My thoughts on religion

Preface; this morphed into a post about religion, but wasn’t originally meant for that.  I guess the tangent took control.  I am, after all, a product of my television watching society.  However, I will say that I’m currently working to reverse that ‘programming’.

            If you’re looking for conciseness, this post is not for you.  Blogging is therapeutic and I need a session today.  It’s not that I’m having a bad day it’s just that the jumbled soup that is my thoughts needs a place to rest and coalesce.  Writing my thoughts down also helps me in a multitude of ways.  My feature writing professor would not have liked that $25 word and he’s right, but this post isn’t meant to disseminate any particular message so I’m affording myself a big budget. 

            I just wrote a paragraph and deleted it because it doesn’t make sense.  That’s really the story of my life.  It just doesn’t make sense, then it does, then it doesn’t again.  I guess that’s the trouble with consciously trying to analyze everything.  When I was younger everything made sense because I simply allowed it to.  I didn’t critique everything I was told and everything I thought I knew.  Actually, I was quite the opposite.  I took everything at face value.  I questioned nothing.  I was truly a product of my society.  It’s easy to see this looking back at my childhood.  I was obsessed with obtaining things like fame and fortune without asking myself why?  That’s all I seem to ask myself these days along with how?  (Why and How?)  Those were the pillars of my break from religion.  I was raised in a southern Baptist church and, for the most part, enjoyed it.  I guess that I really enjoyed the peace of mind that having all the answers gives us.  After going to college, my reality exploded.  Perhaps expanded is a better adverb.  My perception of the world prior to college was about as limited as you can imagine.  I lived in a small town my entire life and the furthest I’d ever traveled was to Kansas for my uncle’s wedding.  It’s not like my family was trying to suppress me or anything like that.  We simply didn’t have the money to take vacations around the country, much less the world.  Most of the trips that I took were with my school or with my church which constrains you to the parameters of the total experience possible within those paradigms.  For example, on a church trip you’re essentially just going to another place, or centralized location, to meet with like minded church groups and discuss church stuff.  You’re not going there to compare the local culture and community against your own. 

            Now that I’m past the whole religion thing, the question remains; where do I find truth?  And I’m not going to argue religion with anyone because it’s kind of pointless.  For example, if you’re a Christian, it’s not my purpose to lead you away from that.  I’m a firm believer that if religion works for you and serves you, you should go for it.  I could argue until I’m blue in the face about the obvious contradictions in Christianity but I know what it’s like to be a devout Christian and understand how hard that is to even understand.  I’ll give a few examples of my biggest problems with religion.  Before I do understand that I do believe in God.  I have not a clue the form in which God exists other than the fact that he is pure love and nothing else.  I don’t know what the afterlife holds but I certainly don’t worry about it because that would be a waste of time.  First, I don’t understand why God, as portrayed in religion, is imperfect.  It is said that he is a jealous God.  Well, if God is perfect, how can he be jealous?  I’m as far from perfect as they come and I’m not jealous.  Second, why should we fear God?  He loves us right?  People that I love certainly have no reason to fear me.  Then there’s the whole hell thing.  I just absolutely do not agree with hell.  I think it is a man-made mental construction in which we have anthropomorphized all the evil we see in the world as one entity; Satan.  I think that most of us are in Hell right now.  I view Hell as the separation from God.  There are a few that understand their oneness with God but most of us, including myself, don’t.  I’m working on it though.  I’ll get there.  I just don’t understand all the parameters set up by the church that would land someone in heaven or hell.  If you look at the Old Testament, there were all sorts of weird stuff that people had to do to please god and gain acceptance into heaven.  They even, sometimes, had to kill stuff to make God happy.  Then, what about all the homo-sapiens prior to the Old Testament.  I don’t know how old the O.T. is but let’s just say it’s 6000 years old.  What about the tens of thousands of years prior to that?  Oh, that’s right, my OBJECTIVE scientists are lying to me about how old the universe, earth, and people are.  Those sneaky bastards.  My damn astronomy teacher told me the earth was 4.5 BILLION years old.  That lying asshole.

            Fast forward…what about the kid in mainland China who has never heard of Christianity.  Yes, I’ve already heard the line that’s what missionaries are for.  I personally don’t buy that every person on this planet will have heard the gospel and been given a true chance to make the decision to accept Jesus as their lord and savior.  Forget China, what about indigenous tribes in places like the Congo that have no contact with the outer world.  What about the 100 BILLION other planets in our Galaxy.  Not universe, galaxy.  Christianity is such a microcosm within the macrocosm.  It’s just too small to be ultimate. 

