Hang with psychotic people, who life so fucked, niggas came up singing that God was evil!!!

Before I cruise my spaceship back into the blogosphere, I would like to apologize to all my friends, I've been gone for a while, but I'm back. I must have misheard the song, because I've been gone since November. Well, since I've been gone, I've been observing the world around me, now I have some things to write about for a good minute. Here we go!

Just last weekend, I had a rather enthralling conversation with a few people. The parlance begin with a debate on the government's responsibility versus the public responsibility. Whenever it comes to that debate, I find myself a little conflicted. On one hand, I believe that the government has an obligation to oversee the protection and well-being of it's citizens. But, then I start to think, the public is accountable for themselves. One of the participants in the debate stated that the "Liberal Agenda", that a small percent of the population controls everything, is a false belief. Now, anybody that knows me, or has read my blog, knows that I am a conspiracy theorist, and I deeply prescribe to the "Liberal Agenda". He claimed that everybody is essentially a good person, and that if information is beneficial to everyone, then nobody would hide it. Well, coming from where I'm from, I believe that people, on a basic level, are solitary animals. Humans may live in groups, but if a situation arises, Humans tend to regress to a state that is other than altruistic, downright selfish. My friend said that if a person has children of their own, then they can truly be empathic towards others with children. But, as I've been taught by most parents, they generally put their children and themselves before anybody else. So, I argued that if keeping information or money away from others secures your children and yourself, you probably won't think twice about who's suffering, which is apathy, not empathy.

The debate, at that point, basically came down to Human Nature as a science. More specifically, the view on morality. My friend, Heezy, argued on the side of moral relativism, the thought that the concepts of right and wrong are relative to a person's environment and social grouping. While another of my associates stood on the side of moral objectivism, that the concepts of right and wrong are beyond Human opinion. At that point, I rolled my eyes and said "oh no"! From all of my debates, I know what comes directly after somebody says something is beyond Human opinion, understanding, knowledge, etc., that it's divine command, or basically, God. Fortunately, Heezy's father took my usual stand on God (the whole myth thing). Basically, divine command of Human morality means that, according to the general religious consensus, God is good. Also, according to the "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth" (BIBLE, for all the 5%ers and GZA fans), man was made in God's image. So as a direct correlation, Humans are, on the lowest level, good, because they were created from God, whom also is good. I, being the asshole that I am, like to use the inverse to substantiate an assholish point. Check this out, Humans rob, steal, kill, rape, pillage, torture, and over a hundred of other evil things. If tempted, the most well behaving member of our society most likely will take that unguarded piece of candy off the shelf. So using the inverse of the chain rule that "they" use to prove that people are good, I prove that God is evil. "If Humans commit evil acts, and they were created in God's image, then God does evil acts, making God evil!"

Had to throw Michael on here!!

I always grit my teeth whenever a conversation takes that turn into a religious debate. To me religion is one of the most destructive beliefs in society. Look at most wars, an underlying reason behind these conflicts are religious ideologies (and the money to fund the spread of these ideologies). Hitler, Nazis, the KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc., all claim to be Christians, doing God's work. Certain extremist within the Islamic sects known as Sunnis, Shias, Sufis, etc., all claim a directive from Allah, that they are the chosen submitters of Allah, and Jihad is their obligation. Jewish extremist in Israel bomb Palestinians to "protect" their Promised Land (which is one of the largest economic areas within the Middle East, I sense another reason). Just listen to any Presidential speech right before America goes into a war, the President always says that the soldiers are doing "God's work". The Crusades, The Muslim Conquests, The Reconquista, The Troubles in Northern Ireland, etc., are all wars created to spread or defend a religious ideology. Muslims call it Jihad, Jews call it Milhemet Mitzvah, Christians call it the Just War Theory. Most religions have a name for a war fought in the name of their God (except maybe Buddhism).

Over the years, I've changed my position on religion (a little). I no longer find religion to be an evil institution, I find the people within the religion to be evil. I'm not saying that everybody within a religious group is evil, just a good amount of them (most of them are the leaders). How many religious leaders have been caught dipping into the church funds, violating the churches tenets, or just doing something that is downright amoral? Religion created Jim Jones (the Kool-Aid one, not the "Ballin'" one), Yahweh ben Yahweh, David Koresh, Dwight York (or whatever he calls himself nowadays), L. Ron Hubbard, etc. So in the end, it's not ideology that created these people, it was the power they attained by claiming to be the voice of ideology. It's more akin to the famous quote "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". What power is more absolute than divine power? Many people wants something to believe in, and they'll throw away knowledge and common sense to believe in something. The power that comes from sucking these people in using their beliefs is the closest thing to absolute power, and many people want power, it's Human nature. And now the conversation comes full circle! On the most basic of levels, Humans are selfish creatures. No matter how hard we, as Humans, try, in the end, we are the least altruistic animal on the planet. That is probably why revengeful behaviour is only seen in Humans.



