Bloggers like me say an awful lot of dumb things. Hey, we have to write very often so it’s inevitable. You mix a low i.q. like mine with a busy life with five kids, and work, you get a guy who’s not big into self editing.
So most people expect me to say dumb things. And I give a wide berth to people who say dumb things.
But sometimes someone of actual import says something really really incredibly stupid and I find myself just having to point and mock. I know I’m busy but there’s always time for pointing and mocking, isn’t there?
Britain’s Lord Toulson, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom said, “Religion should not be confined to religions which recognise a supreme deity…”
Huh?
This is so much like the argument about marriage. There is an attempt to make the institutions meaningless by making the words themselves meaningless. The interesting thing going on is that they’re not attempting to stamp out religion outright but making the word meaningless through inclusivity.
Ask someone who’s a supporter of same-sex marriage how they define marriage and they usually either can’t or won’t. Because any definition they come up with will have to be defended. So is polygamy allowed? No? Why not? Who are you to limit marriage? Incestuous marriage? Why not?
So now, there’s no limit on what a religion can mean? None? It’s a bunch of people who hold similar beliefs. (Heh, you could actually argue that Catholics wouldn’t fit under that definition.) So you expand the meaning into meaninglessness. Then you argue whether it’s appropriate that these organizations have special rights or tax provisions.
So maybe what lord whosiwhatsy said wasn’t dumb at all. Just the next step in the strategy. He’s just the first out of the clown car.
December 16, 2013 at 12:33 am
Buddhism?
December 16, 2013 at 5:12 am
Um…many of the world's religions do not recognize a supreme deity. Probably most don't. They're called "polytheists". Those of them that do have a "supreme deity" often do so only from the influence of Islam or Christianity (the case for African pagans) or from the influence of nationalism (as in China's "Jade Emperor of the Celestial Bureaucracy" or Japan's making Amaterasu-Omikami the head of the pantheon, when she was originally less powerful than her brother Susa-no-O-no-Mikoto).
(In Western terms, by the way, Buddhism is essentially the denial of everything but the Supreme Being—their central doctrine is a form of monism so extreme it denies the reality of logical negation. They essentially say nothing exists but the ultimate reality, which is the thing Westerners have identified as God since at least the time of the Neoplatonists.)
December 16, 2013 at 10:43 am
Buddhism and Taoism.
December 16, 2013 at 2:56 pm
Religion is man’s response to the gift of Faith from God. Religion is a living and fulfilling relationship through the gift of Faith with God. Atheism is one person’s opinion and rejection to the Supreme Sovereign Being. The atheist’s opinion may not legally be imposed on another person, without that person’s informed consent by the court. Our First Amendment reads: “…or prohibit the free exercise thereof.” For the court to impose the opinion of one atheist upon any human being is tyranny and a miscarriage of Justice. In a court of law, only nothing but the truth may be expressed. The atheist’s opinion is one person’s rejection of his Creator and he is free to keep any such thoughts, but to impose his rejection of almighty God, the person of almighty God on another person is downright evil, inviting the devil and the devil’s demons to wreck havoc and murder and mayhem upon man. Atheism, like gay so called marriage which cannot produce a husband or a wife without committing perjury, atheism cannot produce any intelligent design or reason for being, or joy of life, or love for his fellow man’s opinion of the existence of God. Other religions without acknowledgement of the Supreme Sovereign Being deny the existence of man's created soul, the human soul and the free will with which the human soul is endowed and therefore tend to be tyrannical and may be used by the state through the courts to impose totalitarianism.
December 16, 2013 at 8:47 pm
Taoism is polytheist. It's the same traditional pantheon as all the other non-Buddhist Chinese religion, its only unique feature is its ascetic practice. Well, and some of its gods are actually ascended sages of that ascended practice, like the Eight Immortals.
December 18, 2013 at 6:35 pm
But even most polytheistic religions recognize a Supreme Being that is "behind" the other deities – like Brahma of the Hindus.
And I would argue that many forms of Buddhism are actually philosophy, not religion, because they profess to believe or disbelieve in a Supreme being – it's a philosophy for how to live.