Food For the Poor: Nonprofit Christian Organization Comes Clean (satire)

Disclaimer: this article is a satire based on unreliable Internet sources, including Wikipedia.

While researching Robin Mahfood, CEO of Food for the Poor, I have discovered that they bring food for the poor of Latin America and the Caribbean. According to Wikipedia, Food for the Poor is a ecumenical Christian nonprofit organization based in Coconut Creek, Florida, USA.

As for the Mahfood surname, according to Emile Mahfood, it is due to a spelling mistake made of his father's surname of Mahfouz (muh fooz) by a Jamaican customs officer.

Mahfouz - the closest Latin transliteration of Arabic - means preserved, protected, safe - perhaps as in "protected by God", "life preserved by God", and "safe in the hands of God." However, these phrases are appropriate within Christendom since Mahfouz is most likely a Lebanese Christian surname.

Yet the etymology is ignored in favour of a polite nudge and wink at his name by social media. It might be likely that most people who laugh over the irony of his surname may overlook his good works.

With that in mind, Food for the Poor is more financially transparent today since a sex and financial scandal in 2000 led to the current CEO, Robin Mahfood, taking over from his older brother Ferdinand Mahfood. Also, before 2007, at least two Mahfood family businesses dealt with Food For the Poor.

When I read that Food for the Poor introduced basa fish farming to Haiti, I did some research on basa fish, only to discover the threat of basa food farms to wild basa fish stock in Southeast Asia and people with deadly allergic reaction to eating basa, also known as Panga, the shortened form of the fish's biological name of Pangasius bocourti.

Yes, basa fish can make you puff up and die if you have allergy to whatever they feed these fish.

Despite the scandals and the increased financial transparency, Food For the Poor is a lucrative family business which provides charity work in Latin America and the Caribbeans. While the Catholic Church has distanced itself from the non-profit Christian organization, Food for the Poor remains the second-largest American charity behind the American Red Cross.

Today, Food for the Poor has apparently cleaned up its act. In light of the social media reports that Mahfood is a funny ironic surname, it has nothing to do with any of the unflattering view of a Christian nonprofit organization that I just presented — absolutely nothing, since most people don't care about the scandal when there are people who are poor in Latin America and the Caribbeans

However, atheists can run with the dirt that I found online, which may be dismissed by Food for the Poor supporters stating firmly with a straight face, "Wikipedia is not a reliable Internet source." In fact, even this article is not a reliable Internet source of information. Rather it is a satire based on what I found on the Internet about Food for the Poor, with only one Wikipedia article on the nonprofit organization and another Wikipedia article on the basa fish.

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References:

Background of Mahfood: http://mahfood.marjeyoun.net/History.html

Robin Mahfood, Food For the Poor President has most ironic name ever: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/robin-mahfood-food-for-the-poor-president-has-most-ironic-name-ever_n_2728377.html

"Mahfood+Food for the Poor", Google Search Images: https://www.google.ca/search?q=mahfood+food+for+the+poor&espv=2&biw=1016&bih=440&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CEwQsARqFQoTCObhr8bA3MgCFQ6UiAod2psOUA#imgrc=IqpT2kfMtT2CgM%3A

As of 2010, Mahfood has declared that Food for the Poor has also severed ties with "Essex Exports Inc., which Mahfood and his brother founded 35 years ago, and with the Mahfood's Jamaica-based company, Wisynco, after 2007," according to the news story in the Broward & Palm Beach News, Sports section of the Sun Sentinel. - Family behind flourishing Coconut Creek charity survives scandals, renews focus: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-03-29/news/fl-food-for-the-poor-20100329_1_president-robin-mahfood-charity-poor

On January 10, 2013, Food for the Poor announced that they introduced basa fish farms to Haiti, only to have the 2013 Hatian earthquake happen 3 days later: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_for_the_Poor#Targeted_crisis_relief_programs

Environmental and Health Concerns of Basa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basa_fish#Environmental_and_health_concerns

Basa fish source of allergens:

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20232779
  
• http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Fish-chips-nearly-deadly-dish-Luke/story-12061062-detail/story.html
  

What Do the Israeli Military, Jihadi and the West Have In Common?

In light of a recent opinion editorial in the New York Times about the Syrian refugees, I have reflected on the situation now facing the West. With the growing refugee crisis now at the border crossings in Eastern Europe, it is clear to me that millenarianism empowers the Israeli military, jihadists of all stripes, and Western influence in the Middle East.

