Are we witnessing the death throes of Religion?

Will Islam be the religion that takes us from nation state world wars (2 so far) to ideological world wars (seeing anything fomenting around you yet?). Finally pushing religion over the edge from its last vestiges post dark ages to utter obscurity and mere historical research topic?

Sure it may not look that way to believers, but these things happen and when they do, at times vast changes can take place in a very small amount of time.

Many Christians, Muslims, Islamists, religionists, theists, conservatives and even Trump supporters suffer from the arrogance of ignorance.

In that ignorance they call others out for that same thing because they have information that feels foreign or unreal to them. That behavior is a mainstay of the Republican party. A party that is not ignorant itself but guilty of their own actions, of purposefully attack Americans through government, out of their ignorance, and their desire for power and money.

Some out of a skewed desire to do good, but cannot see that within the environment they have built and allowed to be built, around them. In their desire to be their own entity outside of one they despise, they have allowed themselves to be further encased in their detached ideologies. And so other than the few bigots and racists in their party, they are very much a party desiring the best for America. No matter how many may need to die to achieve that goal.

When you have a bad idea (think, self serving Islamist or even Christian terrorism, or American conservatism) and you push it on others to the point of hurting them, of even killing them, what exactly do you think eventually is going to be the backlash?

When do people feel they have finally taken enough and what will they do about it? I'm currently writing a horror sci fi story, "The Unwritten" (soon to be out in my book, Anthology of Evil II) in which a parallel universe has had the Religious Wars and then from the backlash of that came the Science Wars. Science wins out. Because truth always will in the end, it just takes time. Religion was squashed over that of reason. With the demise of religions came the demise of conservatism, or the rise of reasonable and rational conservatism for what it was intended to be and not what it has been absconded and transformed into. The rise of reason and humane attitudes toward one another and the planet then inevitably takes over.

I am not and have never been against people, but against stupid mindsets that lead to ignorant behaviors. Believing Trump is better than someone who is obviously a better quality person in either (take your pick) Bernie OR Hillary; conservative beliefs of ludicrous anti people doctrines; murdering over stupid ideologies based in pie in the sky ancient beliefs of fantasies from ancient and ignorant cultures, and then formed those beliefs in such a way so as to disallow updating that knowledge base...because it destroys those fantasies.

An extremely dangerous and destructive habit to be sure in ignoring reality, in beleiving what is not real to be real. Just be aware of what could be coming. Because we've been setting ourselves up for failure and allowing it to progress.

Religion is also the mindset that leads to denials and one has to be careful about that. It has led to the American form of political conservatism, a cancer on American society and government. It has devastated many of our citizens leading now to a Donald Trump type candidate and no president elect.

Where DO YOU think this current form of conservative political movement came from? Do you not believe it came from religion? Specifically, Christianity? From Christian Evangelicalism? From a mindset born of religion, from their belief systems, from practicing constant denials of reality for the sake of perpetuating religious beliefs in revealed religions, of fear. Fear of a greater power outside of oneself and one's community? Fear of reprisals by a divine force who apparently actually hates you and wasn't considering loving after thousands of years until a historical figure in Jesus of Nazareth come into religious literature because of a failing empire of Constantine the Great?

Fears which conservatism is based in? Fear of knowledge? One has to ask oneself, why does religion beg it's believers to study it only and not its origins? Why is educations anti religion? Why does many of its adherents advocate avoiding education? Why are conservatives in Republicans so anti education? Why do conservatives act one way, then deny their actions, blaming those who had nothing to do with the results of what they have done. Over and over and over again?

Doesn't it all fit together rather nicely and we're not suppose to notice?

All that being said I've never been anti religion through most of my life. I don't mind people having their beliefs if they keep them out of my personal reality, including my government in a country designed to allow for all and not for one to control which we're seeing now in some conservative Christians in government abusing their positions in the Republican party to abuse our citizens. It wasn't until them, until terrorists that I started thinking we need to get control of religions. Trouble being you can't just control one or two, or just their bad parts because of their design. I find it sad for all that so few are ruining things for so many, both believers and non believers alike.

