The one about prophecy.

One thing I am very grateful for living outside the asylum of America is that I don't have ready access to the Fox network.  What I see of Fox Noise is my own choice online, not what happens to pop up in my living room uninvited on the TV.  Recently, they have been harping that christian privilege is disappearing.  They don't like it, and even liberal christians whinge and moan about people not giving religious faith its "due respect".   Even here, without television, I am aware beyond my need to know of the so-called war Fox is waging to force the rest of us to acknowledge the insanity of religion as an integral element of our society.  Religious belief is widespread, yes, and it is popular, too, but constitutive?  No, it is not.  One of the creators on YouTube I subscribe to made a video recently about this subject, and at one point in his exasperation over christians crying for more favoritism from the State says,

"Like you need the government to give a thumbs up to your faith!"

That pretty much sums up what today's evangelicals and fundamentalists are up to.  They want the stamp and seal of approval from the State.  It's in perfect line with their triumphalist philosophy, but it's not in line with the needs of American society.  Christians are not the only religious group in the country.  However, christians demand the State acknowledge just one religion, and let's face it, only the conservative part of that one religion.  According to their religious faith, conservative christians are the only people chosen by god for salvation, and that, dare I say it?  Yes, that is the permission slip that allows them arrogance beyond the pale.  When a group of people believe with every molecule of their being that they are chosen by god, they are the only true children of god, that they alone are going to rule the new heaven and the new earth after their savior returns, and that their prophecies of the future are the only true prophecies, yes, that makes for hubris unmeasured and a danger to the rest of us lowly scum.

What about those prophecies?  When prophesies are not being fulfilled at the rate expected, why not help them along a little?  Why not sow discord in the Middle East where your prophesies say discord will result in the final showdown of god and satan and the triumph of your faith over unbelievers?  Why not reject arms treaties with Russia when your prophesies say Russia must be one of satan's pawns at the end times?  Prophecies have to come true or those who spouted them and those who believed them are wrong at best, malicious at worst.  The early christians said Jesus promised to return before the first generation of christians all died, and he did not.  From the very beginning, the christian religion has been proven a false religion by its own standards (Deuteronomy 18.22).

How many other prophecies are wrong?  Of course, I believe they are all wrong.  You cannot predict the future; you can only create it, a heart-stopping thought when religious nuts are in charge of armies and bombs.  But for the sake of argument, what if just one of the major christian prophecies is wrong and they are in charge of the State trying to force the prophecy to come true?  Think of the disaster that will follow in the wake.  The reason our founding fathers drew that heavy line between religion and government is to preserve the integrity of both.  If the State interferes with religion, you get the Spanish Inquisition.  If religion interferes with the State, you get the English Civil Wars.  Someday, I hope all people will recognize that religion has nothing to offer the world.  It's a relic of human existence that had its time and place but now is less than unnecessary.  Until then, it is best to keep religion and government within their particular and separate realms for the safety of us all.


YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/freethinker3161

A Letter to Korea

Years ago, after helping to liberate Korea from the cruelty of Japanese oppression, our nation's fathers, brothers, uncles, and nephews came to your country once again in response to your great need.  I met some of those who survived and returned to tell the story of the Korean War.  The North Koreans, egged on and fueled by the megalomaniac Josef Stalin, invaded the South in a sweeping, all-encompassing attempt to subjugate it to the whims of one-party dictatorship based on a twisted interpretation of socialism that bore no resemblance to the ideals preached by the propagandists of Sovietism.

33,700 Americans died on the battlefields of Korea.  2,700 died while POWs.  The fruits of the ground have borne the vital energy of Americans who died to keep Korea free and sovereign.  The strength of Korean bodies and souls have come from the sacrifices of my countrymen as well as their own and those of other nations who stood by our side.  And it wasn't all that long ago, though young people will not think so.  Youth has no sense of time, really.  There are still about 4 million veterans of the Korean War still living.  Korea rebuilt after the war with generous grants and loans with no or minimal interest.  By the mid-1980's, Korea was a prosperous partner with the United States enjoying the benefits of equitable trade.  You still find older Koreans who know what America did for their country in their darkest days of need.  Yes, there was politics involved; you can't ignore it.  But at the heart was America's desire for a strong and independent Korea.  A stable partner is more advantageous to all.

Times change, however.  Empires and superpowers crack and weaken.  Many of us from America have come to our nation's friend asking for help in these tough times.  When jobs were scarce at home, Korea offered us what they had, and we have been grateful for the income and benefits.  In America, only the rich or well-employed can see a doctor, but Korea has been kind to us economic refugees.  We have no fear here that a doctor's visit will deplete our savings.  Medical care is considered a social necessity and is affordable, the burden borne by all for all, a nation united for the common good.

