Religious faith - points everywhere...and nowhere.

   

     Christian churches are not about the overarching message of the Protestant Bible, but rather about which interpretation of the book is correct. They all squabble with each other over the most inconsequential, ignorant, and petty things in their interpretations (Immersion vs. sprinkling, wine vs. grape juice, Saturday vs. Sunday...etc.) but they fail to address whether the bible is even worth basing an entire life-system on. (Full Disclosure: It's not.) Then, there's the matter of the Protestant Bible deriving from the Catholic Bible with its six extra books. Which one is the real "Christian" book? Does older mean truer and more reliable?

    Christianity's core is completely lacking in substance but has been protected, camouflaged, and embellished over the centuries spawning several offshoot industries and power centers all meant to conceal its main emptiness. They were designed to gloss over that emptiness and give it a veneer of authenticity, reliability, and truth. It is none of those things. It only pretends to be. 

    The Christians themselves sum it up with their vacuous "You just gotta have faith." What good does that do in proving the truth of something? If faith is all that is required, then Muslims are right about their faith. Mormons are right about theirs. Hindus are right about theirs... Who could ever be wrong if "you just gotta have faith?" 

It's time to grow up and realize gods were created by cavemen to explain thunder and lightning.

The Parable Paradox - Jesus Deliberately Misdirects

 

Maybe my first parable should be about your planning ahead next time...

        After reading the bible or hearing a sermon about Jesus, have you ever wondered why he spoke in so many parables rather than just speaking directly about matters that affected something as serious as an immortal soul and the life to come? You’d think he’d want to be as precise, unambiguous, and crystal clear on this issue as he could be. So why all the puffery, misdirection, and charades in the parables when it could have been so simple with a direct message?  

The Bible offers few clues as to why Jesus couldn’t plainly say what needed to be said. For starters, the bible is not exactly a good source for anything given its own dubious history. (Don’t bother asking Christians what it says in the very first, original bible. There isn’t one. The earliest complete bible dates only from the 600s and is reputedly in a vault beneath the Vatican. How do the faithful know what the first bible said?)  

So, are the stories in the bible recording times when Jesus was trying to entertain those who were listening, or did he have some other darker purpose in mind with his parable ploy?  

According to Mark:4 verses 11-12 “He (Jesus) said to them, unto you is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables. That seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, and not understand lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.” 

That sounds like the function of Jesus’ parables was to confuse. He was speaking to his disciples, telling them THEY are given to know what God wants. If others listen in and try to divine the message, well, screw them. They may see and hear it, but they won’t perceive or understand it. Jesus wants them kept ignorant. They can’t be converted and forgiven their sins by direct message. They must filter it out through a multi-layered parable that was MEANT to confuse and ultimately damn them. And it’s THEIR fault if they fail. 

Apparently, Jesus didn’t want a large group of Christians gathered in Heaven when it was all over. He wanted to baffle the audience via the parable so most of them would end up in hell. The parable was Jesus’ misdirect into the everlasting fire, and he KNEW it was. Why would anyone worship such a monster? 

John 3:16 Corrected

       Jesus spoke in code or in riddles as sort of a “this is a wheat separated from chaff test” for his followers - to see if any could decipher them. If they couldn’t, well, Jesus literally didn’t give a damn if they failed. That was the whole point of the parables. They were an early manifestation of what satirist George Elliott wrote in his piece about Calvinists who claimed to be “the elect”: “We’re the Lord’s elected few, let all the rest be damned. There’s room enough in Hell for you. We don’t want Heaven crammed!”  

Would you have learned spelling, math or a foreign language if it was taught to you only via parable and it was up to you to discern the reality of those subjects? Would you have known where to turn for an answer? Would being given ambiguous information repeatedly have motivated you to seek greater answers?  

This is what the Bible teaches about Jesus and his reliance on parables. It is useless information. No one needs to follow such a deranged and bizarre cult as Christianity. 

Parables are fairy tales. They are stories meant to entertain little children. They have no place being presented as truth and the perfect repository of knowledge, information, and instruction. 

Pennsylvania Driver Proves Religion Poisoned Her

When the late Christopher Hitchens penned one of his best selling and most controversial books “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” he said the title was meant to sound as brutal as it did. Because religious poison is at the bottom of some of the most idiotic things humans do when they let Bronze Age stories written by semi-literate goat herders dictate how they should live their lives. And when they believe they are under 24-hour surveillance by a supernatural agent who they think they can manipulate, it gets even worse.

