The superstitious mind and individual rights

Priests refer to their parishioners as "my flock."

Rightly so. They are sheep -- to be herded, to be fed mysticism, to be intellectually and morally slaughtered.

The flock must bend to religion's make-believe metaphysics, to religion's insistence on epistemological retreat (faith), to religion's demands of immorality, to religion's self-sacrificing politics.

Religion is the ideal training camp for fascism, socialism, communism, liberalism, conservatism, progressivism, despotism -- any political "ism" that demands self-sacrifice and obedience. The sheep believe they rebel, but even when the sheep enjoy their tea parties, they demand sacrifice from fellow sheep via taxation, regulation, subsidies, welfare. Sure, these sheep say they want less authority and less obedience, but they simply ask for smaller knives at the throats of their fellow citizens. They can't help it. They are sheep.

The non-religious are sheep, too, though they like to think they are rebels and hippies and anti-establishment and trend-setters and intellectual. They are better sheep than the religious sheep. They lambast "greed" and wealth on par with Jesus, unlike their conservative brethren, who ignore the hypocrisy.

The god of the non-religious is Immanuel Kant, who proclaimed that duty is what rightly drives human beings and that we are born with "categorical imperatives" in our mind that guide duty and "good will." In other words, we ain't in control; we should obey some intrinsic things in our minds, and we should sacrifice ourselves and happiness to others and duties to others. (Kant was the King of circular reasoning)

There have been many Kant disciples through the last two centuries, but it is ultimately Kant that the atheistic sheep worship -- ironically, because Kant himself was a theist, whose main purpose was to give alleged vindication of a god's presence and authority over morality: god is necessary for the "ideal of the supreme good."

And so we have the superstitious left and right in this country, who've abandoned their minds to their gods of the heavens and universities. The sheep have surrendered their rationality for obedience and irrational doctrines and concomitant self-sacrifice. They have disdain for themselves and, therefore, for all individuals. Their self-loathing projects itself up the rest of us, insisting that we be punished physically for their intellectual misery.

They cannot believe that individuals have efficacy, the ability to understand reality and the ability to be independently happy. They cannot believe that individuals must be left alone. Individuals must be commanded, and individuals must obey. They must serve. They must, ironically, try to make others happy but not themselves.

And, so, they cannot understand individual rights. They cannot understand rights. They do not want rights and they insist that others do not have them either. We are all sheep, after all -- unworthy of rights, waiting for our next commands, waiting to be rightfully slaughtered. Bound sheep do not like unbound sheep.

As long as the vast majority of humanity allows superstition to grip it by the throat and cut off oxygen to the brain, we will not have individual rights. We cannot even discuss it seriously until great gobs of individuals take ideas and themselves and reality seriously. We will continue to live in the Dark Ages as our "modern" brethren and sisters flock to their particular brand of mysticism.

I sometimes wish I could live 300 years hence, when Objectivism has won and young children's mouths gape open as they hear of a time in the 21st century when people, even adults, actually BELIEVED IN GODS!

At least the very thought of such a time and such children makes me smile. And I've seen that gaping mouth on the face of my own lovely daughter. And, oh, how I smile!

"Render unto Caesar," Conservatives

Scholars have debated for centuries Jesus's exact meaning in Matthew 22:21, where he says, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's."

One set of scholars sees this phrase as Jesus's clever way of avoiding tax authorities by seeming to say that the people must pay taxes, but actually covertly saying to followers, "Caesar deserves nothing, so you must render him nothing." These are the same scholars who praise Bill Clinton for wondering what the definition of "is" is.

The other set of scholars, which is correct, understands that Jesus was specifically being asked about paying taxes when he answered, and was stating clearly that citizens must abide by the Caesarian law and obey Earthly authorities.

The rest of the quote helps make this last point clear. Here's the full quote from Matthew: "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." He's making clear the full power of the two alleged authorities, and equating their legitimacy. Pay taxes and give God your soul. End of subject.

But all of this misses the actual point, which is: NEVER BE AMBIGUOUS ABOUT MORALITY! No person of integrity leaves anything open to ambiguity, as Jesus was want to do repeatedly. If Caesar was wrongfully in power -- and, of course, he was -- then nobody should render anything to him, and Jesus should have said this clearly and boldly, especially given his alleged belief that this life is simply a base precursor to an alleged other life.

Here's what he should have said: "Hell no, you don't render unto Caesar and you shouldn't render unto any Caesars! Your life is your own. You cannot be forced to do anything by anyone that you have not contracted to do. End of subject. You are a rational being, and all of that Garden of Eden stuff was just God (um, that's me, I guess) having a bad-hair day. Hey, Jedidiah, stop being a Bogart on the wine, will ya?"

Jesus's Caesar quote is one of hundreds of instances of Jesus's foggy immorality that has so captivated Conservatives in America. In fact, the Conservatives love Jesus so much that they ignore his injunctions, usually when liberals, the new Caesars, demand more taxes. When this happens, the Conservatives suddenly pretend that they don't like taxes, especially against rich Conservatives who are ignoring Jesus's injunction to "sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." (Matthew 19:21)

Virtually everything Jesus said was antithetical to human life on Earth, relegating humans to destitute ground-grubbers pining for an alleged mystical life ever after -- sort of like folks in the Middle ages before smart people started waking up and saying, "Hey, what the hell have we been doing for 1,000 years following that homeless pin-head who deluded the stupid masses? We should be inventing shit and having fun! Besides, he promised he would come back before his generation was over, and he hasn't and I think he's off somewhere with Mary. Damn him! AND WE'RE OUT OF WINE!"

The Conservatives, even Miss Kitty Coulter (who took Jesus away from Mary when Jesus saw Kitty slowly uncross her sexy legs in a TV interview exposing her pretty panties for the Lefties to go stark raving madder.) simply ignore Jesus (bet he doesn't like that very much -- hence the earthquakes of late).

Yes, somehow, in the Conservatives' little uptight pea-heads they continue to twist and butcher a Jesus phrase worse than George Bush Sr. twisted and butchered the English language. Yeah, Jesus was wrong, but he's their god damned savior, isn't he?

So, to finally get to my point, we liberty lovers cannot depend upon Conservatives to go to bat for us against the Leftist Mafia in America. The Conservatives will do what they always do if they get power again: Say two Hail Marys and "no new taxes" and then RAISE TAXES.

Excuse me, Kitty, would you mind uncrossing your legs one more time -- pretty please?!