For their millenarian sentiments bedevil them, leading them to unwittingly abandon a merciful God for the diabolical Anti-Christ, trading peace for warfare with a growing religious tone.

All parties fighting in the Middle East are confident that their warfare will usher in Armageddon, with millenarian Christians and Jews, both of whom are militant Zionists, pitted against radical Muslim fundamentalists (takfiri), who consider everyone else to be apostate.

Each side, be they Zionists or takfiri, sees themselves as God's chosen people and the other side as the Anti-Christ. On one side we have the Zionist army of God, consisting of pro-Israel Christian militants and their Zionist brethren, and on the other side,are the takfiri of Islamic State, al Nasrah Front, al Qaeda and associated militant groups - including Hezbollah and the radical elements of Hamas and ...

Historically, the Zionist militants and the takfiri have been fighting with each other over Palestine since the 1970s, when Israel launched attacks against the UAR, specifically Egypt and Syria, winning the Golan Height (West Bank) and the Gaza strip. At the time the Israeli military even occupied the Sinai peninsula, but later gave it back to Egypt because, being a desert wasteland, was not considered strategic territory by the Israeli government of the time.

Though the takfiri claim historical precedence that goes back to when Palestine was originally conquered by Muslims from 7th Century to 9th CE. In contrast, in recent years, radical Zionists in Israel have tried to rewrite history by denying Palestine ever existed, yet most Arab nations in the Middle East have referred to Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria as the Levant.

Meanwhile, in eastern Europe, the Ukraine has become a conflict between the West (secularism in the form of NATO representing the anti-Christ) and Russia (the Orthodox Church representing the militant Christ of Armageddon), even though this is a proxy war between American government and her NATO allies, and Russian government and her allies. In contrast, the radical Ukrainian militant nationalists adhering the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Protestant evangelical fundamentalism consider themselves representatives of the same militant Christ fighting against the Anti-Christ (the Russian military). Though most Ukrainian nationalists are nominal Christians, adhering mainly to a neo-Nazi form of Christianity in which white power is associated with Christ.

IMHO the mainstream media is burying this story because they don't want to frighten their consumers to death with pointless end of the world stories of Armageddon, thus proving to me the old adage that few people can handle the truth, especially when religion has mixed with politics in the Middle East from the beginning over 2500 years ago. As for the Ukrainian conflict, the New Left and far right (neo-Nazi) organizations are nationalists first. If the far right in the Ukraine radicalize further, then there might be an internal struggle between the secular left and the far right radicals. However, the Ukrainian left and right are united against their common enemy, Russia.

Meanwhile, in Europe, refugees fleeing Syria are a mix of Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims and Christians while a few of the Sunni men in Syria have coalesced into rebel militant groups. This in part is due to the secondary proxy war between Sunni and Shi'ite participants with Iran supporting the Assad regime in Syria and the Gulf States supporting the Sunni rebels.

Last year, the Sunni jihadists formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and briefly as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, became a de facto nation called Da'esh (Islamic State). Consisting of a Millenarian jihadi force sponsored by the Gulf States (mainly Qatar and Saudi Arabia — due to the strong offensive by Syrian army in western Syria. Then their Western sympathizers came to eastern Syria via Turkey to the border with Iraq to fight on their side, while Western mercenaries went there and allied with the Kurds to fight the Jihadi of Da'esh.

Of course, the Shi'ite refugees from Syria bypassed Iran due to its police state. Their impression that Western Europe is the bastion of freedom fuels their walk to freedom via Turkey into Europe. For the problem with the Syrian refugees is not only the Middle East; it also has to do with European fear of Islam.

How ironic that both the refugees and most of Europe nominally believe in God, be they Christians, Jews or Muslims. Indeed, this is what is common to millenarians regardless of their faith: they worship God.

In response to the refugee crisis, my solution is to propose that the Christian politicians of the West practise two of Christ Jesus' commandments: love your enemy and practice charity towards them.

Any other solution may eventually prove that the West is not yet sympathetic to the plight of the Syrian refugees, especially in Hungary.

