#i also think maybe jews do deserve a place for themselves. seeing as judaism is still heavily an ethnoreligion

[youll-ruin-the-flowers]

🦌

[confrontingbabble-on]

“Some of the world’s largest religions emerged during the Iron Age, and the rules in their sacred texts likely helped families and communities (or at least some subset) to thrive under Iron Age conditions. Today, we live under very different conditions. We know things our ancestors didn’t. We hold powers and face challenges they could not have imagined.

Here are a few of the moral mandates from the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) that some people still practice on religious grounds but that a growing number of others consider morally dubious given our current circumstances and knowledge.

Hitting children—The Hebrew Bible instructs parents to beat their children, most explicitly in Proverbs 23: “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. Punish them with the rod and save them from death.” Traditional Muslim teachings exhort parents to beat boys if they don’t pray regularly by the age of seven.

Research in psychology contradicts this advice, pointing to few if any developmental benefits and an increased risk of aggression in children who are hit. Parenting experts suggest better means of raising children and managing misbehavior. Even religious leaders who may feel obliged to approve spanking because it is endorsed in their sacred texts (some of whom fiercely defend the god-given right of parents to hit their kids) now tend to send mixed messages and encourage other forms of discipline first.

Teaching children to rely on faith— Religions often treat faith or even religious certitude as a virtue. In fact, in Protestant Christianity it is the ultimate virtue, the one that sends people to heaven or hell. Believe and be saved, says the Christian New Testament, and one of the tenets of the Reformation was sola fide—by faith alone. Defenders of Christianity may marshal logic or evidence to support belief, but when backed into a corner, many default to I just know—and they teach children to do the same.

By contrast, modern cognitive science recognizes the sense of knowing as a feeling state that can be triggered under a wide variety of circumstances, not all of which have a basis in reality. Advocates for secularism argue that faith, by definition, means committing to a set of beliefs that are poorly grounded—or even contradict the best available evidence. We humans are prone to confirmation bias, for example, or self-serving “motivated” reasoning.

In belief-based religions like Christianity and Islam, doubt is seen as a sign of weakness or a moral failing, a sin. But knowing what we now know about human cognition, faith increasingly looks like a bad epistemology, a not-very-effective way of sifting what is real from what is not. By contrast, the scientific method has been called “What we know about how not to fool ourselves,” because it forces us to ask the questions that could show us wrong. Unlike faith in received dogma, the scientific method promotes a growth mindset. This is one reason that a growing number of people see religious indoctrination of children as an abuse of trust.

Restrictions on women’s movement and attire – Religious modesty and virginity rules for women emerged when a person’s place in society depended on paternal lineage. Women and men had no way of managing their fertility other than abstinence; and mama’s baby, papa’s maybe could create social havoc. Societies had a strong investment in controlling female fertility.

Modernity values people based on who they are, not on their lineage; and women now have reliable means to manage their fertility. Our life course need not be defined by the form of our genitalia. But male ownership of girls and women is so foundational in the Abrahamic traditions that conservative believers often find themselves most comfortable with gender hierarchy. Conservative Christians promote “male headship”—a version of separate-but-equal; conservative Muslims rationalize veiling—which (though it can mean different things to different believers) is rooted in male ownership of female sexuality; Orthodox Jews demand that women shave their heads and ride on separate sides of the bus.

Fortunately, although religions may slow cultural evolution, they rarely succeed in stopping it altogether. Even within conservative religious communities, leaders often claim that restrictive practices elevate women and offer them genuine equality. Their thinking may be Orwellian, but it is a far cry from that of the men who wrote the sacred texts, for whom male dominance and control of females was simply a given.

Pronatalism – “Be fruitful and multiply,” God tells man in the book of Genesis. Throughout the Bible, sons are seen as signs of God’s favor, the more the better. In the Christian New Testament book of 1 Timothy, readers are told that women, who brought sin into the world, will be saved by childbearing (2:15). The Roman Catholic Church, when it emerged, promoted a high birthrate—not among priests, which would have been a drain on church assets—but among lay practitioners, which added to the ranks of the faithful.

