Saturday 21 May 2011

Guess What?

Yep. Everyone is still here, no one was "raptured" or taken to heaven to be with "THE LORD" or any other nonsense like that.

In a way, I feel sorry for Camping and his followers. They got their hopes up and the let down must be terrible. On the flip side, I don't feel sorry for them because the whole idea of the Xtian rapture is based on a "loving" god being a totally sadistic S.O.B. Talk about out of character. Yikes.

Now, if I come across as insensitive or judgemental in my blog posts or replies to you, my dear readers, I do apologise. I do try to be open minded. At the same time, if someone posts on here and they are rude, judgemental, or bigoted then I'm not going to be nice to them. I will pull them up on it and I will briskly point out their mistakes and correct them on it. I've learned during my 30 odd years of life that you can't be nice to bullies and holier-than-thou's because if you are, they will walk all over you.

But enough of that! Back to the (lack of) rapture. I believe Bruce Garrett of TruthWinsOut said it best, so I'll just quote him here:

"I have a scenario: Instead of rapturing the one or two percent of the world’s right wing christianist nutcases, suppose God really does rapture His Own on that day and hour no man knows, not even the Angels. Suppose He takes all the good people away. No…the Good people. The Really Good people. The ones who gave a damn about this good earth, and their neighbors…all the ones who cared enough to struggle, give their lives even, to make this world a better place for all of us…all the ones who couldn’t let an injustice go past without raising their voices…all the ones who never let a friend down, even if it meant taking some personal risk…all the ones who were trustworthy, who wouldn’t cheat a stranger, let alone a friend…all the lovers…all the dreamers of a better tomorrow. Whether they were Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Buddhist or Atheist. All the good people…which would be a pretty large portion of the human population, but alas not hardly all of it. Suppose in one sudden instant God snatched them all away. What would be left behind?

Why…all the assholes.

And there’s your Tribulation right there. Never mind the seven seals and judgement day….every day is judgement day. The antichrist isn’t a person, it’s a mindset. It’s living for what you hate instead of what you love. It’s cheating someone weaker then you just because you can and assuring yourself that the weak deserve it. It’s bullying your way though life and then whining that you don’t get the respect you deserve. It’s scapegoating your neighbor instead of taking responsibility. It’s looking at life with zero-sum glasses that are always telling you that whenever someone else is happy it’s because they’re taking something away from you. It’s resenting human joy so much you just have to strangle it wherever you see it in the eyes of others. Suppose the world was suddenly left with nothing in it but people like that.

Seven years of tribulation? Oh, no…my guess is less then one or two months before they’ve all managed to slit each others’ throats. Judgement. The joy we bring into the world, or the pain and suffering we inflict upon others, is our judgement upon the world, and ourselves, and this good earth, and some people hate everything so much they pray for the world to end soon, and some of us wish it never would. Some live in rapture, and some in tribulation and every day is judgement day.
To paraphrase Jesus of Nazareth, the jerks will always be with you…try your best to deal with it."

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Birth Control and the End of the World

Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino boxer-turned-politician, has stated that he is against all forms of birth control and sex education in Filipino schools. His reasoning for this? “God said go forth and multiply, He did not say go and have just one or two children.” 

So it's much better to keep women as baby factories, constantly churning out child after child, without caring about how these children are going to be housed, fed, and clothed? *Sighs* When will conservative religious people realise that over population is a huge problem, not just in under-developed countries, but in first-world countries as well? When will it sink in that the majority of the world's problem with STDs and STIs running wild is because of lack of safe sex (i.e. using condoms) and that safe sex education will help to eradicate the problem?

However, all is not lost! There is a silver lining to this dark cloud of fundamentalist conservatism. According to Harold Camping, a minister and the president of US conservative group Family Radio, all Xtians will be caught up in the Rapture this Saturday (the 21st). At the stroke of 6pm, across all time zones, a world-wide earthquake will happen and all of the fundamentalists will be ripped from the Earth and taken to Heaven to be with God and Jesus! Hallelujah! That takes care of most of this world's problems right there and then! Maybe once they're gone, the rest of us can make this world a truly wonderful place to live.

Thursday 12 May 2011

National Jukebox

Playlist for 12 May 2011

The Library of Congress has made over 10,000 recordings made in the early 20th century available to listen to free of charge on their website. This project is called "National Jukebox" and is quite the collection.

Here is my favourite song for today on their "Day by Day" feature:

                                    

Sunday 8 May 2011

Mother's Day 2011



Happy Mother's Day to everyone celebrating it! 

Mothering Sunday, as it's called here in England, was celebrated in April. My mother however, lives in the States, which is why I'm posting this blog now instead of then. 

My poor mother has had a rough parenting life. Us three girls weren't "perfect daughters" and I know we each gave her our fair share of grey hairs, stress and headaches. But she is a good mother and did her best to raise us to be polite, helpful and strong. 

Thank you, Mom, for being there for us and being our mother!

And thank you to all the other mothers out there who give their all for their children. It may not seem like it sometimes, but you are appreciated!

Monday 2 May 2011

Osama bin Laden

I don't know about this. I don't like hearing about the death of any person. I'm a pacifist at heart, I guess.

The only thing I can think of is he was a living human being. He was misguided and a fool but he was still alive. Yes, his actions caused the deaths of 1000s of people, but does that give anyone the right to take his life and the lives of those around him or associated with him?

Revenge is petty and childish, makes us as bad as them and ultimately doesn't make a bit of difference. In fact, it often makes things worse. Osama bin Laden is dead. The American army (thus the American government and the American people) killed him. Someone is going to want to take revenge on that. And when they do, where will we be? What will happen? Revenge. Again. And again, and again... It will never end, because that is what revenge does. It destroys. It destroys people from the inside out. It destroys nations and, taken to extremes, destroys the earth we live on.

"What about all the people he killed" you ask?  Well, what about all the people the American and British armies killed while looking for him? Are those deaths not as important, do they not matter?

I've had my share of pain, my share of loss. Revenge never makes the pain less, it never brings back what was lost. The best thing to do is learn from it, move on, and LIVE. Live your life to best of your capabilities. Because that is what will make this world a better place - life not death.

~Muir