There has not been a street or alley I have feared to traverse by day or night.  The Korean people, though sometimes hard to fathom, are kinder to us than most of us deserve, at least more than I deserve.  They usually forgive us our social clumsiness and our outbursts of frustration with an understanding of human nature that reaches beyond culture and language.  I am certain that even without the debt of our ancestral sacrifice for their country, the Korean people would still kindly offer us jobs and benefits as much as they could reasonably bear.

This is my letter to the Korean people saying "Thank you" for helping us who have washed up on your shores.  Thank you for taking us in while our homeland suffered economic chaos at the hands of unscrupulous politicians, corporate greed, and Wall Street incompetence.  Maybe a minority, but I, for one, am grateful.

            

The one about the Golden Rule

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Anyone who is even moderately educated knows that this “Golden Rule” is very, very old. It goes back so far, nobody knows who said it first. The christ cults of earlier centuries put it into the mouth of the Jesus character of the gospels, but it predates the christ mythology by several millennia. This does not mean, however, that the saying is of no value. Its sheer age from time unknown attests to its worth. Almost all religions have had or have some version of it. There is something about it that inspires human beings to a nobler life that takes into consideration the effects of their behavior on others.

What troubles me most about my own life is that I am inconsistent in practicing this virtue, and this fact is pointed out to me fairly regularly, for which I am both embarrassed and grateful. But why has Mankind created and passed on this saying for so many, many centuries if it is so easily flouted? The answer speaks volumes to the basic goodness of human nature: We recognize it as the highest possible good. Christianism is wrong when it starts from the premise that human beings are evil by nature. Anyone's experience will show that people actually lean toward kindness and compassion, all things being equal. Of course, not all things are equal. The rich are rarely arrested as thieves. Those from peaceful upbringings hardly ever go on killing sprees. The attractive seldom want for romantic satisfaction.

Life is not guided by a benevolent creator, that seems clear. If there is a creator, I'd say the extent of its concern rests solely in allowing life to exist at all. It certainly seems unconcerned with the quality of that life. However, human beings are concerned with the quality of life. We can improve life or diminish it by sheer will. And we recognize that we can improve our quality of life more when we work in consideration of others. We know that we reap what we sow. Bad behavior often brings bad behavior back on us. Good behavior usually produces good behavior toward us. And yet, it's hard to say that our human compassion is merely for the selfish desire to get back what we give. Look at your life. Aren't you kind when there is sometimes little expectation of kindness in return? Don't you sacrifice a little more than you can spare of time, money, resources? It isn't a social experiment; it's a time-tested truism about human life.

At this time of year, it's not uncommon to reflect on the Golden Rule. Christmas may be a religious observance in the strictest sense, but it's culturally ingrained as well, even among many non-christians. Gift giving, though often over-emphasized, is still the expression of benevolence toward others. Graciously receiving gifts, the same. Don't we seem more social this time of year? Church gatherings, of course, but there are also office parties and pageants and plays and family reunions as well as the exhilaration of shopping amid the vibrant crowds. The Golden Rule is not really a rule to follow as much as it is a reminder of what we human beings really are as we struggle to make all things be equal.   

The one about Christmas Smoke

Some of you may know that I am enamored of the philosophy of Tao.  Not that it answers all the questions, of course, but because it's an icon of human perception of the universe.  Positive and Negative.  It allows for a balanced view of things.  Sitting here using the computer, I am aware that this machine performs its functions solely using combinations of positive and negative units.  It is the principle of Tao unfolding before my eyes with every stroke of the keys. 

When I was a christian, I lived with an example of this positive and negative play of forces.  They told me the Old Testament and the New Testament were both, together, the perfect word of our god.  Yet, the messages contained, both explicit and  implicit, were opposites in many ways.   They also told me that Jesus was god in the flesh and his teachings were primary.  The Book of the Gospels was paraded to great fanfare and ceremony during worship in order to underscore the preeminence of the words of Jesus over any other teaching.  Only an ordained minister could read aloud from the Gospels during worship, they were that highly regarded... in form.

But even a cursory look at the "perfect word of god" shows Jesus and the Old Testament are often at odds.  This allows for some fancy footwork on the part of those wily christians, though.  If Jesus is too tough, well, you can still obey god by appealing to the Old Testament for an easier path to walk.  If the Old Testament is too gory for your tastes, then you can claim Jesus, or better yet, you can do what christians have done for centuries, just mix the Old Testament and Jesus together in unequal portions, and you can create a watered-down version of both that on the surface looks perfectly biblical!  Turn the other cheek when it suits you, and tear your enemy a new one when that suits you.  "Keep them guessing" might be the motto inscribed over every church door.  The trouble I see these days, though, is that christians are more and more ignoring the Jesus part (except the mechanical element of human sacrifice on the cross, of course) and finding the teachings of the Old Testament preferable to the teachings of their sacrificial victim himself.  Divorce runs amok among christians even though Jesus doesn't allow it.  Tea Party christians don't want to pay their taxes even though Jesus says to pay your taxes.  Christians are often first in line to call for "nuking" the bad guys when Jesus says not to nuke the bad guys, or words to that effect.

