Religion IS crazy!

[Glen48]

If King James was allowed to print his own version of the bible why can't an individual print his own tax laws?
Sad this is some thing we will have to put up with for ever, even if Evolution is proven to be 110% correct all this creation thinking does is slow down world progress and create wars, hatred etc all the things religion is suppose to prevent..

My old man can play dominoes
better than your old man.

like hell he can

Catholic priest chat...

 

[Calliope]

If King James was allowed to print his own version of the bible why can't an individual print his own tax laws?
Sad this is some thing we will have to put up with for ever, even if Evolution is proven to be 110% correct all this creation thinking does is slow down world progress and create wars, hatred etc all the things religion is suppose to prevent..

My old man can play dominoes
better than your old man.

like hell he can

Catholic priest chat...

Yes it doesn't take much for weird beliefs to start a war as Swift showed with the Lilliputians.

Similarly shallow is the difference between the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians. The story goes that, apparently, when this Emperor's grandfather was a child, he cut himself when he cracked a boiled egg on its big, rounded end. Following this accident, the current Emperor's great-grandfather laid down the law: no more cracking eggs at the big end. Now, the entire island of Lilliput can only crack eggs at the little end. This change completely outrages some Lilliputians, who raise rebellions and flee to the neighboring island of tiny people, Blefuscu, a haven for Big-Endians.

 

[Gringotts Bank]

He writes so well. Make sure you understand it!

Blues for Buddha -

by the mythical Jed McKenna


Being critical of Buddhism isn't easy.

Buddhism is the most likable of the major religions, and Buddhists are the perennial good guys of modern spirituality. Beautiful traditions, lovely architecture, inspiring statuary, ancient history, the Dalai Lama - what's not to like?

Everything about Buddhsim is just so... nice. No fatwahs or jihads, no inquisitions or crusades, no terrorists or pederasts, just nice people being nice. In fact, Buddhism means niceness. Nice-ism.

At least, it should.

Buddha means Awakened One, so Buddhism can be taken to mean Awake-ism. Awakism. It would therefore be natural to think that if you were looking to wake up, then Buddhism, i.e., Awakism, would be the place to look.

::: The Light is Better Over Here

Such thinking, however, would reveal a dangerous lack of respect for the opposition. Maya, goddess of delusion, has been doing her job with supreme mastery since the first spark of self-awareness flickered in some chimp's noggin, and the idea that the neophyte truth-seeker can just sign up with the Buddhists, read some books, embrace some new concepts and slam her to the mat might be a bit on the naive side.

On the other hand, why not? How'd this get so turned around? It's just truth. Shouldn't truth be, like, the simplest thing? Shouldn't someone who wants to find something as ubiquitous as truth be able to do so? And here's this venerable organization supposedly dedicated to just that very thing, even named for it, so what's the problem?

::: Why doesn't Buddhism produce Buddhas?

The problem arises from the fact that Buddhists, like everyone else, insist on reconciling the irreconcilable. They don't just want to awaken to the true, they also want to make sense of the untrue. They want to have their cake and eat it too, so they end up with nonsensical theories, divergent schools, sagacious doubletalk, and zero Buddhas.

Typical of Buddhist insistence on reconciling the irreconcilable is the concept of Two Truths, a poignant two-word joke they don't seem to get, and yet this sort of perversely irrational thinking is at the very heart of the failed search for truth. We don't want truth, we want a particular truth; one that doesn't threaten ego, one that doesn't exist. We insist on a truth that makes sense given what we know, not knowing that we don't know anything.

Nothing about Buddhism is more revealing than the Four Noble Truths which, not being true, are of pretty dubious nobility. They form the basis of Buddhism, so it's clear from the outset that the Buddhists have whipped up a proprietary version of truth shaped more by market forces than any particular concern for the less consumer-friendly, albeit true, truth.

Yes, Buddhism may be spiritually filling, even nourishing, but insofar as truth is concerned, it's junkfood. You can eat it every day of your life and die exactly as Awakened as the day you signed up.

::: Bait & Switch

Buddhism is a classic bait-and-switch operation. We're attracted by the enlightenment in the window, but as soon as we're in the door they start steering us over to the compassion aisle. Buddhists could be honest and change their name to Compassionism, but who wants that?

There's the rub. They can't sell compassion and they can't deliver enlightenment.

This untruth-in-advertising is the kind of game you have to play if you want to stay successful in a business where the customer is always wrong. You can either go out of business honestly, or thrive by giving the people what they want. What they say they want and what they really want, though, are two very different things.

