The Work of the Devil?

I’m assuming that this will be a rather short blog post because it is mostly just drawn out questions. It has now become common knowledge that I am an atheist and I have a huge problem with the lack of secularism in this country. Today I had, what I like to consider, an epiphany. It lead me to a lot of questions so I would like to direct them outward. But the question/statement I propose is more from the perspective of if there was/is a god.

I was thinking of the idea of there being a devil and the devil playing tricks to make sinners out of people so they would go to hell. So let’s pretend that this devil does exist and that god exists as well. What seems like the most obvious thing to me is that with all the hate, murder, rape, etc. that is in the bible, is it not the most logical conclusion for a theist to come to that organized religion is the work of the devil? God gave us this impeccable ability to think, question, and discover and this religious book tells us not to use what god gave us. Isn’t god giving us all these gifts and telling us not to use it antithetical? So with that said, wouldn’t the next logical conclusion to come to is that god’s infamous test for humans is to put us on a religiously covered planet with only our ability to question, think, and each other to rely on and hope that we trust our brain to overcome the clear lies placed in front of us? Would that not be the better test as opposed to testing us by wanting us not to trust the brains that god gave us?

I based these questions on the Judeo-Christian belief system but it applies to all religions. Maybe, if there is a god, the test is to think for ourselves and to break free from the intellectual chains that religion places upon you.

I am still an atheist and most of you are still theist and that is fine. It is impossible to know whether there is a creator or not and that part is not worth arguing. But what I know for sure is false is the idea that a creator would give us this book filled with murder, rape, slavery, and blindfolds and send us to eternal damnation for pointing out just how idiotic it is. Think about and question everything. If god does exist, then that is why he gave you that ability.

I will send you off with my favorite religious quote. “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones… I am not afraid.” Marcus Aurelius

Shackled

I have never written on this blog about my personal life or growth. But I think that it is relevant today. I am going to write about my awakening and use “Plato’s Republic” to do it. First off, I know many people have not read this book so I will give a brief summary of what relevant story I am referring to. In book VII of The Republic, Socrates uses a story to metaphorically explain a person’s inner ability to become educated. That story is called The Allegory of the Cave.

In the story, a group of people are shackled entirely causing an inability to move or look anywhere besides this wall. It is dark but there are shadows casted onto the wall. Because these people were born and have always lived this way, this is the only reality they know. One day, a person comes down into the cave and breaks the shackles off one of the men. He tries to explain the truth to this man but the truth was too much to bear. He refuses to believe him.

After some time, the cave man is willing to venture on his rescuer takes him higher in the cave behind where they have been shackled. He shows the cave man the fire, the people, and statues that had been behind them causing the shadows to appear on the wall and the voices that were heard. Again, the truth was far too much to bear. It hurt the cave man a lot.

After some time, as before, the cave man was willing to venture on. The rescuer takes him outside but the sun was so bright he could not see. He fell to the ground in agony. He then started to touch the grass and see the shadows casted by the trees. He could later see reflections off the water and then the water itself. It could see the trees and plants and, eventually, he was finally read to see the sun.

The cave man was given the chance to go back into the cave and tell the others what he saw. When he did, the others called him a fool. They resisted and told him to come back and stay with them because that was the true reality. But as much as the cave man’s discovery hurt, he refused to go back. He knew that it was better to know the truth and it hurt than to live in blissful ignorance.

When I first read this story, I saw it as my growing up into an atheist. I went to church and believed in god growing up. But at age 14, I started to have little questions. The little questions turned into big questions. The questions drove me forward into finding answers. It was painful because I never knew anyone who questioned Christianity. But I pushed forward until I finally realized that it could not possibly be true. The questions were my shadows and reflections and the atheism was my sun.

I now see that this story fits so much more than just religion. It fits our entire functionalistic society. We are raised in shackles. Whether our chains are religion or the comfort of having a roof over our head, we are enslaved. Most people are so dependent upon the system that they don’t want to see the truth. They are not ready, even if it is right in front of their face. There are many of us who do see the truth, however. We see that we are used as pawns for a few people’s benefits. They are using religion, money, comfort, etc. to keep us enslaved. We must break away from our shackles if we ever want true freedom. The problem is, are we ready? Are any of us really ready to give up the comfort of that warm cave and go through the pain of leaving without a place to go in order to find the truth? I originally started writing this as a message to others but as I write, I realize that it is a message to me. I may see the truth, but am I ready to break out of the cave and face the fear of the unknown in order to try to free everyone else? I don’t know. But I must. This world needs it and if I don’t, who will? Face your fears, Bryan. Stop looking at the sun through a cage, break out and go feel its warmth. Now is the time!

