More Religious Bull Shit

From the Wall Street Journal:

Banned From Church

Reviving an ancient practice, churches are exposing sinners and shunning those who won’t repent

The full article is here: 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120061470848399079.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today\

This type of stuff really pisses me off, so allow me to rant. In case you do not finish the whole post let me say in advance that in my opinion Pastor Jason Burrick of the Allen Baptist Church in Allen, Michigan is a complete fucking asshole. I sent him an email to let him know.

It’s interesting to note that Jehovah’s Witnesses are not the only religion that bans or shuns members for various reasons. The Witnesses refer to it as “disfellowshipping”. Not a real word, but pure Witness speak. But look at this about a certain baptist Church:

“On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers settled into the pews at Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan, Pastor Jason Burrick grabbed his cell phone and dialed 911. When a dispatcher answered, the preacher said a former congregant was in the sanctuary. “And we need to, um, have her out A.S.A.P.”

“Half an hour later, 71-year-old Karolyn Caskey, a church member for nearly 50 years who had taught Sunday school and regularly donated 10% of her pension, was led out by a state trooper and a county sheriff’s officer. One held her purse and Bible. The other put her in handcuffs.”

“The charge was trespassing, but Mrs. Caskey’s real offense, in her pastor’s view, was spiritual. Several months earlier, when she had questioned his authority, he’d charged her with spreading “a spirit of cancer and discord” and expelled her from the congregation. “I’ve been shunned,” she says.”

So old Burrick got his panties in a wad over what 71 year old Ms. Caskey said. Of course, we don’t know all the facts, but look at what we do know. A 71 year old woman disagreed with Mr. Burrick.

A little about Ms. Caskey. According to the article she is “A devout Christian and grandmother of three, Mrs. Caskey moves with a halting gait, due to two artificial knees and a double hip replacement. Friends and family describe her as a generous woman who helped pay the electricity bill for Allen Baptist, in Allen, Mich., when funds were low, gave the church $1,200 after she sold her van, and even cut the church’s lawn on occasion. She has requested an engraved image of the church on her tombstone.”

Basically, she and Burrick had a difference of opinion. It’s not like she came at him with a weapon, pulled that hidden knife in the handle of her cane or slashed his tires. This is a woman who has trouble walking so it would be a safe bet that Mr. Burrick was not in fear of physical harm or death.

What could she have done that pissed off the very Christian Burrick?

The article elaborates:  ”Shortly after the church hired Mr. Burrick in 2005 to help revive the congregation, which had dwindled to 12 members, Mrs. Caskey asked him to appoint a board of deacons to help govern the church, a tradition outlined in the church’s charter. Mr. Burrick said the congregation was too small to warrant deacons. Mrs. Caskey pressed the issue at the church’s quarterly business meetings and began complaining that Mr. Burrick was not following the church’s bylaws.”

In April 2006, Mrs. Caskey received a stern letter from Mr. Burrick. “This church will not tolerate this spirit of cancer and discord that you would like to spread,” it said. Mrs. Caskey, along with Mr. and Mrs. Church (other members who agreed with Ms. Caskey), continued to insist that the pastor follow the church’s constitution. In August, she received a letter from Mr. Burrick that said her failure to repent had led to her removal. It also said he would not write her a transfer letter enabling her to join another church, a requirement in many Baptist congregations, until she had “made things right here at Allen Baptist.”

What a fucking moron. Little old ladies get the boot because they disagree with the Pastor. Where the hell is that written? If it’s in the by laws of the church, Mrs. Caskey should be glad to be out of there.

The article indicates that the church’s charter does indeed call for “a board of deacons to help govern the church”.  It’s interesting that the “Holier than thou” Burrick has never said that Mrs. Caskey was wrong, only that she was a pain in the ass. I would think the first thing he would say is  “Hey, she’s wrong. The Charter doesn’t provide for that” or “The charter leaves it up to the Pastor”. He never said anything of the sort.

But so what? The Arrogant, Pompous Authority Figure, God’s earthly stand in, decide that, what ever the facts, Caskey had to go.  

Again, so what? It’s a small issue, involving an insignificant church in some shit hole in Michigan. True, but it this same scenario is played out thousands of times each week in churches all over the world. As I mentioned, Jehovah’s Witnesses are famous for this. Separately, these incidents of shunning, or “disfellowshipping” are insignificant, but the cumulative effect of thousands of people being severed from their family and friends is incalculable. Jehovah’s Witnesses, last year, disfellowshipped over 250,000 members.  Some, go crawling back to the church, repentant and beg for forgiveness and are “reinstated”. Most, once they are out, realize what a huge, lying conspiracy the Witnesses are, and do not return. But, who knows how many people in other churches suffered the same fate?