::: Me Me Me

To the outside observer, much of Buddhist knowledge and practice seems focused on spiritual self-improvement. This, too, is hard to speak against... except within the context of awakening from delusion. Then it's easy.

There is no such thing as true self, so any pursuit geared toward its aggrandizement, betterment, upliftment, elevation, evolution, glorification, salvation, etc, is utter folly. How much more so any endeavor undertaken merely to increase one's own happiness or contentment or, I'm embarrassed to even say it, bliss?

Self is ego and ego is the realm of the dreamstate. If you want to break free of the dreamstate, you must break free of self, not stroke it to make it purr or groom it for some imagined brighter future.

::: Maya's House of Enlightenment

The trick with being critical of so esteemed and beloved an institution is not to get dragged down into the morass of details and debate. It's very simple: If Buddhism is about enlightenment, people should be getting enlightened. If it's not about enlightenment, they should change the sign.

Of course, Buddhism isn't completely unique in its survival tactics. This same gulf between promise and performance is found in all systems of human spirituality. We're looking at it in Buddhism because that's where it's most pronounced. No disrespect to the Buddha is intended. If there was a Buddha and he was enlightened, then it's Buddhism that insults his memory, not healthy skepticism. Blame the naked emperor's retinue of tailors and lickspittles, not the boy who merely states the obvious.

Buddhism is arguably the most elevated of man's great belief systems. If you want to enjoy the many valuable benefits it has to offer, then I wouldn't presume to utter a syllable against it. But if you want to escape from the clutches of Maya, then I suggest you take a very close look at the serene face on all those golden statues to see if it isn't really hers.



The Mythical Jed McKenna

 

[Gringotts Bank]

another good article from http://www.theendofseeking.net/

Is there a 'Doer'?

It is true that "We are Lived", "Life Lives Us" and "We are an expression of the One Life".

Does this mean that we are not the 'Doer' of anything?

Actions arise, things get done - there is no doubt about that.

The question remains - Who or what is the 'Doer'?

We only have two candidates nominated as the 'doer'.

1. Awareness / Aliveness / Consciousness / Presence-Awareness / Intelligience-Energy / God.

2. The 'me', the ego, the reference point.


Looking in more detail

1. Awareness / Consciousness / Aliveness.


Awareness / Intelligence-Energy is Omnipresent - which means that it is Present in every possibly location in the Universe, without being 'more Present' in some places and 'less Present' in others.

There is no possible separation that can exist - and all apparent separation is an illusion. One is All. There is no room for a separate 'god' and no room for a separate 'you' or a separate 'me'.

There cannot be a separate 'doer'.

Some hold that "Consciousness is the 'ultimate doer' ", but that is Dualistic. There is no separation between Consciousness and anything else, even an 'ultimate 'doer'. The 'ultimate doer' is just a concept, a label, an abstraction. The actuality is there is only DO-ing but no separate 'Doer' except in the mind as a thought.

Everything arises in Consciousness in the immediacy of the Present Moment. It does not arise from a 'separate Doer' or a 'separate Source'.

Consciousness is non-personal - there is no entity that can be a 'Doer' or a 'Source'.

Everything just arises. That is it.

There is only Consciousness / Awareness / Intelligence - Energy. God.

2. The 'me', the ego

The ego is just a thought. The 'me' is just a thought. It has no power at all in it's own right.

The 'me' cannot be the 'doer' but it certainly claims to be.

Awareness sees and the 'me' says "I see". Awareness hears and the 'me' comes in and says "I hear".

The seeing and the hearing have already occurred before the thoughts "I see" and "I hear" arise.

These thoughts are 'after thoughts' - occurring after the event to which they refer.

Thoughts have no power of themselves.

Thoughts cannot be the 'doer'.

The understanding is that there IS NO DOER AT ALL. Everything just arises in consciousness.

We are Lived. Life Lives us.

But what then of the statement 'I am not the doer'?

This statement is flawed for two reasons - the assumptions on which it is based.

There is an assumption that a 'me' or an 'I' actually exists as a separate entity. So there is a belief in a non-existent 'me' which denies being the 'doer'.


That entity, when investigated is found not to exist, at which point the issue of 'who is the doer' is no longer an issue.

The 'doer' actually does not exist anywhere else other than thought. It is an abstraction. What happens is DO-ing, which is a Movement of Consciousness in the immediacy of the Present Moment.

The mind (which likes to divide and separate) latches onto this and describes it in terms of a DOER and something that is DONE - but in fact there is only DO-ing.