I guess, I'm just saying that, for us as Humans to get over these humps that we have at this point, we need to forget about Human nature. Human nature makes us want to be individuals, but in this day and time, we need a more symbiotic approach to society. Hopefully, with a new President, we all can come together to build a better world!



Remember the world is Diggie. Even the "Doodlebug" told you this was a Diggie-ble Planet. I'm cool like that!

Tell mommy I don't go to the Church, tell Ak' I don't go to Mosque!

I guess it's been a while since I went in on a rant about religion, but nothing really made me want to, then it happened! The other day, like every Saturday, a group of Jehovah Witnesses came knocking at my door. Back when I was younger, the knocking of a group of Witnesses was a chance at hilarity. The best time is when my uncle opened the door nude, hilarious! When my father would answer the door, he would invite them inside for a discussion on religion. To what my father ask them questions that they could not easily answer was funny to me. It may be weird to some, but during my prepubescent years, my brother and I would read encyclopedias during downtime between commercial breaks on "The Incredible Hulk". I enjoyed reading about mythology and religion (which are basically the same thing), and that leads me to the following post.





If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to,
then He is not omnipotent.
If He is able, but not willing,
then He is malevolent.
If He is both able and willing,
then whence cometh evil?
If He is neither able nor willing,
then why call Him God?

"The Epicurean Paradox"

For the uninformed, the above quote is one of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicurus is known as the founder of the school of Epicureanism, a belief in Atomic Materialism. Atomic Materialism is a mixture of social atomism and materialism. Atomism is the belief that society should be viewed in terms of the individuals' importance and that society is artificially constructed. The philosophy of materialism holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is matter, and is considered a form of physicalism. I consider myself an Epicurean, because I believe that the universe revolves around the interaction of matter, just as society revolves around the interactions of individuals. As an Epicurean, I prescribe to the idea of self-fulfillment. Now, I know that somebody out there reading this is going to say that the idea of self-fulfillment is blasphemous. Or that the belief in personal responsibility is totally contradictory to the belief that a supreme being is in total control of the entire universe. (Dare I say that the idea of one being hearing the mumblings of billions of people is as asinine as the idea of one man delivering presents to billions of people worldwide in one night.) I am also a Deist, and Deism is the belief that there is a "God" that created the physical universe but does not interfere with it. Contrary to popular belief, if you don't prescribe to one of the major religions, you are not automatically an atheist, maybe irreligious, but not automatically atheist. In the words of Styles P, "I pray to Allah, but I'm too foul to go to the Mosque!"





Rational [rash-uh-nl] : being in or characterized by full possession of one's reason; sane; lucid.

Illogical [i-loj-i-kuhl] : contrary to or disregardful of the rules of logic; unreasoning.

Supernatural [soo-per-nach-er-uhl] : of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.

Magic [maj-ik] : any extraordinary or mystical influence, charm, power, etc.

Fantasy [fan-tuh-see] : a supposition based on no solid foundation.

Schizophrenia [skit-suh-free-nee-uh] : a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: intellectual deterioration, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations.

Crazy [krey-zee] : mentally deranged; demented; senseless; impractical; totally unsound.

The words and there definitions were attached to this composition in order to aid you in understanding the underlying theme. Since the words above will be used considerably throughout the text, I put them up to make it easier for you to comprehend my ideas. The basic theme of this post, is the harm that radical and irrational belief can have on society as a whole. Most people would agree that mentally deranged persons, or crazy people, can be a threat to not only themselves, but to others.

Most religious people that I have had discussions with have labeled my opinions as irrational. By me saying that they can't prove that a "mystery God" (as the Five Percenters call it) exist, I was in someway being irrational. To believe in what is determined as real using the five senses, sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, is somehow irrational. Obviously, these people have never cracked a dictionary, or they would know that being in possession of ones reason is the definition of rational. Reasoning is coming to a conclusion based on facts, which is what is determined as real using the five senses. It's beyond reasoning that there is some invisible hand controlling what is going on in the world (unless you're talking about the shadow government that they call the Illuminati), it's illogical. Back in May of last year, I asked "Do you believe in magic?" to all of the religious folks out there. Usually that question would receive a stern "No!", but that's only because they don't know the definition of magic. When you ask a Christian "How did Jesus perform the miracles?", they will tell you that as the son of God, he was able to do supernatural feats. So basically, Jesus had some mystical power over the world, and that he could do things beyond the known natural constraints of the world. In other words, he did magic tricks! Now, religion is based on faith, or belief that is not based on proof (check your dictionary). You know what other word has that same exact definition? Fantasy! You follow this ideal based on fantasy, and I'm the irrational person? You throw out facts for fantasy, some talk in tongues, some talk to an invisible God. In psychology, they call a person that does these same things a schizophrenic. The following of religion is totally impractical, it's a belief system based on unfounded evidence, which by definition makes it's followers crazy.