 

We The People...

Last debate of Obama’s political career was tonight and the resonating point of the night was the last thing said by Bob Schieffer before his sign off. He said, “We all love teachers.” This just felt like a huge slap to the American people. Yes, the phrase “we all love teachers” is mostly true, but it insinuates that everyone is for education. Quite frankly, that is far from the truth.

We have a political field full of people who have never set foot inside a classroom on the teaching end, and they make decisions that affect how we educate our children and affect the United States as a whole. We have an entire party that wants to cut education and make it a for-profit company and another party who claim to be for education but when we need cuts, education is the first to go.

Dwight Eisenhower said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, [and] the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.” Although he does not specify the education system specifically, it is obvious that this is part of what he was talking about. Each year, we raise the defense budget, regardless of conflict, or lack thereof. We go to wars for oil, cut taxes for the richest people, and pay for it by making cuts to our future. We use buzz words like ‘Job Creators,’ ‘Entrepreneurs,’ etc. to justify making the rich richer and the poor poorer. We have a military-industrial-complex, a prison-industrial-complex, a pharmaceutical-industrial-complex, and an Oligarchical government that we allow to tear this nation apart for their pocketbooks. But we cannot allow anymore.

With the system being against the people, there is no more time to wait. They own the police, they own the education system that is making us dumber, and they own everything you buy and everywhere you go. We must not take it anymore. We must stand up. We must fight. There is a war against the people and we are losing. We did not start this war, but, We The People, must win it. It is time that you are honest with yourself… What is worth fighting for? What is worth going to jail for? What is worth dying for?

http://teapartywpbfl.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/we-the-people-have-had-enough/

The Perpetuating Cycle

Second presidential debate is now over and I have spent the last 3 hours inflamed while debating people on Facebook. And the funny thing is, it is the same debate I have every time. It is a debate against the Republicans and not for the Democrats. I have just been proving what most have already known. We do not have an election to vote for the best and brightest, we have an election to vote the lesser of two evils.

The election process is no longer an expression of why you are a good candidate. It is an expression of why you suck less than the other guy. It is downright sickening. What’s worse, is that we have such an idiotic populous that we don’t even see it. The people outside of Washington see this as a fight between left and right; conservative and liberal; Black and White. Well, ok, it is a fight between Black and White, but it’s a fight that no one wins except the rich who invest in both candidates. It is a fight between a right-wing conservative, Romney, and a right-leaning moderate, Obama. If you are a liberal, you have no dog in this fight. If you are an old-school, fiscal-conservative, you have no dog in this fight. This fight really comes down to, who can win over the “uninformed voter,” or as I like to call them, the idiots.

I am losing faith. I am becoming unhopeful, bitter, and I am downright ANGRY. We have a populous who will sit outside for days to get a phone that is exactly like the one they already have, but who won’t take twenty minutes to read what is going on and become informed. We have a populous that is anti-union (the people who brought us minimum wage, the 40 hour work week, weekends, child labor laws, etc.), but are all about unions when it comes to their football.

I have spent so much time complaining about the Electoral College and all the money involved in politics being the reason why third parties can’t win and why our vote is for “the lesser of two evils.” This is a very serious problem, yes. But I am realizing that it doesn’t even scratch the surface of our problems. We have a perpetuating cycle of stupidity in this country. Poor education puts out stupid people; stupid people have stupid kids; stupid kids grow up to be stupid adults; stupid adults don’t read; people who don’t read are not informed; uninformed people are apathetic; apathetic people are uninformed voters; uninformed voters vote like idiots. What more can I say? Stupidity is contagious.

