I'd Probably Have A Higher Opinion

of Bible-Bangers is they had a better understanding of their religion.  Here's an example I found this morning in the AJCs The Vent:
Animals were not put on this earth to "feed and clothe" us. They were put here for companionship and only became part of the diet after the flood destroyed all vegetation. Catch up on your history.
This all started when someone bitched about Joe Namath wearing a fur coat at the Super Bowl. Then someone else mentioned that animals were put on earth to feed and clothe us. Then today there was the above comment which remarkably got voted down to the bottom. I say remarkably because it is Georgia after all!! Even I know the above comment is pure BULLSHIT and I haven't read the bible, just the parts I needed to read to be confirmed* as a Lutheran when I was in high school. (After learning more about religion I became a Born-Again Agnostic.) When Adam and Eve got kicked out of the garden is when they stopped being Vegans and felt the need for clothing.

Also this morning one of my bible-banging relatives posted  something on facebook by some sky-pilot saying paying taxes are bad. Something about the king wanting more taxes and all more taxes does is the rich get poorer and the poor get poorer. The only one that gets richer is the king. 
Now, we don't have a king, but in any case what happened to Heysus (one definition is King of Kings, does that mean not to pay taxes [tithe] to this king also??) telling everyone to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. In other words if the government demands taxes be paid it's your obligation to pay them, or is he saying that because the church doesn't have to pay any taxes its members don't have to pay taxes either. The fucking ironic part of this is my ignoramus relative doesn't pay any income taxes because he is on disability and disability income is exempt from tax. Now, who better to pay taxes than those that can afford to pay versus those that can't??

When did the church side with the rich? I seem to remember lots of passages that talk about helping the poor and none about helping the rich. I guess when the kings and the rich got religion the church started to side with them, but in that case why be against paying taxes to the king????? It doesn't make any fucking sense and that's why I have such a low opinion of religions in general!!

*The only reason I had to go to conformation classes and be confirmed was because when my dad was a kid in Finland you had to be confirmed in the church in order to do a lot of things. Besides getting married, you needed to be confirmed to be able to testify in court and in order to get a good job!! That's just a couple of things that required confirmation in the church, there were others, but I haven't really gone looking for what all there was.

Try Religion??

Mass Delusion or What??

I've been wondering lately why most people religious or not have to believe there is a higher power.  Whether it (the higher power) is controlling things or just started the ball rolling is irrelevant. Just because Mankind hasn't been able to create life in the lab without adding a few drops of swamp water doesn't mean there has to be a higher power. NO, it just means nobody has hit on the right combination of parts and the right trigger to set it off.

There are various estimates on the number of stars in the universe, anywhere from 9 to 300 sextillion (that's a 1 followed by a shitload of zeros, 21 or 36 take your pick). There are probably billions of planets with the right conditions for life and maybe millions with life, altho' it may not be life as we know it.  The thought that we are created special and the only planet with life strikes me as being very conceited.

I go by the theory that we are a fluke of the universe, in that SHIT HAPPENS, sometimes it's good shit, sometimes it's bad shit, but shit nevertheless. The fact that I believe we are a fluke doesn't mean there aren't a lot of other flukes out there.

Ever since I figured out that religion was a big lie, I've had no problem with not believing in a higher power.  Hey, shit happens, we're here, deal with it.  The older I get and the more I learn, the more I wonder about those that would believe in a deity that would through a matter of good timing allow psychopaths (serial killers, rapists, etc.) a free ride to heaven because just before they die they ask forgiveness and accept HeyZues as  their savior, but would send someone who lives a good clean life to Hell to suffer for eternity simply because they don't believe in the deity.  What a vindictive bastard!!

I have no problem with most of the Big-Bang theory, but something I read recently had me scratching my ass!!  Recently I read something that said the Big-Bang Theory supposedly started with a single atom and some kind of spark or lightning bolt and that atom expanded millions of times a second until in the space of a few minutes or hours all the material in the universe was created.  Now that seems as fantastic to me as the story of some old bearded dude sitting around in the dark bored and deciding to create heaven and earth and all the stars (let there be light), all the plants, fishes, and animals.  Then from mud creates the first man, first woman from mud is a failure, so makes one from the man's rib.  Both the starting from an atom and starting from Adam require taking things on faith of which I am lacking.  Both seem to me like flip sides of the same coin and have no currency with me.

I've also heard that there are some who think if they build a telescope powerful enough and point it in the right direction, they can see the actual beginning of time.  See the Big-Bang happen.  What if the light from that moment passed by us a couple of eons ago???

Anywho, thinking you are powerless and there has to be a higher power to explain how shit happens is to me the epitome of low-esteem.  Once when I said the Groucho Marx line, "Any group that would have me as a member, I don't want to join."  Someone said I must have a low opinion of myself.  I said, "No, I have a high opinon of myself, just a low opinion of others, especially groups."

Quite the Comparision

H/T to PENolan who posted this video on facebook.

George Carlin

Last night I watched the Mark Twain Prize for George Carlin on PBS. So I went to YouTube and found some of his stuff. Below is George Carlin doing the "Seven Words You Can't Say on Radio and TV".


Below is his take on religion.

George Carlin was quite the wordsmith. Here is the website for George Carlin.

We saw George Carlin live in Omaha a couple years back. Originally, the show was to be in Dec. but got postponed to Feb. because he had health problems. It was worth the wait because he was in fine form that night.