STREWTH! ......

............. it's 'pick on Robert time again.

Robert (the apathetic sinner) has been talking about 'truth' a lot recently.

It's a good example of an oxymoron when he puts it in the context of the Bible, the Catechism and the Catholic Church propaganda that he expounds ......

          ...... no, that can't be right. The definition of 'expound' is:

Expound (verb)

Present and explain (a theory or idea) in detail.
"he was expounding a powerful argument"

Explain the meaning of (a literary or doctrinal work).
"the abbess expounded the scriptures to her nuns"

I don't think that applies to Robert. Maybe 'regurgitate' is the word that I'm looking for as in: "Robert regurgitated what he heard in the sermon at church".

Here are some recent posts made by Robert under his 'apathetic sinner' persona.

          Good luck! 

 

Relativism

Relativism is a belief that moral codes can change from culture to culture, or individual to individual.
We've all come across it.
Schopenhauer (Curmudgeon's alias) said truth is a paradox that can neither sit on the throne of error nor time.
Schopenhauer got it wrong. Truth can be absolute. That's why relativism is wrong also.
We must challenge relativism when ever possible.
People who use relativism often begin with "I feel..".
A common example of relativism often used by pro choicers is it is a woman's choice.
When discussing Jacinta I often hear she is so nice.
So next time you hear someone using relativism have the courage to challenge with Truth!

          - Robert the apathetic sinner 25 September 2020.

Plastic can not create plastic

Plastic was invented or created by someone who was not plastic. If she had cut of a plastic finger and said look I created plastic the world would laugh.
Likewise the finite universe which is composed of matter can not have been created by an entity that was itself material. The creator had to be of another substance or else it would not be a creator as it was merely reproducing matter.
This is an example of the cosmological proof of one God.
Anything that creates can not be of the substance of its creation.
There is always a cause and effect.
This can not be an infinite chain.

                    - Robert the apathetic sinner 16 September 2020. 

The Catholic church is the one true church

I just heard the recycling man. I wonder if his name is used by men and women.
There are lots of names that apply to and are used by both sexes.

That's it.

Oh yes and the Catholic church is the one true church.

           - Robert the apathetic sinner 6 September 2020. 

You need a doctrine.

As he drove Kylie and I discussed abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.
I thought about it all as we cleaned.
On the way back I expelled a treatise.

My treatise went that first we must establish a truth that any individual follows or further argument is pointless.
In my case I have the Apostles creed and two thousand years of inspired thinkers who composed the Catechism of the Catholic Church via the Council of Trent.
Meaning that I believe in one God the Father almighty creator of heaven and earth...
I suggested that most people do not have a creed these days.
It went unsaid that people have an irrational emotive reason to vote either side of the fence.

- Robert the apathetic sinner 27 August 2020

 

START MAKING SENSE

 STOP MAKING SENSE - DAVID BYRNE

Well, David Byrne almost got it right. I agree with him hitting himself on the forehead though. I feel like doing the same when Robert makes silly god and religious statements on his blog.

Reading Robert's blog and the Catholic Apologists' links he provides, confirms with me that religion is either a big hoax or the product of monumental mistakes. I lean towards the latter.

The Bible is a good case in point. This 'written' book is really the product of handed down stories and lore through generations until some people, many centuries later with the development of writing and then printing, wrote and printed the legends, myths, stories and lies. Now I don't for the life of me believe that these transcribers from the 4th to the 18th century were experts in spelling and grammar so many mistakes must have been made.

We all know the story of the Sinner's Bible:

Wicked Bible, sometimes called Adulterous Bible or Sinners' Bible, is an edition of the Bible published in 1631 by the royal printers in London, meant to be a reprint of the King James Bible. The name is derived from a mistake made by the compositors: in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:14), the word "not" in the sentence "Thou shalt not commit adultery" was omitted, thus changing the sentence into "Thou shalt commit adultery". 

          - From Wikipedia.

And the Monty Python film The Life of Brian captured this well in the Sermon on the Mount with:

Blessed are the Cheesemakers

The Greek will inherit the earth

Here's my take on what, to me, are other forms of misprint and misinterpretation. I'm using some quotes from Robert's blog (until it gets deleted) as my bible (the old family one) is being used to prop up one of the bookshelves.

God is life.

This makes no sense at all. I think what was intended was 'Life is good' and this was at first misspelled - 'good' to 'god' and then transposed - 'Life is good' to Good is life'

It's not surprising really given that the quotes were handed down by word of mouth before being transcribed by some people with dodgy grammar skills and would have had to have been translated from several different languages, some of which were extinct.

God is Spirit.

Again, this is odd but turns up repeatedly in the Catechism - 'The Holy Spirit' for example.