IS the current individual groundswell of attacks based in religious beliefs, white Christian domestic terrorism which we've seen for years graduating to international Islamic delusion brought real, physical desiring death?

It IS interesting to note that the oldest of these three religions in Judaism doesn't seem to be really bothering the world, perhaps because it is the eldest of the three brothers in religion from that area of origin?

Is this the beginning of the end for death based religions (life is better after death in a heaven), capitalistic religions (if I do now, I will reap the rewards later in Heaven)? Why do these problematic religions all come from the Middle East? From the ancient and harsh environment of the desert? With multiple religions based in a single location leading to discord and bitterness?

One has to realize that a single mind worm in a large entity such as Islam, a belief perpetrated by a group, can cascade down into death and destruction before one even realizes it and it's too late.

One has to realize that the end of something long lived, tough, that refuses to die can exhibit a massive amount of pain and destruction as it dies in order to fight for survival that it is losing, in order to appear more alive than it is.

Is this the end?

And if so, just whose end will it be?

We're living in interesting times, to be sure....


#Religion #Islam #Christianity #DesertReligions

Addiction to CCC - Conservative Cognitive Closure

It has been found by one researcher that the similarity between extremists, between terrorists, is that of what is called, cognitive closure.

When I discovered that it really made me think.

I am not an extremist, never have been. I have always, and always have tried, to have an open mind. That would be antithesis to one who is deep into the rapture of cognitive closure.

Cognitive closure gives one a feeling a security, of self assurance. A belief that the world is understandable. Cause and effect are discernible. Clearly discernible. It is an easy way of existence in one sense. It may lead to physical difficulties, it may lead to death. But mentally once you achieve cognitive closure, you are pretty much done. No more thinking is required, because you have arrived.

At that point further information, especially information that is diametrically opposed to the closure, is not only unnecessary, it can cause a very negative reaction. It can cause actions that feel required in order to drown out the contrary view points.

This is an especially attractive condition when one lives in certain environments, be those endemic, or even caused by the individual.

Poverty is a strong precursor. Then to be dashed further down in poverty to where it is life threatening, not only to the individual but to those around them. More especially if it is not just those around  them but is happening to a specific group, especially if it is the group the individual is a part of.

It gives one a sense of well being, of being special, elevated, even part of the divine. Thus, if it exists in an environment with religion, it is a heady, and dangerous cocktail of emotion and action.

Another precursor is two fold. Ignorance and unfairness. Ignorance in an individual, or group, who cannot access the information they need to make decisions, or ignorance in being fed incorrect information by a group for a specific political purpose. Or political religious purpose. Unfairness in that it is either perceived or real. If you add into that, poverty, or oppression (either perceived or real), you have an intense brew for extremism.

Conservatism lends itself well to this outright because it requires similar ways of thinking.

Milton Friedman lays out four money spending modes, most efficient to least:

a. Spend your own money on yourself.

b. Spend your own money on someone else.

c. Spend someone else’s money on yourself.

d. Spend someone else’s money on someone else (which happens to be how government spends money).

Conservatives would argue that you should spend your own money because you know best what you need. That breaks down so fast it could give me a nose bleed. Conservatives use this tactic to bolster their agenda and too many who hear it, don't catch what the issues are about it.

Truth is we need hybrids of most things in order for a system to work. That's what breaks down with racism too, at least, purity of race type racism. As for spending money, you need a hybrid system of spending your money, spending others, others spending your, and voila! You have a country. One that is functional and can be and remain strong.

If all the moving parts are allowed to work together properly and no one abuses their share of the pie. And therein is what has been going wrong world wide. The belief that free commerce, capitalism run amok, is good. The cream will rise to the top and only those at the top will reap those benefits. That is where government comes in, to hone the process so it is more equal too all.

The natural course is to give to those at the top. Altering that, appears to those at the top and others who vote against their own best interests, see it as a conspiracy. But that is in part what a government is supposed to do. To conspire to make things work, keep the country strong, and increase the quality of living...for all citizens.

This is how the conservative argument always goes. Because the natural course HAS to be altered to protect and save the process, it appears to be a hidden agenda to subvert the natural course of either democracy or capitalism. Mostly, capitalism. The two easily get confused by many.

