Category: Saturday Sermon

Thoughts and Prayers

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It’s that time again. That time when God-fearing, gun-loving politicians send truckloads of Thoughts and Prayers to the families of mass shooting victims. I mean, they must have a huge Thoughts and Prayers budget to be able to send them so often in this country. I do have a question though, what are the families supposed to do with them? They can’t redeem to get their loved ones back. They can’t swallow them to help ease the pain of loss that comes from receiving the devastating news. So what are Thoughts and Prayers good for? Have they helped stop the next mass shooting? I haven’t seen much progress in the Thoughts and Prayers department, maybe you’re not doing it right.

Maybe you’re praying to the wrong God.

Have you tried Zeus? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Maybe an elder god? What about Neptune, the great god of the sea? How about Quetzalcoatl? He’s probably not doing much right now considering the Aztec culture is pretty much extinct. Maybe try creating some new gods to pray to. This was just a list of suggestions.

Maybe you’re missing a sign.

Perhaps you are praying to the right God, but he is trying to tell you something through the people around you. Maybe he’s speaking through the myriad voices who keep saying the same thing over and over when this type of thing happens. Maybe you’re just ignoring it.

Maybe your God just isn’t listening, or he just doesn’t care.

It’s quite possible that the God that got so angry about the evil in the world that he hit a big, wet reset button, just quit caring about this planet. Maybe he’d rather help people find their keys and the best parking spots.

Maybe you need to take some action for yourself.

God helps those that help themselves, right? I know it’s not in the Bible, but it’s such a popular maxim that I had to include it here. Anyway, try doing something for yourself and quit pleading with a cloud.

Maybe God doesn’t exist.

People keep praying and praying, but it’s as if the outcome is the same whether there is a god or not. In this case, read the point directly above this one.

By this time, after thousands in this country have lost their lives to gun violence, I think the last thing people want to hear out of their politicians are the words, “Thoughts and Prayers” and they would much rather see action. Those thoughts and prayers are not working because people are still dying from senseless acts of violence.

Unless…

…that’s what you’re praying for.

I Have Returned

~ AlienCG ~ 1 Comment

Yes folks, I am back to writing the blog again. I decided to take an extended hiatus, however, that did appear to cost me some traffic, but I’m not concerned because I have a day job. Also, I was working on a couple electronics projects and that was taking up a considerable amount of time, but it was so worth it. Anyway, I am going to make a concerted effort to get back to a regular schedule while working on electronics projects.

I would also like to take some space in this post to welcome David Chafin to the world of blogging over at Skin Of My Teeth. As of this writing, he has one introductory post, but I am looking forward to what he has to say.

So this week the blog stormed back to life as I picked up where I left off in Numbers. Many of my thoughts written about these first five books are based around a “plain reading” of the texts as those who take literally tend to do. I realize that there is a lot more to chapter 20 than God being petty and taking back the promised land because Moses didn’t do exactly as he was told.

I am writing my thoughts out after having read the text a few times and thinking about it. Sometimes, such as the above-mentioned chapter, I will look for extra-Biblical sources for some assistance in unwrapping it. While I am doing this project because evangelical and fundamentalist Christians tend to say things like, “all of the answers are in the Bible,” when it comes to the Pentateuch (or Torah), I will go to sources that specialize in Hebrew, Rabbinic, and Jewish traditions.

Most of the time, I will not get into the details that I learn since I am, again, doing this as a plain reading. However, when it comes to such things as that certain verse in Leviticus (Lev. 16:13) I will do my best to explain it because of its significance. Also, the blog is not the only place where these posts are kept. I will usually return to OneNote where the originals are and update them as I find new information or as I have new thoughts about them. I may update the old posts and then send out a link or pin them.

Final point of business, I am going to get back to my tract commentary that I only have one of so far. I still have plenty of material, but I’m always looking for new stuff. I love these things.

Have a pleasant weekend.