The emotional damage takes its toll. In my case, being disfellowshipped from the Witnesses and shunned by friends and family, really doesn’t bother me that much. I would be lying if I said that it had no effect, but the truth is I never realized what a pain in the ass my family was until they stopped talking to me. Personally, I’m doing just fine and am content to remain a “non-Witness”, with no plans to return. In my case, the “disfellowshipping” did not have the designed effect, that is to “lovingly punish me, until I see the error of my ways.”

Allow me to convey my personal “fuck you” to any and all who had a hand in my “disfellowshipping” and are waiting for me to “see the error of my ways.” Don’t hold your breath, you pious shit heads!

Many people however, suffer some real trauma when this happens to them. In Mrs. Caskey’s case, the Church obviously meant a lot to her. In her final years, she has been forcibly separated from something she loves and shunned by people she’s know for a lifetime, because of the arbitrary decision by some piece of dog shit like his ass-holiness Burrick.

Multiply Burrick a thousand times for each Elder in each congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and each group or religious sect led by some asshole who claims God’s exclusive guidance.

Religion is bullshit and one of the saddest things is that it actually has the ability to inflict emotional harm on the innocent. Even more sad, is that it can only hurt you if you let it. You have to care, you have to give a shit, and you have to give it permission to hurt you. It demands that level of commitment of “faith” from you, because without it, it cannot control you.

Once you commit, you are vulnerable to any of the mind control manipulations they want to put on you.

More proof that the world would be a better place without Organized Religion. 

Sometimes, all you can do is laugh!!!

Again, I find myself picking on JW’s, but it’s just so darn easy!

I came across this parody of the Watchtower magazine cover by a poster on YouTube, truthbookblue. He is very creative and has some other parodies I’m sure you would enjoy, but to me, this one says it all:

Among the many dates and times where the Watchtower Society would predict “the end of the World” or some other noteworthy event and the date would come and nothing would happen, the most notable would be all the fuss they made over 1914.  So many things were supposed to happen in 1914, that I’ve lost count.

By the time I was growing up as a Witness, the understanding of the generation that was alive in 1914 was as follows: 

Watchtower, 2/15/69, page 101: “However, there are people still living who were alive in 1914 and saw what was happening then and who were old enough that they still remember those events. This generation is getting up in years now. A great number of them have already passed away in death. Yet Jesus very pointedly said: “This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.” Some of them will still be alive to see the end of this wicked system. This means that only a short time is left before the end comes! (Ps. 90:10) So now is the time to take urgent action if you do not want to be swept away with this wicked system.” 

We were told that the generation that was of sufficient age to understand what was going on in 1914 would not pass away before Armageddon.

But in 1995 they changed that too:

From The Watchtower 11/1/95, page 19:  “Therefore, in the final fulfillment of Jesus prophecy today, “this generation” apparently refers to the peoples of earth who see the sign of Christ’s presence but fail to mend their ways. In contrast, we as Jesus’ disciples refuse to be molded by the life-style of “this generation.”

So now it would be not the generation that saw things in 1914, but anyone who saw the sign of Christ’s presance. This could include people not born as of this writing in January of 2008.

What about the generation that was aware of things that were taking place in 1914?

Truthbookblue pretty much sums it up with this parody of the Watchtower cover:   

Sorry, 1914 generation. This is about all you mean to the Watchtower Society now!! 

“The Watchtower” is a copyright owned by the Watchtower, Bible and Tract Society, Inc. This site is in now way associated with that organization.

The Greatest Trick Satan Ever Played……..

I am always amused when Religious people say the old, overused, phrase to us “non-believers”, “The greatest trick the Devil ever played was convincing people he does not exist.

As a Deist, I have concluded that God/Intelligent Design “created” our universe. Nature and science tell me that. The same set of facts and observations tells an Atheist there is no God, a Christian that Jesus is all powerful and a Muslim that Allah is indeed kind and merciful. None of us can prove any of this.

The “Devil” is a Biblical figure and while the Muslims do believe in Satan, Islam has its roots in the bible so I am assuming we are all talking about the very same Satan.

Did he convince us all that he did not exist? Of course, the phrase is exempting the Bible advocate or believer, as they do indeed believe in the Devil as a real personage, the personification of evil. But, did he, in fact “convince” the rest of us that he did not exist? Did he convince you? How exactly did he do that?

If the Devil appeared to me and tried by some sort of logic or argument to convince me of his non existence, his very appearance would likely convince me or any one else that he, in fact DID exist. I don’t recall talking to Satan about it, in fact I don’t recall ever seeing Satan or hearing of anyone with any credibility say they saw and spoke to Satan.