The concern is getting the balance right, and having a balance to, well, balance. When all the money goes to the top and there isn't any to use, or when a country disproportionately spends the money, skipping over necessary programs and efforts, things begin to break down.

A pure democracy, or communism or socialism for that matter, without other elements involved is going to be dysfunctional. Pure capitalism is a nightmare. While there are those who say democracy shouldn't have any socialism, or capitalism should run free and so then the market will correct its path, in practice that has been found to be untrue.

These concepts can sound great to the uninformed. However they fail if not properly handed and with great damage, without more involved with them to give them the support they need. They can become in fact nightmares for those living within them. Just as purity racism can and frequently has gone so wrong in the past.

That matters little to one who is addicted to cognitive closure, though. Like any junkie hooked on drugs, they can be mean when they don't get their fix, or support, but once satiated with their drug or deep into exercising their beliefs, they are in bliss. Try again to take that away and at some point, bad things will happen, even to the point of sinking a ship and taking down all hands.

We have been seeing this of late quite a bit.

There is one other issue involved in this type of thing. The group. Those who feel successful, feel more independent. Those who feel more frustrated, more abused, adhere more to the group. Extrapolating that out to our current 2016 presidential election, we see a large group of the disenfranchised who are being very vocal, very angry and very frustrated.

They are actually a group that shouldn't be as effective as they are. Much like terrorists in groups like ISIS, or Al Shebab. The similarities there are not in how despicable their actions are but in their need for the group, their similarities in a need for cognitive closure and other elements mentioned above.

On the other side, the Democrats do not feel as downtrodden, as disenfranchised. They too feel the other things of the economy and lack of upward economic progression, but they do not as much feel the need for the group. Intelligence, and a sense of control or success in life, allows one more independence from the group.

This consideration overall has much to do with our present day world. That of terrorists, discontent in difficult and downtrodden parts of the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. Of the American conservative feeling so much desire to vote for someone who says ridiculous things but things they wanted to hear. They want to feel that cognitive closure, that security, that need for the group, that end to their perceived (or real) pain.

We will have to find a way to educate these types of people to understand what it is they find overwhelming, but we will also need to find ways to satisfy their reasonable and necessary needs for security and requirements merely to live, and further to live well, or at least in such a way as they find it fair and reasonable.

The warning here is if you feel a need for this kind of cognitive closure, it can be a warning sign that something is wrong. Some might argue that it also indicates a need for God, deity, community, or even, love. And that has some truth to it. Still, in certain circumstances, and there have been many of these of late, and seriously so, it is a warning.

I do care... just maybe not about you

'Screw them, we have champagne': Charlie Hebdo replies to Paris attacks

And, "Le Petite Merde", the ISIL minimind, born Abdelhamid Abaaoud 

has now been blown to bits by his own idiot female cousin during a raid by French police.

Cheers!

We shall not miss you slimy one.

Now....

Who don't I care about?

I don't care. If you are heartless, if you are a terrorist, if you are a bigot.

I don't care that you're offended.

I don't care that you feel there is a make believe war against
you, or your holidays, or religion, or your religion.
I respect a person's right to a belief, not a right to a stupid or hurtful belief.

I don't care what you think if you are talking nonsense 
that your favorite nutcases have dreamed up.

I don't care that you think your God or religion says you can hurt people or kill them. 
That's some God you've dreamed up.

I care about real people, really being hurt.

I care about real pain and real suffering,
not perceived pain and not perceived suffering.

I care about the poor who have no money for food or healthcare. 

I don't care about the rich who are sad they will have less money
just for others to have something at all,
when it will not affect those rich at all in any real substantive way.

I care about reality. 

I care about people who deserve my concern.

Not your luxuries in life when others don't have because you do.
Not when others are dying because of your God,
or your buddies who like to kill and enjoy the benefits
of power over others who are not of your
clan, cult, tribe or nonsense belief system.

So I guess I do care.
I just don't much care about you.

You know I've posted about this before, what it is to exhibit heroism. I shrink myself from the thought of my local community areas being attacked, loved ones dying becuase of terrorists.

