Some may have wondered why I am posting my thoughts on the existence of God and religion separately. My reasoning behind this is simple, it's because I view personal spirituality and organized religion as two very separate things, and I wanted to make that clear. Plus I got tired of writing.
Let's get some definitions straight here, because it's pointless to discuss something when we don't even know what we are discussing. When I mention personal spirituality, personal beliefs or anything like that, it's basically the collective spiritual ideas that an individual may believe in, their thoughts on God, the afterlife, morality, ect. This, in my opinion is very different from religion, which attempt to define these very subjective concepts and then organize everything into a "club" for like-minded people.
Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with clubs of course. The Boy Scouts are a club, there's Yacht clubs, ect. But then there is also the club's evil twin brother, the cult. My problem with religious clubs is when they cross over from being clubs, to cults. And if you take a look at history, it's very easy to see that the unfortunate fact is that this happens more then often and as a result has been a driving force behind human suffering, violence, ignorance and bigotry. Of course not all churches are cults, in fact some of them are quite the opposite. But saying that is also not an excuse to ignore the undeniable damage religion has done to humanity, which is really sad because I think religion can and has done good in bringing like-minded people together, giving people another pathway in life that can give them hope, a sense of purpose, morals and a variety of other things. And I believe that this can be achieved without all of the harm that comes with it. Of course, and I can't stress this enough, religion or spirituality is not the ONLY way to achieve those good things. It's just another way. What works for some people doesn't work for others, and if somebody has truly achieved a better life through religion, then good for them. Just don't tell me that I need to do what he did to lead a happy and fulfilling life as well.
This idea, that religion is the only way, is what I think is the root of the evil that it can and has created. It's the dogma, the belief that it's not good enough to be just another church, but that a specific church has to be THE church, THE authority on all things God, like they are the spiritual version of the fashion police, except instead of getting a fashion violation ticket for wearing clashing colors, you are getting your head chopped off because you had the "wrong beliefs," which I find ridiculous, because as I (hopefully) explained in my previous post, there are no wrong beliefs.
Combine this "my religion is the only way" mentality with the interpretation of the holy books, and then things truly start getting fucked up. Allow me to pick on christianity for a bit. The Bible is so vague, contradicting and just plain nonsensical in many aspects that not only do interpretations of it often lead to bigoted and ignorant beliefs if one truly believes that the Bible is the final say on everything (homosexuality is wrong, if you aren't christian you're going to hell, ect.), that it can also be used to suit people's harmful agendas. Please don't tell me that it's not possible for the Bible to not have been changed, either deliberately, or accidently when translating it. Over thousands of years this kind of stuff was bond to happen, and if it look at the history of it all, a pattern begins to emerge that there were a lot of people that saw potential to control people with christianity.
Not only have many of the books had their meanings changed drastically (I will get into a bit more detail on this later), but entire books were excluded from what was deemed to be the "holy" set of books included in the Bible. The Bible isn't the word of God, it's the word of thousands of years of people realizing that religion is an extremely powerful way to control people. Whatever they make the Bible say, either by interpreting it in a way that agrees with them, or by changing it, they know is what countless other people will follow. It's exploiting one of the most widespread things humans naturally believe in: God and the supernatural. And it really shows how powerful religion is, when you have people getting brainwashed into believing in the dogma and fighting against homosexuality, different religions, science that conflicts with their religion, and many other things, all while truly believing they are doing good.
One example of this exploitation is what the Bible apparently says about homosexuality. This video explains it pretty well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_9Oik8QSoc
The guy, in short explains how the commonly cited reason why many "christians" believe that homosexuality is evil or wrong. I put christians in quotes because I honestly think that anybody that goes around condemning people to hell or calling other people "sinners" a very self-righteous and un-christ like, which I'm pretty sure is the entire point of christianity any way, to try to be christ-like.
The version of the Bible in the original Greek language doesn't actually use the word homosexual, it instead used "malakos," which actually means weak, soft or submissive. That passage was used, as he put it "to denote a weakness in character, or a submissiveness to social status quos or temptations." Yet the newer, more simplified versions of the Bible do not carry the original meaning over, and in many cases have been changed to suit people's hateful beliefs.
I think another thing is he said in the comments section is worth posting:
"Jesus gave us two very simple commandments; "Love God with all your heart and mind and spirit, and love your neighbor (everyone) as you love yourself."
He said that if we do these things, we would be his disciples.
Sounds pretty simple to me and I don't hear any other conditions being placed on entering Heaven, other than by some of his disciples. When it comes to my belief, Jesus is the only and final authority. I don't feel the need to read anything else into his words."
