Presentism, Screen Memory, and Misremembrance

In a Religion Dispatches essay May 10, 2011, Paul Harvey wondered if Fox "News" frequent guest David Barton perhaps lived in an alterate universe, a place where Jefferson never said anything against Christianity, most if not all of the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, and the American nation was conceived and designed to be governed by Christian principles, separation of church and state being a myth created by perverted liberals.  Harvey was strangely hesistant to call Barton what he is: a quack.  Harvey does admit as to how Barton has had "a history of outright falsehoods" and has fallen guilty to "the fallacy of presentism (as in using a 1765 sermon or a 1792 congressional vote to show that the original intent of the founders was to oppose bailout and stimulus plans)."  Need we know more?   

In keeping with the saying by Seneca, I follow the dollar so to speak in sussing out those responsible for the sort of balderdash that Barton spews in his Hannity (and other Fox "News" guest appearances.  (Not being a devout Fox "News" addict, I am uncertain how many of their notoriously right wing commentators hire Barton to pontificate on his fallaciously thought-out conclusions about the Fathers in particular and the Constitution in general; though he calls himself a historian, he doesn't claim to be a Constitutional scholar.)  Barton is of course an evangelical, that sector of the Crustian Brigade most susceptible to hoodwinking and most gullible when it comes to intepretation of "scripture" when it comes to fooling the sheep and extracting their shekels.  Surely Barton knows that the earth was created by "God" about five or six thousand years ago; that "God" did it in six days and slept on the seventh, and that everything in the cosmos was created at the same time, such that when baby dinosaurs grew up, children began to saddle and ride them, waving at their parents, Adam and Eve.  And...wait a minute, where did Cain get his wife?

Knowing this kind of history is the reason Barton distorts our more recent entry into the scene, about a million years ago.  If he would distort that, he would distort anything.  The trouble with fundamentalist Crusters like Barton is that they value belief over reason.  Some even claim that "God" put the fossil record down "to fool the Darwinists."  Barton is a shill for the theocrats who want to make Crustianity the state religion so they can impose their Talibanic ways upon Americans.  We will end up in stocks for not going to church on Sunday, despite the fact that Leviticus says we have to go on Saturday and "God" can't decide from synagogue to cathedral whether he wants a woman to cover her head when she speaks meaningless rote ritual.

Presentism guides social positions, as well, because a segment of our population allows supposedly divine pronouncements about such things as abortion, homosexuality, and same sex marriage to dictate policy positions in the cyber age.  Barton should be wearing bear skins or at least a sackcloth.  Notice in the portrait (right column) that he shaves his beard.  What makes him think "God" would punish someone for being gay and let him off for shaving and not keeping the Saturday Sabbath holy?  There were small populations 7,000 years ago, so "God" probably forbade same-sexualism because it is not procreative.  (For "God," use "the leader": Crustians are so subserviant and feudal-minded they still call Jebus  and Jehovah "Lord.")  The main reason women use contraceptives today is that they're a better abortifacient as the devil-knows-what nostrums handed by out by Medieval "witches."  (That's why the RCC burned the wise ones, you know: to stop the home remedies.)  Looks like each age has its scapegoats.

I am one of the lucky ones: my memories of a Crustian upbringing are mostly what psychiatrists call "screen memories."  For my baptism, I have an old photo of some dude in white robes, my parents looking on, a baby, presumably me, awakened from a good nap by a sprinkling of "holy" water on his brow.  I have the photo, so I know it happened.  I reject it.  I reject it.  I reject it.  Now, if we were in an Islamic country and I said that about divorcing my wife, she would be toast.  If it's good enough for the Muslims, it ought to be good enough for the Crusters.  At least the Muslim prophet was an historical figure.

Ed Schultz was Right!