YMMV

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References:

Commentary about mainstream media hiding the Millenarian ideology common in the Israeli military: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/09/mainstream-Israeli-colonel

NY Times article mentioning the Israeli colonel's millenarian comment: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/opinion/thomas-friedman-revelations-in-the-gaza-war.html?referrer

The Catholic definition of millenarianism: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10307a.htm

Timeline of the name Palestine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_name_%22Palestine%22

Islam and Millenarianism: http://science.jrank.org/pages/7870/Islamic-Millenarianism.html

Russia-US talks on Syria do little to stem flow of refugees: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-u-s-talks-on-syria-do-little-to-stem-flow-of-refugees-1.3236891

Quick facts: what you need to know about Syria crisis: http://www.mercycorps.org/articles/turkey-iraq-jordan-lebanon-syria/quick-facts-what-you-need-know-about-syria-crisis

UNHCR factson the crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e486a76.html

Robust, coherent Europe response to Refugee crisis still urgently needed: http://www.unhcr.org/55f817399.html

Karma of The Christ (prayer)

Lord, have mercy on this sinner!
Let it be known to they who have ears:
He that wishes hellfire on unbelievers
The devil tempted, but he alone errs.
He that practices mercy like God,
The Christ he follows faithfully.
Truly then are the merciful of men
The most divine of humanity, not
Unlike the Only Begotten — none
Dare accuse them of wrongdoing.
For it is not up to us to judge
Lest we be judged according to His will.
All that believe in God Almighty,
Be they Christian, Jew or Muslim,
By their acts they be judged by Him,
And those that err shall be shown
Mercy, being offered their last chance.
When that time comes, they who choose
The Millennium shall not know death,
And they who choose to be purged
Will only return to the Godhead
Until their glory is revealed.
If this is heterodox to the doctrines
Of Abrahamic faiths, be they Christian,
Jewish or Muslim, then your doctrine is pure.
If what is written here as prayer is heretical
In the eyes of the devout, be they Muslim,
Jewish or Christian, then your doctrine is corrupt.
Be ye silent, yet pray for my soul,
'Tis because of thy wish that is founded
On false doctrine about "hellfire and brimstone",
And the destruction of evil by its Author.
Indeed, the doctrine that God, the Author
Of good and evil, shall destroy all evil
So that only good remains is an unbalanced one
Created by cult members for the sake of control
Over the followers of such obscene doctrine.
Instead, hellfire cleans away all evil,
Leaving only the immortal soul behind
To be embraced by the Only Begotten,
Made one with God Almighty,
And touched by the Holy Ghost.
What is revealed is the truth
In the name of the Lord!
Amen.

Fear of the Devil == diabolism == un-Christian

In a way, it's sacrilege for Christians, Jews and Muslims to claim the soul is immortal, which is a neo-Pagan concept.

By adding this layer of syncretism to dogma ("the soul is immortal"), along with the "Jesus is God incarnate" dogma, Christianity becomes nothing more than holy book that does not make sense apart from the sinners in the Old Testament and the matyrdoms of the New.
And when outsiders try to make sense of the Bible, the Christian snatches away, crying "You cannot add a new chapter to this Book; it's forbidden!"

About this "devil" and "satan" nonsense that mass media is utterly false. Jesus bound satan 1980 years ago, and the end of days have yet to arrive, because after end of days, satan is unbound for 1000 days/years.

Finally, I strongly object to telling everyone satan lives.

Dude, you're a Christian, and instilling fear of the devil is doing nothing more but explaining anything a Christian believes is immoral and sinful like enjoyable sex between consenting adults is actually a form of diabolism.

That's right: when someone puts the fear of the devil into another Christian's heart, all you are also doing is instilling a fearful respect for the devil while having a fearful respect for Jesus who is in Deity with God.

Is it not time to instill a stronger fear and respect of God?

For it is quite un-Christian to fear the devil, lest your fear distract you from God. It is thus best to fear only God and laugh at the devil. If we Christians believe God exists, then the existence of the devil is not debatable.

However, it is best to think of such a creature as so totally lost as to be shrouded in darkness.

How foolish are the satanists! For he who thinks satan will do you good, has everything backwards. Nowhere in the Bible does it say "fear your false Lord, Lucifer."

Indeed, the worship of satan is a lie that satanists let their egos get the best of them, and reject humility.

By encouraging a fear of the devil in God-fearing Christians, I wonder how this reassures any Christian that God ought not be feared. As long as the fiction that evil totally corrupts the soul which was made by God is prevalent, there is no belief in redemption.

