I refuse to stand next to stupid

The vapor trail of some kind of energy, gathered by Firsty for your reading pleasure
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firsty
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I refuse to stand next to stupid

Post by firsty » April 10th, 2007, 10:21 am

As a kid, I went to church with my family every Easter Sunday. Not because it was Easter, but because Easter fell on a Sunday. The church was always packed on Easter Sunday, just like on Christmas Day, and the regulars, like me and my family, had to get there early just to get a seat, and extra-early if we wanted a seat that wasnt a folding chair jammed into the space between the pews and the row of confessionals.

After church, everyone went home to do yardwork, if it was nice, or shoveling, if it was still cold. Even on Easter, nobody really obeyed the idea of resting on the Sabbath.

I watched a bit of a History Channel documentary last night, the topic of which was the banned Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which, in three stages, told the story of Jesus’ childhood. That kid was quite the dick, apparently. He brought a playmate back to life after pushing him off a roof, for instance. I wonder how many staunch Christians have ever even heard of that Gospel.

As Catholics, we werent really into reading the Bible. Protestants really get into their Bibles, I can tell you that. After I met my new Lutheran wife, I read the Bible. Holy Christ, that was one fucking eye-opener. You hear rumors about the Jewish God and about the crazy rules and the vague interpretations. But you cant really appreciate it until you’re on the page, carefully poring over one poorly translated word after another. After a few books, I put it down.

“This is bullshit, this book,” I said to my wife. “It’s full of nonsense.”

“Well,” she said, “It’s only a story. It was originally written in Hebrew and, the New Testament, in Greek, anyway. Most of the translations are incorrect. It cant be taken literally.”

My mom used to tell me things like that, too, but only about the big stuff. Like Adam and Eve and Noah’s Ark. I think I was about seven when I realized that it would have been impossible to put two of every animal, or even most animals, on a boat. And burning bushes and all this shit. The explanation I appreciated was that it’s all just a series of parables and metaphors. These are stories, after all. In fact, many of the stories in the Bible are repeated throughout oral and written literature. It’s just stories, with a common theme, this overhanging God idea.

When I got older and realized that, to some, it was blasphemy to even doubt anything in the Bible, blasphemy to even question something, well, thats when I got really suspicious. And, lately, it’s somehow blasphemy to our nation to do the same for our leaders, the specific way our government is organized, and the language of this or that policy.

Blasphemy! How dare you suggest anything but the already stated truth, as stated already by the also-rans looking for cash, even on Sundays.

What finally got me, psychologically speaking, kicked out of the church, was this kind of hypocrisy.

A religion either has love for everyone or it doesnt. Everyone means everyone, period. There are no qualifiers built into the language of love. Obviously (if you’re too daft to understand it implicitly), you may choose not to love everyone. But what that means is: you dont love everyone.

And the United States is not a peaceful nation when it is waging war. It simply isnt. You can say that the United States would like to be a peaceful nation if it werent for all these “evil-doers,” but gathering proof would be a challenging task, to say the least.

When I told the church elders that I was leaving the church, I was questioned, criticized and ridiculed. By calling their organization hypocritical in that it treats people differently, I was treated differently.

And if you have the lack of sense to wonder how having a group of draft-dodging profiteers tear down the foundations of a nation in order to “save it,” you are declared an enemy of the state built on the foundation you’re trying to maintain.

I know, I know: life isnt fair.

What I cant come to terms with, what I refuse to come to terms with, is: life is stupid.

So I have to go on, believing in my heart of hearts that it’s not life which is stupid — it’s certain people we meet in life who are stupid. Some of these people have built or now operate within some organized religion, some of them have built or pretend to maintain some kinds of government. It’s sometimes difficult to discern who is stupid and who is ignorant, so here is a little test:

If a person believes in the literal interpretation of the World’s Creation According to Adam and Eve, they are stupid, unless they are five years old.

And if a person believes that, unlike the Muslim faith, which even stupid people often admit is mostly peaceful, the United States is, despite its standing and constantly engaged military, still a peace-loving nation, that person is stupid.

Unless that person is actually in the military, in which case we are not allowed to call them stupid. So it must be the military who is ignorant, because even my 3-year-old knows that war isnt peace.

I’ve offended some, I know. But stupidity exists, and it’s high time we recognize it as such. Because right now, we are being led, we Americans, we the nation of progress and peace, we are being led by stupid people, who were voted into office by, primarily, stupid people. Some, ignorant, yes. Indeed, but, hey, life isnt fair, and not everybody gets to be smart. Everyone has the right to his or her opinion, but not everyone has the privilege of being right. Thats one simple fact that we need to deal with, or else we’ll be forever stuck in this big pile of shit.

Which would be stupid.
and knowing i'm so eager to fight cant make letting me in any easier.

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stilltrucking
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Post by stilltrucking » April 10th, 2007, 1:14 pm

So you want the facts jack?
Here it is.
Bishop James Ussher Sets the Date for Creation: October 23, 4004 B.C.Ussher wrote: “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, which beginning ... at Oberlin College figured that “man has appeared since the last ice age. ...
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/project ... ssher.html - 30k - Cached - Similar pages


I am too lazy to search for it now but I think it was e-dog who compared the bible to a sort of Norton Anthology of Religion. You find parallels to so many Old Testament stories in cultures all across the Near East and/or Middle East. Not sure if those two are the same.



You are a fine writer firsty.
Everyone has the right to his or her opinion, but not everyone has the privilege of being right. Thats one simple fact that we need to deal with, or else we’ll be forever stuck in this big pile of shit.
I tell you firsty truer words were never rote. My opinion is we are forever stuck in this big pile of shit. I think we will always have the stupid with us, I think we are all sheep, excecpt for a few enlightened fools and a small circle of friends. This book has been an eye opener for me The Faith of A Heretic. Walter Kaufman.



I am so full of opinions I don't have enough orifices in my body to express them all.

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