God Loves Evil

Hypothetical situation – you and your girlfriend (or boyfriend) are walking down the road.  A bunch of thugs comes over and decides that they want to rob you.  But they look at you, or your significant other, and decide that you are female, and attractive, so they decide that they are going to rape you or them.  One of you is outright murdered, because this person isn’t hot and worthy of their time, and the other is brutally raped, left to die in a gutter.  But this person (you or them) lives.  They live on with that memory in their mind, forever.  Guess who was privvy to this information? God.  He saw it all.  He saw the whole thing happen.  And what did he do?  Nothing.

But Lucien, God gives us trials!  He never gives us more than we can handle!

Uh…yeah, that’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.  First-off, can a baby who dies of some horrible illness handle that?  Can the little kid whose family is murdered by vicious thugs handle it?  Can the teen girl who is forced to have sex with all the military guys of some country fight back?  Could the family who was murdered before that teen girl was repeatedly raped of stopped them from blowing them away with assault rifles?  What about you?  Say you are the one who got murdered.  These thugs jumped you, and blew your brains out before you could even think.  Were you able to handle that?

The idea that God is just giving us ”tests” or “trials” is so ridiculous, and yet people believe that, so adamently.  I often think that most of those people (not all, but most), have never had anything really bad happen to them, so they just write off other people’s problems as something that they could handle, never having experienced it themselves.

Meanwhile, God has just witnessed and event that neither party could handle, and did nothing.  He does this all the time.  Genocide in African countries, starvation in African countries or America, disease and pestilence in places that can’t get modern medicine, all of these things are witnessed by an omni-present God every single day, and he does nothing.

But Lucien, God doesn’t interfere with free will!

What a joke.  Free will.  So, my question back to Christians is – do you believe in Fate?  The idea that the path of your life is chosen before you are even born?  If you believe in that, that everything is predestined to happen before you woke up that day, then you can’t believe in free will, because it’s not possible.  But let’s give this whole idea the benefit of the doubt for a second.  It’s still bullshit!

Look at it this way – God is in all places at all times, right?  So, he watches you or your significant other get brutally raped, and does nothing.  He cares more about the fact that people are free to murder and rape than he does for doing the right thing.  Would you sit back and watch?  Would you do nothing to stop a murderer or a rapist?  It’s free will, after all!  They have the right to do it!  Of course you wouldn’t!  You would do anything you could to stop this from happening.  You would fight to save the lives of those people or person.  That’s just basic human decency.  It’s the reality that Christians don’t want to face, because in their mind, God is perfect.  Yeah, so perfect that he allows murder and rape because it is “free will.”  Seems more like condoning evil to me.

Not to mention – what about the fucking Bible?!  In that, he performed miracle after miracle, in plain sight of everybody, openly taking away free will and changing the outcome of events before they happened!  Hell, he sent his kid/him down to Earth, and he did some REALLY big interfering, such as curing people of disease, taking away their blindness.  He even raised people from the dead!  Yeah, if that isn’t interfering, I don’t know what is.

And some will comment that it is after Jesus that God stopped interfering.  Yeah, that’s bullshit.  The public still says that miracles are happening from God all the time.  One pastor said that God helped him find his car keys.  His fucking car keys!  This god is so pathetic that he will watch the murder and rape of innocent people, but will help a pastor find his car keys?!  The same God who doesn’t ever interfere in what happens in the world, right?  Of course.  Of course it is that way.  Convenient loopholes that those who don’t want to face reality create.

But Lucien, those guys will burn forever in Hell!

So?  So what?  Does that change what happened?  Does it change the fact that you or the person you were with was raped or murdered?  Does it change the fact that this incident has scarred either party for the rest of their lives?  Not to mention – how exactly is them burning in Hell forever going to make it all better?  Eternal torture, you think that’s a good punishment?  You think that them burning forever is just fine?  For all eternity, a time-frame that you narrow-minded people can’t even begin to comprehend, they are going to suffer.  Unless, of course, they come to God and sincerely are sorry for what they did.  After that, he has an open-door policy for stuff like this.  By God’s logic, it is entirely possible that Hitler and Stalin are in Heaven.

The simple reality is that if God exists, he stands in solidarity of evil.  He lets evil work, while going against his own policy to not interfere in order to help people with the most menial things on Earth.  While, everyday, there is suffering, disease, death, rape, you name it, going on all over the planet, and not one time does he step in and stop it.  Not one time.  That is NOT a character who is good.  That is a character who is evil.  That’s the real reality of Christianity.  The reality is that God is a monster, who either doesn’t care, or openly acknowledge what an evil piece of shit he actually is.