“There you go!!” The Bible thumper exclaims “Exactly my point!! You’re convinced he doesn’t exist! His trick worked on you!”

I’m a little confused. Satan exists and the proof is that we have no proof of his existence.

 Well, maybe we do have some type of proof. In a reference to Televangelist Oral Roberts, the Awake magazine, 3/22/88, pg 5, said: “One time he regaled his TV audience with a harrowing tale that ended happily. The Devil came into his bedroom and grappled with him. As Roberts reported it: “I felt those hands on my throat, and he was choking the life out of me. I yelled to my wife, ‘Honey, come!’ She came in and commanded the devil to get out. I began to breathe and came out of my bed strong.”  Well, Mrs. Roberts can obviously kick Satan’s ass, so there ya go! Get her to get rid of him. This all powerful personage who is responsible for all the evil in the world, gets wupped by a middle aged woman.  But wait a minute! If Satan’s greatest trick was to prove he didn’t exist, he must be highly pissed at old Oral for “outing him” to his TV audience.   

“Oh, there are Satan worshippers who communicate with demons all the time!!”

I’m sure there are. Of course this usually involves some combination of drugs, alcohol and sleep deprivation.  I had the interesting experience in my youth of being invited to a Native American Peyote ritual, where you basically smoke peyote and stay awake for several days. After 24 hours, you’re barking at the moon and talking to your dead relatives. At one point, I was convinced that one of the three stooges was actually my father (I can’t remember which one, but I was hoping for Curley) and Lee Harvey Oswald was still alive and worked at a Toyota dealership in Anaheim, California. An appearance by Satan would not have seemed out of place.

We have more proof that Big Foot and UFO’s exist than Satan, but taking this line of reasoning further, we have no proof of a lot of things, so they must exist too. The ancient City of Atlantis, the Loch Ness Monster, the human soul, the list is endless. Bill Gates! I mean, have you ever actually met the guy??  Exactly!

Does “evil” exist in our world? I think there is an argument for that. There is some pretty bad stuff going on. There are some truly evil dudes, who do in fact perpetrate some truly evil shit. Well, who created everything? The Bible says God did. By extension, he created evil.

“Oh, no!” Bible Thumpers retort, “he simply gave man the capacity to choose to be evil or not. The Devil made us evil!” 

Well, God created the Devil. If we have our own choice to be good or evil, than God gave us the option to choose. Did he give humans the option to fly or to be invisible, to live underwater, breathing through gills? No. Actually, in the natural world, we really don’t have a lot of options. But someone damn sure gave us the option to be bad. Logically, it would have been God.

Bible believers stumble over this point because while it is evident that evil exists, they maintain it is caused by Satan. Satan is a convenient scape goat, because we surely cannot blame God for the creation of evil or for anything bad.  Well, he created Satan, so around we go again, circular reasoning.

Who created what and therefore is responsible for whatever the creation does is an amusing argument. Circular, in that it has no answer, the old “chicken and egg” routine. It’s like the assertion that Satan exists and the proof is that we have no proof.

My real point in this whole exercise is not weather or not Satan exists. The point is that people believe that something exists BECAUSE there is no proof. It is precisely because humans are so pliable and gullible that Organized Religion exists to plunder and profit from the hopelessly brain dead masses.

Religion needs faith because it has no facts. It goes so far as to say that having no facts proves something is a fact.  There is absolutely no proof that God wrote the Bible, that Jesus ever existed or that there is such a personage as Satan the Devil.

As a Deist, I have concluded that there is a God/Intelligent design. I use the term “I have concluded” because if I say I believe in God, I think that implies that I have faith in something I have not seen. That’s simply not true. Did the “God” I think exists, because of my observation of nature, create a wicked personage, Satan, if you will who is the one responsible for the suffering in the World? How the hell am I supposed to know? Guess what? You don’t know either.

Perhaps “God” simply created us with the capacity to do wrong, to hurt others to do evil so he could observe the result.  In turn, we invented the individual Satan to personify or “put a face” on all the bad stuff. Again, I don’t know and neither do you. Maybe we are some giant cosmic high school experiment in some galactic Petrie dish. Hey, in the Men in Black movie they fit a whole galaxy in a small bottle on a cat’s collar. There is no proof, so it must be true!

Hey, but what do you want from a guy who’s father was probably Curley from the Three Stooges. Did you know his real name was Jerome Horowitz? Hmm, does that make me Jewish?

