Ebola and Religious Terrorism

Religious terrorism is the Ebola virus of civilization. It spreads under conditions of poverty and intolerance  when  ideologies become infected by zealots. It's unquenchable rage from those who see no meaningful future for themselves. It's madness masked as Barbarism. Like a parasitic vampire it sucks the blood of the host religion. Islam risks losing it's relevance in modern society unless members of that faith speak with one voice  and condemn the Islamic terrorists who claim they are acting in the name of God.

Don't Blame God

Christians, Jews, Muslims have been at war with each other ever since our species abandoned Pagan Gods in favor of a monotheistic male God  more than 20  centuries ago.  The ancient Jews created their version of God in dark caves and wrote what later became known as the "Old Testament".  They paid a steep price for their heresy. Later, a spell binding healer named Jesus came along and was quickly and efficiently crucified by the pagan Romans. There is debate about this- but some claim that Jesus was resurrected from his grave.Whether that was the case, or not,  his disciples and their descendents traveled far and wide in the old world to resurrect his reputation in order to create a new religion called "Christianity". Not to be out done, a self proclaimed prophet named Mohammad decided that Arabs deserved their own version of a male God and very quickly the doctrine of Islam spread throughout the shores and trade lanes of the Mediterranean Sea. Problems quickly arose when Jews, Christians and Muslim all  began to claim the holy sites as their own and promoted their own version of God's words and directives to humanity. All three religions have been at war within their own ranks and with one another ever since. There are dozens of divisions and versions of Christianity, numerous versions of Islam, and the same goes for those who follow the Jewish faith.  Neutral observers have fruitlessly pointed out over the centuries that each of these religions appear to worship the same God, and pay their respect the many of same prophets. They also have in common that all three religions were created by men, not women, and that the men firmly place the blame on women for arousing their sexual urges. Therefore each religion encourages women to maintain their virginity and to wear modest clothing that will not unduly arouse men. The  ensuing centuries have given us the crusades, the "Inquisition", the attempt by Nazis to exterminate Jews, the creation of a "Jewish State", and now deadly warfare between several branches of Islam.

The warriors of our species have always carried their Gods into battle and the very first action of the victor is  to displace the Gods of those who are conquered. There is nothing new about the religious wars we're witnessing in the Middle East other than the fact that the weapons have become more deadly and efficient over the centuries. All three religions and their various sects still basically worship the same monotheistic "God" concept. Many observers note that religion evolved out of superstition. Our ancestors, failing yet to understand the laws of physics, the existance of planets, and the behavior of stars - didn't fully trust the Sun to return periodically, nor an eclipse to end, or understand the cause of diseases. Our tendency has always been  to defy what we don't understand and pray that it will continue, or go away- as the case may be.

Whether or not we share the views of others when it comes to religion, it might be useful to remember that the word itself implies something "supernatural". While there is much that we do not understand about the Universe and the concept of "life" there can't, by definition, be anything "supernatural" about something that clearly exists. We exist therefore life, and all that we witness or fail to understand, is perfectly "natural".
The fact that we don't understand something doesn't necessarily mean that it's" super natural", it just means that we're still in a state of ignorance.  No one can, or should, deny our never ending search for spirituality in our daily lives -even though we appear to be the only species who strives to find such meaning. If religion serves that purpose so be it. But maybe we can agree that killing each other over our differing views on spirituality is as contrary to any concept of spirituality as can possibly be imagined. It's been said many times that there is no God worth worshiping who would condone all of this hatred and killing. If we must worship let's worship a God that brings us together in peace - not a God that urges us to kill one another.

Contradictions:

Try these on for size:

People opposed to abortions who are also against birth control.

People opposed to abortions who are also against providing financial assistance to unwed teenage mothers who do the right thing and then try to finish their education so that they and their child can escape poverty.

Christians who claim to follow the teaching of Jesus while urging the government  to turn back  undocumented immigrants seeking a better life in America.

Flag waving wealthy corporate CEO's who claim to be patriots while moving their businesses offshore in order to avoided paying their fair share of income taxes.

Self righteous anti- immigration people who claim that their ancestors came to America legally -ignoring the fact that our ancestors immigrated to America illegally without the permission of the true Native Americans - many of whom still live in poverty on Reservations. 

Wars

 If there is one constant in human history it's the impulse to invade, plunder, and rape. As far back as we can trace our history it's been a long series of wars, conquests, slaughter, and subjugation. The story never changes except for a few variations of the plot and the cast of actors. The plots revolve around intrigue, religion, territory, race, wealth, land,  resources, or any other possible excuse to stir people to take up arms against an imagined foe. The villains come from central casting where there is no shortage of unemployed evil doers with  over inflated egos ready and willing to wreck havoc upon unsuspecting populations. We call these actors our "leaders".  Leaders acquire power through inheritance, intrigue, brutal conquest, and persuasion (aka election). Once in power their primary  instinct is to acquire more power and attack other neighboring leaders. Somewhere back in Africa millions of years ago when we came down from the trees and started walking around hitting each other on the head with clubs and rocks there were probably a few sociopathic males with a "leader" gene in their DNA. That gene shows up at least once or twice every generation to produce people like Genghis Khan, Hitler, and the numerous other "leaders" who we all too eagerly follow into deadly warfare against our fellow human beings.

Boycott Partrisanship

For those of us who are sick of all the negative  political attack ads on television the best way to stop them is to boycott their advertisers and sponsors. Just drop a line, or call the TV stations and tell them that if they keep running the negative ads you're going to boycott their advertisers. Then make a call, or write a letter to the advertisers and tell them you're going to boycott their products. It's that simple. Television stations, media outlets, and the press  make a lot of money running these negative ads which only serve to pit us against each other and  encourage extreme partisinship. The result is that we end up with politicians who represent narrow minded ideologies.  It's up to us to say enough of the childish bickering! Just say no to political divisivemess.

 Putin's claims of American Hypocrisy?

Putin's land grab in the Crimea is very similar to America's invasion of Mexico in the 1840's when President Polk decided to use force to acquire Texas, California, and portions of Arizona and New Mexico. .Polk claimed that it was America's "Manifest Destiny" to own that land. He sent troops into Mexico and forced the President of Mexico to sell the land to America at the point of a gun. This caused an International uproar and our actions were broadly censured. The invasion was preceded by Mexico filing complaints against American citizens who were illegally migrating into Texas -which at that time was owned by Mexico.

We sometimes wonder why other Nations accuse us of hypocrisy. Our blatant land grab in Mexico, our invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan are examples, as is our claim that we alone should be allowed to own nuclear weapons. We are after all the only Nation who so far has used nuclear weapons to kill thousands of non-combatant citizens.

Governments are supposed to protect individual freedom and provide for the general welfare of their citizens  not repress,  subjugate,  or spy on their citizens. Money was invented  to provide an efficient way to exchange goods and services, not  provide a way to allow a few individuals to take the majority of the money out of circulation for their own personal benefit. Politicians are supposed to represent the interests of all of the people not just those with enough money to buy influence.

Mitch McConnell brandishing a rifle is about as childish as it gets. This is the man who said his primary  job was to prevent Obama from getting re-elected. What happened to trying to improve the economy and creating more jobs? What happened to  updating our infrastructure? What happened to healing the wounds of partisanship? What happened to raising the minimum wage for some of our nations hardest workers?
We're paying McConnell and our politicians above average salaries and they're not even putting in a 40 hour work week.

If Jesus were alive today the Tea Party folks would accuse him of being a "Socialist".

Big Horn Sheep

Let me get this straight. The Arizona Game and Fish department is killing mountain lions who kill big horn sheep so that hunters can kill the sheep instead.