Religion
What is it? Who follows it? Why do they follow it?
If I talk about Religion, then you should understand that my background of (and indoctrination by) the Church of England does not make me an expert in it, nor am I qualified to dissect any other of the ridiculous number of 'faiths'. There are hundreds! Where should I start? My conversations about Religion are based on what I have seen, experienced over time, read about, and what I, as a layman on these subjects, understand. I believe that I am in the majority - it may be that I have thought about it a little more than some. That's all. It is the same about Space or astrophysics - they are subjects that I can talk about, to a passable level, but I am no Professor Brian Cox or Neil DeGrasse Tyson (cue very cool Science guys...)!
Religion - what actually is it? What does it mean? And who to...? 'One man's meat is another man's poison' springs to mind...
I would portray Religion as an odd concept, at best. It has certainly been around for a great number of years (many thousands of documented years...but Historically it will go back before that, I am sure).
Wait, did I just read that correctly? Wiki says that there are some 10,000 distinct religions? What the hell? Surely, if you belong to a religion then that one is the 'right' one, the 'true' one, the one that everyone should be judged by...? Am I wrong...?
Oh, please enlighten me, you sycophantic fool - please tell me why it is that your faith (and only yours) is the 'right' one - and follow it up by hard evidence on why everyone else is just pissing into the wind - they are 'wrong', you are 'right', because it says so in your precious magic book, which tells you that...everyone else is wrong? What? Science? Evidence? FACTS!!! WTF - you want facts, when Faith is the answer! You Heretic, you!
At worst...well, religion, in all its 'glory', is a colossal waste of everyone's time! In essence, it is the worship of a deity, by a group of people who have no rational explanation of said worship. What is a deity? It is usually referred to as a god. Which one? Which one are you following - pick one; at the last count there are thousands to pick from! What is it that makes your god the 'right' one, and your neighbours god the 'wrong' one? How is it that supposedly grown up people can go to actual war on this subject, and slaughter millions, with some pathetic 'argument' that it is somehow - to them - a justifiable act?
Unless you have just arrived from some other part of the Universe (hey, I'm not knocking it - if you have, then give me a call - now, today! I will go out on a limb here and say that you literally cannot trust anyone else that you might speak to - only me...), then you will have seen in various media reports of the last few years (anything within the last 20+ years) that so much is happening around the world, and yes, in some places, some form of religious activity is actually doing constructive work, saving lives (see Africa and some charities of religious origin). But in the rest of the world - not so much...so sad.
How do you deal with being an acknowledged Catholic, and yet you see and hear what the leaders have been up to for the last few decades (at least - that's what we are beginning to see - what went on before...?) and you somehow continue in your blind ignorance? What is it that, somehow, allows you to justify being part of a group that endorses child abuse on a global scale, uses slush funds to keep people quiet, has most likely been involved in the deaths of a great many people, and more?
The Catholic church is just one example. The Protestant one is another. They have dirty secrets that are all coming out, slowly, as more people finally talk about it. The 'survivors' of this systematic abuse are damaged goods. Some cannot cope, and they may well have suicided, and some may have managed to bury the past, but it is still there, and will be carried with them to their graves.
Those 'good, christian' values are proven to be wholly false, time and time again, and yet you still want to be a part of it? Why? I cannot answer this, and I am sick of hearing the pathetic excuses...
I find that this is something that I cannot resolve, and if you actually thought about it (which I don't see much of...), I doubt that you would, either. It is as if you are, today, part of a far-right Nazi group, applauding Adolf Hitler, and saying that you thought he was a 'decent man', or some such drivel. A large part of the world has woken up to the insanities that Nazi Germany inflicted on it, so for people to still be applauding the lunatic that started it says a lot about them and their own 'issues'.
The same applies to Communism and Socialism - they are proven, with case after case, that they are one of the worst inventions of Man! And yet, they still have those simple-minded fools that follow them...
So it must be with any number of these religious institutions. They are supposedly all set up to be the 'one', the 'perfect one', so how is it that all fail so miserably, and yet still have followers - some with only a few, but others with many millions of followers?