But you have to stand up as a human being sometimes even when you don't want to, even when you are afraid, WHEN YOU HAVE REASON TO BE AFRAID. So many of late are afraid for little or no reasons, making up fears, fears unfounded.

Courage is being terrified in the face of terror and still functioning, still doing what needs to be done and not just thinking of yourself.

We all experience cowardice and heroism from time to time and those who experience heroism at certain moments in life do, act and infrequently are viewed and praised for doing such great things.

It is in those moments when we become greater than we are.

Isolationism, rejecting a chance to stand up and face down evil, to give refuge to those in need, these are those moments of heroism, moments that are gifts where we can be allowed to be more than we are.

Decide what you are, who you are, what you want to be, how you want to be seen by others, and in the future by yourself.

Cower safely in a dark corner.
Or stand forth bravely among all of humanity.

Be seen as a coward among citizens.
Or a cowardly nation among nations.

It is your choice as an individual,.
Our choice as a nation.
And now is the time to make it.

A tiny footnote: I am pleased to note that the international media has stopped calling Le Petit Merde, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Paris attack "mastermind" and instead now refers to him as the ringleader. A term that evokes a circus, a far more appropriate one, as mastermind infers some kind of exalted status, rather than that of one who merely coordinated something. 

He is someone who every time I refer to him I have to look up his name yet again. because he is already being forgotten, already barely a footnote in history.

Don't Wear the Holy Blinders.

This has bugged me for a long time, most of my life really.

So many people who are religious want to wear "Holy Blinders" to allow them and the Devout never to see what all God has created for them NOT to see... apparently.

The Holy Blinders?

Much of fundamentalist theism seems to be like this. Surely the Islamic terrorists are like this, but also many Christians are like this, especially in the American wingnut Evangelical movement.

I've never understood it.

We have a form of thinking here where you have to worship a Being, divine or not and apparently regardless what is asked of you by this Being, this Divine Despot, this Galactic Dictator, it's all okay because after all, you were created by this Being. So anything, any abuse goes. He says kill your kid, bang, kid's dead. Right?

You are given rules to follow, to think a certain way but not another way; and to think more of this Being than anyone or anything else...apparently.

What I never got is that these people have found a way to cheat, on pain of death, what their divinely dictated path is. Rather than learn to be a certain way, rather than to build the spiritual muscle to be that certain way, rather than to suffer, toil and trouble over making their path what they believe it is and then tread upon it, they simply completely avoid being that certain way by using tricks, avoiding any need to use their free will.

How to succeed at using free will correctly? Don't use it at all of course. Eliminate the choice and bang, you're one day in Heaven. God must be so proud.

I don't think so.

In Islam they make women wear clothes to hide their features so men don't have impure thoughts. Rather than learning not to have those thoughts or learn to stop them once they crop up. Because apparently they found it too difficult. So they decided it's better to put upon women then to put upon themselves, or force themselves to have some inner discipline, to treat others accordingly and not abuse anyone outside of themselves for their own lack of strength as a human being.

Lazy? Simply that scared so as to have become irrational? Cowardly? Or what?

They will sometimes even kill people for not following the rules at times. Sometimes even over some very silly rules.

Rather than allowing them to be dealt with by that divine Being after death, they take the matter into their own obviously unclean hands. They can't even avoid thinking about sex without covering women up, So they are the dealers of death in "God's" name? Really? Sounds more to me like ignorant, poor self esteem punks in a street gang.

And don't tell me when all they can see is just a woman's eyes, that they don't spring to attention in seeing those deep lovelies looking at them from the deep mystery of that all encompassing cloth. As with the ancient Japanese. In covering women completely up in kimonos, the back of the woman's neck became a very erogenous zone for men.

It makes no sense.

A therapist I knew years ago once told that me her son (they were Japanese Buddhists), wanted to live in a monastery in order to live correctly. But she told him, and this is important, that it doesn't mean as much. It's not as useful as it is to learn to be how you'd want become while in a monastery while living in the real world. 

