Sports and Porn

Today is “Wear Your Jersey” day at church.  Members of the congregation are encouraged to wear the colors of their favorite athletic team to church.  Amazing.  Sickening.  And I wonder why I am so aghast and upset about this event.  It strikes me that addiction to sports and addiction to porn are very much alike.  I would be equally aghast and upset if the congregation were invited to church dressed (or undressed) as their favorite porn star.

Sound absurd?  Regardless of your sexual orientation and identity, porn is exciting.  We are hard wired to desire sex.  Observing attractive naked people engaged in sexual acts by definition is exciting.  I think one would have to be dead to be immune to porn.  However, we know that many of the folks in porn are abused and degraded, they are treated like cattle or worse, and many have life-long mental health issues once their porn days are over.  People still want to watch so there will be porn.  But watching too much is equally harmful and we know that porn addicts begin to suffer in their personal lives due to their addiction.  There are links to increased chemical addictions, negative impact on social relationships, negative impact on intimate personal relationships, and risk of job loss and productivity.  So, the observers of porn are at risk and the actors in porn are at risk and the effects can be life-long.

Regardless of your city or state there are 100’s of athletic teams to observe.  Watching sports events can be exciting.  We are likely hard wired to compete so watching competition is thrilling or agonizing depending on whether your team wins or loses.  However, we know that there are life-long effects for athletes, especially in the contact sports.  More and more evidence of permanent brain damage resulting from football and boxing makes it clear that we may be watching very self-destructive behavior.  Even middle-aged people who only played sports in high school still suffer from leg and hip and shoulder injuries.  Playing sports can be harmful to the professional players, and they are bought, sold, traded and released in an abusive and degrading way that is more like slavery or indentured servitude that goes un-discussed because millions of dollars are at play.  But they are treated little differently than porn stars.

How about those who are addicted to sports?  Those who cannot wait for their team to play.  Those who subscribe to all the sports channels so they do not miss a game.  Those who are addicted spectators?  More and more research verifies that fan effects are negative.  Spectator aggression including verbal, gesturing, “missile” throwing, swarming the field, property destruction, and physical assault are documented each year as side effects of intense fandom.  Add to that public intoxication, under-aged drinking, sexual degradation of cheerleaders, littering and traffic congestion and it becomes clear that watching such events not only puts the players at risk, it puts the spectators at risk.  Hostility and aggression escalate during the observance of competitive events.

So it seems to me that porn addiction and sports addiction carry numerous similar harmful side-effects with long-lasting effects on both the participants and the spectators.

And what ever happened to turning the other cheek and doing unto others as you would have them do for you?  Competition somehow does not fit those directives.

I am therefore horrified that a church would promote one or either of these addictions.  I will not be there on Jersey Day.  Maybe on porn star day, but not Jersey Day.

Why Leave Religion

Interesting.  Bottom line is many are leaving.

Better Off?

At 4:15 this morning the headline on CNN’s web page was, “Town Fights Mosque.”  In Newton County, Georgia, Islamophobia is reaching fever pitch as an Islamic Imam has purchased 135 acres on which he and his congregation plan to build a new, larger mosque to replace their current overcrowded mosque, and a cemetery to bury their dead.  Word got out, fear spread, and the town has halted the construction.

A town in the United States of America is blocking the construction of church because it is not the same as their church?  I have had it.  These protestant, white, Christians are creating religious conflict where there was none before.  They are acting no differently than the Muslims in the Mid-East who persecute Christians.  These folks are not qualified to call themselves Americans, much less Christians.

Christopher Hitchens, a renowned philosopher and atheist, asked, “Is the World Better Off with Religion?”  The answer appears to be a hearty “no” and the evidence continues to mount.

Without religion we would not have had the Crusades, we would not have had the Inquisition, we would not have had 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, we would not have conflict in Georgia, we likely would not have had the Civil War or mandates to implement Christian symbols across this country.  We would have had considerably more tax revenue as churches own a vast amount of real estate currently exempt from taxes.  We might likely have had real rest on the weekend without the Sunday or Saturday sojourn to a church. 