If the main ones fail, then they all fail. They are all flawed, and yet people continue to worship. It is truly a crazy world. Here we are, in what is called the 21st century (using the conventional time frame) and yet we have so many people who are struggling with living in their version of the 12th century, or even further back.
It is difficult to take each religion apart, as there are so many, and, as I have mentioned, I am no real expert in any of them, but if you are truly in the 21st century (socially and mentally) then how can you somehow accept that a prehistoric mentality should somehow be given some lee-way, or you are somehow expected to bend over and accommodate their delusions? This is your country, so why are you making allowances for some newly-arrived Neanderthals? If these people cannot behave in your world, then why are they there? Why are you having to make some form of allowances for them? They are the ones who need to adapt to your world - not the other way around!
Thursday, 10 January 2019
2019, and the start of my new book...#1
How to live well without Gods
This is a (sort of...) response to a book that my younger brother managed to finish writing, just before he died, of Motor Neurone Disease, back around Easter 2017 (Amazon - How to die well without god (pay special attention to the lower-case 'g'. It's 'god', not 'God')). It is certainly not a critique of his book, as I consider that he was most likely far better read than I am, in many different areas, so if I were to start to get into any psychoanalysis of his book, I would probably do him (and me) an injustice. The points of his book - well, two of them, at least - are (1) that he was dying, and (2) he was a non-believer. From out of nowhere, he went down with MND. What the hell? How...? And then the obvious 'Why?' stuff...
I have to admit that my exposure to MND was limited. Professor Stephen Hawking probably being the best known, there were others - I had heard of Lou Gehrig, some years before, in the USA, but little else. It was one of those things that affected one in a...hundred million? Who knows what the numbers are, when you don't pay attention to it?
Then you get told that your baby brother (the baby of the family!) has somehow contracted this thing? Well, that's a bummer! And then I made an initial assumption that he'd do a Hawking (not knowing any better, at the time), and be cared for, and be around for the next few decades. And then you find out that there are a few different 'types' of this thing (WTF?), and my brother just had to go and get the worst of the lot - the most aggressive. Bum-MER! And then you are told that this 'most aggressive' type may mean he has two years to live! ...WT absolute F...?
Let's step back a little here. Pause for breath...
Over the years, I have done quite a bit of my Family Tree, and got lost many a time down obscure branches that I didn't even know about! We lost our mum back in 1997. She was very nearly 80, so well done, mum! We then lost dad just 5 years ago (2014) at the grand old age of 98. That was after he had remarried - at 82 - and then outlived his second wife! Damn good! We rock! He had a brother and sister (my uncle and aunt) and they both made it into their nineties - pretty damn good (We still rock, but now, even more so!)! My aunt made 95. Their dad before them was 88, and HIS dad was 80, so I was anticipating that all of us were going to be good to get a message from the King, in a few years, congratulating all of us on turning 100. A nice idea, and now one that isn't going to happen. How does the baby of the family (there are older cousins, all in their 70's, and then there is us - the youngest branch of the family) get to be the one who bites the dust first? This literally makes no sense!
And that's it, really. It doesn't make any sense. It's not SUPPOSED to make any sense! There is no 'Grand Plan', some deity-inspired path that each of us is supposed to take, with this same 'deity' watching over us - every minute, of every day (does that sound just more than a little creepy...?). We are all random life-forms, floating on a random globe, in some random, obscure part of a massive Universe. We are not special, we don't belong as a part of any 'Big Picture', and we don't have any hot line to any Deity (whichever one you may choose to follow). Common sense should be telling you this (Common sense and Faith...like pouring petrol on a fire - you'll get burned!).
So I started to put this little tale together, in my own small way, to add to the concept that my brother started with his book. It is fine to be able to describe that you should be able to die well, without a god, but you should also be able to LIVE well without having some deity getting into your hair, on your back, every day, and in every way just messing with you and your life! You should be able to dress as you like, talk to who you like, when you like, you should be able to eat what you like, you should basically be able to live your life as YOU like, not as you are being told to, by some self-appointed religious 'leader', who may well have degrees in this and that, but that does not make them RIGHT!
