This is exactly why separation of church and state is imperative to maintain a democracy. Christianity is a death cult based on fiction preached as fact to separate its believers from their money and to control them.
I've become so much of a heathen that I didn't even know it was Easter until I turned the calendar page to April and happened to notice it written on the 5th. Regardless, as far as I'm concerned this "holiday" is about hard-boiled eggs, bunnies, and hollow chocolate figurines. BOY, was I pissed the first time I got a chocolate bunny and found out it was hollow! What kind of nonsense is that to do to a kid? Happy Bunny Day, everyone!
Happy Bunny Day fellow Heathen. I headed to Wally World Friday morning to see 3 cars parked. My inquiry to 2 bystanders disclosed, "it's Good Friday". I responded," but every Friday was a good Friday". 🙄 as a very failed Christian, I suppose now I have to worry about going to hell. 😇
I'm a Christian. I also strongly believe in the separation of church and state. I don't want the government in my church, and I definitely don't want my church, or anyone else's, in the government. I 💯 respect the choices of others when it comes to religion. We should all be allowed to believe and worship as we choose. That's what freedom is supposed to mean.
I don't understand why this has not been stopped, it clearly is not in keeping with religious freedom & separation of church & state (which has always been a primary factor in the worst conflicts throughout history). Professional ETHICS are solid principles that are not theological fairy tales.. The people using their official positions to promote personal beliefs are not only in dereliction of duty, but breaking the law & their oaths to uphold our constitution. Zero tolerance for religion in government. Once these shits start in with their false claims of "moral" superiority, it is ALL about their divine to supremacy in every aspect of our lives.
Perfectly said, Richard, to the point! That is what we need, straight talk, not endless debate & justification. Our law is clear, you can't do that in any official capacity & any one qualified to be in a leadership position has to be careful about their personal lives interfering with doing their jobs. Any conflict of interest has to be taken seriously.
This, and I’d add that I think the first reason for the founding of religions was fear of mortality. This way, there’s life after death and that’s makes it much less scary and damn sure impermanent. Embrace the horror, folks, everybody/everything dies! Even the universe, tho it will take maybe trillions of years; the black holes will be the last to go.
As someone (not me!) once wrote, "What if death was something entirely different, and more wonderful, than we think?" I mean, who knows, really? So if you wanna imagine death is a horror, feel free, I guess.
*I* don’t think it’s a horror, I embrace my mortality. I think it’s among the biggest reasons life is so precious and amazing; that comment was directed to our ancestors who invented religion and those who still don’t accept death as an inevitable part of life. Sorry if I wasn’t clear (I thought my initial statement and subsequent reply made it so, but my bad).
Yeah, Clint. It won't be long until I enter what's been classified as the "old old" stage of life by geriatricians. And, while I still enjoy most things in my life I can feel a growing sense that at some point I'll be more than ready to lie down and rest. And here's just one more thing: after my mother died there were three separate events for which the most parsimonious explanation is that she, or some version of her, was still somehow around and communicating. I won't get into the details, but so many people report such instances that they make you wonder. My mother-in-law 'saw' her brother standing in the door to her room holding a suitcase one morning, and quite naturally asked him what he was doing there. He answered, "I just came to say goodbye," and, um, dematerialized. So she called his wife, in Germany, and was told that her brother died in a crash on the autobahn at precisely the hour when he showed up in her doorway thousands of miles away. So go figure. At this point I am neither wishing for nor resisting the idea of dying, but accepting of the fact that everything changes continually before coming to an end, at which point its energy transforms into something else, according to physics. There's a rare sweetness in that. Peace, brother.
