Disinformation » God

Why Geeks Don’t Need God

dp1974 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:44:19 +0000

From the ever funny ’cause it’s true Married to the Sea.

Does God Still Belong On Our Money?

majestic — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:54:42 +0000

An opinion piece by Skeptic Magazine’s Michael Shermer in the LA Times has stirred up lots of strong opinions amongst Angelenos. What do disinfonauts think?

The House voted 396-9 this week to reaffirm as the national motto the phrase “In God We Trust” and encouraged its pronouncement on public buildings and continued printing on the coin of the realm. The motto was made official in 1956 during the height of Cold War hysteria over godless communism and — in the words of Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove” — “Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

As risible a reason as this was for knocking out a few bricks in the wall separating state and church, it was at least understandable in the context of the times. But today, what is the point of having this motto? There are no communist threats, and belief in God or a universal spirit among Americans is still holding strong at about 90%, according to a 2011 Gallup Poll. The answer is in the wording of the resolution voted on: “Whereas if religion and morality are taken out of the marketplace of ideas, the very freedom on which the United States was founded cannot be secured.”

What is troubling — and should trouble any enlightened citizen of a modern nation such as ours — is the implication that in this age of science and technology, computers and cyberspace, and liberal democracies securing rights and freedoms for oppressed peoples all over the globe, that anyone could still hold to the belief that religion has a monopoly on morality and that the foundation of trust is based on engraving four words on brick and paper.

If you think that God is watching over the U.S., please ask yourself why he glanced away during 9/11 or why he chose to abandon the good folks of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and why he continues to allow earthquakes and cancers to strike down even blameless children…

[continues in the LA Times]

How To Start A Dance Kult

KE$HA KULT — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:20:49 +0000

Let’s start with what God is: the Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

The confusion about the nature of God starts with the idea God is separate from Existence. Also, there seems to be a tendency to treat the Father as God itself and the Son & Holy Spirit as a part of, but not equal to the Father. From these simple misunderstandings comes the logical paradoxes we’re all familiar with.

So here’s where we begin to clear things up. God is the single thing, but there are three aspects that make up the totality of God. Here’s the analogy: we take a piece of cheese. The cheese is one thing; however, there are aspects to the cheese that make up the whole thing: we have the shape, color & taste of the cheese. So where does the cheese end and its aspects begin? Well obviously that’s an impossible question.

So now the issue is defining the Father, Son & Holy Spirit aspects and how they together define God.

• The Father aspect is Existence as a whole. All of Existence — the Alpha & Omega. The Totality of everything that ever was and ever will be; from a clump of dirt to the spaces in between the spaces. From Heaven to Earth.

• The Son aspect, Christ is the agency of Intelligence, or Consciousness.

• The Holy Spirit aspect is Energy itself.

Now we put these concepts together and learn that energy is intelligent and comprises Existence itself. Through science we have actually learned all of existence is energy vibrating at various densities. Everything you see, touch and think is energy in one form or another. And we can say energy is intelligent through simple observation; What makes a chair stay a chair? What makes a carpet continue on as a carpet? Why don’t all the molecules just separate into one big mush? Because of Consciousness. Energy is Consciousness. Also, energy cannot be created nor destroyed — in other words, the Alpha & Omega. But we possess our own personal Consciousness — we were ‘made in God’s image.’ It doesn’t mean God looks like a man, it means we possess Consciousness.

But does this apply to all people or some and how do we tell the difference?

The difference is like night and day. Mankind was created like any other animal — however our destiny was different than other animals — the plan was to become one with Christ and receive Consciousness, thus bringing Heaven to Earth. The old narrative tells us Christ saves us from a life of sin when we accept Him as our personal savior. But in this new context Christ redeems us from our life as an animal and we are born again with the knowledge we are one with God. These are very subtle but key distinctions being made here.

How do we bring about this change in ourselves? First, we have to take the question seriously. Specifically we have to realize it is a personal thing we are doing — we make the choice.

Second, we have to change the way we think. Because of this new revelation of the exact nature of Christ; that is, Christ as Consciousness, we can say the key to developing Consciousness is following your Highest Light (God within You). To change how we think, in order to develop Consciousness, we have to stop accepting beliefs and start creating ideas — ideas that make you feel good about your little corner of the universe.

But before I explain what that means I want to talk more about the differences between ripened souls and unripened souls; the difference between Man & animal. The animal has instincts, like the instinct to follow and the instinct to lead, we call this the instinct for social hierarchy. Big dog on top bites the little dog on the bottom, and this dynamic maintains order in the community — and this is essentially how human society works — which would be fine for all eternity if we weren’t created with the greater purpose of bringing Heaven to Earth. And when we think of this new world do we see cops and politicians ordering us around with their guns and tanks and bombs? No. Of course we don’t. What we see are people living in harmony because they know how to act in a civilized fashion without coercion. Domesticated Primates, collectively known as people, only follow certain rules because they’re afraid of the consequences of not following [the rules], however real peace is only possible if we understand the purpose of moral-based laws. And that means understanding the value of empathy. So where do we begin?

Simple — with the definition of morality: to treat others the way we want to be treated. On a collective level, this means a total reevaluation of all our values & laws is needed as it pertains to this perfect concept of morality. This means rethinking our attitude towards taboo subjects such as recreational drug use & even sex.

The beginning of the End: The Entity aka “God” reveals itself in Three stages [naturally] the first stage was that of the Father aspect, then Christ and now The Holy Spirit. The transitional phase between the Son aspect and the Holy Spirit is known as the Apocalypse, a Greek word literally meaning “Lifting the Veil.” The information the Holy Spirit will reveal will unite us in Union with God, creating peace on Earth or Heaven on Earth.

The symbolism inherent to this new age is the eye in the triangle, a coded reference to the 3rd EYE. Holy Spirit reveals the means to open the 3rd EYE as a gateway to the Collective Unconscious / Mind of God uniting us on a higher mental level, causing by reflex action, peace on Earth. We do this by creating energy with our bodies in the intention of opening the 3rd EYE -or- by focusing your attention to your forehead while engaged in strenuous physical activity. Such as dancing, et. al.

Other helpful hints the Holy Spirit reveals includes the mandate that you ‘follow your highest light.’ How does one follow your highest light? As you might suspect, it is a fairly autonomous process. The issue is one of inspiration rather than instruction. There are no leaders; only artists who inspire us through their art. We recognize our Consciousness, or “soul,” as the part of God that is a part of us. Our theology and our imagination are synonymous. So in practice, following your highest light means creating ART-MYTH as personal spirituality. Wanna see some examples …?

What happens when developing Consciousness and how it happens are potentially two different things. What happens is that developing Consciousness means you are one with “Christ” and are saved — but how it happens specifically varies wildly from individual to individual, although several people can have similar experiences. But in the past the assumption was that what was happening and how it was happening were the same thing — and so by that logic there was only one way to be saved; become “Christian.” However, this does not suffice because by virtue of the fact God speaks directly to us — following your highest Light is The Way, The Truth & The Life.

So now the burning question is: Who was Jesus?

Jesus was a Man who attained Consciousness in all its full-tilt bewildering mystery. The thing about Existence being a form of Consciousness is that by possessing a personal Consciousness —*— we have the potential to manipulate reality with our mind. This is confirmed in the Bible, book of Matthew Chapter 21, verse 21. Where Jesus says after the apostles witnessed Him wilting the fig tree: “Truly I say to YOU, If only YOU have faith and do not doubt, not only will YOU do what I did to the fig tree, but also if YOU say to this mountain,’Be lifted up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.”

It is our goal to promote Consciousness not only within ourselves but to the world at large. Only when all of mankind receives Consciousness will the final battle between Good & Evil begin. Because Consciousness itself does not guarantee someone is Good; it does not guarantee they will act with empathy —all it means is they have the potential power of God. Don’t panic.

Christian Faith Requires Accepting Evolution

Good German — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 03:30:01 +0000

Jonathan Dudley writes on Huffington Post:

As someone raised evangelical, I realize anti-evolutionists believe they are defending the Christian tradition. But as a seminary graduate now training to be a medical scientist, I can say that, in reality, they’ve abandoned it.

In theory, if not always in practice, past Christian theologians valued science out of the belief that God created the world scientists study. Augustine castigated those who made the Bible teach bad science, John Calvin argued that Genesis reflects a commoner’s view of the physical world, and the Belgic confession likened scripture and nature to two books written by the same author.

These beliefs encouraged past Christians to accept the best science of their day, and these beliefs persisted even into the evangelical tradition. As Princeton Seminary’s Charles Hodge, widely considered the father of modern evangelical theology, put it in 1859: “Nature is as truly a revelation of God as the Bible; and we only interpret the Word of God by the Word of God when we interpret the Bible by science.”

In this analysis, Christians must accept sound science, not because they don’t believe God created the world, but precisely because they do …

God’s Choice For President Of The United States

majestic — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:49:56 +0000

So who does God favor in the 2012 presidential race? LZ Granderson tries to unravel the competing claims of the candidates for CNN:

Vote for me or burn in hell.

I can’t imagine someone running for office saying that.

