Jonathan Murray » Religion

Sometimes there is justice

Jonathan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:48:22 +0000

Lynne Stewart is off to the big house for ten long years… Judge nails the bitch to the wall for demonstrating “lack of remorse.”

Awesome.

U.S. District Judge John Koeltl sentenced Stewart, 70, today in New York. A federal appeals court in November ruled that his first sentence didn’t reflect the seriousness of her actions.

The judge said his sentence was “sufficient but not greater than necessary” to punish Stewart, who “abused her position as a lawyer” and said she would do it again. Making such statements showed a lack of remorse, he said.

Bloomberg: Lawyer Lynne Stewart Sentenced to 10 Years for Aiding Imprisoned Terrorist

Guilty as charged.

Treason used to bring the death sentence. This ‘lawyer’ is 70 and horribly out of shape, so maybe that’s what this really is.

It’s May 20th. Did you draw Mo?

Jonathan — Fri, 21 May 2010 01:37:50 +0000

Looks like facebook has once again banned the group.

Oh well, here’s my meager effort on the topic. I am not an artist, but I’m sure as hell not going to be told I can’t draw a picture of a fucked up old dead guy who raped a little girl after “marrying” her.

The invasion continues

Jonathan — Sat, 08 May 2010 15:28:06 +0000

No, this isn’t an illegal immigration post.

A proposal to build a mosque steps from Ground Zero received the support of a downtown committee despite some loved ones of 9/11 victims finding it offensive.

What. The. Fuck?

Imagine the reaction if any non-muslim religion tried to build a house of worship ANYWHERE in Afghanistan, Iraq… oh, wait, it’s against islamic law to build non-muslim churches. Guess there’s no reason to imagine any reaction at all.

But this is America! Under Obama! We have no problem turning the other cheek. Or in this case, offering our guest house up to the assholes who burned down our residence.

Doesn’t anyone understand these animals are LAUGHING AT US while we hold the knife for them to slit our throats?

And this part is just rich…

He said the glass-and-steel building would include a 500-seat performing arts venue, a swimming pool and a basketball court. “There’s nothing like it,” said Rauf, adding that facilities will be open to all New Yorkers.

A pool for all? As long as the women wear burqinis and only swim when there are no men present (Sunday night, midnight to 3am?)

Someone explain to me why the woman’s rights groups don’t protest against the islamic savages who beat, rape, enslave, and murder their women because their sacred pedophile tells them to?

Brrr. That was warm.

Jonathan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:32:01 +0000

Don’t worry about your heating bill from last month. Global warming (err, climate change!) scaremongers are hard at work denying your lying eyes.

World warming unhindered by cold spells: scientists

“January, according to satellite (data), was the hottest January we’ve ever seen,” said Nicholls of Monash University’s School of Geography and Environmental Science in Melbourne.

“Last November was the hottest November we’ve ever seen, November-January as a whole is the hottest November-January the world has seen,” he said of the satellite data record since 1979.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in December that 2000-2009 was the hottest decade since records began in 1850, and that 2009 would likely be the fifth warmest year on record. WMO data show that eight out of the 10 hottest years on record have all been since 2000.

But wait! Didn’t Phil Jones just admit there hasn’t been any warming in the last 15 years? Someone lost his sheet music.

Meanwhile, I need to go adjust the settings on my fireplace. There’s a chill in the air.

Egomania

Jonathan — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:37:45 +0000

A commercial keeps popping up on various channels for “The Apostle L.D. Reid”. What a fucking ego this piece of shit must have.

Sorry for the outburst, I just can’t fathom the balls it must take to refer to yourself as “The Apostle”.

Don’t get me started on the ignorant morons who have elevated this jerkoff to the point where he’s advertising on national TV.

Impressed

Jonathan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:23:58 +0000

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s hit “reply” to a newsletter, just knowing that my words would fall on deaf ears, but needing to get a gripe off my chest. Generally, whatever brings me to that point also leads me to cancel my subscription to that newsletter.

Case in point: I’ve subscribed to Chaplain Klingenschmitt’s newsletter ever since he was drummed out of the Navy for refusing to use non-sectarian prayers in his services. I applaud the Chaplain’s willingness to put his faith before his career, and enjoyed following his story. (Note: as I’ve stated here and in everywhere I’m asked, I’m an agnostic, but a strong believer in the rights of anyone to practice their beliefs freely, so long as they don’t try to prevent me from living my life as I chose.)

