you get on the plane you need to be on to interpret.

I don't see either of them adding anything to the environmental solution, like I said, when it comes to the catastrophe we are headed for in the middle east. I see nothing on the environmental scale that will be more damaging than a thermal nuclear war fought over oil and religious dogma.


The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

I'll wager that one day we will find that "some" religions are addictive to "some" people. It can physically change the brain's pleasure centers. People get high on it and taking it away can create withdrawal-like symptoms like an inability to feel pleasure--depression. I also suspect that as with some other addictions, the brain would adjust given enough time (as with cigarettes). On the other hand, it could be that "some" brains are permanently rewired and attempts to shake irrational religions leads to quests for pure spirituality--the high without the trappings of religious dogma.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

http://interfaithpowerandlight.blogspot.com/

Check the interview with the Southern Baptist leader on climate change...

IPL is only one eg of many. Faith in Place in Chicago is another stellar grassroots example: http://faithinplace.org/

Erik

The Orion Grassroots Network: 1,200+ grassroots groups working for conservation & more

The Assyrians, the Babylonians and in around 70 AD the Romans removed what was left of the Jews from the land. 1900 years later they show back up and say you people are squatting on my property, god gave me this. You can't use the Torah or the bible for a deed. Aside from this you are illegitimate cousins and we got the birthright, of course the other side says the birthright was stolen form them. Get the picture.

Then comes along another religion an offshoot of the Jewish religion and they side with their Jewish counterparts. They expect to be seen as honest brokers in the land when they side with Israel on every issue, have given them billions every year since 1948, sell them the best arms, say nothing about them being a nuclear power and yet threaten a Persian country if they try to develop a nuclear capability.

Into this mix of land feuds, water feuds and religious strife you mix the oil. We take a 2000 thousand-year-old religious feud and interject ourselves into the middle of it and no one can see the absurdity of it.

The worst ecological destruction picture I have in my mind right now is of the oil wells burning in the first Iraq war. Does no one remember the oil line Saddam opened up and turned loose into the sea? Yet we run headlong like lemmings to an area, arm both sides to the teeth, pick a side and yet the notion of the conflict going nuclear gives no one pause to think.

Excuse me, if any of the above makes any more sense than the rest of the religious babble I hear spewed every Sunday in this country I guess my cognitive powers have failed me and I might as well start hitting the pipe.

Co2 emissions will be irrelevant Mountain Top Removal will pale in comparison to major cities being blown off the map. I don't think Dick Chaney was thinking about any of this when he was fishing with the Sultan of Oman on his big yacht last Wednesday. Just before the anniversary of our getting our 4000th solder killed in Iraq. Ironic ol Dick fishing just off the shoreline with the 5th fleet floating around behind him. How can any of us say what makes sense anymore.

Again if any of the world religious organizations can start unraveling this mess and help us stop the ultimate ecological disaster sign me up. All I see at this point is them throwing gas on the fire.


The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

That could cause a recession here that spreads around the globe.  Or even a global credit crisis!

Wait.. we already have a global recession and credit crisis, created by hedge funds.  Well, we need to keep fighting anyway, or else it will get even worse.

But what about climate crisis?  Just let the hedge funds take car of it with carbon trading, no problem.

Even the easter bunny wouldn't fall for this scenario.  But 80% of voters and politicians seem to be buying into it.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

No need to conserve;
we take what we deserve.

God does the rest
if we pass his test,

and rise above
an Earthly love;

forsake the worth
of lowly Earth.

a liberal in redsville

Obama said in a speech well given that we should enter into a dialogue about race and confront the underlying issues that still lie dormant just under the surface. Admitting they are there and having confronted them move on. Oh! Such a contentious issue as race, who wants to go there but he is right, it gets better as we discuss it and get our fears out in the open, laugh at them and move on. I have seen much progress since the 60's.

If only religion could be so easy or if we could remove it from the equation. Our diplomats steer clear of it, even at the U.N. We feel uneasy every time it is brought into the discussion. However it can't be ignored when talking about the Middle East.

