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Ev'rything is Satisfactual: Blame it on the gods? |
Category: Stories 6 comments 13 Oct 2005 @ 18:03 by bushman : The end.Heres a pic from a Mormon Bible, you can't really tell whats in the light, but looking at the original print, you can just make out the image of Jesus, I found it Ironic that this pic is the old version before man invented cars. :} http://www.newciv.org/pic/nl/gallery/13/big/263.jpg 14 Oct 2005 @ 21:07 by uncleremus : Evading Responsibiliy Well, the irony is most certainly not lost on me, Bushman. The article does point out that, nowadays: "True believers often considerately put bumper stickers on their cars warning the rest of us that their vehicle may suddenly careen out of control if they are whisked off to heaven during rush hour, so that we can sensibly keep a couple extra carlengths between us and them." :} The end-times, the sun, and whathaveyou - anything "external," and "beyond our control," lol - has often been used as a convenient escape for those who would evade responsibility or the need for actions in the here and now. Doesn't the Bible say that Christians need not worry, as they are saved by grace, not by works (Eph. 2:8)? "Although denying that we have a special position in the natural world might seem becomingly modest in the eye of eternity, it might also be used as an excuse for evading our responsibilities. The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all living creatures with whom we share the earth." - David Attenborough 14 Oct 2005 @ 22:02 by swan : Uncle Remus, if you are not my friend Francis, you really should meet him. 17 Oct 2005 @ 01:07 by uncleremus : Bewilderment Totally conscious, and a propos of nothing, you come to see me. Is someone here? I ask. "The moon. The full moon is inside your house." (...) I need a mouth as wide as the sky to say the nature of a True Person, language as large as longing. The fragile vial inside me often breaks. No wonder I got mad and disappear for three days every month with the moon. (...) I've lost the thread of the story I was telling. My elephant roams his dream of hindustan again. Narrative, poetics, destroyed, my body, a dissolving, a return. (...) Now I feel fictional. Tell me! I am Sinai, and you are Moses walking there. This poetry is an echo of what you say. A piece of land can't speak, or know anything! Or if it can, only within limits. The body is a device to calculate the astronomy of the spirit. Look through that astrolabe and become oceanic. Why this distracted talk? It's not my fault I rave. (...) A True Man stares at his old shoes and sheepskin jacket. Every day he goes up to his attic to look at his work-shoes and worn-out coat. This is his wisdom, to remember the original clay and not get drunk with ego and arrogance. To visit those shoes and jacket is praise. The Absolute works with nothing. The workshop, the materials are what does not exist. Try and be a sheet of paper with nothing on it. Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing, where something might be planted, a seed, from the Absolute. ---Jelaluddin Rumi 5 Dec 2005 @ 16:41 by rayon : Ehp 2.8 good quote Not by works but by Grace - reaching the Kingdom of Heaven, inherit the earth etc -. Uncle Reme: achieving the state of Grace, or say Ahimsa in Sanskrit, involves much self dicipline, responsibility, consciousness etc, curious as to why you should say this is a cop out? What it most definitely is though, a hugely misunderstood saying. 18 Jan 2006 @ 18:45 by uncleremus : Ehp 2.8 on the Richter Scale "A hugely misunderstood saying," indeed, thank you for the clarification nraye. "For faith by itself, if it has not works, is dead." ---James 2:17 The fact of the matter is that the concept of grace actually is one of the most contentious issues in Christian sectarism. For those who are into those things or find the issue of interest, wikipedia has an excellent page dedicated to the topic: {link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_grace|here}. In so far as I am concerned and for the purpose of this article ("Blame it on the gods,") my comment was not intended as a theological argument and I was pronouncing no judgment on Ehp 2.8 itself (or about Christianity or religion in general, for that matter) other than that it "has often been used [misused] as a convenient escape for those who would evade responsibility or the need for actions in the here and now." Sadly, as Glenn Scherer pointed out (27.10.2004) in the {link:http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2004/10/27/scherer-christian/index.html|online environmental journal Grist}: "Many Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened -- as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. (...) Because of its power as a voting bloc, the Christian right has the ear, if not the souls, of much of the nation's leadership. Some of those leaders are End-Time believers themselves. Others are not. Either way, their votes are heavily swayed by an electoral base that accepts the Bible as literal truth and eagerly awaits the looming Apocalypse. And that, in turn, is sobering news for those who hope for the protection of the earth, not its destruction. " Other entries in Stories 1 Apr 2006 @ 18:08: 第7 シール 1 Apr 2006 @ 02:42: Evey's Choice 24 Mar 2006 @ 20:25: Breathing with the mind 20 Mar 2006 @ 01:56: Transparency, Anonymity and Pseudonymity 18 Mar 2006 @ 02:58: 10,000 people with one message 8 Mar 2006 @ 01:46: People shouldn't be afraid of their governments 22 Feb 2006 @ 21:57: I is another * 23 Jan 2006 @ 01:05: Bodhichitta 15 Nov 2005 @ 01:36: Welcome to the Nightside 12 Nov 2005 @ 00:53: The impossible will take a little while
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13 Oct 2005 @ 02:40, by Uncle Remus