The Thing That Scares Me Most

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I watch a lot of horror channels on YouTube, like Nexpo, Barely Sociable, and the like. They show off some the weirdest, creepiest, and scariest stuff on the internet. It’s cool stuff to see for entertainment and it’s a little distraction from the rest of the internet.

Then I follow Hemant Mehta, Telltale, and Christian Nightmares on Twitter, and then the real scary stuff comes out. These accounts show allegedly-Christian preachers who spew hate for their congregations. I won’t name names here because I don’t want to attract the wrong audience to my blog. The preachers aren’t scary part, though.

The hate preachers are cowards. They stand up at their pulpits and they scream at their congregants about this group or that group and how they deserve to face “God’s judgement and wrath” and they do this week in and week out. They yell and scream and carry on, some even jumping up on their pulpits. But that’s all they’ll do. They won’t do anything else because all they care about at the end are that their sheep tithe well. No, the preachers in and of themselves are cowardly little men who wouldn’t know how to back up their words.

The scariest part are the other voices in the room. The voices saying, “Amen!” and “Preach!” These are the scariest ones of all. The preacher will do his little act up at the pulpit, but the congregants are the ones who pay to hear these little, angry men. They’re the ones most likely to act on the preachers’ words and cause great harm to others.

That to me is the scariest thing out there. The nameless, faceless people out of the camera’s view expressing their agreement to bad and dangerous ideas. This should scare you too, reader, especially if you care about people in any of the minority groups targeted by these hate-filled people claiming to be Christians.

Saturday Sermon: Compassion

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As I write this, we are a day away from the 21st anniversary of the September 11 attacks. It will also be a day of great hypocrisy for many of a certain ilk as they make loud proclamations  about the senseless loss of life from one day in 2001, but have been and will continue to be mum about the senseless loss of lives over the past 2+ years from a virus that could have been stemmed.

Case in point is a tweet from Vernon Jones in Georgia (US, not Europe, but then again…):

“Democrats and @JoeBiden don’t want you to remember this!” followed by a picture of Trump photoshopped onto a gas station sign showing $1.22 gas.

Twitter

I responded to this tweet which you can read here, https://twitter.com/AlienBiblical/status/1568205621161238528. Warning, I do drop an f-bomb in the final tweet in the thread (but I am nice about it).

It’s obvious to me that Vern cares more about low gas prices than human life, although he will claim to be “pro-life” because he believes in stripping women of their bodily autonomy. The situation that would lead to these low gas prices was not a good sign at all. The pandemic was about to crash land directly atop the US, sending privately owned gas stations, much like the one Jones posted into near financial ruin. That’s because gas station really don’t make money off of gas, but from snacks, drinks, beer, and cigarettes. Well, with people not driving and not stopping at gas stations as often, that’s an economic problem, but we have cheap gas like Vern said.

Is that really what matters most, Vern? To you it does, I have no doubt. That’s because to you and your ilk, the only human lives that matter are the ones that give big money to your campaigns and PACs and the ones who can afford to purchase your influence. You are truly a repugnant example of a compassionate human being and I truly meant that last tweet in the thread because there is no other way to put it.

Then we move on to the next tweet that set me off, which is from a right wing rag and attempts to disparage President Biden’s appointee for monkeypox czar, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, because he is gay, “performs HIV screenings in sex clubs” and “gives meningitis in drag”. OK, so what’s the problem? This man is a champion to a community that could really use more heroes. Everything I’ve read about him from people who have met him is that he is a kind, compassionate doctor who listens and who, as the right sees as a negative, helps those who need it most.

