Archive for the 'Religion' Category

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God of the Day: Thursday (Thor’s Day)

Published on October 6, 2011 in Religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Today is Thursday, and it’s HAMMER TIME!

Now, I don’t really know that much about Norse mythology, but I do know a little about comic books and movies. About a week ago Denice and I watched the move, Thor. Like most movies now a days, it was heavy on special effects and lite (very lite) on story and acting.

One thing that I did like about the Thor movie, besides Anthony Hopkins in an eye patch, was the line where Thor tells Jane Foster that his people consider “magic and science to be one and the same.” That reminded me of something Arthur C. Clark said in his book ‘Profiles of the Future…’ “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I think this is very true. If we were visited by aliens that had a handle on nanotechnology, they could probably do things that would no doubt cause us to mistake them for gods. I think it may be possible that the old tales of gods, devils, and angels could have a little more to them than ancient man’s vivid imagination.

God of the Day: Wednesday (Wodan’s Day)

Published on October 5, 2011 in Religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The Greek Gods have had their days, but now they must stand aside. Today is Wodan’s day!

Wodan, or as he’s commonly known today, Odin, was the primary God in the Norse pantheon. He is the father of Thor, the God of Thunder, and Loki, the God of mischief. That pretty much exhausts my knowledge of Odin. I know that a lot of white nationalists are into the ancient Norse myths. They love to associate themselves with warrior gods like Odin and Thor. It boosts their ego and makes them feel tough. I can hear them now, “My God has a battle-ax and a horn hat!” “Oh Yeah, my God has a big ass hammer!” Total nonsense, ((sigh)).

Three more days, and three more Gods to go.

God of the Day: Tueday (Mars’ Day)

Published on October 4, 2011 in Religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I thought Wikipedia could explain this one a lot better than I:

The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdæg and Middle English Tewesday. This was a loan translation of Latin dies Martis, originally associating the day with the planet Mars. The Germanic name translates Mars, the god of war, as Teiwaz (Old English Tiw).  -Wikipedia

 

Here we go with those wonderful Greeks again. The ancient Greeks and Romans were astute astrological observers. The movement of the stars and planets were of great importance to them. Just like we often use goofy acronyms to remember things, the Greeks used allegorical myths. They created elaborate mythologies and attached Gods and Goddesses to the various heavenly bodies.

The planet Mars was named after the Greek God of War, also known as Aries to the Romans. I’m sure this had something to do with the planet’s red tint, due to the massive amount of iron oxide on its surface. The color red is known to trigger aggressiveness in humans. Basically, red=violence, and violence=war… the God of War.

 

God of the Day: Monday (The Moon’s Day)

Published on October 3, 2011 in Randomness, Religion and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Monday, in Old English, literally means ‘Moon Day.’ Monday is the day that was historically used for the worship of the Moon and the many Gods and Goddesses that were associated with it.

Among the Greeks, Selene was the personification of the moon. The Romans worshiped Luna. The moon is most commonly associated with female deities. Also, werewolves tend to come forth during full moons, which adds to its coolness.

I often find myself gazing up at the moon. I love to do night hikes during the full moon. It just makes me feel good inside to fling my clothes aside, and run naked through a moon-lit field. But, that’s just me.

God of the Day: Sunday (The Sun’s Day)

Published on October 2, 2011 in Religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Today is Sunday, the day of the week historically dedicated to the Sun. I think over the next seven days I’m going to do series of posts about the days, and how they got their names. I leaned a lot about this when I was investigating the origins of Christianity.

Today, we will learn about the Sun’s day. I’ve posted the video below, which is a clip from Zeitgeist Addendum. It’s one of the simplest explanations of the Sun and all the God’s associated with it, including the most recent and well-known solar deity: Jesus Christ. If you want to watch the other two parts of this video, here are the links: Part 2, Part 3.

 

Joshua… the mighty warrior of God

Published on September 25, 2011 in A Day in the Life and Religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I heard that Einstein was asked once, “Do you believe in God?” to which he replied, “Which one?”

Today was a pretty typical Sunday for me. I spent roughly three hours in church; singing songs, praying prayers, and reciting incantations. The lesson for today was found in the book of Joshua. I believe the point of the lesson is that Joshua was a great man of God, who didn’t wine, did what he was told to do, and got stuff done. They didn’t really go into exactly what he was getting done. I’m kind of glad they didn’t, seeing that there were small children present.

