A myth is something which is not true on the outside, but is true on the inside.
Anonymous 4 year old girl.
*****************************
Hello Sue
****************************
Well, the end of the world has come and gone again and except for another day gone by there is no appreciable change in most of our lives. I'm sure there are one or two young millenniumists waiting for their chance to calculate when the Day of Judgement is coming, the Great Catastrophe, the End of the World, the Rapture and the plummet into Hell of the Unbelievers. Their efforts will be just as futile of Mr Camping's and all the other prophets of doom that have existed throughout the ages.
One can play complex games with mathematics and come up with a precise date for the creation of Adam and end up nowhere. For two reasons. One, mathematics is a human method of calculation and not a divine one. "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." (2 Peter) And two, the story of the Garden of Eden is a myth, with it's man made out of mud, it's woman made from a rib, an evil tree and a talking snake. It's the truth inside that myth that's important to understand.
Believers are determined to hold on to the concept of an anthropomorphic god, a superior man who has a judgmental eye on every little thing we do, an all powerful creature whose main purpose is punishment and reward, a whimsical being who answers one man's prayers and not another's. It all comes from the bad habit, which is very hard to break, of reading sacred texts literally. The Bible was written by human beings for human beings and thus the words and images used are in human terms. As they must be. If one argues with this idea he will only be quoting human words to do it. Enlightenment comes to one who one day sees what is inside the words. But that can only happen if one is looking for it.
God did not give Moses an exhaustive and elaborate set of instructions about erecting a tabernacle, designing clothes for it's priests, butchering and sacrificing animals or a myriad of rules and regulations for human behavior. What Moses experienced on the mountain top was a vision, a flash of enlightenment, a kind of big bang of spirituality and he set about to describe in human terms what he experienced.
The Revelation of Saint John was not about candlesticks, men on horses, vials of plagues, a lamb prepared for slaughter, a woman descending from heaven surrounded by stars and a great red dragon. We don't know what he saw. All we know is his attempt to describe it in human terms.
I believe a genuine seer who had the purity of thought and the intense obligation could find the real meanings inside of all those symbols and trace them back to the original vision of Moses on the mountain top or of Saint John on the island. And if he got to that state of enlightenment he would find a God nothing at all like the one most people worship. There would be a God that doesn't reward and punish, that knows nothing of a Day of Judgement and that will not, cannot bring and end to It's creation.
Dan Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
******************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I await your answers.
DB
********************
Showing posts with label the Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Bible. Show all posts
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Crackpots Beware
I happen to believe that Science is not on the dark side of the moon. Maybe not Science as most of us are used to thinking about it: technology, engineering or medicine. A scientific fact is a fact that can be proved, it's a fact for which there is natural evidence.. That the Rapture did not happen means the methodology was wrong. Even the idea of ascending into the clouds, although the Bible puts it that way, is a crack pot idea if taken literally. Either God created the Universe or It did not. And one thing we know from being in outer space is that the Creator doesn't know anything about left and right, up and down, or maybe even in and out. I think any true scientist who gets beyond peering into microscopes or telescopes, playing around with test tubes or poking around in fields and forests, is probably capable of knowing more about an apocalyptic experience than any fundamentalist bible thumper. There's many a slip between the cup of the Holy Grail and the lip of the pastor who thinks he preaches it.
God did not visit Hurricane Irene on the East Coast to punish us for our wrongs. In the overall cosmic scheme of things wrongs punish themselves, they don't need a hurricane to do it. What are we to do? Lie back and let the ocean surge wash over us, destroy our homes and our lives, because it is God's will? Nuts!
The best, the most sacred way to worship any divine creator is to live, to conquer the dangerous forces, natural and human, that would destroy creation. We must exercise our endemic rights to survival and safety, to peace, health and prosperity.
We must fight against the forces that burn down forests, topple homes and flood farms. And we can win because we are creations and we have true science to help us. The meteorologists claim they were correct at predicting Irene's path but incorrect at predicting it's speed. So they are back in their laboratories learning more. Their correct predictions probably saved a lot of lives.
