Monday, February 20, 2006
IN THE NEWS: Gubernatorial Candidate from Religious Party Now Behind Bars
All quotes have been taken from this article posted on February 2, 2006 on www.wwrn.org.
I wonder how this is affecting his Vampyres, Witches and Pagans party. It would seem to me that a political party that had religious affiliation would be a little more careful about who they choose to represent them.
A fringe candidate for Minnesota governor who played up his satanic side — and pledged public impalement for terrorists — wound up behind bars Tuesday thanks to a sharp-eyed sheriff's dispatcher.
Jonathon Sharkey, 41, of Princeton was arrested Monday night on two felony counts from Indiana, said Mike Smith, the Mille Lacs County jail administrator. One warrant was for escape, another for stalking.
Sharkey launched his gubernatorial campaign last month under the banner of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans party. His platform includes an emphasis on education, tax breaks for farmers and better benefits for veterans, but he also said he favored impaling certain wrongdoers in front of the state Capitol.
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent Lindgren said a dispatcher making routine warrant queries discovered Sharkey's warrants. Lindgren said the dispatcher had seen news stories about Sharkey's campaign and recognized the name on the warrant — Rocky Flash — as a name Sharkey had used as a professional wrestler.
I wonder how this is affecting his Vampyres, Witches and Pagans party. It would seem to me that a political party that had religious affiliation would be a little more careful about who they choose to represent them.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Myths, Religions, and Science
To most, a myth is simply a made-up story that may teach a moral lesson, but lacks any kind of literal truth. This definition of myth is inaccurate and misleading. In the realm of religious and cultural studies, a myth is a story that describes intentional acts of transcendent beings; relates the transcendent to the plane of human existence, explaining origins, providing guidance, or giving significance; and is taken as sacred and significant deep truth by those who “own” the myth or who make it their own, thereby giving them an approach to some of the big questions. Myths can be set in historical time, but are mostly set in primordial time, and are often subject to ritual reenactment. Ritual reenactment is the process by which a person or group attempts to experience the myth by recreating it and being a part of it.
Myths and mythological ways of thinking play a significant role in many religious traditions. The nature of religious traditions, in that they appeal in some way to the transcendent, lend themselves greatly toward mythological ways of thinking. Religious traditions generally contain a set of sacred stories, or myths that are foundational to the tradition itself. Without these myths, the religious tradition looses the framework on which it was based. The myths are revered and respected within the tradition and are often protected.
The Mountain Mother myth is one example of a myth that plays a vital role within a religious tradition. Although it appears in many versions, one account of the Mountain Mother myth tells of how the god Zeus spilled his semen on a rock and impregnated it. Soon after, the rock gave birth to the hermaphrodite goddess Cybele. An entire religion, worshiping Cybele is based on this one myth, including priests, ritual reenactments, and dreams resulting from altered states of consciousness.
Another example of a religious tradition that is based on myths and mythological thinking is Christianity. Within the religious tradition of Christianity, there are many central myths that seek to explain origins as well as life purpose. The creation stories that are found in Genesis tell of how God created the world and everything in it, including man. The myth told in the third chapter of Genesis tells of how there is pain and suffering in the world because of the first humans’ disobedience of God. Later on in the Bible there is a myth about God causing a virgin to give birth to a child that was both fully God and fully human. According to the myth, this child grew up to be the one that could overcome the death that was brought into the world when the first humans disobeyed God.
These myths form a web of beliefs that are central to the Christian religion. Because of this belief structure, Christians often believe that they can have a relationship with God. They believe that God interacts with them in their daily lives and that He has the power to intervene in the daily operations of the world. This is what mythological ways of thinking look like.
To someone who holds a naturalistic worldview, myths and mythological ways of thinking are thought to be nonsense. The idea that any form of transcendence exists is beyond reality. All questions are answered in mechanistic, or process oriented, ways and have natural explanations. To people with this worldview, science answers all the big questions in life and there is no need for an answer beyond that.
As science has progressed, many of the mythological ways of explaining the world that were once held by most are now obsolete for many. For instance, it was once thought that people became ill because they had sinned. Now, science says that people get sick because of germs. The scientific way of explaining how an illness is spread leads many to believe that there is no need for a mythological answer of why it is happening.
More and more, this sort of replacement of the mythological by the scientific is occurring. Even people who hold religious worldviews are beginning to adopt scientific explanations for some things in life. As science progresses, more scientific explanations will be added into most religious worldviews, and in many cases the scientific will replace the mythological. Many believe that in adopting science into a religious worldview, that worldview will eventually become secular. Although this can happen, it does not have to happen.
A religious worldview does not have to be opposed to science. In fact, a person can embrace all of science and still maintain all the parts of a religious worldview. To someone who is attempting to adopt this religious and scientific worldview, the two are not seen as in competition with each other. The scientific explains how the world and processes in it work and the mythological explains why things work the way they do. One such a person might believe in Creationism and Evolution at the same time. This person might believe that Creationism tells of why God created everything as He did and Evolution simply tells of the process God used to create it.
Although science does not have to eradicate the religious worldview in some people, it can. For some, as science begins to explain things that were once explained only by myths, the myths are no longer maintained. Science has then replaced the mythological within the worldview. As this continues to happen, the religious worldview breaks down and slowly changes into a secular worldview. Without the myths and mythological ways of thinking, the worldview ceases to be religious.
As long as at least one myth is still considered to be true, the worldview is still religious. This is because myths describe the acts of transcendent beings and any worldview that acknowledges transcendence of any kind can not be secular. However, if all myths are disregarded and all belief in transcendence is gone then the worldview has become secular.
