This is a response to a post from tmidgett directed towards me in the 'Israel=Terrorist?' thread. I made a new topic for my reply to keep that thread on-topic.

tmidgett wrote:There's a reason your discussions mainly involve, like, four people on this board. Your self-righteousness and scattershot discussion technique are positively numbing. You have a long row to hoe as a 'revolutionary agnostic' if this is how you are gonna convert people.

'a tough road as a revolutionary agnostic':

Probably, but I still like selling these ideas. I know what thinking like a 'revolutionary agnostic' has done for me personally- I am still constantly angry but not nearly has confused by events as I once was. It's like a religious awakening, or something.

There is a dark future for humanity as long as people accept capitalistic militaristic religions into their lives. Your relationship with God can be what you want it to be, but as long as people can't come to grips with the concept that popular religions have been corporatized like all other large profit-driven enterprises and that they are used by the elites for mass crowd control and army building, we're all trapped as their servants or casualties.

Militarized religions are driving us right toward the End Times, whether they are real or not. Ask yourself: What are you losing by not joining that movement, and instead, resuming your relationship with God ( or live without God, as I do ) as an individual and not as a component of a group? You are getting more of your life back in your control. If you take that course, the backlash against you comes from powerful men, not from powerful gods, although the powerful men will represent their retribution as the hand of God.

Religions, corporations and the governments that work for them need soldiers; are you a soldier for their causes, or do you work for yourself first and for society when it's right, not just when patriotism and conquest are offered to you?

If others on this board still call my position towards Zionists who call themselves Jews and play a role in this malignancy of society 'anti-semitic' , then so be it. I will be that to those people, because I'm not changing.

If someone attaches their ego to a general concept...say 'race' or 'religion', whatever...then at that point they have stopped thinking about the real, important questions about life. At that point, I feel they get what they deserve. It seems difficult for people to divorce sentimentality from our attempts to live together in a reasonable and respectful way. I mean, c'mon. Isn't this high-school philosophy? "Don't Kill Each Other Without A Damn Good Reason 101"? "Don't Take My Stuff 101"? The problem seems to be with the crowd mentalities...

rayj wrote:If someone attaches their ego to a general concept...say 'race' or 'religion', whatever...then at that point they have stopped thinking about the real, important questions about life.

A monkey see, monkey do world of imitators is what we have and always will have. And stopping their thinking about the real, important questions is what a lot of people are after, whether they know it or admit it. Religions have been described as mental illnesses by somebody on this forum recently, and that is what they have evolved into- the battling mental patients in their Holy Lands. Religions hand you a straightjacket, a pacifier, and a rifle in the name of God.

clocker bob wrote:

rayj wrote:If someone attaches their ego to a general concept...say 'race' or 'religion', whatever...then at that point they have stopped thinking about the real, important questions about life.

A monkey see, monkey do world of imitators is what we have and always will have. And stopping their thinking about the real, important questions is what a lot of people are after, whether they know it or admit it. Religions have been described as mental illnesses by somebody on this forum recently, and that is what they have evolved into- the battling mental patients in their Holy Lands. Religions hand you a straightjacket, a pacifier, and a rifle in the name of God.

ClockerBob, I think that your criticisms of religion and corporations are right on the money.

Having said that, I think you need to stop wasting your time by obsessing about how evil they are, or about how people are such dupes to buy into what they're selling.

That point has been proven many, many times before. The intertwining of religion and war-mongering is nothing new under the sun. The Catholic Church participated in it for hundreds of years. Before that, the Egyptians did it. Before that, the Mesopotamians did it.

It's not like you're the first person to feel that religion is a form of mental illness. And you're also not the first person to completely miss the point that religion is also a much more complex phenomenon than you've made it out to be. It can also have a wonderful, inspiring effect in people's lives.

Get over it, already. I have learned from personal experience that an obsession with such dark facts can lead to depression. Even if the world is ending, no amount of posting on a message board will change the fact. You need to realize this and start enjoying life.

Just my two cents.[/i]

I feel a clocker bob song coming on.

This thread is creepy.

Hey! CIAO TMIDGETT!

How's it going?

This is my response to you!

Biznono wrote:Hey! CIAO TMIDGETT!

How's it going?

This is my response to you!

Hey, Biznono!

I just see this thread!

Is this for people to say hello to me?

Then hello Biznono!

From the other greeting, which is after all addressed to me!:

Your relationship with God

You have me confused with someone else! Someone who believes in God!

Religions, corporations and the governments that work for them need soldiers; are you a soldier for their causes, or do you work for yourself first and for society when it's right, not just when patriotism and conquest are offered to you?

Hoo boy.

Let's return to my original points, shall we?

I think you're self-righteous to an irritating degree, which damages whatever case you are trying to make.

And I think you conflate simple truths with specious conspiracy theories. These theories appeal to your prejudices and sense of adventure, so you ignore the fact that they are not original or compelling thoughts. Many of them are passed down through ages of Loompanics pamphlets and back issues of the Socialist Worker. Some of them are demonstrably false, and some of them are so convoluted that they are as difficult to disprove as they would be to prove.

Thinking these things doesn't make me a 'tool of the Man,' man. It just means, however much we may agree on very basic 'crap/not crap' things, I disagree completely with many of your myriad trains of thought.

I'm a little disappointed that you aren't ready to call me a fascist yet.

Question for tmidgett:

What's your new avatar?