A little while ago I received an awesome comment at the end of the Entrance Exam to A Christian Seminary; it was from an old friend of mine. I wanted to publish my response for everyone to read in the hopes that something might be learned from it. Maybe reading my position on religion might open a door for someone else. Note the names have been changed to protect futurerev for retaliation from the fundamentalist whachos he works with.

Futurerev,

I appreciate your email and I have read you responses. The problem is I don’t really want to respond if you think criticizing your religion is a personal criticism of you. I respect you and do not want to hurt you that way.

I learned a long time ago to keep my emotions separate from my ideas because, if I didn’t, business and other factors would crucify me. If you toss your ideas into an arena but do not separate your emotions from them, you cannot objectively argue or learn anything. This is the exact reason why the religion argument has eluded mankind in the past. When religions are under fired, zealots often throw their emotions up as a smoke screen to shield them from the irrational and illogical ideas they support. This is how a constructive conversation about religion often turns into a tenth grade name calling contest.

I enjoy a great debate, especially one highlighting religion. But if I am going to hurt you with my responses then I would rather not even go there. Although I do not think very highly about Christianity, I still respect you and your feelings.

I do have to retract something from my response to you which you pointed out to me. You are correct in that god never told Moses to go and rape, he told the people of Benjamin to go and rape to get wives. But it was Moses who carved unborn babies from the wombs of pagan women and then threw these innocents from a cliff or smashed them on a rock. I guess today’s Christians base their abortion argument on that chapter in the Bible? The only reason I included this, was I believe Moses to be more like Saddam Hussein or any of the other terrible titans throughout history, rather than a holy man. I did not make this up; it is written in the Bible.

When I worked for my former employer, I did “try on” Christianity for a short time. But when I read the Bible and read passages like what Moses just did, how could I support that? I am not a man of war nor am I man who demands or understands others who demand blood. In answer to your question about our justice system, I would forgive somebody who wronged me. At least I hope I would. You are confusing justice with revenge. Justice is NOT revenge; these are two separate terms and ideologies.

We humans are very fallible so I understand why we fail to see the difference, but I would expect an all-knowing, all-loving god to understand this but clearly the Christian god does not. I would expect this all-loving god to teach us the difference between justice and revenge and then show us an example, like forgiving us for sins without expecting bloodshed.

The Bible would in fact be the greatest story ever told if god would have intervened right before the crucifixion and said, “Stop this madness!! All is forgiven; please accept my son to teach you the ways of love, toleration and forgiveness.” Then Jesus could have lived among us and taught us the ways of an all-knowing, all-loving god. No more hocus pocus. No more blind faith or people flying to heaven or death or blood. Wow what an ending!! Instead, we get a brutalized torture and murder sequence that people apply some twisted ideology to be for our forgiveness, and then mankind echoes god’s thirst for blood with 2,000 years of war, murder and mayhem. Now how can that possibly make any logical sense to anyone?

I have been wronged many times in my past but have chosen to forgive those who did me wrong. I have already forgiven my former employer for my wrongful termination. I wasn’t always like that; in my youth I was quite a hellcat. I’m not proud of every aspect of my youth, but it took me many years to come to this enlightened thinking. I understand that bad people need to punished or rehabilitated or whatever you want to call it. But nobody and certainly no government have the right to extinguish life; it is far too precious. I would expect a just and loving god to understand this principle.

Please understand I am not trying to change your beliefs; I am just trying to give you insight into mine. I hope this email does not offend you and if it does then I apologize for saying this to you but I could never apologize for thinking this way.

Your friend,

DarthImmortal

Part one of the test will de derived directly from the scriptures. This is the teacher’s edition as the correct answers are in bold and italics.

1. In Exodus 21:2, according to god if you purchase a Hebrew slave, how many years of service should you get from him/her?
a. A Lifetime
b. 6 years
c. 3 years
d. A fortnight

2. in Deuteronomy 22:28-29, according to god’s law, if a man rapes a woman the punishment is:______________.
a. Death
b. The man must marry her and never be allowed to divorce her.
c. Castration
d. The woman is killed

3. Whom (What) did Jephthat sacrifice to god upon a burning altar after he defeated the Ammonites in god’s name? (Judges 11:29-40 NLT)
a. A ram
b. His favorite cat
c. His daughter
d. A burning bush

4. According to the book of Kings 13:1-2, god demanded certain sacrifices from King Josiah. What sacrifices did he demand?
a. Gold
b. Old Democrats
c. Frankincense
d. Kill all of the pagans upon their own altars (which resulted in thousands of human sacrifices)

5. In Chronicles 21, how many innocent people does god kill after David’s census?
a. God doesn’t kill people, it says so in the Ten Commandments
b. 70,000 innocent people were murdered
c. No people but a couple of goats were killed
d. No people but at least 6 asses

6. In Judges 21, what does god tell the people of Benjamin to do to get wives?
a. Go forth and propose marriage to the best women
b. Ask the fathers of the best women for their daughters hand in marriage
c. Kill all of the people of Jabesh-gilead and kidnap the women for your own pleasures
d. Use the Internet

7. How many times in the scriptures does god mention priests must be virgins?
a. 6,666
b. 0
c. At least 7 times
d. More than 10 but fewer than 15

8. According to James 5:14-15, if a devout follower of god gets sick what is the best cure?
a. Get to a doctor immediately.
b. Prayer.
c. Eat vitamins.
d. Plenty of rest, fresh air and sunlight.

9. In Judges 18:27-29, what did god command Micah to do to the town of Laish?
a. Explain the pros of conservative politics.
b. Quickly outlaw abortion before the Democrats take over.
c. Pass a resolution banning slavery.
d. Kill all of the people and burn the town to the ground.

10. Why did Jesus die for our sins, couldn’t his father just forgive us without all of the bloodshed? After all he is the almighty god.
a. No. Jesus’ father demands blood sacrifices because he loves us
b. No Jesus wanted to die because he enjoys pain
c. No, BECAUSE!!!!!
d. Yes his father could have simply forgiven us.

Part two of this exam is word association. Fill in the correct answer.
11. Kryptonite is to Superman as _____________ is to Jesus.
a. Unholy Water
b. Radiation
c. Garlic
d. Nine in nails

12. Nuclear power is to Ironman as ____________ are(is) to Catholic Priests.
a. Fresh water
b. Fresh air
c. New clothes
d. Little boys

13. According to many Old Testament stories, blood is to Dracula as __________ is to god.
a. Deep space
b. Blue skies
c. Human Blood
d. Kryptonite

14. In modern times, two years in jail for theft is just as fair as the Old Testament justice of___________ for missing church on Sunday.
a. Four Hail Mary’s and six Our Father’s
b. The sacrificing of your most productive goat
c. Death
d. Partial stoning + 20 months of gay sex

15. According to god, the greatest law is:
a. The writ of habeas corpus which guarantees all men are guaranteed liberty and relief from unlawful imprisonment.
b. The Bill of Rights which guarantees all men life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness among other protections from tyranny.
c. Feed the hungry, house the homeless, give money to the poor and ensure the needs of the many outweigh the wants of the few.
d. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the Ten Commandments portion of the test.

The list below contains twenty five of the worst sins in humankind. Select the 10 which all-knowing, all-seeing, almighty God included as the worst:

Human slavery
Missing Sunday mass
Pedophilia
Worshiping false gods
Rape
Coveting thy neighbor’s wife
Polygamy
Stealing
People dying of hunger in a world with ample food supplies
Plunging an entire economy into turmoil so a few billionaires can earn even more money
Disobeying your mother and father
Slaughtering living creatures for pleasure
Human torture
Coveting your neighbors goods
Gay sex
Janet Jackson flashing a bare boob during the Super Bowl
Murder
Nude photography of consenting adults
Using god’s name in vain
Cannibalism
Carving an image of another god or of the heavens
Genocide
Bearing false witness against your neighbor
Allowing the wants of the few precedence over the welfare of the many

A passing grade and to ensure entrance into the Seminary, you must get at least a 95% passing grade.

I believe in a higher intelligence. At this point, I don’t want to call this higher intelligence “God” because there are so many preconceived notions with that label, because what I am suggesting differs from traditional views of God. This higher intelligence might exist within us, within our DNA or somehow connected to our DNA. It might influence changes through direct contact but we see only what it wants instead of what is actually there (I’ll explain this later).

Accepting a search for a higher intelligence even if you already worship a God is an acceptable human behavior. For example, you can worship Zeus but still keep your mind open for something more logical and explainable than a man living in the clouds with a humongous hammer. We have a complex mind in which we haven’t even tapped into one-tenth of our potential, but yet we often accept unproven theories over more logical, proven theories. We do this because it's easier.

Accepting the fact we don’t have the answers to life or even death is more threatening than believing a man in the clouds with a hammer will save you when you die. When I was a kid it was easier believing in Santa Claus but as I aged I wanted the truth and sought the truth until I found out there was no Santa. Sure I could have still believed but that still would not have changed the fact that there was no Santa. Human evolution is the same. We can blindly believe in our tradional Gods or we can put more resources into science to find the truth.

