HE IS RISEN
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What do rabbits and eggs have to do with Easter and what does the word Easter mean?
Easter of course is originally a pagan holiday. When christians were quietly consolidating power after infiltrating the dying and doomed Roman Empire, they went ahead and rewrote history, because at that point it would have been centuries past the life of the purported actual Jesus, and made up this swell little story about this same Jesus rising from the dead! And ascending into heaven of all things. And they just sort of took over what had been the spring solstice, with a newly monotheistic theme, and no more sprightly vernal goddesses and whatnot. Which was pretty audacious if you ask me. But you know, you gotta keep the peasant trash happy, if you're in the religion business, and you might as well swing for the fences. I think that's how the psychology of religion usually works. If you're going to be saying a bunch of insanely, obviously untrue shit, then you gotta go for the really big lie. And that seems to be how it goes. Rising from the dead fits that requirement tidily enough I suppose.....
Easter probably represents sort of the apex for completely absurd proclamations that are so demonstrably not true, that if you have any intention of being a part of this here religion, and to enjoy all the consolations people supposedly get out of being religious, which I don't really think they do, then you're going to have accept that 2+2=5, and find a way to swallow that shit, which is the real driver and sustainer of religion to its adherents, that you're basically psychologically toast if you ever take it halfway seriously for any extended period of time. And you are safely lobotomized, and no longer a threat to ever go against the group, as it were, again, and most importantly never challenge whoever the leadership of the group again.....
And yeah, there you go, happy Easter everyone!
Easter probably represents sort of the apex for completely absurd proclamations that are so demonstrably not true, that if you have any intention of being a part of this here religion, and to enjoy all the consolations people supposedly get out of being religious, which I don't really think they do, then you're going to have accept that 2+2=5, and find a way to swallow that shit, which is the real driver and sustainer of religion to its adherents, that you're basically psychologically toast if you ever take it halfway seriously for any extended period of time. And you are safely lobotomized, and no longer a threat to ever go against the group, as it were, again, and most importantly never challenge whoever the leadership of the group again.....
And yeah, there you go, happy Easter everyone!
Unless you object, I would like to post this on my blog, FRAGMENTS OF AN UNDERDONE POTATO, while titling it ONE MAN'S VIEW OF EASTER. I won't even include your screename as it appears on this board.
FYI, I'm an agnostic who doesn't BELIEVE IN "BELIEF" of any kind. Instead, I roll with Krishnamurti in calling it a PREMATURE CONCLUSION.
As I see it, ignorance -- too often belief's compulsive TRIGGER -- is a UBIQUITOUS CONDITION and not as some would have it, stupidity or a moral failing or a state of sin. I say this as it's something we not only witness but practically SWIM IN every day. So, I'm happy simply NOT KNOWING, though I usually have MY SUSPICIONS.
In any event, my intent would be neither to tout nor deride what you've written but simply to post it as a nifty piece of writing -- BREEZY REALLY -- on what for many is a subject that may only be approached with the utmost REVERENCE, though my own view is that all BELIEF SYSTEMS are fair game to critiques of this type.
Let me know if my reposting this is okay, because if you don't want it going out to a wider audience, that's fine.
Congrats to the last two posters. What nice things to say to faithful people on Easter. Hope you two enlightened ones feel better now.
Thank you. Actually did feel kind of good. A little bit at least. As far as sparing your feelings go, on your most sacred of all Christian holidays, and the one where the impositions made by religion upon the everyday reasonable/rational pysche are at their peak, so much so that the easter celebration functions effectively as a loyalty test, and not as an innocent occasion of post-winter jubilation and certainly not redemption.... I think that's just a little too much to ask in the year 2023, with the terrifying AI age finally beginning in earnest, and the continued non-heaven based flourishing on this vulnerable planet under genuine serious threat, for myriad reasons at this point.
Anyway, you can turn little incidents like this into a positive, you guys are great at that. Let it strengthen your faith! In all fairness though, if you will graciously indulge me further, I'm very glad I was born and raised Catholic, and wouldn't trade it for anything. And I truly mean that. It has had a profound effect on my morality, and my sensibility and my humanity, and I warmly give credit where it's due. And I deeply appreciate the moral Jesus as portrayed in the New Testament. It's almost awe-inspiring in its fearless moral honesty and righteousness. But it isn't the word of God. And Jesus didn't rise again on the third day. Mortal men wrote everything you see in the Bible, and are responsible, out of their own being and experience and capacity and sensitivity.... for every sentiment contained therein. And I know that it was out of their own existential struggles to survive and thrive, and to live and love and learn and understand, as yearning, striving human animals on this miraculous planet, that such beautiful moral sentiments were born. And I thank them very, very deeply for it. But, alas, just like with the Star Wars trilogy, whatever wisdom was to be gleaned from the original text as it were, has been completely taken over by parasites and hangers-on and opportunists. And that's where the dogma comes in. And the conformity and the obedience, and spooky shit like Easter.