Until next time, a quote,

“In order to believe the Christian message, you have to believe this – that those 100,000 years, people were born, died.  Usually, many of them, in child-birth.  Either the mother or the child.  Had a life expectancy of about 28 years, 25.  Died of mircoorganisms they didn’t know existed.  Genesis doesn’t mention them, because the people who write Genesis don’t know about microorganism.  Earthquakes would have been terrifying.  Tsunamis, volcanoes, mysterious events.  War, famine, super-imposed on us.  You can all fill out this picture for yourselves, I’m sure.  That was our life for tens of thousands of years, on and on it went.  Maybe a gradual upward curve, of a sort.  We seem to have made some progress.  Very painfully and with infinite suffering and labor.  And with our solidarity still intact.  Now here’s what you have to believe – You have to believe heaven watched over all that, for 98,000 years.  And after 98,000 years, they decided 2,000 years, it may be time to intervene.  And the best way of doing that would be to have a filthy human sacrifice in a very remote part of Palestine.  And the news of this still has no penetrated to the rest of the world, and I don’t think will be believed when it does, and isn’t believed by me, and can’t be believed by any thinking person.”  -Christopher Hitchens

Peace out,

Maverick

Above Criticism

Something that you notice when you talk to certain people is that their great heroes are absolutely above scrutiny.  For real, you see it in everybody.  This is one instance where no demographic is above this.  Atheists and religious people do this as much as one-another.  Granted, the religious have one figure that is above reproach for them that really takes the cake (and we’ll get to him later), but really, both sides do it just as much as one-another.

Hero-worship is nothing new.  Anybody who really loves sports (idiots) is familiar with this.  They all have their star player who is just so incredibly awesome and totally above any scrutiny.  Well, until they start to suck, in which case, they will lambast them and moan about the “good old days” when the player was awesome.  But there is a profound difference between hero-worship and the love that some people have for their heroes.

Whenever pretty much anybody talks about Mother Teresa, it is singing praises of love and adulation that sound too good to be true.  There’s a hint there.  They are too good to be true.  World leaders, religious officials, all over the world, people think that this woman was the greatest thing since sliced bread or the Smallpox vaccine.  But when renowned (and now deceased) public intellectual Christopher Hitchens went on the offensive, showing the hypocrisy and the ugliness of Mother Teresa’s ministry and her hospitals which were more like gulags than places of healing, a great deal of religious and non-religious poeple went on the offensive against him, talking about how she was a saint, how she is devine.  Yes, devine.  The ultimate watch-word of people who are consumed by superstition.

There are a lot of issues that Mother Teresa should rightly have been criticized for.  Her absolute war against abortion and contraception was absolutely foul.  Nobody will convince me otherwise.  Telling the people in the poorest parts of the world that they should have as many children as possible.  Well, this is Catholicism, after all, why should I be surprised.  The problems of the poor have never really affected them much, aside from when they will give money to keep the institution of medieval superstition going.

Or one can go after her hospitals, which were horribly unpleasant places.  This makes no sense because Mother Teresa was rolling in cash, enough to make any, or probably all, of her hospitals into palaces for the sick.  But that would be asking far too much of our “saintly” Mother Teresa.  This woman was a con-artist, and rulers (and dictators) all over the world supported her to keep on the Catholic church’s good side.

While we’re talking about religious charlatans, who about the late and not-so-great Jerry Falwell?  Remember his statement after 9/11 when he was on “The 700 Club” with his equally-stupid friend Pat Robertson (who should also hit the grave so we can be rid of his stupidity)?

“The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’ “

If anybody else had said that, they would have been lambasted and ridiculed off of the public stage.  But because this dip-shit has the title “reverend” in front of his name, he can get away with saying anything.  Yes, because being a godly figure made you above scrutiny.

At his funeral, thousands of people showed up, to mourn the passing of one of the biggest bigots in American history.  This man is on-par with Real Catholic TV in the bigotry that he espouses.  This demagogue and the followers that he has won’t listen anything that anybody has to say if it isn’t saying exactly what he wants to hear.  When was the last time that you saw Jerry Falwell going toe to toe with Chris Hitchens (may he rest in peace)?  When was the last time that any of these people had to answer their critics?

Now that we are talking about demagogues who have never had to answer their critics, how about Ron Paul, the great hero of the internet?  The Libertarians just love this guy.  Not only is this love unconditional, it is absolute.  I cannot count the number of times that I have been told by people that I am an idiot for questioning Ron Paul.  My favorite YouTube vlogger, TJ Kincaid, talked about this in a very hardcore and earnest video.