My brother had been, for some years, a non-believer - in anything and everything of the 'Godly' type. He is quite scathing, at times, in the book, but was always well behaved, and quite happy to know local vicars and priests - it might be that his approach was 'if you have a faith, so be it, but just don't expect me to be lining up to follow you...no, seriously, just do not'! and you'd better be able to put up a very good case for your religious assumptions...
My brother and I had a very similar childhood. He was only some 14 months younger than me, so we were at the same schools, just one year apart. We went to the same church, sang in the same choir, and generally had a great family upbringing. A very solid father and mother, who worked extremely hard at just keeping everything together. You understand this a little better when you grow up and start your own family...the amount of sheer hard work that they managed to do to keep it all together...amazing people. I could probably critique some aspects of the ways that my parents raised us (well, me and Rob) but why? They were as much a victim of circumstance as we were - to try to find (and expose) their faults helps no-one, and they don't deserve the insult. They literally did the best that they could, and I sometimes wish that they were still here, so that we could continue some of those conversations - but no. That will have to wait.
My father, in particular, was a massively under-accomplished musician. He was running the school orchestra when he was 12, playing the violin. He and his brother won music awards for their singing, and all through my growing years I knew that dad was busy with various shows in the town centre. He was performing, singing, conducting (the choir, the orchestra, and assembled cast - depending on the scenario) and yet somehow little of that was passed on to any of the four children. I'm still at a loss to understand that. Given such raw talent, how did the 4 children all pass it by? Mum was a reasonable piano player, and she sang for some years, so how the heck has it skipped us all?
I dunno....
Rob and I have two older sisters, 6 and 7 years older than me, so they were teenagers while Robert and I were still in junior school, and they were out at work while we went to the Secondary Modern School, in Winton, Bournemouth. To say that I didn't enjoy school is too simplistic. There were good times, and there were bad times.
I was not too impressed with most of the teachers, but some just shone, head and shoulders above the rest. Yes, Mister Loosemore, that's you! And Mr Tansey and Mr Reeve.
Going back to our roots, I can see that we followed our parents into their church. At the age that we were, I refuse to even consider that we were making our own mind up! That's just...ridiculous to even consider! So we went to church (Church of England) and joined the choir, around eight years of age (presumably Robert joined a year later, but after all of this time, it's sometimes difficult to be too accurate) and generally enjoyed it. It was a 'good' experience (again, neither of us were in any way involved in the running of the place, or the politics that must have taken place, but generally those years were...'good' ones). We were both in the cubs, and then the Scouts, and then somehow the Youth Club. I enjoyed the camps, and the leaders were exceptionally able.
It clearly took some time, but Robert and I both eventually realised the same conclusion, but by taking, I believe, very different routes. Mine was a more basic route, whereas Robert clearly knew what he was talking about, and could respond to any faith-based discussion points with hard evidence.
I think my path took me some years to even acknowledge - I acknowledge, now, that I have been a non-believer for the last 45-50 years (yes, I am that old). It's one of those things that, when I left school, I moved away from home, and moved away from the home church, but even then I felt no urge to search out my new local congregation. I came to London, and was caught up with a whole new set of things. My new job, trying to find flats and places to live, eventually finding someone and marrying them, starting a family...all of this took my full concentration, and as my religious 'ties' were now increasingly further behind me, I felt no compulsion to pick them up again.
My first wife happened to be from a Jewish family, and there was talk at the start of whether I would convert. It was clear to all that any such conversion would amount to a sham, and I didn't like that, at all. I don't, as a rule, enjoy the idea of lying to people. Everyone knew my non-faith background, and for me to have to say that I wanted this conversion to Judaism was just peer pressure, so I had to put my foot down and refuse - politely, of course.
