What Were You Doing?
By Carl S ~
For years, the big question was, "What were you doing on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated?" Everybody who was asked that question remembered.
Later it became, "Do you remember what you were doing the morning of Sep. 11, 2001? I remember, for it was a morning after my wife and I just finished our lovemaking. We got a phone call telling us to "tum on the TV, now." Isn't this how life works? While we made love, others were making war. Every day, birthday parties, marriages, raves, and celebrations of every kind and intensity play out, while thousands, at the same moments suffer and die from preventable wars and diseases. You'd think that if there really was a caring deity constantly observing this picture, said deity would do something to spread around its blessings. But it doesn't, because it isn't.
We saw the first tower aflame, and watched as the second tower was hit. Ironically, at the same time we were experiencing the ecstasies of love, others were dying in agonies, being burnt alive, or jumping to their deaths. Everything we heard or saw in the following days resulted from the decisions of those “instruments of God" hit men driving planes into self-immolating ecstasies of religious conviction.
But does anyone remember, on that day or the days of mourning that followed, one single politician or cleric saying, "We trusted in God, and see what happened?" Did anyone from the families of those killed in the towers say, "But they prayed to be delivered from evil before they went in this morning. Why weren't they?" Instead we saw even more retreating into the religious irrationality and fervor behind those attacks. Ecumenical services were held to praise and appeal to the very versions of a deity who did nothing to prevent them. The same beliefs and mentalities that brought the real end of the world to the thousands who died on that day are those behind the end-times of Christianity and Islam. Real lives ended as a result of the belief that only fantasy after-death lives have meaning. So many years after 9/11, this belief is still justifying killings. When will they ever learn? Their dogmas originated not from Mohammed or Jesus, but from a Persian prophet who lived 2600 years ago.
Ever since Zoroaster invented his versions of reality, Islam and Christianity have subscribed to them. He created a monotheist god. He saw everything in terms of absolute good and evil, a.k.a., the powers of darkness and light. He taught that humans needed to constantly make the right choices between these two absolutes or suffer the consequences. He interpreted nature not as a linear progression going from the beginning of the world to its destruction, climaxing with a final judgement of punishments or rewards on the choices they made. Christian and Islam clerics ever since have created their own variations-on-a-theme theologies using his basic recipe, with Christianity inserting an easy-out clause to evildoers via believing. Therefore, condemnation and rewards are decided not because of actions, but belief or non-belief.
When believers speak of God and Satan, they're mouthing Zoroaster. When the author of Revelations writes of the End Times, he's perpetuating the dogmas of this Persian, Zoroaster, who predated Jesus and Paul by 600 years. Christians say they believe in the end of the world/judgement because their Jesus preached it was imminent; right around the comer. Believers have been known to abandon their possessions every time the "end of the world" is prophesied and taken seriously. Don't expect the spokesmen for Islam and Christianity to give credit where credit is due: to Zoroaster, any more than they do to the other religions they stole from. As far as is known, Zoroaster wasn't challenged about his dogmas in his day (or his challengers were eliminated), anymore than clerics are today. But he (they) ought to have been. After all, in 150 years the theory of Evolution is continually proven to be fact, and yet it's challenged by superstitious believers who also maintain their claims are beyond challenging after thousands of years without proof.
To get back to the Twin Towers and "in God we trust." Since this "God" is untrustworthy, maybe those who publicly invoke "him" should explain what "God" means to them. Instead of referring to gods as "god," ( small " g"), maybe they should be capitalized; after all, they're all worshiped as capital "G." Not only Allah, but Ahura-Mazda, Baal, Ra, etc. They are likewise God. Stop the average person on the street, of whatever religion, and ask their definition of "God," then ask for particulars. You'll find they’re all over the map. Maybe this is because their clergy are there, too. And seriously, if someone asks you if you believe in "God" you might respond with, "Which God, which Version?" Which God-versions were the clergy and politicians invoking in their post-9/11 services? Which versions are they experts on? We’d like to know.
When we see the pope (who believes the cracker he's holding in his hand is a human being because he's said magic words over it) at a meeting with the Russian Orthodox patriarch, or when we listen to the "inerrant" bible-thumping Baptists and Catholic priests (who proclaim abortionists are equal to Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele), or when we observe them backing a Mormon "heretic" for president, or when the various sects who were formerly enemies unite in some sort of overt ecumenical peace-making, be it known their intent and goal is the same: Destroy the movement of secularism. Well, it's secularism which brought us democracy, equal rights, women’s and gay rights. Secularism is behind all movements to promote and improve living better lives, together, in peace. That secularism is what they insist must be stamped out: Because it isn't God's laws. The religions still uphold Zoroaster's dogmas. But they will interpret what "God's laws" are in order for everybody to pass muster at the final judgement. Isn't this so true? Theocracy is tyranny. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. All tyrannical pushes for power are threatened by anyone who says, "Who needs you or what you're selling?" because that person opens the door for others who just might be "blasphemously" inclined to think about those words.
So here we are in the 21st century with religions perpetuating the dogmas of a 6th century BCE prophet who probably derived his versions of reality from eating too many green apples and/or sacred mushrooms, or was mentally ill - all likely descriptions of every sacred prophet. And we still have believers listening to clerics preaching their own versions of Zoroaster’s original dogmas, rather than established evidence they refuse to consider. Interestingly, they also oppose secularism. Their militant ignorance is what rational, secular people are dealing with.
