The Value of Religion

[DHodges]

quoted from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 44,00.html:

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

[David Quinn]

It's no surprise, really. Religious belief is violent (it blindly asserts its articles of faith), suicidal (it kills off all higher aspirations), and orgiastic (as anyone who has ever attended a church service would know). You can't have a society engaged in such a massive form of irrationality without it having major consequences.

The most civilized people on earth are probably the Scandinavians, who seem to be quite intellectual, progressive, peaceful, and refined. They are also largely atheistic.

Interestingly, in Kierkegaard's time, Denmark was a Christian state. Everyone was a Christian. Nowadays, over 95% of the population are atheists. I'm not sure what caused that change, but it's very welcome. There is hope for America yet.

-

[MKFaizi]

Somewhat ironically, most Americans believe that going to church is exactly what can prevent the outcomes listed in Dave Hodges' post.

Only within the past two weeks, two young men died and one young woman is in critical condition with a head injury here in Christianity. The one young man killed himself and the other died in a car crash.

The more I live around it, the more that I loathe Christianity. I cannot imagine how anyone could see Muslims as even worse than Christians. If unleashed, I can tell you the Christians around here would start burning people at stakes.

Just after the recent hurricane destruction in New Orleans, I heard one devout woman say, "That is God's way of destroying evil." She expressed also her view that New Orleans needed to be destroyed because the city itself was evil. Yet, she did not think that the destruction of the World Trade Towers was God ridding himself of evil people.

This is not a stupid woman. I estimate her IQ to be in the 130s. (Not that I mean to imply that a high IQ necessarily denotes intelligence. I just mean to point out that she is not mentally handicapped or mentally retarded, despite her ignorance and hatred in the guise of religion.)

Obviously, her religious beliefs make her stupid. Yesterday, she said, "Rheumatoid arthritis is manifestation of inability to forgive." Belief in demonology of some kind, I reckon.

Fortunately, the US does still have at least a pretense of separation of church and state. If not for that little thing, God help us. We would probably make Islamists look beneficient in comparison. Christians would not blow themselves up as suicide bombers. Christians would simply kill anyone who is not Christian outright and not even with the hope of martyrdom.

I live in the Bible Belt. Thank God, there are yet places in the US where such ignorance does not predominate. It is a very uncomfortable feeling to be surrounded by a a Christian majority.

I do not pretend to be a Christian for the sakes of the hard core Christians around me. I do not go to church and I do not claim to believe in Jesus or God. I know two atheists -- one is a receptionist and the other is an eighteen year old girl. The receptionist-atheist made one religious woman very apprehensive to the point that she did not want to work with her. I mean, damn. It ain't contagious. If your Christian faith is so strong, what the hell?

Living in the Bible Belt, I do somewhat envy those who are fortunate enough to live among a more godless populace. Not many godless places left in the US but there are yet a few.

Boston comes to mind. Part of the reason John Kerry could not be elected. Too much of an American Brahmin. Too blue blood.

I reckon the US could do with a dose of blue blood. Personally, I am tired of the rednecks who cater to the religious right. The fear of a Massachusetts liberal is what got out the vote for Bush last time.

There is that element of godless beer drinking rednecks but the fuckers don't vote.

Four more years. Even then, I am not sure I can see the US dropping the religious moral thing. In the current atmosphere, Lyndon Johnson would be a breath of fresh air.

Ya'll pray for us.

Faizi

[MKFaizi]

I feel obligated to point out that one of the best known atheists in the US was one pig of a woman named Madalyn Murray O'Hair. It was her effort that prohibited prayer in US public schools. She went on to amass a great fortune through contributions to her American Atheist General Headquarters, using the contributions of those sympathetic to atheism for her own pleasure.

She was finally murdered by a con man who impressed her with his abilities but who took her for a million dollars.

She was kind of like the Jerry Falwell of atheism.

Faizi

[DHodges]

Just after the recent hurricane destruction in New Orleans, I heard one devout woman say, "That is God's way of destroying evil." She expressed also her view that New Orleans needed to be destroyed because the city itself was evil. Yet, she did not think that the destruction of the World Trade Towers was God ridding himself of evil people.

Did Bush seem shaken by the hurricanes? The WTC was obviously (in the minds of the religious) the work of evil people. But what is Bush to make of it when those people call on Allah to punish us, and we are struck by huge natural disasters?

I'm sure he's rationalized it to himself by now, but to me he seemed a bit shaken at first.