But at least not I'm not like, I don't know like Nietschze or something like that. I adore christian morality, and love everything about it. Obviously it's not perfect, and I will admit to being sentimental by nature. But it was a great start for the human race as we were clearly by that point in history well on our way to dominating the earth, and we needed to figure out how to start managing our affairs a bit better, and not being quite so evil and exploitative to each other all the time, and to live with some kind of greater harmony and equality. And the rise of christianity was an exciting moral development in our burgeoning society. But we lost the plot pretty quickly, and it's been little more than empty dogma ever since, and was easily hijacked by religious hustlers in the aftermath of Rome.... And, sadly, one must observe how coercive violence still absolutely rules the day in the running of human affairs amongst ourselves, and the divvying up of our collective spoils... with, admittedly, some small tempering effect on the viciousness and cruelty and ruthlessness of the human race owing to the moral influence of religion. So at least we got that out of it....
Anyways, if it makes you feel any better, a lot of hipster types who think they're all smart and shit, they favor hinduism and Buddishm and that kind of shit, as far as religious wisdom and whatnot. And they like to look down on christianity. That shit's a joke to me and I laugh at so-called eastern wisdom. Nothing touches the true sentiments of love and morality and a burning humanity as espoused by Jesus in the gospels of the New Testament. And I don't care if that sounds racist or not. And even though organized religion as such is entirely antiquated at this point in history, and really does far, far, far more harm than good.... I gotta give full props to Jesus, which is to say to the flesh and blood people who invented him, almost like a fictional character, for us mere mortals to be inspired and hopefully improved by....
So I think that's a pretty good, and totally heartfelt tribute to Jesus and his legacy, from a lapsed catholic like me, on the most highest of holidays of the Christian calendar....
That should be a sanctionable violation. They are hijacking the thread to change the subject. Go start your own.
Savvy, you’d be surprised how similar our thoughts on the subject are. I, too, grew up Catholic and think it had a lot to do w/ a good upbringing, but I’ve lost some faith along the way. W/ that said, I didn’t think it was great timing on your part to post what you did. There are a lot of people that hold their faith close to their hearts and whether I believe all of it or not, I didn’t think it was a timely post. You can post what you want, obviously, but you also have to expect reactions when you carpet bomb a lot of people’s views.
I hope you're writing other stuff besides these posts because if you aren't, YOU SHOULD BE. And probably getting paid for it. My wife writes commercial thrillers, and I'm her in-house editor, so I know only too well what sells.
As I've written here before, you also have a kind of Charles Bukowsk-like non-chalant, yet arrogance inflected, style that comes with a nice KICK-ASS cadence that is both AMUSING and EXTREMELY READABLE.
Unless you object, I'm going to repost both of your posts on this subject on my blog. My regular readers will enjoy them.
Oh, and HAPPY EASTER!
Amusing? Nah, more like obnoxious blustering from a gas bag. To each his own...😁
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Easter comes from a pagen celebration of Spring...a rebirth.
Eggs...were a treat in midevial times and forbidden during Lent. Eggs represent new life and rebirth. The Easter Bunny is a German tradition that spread to the US back in the 1700's. Again rabbits represent new life and rebirth. Since the resurrection is considered to be a new life and rebirth...Christians adapted ideas from pagen celebrations and made them their own.
Yeah, go for it. Just keep it anonymous, I suppose. I like Charles Bukowski. I read one of his books once. It was called Factotum....
Savvy and 443. I pray for you guys. You two are very intelligent posters. I don't always agree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it. But know this. No one mocks God, his Son or the Holy Spirit. I hope and pray that before you slide off the mortal coil, you repent. I bet you two will because you aren't brave enough to bet your eternal soul that He doesn't exist and didn't rise from the dead. My guess is the merciful God will give you that chance. I hope you take it.
It's ok, they have their beliefs or not. When I read these posts it simply gave me the opportunity to pray for them in the hope that Jesus may some day enter their hearts.
Alright, dude. Thanks. That's some good looking out. And you got to call me a coward in the bargain. But there'll be no need for a deathbed conversion because I'm already baptized and confirmed and was an alter boy for two years. I'M IN.....
What the hell was I saying about how glad I am that I was raised Catholic? Comprende?? Of course that's not at all what I meant, but same difference.... Remember, Jesus is all about forgiveness, that's sort of his schtick. But he's also about acceptance of him as one's personal savior. The whole yes/no, are you with me or against me bit which marks the more modern and austere manifestation of christianity. More the legacy of his ambitious disciples, rather than Jesus the vessel of justice and love himself. Which I've already done, when I was like 10 or 11, whenever you get confirmed? I don't remember. In any case I am safe. I'm in the club, and I can be as impious as I want as long as I avoid excommunication. You're probably not even Catholic, and so why should I listen to some heretic like you? But thanks just the same for the heads up.....