And yet four candidates — Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum — have said they had a sense that God was leading them to run. How far can we be from “vote for me or burn in hell” when it seems we’re already comfortable with “vote for me, I’ve been called by God”?

There was a time when if a candidate wanted to inject faith into a campaign he or she would be photographed going to church or shaking the Rev. Billy Graham’s hand.

Now it seems many GOP campaigns aren’t complete without claiming God’s seal of approval, which suggests the other candidates may be running without it. Such a sentiment is an ideological piñata for comedians like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, but for conservatives trying to secure the GOP nomination, it’s a highly manipulative campaign tool…

[continues at CNN]

Observations on Atheism

KE$HA KULT — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:13:58 +0000

So the question has been raised to atheists: if life is the product of random chance and there is no divine authority and life is ultimately what you make it, then why do you care what people believe one way or another? Specifically in regard to a belief in God.

One response to the question is commentary on monotheism’s Apocalyptic “literalists” — people who sincerely want to see the world end and are actively trying to bring about its destruction.

Atheists see it as their moral duty to attack the root of such beliefs — which just happens to be belief in God. And it’s fair to say this is all part of the Atheistic consensus.

So atheists are literally trying to save the world … delusions of grandeur, anyone?

Time and time again I can’t help but notice the parallels between atheists and religious types: the bitter hostility towards anyone who doesn’t just choke down their ideology; the inconsistent belief system and subsequent rationalizations that sidestep the issue by exploiting our human emotions.

Let’s examine the so-called ‘facts.’ The [atheist] argument totally hinges on morality, principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior, that life has intrinsic value. But considering Science, that yardstick by which atheists tell us measures truth, has not provided meaning for the universe — logically, this must also apply to our very existence. So again, if life ends when you die, and the universe itself is going to ’starve to death’ from entropy, or collapse in on itself from the big crunch, then what are you clinging on to? What does it matter if we all die in a fiery Armageddon? Why do you care that people disagree with you? Atheists have yet to answer such a question in terms of: materialism, logic and objectivity. Because when you get down to it, respect for life (the foundation of morality) has no objective basis — its all rooted in subjective emotionalism.*

* What I find fascinating is that this is such a source of contention for nearly everybody (again I’m referring to atheists and religious types). No one wants to believe morality is essentially irrational. But why should that be a problem? Why can’t we be content with morality as self-validating; its own reward? What I find ‘illogical’ is the fear of being illogical. Everyone wants to believe in the objective supremacy of their beliefs — from their taste in fashion & entertainment to their ideas about God, the universe and everything. Everyone wants to be perfect. And isn’t it so much harder to feel perfect when you know someone out there thinks you’re 100% wrong about everything. The tacit assumption is that we can only have world peace when everyone believes the same thing. However, I would argue our behavior has more empirical consequence than belief itself; actions speak louder than ideas. IF people would acknowledge their feelings of empathy and act accordingly — then all the differing opinions in the world could never kill anyone.

Theologically speaking I can relate to atheism, theism & agnosticism. I can relate to the atheistic belief that self-accountability and autonomy are our most noble goals; I can relate to theism because I believe an intelligent force surrounds us, and I can relate to agnosticism because this intelligent force must have aspects that are beyond my current comprehension … so why bother having opinions about it? I consider myself a Pantheist and it doesn’t bother me I’m a minority — it’s not my mission in life to make you believe I’m right — because I believe the distinction between truth and lies is irrelevant. However, I do believe in morality, and it doesn’t bother me my beliefs are inconsistent; I’m not concerned with being perfect.

** As far as those Apocalyptic “literalists” go — you might worry about ‘what to do with all those ‘CRAZIES,’ but I say there is no revolution; ***because you can’t change people with force, intimidation or name-calling. . . all that can ever accomplish is make them more fanatical. DALE CARNAGIE. VINDICATED! lol — what/ev,

EPILOGUE: Post Observations.

If you sincerely want to show people the error of their ways, specifically in regard to the Apocalyptic “literalist,” you’re not going to do it by calling them “EVIL” — all name-calling will ever accomplish is make them more fanatical. The best you can do is espouse an alternate interpretation of the Apocalypse and hope for the best. Like maybe start by pointing out the original Greek translation of “Apocalypse” LITERALLY means “lifting of the veil”; a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind. Far from being a horrible experience, Apocalypse represents the revealing of the true nature of things. It ushers in an era of forgotten freedoms and unprecedented clarity. This “lifting of the veil” will set us free from the misery that has been a result of our ignorance in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception.

God’s Approval Rating Falls To 52 Percent

JacobSloan — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:10:07 +0000

We all know that the vast majority of Americans believe in God. However, that doesn’t mean they like him. The Atlantic Wire writes:

Public Policy Polling released the results of a survey today that included the question: “If God exists, do you approve or disapprove of its performance?” Fifty-two percent of the 928 respondents approve of the job the Almighty’s done while 9 percent disapprove. So about half the public isn’t too thrilled with the way God is handling, well, everything.

Seventy-one percent of the American public approves of God’s handling of the creation of the universe, 56 percent approve of (his? or her?) handling of the animal kingdom, and even 50 percent like the way he manages natural disasters.

What Does God Need With A Starship? (Video)

vulcan — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 04:51:48 +0000

I don’t ask myself this enough. Thanks Jim. Happy Easter!

Praying To A Tree Trunk: Will The Tree Trunk Help?

Vincent Bugliosi — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:00:04 +0000

One of the main things people pray for is peace. But there have already been trillions upon trillions of prayers for peace through the years, yet peace remains as elusive as mercury, as groups and factions and nations persist in warring viciously with each other, the violence continuing unabated.

Wouldn’t one think that people would finally come to the realization that either there’s no one up there listening to their prayers for peace, or if there is, he doesn’t have the power to stop the violence, or if he does, he has no desire to do so? That they may just as well be praying to a tree trunk?

I’ve been told there is some religious sect in the Himalayan Mountains that has been praying for peace, twenty-four hours a day in shifts, for more than five hundred years. Nuns of the Franciscan Sisters in La Crosse, Wisconsin, have been praying for world peace in thirty-minute rotating shifts twenty four hours a day in an unbroken chain of perpetual prayers dating back to 1878. Even a fire that reached the chapel doors in 1923 never stopped the nuns from praying inside.

When will the poor nuns and millions of others give up? How many more centuries are people going to have to pray and how many more trillions of prayers are they going to have to say before they wake up to the fact that no one is listening to their prayers? (I mean, if whoever is up there ignores even the pope when he prays for peace, and the pope is the spiritual leader of more than 1 billion Catholics and, per Catholicism, God’s chief representative on this earth, why would people think that God would listen to common folk like them?) Not only do they seem incapable of waking up to this fact, but they compound the idiocy of it all by always talking about “the power of prayer.”

How is it that in their daily lives, if these people who pray for peace ask someone to do something for them and they are turned down, they’d probably never ask again. And rarely would they ask a third time. But in praying to God for peace, these same people never give up, and they do this even with the realization and knowledge that there are and have been millions just like them saying prayers for peace to the same God for centuries. Why isn’t this type of behavior considered to be clinically psychotic? But far from being consigned to a diagnosis of psychosis, I have no doubt that these prayers will continue to be considered completely normal, even healthy, and will go on, as an old Indian treaty provided, “as long as the water flows and the wind blows and the grass grows.”

What could possibly be on the minds of the countless who never stop praying for peace in the world? Is this surreal praying without end a grand extrapolation of Jacob Riis’ Stonecutter Credo of the mason who hammers away at his rock, perhaps one hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it, but at the one hundred and first blow it splits in two, and he knows that it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before?

In other words, do these many millions of people praying for peace, think that their prayer for peace, which they remarkably say in all earnestness, will be the one out of the trillions already said down through the years that will finally be the one that breaks the camel’s back with God, that will cause him to say, “Okay, okay, I don’t need, any more prayers. I’ll give you your peace”? Or could they actually believe that God might respond solely and simply because they asked him and he might answer their prayer? Whichever of the two it is, you have to know this is not insanity. It’s beyond insanity. And this is why, though I’d love to approach these people and ask them why they praying for peace, I don’t because I’m afraid to go near them.

It’s hard to know which is a bigger mystery — people saying prayers for peace or people always immediately going to their churches to pray whenever there is a terrible tragedy, such as September 11, 2001, or Hurricane Katrina. I’m serious when I ask, What in the world do people pray about when a tragedy like 9/l1 or Katrina happens? Since God caused 9/l1 and Katrina, or allowed them to happen, I sincerely like to know what the national prayers during these tragedies are all about. (President Bush declared a national day of prayer after both 9/11 and Katrina.) Are people praying to the Lord beseeching him not to do this again or allow it to happen again? Or are they asking him to give them strength to stand the mental and emotional pain caused by the act he caused or allowed to happen? Or asking him to take care of those he just caused or allowed to be killed? I’m absolutely serious. What do the prayers say that could possibly make sense to a rational person? Whatever the prayers are, hasn’t God already shown by what he did or allowed to happen to these people that he couldn’t possibly care less about them? So why are people praying to him?

