Quotes

If the fetus you save is gay, will you still fight for its rights?

The way to see by faith is to shut the eyes to reason. - Ben Franklin

Christianity is not belief in the bible.

It has been said that you can tame an elephant. That much is true. We may also say that those who tame elephants better have a big shovel to clean up the big mess that elephants leave behind.

Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow. - Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1861

Those who give up their freedom for security deserve neither. - Thomas Jefferson

You might be a liberal if you believe in:
A 40 hour week
A minimum wage
Social Security
Safe food
Safe products
Civil rights for all
A balanced Federal budget
Regulation of financial markets
Clean air and water
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Don't like liberals? Fine, then give us back: our clean air and water standards, worker safety protections, the 40 hour work week, the Social Security program, the civil rights movement, the equal rights movement, the free speech movement, discrimination protections, the school lunch program, birth control, rural electrification, organized labor, child-labor laws, the minimum wage, employee health care benefits, public assistance, Americans with Disabilities Act, the Voting Rights Act, food and drug safety regulations, federally subsidized student loans, collective bargaining, and everything else we have done to put power back in the hands of the individual, and out of the hands of the ruling and corporate elite.

Massive wind spill at local wind farm gives area residents opportunity to fly kites. No adverse affect on tourism reported.

If you're looking at the bible for a guide to living a compassionate, wise, and human life, well, frankly you've got more of a chance of finding a lap dancing club in Mecca. - Pat Cordell

Homosexuality shouldn't be classified as a sin, because it doesn't meet the first, most important criterion of being a sin, which is manifestly causing harm. - John Shore

Don't cry because it is over. Smile because it happened.

It is the supreme act of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. - Albert Einstein.

Home sapien athiensis

Spirituality - the fusing of human awareness on the subtle aspects of existence, a practice that reveals to us a profound interconnectedness.

The continuation of modernity threatens the very survival of our planet.

What affects one of us affects us all.

And it harm none, do what you will.

There are many paths up the mountains of spiritual understanding, not just one path.

NEW Bills Republicans Have Blocked

addictinginfo.org - NEW Bills Republicans Have Blocked

Christian Art and Poetry

Going to church might be more fun and interesting if more attention was paid to Christian art and poetry.




Jesus between Mary's Breasts
by Joseph Beaumont c. 1650

In the coolness of the day,
The old world even, God all undressed went down
Without His robe, without His crown,
Into His private garden, there to lay
On spicy bed
His sweeter head.

There He found two beds of spice,
A double mount of lilies in whose top
Two milky fountains bubbled up.
He soon resolved: "And well I like!" He cries,
"My table spread
Upon my bed."

Scarcely had He 'gun to feed
When troops of cherubs hovered round about,
And on their golden wings they brought
All Eden's flowers. But we cried out: "No need
Of flowers here!
Sweet spirits, forbear."

"True, He needs no sweets," say they;
"But sweets have need of Him, to keep them so;
Now paradise springs new with you,
Old Eden's beauty all inclined this way;
And we are come
To bring them home.

"Paradise spring new with you,
Where 'twixt those beds of lilies you may see
Of life the everlasting Tree."
"Sweet is your reason," then said we: "come strew
Your pious showers
Of eastern flowers."

[CHORUS] Winds awake! and with soft gale
Awake the odors of our garden too;
By which yourselves perfumed go
Through every quarter of your world, that all
Your sound may hear
And breathe your air.

Bible Verses Christians/Conservatives Should Follow

Romans 12:10 - Love one another
:16 - Have concern for everyone
:17 - Do not repay wrong with wrong
:18 - Do everything possible to live in peace with everyone
:19 - Never take revenge
:20 - If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink

Isaiah 28:12 - Give rest to the weary

Leviticus 19:18 - You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself.

Deuteronomy 15:11 - For there will never cease to be needy ones in the land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy in your land.

Matthew 6:1 - Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will what you do. If you do these things in public, you will not have any reward from your father in heaven.

Relevant Information on Amendments and Forms of Gov't

9th Amendment - The naming of certain rights in the Constitution does not take away from the people the rights that are not named.

