Honjii's Harangues

Your god is a psychopath with a twisted sense of humor

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Recently I was told about a sect of orthodox Jews, who on a holiday called Simchas Torah, get drunk, dance around, and do somersaults.  Only men are allowed to dance and somersault.  I don’t know what the women are doing while their guys are enjoying all the fun.  I imagine them on the sidelines, as in the Olympics, holding up scorecards rating the somersaults (extra points if they stick the landing).  I believe this might be the origin of the phrase holy rollers.  I did a little research and it seems not all members of this particular sect participate in the drunken somersaulting, but it is not uncommon.  Please explain how performing acrobatics, while under the influence, serves one’s god?  And has anyone ever been arrested for AUI?

What Happens on Simchas Torah STAYS in Simchas Torah!

(Unless, of course, you blog about it.)

Each year, the Torah is completed and started anew – Simchas Torah celebrates that. The festival includes dancing, flag-waving, and copious drinking by the menfolk. In Chabad circles, there’s a Simchas Torah tradition to “mach a kula.” You haven’t seen anything in life until you see a drunk chossid do a somersault. On second thought…   (read more at Fancy Schmancy Anxiety Maven)

As is almost always the case one thing leads to another, and I wondered about other religious practices and what possible purpose could be served by them.  I keep coming up with the same conclusion:  god (or god’s inventor) is a  megalomaniac with a sick and twisted sense of humor.

Imagine if you didn’t buy the god delusion or belong to any religious group and were instructed to do things such as; cut off the tips of all male children’s penises, engage in symbolic ritualistic cannibalism (taking communion), when, where and how to engage in sexual intercourse, avoid types of foods, or avoid eating certain foods together, how to dress, stick ashes on your forehead, tell your deepest darkest secrets to a hidden stranger, give a percentage of your income (in addition to what the IRS already takes)…I think the answer would be WHAAAAT?

There are now and have been power happy cult leaders among us who have engaged in mind control to the point where their followers believed they were serving a greater good by giving up, to and for their leaders, things ranging from all their worldly goods, money, friends and family, to their lives.  Cult leaders get off on watching people engage in all manner of insanity at their behest.  Your illusory god is doing the same thing on a grander scale for his/her/its amusement.  Along with the ridiculous rules god has set forth to retain membership, you are forced to deal with wars, tragedy, plagues and pestilence.  On the plus side you really must admire the management and multi-tasking skills involved in such an undertaking.

Several years ago I wrote a short post, that caused a long stir called God did Not Create Man, the premise being the reverse.  It would seem I am not alone.  From the Los Angeles Times:

Science and religion: God didn’t make man; man made gods
Op-Ed
In recent years scientists specializing in the mind have begun to unravel religion’s “DNA.”

July 18, 2011|By J. Anderson Thomson and Clare Aukofer

Before John Lennon imagined “living life in peace,” he conjured “no heaven … / no hell below us …/ and no religion too.”

No religion: What was Lennon summoning? For starters, a world without “divine” messengers, like Osama bin Laden, sparking violence. A world where mistakes, like the avoidable loss of life in Hurricane Katrina, would be rectified rather than chalked up to “God’s will.” Where politicians no longer compete to prove who believes more strongly in the irrational and untenable. Where critical thinking is an ideal. In short, a world that makes sense.

In recent years scientists specializing in the mind have begun to unravel religion’s “DNA.” They have produced robust theories, backed by empirical evidence (including “imaging” studies of the brain at work), that support the conclusion that it was humans who created God, not the other way around. And the better we understand the science, the closer we can come to “no heaven … no hell … and no religion too.” to keep reading (definitely worth the time)

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