We must fight against the forces that hoard wealth, push people from their homes and pass laws that deprive people of their rights because of some bible thumping politicians who never look into the Holy Grail. We must rid our governments of the notion that they can legislate social and human behavior based on any particular religion's tradition. And we will win because we are human beings and we have true rationality to help us. And because, no matter how long it takes, we never give up.
DB - The Vagabond
*************************
SUMMER QUESTION
Summer is moving along, people.
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
19 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
God did not visit Hurricane Irene on the East Coast to punish us for our wrongs. In the overall cosmic scheme of things wrongs punish themselves, they don't need a hurricane to do it. What are we to do? Lie back and let the ocean surge wash over us, destroy our homes and our lives, because it is God's will? Nuts!
The best, the most sacred way to worship any divine creator is to live, to conquer the dangerous forces, natural and human, that would destroy creation. We must exercise our endemic rights to survival and safety, to peace, health and prosperity.
We must fight against the forces that burn down forests, topple homes and flood farms. And we can win because we are creations and we have true science to help us. The meteorologists claim they were correct at predicting Irene's path but incorrect at predicting it's speed. So they are back in their laboratories learning more. Their correct predictions probably saved a lot of lives.
We must fight against the forces that hoard wealth, push people from their homes and pass laws that deprive people of their rights because of some bible thumping politicians who never look into the Holy Grail. We must rid our governments of the notion that they can legislate social and human behavior based on any particular religion's tradition. And we will win because we are human beings and we have true rationality to help us. And because, no matter how long it takes, we never give up.
DB - The Vagabond
*************************
SUMMER QUESTION
Summer is moving along, people.
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
19 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Don't Follow Me
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, seek what they sought.
Matsuo Basho
**************************
From hand to hand the greeting flows,
From eye to eye the signals run,
From heart to heart the bright hope glows;
The seekers of the light are one.
(Longfellow)
Did the prophet Nahum, who wrote somewhere around 615 BCE, know that he was writing for Jews and others of the 21st Century CE? Did Nahum, whose name means "comfort," even know there would be a 21st Century? Did Nahum, who wrote "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him," even think about it? Doubtful. And yet there he is with his three chapters in the modern Bible to be read and considered by enquiring minds.
When read literally it prophesies the destruction of the Assyrian city of Nineveh. But an enlightened reader who can set aside the literal meaning and know Nineveh as only a metaphor will find a richly poetic prophesy of the destruction of evil in all its colorful forms and the eventual salvation of the human race from it.
I love to read. The better the writer the greater the pleasure. I enjoy it even more now since I write every day. And I'm learning an important lesson.
I have two books on the care and feeding of birds. They are both filled with interesting and useful information. One is well written, the other is not. What's wrong with it is that the author writes like me. I winced at the page I read yesterday and when I looked back over some of the journal entries I made in '08 and '09 I winced again. Now I'm timorous about rereading what I wrote last week or two days ago.
Great writers, many of whose books are piled up in the next room, are a source of inspiration and enlightenment but I doubt that any of them, or any good author who manages to get published is really thinking about what effect their words are going to have centuries down the line.
I'm learning a lesson I learned years ago as an actor. You don't go on the stage to impress the audience with your looks, voice, stage presence, charisma or acting ability. You go on the stage to tell a story. It's the story, the metaphor of the drama that affects people, or should, if it's done right.
Good actors watch other good actors for the same reason good writers read great literature. Not to copy but to take up the torch and pass it on just as Nahum did, just as Longfellow did.
So I promise myself, and I promise you, if I find myself not telling the story but trying to impress a reader with my vocabulary, diction, syntax or shrewd and splashy turn of phrase I will smack myself across the knuckles soundly with something that doesn't do much damage.
Thank you for reading my journal.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
****************************
It's Summer. Time to give over the answers to the SPRING QUESTION.
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
---------------------------------------------
12 diverse and interesting answers.
-----------------------------------------
Do I think that NASA should send a two person mission to Mars. Absolutely not. It would serve no useful purpose and it would put the lives of those two people in unnecessary jeopardy.
I would think that a mission like this would cost many millions of dollars and at a time when many states are going broke, there are deep cuts to infrastructure, education, health, and community programs. The taxpayers are already on the hook to the tune of about 250 million dollars a day to fund the war in Iraq. All of that money has been siphoned away from funds that might have been available to create jobs, house and feed the homeless, stabilize towns and cities across America and provide a better future for both young and old.
