October 28, 2014

[6:09a]

When I tell people I believe in God, they usually reply with, why? To which I say I have met him, and when they say prove it, I say why? My experience is my own, why should I care whether you believe it or not? Your experience is your own, I don't expect all paths to be reliant on the validity given by others... can you live my life? Can you take my death? Can you clear my conscience? Can you uphold my responsibilities? No, so why must you believe as I believe?

Epicurus' logic defies what I believe to be human free will... we make our choices... and if God were to intervene and take away that choice, we would lack the capacity to grow, to struggle and evolve, to have triumphs and failures, to make mistakes and to learn from them...

[6:51a]

Good people blame Obama for certain appointments... I want you to imagine a scenario... refugees are wandering the desert, warlords control the borders... Obama wants to get them out, but cannot attack without launching a full scale war which will result in the deaths of thousands... so he makes a deal with the Warlords to save the people... this is the reality... this is why politics is always about the lesser of two evils... again, I must reiterate this point... there are few homeruns in politics, usually it's a single hit here and there that add up to a run... the game is played in inches... and when an entire party stands only to see you fail... the amount of inches you can win are even smaller... this is the real life... it's time to wake up from the fantasy.

October 27, 2014

[12:37p]

It is truly mind boggling to know that there are people alive today who still believe that natural disasters are punishment by God for people not living according to their beliefs, and if one cannot be persuaded by observable science, than one must confess that we are incapable of learning anything about the world in which we find ourselves, and therefore have no real reason to go on living... the pursuit of knowledge through love and wisdom will save life from extinction... it's the only thing that can.

[10:05p]

It is odd to believe that in all the millennia after the alleged God creates the earth, he shows up for the first time just 2,000 years ago in one of the least developed nations on earth, only to give a human sacrifice and then leave and not show up again... after 2,000 years I think it's fair to question whether this ever happened at all, it must surely be insanity to assume otherwise.

October 26, 2014

[1:48p]

There are many paths up the mountain... and we must avoid a present that declares one path is right and all others are doomed. Peak experience is found in all walks of life... proving there is no monocausal world, no singular form or ideology all must attest to in order to be fully realized.

[4:22p]

Some people say their God is bigger than all their problems, I like to say my delusions are bigger than all my problems... bottom line, we've both got something that is bigger than our problems that gets us through, and as long as your God and my delusion helps others and does not harm them... there is no wrong.

October 25, 2014

[3:21a]

If everything is God's will, how can you tell if anything is caused by God or Satan? How can you tell the difference between God's will and Satan's will? Bad things happen to good people often to make us grow... if Satan controlled things, wouldn't he create a Utopia, so that people had no challenges, and did not grow at all? Something to think about...

[5:41a]

I get unfriended by the far right wing religious all the time, but I have never unfriended one... because as it turns out, while I live nonjudgment, they only speak it.

[7:40a]

The reason I get into trouble with people isn't because of how I talk, it's because I do talk... seriously, go check most people's facebook pages... all you see most of the time is shared memes and links, very few people are speaking their own opinions, in their own voices, putting themselves out there and really engaging with an original thought, perhaps they're too worried about being attacked.. I put myself out there and I accept that goes with the territory, but if you choose to be in my world, where I am always going to speak my mind, don't be surprised when I respond as candidly to you as I expect you are being when you choose to respond to me. I can only respond based on how I interpret information presented to me, and I will never intentionally be hurtful or aggressive, I will always be honest and speak from the heart based on the understanding I possess at the time... everything can be interpreted many ways... I cannot be responsible for how you interpret me, I have no control over that. I was unfriended by two people this week... by one who said they didn't care about what was being talked about, to which I replied, apathy is dangerous and just holding on to what you believe without caring about new information is burying your head in the sand, and by another who told me to consult my guardian angels because I don't believe in anything, don't stand for anything, and think I am God... I understand there are crazy people on Facebook, I'm probably one of them... I understand we all get into moods... and we need to strive to be patient with one another... but I will not change the way in which I pursue truth, so please, if you don't like something I'm saying PM me or ignore it and move along... I'll probably say something you are interested in soon... I mean we're friends for a reason right? Okay thanks, and have a beautiful weekend!

[8:33a]

There's plenty of reasons to be not completely happy with Obama, but you don't get homeruns in politics, you gotta be happy with singles that lead to runs... You don't get Babe Ruth pointing to the outfield, and that's where it goes out of the park, especially when the Republicans are orchestrated against you in every way just to see you fail... with record fillibusters... but the facts are clear... things are better now than when Obama came into office... deficit is down, jobs are up, equality is up, we are all on more even footing in this regard... yes there are issues we feel he failed us on... but the motto is yes we can, not yes I can... and sometimes bad choices have to be made in the big picture... if you are okay with voting for the lesser of two evils, you have to accept that sometimes Obama has to choose between the lesser of two evil policies... just something to think about.

