lunes, abril 30, 2007

Church of the Poison Mind

Why do I hate organised religion? Because generally, it eschews all the values it claims to uphold and instead, utilizes it's power to seize money, land and kill people for all the wrong motives. As an example, take The Crusades - oh, what a great idea that was. Devised by the Catholic Church as early as 1095, and, sanctioned by the pope (pontificating twat), it was simplistically a free for all killing spree where anyone with a sword could march around Europe saying, "Do you believe in jesus christ then?" and if the answer wasn't yes, tough shit, you were dead. Didn't matter if you didn't understand the question, that was the same as a no.

Oh what a great idea that is (he said, extremely sarcastically). Simplistically, church terrorists. However, because the pope said it was ok, then it was ok then. What a fucking crock of shit. The supposed reason, to recapture Jerusalem from those naughty muslims. Their crime, because they happened to live there. Oh well, that's alright then is it? "Right you satans spawn, we shall drive you from our holy land" - "But we were here first" - "Ah, but that's not the point is it?" - "Yes it is" - "No it's not, cos the pope told us so and you don't believe in god so there" - "But we believe in allah, which is the same as your god".

Of course, once you let men loose with weapons they kind of get into all that killing malarkey, so by the time of the fourth crusade, people had lost the plot entirely. "Let's attack Constantinople" - "But why, did the pope tell us to?" - "Well, er, no, but it begins with a C and that's the same letter as christ begins with so they're obviously taking the piss aren't they" *cue angry mob waving their swords in the air shouting "yeah - kill, kill, kill*

As per usual, with dis-organised religion, because people were using it for their own benefits, anything good got ignored. The bishops offered the jews sanctuary in the church, and even highlander wasn't allowed to fight in there - but oh no, they were up for the killing spree in the name of the church now, so the 'christian soldiers' just broke into the churches and slaughtered everyone anyway. So the poor bishops got rogered for trying to help people who weren't even of the same religion.

It had all started because the pope didn't like turkey. He much preferred goose for his christmas lunch and so he called his army of idiots and said kill turkeys but by the time the word had been passed to the back, it had become 'we're going to Turkey' "What for?" "I dunno, kill, kill, kill". So off they all toddled to Turkey and set about killing everyone. Eventually they arrived in Jerusalem, continued with their kill, kill, kill policy and so they had Jerusalem. Hooray - only killed a shit load of people for no reason then. And so it continued for hundreds of years.

Mmmm - organised religion my arse.

24 comentarios:

Anónimo dijo...

Yep, that's religion (or at least, Christianity) pretty much in a nutshell. Pity it didn't stop with the crusades...

PS - How about that link to Connah that we talked about? He really needs it!

Good on ya, SG!

Drama Queen dijo...

Oh I'm with you Goth boy but I don't think I could verbalise it, a bit of me still believes they'd send me to hell and that would be no place for a Queenie. . .unless you were planning on joining? Hell with that post I think the Devil himself will give you his warmed chair. . .

phoenix dijo...

I cannot really comment on something i know nothing about, but I do know that some of the so called christians who I've known in my life (some of whom were close family) who I'd have imagined to be forgiving,peace loving and charitable (what i thought christianity was meant to be?)were the biggest bunch of two faced, spiteful,uncharitable selfish people I've met.Bunch of hypocrites the lot of em

Cream dijo...

Your last sentence should have been "Mmmm, my arse organised religion..."

Ariel dijo...

Religion, the ethical equivalent of TV dinners for people who cannot be arsed delving a bit deeper and deciding what kind of values they want to live their life by. Edifying bullshit if the size of cathedrals is anything to go by...

The Aunt dijo...

Was it Lenin who called it the opium of the masses?

Mr. X dijo...
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
Mr. X dijo...

Damn, Auntie beat me to that quote, although it's actually Karl Marx. Lenin may well have paraphrased it, though.
We would add religion is not just opium for the masses, but the mechanism of control as well. We object to it on that as much as the blatant hypocrisy and fundamental flaws in the looseness of the whole thing, leading to all sorts of interpretations.
People with minds that work don't need such a crutch.
But most are just sheep, who will never wake up.

