George Carlin Is Dead

...and so we have lost someone who got it right about the perverse effects of religion on each and every one of us:

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of
these things — bad language and whatever — it's all caused by one basic thing,
and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview.
"There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts
of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt
and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's
reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have." - from YahooNews

Yes, "wonderful" religion has caused more grief over things sexual including the demonization of gay people, yet so many gays still cling to religious beliefs in spite of the oppression that they suffer at the hands of organized religion. It's like being a gay Republican! George Carlin was right. Not me: no religion, no thanks!



Jim

What Obama Cannot Say - Sam Harris

Author and free thinker Sam Harris over at HuffPo focuses on something else that Obama cannot tackle openly (in addition to the residual racism and pervasive stupidity of many Americans):

Despite all that he does not and cannot say, Obama's candidacy is genuinely thrilling: his heart
is clearly in the right place; he is an order of magnitude more intelligent than
the current occupant of the Oval Office; and he still stands a decent chance of
becoming the next President of the United States. His election in November
really would be a triumph of hope.
But Obama's candidacy is also depressing, for it
demonstrates that even a person of the greatest candor and eloquence must still
claim to believe the unbelievable in order to have a political career in this
country. We may be ready for the audacity of hope. Will we ever be ready for the
audacity of reason?

Harris is rightly critical of the role of organized religion in the oppression of the the black community, and the corrosive and corrupting effect that it has on American politics. Harris is right: no serious candidate for public office can acknowledge such a thing. But it is there.

Jim

The Senile Return To Religion

"Far from strengthening the case for the existence of God, it rather weakens the case for the existence of Antony Flew" - New York Times book reviewer Antony Gottleib commenting on a new book in which renowned British philosopher Antony Flew reveals that after six decades of atheism he has "found god." I didn't realize god was missing. Why is it that many old people who were non-religious or even professed atheists suddenly return to religion and churches late in their lives? Oh sure, I suppose that maybe some of them need comfort or security or maybe they fear the prospect of oblivion. But is that a reason to chuck logic and rationality out the window? Perhaps the best thing, or at last the most memorable thing I have read about dying is from one contemporary philosopher (can't remember the name at the moment) who wrote that non-existence didn't bother him before he was born, so why should it matter after he dies? At least that's rational.

PHOTO: A great holiday display at Philadelphia's Bellevue Stratford hotel.




Jim

Mitt's Religion Speech - No JFK He

“J.F.K.’s speech was to reassure Americans that he wasn’t a religious fanatic...Mitt’s was to tell evangelical Christians, ‘I’m a religious fanatic just like you.” - author and authority on Mormons Jon Krakurer as quoted by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times.

PHOTO: One last beautiful fall 07 shot of these fiery maples along the path of our morning walk in Fairmount Park.

Jim

UGH! The Republicans, Again

I watched the Rockefeller Center tree lighting festivities on TV last evening, which was not all that entertaining. Some of the guest artists do not appeal to me. Some didn't even sing holiday songs. However, I enjoyed it when they finally actually lit the tree at the end of the program.

After the tree lighting show, I flipped the channels and came across the CNN/YouTube Republican debate, which I watched for as long a I could stand it, around ten minutes. The blogosphere seems to think that religious nut case Huckabee actually won the debate. Why should that surprise anybody? Bush and Rove have firmly wedded the Republican Party to the religious far right. The next American president will be a Christian fundamentalist, or under the sway of the religious far right, if he is a Republican.

PHOTO: The Water Works restaurant on the banks of he Schuylkill River, housed in an historic water works building.

Jim

McCain's Pandering To Evangelicals Goes Too Far

Senator John McCain stated recently: “The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.”

Really Senator? And just where in the Constitution does it say that?

Newsweek Editor John Meacham, a Christian himself, debunks this outrageous statement. Writing in the New York Times Meacham notes:

The only acknowledgment of religion in the original Constitution is a
utilitarian one: the document is dated “in the year of our Lord 1787.” Even the
religion clause of the First Amendment is framed dryly and without reference to
any particular faith. The Connecticut ratifying convention debated rewriting the
preamble to take note of God’s authority, but the effort failed...In the 1790s,
in the waters off Tripoli, pirates were making sport of American shipping near
the Barbary Coast. Toward the end of his second term, Washington sent Joel
Barlow, the diplomat-poet, to Tripoli to settle matters, and the resulting
treaty, finished after Washington left office, bought a few years of peace.
Article 11 of this long-ago document says that “as the government of the United
States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,” there should be
no cause for conflict over differences of “religious opinion” between countries.
The treaty passed the Senate unanimously. Mr. McCain is not the only American
who would find it useful reading.

A Christian Nation indeed!

Jim

The Soul, Spirit, Things "Mystical," Etc.

PHOTO: Venus shines bright in the pre-dawn sky over Fire Island.

I was reading the liner notes to a most enjoyable compact disc last evening. The disc is titled: "Music For The Soul." It contains an eclectic collection of soothing music from ancient to modern. The music was selected by spiritual writer and psychologist Thomas Moore.

I'm an atheist. I don't believe in God. I'm also a secular humanist. In its simplest form, that means that, while I do not believe in God and I reject all things supernatural, I do believe that purpose and meaning in life can be found through living a decent life. So when I see a book or CD title like "Music For The Soul," I'm immediately a little suspicious of the motives behind the writer or producer. Having grown up with the tenets of Roman Catholicism shoved down my throat until I was old enough and smart enough to reject that package, I am leery of anything selling the religious bill of goods. Immortal souls, spirits that live on after we're dead, mystical experiences...these are the stuff of stories, fables and myths, and not to be taken seriously.

I read Moore's liner notes and discovered, to my surprise, that he seems to define the soul in a manner that even I can accept. While he is a former monk, and claims to be a Catholic, although not the kind of Catholic the Catholic Church would recognize, he appears to be a religious, Christian, or theological humanist. According to Moore, the soul is that part of us where the emotions and the passions reside. Love, anger, lust, sex; these are what the soul is made of. The "spirit" is the intellect, and the body makes up the third component of each of us. Moore's "Music For The Soul" is music meant to calm the passions and sooth the emotions. Moore recommends living a decent life, finding enjoyable work, and developing an appreciation of the arts. I can heartily recommend this compact disc. I think I'll try to find out more about this interesting individual and his beliefs.

Jim