We are not good stewards of our own earth and we have caused more problems here than we have fixed. There is absolutely no need to be spending money we don’t have in order to be exploring other planets. We need to get our priorities back in order.
-------------------------------
When it comes to Mars, I think that it is innate for man to explore and want to extend his reach. I am all in favor of the project and they could get the money by stopping the useless wars and invest in NASA.
-------------------------------------------------------
Good question! Since a year on Mars is nearly twice ours --and
elliptical-- the two planets get within 7-month's journey only every 2
Earth-years. So our astronauts would have to stay a year longer on
Mars. On top of this protraction, they would run out of food and have
to eat each other up, which would probably strain their relationship
afterward. I don't think they should do it.
--------------------------------------------
An unpopular view I'm sure.
Trip to Mars is wrong on so many levels, even, perhaps immoral.
We need the expertise, money, dedication, time, here on Earth. Fix things here, make Earth a better place. Don't go chasing waterfalls.
------------------------------------
Sure! Why not?
The travel time will reek havoc in their lives but the six months there will give them a ton of information to share..and perhaps experiments can be performed! :)
I have heard that people accomplish a lot in scientific experiments out in space!thanks! Interesting topic DB!
-------------------------------------
I think man has screwed up earth enough that he should leave the other planets alone and use the time and money spent going to Mars fixing all the damage he's done here on earth.
------------------------------------
Yes, because the highest mountain in the solar system is THERE.
---------------------------------------------
why go to mars when you can grow squash in your back yard, or at least
some chives in a window pot. All you can plant on mars is a flag.
Unless to go from Mars to `=7,./[]}#2 where all will be virgin
---------------------------------------------------
The human race, if it wants to continue to exist, has to solve its housing problem. In several million years our sun will go supernova and incinerate, during its expansion, the planet Earth. Then, when it cools down to a grey dwarf, what was planet Earth will be a cold rock of ice. Not a good place to live or vacation. We have to start flying around the Universe a la Star Trek and find other inhabitable planets if we wish to continue our future existence as a race. They better find a better propulsion system and more sophisticated means to harness energy, hopefully without hardware and make use of Warp Space (which are only time tunnels or Worms) for getting around more easily. It’s all in Star Trek, we’re just catching up.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Spring Question: Yes. Our greatest advances have come from pure science and discovery missions. We need to keep the ball rolling.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm going to respond to this purely from a "seems right" standpoint; that is, I know nothing more about the situation than what you've told me.
Anyway, I suppose traveling to Mars could be an utter waste of resources--time, money and energy that could be channeled toward solving some of our own planets problems instead of involving another. But, to be honest, even if we relocated the time, money and energy it may take to send two men to Mars, I can't bring myself to believe that it would certainly go to something like, for example, improving hospitals in Dhaka. So with all of that aside, every part of my being is screaming, "Why the hell not?! Go to Mars!"
But none of that is what I've really wanted to say to you. What truthfully came to mind when I read your question was this whole concept of mystery and wonderment, and all of these cliche ideas that still make me feel brave and strange and beautiful, regardless of their tendency to be overused in cheap literary settings. Visiting a different planet entirely, a place that authors and dreamers and children have fantasized about; a place that's so unknown, sometimes I feel as though its mass is more daydream than it is anything else.
Given not only the ability but the willingness and eagerness to explore, it would be a grand opportunity to waste. And not just for the intellectual gain either, which is, of course, very important... but for the experiences of the astronauts, the engineers and the planners, the people tracking the progress the whole year and a half it's happening, and for the people who tune in right at the end. These could be the kind of experiences, I think, that lead to understanding, empathy, introspection and perspective... not that experiences like that are necessarily farther away than the backyard garden, but they're valuable nonetheless, and, I think, are well worth a trip to Mars.
The potential there, the possibility, all of it reminds me quite a bit of how I felt when I finished reading A Wrinkle In Time in third grade. Childishly excited, maybe, but sincerely so.
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
Thank you all. Take a breath. SUMMER QUESTION is coming.