Whether the religious fundamentalists will admit it or not, science is responsible for all of our intellectual growth and many of our evolutionary leaps. Without the smart person in the group inventing a wheel or fire we would still be living in caves and hunting with sticks. What would the Wright Brothers say today if they could see how their innovation has led us onto the moon and beyond? Science is responsible for all of this. From the electricity in our home to the power of our automobiles, these fundamentalists will use all of the modern conveniences science invents but still give them no credibility at all.

The point I am trying to make is just like the 100 monkeys influenced their entire species, let science and our intellect take our species to new heights. Don’t sabotage their findings because they threaten old traditions. You can help the evolution of our species by raising your kids to be open minded. Don’t close their minds with religion, hate and prejudice. Let their minds develop so they can search for God and make their choice based on intellect instead of tradition.

Some fundamentalists believe our laws are based on the Ten Commandments but that’s total idiocracy; only two of the Ten Commandments are laws. A 20% success ratio is not a winning number even by Enron’s accounting methods. I said it before and I’ll say it again, the Bill of Rights is the most important document ever written for humanities sake. If the Ten Commandments were written by God then he would have realized the need for human rights before the egotistical need to realize He was the Supreme Being. The first commandment should have been Thou Shall Not Have Slaves and went on from there. The fact that important laws like this were missing is proof these commandments were written by a fallible man.

If you draw circles around all of the groups you belong to, you’ll see the human being circle is the biggest. Whether it's religion, political party, or family, the human being circle is the biggest and sometimes the most important. If we accepted the importance of this group, we would treat our fellow man with more compassion and we would realize this compassion should be our most important value. Any religion worth anything should realize this and will be built on compassion, acceptance, education and human rights. A true religion would want to desegregate and bring all of humanity together instead of excluding huge groups of our species. In fact, this is the first rule of a false religion: if they exclude any group or influence one group to kill another group, they are a false religion.

In the search for a higher intelligence we must be prepared to find another more advanced species instead of a Supreme Being. Like my fish tank theory we could be fish in a tank and the higher species could be our creators, visiting us occasionally to study our advancement. In a similar but more frightening theory, the other species could be living amongst us but on a higher or lower frequency so we cannot see them. Maybe they even built a blocker into our DNA so we cannot see them. This could explain certain ridiculous UFO sightings people have experienced.

One such ridiculous sighting was a farmer. When investigators visited and interviewed him there were still burn marks on the dirt near his home in which traces of a rare chemical were found which could not have been faked, also impressions in the ground left by the landing gear were too precisely measured to be a hoax. Even more ridiculous was the farmer saw the aliens and claimed they offered him a plate of pancakes. When he looked into the craft he saw another human in what looked to be a 1950’s kitchen wearing an apron and waving. What makes this so convincing was the man knew it was ridiculous but still told the story to investigators. They concluded if he was lying he would have made up some fantastic story instead of telling them a story he knew was silly. Is it possible this was a visit from our creators or some higher intelligence and they somehow cloaked this man’s mind only to see what they wanted him to see?

If a higher intelligence were to visit us they would surely try to keep their presence masked and what better way of doing this than to leave behind a ridiculous trail of unbelievable stories. As a paranormal investigator I find it interesting how similar ghost stories are to UFO abductions. Sometimes the ghosts which people describe to me actually look similar to the pictures of aliens. The similar occurrences contain elements of paralyzation, accompanied by feelings of hopelessness and despair. Many of the stories make the storyteller look foolish and they realize this but yet they stick to their story. Some of them might be crazy but I know too many witnesses who are sane, intelligent people. There know certain facts which only someone who is experiencing a real haunting will know, and I can usually tell just by listening to the story who is faking it or if they are only experiencing the house settling. Could these “ghosts” actually be visitors from a higher intelligence but our rudimentary minds cannot handle the reality of the situation?

UFOs could also be a higher intelligence inspiring us to achieve a higher intelligence. I am not saying this is provable truth I am only saying this is a possibility. When ancient man would see UFOs they saw rope ladders which would unravel and the aliens would appear as bearded dwarves. As we evolved so have our UFO sightings. The fact remains UFO sightings have inspired many scientific advancements. UFO sightings are partially responsible for the space program. We have copied many of the UFO designs into actual machines which we have either tested or are flying today.

All of this leads us back to the 100 monkeys theory. If we keep our minds open allowing only proved theories to be evidence of higher intelligence then as a society we will evolve faster. If we hold onto traditions which hold back our power of intellect then we will never evolve.

The most important values for our species should be protecting this planet from destruction, preserving our liberties, protecting all life and maintaining our quest for knowledge of our solar system, universe, planet, a higher intelligence, and ourselves. Anything which interferes with these should be abhorred.

The 100 Monkeys Theory is based on research conducted in 1952 through 1958 when the monkeys on a remote island were observed while discovering a new way to wash sweet potatoes. The monkeys living on nearby islands and even the mainland somehow acquired the same knowledge, even though there was no physical contact between the two groups of monkeys. The study went so far as to show how future generations of this monkey were born with this new knowledge; it became instinctual.

So the theory is when enough members of a group (for convenience stated as 100 monkeys because there were approximately 100 monkeys on the island) acquire a certain piece of knowledge, this knowledge passes into a collective consciousness, and all members of the group acquire that knowledge. But in reality we currently refer to this behavior as instinct. This research shows how the instinctual behavior of a small group can eventually shift paradigms. It also proves there is hope for a society like ours.

A casual observer would see this research as only about monkeys but this is actually a story about social change and how the power of intellect can enlighten an entire species. So by the same token if you lie to enough people and they start believing the lie as fact, can this lie be woven into our instinctual behavior? Before we answer this question let’s look at more data to see if we can connect the dots.

There also might be a correlation between total population and the number of enlightened people to bring about a change. In monkeys at that particular time it was 100, but to bring about an instinctual change in mankind today with a population today of over 6.5 billion, the number of enlightened might be much higher.

I believe in this theory. If enough enlightened people believe and adapt their behavior then our entire species can shift to a better paradigm and live a more enriched life. However, other people can sabotage this shift as is evident with President Bush and his 30% approval rating pandering to an unpopular, immoral war in Iraq. This scientific research proves he must either change or be left behind eating dirty potatoes. But this posting is not about the war in Iraq.

Our DNA is a recorder for our species. It has all the information ever collected about us, even so far as telling us how many of our species were alive in a particular time. Using this data we built a historical chart of the evolution of our species and we compared it with other data collected from the Earth in ice and rock. For example, we saw a severe drop in population about 80,000 years ago to the point where we almost went extinct. This data corresponded with evidence of a mega-volcanic eruption about that same time in evidence collected within the ice in Antarctica and within the rocks in Australia. When you have evidence collected by three different scientific fields reflecting the same conclusion then you have very strong proof.

In order to keep my posts shorter and easier to read, I stop here and let everybody digest this. I will post more next week about this theory and how this collective intelligence might respond to falsehoods and lies. What are your thoughts and comments so far?

A good friend of mine posted a comment to my Lost Tomb of Jesus writing which sparked the following response. I decided to put my response on the front page of the blog so everyone understands not only my motives for that post but also understands why I am writing so much about religion. This friend of mine is a devote Christian, but more importantly, a very good human being. While I do not like to talk about religion in person, I enjoy writing about it. I find religion is not a good topic to converse with people because religious beliefs are tightly woven into their being and I don’t want to challenge their faith; it can be damaging to friendships. However, I will challenge MY beliefs, which is what I do on this blog.

Let me first give you a little background about me. I was raised Catholic. Many of my early years were spent in service to the Church as either as an altar boy, choir or doing the readings during mass. I was a staunch Republican for many years and used to believe Ronald Reagan was the greatest president of my lifetime. But I started questioning things about 2003. So I decided to wipe away all of my beliefs and learn new ideas. If these new things led me to where I was then that would be proof I was on the right path but if they led in another direction then I was prepared to follow the new course.

The reason for this new approach was I saw inaccuracies within our system of government; contradictions and hypocrisy within my religion. Prayer and going to Church left me with an empty feeling; I felt as though I was wasting my time doing both. I also felt that taking action was better than prayer because at least I was working on fixing a problem. I saw people believing in religions and government but not knowing why they believed, or even worse, believing in outright deceptions.

Since August, 2005 I have been on a mission to find the ultimate truth through the most intelligent minds of our time and their research. The only way to do this is to wipe the slate clean and relearn everything. This blog is the result of this research and the primary outlet for it. This is also why I selected the name "Neutrality" because I now consider myself a "true neutral". We must have balance in life, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. In the absence of evil within a society, portions of the good will then become evil (this is also known as chaos theory). So there is no such thing as a "good" society.

During this research, I have read selected works by Stephen Hawkins (very hard to read this guy), Carl Sagan, the Founding Fathers, and watched many documentaries about a host of topics. This research has proven one thing to me; we cannot give up our search for God just yet. The scientific discoveries of the past ten years are fascinating and deserve recognition.

I find it hard to believe most fundamentalists disregard the most brilliant minds of our generation because they uncover something which contradicts old traditions. I thought humanity was supposed to constantly be learning new things and adapting these new discoveries to life. Even animals use their intelligence and discovery to influence their behavior, but some people within our species do not practice good intellectual behavior. In their narrow minds, tradition is more important than truth.

