Court rules: Buddha’s fine, God is not

Wisdom Quarterly

Left to right: 1. Sumerian god, 2. Shakyamuni Buddha, 3. Jesus (St. Issa), 4. "Laughing Buddha" (Zen master Hotei), 5. blue Krishna, 6. holy cow (gopis), 7. shaman Tiki idol, 8. sinister crouching figure. (Interpretation: Wisdom Quarterly; image: weheartit.com).

(Cal Catholic) Appeals court says school can force California teacher to remove patriotic classroom banners mentioning God.

SAN DIEGO, California - A Poway high school math teacher who displayed patriotic banners in his classroom that mentioned God has lost his appeal in federal court and been ordered to pay substantial court costs.

Brad Johnson, a teacher at Westview High School in Poway, a suburb of San Diego, was ordered by school officials in 2007 to take down classroom banners [after 25 years on display] that contained historical slogans such as “In God We Trust, ” “One Nation under God, ” as well as the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, because, school officials said, “they may offend a Muslim student.”

...According to the Thomas More Law Center, which represented Johnson, the school district allowed religious classroom displays by other teachers, including one of a 35- to 40-foot string of Tibetan prayer flags with images of Buddha; a poster with the lyrics from John Lennon’s anti-religion song “Imagine;” a poster with Hindu [political] leader Mahatma Gandhi’s “7 Social Sins;” a poster of Muslim leader Malcolm X; and a poster of [Tibetan political "pope" and] Buddhist leader, the 14th Dalai Lama. More

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Doomsday dud! So now what? (Commentary)

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)


Filmmaker Zeke Piestrup has been documenting Harold Camping; see below (SFGate.com).

Doomsday was a dud. It's no surprise. But we have to admit we're a little disappointed. We came in on the weekend, hugged Christian pets, went to a party, learned the Dougie -- and all for what?! When does the Bible show begin already?

• How Harold Camping marketed the Rapture
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Kate Upton teaches a weary world the Dougie

Armageddon is the name of a Jewish war. And apparently it can not begin until a few other things line up. Imagine a religion, fundamentalist Christianity, put in a position to long for war, to be wary of anybody labelled "the peacemaker" (usually American presidents who try to resolve Middle East tensions), and who sees End Time signs in every social eventuality:

Kindness? So what. Compassion? Who cares. Environmental stewardship? Never heard of it. But homosexuality? Aha! Crime? Yes! Earthquakes? Praise the lord! Everything bad is good if it signals the end of the world (and the beginning of assumption into heaven).

CBS News Video as posted on SF Gate's May 21, 2011: rapture or party time?

Camping to Answer on Film Today

Wisdom Quarterly
Fortunately, Zeke Piestrup has been following doomsayer Harold Camping for weeks, running tape for as much as 19 hours a day in the run up to The End. But Camping went into black out mode on the 21st. He will emerge on tape to explain why his prediction failed.

And Camping will have an explanation today because he holds the world's record on answering Bible questions (50 years) on an unscripted open forum radio show. He is unflappable, charismatic, and absolutely certain of his interpretations. He has survived at least one failed prediction (but that one left him the out that May 21 was the only other option). More than surviving, he comes out stronger, in accordance with psychologist Festinger's 1950's findings on doomsday cults.

Former KROQ DJ Piestrup was on KROQ radio in Los Angeles Monday morning (May 23) discussing his documentary film on Harold Camping and the Family Radio ministry.

Camping "flabbergasted" Judgment Day did not come

SFGate.com
The man who said the world was going to end appeared at his front door in Alameda (Northern California) a day later, very much alive but not so well.

"It has been a really tough weekend," said Harold Camping, the 89-year-old fundamentalist radio preacher [and twice failed prophet] who convinced hundreds of his followers that the rapture would occur on Saturday at 6:00 pm.

Massive earthquakes would strike, he said. Believers would ascend to heaven and the rest would be left to wander a godforsaken planet until Oct. 21, when Camping promised a fiery end to the world. More

• Will Graham [Televangelist Billy Graham's son] preaches on end times after camping's wrong prediction [because there's a lot of money to be made from doomsaying]
  
• Harold Camping Should Publicly Apologize for Wrong Doomsday Prediction, Says Christian
• Critical Facts About Harold Camping
• Harold Camping's Rapture prediction doing anything good?
• Harold Camping, We're Still Here After 6:01 P.M., What Now?
• Harold Camping doomsday prediction record: 0-2
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Doomsday dud explained!

LiveScience.com

Harold Camping has some serious explaining to do. Or does he? He may be an embarrassment to Christians, laughing stock to atheists, and a "nut" to everyone else, but what motivated his charismatic confidence? (Image: Karl Tate, TechMediaNetwork)

If readers are reading this, Harold Camping and FamilyRadio.com's predictions that the end of the world would start Saturday (May 21, 6:00 pm) failed to pan out.

That's good news for most of us. But Camping and his Christian followers were looking forward to the end. After all, they believed that they were likely to be among the 200 million souls sent to live in [space] paradise forever.