It is more important to live your life in the real world, dealing with real things in how a normal person has to deal with them on a daily basis. That is the true way to live. Yes we need those in monasteries as it serves a purpose for the rest of us as a kind of touch point. But most people need to live in the real world and deal with their beliefs as normal human beings.

Christianity is much the same in disallowing all humans from things like sex, contraception and because at times that fails, abortions. Rather than allow them each to use the free will God supposedly had based the trials of humanity on in the first place. Rather than allow these humans to make their own decisions, should others really be making those decisions for them? Isn't that cheating, not allowing those decisions to be made in the first pace by the individuals involved?

It's weird. It's dishonest. It's twisted. It's ugly. And many times... it's evil.
What kind of religious runt, what kind of weak, lame, wimpy people act like that in the face of a Supreme Being as if this Being won't figure out what they are doing? How they are subverting the challenges originally and allegedly given them? How they have twisted the Divine Message? How do they get away with it? Do they? Will they? 

Our best example for handling God Myths is actually.... Santa Claus

Someone brought up a good point the other day about God. He's about as useful as, Santa Claus.

It made me think about my kids when they were younger. I used to do it up, kids put out cookies and milk, a note to Santa and went to bed. I'd eat the cookies, drink the milk, leave them a thank you note from Santa.

My son, when he was in 4th grade, told me he doesn't believe in Santa. I was both proud and sad for him. I tried to hold up the pretense but he gave me an analytic breakdown of how Santa simply can't be real, how I was Santa, and what I had been doing to prolong that myth. I was surprised but also pleased and impressed with his critical thinking skills.

I didn't agree so much as point out the facts.

IF you "believe" in Santa, you get more gifts. If you don't, well....

He refused to buy any of it. Finally, I said "Well look, I choose to believe in Santa because I like the idea, it's fun, harmless, and in the end, I like receiving more gifts. But you're welcome to act as you see fit. HOWEVER, you DO NOT tell your little sister. Got it?"

As for his younger sister, she went through a period of going to church in her teens, one she chose. One that unnerved her mother but that I figured she would soon outgrow, was for purposes more of its social aspects and about something she wasn't getting at home (as we were then divorced) than any true belief in "God", and so she did and eventually came to realize religion is all exactly about what is is.

Then I tried to explain how it helps to build the idea of wonder in life, of magic in the world and I believe those who don't have that understanding of the concept of magic in the world as adults, simply lose out on much of what is wonderful in life. There IS magic in the world. It's just not, "magic",per se.

So he dropped it. But he made it clear from then on he really didn't believe in Santa and so we kind of worked it out in that way. He does have a strong fascination for magic now as an adult, however.

All this made me think about religion and the "God" concept, in general.

There may be some things that are positive about it existing, though it could also be handled in a more safe and sane way through other means. But belief in "God" should also end at some point, just as Santa is useful for a time, and then should simply be let go, with a fond farewell and a move into adulthood and more mature and informed ways of thinking.

Environmentally, the God concept comes from our parents when we are very young as they are our first Gods. Genetically, our beliefs in the "Other", the "Greater" that which is all powerful and exists "out there", comes from a time that predates our humanity.

We can and I think we should, extend and buffer life for our children through parts of their young childhood, allowing them to experience magic in life.

But if we do, at some point, it should end and we should offer them more useful, productive, and more sophisticated forms.

I'm not saying we should raise our kids with "God" beliefs, but even if we did, it really should come to a conclusion at some point before they become adults. They should be led, coached, educated to have that realization come upon them naturally, organically, as it did with myself and my children.

Religion for most of us, for those who continue to believe, one of those odd animals wherein we do grow up, we do realize the silliness of it all, but then through the concept of "faith" we allow ourselves to continue to believe in what we know in our hearts is utter nonsense, but as it allows us a structure to follow and misbelive that it functions as an overall rule of law for all humans, and it simply does not, though still, many of us choose to close our minds and continue believing in those childhood mythologies.

And so we have entire cultures and nations around the world who hold this nonsense as reality until they die, who propagate it and perpetuate it among their young and in so many cases kill those, like my son, who would sanely and rationally refuse to believe in it in his young innocence into adulthood.