The Toll of Religious Bondage

Several times I have said that the purpose of this Blog is not to castigate Jehovah’s Witnesses specifically. I equally detest all religions and if I seem to pick on the Witnesses disproportionately, it’s simply because they were my life’s experience. Basically all religions suck.

I am bewildered and angered by the numerous ways religion in general has harmed mankind, through religious wars, witch hunts, inquisitions and the everyday psychological harm suffered by the strict adherents to various sects and groups.

For example, The Pharaohs of Egypt, of course were looked upon as God’s with their every whim, word and command obeyed. While they weren’t trying to out do each other by constructing the biggest tomb or monument to themselves, they waged horrible wars to expand their empire, took countless slaves who they worked to death and brutally punished the masses at their whim. Religion so permeated their culture that we still have evidence today of the huge amount of time and resources expended needlessly for Religious purposes.

The Pyramids are a prime example of a culture so absorbed and dominated by it’s religion that while they are truly architectural and engineering marvels for their time,  they are also mute testimony to the huge waste of resources and manpower to construct them. The very potent and dominant Religion of the Pharaohs, which permeated their entire society and every corner of this great civilization doesn’t even exist today. There is no way to know how many died directly during the construction of these monuments. Also, we will never know how many suffered or died because needed resources were diverted away from support of the people and toward the construction of these impressive but totally useless structures.   

Of what practical use were the Pyramids? None really, they were tombs to the kings. If today, The US President simply decided to build a Huge monument to himself and eventually be buried their, with taxpayers money, I am sure there would be a huge uproar. It would be a different story if He was looked upon as a God. There would be no questioning him.  Of course we build monuments and statues to honor people and/or events in our history. Every culture that can afford it does. My guess it that proportionally, it took a considerable less percentage of our resources to construct the Lincoln Memorial than any of the Pyramids. Likely, 5000 years from now someone would question that project also, but that is deviating from the point. 

The issues is the real productivity Religious beliefs cost us. Many hopelessly poor feel the obligation to tithe. The Muslims have to walk off the job and pray several times a day. Do theses people have jobs? For the most part. Wouldn’t just leaving for several hours per day seriously cut into ones productivity? Thousands of brilliant scholars labor their whole lives to prove the tenets of their particular sect, while thousands more Scholars work to prove the opposing view from the same book. What a tragic waste of talent. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses own and inhabit Millions of dollars of choice real estate in New York City and other locations around the world and employ tens of thousands of volunteers to simply to produce and distribute literature that espouse their ever changing, improvable brand of truth. That Catholic Church also has billions in holdings to support their version of the “truth” What a complete waste of time and resources.

This is the case with virtually any religious organization of any size.  In addition, historically, religion has impeded true science, killing heretics for stating the obvious.  I would suggest from observation and research the idea that if it wasn’t for the fact that Religion, in particular The Church of Rome, had in fact impeded science and kept the masses at bay, the technological level we reached in 2000AD may have been achievable in the 1600’s or perhaps earlier.

That is a very startling conclusion but it makes complete sense. Ponder this: In 1800 in the United States, we were crapping outdoors, peoples were dying from easily curable disease and our main source of transportation was the horse.  Technology had changed little from the middle ages.  169 years later we had a man on the moon. Today, in 2007 we all walk around with communicators on our hips and can travel from New York to L.A. in 3 hours or less. We can predict the weather with an amazing degree of accuracy and anyone with a home computer can look at some pretty detailed pictures from space. We have a permanent Earth orbiting space station. In fact, space travel is becoming rather routine, save for the rare mishap. We went from essentially medieval technology to the moon in 169 years and communicating with Grandma in Connecticut from anywhere in the world using a “communicator” not unlike the on the original Star Trek series, in the next 38.  

What prevented the human race from achieving these same accomplishments in any 200 year period in history?  Primarily Religion. It kept people intentionally in the dark, uneducated and subdued, or so preoccupied with their Religion, they didn’t have time to do much else.

When the United States was formed and free enterprise was indeed free, suddenly the pace of technological development skyrocketed.