You can see the harm that religion does everyday. From the crazy Muslims that kill themselves and others in the name of Allah. The crazy Jews that will willingly kill to take control of some "sacred land". Or the crazy Christians that will kill to keep women from being in control of their own lives, other religions being able to stay in their own homes (Palestine), and basically do anything to push their Christian beliefs on the world. I'm not going to go as far as Mel Gibson, and say "Jews are responsible for every war" (but they sure had a hand in most of them), but I'm going to say that religion had a position in almost every war ever fought. For something that's supposed to bring people together, it sure as hell has a way of tearing people apart. Maybe I'm wrong for believing religion is dangerous, but I personally fear religious people more than I fear the "immoral" irreligious folks. Religious folks will die for what they believe in, and in a lot of cases, kill for what they believe in. Most irreligious people are living for the reason just to live, while religious zealots are living to get into Heaven or Jannah, and they'll do anything to get on that guest list.





Remember the world is Diggie. Even the "Doodlebug" told you this was a Diggie-ble Planet. I'm cool like that!

Oh my GOD, Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, Jah, Vishnu, Buddha, G-D, Ahura Mazda, etc.!!!!

Alright, I guess it's time for another one of my anti-religion rants. I know I've been given Christianity a hard time, but it's necessary because they annoy me the most. But almost all religions are preposterous to me, the fantasy writings that are believed by the destitute, indigents, and scorn persons. I'll always skip Judaism, because it is essentially the same thing as Christianity(hence the term Judeo-Christian), minus the New Testament, Jesus' magic show, and with an additional 400 or so Commandments. Even though I like some of the doctrines of Buddhism, it is still a bastardized version of Hinduism(one of the oldest religions, before Christians precious Bible was even dreamed up). My problem with Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism(a bastardize version of Hinduism and Islamic Sufism), and other religions from the India region of Asia, is that they are all basically derivatives of old Aryan beliefs. The Aryans invade Northern India circa 1500 BC, and with them they brought their religion(sort of how Blacks in America maintain the slave-masters Christian religion). These religions, depending on the sect, believe in polytheism, or a form of monotheism, one GOD with multiple avatars. The difference between these religions and most Western religions(Christianity, Judaism, Islam), is that these religions focus more on personal growth and inner piece, rather than submitting and worshiping their GOD. Another one of my problems with these religions are that they all follow the tradition of saying that their religion was given to them by GOD, when it is clear to see that their beliefs are heterogeneous. I'm going to skip the other Asian religions, because my main focus is on the top five religious beliefs, in decreasing order, Christianity, Islam, secular/agnostic/atheist/deist(how dare I, as a deist, be put in the same category as an atheist), Chinese folk religions(who I'm not going to mess with, for now), and Buddhism. I'm going to skip right over to Islam now, since it is a major topic in this whole terrorism war. Islam is an Abrahamic religion, meaning, like Christianity, it is an offshoot of Judaic beliefs. Even though Islam is considered by Muslims as the last testament of Abrahamic religions, they believe that Christians and Jews have a distorted message from GOD. Supposedly, Muhammad, the "co-author" of the Quran, couldn't read or write, so he recited the words from GOD to his companions. While on a missionary journey through the Middle East, Muhammad and his army, raided markets in Mecca, was defeated by the Byzantine Empire, took over and lost Mecca, and controlled most of the Arabian peninsula. The Muslims believe that the Tawrat(Jewish Holy Torah aka The Old Testament) and the Injil(The Holy Gospel aka The New Testament), have been tampered with over time(which is true, thanks to the Roman Catholic Church), and that the Quran is perfect. I've read the Bible and the Quran, and the Quran is basically a carbon copy of the Bible, so how much of the Bible was changed. My problem with Islam, besides the decapitating infidels and Muhammad's flying white horse, is that it's the same unrealistic fantasy as Christianity. The same "man in a whale" story, the same creation story, the same flood, etc.. Even though some(Mos Def on "RealTime with Bill Maher"), Islam is a religion based on violence(like most religions), throughout the Quran, violent acts are committed in the name of Allah. The idea of Jihad, or "struggle", is that a Muslim's duty is to convert non-Muslims. A non-Muslim must convert, pay a tax, or perish at the hands of a Muslim. I used to align my ideologies with the Islamic ideologies, from an American sect called the Nation of Islam(which is not actually Islam), to The Five Percenter's Nation(whose science and mathematics are a little off), to Sunni Islam(I can't grow one of those Freeway beards), but my sensibilities overcame it. My problem with Islam is basically the same as my problem with Christianity, the magic and the fairy tales. I also have a problem with the concept of Salaat, why do I have to pray five times a day, did Allah not hear me the first time? Then there's Zakat, or Tithes to Christians, to which I ask, why Allah needs my money, if Allah is omnipotent? Are there Starbucks in Jannah/Heaven? (I'm going to stop talking about Islam, before some Muslims blow me up.) Since, I'm not too verse on Chinese folk religions, I'm going to let them slide for now. I will touch on the third largest religious group, a collection of groups actually. It consists of Atheist; who reject the belief in GOD or Gods, Agnostics; who believe that religious beliefs and the existence of GOD or Gods is unknown, Anti theist; who are opposed to religious beliefs, Rationalist; who depend on knowledge, justification, intellect, and basically reasoning to define their beliefs(like Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, and me), Deists; who use reasoning to assert that their is a creator, that does not interfere with human life and dismiss the religious books and the prophecies and miracles within them(I could be considered a Deist too, I do believe there was a creator), as well as Pantheist, Humanist and others. My question to Atheists is, if no GOD or Gods existed, how did anything come to be? And the Big Bang is not an explanation, because it doesn't account for energy appearing out of a void. Just like any story, there must be a beginning. I have no problem with Agnostics, because they have a valid point. Without any valid historical, anthropological or archaeological proof that the events of religious texts ever occurred, it's easy to doubt the truth behind them. Now anti theists, which I was, are opposed to religion as an organization. I too, like Anti theists, am opposed to organized religion and find it harmful, but unlike Anti theists, I believe in a creator. I am a Rationalist, if I see a problem, i use reasoning and deduction to come up with a solution. So when I read religious text, I see certain hypocrisies, certain missing pieces, certain fantastical events, and other things that lead me to not accepting these scriptures. When I look at everyday life and the events that we, as humans, experience, I question the interaction between a GOD and humans. I've went over it again and again, and I've thought about evolution(which is a fact and not a theory), the Big Bang, and other non-creationist ideas, and I've reasoned that there must have been something in the beginning, some type of creator. I've read the Bible, the Young Earth creationists, and other creationist theories, in which the Earth is only about 6000 years old. Geologists, astronomers, planetologists, physicists, and biologists have determined that the Earth is older than 4 billion years old(that's a huge range, 6000 to 4 billion; whats more accurate, radiometric age test or a book about magic). My rational opposition to religion and my belief in a creator, leads me to labeling myself a Deist. Religious people always talk of wisdom, which means good judgement, but following a book about fantastic miracles is not good judgement. You all can work off of wisdom, I'll continue to focus on obtaining and utilizing knowledge. I didn't really touch on my least favorite religion, Christianity, but I will in my next entry, as well as the harm of religious ideology, the slave mentality of Christians, and some other things concerning Christianity.