In the early days - pre Jesus, there were a lot of mystical religions that celebrated ancestors and 'ghosts' but these were disparaged by the Catholic church so it's unlikely that the early teachings would have condoned  their god as a ghost.

In Latin however 'spiritus' means 'breathing' so the earliest lore-makers were probably just saying 'god's alive' or something like that which makes sense of Nietzsche reversing it later and saying "god is dead"

I believe in one God the Father almighty creator of heaven and earth...

A bit of early to later christian gobbledygook this. It's a Catechism catch-all to disparage other religions and, as Richard Dawkins said is an attempt to get away with not understanding science and the real world.

Jesus is present in the Eucharist

It's pretty unlikely that even the earliest and uneducated christians would have believed that Jesus was actually inside the bread that they ate at church services. That is ridiculous. It was only invented much later by some possibly schizophrenic and starving monk who may have eaten some magic mushrooms by mistake in his foraging. The original lore might have been that Jesus was making a present of bread and other food to anyone who wanted to gather and listen to him.

Forgive, or at least pray for the other, and forget.

This is pure Robert this and obviously makes no sense.

It's possible that he was alluding to the old 'Jesus forgives' motto that he wheels out occasionally - the most recent when saying that women who, for whatever reason, have abortions, will suffer terribly until they confess their 'sin' and then jesus will forgive them.
The earliest christians most likely recounted that Jesus, on the eve of his arrest knew that he was likely to be executed and 'forgave' the apostles and disciples the debts they owed him. Remember that he kicked the money-lenders out of the temple and most likely took over the instant loan business himself.

God is the Word.

Jesus was a carpenter. You knew that. In his travels he most likely promoted the family firm so it's not out of the question that he said things like 'Wood is good". As he most likely said this a lot the early evangelists, using his words would have recounted his most favourite sayings. Later transcribers may have doubly misspelled this before transposing 'Wood is good' to 'God is the word'.

I hope that this has been helpful.

MEA CULPA (AGAIN)

 

Guilt is a concept that was instilled in us Catholic lads from an early age, reinforced by the application of wooden rulers and leather belts of the nuns and the bamboo canes of the brothers and priests - just in case the theorism didn't get through to our young and unformed consciences.

The Internet informs me that:

Guilt is an emotional experience that occurs when a person believes or realizes—accurately or not—that they have compromised their own standards of conduct or have violated universal moral standards and bear significant responsibility for that violation.

Sorry about the American spelling (although I do wonder why they use a 'z' in realize but not in compromised).

Associated with guilt is expiation which the Oxford dictionary informs me is:

The act of making amends or reparation for guilt or wrongdoing; atonement.
"an act of public expiation"

All good and links in with my theme of 'Mea culpa'.

So - why guilt?

After dinner tonight I switched the TV on to Youtube music  and watched a recording of Van Morrison performing TB Sheets, one of his visceral classics from the 1960s:

TB Sheets - Van Morrison

This song has always tugged at me from the first time I heard it when I was still at school (being 'instructed' via canes by priests in the late 1960s) and for the rest of my life. Van has captured the conflict of doing the right thing versus doing what you prefer to do so well. It's remarkable from a man who was so young when he wrote this song.

It still upsets me when I hear it.

**************

Given Robert's sermonising (or, regurgitating what he has heard from the latest sermon at his church) where he sometimes touches on guilt, responsibility and culpability. I'm interested in his take on this song.

 

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

One in eight young Australians believe that Bill Gates is responsible for spreading Covid-19 using 5G technology.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Does this sound strange to you?

Do you want to know how many people believe that the universe was created by a mythical being that has no boundaries?

This being has split itself into three different entities including itself which it self-names God the father. It got one of its entities to impregnate a virgin woman (who remained a virgin after giving birth) to create the third entity. This third entity died, resurrected and shot off up into 'heaven' later  pulling up his virgin mother to sit with him somewhere 'up there'. This entity left parts of its body and blood behind - in a never to be exhausted supply - for human believers to munch and quench on in an archaic and arcane weekly religious service  - or so the story goes. The story is force-fed to young people in Catholic schools via Catechism and Christian Doctrine.

No wonder that so many young people believe that thing about Bill Gates. To be honest, given the other claptrap, the 5G conspiracy sounds quite plausible.

ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OR THE TRUTH?

 "Our dead are always with us. But they are not alive. That's the nature of being dead, and it's best we accept it." 

         - C.K. Stead 'My Name Was Judas'

I listened to the final of the National Programme's recording of C.K. Stead's 'My Name Was Judas' on the radio this morning. I missed most of the series and will try and get it on repeat or podcast. Robert, I'm sure you will find it of interest even if you will be in conflict with a lot of the content.
To me it is excellent. It's a sensible, common sense and likely look at Jesus, his life and his activities that grew in myth through the gospels and have become the mainstay of Christianity.

