Transfiguration and Ascension

Made it through Easter, especially challenging as I attended a Baptist church service in a small Texas town.  Preacher had no college and no seminary but he clearly had his own theology, quasi Christian, mostly red-neck.  I squirmed.

But I spent my time ignoring his sermon by reading Biblical passages about the Transfiguration and Ascension.  I have read all that before, but it was somehow even more enlightening while sitting among the cult members who were intent on the message and nodding their heads with an occasional "amen.."  No evidence of though processes, no hands raised with questions, just blank stares.

The transfiguration occurred somewhere in the middle of Jesus so-called ministry.  He is visited by Elijah and Moses who descend from heaven and Jesus starts to glow.  Really scary stuff.  But it points out several things.  Folks at that time still believed heaven was up and hell was down.  Had to be that way because the earth was flat and the center of the universe.  Of course we cannot find such places as heaven and hell, but that does not matter to these 1^st century Bronze Age theologians who still do up and down. 

More difficult to understand is the presence of Elijah and Moses, two Old Testament heroes.  They glowed too.  They descended from heaven.  Unlike Trump they were transparent.  Other than believing anything like this could ever actually happen, it raises a serious theological question for me.  So, how did Moses and Elijah earn their spots in heaven?  What process allowed them to die and go to heaven?  Clearly, there were souls in heaven before the death and resurrection of Jesus.  If that is true, why did Jesus come, die and rise?  Why not stay with whatever system was in place pre-Jesus?  Sure could have saved a lot of heart ache while God killed his son and Jesus committed suicide.  In other words, even if I buy the Biblical story the whole Jesus story seems pointless.  People were getting saved pre-Jesus.

The Ascension seems like so much more smoke and mirrors.  Again, Jesus glows, goes transparent and floats up.  Up is heaven.  Ha.  A modern human witnessing such events would likely need therapy until they died, or would end up in the same group as the UFO abductees.  Quasi-Quacks.  Rising from the dead is a ridiculous stretch.  Rising from earth to heaven is beyond belief.  The belief works because no disciple had a telescope to track where Jesus went, there was no radar, no Hubble, and there were no jets to scramble.  It was magic.  Miracles are magic until they can be explained, unless the event never happened.  Believing something to be true does not make it true.

This adds additional fodder for thought about why the Jesus story was told when it was told.  I imagine a 2019 birth.  Verifying the virginity of Mary.  Taking DNA samples of god.  Checking to see if angels show up on radar while singing and talking to shepherds, how a star hovered over a city without boiling the entire planet to a crisp, etc., etc.  If Jesus began his ministry today we would have cell phone videos of every miracle he supposedly worked and they could be debunked.  Same with the resurrection, transfiguration, and ascension.  If there is an all knowing god he would have to stage this story before there were any tools of science to analyze the events. Fortunately, those who blessed the New Testament 400 years after Jesus could make the story read however they wanted because we had no way to challenge.   Now, it seems as real to me as the Greek and Roman gods working miracles.  Poppycock and Balderdash.

Probably not a good thing for me to go to church anymore.

Happy Easter. Turn Off Your Brain

So much of what I read on social media is promoting religious belief, especially Christian belief.  It would be funny if it were not so sad.  Read a bit this morning that was fiction but was not labeled as such.  A mother prayed over her sick little boy who died of cancer anyway in the hospital.  Mom goes home, cries herself to sleep, then awakes to find a note from her deceased son that says he is in heaven, met Jesus, et al, his grandparents met him there, and God gave him a magic pen so he could write her.  He said God let him die because God loved him and did not want him to suffer.  Really?  Holy Shit.  Then why didn’t God cure his cancer?  And if there ever was a letter received from a recently departed it would be earthshaking.  No such thing has ever happened except in séances and they are bogus.

To celebrate Holy Week the brain cannot be engaged.  A human cannot ask questions and seek rational answers, mainly because this story was invented and cemented 400 years after Jesus died, if there ever was such a person as Jesus.  The big question for me is why did an omnipotent god design a forgiveness path that required his only son to die?  It makes no sense.  Unless one wants to promote a mythology that includes god walking among us, born of a virgin, walking on water, healing the sick, turning water into wine, and rising from the dead.  That kind of malarkey may have carried weight with the superstitious and illiterate of 2,000 years ago, but surely sounds like a story tale to any modern human.  Even if it was all true, it does not make sense.  No parent would allow, much less promote the death of their child.  Is that the model we should follow?  Don’t tell me god loves me more than he loved his own child.  That is irrational and I could not worship a god who was so uncaring for his own son.