Let’s consider the example of The Church of Rome and its offshoots from it’s founding, around 300AD until approx the middle 1700’s. These are referred to as the Dark Ages. Estimates put the death toll of “Heretics” at approximately 10,000,000 people including about 2,000,000 witches (mostly old women) killed or burned to death. This was 1400 brutal years where religious fanatics searched out “Heretics” and “sinners” and subjected them to the most heinous of brutality, in the Name of God and the Church of Rome. The Church dominated everything, including the family, the education, the economy, and politics. Popes had so much power they could name and depose emperors and kings at will. What was the result? An endless series of wars ravaged Europe. Popes and Bishops appeared in armour as generals on horseback leading their troops. Countless peasants, who often owned no more than the clothes on their back, had to spend their whole life in dreary serfdom, cultivating the huge estates of their spiritual and secular feudal lords – or fighting their lord and master’s enemies – the poor from elsewhere. (From ‘The Misery of Christianity,’ by Joachim Kahl – Pelican 1971)

It was a time of severe religious oppression when nothing could take place unless blessed by the Holy Mother Church. It resulted in suppression of the people’s thoughts, feelings, hopes and even love, by penalties, torture and death.  A prime example of the Church’s dominance and suppression of true science, which resulted in the impediment of technological progress was its dealing with the brilliant scientist and mathematician, Galileo Galilei.  Galileo simply said that the earth revolved around the sun. His view was heliocentric. The idea had been promoted by earlier scientists and mathematicians, particularly Copernicus.  Hey, no big deal except that it was directly opposed to the Catholic Church’s view that everything revolved around the earth, or was geocentric.

The Catholic Church’s prohibited the advocacy of heliocentrism, because the Church contended that theory had no decisive proof and was contrary to the literal meaning of Scripture. Galileo was eventually forced to recant his heliocentrism under the threat of torture and death, forced to his knees to renounce all belief in Copernican theories, and was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.

He did better than Giordano Bruno who had the audacity to even go beyond Copernicus, and, dared to suggest, that space was boundless and that not only did the earth revolve around the sun but the sun is planets were but one of any number of similar systems. Bruno was tried before the Inquisition for blasphemy, condemned and burned at the stake in 1600. At some point, house arrest must have looked pretty good to him.

What effect did this treatment of these scientists have on the general public and on any other budding scientists? The treatment of Galileo, Bruno and many others were purposely very public and no doubt stifled the advancement of science and technologies for centuries. When mankind was finally set free from religious bondage to express his ideas and beliefs without fear of persecution, only then did technology flourish.

So, It is reasonable to conclude that societies that allow themselves to be dominated by religion suppress the development of true science and technology. Further, specifically the Church of Rome who sponsored the Dark Ages, a period where Religion dominated and technological advancement couldn’t even get a toehold, bears a huge burden of responsibility to all mankind.  

There is the argument that technology has brought with it pollution and other problems and it has validity, but it is clear that the benefits out weigh the costs. The next time you drive 1,000 miles in a day to visit relatives, imagine what it would be like to ride a horse or walk. When your unborn child has a medical problem that doctors can operate on and fix while the child is still in the womb, imagine what you would be going through 100 years ago. When you know days in advance a hurricane is coming and you have time to prepare to evacuate, remember the Galveston hurricane of 1900 when between 600 and 1200 people were killed because they had absolutely no warning. Look at people today, many bright and full of life, who dedicate their lives and resources to a religion while many bright, talented people embrace a competing faith, both faiths based on the Bible. They than spend their lives trying to convert people and disprove the others beliefs.  

Jehovah’s Witnesses in particular discourage their membership from seeking a college education. Their reasoning is “What’s the point? God is going to destroy this old “wicked system of things” shortly, anyway.” Of course, according to them he was going to destroy “the wicked system of things” in 1914, 1925, 1975 and “before the end of our 20^th century. Presently, they have given up on dates and simply say “shortly”.  

How many Jehovah’s Witnesses of my generation who could have received a college education and who could have achieved much, didn’t because of the Watchtower Society’s clear mandate that college was not a suitable way for a true Christian to spend his life. 

Perhaps the person who would have discovered the cure for cancer is 57 today, has a cleaning business and is handing out Watchtowers on the weekends in Nebraska.  

he harm Organized Religion does to its members and to Society as a whole is incalculable. We’ll never know what the cost of believing what you cannot possibly know or prove and dedicating your life to it, rejecting all other pursuits, has cost the individuals and others who would have benefited from their work or discoveries. 

There is no proof that the Bible is God’s word or that Jesus even existed. But somehow Organized Religion has hood winked millions to commit their lives and resources to improvable, improbable and downright loony notions.   

Jehovah’s Witness Parody #1, Will Smith’s Movie “I Am Legend”

At this writing I have not seen Will Smith’s latest movie “I Am Legend”. The trailers look tempting enough, but since I spent so much on my home theater set up, you know hi-def flat screen, surround sound, etc. I am more inclined to buy or rent the DVD.

There is some major buzz on some of the Jehovah’s Witnesses sites about this movie and some of the Witnesses are all in a flutter over the fact that the Watchtower building, located in New York City, is shown in at least one scene in the movie. After all the movie is shot in New York after a major virus turns most of the population to zombies. Some  Witnesses are all giddy about this as if it has some sort of significance, ignoring the fact that the building is in ruins and all the Witnesses are dead or zombies.

