Inventing the Ideal Religion

The Huffington Post has an article that asks:
             "If you could invent a religion what would it look like?"

I gave the concept a minute's thought and posted the following to the article's comment section.  I think I have it reasonably  well developed, albeit, any such religion that would have me as a member I'd want no part of.

What would my religion look like?

One that sucks the money out of the poor and ignorant; that sells them a promise of eternal torture after they die if they don't believe; one that promises prayers will be answered, as long as it isn't to end starvation, or war, or disease, or re-grow an amputated limb.

A religion that hides its abuses of children; that amasses great amounts of money and real estate and sets itself up in a palace, or ten bedroom mansion with a swimming pool and 100 acre compound in the country, with private jets, expensive cars - and that promotes itself as a follower of an impoverished wandering carpenter ...or plumber.

One that dismisses women as lesser beings, who need to have their reproductive system controlled by men. A religion that condemns people to second class citizenship because they love someone the religion doesn't approve of. One that says masturbating is a sin...and God is watching you while you do it.

A religion that promotes the idea that the End of the World is a good thing, something to be looked forward to...to be worked toward. One that demonizes the other religions, and establishes the people of a specific religion as scapegoats based on a 2000 year old mythical execution.

One that says every child is a sinner, because a mud man and a rib woman ate a fruit, and thus need to be cleansed...even though it claims to have paid for that sin in sacrificial blood. A religion that claims to have the one TRUTH, and yet has over 30,000 sects and denominations because it can't decide exactly what that precise "truth" is.

A religion that says only God can end the world, thus encourages people to ignore the science that says the world is being slowly poisoned to death. One that tells children a boogie man created the universe as per scientifically ignorant nomadic goat herders and to pay no attention to the realities of science. One that has no ability to understand why there are both monkeys and humans, even when you explain it's for a similar reality as to why there are still Europeans AND Americans from whom they descended.

Yes...this is the religion I'd invent, and .....Oh...Wait...

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay? It's, like, incredible." –Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa as the audience laughed, January 23, 2016


Dear Reader,

If that insane comment made by an obviously narcissistic sociopath can be laughed at and applauded by GOP supporters who deem him qualified to be President of the United States - some of whom may live next door to you - doesn't frighten you, perhaps the fact that he's probably right should.

Two days of Madness and Hate and The Straw that Broke the Camel's Patience

I don't know what to think anymore. There was a time when reason prevailed, when diplomacy was always the first course of action, when the GOP warned against the rise of the Military Industrial Complex, and who, like Eisenhower, had nothing but disdain for war and who, like Goldwater, warned of the religious fanaticism that was creeping into their party.  They were, it seems, ignored.

Something is very wrong.  For years now the drum beat of the GOP has been for more war. "Bomb bomb bomb....bomb bomb Iran." McCain sang when he was running for President ...and he's singing it again now. McCain has never met a war he didn't love. And while it pains me to say it, being a combat Vietnam veteran, I wish he had come home in a body bag - he'd have better served his country .

Now  Allen West, an Uncle Tom Right Wing fanatic is decrying the fact that those ten captured sailors who floated into Iranian waters didn't fight to the death ...  and that the insult of that video Iran released is defamation of our honor and thus worthy of war.  Here's an excerpt of his blog:
“This, folks, is an act of war, and our soldiers were captured. Our honor calls upon us to fight, to resist, not surrender. The ramifications of not doing so means our honor is now being mocked and we’re seen as nothing more than cowards on our knees."   **


The GOP presidential candidates are falling all over each other declaring Obama's weakness by negotiating the freedom of five Iranian held US captives for the release of seven Iranian/US citizen's being held for non-violent offenses.  They are all declaring Obama everything from "feckless" to "traitorous" and the comments on Right Wing blogs and media sites by the FOX News sheep are virtually calling for the death of Obama and War with Iran.  It is insane. 