Sadly then, if this is doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church, then it is why child abuse is rampant. For the scapegoating of evil for the folly of the good is commonplace in the Church.

Since the soul was created by God, all evil can do is cover it in the darkness of spiritual ignorance. This make it possible to redeem the lost soul, for evil — as well as good — is impermanent. It can be removed by doing good, even though such right action is ridiculed as old-fashioned.

Even though diabolism is un-Christian, it cannot tarnish the soul. For proof that this is so, I endorse anyone to search for anecdotes about a biker who gave up satanism for Jesus. His story will astound you.

Finally, although it may be the work of ignorant Christians to endorse the fear of the devil in order to win them over to the Christian side, it might instead lead to a superstitious fear of the devil, which is somehow counteracted by love for God.

If this love of God is too superstitious, then it may lead to inner conflict between ignorance and Enlightenment. Would it not then be better to inculcate love of God and be done with encouraging a subtle diabolism to arise inadvertently?

Indeed, the fear and respect of God is better for the soul than the unbelief that arises from fear of the devil.

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Originally posted on Feb 12, 2013 at 0826H

Syncretism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism

Demon babies and Fapping (satire)

Demon babies are conceived by Lilith, Satan's spouse from Hell, so it is written in some arcane Kabala text. She uses avatars called succubi to collect the energy created during your nocturnal emissions and other dark forms of fapping.

This energy is life energy, which means the more you fap, the more likely you'll have a shorter sex life. After you die, Lilith brings all your demon babies to show to God.

Whether you go to Hell is dependent on whether you thought of God while fapping.

Though I am of the opinion that fapping does not offend God, he being the author who created the soul. Thus fapping is the lesser evil, for fornication is supposedly a greater evil.

It isn't satanic; it's just human nature, which is anathema to a good Christian life.

Personally I believe that Lilith is not Satan's handmaiden.

My guess is, Adam couldn't put up with her and demanded a more submissive wife, which makes Eve the mother of all women who abandoned feminism for patriarchal submission to men.

Perhaps Lilith is the mother of neo-pagan feminism, though most pagans do not admit to the Judeo-Christian roots of their goddesses.

So, I don't really believe in demon babies, though Eros may be the muse of my fapping, and all Lilith is, is the Jewish guilt over fapping.

Since I am not Jewish, but Buddhist, that guilt is but suffering so fapping is the lesser of two evils. Besides, I know of a way to burn evil karma from fapping that involves dedicated chanting and a strong focus on that chanting.

YMMV

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Originally posted on April 2, 2012 at 1:21 PM

Boko Haram Steal Ur Gurls! (satire)

Boko Haram steal ur gurlz,
The West doth complain,
And Christ lose 256 pearls.
Tomorrow nobody care,
But their mother's cry out there
In northeast Nigeria
Where Muslims predominate.
What is their future and fate?
Forced conversion for the many,
And slavery for the few.
Oh, what the West really do?
A few of the girls destined
For Islamic marriage cry
Out in freedom but no one
Hears because they are crying
In silence while chanting in
Arabic what they do not
Understand in the depths of
Their hearts: Please free us today.

Ennemi de Dieu / Enemy of God (satire)

Quiconque est ennemi de Gabriel -
car il fait baisser la révélation
à votre cœur par la volonté de Dieu,
une confirmation de ce qui s'est passé avant,
et des conseils et une bonne annonce
pour ceux qui croient,

Quiconque est ennemi de Dieu
et ses anges et messagers,
Gabriel et Michael, - Lo! Dieu est un ennemi
à ceux qui ne croient pas.

Quran Surah 2: 97-98 Yusuf Ali version

Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel -
for he brings down the revelation
to your heart by God's will,
a confirmation of what went before,
and guidance and glad tidings
for those who believe,

Whoever is an enemy to God
and His angels and messengers,
to Gabriel and Michael,- Lo! God is an enemy
to those who reject Faith.

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Ceux qui craignent Gabriel craignent aussi Dieu.
Bien qu'ils pensent ciel est seulement pour eux,
seront surpris de la prévention des incendies.

They who fear Gabriel also fear God.
Though they think Heaven is only for them,
shall be surprised at the Fire.

