I'm not sure where this will all go, because I usually do not discuss religion or politics. I hope I can be diplomatic and inoffensive.
Last evening I saw images of starving starving children (due to human conflict in Syria), and of soldiers, now unknown, who went off to fight in the First World War. To be honest, I was outraged at what was happening to those children, and again at the waste of potential of those who went off to war, presumably so children do not have suffer as they are in Syria (and elsewhere) some one hundred years later.
There is an awful lot in this world and beyond that I don't understand! I cannot get my head around the concept of nothing, nor of the concept of infinity. Scientists tell us the Universe was created by a Big Bang which occurred in such a small fraction of a second that is unimaginable to me. Created from nothing - not an atom! Then the Universe has expanded to infinity ever since and is still expanding. (Not quite the right way of saying it, I know.)
I also have trouble with the visualization of heaven and of its antithesis. Perhaps it depends on your point of view: For a prostate sufferer, having a good pee is a form of heaven, and surely those starving kids in Syria know what hell is!
Point of view is where belief comes from: everyone is surely entitled to their own particular belief, problems only occur with what the belief of an individual, or collective may cause them to do.
Within humanity, there are many races, the reason for which is also difficult for me to understand - oh I know it is put down to 'environmental factors'. Apparently all races have similar DNA but the diversity of the visual astounds.
And why did people remain in inhospitable places like deserts or in areas of extreme cold?
And what is within the human psyche to distrust others who are different. It seems in history [and even today] there was no, 'Welcome stranger, you look different to me, but that's cool!' Instead, it is more like, 'There's a stranger, let's kill him!'
Ethnicity has been the cause, excuse or side issue of wars over the ages.
I can understand that mankind in early history embraced forms of religion, hoping for favorable weather/harvests and for fertility. However I don't understand how or why early mankind were fascinated by and had great understanding of the stars. The moon and the sun are obvious but the was the solstice observed? Spring is announced by nature, as is autumn, so to know when the solstice occurs seems unimportant in the scheme of things.
But populations were somehow convinced to build great works [hugely labor intensive] to honour the solstices or/and their gods.
Faith and religion are good things because guidelines and rules are made for populations to follow, creating a form of order, but of course this created leaders and gave those leaders power - sometimes great power. And with that comes corruption.
Greed comes quite quickly and there seems to be something within the human psyche for leaders [religious or otherwise] to find ways of amassing wealth at the expense of their followers. And of course the wealth of one group became coveted and so was the cause of battles and wars.
It would appear that all culture had their religious beliefs, there own particular deities and way of honoring them. And there were prophets and holy men & women.
Then along came a man, know for his humility and meekness, who started off by doing some good deeds and performed miracles. He went into the wilderness (alone) and later says to his fellows, 'Follow me.' And this started a religion. Our modern time is tied to the birth of this man.
Some six hundred years previously, a prince went out into the wilderness (alone) and he recieved enlightenment and discovered the meaning of life and his teachings led to an enduring religion.
Then twelve hundred years later, a man known for his honesty and trustworthiness went out into the wilderness (alone), and returned able to read and write, he united warring tribes and stopped inter-tribal fighting. He later took 10 000 soldiers and won a battle without bloodshed. Honoring this man led to another religion.
There are around 4 200 religions and presumably they all teach things like peace, tolerance, humility and all round goodness. The edict or dogma or whatever it is called is all well and good but how individuals interpret their particular religion can be far from what the edict or dogma may say.
Charles Darwin espoused the theory of the survival of the fittest, and from what I have seen throughout my adventures, I have to agree with him.
So this leads to a couple of questions:
(1) Some religions have leaders and members - the most holy - who are celibate, so how can their particular holy line continue?
(2) Within the character of some people, there is an element of sympathy/empathy. In others, there is clearly not. Is sympathy/empathy a weakness to be exploited and ultimately unsurvivable - a trait that will die out?
In all nature, the object of life is to eat as much as possible and to procreate - and for mankind to survive, there is also a need for shelter.
In all nature, living is for self. Piglets for example suckling on their mother are only concerned in their own full stomachs - they care not if another dies through lack of food. The trait of sympathy/empathy makes mankind a little different to all other animals - sometimes.
If an apple was cut up to be shared among me and my peers as children, the one who took the largest piece was looked down upon and maybe castigated; that was our society and perhaps something to do with peer pressure. So according to Darwin's Theory, are we weaker and less likely to survive as one of the fittest?