10th Amendment - The powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Fascism - a radical and authoritarian, nationalist political ideology. Fascist seek to organize a nation on corporatist perspectives. Far right-wing. Singular collective identity. The will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong. Rejects individualism. Single party state. Forbids and oppresses openness. Rejects and resists ethnic groups. Opposes liberalism. Believes in a merit based aristocracy. Based on experienced military persons. A system of government characterized by dictatorship, belligerent nationalism, racism, and militarism. Intolerant views and practices. Belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group. Has contempt for democracy.

Socialism - believes that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives wealth through a system of exploitation thus creating an unequal society. Advocates either public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources.

Communism - A society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. No centralized government. Collective ownership of property. Organization of labor for the common advantage of all. Worker's dictatorship. The State plans and controls the economy. Single authoritarian party.

Totalitarianism - A form of gov't in which the ruler is an absolute dictator not restricted by a constitution or laws, or opposition. The State wields absolute power. People have virtually no power. Highly centralized. One political party. Total control over all aspects of a person's life. Gov't in the hands of a minority group through military might and extreme political repression.

Dictatorship - Absolute sovereignty is allotted to an individual or a small clique. A ruler unconstrained by law. Rule is considered illegitimate.

Liberal - One who is generous. One who favors greater freedom in political and religious matters. Suggests one free from prejudice or narrow thinking. Tolerant, generous, enlightened, broadminded, lavish, charitable.

Conservative - stingy, mean, bigoted, miserly, regressive, narrow-minded, reactionary, prejudiced, biased.

Even More Good Quotes about LIfe

God is literally what we call a metaphor.

Your fellow American citizens are not your enemy.

Life is judged to be its own reward if a person attained a fullness of years, had children, and was gathered to his own.

I am proud to stand on the side of love and acceptance instead of fear and prejudice.

I am not better or smarter, just luckier.

What we have done for ourselves alone dies; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. - Albert Pike

Know ye not that ye are gods?

The truth is, that the greatest enemies of the doctrine of Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have perverted them to the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and with out any foundation in his genuine words, and the day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father, in the womb of a virgin will be classified with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. - Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, April 11, 1823

Faith is believing in something without good reason to do so.

Human progress is an evolution away from superstition, witchcraft, and idol worship.

I wonder where all the deficit hawks were from 2001-2009 while we gave away our surplus and started two wars, one without cause. Now, suddenly, fiscal responsibility is a rallying cry - as if the problem started last year.

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and constitutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regime of their barbarous ancestors. - Thomas Jefferson

Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist from the Middle East who gives away free healthcare. That would be Jesus.

The real test of a democracy is not so much the behavior of the winners; it will be the behavior of the losers.

You cannnot be all for democracy when you are winning an argument and then be against it when you are losing. - John Meacham

Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing - after exhausting all other options. - Winston Churchill

Intelligence can not separate itself from patriotic activism without it becoming bigotry, hatred, gloom and doom saying, and scare tactics. -= Albert Camus

You talk to god, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic. - Doris Egan

On the first day man created god.

Proud to be everything the right wing hates.

I am not afraid of something that does not exist.

The bible should come with a disclaimer:
1. This is a work of fiction.
2. Belief in this book puts your intellect in peril.

More Good Quotes about LIfe

The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike. - Delos McKown

Faith is the determination to remain ignorant in the face of all evidence that you are ignorant. - Shawn Mason

While it is true that our democracy absolves us of having to live under tyrannical rule, it doesn't absolve us from the responsibility of stewardship to our fellow man. That is a lesson you right-wingers need to learn and learn well.

"This is a country that was about being self-reliant, responsible for your own actions, doing what you need to survive, make a living, being independent and free from tyranny." The mythical mantra that the right-wing always chants when it has to justify its persistent lack of regard for the poor and the downtrodden.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can also make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire

It is amazing how people use the bible to justify their cultural prejudices, totally unaware of their own ignorance. - John Shelby Spong

I wonder why any of us think that human beings, because of the limits of our human consciousness, can describe what it means to be god. - John Shelby Spong

I prayed my way all the way to atheism. - Wes, Methodist preacher

Jesus was somebody concerned about social justice. He is a compelling vision of what it means to be human, and what it means to live life fully in the world.

Can you imagine the pain people suffer with, "I'm going to hell if I don't believe this."?

How can there be a living god with the world in the shape that it is in?

How do we know what was the right variant that was chosen that we have now as the scriptures?

It'd be good for people to grow up and think things through.

I've got to the point where I can't find meaning in something that I don't think is real anymore.