Without fundamental Christians, women would have always had equal rights, slaves would have been set free from the get-go, and women would have control of their reproductive systems.  Without Christians all stores would be open on Sunday.  Without Christians we would have a logical approach to gun restrictions.  Without Christians we would have been tolerant of people with different sexual orientations and identity.  Is there a Christian position in this country that in fact is more welcoming, more tolerant, and more supportive of diversity than atheists? Believers seem to have this urge to make everyone believe as they believe.  But if what they believe was evident, tangible, observable, and measurable there would be no arguments.  If what they believe is in fact just smoke and mirrors we will have a wide array of beliefs in constant competition for followers. 

I cannot think of a single positive, peaceful contribution to humanity made in the name of religion that would have not happened without religion, other than some absolutely glorious works of art and music.  Yes, religious groups have contributed greatly in areas of natural disasters, but so have countless other groups.  And the other groups helped without the catch that you had to hear about their philosophy.  Did Christians intervene to save Jews in Germany in the 1940’s?  Did Muslims offer to help Christians find relics during the Crusades?  Did missionaries reduce or increase the conflict in China in 1949, in Africa today, in Nepal today, in Bosnia today, in the Americas 500 years ago, and in South America today?  Where are the people of faith at a time of global conflict? 

Inside their ornate walled, air conditioned, pipe organed, and projected lyrics churches enjoying what used to be called a hootenanny. 

I wonder if we awoke tomorrow not knowing anything, our brains swept free of all knowledge, what would happen?  We would develop language, but probably not our current languages.  We would discover the laws of nature as in gravity, evolution, and DNA as they currently exist because they are discoveries, not inventions.  We would likely develop music and other art forms.  We would invent transportation and entertainment, etc.  But what about religion?  Would we “discover” a monotheistic religion?  Would we “discover” Christianity, Muslim, Hindu, etc.?  Would we invent them?  Would we have wars to convince those of other beliefs that our particular belief is the right belief?  Or would we even bother?  Belief systems are invented, not discovered.

It also appears to me we have more scientific evidence of the existence of UFO’s than we do of an afterlife.  And I continue to wonder if there is an all-knowing, all powerful deity out there why he or she insists on being cloaked.  Come on out and show yourself, elsewise, leave us alone.  If the test is to believe based on faith rather than fact, how different is that from a psychotic episode? 

So, I conclude, the world is not better off with religion.  It is an invention that has triggered separation and conflict.  Believing some god is on my side has been used to justify some of the most horrible assaults on humanity by fellow humans.  We no longer need that.  We can live a life governed by strong moral principles, then know we simply die like every other life form on the planet.

Give me liberty or give me death, and give me reality not hallucinations.

God is Anti-Abortion?

Just read an article by Jerry Newcombe ("God or Abortion.  Choose One," 8/4/2016) that simply argues Nancy Pelosi does not understand that God is anti-abortion.  I’ve read tripe before; I have graded thousands of high school seniors’ essays.  But Newcombe is right up there near the top in the non-grounded BS department.

Newcombe sites two Old Testament and one New Testament scriptures to “prove” God is anti-abortion.  David says in Psalm 139 that God knit him together in his mother’s womb.  Jeremiah says before God formed him in the womb He named him a prophet.  In the New Testament he sites Luke 1 where Mary and Elizabeth, both very pregnant, meet and Elizabeth says the baby in her womb leaped for joy.  If it is a baby it must be a human and if it is human abortion is murder and therefore should be opposed.

Really Jerry?  Is that all you’ve got?  A quote from two Bronze Age men who believe that God controls what happens in the womb from conception forward.  Do you want to stick with that?  If so, what kind of God do you worship who controls any number of birth defects?  What kind of God do you worship who controls any number of diseases infants manifest at birth?  Are you going to say that from conception forward the zygote is holy because God controls it and not hold God accountable for all the terrible atrocities that can occur at birth?  Is it that Jeremiah knows God ordains our future as we are formed in the womb?  If so, why does God curse so many infants?  What did they ever do that was so terrible that they deserved a birth defect, childhood cancer, SIDS, or whatever?  One cannot logically claim that at conception humans are sacred because God controls it and at the same time let God off the hook for the atrocities He therefore has committed.  Sounds like God should be prosecuted for murder, not pregnant women who have abortions.  And Elizabeth’s fetus jumping for joy?  Really?  How in the world do we know that the movements of an unborn are the result of some emotional state?  Does that mean if my wife’s baby bump moves when I sit next to her that our baby-to-be is jumping for joy? Or could it be that he is pissed off because he now has less room?  Or could it be that it is simply reflex movement as part of the developmental process?

