“I AM NOT RELIGIOUS”

"I am not religious. Some religions I admire, such as Buddhism. But certainly not Christianity. It has caused bloodshed throughout history. The atrocities of the Crusades is one example.

"The Salem witchhunts is another. As late as 1800 in most European countries, a person could be hanged for blasphemy. Christianity in the past has been as murderous as the Moslem are now, who believe in killing all non-Moslems. Our treatment of the Indians, especially in the West, during the 1800s is a sad story. Since the Indians weren't Christians, killing them was on the same level as killing coyotes. Whites tooks their land without remorse, for after all, they were not Christians. Any religion that thinks it is the right one and all others are wrong is plain stupidity, for none of the beliefs of any religion can be proved. Mark Twain said "Religion is believing what you know ain't so".

"You can read in history books about many famous people who lived in the B.C. time. The route that Alexander the Great followed to India was recorded and came down through the ages, as well as his exploits. He died in 323 B.C. Homer's Iliand and Odyssey comes down to us today, though he died in 400 B.C.

"The dramas of Aristophenes are still produced today. He died in 385 B.C. Aristotle's life was written and became history. He died in 322 B.C. Plato died in 347 B.C. Julius Caeser in 44 B.C.

"BUT there is NO historical record of Jesus. History books refer to "it is believed" and such evasions. If he did one tenth of what the Bible reports, he would have been written about at the time and recorded. Paul WAS a historical figure, but he began preaching 40 years after Jesus was supposed to have died. People like a father figure, an all-powerful mentor, and they enjoy mystery. Christianity supplied this. The Bible supports slavery, women as second class, and there is not a word about kindness to animals. Christians believe in an after-life.

"But only for humans. An elephant is smarter than a lot of people. If an imbecile goes to heaven, but not a seeing-eye dog, I want nothing to do with that religion. "

—Doris Gerhart of Spokane’s Inland Northwest Freethought Society

MORE ANTI-WORKER BUSHLEAGUE ACTION

After Katrina, Bush waived a 74-year-old law that requires government contractors (like Haliburton) to pay a fair wage with government money. Last week, grassroots pressure forced Bush to back down and reinstate the law, called Davis-Bacon, guaranteeing that Gulf Coast workers will be fairly paid as they labor to rebuild their community.

—From a MoveOn.Org release.

PS: The art work is a collage by the editor of this blog.