 

 

My Political Platform

No emotional jargon, no party bias. This blog is going straight to the point. I don’t have any real plan as I begin writing this blog, aside from saying what I believe in, politically; so it may bounce some. In no particular order, here we go: 

1.      I believe that adults can make adult decisions. I don’t think it is the government’s place to tell you what you can do with your body. This includes, but is not limited to, decriminalizing drugs, decriminalizing prostitution, keeping abortion legal, making birth control readily available, and making gay marriage legal.

a.       By decriminalizing drugs, we can not only save billions by ending the worthless and expensive war on drugs, we can use the money that has gone towards arresting and detaining the non-violent offenders and use it towards rehabilitation. As history shows us, prohibition does not work; it only creates a Black Market. By legalization, regulation, and taxation, you eliminate the black market, take the violence out of the drug industry, clean up the product and produce revenue.

b.      To go along with the same thinking as drugs, prostitution must also become legal. We live in a country where capitalism is legal, consensual sex is legal, but it is illegal to combine the two. Again, prohibition does not work; it only creates a violent and dirty black market. By legalization, regulation, and taxation, you get the violence and STD’s out of the industry while creating revenue.

c.       Abortion did not begin at Roe v. Wade, women dying from abortion stopped and Roe v. Wade. Again, history shows us that prohibition does not work. Keep it safe.

d.      Not only is birth control an adult choice that fits “personal responsibly,” where they are choosing to wait to have children until they are financially and emotionally ready, it is a health and economical issue. By educating people on birth control and safe sex, you lower the amount of teen pregnancies, abortions, and you lower the amount of welfare recipients.

e.       Making gay marriage legal is a civil rights issue. It is allowing all citizens to be able to reap in the benefits of becoming a legal partner to the person they love without the issue of the dreaded, “Separate, but Equal.” It is also an economical issue. It will add in 10% of the population to possibly spending money in the $72 billion wedding industry adding a boom to the economy.

2.      Get money out of politics. Give each participant a set amount of money they can spend on the election. This will put a huge dent into the economic burden of the Military Industrialized Complex, the Prison Industrialized Complex, Big Oil, Big Pharmaceutical, and all the other companies that are flooding politics with money to lead to more profits. It will help return the government back to the people and end the oligarchy.

3.      Get rid of the Electoral College. It is outdated, makes votes unequal, and causes the candidates to focus on a small amount of states, instead of the entire country’s interests. It also makes it to where it is mathematically possibly to only win 22% of the popular vote and still win the presidency. In fact, 5% of all presidential elections have allowed the loser of the popular vote win the election. This is not democracy.

4.      EDUCATION!!! We need to revamp the education system

a.       Get rid of tenure. Make all teachers go through evaluations every 3 years. If you fail the evaluations, you have one year of probation to fix it and undergo reevaluations before you lose your job.

b.      Increase the pay of teachers nation-wide. Make the teacher profession a desired career path that is both fulfilling and financially stable.

c.       Start with a top-down approach (college-kindergarten) to standards based education. Get rid of grades. Set a standard for where students should be at all subjects before they are ready for college and teach toward the standard.

                                                              i.      Have classes based on ability, not age. If they are twelve and are ready for college, that is fantastic. If they are 22 and not quite ready, that’s fine too. We want prepared citizens.]

5.      Cut the military budget. Our military budget is overinflated, and is more than the next 20 countries combined. We need to stop policing the world. We have over 1500 bases worldwide. We need to close all bases in allied countries and move our focus to diplomacy over intimidation.

6.      Take away subsidies for things that are bad for our health and our environment and move the subsidies to things that benefit our health and our environment. For example, end the subsidies on oil and corn, Multibillion dollar industries, and shift it towards healthier foods and clean, renewable energy sources. It will lower our health costs in the long haul and help us become energy self-sufficient. We should also tax the things that are unhealthy for us like drugs, fatty foods, high polluting companies, etc.

7.      Universal Healthcare (Medicare for All). Studies have shown that a single payer/private provider is the best bang for your buck. Not only will it save us money on healthcare, but it will cover all the people. It is the right thing to do while remaining good economics.

I have many more ideas, but these are the most noticeable ones and I believe that if these ideas were implemented, we would fix our economic crisis and become a better country overall.

 

I’m Bryan Lindstrom and I approve this message.

The 'Honey Boo Boo' Nation

As this year’s presidential debates kick off tonight, I am compelled to point out the fact that it is one big light show. We have the ridiculously extreme right of the Republican Party facing off against the right-leaning, moderate Democrat Party. The Libertarian Party candidate, Gary Johnson, The Justice Party Candidate, Rocky Anderson, The Green Party Candidate, Jill Stein, and the Constitutional Party Candidate, Virgil Goode, are all blacklisted. We have 50 contestants for Miss America, 100 flavors of chips, a dozen fast-food restaurants, but for the most important role in America, we have a choice from two.

