Aslaug's Axe Shed

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. 

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!

 

 

Time for another one of my rants. It happens, you all know it…so bear with me for it. Or skip it if you don’t feel like reading this.

 First of all, let me say what this is about, where I stand on the matter and why I choose to write this.

 I am concerned about two trends that have become increasingly commonplace in recent years, regarding debates about damned near anything and everything. The first trend I see mostly amongst conservatives or other right-wing supporters. The other one I see almost exclusively amongst left-wingers. Let it be said right away that this is not a generalization and that fortunately, it I am talking about minorities…but that these are minorities that concern me.

 As for where I stand, I’ve never made it a secret that I am a red-blooded socialist. However, I do not believe in totalitarian rule, I do not believe in one-party states, I do not believe in the loss of personal liberties or rights. What I do believe in is the obligation and responsibility of any state to care for it’s citizens. Not just the privileged two percent with all the money, but every citizen. Particularly those who, for some reason, are incapable of caring for themselves. Old people, the mentally infirm, those with serious physical handicaps and so on. I believe any civilized nation has a duty and an obligation to provide good, fulfilling lives to it’s citizens, when they are unable to do so themselves.

 Please make a note that I said unable, not unwilling.

I believe that taxation gives me more than I could buy myself. I live in the second most taxed country in the world. Those who pay the most tax in Denmark pay over sixty percent of their income in taxes. Even a student like me, poor as I am in financial terms, pays 41 percent taxes.

I do so gladly, because in return I get free education and state funding for my time in school. I get a schoolsystem that ensures that everyone has a RIGHT to an education…and the means to do so. I get public healthcare that means that even if I needed a quadrouple bypass operation, I wouldn’t have to pay anything. I didn’t pay for the extensive, four year therapy-process that I underwent, nor for the massive surgery involved in repairing my…physical condition. Because it is medically acknowledged that it was a matter of life and death. That it wasn’t simply some ‘fanciful idea’, but that it was either a matter of me getting through surgery, or me going irrevocably insane…or ending up taking my own life.

When I get old, gray and infirm…I’ll be taken care of as well, and before I get that far, should I be assaulted while walking down the street, I can rest assured that apart from our Swedish neighbors, no country in the world has a less corrupt police-force than us to take care of it.

 This is my stance. However, as a democratic person I fully acknowledge the right of others to disagree. One political opinion I have held for as long as I have had the right to vote, is that a country…a nation…which has the same government for too long, will suffer as a result. Any nation will benefit from occasionally having a change of system, because it keeps politicians from taking their power for granted, and from getting jaded.

 Let me make a concrete example, however, of the problem I started out talking about, coming from the right side of the political spectrum. Today, I read a newspaper article posted on the site of a Norwegian newspaper, dealing with the 19 South-Koreans who until yesterday were hostages of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The article was quite short, basically stating that they were back in South Korea, and that they were asking their nation for forgiveness for having caused so many problems.

 Following this short article, there was a string of commentaries by readers, longer than the tail of Halley’s comet. I kid you not…it was absolutely ridiculous. Amongst these many…often very volatile comments…I saw one which stated (somewhat abbreviated, admittedly)

 ”Now the Taliban has another 20 million $ with which to make suicide bombs. This is the work of socialists and left-wingers. Socialists and left-wingers all support terrorism.”

 It is easy to disregard that kind of nonsense. Socialists and left-wingers didn’t pay 20 million dollars for these hostages to be set free. IF it even happened, it was done by the South-Korean government (which denies having done so, may I add). The government of South-Korea at this time is headed by President Roh Moo-hyun, a reforming liberal. Liberal, however, only means ‘left wing’ in the United States and it only means ‘left wing’ there because the United States never HAD a left wing in politics. Liberalism is, by definition, a right wing political movement, stressing the values of the individual over the value of society as a whole.

 Nonetheless, the poster of this message decided that this was another opportunity for him to say that all evils in the world came from the fact that some people don’t vote for right-wing parties.

 The same types have, in the past, been known to sprout such infinite wisdom (insert thick irony here, folks) as ‘Oh so you are against the war in Iraq? Saddam-lover!’ or one of my favorites ‘it should be made a crime to be a social-democrat again, like it was in the olden days. That’s the only way to preserve democracy!’

 I’d like to leave that last one standing for people to contemplate a moment. Let’s ban political parties in order to preserve democracy, everyone.

 Yessir…

 Very effective. Let’s make sure that everyone who thinks differently than we do are put behind bars as dangers to democracy. Ohhh yeah.

 Very intelligent. I could name a few dozen political dictators who share that opinion…Fascist AND Stalinist, both.

 However, this is only trend numero uno, and while I can thankfully say that I have yet to come across more than one or two left-wing supporters who simply reversed this nonsensical argument, the political left has decided to flog another horse so badly there is now less meat on it than on a Chicken McGoldenwings…

“THE UNITED STATES IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!”