Every New Hampshire GOP primary advertisement by Cruz, or Trump, or Christy, or Rubio espouses that our military is weak, that it has been degraded by seven years of Obama's neglect; that they will be the ones to "rebuild' it to better intimidate our enemies..and instill fear in those who might be our enemies someday. The code phrase is "to Make America Great Again." For surely only then can we be safe.  NEVER MIND the fact our military spending is, and has been for decades, higher than the next ten largest nations'  armed forces combined ....including China and Russia... we just aren't spending enough to intimidate it seems! 

Look, I've tried  to keep this blog focused on atheism and anti-theism.  I've occasionally mixed politics in with it, mostly as it relates to the Religious Right's grasp on the GOP. But it has gone beyond that now.  These episodes over he past two days have broken the camel's back...so to speak.  So let me say it clearly:

I despise the GOP, everything they stand for, and everyone who supports them. If any of my readers support the madness I described above,  if any of them decry Obama's diplomacy, his efforts to avert another Middle Eastern war quagmire and impair Iran's nuclear ambitions; or if any of them are livid over his ability to our get sailors freed under 24 hours without firing a shot, or loss of life on either side; and gain the release of five US citizens who were suffering in Iranian captivity.. then do me a favor unsubscribe from this blog.

You see, I left the GOP some years ago realizing that --- The Party of Jesus, The Party of War First, The Party of Fear Mongering,  The Party of Israel or Die, The Party of Mindless Nationalism, The Party of Gun Ownership Absolutism, the party of extremism, homophobia, racism, of financial privilege, of demonizing of the poor  --- no longer represented me or my ethics.  I want no discourse with those I left behind.  I want no false patriotic platitudes.  I will entertain no justifications for what I deplore, because there can be none among the thinking.

If you hold fast to those principles of hate, and war, and racism, and homophobia, and misogyny, and class privilege et al -  then our shared atheism is insufficient reason for me to either respect your positions or tolerate you.   Go forth - send your sons, or grandchildren to die in the glorious service of nation building, or mindless anger, or for our national honor that Mr. West so deeply urges. But do so silently. I don't care to hear your cries of mourning.

**Read West's blog story here:
  http://bit.ly/1nqy7Bo
 

To my comrades in arms who survived the War on Xmas ...

Armed and Dangerous: The Camel suits up for the War on Christmas

If you haven't been paying attention you probably missed the fact we are engaged in a great civil war...commonly referred to by GOP Christian fanatics as the annual "War on Christmas". 

Lest you forget, we  atheists and heathens who represent 5-10% of the population - along with President Obama, our "Muslim in Chief" -  have been waging a war against  Xmas that the 76% of our population who identify as Christian observe by decorating pagan trees, burning pagan yule logs, invoking a gift giving magical fat old elf, avarice and greed. 

I for one almost forgot, since I do not watch FOX News thus never hear the droning whine of  Bill "The Tide Goes In And The Tide Goes Out; You Can't Explain That" O'Reilly ... the self declared Commander in Chief of the Christian defenders of the holiday.

I was, however, recently reminded of said war when Sid Miller, TexAss' Commissioner of Agriculture, threatened to slap the next person who says "Happy Holidays" to him instead of Merry Christmas.*  Seems Sid don't cotton none to them thar folks who ain't worshipin' the baby Jesus, and who fail to celebrate the baby Jesus' invented birthday with the requisite holy day well wishes. It seems bitch slappin' folks is the kind of gentility, peace, and good will toward men that his imaginary man-god had in mind.

Never mind that December also marks the observance of Hanuka, Saturnalia, Kwanzaa, The Winter Solstice, and New Years ... to the enraged and put upon majority December belongs to Christians.    Well, shit - I don't think so.

So, while I am late for the first wave of attack and advances against the co-opted pagan holiday referred to as Xmas, I have dragged  my old combat paraphernalia out of moth balls; loaded my .50 cal. and strapped it to my hump; dusted off my mortar, and got Achmed - my faithful ex-Muslim anti-Christmas combat comrade- to ride shotgun. We plan to launch our surprise attack on Xmas Eve.

They'll never see us coming ...after all, word has it they're they're still on the look out for the Jade Helm invasion of TexAss by the US Army, and the gay Rainbow Army secretly trying to indoctrinate their youth.  They're screwed now.