At 62, I’m no spring chicken myself, Leigh, (plus being disabled definitely ages the body faster, re: capabilities), so I think I understand you. I think it may be a common theme, that one just gets…tired, if not entirely ready, then more ready to lie down (as you eloquently put it). And I’ve heard many stories/accountings, myself, re: unexplainable occurrences, several within my own family, and I don’t discount them out of hand. Not having died, I obviously don’t know what happens to a certainty, and energy does indeed go somewhere. I love to learn, I have a reasonably open mind, and I don’t begrudge others their harmless-to-others beliefs. I just don’t personally believe in any religion I’ve seen, heard about. And I’ve damn sure seen much more harm than good come out of organized religion (but not for everyone categorically). Not my thing. It’d be damn cool if there were…something, but I go back to us all being made from actual dust from stars, and eventually becoming that again, and that’s cool enough for me!
We agree on any number of things, even if we might have differing footnotes. IMHO (as a sort of Zennish/Scienceish/Show Me sort of person, most religions emerge from the presence of a sense of numinosity about stardust and all else that's intruiging, and/or the charismatic presence of a teacher with especial gifts of intuition. And as such they immediately become corrupted by the longings of the lumpish egoic self and end by propping up the very notions that the intuitives all seem to warn against. Too bad; so sad. Right now the Abrahamic religionists seem to carry the weight of all that. But Buddhists have persecuted the Rohingyas, so. I get it, I really do. But there are so many interesting mysteries, aren't there. Be well and happy,
Its constitution, adopted in 1979 by referendum, established a system combining elements of theocracy and republican governance. The constitution provides for separation of powers, among executive, legislative and judicial systems. The supreme leader of Iran serves as the country's head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces and holds ultimate authority over key state institutions, including the military, judiciary, and state broadcasting.
Sounds like just what the current federal administration wants to establish here; same God, different Prophet. This begs the question: Why are they bombing Iran?
I was raised in a religion that wasn’t exactly mainstream (Christian Science) and falls on the metaphysical side. I have not identified as Christian for a very long time. I’ve gotten to be such a heathen and simply say that whatever someone believes is fine as long as it makes them a kind and loving person. I do NOT want religion of ANY kind in my government, schools or other institutions affiliated with anything Sate or Federal.
The proselytizers need to be called on the carpet and reprimanded. There is no place for what they’re doing other than the street corner. There are as many ways back to one’s spiritual home as there are people on the planet! All roads lead home unless you’re an atheist and believe when you’re gone, you just cease to be. Either way, that works.
If you really want to stand in the gap and go hmmmm, check out the quantum physics research. When the scientists started going deeper and deeper (sub sub sub-atomic levels), what they didn’t find blew them away. I’m no scientist so do not know the exact details but….. they didn’t find anything solid. In other words, it’s all energy. The implications of that literally turn everything we thought we knew upside down. Hence my being on that same road…
It's always seemed strange to me that people prosletyze. I was raised Catholic but dropped it and all religions when I finished undergraduate work. In my experience people who believe in gods and other magical creatures are no better than those of us who do not believe in biblical fictions, so who cares what people believe in? My three sons are all kind and honest and loving people, yet they were never brainwashed into a belief system. Religion has no more of a place in government than one's taste in music.
As a Christian, western tradition, who celebrates Easter, it leaves me out, also. Not only because Christian Nationalists do not really recognize any belief that isn't their own narrow view, but because the separation of Church and State is a separation that is a beautiful and necessary thing. Tearing it down will eventually destroy BOTH Church and State, and replace them with whatever dystopian hell, the oligarchs with their hands up Donnie's back, want to install.
"At 9am eastern time, Rubio posted on his account, “He is Risen.” Within seconds, the State Department responded, “He is Risen, Indeed!”"
I am so fucking tired of the American Pseudochristians testifying about their religious convictions, all based on a serious perversion of the teachings of the Christ. Five names immediately jumped into my brain: Rubio, Kegbreath, MAGA Mike Johnson, the Hillbilly, and the Coward-in-Chief. (I must admit feeling some relief knowing that Franklin Graham [bless his heart] has informed Diaper Man that he can still get into heaven just by proclaiming his belief in and wholehearted acceptance of White Jesus.)
