Comment

Comment by Laars Zwarte on January 8, 2013 at 3:05pm

No, not at all. I guess this is why it all disgusts me. In a nutshell.

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 8, 2013 at 12:13am

OK, here is my opinion, Laars. The Religious Right in USA wallow in the stories of the Old Testament and follow the New Testament with the belief that their god is the only god and their only god gave them certain rights, like property, slaves, subordination of women, prejudice against people of color. Here are the tools of torture used by religious to gain power and control over others. 

Enforcing the Faith – Missionaries or Murderers?

OH I can hear the comments coming by the dozens with my over-generalization. 

But just look at our history! Colonials took land from native peoples of the Americas, they brought slaves from Africa, they formed militant groups such as KKK and Arian Nations, all claiming to be christians and the moderate churches remain silent in the face of such nonsense.

These religious zealots believe they have the right to whatever they want and are willing to kill and destroy anyone and anything that gets in the way. ... still silence from moderate churches. 

People who do not believe their way are seen as communists, socialists, free-loaders, there were black-lists and people who disagreed with them could not get work. They try to privatize everything from schools to medicine to prisons to water.

They do an excellent job of organizing and got onto school boards, city councils, county and state political positions and start pushing their silly legislation according to their biblical teachings. They bought up the air-waves and news papers and TV stations and censor the news. Many citizens gullibly buy into propaganda while hate mongers ooze out of media. Fox News types and Rush Limbaugh sorts proliferate. Still no outcry from moderate churches. 

Intelligent Design started creeping into science classrooms and indoctrination, based on hope in some mythical spirit and fear of some demonic spirit grew and grew and grew until they had their hands on the pursestrings of not only government, but also on business, education, health care and politics. Just look at how much Right Wing Radicals spent on the last election. And still the moderate churches remain silent. 

Labor laws began to crumble, Equal Rights for Women failed to pass, there grew to be too many workers for the numbers of jobs available, and the gap between rich and poor began to grow, slowly at first, but faster and faster until we have a "hockey stick" graph of the gap between rich and poor. 

God's people feel entitled to be gun toting vigilantes to "protect" their property. Funny, assault riffles seem to qualify as "protection."

The definition of love is distorted by beliefs and faiths of people who follow Bronze Age tribal camel herders and their teachings. They don't seem to realize the world is moving on into a new realm of personal and interpersonal relationships. Control and power over is not working and it hasn't for a long time. Competition is throwback to times when bows and arrow, maces, swords, and guns, determined who was victor. It seems dead bodies and destroyed cultures, made possible by atomic and nuclear weapons, result in victory for no one. And the mainline churches remain silent... No they don't! they cheer our young men and women as they march off to war pretending they fight to protect our nation. That is pure nonsense. Just look at where the wars occur, what resources they have that we want. 

And silliest of all, an theist has a very tough time getting elected; in fact, most atheist realize it isn't worth the effort. Well, we will see. The mainline churches continue to support warring. "Onward Christian Soldier" seems to be sung a lot by little old grandparents, parents, and spouses for their men and women who go to imperial wars. 

Well, that is my opinion; sorry you asked? 

Comment by Laars Zwarte on January 7, 2013 at 11:07pm

Soooo,changing topic here.

It would seem the more godless friends I have they seem to be, are against or at the very least do not want a gun. Why to god and guns go together so often if you are supposed to love ye one another? Love thy neighbor? Blah de blah.

I almost fell for the gun "battle" (no pun intended) saying it's about "control" and not prohibition, but I may as well be talking Atheism...same diff.

Discuss?

ps: I am for control, though I hate the perceived necessity for weapons unless you are related to law, military, or politics. If you are so geared towards protecting your stuff then you either live in the wrong place, or there is vast wealth inequity.

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 7, 2013 at 1:58am

Thank you Laars, I and many family and friends come here for contemplation and a nice cup of tea. The design supports meditation. 

Comment by Laars Zwarte on January 6, 2013 at 6:48pm

What a lovely sanctuary, Joan!

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 6, 2013 at 5:15pm

Laars, the one entitled "Geometric Garden Designs" is not my garden but has many design ideas. 

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 6, 2013 at 5:13pm

Laars Zwarte, go to Joan Denoo's photo albums, there are several scattered throughout the album section.

Comment by Laars Zwarte on January 6, 2013 at 3:52pm

The yard garden sound wonderful, do you have any pictures?

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 6, 2013 at 12:28pm

Philip, My goodness, did you ring bells for me! I, too, found "Desire is the cause of all my suffering," and once I knew that, I could look at my pain in an entirely different way. I also reframed my experiences as opportunity to challenge morals and ethics that keep me tied to old attitudes, beliefs, customs, traditions and values. I call these ABCTV. Realizing family violence affected not only me and my children but legions of other families. So, my campaign to bring awareness to my family and friends of what happens in cycles of family dysfunction, the damage it causes, and the remedies. My family and friends get tired of my pontificating, but they are welcome to block my site and not read my stuff because there are still others who do not know.
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” is another important understanding and I carefully and deliberately designed my home and garden to be a peaceful place where "kids, cats and cabbages" could become all they can be. When I moved into my home 38 years ago, it was condemned, had a thicket for a garden, and was filthy; I bought it for the price of the land. We tore out, moved walls, changed stairways, inside and brought in a huge truck with equipment and tore the garden to the soil and began designing a peace garden. I called it my "Patch of Earth, dedicated to kids, cats, and cabbages" and I created an environment that was healthy for all who live here. I chase away anyone who is not willing to behave peacefully. That created some embarrassment for my three children, but my reputation grew as a mean old lady not to be messed with.
Thank you, Philip, for telling your story. It is an important one and worth letting others know.

Comment by Philip Jackson Armstrong on January 6, 2013 at 10:28am

Joan...Probably equally sad is my ability to communicate what I experience.  About 40 years ago I read a book about Siddhārtha Gautama.  My interpretation of one simple concept was the most life altering event I ever experienced. Desire is the cause of my all suffering, all negative emotions. Everything that hurts me is self inflicted. And when I let desire go and accept reality, I  live mindfully and don't waste the time I have to live needlessly in pain or distraction. Schizotypal sounding statement perhaps but true, and this understanding has made my life very not sad!  The point is pretty much one sentence drastically changed my life, you don't need some paradigm outside of yourself to find enlightenment so to speak. Buddhisim is to the words of Buddha the same as Christianity is to the words of Jesus; obfuscation.  Some people like the extra layers of abstraction of Buddhism vs Buddha. But Buddha said it best, “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”   It's so simple. Sad that people so often miss Buddha's message because of his followers.

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