Literally any video you watch is asked a tough question, everyone calls the person who asked the tough question an idiot.  Like, ‘what a fucking moron, how dare you challenge Dr. Paul!’  Anybody who makes a video against Ron Paul is gonna get shit-tons of thumbs-down.

The fact is that the supporters of Ron Paul have literally endowed this man with Messiah-like properties.  In the Libertarian circles (or at least most of them), something is gospel the moment it leaves this man’s lips.  Like every word is perfect, just perfect.

Never mind that he has blind-faith to the Constitution, which is NOT a perfect document.  Never mind that he wants to make a woman’s uterus public property.  Never mind that he is too stupid to endorse the Theory of Evolution, which has a MOUNTAIN of scientific evidence behind it.  Never mind that he wants to completely obliterate this nation’s infrastructure.  His supporters, the Paulites, don’t care.  In one ear and out the other.  He is the messiah, and above scrutiny.

Speaking of Messiah’s, there is one that we don’t hear much of these days, but who is no less stupid than all the others – Oprah Winfrey.  Comedian Doug Stanhope made a really great quote about this woman and the work that she did -

Oprah Winfrey, who’s the new P.T. Barnum of the new millenium.

She is one of a million talk show hosts who has been glorified because of her “inspirational” stories.  People who have been through awful events, and they go on her show (back when it was around) and are told about how brave and how “inspirational” they all are.  Like the woman whose face was ripped off by a chimp.  Yeah, she was on her show, and what what the reaction?  People were horrified, but somehow, this signified bravery.  No, it was just a woman who grew up poor figuring out how to make cash.  Tons and tons of cash.  And each holiday season, she would feed the greedy masses who watched her show with gifts.  Showering them with materialism, because it made her feel good.  What a saint!

These people all have some REALLY major flaws.  But those who worship them don’t even care.  They will go on about how great they are, and if you say otherwise, god help you.  Blind faith, that’s the real joke.

Until next time, a quote,

“‘Next on Oprah, the woman whose face was eaten by a monkey!’  She’s exploited exactly the same way, only now Oprah gets the two bits that she should have gotten paid.”  -Doug Stanhope

Peace out,

Maverick

Christopher Hitchens, Rest in Peace

I will keep this brief, because I am tired and have a long journey ahead of me tomorrow morning. Probably the best of the modern public intellectuals, and definitely the best of the new atheists has died today. His name is Christopher Hitchens. After a year-long battle with cancer, he has met his end. There have been no reports of a death-bed conversion. He maintained his beliefs through everything.

While I don’t agree with some of his talking points, I am saddened because this is a great man. Hitchens was truly one of the greatest archons of our generation. He was a man who was an icon to a movement, and is truly irreplacable. His legacy will never die, so long as people like me, and TJ Kincaid (aka The Amazing Atheist) and so many others keep preaching his gospel. He will join the long list of great minds who have gone from this world. Among them are George Carlin, Kurt Cobain, Bob Ross, Andy Rooney (a truly amazing man), Richard Pryor, and so many others who will never be heard again, but you can be assured that their legacy will never die.

Hitchens, you were an amazing man, and I hope that all of us can learn from your example. Hitchen, rest in peace, good man. May your end take you to better shores, if those shores should exist.

Until next time, a quote,

“I’m sad today, not just because he’s gone, but because he’s irreplaceable. There is no, ‘well, Hitchens is gone, but at least we got…’” -TJ Kincaid, Christopher Hitchens: 1949 – 2011

Peace out,

Maverick

Mother Teresa Was a Crook?!

Hero worship is a very interesting thing.  People do it all the time.  Most people tend to just idolize people based on the fact that people want somebody to look up to.  Of course, that is true.  I have my own icons, but I’m not big on hero worship.  What can I say, I’m too in love with myself.  There are a few people I look up to and try and be like, but honestly, I just tend to do my own thing, and not care too much about that.  One particular historical figure was Mother Theresa.  This women was a very interesting character, and is one of the most beloved modern figures of the Catholic church.  Popes, princesses, governors, presidents, people of all makes and models of power in this world have looked up to her, but here’s the catch – this woman was NOT the saint that people made her out to be.