Religious or not, I think most people can agree with the basic idea here. The book of Job says that homosexuality is a sin. You know what? Fuck what Job said, Job is a douche bag. Job isn't Jesus. Jesus is Jesus. And the cool part is: Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
God?!
I'm going to have to put a hold on the fun stuff for awhile, because my brain is currently having a series of irritating phases of over-thinking everything, working out every kink in my thoughts involving religion and my lack of it. When it comes to pointless stuff like this, for some reason I have to be a stubborn perfectionist about it, withdrawing into extended periods of introverted silence, pondering everything until I finally feel that I've figured it all out... again.
Don't worry (or don't get your hopes up, if you roll that way), I'm not questioning my lack of a belief in God. I've come to the conclusion a long time ago that the existence of God, or the lack of it, is all irrelevant and pointless to argue over. I never understood, people are arguing over God, when there isn't even an agreement as to what God is. Not only has "God" been described in different ways in different religions, there are different variations of those religions with different ideas of God, all filled with people with different personal views of God. To get a quick taste of about how many Gods that are possible, click this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God The number of possible of Gods is limited only by how many Gods people can theorize or believe in, all of which are just as unprovable and likely to exist as the next. There are infinite possibilities.
So why would anybody even bother to argue for just one particular God, or that "some sort" of God must exist, because of course, one of those infinite possibilities exists, which includes the possibilities of there being no God, or multiple Gods, or multiple Gods in multiple dimensions, or that Ronald McDonald is God, or that an individual's toe nails are God, or that Jesus is God. And even if one could prove that God exists, then what relevance would that have to us? Sure, one could argue that there is a general shared concept of God (even though I have yet to find ONE trait that is shared among all the current ideas of God), but then how do you know that that "shared" definition is the "correct" definition of God? All this does is lead you in circles, and when everybody else is circling the same circle, each thinking that their individual perspective of the circle is the correct perspective of the circle, so they end up bumping into each other and getting pissed at each other. This can result in anything from somebody getting in an argument with their father-in-law because he disagrees with his notion that God is a Mexican hillbilly from the future, to starting a war over it, trying to prove that one flavor of God is better then the other. As far as I am concerned, God is just a word. People attempt to define it. And people label anything that fits their definition of God as God.
So yeah, God is irrelevant to me and I don't care if somebody believes in God or doesn't. This is not to say that I'm completely fine with organized religion. I'm tired of writing now though, so I think I'll start with the biblical pissing in my next post, and if I feel like it, other holy books as well. Although to me, it's all pretty much the same thing, except for Buddhism. I'm generally cool with Buddhism. In fact, I'm pretty much with all religions in at least one way. For example, christianity isn't bad, only certain types of christians or people that practice christianity are bad. I've seen bad christians and I've seen good christians, so saying that christianity is bad doesn't make sense.
Don't worry (or don't get your hopes up, if you roll that way), I'm not questioning my lack of a belief in God. I've come to the conclusion a long time ago that the existence of God, or the lack of it, is all irrelevant and pointless to argue over. I never understood, people are arguing over God, when there isn't even an agreement as to what God is. Not only has "God" been described in different ways in different religions, there are different variations of those religions with different ideas of God, all filled with people with different personal views of God. To get a quick taste of about how many Gods that are possible, click this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God The number of possible of Gods is limited only by how many Gods people can theorize or believe in, all of which are just as unprovable and likely to exist as the next. There are infinite possibilities.
So why would anybody even bother to argue for just one particular God, or that "some sort" of God must exist, because of course, one of those infinite possibilities exists, which includes the possibilities of there being no God, or multiple Gods, or multiple Gods in multiple dimensions, or that Ronald McDonald is God, or that an individual's toe nails are God, or that Jesus is God. And even if one could prove that God exists, then what relevance would that have to us? Sure, one could argue that there is a general shared concept of God (even though I have yet to find ONE trait that is shared among all the current ideas of God), but then how do you know that that "shared" definition is the "correct" definition of God? All this does is lead you in circles, and when everybody else is circling the same circle, each thinking that their individual perspective of the circle is the correct perspective of the circle, so they end up bumping into each other and getting pissed at each other. This can result in anything from somebody getting in an argument with their father-in-law because he disagrees with his notion that God is a Mexican hillbilly from the future, to starting a war over it, trying to prove that one flavor of God is better then the other. As far as I am concerned, God is just a word. People attempt to define it. And people label anything that fits their definition of God as God.