[That is the total number to get to heaven, past and present, because the worldwide earthquake was going to toss up the dead, according to Camping.]

Piestrup documenting Camping in the run up to the end (Michael Macor/The Chronicle).

• Harold Camping "flabbergasted"; Rapture a no-show

So how do believers cope when their doomsday predictions fail? It depends, said Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal who studies the history of doomsday predictions.

Doomsdays without Doom

The classic study of "doomsdays gone bad" took place in 1954. A Chicago woman named Dorothy Martin predicted a cataclysmic flood from which a few true believers would be saved by aliens. Martin and her cult, The Seekers, gathered the night before the expected flood to await the flying saucer.

Unbeknown to them, however, their group had been infiltrated by psychologist Leon Festinger, who hoped to find out what happens when the rug of people's beliefs is pulled out from under them. Festinger's study, which became the basis of the book When Prophecy Fails (Harper-Torchbooks 1956), revealed... More

• When Doomsday isn't, believers struggle to cope
• What do believers do when the world fails to end?
• Pondering death can alter behavior [Maranussati]
  
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• No Rapture, No Judgment, NO DUH

Countdown to extinction: the last seven days with 89 year old Christian prophet Harold Camping. "It's the gays and drug addicts!"

• Will Graham preaches on end times after camping's wrong prediction
  
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Why the World WILL End Tomorrow

Wisdom Quarterly (Photo: 123rf.com)

The Buddha rested between two Sal trees in the midst of countless devas and members of the Sangha. He greeted well wishers, answered questions, and gave his last instructions, passing in joy through the jhanas ("meditative absorptions") with one final exhortation.

When the Buddha was passing away --that is, irreversibly entering parinirvana -- his final words were: "All conditioned things are hurtling towards destruction; work out your liberation with diligence!"

It is not enough to have faith (confidence in the Teacher, Teaching, and well Taught disciples). The value of faith is that it inspires one to investigate.

The purpose of investigation is to set off on a quest to make an end of all suffering.

Drugs do not "end" suffering. Death does not end suffering. Rebirth does not end suffering. What ends suffering?

This one possibility is the final end of all suffering -- nirvana.

• To experience nirvana directly, one must practice (not believe, debate, memorize, study, preach...) the Path of Awakening. The power is in the practice. Ananda knew the more sutras than any monk in the Buddha's time. But he was not enlightened until after the Buddha was gone. Why? Because he had not practiced even though he spent more time with the Buddha than anyone else.

What is the the Path? It combines serenity and insight as the marriage of compassion and wisdom. It is called the Middle Way to complete liberation.

A summary of the Noble Eightfold Path could describe it as cultivating virtue, concentration (samadhi), and wisdom -- all of which support one another. Realizing (not memorizing) the Four Noble Truths is the gateway to the deathless. It establishes one on the supramundane Path.

The world as a whole will not be ending. But "the world" for the individual will end, even now as it passes from this moment. No one will get out alive, which is to say that every personality will undergo transformation into something else. Clinging to identity is painful because one is not anything that can be clung to. There is no use in accepting these things on "faith." Realization is the way to happiness. The bliss of nirvana is within reach. But this is not it.

And whether one strives for wisdom and freedom or sinks into delusion and slavery, the Buddha's last words ring true:

"All conditioned things are hurtling toward destruction; work out your liberation with diligence [mindfulness and clear comprehension]!"

Fully enlightened beings (arhats) are the only beings who do not die. They enter nirvana, which is completely different than death and rebirth. Buddhas point the way, and humans and light beings (devas) are in the best position to reach this ultimate goal (salagram.net).

• Passing away consciously is the greatest journey

The End is Near; Heaven is Nearer (cartoon)

Will we end up in one of the many heavens?WATCH: "The Most Adequate X-mas Ever"

Fundamentalist Christians (FamilyRadio.com) researching and interpreting the Judeo-Christian Bible determined that we have been in the End Times for quite some time.

And the exact date of "Judgment Day" is May 21, 2011 "guaranteed."

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Social psychologists have studied doomsday cults particularly before and after a definite prediction of doom. The remarkable and consistent finding is that failure strengthens rather than destroying them.

Why did the world not end when it "should" have? Could it have been something we did? Was it our prayers? Did we awaken people by bringing their attention to the impending end which is yet to come?

The fact of the matter is, this is not the first end, nor will it be the last. The end is always near. Each individual will face it. But we look for it collectively. The CIA/Shadow Government will oblige us with a simulated Space Invasion, a Second Coming, or some such calamity that will bring us into the (Brave) New World Order of full-spectrum control, conformity, and a precipitous population "adjustment"?

The Many Buddhist Heavens

A Thai Buddhist temple emulating one of the many "mansions" (vimanas) in the many planes of heaven or "space" (Stuck in Customs/Flickr.com)

In Buddhist cosmology, Sakka (Sakra, Indra, Rudra) is the "King of Kings," "Lord of Lords," and the "son-of-god" (Sanskrit, devaputra or "a being born among devas").

