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Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

...Also, Jesus said Thou Shalt Not Kill (except of course if you don't like the other person, or you want what he owns, or you're in a really, really bad mood, or you forget you're not supposed to, or something else )... Kate Decker

julieS's avatar

Wow, another stroke of genius from the eloquent Oliver!!! SPOT ON!

Daniel Appleton's avatar

" You cannot worship God & Mammon ". " NA NA NA, we can't hear you, we can't see you..... ".

Morgan's avatar

Love it love it love it!!! Fvck yeah 🙌🏽🤙🏽🙌🏽

Dent, Arthur Dent's avatar

Religion=hypocrisy

It's a simple equation.

Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

It is not the religions that are the problem, in my view, it's the people who (don't) do what religion actually says we should do.

An ex-US Marine turned Buddhist Priest called Marat gave a talk in Philadelphia. He said: (paraphrased) "We tend to divide religions vertically. We put Christianity in one self- contained column, and Judaism in another self-contained column, and Muslims in another column, Buddhism in another, and Hinduism in a different column -- and so on. But all religions teach essentially the same things: helping one another, helping the poor, being fair to each other, and listening to the teachings (through religion) of the Power that made us., in order to live a worthy life

Therefore, the Buddhist Priest said said," We should divide religions Horizontally, not Vertically: If you are above the horizontal line, you actually are doing what all the religions teach. If you are below the horizontal line, you are not doing what any religion teaches".

Dent, Arthur Dent's avatar

Religion poisons everything.

Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

Religion sure does have a history of that, doesn't it? Plus religion gets dragged into actual political aggressions, like the Crusades, where a king wanting to make a land grab "justifies" it as a "Holy War" -- and nothing can be less "holy" than a so called Holy war. History is full of hypocrites using "religion" (in name only) to justify vast, heinous crimes. I think the problem is the human animal being deeply flawed, and using anything that sounds like a good excuse to commit whatever inexcusable actions they want.

MATA's avatar

Definitely. Like Trump now. Using the White Christian Nationalists AND the Bible. .selling it even. The Trump.Bible

..he did that to solidify their votes. He bought them but they bought his garbage and lies.

Dent, Arthur Dent's avatar

Evil exists because of religion. People aren't inherently evil but religion is.

Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

Can you go into this some more? Interesting thought, different from what I have always thought. But interested to learn more.

Dent, Arthur Dent's avatar

It's just a personal opinion born from years of experience with religious people.

MATA's avatar

It's incorrect but divulge yourselves until you chew it and spit it out.

MATA's avatar

I don't agree. Some people are born evil. You need to do a lot more research! 👁️ I have for 40 years now. Don't believe everything you think. Learning is knowing. #MATA Make America Think Again.

Living is learning.

MATA's avatar

If I could post my Truth Meme by Ancilee here I would. That's my other Substack acct. It's got Trump.l STANDING at a Podium selling Bibles. It says some really nice choice words & Truths about him, his Bible and his blasphemy. People like it a lot. I'll post it on this MATA account. Ready set go

Come by and see. I'm free to subscribe. MAKE America Think Again PROJECT 👁️ 🧠 🤓 🤔 💬 🧐 Let's Go!!!! Come see my other TRUTH MEMES ..they'll make EVERYONE think. 😂 And think AGAIN. TADA 🥳 🎉

MATA's avatar

Just have a relationship with God. God's here, there, everywhere, anytime. TADA 🎆🎉. I talk to God anywhere I want. 😂 Driving my mustang 🐎..I'm talking to God. Nobody would imagine that in their wildest dreams...a hot redhead talking to God roaring down the highway. 😂 😂 😂

Goldie's avatar

Hey, have you ever read Max Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism?” That seminal work says capitalism arose out of protestantism. I would add to that: the bible had usury “laws.” That’s why only Jews lent money way back when. They (canada/US) only took these laws off the books in the 1970s, just before mortgage rates went up to 20% or more.

Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

Just be sure to remember to buy your copy of the Trump Bible (printed in China) for the low low price of... etc. The man simply lacks even a shadow of a shred of irony.

Dent, Arthur Dent's avatar

He is entirely inhuman, he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

However, he does sport a nice Toupee! :-)

Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

...it's fluffy, and goes with his orange face, don't you think?

Karen Scofield's avatar

HaaHaa 😂 Thanks for the laughs this evening and will reStack ASAP 💯👍

Wayne Garrett's avatar

99.99 % of the people who call themselves “capitalists” are not “capitalists” …

The 99.99 % are just workers in a Capitalistic system, as they do not have the requisite “capital” that would allow them to establish an industry in their own …

Dent, Arthur Dent's avatar

We call them 'wage slaves' around here.

Dr Dennis Callahan's avatar

Discover How SNAP Provides Food Assistance Was told made too much! Our information tells us that state organizations are cutting back to many who need legitimate help. One senior told me yhey hsd less than $1000 a month to live on ( she was also told she made too much)We were told the my wife and myself after rent have less than $2000 a month to live on. We were dealing with Indiana Family & Social Services. Your suggestion bears questioning as to who is gaining the system? Not us!

