The New Theists

Working their way back to Jesus by reading old theists, the New Theists© are determined to true the tried and failed—like running the hamster wheel backwards will make a difference. But no worries, it hasn’t gone far. Just superficial arguing.

While theism is belief in god, atheism is simply pointing out how that’s not The Way by its perpetual stall. We’re on our own here which is proven daily. The trick is to break the spell of faith as a destination and drop the dead weight that has kept humanity—waiting.

Each new generation inherits a deeper pool of contradictions to proudly buoy their faith. Then with the mental fortitude of a champion juggler, prove they can believe against all odds.

Not so long ago Christianity began its final, divisive act. Not against the unbeliever (far too watered down now for that) but against each other. Every man creating his own doctrine and defining his own god and idol. “A multiplication of beliefs acts as a division of belief; and in proportion as anything is divided it is weakened”—Thomas Paine

Every Christian seems to know the others are believing it wrong. Maybe it’s time to realize themselves are included. But that is the way of the church—it’s what happens when starting with an errant premise.

“Religion, by such means, becomes a thing of form, instead of fact—of notion, instead of principles“—Thomas Paine

Faces in the fires

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When I Was Five—April 4th

Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
In Memory of MLK

Pride, by U2 teaches me how the love of ideology has caused too much death and misery.

How much war, division, and destruction must continue in in the name of love?

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love—Bono

Let freedom ring—equally to all men and women of every kind, in every way…not hand-picked by divisive agendas that judge us for who we are, but for every single soul that desires to be free.

Your Own Beliefs, Or Submitting to Authority?

For a long period of my life I submitted to authority—Religious authority. A well known study (Milgram Shock Experiment) had participants administer shocks to a learning participant. 61% of subjects were willing to eventually administer lethal shocks to a stranger, solely because the authority figure had directed it. The shocks were fake, but the participants were unaware of that fact.

One subject wrote a letter to the study’s founder during the Vietnam war. He said, “While I was a subject in 1964, though I believed that I was hurting someone, I was totally unaware of why I was doing so. Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority … To permit myself to be drafted with the understanding that I am submitting to authority’s demand to do something very wrong would make me frightened of myself … I am fully prepared to go to jail if I am not granted conscientious objector status. Indeed, it is the only course I could take to be faithful to what I believe. My only hope is that members of my board act equally according to their conscience ...

The religious are ripely submitting to authority. I do not believe for a moment that discrimination against gays, immigrants, women, transgenders, or any other focus of hate today is rooted in the minds of the people. It is rooted in the foundations of faith, which purported hate is the result of pulpits—and the authority we allow is a preacher behind a bible.

Eric Hoffer, one of my favorites writes, “Whenever we find a dispensation enduring beyond its span of competence, there is either an entire absence of an educated class, or an intimate relationship between those in power and the men of words (the preachers).

I’d say we have both. If you want to see what your own natural beliefs are before the preachers get to you, watch 2 young children play together before indoctrination.

What would we Argue About?

Last week Nan was talking about childhood. No politics, no religion, and how great it was to be a kid from so many of us. What did we have to argue about when life was so sweet? On Steve Ruis I brought up an old favorite topic of The Savannah Baboons and their toppled hierarchy, now living a non competitive life of leisure. There is nothing to fight about once the top 1% were toppled from their control. Without the elite of the government/business/religious complex, what would we have to fight about? One of the great lies of the world is we’ve been manipulated and forced to choose sides. Democrat or republican, Christian or Muslim, socialism or capitalism. All are two sides of the same coin designed to divide us and preoccupy us with endless banter about who’s right, when in fact they are all wrong. The elite class has everyone convinced that without them, who would provide jobs that fuel the economy, who would lead us through the worlds troubles, and who would save us from hell and eternal torment? The only reason we need them is that they are there. They create the problem and division, then offer the solution. The oldest trick in the book. Without them is a non-competitive life of leisure. With them is the destruction of the worlds beauty and depletion of every last natural resource. For their money and our misery