Monday, March 16, 2009

Shame in Colorado



That religious fanatics managed to hijack and nearly destroy the once-esteemed Republican Party became evident after the strange events that led up to and culminated in the US presidential election of 2000. Kept out of public media was any discussion of the undemocratic role played by the US Supreme Court, dominated by staunch Catholics, which overrode the popular vote to install an unstable man (and two-time felon) as President. The nation was then rapidly plunged into an illegal war, attacks on Constitutional rights, priority given to special interests, siphoning tax money into "faith based" schemes, illegal surveillances, and the authorization of a torture policy that sneered at international agreement against such inhumane practices.




Such corruption of government can be laid on the shoulders of religious fanaticism that seeks to gratify material lust by indulging in hate-filled agendas. Such is the case of the Colorado "conservatives" (read religious fanatics), sentators Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs) and Scott Renfroe (R-Greeley) braying their ignorance and pompously displaying their lack of compassion for life.




Schultheis' dogmatic politics is underscored in his "Christian" (?) attitude: emergency rooms should allow victims of violence to die if they have not been to church in the past month: and he considers it a waste of money to run public service announcements in Spanish warning possible illegal immigrants to buckle their seatbelts. But most appalling of his self-righteous pronouncements has been his opposition to pregnant women being tested for HIV, a procedure that could catch the infection early enough to prevent it from spreading to the unborn child. Schulteis' judgment is that the mother should pass the deadly virus to the infants so that the suffering would remind society of the negative consequences of sexual promiscuity. Maybe then, he is quoted as saying, that unnecessary misery would show that "...they should adjust their behavior." Of course this shows that his own behavior is impeccable.




And Schultheis' dogmatic contemporary, Scott Renfroe, likes to quote Old Testament hate statements on the Senate floor. His personal obsession is gay life, and he has it from "revealed word" (as edited by 8th century BCE priests) that gays "have committed a detestable act and they shall surely be put to death." (Strange, isn't it, how often the rampaging religionists ignore the Commandment, Thou shalt not kill.) Renfroe then went on, after calling for death for consenting same-sex acts, to compare homosexuality with murder! Renfroe thus openly encourages attitudes of prejudice and supports violence upon life's diversity. But then again, that is what much of the OT is all about.




Sunday, March 8, 2009

Crisis of Faith



Faith, the kind that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence, is pretty much an inherited thing from parents and society, and it habitually lumbers under the mantle of some religion that has evolved while its promoters pursued worldly objectives. Unfortunately, that drive to prove to the world that some institutionalized belief system is the only way to storm an indifferent Heaven signals that the bottomline aimed for by that promotion system rests entirely in this world, not in a higher realm.


Pretending that mystical power aids them in exerting control over this material world becomes questionable when the omnipresent-omnipotent-omniscient deity that is alluded to apparently has to rely on militant actions of mere man to fulfill his wishes. Something just doesn't add up to the deity's claimed divine capabilities.


Reality--which is to say the everyday problems experienced in the material expression we call life--is not well served when believers are assured that natural laws can be set aside if you only believe a certain way--their way. The universe would implode if exceptions to bypass creation's laws were granted. That is wilfull ignorance of holy truth--the truth that each identity stands responsible for itself: the buck cannot be passed to a redeemer or savior, or patched over by rite and ritual. And Paradise cannot be gained by disrespect for other life forms or other life expressions.


In every man-conceived faith system--especially in the western world-- an uncomfortable feeling lurks in the heart of "believers," --a sense of disjunction with that which is presented as the Supreme Being. The claimed closeness to and the simultaneous feeling of alienation from that Being does not make for comfort in the inner self. The result is a confusion of "faith" that too often becomes the trigger that initiates an indulgence in senseless acts of violence and hatred toward others. What that "faith" has blinded them to is the fact that what one does to another leaves crippling scars within the self.


Evil does not lurk in the diverse expressions of life as hard-line bigots may rail, nor is one an "infidel" if their reverence for the Source of all things is expressed from one's heart rather than in programmed posturing. One's faith is in crisis when they are led into a conceit of spirit that leaves the world around them in shambles.




Thursday, March 5, 2009

Fish or Cross



When the movement that was to grow into Christianity was being initiated out of Rome (not Palestine), the earth had only recently, c.60 BCE, entered the Age of Pisces. An "Age" is the period of time during which the Sun rises and traverses over a dominant constellation at the vernal equinox, a period of time that lasts some 2160 years. This slow shifting viewpoint of Earth's relationship with the cosmos is known as precession of the equinoxes.


Earth had just exited from the Age of Aries (c.2220 BCE to c. 60 BCE), during which the ram and lamb had played prominent roles in various religious movements of the world. Prior to that, in the Age of Taurus (c. 4380 BCE to c. 2220 BCE), the bull (and cow) had been focus of much of the world's religious attention.


In the early years of the Christian movement the symbol used by the cult as an indicator to other followers was of two arched lines that suggested a fish form. The arched symbol would be the standard for the struggling society well into the third century CE. (How, where and why this early symbol for the movement was replaced by the cross is given in detail in Time Frames and Taboo Data.) The cross as emblematic of Jesus' death, allegedly for world salvation, was not regarded to be symbolic of the instructive teachings of the master that were held central to the earlier emerging society.


Proof of the importance given to the fish symbol was uncovered not long ago at Megiddo Prison, Israel, where the remains of an early church were discovered under rubble being removed from a planned site of a new prison ward. There was much awe and excitement at finding two mosaics, one of which had as its central focus a depiction of two fishes, each facing opposite directions--acknowledgement of the new Age of Pisces.


Considerable hype was given to the ancient Christian symbol in the mosaic as predating the stark cross, and that the Greek writing used in inscriptions revealed that the money for the church and the mosaics were donated by a Roman officer and a woman named Aketous. The depiction of the two fish forms indicate that the church was active up to the fourth century--or just before Constantine, who recognized the political clout of the fanatical converts, legalized Christian observances across the Byzantine Empire.


After the fourth century CE, altars also began to be used in Christian churches for priestly theatrics, and focus was deliberately altered from the fish symbol to the cross to emphasize Jesus' sacrifice for the believers. With Jesus' death thus installed as the central theme of the movment, ritual and circumstance were made to overshadow all the early teaching that had once offered a means of experiencing inner peace.