Today some devout Catholics and quiver-full Protestants (along with ultra-orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Muslims) still see bearing many children as a form of righteous submission to God’s will. They eschew family planning, taking a “let go and let God” approach to birth control. But as world population approaches eight billion, putting increasing pressure on natural resources and other species, many people now view large families the same way they might view gluttony. Most, including most religious believers, think it is more moral to take excellent care of a few children than to produce as many as possible.

Proselytizing mandates – Christianity tells believers to “make disciples of every creature,” and over the centuries Christians have sent missionaries to the far reaches of the planet, some willing to kill or die in order to win a “harvest” of converts. They have been celebrated as saints and martyrs, or in modern times as altruistic heroes. But many people now see cross-cultural proselytizing as a form of imperialism that disrespects the complexity of indigenous and foreign cultures.

To make matters more morally dubious, missionaries often leverage their superior access to information and wealth—enticing conversion by bundling evangelism with desperately-needed food, medical care, education or crisis services. To a missionary who sees the threat of hell as the ultimate risk and the promise of heaven as the ultimate good, the ends may justify the means; but outsiders see exploitation of power differentials, which most ethical codes discourage. Some countries now limit or constrain missionary activities to protect vulnerable communities and people.

Kosher slaughter rules – In the Torah, God commands that animals be slaughtered according to religious rules, and over time Jewish scholars fleshed these out. The animal is to have its throat slit with a very sharp knife that has no defects. It must be conscious at the time of the cut and must die from blood loss. These rules may have originally had health value for humans or animal welfare value for livestock, but with the availability of modern stunning, they have become controversial. Stunning animals immediately before slaughter can reduce suffering. Many Muslims think that Halal slaughter rules similarly prohibit stunning, but there is disagreement among Muslim scholars about this. Some animal welfare watchdog groups in Europe and the U.S. have advocated the banning of Kosher and Halal slaughter, while others are working to improve the practices in ways that reduce fear or suffering before and during slaughter.

Capital punishment – The human history of killing offenders goes back almost to the beginnings of written history. Death by axe, death by being thrown into a quagmire, death by beheading (which is where we get the term capital punishment), by boiling, by stoning . . . Over the millennia, all manner of death has been meted out for all manner of offences. The Hebrew Bible prescribes death for almost 30 transgressions ranging from murder and kidnapping to blasphemy and sassing, and the Quran is similarly enthusiastic about execution. (You can compare both texts here, or find out here if you deserve death according to the Bible.) Building on the Abrahamic tradition of blood atonement, the central premise of New Testament Christianity is structured around the idea that punishment by death can set things right.

For two hundred years, opponents of the death penalty have worked to reduce the number of capital offenses and the cruelty of execution methods or to advance philosophical and practical reasons for abolishing state-sanctioned killing altogether. Some of this opposition has been lead by devoutly religious people, and it has shifted thinking in a wide variety of cultures. Over 100 countries have abolished the death penalty.

Intolerance of other religions – In order to recruit and retain members, religions often make exclusive truth claims and promise exclusive rewards. Many also threaten those who fail to join or who choose to leave with punishments in this life or the next. Islam’s prescription of death for apostates is just an extreme version of this broader dynamic.

Inquisitions and holy wars have been seen by past generations as righteous because they compelled people to live according to the one right law. Even short of bloodshed, religious teachings can be profoundly divisive. Calvinist Christianity teaches that human beings are “utterly depraved” and can be redeemed only by accepting the crucifixion of Jesus as a personally-transforming gift. Believers learn to mistrust others, who by definition lack any basis for morality.

But this one-way mentality doesn’t seem as righteous to many as it once did. Today, when faith is compelled through holy war and purges—as under the Taliban or ISIS–most people are morally appalled, and people increasingly see religious tolerance as a virtue rather than the vice our ancestors believed it to be.

– – – – –

Some people believe that the moral rules handed down by our ancestors came from a supernatural deity and should not be questioned or changed. The gods know best, and even if their rules may not entirely make sense, ours is not to question why. In the Evangelical community where I grew up, people sometimes tried to find practical explanations for biblical rules. But when that failed, “because the Bible says so” was reason enough.