This research has also been the root to uncovering many other false beliefs I had about government. I have also uncovered many negative traits within our society which our leadership has ignored. Even worse, I found most of the leaders of our nation to be corrupt and working on their own agenda instead of what is right for all of us.

There are many inaccuracies in the Bible but I am not a fundamentalist, so I can still give merit while accepting these inaccuracies. For example, do I believe the universe was created in seven days? No way and I find it hard to believe there are people who still do. But this does not tarnish Jesus’ image for me. I don’t cut the entire tree down because of a bad branch. I cut the bad branch and likewise will just disregard this bad text as an oversight by ignorant men.

I am not sure if the tomb of Jesus reportedly found by the Discovery Channel documentary is the actual tomb of Jesus but I believe it is possible. I believe just admitting this I have taken an incredible leap forward to possibly finding God. It is possible man created Christianity (he certainly had motive for this deception), so that means the true God might still be waiting for us to discover Him; at least this possibility exists. I cannot bury my head in the sand and ignore science, my intelligence, or other people’s intelligence just because these new ideas clash with unproven theories or writings of men over 2,000 years ago.

When I read the Old Testament, I see men of power struggling to control other people and using fear as a weapon to gain control. It’s obvious. So I struggle with my own intelligence telling me this versus my conservative upbringing. Every day I give less validity to the roots of my upbringing because those are not based on fact but on tradition. I am searching for the truth even though it might break many paradigms within my life. It is very difficult to start with a clean slate but this is what I must do in order to obtain my goal of ultimate truth.

I am not sure where this will lead me but I am willing to take the journey and follow the road in which the evidence leads regardless of the conflicts with old traditions. When I finally reach my destination, I’ll let you know, but until then, enjoy the ride.

I don’t know how many of you watched this documentary on the Discovery Channel last Sunday but I would advise you to see it. The filmmakers think they have found the bones of Jesus and his entire family including his wife Mary Magdalene and one of their children.

The evidence, although it will never be 100%, is very compelling and the dramatizations were very good at illustrating how Jesus’ life might have looked. I really don’t want to speak for the film or try to summarize it but I would really advise you to see it.

Is this evidence the Bible was written by man and NOT God? It is very evident if you read the Bible, many of the stories just don’t make sense. If you logically think about the decisions made by the key characters or the archaic laws they followed and then apply those same ideas to people and situations today, you will realize just how ridiculous they sound.

So Jesus had to be killed to pay for OUR sins. Why? Why again must there be bloodshed to please God? If He is a loving God as people suggest, then why can't He just forgive us? Why is death always required to please Him? Imagine if my father wanted me killed because he did not like our neighbor’s lifestyle. This is the same reasoning the God in the Bible uses to sacrifice His son. Does that make sense to anybody else because I’m not seeing it?

What if Jesus never called himself a God like the Bible suggests? What if man put those words into his mouth and changed the Gospels to adhere to those ideas? I believe Jesus was a rebel trying to change the government and trying to show how ridiculous the pagan religions where. He was probably also preaching how the Jewish God in the Old Testament (then an unknown term “Old Testament God”) was just as bad as the pagan Gods. This angered the rabbi’s in the synagogues. A logical person can now conclude that Jesus was probably killed because of negative speeches about the Jewish rabbi’s (who were very powerful) God and the corrupt leadership in government.

Now let’s fast forward 400 years later. When the Council of Nicaea put the Bible together under the demands of the Emperor Constantine, they decided to only to include Gospels which detailed Jesus as a divine being and not as a man. Is it possible they created a God when one did not exist? By putting words in Jesus’ mouth they can also validate the Old Testament God and please everybody.

Constantine’s motives where to save his kingdom which was splintering because of a religious revolution. He did not care which religion reigned supreme or which God was idolized just as long as he remained the emperor and was able to control the people again. The majority of the empire was Christian so he commissioned the Council of Nicaea to end the conflicts within the Christian faith. So this Council of Nicaea dubbed Jesus a God and included only the few Gospels which supported this. They did not include the majority of Gospels which wrote about Jesus as an ordinary man with a wife and child.

No group has been more discriminated against by organized religion than women. The pre-Christ pagans believed the way to heaven was by having sex with women. So, in essence, the women held the power for gaining entry in heaven. Well the men during this time wanted to change this, so the Council did not include anything which would give women power again over men. This is probably one of the reasons why Mary Magdalene was written as a whore instead of the wife of Christ, to eliminate any power she might have brought into Christianity. It also provided a perfect cover up to eliminate her relationship with Jesus. To ensure the pagan religions were forever destroyed and woman’s power along with it, thousands of women were slaughtered, labeled as witches, when their only crime was to believe in a different God (a non Christian God). Now the pagan religion was forever dead and man can now control entry into the afterlife.

When the Council of Nicaea ended, Christianity was now the official religion of Rome. The Roman armies enforced these new Gospels with an iron fist by killing all opposition and by burning any of the opposing Gospels. Now, finally, Constantine’s country was whole again.

Recently, I began reading the New King James Version of the Bible. I am surprised at how many times evil exists but has been twisted to be good. There are also many situations which don’t make any sense to a logical, intelligent human being. I am only as far as Numbers but I have already encountered several situations of outright evil. I’m talking Saddam Hussein evil. How can you justify cutting babies out of pregnant mothers and bashing them against rocks or throwing them off cliffs? How can you justify killing people for cursing their parents or not going to church on Sunday? Why did they have to kill animals or even people to please God? Already I’m three chapters into this book and it sounds like I’m reading a book about a devil.

I challenge all Christians to read the Bible from cover to cover with an open mind. Put yourself in the shoes of the people making the decisions and try to justify them as “good” decisions. Try to bring the situations into your world and see if they still make sense. Try to find other people in the news which made similar choices and see if they are remembered as tyrants or as saviors. These revelations will change you.

Most people who claim to be staunch conservative Christians probably have never read the Bible from cover to cover. They just listen to what others tell them and accept it as ultimate truth. That’s what happened to me when I was younger. I only read the Bible through the selected passages my priest selected for me or in a Catechism class. I never knew the horrors which existed until I started reading it unedited from cover to cover.

Is it possible one day we will soon have evidence proving how the religions of today are false and how we have not even begun to find God? If we have overwhelming evidence then what will happen? Will the religions try to save themselves by killing people again? I am still hoping to find God before I die but the outlook is grim with people believing in ancient traditions without questioning anything no matter how ridiculous. Traditions built on the motives of one man trying to protect his dictatorship.

How can we ever find the truth when religion is woven into our culture so tightly that even an atheist believes (without realizing) many religious traditions? We are baptized at birth and taught, even before we can think for ourselves, that Jesus is God. We are not given a chance to debate anything. What can you debate if everyone within your family circle is a devout Christian? They will surely threaten you for challenging the authority of the church. You are raised to conform, even though no one knows exactly what they are conforming with.

When a devout Christian actually reads the Bible they are usually so convinced it is the ultimate truth that their powers of observation and critical thinking are forever gone. So they convince themselves that killing non believers in the Old Testament days was a good thing. They will use ridiculous phrases like “God works in mysterious ways” or some other gibberish to justify the slaughtering and torturing of entire towns and villages. Who does the Old Testament God think he is anyway…….George Bush?

When freedoms are eroded it doesn’t happen overnight, it usually occurs over generations. The next generation hardly realizes how much freedom the generation before it actually had. But the past few years has been the exception as the Bill of Rights has been treated like toilet paper.

The Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and a host of executive orders outlined in my previous posts are all aimed at limiting or destroying our freedoms. What is very scary about all of this is how quiet the press has been over these issues. It seems the sex habits of celebrities are more important than losing our 5th Amendment rights or being illegally taxed. This really frustrates me.

Whenever arguments arise over lost freedoms or lost rights, I wish our political parties would think beyond their partisan agendas and consider how the law impacts the America people as a whole. Are the people losing rights as guaranteed by the Constitution? If so, do we really need a law which conflicts with the single most important document in human history? Is the permanent loss of freedom worth the heightening of security, keeping in mind when freedoms are lost they are rarely gained? These are questions which should be answered from a bipartisan committee and not the Republican or the Democratic parties. Too often they both have hidden agendas and are too corrupt to answer these questions so the American people’s interests are not properly considered.

I hope you all realize the inaccuracies within the history books. History is often written and censored by the conquerors and masters of that particular generation. If you want to read a real history book, try Howard Zinn’s The History of the American People.

The quest for money and power within our historical and religious books leaves a trail of blood which could fill the Atlantic Ocean. It also seems like the richer the asshole the more blood he shed. You think Columbus was a great man? Well he slaughtered just about everybody he encountered on his journey to America. Genocide was often the rule as he stole anything he wanted and brought blood-soaked treasures back to Europe, claiming them for his own. The only difference between Columbus and Charles Manson was Columbus was funded by the Crown. Yet history books would lead you to believe he was a great man.