And as I have said before, if Jesus had the power to climb off the cross and did not, he in effect committed suicide.  If God had the power to save him from such a torturous death and did not he is guilty of negligent homicide.  Neither action, nor lack thereof, merits respect, much less worship.  Jesus can dispel the crowd that was ready to stone the town whore but cannot dispel the crowd that wants him crucified?  Come on.  Jesus can stump the rabbis at the temple when he is 11, but he cannot outsmart the same crew at the end of his ministry?  Come on.  Jesus can get mad and drive money changers out of the temple but cannot get mad when they drive nails through his hands?  Come on.  And Jesus starts a cannibalistic ritual, this is my body, eat, this is my blood, drink.  Come on.  Reason must be totally suspended to assume holy week went as scripted and amended over 400 years post Jesus supposed death. 

Did anyone go to heaven prior to the resurrection?  If so, how did they get there and why couldn’t god let that process continue?

The real horror of the holy week story is the fear it implants in humans.  Now we are told Jesus watches our every move, he hears our every thought.  He is the ultimate cop in the sky and we never have privacy.  He keeps score.  If you do not do as he says you will die then spend eternity burning in hell.  What a wonderful, loving, caring god.  He will kill his only son and torture you forever if you do not appreciate it.  And while he is capable of all that, he cannot cure childhood cancer.

Maybe I am going to hell for thinking.  But I think not.  First, there is no hell into which souls float and are burned.  There are no souls.  If there is a hell, where is it?  It must exist somewhere and we surely do not have the GPS coordinates.  I think I shall just be a good person because that is the right and reasonable thing to do, not because I fear death.  Death is death.  I will die and my existence and my consciousness will end, just as my existence and consciousness began sometime after I was born.  I cannot have an immortal soul by definition if I had a beginning.

But reaching those conclusions is the result of thinking.  Even believers must admit that their god gave us the power to think, even though he punished Adam and Eve for seeking knowledge.  I am able to think as a result of evolution and a great education.  I know.  Blasphemy.  But I will not turn off my brain.

Church Month

April will be church month for Christians this year.  Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter and any other day of that week that needs an excuse to celebrate the most bizarre belief system on the planet.  There should be a “Mayday Monday”, a “Testing Tuesday”, a “Wallowing Wednesday” and a “Seriously? Saturday” to make the week complete.

Christians will give homage to a loving, all-wise, all-knowing god who could not figure out a way to save humans from sin other than sacrificing his own son.  Clearly this is one of the worst cases of child abuse and negligent homicide on record.  Christians will cry real tears as they recall Jesus committed suicide for their sins and we wonder why he just didn’t climb off the cross and end childhood cancer.  I am oh so grateful that since he and his dad chose for him to die it was on a cross elsewise Christians and their churches would be adorned with guillotines, firing squads, hangman nooses, large axes, etc., instead of the more subtle reminder that the cross was an instrument of torture and death.  None of those other death methods would look good hanging around the necks of the faithful.

And before he left, Jesus instituted a cannibalistic ritual via the Last Supper.  This is my body.  Eat it.  This is my blood.  Drink it.  So gross.

Riding an ass into Jerusalem cheered by a crowd who does not have a clue what is going on seems oh so similar to Trump rallies where they chant, “Lock her up” or “AOC sucks” or any other ignorant expression.  The same brilliant people will be chanting “Give us Barabbas” soon enough.  So the tradition of blindly following the crowd without engaging their brains may easily have begun with those folks 2,000 years ago, carried on today by the faithful who think Trump is a god-send.  Of course, Trump will be playing golf at his own facility during all these morbid celebrations, gaining personal wealth at tax payer expense while self-serving preachers rake in even more money.

All of this belief system hoorah occurs without one shred of evidence that any of it really happened.  I am so amazed.  I guess the only good news is that this cult is shrinking world-wide and is only growing in areas with the lowest levels of education.  Perhaps there is some hope that humans will be able someday to think their way out of preposterous belief systems.  Until then, I buckle down for Church Month.  Let the mythological depression begin and the hallucinatory rejoicing commence.

Hard Hearts. Closed Minds. Locked Doors

The Methodist Church needs a motto Change.  Open Hearts.  Open Minds.  Open Doors.  Bullshit.  The Methodist Church just voted to ban LGBT marriages and clergy. 