Mother Teresa (born Agnes Gonxha Bojahiu) is credited by the Catholic church as being one of the biggest modern figures they have.  She won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.  She has opened convents in over 120 countries.  She has won numerous awards for her “humanitarian” work all around the world.  A pretty impressive list, no?  She was also the friend of numerous world leaders, has been in tight with all kinds of Catholic big-wigs.  She has done right well for herself.  But what doesn’t get put into the papers much is her massive influx of wealth (none of which went to her hospitals, but we’ll get to that) which came from some REALLY hardcore unsavory characters, her war against women’s reproductive rights and contraception (and she lived in a Third-World country, unreal), and her using political affiliations to get things done for herself.

Christopher Hitchens published a rather fascinating book looking into the darker side of what the woman who the Catholic church calls “Blessed” was really about.  The book was called “The Missionary Position.”  Yeah, funny name.  But the subject matter was no joke.  In fact, Mother Teresa’s positions on things were often kind of frightening, and really, really sick.  I’m not bullshiting you.  This woman had some ideas that were really fucked up.  Why am I bringing this up?  Well, I’ll get to that.  For now, let’s stick with the reputation of a person who believers and non-believers thought was so great.

The fact is that Mother Teresa did get money, lots of money, from some really unsavory characters.  She was very tight with a Haitian leader/genocidal maniac Jean-Claude Duvalier and his wife Michèle Duvalier.  She was also getting some pretty hefty funds from the religious loony-tune John-Roger, and from one of the hopelessly corrupt financial executive, Charles Keating.  A real point of interest was that she rose up to defend Keating when the hammer of law was finally coming down on him.  She urged the judge to go easy on him.  Never mind that he had stolen over $250,000,000, he had donated to her cause, so that made him a good guy.

There is a common idea, or rather, a question, among those who believe that she was doing wrong.  The question is – was she naive or deliberate in her manipulation of world leaders for money.  There is evidence on both sides.  Her group was a weapon of the Catholic Church to take money and use it further their own ends.  Teresa’s crusade against contraception and reproductive rights was a real point of interest.  The only part of her money that is accounted for is $50 million that was invested in her Order in New York City.  However, it is common assumed that that was only a VERY small chunk of her change that she had rooting around in various accounts.

Ont point of interest was that she kept none of her money in Indian banks.  In India, it is required that a person discloses the amount of money that a person has.  Therefore, she didn’t keep her money in India.  So, a small chunk of her change is $50 million.  How much of that money could have gone to help the people she kept in hopeless amounts of poverty?  That is the other really ugly side of Mother Teresa – the fact that her hospitals were hellholes, but she held them up as Edens.

Some have argued that the reason that Teresa’s hospitals were not as good as they could have been is because of where they were built.  That is bullshit.  If this woman had a small chunk of change in her organization being $50 million, then she could have easily made her medical facilities a lot better.  Her home of the dying was absolutely that – a place where people came to die.  Her hospitals and facilities were grotesque by any standard.  They were impoverished nightmares where the people were mistreated and told that their poverty and suffering was a good thing, that it would get them closer to Jesus.  Amazing how suffering was something that Jesus was so into in her mind, considering that he actively worked to alleviate suffering to the people he came across.  She actively worked to promote poverty.

For real, Mother Teresa said that people should “embrace their suffering.”  Her hospitals sure were good at that.  They were notorious for primitive treatment methods of things like leprosy.  One interesting perspective was from an author, and populat atheist, Christopher Hitchens.  During an interview, he remarked about her medical facilities.

We’ve been unable to audit this – no one has ever demanded an accounting of how
much money has flowed in her direction. With that money she could have built at
least one absolutely spanking new, modern teaching hospital in Calcutta without
noticing the cost.

And he’s right, by the way.  With as much money as her Order had flowing into it from world leaders, and everybody else who wanted to get in good with the people by pretending to care and donating money, she could have had shining palaces to treat patients in.  But instead they were nightmares, dungeons, hellholes.  I wouldn’t send my worst enemy to die there.

So, was Mother Teresa a crook?  No, she wasn’t.  Crooked, in bed with bad people, using her money for bad reasons, and preaching a really stupid message, yeah she was doing that.  But the point here is that people believed, still believe, and won’t hear otherwise how great a person she was.  But those people don’t want the facts.  They don’t want to know what it was really like.  They want their image of her, their image that they keep.  But the reality isn’t so cut and dry.  And that is why people need to keep open minds, because when you stop thinking about something, you are destined to be lied to.

Until next time, a quote,

“One way of keeping the faith together is the old-time religion.  The good old-fashioned stuff.  ‘Let’s find a saint that even the non-catholics love.’”  -Christopher Hitchens, Bullshit!

Peace out,

Maverick