Showing posts with label bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bible. Show all posts

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Ken Ham - The Creationist Flim Flam Man and Noah's Raft




I did not watch the so-called debate between science guy Bill Nye and Creationist Ken Ham in their debate in February.

The headlines say that Ken Ham, an Aussie btw (any outstanding warrents in Oz?), is getting funds to build a replica of Noah’s Ark and using those made up numbers in the bible “history” book as a guide for building.

Well the overall estimated cost of Ham’s dinosaur theme park in Kentucky of all places is 150 million.

I for one do not care if he has the resources in timber and wood that could probably fund the wood in a thousand houses for the poor to prove a so called point from the bible history book.

I can only see a half-finished boat rotting away in a half-finished theme park that few except a few home schooled chillins would visit as a tourist bust stop. 

American highways are littered with the rotting wood of tourist attractions that never quite made the mark or black on a bottom line.

Speaking of road side trash. These bible creationist types used to have tales of people who saw the ark in person on Mount Ararat in Turkey and that it was only a matter of time before their secret discoveries would be revealed to the faithful. 

Or that somebody saw the ark in the glacier on Mount Ararat and the snows came back in winter to hide the resting place of proof of the bible and a book with a reference to a big boat on top of a mountain. Mountain Dew to you too. And I am talking 150 proof mountain dew and not the green sodie stuff. lol

Problem with these stories I have heard all my life. The glacier on Mount Ararat has melted away in the mythical global warming thingy that all fundamentalists deny anyway. Where is the original Ark on top of the mountain?

And considering Kentucky, will the lake or body of water that this new half-finished ark will float on be a lake full of coal ash toxic discharge, par for the course in that state, that will probably sink this vessel in the end anyway from the dangerous chemicals in the "water".

Guess I am a pessimist or someone who gets mighty tired of hearing the same old tired stories about Noah's Ark and Ark fund raising scams ad infinitum.



.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Spreadsheetization of The Bible in the Global Culture to Support the Corporate Political Base


Spreadsheet Plus Bible Equals Numbers and or Creationism



Spreadsheeting the Bible Leads to Creationism and other political superstitious delusions.

People generally roll their eyes when I try to extrapolate how I see the whole new Global Culture thing as of and by the Corporate Spreadsheet.

They ignore me when I say that the Corporate Global Spreadsheet has reduced everything and everybody on this planet to commodity status and commodity value. 

That in many instances humanity has little or no cash value in the quest for obscene corporate profits and greed. 

That I assign a label as the Wharton Global Spreadsheet to the contamination and or destruction of our local culture(s) at the expense of this new corporate global money hegemony thing.

That as such, many people think they can ignore the present economics of humanity and still separately and equally apply old fashioned cultural or religious standards to things.

As such, I see on the right the usurpation of religion by politics to win elections and to take human rights and living wages away from humanity.

That the growth of ignorance in religion in my lifetime has I think grown exponentially and with no doubt help from the global corporate hegemony, directly or indirectly.  

That I truly believe that the current growth of fundamentalism and creationism and turning the black on white words of the bible into a commodity to be used for political and economic reasons rather than spiritual growth is due to the Spreadsheet-ization of the Bible into statistics and delusional facts to support the political base. 



.

Genesis 24:10-11 Camels / Mercedes-Benz G-Class full-size luxury SUVs



Genesis 24:10-11 
10 Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master’s 10 Mercedes-Benz G-Class full-size luxury SUVs loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. 11 He had the 10 Mercedes-Benz G-Class full-size luxury SUVs park down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water.


With carbon dating of the domestication date of Camels supposedly mentioned in the bible, apparently not only Fundamentalist Christians are going ApeShit but Israel’s Deed to Palestine comes into question with the questionable provenance of the Book of Genesis.




.

Friday, August 5, 2011

What is Chrislam?



There is a new fear term – fear word - circulating along the born again fear blog networks and that is the word Chrislam.

What is Chrislam?

Actually there is a Christian sect in Nigeria that started the term “Chrislam” in the 1980s in an attempt to build bridges of understanding in a 50/50 Muslim/Christian nation.  In that sect, both the Bible and Koran get respected as valid religious text.

In the context of born again blogs, whenever a megachurch pastor such as Rick Warren sits down and talks to a Muslim or has an interfaith conference or prayer service, or a Sunday school teacher outlines the basic facts of Mohammed or his religion, all hell has broken lose!

