Relieved

Whew! I am so happy that the lame holiday season is over.  What a waste of time and energy!  Basically two months out of the year where the focus is all on consuming.  Buy crap you don't need and eat way too much.  I say let's skip the entire holyday, I mean holiday, completely.  A religious holiday being a national holiday just makes me giggle.  Think of the traditions associated with xmas especially.  Buy lame crap for people using a plastic card.  Take the crap home and cover it with colorful paper.  Give the lame crap to a person and watch them take the colorful paper off.  Then they take the lame crap home and put it in the goodwill box.  That's pretty much how it goes, isn't it?  In addition to the sickening consumerism around this time of year, we have to deal with two huge fallacies also; santa and jesus.  Santa is all about following the rules.  If you submit and follow the rules, you will be rewarded with a plastic toy.  If you don't submit, you get nothing.  Again all about control and consuming.  Then you have jesus.  The story of jesus is about how lame you are and how great it is that jesus can rescue you from your lameness.  If you are good and submit to jesus he will save you.  If you are bad and don't follow jesus you will burn.  Both of these xmas stories are based on lies, control and a standard of good and evil.  It's really comforting to know that billions of people look to fake made-up characters for their moral guidance, especially those in charge.  Ah well, I'll step down from my holiday soapbox for this season.  2009 there is no line.

fear versus love

This is how I see it.  Indulge me while I set the stage.  

Pretend you are at a really nice art museum.  There is a very rare vase displayed in it's own room.  The vase sits upon a pedestal in the center of the room.  You enter the room in one direction and ponder the vase and it's beauty.  Do you just leave the room, assuming that the vase is the same whichever way you look at it?  If I really want to study that vase and understand it's properties, I need to walk around the room and examine it from every angle.  There are 360˚ around the vase, so therefore 360 possible points of view to observe the vase from.  A dogmatic view of the world says that there is only one correct way to view this vase.  Instead of savoring the entire expanse of the room and really understanding the vase, dogma tells people that degree number 26, lets say, is the only real way to see the vase.  How do we know that degree number 26 is the only way to view the vase?  An ancient text says that god tells us it is that way.  Or we have been viewing it in this way for generations.  Or it's the only view I've ever known.  Or perhaps this view is comfortable.  In fact, the dogma we serve, whether in the form of a god, holy book, tradition, etc., insists that we don't even recognize that there are other possible angles.  People who observe the vase from across the room, at angle 147 lets say, are delusional and immoral.  God, or our holy book, or our tradition tells us that we should avoid things that would try to influence us to look at the other angles.  So religion has a built-in defense mechanism.  Only read approved books, only listen to approved music, be friends with those that think the same as you, etc.  Doesn't anyone ever wonder why?  Maybe it is because once you get even a glimpse that there are other angles and viewpoints, you realize that the whole 'god' thing is just another form of control.  Those in charge want to control and limit you, so they say that god says that there is only angle 26.  Now pretend that the vase in the center of the room is symbolic for any kind of knowledge and truth someone might be searching for.  Let's say it is knowledge about the human body and medicine.  Which doctor would you prefer to treat and operate on you?  The one who only sees one angle of medicine or the one who walked around the room and understands medicine from a variety of viewpoints.  I would feel much more secure knowing that my doctor has a well rounded understanding of the human body and is not myopic in their practice.  A doctor understanding only angle 26 of the human body would be equivalent to only knowing how to trim toenails.  That knowledge is very limited and narrow.  Personally, I think the only kind of knowledge that is valuable and useful, is the comprehensive kind.  How can a person make an educated choice about something when the religion or tradition they follow purposefully hides huge chunks of information from them?  The short answer is they can't.  It is even more disturbing when god or his followers kill people who decide to view something outside of angle 26 (using the same example I used earlier).  Personally, I have no problem with all 360 viewpoints being equal.  Are they not just one more bit of information that can help you understand the world you live in?  They are all equally valid and correct.  Religion on the other hand, says that there is one correct view, angle 26, and there are 359 angles that are incorrect.  Why?  Because god said so.  Which seems more illogical, especially when we live in a world full of people who are different?  Which way to view people and their opinions is prone to war and fighting, and which one is prone to acceptance and peace?  I will say it again.  Killing people because they do not line up with angle 26 is not just.  It is murder.  What still baffles me is why christians assume that the morality they receive from the bible is superior to others especially when god and his followers kill people who don't agree with them.  Yes, that sounds very moral to me.  (Check out this journal article: Journal of Religion & Society).  It is also interesting to note the history of those morals found in the bible and where they are from.  A deep analysis of any non-biased source exposes the bible for what it really is; a cheap copy of previous pagan literature.  (See POCM for lots of information). 

Unfortunately the sad truth is that the majority of people in the world assume that their angle is superior to everyone else's.  Will it ever end?  Peace will only come to this world when people accept it all.  Peace will not occur when everyone is converted and thinks the same as you, so don't hold your breath.  Peace will come when people recognize the differences in others and realize that they don't really matter in the long run.  Peace will come when you accept others fellow human beings as competent thinkers that can decide their own truth for themselves.  Peace will come when people stop being fearful of those that are different than themselves.  If you say you want peace, then be the change you seek in the world.  It all begins with a choice between fear and love.

Time for Some Campaignin

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Emo Complainers

I tend to be a very observant person.  One thing I have recently noticed is how many people are emo complainers.  Now let me define exactly what I mean when I say emo complainers.  When I use this term I want to describe a person who is negative all the time and whatever happens in life, good or bad, they think their life sucks.  They have the attitude all the time it seems.  They are habitually depressed because they are disappointed or unhappy for some reason in the life that they are leading.  There can be several reasons for a person to feel this way.  Perhaps they feel a sense of entitlement, that they somehow deserve better than what they are receiving.  Perhaps they had a plan in their minds how their life was going to pan out and it didn't end up the way they pictured it.  They don't have enough money, not smart enough, aren't cute, etc etc blah blah blah.  The reasons are really irrelevant.  The fact is these people feel this way and for some reason feel powerless to change it.  People feel powerless to change because religion has programmed into people that they are powerless and need a higher power, a god, to save them.  People can't save themselves; god has to.  So even when life sucks in your opinion, you don't do anything to change it.  You say "oh it's gods will" and try to learn to understand his will for your life while all the time being miserable.  People outside of religion still do this because they feel out of control of their own lives.  I think a major factor in personal happiness is feeling in charge of your own life.  What I have a difficult time understanding, is if your life is so bad then why don't you fuckin do something to change it?  You complain all day long about your crappy life then sit idly by as it happens to you.  If you would just take one ounce of the energy you have when you complain about a situation and turn it around to some action to change the situation it would be a whole lot better for everyone.  No one wants to hear you complain about your petty opinions about stupid stuff.  You think that if someone starts a rumor about you or no one loves you that it is the end of the world.  Everything revolves around you doesn't it?  If you would take one step back from your stupid insignificant life you would see that there is so much more beyond yourself.  I'm not talking about a god or anything mystical here.  I'm saying that you should understand that you are not special.  You are made of the same decaying organic matter as everything else in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE and you are complaining about stupid shit that will be destroyed and long gone in 1000 years and that doesn't even matter.  So just enjoy the ride while you have it!