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"when He returns, there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth, and we will all be together and we are going to have a great reunion there again…”
* Hey, don't forget there will be a New Jerusalem too.
* The great reunion Rubio is babbling about will be rather sparsely attended. Only about 30% of the world's population identify as Christian, so around 70% will either have to convert when Jeebus returns or not be invited to the party. Islam is approaching 2 billion adherents, Hinduism about 1.2 billion, and Buddhism has about 500 million. On top of that:
> "Another 7 percent of the global population identify with religions with much smaller followings....
An estimated 6 percent of the world’s population are adherents of folk or traditional religions....
About 16 percent of people around the world have no religious affiliation. These “nones” include atheists, agnostics, and people who may believe in God or spiritual life but do not identify with any particular religion." https://populationeducation.org/world-population-by-religion-a-global-tapestry-of-faith/ [The numbers cited above from the same source.]
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"It’s an assertion that Christianity’s defining claims are factually correct."
There's just one small problem here: religious Jews believe that the Old Testament is the unadulterated word of G-d and is "factually correct;" then came the Christians who also claim that the New Testament is "factually correct;" and then Muslims who say the Qur'an is the true word of Allah. Is the Bhagavad Gita ("Song of God"), a conversation between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna, factual? What about Buddhist sutras?
Krishnamurti sums religion up nicely:
> "Truth is a pathless land.
Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it."
Hear hear for the 16%! I’m a proud member. Isn’t it cool enough that we are made of stardust, literally, and to stardust we’ll return? No pleasing folks
I have been a proud pagan for over 50 years now. When pressed I usually reply (I try not to spend much time with those who want to engage on their terms with no mutual respect shown for my beliefs) that through my paganism I'm an agnostic seeking Gnosis.
"we are made of stardust"
The Cathari believed that every living entity carries a spark of light of the one true G-d within, and that when you pass that spark is reunited with him. The only problem was that, like pretty much all the other organized religions through history, they believed that if you didn't lead a pure life -- by their standards -- you were doomed to be returned to this material world.
I have no respect for ppl who force it upon others, esp a country, esp white Christian nationalism. I have great respect for good ppl, no matter their beliefs. And your seeking Gnosis is admirable. The great thing about my literal definition of what we’re made of is it doesn’t discriminate, it just is. I wish you well, sir.
I think what you might be referring to is the Christ's answer to Peter when asked how many times he should forgive someone who constantly "sins" against them; seven times? He responded that it should be seven times seven, or seventy seven depending on which version you read.
To answer the question of will the two numbnutz be among the Chosen is that the Rapture will encompass all true believers... which rules them out.
The least Christ-like of Christians, Little Marco Big-Shoes preaching the word of God. Both him and whiskey pete should shut their mouths. I'm not a practicing Catholic, just raised in the Church from birth until I guess I was13. Found in my young mind that a lot of things they preached from the pulpit did not actually take place on the ground. Organized religion can make one cynical.
The way these guys are pushing this fake form of Christianity when they themselves are so violent and selfish is making me think that Christian Nationalism isn't going over as well as they thought it would. Step outside of your bubble guys - not everyone wants the return of The Crusades. It did not end well.
This is exactly why separation of church and state is imperative to maintain a democracy. Christianity is a death cult based on fiction preached as fact to separate its believers from their money and to control them.
I've become so much of a heathen that I didn't even know it was Easter until I turned the calendar page to April and happened to notice it written on the 5th. Regardless, as far as I'm concerned this "holiday" is about hard-boiled eggs, bunnies, and hollow chocolate figurines. BOY, was I pissed the first time I got a chocolate bunny and found out it was hollow! What kind of nonsense is that to do to a kid? Happy Bunny Day, everyone!
The trick is to eat the ears, which have less air space...