Happy Holidays to all my readers and their families.  May the New Year bring us more reasoned and thinking compatriots, health, and happiness.
   

* Story on TexAss Sid here:  http://bit.ly/1Ob0AVu

Reality Check - I just need to be sure I have this right.

In 2015 Radicalized Muslims have killed 19 Americans.

In 2015 Radicalized Christians killed 9 black folks in a church, 3 people at a Planned Parenthood Clinic, while the vast majority of our 9,000 gun murders nation wide are committed by Christians.

And the GOP presidential wannabes, their ditto headed drones, and Christian Dominionists, are fear mongering about being killed by radicalized Muslims under ISIS' influence?

Do I have that right?

"Our Meaningless and Insipid Godly Platitudes are With You ...That Is All."

The Daily News is about as far from Left Wing or atheistic in their politics or philosophy as I've seen in a daily tabloid. And yet even a broken clock is right twice a day.  They nailed it with today's cover and headline.

In the wake of yet another mass murder, this time at the hands of home grown Muslim citizens of the USA, the GOP does what it always does best: Pray.  Period.

Oh...they'll go on to try and connect this to foreign born Muslims, probably invoking Syrian refugees in some bizarre and twisted logic, the only logic the the Right possesses. Trump can now reaffirm his plan to register all Muslims and make them carry papers ("Your papers, please, mein heir.").  It's what the GOP does.

They'll go on to accuse Obama of politicizing the tragedy ... using this incident as a political ploy...an excuse to once again open the dialog on reasonable gun controls, or in their terms: "Justification for over-reach to confiscate guns and erase the 2nd Amendment."  It's what the GOP does.

Some of the most rabid Right Wing religionst GOP devotees will call this a "false flag" incident, devised and conducted by the government as a first step toward marshal law. It's what the GOP does.

But the opportunity to invoke God and Prayer can never be missed. It's not only good politics it's virtually de rigueur if one wants to appeal to the Evangelical Christian base of the party.  For if you fail to wear your religion on your sleeve you are suspect. Are you really a "true Christian"?  Are you pious enough to be President? Obviously, the four scumbags depicted on the cover of the News qualify in their eyes.

So, what's next?  What can we expect?  I'll tell you what: Nothing.  Well, nothing meaningful anyway.  We will continue to see mass murder on a regular basis. We'll see the prayers of the faithful, the holding of hands, the floral and flame lit make shift monuments to the victims.  And the GOP will spout its usual platitudes invoking Faith and God and Prayer and Jesus and say: "This is the price we pay for being the freest and greatest God given nation on the planet."

Here's a hot flash: we long ago stopped being the greatest nation on the planet.  It stopped when we became the only industrialized nation besides Turkey that has a majority population believing in Creationism over evolutionary theory.  It stopped, when we became only western nation that doesn't offer paid maternity leave, or universal healthcare.  It stopped when the infant mortality rate became the highest among the 27 wealthiest nations on the planet.  It stopped when we cut food coupon benefits to the poorest, and gave tax breaks to the wealthiest. It stopped when we casually committed our youth to wars costing $ Trillions and all its death and maiming...then claimed there is no money to help our homeless and disabled veterans to the degree they deserve.  It's what the GOP does.

As for our being the freest nation...that ended when gerrymandering became the way to manipulate election results and dilute the will of the people; and when we handed over the process for candidate selection for the office of President to the wealthiest individuals and companies in the nation; and when the GOP first attempted, and continues to pursue, truncating voting rights of those demographics who tend to vote against them; or when we stopped opening our arms to those most in need of our national embrace.  It's what the GOP does. 


Look, I'm all about the 2nd Amendment.  I own more guns than probably a third of my readers combined.  But this insanity cannot continue to be accepted as the norm in this nation, as it rapidly is by the dulling of our outrage resulting from its frequency.  It cannot be made better by prayer to some imaginary  boogieman in the sky or public demonstrations of piety by the frauds, phonies and religiously afflicted.  Until that is realized we'll continue our spiral toward 3rd World status, and we'll deserve it. 

"Every nation gets the government it deserves" - Joseph de Maistre.