How is it possible that someone could imagine religion without political ties,...?
I mean honestly,...think about what it takes to bring people together,...?
I'll go out on a limb and ask what would it take for you and your neighbors to get together and have a pow wow? if you live in a nice 2-car garage, neighborhood-watch community only a series of robberies or a socially awkward family moving in might cause a stir but for most of us nothing short of a trainwreck in the night will bring us all together
that is unless religion is involved.
religion is a perfect call to arms,...even if i am cool with you as a person when the battle lines are drawn and ultimately you are on one side and i'm on the other strictly based on what you are born (ethinically and socially) into,... logic goes out the window and your loyalty and more importantly your familial ties usually wins. that's what blows my mind about how religion is used in this day and age, its not like in the past where most people didn't have access to a line of history (the history channel) to see what happens when people use nationalism or religion as a banner to rally around,... i mean come ON?!
i understand how important having a ritual is in your life for so many people, i get it-its a gravitational pull it keeps you centered it gives you focus ok fine, but when that pull is LITERALLY pulling people in these ridiculous directions based on political opportunism and by opportunism i mean if i use the word joe blow i'm going to be connecting more with this demographic than i would if i said joe merlot,...
bottom line what frustrates me is that religion is what it is,...it helps people get by
ok, i have absolutely no problem with that
what i DO have a problem with is when "the way i get by" becomes LAW for everyone there is something totally fucked about believing you have all the right answers,...you've gotta ask yourself if you do believe in a higher power don't you think that's pretty fuckin' vain to assume you can tap into what it is that made all this possible? i mean talk about naive, you think that the power that made set the forces in motion to spin universes into existence gives a fuck about your ability to play chop sticks?
but that's ultimately what it comes down to,...a few salesman looking to sell you something you don't need, so they have to convince you that you are missing what they are selling (salvation from a manmade doomsday) and they've got the only solution
boy sounds like a bad infomercial
anyway,...i'm just talkin'
maybe there is some magical dude waiting for me to take his/her/its name in vain and then i'll get a good ol' fashion smoting
BLADOW
Friday, October 24, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
so a gun and a fundamentalist go into a bar,...
a couple of days ago it finally occurred to me why guns enthusiasts are usually enthusiastic about religion as well. because in the end they serve the same purpose.
let's go down the list and see what we can see, shall we?
hostile environment
GUN:
provide a sense of relief from harm and a way to defend oneself in a hostile environment
RELIGION:
provide a sense of relief from harm and a way to defend oneself in a hostile environment
distance
GUN:
allows a user to distance themselves from the actual act of taking life or harming another human being
RELIGION:
allows a user to distance themselves from the actual act of taking life or harming another human being by claiming a force bigger than myself compelled me to action.
entitlement
GUN:
using a weapon may give you the temporary sense that you are in control and therefore your demands will be met because the alternative is a horrible fate
RELIGION:
using religion as a means of control through fear of the alternative, a horrible fate.
on its own
GUN:
an amazing technological advancement
RELIGION:
an amazing conditioning advancement
i may be wrong,...but this sounds right.
let's go down the list and see what we can see, shall we?
hostile environment
GUN:
provide a sense of relief from harm and a way to defend oneself in a hostile environment
RELIGION:
provide a sense of relief from harm and a way to defend oneself in a hostile environment
distance
GUN:
allows a user to distance themselves from the actual act of taking life or harming another human being
RELIGION:
allows a user to distance themselves from the actual act of taking life or harming another human being by claiming a force bigger than myself compelled me to action.
entitlement
GUN:
using a weapon may give you the temporary sense that you are in control and therefore your demands will be met because the alternative is a horrible fate
RELIGION:
using religion as a means of control through fear of the alternative, a horrible fate.
on its own
GUN:
an amazing technological advancement
RELIGION:
an amazing conditioning advancement
i may be wrong,...but this sounds right.
