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Picture: The Art of the New Spirituality. "Terrorist" by Eugenio Merino (1).
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Can it be true?
Can it possibly be true
That religion
Is a terrorist behaviour?
Can it be true
That religion
Teaches,
Encourages
And energises
The kind of self-righteous,
Exclusive,
Spiritual fascism
Which leads to
Faith conflicts,
Crusades of slaughter
Against other religions,
God-bothered genocide,
Inquisition torture masters?
And which leads to
Settling theological quibbles
By burning books
And people
To death
On slow fires?
And which leads to
Systematic mutilation
With machetes,
And suicide bombing
Of innocent civilians
In America, Afghanistan,
Israel, Iraq,
Lebanon, England
And other less fashionable
Locations within
Human civilisation?
Can this be true?
Surely not.
Surely we must be positive
And allow for the possibility
That moderate terrorists exist,
Such as Anglicans
Who subscribe to the
Thirty Nine Articles of Religion,
And Alpha which says
That my book
Is the only book,
And all other books
Are less,
And Spring Harvest which says
That the Holy Spirit
Of spiritual fascism
Is a friend of Jesus
And must be worshipped,
And Soul Survivor which says
That its heart is to envision young people
And equip them
To move in the power of this
Sectarian Holy Spirit,
Chorleywood-style,
And Al-Qaeda which says
That Jews and Americans must die
If they don't convert on demand,
Which is a moderate position to adopt
Compared with, say,
A good, old-fashioned,
Bible-led,
Holy Spirit-led,
Torture-led
Church inquisition.
And no respectable,
Moderate,
Religious terrorist organisation,
Is training
Young terrorists,
Of course.
Let's be quite clear about that.
Can any of this possibly be true?
Don't be daft.
........................
I am a terrorist
Heretic unfrocked
My name is God and these are My instructions
More Norfolk koans
The unwisdom of belief
Index of blog contents
Page update: 01.08.07One of the more dogged human textual artefacts to persist in the religious culture of the West, and one most prized by fundamentalists, is the biblical text referred to in common parlance as "The Ten Commandments".
But what are the Ten Commandments, actually?"
The modern mind suggests three possible answers to this question. The first two suggestions might be described as arising from a liberal Christian perspective, and the third from a New Age Christian view.
(1) The Ten Commandments are an out-of-date, elite-led compilation of control values designed to assist tribal cohesion in an ancient culture.
(2) The Ten Commandments are a human religious code designed to give covert power to a self-appointed priest-caste responsible for inventing and enforcing them.
(3) The Ten Commandments, as originally given, were not commandments or laws or rules at all; they were concise expressions of social wisdom. They articulated levels of information, apposite to the human level of consciousness at that time, which it would have been wise to follow in order to get out of the mess which third-dimensional human spiritual culture had got itself into after Atlantis.
On this view, the original tablets, in the biblical Ten Commandments story in Exodus, were of extra-terrestrial origin (from benign, highly-evolved, alien guides acting within the Order of Melchizedek).
The original number of commandments on the "magic" tablets given to "Moses" on "Sinai" was eleven, not ten, and the commandment which was not allowed to persist in the Hebrew record was: "Thou shalt trust the human heart to be the divine representative of the soul."
This commandment was edited out for political reasons, partly because during Moses' absence up the mountain, a coordinated and highly sophisticated negative influence, emanating from the fourth and fifth dimensions (the astral and mental planes), had made ground among the Aaronic golden calf faction in the Israelite base camp.This negative influence was opposed to the benign alien guides ("The Holy Spirit") and was the core motivator behind the Third Reich towards the end of the Armageddon conflict (1914-1945)............................................................ Creator creatrix creation creatureHow is religion?
What is the function of religion?
Our angels the aliens
Fundamentalists' Fellowship Preconceived ideaMy name is God and these are My instructionsIndex of blog contents
Spirituality websites worth watching
Page update: 25.06.07Serious students of the divine mysteries might consider becoming members of The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua.
According to the local elders, this sacred place in cyberspace is named after a little old dog with cataracts, who barked sideways at strangers, because he couldn't see where they were. They suggest that we humans relate to God in the same way, making noise in God's general direction, and expecting a reward for doing so.
The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua has a creed: "We can't be right about everything we believe. Thank God, we don't have to be! In other words, there is more to ethical monotheism than pleasing your imaginary friend."
On the church website, there is an essay by J.A.H.Futterman (1996) entitled: "Canned Theology - Junk Food for the Soul." In this he describes four conservative flavours of theology:
(1) God is just waiting to get you the minute you screw up. This is taken by many practitioners of the Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — as the basis for moral behaviour. Since externally imposed order is repugnant even to those who believe in it, they occasionally rebel against such order, either openly, or by wilfully misinterpreting the commandments, as in: "Thou shalt not kill, except for that heretic over there."
(2) Christ died for your sins, so now you'd really better not screw up. This is the distinctively Christian form of the item above. God in the form of the God-Man, Jesus, allows himself to be murdered by bad people so he can come back from dead and say, "See, I died for you. Now you really owe me bigtime, so you better shape up!" In Games People Play, Eric Berne called this game, "Now I've Got You, You Son-of-a-Bitch!"
(3) You must build the Kingdom of God on earth by making it impossible for anyone else to screw up. When people are full of this one, they try to control the behaviour of people whose beliefs differ from theirs. Used in repressive legislation. Also a prime ingredient in recipes for religious and ethnic conflict. Used as a condiment in some liberal environmental agendas.
(4) You must purify God's Kingdom on earth by killing those who do screw up. This flavour is consumed by those who have no taste for mercy. Typically, when they partake of this one, they screw up bigtime.
The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua can be found online here.
And The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster can be visited here.
........................................................... How silly is salvation?
Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand!What is the answer?
The unwisdom of beliefFundamentalism is a closed room
Yoghurt shelves
At last the great day had arrived. It was the day of the Theologians’ Brains Trust. The church hall was full. On the platform sat two rows of distinguished theologians. The chairman called the meeting to order. A reverent hush descended.
“May I have the first question for our experts, please?”
A man stood up.
“Why are this year’s crop circles more complicated than last year’s crop circles?”
The theologians were silent.
“May I have the next question for our experts, please?”
A woman stood up.
“Why, when I am meditating, are my meditations a different colour at full moon than they are at other times?”
The theologians were silent.
“May I have the next question for our experts, please?”
A child stood up.
“What is best for curing paper jams in a fax machine? Tesco shower gel or Sainsbury's thick and creamy yoghurt?”
The theologians were silent.
“May I have the next question for our experts, please?”
A priest stood up.
“What is theology?”
The theologians all started talking at once.
When the last member of the audience left the hall, the theologians were still talking. Very quietly, the caretaker switched off the lights, locked the doors and went home. He didn’t want to disturb the theologians.
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Fundamentalists' Bring-and-Buy
How is religion?
Why is church so serious?
The unwisdom of belief
Pope terror talks
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