Religion: Sing Hallelujah Come On Get Happy

This guy is the Happy Buddha. I like him a lot. Contrary to popular belief Buddha is not a deity. He was a real man who found a way to be happy. Meditation was the path to enlightenment, and enlightenment brings happiness. Cool. I am not a Buddhist but I like the way this guy looks.

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I'd like to see more pictures of Jesus looking something other than beaten and murdered. A little joy and laughter wouldn't hurt. The emphasis on suffering and sacrifice is just too much to bear sometimes. Why should sorrow and guilt be the entance fee to Paradise?

I don't think that the "water into wine" thing was just showing off. I think that Jesus just wanted to keep the party rolling.

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This is a painting by William Blake entitled "The Blasphemer". I guess this is a warning to anyone who commits what religious authorities, speaking on behalf of their chosen deity, would consider blasphemy. This is one way of discouraging dissent, ridicule, or any other form of insult or argument. It looks like God, with a little help from a True Believer, is about to administer an eternal ass kicking to some poor sod.

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I suppose that with the present emphasis on the eventual clash of cultures between the West and the Middle East, and the war of ideology that seems to loom on the horizon, I seem a little obsessed with the idea of religion. In a way I always have been.

I believe in the separation of church and state. One of the areas that the two cultures clash is the concept of this separation. In Islam there is no differentiation between religious law and state law. The state, in an Islamic state, is governed by the clerics. To disagree with the state is, for all practical purposes, blasphemy. All the Rights that we take for granted in the West, that generations have fought and died for, have no place in a theocracy. There is no room for debate or change in such a state. I have seen enough preachers and priests, of many diverse religions, to know that any idiot can become one. Charlatans and Shamans are alive and well the whole world over.

Extremists from both cultures have more than a little in common: Hatred, Intolerance, Violence, and Certaintity are among their shared attributes.



Spot the difference!

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