 

They call this ‘Freedom.’ They call this ‘Choice.’ But what we all neglect to see is that we have the illusion of choice and the illusion of freedom. We don’t have either of these things. In our Oligarchical system we call Democracy-- where the rich “Job Creators” can flood both parties with billions of dollars-- they are the ones who call the shots. We are a screwed country until some drastic fundamental changes happen in our government:

1.      Overturn Citizens United and get money out of politics.

2.      Remove the filibuster. It is a political coup and only makes the parties more dogmatic.

3.      Remove the Electoral College. It is outdated and makes citizens have their votes count unequally and can mathematically allow a presidential candidate become president with as little as 22% of the popular vote.

4.      Get rid of the two-party system. Open up the debates to anyone running and allow all people onto the ballots in all 50 states and remove the party title next to candidates’ names. Force voters to become educated on the candidates.

Until these changes take effect, our political system will continue to be an Oligarchy that the masses call Democracy. It seems like common sense to most of the people I talk to but as Voltaire said, “Common sense is not so common.”

But yet again, I don’t expect anything to change. With the masses being so uninformed, uneducated, and overall, apathetic to anything that really matters, we’ll continue to be this shitty, lazy, “Greatest Country on Earth.” Do us all a favor, turn off Honey Boo Boo, Fox News, Jersey Shore, and House Hunters and read for a change. You might learn something.

True or False, It's Useful

(Warning: This post is choppy and not my best job articulating. Give me a break, it’s been 9 months without writing.)

By no means am I afraid to say it. I am a liberal and an atheist. So I will be the first to admit that I write from a biased perspective. But I still think that it is unbiased to claim that organized religion is the root of all evil.

I know today is September 11^th and the easy target would be the Islamic religion and the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But I think that is a copout. Being in America, it is very easy to look at the Islamic religion and say they are ‘extreme’ because we view them as an ‘other.’ But what the average American lacks is the realization that the Islamic, Christian, and Jewish faiths are extremely similar.