The ancients 'who were in touch' with their gods - or used magic or other means - became leaders of their groups and politics quickly came came into play. And if the priest, or whatever title was given to him, was not the leader, he/she was close to, and provided 'divine' advice to the leader.
We know of the maxim; power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And perhaps this is a human frailty - or is that survival of the fittest thing again?
Through history for reasons of religion, politics or plain old greed there there have been atrocities. Those man on man (and not excluding the feminine variety) were mostly unrecorded and but history tells us of the well known instances perpetuated by governments, warlords, random leaders and indeed churches/religions.
One of the tools used has been and is terror. And this is another mystery to me because we all think that others should think as we do; so if you are not into terror it really makes you wonder.
Kings and Queens were surrounded by political intrigue and they, or their henchmen kept their position by the use of murder, terror or fear. And it is fair to say that throughout history, and in the scheme of nature, whoever is at the top gets knocked off, This happened by by various means - death being the ultimate but these days, the process is more likely to be democratic and through the voting process.
I can't ramble on about this without pointing the finger.
To identify times of darkness within history is simple enough, but listing them means I need to put them in order and it would be easy to miss some. However some times of terror come to mind randomly - based on my imagination of fear in the hearts of those who were/have been victimized.
The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution (the thought of the guillotine does not sit well with me) , The Spanish Inquisition (torture and not being able to trust your neighbor), Roman Imperialism (having to participate in the Colosseum 'games'), Belgium in the Congo (gross brutality), the Holocaust (mass murder), and all the other 'ethnic cleansing' and genocide episodes (Bosnia, Rwanda). The list is huge.
Then there were then there were the World Wars, followed by a Cold War, when nuclear weapons were amassed - enough to blow the plant to bits many times over! And some countries persist in testing in a bid to have their own!
To be blunt, dying is dying, fried by nuclear fusion, gassed, shot, blown to smithereens, or bashed by a rock (add what you like), the result is the same. Though there is a difference in dying and being killed! Those who use these ways of killing (or invent them) justify it in some way but personally, in their heads, what really are they actually thinking?
Human beings have complex brains, and I wonder how far back intelligence goes. When they built the pyramids the Egyptians, they were using mathematics that many student of today struggle with.
So it is reasonable to suggest those Egyptians had a similar brain capacity to what we have today.
We have all these emotions/things; love, hate, pride, forgiveness, sympathy, greed, and more stored in out psyche.
I just wonder what goes on in peoples heads when they are pulling triggers, detonating bombs, wielding bush-knives, stabbing or bashing to kill and maim innocent people.
We all know right from wrong. We cannot help what/how we feel but we do have control of how we behave.
There is just one other thing about the human psyche, we need and respond to love - nobody loves a terrorist.
I shed a tear for those starving kids of Syria and I punch the air in support of a student girl who survived a gunshot wound to the head while rightfully seeking education.
Within humanity, there are many races, the reason for which is also difficult for me to understand - oh I know it is put down to 'environmental factors'. Apparently all races have similar DNA but the diversity of the visual astounds.
And why did people remain in inhospitable places like deserts or in areas of extreme cold?
And what is within the human psyche to distrust others who are different. It seems in history [and even today] there was no, 'Welcome stranger, you look different to me, but that's cool!' Instead, it is more like, 'There's a stranger, let's kill him!'
Ethnicity has been the cause, excuse or side issue of wars over the ages.
I can understand that mankind in early history embraced forms of religion, hoping for favorable weather/harvests and for fertility. However I don't understand how or why early mankind were fascinated by and had great understanding of the stars. The moon and the sun are obvious but the was the solstice observed? Spring is announced by nature, as is autumn, so to know when the solstice occurs seems unimportant in the scheme of things.
But populations were somehow convinced to build great works [hugely labor intensive] to honour the solstices or/and their gods.
Faith and religion are good things because guidelines and rules are made for populations to follow, creating a form of order, but of course this created leaders and gave those leaders power - sometimes great power. And with that comes corruption.
Greed comes quite quickly and there seems to be something within the human psyche for leaders [religious or otherwise] to find ways of amassing wealth at the expense of their followers. And of course the wealth of one group became coveted and so was the cause of battles and wars.
It would appear that all culture had their religious beliefs, there own particular deities and way of honoring them. And there were prophets and holy men & women.
Then along came a man, know for his humility and meekness, who started off by doing some good deeds and performed miracles. He went into the wilderness (alone) and later says to his fellows, 'Follow me.' And this started a religion. Our modern time is tied to the birth of this man.