Peace, I mean WAR!

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

So the other day at work, I became enthralled in a conversation about religious beliefs and the Bible's authorship. I've been in this same dialogue before, a religious person would say that the Bible is written by GOD. I'd ask, why if GOD is infallible, does his written work have contradictions. The religious person would then say, because it was written by "men", to which I'd say, that was my point. To that, they'd say that GOD gave the multiple authors the words to right, which leads back to my opening question. Or I'd get the whole, the Bible is less literal and more metaphorical. Then I'd say, why is Jesus so important if he was a metaphor and not real. I'd receive the answer that, Jesus is real and is the son of God. The only answer I'd have for that is "the metaphorical son or literal son". My brother once told me that arguments in beliefs like religion or politics never end, because each side is going to stay on there side(or something like that). And it's true, because beliefs are based on hoping, not knowing, like science. In science, a set of theories are put down for questioning, the theories are then tested, if proven, the theory becomes a law. Theories are ideas based on actual things. With belief, a set of ideas are set down, the ideas are not tested or proven, they are just taken as true or false based on peoples appeal towards it. As a fan of actual facts, I sometimes try to dispute belief, with science. I try to use the "chain rule" a lot. For example, if GOD is infallible, and the Bible has contradictions, then GOD is in fact, imperfect, making the Bible fictitious[because it says that GOD is perfect], making GOD apocryphal. Or, if GOD is the supreme being, and is control of everything in existence, why does he let men commit so much malfeasance, why does GOD not stop man? They'd respond with, Jesus died for our sins or Judgement Day is coming. There's so many reasons to not believe in the divine authorship of the Bible, like dinosaurs, the age of the planet Earth, the chronology of Biblical stories, and the contradictory laws and stories in the Bible. I've read the Bible, as well as mythological stories from Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, Sumeria and Scandinavia. The Bible, which was published around the 5th century, B.C.E., was just plagiarized pieces of other mythological stories. The Sumerians have a flood story, a human creation story(the same clay one), and a rebel God(just change to angel, and you've got Satan). In Ancient Egyptian mythology, they have the God-child of the chief God(Osiris / Jesus), and his evil counterpart(Set / Satan), Osiris sacrifices his life for the other Gods, and will be king in the afterlife(sound familiar?). Roman, Greek and Norse myths all have the "extraordinary son of God" story, from the Greek Perseus, the Roman Hercules, and the Norse Thor. These are just some of the minor things that question the authorship of the Bible. I have no problem with people believing in the Bible, just believe in it fully. Don't take it literal for one subject(not cursing), and then allegorical for another(stoning your disobedient child). Like I've said before, the Bible is just as much fantasy as Harry Potter. And the Quran, with Muhammad's flying horse(Pegasus), and basically every story from the Bible, is also plagiarism too.

