Monday, February 16, 2009

Cold. Had to sit downstairs, near the stove, and write this with a BIRO, (sharp intakes of breath from the kids) Seems to me for the girls, blogging is the new knitting. When I was young most good girls spent half the day knitting. Clickety click, the needles a blur, reading a book and the knitting pattern, setting the table for tea all at the same time. The scarf would grow and grow, follow her around the room out the door down to the shop and back. At 11 o'clock it would come into its own. Down to the pub she would go, remind her old man that supper was getting cold and he would follow it to his front door which, to him otherwise looked like any other front door.

Now if you girls are not chatting up some middle-aged wierdo with an avatar like the Venus de Milo (mylissa told me) you are sharing your wisdom and secrets with the connected world on line. And wonderful it is too. I was born 45 years too early - I'll need more than an avatar to get into this game.

Stealth 2000's discussion is going well. But it's a pity you have to be so polite. It is my 'umble opinion that no believer can help his\her beliefs any more than I can help my disbelief. I am a born-again atheist, and it was quite a painful delivery; loyalty to my mum, a devout believer, was evtually overcome by reason and respect for the open mind. The point is, I had no choice - I could not believe.

Any religion will succeed if enough innocent children can be trained to believe in its ideas at an early age. Of course, dear reader
your religious beliefs are correct, but what about the millions of young minds locked into absurd and cruell systems that, for instance, teach that women are men's possessions? Or that they can be mutilated to ensure no pleasure from intercourse is ever possible? Unless you are born-again as an adult, and possibly sectionable (certifiable), you have most likely reached your beliefs because they were forced into your mind from an age when you could NOT question what your parent(s) asked you to believe.

If I believe anything, it is that EVIDENCE should inform our beliefs; feelings can inform our 'faith' and be respected as an important contributor to our whole being. But I use the word 'faith' to mean trust in something we cannot say is true, cannot be proved, but we feel is right. I hear some of you crying "There's more to Life and Nature than is shown by evidence" Of course there is but leave it where it is - in the world of mystery - being studied - whatever, but not the stuff of truth.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for visiting my blogs and your comments. I do not know what happened to the original comment I left or even what I said now but being very new to all this blogging and commenting its possible that I inadvertently deleted or did something to cause it to disappear. Was not intentional. :) Thanks again. jesseb

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  2. An honest blog!
    Its true many take faith blindly. As a buddhist, which is a western term, in Tibet we are called those that look inside not outside.You never take what anyone says to you as truth until it becomes truth for yourself.But many people on their death bed wonder Mhh?
    I walked away from my childhood conditioning!

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  3. I am surprised you are following me a believer. I lived reading your blog and will continue. We are on opposite sides of the wall but still interested in the person behind the belief or the belief.

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  4. If I believe in a "higer power" who's to say that I am in the wrong or what that higher power should be. Beliving in something greater that man gives us all reason to hope for something better. I believe in "live and let live. We were all given a mind to decide for ourselves what works best on the road we follow. Thanks for joining my list of friends !

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  6. There is a very nice buddhist learning story. I'll try to find it now...

    THE WORM
    Ajahn Brahmavamso

    There is a wonderful little story about two monks who lived together in a monastery for many years; they were great friends. Then they died within a few months of one another. One of them got reborn in the heaven realms, the other monk got reborn as a worm in a dung pile. The one up in the heaven realms was having a wonderful time, enjoying all the heavenly pleasures. But he started thinking about his friend, "I wonder where my old mate has gone?" So he scanned all of the heaven realms, but could not find a trace of his friend. Then he scanned the realm of human beings, but he could not see any trace of his friend there, so he looked in the realm of animals and then of insects. Finally he found him, reborn as a worm in a dung pile... Wow! He thought: "I am going to help my friend. I am going to go down there to that dung pile and take him up to the heavenly realm so he too can enjoy the heavenly pleasures and bliss of living in these wonderful realms."
    So he went down to the dung pile and called his mate. And the little worm wriggled out and said: "Who are you?", "I am your friend. We used to be monks together in a past life, and I have come up to take you to the heaven realms where life is wonderful and blissful." But the worm said: "Go away, get lost!" "But I am your friend, and I live in the heaven realms," and he described the heaven realms to him. But the worm said: "No thank you, I am quite happy here in my dung pile. Please go away." Then the heavenly being thought: "Well if I could only just grab hold of him and take him up to the heaven realms, he could see for himself." So he grabbed hold of the worm and started tugging at him; and the harder he tugged, the harder that worm clung to his pile of dung.
    Do you get the moral of the story? How many of us are attached to our pile of dung?

    What I want to say. We juge what is good and what is bad from OUR point of view. Why you think a pile of dung is worse than that place where you live? And the same about believes. I'm always surprized about Muslim women and think they live in terrible conditions. But I have some Muslim blogger-friends. And they think they live in a good religion...

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  7. Hi!! I really love your blog. :)
    it's really inspirational and I enjoy reading all of your posts.
    I'm almost 15 and am just getting my stuff out there.
    if you have a chance, take a look at mine...
    Http://therealtopten.blogspot.com

    It would mean a lot to hear some feedback from a great blogger like you.
    (also -- I notice you're from Greece... γειά σου!)

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