DB
******************
Matsuo Basho
**************************
From hand to hand the greeting flows,
From eye to eye the signals run,
From heart to heart the bright hope glows;
The seekers of the light are one.
(Longfellow)
Did the prophet Nahum, who wrote somewhere around 615 BCE, know that he was writing for Jews and others of the 21st Century CE? Did Nahum, whose name means "comfort," even know there would be a 21st Century? Did Nahum, who wrote "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him," even think about it? Doubtful. And yet there he is with his three chapters in the modern Bible to be read and considered by enquiring minds.
When read literally it prophesies the destruction of the Assyrian city of Nineveh. But an enlightened reader who can set aside the literal meaning and know Nineveh as only a metaphor will find a richly poetic prophesy of the destruction of evil in all its colorful forms and the eventual salvation of the human race from it.
I love to read. The better the writer the greater the pleasure. I enjoy it even more now since I write every day. And I'm learning an important lesson.
I have two books on the care and feeding of birds. They are both filled with interesting and useful information. One is well written, the other is not. What's wrong with it is that the author writes like me. I winced at the page I read yesterday and when I looked back over some of the journal entries I made in '08 and '09 I winced again. Now I'm timorous about rereading what I wrote last week or two days ago.
Great writers, many of whose books are piled up in the next room, are a source of inspiration and enlightenment but I doubt that any of them, or any good author who manages to get published is really thinking about what effect their words are going to have centuries down the line.
I'm learning a lesson I learned years ago as an actor. You don't go on the stage to impress the audience with your looks, voice, stage presence, charisma or acting ability. You go on the stage to tell a story. It's the story, the metaphor of the drama that affects people, or should, if it's done right.
Good actors watch other good actors for the same reason good writers read great literature. Not to copy but to take up the torch and pass it on just as Nahum did, just as Longfellow did.
So I promise myself, and I promise you, if I find myself not telling the story but trying to impress a reader with my vocabulary, diction, syntax or shrewd and splashy turn of phrase I will smack myself across the knuckles soundly with something that doesn't do much damage.
Thank you for reading my journal.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
****************************
It's Summer. Time to give over the answers to the SPRING QUESTION.
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
---------------------------------------------
12 diverse and interesting answers.
-----------------------------------------
Do I think that NASA should send a two person mission to Mars. Absolutely not. It would serve no useful purpose and it would put the lives of those two people in unnecessary jeopardy.
I would think that a mission like this would cost many millions of dollars and at a time when many states are going broke, there are deep cuts to infrastructure, education, health, and community programs. The taxpayers are already on the hook to the tune of about 250 million dollars a day to fund the war in Iraq. All of that money has been siphoned away from funds that might have been available to create jobs, house and feed the homeless, stabilize towns and cities across America and provide a better future for both young and old.
We are not good stewards of our own earth and we have caused more problems here than we have fixed. There is absolutely no need to be spending money we don’t have in order to be exploring other planets. We need to get our priorities back in order.
-------------------------------
When it comes to Mars, I think that it is innate for man to explore and want to extend his reach. I am all in favor of the project and they could get the money by stopping the useless wars and invest in NASA.
-------------------------------------------------------
Good question! Since a year on Mars is nearly twice ours --and
elliptical-- the two planets get within 7-month's journey only every 2
Earth-years. So our astronauts would have to stay a year longer on
Mars. On top of this protraction, they would run out of food and have
to eat each other up, which would probably strain their relationship
afterward. I don't think they should do it.
--------------------------------------------
An unpopular view I'm sure.
Trip to Mars is wrong on so many levels, even, perhaps immoral.
We need the expertise, money, dedication, time, here on Earth. Fix things here, make Earth a better place. Don't go chasing waterfalls.
------------------------------------
Sure! Why not?
The travel time will reek havoc in their lives but the six months there will give them a ton of information to share..and perhaps experiments can be performed! :)
I have heard that people accomplish a lot in scientific experiments out in space!thanks! Interesting topic DB!
-------------------------------------
I think man has screwed up earth enough that he should leave the other planets alone and use the time and money spent going to Mars fixing all the damage he's done here on earth.
------------------------------------
Yes, because the highest mountain in the solar system is THERE.
