You cannot do both, join a religion, or join the divine. One or the other.

You cannot do both, join a religion, or join the divine. One or the other.

The essence of what I know. Serve the neediest soul, as a soul, in solidarity, for the joy of it.

The essence of what I know. Serve the neediest soul, as a soul, in solidarity, for the joy of it.

Transcript. Einstein's God letter

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/word-god-is-product-of-human-weakness.html?m=1

Standing Rock update: alert, this is not some news flash. It's something that I've been aware of a long time and I'm just now sharing. Never again would I attend a nationalistic, racist, event. Not to say.......

Standing Rock update: alert, this is not some news flash. It's something that I've been aware of a long time and I'm just now sharing.

Never again would I attend a nationalistic, racist, event. Not to say that all of the natives here are nationalistic or racist, some are absolutely opposed to that. But too many are and they are not called out. How is racism and nationalism the revolution? It is unconditional surrender to nationalism and racism, hierarchy no matter how much it is denied.

Dr. King said something like, I have a dream that one day people will be recognized by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, their nationality, their history of Oppression, ethnicity,  spiritual tradition,  etcetera etcetera etcetera.

I do not deny the right of people who have been oppressed to act that out in many ways.

What I do deny is that anything other than recognizing and valuing people by the content of their character, nothing less than that is any sort of revolution. And far too much of Standing Rock has been all about nationalism, race, Etc.

It is Revolution that is Dead on Arrival.

So is there no hope here? There is hope here. Why? Because many people here simply operate on the basis of character, kindness, loving, service, and it seems to be impossible for them to do anything other than this. This includes native and non-native people alike.

This small collection that operate in this way, they are whatever hope there may be, they are the evidence of what Revolution there can be. The only thing that can be called revolution, in truth. Universal family, Universal Brotherhood, Universal unconditional loving, by whatever name or none.

Oh, and what utter insanity, Madness, stupidity has been the efforts to make the Lakota way displacing of,  super ordinate over,  supremely respected versus, the spiritual Traditions that brought this amazing Rainbow Coalition of people together. How can there be such a stupidity where on the one hand the disparate spiritual Traditions, the Myriad spiritual Traditions that brought people here, That there would then be an effort to subordinate them under something different,  some other tradition? What could be more f****** stupid,  self-defeating, self-destructive, than that? If it is no a Dapl plot  they must be all the more delighted at us doing it to ourselves.

***** If I have to choose between which is more dangerous, 1. Scientists that deny, that are blind to, that are not in awe of, that there is a force of creation behind everything, and 2. So-called religious folks that deny science, I'll go with number one. By every......

If I have to choose between which is more dangerous, 1. Scientists that deny, that are blind to, that are not in awe of, that there is a force of creation behind everything, and 2. So-called religious folks that deny science, I'll go with number one. By every objective measure it is number one that is necessary and sufficient for all life on Earth to be destroyed. Without number 1 there is no fracking, no deep sea Drilling, no nuclear weapons, no Advanced Weaponry of any sort, no global warming, no massive Wall Street Trading, no Global destruction of the environment.... Yes, they both concern the hell out of me. But objectively, the Liberals, the scientists, are in the final stages of destroying Earth. Not the religious lunatics.

Until the energies that are squandered on the fantasy games we call organized religion are redirected into helping our neediest brothers and sisters there is no hope.

Until the energies that are squandered on the fantasy games we call organized religion are redirected into helping our neediest brothers and sisters there is no hope.

***** Abe Lincoln (and me). "When any church will inscribe over its altar (ONLY) the Savior's condensed statement of law and gospel: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join with all my heart."

***** Abe Lincoln (and me). "When any church will inscribe over its altar (ONLY) the Savior's condensed statement of law and gospel: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join with all my heart."

***** For almost all christians Christianity is a fantasy game where you get to (REALLY) kill, oppress, abuse, exploit, enslave... people, Jews, Palestinians.......

***** For almost all christians Christianity is a fantasy game where you get to (REALLY) kill, oppress, abuse, exploit, enslave... people, Jews, Palestinians, blacks, Muslims, Arabs, Vietnamese, Hispanics... and at the very least you get to feel superior to all those who do not ascribe to your so-called beliefs (sociopathic delusions),  and to play for eternal real estate in the sky. And almost all Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists... Use their religion for their own form of this bloody fantasy game.

***** Take note you of Organized Religion: Less and less can I remain 'silent' and 'respectful' of any Organized Religion. I did so......