Time for a new motto:  Hard Hearts.  Closed Minds.  Locked Doors.

I’m done.  I am officially pulling out of the local Methodist Church.  I will no longer give money to such a shallow, hateful place.  This vote reflects all that is wrong with the conservative movement in the US.  It is mean, hateful, and divisive.  Unless one is lucky enough to choose Methodist approval for one’s source of sexual arousal one may not be a full participant in the church.  That is just wrong for a group who claims Christianity and illustrates the growing threat of religious fundamentalism in the US and the world. 

Not that Jesus even speaks to the issue of LGBTQ.  Only Paul addresses the issue and at best Paul is thinking like other Bronze Age thinkers ignorant of psychology, biology and science in general.  This is the same Paul who condones slavery.  The very thought that something written 2,000 years ago should be literally followed today is total nonsense.  The Bible was written by men, not God.  The Bible was not meant to be a scientific book, a sociological book, a psychological book, or even a history book.  To take it as such is pure ignorance and a rejection of all that we have learned through science.  Methodists who support this position should be required to surrender their cell phones, computers, microwaves and all modern medicine.

So sad in a world that so desperately needs inclusion and love that a major church rejected the opportunity to model such.  I’m done.

The Problem of Discussing God with Christians

I feel no need to convert Christians to atheists, though I do believe if they could really take out their faith and look at it they would abandon the notion of a god, and I am willing to provide prompts for Christians to engage in that sort of self-examination.  What I have learned, however, is that Christians really do not want to talk about whether there is a god or not.  They so desperately want to believe in such a supernatural being that even the first tentative step toward logic can end the discussion.  I have wondered why.

Belief is such a powerful state of mind that even confronted again and again with evidence to the contrary believers will hold on to their beliefs.  We have seen this phenomenon historically as Copernicus declared that the earth orbited the sun and had the evidence to prove it.  Did not matter.  He was tortured.  We have seen it when archaeologists declared the earth to be about 4.5 billion years old and believers opened a museum depicting dinosaurs and men sharing the planet at the same time.  Believers will go to great lengths to hold on to their beliefs.

I suspect there is great fear and possible great pain that accompanies actually accepting something that is contrary to a previous belief.  As a preacher’s son I grew up in the church and when in my 60’s I began to question the existence of a god I found it very painful and very scary.  I also found it shaming.  Have I really been talking to an imaginary friend all this time?  Have I really given that much money to a group that makes stuff up?  Am I really willing to lose friends because I now know what I did not know before?  How about the alienation of family members?  Wouldn’t it be easier to just keep my mouth shut and pretend?

But I also suspect there is something deeper going on here.  Christians talk about never being alone, god is on their side, he is always with them, he wants the best for them, all things are possible with him, etc., etc.  Even though I know all that is poppycock and balderdash it must be incredibly comforting to humans who fear actually living a life alone within the boundaries of their brains and accepting events as natural phenomenon rather than a grand plan.  And for some it must be terrifying to know that death is death, you die and you are done.  I am no longer afraid of being alone or of dying and feel kind of silly that I thought there was some being who was in here with me and that I would somehow have consciousness beyond life.  Yes, we made god in our own image and fashioned him to meet our needs.

This fear, this need for security, is so great that pondering an alternative is impossible for many.  Accepting that death is final must be equally scary.  I have no desire for heaven because it appears to me that if there was such a place all the things I’d want to do would violate the rules, and I have no fear of hell because I know there is no such place, no GPS coordinates, no parallel dimension that houses billions of specters without form or substance.  How does one punish a being with no corporeal body?  At any rate, I quit.  I have given up offering my prompts for discussion or even hinting that there is no god.  Should someone ever ask I will be delighted to explain a host of reasons why I know there is no god.  Until then, I will seek to tolerate those who believe they have spoken with this being and that he has told them they are right. 

There are few things worse than a human who believes he or she has a god’s blessing.  With that belief people feel empowered to commit the most heinous acts against each other.  It would not be so bad if Christians really made an effort to follow the guidelines for living established in the New Testament, but they do not.  I hear no Christians in this neck of the woods arguing for open borders because we are to welcome the stranger, or arguing that there are better ways to spend billions of dollars when people are hungry, homeless and without medical insurance.  Not happening, so the hypocrisy of Christianity continues.

But if you want to know that Christians will banish you to their hell just point out any of the above.  It seems to be impossible to discuss god with Christians so I should just quit trying.