Try to find a hero in history and it is difficult to do; even religious heroes are riddled with evil tendencies. For example King David, who slew Goliath and saved his people, had a very dark side. One day he noticed a beautiful young woman bathing in the river and fell instantly in love. Too bad she was married to his best friend (too bad for his best friend that is). So he sends his best friend off to the front lines of war where he was eventually killed so David could satisfy his carnal desires.

Like Moses? Think again. After leading his people out of slavery he formed a rogue army which terrorized the Middle East. They slaughtered many innocent men, women and children because they were not believers in Christ and were having premarital sex. The Bible tells vivid stories about him cutting the babies out of women and slamming them against rocks or throwing them off cliffs. And you thought the Bible was against abortion. He would take the young, virgin women as prisoners though, until they collected too many of them. When his general asked what to do with all the women he replied, “Give half to God and the other half do with as you please.” Translation, kill half of the innocent women and use the other half as your personal sex slaves. Are we to believe Moses was working on God’s authority?

Everybody has a dark side. I liked President Clinton even though he got a head job in the White House. That is until he signed NAFTA, which was the single most tragic document every to befall the middle class. Only the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act inflict more terror on the middle class. Now President Bush threatens to sign CAFTA which will make NAFTA look like the Social Security Act. Have you heard anything about CAFTA on the news? Nope, because the ruling class wants this law because it will be very good for corporate profits, but they don’t want us to know anything about it until after it is signed into law, so it has been suppressed from the media.

This is why I liked Star Wars so much. You could easily tell the evil people from the good people by their appearance. The evil people had red skin or glowing red eyes or some other deformity, but in real life the evil people look like you and me. They walk among us and talk like us and eat the same foods we eat. They are attractive and well-spoken. Except they talk from a "pulpit" and fail to see any point of view except their own. If you disagree with them, they will rain down a hell storm of fire and brimstone until you submit or die. Religious figures are the worst because they preach from this position of self righteousness but are often doing the exact thing they are claiming is the work of the devil. This really irritates me.

Some people think I am too hard on religions. The truth is I don’t have to be, if you read the teachings they speak for themselves. From Mormons to Jews to Christians to Muslims, their teachings are riddled with murder, hypocrisy and hilarity. Sometimes I wonder why anyone who actually read any part of those books could possibly think God was present in any of it. It must either be some kind of brain damage or they must not actually understand what they read.

A couple of weeks ago I posted my thoughts regarding the state of religion in today’s society and entitled it The Dangers of Literal Meanings. Well, someone posted a very good anonymous comment which I responded to. After many edits I decided to post the final version on the front page for everybody to see and debate. I put much time and thought into this response to make it as accurate as possible.

Please keep in mind, I am not trying to offend anybody but only trying to debate a topic which is very sensitive. It might be a good idea to ready part one before proceeding.

Anonymous said...
How about, "If you were God would you be able to make sure the bible was written exactly like you wanted it?" That's a good question worth asking too.

My Response...
You have uncovered one of the many of the many logical flaws within the Bible. I have thought about that but it is a flawed question. If God wanted to make sure the Bible was accurately depicted then why not just give us copy already written by Him? Wouldn’t that seem more logical than the alternative?

There so are many other important logical flaws within the Bible which are too easily dismissed by fundamentalists. These logical breakdowns are irrefutable evidence the Bible was not written by God but by man because God would not have made such obvious mistakes. At the very least we should believe that He probably gave us better explanations and reasons at the time which have long since been lost through man’s translations and storytelling. Since man did not have or most likely lost those logical explanations provided by God, we embellished, which might have seemed logical at the time but today most of those embellishments are almost laughable.

There are actually people who believe in the Old Testament that Noah actually gathered two of every animal in the world and loaded them onto his arc. By today’s standards imagine doing that? It would probably take you a lifetime just to gather up half of all the animals and this is if you had modern technology like planes and trucks to assist.

Let’s give the whole story about the Ten Commandments a quick reality check. Moses goes up the mountain to pray and ask God for help because an army led by a dictator is bearing down on his people to enslave them or worse kill them all. What is the first thing God says, “I am your God accept no others!” or something like that. If I was Moses I would have responded with, “Yea God that’s cool and all but how about something disallowing slavery? How about something against rich people dominating or controlling everybody’s life?” Nope. God responds with, “Go to Church on Sunday.”

When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai instead of being concerned with where the people were going to eat, or sleep or live, or even the disappointment about no commandment forbidding slavery. The first thing which angers him is the golden calf and the people are partying. That should have been the least of his worries.

Another example, after Jesus rose from the dead why not go back to Pontius Pilate and the other crucifiers. Walk right up to him in front of all of his men and say, “Look at me, I was crucified but I am not dead.” If that would have happened there would be absolutely no questions by any doubters. Jesus should have shown everybody His resurrected body but why did He show only a few believers? That does not make sense to me at all. If you are proclaiming yourself as a God who can defy death and forgive century old sins, then show everybody. There should be no mystery or questions at all; just, “I am God and here I am, period.”

Another logical inaccuracy is the crucifixion. Why did He have to be crucified to forgive our sins? Why not just forgive them? After all, He is God so He could have done that without going through the whole torture and death sequence. It doesn’t make logical sense to me. Now if He would have used the crucifixion to proclaim He defeated death and to prove He was God in front of millions of people and the leaders at the time, like I stated in the paragraph above, then it makes sense. Otherwise, we are left with illogical reasoning which does not make much sense at all. Why be tortured and crucified, then rise from the dead and NOT show yourself to the people who killed you? It doesn’t make sense.

The whole book of Revelations also seems very flawed. It was written by The Prophet John during his exile on Patmos. It has been written that he was nearing madness during this period of his life. So why would God choose an exiled man near madness to deliver these important messages? Don’t you think He would have chosen someone more credible? Let’s put that decision in perspective in today’s world. It would be almost like God choosing David Koresh (or insert any other cultist whacko here) to deliver a similar message.

There are so many more hundreds of logical flaws within the Bible but the most compelling argument in my favor is the more than 2,000 years of silence. With all the turmoil and all of the radical splits the Church has endured why not make another appearance to clear up these misunderstandings. After all, we are honestly tying to get it right and a little help would be appreciated.

There is more we DON’T know about God than we do know, so enlighten us. If He is telling us that we are going to be punished with eternal damnation if we do not believe in Him, then at least give us the courtesy of a follow up visit every millennium or so. Especially since we are intelligent beings and our theories in science are becoming more advanced; that seems the least He could do. Or are we to believe He is just sitting up there in heaven watching us screw up time and time again without any leadership, knowledge or advice?

These faults within the Bible simply cannot be dismissed; they must be dealt with using the brain-power God gave us. All of these logical flaws point to human misquotes and misinterpretations of events. As intelligence beings, we must evaluate things using logic and common sense and then determine our beliefs and conclusions. These laws of logic are one of the primary ways law enforcement detects lies while questioning a suspect or a judge uses in court while listening to testimony. There are other ways too but if the laws of logic are broken then we are left with inaccuracies and falsehoods.

I do not claim to have all of the answers but I don’t think the correct questions are being asked by theologians either. They are the ones with the knowledge of the Bible but they are in too deep to answer any of these questions because they have already accepted these flaws and are able to look beyond them. I’m not a theologian but just a man trying to solve the mysteries of life, while asking what I believe to be the correct and proper questions to these theologians, who assume the Bible is 100% accurate regardless of what common sense, logic and science dictates.

Unfortunately, many of the theologians are also the fundamentalists which I have written about many times in this blog. Fundamentalists only see “black and white” and can never see any “grey areas”. In their minds the whole thing must be correct or the whole thing is wrong. Since they have already placed a high emotional value on the Bible being 100% correct, they cannot emotionally deal with these questions being asked, much less being able to have an intelligent conversation about them.

The one thing religion does is put limitations on imagination, creativity and ingenuity. Whenever science discovers something which conflicts with religious dogma, the scientists are met with hostility. So we were given this mind with endless abilities but we are expected to keep it closed and only accept certain teachings which have existed for thousands of years. This makes no logical sense to me at all.

I don’t believe a true God would have a problem with people not believing in Him. It sounds too egotistical and masochistic to be believable. Why would He care if these simple mortals believe in Him; if He exists then He exists, why punish the ignorant. But all religions believe the most important thing is to believe in their God above all other Gods regardless of the implications or the rationality. And if you do not believe then you will be endlessly tortured or damned for eternity. But then when You were here on Earth You left us with a bunch of riddles and stories which do not add up to modern theories.

Shouldn't God be more concerned with humanity and people treating the other living creatures with dignity, respect and care rather than who believes in Him? Here is a short list of things that are more important than believing in one God over another God: genocide, war, rape, murder, slavery, world hunger, education (or lack of), poverty, healthcare, and torture. Doesn’t it seem logical a true God would give priority over those things?

Tragically, many people have been tortured, killed and imprisoned through the years because of the Bible’s literal meanings or quotes supposedly flowing from the tongue of God. Fundamentalists are now trying to take over our Country and dictate rules based upon these writings. This is wrong.

If you are a theologian which questions common sense, logic and science, then I would have to say to you, why would God gives us this brain with these abilities and expect us not to use it?

Thanks for your comment.