"And when I heard, two days later that the stone had been rolled away from the mouth of the tomb in the night, and that the body was gone, I knew this must be the work of the Temple priests and the Sanhedrin - or must have been done at their behest. It's one of the ironies of the story, as I look back on it, that this piece of grave robbery by the priesthood, intended to prevent a cult of Jesus growing around the site of his burial had (from their point of view) the worse effect of fostering the much more powerful myth that he had risen from death." 

-C.K. Stead 'My Name Was Judas'

Stead's book was published in 2006. I haven't read it but will borrow it on OVERDRIVE and read it alongside the podcast if I find it. I like Stead's writing (Smith's Dream, Talking About O'Dwyer).
I wish that this had been written in the 1960s and I'd read it then. It would have made for some very stimulating conversations in Christian Doctrine classes at Marist Brothers and St Patrick's schools.

HOPPY EASTER

Well, Easter has come and gone. Did anyone miss it?
I guess that it was different this year for a lot of people who didn't get to do the normal Easter things whether that be church attendance, travelling to holiday destinations, gorging themselves on chocolate or socialising with friends.

I personally used to like the Easter Sunday church service being one of the two that I would attend per year. The other one was the Christmas Midnight mass at Saint Mary of the Angels in Wellington along with the other drink-sodden people on their way home from parties.

One wonders what, in the future, the Catholic Church will have to do to frighten shit out of little kids if it can't regale them with stories about a man who was tortured, whipped and nailed on a tree to die slowly.

Maybe The Church could adopt other silly fables to keep the kids terrified.

THE ASCENSION

In an earlier post HERE  I tried to explain the seven Sacraments to a non-christian and discovered how difficult that is with the whole concept being so much codswallop.

I promised to do another explanatory post on THE ASCENSION, THE ASSUMPTION AND THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION  and, this being Easter what better time to do that than now. I'll start with the Ascension.

We don't have any houseguests due to the lockdown so I don't have any people of other faiths to explain to so the readers of this blog will have to do.

With Robert it's a matter of preaching to the converted although I suspect that he's been getting the bowdlerised story from his Bi priest Father Patrick Mary so a freshen up is necessary.

Richard, the atheist is too far-gone of course but the explanation I'll provide might rekindle some spirit in the old guy.

THE ASCENSION

The Catechism tells us this about The ascension:

Ascension, in Christian belief, the ascent of Jesus Christ into heaven on the 40th day after his Resurrection (Easter being reckoned as the first day). ... The feast has been celebrated 40 days after Easter in both Eastern and Western Christianity since the 4th century.

Which really tells us bugger all.
In all of the reading I've done I find the same old pap - Jesus ascended into heaven on the 40th day stuff. OK, but where? How? Why? What equipment was used? Who saw it? Did anyone else follow (see Assumption later)? How high did he go? Was he sighted afterwards? Did he take enough provisions? Who inherited the carpentry business? Did he kiss his mum goodbye. Did he send his step dad and mum a postcard? I fee that the catholic church is a bit lax in its explanation on this.

If I was explaining to Deepa, the Indian friend, I might have to provide a little more detail.

Deepa, after the Ressurection - oops, sorry I should have explained that, after the Roman occupiers in collusion with the Jewish authorities murdered the revolutionary Jesus and allowed his friends and family to quickly bury him, he arose from the dead. I'll have to explain this a bit more later but the gist is that the said friends and family quickly took away the unconscious Jesus and hid him in a cave for a few days until, with ministrations he woke up.
Kind of like being in a lockdown situation, he got antsy and wanted to come out of hiding, which is why, to the dismay of the friends and family he pushed open the cave door and wandered about telling everyone that he was back. People were worried that the authorities would crack down on them so Jesus had to be shushed up. They kept him away from the Romans and the Jewish council leaders for 40 days while he showed more and more alarming tendencies and was making some pretty strange pronouncements along the line of going up to heaven to meet with his father.
Poor old Joseph was further embarrassed by this as he'd not long got over the rumours that his wife Mary had been impregnated by some one else - but more of that in THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION which we'll talk about later.
No-one could understand how Jesus was going to 'get up to heaven' as he was a bit shy on the detail.
The problem was though that he was drawing attention to himself and others. One night Jesus disappeared. Gone. His followers wondered what had happened and where he'd gone. His disciples and family had a bit of a confab and came up with the story that he had ascended into heaven. Just like that. And that's what the christians believe and what the catholic church teaches children in schools through the catechism. It's kind of like the Mafia explaining where Jimmy Hoffa went or telling children that the pet dog who died went to live on a nice farm up country.

"Say Jimmy, you wanna buy a farm?

Maybe this is how Jesus did it: ASCENSION ASSISTANCE