            Final argument (although I shouldn’t call it an argument because I’m really just talking to myself right now).  What about all the times Christianity has been wrong.  What do you mean wrong.  Christians told Galileo that his theory of the Earth revolving around the sun was heresy.  His retort; “I find it hard to believe that God has given us reason and intellect and expects us to forgo their use.”  It seems like we’re forgoing it more and more these days.  Christianity has also been amended for women and black people as well.  Women used to be less than men and Black people used to not be worthy.  But of course religion CHANGED with the changing of our society because it had to.  It knew that without changing to conform to societal norms it would be rendered obsolete.  But that’s just my point.  If Christianity was the absolute truth it seems to me that absolute truth would have been established long ago instead of being ratified to accommodate an ever changing society (and btw…I’m picking on Christianity because it’s the one I know...I would be arguing against something else had I been born elsewhere).  This is why I find it so hard to believe that there are black people who worship a Christian God who had forsaken them not to long ago.

            As for me, I’m currently Agnostic.  What does that mean.  That means that I don’t know.  I simply don’t have the audacity to think that I know the answer to the universe’s most profound question.  I am however on the path of trying to figure it out.  One book that I really like is Conversations with God.  The reason I like it is because the author is absurdly humble and the book speaks to me, literally.  I’ll give you an example.  Neale will ask a question and god will answer.  I’m not always satisfied with god’s initial answer and a question about it pops into my head.  Then, that same critique of the answer somehow always found its way into his head too.  It’s weird how it happens but it’s a pretty cool effect when you read it.  Many of my friends have had the same experience.  It goes further than that though.  There have been countless times when I’ve had something on my mind only to start reading about whatever it was I was struggling with.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t look at this as the bible but it overwhelmingly makes perfect sense to me.  I definitely recommend you check it out and if you don’t want to buy the book I’ll mail you a data dvd with the audio book on it. 

            I truly feel like we’re on the cusp of another great renaissance.  The first one took us into the 3^rd dimension with art and calculus so who knows that the next one will hold.  Maybe it will take us into the fourth dimension with the combination of science and spirituality.  What I mean by that is maybe they’re will be some scientific event that proves the existence of a higher consciousness and is able to access it.  Who knows what form that will take, but I hope I’m alive to experience it. 

            I certainly didn’t expect this whole post to be devoted to religion but the tangent took control.  There’s a lot more about what I believe in a spiritual sense but that’ll have to be an entirely different post.  I wish the best for everyone and GOD bless.  <-ironic although not really.

Who Needs Lawyer's And Due Process Anyway

This is an excerpt from the Guardian about the NDAA

Senator Lindsey Graham said the extraordinary measures were necessary because terrorism suspects were wholly different to regular criminals.

"We're facing an enemy, not a common criminal organisation, who will do anything and everything possible to destroy our way of life," he said. "When you join al-Qaida you haven't joined the mafia, you haven't joined a gang. You've joined people who are bent on our destruction and who are a military threat."

Graham added that it was right that Americans should be subject to the detention law as well as foreigners. "It is not unfair to make an American citizen account for the fact that they decided to help Al Qaeda to kill us all and hold them as long as it takes to find intelligence about what may be coming next," he said. "And when they say, 'I want my lawyer,' you tell them, 'Shut up. You don't get a lawyer.'"

What are my thoughts on this?
1.  Senator Graham says we're facing an enemy that will do anything to destroy our way of life.  My retort:  This bill will destroy our way of life!  It will also destroy what it means to be an American Citizen.
2.  Senator Graham says that American citizens who've decided to help Al Qaeda don't get a lawyer.  My retort:  How do we PROVE that person helped Al Qaeda in the first place?  Let me guess, we're just supposed to trust the authority of our government to make the right decisions regarding people's life when they can't even properly balance a budget; something most average American's do with no problem.  How many Americans are going to be wrongfully detained before we repeal this bill?
3.  Inaction toward this is support of it.  If you value your freedom, do something about it like voting for candidates like Ron Paul or writing to your representatives.  Or maybe I'm just one crazy idiot who has no idea what in the hell he's talking about.  Maybe I just need to numb myself back down from reality a little bit.  First, I'll start watching as much TV as I can to distract me from what is happening in our world, then I'll start playing video games to further distract my attention and even numb myself to the violence that I'll likely see in the future, and finally I'll top it all off with massive amounts of weed, liquor, and cigarettes to help numb the pain and even possibly accelerate my permanent separation from that pain.  After all, ignorance is bliss even if it's blissful servitude to the false ego.

p.s. none of the previous statements were meant as judgement even though I'm sure they will be perceived as such.  They're merely observations that reflect where I want to go in life.  They may not reflect where you want to go in life and shouldn't be applied to you.  Do what you love to and don't let others judgments affect you.  Do what you enjoy in life so long as it serves the purpose of taking you where you want to go in life; be it consciously or subconsciously.  The minute you realize those things don't serve you, simply change them.