By contrast, secular ethics teach that the timeless part of morality is not the rules themselves, nor the authority of the rule-giver, but rather an underlying principle. Morality, in this view, seeks to promote the wellbeing of sentient beings, especially human beings but also other animals. Actions that reduce suffering and harm or increase wellbeing are moral. To maximize wellbeing, rules have to change, because what promotes thriving in one situation may cause harm in another...”

https://valerietarico.com/2018/07/22/when-religious-teachings-become-immoral/

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington.

[omgktlouchheim]

Diary of Katie Louchheim

Below are thoughts and feelings of mine that have been brought forth by current events. My expressions below are solely my own, I do not claim these experiences to be anyone else’s or claim to speak for everyone with similar backgrounds or feelings.

Pretty much since the election I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts together. I feel like I’m being torn in a million directions. I wake up every day praying that this is an episode of The Twilight Zone, or a really fucked up dream I’m having and not reality. But I know it’s real. I’ve always known it was real. Growing up Jewish in Arizona was a constant reminder of my otherness while being within the Jewish community was a constant reminder of how much we’re hated solely based on that otherness. The weird thing about never knowing what it’s like to go to your place of worship or day school without security and metal detectors, or that when school gets cut because there was a bomb threat at the JCC or a swastika tagged on one of the synagogues in town, is that these things are not normal. And yet, by the time I was a young child they were completely normalized.

Maybe it didn’t seem so bad because I’ve had a complicated relationship with my Jewish identity so siding with people who were suspect felt easier. Or because that insecurity balanced out with my white privilege.  When people didn’t know my heritage, I definitely benefitted, and still mostly benefit, from that. That’s the lie of assimilation, though. There’s something off-white about living in America while having a Jewish background. (Obviously, for Jews of color it’s a whole other ballgame). Once that part of my identity was known I became “nice for a Jew” and “pretty for a Jew” but I most certainly was not nice or pretty enough to make me human enough to open up the minds of those bestowing compliments to me with their backhand. It would be me; alone, trying to toe the line between making a good and diplomatic impression while also denying a part of myself and any emotional reactions to people and instead, making sure to accommodate their feelings. I didn’t realize how small I was making myself in these situations. And how much responsibility I was shouldering that wasn’t my business to shoulder at all.

One time in high school, a bunch of us choir buddies were asked to sing at one of our friend’s churches. We went, sang a song about Jesus, nailed it (sry, too soon?) and then were forced to listen to this preacher sermonize about how non-Christian people are going to hell. At which point I turned and looked at my friend (an Iranian Zoroastrian) and we both just rolled our eyes because we were so used to this treatment by people toward us. Fucking jaded as fuck from this shit by 17 years old. I think the girl who asked us to go apologized after. I really don’t remember. At this point, and honestly since the dawn of time, apologies are not enough.

Being nice is not enough. There are no “both sides” to this equation. It’s not ok to tell people being brutalized that they need to identify or compromise with their abusers. It is not my job to hold your people accountable. Or hold your hand through your discomfort. White Christian folk, it’s yours. If I had been at that service today, I would have just gotten up and walked out. I don’t have the tolerance my younger self had for bullshit and no one’s fuckery is entitled to my time and space.  It is not my job to constantly try to prove my worth to people who already believe I’m worthless and taking up space that belong to them. All I know, without a doubt, is that my life is more important than White Christian Feelings™. The lives of my friends and family and all the various communities we are members of: POC communities, LGBTQ+, immigrant, Indigenous, Muslim, etc. are more important than White Christian Feelings™. If YOU have feelings it is YOUR job to go to a therapist and work on them and not culturally appropriate the use of tiki torches by using them to throw a tantrum while waving Confederate and Nazi flags, ramming your cars through crowds of people, and beating the shit out of peaceful protestors.

I try to be a good person. I know that majorities of people in this country are also trying to be good people. But, I’m going to level with you white Christian folks. I don’t trust you. I also have a lot of resentment toward you.  If you’re hurt by me saying that, I don’t care. It’s taken me a very long time to admit this. It’s taken an incredible amount of work to unpack and uncondition myself to the idea that I’m a bad person for feeling this way and for not seeing the “many sides.” But, you don’t deserve my trust. You’re not entitled to anything from anybody. Once again, YOUR problem. Tough titties, bro.