(An army of negro muslims has been spotted and rumored to be on the road to Smalleville USA at this very minute? What’s Jeff Davis’ cell phone number!)  Sad.

The ranks of Christian soldiers have broken ranks.  What next? Hispanics in the local Christian town square in the white heartland demanding jobs and socialism?  Secularism! Whatever.

Most of these fear blogs mention two things – Rick Warren – and the Koran/Quran - Korans are being put in the pews of these liberal, progressive, godless churches next to the bible. Yeah right. 

If there are two things the far right GOP Church Party types do not have to fear – that is Rick Warren or the Koran.  Boring stuff.

The same way Rob Bell got labeled as satanic simply because he choose to spell Hell with a small “h” as in hell, Warren can take the heat from these borderline lunatic fringe Christians and their paranoid blogs. And the Koran is simply the Koran.


Get a life people, won't you.

Have a nice day, free of fools and fear.







Saturday, August 8, 2009

God Bless Obama and America Too!


Forgive me – the above image has appeared overnight with a strange mixed message as to what it really means. The image has come out of and is being used in the Birther/Deather (Know Nothing) political movement currently in vogue in the nation’s thought flow. The image in any case does not represent love or respect. In the political arena there are no rules.

It is strange but I follow a troubled soul meter regarding the state of the nation.

Whether it be coincidence or the heat in the political atmosphere, the number of people who seek out and read my Number of the Beast Article goes up in days of political unrest.

My article I wrote in a sort of religious stupor over ten years ago in quest of a more personal and perfect spirituality over and above the mere religions and the attempts by men to touch the Deity, in spirit or in words.

Revelation 13:18 - DCLXVI - The Number of the Beast

The Beast is indeed in Town Hall Meetings these days!

When people are searching for absolutes they look for absolutes in the Bible. I long ago concluded that the Bible is a man made book, sometimes inspired by the Deity. The revelation of God through the message of Jesus is something over and above the rest where that divine message is so crudely recorded in that faulty history book of the Bible.

Over and above it being a very poorly written history book, the only other function I can see in the Bible is one of a road map. It may lead you to points on the map literally or points in your individual journey where you may be closest to a spiritual awakening or even come close to step into the presence of God – transcendent – as in a Transfiguration of your life, spirit and spiritual direction toward eternity.

The bible does not predict anything. The bible only holds the predictions of men.

In times of political unrest, the bible will not tell you anything about the vetting process of a nation that at times seems to be half angel and half demon. We lived for centuries as half slave and half free. I knew that the vetting process of this Presidency might be difficult, I could not predict the weird ways, and particularly for people in the traditional South to accept reality in a real life setting after the 2008 election.

The shouts of anger in the crowds in town hall meetings are becoming more openly racist and evil in its content. Time cures everything. The young are more flexible. The old and much of their ingrained hatred is a decade or two away from the grave.

I pray for my nation to be the best it can be. Should be. I rarely get what I pray for.

God bless the nation. God bless the people right or wrong. God inspire and protect.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Cain - The King



Shortly there after Adam and Eve, the trailer trash couple, recently evicted from Paradise Trailer Park, go on their way and struggle without a guide book through life.

Years later, the two grown sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel go at it for love of an abstract God. “God loves me more!” No he doesn’t!” Etc.

Cain kills Abel and wanders the earth with his wife (where did she come from – his sister?). There are problems with believing only in a literal belief of the Bible especially if you believe that every word comes exclusively from the God person.

The RC church treats the creation myth of Adam and Eve as more or less allegory, except for the Original Sin thing, in that the bottom line of belief is that the first man and woman were the first creatures that God gave souls to.

The literalists, the fundamentalists live, breath and consume the words of God of the Bible thing quite literally.

Perhaps I am a minimalist and a little bit religionist in that I do believe mathematically that someone, two at least, is, are, the beginning of the line of the human race.

Without going into a debate about ancient literary flaws in the Old Testament, perhaps you can get a closer look or at least a closer feel for the murder, incest thing of the Cain, Abel story in the movie The King:

The King

The title is I think a play on words of the first name of the main character Elvis, (Gael Garcia Bernal) looking up a father he has never known, a fundamentalist preacher, (William Hurt), in Corpus Christi Texas.

I won’t give all the plot away but for me at least, I understood the underlying biblical story played out in a modern setting. Other than that be forewarned, about this strange sleeper classic. There is an element of evil there. Rather than turn away or turn off this flick, I was strangely drawn to it not unlike a moth to a porch light.

