Yipee (irony), more religious nutcases…
The ongoing saga of Norwegian religiosity continues on this page, with yet another blog-entry from me. Isn’t it weird that a Dane writes about what happens in Norway?
I think the reason really is that in Denmark, we only have the entirely laughable Moses Hansen…a guy walking across the country to protest against porn-expos, hauling a huge cross along on his shoulder, wearing atrociously ugly home-knitted sweaters saying ‘Jesus loves you’ and other such…slogans. It should also be said that because poor Moses is so horribly overworked, he has installed a small wheel at the bottom of his big cross so it’s easier to haul around. Woe betide him, that he actually had to drag the thing along like Christ to Calvary.
Good grief. Anyway, this isn’t about some lunatic Dane, but about a lunatic Norwegian and the reactions that have come from his madness. This guy, bearing the name Petar Keseljevic, has declared that he is ‘Doing God’s dirty work’. That apparently includes carrying a large poster around saying (in English):
‘Only Jesus the Christ can save you from Sin and Hell. Read the Bible for details’
 On the flip side, it says:
‘Warning to all: False religions, hypocrites, liars, homosexuals, atheists, drunks and fornicators. Satanists, witches, adulterers, idolators and the prideful. Murderers, thieves, God haters and anarchists. HELL AWAITS. Galatians 5: 19-21, I Corinthians 6: 9-10′
 It might bear saying that I Corinthians is one of the disputed Pauline letters. Meaning that it is believed by a goodly number of theologians to be false…not written by Paul…a fraudulent entry into the Bible…
 Are you catching my drift yet?
Oh, and kindly note that the man says hypocrites are going to Hell, yet he insists to be a loving, kindly person who is simply trying to help.
 Yesterday, he tried to spread his vile message outside the Central Train Station in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Result: he was assaulted by two people who were deeply affronted by his shouting (he carries a megaphone to be sure that everyone hears him). They broke his banner, smashed his megaphone and when the police arrived, they took Mr. Keseljevic along instead of those who had attacked him. Reason? He had disturbed the public order by provoking the attack. How could they be so sure? Two weeks ago, he followed a Gay Pride parade, shouting his obscenities at them through his megaphone until the police had to pick him up too.
 Okay…so this nutter is now established as being a complete, raving loon. What’s the hubbub? I’ll tell you! The problem is that his arrest has spawned another two-sided debate on the public forums.
 This time we have the side saying ‘All religions are insane ravings and anyone who has any kind of religious faith are mentally handicapped’.
As a religious person, I am severely offended by Mr. Keseljevic’s horseshit (and no, I won’t pardon my language)! I am not Christian, as I believe everyone reading this would know by now, nor will I ever subscribe to that particular faith. But I know GOOD Christians out there. I know decent, kind, openminded and loving people who have chosen to look at their holy book with a slightly critical eye, saying ‘ooookay, maybe this ‘let’s stone the lot o’them’ idea isn’t all that wizz, but this ‘let’s be nice to one another’-thing is pretty nifty’. Tigermark, Silver Coyote and Aramis Dagaz are yet again my three prime examples. My original group of proofers. I have used them as examples a dozen times or more already and I’ll keep doing so because they are GOOD examples.
I take the greatest possible offense to anyone labeling these three excellent people, and others like them, mentally handicapped.
Generalization is abject stupidity. Individuals are precisely that, and should be treated as such.
The other side of the debate, of course, are those who go ‘Jesus loves you. All you have to do is stop being such a horrible, sinful, depraved human being and open your heart to him and let him decide for you because you’ll be SO much happier once you’re a Jesus-buddy’.
*insert loud, desperate, agonized scream here*
Can’t these twonks let the rest of us figure out when we are ready and IF we are ready to let Jesus into our lives? Or ANY religion for that matter? Can’t they, for the love of anything holy, stop doing the ‘all you have to do…’ routine??
WHAT HAPPENED TO FREE WILL??
