Monday, January 19, 2015

MAGIC HANDSHAKES FOR HEAVEN: The Twisted Logic of Mormon Temples

Over the years, I've seen the internet become a great source of spreading secularism, for religion, especially strict religion, thrives in a vacuum. 

The less people are able to compare their idea of truth or discuss why people left a religion, the more rationally and objectively people will view their own beliefs.

Learning anthropology, the study of various cultures, is a great way to see how we "inherit" religion in our toddler years from our parents and accept it as truth, but this is the same no matter where we grew up or what beliefs we were taught. 


Letting go of such ideas about life and the world takes effort and logical thinking, since what "feels" true will almost always be what we were taught in childhood.

Enough provable lies, and realizing that others have left various faiths without basically being struck by lightening, will eventually sway those open to logic, but that's sadly rare in America. 


While we Americans seem sure we're always #1, we're actually highest in the world in very few categories, such as having 30% of our people incarcerated, owning BY FAR the most guns, spending more than all other countries combined on defense, and 74% of citizens believing in God.

Regarding religions that flail in the face of publicly disseminated information, let's look at Mormonism, which threatened pain of death for telling anyone the secret rituals that take place in their temples. 


These secret rituals were only ever shared with the uttermost-devout members. It took years of humble worship, following every rule the leaders ever thought up, and donating a full 10% of one's net income to "deserve" to learn these secret handshakes and phrases to basically get through the Pearly Gates.

A threat of having one's throat cut and being gutted, as well as sharing a bunk with Hitler in the Eternity, was used for a century to enforce order. So frighteningly much tithing money is spent making hundreds of these elaborately lavish temples, yet visits to these palaces are mere dreams for most of the membership.

While the threat was taken out of the ritual for legal reasons, as was blessing of the loins by touching the skin, the threat to one's eternal salvation is still quite great, thus devout members never discuss the subject.


Now, however, thanks to the internet, you can read about them in great detail, watch them on hidden camera, and watch them reenacted, such as on the show BIG LOVE

Yes, you can watch Netflix and learn the secret handshake to get you into heaven! Makes SENSE, right??

In other words, no eternal commitment is needed to find out that the rituals are stupid, creepy, and almost entirely like those done by the Masons. (Taking theirs seemed a much easier idea to Joseph Smith than making up his own, and he seemed to assume no one would be the wiser.)

***Note that this is the Big Love video of which I speak, and it's clean, but the rest of the TV series tends to contain rather explicit sex scenes.***





Amusingly, this episode caused scandal on Utah news stations and thus brought about a lot of attention for anyone wanting to learn about the rituals, since this is not a show most Mormons would ever watch due to the nudity factor.

In other words, the LDS church bringing attention to the scenes really had the opposite effect of stopping the secrets from getting out. Also, taking issue with the scenes helped prove their legitimacy.

It should also be noted that while the show includes polygamy, and while that's still part of Mormon doctrine, it is not technically legal in Utah and is thus only practiced in small rural areas or hidden from the law. 


However, Mormon scripture does say it's required for the highest degree of eternal glory--the guys who get to be gods of their own planets.

This is never discussed, and often denied, despite it still technically being doctrine. (Since denying it was required for statehood, this seems almost entirely a legal issue, and many men do stay temple married to more than one woman if the first is deceased, meaning the man gets two wives in the next life.) 

The belief, again really avoided being mentioned by Mormon leaders, is that the afterlife will be the time of men taking their large harems of wives to have spirit babies for their planets, but it wouldn't be popular if it were actually mentioned much at all.

The fact that these men are set up as polygamists in the afterlife is ignored, despite a blissful afterlife with loved ones being the main goal of all of the strict rules of the religion. You don't drink coffee if you want a nice house in heaven, pretty much.

The idea that LDS prophets also went on and on about how Black people didn't deserve to ever be more than servants to White men in the afterlife, is also not spoken about, nor was Brigham Young's dictatorship of the Utah Territory that, in many ways, rivaled that of Hitler, just on a smaller scale and with slightly different threats.


But that's a discussion for another day. For now, watch the clip and know you've got the elite pass into heaven, so have a beer--or at least a cup of joe--on me. 

BILL MAHER SAYS COME OUT TO THE WORLD AS NONBELIEVERS

Bill Maher asked American atheists to come out to the world so that we can be seen and heard, but this isn't England, nor is it Scandinavia. The average voter puts atheists and rapists in the same category--or worse!

The idea that atheists should all be executed to appease God so he'll stop the wars, famines, etc., is even mentioned. We are the supposed scourge of the world, sometimes seen as far worse than Al-Qaeda, for at least THEY fear God.

It will take a wiser world for it to be safe for all atheists to stop inside their computers. I've been writing a novel on just such a world, and it definitely gets worse before it gets better.

The article on Maher's comments can be found here.