The scriptural support is bizarre for his claim and logically worthless.  What I find even more disturbing than claiming God is anti-abortion is his willingness to skip over everything else God opposes.  If abortion is murder and should be subject to persecution, how about the passages that just come right out and say that if you get a divorce you have committed adultery and should be stoned to death?  How about the passages that say if you are a homosexual you should be stoned to death?  How about the passages that say if a woman is not a virgin on her wedding night she should be stoned to death?  How about the passages that say if people do not worship the one true God they should be killed?  Each of these passages is extremely clear, no interpretation needed, no pseudo logical projection like if God ordains a future prior to birth this must be a baby and subject to all the protections of adults.  That is stretching logic and inference further than the passage allows.  The passages I refer to above are absolutely clear.  If this is the case, then this is the consequence.  We should be damning premarital sex and divorce more fiercely than we damn abortions.

Or, is Jerry one of those guys who says the rules regarding premarital sex, divorce, homosexuality, refusal to worship God, etc. were historically contextual and do not apply to us today, but I choose to take the logical inference regarding abortion from the same time period and conclude that such interpretations remain valid.  If Jerry has the authority to decide which Bible passages are valid and which ones are not, then I would strongly encourage him to simply decide his made up logic regarding abortions is no longer applicable.  That he does not make such a statement simply reveals his bias, not his logic, not his belief. 

For those of us who are questioning and wondering about our faith there are some incredible takeaways from Jerry Newcombe’s piece.  God must curse some babies in the womb.  God has decided our future roles before birth so there is no reason to presume we choose our own path.  Jerry is empowered to interpret scripture and ignore scripture as he sees fit to meet his own agenda.  Bronze Age men are capable of making better decisions regarding women’s reproductive rights than modern women.

Or, if the Bible says it or implies it we must obey it.  How anyone who has even the most superficial understanding of biology, anthropology, geology and astronomy could adhere to what are clearly statements in the Bible not only not grounded in fact, but actually false, is beyond me and beyond logic.  How can we maintain faith in the face of such lies and falsehoods?  And if the answer to that is we are allowed to pick and choose which passages we hold to be true, then what is the point of belief?  I could edit the Bible to portray any message I choose to portray.

Oh wait.  There are televangelists and mega churches that do that very thing so they make a ton of money.  In America if you get rich you must be right.  My bad.

Obama is God

We are experiencing trying times.  Law enforcement officers are shot on the job.  Horrible, scary events that should never happen.  Unarmed men and women are shot by police.  Horrible, scary events that should never happen.  We see all this as a new problem.  It is not.  We have had separate but unequal races in this country for generations.  More of one race in prison.  More of one race dies via gunshot wounds.  More of one race experiences unemployment.  More of one race in colleges.  More of one race teaching in the classrooms.  More of one race in law enforcement.  We are lopsided.  We can scream all day that these differences are due to the behaviors of one race more than another.  Perhaps.  But we should be screaming that we must stop judging people by skin pigment, hair style, holes poked in their bodies, ink injected under their skin, and the relationship between their belly buttons and the top of their pants.  (I have contended all along that if teenage girls simply laughed at and refused to date any teenage boy who allowed his underwear to show above his belt the fad would disappear quickly.)

The problems are huge, both races have responsibilities.  Both races have tough steps to take to fix it because both races must modify their culture and their beliefs to end the disparity in data that confirms one race is treated differently and/or behaves differently than another.  That will be very hard.  Or so I thought.

Until I listened to my conservative friends.  Perhaps I should say my very conservative friends.  My moderately conservative friends and my liberal friends are not promoting the same message.  Just those folks on the far right.  Only they have seen the light.  And here is what they are saying.

The violence in our country is Obama’s fault.  Shooting police officers is Obama’s fault.  Increased racial tension is Obama’s fault.  Still no affordable universal health insurance is Obama’s fault.  Proliferation of semi-automatic rifles is Obama’s fault.  Probably sexual harassment at Fox News is Obama’s fault.  He caused it all.  He did it.  He is the villain!