Here is just the latest example of why religion is dangerous.

On January 7, 2020, near Weatherly, PA, Nadejda Reilly decided just reading the bible, praying, and going to church was not enough. She needed to put God to a test. The end result was nearly catastrophic when she deliberately drove into oncoming traffic and rammed another car with three people in it. She injured two of them as “a test” of her faith in that God. And it convinced her God passed her test with flying colors. 
Law enforcement authorities revealed that she showed no empathy for the injured people and no regret for her actions. When interrogated, the 31-year-old woman told investigator Trooper Bruce Balliet that she drove around the area ‘for several hours’ so this was premeditated. She claimed she was waiting for a sign or a calling from God but when she received nothing she decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Reilly related that God took care of her by not having her injured," wrote the investigator in an arrest affidavit. "Reilly expressed no concerns or remorse for the victims and stated she did not care if the other people were injured because "God would have taken care of them."

The injured were taken to the hospital for treatment. Reilly was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses and her $50,000 bail was also revoked as it was deemed she would do it again if given an opportunity.

While a verdict on Reilly is yet to be announced, her actions have been strongly criticized and Church leaders opined that her actions were not faith-based, but were delusional.

That begs the question: how can anyone say her actions were not faith-based? Do they know her mind? Do they know the depth of her faith and how she believes God works in her life? They immediately go to a “she’s delusional” excuse. They are correct about that - but she is delusional because of her faith, not in spite of it. She honestly "believes" -  because she has been indoctrinated since the time she was a young child to accept some adult's insistence that there is a sky daddy somewhere up there who performs magic. That is delusional. She believed some supernatural power would take control of her vehicle and guide it safely through traffic if she just had enough faith. That thinking almost got four people killed (Reilly and the three people in the car she rammed). Notice the woman never has to provide any evidence that those who survived were protected by a God. She just asserts it. That should not fly in any court in this country.

This is how religion, particularly Christianity in the United States, infects people to the point of trying to kill others and not caring about the end result because some God will take care of the collateral damage. It’s another version of the old blood-thirsty “Kill ‘em all...let God sort ‘em out” slogan.

This woman injured two people and didn’t give a damn because she believed that God would protect those she almost killed - if God loved them enough - so it wasn’t her problem. God saw to it she wasn’t injured, thus proving to her that God exists - in her mind. Obviously, God kept the others from being killed so what's the problem? There's no harm done.

Why is it religion seems to inflict stupidity on its believers? People do dumb things all the time but this woman's belief in her religion convinced her that ramming another car and walking away means God loves her. So the material and physical costs don't factor into how much love she just experienced. Nor, apparently, can she figure out a less destructive or less harmful way to test her faith. We can expect her to do this every time she drives, to see if God still loves her. (I wonder...what if God doesn’t care about the people she rams into next time? Should it be her call that they die that day all because she wants to test her faith in God?) Is this how God expects his flock to perform, by testing whether he’s paying any attention to them each moment? A God that ignores people is indistinguishable from a god that is imaginary.

The Late Billy Graham - Seller of a Slicker Brand of Snake Oil

I waited to post this out of a sense of holding any invective until he was boxed up before leveling a broadside at the late Billy Graham.

Last Wednesday the gush gate was thrown wide open…gushing tears over the death of 99 year old purveyor of religious snake oil Billy Graham…and gushing sparkling accolades and tributes to his being what idolizers call the 20^th century’s greatest evangelist. I prefer huckster, but what the heck, evangelist, huckster...same thing.

Fox News immediately crowed “It’s a great day in Heaven.” Yes, a great day in Heaven….They actually spend part of their broadcast claiming it was A.GREAT.DAY.IN.HEAVEN!!!

How do they know? By what method can they know this? They do not have any faculties that the rest of us do not have, so please Fox, share with us how you know that it’s a great day in heaven. Flipping through a bible cannot and could not tell you that. You have indicated no apparatus that extends into the supernatural world so you could tap into the “great day festivities.” How are they even sure of Graham’s arrival there? Many Pentecostal preachers and church members will assure you in NO uncertain terms that Graham did not reach the Pearly Gates on Wednesday February 21st, or will he at any time in the future. The same sentiment would also be expressed by the Westboro Baptist Church.