---------------------------------------------
why go to mars when you can grow squash in your back yard, or at least
some chives in a window pot. All you can plant on mars is a flag.
Unless to go from Mars to `=7,./[]}#2 where all will be virgin
---------------------------------------------------
The human race, if it wants to continue to exist, has to solve its housing problem. In several million years our sun will go supernova and incinerate, during its expansion, the planet Earth. Then, when it cools down to a grey dwarf, what was planet Earth will be a cold rock of ice. Not a good place to live or vacation. We have to start flying around the Universe a la Star Trek and find other inhabitable planets if we wish to continue our future existence as a race. They better find a better propulsion system and more sophisticated means to harness energy, hopefully without hardware and make use of Warp Space (which are only time tunnels or Worms) for getting around more easily. It’s all in Star Trek, we’re just catching up.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Spring Question: Yes. Our greatest advances have come from pure science and discovery missions. We need to keep the ball rolling.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm going to respond to this purely from a "seems right" standpoint; that is, I know nothing more about the situation than what you've told me.
Anyway, I suppose traveling to Mars could be an utter waste of resources--time, money and energy that could be channeled toward solving some of our own planets problems instead of involving another. But, to be honest, even if we relocated the time, money and energy it may take to send two men to Mars, I can't bring myself to believe that it would certainly go to something like, for example, improving hospitals in Dhaka. So with all of that aside, every part of my being is screaming, "Why the hell not?! Go to Mars!"
But none of that is what I've really wanted to say to you. What truthfully came to mind when I read your question was this whole concept of mystery and wonderment, and all of these cliche ideas that still make me feel brave and strange and beautiful, regardless of their tendency to be overused in cheap literary settings. Visiting a different planet entirely, a place that authors and dreamers and children have fantasized about; a place that's so unknown, sometimes I feel as though its mass is more daydream than it is anything else.
Given not only the ability but the willingness and eagerness to explore, it would be a grand opportunity to waste. And not just for the intellectual gain either, which is, of course, very important... but for the experiences of the astronauts, the engineers and the planners, the people tracking the progress the whole year and a half it's happening, and for the people who tune in right at the end. These could be the kind of experiences, I think, that lead to understanding, empathy, introspection and perspective... not that experiences like that are necessarily farther away than the backyard garden, but they're valuable nonetheless, and, I think, are well worth a trip to Mars.
The potential there, the possibility, all of it reminds me quite a bit of how I felt when I finished reading A Wrinkle In Time in third grade. Childishly excited, maybe, but sincerely so.
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
Thank you all. Take a breath. SUMMER QUESTION is coming.
DB
******************
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The Great Snatch
You have to get close to a theory to see the cracks.
Unknown
****************
Hello Alborg, Denmark
*************************
The Bible is a wonderful document, filled with wisdom and practical truth. But unfortunately it is also a document upon which to hang theories about things that have nothing to do with wisdom and truth. One can put this verse with that verse and a few other verses and in the process prove almost anything.
From my own curiosity I read everything I could find on the Internet about the theory of the Great Rapture, the event coming this Saturday when there will be a worldwide earthquake and the elect and true believes will be taken up to the air along with Jesus Christ who will then shut the door on salvation, as God shut the door to Noah's Ark which then floated for 150 days while the Earth was destroyed, or rather those who lived here. Then those of us who are left behind will suffer torments of scorpion like creatures and beg for death for another 150 days until the End Of The World comes in October.
This theory is so full of cracks it's almost impossible to list them all. But it falls apart at the very beginning when Camping basis his findings on a myth. He traces the creation back to the year 11,013 BC and identifies Adam and Eve as part of that creation. In fact creation was well up and running before the patriarchs came up with the myth of the Garden of Eden to explain hubris, right and wrong, the true and the false. If one actually believes there was such a garden, with Adam and Eve and a talking snake one might as well believe there was once a race between a tortoise and a hare.
At best this canard is an exercise in trying to measure the cosmos by simple arithmetic. At worst it is a dogmatic claim of divine reward and punishment which does nothing but frighten a lot of innocent, gullible people.