As a young boy I hated my Catholic grade school. Back then, bullies were not punished like they are today. I remember one kid pulling a knife on me in the middle of class and I quickly reported him to the teacher. But after it was all said and done I was the one made a fool out of by the teacher and later the principal; the bully was not even reprimanded.

That school did a great job of teaching us it is best to look the other way and not to get involved. They also instilled other values like: fearing God’s wrath, the rules are more important than the people, how to totally conform and how you should completely abandon your brain and accept blind faith in things, plus many other fascist ideologies which took me years to unlearn.

One of the few things I remember was when we were taught how a story changes while being spread from one person to another. The teacher wrote a couple of sentences on a piece of paper and whispered them to a student, who whispered to another until the entire class of about 20 kids had heard the message.

The final student wrote what was whispered to them and the teacher compared it to what she had originally written. They were not even closely related sentences. I was supposed to learn the dangers of spreading rumors about other people but what I actually learned was something else. This Catholic grade school gave me all the ammunition I needed to prove how fallible the Bible actually could be.

I am constantly befuddled by individuals who believe and worship the Bible literally as it is written, word for word. This is preposterous to me. The Gospels writers did not even know Jesus. They wrote the Gospels generations after Christ was crucified. I don’t think the apostles who followed Jesus ever carried a notepad to write His every word or to document what happened. I think they probably told other people about what happened and the stories were passed around much like in my grade school class. We all know how that turned out.

It is also possible that many things transpired without any of the apostles being around to witness them. Just imagine how many things could have happened to change the course of Christianity but are forever lost because no one was there to witness them. So even if the Bible was recorded as accurately as theologians believe, just think about how many things were accidentally omitted.

In my college years I was quite a hellcat. Every now and then I will meet somebody who remembers me from an event long past and tells me about something they remembered I did. We’ll have a laugh, shake hands and part ways and I am thinking, “What in the hell are they talking about? That did not happen that way, they are way off!” Now they were there and I remember them being there but the events they described did not happen as they remembered.

Later, I would talk with other friends who were there and they tell me they remember it differently from both of us. So who is right? I don’t know. I think it is more important to remember we had a party and everybody had fun. There are stories about me circulating that are not really true or at least not true as I remember them. Not that I mind because it contributes to my legend, but again we see how even eye witness accounts can vary and, in most cases, be very inaccurate.

Let’s get back to the Bible. So now am I to believe, as an intelligent human being, that 2,000 years ago those people could pass around stories by word of mouth while retaining all of the details. We are also expected to believe every word was written as words flowing directly from the mouth of Jesus onto their piece of paper. I think we should all be too intelligent to believe this is even possible.

People are fallible and people make mistakes; even people who wrote about Jesus 2,000 years ago and earlier. Imagine if they accidentally added a mathematical “typo” like 2 + 2 = 5. Today it would be a religious fact that 2 +2 = 5 and you would have theologians ignoring their common sense and writing essays about how 2 + 2 IS equal to 5 as according to God’s law. They would also ponder if the heathen mathematicians should be damned to eternal hell for spreading the heresy of 2 + 2 = 4. I wonder how many “typos” or misrepresentations are actually in the Bible. I also wonder how many of those contributed to a war or to somebody being killed.

It might be possible to accurately document something like this today if the events were recorded with a camera or some other device. The only risk would be someone inserting their bias into the story, which probably also happened back then.

In my opinion, it is more important to understand the big picture and not focus on the details of what Jesus might have said. Because none of us knows what he actually said, we never will.

I used to own fish tanks. When I would clean the tank the fish would sometimes freak out over my hand entering their world. If they had intelligence would their God be this enormous hand? Would they design temples containing statues of a giant hand and then sing praise to this “Hand of all Holiness”? The truth is we are living in a similar fish tank. We have no idea and no clue who God is, where God is, or what God looks like.

Even the God we have made contact with is still a mystery. We believe He is God because He said He is, but there is absolutely no evidence. Well what if the giant hand could talk to the fish and told them it was God. The fish might believe it, but would that make it true. And then, what if the REAL God caught wind of this hand pretending to be God, how pissed would He be?

I honestly really hope the Bible is true because some of the stories are beautiful and it would definitely make death much easier to contemplate. My heart tells me to believe but sometimes my brain tells me I’m just a fish in a tank, worshiping an enormous hand.

I often ask questions such as: “If I were God would I demand everyone worship me or damn them to an eternal hell? Would I exclude people from heaven just because they were different from others or believed something different? Would I damn people to eternal hell who ignorantly worshipped another god? Would I give people a brain but damn them for using it? Would I admit people into heaven who were mean pricks or murders or rapists just because they said they were sorry at the end of their life? Would I write policies which excluded women from important decision making roles within my church? Would I destroy an entire city including the children just because the adults were having consensual sex? Would I “test” the faith of my most devoted worshipers by taking everything from them including their families and then expect them to still love me?” The list goes on and on………………..

Then I seriously doubt a God who answers “Yes” to any of the above questions, because it sounds more like a devil than a God. So either we got the message wrong or the message itself is wrong. I prefer to believe that WE got it wrong.

I read excerpts from Bill O’Reilly’s new book which does a great job of describing the culture war in our country between liberals and conservatives from the conservative point of view. At one time I was deeply rooted within the conservative camp so I can relate to much of what he had to say.

In a recent town hall interview with Oprah, Bill O’Reilly made a point to categorize Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy as being a conservative. How ludicrous is this??!!! Even more frustrating is he believes Jesus Christ to be conservative too. Before we analyze why it is so ridiculous let’s take a look at the definition of both liberal and conservatism.

The definition of conservative is resistant to change and adhering to traditions. The word “conserve” is even in the word conservative. Liberal, by comparison, means tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition; a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties. Based on the definitions, which one of those words best describes Martin Luther King, and even Jesus Christ for that matter? If you said liberal then you are correct.

This may come as a surprise to the Right Wing but both Martin Luther King and Jesus Christ were liberals. They both fought against the established cultures and government in support of radical changes. They favored human right for everyone regardless of color, creed or sex. They supported the poor and the sick.

Let’s compare staunch Republican and Democratic ideology and see which side Martin Luther King and Jesus would be on: (click to enlarge)

*If certain neo-conservatives believe that God creates everything in His image and controls everything (free will does not exist in humans) then it is safe to say that God created gays too. So if He created gays then he would want them to have the same rights as heterosexual people. Neo-conservatives should then want this to swing Democratic, so I am giving them this one.

**You either believe that God gave us a brain to use and to think for ourselves or you believe that God gave us this brain only to behave as puppets under His command. So this could go either way based upon how you believe in God. My God gave me a brain to use and think for myself so this is Democrat.

***Amendment 2 was a heated debate in Missouri concerning tax money supporting stem cell research. Of course, Republicans are vehemently opposed to this but Democrats want to help find cures to help the sick. In a recent speech President Bush said he opposed Amendment 2 because he does not believe some people should die so that others can live. If he actually believes this, then why in the hell are we in Iraq???!!!! This was such a stupid thing to say that I am awarding this to the Democrats.

****This is the same argument as the gay rights issue. He either put the drugs and the plants here for us to use or not. Drugs, like alcohol, should be perfectly legal unless you abuse them. Then you should not be treated as a criminal but as someone needing help. Instead of going to a state or federal penitentiary to serve jail time you should go to a state or federal run rehab clinic to dry out. This makes more sense but the Republicans never want money to go to help people, they only want money to help corporate American get richer. This is the conservative mind-set in a nutshell; they will spend money to punish but never to help.

I could go one and on, listing hundreds of issues but I will stop with these. Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King will support very few Republican supported issues but the majority of the support will be Democratic. You can see how the Republican marketing machine has wrongly convinced Christians into believing they support Christian values. There may be a few but overall, the Democratic Party supports more of the Christian values.

Another important thing to realize is change is impossible to stop. It WILL happen!! Life changes everyday so you can either roll with it or resist it and be left behind. Just like running water over time will carve through rock, new ideas will constantly change our culture. Change cannot be stopped, only delayed.

America is evenly split on most political issues and the split probably looks much like this: 30% hardcore Republican, 30% hardcore Democrat, 30% swing voters. Hardcore voters are “Tom Cruise” stupid and will blindly vote for their party’s candidates no matter how ridiculous. Proof of this is in Mark Foley’s district in Florida. He received over 100,000 votes even though it is proven he is a pedophile.

This means 100,000 people voted for this Republican Senator even though they knew he solicited kids for dirty pictures and for sex talk; every one of these people needs to do a bit of soul searching because they are supporting pedophilia. I’ll also bet these same 100,000 consider themselves part of the Christian coalition, thinking they were advancing the cause of Christians everywhere by voting for Foley. I wonder if Jesus would want His name associated with a known pedophile like Mark Foley.

The behavior of hardcore voting scares the hell out of me. This is the same logic I used when I dropped my support of Clinton after I discovered he lied under oath. If I continued to support him, then I am saying that perjury is alright and should be legal. Likewise, these 100,000 "Tom Cruise" stupid morons in Florida cast their vote in favor of pedophilia. This is why my vote shifted to Republican, most notably George Bush in 2000.