I can't believe there are still people who talk like you. Like we're going to have robot armies and time machines, and computers that will have completely taken over all aspects of human society, in like, ten years, maybe twenty. Well maybe not time machines.... And there will still be hard-asses like yourself getting all huffy puffy and condescending about our eternal souls. Some things never change....
Oh will you shut up... You're like one of the least christian dudes I've ever come across. Well that's probably an overstatement but you're hardly some paragon of unlimited christian love, I think we can all agree on that.
It ain't just about the praying and the required ritual. It's about the way you live too. I'm guessing you got nothing on me in that regard....
And.you don't ever pray for me you liar. Jesus Christ.....
It was just a spur of the moment thing. Did I mean what I said? Of course! But it's not like I pace around pondering that shit, it's just off the top of my. head. Everything I say is off the top of my head, that's the whole point of message boards. It's classic, I must say, when someone says they're going to pray for my soul, right after I get through explaining how religion is all symbol and no substance. Or moreover that it doesn't really exist at all. One ear and out the other.....
I guess that's the power of faith. And is the real legacy of christian religion. The morality is still there, as is Jesus' life and example and all of his adventures, and moral and philosophical musings and whatnot. You know, the good stuff.... And then later as I was suggesting, the darker stuff kicks in, faith, belief, obedience. Faith is the big one. I'm no expert on the Bible, but I don't remember Jesus talking about 'faith' that much, maybe he did. But that's the one right there. It's just this cold, obscure, monolithic notion. It's the one thing about religion that's been so devastating for humanity. And is not, in my estimation, any sort of 'consolation'. It's just this intellectual/spiritual void where the soul comes to die, and to submit itself....
Anyways, I'm still sentimental, and I will always get roped in, if there's some movie on TV recounting Jesus' life, and there's a few of them. And the whole bit, starting out as an inspired young preacher, sharing his insights and reasoning with his followers, and then onto the stretch run and the last supper, being betrayed first by Judas, and then renounced by Peter his right-hand man, and meeting with Pontius Pilate, the whole shebang. And who can forget going to the bankers and causing a ruckus and spilling all the baskets onto the floor, which is peak Jesus, and where the moral imperatives that propelled his short career reach their righteous culmination. And the money line, that always gets me at the end, is when he says, when he's dying on the cross I guess is when he says it..... Forgive them Lord, they know not what they do.... I'm a big sucker for that part. And I have to admit how much Jesus is a part of me, even though I want nothing to do with the stupid church that was built around him.
But like I was telling those guys, by the church's own rules, and by all the ritualistic shit that has completely taken over the whole enterprise, even though organized religion is still good for alms and charity, I don't want to discount that.... but I'm already accounted for. That's what spending all of your formative years in Catholic schools will get you, even as chill and low-key and no-pressure an environment as mine was, that I know I've already been saved, as it were. And it's a nice feeling. So I say all this shit with a completely clean conscience. And most importantly from somebody who's on the inside. I'm not an aetheist. That's just meaningless jargon, just some shit people like to say. I just know that belief, so to speak, is only desire. It's an expression of what you want, it's not what you think, and certainly not what you might know, or think you know. And no amount of 'faith' will ever change that. It has no miraculous power, and will never change the reality....
Alright, well, I guess Easter is in the rear view mirror, and it's back to life, back to reality.....
Good man. You will remain a mystery.
I've read ALL of Bukowski. Here's a few I'd recommend: Love Is a Dog From Hell, The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps, The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills and Bone Palace Ballet.
His poetry reads like prose and his prose like poetry.
And he keeps it SIMPLE.
Thanks for the prayer as it’s the thought that counts.
But I’m not mocking anyone or any THING. Savvy is a freethinker, something of a wit and writes funny stuff. At least, that’s how I see it. So, I will always wish to see MORE OF THAT.
As for me, I have ZERO RELIGIOUS BELIEFS.
Just like the MAJORITY of Norwegians, almost 50% of Chinese, nearly 40% of Japanese, nearly 40% of Czechs, around 30% of French and about 20% of Australians.
As for BELIEVERS, my experience reflects NEVER ONCE having encountered anyone who INTUITED ON THEIR OWN Catholic doctrine. Yes, there are sacramental manifestations of having RECEIVED the WORD and the SPIRIT, but ACTUAL FAITH starts with INDOCTRINATION. One is TAUGHT to believe and WHAT to believe – and in most instances – at any early, impressionable age. ALL WELL AND GOOD.