Religions, where people believe it is important what we wear or don't wear, what we eat or not, whether we grow facial hair, how we abuse others, especially women, for God's (really, men's) sake, and so on.

All things that at one point in ancient history may (or may not) have served a purpose and yet which are simply no longer necessary or even useful and frequently actually counterproductive, allowing certain factions to use their religion as a springboard for full out atrocities.

It's funny how wonderful one's religion is till you do a survey of all religions, add in sociology and psychology, anthropology and physics and finally start to realize one overarching necessity in the next step in our development... atheism, or at very least, non-theism.

Why would Mohammed tell Jihadists to attack innocents and other Muslims?

Mohammed never did tell anyone to attack anyone. He lived in very violent times where help was in what you could do for yourself and your people. Times, have certainly changed. If Islam were created today it's possibly he would have created it just the same, for it wasn't during his lifetime that much of what has gone wrong in Islam, was put into place or action. Just like in Catholicism. Much of the insanity in that religion came to be hundreds of years after Jesus lived and taught what he taught.

Those terrorist Islamic Jihadists who kill unnecessarily (that is in not killing directly to protect but to kill outright in bombing outside of the battlefield and thereby murdering innocents) need to remember what their own Prophet said, which to me decries their murderous actions against innocents from their leader's own words.

To claim a non-battlefield is a battlefield, to claim it okay to kill those who may not even have voted for the administration of their own country who may kill Muslims, to say that they have a right to kill other innocent Muslims when attempting to kill who they perceive to be their enemies, to kill those who might very well agree with their complaints, is cowardly.

Not cowardly in the sense that it takes courage to face death and die. No, certainly not. But then consider, if you are guaranteed rewards, just how bravely really, is it? When you believe that you kill yourself and you are rewarded in Heaven with, whatever... just how brave is it? Perhaps not to do it would be more brave. Sometimes not doing these things in the brave thing, not the following through but the challenge of not killing. How brave is it to face death when you believe you will become ruler of the world or exalted in an afterlife? Perhaps in that situation it is cowardice to follow through, but brave to go against that, not to kill, as the Quaran teaches.

These are Cowards in that they will not just admit to killing for killing's sake, needing to justify and rationalize it through a subversion of their religion for their own bloodthirsty and selfish desires, bastardizing their beliefs that even most Muslims disagree with most adamantly. Brave are those who stay alive and stand for making things work in the world, to bring all Humankind together. Cowardly is to leave the world to its own devices and take the easy way out to not have to find solutions to the impossibly difficult process of making the world a wonder and a beautiful place to live in.

Initiating violence is always the final resort of the fool, the coward, the ignorant. A wise person will find ways to bring about a peace and solution. Just as Mohammed did, or tried to do. But in reviewing his life, one does not see what has been done in modern times by so called, Jihadists.

What did Mohammed say about how to treat one another? Many Islamic scholars, some Muslim, some not, seem to think that his last sermon summed up all of his teachings in one short sermon.

But before I get to that I'd just like to say that I find it very curious how certain Muslims will kill over someone drawing a cartoon of Mohammed. Isn't that elevating him to a position that only God should hold? In only displaying Mohammed with no face aren't they elevating him beyond what he would have wanted himself? The desire not to portray anyone or anything between oneself and God is very much subverted when one throws such a fuss over their Prophet being depicted. I find in reviewing Islam that there is, as with other religions, quite a bit between themselves and their God.

The desire not to show Mohammed's image is a Muslim issue, not a non-Muslim issue and to force that on a non-Muslim is anti-Muslim. For Sharia Law to be so judicial in its admonitions and punishments is against non-Muslims, as it was only in the 9th century, hundreds of years after the death of Mohammed, that these things were even put into practice in an attempt to govern an ever growing community.

I truly doubt that Mohammed, anymore than Jesus, would recognize his religion were he to come back now a days to look at how things have been deconstructed and restructured for the selfish needs of a few who were trying to enforce beliefs that were never there in the beginning and never given to the faithful by Mohammed. Jesus never said priests should never marry. And Mohammed never said to blow up innocent people. He even exercised mercy on those he could have slaughtered.