The Golden Rule: My Letter to Senator Lindsey Graham

The Golden Rule says, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

Senator Graham, would you be able to apply that rule to every piece of legislation you have voted for?  I doubt it.  I am appalled that you would support the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act.  This is a direct attack on the Fifth Amendment and due process.  Just for once, I would like for you to put yourself in the shoes of those you represent, although I'm sure it will be hard considering how disconnected from our daily struggles you and other senators must be given your salary and benefits.  I have a question for you.  How would you feel if yourself, a family member, or close friend was detained indefinitely without trail?  That’s not a rhetorical question; I would actually appreciate an answer.  I would sincerely hope that you change your position of support for this bill.  If you do not, I will do everything within the legal scope of our political process to make sure you aren’t re-elected in 2015.  The writers of our constitution would roll in their grave if they witnessed the injustices the American people have and will endure at the hands of those who are supposed to be servants of those same people.  I honestly just don’t get it, but I don’t worry because truth and freedom will prevail in the end.  This is not meant to attack you as a person because I don’t personally know you and, therefore, can’t make that kind of judgment.  However, this is meant to condemn actions you’ve taken against those you’ve been sworn to protect, through your past and future stances on legislation; and those actions are reprehensible.  I wish you the best that life has to offer and maybe one day you’ll see the real beauty in life; helping others to experience the best life has to offer without harm to anyone or anything else.  That is the basis of the Golden Rule.  Thank you for your attention to this matter and have a great day.

The Defense Authorization Bill

You can call me a 'conspiracy theorist' all you want.  But this is reality.  This is a REAL piece of legislation that will take away a large part of what it means to be American.  We are becoming less and less distinguishable from dictatorships like China as each day passes.  We can remain 'comfortably numb' and willfully ignorant or we wake up to the reality that America is no longer the land of the free.  Due process is one of the founding principles of America and it's about to be abolished by the Defense Authorization Bill.  How would you like it if one of your family members or friends was detained by our government indefinitely without trail.  I sarcastically stated in a previous post about the UC Davis incident that I was thinking about moving to China for more freedoms.  It appears we are speeding down the road to an absolute police state.  How can we stop this?  It's simple...we write to all of our representatives (My rep. Lindsay Graham supports this bill) and tell them that their time in office is officially numbered.  We tell them that we're not going to sit idly by and watch them trash our constitution.  I wonder how Senator Graham would feel if one of his family members was detained indefinitely without trial?  I doubt he would feel to good about it although I'm sure it's a thought that has never crossed his mind because he likely views himself too networked with the right people to succumb to the tyranny of his own legislation.  That is a prime example of how disconnected from reality our politicians are.  After writing our representatives we should elect ALL newcomers (or candidates like Ron Paul who've consistently defended our freedoms) from an independent party.  It doesn't matter if a politician is a Democrat or Republican, the second they support ANYTHING like this is the moment you know they're not representing the interests of their constituents but rather representing the interests of lobbyists that have financed their campaigns.  That last statement is what Occupy Wall Street is all about.  Finally, we should lower the pay of representatives from $174,000 to $25,000-$50,000 a year so that when they write legislation they write it from the perspectives of working class Americans.  I'm not saying I hate people who make that amount of money, but that salary doesn't belong in the public service sector.  OK...I'm ranting.  If we sit back and do nothing while our freedoms are systematically stripped, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when we get that knock on the door.  Don't be a victim. Empower yourself through knowledge and action.

http://www.infowars.com/treason-from-within-the-road-towards-a-police-state-in-america/

Green Turns Red

I wrote this poem in 2006 after watching the documentary 'Loose Change' along with other research on the events of September 11, 2001.  I remember thinking that if millions of Americans were privy to this information we would likely experience a second American Revolution.  Here we are a couple of years later with global revolution on our hands.  Granted, people are revolting for different reasons, but the root cause is still the same...our outdated scarcity based monetary system.  Simply put, we are a 21st century society running on 14th century software.  It's like a 3.0 Ghz Quad Core computer trying to run on Windows 1.0, it's just not compatible.  Anyway here's the poem:

A positive direction is what we need to take
In order to commemorate the life they gave
Standing at the base we're coming up short
With the answers and solutions of a failed reform

A haze of dust still surrounds the events of that day 
It's not that we don't know, we just don't care to explain
We can't distinguish between a hero
And a life given in vain

I'm no longer proud to be one of these stars 
Flowing in the breeze beside blood-soaked bars
Especially when we can't even account
For more than 2000 of my brothers who came crumbling down

As a nation we stopped and as a nation we stood
Being told they were doing everything they could
Holding hands with smoke behind them 100 floors high
We stood hopelessly weeping forced to watch them die

