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The mounting Neo-liberal oligarchy couldn’t exists if American christians actually followed the teachings of Jesus, thus Supply Side Jesus was born to fill the gap. Bill Mahr paints the funny, yet troubling, picture of what much of mainstream religious discourse has become in the United States.
Marx said in his Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right:
“Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.
Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.”
So rather than plucking the flowers from the chain, much of the US seems to have upgraded the flowers instead… :/
So I was perusing a Christian’s blog, as I am sometimes wont to do, and she was discussing the Biblical creation story (version 2, which contradicts version 1 from a few verses earlier, but anyway…) In this creation account, Yahweh creates everything else, then places one man (Adam) in the Garden of Eden. He sends all the animals to Adam to be named, and to see if any of them will make a worthy companion for him, and Adam names all the animals and likes some of them but none are quite right.
And God says, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (and creates Eve from Adam’s rib).
No shit, Sherlock. Humans are social animals. We need one another, deeply and desperately, both for physical and psychological survival. And here, God goes and creates a man, and puts him in a (very large and very beautiful) solitary confinement cell.
Now, when you confront Christians with the fact that the world today is full of needless suffering, and God, being omnipotent, could alleviate all that suffering with a word, but he never does, Christians will tend to respond with some bafflegab about this being a fallen, sinful world and/or God working in mysterious ways. Here’s the thing: in the above story, Eve hasn’t even been created yet, let alone been tempted by the devil/snake to eat the apple and feed it to Adam.
Adam is perfectly innocent; sin has not yet entered this shiny, new, perfect world that God has declared good. And here is Adam, suffering for no reason except that God did creation this way and not some other way. (Hey God, when you declared your creation good, was Adam’s suffering part of that good?) What would it have cost God to create Adam and Eve at the same time, or better yet, breathe on enough dust to create a whole tribe? Being omniscient, God knew before he put Adam all alone in that garden, that it would not be good for him to be alone. And the God who is Love went ahead and did it anyway.
It’s also interesting to note, in the most famous story of gratuitous suffering in the Bible, the Book of Job, God doesn’t actually directly cause Job’s suffering. He agrees to let the devil do whatever he wants to Job – who is not innocent like Adam, but still a very good and devout man. In the creation account, God sticks it to Man directly. Either way, what a dick this Supreme Arbiter of Morality seems to be.
It was nice.
I was on a lovely sabbatical, my time was restful and chock full of repose, languidity, and tranquility. I was defended from hearing about the woes of the Oppressed Christian Majority in the United States. My ire toward the loon-factory that is organized religion was at an all time low. It was going well until the farcical fail-o-tron of delusional christian nonsense headed by Kim Davis, remorselessly yanked my sensitive secular antenna and thus, sadly, my attention back to this specious example of ‘secular oppression’ being visited upon the goodly religious folk down in Kentucky.
What is going on here? Well, you can see the video for yourself here, but Ms.Davis has thoughtfully(?) summarized her position for us with this quote:
Holy bullshit BATMAN! Quick! To the delusionally-religious Derp-cave!
Kim, you are state employee. You must carry out your duties in accordance with the law, no matter what your particular sky-bhudda has to say on the issue. Government is a secular institution. For those of us who subscribe to reality this case was over before it even begun.
Do your job or get fired. End of story. Or is it?
Get out your funny hats and squeaky shoes ladies and gentlemen as the candidates from ongoing republican clown-car-collective are not letting this grave affront to religious liberty rest. That would be reasonable. And we all know “reasonable” in repub-lingo means ‘siding with the terrorists’ – and NO SIR! – we will not let the terrorists win.
” But two possible future presidents, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Senator Ted Cruz, disagree. They have declared #ImWithKim in what they deem a battle for religious liberty.
Huckabee wrote an open letter on his campaign site calling for Davis’s release that his supporters and others can co-sign.
The letter, which is addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Judge Bunning, calls for Davis’s immediate release.
“Exercising religious liberty should never be a crime in America. This is a direct attack on our God-given, constitutional rights,” the letter signed by Huckabee reads.”
Okay if the first sentence doesn’t make you want to make a mess of your undies, you are made of much sterner stuff than I. Brave Clown #1 and #2 are quite passionate in their defense of ‘religious liberty’, yet it would seem they understand very little about what the term is, and how it works in secular society. Let’s humour them as they are not done digging yet. Huckabee was clearly not satisfied with containing his insipid brain-flatulence to his own website so then our vainglorious Chucklebee took his important case to twitter:
“He said the judge’s decision to jail Davis “removes all doubts about the criminalization of Christianity” in the U.S. and called on others to “defend #ReligiousLiberty!”
Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubts about the criminalization of Christianity in this country. We must defend #ReligiousLiberty!
He wondered who might be jailed next for refusing service to same-sex couples. “Pastors? Photogs? Caterers? Florists?” he asked.
Proud of #KimDavis for standing strong for her beliefs. Who’s next? Pastors? Photogs? Caterers? Florists? http://t.co/fYxFEng5gH #ImWithKim
The decision “undermines the Constitution” and the “fundamental right” of religious liberty,” he wrote.
This reckless, appalling, out-of-control decision undermines the Constitution & our fundamental right to #ReligiousLiberty. #ImWithKim
Chucklebee saved the very best for last.
“Judges, Huckabee believes, “cannot make law. They can only make ruilngs.”
Five, unelected Supreme Court lawyers did not and cannot make law. They can only make rulings. http://t.co/fYxFEmYup9 #ImWithKim #KimDavis
http://t.co/fYxFEng5gH #ImWithKim #KimDavis #ReligiousLiberty pic.twitter.com/MoTRHmmffo
Yep. Those rogue SCOTUS lawyers are undermining the Constitution and fundamental religious liberties at *every* turn. Who does the SCOTUS think they are?
I would comment further on the qualifications of this potential future President, but my irony meter just gave up the ghost. Chuckles closes with this:
“”I may stand alone, but I am absolutely faithful to the issue of marriage. Not because it’s politically expedient, but because it’s the Biblical position, the historical position and the right position. We must defend, protect and preserve traditional marriage,” he wrote on his site.”
Oh battle on brave christian warrior! Your oppressed majority pines to be released from the secular hell they encounter every day. Worship is banned, churches dismantled, people imprisoned for the mere act of practicing their faith!!!
Wheeze, ka-chung, *gurgle*:Irony meter destroyed. :(
In the CBC news article there is a whole section on the tepidly-parviscient, wet gym-sock, that is Ted Cruz, I suggest you read it if you enjoy having your brain bent and have not had your “no fuckn’ way’ quotient filled for day (week, year(?)).
So much stupid said with so many words. But all is undone with this simple statement gleaned from the comments on said CBC article.
“Religious freedom does not mean that you can ignore portions of your job, administer only the portions of the law that you like, deny services to the public based on your personal beliefs or infringe on the rights of another.”
That is all.
[Sources cited: cbc.ca #1, #2]
Darkmatter2525, once again, is featured on today’s disservice. Enjoy.
A short film that uses repetition to make a very good point. :)
“This is touted as a compelling reason Christianity is believable, but I find it sorely lacking. People convert, even antagonistic people. It happens all the time. Some people even call them traitors. Such conversions prove nothing. It’s even a Hollywood trope, yet notice how none of the plots of those movies felt the need to invoke the supernatural to explain the protagonist’s change.”
On a more cinematic note I think the above trope is one of the reasons why I found the latest Mad Max movie so refreshing – a complete lack of a dude centric plot. It was a nice change of pace not having to watch drama unfold through the bog-standard white male perspective.
Almost all of us have had one. You race away from what you happen to be doing we the grand expectation of someone you know coming to pay you a visit for a coffee or whatever. But no, it isn’t like that at all. It is a stranger and their goal is to test your politeness and patience while they ramble on about trying to save your soul and getting to know Jebus and all that hullabaloo.
Another unhappy feature of this is that these proselytizers are usually so damned nice about the whole thing. So despite the fact you happen to be imagining opening one of your own veins and spraying them with your blood while commanding your high-lord Beelzebub to rain hell fire down them, instead one tends to smile back and politely nod and just wish that they would go away.
I find the door knocking proselytizers to be such a troublesome situation to deal with appropriately. Of course inappropriate responses cost more socially speaking, but seem to be a touch more satisfying.
I’ve always gone the polite route, but does anyone else have some slam dunk suggestions for dealing with situations like these? I’d like to increase the size of my bag of tricks, so to speak.
It’s been so long since Theramintress graced us with one of his well reasoned, BS busting videos. Sit back and enjoy 22 minutes of erudite commentary that, as usual, demolishes arguments believers have about their very important magical beliefs.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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