Question to mullahs concerning worshipers in the mosques: If thousands of them place their knees on their prayer rugs and then their foreheads, and then they all together fart, will Allah be offended, or will they all remain in place holding their noses shut while they pray? Just asking you experts. Is this blasphemy to you? I'll tell you what is blasphemy: the theology driving the imaginations of men who piloted planes which killed thousands. What were you doing on 9/11? Praying for their entrance into paradise?
For years, the big question was, "What were you doing on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated?" Everybody who was asked that question remembered.
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| Detail of The School of Athens by Raphael, 1509, showing Zoroaster (left, with star-studded globe). (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
We saw the first tower aflame, and watched as the second tower was hit. Ironically, at the same time we were experiencing the ecstasies of love, others were dying in agonies, being burnt alive, or jumping to their deaths. Everything we heard or saw in the following days resulted from the decisions of those “instruments of God" hit men driving planes into self-immolating ecstasies of religious conviction.
But does anyone remember, on that day or the days of mourning that followed, one single politician or cleric saying, "We trusted in God, and see what happened?" Did anyone from the families of those killed in the towers say, "But they prayed to be delivered from evil before they went in this morning. Why weren't they?" Instead we saw even more retreating into the religious irrationality and fervor behind those attacks. Ecumenical services were held to praise and appeal to the very versions of a deity who did nothing to prevent them. The same beliefs and mentalities that brought the real end of the world to the thousands who died on that day are those behind the end-times of Christianity and Islam. Real lives ended as a result of the belief that only fantasy after-death lives have meaning. So many years after 9/11, this belief is still justifying killings. When will they ever learn? Their dogmas originated not from Mohammed or Jesus, but from a Persian prophet who lived 2600 years ago.
Ever since Zoroaster invented his versions of reality, Islam and Christianity have subscribed to them. He created a monotheist god. He saw everything in terms of absolute good and evil, a.k.a., the powers of darkness and light. He taught that humans needed to constantly make the right choices between these two absolutes or suffer the consequences. He interpreted nature not as a linear progression going from the beginning of the world to its destruction, climaxing with a final judgement of punishments or rewards on the choices they made. Christian and Islam clerics ever since have created their own variations-on-a-theme theologies using his basic recipe, with Christianity inserting an easy-out clause to evildoers via believing. Therefore, condemnation and rewards are decided not because of actions, but belief or non-belief.
When believers speak of God and Satan, they're mouthing Zoroaster. When the author of Revelations writes of the End Times, he's perpetuating the dogmas of this Persian, Zoroaster, who predated Jesus and Paul by 600 years. Christians say they believe in the end of the world/judgement because their Jesus preached it was imminent; right around the comer. Believers have been known to abandon their possessions every time the "end of the world" is prophesied and taken seriously. Don't expect the spokesmen for Islam and Christianity to give credit where credit is due: to Zoroaster, any more than they do to the other religions they stole from. As far as is known, Zoroaster wasn't challenged about his dogmas in his day (or his challengers were eliminated), anymore than clerics are today. But he (they) ought to have been. After all, in 150 years the theory of Evolution is continually proven to be fact, and yet it's challenged by superstitious believers who also maintain their claims are beyond challenging after thousands of years without proof.
To get back to the Twin Towers and "in God we trust." Since this "God" is untrustworthy, maybe those who publicly invoke "him" should explain what "God" means to them. Instead of referring to gods as "god," ( small " g"), maybe they should be capitalized; after all, they're all worshiped as capital "G." Not only Allah, but Ahura-Mazda, Baal, Ra, etc. They are likewise God. Stop the average person on the street, of whatever religion, and ask their definition of "God," then ask for particulars. You'll find they’re all over the map. Maybe this is because their clergy are there, too. And seriously, if someone asks you if you believe in "God" you might respond with, "Which God, which Version?" Which God-versions were the clergy and politicians invoking in their post-9/11 services? Which versions are they experts on? We’d like to know.
When we see the pope (who believes the cracker he's holding in his hand is a human being because he's said magic words over it) at a meeting with the Russian Orthodox patriarch, or when we listen to the "inerrant" bible-thumping Baptists and Catholic priests (who proclaim abortionists are equal to Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele), or when we observe them backing a Mormon "heretic" for president, or when the various sects who were formerly enemies unite in some sort of overt ecumenical peace-making, be it known their intent and goal is the same: Destroy the movement of secularism. Well, it's secularism which brought us democracy, equal rights, women’s and gay rights. Secularism is behind all movements to promote and improve living better lives, together, in peace. That secularism is what they insist must be stamped out: Because it isn't God's laws. The religions still uphold Zoroaster's dogmas. But they will interpret what "God's laws" are in order for everybody to pass muster at the final judgement. Isn't this so true? Theocracy is tyranny. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. All tyrannical pushes for power are threatened by anyone who says, "Who needs you or what you're selling?" because that person opens the door for others who just might be "blasphemously" inclined to think about those words.
So here we are in the 21st century with religions perpetuating the dogmas of a 6th century BCE prophet who probably derived his versions of reality from eating too many green apples and/or sacred mushrooms, or was mentally ill - all likely descriptions of every sacred prophet. And we still have believers listening to clerics preaching their own versions of Zoroaster’s original dogmas, rather than established evidence they refuse to consider. Interestingly, they also oppose secularism. Their militant ignorance is what rational, secular people are dealing with.
Question to mullahs concerning worshipers in the mosques: If thousands of them place their knees on their prayer rugs and then their foreheads, and then they all together fart, will Allah be offended, or will they all remain in place holding their noses shut while they pray? Just asking you experts. Is this blasphemy to you? I'll tell you what is blasphemy: the theology driving the imaginations of men who piloted planes which killed thousands. What were you doing on 9/11? Praying for their entrance into paradise?