BRITISH FIND ATHEISTS MORE MORAL

Here's a great article (click on the image) on how Brits already grasp that morality and theism are not only not directly connected but that the opposite is true: atheists tend to be more empathetic and better at following The Golden Rule.

My thinking is that of the carrot versus stick approach to life; atheists are nice to others because it makes us feel good and makes life easier, while many religious folks focus on being good out of fear of punishment. Dale Carnegie (the How to Win Friends and Influence People guy) pointed out in his books that fear of punishment was the worst way possible to run a company, so imagine what that means for supposedly running the universe.
 

HEROES ARE FLAWED

It's been way too long. Part of that is life, part tiring of arguing with people who find logic anathema, part finding other outlets for my rants, and, last but not least, mostly making some atheist friends online.


In response to this amusing photo an acquaintance of mine took of what to do when family forces gifts of a religious nature on you, I wrote the following:
My pic of "Jesus" at Gethsemane on my wall is actually a poster for a play where my most hedonistic acquaintance played the guy without needing any sort of hair, makeup, or costume. He hung out in that style of robes in his free time, had the hair and beard, and is a decent actor. He's also a selfish womanizer who gets underage girls pregnant and runs for the hills.

It's a reminder that even real heroes that existed, such as Einstein, Newton, and Emily Dickinson, were pretty messed up people with very HUMAN problems. We glorify them, but they all tend to be of the chop their ear off variety of madness and deep flaws when we look at them as a whole.

My point is that even if the guy existed, to which there is only proof otherwise of anything written during his supposed time, he'd be flawed. (Note how about 30 years of his life weren't mentioned AT ALL. Was that his teen rebel and gay period?) Seriously, though, even the biblical God is a flawed asshole most of the time, so why do religious people think of him and Jesus as perfect? The bible seems proof otherwise.

When i asked an Orthodox Presbyterian I know, he said, "God DEFINES good, so ANYTHING He does is good by definition." Whatever, but why then does it only apply to him? If I, say, were to find a way to flood the world of all the folks who didn't follow my every word, I'd be the worst tyrant the world had ever seen, so the works themselves are not good, just God and whatever whim happens to strike him at that moment. 

Yeah, the belief is all pretty abusive--not to mention being all about giving those few allowed to speak for God to the masses MASSIVE amounts of freaking power. How sad it is that when we try to free people from such abusive enslavement they call us immoral, evil, and less trustworthy than rapists. Truly, truly sad.

By the way, I'm not for going around killing people who annoy me, but I'm not overly surprised they did Socrates in. He was the adult version of that four-year-old kid who follows you around asking "why, why, but why" every second until you want to rip your hair out and cover their mouth with duct tape. FREAKING BRILLIANT, yes, but annoying as hell. Einstein was even more of an ass due to playing so little value on people versus massive value on himself and his work. Nature tends to even things out that way; no one has it all.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

DAVE SILVERMAN ROCKS!







Not surprisingly, 18-year-old LDS (Mormon) boys know far, far less about even their own version of Christianity than Mr. Silverman does.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

FAITH & IMAGINARY FRIENDS

A friend of mine is very LDS, but he admits it does not matter in the least if everything about it is proven false--good thing, too, because it could all be proven false and completely made up and stolen from other fictional sources in a court of law.

I find this lack of needing evidence disturbing, for why live a lie just to perpetuate a sense of delusional peacefulness? This is like believing you will get a windfall and spending all of your time shopping yourself into debt (i.e. living in denial). *sigh* Sadly, people were interviewed as to why issues like Global Warming and credit-card debt were irrelevant to them, and they quoted Revelations saying God would be back soon, so why worry? *facepalm*

But that's all what faith is: believing in something that makes no rational sense whatsoever and denying any proof that stares you square in the face due to faith bringing warm fuzzies. In other words, their imaginary friend brings them soft slippers and hot cocoa when they're stressed--at least if they buy said slippers, cocoa, cooking apparatus, and electricity, and if they fetch and heat these things themselves.

Aren't imaginary friends uber-useful?? I mean, heck, they do things for you if you do them yourself! Just like a four-year-old and a teddy-bear tea party!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

EASTER CAN GET OBNOXIOUS

Okay, it's been just about an eternity since I've posted. I got out of my angry atheist phase for a bit and didn't need to rant quite so loudly...but then Easter happened. *heavy sigh* People just don't realize that they are celebrating pagan rituals of nature's rebirth and a holiday the Romans decided should take over that pagan holiday (much like Christmas did for Yule). It's all so "opiate of the masses."

I mean, sure, there's not a lot of HARM in it, per se, but I wish people would realize Christ and the Easter Bunny are both just random crap people thought up. While people will admit one is just a fun gimmick for kids, so few will agree that the latter is just propaganda to keep adults similarly in line.