October 24, 2014

[6:20a]

If you must believe in Jesus in order to be saved, I must believe that Jesus is something that exists within all of us, and is not always referred to by the name Jesus but infinite names, for names are merely the cultural forms of an experience... and experience is available to all.

[9:25p]

There is only one way this week's debate drama could have been avoided, and it's right after the first post... let's look at that interaction right now. (Last names have been removed to protect the privacy of those involved, people I love and am in no way mad at.)

~*~

Donna: I'm not even bothering with this, with all due respect. I believe in God, and I have my own reasons, and I don't need to "convince" anyone about it, and I don't care about all this media stuff. Whatever. Carry on.

Now here's how I responded...

Jonathan: Donna, no offense but that's exactly what is the definition of burying one's head in the sand. One should always be curious... always open to learning, and growing, and it makes me sad to hear you say what you just posted.

~*~

Now, even though I said no offense she was offended, what I said was sharp and true, but sharp nonetheless, I'm not totally surprised she was offended by it, I'd have to be an idiot to not understand what offended her there, but she was mostly offended because I tagged her in the first place, thinking I was trying to change her mind, when really I only tag people whose opinions I respect and want to hear from. I also felt she was a person who could hear such sharp truths without being offended, clearly I was wrong, that might be partly due to her mood though.

My response should have been... none. I should have said nothing. When a chaotic wind blows in, the best thing to do is to stand very still, kind of like that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark... CLOSE YOUR EYES, MARION!!!!

Yes, I should have closed my eyes, but I tried to reason with the wind... and that only results in you as a target, and you are the pile of leaves, and in the end you're left with nothing but a big mess. Thankfully, I enjoy a mess of leaves.

My reply was criticism, but it was totally fair criticism. Donna's mistake was opening her mouth with such a sloppy, negative, apathetic attitude, my mistake was not recognizing the closed space from which she was speaking, and just letting it go.

October 23, 2014

[12:55a]

Evolution leaves unanswered questions, as it should, we are limited beings, with limited tools... but creation guarantees a certainty that leaves only one question, and that certainty is what scares me the most about religion... who are we to have such certainty about anything? The arrogance it takes to have that kind of certainty, scares me.

They attach so much to bills, muddying the waters, and good, simple people - you know, 99% of society, buy what they're selling, because what's the alternative? Realizing your entire society has been built the absolute wrong way, that it's a cancer killing everyone and wasting everyone's lives? We live such a short time... the answer I feel is drastic, to be free, we must let it all go, you can live in the system, just recognize it for what it is... an illusion.

The problem is most people are so attached to the illusions and distracted their personal dramas that they have no time to cultivate the mindfulness and the clarity to find the solace, the passion, and the liberation that's always been within them, and that is how society likes it.

~*~

Why does God want us to need him? If nothing we do makes a difference, why are we even alive? How can believing in Jesus mean more than giving a homeless man a dollar? Also, most people do not think we popped out of nowhere, you see there's this thing called Evolution... Nature, Adaptation, Survival... I'm not saying God did not create nature, but he would also want us to survive, which he seems to take absolutely no part in... so how can one say he cares whether we do or not? Nature has met with many extinction events through history... I believe mankind adapted self consciousness awareness as a survival instinct, it wasn't out of nowhere... if you study genetics, you know stressors in the environment push evolution, so what happens when nature meets 5 extinction events and is nearly wiped out every time? It must cultivate the awareness to survive the next one, or start over again... this is what I believe happened, not that we popped out of nowhere... I believe in the ingenuity of nature... but I believe God created nature to have that ingenuity.

~*~

The only argument I can come up with for why man should not have eaten from the tree of knowledge, also that tree is likely a metaphor for psychedelics, either mushrooms or cactus... we know that not all plants that grow are meant for human consumption, many are poisonous... with that in mind, one might argue the tree of knowledge was not meant for us... it answers the question, "then why put it there?"

But, we know, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or psychedelics have many positive effects... and I'll never understand why this alleged God would not want people to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil... knowledge is power, it seems to me, the powers that be wanted their citizens to stay ignorant, so they could be more easily controlled through fear and dogma.

Mankind must always grow and remain curious and passionate, or we stagnate and die... would God want that? I think not... so I must deduce that God would have wanted us to eat of the fruit, and only corrupt men would want us not to...