Frank Geer, a rector at St. Philip’s Church-in-the-Highlands in Garrison, New York, has tried, unsuccessfully, to make sense out of prayers in times like 9/l1. Geer worked at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City counseling and comforting survivors of 9/l1. During a break in his work, he said he went to St. Paul’s chapel, a 250-year old Episcopal church that was a block from the World Trade Center devastation. In the book Where Was God on September 11? he says he prayed to God “first and foremost for all the people who had died. I prayed for their families, and I prayed for the workers who were risking their lives every day at the site that God would keep them safe.” Speaking of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that were overflowing with people after 9/l1, he remarks, “People wanted to be together with other human beings and with God. Going to church was a way to activate and amplify their sense of God … They wanted to be together with a force that cares about them, that cares for them. Religion [i.e., belief in God] was an incredible source of comfort for people” after 9/l1.

But of course I already knew that religion was a source of comfort for those praying to their God. My question is, How could this possibly be when the God they were praying to caused or allowed to happen the tragedy they were on their knees praying about? (If he didn’t, then he’s not the omnipotent God they believe him to be who can answer their prayers, and hence, why are they praying to him?) How can such numbing, staggering stupidity continue without end? Einstein once said that there are only two things that are infinite: the universe and the stupidity of man. And he added that he was unsure only of the former. With respect to people praying after a tragedy to a God who caused or allowed it, are we dealing here with an indelible, ineradicable, inerasable, inexpungible psychosis that can no more be removed than can the pigmentation of one’s skin? A psychosis that will stop only when the sun rises in the west? When Frenchmen stop drinking wine? Cervantes tells us that every dog has his day, but my God, when is this day ever going to end?

In recognizing the futility of prayer, people could learn from the destitute. They don’t pray. They beg.

The above is an excerpt from the book Divinity of Doubt: The God Question by Vincent Bugliosi, by kind permission of the publisher, Vanguard Press. Copyright © 2011 Vincent Bugliosi.

Vincent Bugliosi, author of Divinity of Doubt: The God Question, received his law degree in 1964. In his career at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis of his true-crime classic, Helter Skelter , the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history. Two of Bugliosi’s other true-crime books—And the Sea Will Tell and Outrage — also reached #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. No other American true-crime writer has ever had more than one book that achieved this ranking. His latest book, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was also a New York Times bestseller, and is being made into a ten-part HBO miniseries, for which Tom Hanks will be a producer. Bugliosi lives with his wife of many years in Los Angeles. For more information follow the author on Facebook.

Did Christianity Kill Marvin Gaye and Rozz Williams?

cybercasualty — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:46:58 +0000

White magic failed to save the one, and black magic was of no avail to the other. From RockStarMartyr.net:

In private moments otherwise shrouded in darkness, Christians feel the presence of God looming over their shoulders. The Omniscient Eye bears witness to every messy indiscretion behind closed doors and probes dirty thoughts like a supernatural panty-raider.

In view of their popular images, Marvin Gaye and Rozz Williams seem as different as sly grins and slit wrists, but the camera overlooks their common heritage. They were both children of a church-dwelling God, and His relentless imposition of conscience drove them to the very edge of sanity — where they promptly jumped into the Abyss.

Both met their Maker on April 1st. No foolin’.

Marvin Gay Jr. grew up under the thumb of the “Hebrew Pentecostal” House of God denomination. His father, Marvin Gay Sr., was an ambitious preacher in the Washington DC congregation, and swung an iron fist on any defiant soul living under his roof.

The rules were simple: No make up, no television, no wine, no swine, no sweethearts, no playing after dark, no bed-wetting, and don’t even think about having fun.

>The ministry brought many blessings to the Reverend Gay — despite his hobgoblin visage — including the loose “sisters” of the congregation who were more than willing to service a man of God under the nose of his timid wife. In his own mind, the pastor was destined to become a big time prophet. His dreams of sainthood were shattered, however, when theological rifts within the House of God left him with a meager flock to tend.

Defeated and disillusioned, the failed spiritual leader retreated into the quiet sanctum of his stank bedroom, where he would slip into his wife’s silky dresses … (Read about Marvin here)

______________________________________

There was nothing gradual about Rozz Williams’ descent into darkness. One day it was Gummy Bears, the next it was bears at the leather bar. The little guy was so precocious, he might as well have been born into an open grave.

Raised by Southern Baptist parents on the outskirts of LA, Roger Alan Painter found his Savior to be repellent at an early age. He had too many questions and the church’s vapid answers were hardly satisfying.

Why is the world so mean?
(Jesus loves you)
Who am I?
(Jesus loves you)
What do I do with all these erections?
(You’ll go to Hell)
Is that all there is?
(Jesus loves you)

The kid was bored to death and willing to try anything to break free. Rock n’ roll was the obvious choice.

In 1979, at the age of sixteen, he founded the seminal goth band from which all black nail-polish still flows: Christian Death … (Read about Rozz here)

Or read the whole article at RockStarMartyr.net

Was ‘God’s Wife’ Edited Out Of The Bible?

JacobSloan — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:06:32 +0000

TIME ponders the suppression of an omnipotent female counterpart to the male God solo-featured in Judeo-Christianity. Was this where the great Middle Eastern religions went wrong?

Some scholars say early versions of the Bible featured Asherah, a powerful fertility goddess who may have been God’s wife.

Research by Francesca Stavrakopoulou, a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, unearthed clues to her identity, but good luck finding mention of her in the Bible. If Stavrakopoulou is right, heavy-handed male editors of the text all but removed her from the sacred book.

What remains of God’s purported other half are clues in ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed primarily in an ancient Canaanite coastal city, now in modern-day Syria. Inscriptions on pottery found in the Sinai desert also show Yahweh and Asherah were worshipped as a pair, and a passage in the Book of Kings mentions the goddess as being housed in the temple of Yahweh.

What’s So Great Up There in Heaven?

Vincent Bugliosi — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:31:11 +0000

The main objective of the Christian scheme of life and death is to get to heaven after we die. Why? Because that’s where God is, and heaven without God would be like a sunny day without sunshine, an innate contradiction. Christians want to be with God because, they say, he is all-perfect, and eternity with him will be beyond the greatest happiness imaginable. But how many people stop to ask why this will be so.

Okay, so God is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Even greater. So what? What will this do for me? As they used to say years ago in my hometown of Italian, Slavic, and Nordic immigrants in northern Minnesota to measure the value of what one was doing, “Will it put a chicken on the table [to eat]?” How does God’s being so great and wonderful translate into our happiness being far greater than we could ever imagine if we are there with him? I don’t get it. So he’s incredible and magnificent and perfect and everything else, and I, along with millions of others, am by his side. Now what? Where do we go from there? I mean, what will we do in heaven besides worshiping the Lord?

All manner of pleasurable things have been envisioned by people through the years about heaven, the Disneyland of the Christian imagination. Originally, Billy Graham, who at one point said he knew the precise dimensions of heaven — “sixteen hundred square miles” (No. Seriously. Time, November 15, 1993, 74) — thought heaven was just going to be about fun. “We are going to sit around the fireplace and have parties, and the angels will wait on us, and we’ll drive down the golden streets in a yellow Cadillac convertible,” he said. (Billy didn’t say if our body or our soul would be in the driver’s seat.) But Billy, with age, particularly when he found a passage in the Book of Revelation that says we will serve God in heaven, realized that, although life in heaven would all be just glorious, it wasn’t going to be all play. He told Good Morning America in April of 1997 that “when we get to heaven, I don’t think we’re going to just sit down. I think God will have other work for us to do. There are billions and billions and trillions of other planets and other stars, and I believe there’s life on many of those and God may have a job for us to do on some of those places.”

But Billy, none of what you say sounds like a place I want to go to. I never sit around fireplaces, and even if I did, what’s so special about sitting around a fireplace in heaven as opposed to one on earth? Also, I’m not a partygoer. And I don’t want anyone waiting on me. It makes me uncomfortable. And I have no desire at all to drive a yellow Cadillac convertible down golden streets. And why would I want to work on distant planets for the rest of time? I’m not being silly, Billy. You and Christianity are.

Even if what happens in the Christian heaven is the greatest thing ever, such as being in God’s presence — like the transfiguration of Jesus at the top of the mountain where his clothing became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly process could ever make it (Mark 9:2-3 ) — after a few twenty-four-hour days of this, won’t it get awfully tiresome? Or at least humdrum? If not, what about 365 days a year? Or 1,000 years?

Billy, after we get to heaven, what’s going to happen that’s going to be so great that it will make me, and others, so indescribably happy? Given that billions of people throughout recorded history have believed in heaven and everyone wants to end up there, am I being unreasonable to ask?

The above is an excerpt from the book Divinity of Doubt: The God Question by Vincent Bugliosi, by kind permission of the publisher, Vanguard Press. Copyright © 2011 Vincent Bugliosi.

Vincent Bugliosi, author of Divinity of Doubt: The God Question, received his law degree in 1964. In his career at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis of his true-crime classic, Helter Skelter , the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history. Two of Bugliosi’s other true-crime books—And the Sea Will Tell andOutrage—also reached #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. No other American true-crime writer has ever had more than one book that achieved this ranking. His latest book, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was also a New York Times bestseller, and is being made into a ten-part HBO miniseries, for which Tom Hanks will be a producer. Bugliosi lives with his wife of many years in Los Angeles. For more information follow the author on Facebook.