Now for some videos:

10 Questions an educated Christian must answer.
The best optical illusion in the world!
GOD : The Grandest Of Delusions!

Peace, I mean WAR!

Hey, and check out these sites, why wont God heal amputees?, God is imaginary!, Bible Contradictions

My Philosophy!

So, my sister is in town, and she's a "born-again Christian" (kind of), so me being the anti-religious person that I am, I tried to stay away from debating with her about the fallacies' of Christianity. I mention a couple things about the contradictions in the Bible, and how an infallible God could change his mind or make mistakes (which would make him, indeed, fallible). I don't hate religion, as I've stated before (everyone is entitled to believe what that must), I just feel that if a topic is brought up, I must respond with my take. I've called religious persons "children with imaginary friends" before, I've stated that "God comes off as an asshole in the Bible" before, I've even said that "religious people could be compared to crazy people that believe in magic" (my favorite description). From this point on, I'll say this entry is just me backing up some of my claims with evidence and research. I want, excuse me, I strive to understand "Intelligent Design", and what makes it difference from traditional "Creationism" (besides the absence of the name, God). To say that everything on the planet was intelligently designed to fit some specific goal is asinine and moronic; I dare a believer of this theory to explain the Dodo, the Platypus, why Rabbits eat their own feces, and other idiotic creations and biological mechanisms on this planet. If small evolutions in certain organisms have taken place in the short time that man has resided on this planet, how can evolution as a whole be denied. I recently watched a very insightful documentary entitled "Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus", it was about the debate to introduce "Intelligent Design" into classrooms (to make American students dumber than they currently are). It didn't really delve that deep into Darwinism, the Mendelian Inheritance, Genetic Drift, Adaptation, and other related components of the entire "Evolution Theory" (or should I say "Evolution Fact"), it was interesting to see the unintelligent arguments for "Intelligent Design". The proponents for this theory used man made structures such as Mount Rushmore to support their belief, stating that you can tell intelligence went into the design of Mount Rushmore (no duh, idiot). They compared that to the system of DNA structure in organisms, not taking into consideration that DNA structures in certain organisms changed over periods of time (which is the definition of evolution). Let's take it back for a second to the founding belief, "Creationism"; a loving, perfect God creates each and every organism on the planet. If this is true and God's designs, or God, himself is perfect, how does that explain birth defects, Down Syndrome, and other genetic "mutations" (I know the normal Christian answer, "God works in mysterious ways", and I call bullshit). I know some people are asking, how can I question somebody else's religious beliefs? The answer is simply that throughout my short 25 years on this planet, I have managed to read the Bible, the Torah, the Quran, some of other religious doctrines, history books, biology texts, anthropological studies, and other relevant writings on the study of mythology (or to some, religion). I have read about Ancient Egyptian deities (where most of western religion adopted its stories), I have recently started reading about Ancient Sumerian deities (which also has been bastardized for Christianity as well as that insane Scientology). I have been reading up on Mormonism, to further understand Joseph Smith's doctrine. I am a follower of science, and theology and mythology is the science that interests me. I beg any Christian out there to explain to me how a perfect, infallible God could have contradictions in his book (don't say because it's written by men, because then I'll ask, why you hold a series of books written by men as God's work, and why do you lie to others as well as yourself about its divine creation). Can somebody tell me which God is indeed the true God, and if so why? Why would a jealous God (words straight out of your Bible) allow people to worship other Gods? Why is the Old Testament God in direct opposition to the New Testament God? I welcome anybody to converse with me about their religious beliefs, or lack thereof, and answer my questions or ask me questions. I know it's against Christian law to question God (quoted from your book), but if you follow something blindly, ultimately you will fall.

Peace, I mean WAR!

But something must've got in us, cause all of us turn to sinners!