He threw out the "demons" (asuras or "titans") when he was reborn as lord among the deva-lords of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa). He is king of the lesser Four Great Kings of the heavenly plane (divided into cardinal quadrants) immediately above the Earth.

He was once a human or "son of man" but was reborn among the "gods" (devas) and so is referred to as a "son of god." Change the "a" to a "the," and there we have the Eastern philosophical rudiments of Christianity.

It's no accident that this ancient pre-Buddhist cosmology/mythology was appropriated by early Christians as the great "wisdom of the East" along with the teaching of how to be "born again" into that heaven -- karma or "reaping what is sown."

• Judgment Day! (May 21, 2011?) "There are three things that cannot be kept hidden: the Sun, the Moon, and the Truth" - the Buddha.

(Panic Button 13/Flickr.com)

There will be a tomorrow. And many days after that. The [updated, added to, edited, retranslated] Christian Bible now teaches that one day true believers elected by God to receive salvation [not redeemed by their own actions?] will be raptured (taken up) out of this world to meet the sky-God in the air and forever be with the Lord:

• "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16,17).

Atheists "to save pets after world ends"

During Rapture an Episcopalian priest, Fran, Roger the Alien, Stan the CIA Agent, and the slow janitor look on as naked people are lifted up ("Rapture's Delight," American Dad).

(Web.orange.co.uk) Enterprising atheist animal lovers are cashing in on religious pet owners who believe the world is about to end [on Saturday, May, 21, 2011].

Some US Christian fundamentalists [familyradio.com] believe Judgment Day will begin with a massive earthquake on Saturday.

They say believers will immediately go to heaven while the rest of us have another five months to suffer until the world ends in October.

The problem is that many fundamentalists are reportedly worried about what happens to their pets when they go to heaven.

Whereas in Buddhism animals are living beings subject to rebirth the same as humans, gods, hellions, and other entities, pets are not allowed in Christian heaven. Atheists will care for them on Earth.

A new company -- Eternal Earth-Bound Pets -- is offering to step up to "take that burden off your mind."

"You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved," the company says on its website.

"But when the Rapture comes, what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind?"

The post-Doomsday pet rescue service says it already already has 259 clients, who have paid $135 for the first pet and $20 for each additional pet.

All the rescuers are sworn atheists, which means they will be left behind on Earth, ready to rescue pets after their Christian owners have gone to the other side.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets co-founder Bart Centre said: "This will happen only if and when the Rapture happens. So we do not expect to have to do anything on Saturday."

Palm Sunday meditation: Take up my cross?

Huffington Post, Rev. James Martin, S.J. Catholic priest and author, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything

Palm Sunday raises at least two important spiritual questions for Christians: What does it mean to be like Jesus? And what does it mean to take up our crosses, just like he did? First, you don't need to go looking for your cross. Life gives them to you. Whether it's an illness or a tough family relationship or trouble in school or problems on the job. The real cross is the one that you don't want. Because it's hardly a cross if you want it. Just like it was for Jesus. Second, we are asked by Jesus to accept our crosses. Now, what does that mean? More

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The Bible Undone: "Divinity of Doubt" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly featuring Uprising Radio (KPFK, Pacifica, Los Angeles)

Imagine reading the Bible like an attorney looking for evidence of what it actually says. One of the most famous attorneys of our time did just that. The Christian holy book comes undone on its own terms, that is, without resorting to things Christians could argue are "non-biblical."

(Bugliosi does not limit himself to Christianity, but also makes observations about Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism at minute 32:20. He misspeaks to suggest that the Buddha might have been an agnostic or atheist when in fact he was a non-theist, which means he said whether or not there are gods is not relevant to saving oneself from suffering).

No mention is made of the Gnostic gospels or New Age material. This is not an atheist attack, nor is it one sect of the religion against another. Instead, all of the information comes from bonafide biblical texts themselves (New Testament, Old Testament, Hebrew, English, Protestant, Catholic, and Greek).

Famed attorney discusses what the Bible really says with KPFK's Sonali Kolhatkar.

Conservative prosecutor and Christian agnostic Vincent Bugliosi is best known for successfully prosecuting Charles Manson and writing the best-selling book Helter Skelter, which went on to sell over 7 million copies, becoming the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history.

He is also the author of Outrage on the acquittal of O.J. Simpson, and more recently The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. Bugliosi has won 21 out of 21 murder cases and 105 out of 106 felony cases. He spent the past two years working on his new book Divinity of Doubt: The God Question.

On April 12, 2011, Bugliosi spoke with Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar about his new work, Divinity of Doubt. Atheism? No. Freewill? No. Virgin birth? No (according to the Bible, see video at minute 48:30). Darwin was an agnostic. Einstein believed in some kind of God, not a Judeo-Christian kind, but some kind. Bugliosi outdoes them both by diving deep into the Bible, which comes undone as we have misinterpreted it. Christians frequently say it says one thing when, in fact, it says the opposite.

Uprising Radio