God’s Name Is “Jealous”

Russ Kick — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 23:09:54 +0000

The following is another chapter from my disinformation book, 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know: Volume 2, published in 2004. For more on me go to The Memory Hole or follow me @RussKick on Twitter.

There’s an old joke that says God’s name is Harold, as in: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, Harold be thy name…”

The strange thing is, that’s not too much off the mark, only the truth is even weirder. The Lord does indeed have a name, kind of like Andrew or Beth or José.

It’s right there in the Bible, at Exodus 34:14. Moses has trudged up Mount Sinai with a second pair of stone tablets, on which God will write the Ten Commandments. Moses and the Big G engage in some repartee, then God says:

“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God”

This is straight out of the King James Version. God reveals “his” own name: Jealous.

In the original Hebrew, the key words in this verse are shem and qanna’. According to one of the standard reference works in this area — A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Hebrew Bible by James Strongs — shem is a noun meaning “name.” One of its specific denotations is “the Name (as designation of God).” The word qanna’ means “jealous” and is applied only to God.

Other English translations say the same basic thing as the King James Version. The New International Version gives it as: “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” The English Standard Version phrases it parenthetically: “(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).” The New International Readers Version gives God a more relaxed feel: “Do not worship any other god. I am a jealous God. In fact, my name is Jealous.”

Why isn’t this mentioned in Sunday school? Perhaps because it could lead to children pledging, “One nation, under Jealous,” people cursing, “Jealous damn it!” or the government stamping on currency: “In Jealous we trust.”

But if you’re going to accept the Bible, then you have to accept it when God reveals his own name, no matter how odd or silly.

May Jealous have mercy on my soul.

Reference: God’s Name. Various translations of the Bible. § A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Hebrew Bible by James Strongs. Online at Blue Letter Bible [blueletterbible.org].

Find more “50 Things” here

NASA Completes 52-Year Mission To Find And Kill God (Video)

vulcan — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 05:37:13 +0000

I have one question: Was James T. Kirk involved with this mission? Via the Onion:

After more than five decades of tireless work, brave exploration, and technological innovation aimed at a single objective, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Wednesday that it had finally completed its mission to find and kill God.

“I am ecstatic to tell you all today that we have beheld the awesome visage of the supreme architect of the cosmos, and we have murdered Him,” jubilant administrator Charles Bolden said after being drenched with champagne by other celebrating NASA employees. “There have been innumerable setbacks, missteps, and hardships over the past 50 years, but we always stayed true to our ultimate goal and we never gave up.”

“We finally got the son of a bitch!” Bolden continued. “He’s dead! God is dead!”

Stephen Colbert and Harvard Philosophy Professor Sean D. Kelly Agree: Jesus is God

Good German — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:43:26 +0000

What’s to be done about our culture’s loss of a notion of what’s sacred? From the Colbert Report:

Atheists Get Angry At God

majestic — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:17:07 +0000

Michelangelo's image of God in the Sistine Chapel

You have to laugh at the irony of this: atheists profess not to believe in God but frequently express anger at the entity they don’t believe in. Elizabeth Landau reports for CNN:

If you’re angry at your doctor, your boss, your relative or your spouse, you can probably sit down and have a productive conversation about it. God, on the other hand, is probably not available to chat.

And yet people get angry at God all the time, especially about everyday disappointments, finds a new set of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

It’s not just religious folks, either. People unaffiliated with organized religion, atheists and agnostics also report anger toward God either in the past, or anger focused on a hypothetical image – that is, what they imagined God might be like – said lead study author Julie Exline, Case Western Reserve University psychologist.

In studies on college students, atheists and agnostics reported more anger at God during their lifetimes than believers. A separate study also found this pattern among bereaved individuals. This phenomenon is something Exline and colleagues will explore more in future research, which is open to more participants.

It seems that more religious people are less likely to feel angry at God and more likely to see his intentions as well-meaning, Exline’s research found.

And younger people tend to be angrier at God than older people, Exline said. She says some of the reasons she’s seen people the angriest at God include rejection from preferred colleges and sports injuries preventing high schoolers from competing…

[continues at CNN]

God May Not Be the Theoretical Higgs Boson: SHE May Be the Already-Discovered Weak Force

Dickey Eason — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 04:07:03 +0000

Dickey Eason

We all have our ideas about how the world and universe work. Some of us see the hand of “God” in everything. Others are atheists or agnostics—still others are guided by spirituality. But no matter where we are on the “believe” spectrum, most of us see a rather benign universe. By that I mean that we do not see specific forces struggling with one another in the cosmos once we get away from earth, which is interesting to me. We see conflict and battles on earth but not in the rest of the universe.

We view it much as we do a documentary—no plots, no dynamics—just an intriguing show. We look at ourselves—human life on earth—as being the real show. But that separation has, I believe, caused us to distort our perceptions of the Big Picture. I think if we start seeing the natural conflicts that exist in the universe, then we might start the process that leads to fewer human conflicts on earth.

Why don’t we see a dynamic operating in the universe where forces are actually vying against one another? After all, it would be just as easy to see a battle as it would a “beautiful picture show”. But a powerful force is setting the agenda, and it wants us to see conflict on earth but not in the cosmos. Why is that? Because if you see a dynamic at work in the cosmos, then you will quickly see a dynamic at work among human beings. And then you would probably develop an independent, inquisitive mindset which would threaten the existence of the “agenda” creators. I call this force the SN for structural nucleus. It is the power-control center of human organizations, whether country or company. SNs run the gamut—from practical and reasonable to violent and suffocating.

I introduced the IMPACTS and the IMPACTS concept in a couple of articles on this site, June 22 and June 29, 2010. The IMPACTS are a group of people I discovered about ten years ago who make everything work in human society. They are the fuel for the human race. Take them out and the whole societal machine would come to a screeching halt—just as a car without fuel would go nowhere.

Originally, I found the IMPACTS in the business world on both sides of the transaction—as a valuable customer and as an innovative, entrepreneurial business person. But then I started seeing them in everything I read—history, science, anthropology, art and culture, contemporary society—anything and everything. The IMPACTS were quiet leaders and change artists, trying to maximize the potential of the environment. What I seemed to be seeing was a salient dynamic—it was so consistent and predictable that I started exploring the physical world to see if it existed there as well. I suspected that it did.

The hydrogen atom, one proton and one electron, appears to me to be the structural model for the universe, which only makes sense because it was possibly the first “structure” in the universe, forming 380,000 years after the Big Bang. The proton is relatively massive and therefore pulling inward; the electron is almost mass-less, and is, I believe, essentially captured by the proton. The electron is the “creative” part of the structure. How so?

There are different energy levels for electrons in the atom. The first level will hold 2 electrons, the second 8 electrons, the third 18, the fourth 32, and so on. When the outer energy level is not complete, then the electron(s) in that level is a valence electron, meaning that it is ready and willing to bond with the valence electron of another atom, forming a NEW structure—a molecule—and achieving balance. Balance appears to be a primary goal of a force or forces of the universe but not of all forces.

Going back to the “beginnings” in the physical universe necessitated going back to the early beginnings of modern humans. There I discovered the San tribe of Africa, the oldest modern human group, having emerged well over 100,000 years ago. Their shaman-centered way of life laid the foundation for modern humanity. It became clear to me that today’s problem-solving IMPACTS possess the same basic characteristics as the San and shaman—the San tribe members being cooperative and sharing, the shaman innovative and somewhat “asymmetrical”—often different in behavior, thought, perception, vision, and more. This asymmetry seemed to motivate him to balance himself and the tribe—to “maximize” the potential around him. There were female shamans also, particularly in the San tribe.

Another element was very clear: the San tribe was the out-of-Africa group. The evidence was overwhelming. Why would this not be common knowledge across the world, especially the anthropological world? There could only be one reason—there must be a force that was benefitting from it not being accepted knowledge.

In my study the social world became entangled with the physical world. I could actually detect no difference between the two as far as energy dynamics were concerned. Both were following the EXACT same model, and again, that model was based on the hydrogen atom: an inner massive core and an opposite, “lighter and more mobile” energy on the periphery.

Our universe is governed by the second law of thermodynamics, which basically states that concentrated energy is an anomaly. The tendency of the universe is toward high entropy, or maximum disorder. But obviously there is much concentrated energy that we see—billions of galaxies with billions of stars, planets in our solar system and more being discovered around other stars, and on earth life, including us. Something is working to overcome the second law.

I read Dr. Robert Piccioni’s Everyone’s Guide to Atoms, Einstein, and the Universe and contacted him. He agreed to answer some of my physics questions. One of his quotes was:

“Life has a very unique relationship to the second law of thermodynamics. That law makes a statistical statement–it is vastly more likely than not that in any closed system particle energies will equalize and disorder will increase. Life seems uniquely able to consistently overcome the second law, not by violating that law, but by systematically taking in more ordered matter and expelling less ordered matter. Life decreases its disorder at the expense of its surrounding. This is allowed by the second law, and is essential to any living organism. Indeed, I think this leads to a very sensible definition of Life: Any entity that can consistently overcome the second law is Alive.”

