Bob

Amanda: How is the Dalai Lama the reincarnation of the Buddah if he achieved Nirvana?
Bob: I was raised Roman Catholic. If you want someone to explain conflicting religious mysteries, you got the wrong guy.

A Pope for the Atheists

We all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there,” – Pope Francis, in a homily today (5/22/2013)

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/22/pope_at_mass:_culture_of_encounter_is_the_foundation_of_peace/en1-694445

To Whomever It May Concern:

When you ask me to respect religion because people believe in it, I want you to remember something. I want you to remember that long ago your ancestors were not Christian or Muslim. They had their own culture and customs native to their heritage. Through military conquest religion spread itself through the Old World, and those distant relatives were faced with a choice: either accept Christianity/Islam or die a painful death. This was how most major religions today achieved their position of respect.

After Europe had been fully indoctrinated, the papal Doctrine of Discovery gave the authority to all good Christians to conquer the native peoples of the New World and claim that land for God and the Church. Millions died mercilessly and were even tortured by Christian heroes like Christopher Columbus.

Now, thousands of years later, when we no longer have to respect these beliefs upon pain of death, we are told that we should respect religion. We are told by those within even the non religious community that we should show respect to these ideas that have gained a place of vaunted privilege in our societies which are built upon the graves of any who dared question or challenge the authority of divine providence.

You think you are being rational. You think you are being reasonable. What you are really doing is propping up the last leg of human slavery to bad ideas and providing intellectual cover for religion to keep a place of honor and respect it never earned.

Please, stop protecting religion in the guise of false humility. Be honest and firm with your beliefs and never expect anyone to respect your ideas unless they earn it, and always be willing to be wrong. That is what it means to be a free thinker.

Timothy Havener - https://www.facebook.com/RichardDawkinsFoundation

She is risen!

Everyone knows that they only ate unleavened bread during passover. And then three days later the bread would rise again because of naturally occurring yeast. Everyone would see that and yell Happy Yeaster! which today we shorten to Happy 'Easter.

And in France they used to sell matzos in packs of 12, which is why they call it Paques.

There's always a simpler answer for everything.

Andrew Sullivan almost gets it right

In his interview with Hitch... http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/03/17/hitch-and-sully-why-should-i-deserve-forgiveness  they talk about forgiveness, they talk about weapons of mass distraction, but I think he leaves it hanging at the end... asking why do you think it (the use of nuclear weapons) hasn't happened (beyond WWII).. and leaves it hanging... I'm sure Hitch had an answer.  And I'm certain that it wasn't that god was saving us for something else...

Sin

It's a sin to tell a lie.
It's not a lie of you believe it - George Constanza
It is one of the problems with religion.  Belief makes all things possible.  Even lies. Most religions are steeped in lies and belief makes it OK to hold onto them and cherish them and even fight for them.  All religions.  Mine too by the way.  Let's not quibble.  We just try to separate fact and fiction for what they are.  And the facts are often murky, requiring a webbing of intricate lies and false assumptions to support them.

But this was about sin.  I've come to think that sins are those things that bad about having done.   And this changes over time,  What we did once, and might have felt good about, can become an embarrassment or feel like a mistake hours, days, weeks, or years later.  There are also things that we feel forced to do that we might not feel good about.  And there are things that happen to us, that we might feel, in hindsight, that we had some hand in their happening.  There are probably more aspects to this than I can write in this short blog.

Maybe this confuses guilt and sin.  Maybe they are one in the same.  I'm going to cogitate this a little more.

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