Before anyone gets on whatever they may hold to be a 'high horse', I have no issues with meeting Jewish people, Christian people, Islamic people...I have even met Zoroastrians, Buddhists, and probably a ton of others. It does not matter! I will judge you for yourself, not what some archaic ideology (that, sadly, you may feel moved to follow) may dictate. I expect the same in return. I do not consider myself a bad person, and yes, I have made mistakes in the past (and please do not start getting on some soap box, drivelling on that YOU haven't...whatever the reason, we have all made mistakes), but it seems to me that there are a great number, around the world, who can only be classed as bad - perhaps monstrous; certainly mad...? I'd like to think otherwise, but the evidence is stacking up against these psychopathic monsters.
This is a (sort of...) response to a book that my younger brother managed to finish writing, just before he died, of Motor Neurone Disease, back around Easter 2017 (Amazon - How to die well without god (pay special attention to the lower-case 'g'. It's 'god', not 'God')). It is certainly not a critique of his book, as I consider that he was most likely far better read than I am, in many different areas, so if I were to start to get into any psychoanalysis of his book, I would probably do him (and me) an injustice. The points of his book - well, two of them, at least - are (1) that he was dying, and (2) he was a non-believer. From out of nowhere, he went down with MND. What the hell? How...? And then the obvious 'Why?' stuff...
I have to admit that my exposure to MND was limited. Professor Stephen Hawking probably being the best known, there were others - I had heard of Lou Gehrig, some years before, in the USA, but little else. It was one of those things that affected one in a...hundred million? Who knows what the numbers are, when you don't pay attention to it?
Then you get told that your baby brother (the baby of the family!) has somehow contracted this thing? Well, that's a bummer! And then I made an initial assumption that he'd do a Hawking (not knowing any better, at the time), and be cared for, and be around for the next few decades. And then you find out that there are a few different 'types' of this thing (WTF?), and my brother just had to go and get the worst of the lot - the most aggressive. Bum-MER! And then you are told that this 'most aggressive' type may mean he has two years to live! ...WT absolute F...?
Let's step back a little here. Pause for breath...
Over the years, I have done quite a bit of my Family Tree, and got lost many a time down obscure branches that I didn't even know about! We lost our mum back in 1997. She was very nearly 80, so well done, mum! We then lost dad just 5 years ago (2014) at the grand old age of 98. That was after he had remarried - at 82 - and then outlived his second wife! Damn good! We rock! He had a brother and sister (my uncle and aunt) and they both made it into their nineties - pretty damn good (We still rock, but now, even more so!)! My aunt made 95. Their dad before them was 88, and HIS dad was 80, so I was anticipating that all of us were going to be good to get a message from the King, in a few years, congratulating all of us on turning 100. A nice idea, and now one that isn't going to happen. How does the baby of the family (there are older cousins, all in their 70's, and then there is us - the youngest branch of the family) get to be the one who bites the dust first? This literally makes no sense!
And that's it, really. It doesn't make any sense. It's not SUPPOSED to make any sense! There is no 'Grand Plan', some deity-inspired path that each of us is supposed to take, with this same 'deity' watching over us - every minute, of every day (does that sound just more than a little creepy...?). We are all random life-forms, floating on a random globe, in some random, obscure part of a massive Universe. We are not special, we don't belong as a part of any 'Big Picture', and we don't have any hot line to any Deity (whichever one you may choose to follow). Common sense should be telling you this (Common sense and Faith...like pouring petrol on a fire - you'll get burned!).
So I started to put this little tale together, in my own small way, to add to the concept that my brother started with his book. It is fine to be able to describe that you should be able to die well, without a god, but you should also be able to LIVE well without having some deity getting into your hair, on your back, every day, and in every way just messing with you and your life! You should be able to dress as you like, talk to who you like, when you like, you should be able to eat what you like, you should basically be able to live your life as YOU like, not as you are being told to, by some self-appointed religious 'leader', who may well have degrees in this and that, but that does not make them RIGHT!
My brother had been, for some years, a non-believer - in anything and everything of the 'Godly' type. He is quite scathing, at times, in the book, but was always well behaved, and quite happy to know local vicars and priests - it might be that his approach was 'if you have a faith, so be it, but just don't expect me to be lining up to follow you...no, seriously, just do not'! and you'd better be able to put up a very good case for your religious assumptions...