So yeah, God is irrelevant to me and I don't care if somebody believes in God or doesn't. This is not to say that I'm completely fine with organized religion. I'm tired of writing now though, so I think I'll start with the biblical pissing in my next post, and if I feel like it, other holy books as well. Although to me, it's all pretty much the same thing, except for Buddhism. I'm generally cool with Buddhism. In fact, I'm pretty much with all religions in at least one way. For example, christianity isn't bad, only certain types of christians or people that practice christianity are bad. I've seen bad christians and I've seen good christians, so saying that christianity is bad doesn't make sense.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Welcome.
I'm not exactly sure how I should start this, I guess I'll just type stuff and hope it's the most amazing thing you have ever read in your entire life.
I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. I've never blogged before and am usually terrible at expressing my thoughts, so perhaps this would give me a nice, calm place where I can go on and on, crafting tiring and long winded reads composed of intellectual masturbation and crappy observational jokes about things that nobody cares about as much as I want. And I get to do this without having to do it on the fly, in front of people while they stare at me with irritating skepticism as I struggle to translate my brain to words, filling the awkward blanks with awkward ideas and words, and ultimately making a fool of myself. I'm sure this inability will still come across in this blog, but let's see how this goes. I tend to explain things in weird ways where people often misinterpret what I'm saying worse then when people try to interpret the Bible (har har har, I made a religious joke. Always the best way to break the ice and make people comfortable.). Speaking of jokes, I'm also very sarcastic, and my sarcasm is often dry, dark absurd, and sometimes, all of those at the same time. I also like to swear. I love swearing, it's retarded and absurd, which means that usually when I'm swearing, I'm acting retarded and absurd, which is always. It's a vicious cycle of endless fuck's and shit's.
As for the stuff I'm going to be posting in here, I plan to talk about a lot of things. Expect to see plenty of posts regarding music, art, religion, politics, video games, and anything else that I feel like posting. I like to keep my topics pretty loose, I don't like being restrained to one particular topic and will most likely follow my stream of consciousness until it brings me to a stop, ending with some sort of conclusion that attempts to tie everything up into one convenient package so you can skip past my ramblings and get to the point. But no seriously, read the whole fucking thing, and let me know that you read the whole fucking thing in a positive light so I can receive the instant gratification my feeble teenage mind craves. And I just realized this post was 10 % information and 90% bullshit, but in a way, that is the way you get to know me in a more indirect way, through the bullshit and the sarcastic remarks. To balance this thing out, I'm going to post some random facts about myself.
I love music. I spend ridiculous amounts of time playing it and listening to it, and a bit more recently, attempting to create and record it. I have some mics and a PA system at my house, which allows me to record music. Most of my music so far is completely improvised, where I'll just play something on the guitar, throw something else over it and repeat until it somewhat resembles a song. I play the drums as my main instrument, and do a variety of annoying vocals, screaming sounds, beatboxing, whatever suits my current needs, I'll find a way to do it. I'll probably use this blog to post some of my "work", but most of the stuff I have right now is unfinished and not worthy of your cruel and judgmental ears. As for the music I listen to, I listen to everything, most of it is weird though. I like weird. A few bands I really love are Mr. Bungle, Tortoise, Kayo Dot, Aesop Rock, captain Beefheart, and countless others spanning pretty much every known genre. I might do some album reviews here. Even if you hate it, it will at least give you a list of music to avoid. See, in MY blog, everybody wins, even the haters.
I'm, for the lack of a better term, an atheist. The reason I say this is because that term has so much baggage attatched to it, that I don't like using it, and I personally don't always agree with some of the more outspoken atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and christopher Hitchens. People for some reason tend to look at atheism like a religion, which I strongly disagree with. Don't panic, this will all be explained later. Don't worry, I don't hate your God, I'm not here to argue against your God or anything like that. I've come to the conclusion that God is irrelevant, and thus arguing over something that spiritual and person, is completely pointless. I have a strong interest in religion and general, have spent more time then your average 16 year old should thinking about it, and I'll probably say some pretty nasty things about religion that will make you piss your pants or something neat like that. But once again, don't worry, all will be explained (honestly, it's hard to say this stuff without people getting offended, angry or whatever). Just remember that when I criticize religion, I'm not talking about your local church, or your faith in particular. I don't have a problem with people believing in God, or religious people, but there is an undeniable amount of damage religion has done to humanity. Perhaps it's not religion itself that is bad, but it's the people using it as a tool to serve their our bad intents that is bad, but then again, religion is one hell of an effective tool. But I'm going on too much now, this doesn't really belong in an introduction post. I haven't covered any of my political views yet, but I'm tired of writing and this is already too EPIC of a introduction already, so I guess I'll stop now. Maybe I should rename this blog "Jason's pointless rambles."