When I started seeing images of the gathering of angry white men with torches on Friday night, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be able to participate in the onslaught of coverage of what was happening in Charlottesville, VA. I was right. The moment I opened Facebook and saw image after image and article after article of the Pasty Wasps Boys parade screaming anti-Semitic slurs, racist drivel, and throwing their arms up in Sieg Heil to Fuhrer Trump I found my breath catch in my throat. Those images turned into the countless hours of footage of the Nazis and their methodical tactics to exterminate our families shown to us every year to make sure we never forgot. The shots of piles of dead bodies found and photographed by the liberators morphed in my head from unknown members of the tribe to my parents and my siblings. Lifeless forms hanging from trees became my friends who dare to be themselves; worship who they wish to worship, love who they love, celebrating being black as fuck (Talia, I am living for you and your InstaStories right now and forever and always). It took me almost a full twenty-four hours and a hiatus from social media to get the panic attacks to stop.

Never again. Our communities make a point to pass down the atrocities we faced so we can make sure these things never happen again to anyone. Why don’t you learn what has happened to us? How is it that our heritage, which is intertwined with yours, weighs so heavily on only our hearts?

 Do you not have hearts?

 What exactly is wrong with you.

 Here’s a collection of other things that have been swirling around in my brainhole:

- Have we past the point of no return for democracy in this country? I’m afraid of staying in this country until it’s too late. I’m afraid of leaving this country that I love and have so much hope for and not knowing if I’ll have more confidence in my survival instincts at the end of it or live with feeling like a coward for the rest of my life. Then again, some of my family made it here in time. Others were murdered and dumped in a grave they were forced to dig themselves.

-I was in Israel with my family in June and I remember I had a moment while sitting on the roof of the hotel we were staying at in Jerusalem with my dad. I remember feeling very quiet and comfortable. I thought of a conversation I had had with my aunt a few weeks prior when she had said that when she went to Israel for the first time 30 some years ago it amazed her that she was in a place where everyone was Jewish. Then, it clicked. I realized that despite the fact that Jerusalem and much of Israel is religiously diverse and that there is still a hugely unsettling political environment present there, that I was in a place where Judaism was accepted. It was a norm. I was in a place where I didn’t have to explain myself to anyone no matter what my actual beliefs, practices or lack thereof are. That’s when I thought, “Wow. This is what it must feel like to be a White Christian back home.”

- I love this country. Maybe, more accurately, I love the concept of this country. I’m a 6th generation American. Which means that my lineage has been here almost as long as this country has been the United States of America. Which also means my lineage has been oppressed while actively engaging in and benefitting from the oppression of others. Immigrants were able to come and build a life for themselves as a result of the genocide of hundreds of millions of First Nations people. My five-times great grandfather fought in the Civil War against the Union. He was not allowed to fight with his fellow southerners and instead was in a separate infantry specifically for Jews. Everything about this sucks. I can only guess that this relative was doing what he felt was right, as way to assimilate, get closer to the American Dream, I’ll never know. Here’s what I do know: The Confederacy lost, as they should have. State’s rights my ass. And failure is a good thing. Failure means things have the potential to be better. It gives us a chance to sit back, deal with our filth, and clean it out. Something this country still hasn’t done.

#BlackLivesMatter

#StopDAPL

#NoBanNoWall

#LoveisLoveisLove

#TransisBeautiful

#WomensRightsAreHumanRights

#ImmigrantsWeGetThe Job Done

#DisabledandCute

#Resist

[jammixes-blog]

Secrets

The best secrets are never shared with anyone. There are very few real secrets, in this world.

Transparency is essential for progress.

While it is hard to bury emotions, thoughts can be hidden easily.

Often, it takes time for the mind to process all the emotions that manifest themselves, from the soul.

A secret can only be safe when forgotten. A lot of friends called me a “vault”, for that, I put effort to forget secrets a minute after I hear them.

No legitimate knowledge should be a secret. And, those who make a secret of a set of knowledge are most certainly charlatans. That’s especially true for “esoteric” knowledge, learning the Taro(t), to read auras, or even meditation, for example, should always be free of charge.

