rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

Enemy of the Stasis

      Getting crazy w/the fontsize here I'll tell ya. Been away, been busy w/my biannual existential meltdown and once again decided to keep it to myself. Which seems to be working better than my usual bloodspill/too much info rantings here of the past, as I've wound up on the other side of that old debbil darknight of the soul w/not only my job intact, but a better schedule (no more graveyard shift!!! Yayyyyy!!!) and even a litle more money.

     So, having negotiated life successfully thus far, what to write about? During my malaise I wrote a number of nasty, invective filled pieces at work regarding race, politics and religion (for the record I stand for, against and against on them respectively); self inflated proclamations that bolied down to little more than "If only everyone would just do as I say, then things would be fine."  Besides the 'who really gives a shit' factor, which is, I'm sure, considerable, I had to face that having such thoughts - and especially voicing them because I thought they were in any way reasonable -  smacked of a knowledge I not only do not have, but of knowledge that drives me crazy when claimed by others.

     In short, my hatred of religion was dangerously close tobecoming a religion.

     In recent weeks I've been watching the rise of the Militant Atheist Elite, that is Christopher Hitchings and Richard Dawkins have been making the BookTV rounds on Cspan. Dawkins impresses w/his cool articulation, but I gotta go w/the loose cannon that is Hhitchings. Ffar from the polite academician, Hitcjhings reminds me of a drunk in a bar who knows, just knows mind you, that Muhammed Ali is the worlds greatest athelete and anyone who t'inks differnt is nothin' less than crazy-ass WRONG!!!! Even w/the British accent giving his condescension that upper crust gloss, there's the element of the lout, the bully. The totally convinced.

     He makes great points: in referring to the bible story where god asks Abraham to kill his son, he questions the good intentions and usefullness of a creed that wields infantricide as a test of faith. He also gives the old 'Thou shalt not kill' conundrum a good workout, to be met w/the usual 'the bible says 'murder', not kill' lame ass argument (again I contend that the semantics make little difference to the mother of a soldier, any soldier lost in any holy war) and he shows little patience for those unwilling to see that religion is a fantasy based power that, when mixed w/political policy, spewlls naught but doom.

     Go, Christopher.

      Then there's Dr. Stephen Prothero, Head of Religious Studies at Boston U., who's been described as a Jeffersonian Atheist, a decscription he shy's away from, to bring a little open mindedness to the topic:

       " I say in my book that religion is the greatest power in the world for evil. I also say, and believe, that it's also the greatest power in the world for good. And all that says is that religion is the most powerful thing in the world. So what now?"

     Sat me down on my ass, I can tell you that. Prothero advocates the concept of Religious Literacy in public schools. Not Religious Training, or any Religious Endorsements but simple literacy. He contends that maybe if we as a nation, actually knew the basis tenents of World Religions, we might have a better understanding of each other, or at least of what we invent as our perfect worlds. 'cause Ii'm beginning to think that's what religion is: our human attempt to build a perfect thing. Maybe by looking at the myths we make - and this is important, see them as the myths they are - maybe we can finally see our similarities as a way toward peace than continue to kill each other over false differences.

     I guess this is a relgiorant after all. Sorry.

     In other news, I finally finished my new tape of music. I've sent the one existing spare copy to the home office for advice on what to do w/it and will keep y'all posted. Buster and the cats are rocking and all say hello and 'Rehab' by Amy Whitehouse is my favorite song in the world today.

peace/noise/bono in 2008

tb

Posted by: timbyrnes at 15:45 | link | comments (7)

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