Oh and don't worry, this blog isn't going to be boring. It's not all going to be religion and pretentious art and music, there's going to be clowns and fart jokes and other fun shit like that, you just see.
I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. I've never blogged before and am usually terrible at expressing my thoughts, so perhaps this would give me a nice, calm place where I can go on and on, crafting tiring and long winded reads composed of intellectual masturbation and crappy observational jokes about things that nobody cares about as much as I want. And I get to do this without having to do it on the fly, in front of people while they stare at me with irritating skepticism as I struggle to translate my brain to words, filling the awkward blanks with awkward ideas and words, and ultimately making a fool of myself. I'm sure this inability will still come across in this blog, but let's see how this goes. I tend to explain things in weird ways where people often misinterpret what I'm saying worse then when people try to interpret the Bible (har har har, I made a religious joke. Always the best way to break the ice and make people comfortable.). Speaking of jokes, I'm also very sarcastic, and my sarcasm is often dry, dark absurd, and sometimes, all of those at the same time. I also like to swear. I love swearing, it's retarded and absurd, which means that usually when I'm swearing, I'm acting retarded and absurd, which is always. It's a vicious cycle of endless fuck's and shit's.
As for the stuff I'm going to be posting in here, I plan to talk about a lot of things. Expect to see plenty of posts regarding music, art, religion, politics, video games, and anything else that I feel like posting. I like to keep my topics pretty loose, I don't like being restrained to one particular topic and will most likely follow my stream of consciousness until it brings me to a stop, ending with some sort of conclusion that attempts to tie everything up into one convenient package so you can skip past my ramblings and get to the point. But no seriously, read the whole fucking thing, and let me know that you read the whole fucking thing in a positive light so I can receive the instant gratification my feeble teenage mind craves. And I just realized this post was 10 % information and 90% bullshit, but in a way, that is the way you get to know me in a more indirect way, through the bullshit and the sarcastic remarks. To balance this thing out, I'm going to post some random facts about myself.
I love music. I spend ridiculous amounts of time playing it and listening to it, and a bit more recently, attempting to create and record it. I have some mics and a PA system at my house, which allows me to record music. Most of my music so far is completely improvised, where I'll just play something on the guitar, throw something else over it and repeat until it somewhat resembles a song. I play the drums as my main instrument, and do a variety of annoying vocals, screaming sounds, beatboxing, whatever suits my current needs, I'll find a way to do it. I'll probably use this blog to post some of my "work", but most of the stuff I have right now is unfinished and not worthy of your cruel and judgmental ears. As for the music I listen to, I listen to everything, most of it is weird though. I like weird. A few bands I really love are Mr. Bungle, Tortoise, Kayo Dot, Aesop Rock, captain Beefheart, and countless others spanning pretty much every known genre. I might do some album reviews here. Even if you hate it, it will at least give you a list of music to avoid. See, in MY blog, everybody wins, even the haters.
I'm, for the lack of a better term, an atheist. The reason I say this is because that term has so much baggage attatched to it, that I don't like using it, and I personally don't always agree with some of the more outspoken atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and christopher Hitchens. People for some reason tend to look at atheism like a religion, which I strongly disagree with. Don't panic, this will all be explained later. Don't worry, I don't hate your God, I'm not here to argue against your God or anything like that. I've come to the conclusion that God is irrelevant, and thus arguing over something that spiritual and person, is completely pointless. I have a strong interest in religion and general, have spent more time then your average 16 year old should thinking about it, and I'll probably say some pretty nasty things about religion that will make you piss your pants or something neat like that. But once again, don't worry, all will be explained (honestly, it's hard to say this stuff without people getting offended, angry or whatever). Just remember that when I criticize religion, I'm not talking about your local church, or your faith in particular. I don't have a problem with people believing in God, or religious people, but there is an undeniable amount of damage religion has done to humanity. Perhaps it's not religion itself that is bad, but it's the people using it as a tool to serve their our bad intents that is bad, but then again, religion is one hell of an effective tool. But I'm going on too much now, this doesn't really belong in an introduction post. I haven't covered any of my political views yet, but I'm tired of writing and this is already too EPIC of a introduction already, so I guess I'll stop now. Maybe I should rename this blog "Jason's pointless rambles."
Oh and don't worry, this blog isn't going to be boring. It's not all going to be religion and pretentious art and music, there's going to be clowns and fart jokes and other fun shit like that, you just see.
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