So the statement "I am not the doer" is correct except that there is no 'I' and there is no 'doer'.

How about "there is no doer and people should not be blamed for what they apparently 'do' and nor should you blame yourself either ".

This statement is seriously flawed as well, in addition to the reasons above, which equally apply to this statement

In blaming yourself there is an implicit belief in the 'me' that is doing the blaming and the same 'me' that is being blamed. So it is the Ego blaming the Ego. Total mind stuff. None of this exists except in the imagination.

Whether there is blaming or not is not the issue - the issue is the solid and steadfast belief in the existence of the 'me' in the first person. There is a similar belief in the separate entity of others (their 'me'). All are illusions. None actually exist.

If there is no 'me' here - how possibily could there be a 'me' over there?

When the 'me' is seen through - seen for the fiction that it is - the subject of blaming does not arise. It is a red herring.

Written by Mike Graham, 25 Jan 2008, last edited 13 Jun 2008

 

[DB008]

Interesting....

Higgs boson physicist shunned in Pakistan

Man whose work made discovery of elusive particle possible scorned in homeland because of his religious affiliation

In what is perhaps a sign of the growing Islamic extremism in the country, Pakistan's only Nobel laureate, who helped develop the theoretical framework that led to the apparent discovery of the subatomic "God particle" last week, is being largely scorned in his homeland because of his religious affiliation.

Adbus Salam, who died in 1996, was once hailed as a national hero for his pioneering work in physics and his contribution to Pakistan's nuclear programme. Now his name is stricken from school textbooks because he was a member of the Ahmadi sect that has been persecuted by the government and targeted by Taliban militants, who view them as heretics.

Their plight – along with that of Pakistan's other religious minorities, such as Shiite Muslims and Hindus – has deepened in recent years as hardline interpretations of Islam have gained ground and militants have stepped up attacks against groups they oppose. The majority of Pakistan's citizens are Sunni Muslims.

Link

 

[Glen48]

Easy to fix call it Allah's Particles case closed.
Same stupidity, wonder how much harm has been done to science by religion.

 

[DB008]

Girls denied cervical cancer jab

Christianity rears it's ugly head...

Girls denied cervical cancer jab

Some schools in England have opted out of the HPV vaccination programme because their pupils "follow strict Christian principles" and "do not practise sex outside marriage".

The jab guards against two strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) virus - 16 and 18 - which cause 70% of cases of cervical cancer. It is offered routinely to girls aged 12 to 13.

But an investigation by GP magazine found that 24 schools in 83 of England's 152 primary care trust (PCT) areas were opting out of the vaccination programme, many of them on religious grounds. The magazine found the majority of the schools opting out did not tell their local GPs, where the girls could be offered the vaccine.

Link - The Guardian

 

[Gringotts Bank]

Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuro-anatomist brain scientist. She gets a bit soppy in parts, but try not to miss the essential elements. There's many ways to interpret this.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

 

[pixel]

Re: Girls denied cervical cancer jab

Christianity rears it's ugly head...
Link - The Guardian

Why pick only on Christian schools? Name one Islamic school that teaches girls about contraception.

oh, I forgot - there aren't many Islamic schools that teach girls...

 

[DB008]

Why pick only on Christian schools? Name one Islamic school that teaches girls about contraception.

oh, I forgot - there aren't many Islamic schools that teach girls...

l don't only pick on Christians, all religions open to criticism in my eyes.

There has been a lot of talk in Germany regarding boys circumcision lately because one religious person botched a young boys circumcision, and he had to be taken to hospital because of bleeding. Courts ruled that it should be banned. Jews and Muslims united.

In Germany - female circumcision is prohibited, but young males, it's ok.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/19/uk-germany-circumcision-idUKBRE86I15820120719
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jul/17/german-circumcision-affront-jewish-muslim-identity
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2012/0717/German-circumcision-ban-incites-new-religious-controversy-in-Europe
http://news.yahoo.com/german-circumcision-ban-incites-religious-controversy-europe-203229066.html

 

[DB008]

Re: Girls denied cervical cancer jab

Why pick only on Christian schools? Name one Islamic school that teaches girls about contraception.

oh, I forgot - there aren't many Islamic schools that teach girls...

Lets have a look at Islam v Science? (Short vid)

 

[Glen48]

that's it no more maccas for me.

 

[pixel]

Re: Girls denied cervical cancer jab

Lets have a look at Islam v Science? (Short vid)

good grief!
What has he been smoking?

