Like lots of folks, I'm at odds these days. Surely what the US government is doing in the new terrorism bill deserves, I don't know, massive protest? Something. Shouldn't we be marching on Washington DEMANDING that these evil inhumane beings be subjected to just the treatment they're so willing to treat others to?
Crooked Timber has a post on waterboarding linking to David Corn's post on waterboarding. Really, we're in great company with the Khmer Rouge on torture. It takes me back to the not so new question, "Who would Jesus torture?" I have no religion, no religious beliefs or feelings, so I don't really have a stake in the Jesus thing. But there are bunches of people who think the US should torture people who seem to claim a connection to Jesus and Christianity. If I'm wrong, oh well. But if Bush and the congressmembers who voted for this bill and who believe in a benevolent god who said to turn the other cheek and an afterlife and all are right, then there's hell to pay.
For an "If it weren't so scary it would be funny" post, check out what happens when Ryan bird wrote "Kip Hawley's an Idiot" on a plastic bag and tried to take it through airport security. (Hat tip to Pharyngula's post on the subject.)
Something's terribly wrong. I should literally be up in arms. I should be demanding that my representatives move to impeach Bush.
But I'm barely getting by, teaching two new classes (my own idiotic fault), doing service stuff that needs to be done, but takes huge time, getting things together for a talk, and a conference, and bureaucratic stuff that has to be done.
Is it a grand conspiracy to work people til we're grindingly tired so that we can't do what we ought, what we should? Why am I letting this happen?
PS. Why yes, it's 5:30 on a Sunday afternoon, and I am in the office, mostly working with a short blog break. What's sad is that there are at least three of us here this afternoon.
Bardiac, I know what you are talking about...both the puzzlement and the inability to act.
ReplyDeletePLEASE don't think that Christians in general think that we should in fact beat the shit out of bad people to prevent more bad things from happening. That is NOT what Jesus said in any way, shape, or form, and I am as bumfoozled as you as to how people can understand a phrase like "Love your enemies and do good to them that hate you," as "Torture's fine as long as they're really bad guys."
Being the kind of person who reads your blog, I can always see about ten sides to every story, and heaven help me, I rarely come down on the "The Christians are right" side. Even though I am a Christian. Of course, I rarely come down on the "The other guys are right" side, either -- which leaves me firmly on the fence that Amy Grant's songs in the 1980s warned our youth group so strongly against!
Hey Bardiac and all,
ReplyDeleteWhy do religious leaders and followers so often participate in and support blatant evil?
The time is long past to stop focusing on symptoms and myriad details and finally seek lasting solutions. Until we address the core causes of the millennia of struggle and suffering that have bedeviled humanity, these repeating cycles of evil will never end.
History is replete with examples of religious leaders and followers advocating, supporting, and participating in blatant evil. Regardless of attempts to shift or deny blame, history clearly records the widespread crimes of Christianity. Whether we're talking about the abominations of the Inquisition, Crusades, the greed and genocide of colonizers, slavery in the Americas, or the Bush administration's recent deeds and results, Christianity has always spawned great evil. The deeds of many Muslims and the state of Israel are also prime examples.
The paradox of adherents who speak of peace and good deeds contrasted with leaders and willing cohorts knowingly using religion for evil keeps the cycle of violence spinning through time. Why does religion seem to represent good while always serving as a constant source of deception, conflict, and the chosen tool of great deceivers? The answer is simple. The combination of faith and religion is a strong delusion purposely designed to affect one's ability to reason clearly. Regardless of the current pope's duplicitous talk about reason, faith and religion are the opposite of truth, wisdom, and justice and completely incompatible with logic.
Religion, like politics and money, creates a spiritual, conceptual, and karmic endless loop. By their very nature, they always create opponents and losers which leads to a never ending cycle of losers striving to become winners again, ad infinitum. This purposeful logic trap always creates myriad sources of conflict and injustice, regardless of often-stated ideals, which are always diluted by ignorance and delusion. The only way to stop the cycle is to convert or kill off all opponents or to end the systems and concepts that drive it.
Think it through, would the Creator of all knowledge and wisdom insist that you remain ignorant by simply believing what you have been told by obviously duplicitous religious founders and leaders? Would a compassionate Creator want you to participate in a system that guarantees injustice and suffering to your fellow souls? Isn’t it far more likely that religion is a tool of greedy men seeking to profit from the ignorance of followers and the strife it constantly foments? When you mix religion with the equally destructive delusions of money and politics, injustice, chaos, and the profits they generate are guaranteed.
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Peace…