[Dan Rowden]

I'm not sure we can really infer anything from Bush's reactions. I think he's just a dolt who doesn't know how to respond to anything until someone tells him. At bottom I suspect his Xianity is akin to Sadam Hussien's embrace of Islam. Politically convenient but not really there in the consciousness.


Dan Rowden

[MKFaizi]

I pretty much agree with Dan on that. Bush is pretty shallow. I don't think he is capable of inferring much from anything.

Faizi

[MKFaizi]

GW was shaken only because he had no way either to look heroic or at least like John Wayne.

He has been swaggaring for four years or so now. Hurricane Katrina, unlike the war in Iraq or the aftermath of 9/11 was not conducive to swaggar.

Faizi

[avidaloca]

Bush has the worst of all responses to a mammoth disaster in his own country, but the greatest devotion to the invasion of another. I hope that irony isn't lost on those who vote for him.

[MKFaizi]

The war in Iraq has gotten pretty stale. The US is getting sick of seeing its young people killed every day -- for nothing. On the whole, the Iraqis do not like us. The place is utterly chaotic.

Most people, however, do not see how the US can simply pull out. I think that is exactly what we need to do but no one cares what I think.

In short, it looks a lot like Vietnam. Since that is the case, the bullshit will probably go on there for another twenty years.

Inshallah, the next presidential election will be a positive change. I cannot imagine who will be the next president. One possibility is Mark Warner of Virginia. He is a Democrat -- unusual for Virginia -- and he has run a tight ship here.

Could be a Clinton/McCain ticket.

Anything would be an improvement.

Faizi

[Foresta Gump]

Thats exactly what needs to happen, the U.S simply needs to over-ride Bush and pull their men out of the middle east despite what the war-monger says. It is Bush who refused to listen to the world council right from the beginning and he still wants to brawl. Victory to defeat the enemy is uppermost in his killer mentality mind. Unfortunately, killing is where its at, where's the power in that. That isn't victory or power, thats murder! Peacekeepers should run the country, killers should be thrown in a Bull-Pen where they learn who's who. Maybe then he could be voted in as President of the Bull association!
Bush is not respected in this neck of the woods.

[Jamesh]

David: It's no surprise, really. Religious belief is violent (it blindly asserts its articles of faith), suicidal (it kills off all higher aspirations), and orgiastic (as anyone who has ever attended a church service would know). You can't have a society engaged in such a massive form of irrationality without it having major consequences.

All the above is contained in this one article.

Faith Camp
Christian students gather and prepare to defend their beliefs
By THOMAS BARTLETT
Manitou Springs, Colo.

Every year, several hundred thousand visitors pass through this small mountain town. The motels and restaurants that line the main drag depend on tourist dollars for their survival, as do the T-shirt and trinket shops. Most come to marvel at the view from atop Pikes Peak, the very panorama that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write "America the Beautiful" -- her paean to spacious skies, fruited plains, and the grace of God.

Christian teenagers flock here for a different reason. Each summer more than 1,200 of them come from around the country to attend a two-week workshop on how to defend their faith during college. They listen to lectures on creationism versus evolution, abortion, homosexuality, Christianity and the media, euthanasia, and postmodernism, among other topics. While the workshop is sometimes referred to as a camp, that moniker is misleading: On an average day, students sit through six hours of classes. This is not about horseback riding or leather tooling; this is serious business.

Spend a couple of days at the workshop and it becomes clear that, for many of these students, college is fraught with peril. There is the pressure to party, to drink, to have sex. There is also the subtle pressure to conform to a non-Christian worldview. There are biology courses that ask students to accept evolution, which workshop organizers and most of the students reject as untrue and ungodly. There are literature courses that see any text, including the Bible, as open to multiple interpretations. And there are philosophy classes that view absolute truth as nothing more than an illusion.

Professors are often portrayed not as keepers of knowledge, but as clever propagandists determined to undermine the beliefs of gullible Christians. "The dirty little secret of education is that our young people are being indoctrinated into another faith, but they're not told that," says the Rev. David Noebel, the president and founder of Summit Ministries, which runs the workshop. "They're being told that secular humanism is somehow agenda-free and value-neutral when it is not."

What this means for Christian students, he says, is simple: "Either they're going to get serious about their faith, or they're going to lose it." -[ LOL!!!! Faith by habit]

'You Better Be Prepared'

When David Noebel started Summit Ministries in 1962, the group's focus was on communism. In the early days, only a dozen or so students would sign up; Mr. Noebel taught all the classes, and his wife, Alice, cooked all the meals. He also wrote books and pamphlets warning of the dual threats of communism and rock 'n' roll. One of those books, Communism, Hypnotism, and the Beatles, has become an underground classic among memorabilia collectors. Its cover features the disembodied heads of the Fab Four floating beneath an ominous-looking hammer and sickle.