It is said that when Mohammad (pbuh) replied to the Jews that Gabriel came to him to spread the message of the Quran, they expressed their fear of Gabriel due to his role in causing the walls of Jericho to fall, forgetting that the sins of the Israelite led to Jericho's fall.

In response, Gabriel spoke through Mohammad (pbuh) condemning the rejection of faith in God Almighty.

Although al-Bakarah, Surah 2, of the Quran appears at first glance anti-Semitic, rather it is a sharp rebuke to people of the Book whose egotism leads them to lack faith in God.

Thus, the Jews' hatred of Gabriel is unwarranted, since the fall of Jericho was in punishment for their lack of faith in God.

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Ibn ''Abbas explained the reason of the revelation of the verse, Say: “Whoever is the enemy of Gabriel...”, in these words: “When the Prophet came to Medina, Ibn Suriya and some Jews of Fadak asked him (some questions). They said: 'O Muhammad! How do you sleep? Because we have been told about the sleep of the Prophet who would come in the last days?'

He said: 'My eyes sleep while my heart is awake.' They said: 'You are right, O Muhammad! Now tell us about the child whether it is from the man or from the woman?' He said: 'As for the bones, the nerves and the veins, they are from the man; and as for the flesh, the blood, the nails and the hairs, they are from the woman.'

They said: 'You are right, O Muhammad! Then why is it that sometimes the child resembles his paternal uncles, without having a least likeness of his maternal uncles? And sometimes he resembles his maternal uncles without having any likeness at all to his paternal uncles?' He replied: 'He resembles to that parent's (side) whose fluid dominates the other's.' They said: 'You spoke the truth, O Muhammad! Now, tell us about your Lord, what is He?' Then Allah revealed (the Chapter 112):

Say: “He, Allah is One...”

Then Ibn Suriya said: 'One (more) thing; if you tell (us) about it, I shall believe in you and follow you. Which angel is it that brings to you that which Allah reveals to you?' He said: 'Gabriel.' (Ibn Suriya) said:

'He is our enemy; he brings the (order of) fighting, hard-ship and war. And Michael brings comfort and happiness. Had it been Michael who came to you (with revelation) we would have believed in you.' ” -- Suratul Baqarah: Verses 94 − 99

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It could be said Gabriel whispered in the ear of George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9-11, given the view that he is the angel of fighting, hardship and war.

However, he is also the angel of prophecy, and inspired the Quran, which is a gift from God to the Muslims. Though both Christians and Jews alike reject the Quran, the call to believe in God Almighty and to have faith in him is strong among them.

It is in error that the terms "Muslim terrorism" and "Islamist" are on the lips of Islamophobes because by generalizing terrorism and politics, they make it seem like all Muslims are terrorists and prone to bring Sharia among the rest of humanity.

This is a fallacy and runs counter to Islam itself.

For those Muslims who cry for a "Nation of Islam" that they call a Caliphate will find that it will not arise by violent action because of a bunch of fanatics dressed in black. Instead, all they will achieve is a terrorism of humanity, especially of those Muslims who are not Muslim enough for their narrow definition of what Islam is.

If their faith is so great, then why do they need guns and weapons of mass destruction? All they would need to do is pray with their fellow Muslims, educate them thoroughly, and soon Sharia shall arise.

Yet if that Sharia leads to oppression of humanity, be it Christian or Muslim, Shia or Sunni, man or woman, then these fanatics make a mockery of Islam. By killing Muslims who are not as fervent in their belief as them, they murder those people who believe there is no god but God.

How does one's faith in God justify killing their own kind? This question applies too to Christians because the Oklahoma City bombing was by a Christian terrorist. It also applies to Jews due to their terrorism practiced in the wake of the Balfour Declaration, a declaration that confirmed the British had betrayed the Hashemites and not lived up to their promise to give them the Levant.

Thus the enemies of God are the unfaithful, be it Christians, Islamists, and Jews who fight with each other, using violence be it by rhetoric or by arms. This applies to Islamophobes of all types.

However, I am an unbeliever and an apostate, being a Buddhist, and supposedly I know nothing of the ways of Christians, Jews and Muslims. Yet this is injustice, to perpetuate hatred and enmity just because of lack of faith in a merciful God.

If I can see as such, why can't people of the Book?