The human race and the human condition is or is not always portrayed correctly in the Bible, a very human book about humanity.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Thoughts on the Bible from a homeless guy

-
I ran into this on the Internet. It speaks volumes to me about my search to say or find what I think are both the stumbling blocks and possible foundation stones of the future of a Christianity that travels along the road of life into the 21st century and beyond.

The words out of context hit me between the eyes and I have to consider them as something to think about on my travels on that road of life.

I also have to consider them as from a “homeless guy”, not unlike Jesus or the Apostles – and on that homeless man’s blog.

The line that struck me most and as a Cultural Christian that I took greatly to heart was about the Fundamentalist Christian messsage:

“...Instead of having a relationship with God, they have a relationship with the Bible...”

That is something worth repeating in any conversation these days about the road that Christianity travels into the future or into oblivion.

More from the article and the article itself for your reading:

“The Bible is not perfect, and there is plenty of reasonable proof of its imperfection. But, really, does the Bible have to be perfect? I don’t think so. God is still God, with, or without it. For some, though, their faith is founded on the Bible... Instead of having a relationship with God, they have a relationship with the Bible. And instead of developing a life in relationship with God, they spend all their time trying to defend the Bible, defend their faith, defend “Christianity,” etc., etc. But, God needs no defenders. God is perfectly capable of defending himself, and desires for us to instead spend our lives doing His will. A real Christian is not one who makes signs to the world that they are Christian, but is one who feeds the hungry, shelter the cold, provides for the needy, etc. A person who spends all their time trying to convert the already converted, and ignores or neglects their needs, is nursing a dead faith.”

- Kevin Barbieux

http://thehomelessguy.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/thoughts-on-the-bible/
-


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Blessed are the Seekers of Truth - Whoever and Wherever You Are...

I recently called an old friend that I have known for decades. The conversation got around to her granddaughter who was going to grade school at a Greek Orthodox school. Her granddaughter was learning Greek at a very young age. “That’s great.” I said. I then added “that’s one of the things wrong with America these days. They don’t teach the classical languages, Latin or Greek anymore...”

Well the way I think, I remember that Jefferson, among others, knew at least a half dozen languages including Latin and Greek.

So when I hear a typical carnie evangelical talk about this being a christian nation and the founding fathers meant this or that and so on and so forth about the U.S. Constitution, I get a little bewildered.

This strange logic is in keeping with the Bible being the exact and unerring word of God, foregoing any explanations of translations from Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Greek into English (17th Century) to English (20th Century) to go on and on.

I find it annoying lately about these telly evangelicals living in their eighteen thousand square foot homes telling the audience that Jesus meant this when he said that and he meant that when he said this...etc.

Having been an elder in a small congregation, I understand the need to raise funds. Selling a New York Times best seller for seven or eight dollars above retail to the congregation is an acceptable means to me to get some chump change together to help pay the church's electricity bill.

There is one book that comes to mind that I never could read or understand. The title is The Purpose Driven Life. I am not totally knocking it. Success has many surprising parents. I think that there are a dozen or so concepts and the author pushed “word search” on his word processor using a biblical data base. The word search categorized the concepts with tithing at the top of the list as to what God and Jesus wants us to do to have a fulfilling life.

So I tell someone that I do not understand this book that is explaining the bible to me and that person says that I should buy the workbook and attend classes to understand what a purpose driven life is. So let me get this straight. I need a workbook to understand the book that explains what God and Jesus really meant about this phrase or concept or that.

Hey, I read my bible and if I don’t understand one particular passage or that, I do some research.

I will in no way tell any other Christian what they should believe or not believe and I will always use the subjunctive tense to say what I think something in the Bible might mean and within the framework of a lifetime’s exposure to a sacred and secular – Christian culture.

Getting away from my frustration of looking at a media circus and snake oil and former used car salesmen explaining what Jesus really really meant - I escape back to something quite simple to get into the flavor and nature of the Christ.

There is a line by the late comedian Milton Berle about how “laughter is an instant vacation”.

Many times a person such as myself wants an instant retreat from the world or reminder of the simplicity of, and want to touch (retouch), the true spirit of Jesus.

With that in mind I turn to the beginning of Matthew 5 and read the Sermon on the Mount which contains the Beatitudes.

I also prefer the King James Version to hear the sometime poetic flow of Shakespearian like English and the spirit of a great many scholars translating from many ancient and dead languages to keep the words of Jesus alive to this day:

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil...

( do you need another book or a workbook to understand the preceding ? I don’t think so. )

God Bless.

- -