But the real funny thing is the parody shown below of an illustration from a JW publication, by the very creative Jason Taylor. Jason posts a lot of his parody’s on www.jehovahs-witnesses.com. His name there is deaconbluez.

This is reproduced with his kind permission.

“Interesting, because the Watchtower teaches that Will Smith will be destroyed at Armageddon…“  

 

Some time, ya just gotta laugh!!

Are Jehovah’s Witnesses or any other Religion a Cult?

I am a Deist, an ex Jehovah’s Witnesses, disfellowshipped and considered by them an “apostate”. To the Witnesses an “Apostate” is anyone who used to believe as they do, no longer does and is very vocal about it. That would be me.

They also feel that Apostates pro-actively all try to convince the Witnesses their views are wrong and try to “separate” them from the truth, in any devious way they can. You don’t have to worry about me. I don’t give a shit what you believe. I just point out facts and errors where I see them. Feel free to disagree.

Further, from The Watchtower, 2/15/06, pg 31: “It designates a person as morally worthless, an apostate and a rebel against God.” No love lost between us, as I consider them false prophets, liars, deceitful and in no way God’s organization.

So do not consider this a defense of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

For years I have heard the term “cult” thrown around by everyone towards JW’s, Mormons, etc. Actually, it’s quit tiresome and very disingenuous. Most people reflexively use the term cult, primarily against Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, but an honest examination of the term and its contemporary use reveals some interesting points.There are several definitions of “cult”.

The American Heritage Dictionary offers these four definitions:

1-A system of Religious worship and ritual

2- A Religion or sect considered extremist or false

3- Obsessive devotion to a person or principle.

4- The object of such devotion.

One or more of the above definitions would apply to all Religions (1,2,3,4) political parties (3,4), anti and pro abortionists (3), any political activist (3,4)

In terms of Religion, for example the Catholics are 1, a religion, 2, considered false by many, including the JW’s 3, devoted to the Pope and 4 the Church itself is an object of devotion. However, the Catholic Church is not generally considered a cult.

This whole “cult” thing got legs with the book “Kingdom of the Cults” first published in 1965, by Walter Martin. I’ve read the book and while it is a good source of material, I think the basic premise is flawed and Martin’s “cult” thing is bogus, designed to trash religions he doesn’t believe in. Mr. Martin, while reviling a lot of Religions, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses in particular by calling them cults, has to “bend and shape” the meaning of the word away from the dictionary definition because the dictionary’s definition would include his own religious beliefs. (Note: Mr. Martin died in 1989)

Martin’s “Cult” book quotes Dr. Charles Braden, author of the book “These Also Believe”:

“By the term cult I mean nothing derogatory to any group so classified. A cult, as I define it, is any religious group which differs significantly in one or more respects as to belief or practice from those religious groups which are regarded as the “normative” expressions of religion in our total culture”

So, for Mr. Braden it’s “A cult, as I define it”. By what authority does Mr. Braden get to define a “cult” for the rest of the world?

Martin adds to Braden’s definition: “a cult might also be defined as a group of people gathered about a specific person or person’s misinterpretation of the Bible”. This is on page one, Chapter one. He then immediately attacks Jehovah’s Witnesses, which leads me to believe he has an ax to grind with them. His conclusions and his book likely would be just as biased as the Witnesses literature.

And, by what authority does Mr. Martin get to decide what a “cult might also be defined as” for the rest of the world?

Who decides what is “normative” as in Mr. Braden’s quote or what is or is not a “misinterpretation” as in Martin’s added comment? In Martin’s book, that would be Martin.

In the logical view, Mr. Martin makes up a definition of “Cult” beyond what the word actually means and rambles on for over 600 pages on his interpretation of things.

He presents a lot of interesting facts, but the point is Martin distorts the definition of Cult to fit The Witnesses, Mormons and others, while excluding his brand of Christianity.

Interestingly, presantly Martin’s daughter, Jill Martin Rische and her husband, Kevin Rische founded the “Walter Martin Ministries” The dictionary definitions 1,2,3 & 4 would apply to them, especially 3: Obsessive devotion to a person or principle. They have a radio show where they feature Dr. Martin as the “Original Bible Answer Man”. The guys been DEAD since 1989 and he is still answering questions!

No obsessive devotion to a person here!

Jehovah’s Witnesses are in no way led by God or are his mouthpiece as they claim. The contradictions, lies and editing of embarrassing things in their own literature hangs them. But, in my view there is no religious organization that is led by God.