To Christians, Jihadis, and Atheists

To those people in ignorance whose own religion demand them to be apart from the world, they have shown no concrete evidence of an immortal soul, save for myths based on neo-Platonic reasoning. In essence, the immortal soul is pre-Christian in its origin, and no ancient Christian council presided to make it doctrine.

For only eternal life is the promise of God's own in the afterlife. In this life, all souls have a finite end. Even your holy books says so.

As for the religious extremists who claim the holy war that they mistake for jihad is the only struggle worthy of a man, they are but a disgrace to their Prophet — praise be unto him — by deceiving their brethren into using their cockeyed version of their religious laws to oppress women, children and men from cradle to grave. Even their Prophet (PBUH) said they are to treat girls as princesses, men as their brothers, and women as queens.

As students (Taliban), these extremists are deaf to the call of Islam (submission) and blind to the nature of things. In their fervent belief, they actually have stopped believing in God's word and only believe in what their ego has held onto dearly. For the believer who believes his ego more than in the word of God is no different than the unbeliever!

Finally, those people who believe neither in God nor in religion, please find merit in the scientific application of meditation and give credit to where it is due. For when such people say that meditation can be used without the layers of belief and faith applied to it, they make it a dead thing which becomes like a placebo when practiced without those layers of belief and faith.

Indeed, the wise see that the Buddhist sutras are no different from scientistic research, except that the former has had a longer shelf life than all the fruits of science.

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Originally posted: December 30, 2012 12:26 AM

The Cult of the Individual: Man-god or Merely Human? (satire)

Selfish as in self-cherishing, the devotee to the cult of individualism would deny she is in a cult. For the ego, when it is in control of your life, will tell you lies to endure its hold over you.

At its root, selfishness is like death: when the world revolves around you, the easier it is to wander through life, impatient with the concerned religionist, flouting your atheism as if it made you better than a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Satanist, a Hindu, or even a Buddhist.

However, the move from religion to psychology and philosophy of Buddhism ensures our life.

Whether we like it or not, a spiritual friend will come for us, either to set us strait or to help us come to understand that the self that wants attention on its merit is solely the root of suffering and sorrow. As such, narcissism is sure to lead the unwary to self-made hell.

It makes this old fool wonder why people would think they are free when they practice no religion. How free are they really when the self tells them: "Oh, it's another religionist! Let's mock him?"

How utterly vain, and foolish are the selfish!

Were they even a bit wise, they'd work in the soup kitchens and help pass out food and clothes to the homeless — I've yet to hear of that, when atheists care about their fellow man enough to dole out food and clothing for those in need.

I do not know if this is because atheists are modest or if they truly care about the rest of humanity. Hopefully, it is the former because the latter sometimes seems to be so far away when the atheists mock religionists of every faith, be it a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Satanist, a Hindu, a Buddhist, or any other organized religion.

For this cult of the individual is surely not a good thing in this post-modern world. Its practitioners often preach entitlement and enable children to carry on the same selfish ideals of their parents. If you dare to confront them with the Truth, then they distort it into a parody of all that is true.

In response I quote Pontius Pilate, "What is Truth?"

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Originally posted: February 12, 2013 6:37 AM

The Hypocrisy of Religious Violence (satire)

One root of violence is alienation. When a minority has an opposing view to the majority, that minority may become marginalized and alienated from the masses.

This has happened in nations previously colonized by the former British, Belgian, French, German, and other European empires prior to the post-modern period of history.

Another kind of violence is when a people are placed in prison camps during wartime. This applies to the Jewish Holocaust, the Japanese internment camps in the Americas during World War2, and even the imprisonment of Ukrainians in Canada during the Great War (1914-1918).

In our enlightened times in the post-911 21st Century (the post-modern era), prison camps will be used only as a last resort. Indeed, in Canada this also happened when the BC government moved children of Doukhabours from their homes into the former prison camps which once house the Japanese-Canadians displace from the West Coast of BC.

Furthermore, home-grown terrorists with no ties to Al-Qaeda are fervently Muslim but wholly radicalised due to their sympathies for their Muslim brethren in Gaza, South Lebanon and elsewhere in the world such as the Palestinian Diaspora of the Americas and the European ghettos of Western, Central and Eastern Europe as well as Eastern Eurasia and Central Asia (e.g. Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Turkey and other Muslim enclaves of Eurasia like Kazakhstan), and so willing to turn to violence for purely ideological reasons.