WHAT HAPPENED TO LETTING US ALL HAVE OUR DIFFERENCES?
WHY IN THE NAME OF *Insert deity of choice here* DO WE HAVE TO ALL BE COMPLETELY IDENTICAL??
And why…oh why…oh please, Gods in Asgaard answer me why…must these dinks think that what makes them happy automatically would make everyone else happy too?
They give the GOOD Christians out there a bad name. AND the good Muslims. AND the good Hindus. AND the good Buddhists. AND…
Are you catching my drift again?
 Good!
Now…to take a deep breath.
*Inhales*
*Exhales*
Look, I am definitely in favor of freedom of religion. I am in favor of freedom of thought and speech too. But I am, most of all, in favor of the concept of ‘Freedom with Responsibility’.
Just because we CAN do something…just because we have the RIGHT to do something…doesn’t mean we SHOULD do something. Part of true freedom is having the freedom to do more than is needed, right or decent.
People have the RIGHT to spread their litany of hatred as long as they don’t actively encourage violence. But that does not mean they should. In slightly twisted Christian terms it makes them bad neighbors, not worthy of love. But oh my, they do have the right to do so.
In response, I have the right to be grossly offended, to ignore them and to use my Freedom of Speech to decry their nonsense. To call them a buch of halfwits and clowns. To openly state that their actions have ensured that I will never…ever…under any circumstance bow my knee to their religion. I will not be associated with that kind of people.
Mind you, that goes both for the ‘faithful’ and for the ‘faithful atheists’. What most of them fail to comprehend, is that in their hysterical rejection of religion in ANY form, they become as fanatically religious in their own right, as the people they ridicule. Naturally this makes them the foremost targets of their own scorn, although most of them will quite likely never understand that they are worshipping ‘Scientific Explanation’ in a quasi-religious manner anyway.
The day they wake up to this realization, I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall. I would dearly enjoy it and I would revel in it.Â
Not being a Christian carries with it the added bonus of being allowed to enjoy that kind of thing, without pity.
Being an Atheist is fine with me. They’re welcome to it. But I will not be labeled a mental cripple because I have a different perspective on life. Why? Because the view they are championing…surprise surprise…is ‘all you have to do…’.
I’m not done yet though.
The ‘Faithful Atheists’ and the ‘Faithful’ both have their battle-cries. Oh yes oh yes, no battleground without standards to rally around, powerful shouted statements to bolster ones beliefs and frighten others, and general loathing of one another.
Would be a rather boring battlefield that way.
‘Let’s all sit down for a nice cup of tea and discuss this like civilized people over a game of chess’.
How dull.
How civilized.
How wonderful.
How completely unrealistic.
Anyway, the ‘Faithful’ will respond to ANY attack on the moral integrity of their beliefs by saying ‘but if you read the Bible, it clearly speaks of loving one’s neighbor. Just go read it again, you’ll see’.
Nice trick there. Telling people to read the bible, while defending their perspective.
REALITY CHECK! The Semitic God slaughtered whole cities, butchered innocent infants in their craddles and condemned entire peoples to damnation and desolation on a whim or because of the actions of ONE person.
Wow, how loving and caring. Then, of course, comes the New Testament. Mr. Fire-and-Brimstone God o’Wrath & Anger suddenly becomes cozy, happy-happy Uncle God who gives us presents in the shape of himself, become flesh and Son in one.
Confused yet? Theologians have argued about that issue for two thousand years. They still can’t agree.
But of course, it IS true that the New Testament God is a lot nicer and a lot less angry than the old testament version. HOWEVER! The Bible is made up of BOTH texts! And BOTH are part of God. Unless one accepts that God actually changed (which means he was imperfect in the old Testament, which kinda undermines the whole concept of monotheism), then one has to accept that BOTH the Old and New Testament are part of the Bible. I can’t think of many Christian faiths who don’t accept both. Some…but not many.