Billy Graham was not a man any of us should revere or embrace. He built his career on being a bamboozler, or what in the old west was called a snake-oil salesman. He made countless open-ended promises that he never had to deliver on, promises built on heresies…scriptural heresies as interpreted from the Roman Catholic and Jewish points of view. Can you imagine what Torquemada of the Inquisition would have done with someone who preached scripture as Graham did?

But more to the point; who gets to determine which bible interpretation is correct? Is it the Presbyterian version? Methodist? Freewill Baptist? Shakers? Holy Rollers? Disciples of Christ? Mormon? Roman Catholic? Eastern Orthodox? Coptic Christian?

Billy Graham grew up in a Presbyterian home but eventually joined the more unruly evangelical Southern Baptist denomination, a group of regressives who objected to and refused to ordain women as ministers, although Graham eventually revised his thinking and said he could accept women’s ordination even though that appears to be in direct contradiction to 1 Timothy 2:11-12. He even initially opposed his own daughter Anne Graham Lotz from teaching a bible class…but later said she was the family’s best preacher. If his god existed, how would he view that statement given it is quite clear in the bible women are not to teach, assume authority over men, and to “learn in quietness”. If preaching is not teaching, what is it?

Fawning revisionist history blathers on about what a good man Billy Graham was when he actually was on the wrong side of history repeatedly. From his theological outlook that included racism, xenophobia, and homophobia, his passing will not wipe away the hate he helped foment that damaged so many lives. In 1993, he suggested that AIDS was punishment from God. “Is AIDS a judgment of God” he said while preaching in Columbus, Ohio. “l cannot be sure, but I think so.”

Graham was notorious for his anti-Semitic opinions. When the Nixon tapes were released, Graham is heard to reiterate an old conspiracy theory that claimed Jewish-Americans had a “stranglehold” on the media that “has got to be broken.” He also condemned gay marriage and targeted transgender people on his website.

.         Graham missed the boat on racial injustice, too, refusing to walk in 1963 with Martin Luther King Jr. in the March on Washington. Why? Because Graham did not subscribe to racial equality, stating on several occasions that little white boys and girls would only walk hand in hand with little black boys and girls “when Christ returned.” There was no sense in working for it until Jesus’ second coming… so equality be damned. It underlines the fact that Graham was a Civil Rights coward.

Graham became known for his revivals but those revivals basically amounted to Christian buzzwords, mild threats of hellfire and damnation, promises of a better world after this one, condemnation of communism…and a request for money. Love of God and country went hand in hand for him as he preached against the Soviets and Chinese, advocated an American way of life that never existed, and reminded people god expected them to give 10% of their income. In short, the perfect Republican. No wonder Richard Nixon and George W. Bush liked him.

Would those same people at Fox who find Graham’s death a cause for celebrating in heaven have accepted it as truth if, say, Al-Jazeera claimed it was a great day in paradise when 19 new martyrs arrived there on the morning of September 11, 2001 after killing hundreds aboard four aircraft and thousands in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon? What’s the difference other than the religion?

I just consulted my Magic 8 Ball and asked if there really was a celebration going on in heaven due to Graham’s arrival. Its answer was “Outlook Not So Good.” And you can believe my Magic 8 Ball because it is as reliable as that information about it being a great day in heaven. The difference is my Magic 8 Ball actually exists.

Trump will give them their privileged positions back

I continually wonder why anyone would vote for Trump, baffled by how his supporters can ignore his crude comments about women, where grabbing them by the crotch is somehow considered locker-room-talk-acceptable, where women are simply aesthetically pleasing objects, should be punished for having an abortion, or are dogs, pigs, slobs, and disgusting animals. Where promises made and then broken about Trump releasing his tax records doesn’t upset any of them. Where he demands to know, three times in less than an hour interview, if the U.S. has nuclear weapons, why we don’t use them? (Apparently forgetting we DID in August 1945.) I was still searching Friday night when I happened to have a conversation with a newscaster at one of the radio stations where I work. My co-worker is a reporter for the news/talk station. We had a 15-minute window to discuss the current election and he talked about people he interviewed at a Trump rally last week in Sanford, Florida. What he told me confirmed what I had long suspicioned but had no concrete proof until these Trump supporters out-and-out admitted it.