At least the Cathedrals are good to look at. What they represent, however, is rancid at the core.
Until we depart from this religion fixation, this nasty little race will never grow up.
Which saddens us.

SpanishGoth dijo...

Gddik -> working on the link, Bloggers playing silly-bloggers at the mo......but it's not religion I have an issue with, it's the organised part. Religion by itself can play a very valuable 'crytch' to some people

DQ -> I'm not afraid of what they throw at me. I know most religious texts a lot better than the people who swear by them

Phoenix -> Hypocrite is exactly the word - 'a simulation of virtue or goodness'. If they even practised half of what they preached the world would be a better place

Cream -> didn't put it that way for a reason - I don't like my arse and religion in that order as they do tend to read certain things literally and religious types cab be buggers - very literally

Ariel -> Again, don't confuse religion with organised religion. A belief system that is designed to make for a better society is a good thing - one that is perverted and interpreted by an organisation, like the catholic church, is where it starts going pear-shaped

Aunty M -> was indeed and by a curious coincidence, the first true communist (using the proper definition of communism would be.........jesus christ)

SpanishGoth dijo...

Yikes Mr X -> looks like we were typing at the same time, and funnily enough.....roughly the same

Marx may have invented the phrase but Lenin utilised it as a driving force for the Russian Revolution

Anónimo dijo...

Beurk ! Beurk ! Beurk !

Saladin as a valiant knight knight, as a noble hero, as one most big bosses of State whom the humanity had never known.

The liberator of Jerusalem and the hero of the battle of Hattin, His name is Abû Al-Mudhaffar Yûsuf Ibn Ayyûb Ibn Shâdhî, saved(spared) him(her) the Christians, contrary has Richard 1st Heart of Lion, during the crusades knifed, plundered and I cross(spend) it!!!

Said with the lily of the valley …

Je porte bonheur...

Et j’ai fais court !!

Amitié

Pat dijo...

To put it simply- and I'm a simple gel- organised religion is other people getting between you and your God. Bleedin' sauce! And I've just realised what an oxymoron 'Christian Soldiers' is.

Anónimo dijo...

I agree with you 100%. I am not well informed enough to argue a good case, but I know what I believe - or rather don't believe in!

David dijo...

Old argument- surely your enlightened(?) mind could come up with an original reason to hate organized religion.

Religion is man made- what is at stake is a relationship with Jesus Christ and what you do with Him and the fact that He lived and gave himself for our change.

Mr Farty dijo...

Hmmm, I was going to repeat the quote about Ireland having too many Catholics and Protestants but not enough Christians...yep, about sums it up for the rest if the world too.

Join us.

Soup Waiter dijo...

Pastor David is right, this is an old argument. However, is it not true that Christian Fundamentalists in America today are all in favour of war in the Middle East? The reason being that they believe this will trigger nuclear armageddon and the good lord will promptly swift them all away to heaven.

Yes it is The Organisation, not the religion, that keeps people in the dark ages. I don't know how though, I find most religous gatherings about as interesting as following live snooker on the radio. Oh I've been to a few in my time, including Bury v Wolves in the 97-98 season, Jesus Harold Christ on crutches it makes my blood clot just thinking about it.

I went on a crusade once, to get KFC from Maastricht and I'm going to do it again when I get my driving license back. Hector's Chicken my arse!

SpanishGoth dijo...

Dip-dop -> not seen you this agigtated for awhile - cross-spending? eek

Je PB -> salut et merci

Pat -> never simple, merely simply fabulous

Petit -> go where your heart is and if you need Gothic protection, I will follow

Pastor David -> Welcome, indeed I have an original reason but what say we converse on the stated first? Thus spoke Zarathushtra. And thus, the god vs man debate begins.

Mr Farty -> Back from gassing South Africa then?