Lately I’ve found the Chaplain’s newsletter to be a bit abrasive. Not so much the content, but more the the formatting, layout, and color choices; together with style often approaching the level of “rant”, not a great pleasure to read. See for yourself, but don’t blame me if you get a headache.

The newsletter last week was the final straw for me. I read it, was curious about the claims made in regards to the subject, and decided to click through to his website to find out more. Sadly, the passages announced to be behind the links were not there to read. Frustrated and realizing the results were not worth the effort, I fired off an email explaining my frustration and decision to drop the newsletter. I added a few thoughts on the topic that led me to start looking through the website – polite but definitely critical – and promptly unsubscribed.

I hadn’t thought twice about it until this evening.

Then I received this response from the Chaplain:

Got it sir, Semper Fi…..
In Jesus, Chaps

Enough to tell me he actually read the message. Completely unexpected and even a brief, polite response to my open criticism. I’m not going to re-subscribe to the newsletter, but that alone is enough for me to think I’ll go back and check up on the Chaps now and again. Chaplain Klingenschmitt, you have my sincere wishes for fair winds and following seas. Best of luck in your endeavors.

Did we forget to mention his islamic heritage (and his middle name)?

Jonathan — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:10:06 +0000

Obama isn’t a muslim. We’ve had that bit of information driven home enough that everyone believes it now. But maybe some of that early training stuck. Respect for the ruler of the city that holds the meteorite they all pray to seems to be a lesson he hasn’t forgotten.

The President of the United States, bowing down to the saudi king. That’s the king of saudi arabia; that lovely country where they have the happy fun-loving religion police running around beating women for talking to men, driving, or BEING kidnapped and raped. They seem rather fond of disciplining old women, too.

The man is a disgrace. When I saw the picture, I assumed he had tripped or something… surely it could not have been what it appeared.

The video erases all doubt.

Shorter clip, gets right to the point:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Long (original) version

Still happy with this president?

“If Every Muslim Acted Like Muhammad, According to Modern Law They’d Have to Be Jailed”

Jonathan — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:11:35 +0000

Poignant.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Saw it on IMAO

Fever Pitch Fanatacism

Jonathan — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:59:17 +0000

President ‘has four years to save Earth’

Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. “We cannot afford to put off change any longer,” said Hansen. “We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead.”

Of course, this is the guy apparently responsible for creating statistics to support his fanaticism. (NASA Chief James E. Hansen cooked the books on Global Warming)

Headlines that don’t evoke images of doom and gloom don’t sell papers, though. Perhaps that “fairness doctrine” they keep yelling for on radio should apply to the print media as well? Here’s another, equally qualified opinion:

Professor denies global warming theory

“This is George Orwell. This is the ‘Germans are the master race. The Jews are the scum of the earth.’ It’s that kind of propaganda,” Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, said in an interview. “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Every time you exhale, you exhale air that has 4 percent carbon dioxide. To say that that’s a pollutant just boggles my mind. What used to be science has turned into a cult.”

Happer served as director of the Office of Energy Research in the U.S. Department of Energy under President George H.W. Bush and was subsequently fired by Vice President Al Gore, reportedly for his refusal to support Gore’s views on climate change. He asked last month to be added to a list of global warming dissenters in a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee report. The list includes more than 650 experts who challenge the belief that human activity is contributing to global warming

But the dissenting opinions don’t get the headlines – the religion of global warming (oops… “climate change”) has banished such talk to the side channels.

We may never know the truth, but I’m sure that regardless the outcome (freezing cold, burning heat, drowning in deep water, dried out husks…) someone with a gift for eloquent, convincing speech will find a way to use that event to control some portion of humanity. After all, most of us are idiot followers looking for someone else to lead. Fortunately for the rest of you, there are enough cynics like me in the world who can tell you just how stupid you’re being. All you have to do is listen.

“Never discuss religion or politics in polite company”

Jonathan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:14:10 +0000

But since I know you all so well, and I don’t remember any of you accusing me of being polite… I present more random thoughts on religion.