 

[DB008]

Safe sex? Indonesia would rather its sex workers got Aids

Katherine Butler reports from Jakarta, where religious intolerance is undermining the fight against Asia's fastest-growing HIV epidemic

In Tenda Biru, free condoms are available from a shack operated by an NGO which receives funding from the Global Fund to combat Aids, TB and Malaria. The charity also provides three-monthly HIV testing via a mobile clinic. But culturally, condoms are a problem. Men won’t use them and women are typically too powerless to demand that they do. Three quarters of HIV infections in Indonesia come from unprotected sex. According to one estimate 19 million Indonesians could be at risk of contracting the disease because of unsafe sexual conduct.

If ignorance or reckless sexual behaviour weren’t problematic enough, the country is now also in the grip of a moral battle over condoms led by Islamic pressure groups arguing that they encourage promiscuity. Their stance mirrors the Catholic church’s preaching against condom use among the faithful in Aids-ravaged parts of Africa, complete with arguments over whether the virus is too small to be stopped by the pores in the latex.

Dr Mboi, former head of the National Aids Commission was plunged into a firestorm on joining government in June, after launching a campaign to promote safe sex among 15 to 24 year olds. The former paediatrician was denounced as “obscene” by the Islamic Defenders Front or FPI, the group that led protests forcing Lady Gaga to cancel her Jakarta concerts in the spring, and excoriated in a Twitter campaign.

The Independent
Link

 

[DB008]

Happened in Melbourne

Atheists chant at Muslim protesters - 2012 Atheist Convention

(side note-there are 1 or 2 swear words)

 

[young-gun]

Happened in Melbourne

Atheists chant at Muslim protesters - 2012 Atheist Convention

(side note-there are 1 or 2 swear words)

I wonder what would happen if the atheists protested outside a Muslim convention in an Islamic dominated nation Primitive bull****..

 

[DB008]

I wonder what would happen if the atheists protested outside a Muslim convention in an Islamic dominated nation Primitive bull****..

It would not end nicely.
Any insult to the profit Mohammed is viewed, well, in rather harsh terms...

OT - It seems like it's ok for Muslims to criticise the Catholics, but not the other way round (Mohammed and Pope). I have seen it happen before me. I have seen a Muslim take full aim at the Pope, but l'm sure if l'd said something, the outcome would have been very different.

 

[DB008]

No man’s land: Women-only city planned for Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is to build a new city exclusively for women. The Gulf kingdom is working on the narrow junction between strict Sharia law and the aspirations of active females who wish to pursue their own careers.
The new plan is to combine women’s desire to work in the modern age and provide a job environment that would go hand-in-hand with the country’s Sharia law. The Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon) has been charged to lead the country into a new era.

The ambitious mono-city is now being designed with construction to begin next year. The municipality in the Eastern city of Hafuf is expected to attract 500 million riyals (US$133 million) in investments and it will create around 5,000 jobs in the textiles, pharmaceuticals and food processing industries. There will be women-run firms and production lines for women.

Saudi Sharia law does allow women to work, given that her essential duties of homemaking should not be neglected. But in reality around 15 per cent of women are represented in the workforce, according to some estimates.

Link RT News

 

[lindsayf]

science and religion

Lets have a look at Islam v Science? (Short vid)

Thats hilarious! Is that the islamic version of 'intelligent design' ? Such a great example of how the net effect of fundamentalist religions is 'the great dumbing down' of the masses.

 

[DB008]

Wasn't sure where to post this one....but here goes...

Tunisian Olympians targeted by Islamist radicals for behavior and dress deemed un-Islamic

(AP) TUNIS, Tunisia - Islamist extremists have targeted two Tunisian Olympic medalists for behavior and dress seen as un-Islamic, as debate grows over the role of religion and women in the country that unleashed the Arab Spring uprisings.

Radicals on social media networks called on the government to strip Habiba Ghribi, the first Tunisian woman to win an Olympic medal, of her nationality because her running gear was too revealing. She won the silver in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

And a Facebook campaign by extremist group Ansar al Chariaa is targeting swimmer Oussama Mellouli for drinking juice before racing during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Mellouli won gold in the 10-kilometer marathon and bronze in the 1,500-meter freestyle.

Tunisia is run by a moderate Islamist-led government that is facing increasing challenges from religious extremists.

On Monday, Tunisians rallied to protest against what they see as a push by the government for constitutional changes that would degrade women's status.

Link - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-33747_162-57492866/tunisian-olympians-targeted-by-islamist-radicals-for-behavior-and-dress-deemed-un-islamic