Monday, October 6, 2008
no exceptions
I'm going to be honest, with the economy falling apart one bank at a time, feeling the pinch at work from lagging sales, two wars that like the energizer bunny on crank keep going and going and going, prices at the grocery store steadly climbing and as soon as the election has passed those gas prices will jump back up as well,...its enough to make anyone say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! If there is a grand force in this universe that cares enough to tell us not to covet our neighbor's wife-ox-or 50 inch plasma then why in the hell can't this force intervene and give us the struggling ants a break!
but as soon as i throw up my hands in utter emotional exhaustion i am forced to remind myself,...how arrogant am i to think what i'm experiencing right now is specifically directed at me. EVERYONE is suffering, and to be disturbingly real about it we (americans) have been terribly spoiled for the most part and only now are we getting a small glimpse at what life looks like to most of the rest of the world,...uncertain, strapped for liquidity, and skeptical of its governing elite not only in politics but in business as well.
surrendering the ego and leaning back to gain perspective on a problem reveals why albert einstein and baruch spinoza believed in the same definition of a higher power. There is no doubt that something vastly powerful created all this,...there was a beginning,...an unfathomable spark in the void that vomitted forth a system that survives and thrives on a set of rules some we have come to understand others we have yet to discover but this system keeps everything in balance chaos and order light and dark humility vanity the pendulum exists not because it wants to, it just is. It is a sobering epiphany when you close your eyes that no special force is specifically watching over you while you sleep, you ARE NOT bound. you are free to fail or succeed, or be indifferent in your life. the system will not be moved to make an exception for you. the system is indifferent. its beautiful and its beyond me to understand it but i can appreciate it for what it is and like einstein and spinoza did, be perpetually in awe and never stop picking at the system hoping to uncover more and more of its beauty and its harshness,...because like it or not i'm not satisfied with the condescending emotional roadblock that my parents threw out occasionally when i asked them a question they didn't know the answer to "It just is what it is, when you get older then you'll understand." fuck that. what i'm learning is that when you get older you only learn how to justify your own laziness better,...that's all.
but i digress, this mess america finds itself in is not a sign that the devil lives on wallstreet,...its a simple cause and effect equation. a bunch of people thought they deserved to be rich while the people they were supposed to be helping deserved to get got-and since the people we've elected to represent us often sleep with the same gordon geckos that masterminded this entire bloody mess they of course were waiting for their money shot while we the american people got it right, in, the eye.
the laws exist,...even when we don't see them. they exist. indifferent, layered, and final.
its only scary when we think we're special, then vainly we think we can manuever through those rules and not get caught, and that's when the universe gives us that disturbing wake up call...
THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS
but as soon as i throw up my hands in utter emotional exhaustion i am forced to remind myself,...how arrogant am i to think what i'm experiencing right now is specifically directed at me. EVERYONE is suffering, and to be disturbingly real about it we (americans) have been terribly spoiled for the most part and only now are we getting a small glimpse at what life looks like to most of the rest of the world,...uncertain, strapped for liquidity, and skeptical of its governing elite not only in politics but in business as well.
surrendering the ego and leaning back to gain perspective on a problem reveals why albert einstein and baruch spinoza believed in the same definition of a higher power. There is no doubt that something vastly powerful created all this,...there was a beginning,...an unfathomable spark in the void that vomitted forth a system that survives and thrives on a set of rules some we have come to understand others we have yet to discover but this system keeps everything in balance chaos and order light and dark humility vanity the pendulum exists not because it wants to, it just is. It is a sobering epiphany when you close your eyes that no special force is specifically watching over you while you sleep, you ARE NOT bound. you are free to fail or succeed, or be indifferent in your life. the system will not be moved to make an exception for you. the system is indifferent. its beautiful and its beyond me to understand it but i can appreciate it for what it is and like einstein and spinoza did, be perpetually in awe and never stop picking at the system hoping to uncover more and more of its beauty and its harshness,...because like it or not i'm not satisfied with the condescending emotional roadblock that my parents threw out occasionally when i asked them a question they didn't know the answer to "It just is what it is, when you get older then you'll understand." fuck that. what i'm learning is that when you get older you only learn how to justify your own laziness better,...that's all.
but i digress, this mess america finds itself in is not a sign that the devil lives on wallstreet,...its a simple cause and effect equation. a bunch of people thought they deserved to be rich while the people they were supposed to be helping deserved to get got-and since the people we've elected to represent us often sleep with the same gordon geckos that masterminded this entire bloody mess they of course were waiting for their money shot while we the american people got it right, in, the eye.
the laws exist,...even when we don't see them. they exist. indifferent, layered, and final.
its only scary when we think we're special, then vainly we think we can manuever through those rules and not get caught, and that's when the universe gives us that disturbing wake up call...
THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS
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