(this article was written in my religion wiki, some formatting may not carry through – feel free to read the original, currently at the bottom of the “general” page if this turns out looking like some obscure variation of cuneiform.)

These ideas came to me today while having a discussion¹ on religion in general with a devout, (recent?) convert to Christianity. I struggled to hold them in my head until I could get them into words – too often I have amazingly lucid thoughts that never make it into any sort of permanent form; I need to get better at this.

The wave

In trying to determine an analogy for “god/God”, I came upon the idea that “god” is a wave², perhaps a harmonic, that we can feel. This wave pushes us through life on the path of “right”, and following that path, not fighting the wave, feels good/right. This idea was countered by the axiom that god gave us a conscience, which helps us to know right from wrong. This does not contradict my idea, just offers another demonstration of how humans have given a name to a concept.

My thought here is that the concept of god is another attempt to give a name to what we don’t understand; in this case, the wave.

I recognize the human need to quantify everything we encounter – thus, as I’ve stated before, the need for god to exist. Not God, in fact, but the concept of god as a name given to that tidal force of life that we all feel in various ways. Of course, this force can be misinterpreted just as easily as it can be accepted as a guiding force. The same human nature that drives some to seek comfort in staying on the path can drive others to fight it – thus not all visions of “god” are the same, and not all interpretations of the way to follow the path are the same.

The basic premise of the wave, that life must continue, thrive, and expand, is what brings people together to form communities, help each other, and ensure the continuance of their own. Unfortunately, these ideas, these driving forces, can also be used as justification to kill. When the driving force says “live, grow, expand”, the individual can come to believe that means them or their group alone. This is how religions grow to wage war on each other.

We fail as a species when we fail to understand we’re all hearing the same music; all feeling the same wave. The answer is not the abolition of religion, the answer is for all religions to understand they’re searching for the same thing.

To build on the ‘wave’ concept, and to offer religion a hand up, I could easily believe in the ability of some humans to be “sensitive” to the wave. These could be (some) modern day religious figures who do good work in the name of their faith, and they could be those who have gone before, framing the ideas that became modern day religions. Abraham, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, maybe even Lafayette Ronald Hubbard – all have vast followings who may feel the wave the same way (or at least, a similar way) as these men did. When you find someone who can describe that ever-present force of life the way you feel it, an explanation for the unexplainable that just seems to “makes sense”, perhaps that’s the driving force that creates what we know as religion. Maybe it’s enough to discover that others are hearing music, too; the actual notes don’t matter.

I think that may also be exactly the problem.

The catchy part about the concept of the wave is that, like faith itself, it cannot be quantified. Attempts to do so require compromise in order to put it into words. Parables are useful, as they show examples without trying to give a precise picture (which would well explain why the Bible is largely made up of parables). When individuals attempt to codify their vision of the wave, the meaning is compromised. When individuals determine that others should see/feel/experience the wave as they do, religion is created and sometimes, miscreated.

In the aforementioned conversation, I stated “you can’t put handles on the wave”; meaning that once you try to stop the wave to get a firm picture, you’re no longer riding the wave, and your perspective is skewed. Religion attempts to attach handles. The concepts may be right, but they’re always at least a little off, since you can’t fully describe a thing that never stops with words that have finite meaning.

¹The conversation started well, and didn’t end badly, but as usual when I get on a thought-roll, I did tend to hold the floor more than my share (sorry, Scott). I always find it disappointing when one of these conversations rolls against the “faith” line of reasoning, though. If the only proof of your faith is the book that describes your faith, why not take a mental leap into the possibility that there is a larger picture? I’m not saying religion (in general) is wrong, just that it may be merely a human attempt at quantifying the unquantifiable. To say humankind has all the answers, and they’re right here in this here book… is pretty damned arrogant. ‘Nuff said.

²after saying it over and over in my head, “wave” may be the wrong word here – “tide” might be more appropriate. I first used “the force”, but of course that made the whole concept go awry in a Star Wars themed way. If I rewrite this article into something more permanent, I’ll have to decide on a term that better demonstrates the intent. Of course, the fact that I am having a hard time giving it a name helps to illustrate my point… so perhaps I won’t change it after all.