Civil Commotion

A report in The Guardian shows that religion is on its way out in Europe.

Europe’s march towards a post-Christian society has been starkly illustrated by research showing a majority of young people in a dozen countries do not follow a religion.

The survey of 16- to 29-year-olds found the Czech Republic is the least religious country in Europe, with 91% of that age group saying they have no religious affiliation. Between 70% and 80% of young adults in Estonia, Sweden and the Netherlands also categorise themselves as non-religious.

This is good news. The teaching that belief without evidence — faith — is a virtue is dying. Soon, inevitably, it will be allright to discuss and actually think about moral issues instead of simply deferring to whatever some Bronze Age anonymity had to say about them.

And while we’re on the subject, let’s please once for all get over the idea that morality began with Jesus’ Sermon on the mount. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is traditionally dated to 349 B.C., and Confucius took a swipe at “turn the other cheek” ~ 500 B.C. From The Analects:

14:36 Someone said: “What do you think of the saying: ‘Repay harm with virtue’?” Confucius replied, “Then how will you repay virtue? Repay harm with righteousness and repay virtue with virtue.”

Whether or not one ought to turn the other cheek, clearly, was something that men had thought about a long time before Jesus.

There is nothing original in Christian thought but the Doctrine of Original Sin, which is among the most absurd and degrading ideas to ever soil the earth; good riddance.

An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.

And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country’s future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin’s regime.

John McCain (R, AZ)

It’s a sad ol’ day when the only Republican in the universe who will say the obvious is one who is dying.

I no longer believe that the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, can be repaired. It’s now a cult of disaffected nutjobs, sycophants and plain-vanilla cowards headed by Donald Trump.

Oh, boy. The Renew America crowd is rhapsodizing about a painting.

I love this painting of Sir Donald our commander in chief and patriot Trump picking up our flag, holding it to his heart with supreme love and determination on his face, gently wiping the sediment of war from her stars and stripes, so she, while wounded, can continue to be our gallant symbol of liberty, pride and freedom as we the people united with our president strive to defeat the plague of communism seeking to engulf us and all future generations.

What painting has provoked such enthusiam?

Get ready:

The Trumpers are a cult.

The text of James 4:11-12, KJV, follows:

¹¹ Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

¹² There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

To cite this verse to uphold the “spiritual authority” of pastors seems clearly to be a perversion of the text’s plain meaning. But, then, it makes sense once you grasp that Christianity is simply a cult that made it big. The 1st-century church was a cult, and the New Testament is the literature of a cult.

The latest Facebook data scandal has convinced me that social media is a waste of time that has no value to anybody except marketers, and politicians, who want free data. For that reason I’ve closed the account and won’t be going back.

So don’t take it personally when you can’t find me in your “Friends” list.