By Carl S ~
Bottom line: God is in the business of bestowing good feelings and material prosperity. He's answering small prayers. Take the recent U.S. Kentucky Derby race. The jockey on the winning horse said, “I thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” God answers the prayers of one jockey. What about the prayers of those massacred by fanatics as he spoke? Wait. Isn't he the same “Lord and Savior” who finally answered the prayers of those stricken with smallpox in the 20h century by eventually “sending” scientists to cure smallpox - but waited for 300 million people to die first?
Again, on a national news feature, a young man who was in a vegetative state (in a hospital) recovered. There he was on camera, telling us he “went to heaven.” He and his mother proclaimed his recovery a “miracle.” If you're a member, like them, of the “closed-world,” you understand exactly what they meant. If not, you want to find out what really happened; to discovering evidence in order to help everyone. You want to learn in order to prevent the illness or help other victims recover from such an illness. You'll support those who find a cure, such as those doctors who eradicated smallpox.
One of the evils of the (comforting?) ”closed-world of religions”: they stifle discovery, investigation, and creativity. To call a recovery from a vegetative or apparently-dead state a “miracle” is a dead end; it says no further explanations needed. That's it? Do people who say such things think? Do they think of what killers of joy they are? I say to hell with miracles, divine intervention, prayers answered, and all that doctrinal crap. I want to know what happened to this kid's brain to begin with, what happened to it during its trials and activities/inactivity, what synapses were firing and were not, and how. What kind of indoctrination led him and his mom to accept the closed-world of “heaven” and “miracles” and no other answers? We have the tools necessary to help us discover these things now.
I want to know how religions get away with exploiting human fears of the unknown and unfamiliar by feeding those fears, discouraging their adherents from accepting them as surmountable by analysis and questions. Why do believers use their creative minds for blaming, destroying, and silencing their objects of discomfort? Why do religions program human creativity to be employed negatively, sarcastically, and to humiliate others because they don't belong to their “closed-world?” It's a shame to pervert any creativity, which should be used to invent solutions, end irrational fears, end unnecessary suffering, and seek familiarity with each other as human beings sharing the same planet and universe.
Religions are like submarines: they are enclosed and protected from the outside world and threatened by other submarines. Each submarine has posted rules and regulations which must be obeyed in order for those who occupy it to survive. “Keep door closed.” “Do not open without authorization.” “Do not block entrance.” “Danger: hazardous material enclosed.” “Restricted Area, authorized personnel only.” Everything on board is authorized, restricted, or absent, by authority of the commanders. All they allow or deem “necessary” is onboard. Leaving the sub on one's own is certain death. The security of the mighty fortress is a prison. Without scientific help and fresh air from the outside world, all within would suffocate. Yet each religious community fears and damns the worldly discoveries that will free them from confinement.
Humans are maladapted to live underwater; most of humankind would experience claustrophobia eventually, if not immediately, living on a submarine, no matter how huge it may be. We are unfitted to live in cloisters, compounds and prisons. Religions are prisons of the mind which many fear to flee.
We begin as children who are curious (some more than others). We question everything in our experiences without embarrassment or considering our attitude isn't “normal.” To a curious child, everything is fair game for questions. That is, to a child, what “normal” and an obvious right means. Now some adults blindly follow their inherited traditions, parroting “answers” contradicting the world of reality. They're employing lies, half-truths and negative attitudes, thereby closing the vast world to the child. They tell themselves they do this because they love the kid. But if the child accepts and doesn't eventually question the closed-world, he fulfills the words of George Orwell: “To accept an orthodoxy is always to inherit unresolved contradictions.” What an inheritance!
Humanity would be better off if all parents kept their kids from being programmed. Until then, we may tell our children to respond when someone tells them “we believe, yadda, yadda....” with, “Whatever.”
Again, on a national news feature, a young man who was in a vegetative state (in a hospital) recovered. There he was on camera, telling us he “went to heaven.” He and his mother proclaimed his recovery a “miracle.” If you're a member, like them, of the “closed-world,” you understand exactly what they meant. If not, you want to find out what really happened; to discovering evidence in order to help everyone. You want to learn in order to prevent the illness or help other victims recover from such an illness. You'll support those who find a cure, such as those doctors who eradicated smallpox.
One of the evils of the (comforting?) ”closed-world of religions”: they stifle discovery, investigation, and creativity. To call a recovery from a vegetative or apparently-dead state a “miracle” is a dead end; it says no further explanations needed. That's it? Do people who say such things think? Do they think of what killers of joy they are? I say to hell with miracles, divine intervention, prayers answered, and all that doctrinal crap. I want to know what happened to this kid's brain to begin with, what happened to it during its trials and activities/inactivity, what synapses were firing and were not, and how. What kind of indoctrination led him and his mom to accept the closed-world of “heaven” and “miracles” and no other answers? We have the tools necessary to help us discover these things now.
I want to know how religions get away with exploiting human fears of the unknown and unfamiliar by feeding those fears, discouraging their adherents from accepting them as surmountable by analysis and questions. Why do believers use their creative minds for blaming, destroying, and silencing their objects of discomfort? Why do religions program human creativity to be employed negatively, sarcastically, and to humiliate others because they don't belong to their “closed-world?” It's a shame to pervert any creativity, which should be used to invent solutions, end irrational fears, end unnecessary suffering, and seek familiarity with each other as human beings sharing the same planet and universe.
Religions are like submarines: they are enclosed and protected from the outside world and threatened by other submarines. Each submarine has posted rules and regulations which must be obeyed in order for those who occupy it to survive. “Keep door closed.” “Do not open without authorization.” “Do not block entrance.” “Danger: hazardous material enclosed.” “Restricted Area, authorized personnel only.” Everything on board is authorized, restricted, or absent, by authority of the commanders. All they allow or deem “necessary” is onboard. Leaving the sub on one's own is certain death. The security of the mighty fortress is a prison. Without scientific help and fresh air from the outside world, all within would suffocate. Yet each religious community fears and damns the worldly discoveries that will free them from confinement.
Humans are maladapted to live underwater; most of humankind would experience claustrophobia eventually, if not immediately, living on a submarine, no matter how huge it may be. We are unfitted to live in cloisters, compounds and prisons. Religions are prisons of the mind which many fear to flee.
We begin as children who are curious (some more than others). We question everything in our experiences without embarrassment or considering our attitude isn't “normal.” To a curious child, everything is fair game for questions. That is, to a child, what “normal” and an obvious right means. Now some adults blindly follow their inherited traditions, parroting “answers” contradicting the world of reality. They're employing lies, half-truths and negative attitudes, thereby closing the vast world to the child. They tell themselves they do this because they love the kid. But if the child accepts and doesn't eventually question the closed-world, he fulfills the words of George Orwell: “To accept an orthodoxy is always to inherit unresolved contradictions.” What an inheritance!
Humanity would be better off if all parents kept their kids from being programmed. Until then, we may tell our children to respond when someone tells them “we believe, yadda, yadda....” with, “Whatever.”
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