M. (hristine

YOU should release a 2010 calendar!

You like fuzzy bees too?

(M.Chris, I'm looking at you!).

Not until we get a shot of chumley's Super Bowl guitar solo nipple slip (or tomorrow. Whichever comes first.)

Wow! VC is a treasure trove! I had to go get all drooly at chaslor's portfolio again.

Also Andrew Dowdall might contribute some of his amazing photography. I'm thinking of one shot in particular.

gogo, you should pester jimmyjimmy. He's an amazing photographer.

I actually have quite a few random VC jpgs saved in my photobucket.

I like the ironic juxtaposition.

(Not my shot btw. It was a steinbee self portrait that he posted on teh VC. We might need to get a release.)

I also have several Sir Stewart photoshopped versions of ction.

What a bleak and intensely beautiful film.

The tenderness between the man and his son travelled like a glowing ember through the bitter landscape of the road. My heart was utterly pulverized. I am undone.

See this film.

You're just using humor to allay my fear aren't you.

I'll report back in the morning.

You know the Episcopal church elected a second gay woman bishop, no? Just a little balance here.

Uganda has one of the worst human rights records in history. The LRA is responsible for the kidnapping of at the very least 20,000 children for use as soldiers, prostitutes and slaves. There are many accounts of children with open cuts on their arms filled with substances and bandaged over to stimulate them to fight like guerillas.

The LRA is one of the most despicable organizations in the world.

For any religious group to get in bed with the Ugandan government is political suicide.

A friend and I are to see it tomorrow night. A library snafu made it impossible to read the novel beforehand.

This is not the way I like to do things. I'm skeert.

I'm confused.....

Because that's what I dubbed him, and now I will forever associate his painful lake water douche with the band name.

Amish Rake Fight.

And Butthole Surfers, only because an acquaintance took a spill on a jet ski and tore the hell out of himself. I must have forgotten my Tourette's meds that day, I swear.

The Ugandan government and the 'American Christianists'. Now there's an unholy marriage lifted straight from the bowels of Bosch's hell realms.

You couldn't find more perfect archetypal representatives of the two (actual) primal roots of human aggression if you tried.

I become ever more convinced that religious fundamentalism and the New Atheism are parallel movements. They come from the same lack of understanding of spirituality which involves above all embracing paradox. We as humans barely know the questions to ask let alone have the answers.

I am joyful exploring the mystery. You all can keep your pedantic blah blah blah.

Mostly it's what we do here at VC between Volkswagon commercials.

I won’t apologize for finding that insane and entirely unacceptable. Nor will I apologize for feeling the same way with regards to using religion to obstruct stem cell research, among a host of other issues.

 

The dilemmas faced by couples with leftover embryos are enormous. The implications of growing embryos specifically for stem cells are complex. These are ethical issues, not religious.

That issues of medical ethics become nothing more than an intellectual crowbar against religion is appalling to me.

The problem isn’t so much the followers, it’s the ideology. The bible - among other tracts - is desperately outdated, and followers who take their cues from these texts are basically subscribing to a 2000 + year old book (or books) that maybe doesn’t work so well in dealing with contemporary issues like same sex marriage, abortion, stem cell research, etc. If one is to take the teachings of the bible literally, as was the case throughout most of our history, (and still is in some parts) who can be blamed for taking a dim view of same sex marriage, abortion, stem cell research, other, “false” religions, etc - especially when the reward for independent thought and action is an eternity in hell? Stories such as the ark and Adam and Eve were taken literally up until it became apparent, through the use of science, that these stories are just that, stories. Then, and only then did they take the form of metaphors – which is where religion finds itself now, spouting a limp, watered down sort of humanism.

 

I’m not suggesting we do away with religion, but many people are held prisoner by its more dogmatic points of view. In much of Europe, where there is a larger secular population, a higher percentage of that population is ok with stem cell research, same sex marriage, reproductive rights, etc – and where it’s not, what do you think is largely responsible for that attitude? If groupthink is the problem, then the ideology upon which the groupthink is founded is a large part of the problem.

 

Last year, the Vatican’s official astronomer decreed that it is ok to believe that life exists on other planets, and if it were found, it would not contradict the catholic faith – which, until last year, it pretty much would. Why, I wonder, probably as a result of finding water on Mars, which increases the likelihood of finding evidence of life, current or much more likely, fossilized. Groupthink is not responsible for the Catholic Church’s prior belief, and by extension, many of its followers, but the text upon which it rests is.

A few thoughts...

I agree that many modern day religions are thick with dogma. The unfortunate part of modern religious texts is not that they are outdated, but that are not outdated enough. The rigorous mystical maps of practice which are astoundingly similar in all religions, have in many cases been lost to dogmatic rewrites. However, throwing the baby out with the bath water doesn't make logical sense to me.

Anytime you assemble bureaucracies to foster change, progress is going to be painfully slow for some, and so disconcerting for others that they will never become accustomed to the change. Stem cell research, abortion and any other questions of medical ethics must be approached slowly and thoughtfully. There are serious repercussions to scientific breakthroughs that should be weighed with utmost care. I'm still not sure whether legalizing cloning was a good idea.

Many people are prisoners of dogma? So what. Some people are dogmatic and that environment works for them. The Catholic church produced a bunch of pedophiles. Horrifying the repercussions that will be felt for generations to come. The monastic traditions of the Catholic church have also produced some of the most astounding mystical writings of the ages, for which I am grateful. My point is there is good and bad to all human endeavor.

For you to say, ..."which is where religion finds itself now, spouting a limp, watered down sort of humanism", is misinformed rhetoric. While one can easily find such religions, it is by no means the entirety of the story.

After Reni's review and another conversation about the book last night, I'm going for it. Movie next week.