Join us -> yeah right

Julie Jay -> oh good, stopped shagging long enough to comment have we? International relations type project was it

Tippler dijo...

Any notion I may have of God does not rely on any prats in fancy clothes getting in the way.

If He's there, we've all got a direct line, as far as I'm concerned.

So, Pastor, while I'm sure you're a great bloke who does plenty of good, your 'job' is surplus to requirements.

Can't you just call youself a 'social worker' or something?

David dijo...

spanishgoth- See that you are a fan and, I assume, you have read Nietzsche?

But for a discussion to ensue- have you read the Bible cover to cover?

Tippler- sure, can change my designation; what does your name imply and what can you change about yourself?

David dijo...

Not lurking- still waiting for a response from you-

David dijo...

Been waiting for you to repond to my questions:
1. The crusades should not be referred to as the "Christian crusades." Most of the people involved in the crusades were not truly Christians...even though they claimed to be. Like me claiming to be 'spanishgoth' and not!

2. The crusades took place from approximately 1095 to 1230 A.D. That was between 775 and 910 years ago. Should the unbiblical and un-Christ-like actions of supposed Christians 1000 years ago still be held against Christians today?

3. Not that this is an adequate excuse, but Christianity is not the only religion with a violent past. In actuality, the crusades were responses to Muslim invasions on what was once land occupied primarily by Christians. From approximately 200 A.D. to approximately 900 A.D. the land of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, etc. was inhabited primarily by Christians. Once Islam began to spread and become powerful, Muslims invaded these lands and brutally oppressed, enslaved, deported, and even murdered the Christians living in those lands. In response, the Roman Catholic Church and "Christian" kings / emperors from Europe ordered the crusades to reclaim the land the Muslims had taken. The actions that many so-called Christians took in the crusades were still deplorable. There is no Biblical justification for conquering lands, murdering civilians, and destroying cities in the Name of Jesus Christ.

Finally, do you want to be held accountable for the actions of people who lived 900+ years ago? What did yor ancestors do that we should hold you accountable for today?

Trying to blame all of Christianity for the crusades is analogous to blaming all Muslims for Islamic terrorism.

SpanishGoth dijo...

Pastor David -> I wasn't ignoring I just sometimes forget to check back on previous posts (I know I should set up an e-mail notification but my inbox is ridiculous without starting that).

Yes I have read Nietsche and can't say that I agree or disagree. Again, another body of work taken out of contex. And I have read the bible although I will confess to speed-reading the begatting part.

I wholeheartedly agree that most of the people involved in the Crusades were far from christian but I pointedly did not refer to them as the christian crusades - the 'christian soldiers' was in quotes as I don't believe that epithet either.

Should christians of today be held accountable? An absurd notion, the christians of that time had nothing to do with it so why would the blame be transferred today?

Indeed all 'religions' have a militant faction and this is actually more what my original point was. Many muslims are desperate to distance themself from the radical portions but it is the radicals who disgrace the tenets of the belief system they supposedly believe in.

If you re-read the post having read this you will see that I have walked a very fine line without blaming any religion (merely the people who purport to believe in that religion and then twisting it to fit in with some very unholy purpose).

Religion itself has never been the problem - the way it is taught and sometimes twisted is very much more so.

And incidentally, there is no justufication for murder at all, never mind a biblical justification. As I have said in previous posts, at no part in the bible do I recall instructions to kill for any purpose and certainly not from jesus.

oh and ps you can call yourself the Spanish Goth if you wish...

Tippler dijo...

Hey Pastor, I like a drink every now and again, like the next man but, more pertinently, I'm a journalist and, 'in a previous life' (to borrow a phrase) I wrote a Bar Talk column for a York newspaper.

My pseudonymn - as it was supposed to be anonylous - was 'Tippler'.

So now you know.

You weren't making any exaggerated inferences from my name's implication, now were you?

I could change it to 'Pastor Pint', it would work just as well.

SpanishGoth dijo...

It's ok Tipp, the water into wine thing was only in John (2.3.5) the others were too pissed to mention it ;)