It's time to think about all this, to re-evaluate where things are now and to get back to the original beliefs of a religion that believed above all else in doing no harm and allowing others to live and let live together. Perhaps the following will help you see what I mean.

And while we're at it, isn't it always curious when God gets involved in financial matters?

THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD'S LAST SERMON
This Sermon was delivered on the Ninth Day of Dhul Hijjah 10 A.H in the Uranah Valley of mount Arafat.

“O People, lend me an attentive ear, for I know not whether after this year, I shall ever be amongst you again.  Therefore, listen to what I am saying to you very carefully and take these words to those who could not be present here today.

O People, just as you regard this month, this day, this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust.  Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners.  Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.  Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds.  God has forbidden you to take usury (interest), therefore all interest obligation shall henceforth be waived.  Your capital, however, is yours to keep.  You will neither inflict nor suffer any inequity.  God has Judged that there shall be no interest, and that all the interest due to Abbas ibn Abd’al Muttalib shall henceforth be waived...

Beware of Satan, for the safety of your religion.  He has lost all hope that he will ever be able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small things.

O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have rights over you.  Remember that you have taken them as your wives only under a trust from God and with His permission.  If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness.  Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers.  And it is your right that they do not make friends with any one of whom you do not approve, as well as never to be unchaste.

O People, listen to me in earnest, worship God, perform your five daily prayers, fast during the month of Ramadan, and offer Zakat.  Perform Hajj if you have the means.

All mankind is from Adam and Eve.  An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; white has no superiority over black, nor does a black have any superiority over white; [none have superiority over another] except by piety and good action.  Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood.  Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly.  Do not, therefore, do injustice to yourselves.

Remember, one day you will appear before God and answer for your deeds.  So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone.

O People, no prophet or apostle will come after me, and no new faith will be born.  Reason well, therefore, O people, and understand words which I convey to you.  I leave behind me two things, the Quran and my example, the Sunnah, and if you follow these you will never go astray.

All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and it may be that the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly.  Be my witness, O God, that I have conveyed your message to your people.”

Wouldn't it be incredibly wonderful if all believers in Islam everywhere, were to just start practicing what is is contained in these words? Isn't it high time that we all just started to get along.

And by the way. For those of you who think I'm being racist, or just picking on Islam, I'm not. there's enough nuts in Catholicism, and just about any other religion I can think of. Basically if you're going to believe in something, learn what it's all about and don't just do what my mother did when I asked her, "how do you know what you believe is true?"

Her response? "I believe what my parents taught me." Really? We asked our parish Priest who was over for lunch one day about one of her beliefs and he looked shocked and flat out said to her, "Well, that's not what our religion teaches us." Yet it was what her uneducated parents taught her.

And so it goes around the world....

Kill Religion or the Religious to Protect the World?

Do we continue to put up with religious based violence in this new world of ours regardless of what they subject us to, be it their religious fictions and even murders? Do we continue to perpetuate acceptance and denial? Or do we start killing off religions and the religious in order to protect the world?

Is it just the media? Why do I constantly hear mostly of Muslim based violence around the world? It may be a nonviolent religion but if so, why is it spawning so many violent groups? Are they just political and cloaking their intentions in religious diatribe and worse? Is it just because the rest of the world finds their beliefs unacceptable. If that's the case, isn't it possible that it is they who need to change and not the world? Are they just kids on religion who have grown up with a defective mindset and so are simply looking for trouble and meaning in their lives because their lives are so miserable? Isn't it possible that their religion isn't serving up to them a way to live in peace? So isn't their religion then what is defective and not the rest of the world?

Surely America hasn't helped the situation in traditionally abusing international relationships and the poor around the world in taking resources and supporting dictators and repression. But do we really need to put up with this?

We tend to ignore Religion with, "it's their thing", and "we shouldn't interfere". But why? Because it's been around so long, obviously. But is that a good enough reason? Don't we avoid interference mostly because we don't want people to rain on our own weird little parades? Whatever those might be? But then, we don't go around pushing our beliefs on others. Or do we?

