failure to connect

 i just wrote the following in an email to a couple of sheeple.

didn't think i'd write to u again but it seems i have no better options.

i've harbored a passionate hatred for christianity, and by extension all dogmatic puritanical religion, for many years now. decades actually, going back nearly 40 years to my divorce and coming to understand that i'd married under pressure of living in a sexually repressed christian culture where the only way for me to have a steady lover seemed to be to get married, so i did so, but even as i did so, i knew in my heart it was the wrong thing for me to do, and that i was only doing it because i was so desperate to have a lover. when the marriage failed it tore me up badly and i learned a lot from the experience; essentially the necessity of openness and honesty in intimate relationships, beginning with one's self, but ever since i've been unable to connect with anyone, not just sexually, but philosophically. i passionately desire to live in a radically different world, one without dogmatic puritanical religion.

now anything that makes me think of sex (and something makes me think of it many times every day) reminds me of the repressive influence of christianity on my life, reinforcing my virulent hatred of it. and it's not only sex, it's how dogmatism and cruelty are so prevalent in american institutions and culture, which i now always associate with christian faith in a dogmatic puritanical judgmental and infinitely cruel god, belief in 'sin' for which according to the bible we must die (the wages of sin), and then, according to christians who also believe in heaven and hell, consignment for eternity to torture for those who haven't accepted christ as savior. that's one cruel god those christians believe in! in light of such belief it makes perverse sense to make the lives of the worst 'sinners' amongst us hell by making them live in prisons wherein cruelty is a way of life. i think this also relates to a broader cruelty in american society, cruelty towards the less fortunate, the homeless, the poor, the misfits, minorities, lgbtq+ people, etc., the shocking lack of a social safety net and social services, things like childcare, healthcare, etc.. it seems to me that it isn't just coincidence but correlation that the arguably most religious country in the so-called 'developed' world has the most regressive social policies and the greatest economic inequality, the harshest and most punitive laws, and the greatest injustice, corruption, and hypocrisy.

in spite of all this i've benefitted from my association with your church thanks to the limited sense of community i find there. i imagine that's basically the same reason anyone like u would choose to become a minister, to help foster the development and maintenance of such community. unfortunately it seems just about impossible to find this outside of religion, but why is this so, and must it be thus? why can't we have community without connection to holy books, dogmas, and superstitious rituals like holy communion? why can't we live in a world in which critical thinking flourishes, facts are valued more highly than dogmatic faith, and unconventional thought is not suppressed?

now that u've retired or are about to, perhaps u'll feel free-er to address such questions, to question the validity of your own faith, and to engage with me further in this discussion? perhaps it won't turn your life upside down too much to do so? perhaps together, we can try to think of ways to bring about such changes in the lives of others without turning their lives upside down too much, to bring about radical social change without too much social disruption? what do u think?

a scary thought

'having grown up with him, it makes u realize that it isn't the smartest person u went to high school with who's running the country; it's the most shameless' -a former schoolmate of stephen miller -10:32 mark of video link below

"we respect life. therefore, torture's the way to go" -a teenage stephen miller on a crowded school bus back in 2003, regarding how he thinks the u.s. should treat saddam hussein. this was taken from about the 4:20 mark of the ALJAZEERA documentary below, in which various well informed insiders opine that miller's a fascist ideologue who just may be the most powerful unelected official in the trump regime. a scary thought! but in this current dystopia we're living in, a thoroughly plausible one.

one might also ask why such critical reporting on the questionable character of powerful figures like miller and on the abuses of government power he is engineering aren't to be seen in 'western' corporate media, ever, anywhere, but that would be a naive question.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCP4SZo5axE

a cruel god begets cruel sheeple

i'm sure i've expressed sentiment very similar to what is to follow here elsewhere in this blog, but it's certainly worth repeating. i think a if not the fundamental reason why the usa is such a regressive nation with things like very puritanical restrictive victimless crimes and very harsh and cruel punishments for violators has to do with the prevalence of 'conservative' christianity and it's fundamental idea that all humans are 'sinners' who deserve not only to die (the 'wages of sin') but to then face eternal torture in a place called hell, unless one is 'saved' by faith in the redemptive sacrifice of the crucifixion of christ.

the whole idea that for god to forgive 'sin' blood must be shed, and that god would require it to be the blood of an innocent, 'sinless' being is simply bizarre and barbaric in the extreme. in my view such a god is simply evil and cruel, and it makes bizarre sense that believers in and followers of such a god will tend to mimic 'his' cruelty and view all of humanity as worthy of cruelty. thus i believe my world would be a much nicer and better place without christianity as well as other religions that promote it's basic ideas of sin, divine judgment, and eternal punishment.

my kind of journalism

here's a couple of examples of independent media journalists with no corporate support speaking plain truths, sometimes using so-called 'profane' language to emphasize their points, which is so unlike corporate supported lamestream media in the u.s. and throughout the 'west'.

(3) Anti-ICE Protester Humiliates Fox News Propagandist During Live Broadcast - YouTube

Israel Just Said The Quiet Part Out Loud

Why The Real Revolutionaries Are Dead 

Epicurus on god

 Epicurus, the Ancient Greek philosopher put it best:

“Is god willing to prevent evil, but not able to? Then He is not omnipotent Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god?”

Anti-Communism: America's Unofficial Religion

 if u've ever wondered why the political left and it's ideas are so unpopular in america, this video is a good beginning to understanding how the capitalist establishment, via the power of the government, has systemically persecuted and suppressed leftist individuals and groups. another one from abby martin:

 Anti-Communism: America's Unofficial Religion - YouTube

why Psychedelics are suppressed

The following is quoted from the bottom of page 450 and top of page 451 of Dennis McKenna's memoir THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE SCREAMING ABYSS 

'Psychedelics are not suppressed because they are dangerous to users; they're suppressed because they provoke unconventional thought, which threatens any number of elites and institutions that would rather do our thinking for us... Mushrooms have a way of inoculating the mind against the kind of thought control the prevailing order in any age needs to sustain itself. I'm not naively suggesting that the work of building a better world stops with the psychedelic experience. But it could be where it begins, or is renewed-in the moment of freedom when one glimpses the transient nature of reality and its ever-present potential for change.'