Those who subscribe to the right wing rag I quoted above also (pre)tend to subscribe to Christianity and the teachings of Jesus. While I will not compare Dr. Daskalakis to Jesus, I will say that the former does more embody the teachings found in the gospels than anyone on the right. He goes to where a need is not being met and does what he can to help. I have nothing but respect for the guy and wish him great success and would like to say, “Thank you for your compassion.” We need more people like Dr. Demetre Daskalakis and less like the people who hate him. Also, to respond to people posting his shirtless Instagram photos, if you got it, flaunt it. I wish I had a body I could post shirtless (trust me, you don’t want to see it, I’ll keep wearing my custom shirts). Also, how many thousands of photos of shirtless men did these anti-gay people have to wade through to find these. I’m not judging.

Ancient Aliens

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Welcome to Saturday and another Saturday Sermon. I know it’s been a while, but I feel it’s better to write when I feel like it rather than force myself to write something on a schedule. This is why I don’t want to make being a writer or podcaster a career move. Anyway, on to the sermon.

This topic seems a little more suitable for my Illuminati Social Club blog or podcast than for a blog related to the Bible and religion, but bear with me. There was a time when I believed that aliens came to earth and gave ancient man the tools and knowledge to build the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Mayan pyramids, and all the other wonders of the ancient world. However, with age comes wisdom, and it was not long before I realized that the ancient aliens mindset can be seen as racist. After all, if modern white people can’t do it with all of their technology, then how could ancient brown people with simple machines?

These days, the idea of building a pyramid seems like a novelty. Back in ancient Egypt people were paid to build the tombs where the Pharaohs would be laid to rest. That’s because the Pharaoh was the earthly embodiment of the gods who would return to the pantheon upon his (or her) death. There have been a great many hints as to how the blocks of sandstone were carved, moved, and placed found all over Egypt. The reason that the pyramid is seen on at least three different continents is because it is the most structurally sound shape that can withstand wind and rain. The Maya may have build several hundred cuboid and cylindrical structures, but they would have been destroyed by centuries of bad weather. The pyramid is the only one that would have survived. There were no aliens necessary.

According to one author, he interpreted the hieroglyphs and confirmed that aliens did in fact come to earth and share their wisdom. He thought that it would be impossible for ancient people to make up the stories of the gods that Egyptologists claim the hieroglyphs to be. Why? Is it impossible for ancient people to have imaginations? Stories of gods and monsters were akin to science fiction today. These ancient stories sought to explain how the world came to be and how natural processes work. That’s why just about every ancient civilization has a story about a great flood washing away the entire world. It didn’t actually happen, it’s a morality tale, much like the story of Atlantis in Plato’s Republic. There was no Atlantis, it was an allegory akin to the World State of Huxley’s Brave New World, or Oceania in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

All of the same can be said of the Bible. It’s not a literal history book, but more of a moral guide for people living back in the days when those stories were told. It’s hardly a moral guide today though some lessons can be gleaned from its pages. As I stated about Exodus (I can’t remember the chapter), there were many times more words about how to properly worship God than about how to treat one another. That’s because back in those days, people were far more superstitious and thought that gods were responsible for natural disasters, growing seasons, and disease. It was far more important to worship correctly than to treat your neighbor with respect.

Can we please quit disrespecting the history of ancient civilizations by claiming that they were too weak and/or stupid to do any of what they are credited with? Just because they didn’t come up with the smartphone doesn’t mean they couldn’t build a pyramid or imagine far-off lands of strange creatures and technology.

Book Burni…errr…Banning

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Does this image make you uncomfortable?
It should.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Saturday Sermon and my regular posts have slowed down a bit. That’s due to my own laziness, I guess. I am also reading an interesting book about the cultural shift that lead to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. I will be writing or podcasting about that at some point.

As you can tell by the title, I am looking back in history to a time when authoritarian leaders and the ignorant people who followed them want to remove what they saw as controversial ideas from the public square. This is something that doesn’t happen anymore and we should be…what? You mean…? Oh crap.