Daniel Appleton's avatar

I worked for SHARE & we tried to give to people on the basis of their need, not economic standing. Howard Hughes could've come in with Hugh Hefner & very few questions would be answered have been asked IF they had fallen on hard times.

Declan's avatar

Well.....according to the 'new' Christianity...it is incumbent on the white right to ac unilaterally as much money as possible...just like that guy in Houston megachurch. More ominously, they hate Democrats & consider them evil and worthy of death. Just take a look at Flynn & his cult....white Christian nationalism is like the ones in The Purge; Election Day

Mark Kitson's avatar

MAGA is as far from "Christian values" as it is possible to be.

Dent, Arthur Dent's avatar

Careful with that 'no true Scotsman' fallacy.

They are Christians, Christian Nationalists.

Stephan Trump RESISTS in NJ's avatar

We Love You, Sibling. We agree with all your words. Nazi Capitalism I write today. So yea. Great. So not looking forward to January 20, 2025. Anyone wanna meet at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2025? We hear it’s the perfect place and date to lazily smash through doorways in peaceful protest of a Rigged Election. We will gladly stand/sit/lay down in Solidarity with Orhers refusing to allow FASCISM to Steal America! Lemme know! Baieeeeeeee

ALLAN M TUCKER's avatar

Yes you can, the everyday christians give to charties that need money, the wealthy give it to family members that want more money. But then again, mega wealthy are NOT REAL CHRISTIAN'S

Dent, Arthur Dent's avatar

They give their money to churches and think that absolves them. Meanwhile, those religious "charities" gleefully refuse to help anyone who doesn't fit their model of a "good person".

I only donate to secular charities, they're more likely to help people who need their help.

ALLAN M TUCKER's avatar

Ok, I am keeping up what my mom used to do, give to St Jude

Daniel Appleton's avatar

The filthy rich may not be ALL THAT RICH, But they are VERY FILTHY.

Cameron Kennedy's avatar

Wouldn't it be interesting if a bearded dude in robes from the West Bank started wandering around telling everyone to love one another and not worship money?

... On second thought no, that wouldn't end well.

Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

Yes. Excellent point. I have wondered about that, too.

Norman Michael Harman's avatar

My path to atheism began in a little, southern Pennsylvania town, in my first year of Catholic School. For the next 12 years the Nuns did their best to beat me into submission and obedience by screaming "Jesus Loves You!" over and over with each blow of their paddles/wooden 3ft. long pointers/hands and fists/hair-pulling, and whatever else was handy at the moment. I was 7 years old. While professing Jesus as the "God of Love," the Nuns never once showed an ounce of it toward me, or any of the other students. Sins and Punishments were the order of the day - everyday. While telling us we were "created in the image and likeness of God," they simultaneously insisted that we were all maladjusted sinners, born of "Original Sin" (something about Adam and Eve eating an apple), and doomed to suffer in this world. They regularly told us that "God loves you" and that "God wants you to suffer." We were taught to embrace our sufferings, even "rejoice in our suffering, for God sent His only begotten Son to suffer and die at our hands" and we can only be redeemed from that by suffering. All of this was reinforced by the priests, at church every Sunday morning. Priests were these magical creatures that could turn bread and wine into "the body and blood of Christ," for us to consume - somehow consuming our God's flesh and blood temporarily cleansed our souls of sin. In the early Spring, as the days were getting longer, more sunshine each day, the trees and grass were getting greener, flowers were blooming, we were required to go directly from school to the church to prepare for the celebration of the rebirth of "Our Savior," by sitting through two hours of the "Stations of the Cross." Much like Mel GIbson's torture-porn movie, "The Passion of Christ," this was a two-hour session of blood, torture, beatings and death. And of course, we were reminded that all of this happened to the "God of Love" because of our sins - or to be more precise, the sins of our ancestors. By the time I was 8 yr. old I had already figured out that all adults were blatant liars. By the time I was 12, I realized that all of the stories about gods were mostly just bullshit. By the time I was 14 I no longer believed anything from the mouths of the Nuns and Priests, and was seriously doubting the whole god-thing in its entirely. Still, I wasn't quite there yet. At 17 I read Aldous Huxley's, "The Island," about a fictional, near-utopian culture in the south Pacific, in whose schools students were taught that men created all of the gods of the world. It was the final piece. It was the final push in which I walked away from all the god-shit I'd had beaten into me since I was a child. I was free finally, to pursue information, knowledge, about anything and everything. I left that little town and started on a "journey of discovery" that I'm still on here at 78.

Kate Delano-Condax Decker's avatar

Read books on particle physics or see podcasts by Brian Greene or Sean Carroll. You will I think be really moved by the incredible-ness of what is going on all around us and through us. Call it God, or call it The Universe. It is almost sure to fill you with awe, in my view.

Open Letters by Mersault's avatar

Holy Hypocrisy: The Blasphemous Gospel of Christian Nationalism

How Power, Politics, and Prejudice Have Hijacked the Faith of the Carpenter of Nazareth

https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/holy-hypocrisy-the-blasphemous-gospel?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false