But I also do not believe The Bible is beyond question, it is not wise to take anything in a book as absolute truth, simply on the basis that it is written there... question all things, that is what a neocortex is for, and if God made us, he made the neocortex, and thus intended for us to question all things...

Why then is it religions want you to take things on faith as fact without any inquiry? Going so far as to say you can be saved, but that salvation is throug believing unquestioningly in some guy who was the son of God who died, so that would have the magical effect of salvation? It makes no sense. None whatsoever...

The Buddha also said you could be saved from suffering, but it is not a path of belief, but a path of personal responsibility, mindfulness, compassion, and the Eight-Fold Noble Path... I am more inclined to believe in this way.

A test, so God plays games? Seems like an odd thing to do, doesn't God have more pressing matters? Also, how did man study for this test? Were we set up to fail? Why test us at all? Sounds very conditional.

"If you believe in me, you shall have eternal life. If that's not conditional, I don't know what is..."

Especially when the religious tell you that nothing you do can get you into Heaven, believing IS doing something. Belief is the act of conclusion, closing your mind to any new information, ergo, man more likely created religion to control the masses through belief... Buddhism frees the mind by helping you understand the emptiness of all belief.

October 22, 2014

[6:02p]

The beauty of science is that no matter how much evidence there is, the wise still call it only a theory, understanding that certainty is an impossibility, while blind faith of religion is believing absolutely in something with 100% certainty without any evidence at all. Regardless of who is right, the balanced person leans towards healthy skepticism over rigid certainty, for that rigidity is the sign of a closed and fearful mind, and not the sign of a healthy, empathetic, and conscious individual. You will never hear a scientist say, I'm not condemning you, but if you do not believe in my theories, you will go to Hell forever.

I do not believe creation is a viable model of origins for today's modern scientific era. We know better now. Yes, a few thousand years ago, when we knew nothing, we didn't know what lives in water, for example, we knew effectively nothing about the world, it's easier then to believe in a poetic, creation story, of God having a son and man being born with sin, and giving his son so we might have eternal life, because it's easier to control people this way, and it takes away man's biggest fear... what comes next... and when you can take that fear away from man, you rule their lives.

Certainty is the sign of a closed mind, it cannot grow, it cannot be surprised, it's a sad way to live. Self righteous based awareness is not free, when anything comes along to shake up his world, he won't have the flexibility to accept and adapt, he will crumble.

October 14, 2014

Think on these things...

Obama's Presidency resulted in:

The death of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Williams, that Oxi Clean dude, Farrah Fawcett, Natasha Richardson, Liam Neeson thanks you for that one, Patrick Swayze, the man was in better health than most teens, he was like the wind through my tree!!! Through my tree!!! Miley Cyrus' innocence, the loss of my job, my best friend taking a $20,000 paycut, the final album by Pink Floyd, EVER... seriously, thanks Obama... I could go on and on, but you get the picture... Obama's presidency has been nothing but a tragedy for Hollywood and the stars we live vicariously through, I can only hope when a Republican gets into office in 2016, we see a lot more celebrity births with children named after fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Thank you.

A president can do very little when met with record breaking fillibusters. The gop set him up to fail, knowing most people wouldn't be paying attention, and simply blame him. this is the facts.

I have my issues with Obama, but there's plenty of blame to go around... the entire system is broken, juvenile, petty, and corrupt... distractions to hide the real issues... and he said the pretty words that desperate liberals wanted to hear.

He had nothing to do with dont ask dont tell, that was a clever judge's work... he only came out for gay marriage and other cosmetic issues when it was popular to do so and safe to do so... he did nothing to BP, slap on the wrist, he barely even looked around... they were too big to fail... he disallowed his press secretaries from acknowledging the drone program even existed for 6 years... he did very little for poverty, education, the homeless, healthcare is a joke, he was against medical marijuana, he was cocky, and too full of himself... 

Yes, Obama has brought the deficit down and raised jobs... but all those jobs are low paying jobs, in an economy that doesn't even pay a good enough minimum wage to get above the poverty line! He slapped a bandaid on a sliced artery. AND THEN HE KILLED A FLY ON PRIME TIME... the motherfucker we got here... strength isn't killing a fly... it's having the restraint, and compassion... to NOT kill the fly. Obama also completely lied about transparency.

I don't think anyone else would have done a better job. In 2016, I like Bernie Sanders, wish he was running, wish he could win... wish it would matter... everyone answers to their corporate masters, the banks, big oil, and the NRA... subsidies for corn and oil, and not enough for fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds... we need to focus on a healthy and educated people... give the people a chance to THRIVE, not simply survive... or this country will keep backsliding into obscurity.