By the end of The Day, there are no True religions. There is only every human being, facing every other atom in the Universe, what I call “God”. Every religion tries to get each one of us further, but none contains the whole Universe, they all complement each other. So, all religions in the world, put together, are a meagre attempt to reach, understand, and feel everything else. In that respect, Hinduism is probably the most complete one, since it consciously encompasses and tolerate all the others. A deity, in Hinduism, is a form of potent energy, and there are no limitations to the number or the kind of deities, it’s a huge space for the soul to move around.

Knight Templars were not devil worshippers. They were made pariahs because they had contact with the Muslim faith and came to respect and learn from the Muslim world, after meeting their local equivalent. It created the mistrust of the Pope and the French King. This is what they could not defend in court. The rest, the so-called “Baphomet” worship, was an alchemical symbol accepted by Western Crafts, at the time, and was not the problem. They were suspected to have joined the “Devil”, converting to the Muslim faith, in secret, and sabotaging Christians from keeping the Holy Land. The Knight Templars, unconsciously, brought Enlightenment to the West, through Geometry, the number 0, Symbology, and Medicine. They were although more advanced in “alchemy”, and most sciences. Like creating the modern banking system, they had no plan for any of those. At the base, they were just the burnt-heads of every impoverished aristocratic family, wanting to be granted a place in heaven. Those burnt-heads were turned mystics and put through a very rigid and codified lifestyle. Even going down the steps, in the fortress was done 5 by 5, one level at a time. As for missions, Templars were paired, in a way where your Brother was more important than yourself, his life more precious than yours, and a sense of duty, whereby, failing, in a mission, was a shame you could not take. As for being taken prisoner, and tortured, never. You fought till death. This why, Templars who made it back home, made no sense, to the rest of the population, and ended up just drinking, and being incoherent, to the rest of the population. This is why, a lot of Templars just retired in the Middle-East, taking a local wife and becoming part of the social fabric. They still have descendants, all over the region, and probably tried to remain active, although undercover, like their Scottish counterparts. Is it important? No. The lesson is just about secrecy. At the time, with the atmosphere of persecution, they didn’t feel safe making their knowledge public. Eventually, they did. As for the Holy Grail, personally, I doubt they discovered much. They did, however, got more evidence, than anyone else of Essene traces, and “Essene sects” very close to early Christianity. They probably found or bought authentic scrolls or engravings that proved that, around Jesus’ time, there was a new form of Judas-ism, closer to Pythagorean beliefs and sciences. My 1 rupee, from 1974, maybe that’s why Jesus felt betrayed by “Judas”, and Christianity was born, out of Judaism, as a separate set of beliefs. The Muslim religion recognizes both Judaism and Christianity, mixing the Kahb’Allah with Pythagorean Ratios and Symbology. Of all three religions, the Koran is the most beautifully written, as well as being the most understandable. I don’t like the Bible, it’s been re-written too many times, to be correct and truly understood, without priests subjectively interpreting it. There should be no intermediary between a human being and God. as for Judaism, the Zohar is a mathematical beauty, I don’t have the pretension of being acquainted with it, I just have some notions of the Kahb’Allah. It’s probable that Jews new the name of Allah, as well as Yahve. After all, they come from the Middle-East. This is why it’s sad that Jews and Muslims don’t get along, in the Middle-East, they are both Arabs and Middle-Eastern. The modern compromise would be for Israel to be Generous towards Palestine, establish priveledged relationships, makes peace with Iran, and stop its compulsary military service. As for Saudi Arabia, it should stop being the lap dog of the USA, in its region. I lived there, there are entire cities of GIs, the whole country is a US army base, I don’t blame Iran for being cautious or paranoid. The Muslim religion and the whole world deserve and should have a New Golden Age, driven by Compassion, Tolerance, and Peace...for ALL. That’s why China and India look like a Papa and a Mamma. Chinese wisdom says: “whatever is, we’ll do with it...”, and Hinduism says: “we’ll create more space for their Gods, saints, and Messiahs...”. I still maintain, that if those two countries alone wanted, they could take over the world, together, anytime. But they don’t. Instead, they are making their people evolve, economically, intellectually, and spiritually. China is the most developed Nation in the world, technologically, and India is not far behind. Silicon Valley lives on its reputation, but they both have much bigger and better. as for India, it has rocked its own social system, after thousands of years, systematically erradicating the cast system and reforming rape laws as well as traditional marriages with minors. Both Nations deserve Kudos for that. Not only for the accomplishments, but, also, for doing it so humbly, with dignity, and hard work. USA: learn your lesson, one decade of hard work is not enough...