During this time of the year, you will hear that tired old motto: Keep Christ in Christmas.  Maybe you'll hear this one, too:  Jesus is the Reason for the Season.  Both make my eyes roll involuntarily, but keep in mind that christians, and usually the most vociferous ones, are drinking their holiday punch watered down.  They make excuses for the teachings of Jesus and why he was wrong misinterpreted.  So when you hear the christians huffing and puffing about Jesus, just remind yourself that they don't care any more for Jesus than we atheists do.  It's all just Christmas smoke.

The one about the plumbing

Have I moved to a new address? Unfortunately, no. Korea has been revamping its address system for the postal service, and our building's new address was tacked on to the house a while back.  I've been seeing this for years in the larger cities, and I just assumed it was another adventure in futility since nobody knows their "new" address even if it was assigned and posted years ago. The utility companies use the old address system.  When I registered my motorbike, the precinct office wanted the old address.  Under the old system, neighborhoods and towns were divided up into what we might call "blocks", and each block is assigned a number.  Business or housing units within the block were assigned an additional number.  My neighborhood is called "Yonggang". My block in that neighborhood is number 1358.  My building is number 10.  Easy, eh?  Well, now they've started naming streets.  Of course, nobody knows the name of the street they live on, because street names weren't part of life before.  So, here's my new address using the street names system:  My street is Sogeumgang Road 29th Street, house number 7.  Smaller streets are named as adjuncts to larger streets, so if you know the name of the large street nearby, your little street will be named after it with a number to indicate which little street it is.  The big street a block away is Sogeumgang Road (named after the nearby hill).  I'm on the 29th street off that road.  I could get used to it, I suppose.

Speaking of housing, I got up one morning a few days ago to find excess water on my kitchen floor.  The cloth I put down in front of the sink was sopping wet; the under-floor heating had evaporated most of the rest, though.  I thought I had just been too messy while washing dishes the night before, but yesterday, I noticed the wood on the kitchen floor was buckling a little.  The amount of water needed to do that was more than I ever spill washing dishes, so my curiosity was piqued.  Something happened, but the cabinet under my sink was bone dry, so it wasn't a leak in my plumbing.  Later, I noticed this sign out in the foyer:

It is not clear what the meaning is.  On the surface, it basically says the water tank broke and got into the electrical stuff in the wall.  Be careful.  Then some scribbling that I can't decipher, and then the cost of repairing, but not sure exactly what was repaired or why I have to know that and the cost.  The water tank floater is propped up there with an arrow that says "Look".  No indication who wrote it, though.

For thirteen years I've lived in a mystery novel.  This is just the latest example of what it's like to live here and try to piece together stories and information from people whose culture doesn't like them speaking bluntly or directly.  Every day I have to follow their circular thought patterns round and round until I get an idea of what's going on, and then half the time my conclusions are wrong.

The one about the Myth of Christ

Since I don't watch TV anymore, it seems kind of strange, perhaps, that my favorite mug is the one I got at CNN Center last summer.  Let me assure you, however, that I only got it for its size and sturdiness, not the company it represents!

But since the topic of CNN came up, I found a clip from CNN on YouTube about the atheist billboard that went up in New Jersey.   The interviewer talked to the president of the American Atheists and to the head of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue.  Donohue complained, "Are we just pinatas? Are we going to accept this kind of thing as a doormat?"  The implication being that you can throw up any piece of trash on a billboard (and we've all seen some pretty racy billboards) or any religious message we want or any charitable group's message, or virtually anything, but no way can we allow atheists to express themselves.  There it is in a nutshell.  Religion wants complete and unquestioned acceptance by everyone in society while non-believers are forced to defend themselves and their public rights from an onslaught of religious hysteria.

Honest christians are becoming more and more aware that the Christmas myth is much, much older than their particular cult's version.  The story of Jesus was lifted from earlier myths, and the story of the virgin birth of a god is so old nobody knows when or where it actually first started.

Yes, there is nothing original in christianism.  It is only the latest christ myth out of many.  Sure, it feels good to believe it.  It's kind of satisfying in a puerile way, but the human mind cannot be fooled for long unless we deliberately choose to do so.  Christ is a myth, but that doesn't mean we can't have a load of good cheer and fun during midwinter!   I don't care whether you call the virgin-born god Attis, Dionysus, Osiris, Jesus, or Mithra, or whether you call the day Victory of the Sun, Birthday of Sol Invictus, Christmas, or Haloea.   I don't care what you believe or the names they go by.  No, really, I don't.  So, I won't say your billboards are offensive if you won't say mine are just because the message is different. It's only fair to want the same consideration in return.  Can you do that for me?