Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

Well I just found the most awesome website ever. It’s called TheWorstHorse.com and is dedicated to all things Buddhism-related in popular culture. It presents a mixture of genuinely-Buddhist and all-things-douchey-Buddhist products/things.

Two of my favorites:

“Zendough.com-” a credit score website dedicated to enlightening its customer with “the complete path to master[ing] their finances.” Pretty sure the last thing Siddhartha Gautama was thinking about back in the early 500’s B.C. was his credit score.

“Zencore-” the all natural male enhancement supplement. Why the devil “zen” was brought into such a thing is completely beyond me. Buddhist monks take an oath of celibacy, yes? So why is a fundamentally Buddhist concept, such as zen, being slapped upon a product entirely intended for sexual satisfaction?

God bless America: the home of the utterly fucked up and all things ridiculous (also applicable to Japan, but that’s an entirely different blog entry).

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Humans are interesting beings; We feel very strongly about all our opinions, but most of them are just lines we picked up from our parents or teachers, and we have neither interest nor knowledge in the subject. So just to be clear, this is the form I’ll be using in this post:

<Statement>
<Seemingly contradictory statement>

Alright, we ready? Here we go!

“I’m not a racist!”
“I’m not ready for a black president.”

“Marijuana is a dangerous gateway drug, and should be illegal!”
“Come on guys, let’s go get shitfaced!”

“Apple is evil.”
“Microsoft is awesome!”

“Microsoft is evil.”
“Apple is awesome!”

“Dear Jesus, can we get some of the world peace, please?”
“Fuckin towelheads, think they can come here and do as they please, thinkin they own the damn place!?”

“I’m for democracy, and I they should have it too!”
“What, those people won? They’re terrorists! They’re an illegitimate fascist militant government!”

“We need to balance the budget!”
“What!? Gas is up 3 cents!?”

“Small government! Taxcuts taxcuts taxcuts!”
“Government better stay the hell away from my medicare!”

“I accept Jesus as my savior, I’m a born again Christian, and I read the bible every day!”
“Their religion preaches violence!”

And finally:

“Hey, Jesus, how about you give us some of that world peace, eh?”
“Socialism is nice on paper, but it’d never work out in real life!”

 

Song of the blog: The Tip of  the iceberg

Sincerely yours
Bjørn

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Matthew 6:1-4 reads “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”

Hide your good deeds. Do not broadcast what you have done for others, in anonymity it is even better. Essentially, these verses from Matthew say that those who broadcast what good they have done already have their reward in this life, and need not have one in the afterlife. Instead of showing others what you have done and what you will do for them, do it without reward.

As people we want to be treated well. We want other people to notice us and we have been taught that good things have rewards and bad things have punishments. This isn’t always the case. We should do good for the sake of helping someone out and we shouldn’t do bad because, hey, it’s bad. This reward system that we have set up is almost disgustingly sick. We are so greedy as people that we will not do good without a reward and will only do bad without punishments.

But I compel everyone reading to keep good deeds in the closet, hiding them from as many people possible. Do not broadcast something good for immediate reward if an eternal reward is crushed in the process.

Next, let’s talk about prayer. (It should be in the closet too!)

Matthew 6:5-6 reads “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”

I think that this verse kind of condemns out loud prayer, or at least for the purpose it serves today. In out loud prayer, who has tried to sound more spiritually minded than you normally are? Who has tried to impress others with the fantastic words coming out of your mouth? I know for a fact I have. Instead of having honest prayer, I am blending in a lie with fancy words to impress other people, not the Lord. I am glorifying myself in the eyes of others, but only condemning myself in the eyes of the Lord.

To be frank, in that action, I am being a douchebag. Out loud prayer is meant to be honest and true. It doesn’t have to be a well worded, spiritually arousing tangent about the good of others. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just has to come from the heart.

THIS IS WHERE THAT CLOSET PRAYER COMES IN. Instead of participating in douchebaggery, closet prayer makes us Kings only in our own eyes and the Lord’s eyes. We aren’t trying to impress any other human being. There is no need to lie, because no one will hear.

