Highlandstreams7
This reflection was just posted on Secular Chaplain.
{I’m using the term “sacred” in the new “secular gospel” way. . .in other words, I’m borrowing the “holy word” from those who think they own the terms, meanings and “special knowledge” that come with experiences of wonder}
My story of the terrible killing of Farkhunda in Kabul had over 1300 views.
As one whose “spiritual ancestors” (Heretics) were burned for their beliefs or non-beliefs. . .I will never stand by and watch a person put down or raised up to disrespect, harass, injure or murder in the Name of a Religion or the Name of a God.
If your “holy book” is more sacred, holy, revered and respected than a Human Life, than Reason, than Freedom. . .you are dangerous and you will be met by the force of Truth and True Justice.
I don’t condone the burning of holy books (though we shred them for free on this site). But if the choice is to burn pages or people. . .a freethinking person will leave their books and Live the Words.
Think about it: Did any of the so-called Great Spiritual Teachers (Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius. . .) carry a holy book around? Did they ever say Scriptures were more Sacred than a Human Being? Of course not. They were writing the holy books with their lives.
Remember Farkhunda.
Maybe burning her was the real desecration of a living holy book.
Remember Farkhunda.
(and Hypatia, Narendra Dabholkar and all others who have suffered for Free Speech, Freethought and Human Rights)
This MAY concern you. . .maybe it OUGHT to!
A member of the House of Representatives, presumably “representing” constituents including people of all faiths and no faith, has sent a Bible to every member of Congress.
Here it is, on official Congressional letterhead:
How does it feel knowing a member of the United States Congress is spending time and money on this?
How does it feel knowing that an elected representative, sitting on powerful committees in Congress, feels that the Bible (“God’s Word”) is the “best advice” for governmental decision-making?
Makes me feel. . .
Makes me think. . .
We have a serious educational gap in this country.
And, yes, this kind of Faith-Proofing in Public makes me angry. . .and worried for the future of Good Decisions!
Lake Tahoe
My wife and I just returned from 5 days by (and IN) Lake Tahoe.
Walking, biking, swimming. . .but mostly just looking at the beauty. You can’t help yourself. The view, the colors, the sound on the shore and in the pines. You sense you are a part of this great piece of liquid art (unless you’re jetskiing or powerboating or cranking up the boombox on the beach with your barking dog. . .but that’s the OTHER stuff we’ll leave aside for a while).
“The Big Blue” as I call it. You never tire of gazing over this 22-mile lake and all that comes from your mouth, if you care or dare to speak, is, “Beautiful.” Yes, full of water, full of light, full of mountain particles and full of pure beauty. It’s like the sky has poured into a mammoth canyon of the highlands waiting to be discovered, seducing discoverers. . .like John Muir.
Muir called Lake Tahoe “the queen of lakes” and the “water heaven” where all lakes eventually go.
From the John Muir Exhibit (Sierra Club) website:
-Muir first visited Lake Tahoe in October-November of 1873, calling it the “queen of lakes” and writing his friend Jeanne Carr that he had “sauntered through the piney woods, pausing countless times to absorb the blue glimpses of the lake, all so heavenly clean, so terrestrial yet so openly spiritual.” He wrote further, “The soul of Indian summer is brooding this blue water, and it enters one’s being as nothing else does. Tahoe is surely not one but many. As I curve around its heads and bays and look far out on its level sky fairly tinted and fading in pensive air, I am reminded of all the mountain lakes I ever knew, as if this were a kind of water heaven to which they all had come.” [Source: Letters to a Friend, 1915]
-Muir returned to Tahoe several other times in his life, enjoying its “delightful” beauty.
My mind is still up there in the alpine country breathing the fresh pine air. Even with the unclean air, noise and nuisance of city living, there’s something refreshing that stays with you when you’re that close, that immersed, in Beauty (what some would call God, the Sacred, or Heaven).
As I am fond of saying, Why wish for, why imagine another world, a “heaven above,” when it’s all right here, right there, if we simply go look and wade in. We’re all in Heaven, and it’s so much better than anything we’ve ever been told.
Just Like That, U.S. Navy Says Bibles Must Be Returned to Base Hotel Rooms
Are you pleased as a peacekeeper to be paying for this?
Onward Christian Soldiers. . .and Sailors!
I once took a walk with Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh (of course, there were 2000 other people with us)
I learned from Buddhists that “mindfulness” can be very good (ironically they encourage “mind-emptying” rather than filling). I especially liked walking meditation. Mostly simple awareness of breath and the immediate environment. I learned to pay attention, to be “awake” and alert to the world near at hand. I still value those basic insights and think we might all benefit from a “practice” of mindful awareness.
Yet, I appreciate the balance of this Guardian article that asks, Why are we trying to think Less when we need to think More?
It’s fairly clear to me that IF people were thinking (reasoning, questioning) more, especially about matters of faith, we might have a healthier world, don’t you. . .think?
Breathe. Think. Comment. . .
Watching the Independent Film, Bible Quiz, I found it both fascinating and a bit frightening.
I’ve known people heavy into Bible Quizzing. Some children are learning the Bible at the same time they’re learning to read.
(as we know, millions of people feel that Their Holy Book is really the Only Book to Read)
It reminds me of the youthful years when “knowing God’s Word” was just about everything (“living it” was something else).
I can remember as a boy of 10, standing in front of a large church and reciting Psalm 100 from memory.
(and in high school I memorized other Psalms and many Bible passages, including Galatians 2:20, a favorite: “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. . .”–I still recite this from memory after 40 years!)
Filling one’s day and one’s brain with ancient words can have a powerful influence on Life and Worldview.
I wonder what the Bible Quizzers would think after watching these clips:
Muslim children memorizing the Qur’an
Buddhist children chanting Sutras
Hindu children chanting Vedic verses
Jewish children reciting the Torah
Some Q’s I have for the Adults who push their children into scripture memorizing:
What is the Purpose of this? We know that it’s making little believers, but is the intent to make them Better Human Beings? Does it really Please Your God to fill your child’s head with ancient words before they can even rationally THINK about the words and reasonably DECIDE whether they BELIEVE OR NOT? Are you so afraid that your child may not CHOOSE to read Your Holy Book later in life or choose NOT to believe those words, asking HARD Q’s when they have the life experience to REASON? Are your children better equipped to find solutions to the world’s problems by spending precious time learning ancient words?
Here are some Quiz Questions for All of Us:
Can’t Children Simply Be Children?
Is there really such a thing as a “Christian Child,” a “Buddhist Child,” a “Muslim Child”?
What if, above all, children were taught the love of reading and learning, questioning and understanding?
Maybe Life is the Only Real Quiz to take?
A Selection of my Photographs around and near my home:
What World will She Discover?
And not only Muslims. . .
from the Iranian Atheist
Reasonable people across the globe, with faith or without faith, should be paying attention to this “muezzin call” to stop, think and try creative cooperation.
What is the alternative? Look around.
What is Religion and Religion’s Books, offering to the Next Generation?
The Natural Bible 