The carbon atom is the perfect foundation for life because it has 4 electrons in its outer energy level and therefore needs 4 more to complete that outer level. Carbon is therefore stable and reactive—we could say asymmetrical, just as the hydrogen atom is with its one electron, which is also a valence electron. You will recall that the first energy level in the atom holds 2 electrons. But most of the atomic world is asymmetrical as it relates to the outer energy level of the electrons. Carbon is significant because it will bond with other carbon atoms along with other atoms such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous, forming long chains of organic molecules for life. These molecules have concentrated energy in the covalent bonds between the electrons, and thus are working against the ever-present second law.

The IMPACTS group I mentioned earlier, though I believe a small percentage of human society (probably 5 to 10%), appeared to me to be the “ordered matter” of human society, though asymmetry was often not far away. The IMPACTS were the “carbon atoms and molecules”—they kept everything bonded together and functioning. Plus they had “concentrated energy” and were always looking for ways to improve their particular environment, whether business, family, or even the physical environment, including the home.

There seemed to me to be two major forces in the universe—a male force and a female force. Why male and female? Because the traits generally associated with males and females on earth were the same as those I was seeing across the universe. The proton was male—it was “capturing” the electron, getting Bigger and Stronger. The black hole of a galaxy, another massive core, was doing the same—it was getting Bigger and Stronger as stars formed around it, some of which it “ate”. As the galaxy grew, it would try to capture other galaxies, again becoming Bigger and Stronger. These are traits generally associated with males and male-led organizations, including countries.

The electron was female. It was creative as it bonded with the electron of another atom to create a molecule. It shared and cooperated, traits more suggestive of female behavior.

All of my study suggested to me that there was a tug-of-war across the universe between male and female forces—male forces trying to get Bigger and Stronger, female forces trying to create and produce in order to defeat the second law of thermodynamics. Male forces seemed to be aligned or allied with the second law—they took what they wanted or what they could take, breaking up the energy field around them.

So one force was aiding the second law and one force was its antithesis. One was pulling inward—one was reaching outward and bonding. Inward pressure—outward pressure, the same model everywhere you look. Stars, the atom, a galaxy with its black-hole center—all the same model. It’s the same in the social world as well—businesses, families, countries—all with pulling-inward elements and all with creative-productive pressure that maintains equilibrium—sometimes. That is the subconscious goal anyway.

In a star, when the hydrogen fuel is exhausted, the star collapses on itself. So the outward pressure caused by the fusion of hydrogen into helium and the subsequent release of massive amounts of energy prevent the star from collapsing. The IMPACTS group that I had discovered in society seemed to me to be performing the same role—they were the fuel that kept society functioning. And they too were often found on the PERIPHERY, just like the valence electron and just like the outward pressure of a star. Some IMPACTS however were more peripheral than others.

I was still looking for something that would explain what we see, which is a universe with copious amounts of ordered matter and, at the same time, a universe that is expanding at the speed of light.

Physicists presently (as far as I know) believe there are four fundamental forces in the universe:

The strong nuclear force
The weak force
Electromagnetism
Gravity

But the weak and the electromagnetic forces are believed to actually be one force, the electroweak. The male and female forces I mentioned may be an amalgam of these (now) 3 forces, or the universe could have a thousand or a million forces. Still, presently, I think primarily there is a male force and a female force, or there could be a male force, a female force, and a hybrid of the two. Anything is possible. We are not looking for the definitive answer—we couldn’t find it anyway at this particular stage of our development. We are looking for strong probabilities and possibilities—we are looking to move the boundaries of our present knowledge. We can fill in the blanks later. Let’s get the template down first.

Dr. Robert Piccioni again, speaking of the “accidental” nature of life and human beings existing:

“The asymmetry of the weak force (technical term is CP-violation) that very slightly favors matter over antimatter is one of these knobs. There is no known reason why the weak force acts this way. By 1 second after the Big Bang, there were 1,000,000,001 particles for every 1,000,000,000 antiparticles. If that asymmetry had been slightly more, the universe would have long since collapsed to nothing, hence no life. If that asymmetry had been slightly less, the universe would have almost no matter in it and would have expanded so rapidly that a volume of space now occupied by an entire galaxy might instead contain only 1 atom, hence no life. No one knows why, but we are quite sure this is true.

The electromagnetic part of the electroweak does not violate CP; only the weak part does.

EM and weak forces were mathematically united into electroweak because they both involve the exchange of spin 1 bosons. EM forces arise when charged particles exchange a photon, which has zero mass resulting in a force with infinite range. Weak forces arise when any particles exchange an intermediate vector boson (W+, W–, or Z0), which have masses in the range of 90 times the proton mass resulting in extremely short range forces (much less than the diameter of a proton).

CP violation arises in the W/Z exchanges. The amount of CP violation is quite small—less than 1% of the weak force which itself is generally less than 1% of the EM force. (An absolute direct comparison of force strengths is not possible as they vary in different ways with various parameters such as charge.)”

I believe this carries all the way through the universe, including to the IMPACTS. What do I mean? I mean a slight asymmetry that produces “positive” results just as the early asymmetry of the weak force produced matter. We may not be able to see it “scientifically” at this time, but there are just too many “coincidences” for it not to be a real phenomenon.

I have mentioned that the IMPACTS are the group that holds humanity together—and they are its fuel. And like the San-shaman, they are often asymmetrical (off-the-beaten-path), or come from a family with “asymmetry”—such as autism or so-called psychological issues. But this is what we should expect because I believe that the San and shaman profiles are embedded in the human genome, and are now manifested through the IMPACTS. I strongly suspect that autism may have been the progenitor of modern humans—the asymmetry that was needed—and is still prevalent because it possesses value for our species. What value? Creative genius often resides near it.

The wolf pack seems to have embedded roles; e.g., alpha, beta, and omega. Why would humans be any different? I don’t think we gave up social strategies and social roles when we acquired higher consciousness though most of us would like to think we did. In the wolf pack, the beta wolf is the glue that holds the pack together, and is very often male. The beta sees needs that others do not see—and takes care of them. It is the same with the IMPACTS in the human “pack”—they see needs and they seek solutions. The entire group leans toward androgyny and has a strong female orientation. The group is predominantly heterosexual but there are large numbers of homosexual IMPACTS as well, just as there were large numbers of homosexual shamans.

What the asymmetry of the weak force appears to be doing is PREVENTING COLLAPSE. It is overcoming the second law—or trying to. Its actions help maintain outward pressure such as you find with fusion in a star. There would be no stars without the weak force. The weak force changes hydrogen into deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, and then fusion can take place. The weak force is also responsible for all the different elements that have been formed since hydrogen. So the weak force is really responsible for most of what we see in the universe. It is the creative force—and it is slightly asymmetrical—just as are many IMPACTS—and just as was the shaman. You have to have asymmetry or nothing happens. Asymmetry is the condition that initiates the process that leads to order and “ordered matter”.

The weak force is also responsible for radioactivity which helps keep the iron core of the earth molten, which in turn produces a strong magnetic field. This field protects us from the dangerous solar wind of the sun. You can see that the weak force is anything but weak.

The San-shaman’s main role was to prevent collapse of the tribe and to maintain the health of individuals—to prevent the collapse of human beings into death—to keep their outward pressure functioning. That is what the IMPACTS are doing—preventing collapse of societies, companies, countries, communities, people—maintaining outward pressure, keeping the “fires” burning. That is why you find them on the periphery—like the valence electron(s).

It appears that the weak force is the ultimate computer—it KNOWS what needs to be done at the CRITICAL moment—like the Big Bang. The shamans were asking the same question—what needs to be done at this precise moment in order to maximize the potential? The IMPACTS are asking the same question. That’s why you find them at critical positions where collapse is possible.

The weak force was there at the moment of the Big Bang and produced a tiny bit more matter than antimatter. The IMPACTS are trying to do the same wherever they are—produce the “little extras” that will lead to positive results for all—that will “save the day”. It can be a nurse in the emergency room, an entrepreneur like Steven Jobs who changes the world, the director of a non-profit who discovers a new approach to raising money, or any one of the millions of people around the world who every day use their caring, innovative energy to “find a way to make it happen”.

The IMPACTS don’t have the power that the weak force appears to have but they usually have its “exacting” nature and its desire for balance—the template appears to be the same.

Brian Greene, author of The Fabric of the Cosmos:

“Some discoveries provide answers to questions. Other discoveries are so deep that they cast questions in a whole new light, showing that previous mysteries were misperceived through lack of knowledge. You could spend a lifetime—in antiquity, some did—wondering what happens when you reach earth’s edge, or trying to figure out who or what lives on earth’s underbelly. But when you learn that the earth is round, you see that the previous mysteries are not solved; instead they are rendered irrelevant.”

That is what I am attempting to do—render many mysteries irrelevant. Why? Because “untruths” prevent human beings from optimizing the potential that exists. I have a “weak force”, IMPACTS attitude—a drive for efficiency and “the best it can be” results.