Happy Bunny Day fellow Heathen. I headed to Wally World Friday morning to see 3 cars parked. My inquiry to 2 bystanders disclosed, "it's Good Friday". I responded," but every Friday was a good Friday". 🙄 as a very failed Christian, I suppose now I have to worry about going to hell. 😇
My favorite thing about Easter is---Peeps!
I'm a Christian. I also strongly believe in the separation of church and state. I don't want the government in my church, and I definitely don't want my church, or anyone else's, in the government. I 💯 respect the choices of others when it comes to religion. We should all be allowed to believe and worship as we choose. That's what freedom is supposed to mean.
I don't understand why this has not been stopped, it clearly is not in keeping with religious freedom & separation of church & state (which has always been a primary factor in the worst conflicts throughout history). Professional ETHICS are solid principles that are not theological fairy tales.. The people using their official positions to promote personal beliefs are not only in dereliction of duty, but breaking the law & their oaths to uphold our constitution. Zero tolerance for religion in government. Once these shits start in with their false claims of "moral" superiority, it is ALL about their divine to supremacy in every aspect of our lives.
You say it so much better than me. See my comment below before I read yours.
Don’t sell yours short, my friend—I loved it, as well!
Noem and Bondi are gone. Hegseth and Rubio should be next.
Holyshit! You fuckin gotta be kidding me! You can’t do that on official government sites!
Perfectly said, Richard, to the point! That is what we need, straight talk, not endless debate & justification. Our law is clear, you can't do that in any official capacity & any one qualified to be in a leadership position has to be careful about their personal lives interfering with doing their jobs. Any conflict of interest has to be taken seriously.
Oh? And just who has the stones to stop them?
I think religion was early humans way of dealing with phenomena they didn't understand.
rubio is going to be shocked when no angel comes down from heaven to rescue his lying ass at his trial. I'm looking forward to that.
This, and I’d add that I think the first reason for the founding of religions was fear of mortality. This way, there’s life after death and that’s makes it much less scary and damn sure impermanent. Embrace the horror, folks, everybody/everything dies! Even the universe, tho it will take maybe trillions of years; the black holes will be the last to go.
As someone (not me!) once wrote, "What if death was something entirely different, and more wonderful, than we think?" I mean, who knows, really? So if you wanna imagine death is a horror, feel free, I guess.
*I* don’t think it’s a horror, I embrace my mortality. I think it’s among the biggest reasons life is so precious and amazing; that comment was directed to our ancestors who invented religion and those who still don’t accept death as an inevitable part of life. Sorry if I wasn’t clear (I thought my initial statement and subsequent reply made it so, but my bad).
Yeah, Clint. It won't be long until I enter what's been classified as the "old old" stage of life by geriatricians. And, while I still enjoy most things in my life I can feel a growing sense that at some point I'll be more than ready to lie down and rest. And here's just one more thing: after my mother died there were three separate events for which the most parsimonious explanation is that she, or some version of her, was still somehow around and communicating. I won't get into the details, but so many people report such instances that they make you wonder. My mother-in-law 'saw' her brother standing in the door to her room holding a suitcase one morning, and quite naturally asked him what he was doing there. He answered, "I just came to say goodbye," and, um, dematerialized. So she called his wife, in Germany, and was told that her brother died in a crash on the autobahn at precisely the hour when he showed up in her doorway thousands of miles away. So go figure. At this point I am neither wishing for nor resisting the idea of dying, but accepting of the fact that everything changes continually before coming to an end, at which point its energy transforms into something else, according to physics. There's a rare sweetness in that. Peace, brother.
At 62, I’m no spring chicken myself, Leigh, (plus being disabled definitely ages the body faster, re: capabilities), so I think I understand you. I think it may be a common theme, that one just gets…tired, if not entirely ready, then more ready to lie down (as you eloquently put it). And I’ve heard many stories/accountings, myself, re: unexplainable occurrences, several within my own family, and I don’t discount them out of hand. Not having died, I obviously don’t know what happens to a certainty, and energy does indeed go somewhere. I love to learn, I have a reasonably open mind, and I don’t begrudge others their harmless-to-others beliefs. I just don’t personally believe in any religion I’ve seen, heard about. And I’ve damn sure seen much more harm than good come out of organized religion (but not for everyone categorically). Not my thing. It’d be damn cool if there were…something, but I go back to us all being made from actual dust from stars, and eventually becoming that again, and that’s cool enough for me!