People are supporting Trump because he is promising them that they can have their privileged positions back.

It doesn’t matter that he can’t deliver on any of it. He verbally soothes their ruffled feathers to let them know that they will once again have those lofty places on pedestals, and receive the preferential treatment they deserve. Just elect him and he will make sure they get it all back.

A white male and two females the reporter talked to identified themselves as evangelical Christians and they were thrilled that Trump has guaranteed them they will have their positions of power and privilege returned. It would make for a better world where biblical law was the law of the land, where other laws would be re-enacted to secure Christianity’s unassailable position above all other religions across the country, where stores closed according to biblical dictates; like no working on Sunday, where school-led prayers would be everyday occurrences, ten commandment monuments and plaques would be commonplace in government buildings, and the Supreme Court would automatically strike down laws that went against biblical teaching, like same-sex marriage and women holding a position of authority over men, like, say, president. (Guess who that was aimed at?).They did say Mormons, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, and others would be free to worship, just out of sight, out of mind… where any Christian could not see them.(Although one woman did say she was not in favor of it because those people worshiped false gods) They were also sick of seeing caucasians pushed to the side. Trump would fix that.

Another man was a former factory worker. He had completed 10^th grade but didn’t need college as he used to have a fairly good paying job on an assembly line in Michigan. He was angered about all the American jobs that were sent overseas and supported Trump because he would bring those jobs back. He was glad Trump would build a wall to keep all the Mexicans out. They were taking American jobs. The reporter asked him if his job was sent to Mexico…would it be returned by Trump…and did he want it back? The guy said his job was still in Michigan, but that his position has been automated. He had been replaced by a computerized machine. He was asked if he went back to get trained to work the machine. “Hell no,” the guy responded, “but we got to get our manufacturing jobs back. Those are American jobs!” What kind of pay would he want to do those old manufacturing jobs? He felt he was worth $25 to $30 an hour. The reporter didn’t mention that very same job in Mexico paid $8.50 an hour, nor was Jose coming here to take a job away.  

Another group holding up anti-gay signs said they were fed up with seeing LGBTQ people get so many rights that they didn’t deserve. They claimed the Pulse shooting in Orlando gave these people national exposure and changed the way they were seen in society. The reporter asked, “Should they be discriminated against?” “Well, they shouldn’t have the same laws and rights we have. It’s not right.” one man was blunt enough to say. Trump will repeal all those liberal laws so that his supporters are once again allowed to be politically incorrect and treat others with disdainful behavior and unethical actions. Hell, they’ve earned the right.

Trump's supporters are quick to condemn Hillary Clinton in the most derogatory and threatening manner possible. It gives them a fallback position. But it is because, like with religion, Trump makes one empty promise after another and his followers don’t need even a hint of evidence that he’ll deliver; he’s the only candidate who is telling them they can have their pedestals back and return to a lofty position of looking down on everyone else like it was meant to be in their dreams.

What a privilege.

On Your Knees for Trump



While watching CFN13 our local cable news outlet in early October 2016, a segment was aired about how leading conservatives, fearing a lower voter turnout in Florida on November 8^th, are launching an evangelical campaign called “Face Down 40”. It’s intended to reawaken the religious right by praying, fasting, and then voting for Donald Trump for president. Face Down 40 takes its name from people bowing their heads in supplication for the 40 days leading up to the general election.

 

If prayer works, and social conservative and Face Down 40 organizer Pam Olsen claims it does, why has whoever they are praying to let come it to this, begging for his attention just 40 days before the vote? This seems to be a rather uncaring and capricious being on whom they are wasting their breath. What is He waiting for? Pam Olsen revealed how much she trusts prayer to work when she says "If we go back to sleep again (as she thinks Christians did in 2008 and 2012), just like we've done so many times, then we're in trouble and it's on us.” So what good is praying? If just two of you Christians pray for something, doesn’t Matthew 18: 19-20 where it says “Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them,” guarantee it will happen? I have read numerous Christian responses to this piece of scripture, all claiming that it is taken out of context. Read the paragraphs before and after it. What caveats does Jesus impose? “Anything you ask for, it will be done for you…” There is no “but only if you do this, this, and this first”, or "it only applies to the most holy among you.” Christians use those excuses to get themselves out of a hole they’ve dug themselves into.