If they are right, then Obama is God.  I have been praying to God to stop the violence, but Obama still made it happen.  I have been praying to God to stop senseless shootings of suspects and police, but Obama still made it happen.  Therefore I guess I should agree with my conservative friends that not only is Obama at fault, he is more powerful than we ever imagined.  More powerful than the god I followed.  It is time to worship Obama, pray to Obama, and ask him please to stop all the violence, all the killings.  If he caused it, he can stop it.  I am so surprised that enterprising right wingers have not marched out evidence of Obama’s deity status which should be easier for them to get than his birth certificate, and establish the Church of Obama, tax free. 

Why, now that we know Obama is a god the violence in France must be his fault too!  In fact, violence everywhere must be his doing.  Intolerance of other races everywhere must be his fault too!  Even global warming must be his fault. 

Yes dear conservatives, such a powerful deity merits our awe and respect.  Thank you for enlightening me.

Imagine

I am inspired by the Facebook post of a dear friend.  My friend has a friend in dire straits both financially and mentally.  Her FB post was addressed to Prayer Warriors seeking prayers for her needy friend.  And I thought, her friend does not need prayer and prayers will not help.  Her friend needs money and professional support.  Prayer feels like a cop-out.  I pray and I have done my part and the need goes on unabated.  So, why do we do this?  Why don’t I hop in the car, find her friend, buy her breakfast, and take her to a clinic?  Why do we seek the path least likely to be of real help?  So, I imagined:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today.
 John Lennon - Imagine Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

OK, John.  Let’s try to imagine a planet where no one believes in gods or an after-life.  There is no religion.  I think I can see some of the characteristics of such a life and the subsequent impact on human culture and behavior.  So, I will imagine.

If there is no heaven, no hell then we know that when we die we simply die.  We are done.  Self-awareness ends.  We have no fear of hell and no aspiration for heaven.  We all know that all we have is the time here and now.  Today.  I have no sense of anything before my birth and will have no sense of anything after my death.  We know we will not be greeted by loved ones already dead.  We will not “pass” as though there is somewhere else to go.  We will park, turn off the engine and never move.  We will not stand before a deity and be judged for our actions.  We have had our life and it is over.  Period.

As a species we would be intolerant of misery, pain and anguish.  If this is all we have, if today is all we get, then we have an obligation to ourselves to improve the quality of today as best we can.  We quickly realize that improving the quality of my life requires the improvement of the quality of all lives.  The tide raises all boats.  We can no longer promise those who suffer that they shall be rewarded in the next life because there is no next life.  We must fix the problem now.

If we knew the above and had followed such beliefs I think we would be much further down the road to a real utopia.  Disease would have been vanquished, hunger and thirst abolished.  Heartbreaks due to loss of a loved one would remain, but the understanding that we will never see them again is likely to make our time with them here and now much more meaningful.  Why care for my aging mom if I believe I will spend eternity with her?  Why mend fences with others if I believe I am either religiously justified in my offense, or I will have eternity to build a new fence?  I believe we would take each other much more seriously and would be much more supportive.  The numbers who have acquiesced in their misery due to a promise of a better life would drop to zero. 

Science would have made many more advances un-restricted by ancient sayings that we prove to be false.  There would be no persecution for new discoveries, there would be celebrations.

All those who died and suffered in wars triggered by religious belief would not have done so.  No one would care to fight for their faith if there was no such thing as Christianity or Islam, etc.  We would not have had witch trials or the Inquisition.  We would not have had lynch mobs.  If we worked to improve the quality of human life across the board, we would have no need for firearms or armies.

We would have an incredible amount of resources that are now and have been tied up in religious operations.  We would not need clergy, we would not need churches, and we would not need missionaries.  We would all be missionaries for a higher quality of human life and we could pursue such goals much better with more resources.

