Long way home

There comes a time in the life span of a religion when the purity (imagined or otherwise) that is engendered through interaction with the Deity or Deities gives way to piety. Purity being the mitigation of a persons sin or imperfections through the actions of worship, piety being the appearance of purity through a display of religiousness. Purity is about the relationship between the worshipper and their God, piety is concerned with a superstitious concept of God and it introduces a much greater awareness of how the individual is viewed in the community of their religion. Piety is the intellectual foundation of self righteousness, religious bigotry and divisive hierarchical structures. The pursuit of purity through an active relationship with the divine in fact precludes and invalidates the strategies of the pious. That religion degrades from the pursuit of purity into the presentation of piety is the central challenge facing any religious organisation. Piety supplies the corroded meta...

Religion taking a political role, few things in this world have more disastrous results. But right wing America wants a strong Christian leader, because they see their enemies as religious and fire must presumably be fought with fire. Also there's the issue of appeasing the deity who is apparently angry at the moral slide in Christian America. Looking at this equation objectively the same problems loom as loom whenever Christianity enters the arena of public policy development, everyone else cringes. The reasons for this are deeper than the simple fact that bigotry and closed mindedness have become a universal anachronism. The problem has it's origins in a far more fundamental contradiction in this most pervasive of faiths. Christianity in its original form comprised two simple objectives, first the propagation of its message of reconciliation and set of values and second the creation of a community of faith that would exist within but separate from society in general. This rem...

When humans are trying to make contact with their dead they become vulnerable to exploitation. "Contact" cannot be proved but can be faked so clairvoyants can make money by offering something that people are so desperate to have that they will be unconsciously complicit in the deception. The need they feel reduces their critical engagement. Something similar happens with religion, people feel an urgent need to interact with God, to receive his approval and benefit from his blessing. To step between humanity and their creator and take a payment in the form of control, power, influence or actual cash under the pretence of being able to facilitate that relationship is a risk that could only be taken by a person who either does not believe in Gods existence or does not believe that He is actually what he claims to be, or what his worshippers believe Him to be. Religions that exploit their followers based on this contradictory dynamic cannot legitimately claim to represent the int...

My brother once made the point that two people could belong to a religion and one of them is a cult member while the other belongs to a faith. I think this is an important idea and this parable is one of the responses that came of thinking about it. Which ant hill would you want to be an ant in?  1. Workers collect food and build, soldiers defend the colony because if they don't the Queen ant will have them killed. 2. Workers collect food and build, soldiers defend the colony because if they do the Queen ant will reward them. 3. Workers collect food and build because they understand what the Queen ant is trying to do and know that their efforts will benefit them all, soldiers will defend the colony with their lives because they know what it stands for. Of course the ant hills are all the same ant hill. I suppose the point is that we should seek the deeper motivations beyond desire for reward or fear of punishment in whatever community we are a part of.

Creationism as political wack-bat is just about the most degrading incarnation of religious thought influencing the processes of democratic governance. Mainly because religion has no place in diversified politics since one world view cannot inform completely the rule of a diversified community. Policy has to function universally and impartially in order to be fair and effective. That is to say that temporal powers have to be a-religious in order to govern peoples of various or no faiths. That is not to say that principals found in religion cannot be useful to constitutional development but they must be deaffilliated and universally acceptable to be used in that way. Christian creationism is an exclusive and highly specific version of the Intelligent design view of the origins of life, this of course means a great deal to certain people and holding that view is their right and that right should be protected. But seeking to impose that view politically or to impose any specified view as ...

Who and what are the enemies of humanity? Predators,  because they undermine trust which is the basis of family and they destroy potential and well-being. They take and they damage and they are useless. Their strength is self-serving and their philanthropy is deadly poison to a society. They should always be destroyed once they are discovered. For this reason predators should be the primary focus of any penal justice system. Removing or destroying one predator has a disproportionately positive impact on the stability and well being of a community. Predatory capatilism has been superficially effective because of it's innate ruthlessness but the repurcussions of it's largely unimpeded progress are a significant contributor to the unrest that is destabilising the world. It should be dismantled and the short term loss regarded as a massive long term gain.  Cul-de-sacs of thought,  because they stop people from progressing and progress is essential to humanity. To sharpen thei...

My son, Make room for the obedient heart Carve out a place for it For there is no wisdom with the foolish ones And no rest or life for the the proud But the fear of Jehovah means contentment, Abundant goodness and glory to satisfaction That my eyes may see in you A true man, a kind husband  A joyful father of sons and a proud father of daughters My son, Of all that I will willingly give to you Take and hold  The words of my God