Scratch that above paragraph, it turns out that some state school boards around the country have decided to remove ban books from their schools’ libraries in hopes of “cancelling” those ideas, apparently. The one that has garnered the most press lately is Maus by Art Spiegelman, the first and only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature. It is the story of the Holocaust as told by the author’s father in comic strip form. The Tennessee school board banned it because of “unnecessary use of profanity and nudity”. Unnecessary profanity about the fucking Holocaust? The most profane event in history? Had I been in that meeting in Tennessee, I would have some very necessary profanity for the school board.

There are many other books on the list that deal with racism, LGBTQ+ subjects, religions other than Christianity, and other topics that make governments “uncomfortable”. Honestly, that’s how I know a book or movie or music is doing something right. People need to be made uncomfortable and to see things from the perspectives that they can’t seem to tolerate. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.

Do you know which book makes me uncomfortable? The Bible, and yet I am reading it. I’m not only reading it, but I am reading with the goal of understanding it and the people who put it on a pedestal over other humans’ lives the best that I can. So far I’m failing. How anyone can read the flood narrative and say, “Oh, yeah, I can understand why God drowned all of the men, women, and children (including babies) as well all of the animals minus the few that a 600 year-old man and his family took on a boat.” That’s just sick. These are the same people who look at the rest of Exodus and see it as somehow moral when it spends more time talking about how to treat slaves and how to properly worship a deity than it does anything of value.

My advice for everyone, whether you agree with this book banning or not, go read those books. Every time you see that a book is being considered for banning, seek it out and read it. Make yourself uncomfortable, and put yourself into the subject matter. Do not embrace the “cancel culture” of these holier-than-thou school boards who can’t see past the cover of their precious bibles which I would guess many of them have never read.

Staying Optimistic

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I needed to take a break from the Bible for a bit. Believe it or not, it’s not the positive, uplifting book that so many people claim it is (I knew that going in, I’m being sarcastic). Also, the daunting task of reading through the laws has set me back a bit. Anyway, I will be getting back to the main objective of this blog soon enough, I just needed to step back and retain what’s left of my sanity.

The world is a complex place and a lot of stuff happens in it all at once, but it seems like way too much stuff is happening at the same time right now. That’s why I’ve been away from here. You see, part of what gives me ideas for Saturday Sermons and other topics I tweet about is a list I keep on the Twitter account. It’s a private list filled with the popular Christian apologists and evangelical pastors. You would probably recognize some of their names, but I won’t name them here because I don’t want to be blocked (one of them is Frank Turek, but I’ve quote-tweeted him, so he knows). I have had to stay away from that list because it makes me weep for humanity. For the record, I do follow a few pastors, a Jesuit priest, and a rabbi and that’s no joke. They are all good people and reading their tweets gives me hope for humanity.

I also mentioned that I’m reading another book and that is Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. I have been meaning to read it for quite a while and recently treated myself to a new Kindle so I can read distraction free. I’ll probably continue reading the bible that way as well.

Final bit of news in case you don’t follow all of my other accounts, I do a podcast called The Illuminati Social Club (ISC), which is casual conversations about science, conspiracy theories, UFOs, religion, and other related topics. I also have a blog for that podcast where I am planning on writing and, of course, recording more episodes.

This is the stuff that keeps me staying away from doom scrolling Twitter and keeping me in a positive frame of mind. If you would like to know more about ISC, you can follow on Twitter @IlluminatiPod and visit the blog http://www.illuminatisocialclub.com. I would appreciate it.

Thank you for putting up with my inconsistency as of late. I’ll get back on track soon.

PS–Note to future self, talk about “toxic positivity” sometime.

Giving Thanks

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I have a list on my Twitter account (@AlienBiblical) where I keep an eye on apologists, dime store preachers, and a certain ark replica owner. I stayed away from the list during this long weekend because I don’t need to read these holier-than-thou types asking how somebody who doesn’t believe in their variations of God can possibly celebrate Thanksgiving. I can. I do. I don’t see Thanksgiving as a religious holiday since it is, in the United States, a civic holiday. I don’t need to believe in the God of the Bible or any other gods in order to be thankful.