But in all fairness, because Walter Martin defines a religion as a cult doesn’t make it so. By the proper English definition all religious organizations are cults.The continued infighting, hurling of insults, screeching over different theologies all supposedly “based on the Bible” by the multitude of competing “Christian” factions is really tiresome.

The Bible, buy it’s very complex and cryptic nature, invites as many different interpretations as readers. The question is would God give us such a book that he knew would create endless controversy and spawn thousands of Religious sects? The reasonable conclusion is no, he wouldn’t.There is no proof that the Bible is God’s word or that Jesus ever existed. So, any Biblical controversy included the “Cult” controversy created by Walter Martin is as irrelevant as the book it’s based on.  

The Unreasonableness of Religious Faith

“Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” Hebrews 11:1, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

“Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen” Hebrews 11:1, The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible.

This is the Christian definition of faith. Note that both of these Bible’s use the phrases “Hoped for” and an expectation, “evident reality” or conviction of things not seen. So, faith is “hoping for” something or being “convinced of” something as being real, even though you’ve not seen it.

What then is Christian or any religious faith for that matter, based on? Things no one has seen, but “hopes” to see based on “assured expectation” or “assurance”. Assurance from what? Assurance from who? Christians say assurance from God, through Jesus, as God wrote down in the Bible. Not withstanding the fact that there is no proof that God wrote the Bible, that God even exists or that Jesus was a real person.

It’s like chasing your tail. Keep repeating “God wrote the Bible, and it says we should have faith in God”. Like a child’s electric train, it goes around and around, with no end and ultimately gets to no real conclusion. There is no whistle stop at “facts” or “reason”.

Religion relies entirely on faith. Why? Because it has no facts. You have to pretend to know things that you do not and cannot possibly know.

I opened with a quote from the Bible regarding faith. It was taken from Hebrews 11:1. This quotation talks about the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction in things not seen. The 11th Chap of Hebrews does not end there. It continues and perhaps missed by the casual reader, it reveals a flaw in this philosophy:

4 By faith Abel offered God a sacrifice of greater worth than Cain, through which [faith] he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness respecting his gifts; and through it he, although he died, yet speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was transferred so as not to see death, and he was nowhere to be found because God had transferred him; for before his transference he had the witness that he had pleased God well. 6 Moreover, without faith it is impossible to please [him] well, for he that approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.
7 By faith Noah, after being given divine warning of things not yet beheld, showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; and through this [faith] he condemned the world, and he became an heir of the righteousness that is according to faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed in going out into a place he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, although not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he resided as an alien in the land of the promise as in a foreign land, and dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the very same promise. 10 For he was awaiting the city having real foundations, the builder and maker of which [city] is God.

11 By faith also Sarah herself received power to conceive seed, even when she was past the age limit, since she esteemed him faithful who had promised. 12 Hence also from one [man] and him as good as dead, there were born [children] just as the stars of heaven for multitude and as the sands that are by the seaside, innumerable.
So Hebrew 11:1 says that faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen and than it goes on to mention examples of faith, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and his wife Sarah.

The interesting thing here is that all these characters mentioned, according to the Bible, had on numerous occasions each witnessed supernatural events that certainly would convince me and I’m sure most people that there indeed was a God and if he said so, the Bible was his written word. The Bible speaks of all of these individuals as having direct communication with God, receiving instructions from God and/or witnessing events that were caused by God himself. They didn’t have the kind of faith in God’s existence that was mentioned in vs. 1, because they actually spoke to him. If God spoke to me, I believe I’d be convinced. Their faith was based on facts and first hand personal experience.

God appeared to Noah, in Gen chapter 6:13 -22 and told him to build the ark, take animals two by two etc. So God, no doubt in an awe inspiring and obvious supernatural manner, appeared to Noah and Noah, evidently not being an idiot and convinced of God’s obvious existence because he SAW and SPOKE to him, did what God asked. Maybe he did have faith. But he also had FACTS. He spoke to God, as did the others mentioned in Hebrews. The existence of God was not a question.

Noah and the others mentioned did not have the faith decribed in Hebrews 11:1. They had facts on which to base their faith.

But we, thousands of years later, all we have is “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen”. We’re supposed to read about what they did and somehow we have to develop faith. No talking to God, no awe inspiring events, no messages from God via Angels. Just an ancient improvable book filled with fantastic, cryptic stories that are completely improvable.