The book of Joshua is one of the bloodiest books in the Bible. It was the beginning of Israel’s conquest of Canaan, and it is loaded with graphic accounts of wholesale slaughter. Basically, it paints a clear picture of one nation’s systematic and unprovoked genocide of an entire region. They slaughtered men, women, and children – all at the command of their God. It’s some pretty brutal stuff, and unless you can watch a Saw movie on a full stomach… I wouldn’t recommend it.

The ironic thing that I saw in all this is that this message was being preached in a self-proclaimed ‘black church.’ I remember when I was studying the emerging slave trade in Africa, one of the big motivators/rationals for enslaving the natives and treating them horribly was that they were like the inhabitants of Canaan, and God had given Africa to them just as he gave Canaan to Israel. It worked as a great justification for engaging in all manner of cruelty and inhumanity.

In my humble opinion, I don’t believe a God that was good would issue commands to murder, rape, pillage, and enslave entire civilizations.

 

Work and stuff, took down antenna

Published on August 3, 2011 in A Day in the Life and Religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Made it over the hump this week. It’s still frantically busy at work. I’ve been getting up at 3:30 a.m. every morning. That’s getting old. We are making progress though. I don’t foresee having to work these long hours for much longer. For the time being, I am by necessity going to have to learn some time management skills. For starters I’m going to have to make time to manage our church website better. I’ve really been letting it fall through the cracks.

And yes, not only do I still go to church, but I also run a website for said church. I know there are some out there that won’t understand that, so let me explain.

Number one: no, I do not believe that Christianity is factually true. However, I do believe that a lot of the things that Jesus taught are good. Yes, I said good. I think that if you take the Tomas Jefferson route and strip away all the hocus-pocus from the Jesus story, what you are left with is compassion, gentleness, and forgiveness, and I am all about that. I can live by this wisdom, and not have to believe in hell fire and brimstone to do it.

Number two: Denice believes in Christianity, and I respect that. Part of the reason that I believe I am here is to support my wife, and make sure she is happy. If it makes her happy to go to church, pray, and believe – then I support her in this. The one thing I think you will learn about me if you read this blog long enough is that I respect the rights of others to believe whatever they want to believe. I no longer have a need to change others, unless they desire to change. If you are a Christian, then praise God! If you are a Muslim, the peace be  unto you! If you are a Pagan, then blessed be! I like you the way you are. The only thing that I want is for you to fully understand ‘why’ you believe what you believe, and this goes for atheist the just the same. Know yourself.

Sorry, didn’t mean to get into philosophy on this post. The only other eventful thing  that happened today is that I got a chance to really test out my new Leatherman Juice S2 by taking down the rusted out radio antenna that was bolted to our house. It came down faster than Goliath being hit with a rock bullet.

I guess God has it in for Japan

Published on March 13, 2011 in In the News and Religion. 0 Comments

Denice and I, like most people, have been watching the devastation from the massive earthquake in Japan unfold through the Internet and conventional media outlets. To watch a ten foot high wall of water wash away houses, cars, and people like a garden hose on an ant hill is a very horrific experience. Hundreds have already lost their lives to this event; drowned, crushed, burned alive… so much suffering, so much devastation.

Then there are those who want to throw God into the middle of this. They speak of signs and second comings, but do they really understand what they’re doing with they interject their religious ideas into something as awful as this? Is their God so cruel as to annihilate thousands of lives; men, women, and children, just to send a message? Is their Jesus such a bully that he would drown hundreds of children like rats? You bet. He’s done it before. Have you ever heard of the flood of Noah? It’s in the book of Genesis, look it up.

The screenshot here is from a conversation I saw on Facebook. Notice the comments about the earthquake being “a sign,” and about it being “added unto” all those who don’t believe. Well, let me tell you what I believe: I believe that if there is a God, He, She, or It would have better things to do that drown and crush hundreds of defenseless people in order to scare others into believing. The earth is a dangerous place. It’s crust is in constant motion, and earthquakes are a direct result of it. We don’t need a cruel super-being to explain this. It is what it is, so shut up and try throwing in a helping hand. Remember that whole “love your neighbor” stuff? Well, you’re neighbors over there need you now.