Even after more than 40 years, the 69-year-old minister and author seems to revel in the company of his young students. He calls them "Tiger" and they call him "Doc." As it happens, Mr. Noebel did not finish his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, though his rapid-fire references to philosophers and theologians tend to impress listeners. "Did you know he used to read a book a day?" one teenager asks, her voice full of awe. [yeah, I'll bet he did, speed reading bullshit]

Summit's headquarters is a 61-room former hotel with a large cafeteria and an auditorium where classes are held. Mr. Noebel bought the well-worn building in the 1960s for a song. Since then Summit has acquired 10 houses and 24 cabins located nearby for staff and visiting speakers. Summit has 15 full-time, year-round employees; in the summer, the number grows to nearly 50. The facilities can accommodate a maximum of 180 students at a time. To meet demand, Summit offers seven separate two-week workshops each summer.

The days begin with an hour of Bible study led by Mr. Noebel, followed by a lecture from one of the visiting speakers. On a recent Thursday, the guest lecture was delivered by Dave and Mary Jo Nutting, a husband-and-wife team who founded the Alpha Omega Institute, which is devoted to "exposing the fallacies of evolutionary worldviews and defending the accuracy of the Bible," according to its Web site. They have put together an entertaining two-hour PowerPoint presentation to promote creationism. In one sequence, Mr. Nutting shows a cartoon of a man standing next to a pile of lumber covered with dynamite. The cartoon man lights the fuse and -- boom! -- suddenly the lumber is gone and in its place is a lovely house. "That, folks, is evolution," Mr. Nutting says.

Other regular guests include Mike Haley, whose bio says he was "involved in the homosexual community as a teen and young adult" and is now married (to a woman), and Kevin Bywater, a former Mormon, who is "dedicated to helping Christians understand and effectively reach members of pseudo-Christian religions." One of the most popular lectures is given by Eric and Leslie Ludy, the authors of When God Writes Your Love Story: The Ultimate Approach to Guy/Girl Relationships. The married couple speaks about the importance of maintaining both physical and spiritual purity.

About half of Summit's expenses are covered by student fees. The other half comes from the 6,000 or so donors who consistently support the program. It doesn't seem to hurt fund raising that the workshop has been endorsed by some of the most prominent evangelical leaders in the country, including Tim LaHaye, co-author of the extraordinarily successful Left Behind book series, and James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, located in Colorado Springs, just a few minutes from Summit's headquarters. Mr. Dobson, who sent his son, Ryan, through the program, writes that Summit helps teenagers "suddenly understand the civil war we have described and what it means to them personally."

The "civil war" Mr. Dobson refers to is between those who share Christian values and those who do not. And nowhere is that battle being waged more vigorously, according to Mr. Noebel, than on college campuses: "We tell students, 'You're going off to college and here's what you're going to discover there, so you better be prepared.'"

Bibles and Battles

Craig Thomas wants to be prepared. Mr. Thomas begins his freshman year at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor this fall, where he plans to major in English. He is a big fan of the Christian writer C.S. Lewis and wants to be able to defend his faith with the same kind of rigor and intelligence. Mr. Thomas has an out-of-control mane of curly blond hair and a tendency to become overexcited. At one point, midconversation, he dashes off to look up a quote by the political philosopher Edmund Burke so he can recite it word for word.

Even though he is a devout Christian, Mr. Thomas chose to attend a secular college because it will "make me a more well-rounded person." Still, he is worried about what he will encounter in the classroom. "You always hear horror stories about professors treading on students' beliefs," he says. "I hope they won't ignore my point of view." When a professor or fellow student asserts something that runs contrary to Christianity, Mr. Thomas intends to speak up. And now, thanks to the workshop, he knows what to say. "Without Summit, I would have been very much unprepared," he says.

That's how Sarah Keyes feels, too. Ms. Keyes, a sophomore at Columbia University, came to Summit before her freshman year and decided to return this summer "just to reaffirm what I learned." As part of its well-known core curriculum, Columbia undergraduates study the Bible not as divinely inspired scripture, but as literature. For Ms. Keyes this was distressing. But, she says, Summit taught her that the Bible is "historically accurate," and this knowledge kept her from believing that it belonged on the same plane as Homer or Aeschylus. "It equipped me to think through things and not accept everything I was told," she says.