What will “science” say about this discovery? It will mostly throw cold water on it because what I am proposing cannot be measured. But then how could you measure a dynamic? You couldn’t—not presently anyway. I suspect we will find ways to measure it once we accept the possibility that it exists. We couldn’t “measure” electrons at one time either. Does that mean they didn’t exist until we learned how to measure them?

I believe that science today is captured just as the electron is captured in the atom. Who has captured it? The power-control element I mentioned earlier—the SN. The SN has no power unless it has copious numbers of innovative IMPACTS and their energy, just as a black hole is powerless without billions of stars. The SN, like the proton, does not create—it depends on the IMPACTS (the valence electrons) for creative-production. That is where it gets its power.

At one time science was on the periphery. Remember Galileo, Einstein, Newton, and countless others? They were on the periphery. But now science has been captured and brought into the SN energy field, and the SN says what is and what isn’t science. Science and the SN are joined at the hip—just like the proton and electron in the hydrogen atom. Science answers to the SN—it has become politicized, meaning that it has lost its independence and objectivity. The societal SN, predominantly male, wants to use science to get what the male force in the universe seems to crave—Bigger and Stronger.

Why has this not been seen before, as far as we know? Because human beings would quickly start connecting the dots. If all models behave essentially the same way—with a pulling-inward male force and a creative-productive female force—then human society tends toward the same model. And therefore, it can be analyzed just as a galaxy or an atom can be analyzed. The vast majority of people are not ready for that—they prefer the paradigm that they know. People are trying to adjust to the world—they are not trying to create a new one. I think a new one needs to be created, and it has to start with knowledge and awareness of the dynamics involved. You can’t fix anything if you don’t understand how it works. Human society behaves exactly like the atom—it has 2 major forces just as the atom has 2 major forces, and they are the same forces and they behave the same.

Human beings have not always separated themselves from the natural world. Before the development of agriculture, the San-like people tried to live in harmony with nature. With agriculture came the emergence of a predominantly-male, SN power-control force which captured the San-like people as its fuel—exactly as protons did with electrons 380,000 years after the Big Bang. It is the same dynamic, and it is the same dynamic throughout the universe and the natural world.

One reason the world has so many seemingly insoluble problems is that the SN is in total control and the IMPACTS have no idea who they are and where they stand in the grand scheme of things. I hope I can change that—IMPACTS need to understand that they are the real source of power around the world, and they can start using that power more judiciously once they understand how all of it works.

Everything is political. The SN force that emerged with agriculture has always wanted to keep people in the dark—to keep knowledge away so they could maintain control. It is no different today but the machinations are more cleverly disguised. The SN wants people to believe it is “us against them”—us against other countries, religions, and societies. It is not. It is the SN against other SNs, and all are using the IMPACTS as their fuel—to create and produce goods and services (the economy) and weaponry for the military. SNs are essentially pitting IMPACTS against IMPACTS, which is especially heinous because IMPACTS are usually peaceful people who just want to make the world better. The creative-productive abilities of the IMPACTS are used by SNs around the world to inflict horrible damage on other people. The SN-types would prefer that the IMPACTS not learn that they (the IMPACTS) are the powerful “weak force” of humanity. Then the SNs can continue setting the agenda.

I have repeatedly said over the past few years that I see a dynamic operating across the universe that tries to maximize the potential. After years of study, I now believe it is the weak force.

Is the weak force God? I think the weak force is predominantly Goddess.

Dickey Eason, Cary, NC.

www.theimpacts.com

Stephen Hawking: God Was Not Needed To Create The Universe

majestic — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:52:07 +0000

Stephen Hawking says the Big Bang was the result of the inevitable laws of physics and did not need God to spark the creation of the Universe — reported in the Telegraph:

The scientist has claimed that no divine force was needed to explain why the Universe was formed.

In his latest book, The Grand Design, an extract of which is published in Eureka magazine in The Times, Hawking said: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist.”

He added: “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.”

In A Brief History of Time, Prof Hawking’s most famous work, he did not dismiss the possibility that God had a hand in the creation of the world.

He wrote in the 1988 book: “If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God.”

In his new book he rejects Sir Isaac Newton’s theory that the Universe did not spontaneously begin to form but was set in motion by God…

[continues in the Telegraph]

Thinking About God Calms Believers, Stresses Atheists

majestic — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:14:45 +0000

What does thinking about God do to agnostics though? Report from Live Science:

Researchers have determined that thinking about God can help relieve anxiety associated with making mistakes. However, the finding only holds for people who believe in a God.

The researchers measured brain waves for a particular kind of distress response while participants made mistakes on a test.

Those who had been prepared with religious thoughts had a less prominent response to mistakes than those who hadn’t.

“Eighty-five percent of the world has some sort of religious beliefs,” says Michael Inzlicht, who cowrote the study with Alexa Tullett, both at the University of Toronto-Scarborough.

“I think it behooves us as psychologists to study why people have these beliefs; exploring what functions, if any, they may serve.”

With two experiments, the researchers showed that when people think about religion and God, their brains respond differently—in a way that lets them take setbacks in stride and react with less distress to anxiety-provoking mistakes.

Participants either wrote about religion or did a scrambled word task that included religion and God-related words.

Then the researchers recorded their brain activity as they completed a computerized task—one that was chosen because it has a high rate of errors.

The results showed that when people were primed to think about religion and God, either consciously or unconsciously, brain activity decreases in areas consistent with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC is associated with a number of things, including regulating bodily states of arousal and alerting us when things are going wrong.

Interestingly, atheists reacted differently. When they were unconsciously primed with God-related ideas, their ACC increased its activity. The researchers suggest that for religious people, thinking about God may provide a way of ordering the world and explaining apparently random events and thus reduce their feelings of distress.

In contrast, for atheists, thoughts of God may contradict the meaning systems they embrace and thus cause them more distress…

[continues at Live Science]

A White God Freakout

majestic — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:31:36 +0000

Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone:

Thanks to Jonathan Schwarz of TinyRevolution.com for passing along this hilarious exchange between Time reporter Alex Wilson and Julie Hollar of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). It’s one of the best case studies in the dangers of Google that I’ve ever seen.

The thing about Googling yourself — look, everyone’s done it. In the most literal sense, it’s like jacking off, and find me the grown man who’ll deny that he does that. But part of the growing up process is learning that playing with oneself, if not shameful and sordid exactly, it’s certainly something to be done at all times in private. Not even your average eight year-old will go charging bug-eyed into a room full of grownups frantically pulling on his Johnson. Time reporter Alex Wilson turns out to be a different story, however.

Background: last week, the press watchdogs at FAIR did a review of Wilson’s scare piece about how the Chinese are taking over Africa (China’s New Focus on Africa, June 24). The Wilson piece used the standard Western-correspondent formula for covering the third world, a formula I’m very familiar with from my Russia days. In it, the moral of every story you write has to be that the backward subject country cannot survive without the indulgence, political protection, and gigantic brain-power of the superior Western societies. At the eXile we used to call this “White God” reporting.

As my friend Schwarz amusingly dug up, Wilson is such a master of the White-God template that he even wrote a piece once (Come Back Colonialism, All is Forgiven, Feb. 14 2008) based on the musings of a Congolese riverboat captain who missed Belgian rule. The money quote from that piece:

“On this river, all that you see — the buildings, the boats — only whites did that. After the whites left, the Congolese did not work. We did not know how to. For the past 50 years, we’ve just declined.” He pauses. “They took this country by force,” he says, with more than a touch of admiration. “If they came back, this time we’d give them the country for free.”

Anyway, in his latest thing, Wilson was up to something similar, seeming to blame everything that’s wrong with modern Africa, including AIDS and malaria, on Independent Congo. He drew FAIR into the action when he added that “Independent Congo gave the world Mobutu Sese Seko, who for 32 years impoverished his people while traveling the world in a chartered Concorde.” This comment provoked FAIR’s Hollar to note…

The Key to the Secret of the Universe, Part 2

Robert Singer — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:59:57 +0000

Robert Singer writes:

Part 1 of The Key to the Secret of the Universe claims the key is the following arithmetic calculation from dates and numbers found in the Bible:

1978 – 1290 = 688 A.D. (Historical Event 3 – Israel is at peace with its Arab neighbor took place in 1978)
1967 – 1279 = 688 A.D. (Historical Event 2 – the control of the holy of holies. The people of Israel had control of the Temple Mount in 1967)
1948 – 1260 = 688 A.D. (Historical Event 1 – the end of Diaspora. The people of Israel had their own state in 1948) Is Jesus Christ Coming Back to Earth in XXXXIII (2023)?

The following verses identify the Mosque of Omar (the Dome of the Rock), built in 688 A.D. as the “abomination of the desolation” as spoken of by the messiah Jesus Christ:

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand). Mark 13:14

And the prophet Daniel:

And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. Daniel 11, v31

The Dome of the Rock was one of the most important events for Christians, Jews and Muslims. [1]

Ian Gurney’s The Cassandra Prophecy, which contained the exegesis that proved the abomination of desolation is the Dome of the Rock, is considered by some to be a work of unparalleled eschatological research and the seminal essay on the future according to ancient prophecy found in the book of Daniel and Revelation (A summary of Gurney’s work can be found in my article, Is Jesus Christ Coming Back to Earth in XXXXIII (2023)?) [2]

There is no possibility the construction of The Dome of the Rock built in 688 A.D. or that the people of Israel had their own state in 1948,was a chance occurrence. [3]

Gurney correctly realized this was impossible without providence or miracles and incorrectly concludes “Ancient prophecy and world events appear to be running in parallel, and mankind’s destiny seems to have already been foretold.”

