Nietzsche and Christianity

These are the words of the famous Nietzsche on Christianity:

"When we hear the ancient bells growling on a Sunday morning we ask ourselves: Is it really possible! This, for a jew, crucified two thousand years ago, who said he was God's son? The proof of such a claim is lacking. Certainly the Christian religion is an antiquity projected into our times from remote prehistory; and the fact that the claim is believed - whereas one is otherwise so strict in examining pretensions - is perhaps the most ancient piece of this heritage. A god who begets children with a mortal woman; a sage who bids men work no more, have no more courts, but look for the signs of the impending end of the world; a justice that accepts the innocent as a vicarious sacrifice; someone who orders his disciples to drink his blood; prayers for miraculous interventions; sins perpetrated against a god, atoned for by a god; fear of a beyond to which death is the portal; the form of the cross as a symbol in a time that no longer knows the function and ignominy of the cross -- how ghoulishly all this touches us, as if from the tomb of a primeval past! Can one believe that such things are still believed?"

Friedrich Nietzsche (1878) Human, all too Human

Mario Benedetti - Don Mario

Mario Benedetti a great Uruguyan writer and my favorite poet died this past Sunday May 17, 2009. Bennedetti's poems guided me throughout my adolescence and early adulthood. Through his poems he taught me about love, life, and social issues.

Don´t Save Yourself
by Mario Benedetti

Don't Save yourself,
Don´t be immobile
On the edge of the road,
Don't freeze the joy,
Don't love with reluctance,
Don't save yourself now
or ever,
Don't save yourself,
Don't fill with calm,
Don't reserve of the world
Just a calm place,
Don't let fall your lids
Heavy as trials,
Don´t speak without lips,
Don't fall asleep without sleepiness,
Don't think of you without blood,
Don't judge yourself without time.

But if in spite of everything
You cannot avoid it
And you freeze the joy,
And you love with reluctance,
And you save yourself now,
And you full with calm,
And you reserve of the world
Just a calm place,
And you let fall your lids
Heavy as trials,
And you speak without lips,
And you fall asleep without sleepiness,
And you think yourself without blood,
And you judge yourself without time,
And you are immobile
On the edge of the road,
And you save yourself,
Then
Don't stay with me.

Dear Don Mario your words will always be with me.

Science as a Human Right

The United Nations Office of the High Commisioner for Human Rights held on 1966 an International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In this conference science was cataloged as being part of human rights. In my opinion any manipulation of information to contradic scientific based knowwledge would be a violation of human rights as affects point 1.b.

Part III - Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) requires states to:

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone:
(a) To take part in cultural life;
(b) To enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications;
(c) To benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

2. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for the conservation, the development and the diffusion of science and culture.

3. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity.

4. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the benefits to be derived from the encouragement and development of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific and cultural fields.

THE GEORGIA GUIDESTONES

This is a huge granite monument in Elbert County, Georgia, USA. It is sometimes referred to as an "American Stonehenge".

The monument has 6 granite stones with a message consisting of ten guidelines or principles in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.

The message in English reads:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. (This is the only one that I have a problem with)
2. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.

Unfortunately religious zealots are trying to destroy it.

Check out the Wired Magazine article on the stones

Happy Birthday, Sigmund Freud

Father of Psychoanalysis birthday is today 06/May/2009. This brilliant Psychiatrist and philosopher would be 153 years today. ABC Radio National had a great show dedicated to him on the date of his 150 anniversary,

Here is one of his statements on religion:

"Our knowledge of the historical worth of certain religious doctrines increases our respect for them, but does not invalidate our proposal that they should cease to be put forward as the reasons for the precepts of civilization. On the contrary! Those historical residues have helped us to view religious teachings, as it were, as neurotic relics, and we may now argue that the time has probably come, as it does in an analytic treatment, for replacing the effects of repression by the results of the rational operation of the intellect." (The Future of an Illusion, 1927).