18/08/04
Father, Son And Holy Ghost
Hi AH,
First, l want you to know that I read your page regularly. I enjoy it and
agree with the vast majority of it. I first became fed up with all of the
feminist bullsh*t in 1990 when I started attending a very liberal college. It
was "guilty by penis". At first I pretty much was limited to the
"F%$# you! I haven't done jack sh*t to you!" response. Then I took a
statistics class. Arguing became easier after being able to ask hard question
about the statistics being used to bash males over the head in the media.
I digress though. I just want you to know this is a sincere question and not
at covert attempt at attacking you.
Why is it that you seem to have a hard spot with the religious? Or is it just
the religion? I'm a fundamentalist christian - meaning it's in the Bible or it
isn't. I don't buy into that "everybody interprets it differently"
crap. You can take a single verse out of context. Media excels at this. But if
you read it cover to cover I think the meaning is pretty clear. That's just me
though. But I have been happily married for 10 years now to my only wife. We
apply biblical principles to our marriage. We have five kids. Even now I rarely
go more than a day without being physically intimate with my wife. It is with
much horror I read some of the stories on your website of the marriages gone
bad. I began asking friends about their sex lives (even among my Christian
brothers) and was a little stunned to find that I seem to be an exception rather
than the norm. For my wife and I, it is our common belief, the serving one
another out of devotion to God, and applying the Bible to our daily lives (not
just Sunday) that makes our marriage rock solid and our married life truly happy
(not just bearable or tolerated).
My religion is what holds my marriage together, makes us strong, makes us
happy, makes me happy to work at a job and have her at home raising our kids.
And lest you think I am a completely p-whooped whimp, she reciprocates. In ways
that make other women's mouths drop open, she reciprocates. What specifically is
it that you don't like about religion?
It just a curious question from one who appreciates your writings. (Most
anyway) I hope you will have time to respond. In the meantime I hope you will
continue to expand the movement. I have two daughters and three sons who I hope
will grow up in a better climate than the one the feminist movement has given
us.
I deal with the public and it often requires me to inquire after household
situations. Every time I find a guy who is getting the sh*tty end of the stick
or is about to get it, I let them know about your site. I think you
ought to sell AngryHarry T-shirts to let more people know about you.
Thanks,
P
Hi P
Thank you for that. I really appreciated your email.
Hmm. But I'm not sure where to begin.
Fundamentally, I suppose, I just don't believe in a god any more.
And apart from the writings in the New Testament, I really do not know very
much about "The Bible". I have only read bits of it.
I do actually believe that God and Jesus Christ (and others) live in the
hearts and minds of people, but I just do not believe that they live anywhere
else. And I also get the feeling that all the great prophets and holy men were
simply talking to their various peoples in a way that could be understood in
their time.
And I have a sneaky suspicion that they were attributing to a god fundamental
insights that they, themselves, had had - insights that they knew would be
extremely important for future generations - and so they hyped up the authority
behind them - perhaps because they seemed so amazingly important that they just
must have come from 'on high', rather than from their own limited selves.
But I think that these insights did, in fact, come from their limited selves.
Today, for example, if you are a truly great mathematician or musician, you
probably reckon that your genes had something to do with it. In the past, you probably thought that it was a gift from God.
And I think that people like Jesus and Mohammed and other great religious men were just
extraordinarily clever people who attributed their gifts to a higher being when,
in fact, it was their genes and their biology that gave them their gifts.
Well, that's my belief!
Also, I am actually scared of 'religion' and, often, of religious people. I
just do not see the world in the same way that they do. And while I think that religion has done some good in the past, I also think
that it has done some bad.
I saw a programme on the ancient Egyptians some time ago, and it seemed to me
that the priests and their associated burial industries were basically running a
great financial scam. The people were being led to believe by them that if they
were embalmed in a certain way and mummified, with various animal parts buried
with them, then they would achieve some eternal form of life. And what the
archeologists were discovering was that many of the animal parts that were
supposedly buried along with the deceased were fakes.
These Egyptians also had special places (whole 'towns') where people would
gather to buy various odds and ends that would, purportedly, help them with the
afterlife.
It seemed to me that it was mostly like a flourishing business.
And, in my view, religious beliefs in God are little more than successful
'organisms' based often on flourishing businesses.
Any ideology can grow simply by making many people believe in it. It can then
grow even further if the leaders of that ideology demand subservience and
financial contributions to it. And the more powerful do they and their
organisations become, the bigger do they grow. (Just like feminism and political correctness - wherein 'white heterosexual
men' are portrayed as The Devil; from whom everyone on Earth - including their
own children - needs rescuing.)
These organisms compel, bribe, frighten, indoctrinate and/or intimidate others into
serving them. And, in my view, this is what religions seem mostly to be. This is not to say that there is absolutely no value to religions, but I do
not think that, henceforth, they are the best mechanisms for achieving human
progress.