I consider myself a swing voter because I do not lock in on any particular party. Swing voters are the most intelligent because they learn the facts and cast their vote accordingly. They can also be easily tricked by false campaign ads, so getting the facts is a constant battle. They are not robots or ditto heads that blindly support one particular cause no matter how dirty or how bankrupt of values that cause becomes.

I’ll give you an example of a false campaign ad. In Tennessee when Harold Ford lost to Bob Corker, the Corker camp ran an ad stating Ford made calls to a sex line on a business trip and the tax payers footed the bill. The facts are one of Ford’s workers while trying to call an FBI tip hotline inadvertently dialed one number wrong and a sex line answered. He quickly hung up the phone and dialed the right number. Now the call logs supported this but the Corker campaign still ran the ads. Very dirty politics indeed but the "Tom Cruise" stupid swing voters in Tennessee bought it and elected Corker.

If we look at the number of Republican scandals then the sweeping votes for Democrats should surprise no one. The only thing I was worried about was the uneducated Christian coalition group continuing to cast their robotic vote for a party devoid of Christian values. Luckily, this did not happen but I still wanted to expose those who continue to lie and claim they are full of Christian values when essentially they are full of shit because they vote for a known child predator for Senator.

Essentially, being Republican or Democrat should say nothing about your religious values. Both parties are represented by a myriad of religions including Christians. The aforementioned Harold Ford Jr. keeps the Ten Commandments on the back of his business card. While I do not approve of this, I just wanted to point out there are staunch Christians running in the Democratic Party.

Even though I am Christian, I believe in the separation of Church and State within politics, so I vote with my brain and not my Faith. If I voted my Faith then the Ten Commandments would be written into law and you would be put in jail for coveting thy neighbor’s car or for not going to Church on Sunday, or for using a GD or two within a sentence. This society would then resemble the Taliban and not democracy. But since my brain tells me this is ridiculous, I am very glad I voted with the majority of Americans who used their brain cells.

However, the Christian coalition groups want to make you feel guilty for using your brain cells. No matter how absurd, they demand we disregard science and blindly follow certain outdated or illogical teachings. Don’t be fooled because these people are not Christians but fascists. They enslave minions into their institutions and fill their empty heads with lies and hate like an “overmind” controls an alien horde. Jesus has nothing to do with their world but they spread their fascism behind His name.

I encountered many people like this on a recent trip to Utah. The only way into their cult church is to abandon all reason and logic and succumb to their will. Don’t be “Tom Cruise” stupid by compromising basic logic and reason – if something sounds stupid then it is.

Reading many of my posts, paranormal activities excluded, I realized I am breaking from the reason I created this blog. I started writing this blog for two reasons. The first reason was to bring balance to politics by providing both sides to the stories and exposing hidden agendas which can be damaging to us. The second reason was to provide an outlet for my writing both fictional and non fictional. Lately, I am starting to sound like some liberal lunatic and that is not who I am. I have always voted for the candidate and NOT the party affiliation. For the first time in my life, however, I am advocating voting a straight Democrat ticket and I want to explain why I am advocating this.

I actually voted for George Bush in the 2000 election and have been a staunch supporter of Republican candidates for many years. I have always believed we need a 50-50 split in govermnent to keep everybody honest. But my support of Republicans vanished after 9/11 when George Bush started a personal assault on our liberties and freedoms by claiming it was necessary for our “protection”. Then he poisoned Christianity by transforming it from a loving religion into a religion of hatred against gay people. Now the Republican Party has been hijacked by neo-conservatives spreading lies and calling it Christianity.

I live in Missouri and on the ballot this November is Amendment 2 which is for stem cell research. The Right Wing agenda is lying to Missourians by stating these stem cells will be harvested from naïve teenage girls leaving them with cancer. They are also spreading the lie that human cloning is supported by this Amendment.

In reality, Amendment 2 specifically prohibits egg cell harvesting and human cloning, so why all the lies? Because that is the way in which these people operate and I vehemently oppose their methods. Again, Amendment 2 specifically states only the cells from previous fertility treatments will be used. So we can either burn these cells in an incinerator or use them to enhance the quality of life for many Missourians.

These cells can be used to cure Diabetes and a host of other diseases. These cells can be used to help the crippled walk again and the blind see again. They could be a new hope for many people suffering with incurable ailments but these liars who call them selves Christians have a hidden agenda of hate. Until the Republican Party breaks the chain with these liars and hate mongers posing as Christians, I will vote Democrat.

For true Christians, I challenge you to analyze the facts and see through the veil of lies and deceptions. Your religion is not just about abortion and gay marriage but about many important subjects. We must see beyond these topics in order to provide a quality of life for everybody and not allow a small group of people to live the American dream whilst others are excluded. Sometimes sacrifices are necessary but we must remember the Bill of Rights is NEVER negotiable and NEVER to be compromised. Hopefully, you will awaken from your slumber before the weeds of fascism take hold and kill the roots of freedom. Don’t feel bad because many intelligent people have also been fooled by this campaign of hatred and deceit disguised as Christianity.

Another important thing to consider while you are watching these negative campaign adds during this election season. When somebody states a particular politician voted “no” for an obvious bill that was needed, it might not be because he or she disagreed with the headlining law. It might have been because the bill contained so much pork that the bill was contaminated. I remember the bill which called for better armor for the troops in Iraq also contained a HUGE tax break for the wealthiest Americans along with many other expensive pork projects for corporate America. Many politicians voted "no" because of the tax breaks and the pork projects and not because of the armor for the troops. But the ”Evil Empire” would have you believe these people voted “no” because they do not support our troops.

Here are a few more reasons why I am opposed to the new Republicans. Since Bush has been President, the personal fortunes of the extremely rich have grown by at least 40% but the personal wealth of the middle and lower class has barely grown by 1% and in many cases it has plunged into negative numbers if you account for credit card debt. The wealth generated by our economy goes directly to the richest people in the upper class, who continuously work very hard at cutting and eliminating middle class wages and jobs. They have tricked the American middle class into voting and supporting an agenda that is hurting them because they have disguised this pro-big business, anti-labor agenda within an artificial religious flavoring.

It is also important to recognize since Bush has been in office the homeless and very poor in the United States have grown by 5 million and there is no help on the way. To further complicate the matter, with all if the changes in the Estate Tax laws, the richest 1% are no longer giving to the charities to gain tax breaks. Now those tax breaks are built into our laws so the money which used to go to homeless shelters and food pantries is being pocketed.

Republicans like to focus on the low unemployment rate and the 6 million jobs that were created in the last three years of Bush’s Presidency. But if you consider the jobs that were lost in the first three years of Bush’s Presidency then the 6 million jobs total drops considerably. While the unemployment rate is low, the people working have not gained any wealth nor have their wages kept up with the cost of living. So every year the middle class looses ground while the ruling class keeps all the profits for themselves. Can you tell me anywhere in the last three paragraphs where Jesus would approve of the way the Republicans are handling things?

At the core I believe both parties to be corrupt, which is why a 50-50 mixture is needed so they can keep an eye on each other. The reason the Republicans have been involved in so many law breaking antics lately is because they have been in power for too long. When the scales are tilted very far in either direction for any length of time corruption begins. In order to have balance you must have an equal dose of both parties. This is why it is critical to vote in as many Democrats as possible. We must restore balance before this situation gets worse. Power in our government is like the One Ring in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings; it corrupts even when people try to use it for good.

Again, I hate this two party system because in all actuality it is one party system; the elite-class party system. They continuously change the laws to give unfair advantages to themselves while wrapping this poison within an artificially flavored Christian agenda, which is not even Christianity at all, only to appeal the masses. Christianity involves feeding the poor, providing healthcare to the sick, providing homes to the homeless but the Republican Party cares little for these Christian values. The Republican Party values are excessive profits for the wealthy, tax breaks for the wealthy. Their values further aid the wealthy by providing no labor laws for the middle class and supporting of a system which erodes the middle class by sending their jobs overseas for cheaper labor.

They have also eroded the very fabric of what this Country stands for; beginning with the Patriot Act, which allows for unconstitutional searches and seizures, and now with the new Military Commission Act. This law legalizes torture and gives the President the power to seize any American citizen and imprison them for any reason and for any length of time. Again you can see how the Bush Republicans have tilted our Country toward a fascist state for our “protection”. I wonder what Jesus would think about legalized torture and lifetime imprisonment without a trial? All done behind His name.

The Republican Party that I knew would never support laws like these. And the newly Bush-appointed Supreme Court Judges are bigots and fascists too. When laws were passed making the gay life style a crime, Justice Scalia walked out in protest when they were successfully appealed by the vote of the Supreme Court. So I guess in his mind, The Bill of Rights is only for straight people.

Anyway, I just wanted to explain why the shift in the blog. Hopefully you will remain with me on this journey of learning and discovery. I appreciate all of your comments.

A while back I commented how dangerous it is that George Bush does not have a science advisor. In fact, he is the first President in years not to have a science advisor. It is clear from what I have read about the President, he disregards science and he has a general distrust of science. Maybe he thinks all scientists are liberal Democrats or maybe it’s something else.