I’m thankful for my girlfriend who is a wonderful, supportive partner through thick and thin. She’ll deny all of this, but it’s all true.

I’m thank for my family who are also supportive, loving, caring, and helpful. I can never repay them for all that they’ve done for me over the years.

I’m thankful for my job, which I absolutely love doing. I have a great boss who respects my feedback when it comes to my work environment. Also, I work by myself, which is my kind of job.

I’m thankful for those people who respect those around them. I have to assure to myself that they are in the majority.

I’m thankful for a great many things too numerous to mention here. And I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to read this and the rest of my blog. It’s a labor of something that I’m doing here, but I’m not sure what.

I would like to wish all of you a Happy Holiday season, and I will be back to posting the Bible study next week.

Refuting Apologetics #2

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Once again the intellectual featherweights at Frank Turek’s Cross Examined tossed me a big, fate softball. The article, Infinite Punishment for Finite Crimes? attempts to make sense of this idea of sending people to hell for eternity for a sin that has an expiration date.

“The assumption underlying the challenge here is that there should be some correlation between how long the offending act took to commit and the punishment that is attached to it.”

After reading this article over a few times, the author seems to be saying that non-believers think this way about crime and punishment. Well, breaking news, Mr. Apologist, I don’t know of any atheist who thinks like this. That’s stupid. My contention is that even the crime of murder is finite in effect and the punishment ends with the perpetrator’s end. The effects of the crime may be felt long after, but we’re talking about the punishment in this case.

The author states that God cannot be victimized, but he does have the right to separate himself from those who rejected him. I won’t argue that God can’t be victimized. To reject God presupposes a relationship with God. I don’t believe in a theistic god of any type. I am aware that there is a character in the Bible known as God and that many apologists refer to him, but I can’t get past the logical contradictions. There is one other line in that paragraph, “We are not chosen at random for such punishment.” Tell that to the Calvinists.

And here is why I do not believe that the God of the Bible exists:

“Though our bodies will die, our souls live on. Let’s consider for a moment what this means: while we may have forgotten many, or even most, of the times that we erred, the times that we hurt others, the times that we did not live up to what was expected; He has not. Each of our sins, each of the times that we chose to act or think in a way we knew violated His perfect will, each of those instances may seem to be the distant past to us, but God is not limited by time.”

We’re human and we make mistakes. To think that the supposed, all-powerful creator of the entire universe cares that I took a penny and didn’t leave one, or I lied when I said that I couldn’t go to a co-worker’s party, tells me that people are in an abusive relationship with their God. Why the fuck would this allegedly amazing entity be bothered by humans being, well, HUMAN? Didn’t he apparently make us this way? I don’t understand how this author can seriously think that this kind of relationship is healthy.

“We have chosen to stand before God, unapologetic, demanding that He accept us just as we are, proud of our lives and our choices. Judge us and find us worthy, we demand. What choice does this leave to a perfectly just judge?”

Perfectly just? This author spent the entire article describing a petty and vindictive judge who set up humanity to fail from his first words to Adam. This is the same “perfectly just” judge who spent most of his time passing down his laws to Moses talking about how build and decorate an altar instead giving us actual, useful laws like don’t rape women and children, be a good steward to this planet, and don’t be a dick to others. Perfectly just, my ass.

November Is Coming

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Yes, tomorrow, November begins and so does National Novel Writing month, or NaNoWriMo. It’s been a couple of years since I participated and now that I have a couple project ideas, I am going to participate once again. I am going to take the month off from the regular Bible reading posts to bring you some (hopefully) creative and humorous Bible-based satire.

I also have the seed of an idea for a “children’s book” (quotes necessary), but I don’t want to spoil the surprise as I will post at least the introduction on the blog sometime this week. It will show the way my mind works as I read this book.

I will have a couple more chapters of Leviticus done today and I will post those this week, but after that, no more Bible posts until December. That’s okay, I can use the break.