Most non-Muslim people in the West (the Americas, the UK, the Netherlands and other European nations with large Muslim populations) who mistrust the Muslim immigrants are totally ignorant of the Koran (including the Sharias and Hadiths).

A few of them (especially in the US) have even chosen to slander Mohammed and Islam itself, while calling themselves "God-fearing Christians".

What utter religious hypocrisy!

Even Sri Lanka fell into this religious hypocrisy by endorsing Theravada Buddhism as state religion and Sinhalese as state language in 1956. This political act in the mid-20th Century led first to riots and, in the wake of anti-communist fear, finally led to the assassination of the fourth Prime Minister, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, a Sinhalese Anglican Christian, of Sri Lanka in 1959 by a radical Buddhist cleric named Talduwe Somarama. In 1962, Mr. Somarama shed his orange robes and converted to Catholicism before dying as a "martyr" when he was executed in 1962.

However, Somarama was part of a conspiracy headed by Mapitigama Buddharakkitha of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, for the Kelaniya Temple was historically a hotbed of trouble for Sri Lanka since its founding circa 500 BCE in south-western region near Colombo.

Civil unrest due to oppression by the Sinhalese of the Tamil militants later led to the Hindu militants radicalising when they formed the Tamil Tigers in 1976. After much turmoil over the next seven years, civil war broke out in 1983 and lasted until the Sri Lanka Army assassinated the Tamil Tiger founder, Velupillai Prabhakaran, on May 18, 2009 after over a quarter-century of war.

Violence in the name of God, by Christian, Hindu or Muslim, and even Buddhist militants is religious hypocrisy at its worst. For there is no peace of mind behind any intent to harm others in the name of religion.

This civil war was summed up by Gandhi when he suggested that those who believe that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know religion at all. For religious leaders and politicians have slept in the same bed called warfare since the time of Ashoka.

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Originally posted: November 8, 2009 at 10:36 PM

Religious Peers Disrespect Their Sexually Active Peers

"The students’ religious beliefs were also a part of the study, with researchers saying that people without religious beliefs or those of religions like #Buddhism seemed less likely to express an attitude of disrespect toward people who were involved in casual sex than people of the Catholic faith, for example."

Proof that Buddhists are more respectful of people who have casual sex, than say, those catholics.

It is this disrespect from Christian peers which causes casual sex, since shunning leads to social isolation. Ergo shunning by religious peers is the root cause of casual sex.

Yes, I said it: monogamous religious people and virgins who shun their peers who have casual sex are the cause of them deciding to fuck everyone on sight.

This, like mental illness, is stigmatized by sexually immature religious people.

Disrespected by their peers, the sexually active women are called names and suffer shunning. Such behavior by their peers are a causal influence on their self esteem, and in rare cases, like Amanda Todd are known to commit suicide.

Thus, high school students need to look at their behavior to choose to be supportive of sexually active students, even if it means being bullied and shunned.

For by doing so, you are exercising the non-judgmental mentality which will help you survive school.

In some cases, being called a slut for being chaste and willing to defend your sexually active sisters is proof that you are non-judgmental and morally superior to your religious peers.

Selected Inspirational Quotes on the Interdependence of all Life

Learn to live in harmony with each other and nature. Living a thoroughly loving joyous abundant life is your God given right. Nature is abundant. Live according to the universal law, universal principles such as Brother/Sisterly Love, Universal Peace, Individual Freedom and Prosperity for all.

— James Gilliland

In the vision of universal interpenetration, one of the Mahayana flowers of the Buddha's teaching of Conditioned Co-production (pratitya samutpada), we have a basic insight into our relationship with nature. This vision is exemplified in the simile of Indra's Net: High above in heaven, on the roof of the palace of the god Indra, there hang innumerable jewels interlaced in a great network. As the light reflects off these multifaceted gems not only does each jewel reflect the whole cosmos, but also every other jewel in the net, including all the reflections from all the jewels, the reflections of the reflections, and their reflections.

In this beautiful vision we can begin to connect imaginatively with the mutual interdependence of all processes. Bringing this insight down to earth it becomes clear that by harming nature we are in fact harming ourselves. There are plenty of examples to demonstrate this in the current media: acid rain, the greenhouse effect, the ozone hole, radioactive contamination, to name but a few. These reactions of nature to our carelessness harm us not only physically but also psychologically, as we face the threat of our environment becoming increasingly inimical to healthy human life.