Still, she experienced plenty of challenges to her faith, and she felt like a second trip to Summit was necessary. "There were several times when I felt professors were trying to undermine my faith, though perhaps not intentionally," Ms. Keyes says.

Most of the students who come to Summit plan to attend non-Christian colleges. During a workshop this summer, Mr. Noebel asked students who were going to Christian colleges to raise their hands. Fewer than 20 went up.

One of those hands belonged to Kendra White. She begins her freshman year this fall at Asbury College, a small Christian college in Kentucky. Even so, Ms. White says she expects to meet students and professors who do not share her beliefs -- and she wants to be ready. She was home-schooled using a Christian curriculum and has participated in Bible memorization competitions around the country. She has committed nine books of the Bible to memory (although, she admits, she's a little rusty on Galatians). She begged her parents to pay the $700 fee and put her on a plane to Colorado.

What specifically does she think she will run into at a college like Asbury? Ms. White has heard rumors from her older brother, who also attends Asbury, of "homosexuality and other stuff that shouldn't be going on at a Christian college." She has already prayed over photographs of each of her fellow incoming freshmen. "I want to put on the full armor of God before I go into battle," she says.

The idea that a Christian student might lose his or her faith at a Christian college might strike some as strange, but not Mr. Noebel. "You don't just lose your faith at the University of Michigan," he says. "You can lose it at Calvin College, too."

Taking Sides

The workshop has only one session devoted to homosexuality, but the topic seems to come up frequently. Mr. Noebel contends that gay and lesbian organizations wield more power than any other group on college campuses. "Much of the faculty is scared to death of them," he says. "The homosexual agenda has been around for a long time, but it's now really at the top." [probably true] In a book he co-wrote with Tim LaHaye, homosexuality is grouped with drug use, "kids killing kids," and abortion as "true signs of a decaying society."

The students are less harsh in their condemnations. "I don't agree at all with homosexuality," says Davy Desmond, who will begin her freshman year at George Fox University in the spring. "But it's not like I'm going to say, 'Hey, you're going to hell.'" Bri Johnson, a high-school junior who isn't sure yet where she will attend college, jumps in: "Yeah. I mean, you dislike the action, but you love the person, you know?"

Students here also seem to agree on abortion. On one day of the workshop, Lyndsay Bennett wore a black T-shirt with the words "Abortion is Homicide" printed in white letters across the front. Ms. Bennett, who is attending Carl Sandburg College, says students watched a video earlier in the week that showed graphic images of an abortion "with a baby's little arms and legs and how the face gets torn into pieces." The video was disturbing, she says, but "they gave us lots of good arguments to use" against abortion.

Students are encouraged not only to take sides on controversial issues like abortion, but also to evangelize whenever possible during college. Some of the more fearless ones even fan out into Manitou Springs to attempt to convert locals and tourists. This is not always appreciated. They are no longer welcome at a certain New Age gift store, and one local innkeeper says students "come up to you and say awful things about how you're going to hell." Other merchants say the students are polite and that they are happy to have the extra business.

Politics and theology mix in a none-too-subtle manner at Summit. In the lobby of the main building hangs a framed drawing of Ronald Reagan. Among some students the words "liberal" and "atheist" are used as synonyms. Mr. Noebel's views on a range of issues, including free-market capitalism (he's in favor of it) and environmentalism (he seems to be against it), slip out during lectures. "The best way to save the spotted owl is to eat them," he says. "Charge $25 a plate, and they'll be millions of them. Trust me. And they taste good -- they taste like bald eagle."

While Mr. Noebel may be kidding about the spotted owl, he does believe in blending politics and religion. In his book, The Battle for Truth, he argues that "the state was established to administer God's justice" and encourages Christians to run for political office. "If the people rejoice when the righteous rule (Proverbs 29:2), the righteous need to rule," he writes.

There are a few dissenters, and even a non-Christian or two, who end up at Summit. At 16 years old, Isaac McBride is one of the youngest attendees, albeit a somewhat unwilling one: His mom made him come. He calls himself "definitely one of the most liberal people here." He says he was concerned about the session on homosexuality but found it less objectionable than he had feared. Many of the students here seem overwhelmed with the workload -- "Our brains are packed, man!" one exclaims -- but Mr. McBride says he wishes there had been more substance. In particular, he thinks that some of the views of non-Christian philosophers should have been discussed more fully. "There's a lot of things Derrida and Foucault can teach us, and to just dismiss them -- it's kind of disappointing," says Mr. McBride, who plans to apply to Reed College.