What kind of personality; what kind of being is this that had to create these other beings to worship and tell him how wonderful he is?

I think most Christians have to be in a state of denial to read the bible and believe it.

If god was going to reveal himself to us, don't you think it would be in a way that we wouldn't question?

Good Quotes About Life

To die will be an awfully big adventure. - Peter Pan

There is a strong countertradition, now submerged, that insists that any time we say we know who god is, or what god wants, we are committing an of heresy. - Karen Armstrong

As modern history has unfolded, the bible has proven to be wrong many times. - John Shelby Spong

Why believe in god? Be good for goodness sake.

Imagine no religion.

Jesus is the victim of a god who is not able to forgive the wayward human race unless provided with a human sacrifice and blood offering.

Do you think all other stories are legend, but that your story of Jesus is noble and convincing? - Celsus, 2nd century Christian critic

Hell was invented by people very sure they are not going there.

Is man one of god's blunders or is god one of man's? - Friedrich Nietzche, 1844-1900

Human beings always reflect the presuppositions of the cultural wisdom of the day. They reflect the level of knowledge that the speaker has achieved. - John Shelby Spong

Who is so silly as to believe that god, after the manner of a farmer, planted a paradise eastward in Eden, and set in it a visible and palpable 'tree of life' of such a sort that anyone who tasted its fruit with his bodily teeth would gain life? - Origen

The Epicurean philosophy taught that although the gods exist, they do not intervene in human affairs, and that it is man's duty as well as to his advantage to free himself of the superstitious fear of death an future punishment.

Charles of Anjou (1266) regarded all commoners whether in his native France or in Italy, the land of his adoption, as laborious clods whom god in his goodness had provided in order that sovereigns and their barons, the true elect of the earth, might lead an honorable and dignified existence. - Orville Prescott, Lords of Italy

Giovanni Visconti, circa 1350, when asked why he did not celebrate communion, "I prefer to eat delicious bread and drink good wine."

History may not repeat itself, but certain familiar themes and patterns continually reappear in the history of every age and people.

There is a fine line sometimes between religious expression and mental illness. Sometimes religion provides the setting that makes symptoms of mental illness seem acceptable. - John Shelby Spong

What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. - Christopher Hutchens

Courageous Christians

From a column by Hemant Mehta. Hemant asked his friends on Facebook and Twitter to tell him what a courageous Christian is. Here are some of the responses:

It takes real courage to stand up in your church and say you proudly support same-sex marriage.

It takes real courage to tell a group of anti-abortion protesters that you are a Christian who supports a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

It takes real courage to tell your campus Bible study that you had pre-marital sex, that it was fun, and that it didn’t ruin your life.

It takes real courage to teach others that there’s nothing wrong with masturbation.

It takes real courage to fight against abstinence-only sex education.

It takes real courage to throw off that “purity ring.”

It takes real courage to publicly express doubts about your faith and admit that Christianity doesn’t have all the answers it claims to have.

It takes real courage to tell your pastor that he’s completely wrong about Creationism or Intelligent Design and that evolution is supported by all the available evidence. It also takes courage to educate other church members on the matter in defiance of your church’s teachings.

It takes real courage to tell street preachers and testifying co-workers that people are tuning them out, not converting to Christianity.

It takes real courage to remind any proselytizing superiors in the workplace that they’re out of line and you’ll report them if they continue doing it, even though you share their beliefs.

It takes real courage to be the first in line to defend atheists, Muslims, homosexuals and any other frequently defamed minority groups when someone in your church spreads lies about them.

It takes real courage to let your children decide for themselves what religion (if any) they want to belong to.

It takes real courage to admit the Bible is full of glaring inconsistencies.

It takes real courage to put your faith under the microscope of logic, reason and demonstrable evidence, and to admit that if/when the evidence directly contradicts your faith, faith should lose.

It takes real courage to apply the same standard of reason and evidence to your religion as you apply to every other religion.

It takes real courage to admit that what you once thought was a miracle was really just a coincidence.

It takes real courage to realize that Christians are no more moral than people of other faiths or no faith.

It takes real courage to say that an atheist won the debate you just watched.

It takes real courage to recognize that churches are really businesses.

It takes real courage to walk away from a church you’ve gone to your whole life because you no longer agree with what the pastor teaches.

Quite a list of things. Our country needs more courageous Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, and all the other peoples not listed.