Where does it say you are to have faith in the Bible? In the Bible. Where else? No where, save for Religious literature based on the Bible. Has God made any appearances lately? Haven’t seen him. If God or an Angel appeared to virtually anyone, I’m sure that would get their attention and if he said “Read the Bible. It’s my Word”, I would be the first one to the book store. Why? Because now I have a fact. I could confidently say “I saw God and it was awe some!!”

Most of us are still looking.  

Thanks to all Who Are Reading This Blog and Sending Emails.

A short post today.

I am preparing a discussion site where all sides of Religious issues can slug it out.

I am also preparing and Ex-Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, Christian, Deist and Atheist discussion pages. Email me your suggestions for additional religious themes discussion pages.

Again, I am going to pick on the Jehovah’s Witnesses a bit here today. As I mentioned this is not a bash the Witnesses Blog. I equally despise all organized religion, but my life’s experience is primarily with the Witnesses.

From Watchtower 2/1/69, Page 70.

“More recently, the book entitled “Famine—1975!” by William and Paul Paddock said concerning today’s food shortages, on pages 52, 55 and 61: “Hunger is rampant throughout country after country, continent after continent around the undeveloped belt of the tropics and subtropics. Today’s crisis can move in only one direction—toward catastrophe. Today hungry nations; tomorrow starving nations. . . . By 1975 civil disorder, anarchy, military dictatorships, runaway inflation, transportation breakdowns and chaotic unrest will be the order of the day in many of the hungry nations.”

Elsewhere, the Witnesses quote this same source as stating “By 1975 a disaster of unprecedented magnitude will face the world. Famines, greater than any in history, will ravage the undeveloped nations.”

The Witnesses are among the greatest preachers of “doom and gloom” because it fits their overall theology, i.e., God destruction of the World at Armageddon will be preceded by wars, earthquakes, famine, disease,” etc. They screech about this, ignoring the fact that if you had a theology that was based in part on these types of occurrences it would have credibility at anytime in human history, because these things have and will always occur.

But no matter. This book supported their position. In fact, as previously shown, they predicted that Armageddon would come in 1975, so a book like this that names 1975 specifically was too good to pass up.

The lame argument that “We didn’t write it, we simply quote it” is debunked by the context in which it is quoted. They quote it to bolster a point they are trying to make.

The really funny thing is that they quote this book, Famine-1975 in the Watchtower in 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1974. Also, in the Awake magazine in 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975. After 1975, strangely, they no longer quote the book.

The reason is obvious. There was no famine ion 1975 and God didn’t end the world at Armageddon.

This simply adds credibility to the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses were expecting Armageddon to come in 1975 and leave only them standing while killing the rest of you. I was a Jehovah’s Witnesses and quite frankly, I was disappointed that this carnage on a global scale didn’t happen.

I had my big house all picked out. Unfortunately, God didn’t kill the owner. He had some nice cars, too.

Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to edit “The Truth”

Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to shift their theology and to edit past publications to cover up inconsistencies and predictions that fail to come true. 

I have an original bound volume for the year 1989, which has in it the Watchtower from Jan 1, 1989, as well as an original single copy of this same magazine. For those Non Witnesses, The Watchtower has been published twice a month, on the 1^st and 15^th. At the end of each year the Watchtower Society will publish a volume with all 24 Watchtower issues in it, for that year.   

On page 12, par 8 of the Jan 1, 1989 Watchtower, my bound volume and the individual copy of the Watchtower I have, says in the last sentence of that paragraph, “He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th Century” In the 2005 and 2006 CD, the same sentence says “He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our day.”All of the later 1989 bound volumes also say “completed in our day.” 

The issue here is two fold. First, the Watchtower said that this “work” would be completed in our 20th Century. Read the context below and you’ll see that “the work” referred to is “the Christian missionary activity”. The Witnesses contend was started by the apostle Paul and revived by Charles Russell, founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses. As you can see, this work did not stop in the 20^th century as stated in the Watchtower. At this writing, in 2008 the Witnesses continue this work. 

The second issue is that The Watchtower Society edited this comment from the original “work that would be completed in our 20th Century” to “work that would be completed in our day.” 

Below I have inserted a photocopy of the original Watchtower from 1/1/89 and outlined the statement in question in par 8. The Witnesses made what was a completely false statement, in fact a false prediction and when they realized it, they edited it out in future issues and reference material. Everything they print is suspect, as it is subject to change or omission.

Millions of Witnesses remain blithely in lock step with an organization that when it tells them to jump, they say how high.

Ironically, Jehovah’s Witnesses refer to their religion as “The Truth”. So , I guess “Truth” is edited or altered at the whim of the Society and it still remains the truth.

If God was indeed leading them, as they claim there would be nothing that would need editing.