Such criticism is rare among students, most of whom say they are glad they came. In recent years, Summit Ministries has grown considerably and now offers satellite workshops in Ohio, Tennessee, New Zealand, and Australia. While little known outside of evangelical circles, word-of-mouth advertising has made Summit a household name in many youth groups and Sunday school classes. When asked how they heard about Summit, several students can't remember. "Everyone knows about Summit," one of them says.

On the final night of the workshop, Mr. Noebel's usual after-dinner lecture is replaced with an extended worship service. Students and staff members give personal testimonies of sin and redemption. Then everyone sings. The overhead lights are switched off, and the lyrics are projected onto a large screen at the front of the room. As they're singing, some of the teenagers close their eyes and sway gently to the music, their arms outstretched, their palms turned toward heaven.

[Jamesh]

I have the feeling we should be active in fighting against these religious liers.

How about we communally draft a post about truth that we can go around trolling forums with?

The Supreme Court could turn very ugly.

MIERS FOUND CHRIST, TURNED REPUBLICAN

By 1979, Harriet Miers, then in her mid-30s, had accomplished what some people take a lifetime to achieve. She was a partner at Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely, one of the most prestigious law firms in the South.

But she still felt something was missing in her life.

The NEW YORK TIMES is set to splash the "something" on Page Ones on Wednesday, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.

It was after a series of long discussions with Nathan Hecht, a junior colleague and sweetheart, that led her to a decision that many of the people around her say changed Miers life.

"She decided that she wanted faith to be a bigger part of her life," Hecht said. "One evening she called me to her office and said she was ready to make a commitment," to accept Jesus Christ as her savior and be born again, Hecht said. Miers became an evangelical Christian and began identifying more with the Republican Party than with the Democrats who had long held sway over Texas politics. Developing...

[MKFaizi]

Goes without saying that Roe vs. Wade will be repealed in the near future. My guess is that people will be disappointed with the results. The very people who advocate pro-life will not like the results. Illegal abortion is ten times uglier than legal ones.

The very people who oppose welfare and Medicaid are pro-life. I don't think they can have it both ways. The same people who are pro life are also death penalty supporters. They believe in belated abortion.

Faizi

[Jamesh]

The Right has been complaining a lot about here appointment. personally I think this is just reverse physcology politics, by them complaining they take the wind out of the sails of the liberals. It takes the media story out of the liberals control and prvents them from using it as a tool to attack the right.

[zarathustra]

Postulating the idea of a single god implies the idea of a single truth. such an idea is basically monothestic; thus are joined the conditions necessary to justify an absolute intolerance of the other (enter bush, bagen and bin lardhead ) directed against those who, not holding to the same version of the truth, have thus fallen into error - an error which is also absolute, and against which, if need be, every form of constraint or exclusion may be used. a belief that holds a monopoly on truth thus opens the door to inquisitions and massacre, (take note all you monotheistic atheists!)... 'christ is coming to kick your butt, if you don't believe' or 'we the jews are the choosen people,'or 'allah will see you all in hell if you don't pray five times a day.' intrinsic to this sick shit and on its premises rest every kind of racist ideology, be it jew, arab or gentile. And don't kid yourself my little academics, racism can be spiritual as well as physical, mono as well as multi-cultural.

we know that christianity, judaism and islamism, have all been held back because of the relative weakness of the means at their disposal (bush is working to change this). god in all its masks has plenty to say about this. for example, the judeo-christian bible (a compendium of bad poetry at best). was it not the great one in the bible who set the example by unleashing the deluge on a humanity that did not repair its wrongs against him? david, I believe, also engaged in genocide, when he lived with the king of the philistines, achish (1 samuel 27:9). And good ol' fucking moses organized the extermination of the midianite people (numbers 31:7). joshua massacred the anakims(joshua 11-12, 21-22). a cute little quote: 'in your goodness destroy my enemies.'...( jeremiah to jehovah psalms 138:19)sound familiar? It gets even sexier: 'but of the cities of these people, which the lord thy god doth give thee for an inheritance thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.'..(deuteronomy 20:16).

by propergating the idea of a single and unique truth monotheism tends to devalue the 'other' ( you dumb goyim, you devilish jew, you sinful infidel ) in favour of the complete other. it tends to erase the differences between individuals and peoples the differences being made to appear secondary because they are too human. in isaiah we read: 'all nations
before him are as nothing, they are counted to him less then nothing, vanity...(40:17)...the 'good' books are chock-a-block with this sick shit. Of course, the sickos who swollow it will say 'but you can take it any way you like'....that's the problem.



written by lightening for your edification

[DHodges]

Bush follows the voices in his head. And then the spin doctors rush in....


http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/10 ... index.html

[zarathustra]

.....a truth they serve, seeking
converts to sip from their unholy holy grails
agreeing as they toast
that there's not much more to life
than meets the eye,
whose blindness matches theirs
with all the force of a conviction....







written by lightening for your edification

[Tomas]

.