Some six hundred years previously, a prince went out into the wilderness (alone) and he recieved enlightenment and discovered the meaning of life and his teachings led to an enduring religion.
Then twelve hundred years later, a man known for his honesty and trustworthiness went out into the wilderness (alone), and returned able to read and write, he united warring tribes and stopped inter-tribal fighting. He later took 10 000 soldiers and won a battle without bloodshed. Honoring this man led to another religion.
There are around 4 200 religions and presumably they all teach things like peace, tolerance, humility and all round goodness. The edict or dogma or whatever it is called is all well and good but how individuals interpret their particular religion can be far from what the edict or dogma may say.
Charles Darwin espoused the theory of the survival of the fittest, and from what I have seen throughout my adventures, I have to agree with him.
So this leads to a couple of questions:
(1) Some religions have leaders and members - the most holy - who are celibate, so how can their particular holy line continue?
(2) Within the character of some people, there is an element of sympathy/empathy. In others, there is clearly not. Is sympathy/empathy a weakness to be exploited and ultimately unsurvivable - a trait that will die out?
In all nature, the object of life is to eat as much as possible and to procreate - and for mankind to survive, there is also a need for shelter.
In all nature, living is for self. Piglets for example suckling on their mother are only concerned in their own full stomachs - they care not if another dies through lack of food. The trait of sympathy/empathy makes mankind a little different to all other animals - sometimes.
If an apple was cut up to be shared among me and my peers as children, the one who took the largest piece was looked down upon and maybe castigated; that was our society and perhaps something to do with peer pressure. So according to Darwin's Theory, are we weaker and less likely to survive as one of the fittest?
The ancients 'who were in touch' with their gods - or used magic or other means - became leaders of their groups and politics quickly came came into play. And if the priest, or whatever title was given to him, was not the leader, he/she was close to, and provided 'divine' advice to the leader.
We know of the maxim; power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And perhaps this is a human frailty - or is that survival of the fittest thing again?
Through history for reasons of religion, politics or plain old greed there there have been atrocities. Those man on man (and not excluding the feminine variety) were mostly unrecorded and but history tells us of the well known instances perpetuated by governments, warlords, random leaders and indeed churches/religions.
One of the tools used has been and is terror. And this is another mystery to me because we all think that others should think as we do; so if you are not into terror it really makes you wonder.
Kings and Queens were surrounded by political intrigue and they, or their henchmen kept their position by the use of murder, terror or fear. And it is fair to say that throughout history, and in the scheme of nature, whoever is at the top gets knocked off, This happened by by various means - death being the ultimate but these days, the process is more likely to be democratic and through the voting process.
I can't ramble on about this without pointing the finger.
To identify times of darkness within history is simple enough, but listing them means I need to put them in order and it would be easy to miss some. However some times of terror come to mind randomly - based on my imagination of fear in the hearts of those who were/have been victimized.
The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution (the thought of the guillotine does not sit well with me) , The Spanish Inquisition (torture and not being able to trust your neighbor), Roman Imperialism (having to participate in the Colosseum 'games'), Belgium in the Congo (gross brutality), the Holocaust (mass murder), and all the other 'ethnic cleansing' and genocide episodes (Bosnia, Rwanda). The list is huge.
Then there were then there were the World Wars, followed by a Cold War, when nuclear weapons were amassed - enough to blow the plant to bits many times over! And some countries persist in testing in a bid to have their own!
To be blunt, dying is dying, fried by nuclear fusion, gassed, shot, blown to smithereens, or bashed by a rock (add what you like), the result is the same. Though there is a difference in dying and being killed! Those who use these ways of killing (or invent them) justify it in some way but personally, in their heads, what really are they actually thinking?
Human beings have complex brains, and I wonder how far back intelligence goes. When they built the pyramids the Egyptians, they were using mathematics that many student of today struggle with.
So it is reasonable to suggest those Egyptians had a similar brain capacity to what we have today.
We have all these emotions/things; love, hate, pride, forgiveness, sympathy, greed, and more stored in out psyche.
I just wonder what goes on in peoples heads when they are pulling triggers, detonating bombs, wielding bush-knives, stabbing or bashing to kill and maim innocent people.
We all know right from wrong. We cannot help what/how we feel but we do have control of how we behave.
There is just one other thing about the human psyche, we need and respond to love - nobody loves a terrorist.
I shed a tear for those starving kids of Syria and I punch the air in support of a student girl who survived a gunshot wound to the head while rightfully seeking education.
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