I do appreciate that religion can help people to run their own lives in ways
that are very positive - both for themselves, their families and their
communities. But it seems to me that a few thousand years of history shows that religion
does not exactly bring about peace and harmony; and so on. Furthermore, science clearly achieves far more - on balance - than does
prayer in terms of curing the various ills that plague us. And so, all in all, I'd rather put my 'faith' in science and technology than
in religion.
There is also an aspect to some religions that I really dislike. And this is
the notion that the people who follow them are 'special' in some way. They often see themselves as superior.
Well. I don't see myself as someone who is particularly special. I'm special to me and, presumably, to those who are close to me, but the
notion that I might be special beyond my own circle of 'influence' would seem to
be the height of arrogance.
I also think that humans (as a whole, or individually) delude themselves
badly and unwholesomely when they believe that they are special in the overall
scheme of things. Indeed, the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for about 200 million years. We have
been around for about 2 million years; and we might not be around for much
longer!
And so, in summary, while I think that someone like Jesus was the most
amazing man (and it astonishes me that most of what he said is still so relevant
today) religion and a belief in God actually worry me. Indeed, I think I see people like Jesus more as great psychologists, rather than as
anything else.
And I think that in much the same way that Freud's insights (few that they
were) ended up generating a huge organism of psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts
who managed to hijack much of the cognitive ether with (mostly) baloney, I think
that many decent religious leaders often managed, unwittingly, to
inspire very much the same thing in their followers.
In other words, their clear wisdom and authority was used by others for their
own purposes (though these were not necessarily 'bad' purposes) and, as a
result, these huge organisms grew and grew. And, just like the other huge organisms that I keep droning on about, these
organisms are not human. They do not really care about humans. They have lives of their own to worry
about.
And it is because of this, basically, that I have both a deep-seated
suspicion and a fear of them.
These organisms are not the same species as me!
Mind you. I also feel the same way about the growing organisms of science and
technology. They could easily lead us all to disaster. And this is one of the reasons why I keep banging on about the need to spread
information. In some sense, this is my God; because, in my view, this is the
only realistic route to something akin to 'salvation'.
And, quite frankly, I believe that unless we can hurry up the process, we are
all going to find ourselves in very deep trouble in the near future.
The rapid spread of information could help us enormously to disempower many
of those forces that end up bringing misery to so many people - right across the
world. It would help to flatten the forces of 'evil' because people would more
likely see what was really going on, and they would also be more able to counter
it - both at home and abroad.
And all the extremes could be zapped!
At the moment, however, our shaky futures are being entrusted to large
powerful organisms - that we know are lying to us
all the time. And they are lying to us because they are serving themselves - not
us.
There are thousands of them all over the planet. And they often seem to demonise and generate hatred and/or distrust towards
others simply in order to sustain themselves and to gain themselves more
support. The abuse industry, the feminists, the politically correct, the
tabloids, the White House, Al-Quaeda, the Palestinians, the Israelis, etc etc.
They are all at it.
The Hate Business.
And this is what religious groups often do too.
In other words, regretfully, these tactics seem to work!
(e.g. see my peace We're going to become extinct, like the dinosaurs.)
And this, of course, is why I employ them myself. LOL!
I'm forever demonising politicians, feminists, judges etc etc. There is not a
day that goes by wherein I am not uttering a volley of expletives in their
direction. And I hope that, one day, 'men' will dominate the planet. Not Muslims, or
Jews, or Christians, or feminists, or the left wing, or the right wing, or the
communists or the capitalists, or the corporations (I could go on all night) but
'men'. The organism of average, ordinary, boring decent
men.
In my view, if their collective consciousness can surface - e.g. through
cyberspace - it will drive us toward the right
goals and steer us through the best pathways - perhaps mostly by giving support
to those who appear to have the 'best brains'. And by 'best brains', I mean the 'best brains'
when it comes to delivering things like kindness, generosity, fairness,
goodwill, creativity, science, intelligence, solutions, fun, health - whatever.
And they will also surely collectively compile themselves into 'a decent man' - because no extremes can
rule in such a vast sea of consciousness.
Well. Not for long.
If this organism ruled the planet, and everyone could also see whatever they
really wanted to see (information) no extremes could really develop for very
long and the best pathways would be better identified.
The criminals would be quickly caught. No Saddams could hide any WMD. There
would be fewer major conflicts all round. Businesses large and small would have
to be decently run. People would have to do their jobs properly. On and on it
goes.
But, as matters stand currently, the organisms that have the most power have
little or no concern for 'men', and they are masters at both distorting the
information and hiding it.
We need to change all this. And I don't think that beliefs in
traditional religions would take us in the right direction.
And, surely, until men begin to see themselves more as 'men' (rather than as Muslims,
or Jews, or Christians, or left wing, or right wing, or communists or
capitalists, etc) they will remain divided? And this means there will be continuing and worsening trouble.
As such, the growth of the men's movement seems to me the best hope for the
future.
And this, coupled together with the development of science and technology and
the spread of information are, if you like, my own versions of the Father, Son
and Holy Ghost.
Well. I can certainly see some interesting parallels!
Best wishes
Harry
