Atheists often hear the question, "How can you be moral without God?" The real question is, "How can a moral person accept God?" If Judeo-Christian scriptures are true, "God" is a terrible example of morality or basic goodness.
Ancient Indus River Valley Civilization information (now embodied in Hinduism's Vedas), Sumerian and Egyptian texts, and channeled communications all point to many visitors over many aeons. Buddhism inherited ancient "Indian" and Central Asian (Near Eastern) traditions, and the same themes are present often with more detail.
Recovered Nag Hammadi Library (Gnostic Gospels) and Dead Sea Scroll texts, however, means one need not go too far afield to begin to understand that the world has been misled about the meaning of "God." And each theistic tradition simply claims, not the physical actors who reveal themselves on Earth in "chariots of fire" from time to time, but the ONE, godhead, non-duality, oneness, Brahman, unity, matrix, the enduring reality behind the illusion of the universe.
Why would one nation impose its imperial will while claiming to be helping and serving a biblical character? Probably because its population buys this story war after war.
We can safely say that that ONE is not doing all of this killing, warring, razing, raping, boasting, and acting all enraged all the time. Let us follow our hearts and keep our heads. We are responsible for ourselves -- everyone, even "God" -- so it is best to tune in rather than drop out. Our karma, choices, pernicious beliefs, and efforts are our own. We can share them with others, but their karma, choices, beliefs, and efforts are their own.
While we can certainly help each other, no one can save another. Famous spiritual teachers made great efforts to help, not to do everything for us. We are responsible for our greed/bias, hate/fear, and delusion/wrong views; we will bear the results of actions motivated by them.
It is our job to love, to be just, to be peaceful, to be kind, and help one another. Whatever tradition it pleases one to adopt, the bottom line is asking, Is this helping? Living in a religiously oppressive society can make atheism, "science," Satanism (whatever we may conceive of as the Dark Side), or even materialism/hedonism seem like a very attractive option. And it leads us to co-create the world we personally live in.
Different faces of the right wing (which, yes, includes fearless B.S. Obama)
One of the seminal moments in the presidential campaign slipped by at the Republican debate in Las Vegas on Oct. 18. It didn’t involve the frontrunners, and it had nothing to do with Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan or the sexual harassment claims.If you were watching, you’d have heard Ron Paul say, “We need to see everybody as an individual. And to me, seeing everybody as an individual means their liberties are protected as individuals, and they are treated that way, and they’re never penalized that way.”
Rick Santorum responded, “I disagree in some respects with Congressman Paul, who says the country is founded on the individual. The basic building block of a society is not an individual. It’s the family. That’s the basic unit of society.”
Ayn Rand had again loomed in the presidential campaign. It wasn’t the first time, and you can bet it won’t be the last. What this exchange demonstrated is that Rand’s views reach well beyond the advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism for which she is best known. They extend into a wide variety of other areas -- and they are capable of making the right, especially the religious right, as uncomfortable as liberals.
Paul is strongly influenced by the Russian-born novelist-philosopher. Rand believed that the individual is supreme, owing no duty to anyone else, including his family. Rand’s novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which set forth her philosophy [which greatly influenced her main student, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, and the downward course of the USA]... More
Breaking the Spell (skeptic.com)
Can science explain religion as a natural phenomenon -- or set of phenomena useful to human beings in spite of the absence of a "God" as conceived of in human cultures?
In The Blank Slate, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings.
In I Don't Believe in Atheists, Chris Hedges claims that the New Atheists are mistaken in thinking that human nature is perfectible and that a Utopian future is possible in which rationality and science can replace religious thought.
Devin's advocate (chud.com)
The author has been making the rounds on L.A. radio. Today he visited Vromans (independent) Bookstore in Pasadena, the city he did his research in. He was cogent, hilarious, and drew the largest crowd we at Wisdom Quarterly have ever seen for an author signing.With his trademark wit and humor, Bugliosi sets a new path that urges us to recognize the limits of what we know and what we cannot know about the ineffable mysteries of existence.
Church has Homosexual crisis, not Pedophilia crisis
Did Jesus have siblings?
Pope links (priestly) sex abuse to vices
Vatican defends Pope's record on sexual abuse
VIDEO: Christopher Hitchens slams Vatican, Pope over sex abuse scandal
Madonna and Opus Dei?
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.