Put another way, Gurney believes:

God, in his omniscience, told the sixth century B.C. prophet Daniel and the father of modern political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, these events would occur by providence or miracle.
God was the hidden hand behind the Scofield Bible, WW I, WW II, the Holocaust and the deaths of 70 million people because Jehovah wanted to see his chosen people arrive in Haifa not in 1946, or 1950 but in 1948.

Mr. Gurney did not consider my conclusion that:

Satan told Daniel what to write and at the first Zionist conference in 1897, Baron Rothschild told Theodore Herzl that UN Resolution (GA 181) creating the Modern State of Israel would be adopted within 50 years.
Satan and the House of Rothschild (TPTB) were the not-so-hidden hand behind the Scofield Bible, WW I, WW II, the Holocaust and the deaths of 70 million people because there was a satanic purpose for the Jews arriving in Haifa not in 1946, or 1950 but in1948. The Modern State of Israel Providence, Miracle, or What Really Happened – Part 1/4 World War I, II – Part 2/4

The prima facie case for my conclusion can be found in Appendix A.

Look for the third and final installment: The Satanic purpose behind The House of Rothschild getting the Jews to The Modern State of Israel in 1948 and how it unlocks The Key to the Secret of the Universe.

Robert Singer writes for The Market Oracle and The Peoples Voice. (http://twitter.com/rds2301)

If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; but if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.”– Don Marquis

Footnotes:

[1] Omar ibn al Khattab, advisor to Mohammed and the second caliph ordered that a magnificent golden domed mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, be built… directly over “the most holy place” in Jerusalem.

[2] Ian Gurney has studied theology and eschatology for the last thirty years and is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on the Biblical Books of Daniel and Revelation, together with the prophecies of Nostradamus and the Papal predictions of Malachy. The Cassandra Prophesy is the result of twelve years of research: “The Cassandra Prophecy” considered by some to be a work of unparalleled eschatological research and the seminal essay on the future according to ancient prophecy.

[3] Experts in probability acknowledge there is no way to calculate the odds of these three events happening because it is impossible.

Appendix A, a Prima Facie Case

Below are 10 allegations, facts and evidence used to prove a Prima Facie Case for:

Satan and the House of Rothschild (The Powers That Be, TBTB) were the not-so-hidden hand behind the Scofield Bible, WW I, WW II, the Holocaust and the deaths of 70 million people because there was a satanic purpose for the Jews arriving in Haifa not in 1946, or 1950 but in 1948.

1. The Modern State of Israel and therefore, the Dome of the Rock portends Armageddon [4]

2. Satan is behind all the secret societies in history.

The Knights Templar: Origins go back to Solomon’s Temple, the Great Pyramid. Freemasons, Priory of Sion, Illuminati, Templars and Other Groups Explained, by Jotter Scalems. The Amazing Knights Templar, by David Hatcher Childress

[Authors Note: Lest anyone think the material contained herein is historical fiction, watch the History Channel documentary Mysteries of the Freemasons]

The House of Rothschild, the Illuminati and The Mysteries of the Freemasons

The “Illuminati” was a name used by a German sect that existed in the 15th century.

Dr. Adam Weishaupt, A Human Devil, was born on February 6, 1748, the son of a Jewish (Khazar) rabbi had been indoctrinated into Egyptian occult. He studied the power of the Eleusinian mysteries and the influence exerted by the secret cult of the Pythagoreans. [5]

Weishaupt also studied the teachings of the Essenes, and acquired copies of the Kabal, The Major Key of Solomon and The Lesser Key of Solomon, which revealed how to conjure up demons and perform occult rituals.

On May 1, 1776, under the direction of the newly formed House of Rothschild, he united all the different occult groups and founded the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria, derived from Luciferian teachings, which became known as the Order of the Illuminati.

In 1776, one of those coincidences that don’t happen very often happened:

May 10, 1776 the Continental Congress authorized the thirteen colonies to form local (provincial) governments.
Jul 4, 1776 The Declaration of Independence is signed.

In 1777, Weishaupt joined the Eclectic Masonic lodge “Theodore of Good Counsel” in Munich, and near the end of 1778, he came up with the idea of merging the Illuminati and the Masons.

The Freemasons practiced the occult and professed to have the ‘light’ received from Satan. By the middle of 1779, the Freemasons were under the complete influence of the Illuminati and the Rosicrucian Order.

Rosicrucians believe that “true knowledge of the universe can only be known by the elite”, who in turn have a responsibility to share thisknowledge with the masses.

Freemasonry uses the metaphors of operative stonemasons’ tools and implements, against the allegorical backdrop of the building of King Solomon’s Temple, to convey the knowledge to the masses.

The Mason’s system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, serve only one purpose. They keep the profane (masses), “who aren’t fornicating and reading the papers” [Albert Camus], busy deciphering the symbols and clues that lead nowhere… until the time of the end. [6]

The House of Rothschild (The Illuminati), responsible for all social cataclysms in the modern history are behind WW I, WW II and The Modern State of Israel because it was a pivotal and a necessary part of their plan for a New World Order. [7]

3. Satan undoubtedly wrote, or at the very least, influenced the most important book in Western civilization, the Bible.

The followers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam who insist on the inerrancy of the Bible also believe in demonic spirits and would agree:

Satan is not stupid, in fact, he is extremely clever
Satan can influence people and the writing of books
Satan has been around since before the creation of the world
Satan’s mission is to lead us away from the work of God

And since Satan does his best work through religions, it’s obvious he would be present at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 when the earlier gospels were gathered up and burned. Satan Wrote the Bible [8] [9]

4. Psychohistory can explain why professor Bart D. Ehrman, a professor of Religious Studies, considers “the Bible the most important book in Western Civilization.”

Anyone who thinks God wrote the Bible, should read Ehrman’s, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why.

Ehrman says he immerses himself in the Bible, “though he doesn’t believe in its infallibility”, because “ it is the most important book in Western civilization.”

Satan understood “the science of historical motivation,” (i.e. psychohistory – the study of psychology and history) and the principle of methodological individualism (Broadbeck; Danto; Mandelbaum).

Methodological individualism is the theory that “the ultimate constituents of the social world are individual people. Every complex situation, institution, or event is the result of a particular configuration and the interactions of groups – nations, political parties, gangs or tribes of individuals, their dispositions and beliefs, and physical resources and environments” (Danto, 267).

All or part of the Bible has been translated into more than 1,200 languages, and every year more copies of the Bible are sold than of any other single book.

It doesn’t matter what you believe about the Bible: The work of God or Satan, it needs to be studied because it shaped the dispositions and beliefs of most of humanity on earth.

There are only two possibilities why Satan left the Key in the Book of Daniel (688 A.D.):

[Before you start arguing that you don’t accept Satan wrote the Bible and God left the Key in the book then consider the following: Jehovah put the Key in the book of Daniel (12:9) because he wanted you to find it but then in an earlier verse (12:2) forbids you from touching it or “running to and fro” trying to figure it because if you did manage to unseal it “knowledge shall be increased”, even to the time of the end]

1. Satan is arrogant, inept or just stupid and left the Key in verse 12:9. By the time he realized his mistake it was too late so he added the warning: You are not allowed to touch it or “run to and fro trying to” figure it because if you unsealed it, “knowledge would increase”, even to the end of time (verse 12:2).

2. Satan is arrogant, but he is neither inept or stupid.

The Key could not have been discovered before 1948.

The Freemasons placed a pyramid, a Pagan temple of Satan worship, on the one dollar bill with the capstone not yet joined upon the top of the pyramid.

Included are the Latin words from the Great Seal of the United States of America, ‘Annuit Coeptis’ which translates to ‘The Birth Of’ and ‘Novus Ordo Seclorum’ the ‘New World Order’.

The symbolism is to signify that the plan is not complete because three milestones on the road to a One World Government and New World Order had not taken place in 1776.

What was left to complete in 1776, 1789 or 1910?

Historical Event 1 – the end of Diaspora. The people of Israel had their own state in 1948.
Historical Event 2 – the control of the holy of holies. The people of Israel had control of the Temple Mount in 1967
Historical Event 3 – Israel is at peace with its Arab neighbor took place in 1978

The Key was not discovered until 1999 when The Cassandra Prophesy was published.

However, the Key could not unlock any secret because Gurney came to the incorrect conclusion that “Ancient prophecy and world events appear to be running in parallel, and mankind’s destiny seems to have already been foretold.”

And to make doubly sure the Key could not unlock anything for as long as possible, Satan is behind the “error” made in 1898. James Hastings, M.A., D.D. in 1898 published a dictionary of the Bible that analyzes the different interpretations of Daniel 11:31 and ignores the plain language of Mathew 24:15 and inexplicably identified “the abomination of desolation” as 167 B.C. [10]

Appendix Footnotes:

[4] The Modern State of Israel portends Armageddon.