Peace to you, also, Leigh.
We agree on any number of things, even if we might have differing footnotes. IMHO (as a sort of Zennish/Scienceish/Show Me sort of person, most religions emerge from the presence of a sense of numinosity about stardust and all else that's intruiging, and/or the charismatic presence of a teacher with especial gifts of intuition. And as such they immediately become corrupted by the longings of the lumpish egoic self and end by propping up the very notions that the intuitives all seem to warn against. Too bad; so sad. Right now the Abrahamic religionists seem to carry the weight of all that. But Buddhists have persecuted the Rohingyas, so. I get it, I really do. But there are so many interesting mysteries, aren't there. Be well and happy,
From Wikipedia:
Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Its constitution, adopted in 1979 by referendum, established a system combining elements of theocracy and republican governance. The constitution provides for separation of powers, among executive, legislative and judicial systems. The supreme leader of Iran serves as the country's head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces and holds ultimate authority over key state institutions, including the military, judiciary, and state broadcasting.
Sounds like just what the current federal administration wants to establish here; same God, different Prophet. This begs the question: Why are they bombing Iran?
From one Jack to another, you DO know Jack-Shit. Spot on!
I was raised in a religion that wasn’t exactly mainstream (Christian Science) and falls on the metaphysical side. I have not identified as Christian for a very long time. I’ve gotten to be such a heathen and simply say that whatever someone believes is fine as long as it makes them a kind and loving person. I do NOT want religion of ANY kind in my government, schools or other institutions affiliated with anything Sate or Federal.
The proselytizers need to be called on the carpet and reprimanded. There is no place for what they’re doing other than the street corner. There are as many ways back to one’s spiritual home as there are people on the planet! All roads lead home unless you’re an atheist and believe when you’re gone, you just cease to be. Either way, that works.
Damn it Deb. I found 2 roads and neither seemed a suitable choice toward finding my way "home". Where can I find the Agnostics road??😆
🤣 am on that path myself.
If you really want to stand in the gap and go hmmmm, check out the quantum physics research. When the scientists started going deeper and deeper (sub sub sub-atomic levels), what they didn’t find blew them away. I’m no scientist so do not know the exact details but….. they didn’t find anything solid. In other words, it’s all energy. The implications of that literally turn everything we thought we knew upside down. Hence my being on that same road…
Good luck in whatever journeys you take! 🤓
Thank you Deb.✌️🙏
A truly open mind is just that: open.
Oh, he’s fuckin risen, alright. And he’s not happy.
It's always seemed strange to me that people prosletyze. I was raised Catholic but dropped it and all religions when I finished undergraduate work. In my experience people who believe in gods and other magical creatures are no better than those of us who do not believe in biblical fictions, so who cares what people believe in? My three sons are all kind and honest and loving people, yet they were never brainwashed into a belief system. Religion has no more of a place in government than one's taste in music.
So true Gwen. I call myself "a recovering Catholic" because it makes me smile. 😁
As a Christian, western tradition, who celebrates Easter, it leaves me out, also. Not only because Christian Nationalists do not really recognize any belief that isn't their own narrow view, but because the separation of Church and State is a separation that is a beautiful and necessary thing. Tearing it down will eventually destroy BOTH Church and State, and replace them with whatever dystopian hell, the oligarchs with their hands up Donnie's back, want to install.
All the best, terrible wars were fought by the most religious people. The peaceniks stayed home to save what they could and rebuild.
"At 9am eastern time, Rubio posted on his account, “He is Risen.” Within seconds, the State Department responded, “He is Risen, Indeed!”"