And even if one looks solely at the New Testament, I could come up with quite a number of places where God doesn’t exactly come across as sweetness and light.
However, I fully acknowledge that there are many situations where he DOES come across as a very benevolent, fatherly figure. Healing the sick and spreading hope? Hey, I’m ALL IN FAVOR! How about stopping a bunch of old men from killing a young woman by stoning? Arguably the most animalistic and barbaric method of execution in existence? Hey, three cheers for the big J! I’m all for it, no question about it. All I’m saying is that those situations do not comprise the entirety of the Bible!
The bottom line? The Faithful need to stop reading their holy book while wearing blinders, and see that their oh-so-loving and oh-so-benevolent God is…at best…and in my most diplomatic turn of phrase…a capricious, volatile entity who frankly fits the standard prototype for a Manic-Depressive.
And the ’Faitful Atheists’? They need to stop reading the Bible with blinders on as well. However, they read it the other way around. The examples I mentioned above? Slaughtering innocents, butchering nations and infants at the drop of a coin…?
IT’S ALL THE BIBLE IS ABOUT!!!
Thus speaketh the ‘Faithful Atheist’.
Amen!
…
…..
……..
Blah! More horseshit! I came across this guy who thought he had found the ultimate argument. That Jesus and the Disciples speak of the wicked, burning in Gehenna. ‘HAH’, this fellow thought, ‘Now I have the ultimate argument against those Christians who say that Hell is a much later invention. See for yourselves? Jesus speaks of Gehenna, and Gehenna is the Jewish Hell’.
 *HOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK*
Sorry buggo, you didn’t win a bag of gold or a trip to the Virgin Islands. Here’s a nickel and a one way ticket to Detroit!
Gehenna refers to the Hinnom, a small gulch located outside Jerusalem at the time of Jesus of Nazareth. It was commonly called Gehenna, because the place was constantly burning. Why? IT WAS THE BLOODY GARBAGE DUMP OF JERUSALEM!!
The place where those executed for various reasons were sent to be disposed of, along with all the rest of the garbage. It was NOT necessarily ‘Hell’. It was a horrible, stinking, disease infested place where the refuse of the greatest city in the land was disposed of. Refuse such as kitchen scraps, human bodily wastes, discarded clothing, dead animals and, of course, ‘undesirable’ elements of society who were executed for whatever reason.
It would, in other words, be the place that Jesus of Nazareth was eventually going to be sent to by the Romans if someone hadn’t picked him off that cross and taken him away to a proper grave.
Not a very charitable line of thought, of course…and it certainly sounds better to say that Jesus and the disciples were talking about some sort of ‘Hell’. But Hell was, truthfully, a concept that came into Christianity HUNDREDS of years later. It is extremely well documented and only the most fundamentalist elements would dispute this.
Hell is a human invention, made in the middle ages, because the Church had problems keeping people on the straight and narrow if there was no punishment to scare them with.
Lo and behold…here comes Hell, complete with Purgatory (which was later reserved strictly for Roman Catholics…oh joy) and all manner of nasty demons that the monks and bishops must have had a lot of fun thinking up.
What am I getting at?
This is a rant. Do I have to get at anything? Oh well then…what I am getting at is this:
BOTH sides in that idiotic argument are using strictly 20th and 21st century optics through which to behold the issue, but they are talking about a religion that has dominated most of the world for two millenia. It’s shortsighted, it’s foolish and it’s deliberately and willfully stupid. Furthermore, both sides generalize so badly it’s painful to witness. There’s no room for ‘the good Christian’ or the ‘laid back atheist’. It’s all or nothing. It’s YET AGAIN an example of fundamentalism and extremism.
 It is a George W. Bush moment, in fact!
“If yer not with us, yer against us!”
And you know what that is?
I’ll tell you. It’s really simple. Because all this can be boiled down to one, fitting, all encompasing word:
Horseshit!
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