At some point in life, Laura Ingraham converted to Roman Catholicism, the Church of the Pederastic Priesthood.  In all of her Fox "News" appearances, she has sported a huge golden cross and makes sure to wear outfits with plenty of cleavage so you can see her...well, cross.  Every time Laura Ingraham goes on Fox "News" she is whoring for the Roman Church.  Her golden cross symbolizes a 1688-year bloodbath and a 21st century problem in federal jurisprudence, with quite a few bodies stacked and stacking up, including Gnostics, Arianists, "witches" (mostly guilty of selling abortifacients, one might add), freemasons, and others -- as Crowley put it, "The Devil is the God of the people one personally dislikes."

The evidence of criminal conspiracy is pathetically blantant, making one wonder, why is it that the attorney-general has not instituted suit, or why hasn't the I.R.S. revoked the organization's tax exemption.  Many prosecutors have hit a brick wall when they attempt to examine RC parish documents and make a paper trail of covered up crimes, as with priests who were simply put through some sort of peer rehab then sent to some other parish, the Church knowing full well that recidivism in child sexual abuse is high, so the likelihood of a revisitation of pedophile behavior at second, third, and fourth parishes had to have left a document or two.  The RCC gets away with it by pointing to their diplomatic status, having long ago outfoxed Americans by claiming that they are ruled in all they do by the Vatican, which, by treaty with the U.S. enjoys immunity from suit.

Another relatively recent convert to Catholicism is Newt Gingrich.  After three marriages, Newt converts.  That is some feat.  Do you imagine for a moment that it did not involve some sort of alms transaction?  I give you my camel you give me your drachmas.  The Prosperity Gospel has always been a part of Catholicism, so the Vatican laughs at evangelicals, though the megachurch sponsors of this form of ersatz Christeranity, making millions off lies, does bother the Pop.  Apparently, Newt did not read that part of his Good Book that speaks of the chances of rich men of entering the Kingdom: Newt and his trophy wife (another Laura Ingraham) buy their Jewelry at Tiffany's, where they maintain a line of credit.  To say nothing of the 9.5% of Americans who are unemployed.  Newt, like Laura, is a whore for Catholicism.

At least Laura is kind of pretty in a put-upon sort of way.

Newt, on the other hand, is puke inducing to say the least.

Gospel According to Janeane Garafalo

"Organized religions and their dogmas only serve to indoctrinate the participants into sheeplike common behaviors. This type of blind assimilation promotes the popularity of top-forty radio stations and movie sequels. Train your light spirit to shun God. Skepticism towards groups, holy or otherwise, is enriching and makes you a far more entertaining drinking companion." - Janeane Garofalo

Oh, my, what a remarkable statement for a celebrity to make, and no wonder far right wing dinosaurs like Bill O'Reilly regularly rant against her.  One only wonders if she had read Maslow, who wrote a remarkable book (he wrote several) titled Religions, Values and Peak-experiences (1964).  In some circles, Maslow was an enlightenment guru and "father of humanistic psychology" whose writings about peak experiences led to the est-type human relations seminars of the '70s.  In the 1964 work, Maslow compared church-goers to automatons, mindlessly mouthing rote gibberish week after week after week, no longer even faint carbon copies of the original congregants and incredibly ignorant about the contents of their own Holy Books.  Maslow was a genius.  So what if most of us had our peak experiences in smoke filled rooms?  A peak experience is the only way I could describe the birth of my first son, which I witnessed.  (He pee'd all over the doctor who said at least the plumbing works. Yeah, I know, they say that to every Dad.  So what?)

"Train your light spirit to shun God"!  Wow, that is almost as good as Luis Buñuel's statement, "Thank God I'm an atheist."  Well, yeah, Janeane may be some pagan or other heretical person, not so much anti-religion as anti-organized religion.  Me, too.  I think people like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council makes all Christians look bad.  I think that when the Catholic church pushes legislation designed to interfere with a woman's reproductive rights, e.g. making them see sonograms, or forcing a waiting period so they can be "counseled" by evangelicals, makes the RCC guilty of 1st Amendment violations that ought to revoke their tax exempt status.  (In the case of the RCC, it should be banned entirely in the U.S. until it convinces the Department of Justice that it has not hidden or assisted priests to avoid prosecutions for child molestation -- obstruction of justice by U. S. Code Annotated.  Randall "Sickhead" Terry should be locked up in a mental institution while we are at it.  All such laws violate the First Amendment.