So essentially, the idea to impress others only screws you. Don’t seek attention and do stuff in secret.

I love you, have an amazing day.

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There are some religious things that religious people do that absolutely irk me. What is that, you may ask? I’ll tell you what!

I was on the facebook last night, and I commented on something about the United States not having a set language (so people from other countries shouldn’t have to learn English to come here) and not being a Christian Country—because it isn’t—and some young girl (young being like… fourteenish. DON’T JUDGE ME) who has grown up in the Bible Belt of West Virginia all her life started getting pissed at me over it. This gal told me to “not ever start about Christianity, please and thank” because “God is [her] savior and [she] loves him with all of [her] heart.” Apparently she assumed that because I don’t believe the exact same thing as her, she would need to announce it to my three hundred facebook friends that she loves God with all of her heart—making it look like I disagree with that statement.

I used extensive examples showing how Christians justify their hate through their Religion—and she even angrier, because apparently Christians are blind and don’t see what they have caused. Justifying hate through Christ is disgusting. The goal of Christianity is to be like Christ, and I’m pretty sure Christ wouldn’t want to kill “them queers” or hate people of other religions. We justify hate and make excuses for not loving. It is absolutely disgusting. The girl informed me that the hate is okay, because Jesus died for our sins. That is ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NOT THE CASE. (the hate part, not the Jesus part…)

OKAY, so as Christians we say that Christ died for our sins, allowing us to sin. That doesn’t mean that Christ wants us to sin or that our sins are “okay.” We are taking that forgiveness and using it as a primary shield against eternal damnation instead of a safety net, as it should be. As Christians, as religious folk, as human beings, we should strive for perfection though we know it is unattainable. We cannot accept our sin and not try to change it because Christians aren’t perfect; trying to change that hate—that sin—is what separates the men from the boys. God understands that we make mistakes, but he sure as fire expects for us to try to resolve those mistakes and those bad habits we have. We cannot use Christ’s sacrifice as an excuse for our own sins—that’s not the point.

Like many would say in this region, we cannot justify “killing them queers” or lynching those who do not follow Christianity with our own religion. God wouldn’t want that. Pick up the mother fucking Bible and read it yourself. Yeah, yeah, I know about Leviticus, that’s the one that also said not to crop in cycles, wear polyester cotton mixes, or breed mules. What the hell did Christ say? To love thy neighbor? I guess He only meant the Christian neighbor. Or the white neighbor. Or the male neighbor. Certainly not the “queer” neighbor or the non-Christian neighbor, that’s ridiculous! God forbid we start loving other people and treating them correctly. It’s a shame that as Christians we are such disgusting people.

That’s all. See you next time.

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You know what grinds my gears? Have a blessed day!

I answered the phone because my doctor’s office called, and at the end they said “have a blessed day.” I walked into starbucks today and was told to “have a blessed day.” Why might this bother a religious person, you may ask? I’LL TELL YOU WHY.

These companies–whether it be starbucks or my doctor’s office–use “have a blessed day” to make us tip them. To make us think to ourselves ‘Why looky there! There’s a nice person, she even told me to have a blessed day’ or ‘man, I should donate ALL MY MONEY to this person.’

IT SHOULDN’T BE LIKE THAT. Human beings shouldn’t use religion as an excuse to get money. They shouldn’t use their religion to get ahead in this world. However, tell any politician that, tell any church that, tell any human being that. We use everything to get more money, whether it be our children or our religion.

Why the hell are we so focused on this money? How do we justify bringing our own religion into something to get a little more of it?

Where the hell is the line? Where will we say “oh, wait a minute, that isn’t cool” to someone telling us to have a blessed day, or that the Lord will bless and keep us? AND, finally, WHEN THE FUCK WILL MONEY NOT MATTER SO MUCH IN MODERN SOCIETY? (go socialists go go go!)

Anyway, have a blessed day.

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