Sympathy for the Devil

It's a fools' game
Nothin' but a fools's game;
standing in the cold rain,
feeling like clown
--It's a Heartache, Trick Pony

So far as I can remember,
there is not one word in the Gospels
in praise of knowledge
--George Bernard Shaw

It's embarrassing -- you try to overthrow
the government and you wind up
on the Best Seller's list
--Steal this Book, Abbie Hoffman
___________________

Sunday homily: What if we've got it all wrong?

By "it", Ranger means the bible as the Good Book and the god-worshiping thing? What if the devil is the one before whom we should be burning incense? Let us go back to Genesis.

Genesis portrays a Club Med for Adam and Eve. Unless mistaken, those two were thrown out of paradise --if you call Babylonia paradise -- for eating an apple symbolizing knowledge and free will.

So Step One is the travesty of getting evicted for opting in for knowledge and free will. That, we demonize as temptation . . . the work of the devil. So what of all of that exegesis going on by theological scholars? Well, it's not looking good for learned theologians. If we stay stupid, can we live forever?

Step Two is everyone turning around and believing that this same god who screwed us in the beginning is going to gift us with glorified bodies after death and give us life everlasting, IF we follow all of his rules. Why would we expect he is going to suddenly play nice once we have strut our petty hour upon the stage, dependent of course upon how well we walked within his lines?

Oh, and further, no one knows if they have won the lottery and gained his grace, anyway. It's like playing monte, but the dealer never shows his suit. Are those the odds of a loser, or what?

Again, if not mistaken, it was the devil (= fallen archangel and god's favorite) who encouraged mankind to seek knowledge and free will. If god will cast down and out his favorite (Lucifer), then why should we trust he will not turn on us?

Why do we put our faith in the goodness of this very strange god? How is he any better than the fallen angel who encourages us to make our own meaning? Are we to believe that everything achieved beyond the supposed "received" word of this god as transcribed in the bible is evil?

Ranger does not believe in any of the bible's mutterings, but if he did, he would give the whole thing a good thinking over.

Bonfire of the Vanities

All we have to do is send two mujaheddin . . .
to raise a small piece of cloth
on which is written 'al-Qaeda' in order to make
the generals race there, to cause America to suffer
human, economic and political losses
--Osama bin Laden (fr. 2004 video)

'Cause the only reason that you're here.
Is 'cause folks died for you in the past
So maybe now it's your turn
To die kicking some ass
--Freedom Isn't Free, fr. Team America

Its real beauty is that it destroys
responsibility and consequences
--Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
__________________

My parents were born in the early 1920's, and the recent death of another old-timer led me to the topic of peace and prosperity in America, something which skiddaddled out the back door at some indeterminate time in recent memory.

In my parent's lifetime the U.S. fought Germany for a second time and Japan in a World War. We then proceeded to Korea, South Vietnam, Gulf War I, Afghanistan and Gulf War II, with sundry other conflicts along the way. This translates to six major wars in one lifetime; in my lifetime, there have been five (approximately one every 12 years.)

The other little wars should not be forgotten, for they add to the scale. They include Haiti, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, the Greek Insurgency, assistance to the French in the IndoChina War, Lebanon (mid-1950's), assistance to the Israelis (1948-present), assistance to Chaing Kai-Shek, CIA sponsorship of the Cuban Invasion, secret wars in Laos and Cambodia concurrent with the Vietnam War, secret war in Angola, armed peacekeeping, Grenada and Panama Invasion, the Contras, and the Bosnian and Balkans interventions, to name a few.
as hot-button issues

It is difficult to tabulate the actual years spent in warfare, since the events overlap. At least one-third of my lifetime has seen a peace-loving nation killing folks, and a large contingent of our society sees this as Christian and equitable. It is quite a sobering topic, when one considers the incessant nature of our warring.

The dog days of summer have given us the Muslim community center flap near Ground Zero and proposed Koran burnings, but Ranger wonders why Americans are not more concerned with the fact that the Constitution has been figuratively burned on a daily basis since the events of 9-11-01, by two administrations?

It might benefit mankind immeasurably if we burned all the Korans and Bibles in one big bonfire, using the resultant fire to immolate everybody, Christian and Islamist, who believe in waging Holy Wars.