DISCLAIMER: Before you read this, know that I don't hate religion, religious persons, or the idea of spirituality. My critiques of religion and mythology (the term I use for most religion), is a general statement on ignorance as a whole, and not just the ignorance of "religious" persons. I don't fault people for not actually knowing what they believe in, I fault people for believing in that which they don't know. So I wrote this not as a slam against "religious" persons, I wrote this so that so-called "religious" people would examine their beliefs and obtain a better understanding.

To start this blog entry, I will set up a few scenarios and ask all of the "faithful out there a few questions.

Here's the first scenario, it's a sunny Sunday afternoon (you skipped out of church this weekend because you spent all night getting "right" at the club), you're on your way to the local Wal-Mart Super center (to get some Advil for that hangover). As you're walking towards the Wal-Mart, you pass a homeless man. This homeless man seems to be talking to a person that is not there. You walk closer to the vagabond, out of curiosity, and you overhear him call his imaginary friend "God". My question is what is your opinion of the homeless man?

Second scenario goes like this; you're watching a talk show on a cloudy Tuesday morning. A panelist on the show tells a tale of how he disappeared for a number of weeks to a mysterious world. He tells the audience that these beings, which he refers to as "extra-terrestrial", gave him warnings of impending doom and destruction. He states that the beings sent him visions and sent him back here to warn the rest of humanity of the coming annihilation. My question is what do you think of this guest on the talk show?

Okay, for the last scenario, a news broadcast interrupts this Wednesday's "American Idol"; they talk about a man that refers to himself as a prophet. He claims that his deity appointed him as a messenger. He gains the trust of a numerous amount of followers; they look at him as their messiah. What is your view of this self proclaimed prophet?

Now before I get to the heavy stuff, I've got one more question. To quote a line from my favorite McDonald's commercials, do you believe in magic? Now I know most people are reading that question and saying "hell to the nah!". Now really think about magic and the definition of that word, "the art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature". According to most religions, western as well as eastern, control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature, plays a major role in their doctrine. I'll now delve into what I presume would be most people's answers to the fore mentioned scenario's. For the first scenario, I know most people (including myself) would say that the homeless man is insane or just a little bit imbalanced. But let's think about this from a religious aspect, throughout the book of Christianity, the Bible, throughout the Jewish Torah, and throughout the Quran, men talk to a voice that isn't talking to anybody else. These men heard things that no other man heard, yet they are divine while this homeless man is insane. Could God not have picked the meekest of men to convey his message to, could it be he is receiving divine guidance? What if he's homeless because he followed your Jesus Christ and gave up his worldly possessions, and this was conveyed to him by God, himself (or herself, or itself, or themselves)? How is he different from a man that lived in a magical whale? And who are you talking to when you kneel on the edge of your bed at night? Now, for the second scenario, I know a lot of religious people don't believe in aliens because in the Bible God doesn't create them (he also doesn't create dinosaurs, explain that). So is the second man as crazy as the first, did he see imaginary beings from out of space? Now according to the Bible and the Quran, people had visits from mysterious beings from the "Heavens" (which is somewhere out in space, even though the Hubble couldn't find it), they referred to as angels, or the host of heaven, or the Elohim. These beings had mysterious powers and abilities that mere men didn't have, they cast of a glow that mortals wouldn't. All the characteristics besides the wings (unless you factor in the people that saw Mothmen) and the weird shaped heads of aliens, are very similar. So what if this man was visited by your angels, even better, what if your prophets were visited by aliens? I mean wasn't John the Baptist whisked away to Patmos and given visions by one of Gods angels (it's called Revelations, if you didn't know)? People claim to have the same experiences as John the Baptist, yet he is a messenger and they are nuts. Okay, the last scenario revisits the whole Waco and Branch Davidians, a man claims to have a message from God and proceeds to spread it, the world views him as an insane man and kills him. Now, most religious people view him as insane because his name wasn't written in a scroll in a cave somewhere. But it makes me think of Christianity and Islam, both religions are based on men telling people that they were sent by God with a book (they just happened to last longer than David Koresh). Lets take Christianity for example, after Jesus' death, rebirth and then death (and you don't believe in magic), a man named Paul runs around talking about his dead friend and his dead friends illegitimate father. Paul runs and tells the Romans (the people that supposedly killed his friend) about his dead friend, and they decide to take and mold a new religion out of Judaism. The Roman scholars sat in a dark basement and pieced together various stories, throwing away the ones they deemed unnecessary, and created a new book to add on to the Hebrew Torah. Word spread around and people converted (mainly because if you didn't do what the church said, they'd kill you). As for Islam, it was spearheaded by an Arab named Muhammad who went around the Middle East and recited lines from his book that he wrote with the aid of his invisible friend, Allah. He and his cousin / son-in-law went around killing those Arabs that didn't follow his doctrine, they referred to it as "slicing off the heads of devils" (the slaughter of infidels in the name of Allah continues). So if Jesus' so-called friend can sell his story to his enemies and make a religion out of it, or if a military general can persuade people to follow his religion; why can't a man in modern times be given the divine task of leading people to a divine being? Now I want you to pick up whatever holy book you believe in (that you only read a passage or two from when you're in your in you church, mosque, synagogue, temple or shrine) and read it thoroughly. After you've read the entire book and analyzed all the wonderful stories, pick up a Harry Potter book and read that. After you've done all that reading (and wasting time), ask yourself, do you believe in magic? Of course you do!