I scratch my head with confusion because I can't understand
If we're pissed off at Osama why we're attacking Baghdad 
I will no longer be complacent as a robot of this nation
Because our government is Jim Jones and money is the potion

I can no longer stand down, no longer sit back
As the lot of us starve while a few get fat
The foundations of this nation have already been crushed
We must rise up, the power belongs to us

Free Will: The Conclusion

             I guess the truth of the matter is that we have absolute free will in this life, right now.  I suppose the real question is; are we willing to give up our modern conveniences to exercise it?  I loathe how badly humans are performing as stewards of the Earth.  It’s easy to point the finger at corporations and governments, but those entities don’t even exist in reality.  They’re just false constructions within our society perpetuated by the dominance of the false-ego and the loss of self.  We’ve forgotten who we really are and the power we have to create our reality as we see fit.  We, and by we I most certainly mean myself, look elsewhere to place blame instead of looking within.  We have the power to stop corporate greed and government oppression right now.  How do we do that?  We simply stop feeding into the false paradigm that WE have created. 

With the corporations it’s pretty simple; stop buying their goods and services.  Learn to provide for yourself as much as you possibly can.  Learn to grow your own food or buy your food from a local farmer who, I assure you, values your patronage much more than corporations.  Re-connect with your local community.  There’s an amazing book that chronicles how to lower your dependency on corporations and put power back into local economies called; Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back, by Douglas Rushkoff.

With the government, the theory is simple but the reality may be more difficult.  Our government derives its power from the people, but it certainly doesn’t seem that way; especially watching peaceful protesters/taxpayers being repeatedly assaulted by public servants who are supposed to ‘protect and serve’ those same people.  The documentary Kymatica has a section that focuses on the perversion of law and language on this topic.  The documentary Ungrip chronicles a man who has reclaimed his personal sovereignty.  There is also a book called Cracking the Code; Third Edition that explains how to escape from this bondage.  Here is an excerpt:

 Big Brother’s master plan to subjugate the entire human race is utterly dependent on people continuing to volunteer for and finance their own enslavement.  Without such largesse from the public, the Chosen Masters face certain clamity and exposure for their crimes.  Heretofore, system operatives have been overwhelmingly successful at duping unwitting victims into “volunteering” for every kind of financial hell imaginable.  And make no mistake: it’s purely voluntary.

 Ultimately, we decide our fate.  This isn’t even a question of right and wrong, it’s simply an observation of what is so and what needs to happen to regain peace and balance on this planet.  It is important that we face ourselves.  We are our biggest obstacle and most powerful ally.  We have the power to manifest any reality we choose on this planet.  Sadly we are currently choosing a reality that damages many and benefits few.  And NO, this is not me asking for a handout.  I consider myself among the lucky few.  Sure, as a working class American I make a modest wage compared to some.  However, I must seem like a millionaire to the billions of human beings that live on less than $1 a day on this planet.  Like I said in an earlier post; the best thing we, as individuals, can do is be the change we want to see in the world.  It’s really more about being than doing.  Remember, doing is the result of being. 

Free Will Part 3

Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs)

            In America we ingest food that is absolutely horrible for our body.  Most people don’t know this because the controllers of our corprofascist society (I totally made that word up) don’t want us to know it.  There is currently a grassroots movement in the state of California to require that all genetically modified food be labeled.  They are currently promoting “The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act,” which will accomplish the aforementioned goal of the movement.  The website is called labelgmos.org and it contains a lot of useful information on the subject.  Think about it.  You’re ingesting food that has been scientifically altered (scientists are trying to play God and it’s a dangerous game) to increase the overall yield for a corporation.  That is the ultimate goal of Genetically Modified Foods.  The more ROI (return on investment) a corporation receives, the better off its shareholders are.  In our current system the ultimate goal is to please those shareholders.  The ability for a company to produce GMOs and have them indistinguishable from other foods in a supermarket is another great example of our freedom of choice being stripped away from us.  If they’re so good why wouldn’t a corporation want to slap that label on a package?  Wouldn’t that provide an incentive for customers to choose their “superior” product over another?  The reality is that corporations know we don’t want to be guinea pigs in their science experiment.  They know that there’s no proof that these are safe to eat, much less better than natural food.  Then we have to stop and ask ourselves, how do they get away with this?  Wouldn’t our government, which is supposed to protect the people of the United States encourage the labeling of these foods.  Isn’t that “free-market” capitalism?  The truth is that there is nothing free about stripping us of our choice to make an educated decision on what types of products to purchase and the government isn’t going to do anything about it because they’re directly tied into and dependent upon these corporate entities.  Maybe this is why Occupiers are so pissed at our system…well along with a myriad of other problems.  Again I say…God gave us free will, why doesn’t our government?