 Sound familiar? Good Gods…am I getting fed up with this line of arguments too. Look, the United States has screwed up on a number of occasions. I think quite a lot of Americans by now acknowledge this fact. Of course no country is perfect. The mere notion that one country is incapable of making mistakes shakes the heavens by its sheer, unadulterated stupidity. But to lay all blame for all bad things happening in the world on the shoulders of the US of A is no less idiotic, and frankly it is hypocritical. It is running from responsibility. It’s finding a convenient scapegoat, painting a big, nasty image of it as horrible and morally corrupt and then forgetting one’s own responsibility in the process.

 I am against the way the war in Iraq was started, for example. I was not against finding a legitimate reason to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The man was an insane, massmurdering, vile, evil and tyranical piece of *insert colorful expletive here*. I am one of those people who have had the doubtful pleasure of seeing the physical results of what took place in the man’s prisons on the scarred bodies of human beings in Red Cross centers. I KNOW how vile he was.

 I was against starting the war on a lie, however. For a whole, complicated number of reasons, some of which I have already explained on my forum elsewhere.

 So…now the United States is embroilled in a war in Iraq which it may or may not be able to win, militarily but which has long since been lost on a human level.

 And of course…THIS IS ALL THE FAULT OF THE UNITED STATES…isn’t it? This is, after all, what a lot of people on my side of the political picket-fence claims.

 No it’s not.

 There’s no doubt that the United States must take a sigificant part of the blame for having started a war on a lie. But the government of my country chose to take part in this war. A government voted into power by direct elections. Meaning that each and every single person who voted for them holds a part of the responsibility.

 Even I do, despite having voted for a party who stood against this war. Because I didn’t help convince people to vote differently. I am guilty by inaction and apathy.

 Alright, my guilt is insignificant, seen individually. But my point in all of this is that it is too easy to simply stick up our noses and say ‘look it’s all the United States’ fault. Every time. Moneygrubbing, capitalistic imperialist gits, the whole barmy lot’o them!’. It’s too easy and it’s completely unreasonable.

 I may be a hopeless idealist, but I doubt I will ever stop hoping for the day where people are able to have a civilized political debate, without throwing mudcakes around. Without trying to disassociate themselves from blame and guilt, while painting the opposition as the evilest, most depraved human beings to walk this Earth since the dawn of time.

 Voltaire has often been quoted for saying ”I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

 Allegedly, it was said to have been a response to Jean-Jacque Rousseau, his most ardent philosophical rival.

 Problem is, he almost certainly never said it.

 Nonetheless, I believe that in order for the supporters of both the left and right wing to grow up and start acting like mature adults, they must first learn to truly appreciate, understand and value the absolutely fundamental democratic principle inherent in this quote, whoever originally said it.

 Otherwise, we will end up with a situation like the one I saw in that string of arguments, following an article about nineteen freed hostages. A string of arguments which included one man saying:

 ”Come what may, I wouldn’t lift a finger to defend Norway anyway. Why should I defend a Socialist state?”

 The poster had a Norwegian name.

 Think about that for a while…

 

 

 

 

Bastion is not home. He’s on vacation…which I believe is well earned. He’s therefore not able to post this week. He did send me an email with a piece of code to include in a message which would create the link to the chapters. Apparently, he already posted them, but the link isn’t there. I tried for over an hour yesterday to get it to work, but sadly, it just didn’t. So…it has to wait until he comes home from vacation, at which time I’ll ask him to post for the missing weeks too. I apologize for the wait.

First of all, let me thank Fikrann for the work she’s done over these last many months for me. It has been considerable and don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m not grateful for it. I most certainly am. However, as Fikrann said…it’s time she and I parted ways, professionally (although I hope she will still enjoy reading the stories). She’s been under an unbelievable amount of pressure real life for a long time, and it’s not looking like it’s going to ease up anytime soon. The result has been problems keeping deadlines and it’s meant that there have been weeks where I’ve spent more time asking her to update than I’ve spent writing a chapter.

 I don’t blame her. As I said, Real Life is the big sinner here…not Fikrann. Not in any way.

However, true to good form, Fikrann has offered to sign over Aslaug.eu to me, which I hope we can somehow figure out how to do. The direct result of that is that I will continue posting to this site. Or rather, my new web-administrator will. A good, real life friend of mine (who has also read all I’ve written and regularly made good natured complaints that my chapters are too short) has offered to take over. Naturally, it will take a little while to get accustomed to the code and maybe redesign a bit and so on, BUT … the site stays. At least it seems so.

IF…If if if if if…I have to move sites again, Fikrann has offered to make a redirect from this one to the new one. I know I’ve moved around a lot this last year. I can only hope and pray you’ll all bear with me a while yet.

In the meantime, feel free to drop by my forum at planetfurry.

Yours truly

 

Aslaug