The pond is dropping back on its reptile coverage, but hey it's a Sunday, and there's always room for a weekend meditation, and this one was irresistible ...
After the pond overcame its gagging reflex, it realised this was a perfect opportunity to ponder on the mystery of the Xian religion and the Eucharist with Malware …
For example, would an exemplary pious Xian gentleman play the race card in a way that might get a swarthy middle Eastern prophet a tad agitated?
For example, would an exemplary pious Xian gentleman play the race card in a way that might get a swarthy middle Eastern prophet a tad agitated?
(here)
As for the Eucharist, itself no doubt deeply Xian Malware is aware that his tendency towards actual and symbolic cannibalism was in vogue long before Xians came on the scene …
Parallel to the religious duties to god and state, "the Hellenic world also fostered a number of 'underground' religions, which countless thousands of people found intellectually and emotionally satisfying."They were known as the "mysteries," because their adherents took oaths never to reveal their rites to the uninitiated. Several honored young male gods born of a divine father and human mother, resurrected after a heroic death. In some of these secret religions "celebrants shared a communal meal in which they symbolically ate the flesh and drank the blood of their god." (Greg Hunt for more and for footnotes here).
The pond could go on and on but is sometimes pleased when others do it instead…
Hmmm, a dubious looking type … no room for him in the mutton Dutton's inn ...
Parallel to the religious duties to god and state, "the Hellenic world also fostered a number of 'underground' religions, which countless thousands of people found intellectually and emotionally satisfying."They were known as the "mysteries," because their adherents took oaths never to reveal their rites to the uninitiated. Several honored young male gods born of a divine father and human mother, resurrected after a heroic death. In some of these secret religions "celebrants shared a communal meal in which they symbolically ate the flesh and drank the blood of their god." (Greg Hunt for more and for footnotes here).
The pond could go on and on but is sometimes pleased when others do it instead…
That comes from Gary Carson here, and weary Greg Hunters must head over here for footnotes and hot links ...
Delicious … though of course if the pond was to go Anabaptist, it would all be dismissed as mystical nonsense and humbug - Greg Hunters here - in much the same way as Malware's exaltation of copper over fibre optic is pure humbuggery of a delusional kind …
And now having meditated enough for a Sunday, back to the bromancer … and comrade Bill attempting to explain his delusions ...
Actually if the pond might be so bold, Mike Baird made a deep, lifelong commitment to screwing New South Wales taxpayers, and the only pity in atheism is that there's not a deep eternal hellfire to which his bullshit merchant banker ersatz piety might be consigned …
As for Penny Wong, the pond at last understood how she could have voted against SSM … and toed the line of the faithful, and come to think of it, not so long before her teary celebrations …
Fairfax here …
Yep, give them cannibalism, and they'll chow down with gusto. Give them New South Wales taxpayers and they'll swallow them at a gulp. Give them religions and they'll pick and choose much as they change partners. Give them copper and they'll exalt it and hold it above their heads like a wafer of human flesh …
A pox on the lot of them … fools, knaves, hypocrites and delusionals …and sweet long absent lord, the bromancer promises more on Monday, the day of the Oreo and the Major Mitchell … how on earth will the pond cope?
Reading the heartfelt testimonies of the likes of Malware, Shortn'en, Wong, Baird, Keneally et al, I begin to get some kind of understanding about how they can become, and succeed at being, politicians. It's all about the wondrous ability to lie to oneself.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first encountered that proposition, it was like: "What ? There's more than one of us in here in my head, and one of us can lie to the others ?" Silly me, it's all about compartmentalisation, isn't it. So in the many 'compartments of the brain/mind' many different, and contradictory, beliefs can be flourish concurrently.
So Wong, for example, can change her mind about the true definition of marriage, and just assume that God has changed the meaning of the Bible accordingly. And Baird can believe that an avatar of an immortal, universe-creating 'god' - conveniently named Iesus for the purposes of story telling - can actually be killed by us puny weakling humans. Indeed, to "die for our sins". And that, of course, liberates Baird to practise those sins as much as he likes, because there simply won't be any consequences. If the worst comes to the worst, Iesus the Anointed One will just "die for our sins" all over again.
Or maybe the One and Three will just terminate Earth like they promised and we'll all get to live in Heaven, forever singing God's praises. For eternity. With never even a morning tea break. And as for sex, well ...
When believers talk about religion they almost invariably refer to some need they have, not to any actual manifestation of the supernatural. They need to believe in something "bigger than themselves", cope with grief or some existential anxiety. Now, feeling a need for something and wishing that something into existence are two entirely different things.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways it is just plain lazy to plug an invisible super-being into all and every gap in your understanding. Maybe you should TTFU and learn to deal with uncertainty rather than entertain delusional belief. I don't really care if they want to fool themselves but I do resent the need they have force said beliefs onto those around them (and get a taxpayer handout)
Ah but the "god of the gaps" has been popular for quite a while, Bef [see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps ].
DeleteOr perhaps I should say "gods of the gaps" because as is clear from the Bromancer's effort, people make up their own gods. From my admittedly limited experience, most who profess 'Christianity' actually know very little about it - very few ever actually read the Bible for instance, their 'Christianity' comes from what their parents and neighbours might have told them, what they might have heard in some Sunday School sessions (if they ever attended any), what some clerics (especially the ill informed clerics in Catholic Schools) might have told them and what they might occasionally read in the press or see on TV.
Or maybe they pick it up from "mystery cults" as DP has shown. Remember that way back when, the Jewish people were much taken with things Greek - to the point where young Jews even contemplated staging a Jewish Olympics - many years before Herod was credited with having "saved the Olympics" [See https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-herod-the-tyrant-saved-the-olympics/ ]. However, I understand the idea was killed by the Jewish religious authorities of the time.
But one thing I am convinced of, is that the 'Christianity' professed by the vast majority of 'Christians' bears only passing resemblance to anything stated in the Holy Books. Like most of life's key beliefs, people just 'make it up as they go along' and remake it continually to accommodate their life circumstances.
So Malware is a Catholic? How odd, I didn't think the man was capable of holding dear a dogma beyond professional tax avoidance. Who knew?
ReplyDelete