But Janeane makes her point: Quit looking to religious dogma to supply your man-made laws.

Camping and the Damage Done: to Organized Religion, Hopefully

Here is one of Camping's victims: "I've been mocked and scoffed and cursed at and I've been through a lot with this lighted sign on top of my car," said Hopkins, 52, a former television producer who lives in Great River, NY. "I was doing what I've been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped in the face."  I have emphasized the words, "what I've been instructed to do through the Bible."  I'm sorry, Mr. Hopkins.  Anyone who bases his diurnal duties and responsibilities based upon one set of books that is 3500 years old, and another set of books that is 2,000 years old, books dealing with myth and superstition, deserves to be swindled by a con like Camping.  You pathetic creature!  Abjure the faith and abandon thyself to all pleasures!

Man in Joplin: "I Feel the Lord Watched Over Us"

Does this gentleman realize how egocentric and selfish this sounds?  Why him?  Why the congregation of the church he attends?  Why is he so special when over a hundred people were killed and many more lost or unaccounted for.  Why would the "Lord" watch over any one person and kill scores of others?  Why would a good, omnipotent god destroy good church-going people?  (It is to be assumed that some of the dead went to other churches.)  The same attitude attends to far right wing sentiments that the United States is special, so they emphasize our so-called "exceptionalism."  God may be on our side, but it's the wrong one: those other guys worship the real God.  (Crowley said "the Devil is the God of the people one personally dislikes.")  There is nothing exceptional about the USA, certainly not its de facto Judeo-Christian faith.

Third Time's The Charm

The Great Camping has recalculated for the third time. Now, he says the Rupture Rapture will be
October 21, 2011.  "God" can change his mind, can't he?

Wikipedia on the "Molinists"

"Molinism, named after 16th Century Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina, is a religious doctrine which attempts to reconcile the providence of God with human free will. William Lane Craig is probably its best known advocate today, though other important Molinists include Alfred Freddoso, Alvin Plantinga and Thomas Flint. In basic terms, Molinists hold that in addition to knowing everything that does or will happen, God also knows what His creature would freely choose if placed in any circumstance."

That's Wikipedia's brief caption for its entry on Monism.  The late Luis Buñuel was fond of playing tricks on movie audiences by showing Catholic heresies in the plain light of truth: in "The Milky Way," he reconstructed some Gnostic sects and heretical groups based upon what is known of them.  He may have been familiar with the Molinists.  Today, the Molinist, Alvin Plantinga, argued with Mackie on the nature of evil, Mackie taking the position that no good omnipotent god would allow evil to exist, Plantinga countering with his claim it is man, not "God" who does evil; "God" cannot help it if man sometimes chooses incorrectly.  Once you understand the circular logic of Platinga's position the last line of the Wiki entry takes on special significance.

Either "God" is impotent and therefore of no use to man, or "God" is all powerful but allows man to choose evil.  Under the circumstances, "God" just can't win.  He's either a fraud or a coward.

After the Rapture

I just hope I go to Hell.  At least I will get to meet Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, and many, many others.  I will insist on a private audience with Darwin.  I will dine on hot nails with John Huston.  Nietzsche and I will invite Seneca the Younger to hors d'oeuvres of baby piranha fish, washing them down with Vouve Cliquot laced with hydrochloric acid.  I can't wait...well, of course I can wait. At least until Camping's next prophecy.

Jebus in Joplin

The followers of Jebus Crust will inform you that "God" was angry with Joplin, MO., and that is why he brought tornado devastation on the city.  A scientist will tell you that a tornado is naturally-occurring weather phenomenon that comes about when a large storm system sets into motion a destructive vortex of violently rotating winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud.  If the Crustian definition -- a work of "God" -- is accepted, it begs questions.  For one thing, what did the people of Joplin do to deserve this?  Why would a good, omnipotent god cause dozens of deaths and level parts of a city?  Why would a good, omnipotent god kill children along with the (presumably evil) adults?  Wielding Occam's razor, why should we have to resort to a weak, inadequate, entirely illogical explanation for a naturally occurring phenomenon when the scientific explanation is so obvious?  Nature, not "God," causes such tragedies.