***** Take note you of Organized Religion: Less and less can I remain 'silent' and 'respectful' of any Organized Religion. I did so on the basis that what others do in private is their business. But it is MY business when the collateral damage of their Fantasies slaughter my human family... and they all do. Your 'personal pleasure' from your Organized Religion Fantasy Games... does absolve my moral duty to stand in protection of your Collateral Damage. (This includes you of the 'Religions' of Atheism, Science, Education, 'Progress," Liberalism..

Jimmy Carter: 'Losing My Religion For Equality'.... EVERYONE in EVERY ORGANIZED religion... should do likewise. In the beginning, and at the end, there was and will be only one True Religion - Loving, Universal Family, the Golden Rule.

EVERYONE in EVERY ORGANIZED religion... should do likewise. In the beginning, and at the end, there was and will be only one True Religion - Loving, Universal Family, the Golden Rule.

nd. Oddly, I spend more time, much more time defending organized religion than denouncing it these days. Those against 'religion' are exactly as 'religious' and hateful and dogmatic and blind... as I find the religionists to be. AND... (click link)

Oddly, I spend more time, much more time defending organized religion than denouncing it these days.  Those  against 'religion' are exactly as 'religious' and hateful and dogmatic and blind... as I find the religionists to be. AND, I am persuaded, if nothing else, that what is represented in this poll below is essentially and profoundly correct, that the quality of life among the world's destitute is dramatically

improved by deep participation in organized religion, and why would I want their lives to be even more miserable?  Poll:

 http://jesusgodgoodetcnjay.blogspot.com/2015/02/religion-provides-emotional-boost-to.html

AND... I can't explain the relatively immense peacefulness, goodness, humanity, Godliness of the middle east Arabs despite the 70 year reign of US, British, Israeli terror... except that Islam is a profoundly Humanizing force for them.

nd. Tho I detest all organized religions... I must say that the Muslim children I see are for the most part breathtakingly Godly, unlike the christian children I see that are various forms of Satanic by the time they are beyond infancy. The exceptions prove the rule.

Tho I detest all organized religions... I must say that the Muslim children I see are for the most part breathtakingly Godly, unlike the christian children I see that are various forms of Satanic by the time they are beyond infancy.  The exceptions prove the rule.

vid. 4 min. Obama at Prayer Breakfast Speech | People Committed Terrible Deeds in Name of Christ

***** This study obliterates the myth that Muslims are more violent...... All of my study thus far points in this direction... that Muslims as a group are the Godliest of the major religions

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/30/7951309/islam-violence

***** On Religion.... When Religion moves from 'as if' it were True, to 'IT IS THE TRUTH' it moves from Life Giving to Death Giving... Religion is NEVER the Truth, Reality. And... It is virtually impossible for a human to exist without a 'religion' - world view, understanding of how things work, belief system. "Fundamentalism" is the genocidal problem. (click for detail)

(the following is far from neatly written and thought out but it is an explosive advance, for me, this afternoon, in terms of my understanding of these issues)

When Religion moves from 'as if' it were True, to 'IT IS THE TRUTH' it moves from Life Giving to Death Giving

Religion is often on my mind because it is central to the single greatest evil on earth today - the slow torture genocide of my Muslim / Christian family in Palestine by Fundamentalist US christians and Israeli jews.  This is forcing me into study of Islam, Judaism, fundamentalism (christian and jewish)... that otherwise I would not undertake:

Human Religion is NEVER the Truth, Reality because we Humans are in imperfect species.

And... It is virtually impossible for a human to exist without a 'Religion' - world view, understanding of how things work, belief system.

And it is Impossible to Thrive Spiritually and Physically without a comprehensive, healthy, Holistic, Truth-Approximating Religion that enables one to keep all aspects of their needs as humans optimally met, and those of the people they influence, most importantly young-ones. (Adamant 'Blindness' to this is maybe the most fatal flaw of the Left.)

One of the greatest scientific minds, EO Wilson, is in the news recent days for his stance in an upcoming book that the world is dying from religion. I often have this thought.  But seeing this from him makes me recall that no one does not have a 'religion,' a 'belief system,' a way of 'seeing and understanding' the world. 

What may well destroy the world, and what DOES destroy any individual 'spiritually' (the only existence that matters) is not Religion, which is Indispensable and Unavoidable, but Fundamentalism, that is, when one  moves from understanding that their way of seeing the world is NOT REALITY, NOT TRUE... that the world, the Creator, is REAL, TRUE, and that our religion at best can only approximate that Truth, Reality... to the error of 'believing' their Religion to be True, Realty, and therefore 1. The Only True religion (all others being inferior) and 2. Dead, Fixed, no longer moving closer to the Truth, Reality... and probably 'Killing' anyone and anything that IS moving toward them.  Making this mistake is the False Idol that Jesus spoke of, and the 'Tribal' religions that cause so many genocidal wars.  Making this mistake is when 'religion' becomes 'dry as dust,' or, 'a social club with a thin veneer of reality,' whether this fatal mistake is made by a christian, jew, scientist or atheist, liberal or conservative.  