Except for one thing.
My brain wiring was such that by 10 years of age, NONE of what I’d been taught MADE SENSE to me.
My other problem has always been that what some call FAITH they treat in their behavior as CERTAINTY. Remember, it’s FAITH. If there were tangible proof of any of it, it wouldn’t be called that, would it? You wouldn’t NEED faith because you would KNOW. And, NO ONE KNOWS, regardless of what they’d like to BELIEVE.
So, what I recommend is that we all behave TOLERANTLY towards one another. As in the final analysis, NO ONE KNOWS NUTTIN’. Which is why I’m agnostic and not an atheist.
To me, to assert CATEGORICALLY that there isn’t a God is just as fallacious – in that it’s just as unprovable -- as asserting categorically that THERE IS ONE. MOOT POINT as I see it.
One has only to be true to oneself, and let others do likewise. Thing is, we’re all different, and no one ever CAME BACK to clear any of this up.
This reminds me of the religion that is woke. Like, the male swimmer that can legally haul out his schlong in front of women in college swimming locker rooms as long as he is feeling especially chick like that day. Or now the state of Washington can take kids away from parents if they refuse to castrate minors that are being confused by porn books in kids libraries. bc you’ve convinced a bunch of losers to support a sick agenda. Science is fake. Fake Righteousness and schizophrenia rule over majority rights. Ban, silence, and eventually persecute critics. Shut down threads that defend women’s rights. Christianity is/was the only thing to keep these mass ingrates in check with a semblance of decency. Appreciate it whether it’s real or not. It’s done as much to preserve our republic as the constitution. You despise the wrong religion, Savv.
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I don't line up with the LEFT or anyone else. No religion, no ideology, no loyalty-oaths, no chains. But I DO pick my spots.
If I'm the straw that breaks the THREAD's back, that will be ironic, but what will it matter as it was off-topic right from the OP's get-go, making EVERY POSTER who's participated -- other than you -- EQUALLY OUT OF ORDER.
Besides, I didn't want the poster I responded to thinking he had to pray for me or worrying over whether or not I was repenting. I felt he deserved a RESPONSE.
If you don’t align with the left, Joseph Bidenski will have you in a gulag b4 you know it comrad
Is that true, 50% of Chinese are.... non-believers? I'm not sure what the alternative is if you're Chinese. I don't know what the hell their religion even is, with or without strict atheist communism. Confucius? I guess you could worship him if you wanted to. He's pretty much their Jesus....
Well, maybe not him, though he does swallow a lot of WOKE nonsense indiscriminately. But that's the larger concern, all right.
The LEFT wishes to restrict the INDIVIDUAL for what it perceives to be the "greater good of the collective." Unfortunately, while we may be created equal before the law -- and for many before a deity as well -- we aren't generally equal either by definition nor in actuality IN ANY OTHER WAY.
That's why the world has always been governed according to hierarchical structures with the most COMPETENT and POWERFUL at the top -- regardless of whether the society itself was capitalistic or socialistic. So, that's hustle #1.
Hustle #2 -- your gulag point -- is that since socialism disregards MERIT and tries to LEVEL the differences among people, it STIFLES INCENTIVE, CREATIVITY and, ultimately, INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM. It basically gets FORCED DOWN YOUR THROAT -- "FOR YOURS AND EVERYONE ELSE'S
GREATER GOOD."
That's MY problem with it. In pursuit of a UTOPIAN IDEA that isn't even realizable, people wind up being imprisoned and murdered.
I'm for JUSTICE, but the moment you slip the word SOCIAL in front of JUSTICE, your moving directly towards socialism and, ultimately, communism.
And, yes, being an ND rooter and a pagan/agnostic IS a little weired. But it's DOABLE.
Thing is, I GET religion. I just don't believe in it. I wrote my thesis on Erasmus's Christian Humanism theology vs. Martin Luther's.
And I'm an arch-defender of EUROPEAN CHRISTIAN CULTURE vs. these hordes coming in on boats from Africa and the Middle East. I don't want to see minarets popping up all over Europe and screwing up the beautiful Gothic architecture in those wonderful old town sections of beautiful European cities.
I went to school and worked a lot over there, and to me, it's still the RIGHTFUL center of the world and CIVILIZATION.
So, think of me as a non-believing FELLOW TRAVELER.
I wonder if Sluggo will start an Easter thread next year? 🙃
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Oh don't worry, that's not gay porn. That's just a song, one that might inspire you! By Stereolab. They're kind of a socialist band. With socialist lyrics. And I know how much you love that shit. And they're awesome, all-time great band in pop music.....
You stated previously that you’re an old Reagan era Republican. Now you’re a socialist. I think your side calls that politically fluid.
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