Remember, the ReverEND John Hagee http://www.jhm.org/ME2/Default.asp
said that Hurricane Katrina was "God's" visitation on New Orleans for having hosted a gay pride event.  Why would "God" destroy heterosexuals in N.O.?  Children?  There are only two possibilities: "God" is an impotent grouch, or "God" is a sorry son of a bitch.  It comes as no surprise that most Hagee types are climate change deniers.  Because the Booble says nothing about climate change, the phenomenon is obviously an invention of un-American, un-Christian people who want us to fail by having limits placed on such things as the burning of coal to power our flat screen TV's, P.C.'s, and toasters.  If the Booble says nothing about it, "God" didn't mean it to be.  "God" wouldn't allow something like climate change to occur: if we all died of the effects of climate change, no one would be around for the Rupture Rapture.  Sheesh!  We just can't win!

About the Booble, Part One

The Holy Booble consists of two volumes, the O.T. and the N.T.  Some of the poetry in the King James edition of the O.T. is marvelous, notably Ecclesiastes.  Most of the rest of the Booble is junk.  In the hands of Jebus worshipers, the N.T. is particularly dangerous, since it promulgates the existence of a person with little to no historical basis.  All that is known is that a rabbi was born in the "Holy" Land and came to be known as Reb (for Rabbi) Yeshua (for Joshua).  It is possible the "Jesus Christ" part was in part derived from the words "Yeshua" and "Krishna," the similarity of the names being noted by Massey, Blavatsky, and many other Jesus disprovers.  In all probability, the person or prophet we today call Jesus Christ was invented whole cloth by early Christians based upon pagan precedents including Dionysus, Osiris, Tammuz, Attis (or Attys), and any one of dozens of other death-and-resurrection deities the world over.  The biggest problem with the Booble is that it contradicts itself from verse to verse; that, and the tendency of Booblists to "prove" the existence of "God" with the following remarkable observation: "Of course God exists.  The Booble says so."

Camping Out

Try as they might, the followers of Crustian prophet Harold Egbert Camping have once again failed to bring about the Rupture Rapture.  Last time, late in the 90s, they spinned their  failure by saying a particular chapter and verse had not been considered, so recalculation was necessary.  News reports today, May 22, 2011, have Egbert's headquaters in Oakland and/or the old boy's house in Milpitas sacked by angry dissenters, probably including those who feel that Camping is making all Crustians look like fools, which of course he is.  The more of these End Times prophets come out of the woodwork, the more normal people see that their faith is misplaced, as there is no god but man.  Man created Yahweh-Jehovah and man must free himself of the grip that this demon has on him so that he can be more fully human: more functional, less likely to eschew responsibility for his acts and omissions, less likely to say what will be will be.  In other words, more likely to see the truth of the great god Zarathustra as channeled by Nietzsche: Crustianity is the greatest tragedy to befall mankind.

The Gospel According to Jebus Crust

Jebus Crust is the god of the fundamentalists, evangelicals, and all other narrow minded bigots, those who twist the gospel of giving into the Prosperity Gospel and give once a week lip service to the principles laid down by Reb Yeshua, the mystic and revolutionary who, combined with Osirian and other resurrection deities, became "Jesus Christ," a misnomer if ever there was one.  (Has anyone ever noticed the similarity in sound and, transliterally, the spelling of Christ to Krishna?  Read your Blavatsky!)  This weblog with be devoted to exposing the Jesus of the Bigots as a false Christ.  I have chosen to call him Jebus Crust because (1) he does not deserve a better name, and (2) he is so often seen in breads bought by gullible, loser believers, so desperate they are for "signs and portents" of the Second Coming. They see him everywhere. That is because they are delusional.  There is no god but man.