The US left, Liberals, are mostly Fundamentalists.  They believe they know the Truth - education, science, equality, rationality... whatever.

The US right conservatives are mostly Fundamentalists - 'christian' (they couldn't be more anti-Christlike), terrified of change, 'religiously' selfish in principal... whatever.

The one in a million Great Humans are so exactly because they never make the Deadly Error of becoming Fundamentalist in their Belief. 

All Fundamentalist make themselves less than human, sub-human, truly 'Dead,' Dead to moving closer to Reality, Truth... they surrender their 'Image' as children of the Creator by taking on their Fundamentalists beliefs as Truth, Reality, rather than Facing, Embracing that their Religion is at best a means of best living even though we can never know Truth, Reality being the imperfect beings that we are... and that their Religion can, and needs to, constantly improve, move more toward the Truth, Reality.

Fundamentalism is clinical delusion, insanity, mental illness.  It is divorce from reality, truth... that we can never know Reality, Truth.

Fundamentalism of the left, the liberals, academic elites... is destroying all life on earth materially and destroying much human goodness by ignoring the moral limits and boundaries the human needs for Health and Survival.

Fundamentalism on the right, the conservatives... is destroying life regionally - christian Fundamentalists exterminating a million in Iraq, torturing millions in Palestine, literally trying to bring about Armageddon.  muslim fundamentalists are killing thousands in Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria.... jewish fundamentalists are driving much of the US christian Fundamentalist insanity and mid-east Islamic Fundamentalist insanity. Fundamentalists on the right are thereby moving us to global annihilation by nuclear war.

Qur'an: "All those who believe, and the Jews and the Sabians and the Christians, in fact any one who believes in God and the Last Day, and performs good deeds, will have nothing to fear or regret."

Qur'an:  "All those who believe, and the Jews and the Sabians and the Christians, in fact any one who believes in God and the Last Day, and performs good deeds, will have nothing to fear or regret."

On Islam: I'm 12% into my first reading of the Qur'an, and 6 months....

On Islam - The Bible in other words, less mystical... nothing more or less frightening than that.  I'm 12% into my first reading of the Qur'an, and 6 months into some consideration of Islam, Muslims. I was 100% ignorant prior. In several more months I'll be many times more knowledgeable that I am now.  My experience of the Qur'an thus far is that it is the old and new testaments - the same attempt to inspire and cajole and frighten... people to put their consciences in charge, less mystical (which is much to my approval), but very much in keeping with what I know of the Bible as a spiritual tool to be used to accentuate conscience, goodness, justice, righteousness.  Tragically, like the Bible, it is as easy to turn into a deadly weapon of those without conscience, justice, goodness.  I find these sentences consistent with what I've seen so far:  "be good to your parents and relatives, the orphans and the needy and the neighbours who are your relatives, and the neighbours who are strangers, and the friend by your side, the traveller and your servants and subordinates. God does not surely love those who are arrogant and boastful,
Who are miserly and bid others to be so, and hide what God has given them in His largesse. We have prepared for unbelievers a shameful punishment.
Those who spend of their wealth to show off and do not believe in God and the Last Day, take Satan as companion, and how evil a companion (have they)!
Would something have befallen them if they had believed in God and the Last Day, and spent of what has been given them by God? God is fully aware of all they do."

***** ABSOLUTE MUST READ: I Helped Start the Religious Right: Here's How We Tried to Undermine Secular America -- and Build a Theocracy Christian home-schooling is at the core of the project.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/i-helped-start-religious-right-heres-how-we-tried-undermine-secular-america-and

Mass psychosis. THESE are the dangerous religious extremists..... "Poll: 70% of Israeli Jews believe Jews are 'Chosen People' If Judaism and democracy clash, which do you think Israelis would chose? And why is asking “where is the Palestinian Gandhi” the wrong question? You may be surprised

Mass psychosis.  THESE are the dangerous religious extremists.

STOP TELLING US HOW GREAT, GODLY... YOUR RELIGION IS. START SHOWING US.

STOP TELLING US HOW GREAT, GODLY... YOUR RELIGION IS.  START SHOWING US.