Peace, I mean WAR!

When kingdom comes, you ready?

Just as I spend many of nights, I watched The History Channel (since "Planet Earth" wasn't on The Discovery Channel). A show entitled "Heaven and Hell" was being aired. As many of my weed-head friends know, I have a love/hate relationship with mythology (some call it religion). Ever since I was younger, reading my fathers quasi-Islamic pamphlets (Imam Isa was and is a psycho), I've questioned religious beliefs. So many beliefs are just taken as "because God said so", like an angry parent telling a child to go to their room. But anyway, the program talked about Satan being evil and Hell being punishment for worldly sins, it also talked about the influence of the arts on religious ideas. So I reached over to my side table and grabbed a pen, paper and my Bible (you have to actually read it to defend or renounce it). And now I shall go on to analyze this "Divine Comedy" (I was reading "Dante's Inferno" the other day). According to most religions, God (Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, G-D, etc.) is a just, fair, good, perfect, infallible, righteous God, yet, throughout the Bible, God is shown to be an unfair, evil, imperfect, flawed, unrighteous God. From the beginning of "The Greatest STORY Ever Told", God is a bully, nay; I say God is an asshole. First he creates the planet and man, plants a tree with beautiful fruit, then tells man not to eat the fruit. I see it as very asshole-ish to put fruit in front of somebody and tell them that they can't have any. That's like waving candy in front of a child and saying "na-na-na-na-na, you can't have none". Then he tells them if they eat the fruit then they would die (he lied to them too, how righteous is that). Now the so-called evil serpent tells the man, "if you want to eat the fruit, its pretty damn good, it'll make you smart, and it damn sure won't kill you". He just tempted them (tempting meaning to put someone to the test in a venturesome way), he didn't force them to eat of the fruit, in my opinion he did nothing wrong at all. I'm going to move to another topic about the bible, the absurdness of the stories, more specifically the "Noah's Ark" story. Almost everybody knows the story, the world is evil, and God gives a 600 year old alcoholic the blueprints for an ark the size of a very large yacht. The elderly drunk then finds two (or seven, depending on which verse you're reading) of each animal on Earth (Biblical scholars don't count the now extinct animals), and then set sail for more than 150 days. In my humble opinion, for this to actually work, a few things must be true. First, not one other person on the whole planet, not one fisher or sailor, owned a boat. Second, Noah and his three sons were the greatest carpenters throughout history. And third, magic isn't just something created at Walt Disney World. During this story, God found a way to be an asshole for years to come by making a bullshit covenant with Noah, saying no floods shall kill man and animal alike for perpetual generations (explain New Orleans). So next let's talk about the "Tower of Babel" story. These people all start speaking the same language, and God doesn't like that (now they can tell each other how big of an asshole he is), so he destroys the building, scatters the people around the land, and changes their language. And why does he do this, because as the Bible says "and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do…" (Basically God doesn't want you to do anything and he's jealous of you). How just is your God really? In Sodom, Lot sat in his house with three angels, as some Sodomites (doo-doo chasers) asked to meet the visitors. So, Lot, being a great father, offers his daughters to the sausage-smugglers, but they want to go to the meat market. To make a long story short, the angels blinded the pipe-smokers, God torched the city and everybody in it, and God's homeboy, Lot's wife turns into salt for not following Gods rules (how just and fair was that). Then God tests Abraham's faith by sending him up a mountain to kill his son Isaac. Right before Abraham gives his son a hell of a buck-fifty, Gods angel yells out "Sike!". And the Bible, as does the Quran, go on and on with Gods Joker-ish (as in the Batman villain), asshole-ish, dare I say douche bag-ish antics. But throughout the "holy books", Satan just gives people choices, and they choose whether or not to do it. Satan never sticks a gun to a single head and demands anybody do what they don't want to. All the stories lead me to ask more questions (something God doesn't allow). Who is actually evil, God or Satan? Why was Satan really cast out of Heaven? Was it because he disagreed with the bully, God? Also, if you're "all powerful", why would you kill your own son to change the world (just change it, idiot)?

