Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Thanatos is strong with this one

2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the Tragedy at Jonestown. MSNBC has a three part series, Witness to Jonestown. I won't equate the Jonestown tragedy with all religions but if one places no or little value on This Life while praying for the Final Judgement which will reward(?) them in the next one, you're worshiping at the altar of death.
"Life!" I turned on him fiercely, "You have chosen death, all of you..."
"No, not death. We have chosen life eternal, the resurrection of the..."
"That is a story to tell children. The truth is for thousands of years we looked to what was living. Now you look to what is dead, you worship a dead man and tell one another that this world is not for us, while the next is all that matters. Only there is no next world..." - Julian, Gore Vidal

I think the stultification of religious thought in dominating mankind has lead to a violent reaction from those who hate. Right now powerful segments in islamic thinking are focused on killing and death. Fortunately, I think christianity has finally passed through it's last trials of death and pain in the 16th and 17th century and is no longer a death cult. But, some members clearly don't care about mankind. For instance if your believe the world isn't worth saving like god's chosen congresswoman Uber-American Michelle Bachmann who pointed out jesus saved it 2000 years ago. Or the mere fact you are born means you deserve death;
We have all rejected God (although some have repented of that and accepted Him), so we all deserve the death sentence. Even Noah and his family. But God chose to not give Noah and his family what they deserved (choosing them because Noah was, humanly speaking, "righteous"), and didn't impose the deserved death penalty on Noah and his family. He even had Noah preach to the people, in order to save them from their destruction, but to no avail. So instead of (implicitly) criticising God for giving the people what they deserved, we should be thanking Him for saving the ones willing to be saved. Philip J. Rayment 21:26, 24 April 2007 (EDT), an Administrator (sysop) over at Conservapedia.

Those who would hold to such a statement are indeed a worshipper of death. Why waste money on things like fruit fly research in Paris, France? When all you have to do to remove suffering from the world is believe? Research into the causes of disease becomes rather pointless if you think adam's sin is the cause of death.

This world and this life are all we get. I've tried in a small way to make it better for my fellow man, following my own moral compass. I've tried to be a good son, brother, friend colleague and professional and I think that's all you can ask of someone.

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