And yet, sharing truth in the face of false beliefs is a human imperative or we will never advance.  If the best we can be lies in the past and in false beliefs then when we kill ourselves by destroying the environment of the only planet where we can live, or an asteroid hits us, or the Yellowstone volcano erupts, I wonder if believers will have a quick insight that if human extinction is part of their god’s plan what is the point of worship and belief?

But it is pointless to point that out to believers.  And that is the problem.

It's a Miracle!

My daughter gave birth this weekend to a precious baby boy for whom I already feel a lot of love though I just met him.  As two sets of grandparents and nurses gathered around the happy but exhausted couple holding their newborn I heard the word over and over.  It’s a miracle.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I am thrilled that mom and kid are healthy, ten fingers and toes, etc.  But I somehow missed the miracle part.

Miracles are extraordinary positive events manifesting divine intervention in human affairs; events that cannot be explained by natural or scientific laws.  Yep, I missed that.  I missed it somewhere during the nine months she carried this baby and gained weight and bought fat clothes and waddled around and lost sleep and had a hard time breathing.  I missed it during her 17 hours of labor, the pain reduction meds, all the dilation effacement discussion, the OB/GYN delivery, the crew of nurses who measured and cleaned the infant, and the cutting of the cord.  It all looked to me like biology at work supported by a team of medical professionals.  Nothing mysterious happened.  There were no angels in the hallway.  There were no shepherds.  The heavens did not open.  Stealing someone else’s’ line, I did say, “This is my grandson with whom I am well pleased.”  In fact, all I observed was one wise man.

As I looked at all my daughter endured coupled with all the support she got I see nothing miraculous at all.  In fact, if I see anything, it is the curse of bearing children.  This is a long, painful, tedious event that causes women to be shape shifters and scream in pain. 

If the Bible is to be believed, and I do not think it is, then all this happens because Adam and Eve sought knowledge when god told them not to so they were kicked out of the garden and destined to have such agony in childbirth.  OK, so god was mad at them and punished them, though his response seems pretty juvenile to me.  “I’m kicking you out of the house and I’m going to make you hurt.”  Well, I guess it is better than what he did at Sodom and Gomorrah and what he did to almost everyone with the flood.  Still, how long is god going to hold this grudge against Adam and Eve?  How many generations does he have to punish?  How can we call him a loving god when he is so mean?

And if childbirth for humans is part of god’s grand design he did a terrible job.  Chickens and gold fish have it better than human females.  Why women cannot just lay an egg, keep it warm and wait for it to hatch I don’t know.  We have this long term, painful ordeal while we still think we are up a few rungs on the evolutionary ladder from birds and fish and reptiles.

Nope.  This was no miracle.  If it is a product of divine intervention then god should keep his hands out of it because he is just making it worse.  If there is a miracle it is the epidural.

Religious Conservative Idiocy

Right-wing Christianity has become a political movement, not a religious group.  The following beliefs held by religious conservatives should trigger cries of blasphemy from true believers:  

Fertilized eggs are human beings.  We should protect the lives of the unborn.  It is OK not to protect the lives of the children who are born.  We can separate them from their parents, cut their health care, cut the funding for their schools, cut their food stamps and even allow their deaths while in detention.  Protect unborn children, to hell with children who are born.

I am pro-life and pro death penalty.

Jesus said it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.  But I believe Jesus wanted me to be rich.

Jesus said give all that you have to the poor and follow me.  But I believe Jesus wanted me to accumulate material things.

Jesus said love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Unless he or she is Black, Mexican American, Oriental, gay, transgender or poor.  Then those neighbors need to move to another zip code.

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but cut the taxes for the rich.

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, but wants us to build a wall to keep the Samaritans out.

Jesus said love your enemy.  But I have a God-given right to keep my weaponry to kill anyone who is my enemy.

Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit but we should cut spending on mental health

Jesus said blessed are those who mourn but we should make fun of losers.

Jesus said blessed are the meek but we should elect a narcissist.

Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness but we should elect someone who hungers and thirsts for money and power.

Jesus said blessed are the merciful but we should elect a bully who is willing to hurt people to get his way.

Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart but we should elect a consummate liar, an adulterer, and a sexual assaulter.

Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers but we should elect someone who holds rallies to arouse one group against another and we should build walls between us and neighbors.

I see no way to claim to be a conservative and a Christian.  If god chose Trump then god is an idiot who supports all the worst human traits.  The truth of the matter is the Russians chose Trump and we are in desperate need of an exorcism.