I am so fucking tired of the American Pseudochristians testifying about their religious convictions, all based on a serious perversion of the teachings of the Christ. Five names immediately jumped into my brain: Rubio, Kegbreath, MAGA Mike Johnson, the Hillbilly, and the Coward-in-Chief. (I must admit feeling some relief knowing that Franklin Graham [bless his heart] has informed Diaper Man that he can still get into heaven just by proclaiming his belief in and wholehearted acceptance of White Jesus.)
-----
"when He returns, there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth, and we will all be together and we are going to have a great reunion there again…”
* Hey, don't forget there will be a New Jerusalem too.
* The great reunion Rubio is babbling about will be rather sparsely attended. Only about 30% of the world's population identify as Christian, so around 70% will either have to convert when Jeebus returns or not be invited to the party. Islam is approaching 2 billion adherents, Hinduism about 1.2 billion, and Buddhism has about 500 million. On top of that:
> "Another 7 percent of the global population identify with religions with much smaller followings....
An estimated 6 percent of the world’s population are adherents of folk or traditional religions....
About 16 percent of people around the world have no religious affiliation. These “nones” include atheists, agnostics, and people who may believe in God or spiritual life but do not identify with any particular religion." https://populationeducation.org/world-population-by-religion-a-global-tapestry-of-faith/ [The numbers cited above from the same source.]
-----
"It’s an assertion that Christianity’s defining claims are factually correct."
There's just one small problem here: religious Jews believe that the Old Testament is the unadulterated word of G-d and is "factually correct;" then came the Christians who also claim that the New Testament is "factually correct;" and then Muslims who say the Qur'an is the true word of Allah. Is the Bhagavad Gita ("Song of God"), a conversation between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna, factual? What about Buddhist sutras?
Krishnamurti sums religion up nicely:
> "Truth is a pathless land.
Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it."
fnord
Hear hear for the 16%! I’m a proud member. Isn’t it cool enough that we are made of stardust, literally, and to stardust we’ll return? No pleasing folks
I have been a proud pagan for over 50 years now. When pressed I usually reply (I try not to spend much time with those who want to engage on their terms with no mutual respect shown for my beliefs) that through my paganism I'm an agnostic seeking Gnosis.
"we are made of stardust"
The Cathari believed that every living entity carries a spark of light of the one true G-d within, and that when you pass that spark is reunited with him. The only problem was that, like pretty much all the other organized religions through history, they believed that if you didn't lead a pure life -- by their standards -- you were doomed to be returned to this material world.
G-dess bless, my friend.
fnord
I have no respect for ppl who force it upon others, esp a country, esp white Christian nationalism. I have great respect for good ppl, no matter their beliefs. And your seeking Gnosis is admirable. The great thing about my literal definition of what we’re made of is it doesn’t discriminate, it just is. I wish you well, sir.
Wasn’t there something about only seven times seven times seven going to get to be raptured? Are Donald and Rubio get to be among them
I think what you might be referring to is the Christ's answer to Peter when asked how many times he should forgive someone who constantly "sins" against them; seven times? He responded that it should be seven times seven, or seventy seven depending on which version you read.
To answer the question of will the two numbnutz be among the Chosen is that the Rapture will encompass all true believers... which rules them out.
fnord
Christians proselytize. It's the foundation of their religion.
The least Christ-like of Christians, Little Marco Big-Shoes preaching the word of God. Both him and whiskey pete should shut their mouths. I'm not a practicing Catholic, just raised in the Church from birth until I guess I was13. Found in my young mind that a lot of things they preached from the pulpit did not actually take place on the ground. Organized religion can make one cynical.
The way these guys are pushing this fake form of Christianity when they themselves are so violent and selfish is making me think that Christian Nationalism isn't going over as well as they thought it would. Step outside of your bubble guys - not everyone wants the return of The Crusades. It did not end well.