 

            Over a year ago, when the Republican field was crowded with 17 candidates, no less than four of them; Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz. all claimed divine inspiration to run and made it clear God favored them and wanted them to be president. What happened? The most unsavory character of them all, Donald Trump, is who Pam Olsen and her evangelical cohorts are now praying for to win. She is actually praying for a man who, in what he whimsically called locker-room banter, talks about grabbing women by the crotch, that he wanted to f*ck a woman he was not married to when he had only recently married third wife Melania, and "when you're a star, they let you do it”. As president, would Pam allow him to grope her crotch, or have sex with her while her husband was away - because he’s a star? If her answer is no, why would she support, and encourage others to support, such a person? Olsen claims Trump’s conversions on key social conservative issues is genuine and deserving of evangelical support, yet she offers not one shred of evidence that it is genuine or that he has converted. Sort of like her support for Christianity on not one shred of evidence that the bible is true.

 

        Pam simply wants to believe it, and she wants evangelicals on their knees for the next 40 days praying that this misogynistic, sexist, dishonest, shallow, and crass XY chromosome carrier attains the presidency. Why would this god they are praying to offer up a candidate who is so lacking in everything the evangelicals stand for? This man has been married three times, has claimed he didn’t need a god’s forgiveness, has called women dogs, pigs, fat slobs, bimbos, and disgusting animals, supported abortion right up until he became a Republican candidate (before then, he was a registered Democrat), claims he could shoot someone and not lose voters, and has unashamedly claimed “it doesn’t really matter what they write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.” Any man of God would do the same, wouldn’t they, Pam? You would no doubt be flattered if Trump told everyone - in front of your church - that you are a “piece of ass”.

       At least his final word there accurately describes you, Pam.

Uh, um...praying and communion....that's what he means!

God Abandons Holy Land

God has abandoned the Holy Land!

On the front page of the July 20, 2016 edition of the Orlando Sentinel is an article entitled “Holy Land will sell off Items amid financial troubles”. I wonder, why don’t the employees and even TBN honchos who still own the park pray away the debt?  Christians always insist that God listens to, and answers, all prayers…then quickly add the caveat that maybe “God’s answer is no”. But why would the biblical God ignore any appeal to keep Holy Land financially lucrative, especially when the whole purpose of the park is to lend legitimacy to the claim that the Bible is the word of God, that He is the one true heavenly father of Jesus and the actual universe-creating deity? Either the Holy Land promotes the wrong god, or He doesn’t exist.

Begging for dollars

While it may be presumptive to claim God has forsaken his flock at the Disneyesque biblical theme park in Florida’s capital for slightly tacky, money-fleecing pseudo-entertainment venues, the Sentinel reports the Holy Land is drowning in a sea of red ink. And it’s getting worse year by year. 

Jesus and the Holy Land...both are bleeding to death.

One would think Christians, who get hard ons over watching a mock flogging and execution, would flock to the place by the millions and money would never be an issue…on the debit side, that is.

The wisdom of the Profits...uh, Prophets.

The park is being forced to sell off gaudy furniture, costumes, ornate statues, even a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. (I think in the Holy Land Experience version, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem on a bike, not an ass.) And TBN is also closing retail stores selling cheap Holy Land trinkets in Tennessee and California. In the coming months, I suspect they'll have to further auction off anything that's not nailed down. So don't worry, Jesus on the cross is safe for now.

Where the hell did all our money go?

But reading between the lines it’s apparent that, with the death of Jan Crouch last May, the big-haired, gasping gargoyle who was the theme park’s major financial backer, the Holy Land just can’t stay on its feet no matter what they do. There is only so much bullshit you can force on people before they reject it. Just ask the former Soviet Union.  

The rat hole near the mouse hole, south of Orlando.

Paul and Jan Crouch bought the theme park with TBN money in 2007 and propped it up with their cheesy and tasteless telethons until 2012. But even they had to finally admit the park was just a huge vacuum cleaner that sucked away all their money.

Paul Crouch signals his feelings on further financial backing for the Holy Land Experience

So they left it up to God and Jesus to keep it open. In Their infinite wisdom, They had this to say...

...To you too, Paul...and Jan.