With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
May 25, 2006 - 1:49 a.m.
I think someone put an energy-damping field up in my house. Neither my mother or myself can seem to find the energy to do anything. We do much better once we leave the premises. This really isn't funny. My procrastination is a huge problem. I spend half my life apologizing.
So today I did nothing. That was easy to write about. I finally started reading tonight. My library books are due on Friday and I have about 4 hours of reading left in Cobra II. I’ll try and get some more done tonight after I finish here.
I forgot to mention that I barbequed yesterday for the first time this season. That is way to late, another form of procrastination. I haven't lost my touch though. The chicken was delicious.
I don't know what to do about myself but I think I might put my mother back on some medication that we stopped a few weeks ago. I think she has regressed since we did. Her energy picked up after she started on it.
As I often do I've been thinking about religion. [Why does spell check want me to end that sentence with a question mark?] If you think about it most religious texts were written by liars or by people quoting an oral tradition started by liars. I’m going to talk mainly of Judaism and Christianity because I know far more about them. That does not mean other religions are any better.
The Book of Deuteronomy is the most obvious example. It is a forgery written by the priests who said that they "found" a missing book of Moses. It was then used to support their political positions. Yet people will look to it for moral guidance.
Forget the creation myths and the ancient history, which even the Catholic Church considers symbolic. The more recent events should be verifiable but they are not. Consider these two similar stories. In Exodus there is the story of the 10 plagues the last of which was the killing of the Egyptian first born. If this had actually happened do you really think it would not have been recorded by the Egyptians? Of course it would have. This isn't something lost in the depths of prehistory but a supposedly major event in the very heart of civilization.
The New Testament stories are even harder to believe. Do you really think that the Slaughter of the Innocents would not have been recorded by contemporary sources? This was taking place in the Roman Empire, a literate society. Yet when the gospels were written generations later, the story was taken as, well gospel. Perhaps the gospel writers believe the stories but not the people that started the tradition. It started with someone lying.
This is a difficult thing to write about. I certainly don’t' want to come across like extremist atheists who I find just as unappealing as the religious extremists. I don't think there is a need to rail against religion. I don't think it corrupts everything it touches. I had a friend who had no respect for anyone who believed in god. I find that totally offensive. As some of you know by personal experience there are religious people that I love to death. I put it down as just one of those quirks. Hey Barry Bonds is still a hero of mine. I have my quirks too.
So perhaps what is most interesting is how I felt the need to leaven my criticism with praise. I hope this is just because there are friends I have, that I know feel strongly otherwise, and not because I am giving into society's pro-religion bias.
Hey I actually wrote this down. This is one of those ideas I've been holding off writing about since before SMAF. Bah now it is 1:48. I won't get much reading done before I go to bed.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile May 25, 2006