All I can say is that I do hope we won't find a violent backlash against the religious. Because a lot of people are getting sick of hearing about religion and their stupid reasons for killing those not of their belief system, but also are killing their own. And how does that make sense? But then their religious intolerance has always kind of asked for it as intolerance does seem to breed that, one way or another.

An organism will expel or kill what is not good for the host, for itself. Is that what we're starting to see with religion? Religion has been showing its growing demise over time. Are we at that point where there will soon be a backlash against it, partly I'm sure because many of those groups are so ridiculous in their claims and demands? Just look at American politics in recent years in their leaning to the religious right.

I see any religious based violence as unacceptable. Don't get me wrong, I see most any reason for violence as unacceptable, but in perpetrating violence in the name of invisible beliefs, invisible certainly to others not of your group, it really isn't something we should be allowing.

So do we crush that culture, or what? I see religious violence in this manner traditionally as a group being pressured with no outlet to release their frustration, no path to evoke positive changes for themselves, and so they act in a way to draw attention in the most notable ways possible. Terrorism used to be the act of last endeavor but it has turned into a way of life for far too many.

Do we (that is, non-violent opposition to this kind of thing) give them whatever they are asking for? Or do we become a party to creating yet more martyrs in putting them down?

I have no answer and I don't really think anyone does at this point. But we certainly need one. Repression (something religion is exemplary at) has shown to lead to aggressive retaliation. But then we don't have an imaginary all powerful being at the head of our side.

Check this out (see, China calls Xinjiang unrest a 'terrorist attack', ups death toll to 35):

"Xinjiang is home to a large Muslim Uighur community and violence focusing on its discontent had been confined recently to southern districts. The altercations in Shanshan county on Wednesday marked a return of unrest to Xinjiang's north.

"Many Uighurs, Muslims who speak a Turkic language, chafe at what they call Chinese government restrictions on their culture, language and religion. China says it grants Uighurs wide-ranging freedoms and accuses extremists of separatism.

"On Wednesday, gangs with knives attacked a police station and a government building and set fire to police cars. Twenty-four people died in clashes with police, including 16 Uighurs." - Chinese state news agency.

Living in China for these groups can't be easy even if China says they are allowed a wide range of allowable behaviors. Just compare what China thinks is liberal and what Americans think is liberal, then consider what Muslims consider to be such, and what Muslim extremists consider it to be. Personally I've had enough of extremists and intolerance. It seems most of it is religious based. White supremacists, Muslim terrorists, etc.

That "etcetera" however seems to be mostly coming from religions that grew out of the Middle East. Maybe I'm wrong here, but can you think of any other religions that are violent like that on a regular and ongoing basis? Speak up if you do. But if so, I suspect they are not as a big an issue as the world wide Islamic terror reign we've been experiencing now for decades.

So how much longer should we put up with this religious based violence? At some point, it is at the root of their belief system.

If these religions don't police their own believers, someone else is going to. It's strange how their religion is designed to have such strong beliefs, yet they can't control their own indiscriminate murderers. Someone said about the article above to pay attention to it, as it will not go away. Yet China is simply not known for allowing opposition to the State. Not a good combination.

What the answer is, is beyond me but I don't think it's more violence against the religious, lthough when I hear of this stupid ongoing violence, it does tend to make me want to be violent back at them. The "Kill Them All" urge starts to rise. But then, that's just what the problem is all about, isn't it? It's how the Islamic terrorists get started and perpetrated.

We need a better solution and frankly, the only one I can think of is long term. How about we give these people better lives and educate the living Hell out of them.

Because for the most part, good education seems to kill religion.

Those who still adhere to it even after post doctoral education, are simply lacking something by their own contentions. But I suspect that if we watch that family line it is something that will eventually go away in their own descendants.

If we need anything at this point in history, it's to grow beyond our ancient, tribal beliefs in spooky super beings. And education is the only answer we've got. How about we start producing less war and more education, more food, water and medical attention for those who desperately need it, bringing those third world backward cultures up into the future? It will take time but it may be the only hope we have to end this childish nonsense, the cowardly bombings, the lies and subversions that these terrorist groups perpetrate upon even their own people, all for satiating their addictive lust of killing more humans.