Topic	Christianity	Islam	Judaism
Origin of the Name	From the Greek:christos, 'Anointed' - referring to Jesus Christ.	Derived from an Arabic word for 'submission'. Also related to the Arabic word salaam, 'peace'.	From the Hebrew:Yehudim, 'Judah'.
Founder	Jesus Christ (c. 4 B.C. - 30 A.D.)	Mohammed (570 - 632 A.D.) 1	Abraham (First Patriarch, born c. 1800 B.C.)
Divisions	Three main groups: Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic.	Two main groups: Sunni and Shia (The division occured due to a dispute as to the legitimate successor of the prophet Mohammed). There is also a mystical/ascetic movement in Islam known as Sufi.	Several divisions, including Hasidic, Conservative and Reform Judaism. Ethnic groupings include Ashkenazi (The majority) and Sephardi Jews.
Followers (2009 Estimates)2	2,200 Million (2.2 Billion)	1,500 Million (1.5 Billion)	14 Million
Nature of God	One God, who exists in three distinct persons (The Trinity): Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).	One God (Arabic: Allah), who is not a trinity. The Islamic view of God is called strict Monotheism (Quran 112:1).	One God (known in English as 'Yahweh' or 'Jehovah') - "...Hear Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Holy Book(s)	The Bible (from the Greek:Biblos, 'books'), given by God to man. The Bible writers were inspired by God in their writings. Thus Christians refer to the Bible as the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16).	The Quran or Koran (Arabic: 'recitation'), revealed to the prophet Mohammed over a period of about 20 years. The Quran is the final revelation given by Allah to mankind.	The Hebrew Tanakh, similar to the Christian Old Testament, comprised of the Torah (Hebrew: 'Law'), Nevi'im ('Prophets') and Ketuvim ('Writings').
Jesus Christ	The second person of the Trinity and born of the Virgin Mary. "...true God from true God" (Nicene Creed)	A prophet, sent by Allah and born of the Virgin Mary, but not divine (Quran 5:17).	An ordinary Jew, not the Messiah nor a divine person.
Jesus Christ, The Mission of	To reconcile Man to God, through his death as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.	To proclaim the Injil, or gospel. This gospel has been corrupted over time by human additions and alterations.	As Judaism rejects the idea of Jesus as Messiah, his mission is of no relevance.
Jesus Christ, The Death of	"...For our sake he was crucified...he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again...he ascended into heaven..." (Nicene Creed)	Jesus was not crucified (Quran 4:157), but was raised to Heaven by Allah (4:158).	Jesus was crucified for his claim to be divine.
Holy Spirit	The third person of the Trinity, truly divine: "....with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified." (Nicene Creed)	Identical with the Angel Gabriel, who appeared to the Prophet Mohammed giving him the Quranic text.	Not a distinct person, but a divine power which for example, was given to the Prophets.
Other Traditions	The writings of the early church fathers and ecumenical councils, including the Creeds.	The Hadith, a collection of traditions/sayings of the Prophet Mohammed. The Hadith functions as a supplement to the Quran, giving guidance to Muslims for daily living.	The Talmud, an oral tradition explaining and interpreting the Tanakh. It includes the Mishnah - a code of Jewish law.
Examples of Rituals	The Sacraments, including Baptism and Holy Communion(Eucharist). In Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, five more are added, viz: Confirmation (Chrismation), Marriage, Penance, Holy Orders and Anointing of the sick. Prayer is also an important part of the faith.	Five important rituals (known as the pillars of Islam): 1. Shahadah - A profession of faith. 2. Salat - Prayer five times daily. 3. Zakat - alms giving. 4. Sawm - Fasting during the Holy month of Ramadan. 5. Hajj - Pilgrimage to the Holy city of Mecca.	Rituals include the Circumcision of newly born Jewish males, Barmitzvah - a ceremony marking the 'coming of age' of Jewish Boys and observation of the Sabbath (Shabat). As in the other faiths, prayer is important. The Jewish prayer book is called the siddur.
Sin	We inherit a sinful nature through our common ancestor Adam, who rebelled against God. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins through his death on the Cross (Romans 5:12-17).	There is no concept of original sin, nor vicarious atonement. All Humans are born sinless, but human weakness leads to sin.	Judaism rejects the doctrine of original sin. Atonement for sins commited is made through seeking forgiveness from God in prayer and repentance. In addition, the day of atonement (Yom Kippur) is set aside specially for this purpose.
Salvation	By grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).3	Achieved through good works, thus personal righteousness must outweigh personal sin (Quran 23:101-103).	Through good works, prayers and the grace of God. There is no parallel to the Christian view of substitutionary atonement.
Hell	A place of everlasting punishment for the unrighteous (Matthew 25:46). There is no crossover between Heaven and Hell.	A place of torment and fire (Quran 25:65, 104:6-7). In Islam, Hell is known as Jahannam. Jahannam has several levels and a person may not necessarily spend eternity there.	Tradtionally, there is the concept of Gehinnom or Gehenna - those who die in sin may suffer temporary punishment, but certain sins merit eternal punishment. However, Judaism's ideas of the afterlife have varied widely among different groups and in different time periods. For the most part, Judaism does not emphasize the afterlife.
Topic	Christianity	Islam	Judaism

http://christianityinview.com/xncomparison.html

As you can see, these three religions are extremely similar, yet, for years have been killing each other over who is right. So if Islam is extreme, Christians are just as extreme.

Throughout history, religion has killed the great thinkers and suppressed science, leaving us less advanced than we should be. It was the reason Aristotle was put to death, the reason the Dark Ages occurred, the reason for preventing stem cell research, etc. etc. etc. Religion has also been the root of hatred in the recent hundred years of our civilization. First it was the excuse to prevent Black’s rights, then Women’s rights, then Homosexual’s rights, and then back to Women’s rights again. Religious people find what they hate, then pick and choose evidence from their spiritual book to back it up.

I can beat you to death with the historical evidence of the atrocities brought on by religion. But if you have made it this far through this post, I’m assuming you either already know them, or are open minded enough to research them on your own because that is not the point of this post. My reason for posting is to pose this question. What is the solution? Do we continue to keep our mouths’ closed and tolerate religion dictating our lives and continuing to hold their thumb over our progress in science and our human rights? I say, “No!” We, as free-thinkers, must come out of the closets and no longer keep our mouths’ closed and stand up for our rights and everyone else’s. We are the largest minority group in American and let other’s dictate what we can and cannot do and what is considered right and wrong in this country. This country was established as a secularist country and we must fight for it to stay that way. As Seneca the Younger said, “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” We must no longer let it dictate our lives.