Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

"My own mind is my own church...

...All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." --Thomas Paine, "Age of Reason"

Quote of the Day -- On God and Gods

"If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. 

If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. 

If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."

--Marcus Aurelius

On Religion. And Living

There it all is, folks, right there. That's your religion for you. It's certainly mine.

Have a nice day.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

“Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.”

―Kurt Vonnegut, “Mother Night”

So Which Religion Is Correct?

Is it....

Christianity?

Catholicism?

Southern Baptist?

Judaism?

Orthodox Hebrew?

Islam?

Sunni Islam?

Shi'a Islam?

Protestantism?

Hindu?

Buddhism?

Mormonism?

Sikhim?

Juche?

Spiritism?

Bahai?

Jainism?

Shinto?

Cao Dai?

Zoroastrianism?

Tenrikyo?

Neo-Paganism?

Unitarian-Universalism?

Something else entirely?

And why doesn't "God" make it clear?

I'm so confused...

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

“Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spiritual; and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.

If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism."

--Albert Einstein

Quotes of the Day -- Sunday Edition

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
― Epicurus

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
― Voltaire, Questions sur les Miracles à M. Claparede, Professeur de Théologie à Genève, par un Proposant: Ou Extrait de Diverses Lettres de M. de Voltaire

“Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man?”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“All thinking men are atheists.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

“Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!”
― George Carlin

“To you, I'm an atheist.
To God, I'm the loyal opposition.”
― Woody Allen

"There is a tremendous enjoyment in having shaken off the silly, absurdly subjective rules, laws, "commandments" of religion, organized religion. It frees you to enjoy the world and life and people and to learn and love and live and grow."

--Me

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

WAR IS OBSOLETE

War Is a Racket

Entertainment Overnight: One, Two, Three Tull

That Bible We Base So Much On?

We ought to know the source(s).

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

And yes, folks, I Googled it. He really did say this.

]

It's Sunday----And Your Prayers?

What they really are---from America's Best Christian, Betty Bowers.


Enjoy your day, y'all.

You Know What Takes Guts?

Guts is throwing off your hand-me-down, 2000 year old religion you inherited from your parents, and they from theirs, ad infinitum, and realizing and accepting that we're all there is and we're all there ever was and there is no Heaven, no Hell, no "God" and that we just have to and ought to do what's right and good and beautiful and fair, just because it's the right thing to do and because this is all there is. Not because if you do anything bad you'll be punished, not at all.

Guts is accepting this is all there is.  Nothing to run to. Nothing further, bigger, better to hope or plan or work for.

Guts is realizing and accepting that this, the here and the now, the way it is now is what there is to work for. The people that are around you now, the people that are around all of us now.

That nothing else matters because there is nothing else.

The staring oblivion and the abyss in the eye.

The realizing and accepting and facing this is all there is.


But that's too much for too many people.

Most people.

Far too many.


Do you have that much guts?

Do you have that much courage?

Religion and Its Evolution

Face it, accept it or not.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

"Because morality is a social necessity, the moment faith in god is banished, man's gaze turns from god to man and he becomes socially conscious. Religious belief prevented the growth of a sense of realism. But atheism at once makes man realistic and alive to the needs of morality." 

--Gora

On That King James Version of the Bible

Food for thought on a Sunday morning.

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

Jesus Was Neither Alone Nor Was He the First

Just so you know some human history, Jesus wasn't the only--or even the first--god said to have risen from the dead. Actually, far from it.

Jesus: Just One More Dying 

and Rising Savior

History records many dying-and-rising saviors. Examples from the Ancient Near East that preceded the Jesus story include Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, and Baal.

Dying-and-rising god

A dying-and-rising, death-rebirth, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god dies and is resurrected. "Death or departure of the gods" is motif A192 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, while "resurrection of gods" is motif A193.

Examples of gods who die and later return to life are most often cited from the religions of the Ancient Near East, and traditions influenced by them including Biblical and Greco-Roman mythology and by extension Christianity. The concept of a dying-and-rising god was first proposed in comparative mythology by James Frazer's seminal The Golden Bough. Frazer associated the motif with fertility rites surrounding the yearly cycle of vegetation. Frazer cited the examples of Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, Dionysus and Jesus Christ.

Frazer's interpretation of the category has been critically discussed in 20th-century scholarship, to the conclusion that many examples from the world's mythologies included under "dying and rising" should only be considered "dying" but not "rising", and that the genuine dying-and-rising god is a characteristic feature of Ancient Near Eastern mythologies and the derived mystery cults of Late Antiquity.

And what is religion, anyway, if not a huge denial of death? An attempt to explain "what comes after." It only stands to reason that we want our god or God or gods dying and coming back, just to prove what we want and that it can be done, that this life isn't all there is. There's no better example or reason for this than that we want to deny death and dying.
Just saying.

That said, if you're into it, if you celebrate Easter, have at it. Enjoy.

Happy Easter.

Whatever gets you through.

Links:

The pagan roots of Easter

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter

Goddess Easter: Celebration of the Spring Equinox

Ēostre 

Easter 

On Sunday

And the New York Times.

Yeah.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition