So far the only candidate for the presidential election in the US who seems to understand humanity without having to bomb sumpthin' is Mike Gravel... Already 77 years young he is far more equiped than anyone else to instill peace and prosperity without burning the planet. But he won't be elected. The people who control the military won't let it happen and those who control the media don't let him be heard...

The following quotation from the Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg has become well known, but it is so devastatingly true that it is worth quoting again and again: “With or without [religion] you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.”

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Gus: I disagree. But then it could be only on the fine point of terminology... Atheists can do real bad things (although some atheists will use a religious attitude to con people with), but most atheists, like me, do not believe in "evil". Sure people can be sadists, masochists, ruthless, killers, mad, but in my book no-one is "evil", no one takes orders from the Devil... No one is hell-bent... And we all harbour the seeds of bad behaviour — of dangerous reactivity and dangerous aspirations by magnifying nature's own harshness into ruthlessness.

In the article from Richard Dawkins — from which the extract comes from, the understanding of the religious power in its fierce usage is correct... But I only see it as a means to control other people especially women. It works not by understanding life but by assuming the righteousness of beliefs that have permeated traditions and culture — and not trying to understand human nature, despite using its advanced technology — the physical functioning of which would debunk the belief system — such as destructive weapons and mobile phones. Some people do not ask questions on the why and therefore of the physical world workings, they assume, as not to contradict their beliefs.

We must remember here that it was only in the 1960s that the full force of the abolition of slavery came to the fore in the US, although there are still many prejudices there not so much based on religion — which to a great extend help reduce prejudices in this instance — but based on historical secular context.

On another note, "the axis of evil" is the most stupid thing ever pronounced by a US president, yet it has galvanised the spirits of the bigots and of the intellectual poor, while being used somewhat successfully by the conquerors of oil, for profit. And we let them get away with it... Do we value our individual comforts more than justice and shared humanity?

 

 

 

Howard grants access to inner sanctum
Thursday October 11, 2007
Howard grants access to inner sanctum

By ninemsn staff

He makes his own breakfast, calls his wife twice a day and dodges accusations of dagginess from his embarrassed children.

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Gus: no wonder he made a dog's breakfast of Australia's reputation as a human right defender and no wonder his children are embarrassed about him. Many Australians are embarrassed too, about his lies, his non-commitments, his fudges and his murderous tendencies that led him to follow Bushit along the warpath in Iraq, for no other good reason than oil.

Inner sanctum? A sacred secret place in a church? More like a sacrilegious dog kennel dedicated to the devil of hubris politics...

John Howard has gotta go-go-go.