The Meaningless and Useless Life of a Man Named Ratzinger

After the shocking and unprecedented pronouncement of the retirement of pope Ratzinger, comes an even more startling statement from the self-appointed ambassador of god.

"I will retire and dedicate the rest of my life to prayer" announced the pontiff.

It appears Josef Ratzinger is not about to undergo a life change and become useful. He was never into change. He was never useful.

Educated to teach the meaningless and insignificant topic of theology (*), Ratzinger went on to become a priest and quickly climbed the slippery rungs of the Catholic ladder all the way to the throne of The Vatican.

A man whose delusion prevented him from becoming a useful member of society, Ratzinger has caused more suffering than most. His stance on contraception and condemnation of the use of condoms has encouraged the spread of AIDS that is ravaging the African continent - ironically the only part of the world where support for  christianity and catholicism is on the increase.

On the subject of homosexuality, widely accepted nowadays in tolerant societies, as it should be - a phenomenon observed and studied in hundreds of other animal species as part of normal behaviour -  Ratzinger said  ""although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder"

This from a man who has done so much to protect members of the clergy accused of sexual crimes against children and each other.

The pope has not only alienated the gay community; he has also offended Islam by saying in 2006 "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

And he has offended the Jewish community by reappointing the excommunicated holocaust-denier Bishop Richard Williamson.

But the ultimate act of hypocrisy from the man who tells his followers to place their faith in god - that god will protect them from all evil - is that he himself chooses to place his trust in the 2" bullet-proof glass of his popemobile!

One would have thought his omnipotent boss would protect him. But then the pope is anything but a fool.

(*) Theology as an academic pursuit is what I consider a total waste of time and brain-power. No possible benefit to humanity can come from studying theology. Theology does nothing to ameliorate the human condition and even less to alleviate suffering and world poverty. As a study subject I consider it as futile an endeavour as spending years studying the life and times of Harry Potter...or Father Christmas...or Cinderella...or any other mythical concept.

Note to readers: Your comments would be much appreciated - I need views and opinions to help me with  the book I'm writing. 

:)

Looking back...at the Mayan calendar

We are well into the 21st century and the technological era. In the last five decades human knowledge has advanced way beyond the realms of imagination of our ancestors.  Never before has humanity pooled and shared so much knowledge and made it available, freely, to so many.

The true age of enlightenment is nigh!

It is ironic then  that we are still surrounded by so many people who refuse to absorb the available knowledge to make sense of their existence and place in nature.

c, vancouverobserver.com

People who are religious, conservative, stubborn and lazy and believe our ancestors knew something we don't know.

People who look back in time for inspiration and guidance to their future.

People who believe, through blind faith, that ancient scribes (writers) had the inexplicable and exclusive rights to communicate with gods that were mere figments of their own imagination.

And no matter how many times science proves our ancestors wrong and misguided, those people continue to refuse to allow their minds to evolve and  discard all myth and superstition.

Let us look at the Mayan Calendar fiasco:

Some 5200 years ago the Mayan society commissioned a group of scholars to create a calendar that would be used as a tool to date and record their history.

Those early astronomers already had a rudimentary knowledge of the movement of stars - through observation - and in short, knew that every 365 days the celestial pattern in their night sky would repeat itself exactly. Hence, the yearly calendar was created.

Clever for the time?

Most certainly.

Divine and mystical?

Most certainly not.

And so to all those who believed the Mayans were privy to knowledge from the cosmos and the oncoming Apocalypse, I say;

"Get a life", or better still, "get an education."

***

Worse still, and much more dangerous, are those same conservative/religious people who not only believe in our ancestors ability to communicate with gods, but also believe we should live by, and impose on others, the beliefs of those ancient scribes - who were at best mere mortals and at worse self-indulgent drug users ( scribes were the artists of their time and we all know what artists are like).


HISTORY should not be used by backward-looking individuals with no sense or imagination, as a guide to moral standards and wholesome living.

HISTORY is a recording (often incorrect) of the past, not an instruction manual for the future.

HISTORY - important as it is - should only be used to learn from past mistakes in order not to repeat them and to continue work-in-progress research.

HISTORY is yesterday - today's memory. Tomorrow, where we should set our sights, is today's dream.

Sleep well...

:)

9/11 - Ten years on and still no closure

The tenth anniversary of the ´crime of the century´ draws near and the debate rages on. The causes and reasons are still being discussed, analyzed and misunderstood by most people.

Frighteningly, the same conditions still exist. There are no reasons to believe it can´t happen again. And if it can, given time, it probably will.

The physical scars at ground zero are disappearing slowly, the mental scars never will. And they shouldn´t, lest we forget the day that changed the world. The day the word Islam became synonymous with terrorism 

My previous post on the subject, 9/11 Where was He?  still draws lots of readers and its no wonder, given the magnitude of the case.
 
As time goes by I no longer need to ask that question. He was not there because He does not exist! If He did exist He wouldn´t have let it happen. How could He?

If He did exist His own creations would not have been capable of such evil. After all, according to the Bible we were all created in His image.

How silly.

:)

Religiously Inspired Terror...

...these are the powerful words used in the recent TV documentary “The God Delusion” by Prof. Richard Dawkins that have prompted me to put pen to paper, once again, on this most destructive and enduring human disease we call religion.

Those of you who watched this program will no doubt be more enlightened by the awe-inspiring view on this very human 'cancer' we call Faith. I certainly am, both enlightened and more determined than ever to expose the fallacy and superstitious dogma of religion.

Faith is belief without reason; belief in Bronze Age myths and superstitions created by man’s need for meaning and used to control others through conformity. Religion has survived by keeping its followers in a state of permanent infancy while destroying its opponents in the process. Faith is, not questioning the Devine. Faith is acceptance of the myth as fact when scientific evidence exists to the contrary. That is so anti-learning and anti-knowledge that it defies reason!

The three ‘great’ religions of Islam Christianity and Judaism continue to dismiss the theory of evolution, even though there is evidence that evolution is a fact and indeed still taking place! They also continue to believe that the world is 5000 years old, when science has proved, by carbon-dating technology, that the earth is 4.5 billion years old! Religion continues to believe that high intelligence and empathy are strictly human characteristics! But most dangerous of all, extremist religion continues to victimise and vilify other religions, homosexuality, and all women, with a blind fervour and hatred that knows no bounds! Religion is the ultimate control-freak.

What good has come from religion, I ask? Morals, you may say? I say no. Definitely not. What is moral about encouraging the murder of non-believers such as the ‘fatwa’s’ of Islam or the Christian Crusades? Morals are not religious edicts but simply evolutionary processes to strengthen social groups. Moral codes exist in animal groups such as chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins, meerkats and many others. Different to our morals may be, but morals nonetheless.

Would there have been a 9/11 without religion? Or even the Holocaust? Or the Spanish Inquisition? How about the other countless atrocities and genocides - too many to mention - that stain human history with the blood of innocents? I very much doubt it. Scientific studies by the World Health Organisation state that the humble mosquito is responsible for more human deaths, through malaria, than any other illness or war, but I dispute that. I say religion is the biggest killer and anyone who wants to argue that fact, please forward me your statistics and I will reply with mine.

As the American physicist and Nobel Prize Winner Steven Weinberg once said, and I quote;

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion”

Accurate and simple, and yet describes the illogical motives for the atrocities committed under the guise of religion. It is disturbing to think that murderous actions are still taking place under the false guise of holy war.

“March on secular soldiers” - humanity needs you more than ever.