My vote for Nation Of The Year 2017: Both China and India

My vote for Worst Nation Of The Year 2017: USA, twice

My vote for Potential Nation Of The Year 2018: the EU, if it takes the UK back, Northern Europe (Denmark-Sweden-Iceland-Finland-Norway), Holland, and Russia

My vote for Leaders Of The Year 2017: Mr Xi, Mr Putin, Mr Macron, ANGELa, and Sir JUSTin.

My vote for Most Courageous Nation Of The Year 2017: the UK

My vote for Nation With The Most Potential Of The Year 2017: Canada.

My vote for Most Suffering Nation Of The Year 2017: Syria, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Somalia, Sudanese born in Saudi Arabia, and others.

My vote for Nation Who Had To Take Bullshit Unfairly Of The Year 2017: Mexico from the USA, with the stupidest idea in Modern Times, a “Wall”, paid by Mexicans, against their will, fucking with their border resources, and stealing tons of land. What a shame, the initiators should be punished, for that, to start with.

My vote for Most Potent Political Event Of The Year 2017: 4 US ex-Presidents coming together, to denounce what is happening in the House they all lived in, at one point, in Washington DC. George W was awesome! I had my differences with him, when he got re-elected, but this gives him 1,6 extra points, right away. He was honest, his delivery was heart-felt, for once, he knew his speech by heart. That’s how you judge politicians, by their legacy. Those 4 insisted to appear together, publicly, to share their convictions. For them to do it, the shit must be really bad, don’t you think so? I wish Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, KRS One, Saul Williams, Al Green, Eminem, Missie Eliot, Jermaine Dupri, Chris Rock (since he’s brilliant and was a Good friend of ODB), Raekwon (and surviving members of Wu-Tan), Nas, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Busta Rhymes, Simon and Garfrunkel, Johnnie Depp, Colbert, Dave Stewart, Eddie Murphy, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chapelle from the Chapelle Show, Mr Elf with his Cowbell, surrounded by other Luminaries, from the US, Canada, like Neil Young, and Mexico, did the same, and gave the proceedings to people who really need it, in the three Nations. Between Bob, Bruce, Willie, and Stevie, at least 49% of the USA is going to react. Those guys are music Royalty, their words are Golden, for everyone who tunes in. I sincerely doubt any of them is eager to go to Washington DC, any time soon. Maybe they can all do a cover of “Imagine”, as 1 of the tunes, the 1 they all sing together. Maybe a title like “Two Roses (1 Red 1 White) For Nations With A Heart”, this is long, I can jam on it, if needed. I trust Stevie for the healing Ratios, this Genius is truly Amazing.

ODB is my favourite rapper and producer of all times. No one took his place, for almost two decades now. The guy was a Genius, every tune he wrote or produced is flawlessly crafted. I don’t believe that he was a junkie, he was just a rebel. I used to laugh my head off, reading the gossip columns of his antics, in the project, when I was in the Bronx, at the end of the 90s, when he was still alive. He was very respected in New York, but everyone was eager to see how eccentric and erratic he would behave. He had a Great sense of humour and wit, in his own flamboyant and public way. But, musically, in his Craft, a True Master, laying every brick in a Perfect and Conscious way. That’s what you call legacy, no one remembers the gossip.

There are two comedians I miss seeing on “TV”: Chris Rock and Chapelle. They are both brilliant, in their own style. Chapelle’s Show is probably the only incomplete series that became an instant Legend, the guy is beyond talented. As for Chris Rock, impeccable. I’m not always in the mood for his tone of voice, but the guy is real, his stories hit a chord, with his delivery. Plus, he collaborated with ODB, that’s plus loads of points, in my book.

Blasphemous Column: I respect Brad Pitt, but, is Angela Jolie free?

Leonardo DiCaprio became the favourite actor, or ex-aequo with Depp, from my Generation, after I saw him act in Edgar, the movie about J. E. Hoover. I was impressed, on my ass, what an amazing actor. He portrayed flawlessly a man from 9 to 99 years-old. Wow. Respect. He is a Master at his Craft.