The final crack in this theory is that the Creator is going to destroy His own creation. Simple arithmetical reason takes over here. If the creator has to destroy part of his creation he is an imperfect creator, he has destroyed part of himself. And where does that leave the people who are up in the air? Up in the air.
There will be no worldwide earthquake on Saturday. The local forecast is for scattered showers. But there may be a great shake up of some people's religious beliefs.
The way I see it is that goodness is the only rational way to define godliness. On one side I want to dissuade the so-called godly, pious hypocrites from the idea that they are going to heaven while everyone else is going to hell. Someday I may even inform them that their hypocritical ways puts them already in hell. Human behavior can be improved, the evil in it can be jettisoned. I believe that everyone is redeemable from even the worst kind of badness (ungodliness, ungoodness) and there is endemic rightness (righteousness) in people, however and in whatever ways one can discover it.
My own brand of bible thumping has to do with trying to get rid of an anthropomorphic god in people's thinking, to accept an inherent natural god with spiritual power and love, a kingdom of heaven within us as stated by Jesus. My religion, if you can call it that, does not come out of some fragrant field of flowers, or from some rosy cheeked pastor with flashing teeth. It comes from striving and grappling with years of poverty and pain, and having witnessed the healing of the desperate through strong faith in themselves.
On Saturday, May 21 when the Rapture, The Great Snatch, comes or doesn't come, I think I'll join my good friends in the bar.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*********************
Unknown
****************
Hello Alborg, Denmark
*************************
The Bible is a wonderful document, filled with wisdom and practical truth. But unfortunately it is also a document upon which to hang theories about things that have nothing to do with wisdom and truth. One can put this verse with that verse and a few other verses and in the process prove almost anything.
From my own curiosity I read everything I could find on the Internet about the theory of the Great Rapture, the event coming this Saturday when there will be a worldwide earthquake and the elect and true believes will be taken up to the air along with Jesus Christ who will then shut the door on salvation, as God shut the door to Noah's Ark which then floated for 150 days while the Earth was destroyed, or rather those who lived here. Then those of us who are left behind will suffer torments of scorpion like creatures and beg for death for another 150 days until the End Of The World comes in October.
This theory is so full of cracks it's almost impossible to list them all. But it falls apart at the very beginning when Camping basis his findings on a myth. He traces the creation back to the year 11,013 BC and identifies Adam and Eve as part of that creation. In fact creation was well up and running before the patriarchs came up with the myth of the Garden of Eden to explain hubris, right and wrong, the true and the false. If one actually believes there was such a garden, with Adam and Eve and a talking snake one might as well believe there was once a race between a tortoise and a hare.
At best this canard is an exercise in trying to measure the cosmos by simple arithmetic. At worst it is a dogmatic claim of divine reward and punishment which does nothing but frighten a lot of innocent, gullible people.
The final crack in this theory is that the Creator is going to destroy His own creation. Simple arithmetical reason takes over here. If the creator has to destroy part of his creation he is an imperfect creator, he has destroyed part of himself. And where does that leave the people who are up in the air? Up in the air.
There will be no worldwide earthquake on Saturday. The local forecast is for scattered showers. But there may be a great shake up of some people's religious beliefs.
The way I see it is that goodness is the only rational way to define godliness. On one side I want to dissuade the so-called godly, pious hypocrites from the idea that they are going to heaven while everyone else is going to hell. Someday I may even inform them that their hypocritical ways puts them already in hell. Human behavior can be improved, the evil in it can be jettisoned. I believe that everyone is redeemable from even the worst kind of badness (ungodliness, ungoodness) and there is endemic rightness (righteousness) in people, however and in whatever ways one can discover it.
My own brand of bible thumping has to do with trying to get rid of an anthropomorphic god in people's thinking, to accept an inherent natural god with spiritual power and love, a kingdom of heaven within us as stated by Jesus. My religion, if you can call it that, does not come out of some fragrant field of flowers, or from some rosy cheeked pastor with flashing teeth. It comes from striving and grappling with years of poverty and pain, and having witnessed the healing of the desperate through strong faith in themselves.
On Saturday, May 21 when the Rapture, The Great Snatch, comes or doesn't come, I think I'll join my good friends in the bar.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*********************
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