Now matter how much intellectual smoke we blow up each others butts at the end of the day it will come down to the contentious stubborn, stupid notion of religion when dealing with Middle Eastern Problems.

Case in point, even if you got an agreement on every boundary, state hood, self determination, and alliances you will come down to the last two deal killers.

What are you going to do about Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock sits on top of the old temple.

If Israel ever declares Jerusalem as its capitol you got yourself WWIII, if Israel ever tries to rebuild the temple, you got yourself WWIII. The Peak Oil Theory or any Alternative Energy falls by the wayside.

The last discussions that anyone even wants to see on this site or in print anywhere an intelligent secular discussion of the oil problem or the environment is forwarded. Israel moving their capitol to Jerusalem and the nuts who want to rebuild the temple.

My last word on the subject of the stupidity of religion, the world held hostage by a couple of square acres or one city from antiquity. Mull it over, then when you have worked it all out look at the last two issues and see if you can side step the religious insanity and solve the problem.

If you have an answer, you are our next U.N. ambassador or better yet Planetary President of the New World Order.


The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

But Religion itself is not stupid.  It is an ancient path to truth, very different from Science but not at all inferior to it.

Zionism has had a sad development.  Palestine was never altogether stripped of Jewish residents by the Romans, though perhaps the city of Jerusalem was.  Subsequently, Jews have always tried to live in the Holy Land, under one or another kind of Gentile government, and many succeeded.

The Zionists' identification of the Holy Land as their people's "traditional homeland" is accurate and fair; and the Jews' literary traditions should make that obvious.

BUT the expulsion of Muslim and Christian Palestinians from their own very ancient homes by Jewish Zionists was a crime.  And the subsequent scholarly effort by some pro-Zionist sympathizers that either there were never any, or very many, Gentile Palestinians, or they deserved to be expelled because they were irreconcilably hostile to the Jews, is disgraceful.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

But they dismiss as 'nonsense' the human need for 'rules.'  Apparently we should instinctively do the right thing, sans incentive.  Sans incentive in this case means we have no free will, being directed in our behaviour as ants or bees or clams act in accordance with inborn drives.

Acceptance of being 'bound' - the literal meaning of  the word, religion - is the one common feature of all human beings; it is our universal identification.

The fact that we debase our humanity in so many ways so frequently only serves to emphasize how our sense of religion, the unseen hand of God, will lift us up if we let it.

Des Emery

The main point being is that these testosterone, patriarchal based religions have actually caused more harm than good over the centuries. The message of their founders somehow got added to and the modern version we are left with is a preverted message derived from a heretofore precept based on love and peace.

They can not be disregarded when trying to solve the middle east quagmire but each side is so entrenched in their position there is no room left for negotiation. It is hard to rearrange boudaries when god gave someone the property, or they think he/she did. When one side is sworn to the total destruction of the other and the other side swears never again you have an impossible situation to resolve.

We should never have gotten stuck in the middle of that for oil or anything else. The message taught in Sunday School is a far cry from what is being taught in some Muslim schools. Even the Sunday school message when wrapped in a flag becomes a nationalistic god is on my side call to war.

There is nothing condusive to the rule of law or legal negotiations found in religious fervor. You will never get the emotions out of it to the extent where calmer heads will prevail. It is hard to negotiate with someone wearing a suicide belt and thinking he has a bus ticket to paradise if he pushes the button. This is where religion has taken us to this point. I'm sorry, I do not see how the the rational mind can find any comfort there, in this dimension or any other.

We should have found alternative fuel sorces 20 years ago and removed ourselves from that impossible situation. We hit Peak Oil in 73 and sit on our hands and let the oil lobby drag us into this draconian blood feud.

There is no good ending over there in any real or metaphysical sence. Army's will follow the oil, the oil starved EU countries will back the Arabs play when they go against Isreal. I think it is obvious where the U.S. stands. All the ingredients for Armageddon, oil and religious dogma and fervor.

When you pear over the edge into the abyss you see a hopeless situation and a bottomless pit, this is religion.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.