My brother and I had a very similar childhood. He was only some 14 months younger than me, so we were at the same schools, just one year apart. We went to the same church, sang in the same choir, and generally had a great family upbringing. A very solid father and mother, who worked extremely hard at just keeping everything together. You understand this a little better when you grow up and start your own family...the amount of sheer hard work that they managed to do to keep it all together...amazing people. I could probably critique some aspects of the ways that my parents raised us (well, me and Rob) but why? They were as much a victim of circumstance as we were - to try to find (and expose) their faults helps no-one, and they don't deserve the insult. They literally did the best that they could, and I sometimes wish that they were still here, so that we could continue some of those conversations - but no. That will have to wait.
My father, in particular, was a massively under-accomplished musician. He was running the school orchestra when he was 12, playing the violin. He and his brother won music awards for their singing, and all through my growing years I knew that dad was busy with various shows in the town centre. He was performing, singing, conducting (the choir, the orchestra, and assembled cast - depending on the scenario) and yet somehow little of that was passed on to any of the four children. I'm still at a loss to understand that. Given such raw talent, how did the 4 children all pass it by? Mum was a reasonable piano player, and she sang for some years, so how the heck has it skipped us all?
I dunno....
Rob and I have two older sisters, 6 and 7 years older than me, so they were teenagers while Robert and I were still in junior school, and they were out at work while we went to the Secondary Modern School, in Winton, Bournemouth. To say that I didn't enjoy school is too simplistic. There were good times, and there were bad times.
I was not too impressed with most of the teachers, but some just shone, head and shoulders above the rest. Yes, Mister Loosemore, that's you! And Mr Tansey and Mr Reeve.
Going back to our roots, I can see that we followed our parents into their church. At the age that we were, I refuse to even consider that we were making our own mind up! That's just...ridiculous to even consider! So we went to church (Church of England) and joined the choir, around eight years of age (presumably Robert joined a year later, but after all of this time, it's sometimes difficult to be too accurate) and generally enjoyed it. It was a 'good' experience (again, neither of us were in any way involved in the running of the place, or the politics that must have taken place, but generally those years were...'good' ones). We were both in the cubs, and then the Scouts, and then somehow the Youth Club. I enjoyed the camps, and the leaders were exceptionally able.
It clearly took some time, but Robert and I both eventually realised the same conclusion, but by taking, I believe, very different routes. Mine was a more basic route, whereas Robert clearly knew what he was talking about, and could respond to any faith-based discussion points with hard evidence.
I think my path took me some years to even acknowledge - I acknowledge, now, that I have been a non-believer for the last 45-50 years (yes, I am that old). It's one of those things that, when I left school, I moved away from home, and moved away from the home church, but even then I felt no urge to search out my new local congregation. I came to London, and was caught up with a whole new set of things. My new job, trying to find flats and places to live, eventually finding someone and marrying them, starting a family...all of this took my full concentration, and as my religious 'ties' were now increasingly further behind me, I felt no compulsion to pick them up again.
My first wife happened to be from a Jewish family, and there was talk at the start of whether I would convert. It was clear to all that any such conversion would amount to a sham, and I didn't like that, at all. I don't, as a rule, enjoy the idea of lying to people. Everyone knew my non-faith background, and for me to have to say that I wanted this conversion to Judaism was just peer pressure, so I had to put my foot down and refuse - politely, of course.
Before anyone gets on whatever they may hold to be a 'high horse', I have no issues with meeting Jewish people, Christian people, Islamic people...I have even met Zoroastrians, Buddhists, and probably a ton of others. It does not matter! I will judge you for yourself, not what some archaic ideology (that, sadly, you may feel moved to follow) may dictate. I expect the same in return. I do not consider myself a bad person, and yes, I have made mistakes in the past (and please do not start getting on some soap box, drivelling on that YOU haven't...whatever the reason, we have all made mistakes), but it seems to me that there are a great number, around the world, who can only be classed as bad - perhaps monstrous; certainly mad...? I'd like to think otherwise, but the evidence is stacking up against these psychopathic monsters.
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