— Nick Wallis, Buddhism and the Environment, Friend of Western Buddhism Order (FWBO): http://fwbo.org/articles/buddhism&environment.html

There are very strong Biblical directives to care for God's earth. Articles and theological treatises [on creation care] were often prefaced by the statement, "the Earth is the Lord's." It comes from Psalm 24:1, "The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the fullness and everything it contains."

Most of the Biblical teachings [on creation care] have to do with three principles: earth-keeping, fruitfulness, and Sabbath.

— David Roberts' interview with Calvin DeWitt in Grist: http://www.grist.org/article/dewitt/

The Qur'an' and the Hadith are rich in proverbs and precepts that speak of the Almighty's design for creation and humanity's responsibility for preserving it. For many Muslims, citing these is enough to prove that Islam has always embraced a complete environmental ethic. Others are more critical. They readily acknowledge that the guidelines are all there in Islamic doctrine. Tawhid (unity), khilafa (trusteeship), and akhirah (accountability, or literally, the hereafter), three central concepts of Islam, are also the pillars of Islam's environmental ethic. But they add that Muslims have strayed from this nexus of values and need to return to it.

— Islam and Ecology, M. Hope & J. Young: http://www.crosscurrents.org/islamecology.htm

Words like "Nature" change meanings in important ways over time. Right wingers and left wingers, for their opposite reasons, like to say our Founders disliked democracy, never ever mentioning that the word meant something different at the time they wrote than it means today, or that James Madison defined the American republic exactly as we now define representative democracy (a term that did not then exist).

The word "Nature" has the same problem. As used during that that time "Nature" had a strong survival-of-the-fittest flavor, with conflict and struggle being the primary value within life. People argued over the units that competed and struggled, from Social Darwinists who initially emphasized individuals to Hitler and the Nazis who emphasized races. Nazis justified their violence in part by claiming it was in keeping with "Nature."

There is no evidence of awareness of symbiotic relationships being particularly important, though Peter Kropotkin had drawn initial attention to them. He was largely ignored at the time, but today we know symbiosis (cooperation) is fundamental to evolution. "Nature" like so many important words can only be understood in context and with sensitivity to the times.

— Beliefnet: Environmentalism, NeoPaganism and EcoFascism: Here We Go Again, http://blog.beliefnet.com/apagansblog/2010/05/environmentalism-neopaganism-and-ecofascism-here-we-go-again.html#ixzz14wVZsMOP

Curtis Yazzie: “Once Peabody takes all the coal out, it’ll be gone. Solar would be long-term. Solar and wind, we don’t have a problem with. It’s pretty windy out here.”

— Navajos Hope to Shift From Coal to Wind and Sun, NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/science/earth/26navajo.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1

Suspension of Disbelief (poem)

A suspension of disbelief
allows the once-born Buddhist
to expand his faith in
a Higher Power and be
reborn as a Christian.
For he finds inspiration
both from the Buddha
and from Jesus Christ with love
the guiding power
yet serves one master alone:
God as he knows him...

Religious Division Amongst Japanese-Canadians During the Internment Period 1942-1946

In Canada and in America, it is likely the Jodo Shinshu Buddhists
were targeted by the assimilated Japanese who were Christians, since
the word at the time said that the latter tried to claim that, since the Buddhists had ties to the Hompa back in Kyoto, Japanese Buddhists in the Americas were "the real enemies".

According to the history of Japanese-Canadian internment, there were separate prison camps for Christians and Buddhist.

Also for Buddhists without any Buddhist temple or means of establishing one, they either
converted, or privately practiced the rituals associated with their sect i.e. Pure Land, the Shingon, the Nichiren, and Zen.

War and Violence Neither Muslim nor Christian

War and violence of any kind is a great disrespect to Allah and God.

Any person who represents a religion whose members preach violence do not know of Allah and God. Any Muslim faith that uses violence to promote their religion dishonors Allah. Any Christian or Jewish faith that uses violence and condones war dishonors God.

Thus any Muslim leader who wishes violent death upon anyone offends Allah. And any Christian political leader who starts a war offends God.

Even Buddhists know better than to promote discord, and always value harmony and peace. Small wonder people are discovering Buddhism.

May all Christians, Jews and Muslims come together in peace.