The Five Iraqs

Scott Ritter offers a little education for imperialists.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200 ... five_iraqs

.

[Tomas]

.

God Can't Be (Dis)Proven

Infernal Ramblings is a Malaysian website focusing on current events and sociopolitical issues. Its articles run the gamut from economics to society to education.

(Philosophy and Religion section)

http://www.infernalramblings.com/articl ... igion/367/

.

[daybrown]

Goes without saying that Roe vs. Wade will be repealed in the near future. My guess is that people will be disappointed with the results. The very people who advocate pro-life will not like the results. Illegal abortion is ten times uglier than legal ones.

The very people who oppose welfare and Medicaid are pro-life. I don't think they can have it both ways. The same people who are pro life are also death penalty supporters. They believe in belated abortion.

Faizi

Be careful what you wish for. One effect of the rise of Wicca is that women are pouring over archeological reports and ancient texts looking for the sources of Native European tradition. One of the results has been the rediscovery of herbal abortions. There's a reason "Bachelor Button" is so named, why "Blessed Thistle" is blessed, and why Queen Anne loved her lace.

There's even a fungi, "Claviceps Purprea" aka 'ergot', which midwives have always used to strengthen uterine contractions to speed delivery. but it works any time. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd trimester for a "miscarriage". I have grown all three herbs, which unlike Marijuanna, are obscure in the landscape, and impossbie to control. I havent seen Claviceps purpurea since I knew to look for it, but that's the way fungi are. You cant grow it commercially, but it'll show up in great abunance one of these years all along the roadsides of America.

No appointment, no protestor line, no adoption sermon, no parental consent, no problem with pharmacists, no doctor bill. You want an abortificant, send me 10$, and I'll fed-x an Oz of Blessed Thistle. No problem.

Interestingly enough, the first grave ever found with herbs (7 medicinals), included Bachelor Button in case you miss a period. This was as Shanidar Iraq. The owner was a Neanderthal,. 52,000 BP. Archeologists have also taken modern forensic equipment into obscure East European museums to look at pot residue, pollens, resins, to find out what the real Transylvanian witches were cooking up.

And among the scholarly sources there is now a French edition of "magic spells and herbal recipes" that was found written on Tocharian documents in the Taklamakhan desert, preserved by the arid conditions, from the 5th century.

[daybrown]

Nevertheless, the progression from Judaism to Christianity, to Islam gets ever more mysogenistic and violent. Islam has 99 names for god, but none of them are "our father".

They all pander to a kind of dementia, but consider how much worse the case has to be to follow a prophet with a 9 year old wife who tells his followers that they get to spend eternity in his Wholy Whorehouse fucking 12 year old virgins. No wonder those poor smucks are suicide bombers. they just wanna get laid.

But the long history of hominids, and the failure of Communism, shows that atheism is a non starter. You need to provide sheeple with a less damaging form of religion. There are better options, as those familiar with my posts know.

Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are all better, but a bit too abstract for the Occidental mind. One of the more interesting sources to study is Kucha, a few hundred miles WNW of the Jade Gate, founded by Aryans, but which became like a college town early in the 1st millennia, with scholars in Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Maniche, vedic, and more obscure traditions.

They were translating texts from among 20 different languages, so both Oriental and Occidental traditions were studied. They've found the shines to 22 different religions in Kucha, but Buddhism was prominent. when the Chinese emperor Tang Tiazong sent Xuan Zang to retrieve original Buddhist texts in the 7th century, Zang started out, spending 6 months, in Kucha.

I have a copy of the Maitreyasamiti texts in Tocharian A, dating from the 5th century, which is a copy of a conversation between the Gautamid queen of Kucha and the living Buddah. And while a lot of it has to do with the issue of how she should perform traditional Aryan rituals, no where in the text do we see where she says what she actually believes. There is no pronouncement of faith whatever.

Course, she is a business woman; the town has merchants from both East and West, and she dont wanna annoy anyone.