I want to end this with a quote from Hip-Hop, so in the words of Chef Raekwon, "What do you believe in, Heaven or Hell? I don't believe in Heaven, cause I'm living in hell. So it's your life!"

Peace, I mean WAR!

Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!

Before I really get into this blog entry, let me explain why I decided on the title. Currently and as far as human history can remember, there has always been a war between science and religion. From topics such as evolution versus "intelligent design" (whatever that means), abortion versus fetal homicide, global warming versus God's wrath (what the fuck), Wal-Mart versus society, Gay marriage, etc. I consider myself a Muslim because I believe in Allah and most of the tenets of Islam, but I would never consider myself religious because I believe in science more than spirituality. Throughout my short life, I have argued with many religious people about the dynamics of religion and the hypocrisies of spirituality, never getting anywhere. So from this point on, I will never have a debate with anybody about their beliefs. But for now I will discuss religion for this blog entry, most importantly I will discuss how the ""Christian Right" of America is destroying the fabrics of our society (which was created to escape crazy religious zealots trying to stop our freaky forefathers from getting, well, freaky!). First I want to touch on the Global Warming debate. Over 2000 scientist in over 150 nations have proven that humans are contributing to the destruction of the planet Earth through Global Warming. Now, some of the "Christian Right" believes that Global Warming is a lie perpetrated by Democrats and the environmentalist. They claim that Global Warming has nothing to do with carbon emissions or science, but rather with God's wrath, and these are the final days written in Revelations (yeah, that "prophecy" hasn't bit them in the ass before). So according to them, carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, over-consumption of natural resources and the erratic climate changes are just lies made up by environmentalists and Al Gore, or just plagues signaling the Apocalypse (believe fairy tales much?). Now I would talk about Abortion from a scientific stand point, but it is more a personal choice issue. If according to your Bible and Quran, God or Allah loves all of his creations, wouldn't he love a woman that aborted her fetus just as much as a man out in Iraq killing innocent Iraqi children? And since God gave humans the ability of free will, isn't it in the hands of each human to decide for themselves, also "only God can judge". Now for a topic that my brother gave me the greatest point of view on, Gay marriage. My big brother said "I ain't getting married, so let them take my place and suffer like straight married couples". Before I comment on the whole gay marriage topic, let me comment on God's relationship to homosexuality. According to the Bible, God is infallible and perfect (proven so wrong by premature births, down syndrome, still births, etc.), if God is so perfect, why would he create something that he despises so much (that is also evident outside of human society throughout the animal kingdom; gay lions, yes, gay lions). Now onto the topic of Gay marriage, during this time in our history, a married couple is one of the hardest things to find, so why not let same sex marriages legal and have some sort of married couples in America. I would get into the whole "Intelligent Design" versus Evolution debate, but why bother, the main support of "Intelligent Design" are ignorant people. Now, early in this entry I said I was a Muslim and I believe in some components of Islam, well I do believe in creation, because there has to be an origin for everything. Since science has took us back millions of years and the Bible only brings us back thousands of years, I have to believe in the substance in front of me and not the mythology that can't be proven. For the theory of "Intelligent Design" to actually be viable, you have to find a way to prove that dinosaurs didn't exist, you have to find a way for seven days to stretch millions of years. And for the last battle in the war I will touch on, the battle against Wal-Mart. There has been a war against Wal-Mart led by the "Christian Right", according to them Wal-Mart is evil and mistreats its employees as well as its customers. There have been rumors that Wal-Mart employees are somehow underpaid, not given medical benefits, or other benefits, these rumors are just untrue. Wal-Mart employees are started off at $7.15, which is two dollars above the current federal minimum wage, and receive raises on a regular basis depending on their work. Wal-Mart employees are given a health care package that is not just affordable, but gives them the ability to use premium facilities. Employees are also able to obtain profit sharing and 401k plans through Wal-Mart. The opponents of Wal-Mart say that the consumer sales giant is destroying small businesses, but in actuality small businesses haven't been able to survive in the modern conglomerate ran market for some time now, and Wal-Mart has just filled the space left by abandoned buildings. Wal-Mart has supplied jobs where none were available, has afforded poor elderly people with prescriptions in their price range, and gave low income families better products at lower prices. And for anybody that brings up the sweat-market topic, just think what the poor kids in these third world countries would have to do instead of sewing clothes, prostitution, drugs, murder and other crimes. Any Christian or person of another religious denomination, don't take this as me hating religion, I hate religion invading my life and deciding what's right for me. Just like our freaky forefathers (well, white peoples freaky forefathers), I want to get my freak on without the government invading my freaky episodes. The Boston Tea Party wasn't about tea taxes, it was the Pilgrims saying they wanted their ménage a trios' to have nothing to do with the British government.

Peace, I mean WAR!