Armageddon, the final battle, will come when someone blows up the Dome of the Rock. That magnificent golden domed mosque built on the site of Solomon’s Temple (the abomination of desolation) is preventing the return of the messiah. Radical Christians and Jews believe Christ will not come back to earth until the Jews rebuild the Temple.

Should the Dome be demolished, then for the first time in history, thanks to Saddam Hussein when he destroyed 90 percent of Iraq’s Wetlands, 200 million people could cross the Euphrates for a holy war in Jerusalem.

A war that will rid the planet of millions of useless eaters.

The Rothschild New World Order only needs 500 million of us for slaves. The Modern State of Israel Series

[5] Gerald B. Winrod wrote in his Upon the Civil Amelioration of the Condition of the Jews wrote in his book Adam Weishaupt is A Human Devil.

[6] Occultists love the number “13″ (thirteen colonies)

1776 was the birth of our nation and in one of those coincidences that don’t happen very often, 1776 is the same year the modern Illuminati was formed.

The Great Seal was designed by the Freemasons, who were given the job of creating the occult and Masonic symbols by the Illuminati (TPTB) to keep the masses busy until the time of the end.

Careful analysis of the seal and the so-called American Eagle discloses: [10]

13 leaves in the olive branch
13 bars and stripes in the shield
13 arrows in the right claw
13 letters in the “E Pluribus Unum” on the ribbon
13 stars in the green crest above
32 long feathers on its right wing representing the 32º in Freemasonry
13 granite stones in the Pyramid. (The 13 layers represent the 13 Illuminati bloodlines)
13 letters in Annuit Coeptis

[7] TPTB, all members of the occult, are in a struggle to take over the Earth. An Ominous Drilling Sign for the Truth

[8] What is the best evidence that Satan wrote the Bible?

The Apostle Paul has the answer: Eternal life (Immortality) with God is a free gift.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; Not of works, lest any man should boast.” No man can stand before God in eternity, and boast that they ‘earned’ their way to Heaven. All people in Heaven will be there only because of Jesus’ Free Gift, which He obtained from God because of His substitutionary death sacrifice on the Cross. Rather than punishing each person’s individual sins, God heaped all those sins on Jesus on the Cross Isaiah 53:2-12] In Ephesians 2:8-9

Now, you are probably thinking, ‘How can I obtain this free gift of eternal life’? Again, the Bible is not silent. In Acts 16:25-33, the jailer anxiously asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved”? Paul answered “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved …” verse 31″. You must BELIEVE on Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. To truly believe, you must place your complete faith and trust in Christ and rely upon Him as your only hope of salvation and eternal life. This is a matter of the heart and you cannot hope to deceive God by putting on an act because He knows everything about you. Many people mistakenly think that by merely believing the facts concerning Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, they will be automatically be given the gift of eternal life. But such is not the case. Preachers call that a “head knowledge and not a heart knowledge.” Salvation is freely given, but only to those who are genuine believers.

Only The Bible reveals the truth about Salvation. Did I mention it’s a Free Gift.

[9] The Bible “did not fall from the sky.” The books of the New Testament, written by the apostles, were selected by the Churches in the persons of its bishops and teachers in order to get the “story about Jesus” straight. How do we know that?

Luke 1: 1-4, where Luke, a friend and disciple of the apostle Paul (not jesus), wrote his gospel as “an orderly account” of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus after having “carefully studied” and consulting “eyewitnesses.”

Until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet….a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. Then the “eyewitnesses” established Jesus’ officially as the Son of God.

[10] There are four stumbling blocks that have kept mankind and scholars from fully understanding the book of Revelation and the date of the 1st and 2nd Coming of the Messiah.

1. Believers and Biblical scholars spend their time interpreting and reinterpreting the scriptures to convince themselves they either (a) get the blessings promised to Israel or (b) will be raptured right before the tribulation.

2. The year of the 2nd Coming could not be verified until the latter half of the twentieth century.

3. Christians incorrectly believe Mark 13, is a commandment by God that “no one is allowed to know something that “even the angels in heaven don’t know.” God told Daniel the year, not the day or the hour.

4. An “error” made over 1400 years ago.

An error made in the seventh century BC concerns an event that ranks as one of the most important in the history Jews, Christians and Muslims: “The abomination of the desolation”.

And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate Dan 11:31

James Hastings, M.A., D.D. in 1898 published a dictionary of the Bible that analyzes the different interpretations of Daniel 11:31 and ignores the plain language of Mathew 24:15:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand).

Inexplicably he concludes the verse refers to “The setting up by Antiochus Epiphanies of a small idol/altar on the altar of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 167 BC” and the Maccabean revolution.

Jesus contradicts this interpretation in the gospels,

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand). Mark 13:14

The two verses refer to a conversation between Jesus, Peter, James and Andrew on theMount of Olives. Before he mentions the abomination Jesus says the following to his disciples admiring the grandeur of the temple.

Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down Mark 13:2

Here Jesus is prophesying an event that is to take place within the lifetime of the disciples. August 29th in 70 A.D. (the exact same day the Babylonians burned down Solomon’s temple 657 years earlier) the Roman army razed Herod’s Temple to the ground.

As Jesus places the event of the abomination after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. and uses the words “when ye shall see” (Mark 13:14), he places the event in the future.

It is impossible the abomination spoken of by Jesus could have taken place prior to 70 AD and therefore any exegesis that identifies the abomination, as 167 B.C. is the “error” made over 1400 years ago.

A dictionary of the Bible; dealing with its language, literature, and contents, including the Biblical theology; ed. by James Hastings with the assistance of John A. Selbie, A. B. Davidson, S. R. Driver, H. B. Swete. New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1898-1904. 5 vols. Humanities & Area Studies Res Ctr BS440 .H5. The Cassandra Prophecy, Ian Gurney

Dear God, Please Confirm What I Already Believe

majestic — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:23:20 +0000

Andy Coghlan writes in New Scientist:

God may have created man in his image, but it seems we return the favour. Believers subconsciously endow God with their own beliefs on controversial issues.

“Intuiting God’s beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber to validate and justify one’s own beliefs,” writes a team led by Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers started by asking volunteers who said they believe in God to give their own views on controversial topics, such as abortion and the death penalty. They also asked what the volunteers thought were the views of God, average Americans and public figures such as Bill Gates. Volunteers’ own beliefs corresponded most strongly with those they attributed to God.

Next, the team asked another group of volunteers to undertake tasks designed to soften their existing views, such as preparing speeches on the death penalty in which they had to take the opposite view to their own. They found that this led to shifts in the beliefs attributed to God, but not in those attributed to other people.

“People may use religious agents as a moral compass, forming impressions and making decisions based on what they presume God as the ultimate moral authority would believe or want,” the team write. “The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing. This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God’s beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing.” …

[continues in in New Scientist]

Massive Atheism Ads Arriving in Major U.S. Cities

majestic — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:37:31 +0000

CNN is reporting (below) that atheist ads are going to be all over New York City’s subways next week, while the Chicago Tribune reveals that the second city is one step ahead (see photo):

Some New Yorkers may want to reconsider exclaiming “Thank God” when arriving at their destination subway station beginning Monday.

Or at least that’s what a coalition of eight atheist organizations are hoping, having purchased a month-long campaign that will place their posters in a dozen busy subway stations throughout Manhattan.

The advertisements ask the question, written simply over an image of a blue sky with wispy white clouds: “A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?”

On October 26, a dozen bustling New York City subway stations will be adorned with the ads as “part of a coordinated multi-organizational advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about people who don’t believe in a god”, according to a statement from the group, the Big Apple Coalition of Reason.

Atheism 3.0 Finds a Little More Room For Religion

majestic — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:40:20 +0000

A surprising article in USA Today suggests that some atheists are now pro-religion while still anti-God:

Bruce Sheiman doesn’t believe in God, but he does believe in religion.

Setting aside the question of whether God exists, it’s clear that the benefits of faith far outweigh its costs, he argues in his new book, An Atheist Defends Religion: Why Humanity is Better Off With Religion than Without It.

“I don’t know if anybody is going to be able to convince me that God exists,” Sheiman said in an interview, “but they can convince me that religion has intrinsic value.”

The old atheists said there was no God. The so-called “New Atheists” said there was no God, and they were vocally vicious about it. Now, the new “New Atheists” — call it Atheism 3.0 — say there’s still no God, but maybe religion isn’t all that bad.

Faith provides meaning and purpose for millions of believers, inspires people to tend to each other and build communities, gives them a sense of union with a transcendent force, and provides numerous health benefits, Sheiman says. Moreover, the galvanizing force behind many achievements in Western civilization has been faith, Sheiman argues, while conceding that he limits his analysis, for the most part, to modern Western religion.

“More than any other institution, religion deserves our appreciation and respect because it has persistently encouraged people to care deeply — for the self, for neighbors, for humanity, and for the natural world — and to strive for the highest ideals humans are able to envision,” Sheiman writes…

Lord Save Us From Your Followers

majestic — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:15:23 +0000

Interesting new movie about the religious clashes occurring around America today. Official site here.