BARRY GIBB: DISCO FOR DECENCY

 "DISCO FOR DECENCY"--because Barry and Andy are always watching. 

There is nothing at all wrong with basic religious community precepts and "rules"--to not steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, take advantage...be kind to strangers, give to the poor, care about the downtrodden the prisoners. There is no harm in communal dinners or in taking food to shut-ins. Much of what occurs in church congregations is benign and does some societal good. In the smaller picture, anyway. Parishioners go to cookouts, sing, teach their kids to camp and tie knots, to be truthful. It's OK on that point.

But the additional step, that there is a guy, with flowing hair and robes, like Andy Gibb, hiding in the clouds, listening to everything said/ felt...who then, willy-nilly, changes HIS mind and stops cancer .... HERE--but not THERE. That allows starvation HERE, but not THERE. I could go on, but will not. You are welcome.

"I FORGIVE YOU, AS YOU ARE SAVED..." 

"I FORGIVE YOU, AS YOU ARE SAVED..." "Hey, are you Jesus?" -- Yeah. I am. 

Discussions on religion, argued in christianity, —or any of the Abrahamic religions—is, in my view, a waste of time and effort. There are people who think Jesus looks like  Gibb and is going to snatch them out of their graves, riding a white horse—and take them to a ‘forever picnic’—while ignoring the decayed remains of others who are not "forgiven" or "baptized" --Really?  I mean, it is just absolutely the silliest bunch of nonsense imaginable. Trying to craft some kind of intellectually valid discussion around such complete blather and nonsense is —again, in my view, absurd. These people are NEVER going to change their thinking because they are weak, gullible and stupid—and scared. 

Religion in general, as we speak of it, is a human invention, riddled with absurdity and silliness—all in an effort to exert—or convince parishioners so as to exert power over them. One of the most cherished human desires is to be FORGIVEN. To Say “that was then, but I am reborn and am a different person” “I am regretful for what I have done, but I look forward to a new life—reborn in forgiveness, allowing me to begin fresh and unencumbered. That desire for FORGIVENESS is at the core of the Abrahamics. The “priest” or whatever, receives for attains the POWER to forgive and to allow you to start again, without the encumbrance of “past sin”. It is THIS CORE NEED AND BELEIF that keeps these assholes in business. It is a carnival barker game for money. It is, in a word, complete bullshit. Because we accept that it is a continual, uncontrollable, unalterable flow—overall anyway—a flow of tiny events and changes and occurrences—little here; little there—and we wake up in a few hours and there have actually been a lot of minuscule changes (none of them the work of a god), These tiny shifts are ALWAYS underway, and everything is ALWAYS changing. Sometimes it is a change we like, or expect—other times, it is disaster and unexpected. The Buddhist tries to accept that changes and unattainability of what was attainable yesterday— the Buddhist tries to accept, with some tranquility and equanimity, the simple truth that “longing” and “clinging” and “wishing” things would go back to where they were, —to accept that these things will change, die, get sick, become destroyed, or disappear. Buddhists, recognizing that longing for control or explanation of events that cannot be either controlled, nor explained. There is obviously no christian “god” floating around changing “HIS” mind hither and thither, regarding wealth, sickness, job, school, life-span. None of that can be altered or prevented. These things just unfold as they always have and will. One day, same thing for this galaxy. Boom. Gone.   In my view, the actual ORIGINS of it all will remain shrouded in mystery. HOW IT WORKS seems straightforward: At a moment—if we stopped “time”, all the electrons, protons, neutrons and particles are frozen in motion. They are what they are, at that juncture. Then, in another moment, the particles, neutrons, electrons—all of it, is all different. The smallest building blocks have moved, collided, expired, re-emerged. THAT is the reality of tat NEXT moment. That is what these silly Christians PRAY to intercept and change—as if there were a Wizard, pulling levers and changing his mind, here and there. It’s ridiculous. Then, there is the MOMENT…after that. There is no beginning to the cycle, and no end. The law I describe is equally applicable to the dirt in your back yard, as it is to the planets of a galaxy. All the same thing. There is no “time”-in the sense that there is a “now” and “then”…there is a continual re-formation of the particles and components. Each moment is unique, as is the NEXT one. It is not at all like a Kaleidoscope Rule. That all of it is the same stuff, jumbling and moving and re-connecting, imperceptibly.