We would be healthier if we were living without fear of the after-life, the judgement yet to come, and the guilt for failing to achieve perfection.  We would have more time off and could celebrate our loved ones rather than spend the hours we do sitting in silence listening to fictions on Sunday morning.  We would be supportive of individual rights regarding our bodies and lives.  Those who choose to die could be helped and supported rather than treat them as criminals and mentally ill.  Those who choose abortions would not be treated as killers but would be treated as anyone is treated when they opt to remove a tumor.  Human life would not be viewed as de facto “sacred.”  It would be viewed as a once in a lifetime experience with each human making decisions regarding how they will live and end their lives.

We would have more understanding of our appetites and would have found healthy ways to satisfy those appetites without committing harm to ourselves or others.  Food, sex, drugs, and other addictions would not be judged but would be sated sans judgement.  Human physical reality and appetites would not be viewed as inherently evil, but would be viewed as simple attributes of our life forms.  You have brown hair, green eyes and love to eat.

I see a planet where the quality of human life is much better than we have it today.  I see a planet with less war and conflict.  I see a planet with a greater appreciation for each other and the common good.  I see a planet that is in fact more moral than our current planet where religion runs rampant in the streets.  We would learn to trust ourselves and each other because trust in imaginary friends and deities never really existed.

I can imagine that.

I’m off to buy breakfast for a stranger.

Missed Opportunities

I sat with Mathew and read the Sermon on the Mount.  Amazing.  Over several chapters Jesus outlines what it means to be a Christian.  The Beatitudes are poetic and demonstrative, though I still have a few questions.  How have modern Christians missed the whole turn the other cheek and love your enemy theme?  But that is future fodder.

Despite the wealth of philosophical foundation present in these chapters I cannot help but think that while Jesus talked about the golden rule he missed some golden opportunities to make a few things more clear.  He was, after all, addressing a mostly illiterate crowd probably not steeped in subtle innuendo.  Direct statements could have really helped his followers then and now.  Plus, if he knew all things surely he knew the trials and tribulations to come and could have stopped much of it with a few more beatitudes or in depth explanations.  He did a great job of making it clear that we are to love our enemies and even used tax collectors as an example.  He did a great job of making it clear that the comfort of wealth is bad, that mourning and humility will be rewarded, etc.  (Has Trump read these?)  But there are other areas he seemed to avoid.

How about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender folks?  Bible is pretty tough on such folks.  He fixed the whole notion of an eye for an eye, so why didn’t he fix the notion of persecuting people for their sexual identity and preference?

How about slavery?  I know, many claim that his message to free the oppressed addresses slavery, but that is pretty obscure for that audience, and even today some do not get it.  He could have simply said slavery is evil, no person should claim ownership of another person, human trafficking will get you sent directly to hell, and use of another human for your own personal wants is wrong.  Nope.  None of that was clear and Christian slave owners were around for eons, even today.

How about theocracy?  Did Jesus support a government grounded and supportive of one religion over another?  What would he have thought about the forthcoming proposed Islamic state?  What would he have thought about the current trend in America to push for a Christian nation under God?  That remains pretty vague.  I personally belief he would have opposed such chicanery and, if so, come right out and said that faith in God is not a governmental function and no people should make it the law of the land.  God is a personal God who created us both in His image as well as endowing us with free will.  If God wanted to mandate belief he could have done it somewhere around Adam and Eve.

How about military spending and individual ownership of firearms?  Man, could we use some holy standards on that today.  I suspect the entire “turn the other cheek” and “love your enemy” means we do not support weaponry and should pursue a path of pacifism.  But that is too big a leap for his audience then as well as his followers today.  When he blessed the peacekeepers wasn’t he really cursing the violence proponents?  We could have used some real clarity here.

There are other areas that are issues today that he could have addressed.  Is it nobler to pursue knowledge of the stars than pursue star wars weaponry?  Should education and science be pre-eminate in our pursuits, or should we simply continue to live as shepherds and carpenters?  When science seems to conflict with previous holy beliefs couldn’t he have said that God created the universe and endowed us with the curiosity to understand his universe.  All efforts toward seeking an understanding of the operation of God’s creation is good.  Scripture was not meant to compete with knowledge.  On and on I could go, but I think you get my drift.

If Jesus was God and was omnipotent and omniscient and knew these issues would cause great pain and turmoil in the years to come, why in the world did he not nip it in the bud?  Sure seems like either a condemnation of his omniscience or an erroneous missed opportunity.

Missed opportunities is the kindest conclusion.