When a leader stubbornly ignores something as important as science he does not represent the entire Country. The President of the United States is supposed to represent everybody but if he ignores an important group in our society (scientists) then he lacks important information needed to form an opinion. This “ignorance is bliss” attitude is dangerous.

The President admits he does not even read newspapers or magazines but instead gets his news from a few advisors that interpret the news and present it to him. Again, the President is supposed to represent all people not just a selected few. It is impossible to do this when you get your facts from a “filtered” source rather than from the actual source. Clearly the President has blind faith in his advisors. With this brief essay I want to open up the debate of science versus Faith.

First of all, let’s look at what comprises solid evidence. It doesn’t matter whether a scientist is liberal or conservative, so I don’t even want to go there. It only matters what evidence they collect through experiments to prove their hypothesis. Without getting too technical, evidence is comprised of proven documented experiments capable of producing similar outcomes if conducted by someone else, PERIOD. More importantly, what is NOT considered good evidence are eyewitness accounts and common sense.

Common sense tells us that the earth is flat, that the Sun truly rises and sets, that the surface of the Earth is not spinning at over 1000 miles per hour, that bowling balls fall faster than marbles, that particles don't curve around corners like waves around a floating dock, that the continents don't move, and that objects heavier-than-air can't have sustained flight unless they can flap wings. However, science has been used to demonstrate that all these common sense ideas are wrong.

Science has radically changed our criminal justice system for the better but we still rely on eyewitness accounts when we should not. We now know how bad eyewitness accounts are because of the DNA evidence that constantly proves them wrong. It has been well documented that people have trouble translating what they see and often fill in important details with inaccuracies. Therefore, eyewitness accounts should no longer be allowed in the court room. Only forensic analysis should be allowed into a court room as accurate testimony.

Though science cannot establish absolute truth, it can provide overwhelming evidence in favor of certain ideas. I am not a believer in absolute truth anyway. As soon as you subscribe to absolute truth, you close your mind to other possibilities; this is dangerous. Critical thinking is essential for science to function properly but absolute truths prohibit critical thinking. An important outcome of science is applying what you have learned and building on it through critical evaluations or through other supporting experiments. Absolute truths are an inhibitor in this process.

Faith based systems openly accept absolute truths and common sense ideology. They produce little or no evidence to back a hypothesis and only function properly if you are a “believer”. Critical evaluations are often met with hostility. Faith based systems often label critical evaluations as either too liberal or too conservative and focus on the individual conducting the experiments rather than the evidence collected.

I am not saying that faith based systems are a bad thing because they have their place; religion plays an important role in my life. But Faith and science should be two separate categories and should only be combined when the physical evidence or experimental outcomes support it. When there is no physical evidence or no experiments can support a hypothesis, then you do not have science. If you choose to still believe then you have faith. But again, these are two separate entities and everyone should realize this.

This President blurs the line between Faith and science often giving Faith precedence over all; this is the most dangerous thing of all for a leader. Al Qaeda does this same thing but they use a different Faith based system. I cannot understand how the leader of the free world can completely disregard science when it is such an important part of our society and educational system. But it seems like learning and education have never been this President’s strength.

When I hear phrases like “staying the course no matter what” coming from an individual that never gets his information from real sources, I get very nervous. I would prefer an individual that collects his own information and develops opinions and ideas from his own research. Part of the learning process is applying new information to situations and adapting accordingly. This learning process is the primary thing that separates us from animals.

One of the reasons I wrote the “Logical” post is a conversation I had with a co worker a couple of weeks ago. We both believe in God but he is a religious fanatic. He believes in the Bible literally as it is written word for word, while I believe it is meant to be a guide and not to be taken literally. This is the number one problem separating Christians and the reason there are so many different Christian organizations and churches. We cannot agree whether the Bible is written by God or man.

Anyway, for some stupidly retarded reason we started talking about Creationism versus Evolution and he gave me his Creationist theories and why the schools should teach both theories. Creationism has now morphed into Intelligent Design because it sounds better to the legislatures. The legislatures are a pain in the Creationists’ ass because they are supposed to uphold a document called the Constitution which requires the separation of Church and state. While it is inconvenient for Creationists, it is necessary to the rest of the American citizens if we are to remain a free society.

I am staring at this friend of mine with my chin on the ground as he is deep into his Creationist diatribe; and I am thinking, he is very intelligent, well spoken, well educated (masters degree) man but his logical skills are non existent. Anybody that could dismiss all scientific evidence and in this century can still believe the earth was created in six days is possibly insane; insane meaning, on par with someone believing the Earth is flat.

I never asked him if he thinks the Earth is still flat because I am scared of the possible reply. I never asked him how the Grand Canyon was carved out in only 6,000 years because I did not want to hear my (supposedly) intelligent friend's de-rationalization of proven scientific data and replace them with his own concocted theories.

I believe that science will eventually prove the existence of a Creator but it will probably not be like anything we have imagined. So these religious fundamentalists will probably crawl back into their caves still believing the Earth was magically morphed into existence and that man rode on the backs of dinosaurs.

My faith is strong but I do not have to accept every word in the Bible as flowing from the mouth of God to be a good Christian. My beliefs make me a stronger Christian because I seek the ultimate truth. Mindless Faith is not what will take religion to the level needed in our society but educated minds striving to discover the true God will take religion where it needs to go. I think the fundamentalists fear what we will find. They fear it will be a little different from what is written in the Bible and they cannot handle that.

• Is it possible that Christ existed and preached the true Word but man lost the true meaning of His words throughout the years? I think it is.

• Is it possible throughout the years of retelling these stories (long before they were written) man screwed up and misquoted Jesus? I think it is.

• It is possible some of the Old Testament like Revelations are just the dreams of a man and mean nothing? I think it is possible.

Just because I ask these questions does not mean I do not believe in Christ, it just means I do not believe man got it right. Man was the one who screwed up NOT God.

I have Faith but I was also given a brain by God. Failure to use my brain would be a sin worse than believing in Aesop’s Fables as the word of God.

Have you ever met somebody that is super-intelligent but they lacked any common sense so they were not very smart at all? Actually, I think common sense skills are closely tied to logical skills. I have been told by many people over the years that I am too logical. I disagree with their assessment because logical skills can be used to evaluate most situations and help you come to a realistic conclusion.

Logical skills can be used as a ring of truth to get through a liar’s multiple layers of lies. I had a good friend that was a habitual liar but I was always able to penetrate his shield of lies using logical evaluations of his answers. Let me give you an example of logic skills in action.

Example of illogical behavior number 1

It’s Monday and all you’ve got 50 bucks in your pocket to last you for the week. You travel to Best Buy and blow your $50 on a new memory card for your iPod. You now spend the rest of the week complaining to everyone around you about how broke you are and how hungry you are. This person might be able to get an “A” on a book test but they have no logic skills and, therefore, are not very intelligent.

A logical person thinks ahead and realizes they must eat to survive. They might even think, “I’ll have to wait on the memory card because I need money to eat this week.”

Example of illogical behavior number 2

You are a single, twenty-year old female with two small children. Tonight you have a date with Mr. X and you plan on having sex with no thought of birth control. A few weeks later you turn up pregnant. All the while you are complaining about how you have no food for your kids and you need welfare because you cannot look for a job because who will watch your kids. So now you expect society to support another baby’s daddy’s kid.

We must assume this woman is intelligent and she knows that unprotected sex is what got her in this position to begin with. But a logical woman can see the big picture and realizes a pattern and can stop it. The logical woman might also be able to stop the first baby’s daddy’s kid from being conceived.

Below are certain logical conclusions that many intelligent people cannot seem to grasp:

• A logical person realizes that unprotected sex leads to unwanted children and AIDS.
• A logical person realizes that the Flintstones are a cartoon and dinosaurs did not mingle with humans.
• A logical person realizes that if you yell at the big man in the bar your ass will be kicked.
• A logical person realizes that if you drive while talking on a cell phone you will eventually wreck.
• A logical person realizes that education is the key to success.
• A logical person realizes that if you allow illegal aliens to become citizens, you will create unprecedented social and economic troubles for the country.
• A logical person realizes that you have to speak English to advance in status in an English speaking society.
• A logical person realizes that it global warming is a potential threat to humanity, so taking action that could reverse the trend would be wise.
• A logical person realizes that eliminating gender specific pronouns from your vocabulary will not help anyone.
• A logical person realizes that if you piss uphill your feet will get wet.
• A logical person realizes that the earth was not created in seven days by an invisible man in the sky.
• A logical person realizes that if you outsource everybody there will be no money for them to buy your good and services.
• A logical person realizes that if you drive slowly in the fast lane you might be killed.
• A logical person realizes that fast in the slow lane you will be killed.
• A logical person realizes that if you grab a co-worker’s ass you will be fired.
• A logical person realizes that if you smoke you will get lung cancer.
• A logical person realizes that second hand smoke causes lung cancer.
• A logical person realizes that they cannot spend more than they earn.
I could go on forever but I’ll stop here.