Everyone’s worldview is constantly changing and science is one of the most common reasons why. As new developments in science are continuing to be made, people are choosing to believe these new scientific explanations. The stability of a religious worldview in light of scientific thinking is determined by whether a person chooses to incorporate scientific thinking into their mythological thinking or replace mythological thinking with scientific thinking. The result of incorporation is the maintenance of a religious worldview. The result of replacement is the degradation and elimination of a religious worldview in favor of a more secular worldview.
Myths and mythological ways of thinking play a significant role in many religious traditions. The nature of religious traditions, in that they appeal in some way to the transcendent, lend themselves greatly toward mythological ways of thinking. Religious traditions generally contain a set of sacred stories, or myths that are foundational to the tradition itself. Without these myths, the religious tradition looses the framework on which it was based. The myths are revered and respected within the tradition and are often protected.
The Mountain Mother myth is one example of a myth that plays a vital role within a religious tradition. Although it appears in many versions, one account of the Mountain Mother myth tells of how the god Zeus spilled his semen on a rock and impregnated it. Soon after, the rock gave birth to the hermaphrodite goddess Cybele. An entire religion, worshiping Cybele is based on this one myth, including priests, ritual reenactments, and dreams resulting from altered states of consciousness.
Another example of a religious tradition that is based on myths and mythological thinking is Christianity. Within the religious tradition of Christianity, there are many central myths that seek to explain origins as well as life purpose. The creation stories that are found in Genesis tell of how God created the world and everything in it, including man. The myth told in the third chapter of Genesis tells of how there is pain and suffering in the world because of the first humans’ disobedience of God. Later on in the Bible there is a myth about God causing a virgin to give birth to a child that was both fully God and fully human. According to the myth, this child grew up to be the one that could overcome the death that was brought into the world when the first humans disobeyed God.
These myths form a web of beliefs that are central to the Christian religion. Because of this belief structure, Christians often believe that they can have a relationship with God. They believe that God interacts with them in their daily lives and that He has the power to intervene in the daily operations of the world. This is what mythological ways of thinking look like.
To someone who holds a naturalistic worldview, myths and mythological ways of thinking are thought to be nonsense. The idea that any form of transcendence exists is beyond reality. All questions are answered in mechanistic, or process oriented, ways and have natural explanations. To people with this worldview, science answers all the big questions in life and there is no need for an answer beyond that.
As science has progressed, many of the mythological ways of explaining the world that were once held by most are now obsolete for many. For instance, it was once thought that people became ill because they had sinned. Now, science says that people get sick because of germs. The scientific way of explaining how an illness is spread leads many to believe that there is no need for a mythological answer of why it is happening.
More and more, this sort of replacement of the mythological by the scientific is occurring. Even people who hold religious worldviews are beginning to adopt scientific explanations for some things in life. As science progresses, more scientific explanations will be added into most religious worldviews, and in many cases the scientific will replace the mythological. Many believe that in adopting science into a religious worldview, that worldview will eventually become secular. Although this can happen, it does not have to happen.
A religious worldview does not have to be opposed to science. In fact, a person can embrace all of science and still maintain all the parts of a religious worldview. To someone who is attempting to adopt this religious and scientific worldview, the two are not seen as in competition with each other. The scientific explains how the world and processes in it work and the mythological explains why things work the way they do. One such a person might believe in Creationism and Evolution at the same time. This person might believe that Creationism tells of why God created everything as He did and Evolution simply tells of the process God used to create it.
Although science does not have to eradicate the religious worldview in some people, it can. For some, as science begins to explain things that were once explained only by myths, the myths are no longer maintained. Science has then replaced the mythological within the worldview. As this continues to happen, the religious worldview breaks down and slowly changes into a secular worldview. Without the myths and mythological ways of thinking, the worldview ceases to be religious.
As long as at least one myth is still considered to be true, the worldview is still religious. This is because myths describe the acts of transcendent beings and any worldview that acknowledges transcendence of any kind can not be secular. However, if all myths are disregarded and all belief in transcendence is gone then the worldview has become secular.
Everyone’s worldview is constantly changing and science is one of the most common reasons why. As new developments in science are continuing to be made, people are choosing to believe these new scientific explanations. The stability of a religious worldview in light of scientific thinking is determined by whether a person chooses to incorporate scientific thinking into their mythological thinking or replace mythological thinking with scientific thinking. The result of incorporation is the maintenance of a religious worldview. The result of replacement is the degradation and elimination of a religious worldview in favor of a more secular worldview.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Jesus not qualified to be a Catholic
The following cartoon and comments taken from here:
"Was this published in a newspaper here in America? If it were published in the Dallas Morning News (or heaven forbid a smaller, local Texas paper) I could guarantee the letters to the editors would be flooded with outrage. If the paper didn’t issue a retraction I am sure the local mouthbreathers would boycott the paper and threaten its advertisers."
"The same fellow that is so worshipped today and lived 2000 years ago, now would be eschewed into a “rendition program; water-boarded and left to rot at Gitmo--who said that history does not repeat itself."
"There was a great line in one episode of CSI, when Grissom stated that he believed in God, but not in Religion. I think in our guts, that’s what all of us truly believe.
God speaks to all of us all of the time, if we but listen. Religion is like the telephone game that children play. Each time it passes from one person to another the message gets more distorted. The heart is the crystal in the radio through which the infinite speaks to all of us. As soon as you use words to describe the message received, the message is distorted and destroyed."