Accusations

Fundamentalist Christian conservatives often complain that logic skills are nothing more than liberal propaganda. Are we to believe that the Earth was created in seven days or are we to use our brains to examine hard scientific evidence to determine it actually took billions and billions of years for this to happen? Certain people also believe scientific data is nothing but liberal propaganda. I don’t want to get into a discussion regarding creationism versus evolution; I just want to point out the power of logical reasoning skills and how fundamentalists cannot understand them.

Fundamentalist liberals also accuse logical skills for conservative propaganda. How else can you account for them wanting to pull the troops out of Iraq allowing the Middle East, a key economic and political power area, in the hands of fate? If we loose control of oil, we loose control of our economy. A person of logic can see this. And how can liberals think by eliminating “mom” and “dad” from school literature, they could help gay and single parents?

Fundamentalists whether they are extreme right or left, lack logical skills. This is how fundamentalist left wingers are able to justify removing gender from our society and fundamentalist right wingers are able to justify the earth being created in seven days. This is why I believe moderates are true intellectuals. They are able to see the both points and then use logical skills to reach a reasonable conclude based on facts and NOT based on emotional baggage or tradition.

Conclusion

Moderates are true mediators and can get to the truth easily. There is an inherent danger when a fundamentalist obtains a position as judge, president or any other position of power. They will be unable to evaluate both points because often even before they have heard the evidence they have already come to a conclusion.

This is why I hope the next President of The United States is either a liberal Republican or a conservative Democrat. Only then will we get a true intellectual capable of eliminating the divide and bringing us all together again. A fundamentalist from either side will only further fracture the American people.

The ultra-left has begun the elimination of any form of gender in our language. A school district in California is no longer using the nouns “mom” and “dad” because that discriminates against gay couples, legal guardians and single parents.

Actually this started a few years ago. Words like actress, stewardess and waitress have been eliminated for actor, flight attendant and server. Today, everybody is an actor regardless of gender. Why can’t we accept the fact we are men and women; we are NOT genderless creatures. Are people actually offended when a reference to gender is used with a pronoun? If they are then the problem is theirs and NOT ours.

I also heard the Presbyterian Church is changing The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit to a gender neutral trio. How would this work?

“To the Mighty Significant Other, the Produce of Its Loins and the Genderless Spirit, Amen.”

I am a supporter of gay rights and gay marriage but this is going too far. Toleration works both ways. Why do some people always have to be so extremely stupid about everything?

I saw the DaVinci Code Friday night and I did like it; as it rated a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Tom Hanks did not play his character as perfectly as he played other characters and the chemistry with the female lead was not too good. The thriller was predictable and the supposedly shocking ending, I figured out within the first half hour of this extremely long movie.

What I did like about it was the history it presented about the First Council at Nicaea and the mention of the other Gospels excluded from the Bible. Even though this story is fictional certain aspects of the story have truths behind them. This Council did exist and they did exclude certain Gospels from the Bible because they did not glorify Christ’s divinity as well as the chosen Gospels.

No one will ever know if the Gospel of Phillip or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene was more accurate than the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. What you choose to believe is your Faith. It is possible that any or all of these Gospels are either fictional or factual.

The reason some Christians are angry about this story is because in their mind like the First Council at Nicaea discovered, these other Gospels do not portray Christ’s divinity within their scope of what constitutes a divine being. I guess the possibility of Christ being married and producing children takes away from His ability to be God.

Was the Council at Nicaea flawed in its approach? Well to begin with it was overseen the dictator Constantine who was more worried about Rome becoming split because of different flavors of Christianity than he was with uncovering the truth behind Christ. So it is possible factual data was purposely excluded from the Bible in order to compromise and please everybody. If we were to get a group of different Christian Faiths together today we would have similar difficulties discovering the true Christ.

It is also important to realize the Gospels were written many years after Christ’s death from stories handed down from generation to generation. I think we all know what happens to stories when they are retold. While it is evident Christ existed, it is difficult to discover what He actually said because His message was probably censored and changed by man to fit man’s narrow minded scope of reality. A reality that two thousand years ago, was even worse than it is today.

Yet today, many theologians focus on the exact wording of the Gospels as if those exact words actually flowed from the mouth of Christ. This exact wording could never be known. It is more important to realize that Christ actually existed than is it to try to imagine what he actually said. Do you realize how many people have been killed over the exact wording of sentences in the Bible? Probably millions.

The most disturbing aspect of the story is the negative treatment of women by Christian men; this condescending treatment is not fiction and still exists today. Christianity treats women as second class citizens by not allowing them to obtain power. In most Christian Churches only men are allowed to preach or to become an Elder. Why is this? Are women a threat to the Church? Why would Christ want women treated as inferiors?

The most important thing is to follow both your heart and your brain to make sure the stories you are told adhere to the ring of truth. The ring of truth is a logical meter we all have which alerts us to deception. Like a judge questions a suspect, you should also be able to ask questions and judge the responses you receive from religious leaders and judge the documents you read. Failure to question things which seem unbelievable is failure to use the brain that God gave us. If He did not expect us to question things, He would not have given us this gift of a sophisticated brain. So failing to use this gift would be sin itself.

Revision

After reading this post I wanted my readers to understand that I am NOT saying the DaVinci Code or the other unaccepted Gospels are true. I am only trying to raise questions about this issue for discussion purposes only.

The Mumps virus has returned to the Midwest. In fact, we had a documented case in the city of St. Louis. Also, just across the river in Edwardsville Illinois, there was another reported case in a local school.

So this family of mental giants has a daughter that attends the school were the mumps outbreak was found and decides to send their daughter to school. The problem with this family’s decision is their religious beliefs prohibit vaccinations. School officials notified the parents ahead of time and told them the child would not be allowed back in class until either she was vaccinated or until the incubation period ended. But these parents are not very intelligent, so they sent her anyway. As a result, the daughter was escorted from school and taken back home by the police.

Most teenagers are embarrassed by their parents. In fact, my son gets embarrassed easily and usually over minor things. I can only imagine how embarrassed he would be if he had to be escorted from school by the police because his parents are complete idiots. And it’s one thing to be a complete idiot, but to admit it to whole world and in front of their daughter's classmates is on a whole new level of stupidity. Just when you think you have found the bottom rung on the human evolutionary scale, someone like this comes along and opens up another mineshaft leading even further down.

First of all, let me say I am a believer in social Darwinism. When stupid people kill themselves it makes life better for us all. The problem I have with this case is the daughter is an innocent. Because of the parent’s ridiculous and potentially deadly religious beliefs, they are almost offering her up as a sacrificial lamb to the mumps virus. How could you do that to your own child and not be mentally challenged in some way?

I am glad we have religious freedom in this country but religion often blurs the line between sane and insane; this is a classic example of insane. I just wonder how you could send your child to school without any vaccinations when there was just a mumps case reported a day ago. Do they not love their child? Do they not want to keep their child safe?

If this child catches the mumps, the local district attorney should press child abuse charges against those parents. I do not have a problem with the senseless hurting or killing of oneself, but the senseless and hurting or killing of another is a felony.

I started doing a little research on this “religion” a while back and found they are a very dangerous mind control cult. They create fronts including the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, HealthMed and Narconon to get people into the cult because if people found out what they were really getting into they would quickly bolt. At risk to this cult are mostly only the uneducated but they have plenty of tricks to lure the educated. Even David Miscavige, the current head of the cult, is a high school drop out. Because of certain misguided and uneducated celebrities, most notably Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley, they get a lot of press. Also note the above mentioned celebrities are only high school educated at best.

Read this Time Magazine article to get some background if you want more information about some recent scandals and a quick look at the founder, L. Ron Hubbard. It talks about how they use mind control at their “audits” in which they claim therapists will cure you from drug addiction and other ailments. The various fronts they use to hook new unsuspecting members; and how they bilk these people out of millions of dollars.

The basis of the “religion” is that an evil alien named Xenu brought people to Earth billions of years ago only to kill them with a volcano. The spirits of these aliens are still on Earth today and possess all living beings. Your goal as Scientologist is to cleanse your body and rid it of these evil spirits. You do this through intense “auditing” which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. As you progress through the “auditing” sessions you advance in rank from raw meat (right off the street) to OT8. A level OT8 has fully cleansed his body of all evil, alien spirits so they can never get sick and are immune to all disease. The reason people get sick is NOT from viruses but from these alien spirits, which cause all illness and disease both mental and physical.

How they hook people is they do not give you that whole story all at once but slowly over many hours of “auditing” and after you have already invested much money. As you advance in rank you also advance in power and I guess this lust for power and rank clouds their minds. You don’t even find out you’re possessed until OT3 and your goal through OT7 is to purge these spirits from your body; some of which are sleeping and are harder to expel.

One of the purposes of these “audits” is for the Scientology association to obtain all information about an individual’s life; delving into every corner including every sexual experience. Now if a person wants to leave they can publish intimate and sometimes embarrassing details of their life as blackmail to retain wealthy members.

Anyway, be careful because these cultists retain many lawyers and employ many tricks to get you hooked. Sometimes you do not know who they are at first until it’s too late.

Sarcastic side note

They should add a volcano to the list of weapons in Clue. Miss Scarlett did it in the Library with a Volcano. That sounds perverted!