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God would be an atheist...
A rational look at religion, morality, politics and daily life |
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HOME / This Week About GWBAA WEEKLY COLUMNS Previous Print column Why subscribe? Schedule Terms & Rates Subscribe Online column Subscribe BASICS Definitions Atheism Faith God Religion etc Analysis The meaning of life Morality etc REVIEWS CONTACT Link to this site Your support for advertisers helps to provide an income for this website. All Rights Reserved World Copyright © Martin Foreman PREVIOUSLY... Atheism is also getting increasing coverage in the opinion columns of the nation’s press. I see mostly the east coast Axis of Moderation – the Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post – but after years of silence these papers are suddenly acknowledging that for a sizeable proportion of their readers the Christian perspective on reality is as false and harmful as Neo’s Matrix. Reasons to be cheerful With no first-hand evidence of Jesus’ existence and with circumstantial evidence either missing or contradictory, it is reasonable to doubt that he ever existed. Which means that celebration of his birth lies somewhere on a scale between misguided and hypocritical. Whose birthday is it anyway? As regular readers know, I’m not a fan of children in general. One of the biggest mistakes in my life was the sixteen or so years that I spent as an infant and child. Mom loves you so much... In a free society, the behavior of individual adults is of no concern to the state or their neighbors, as long as that behavior respects the freedom of others and as long as the vulnerable are protected. I have no more objection to Christians worshipping God than I do to marijuana smokers, model railroaders or students of Klingon. One person's moderation... Ok, Yahweh, we get the point. Having usurped your father El and siblings Baal and Asherah, you’re still not secure in your position as The One And Only God. You need to enforce loyalty in your worshippers. In modern terms, commandments one to four are the equivalent of martial law – military decrees after a coup d’état. One commandment will do |
April - July 2008: This site is being renovated - apologies if some links do not work. To return to the active website, click here Column 111 Victory or defeat? Tibetan Buddhism and the Chinese occupation By © Martin Foreman Word Count: 795 words Publication date: June 10, 2007 Print publications wishing to syndicate the column should click here. Individual subscribers wishing to receive columns by e-mail should click here. This week’s column is given over to an acquaintance who has recently spent some time in Lhasa,Tibet, and who understandably wishes to remain anonymous. For many Westerners, Tibet has a certain mystical quality, a place where, if it were not for the Chinese communists, natives and devout Buddhists could experience nothing but peace, happiness, and an insight into the divine. It’s easy to understand why so many have this impression. For the most part Hollywood and the western press paint a rosy picture of Tibetan religion, culture and history suggesting that prior to its annexation by China, life on the roof of the world was a bed of roses. Richard Gere adds to this idyllic image through his efforts to ‘alleviate suffering and help to restore autonomy to the people of Tibet’. (Gere’s pro–Tibet website is blocked by the Chinese authorities). And the Nobel-Prize winning Dalai Lama does wonders for promoting Tibet’s benevolent image. But the reality is a bit different. From what I have seen Tibet is not and never was a ‘spiritual land’. Since the 1950 occupation by the Chinese, Tibet has changed considerably. Whether it was a change for good or bad depends on who you ask. From what I know, it’s a bit of both. Chinese control has brought improved infrastructure, better health, better education and employment opportunities for many – particularly the poor Han Chinese who have migrated there. But thousands of Buddhist monasteries and convents were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Tibetans are known to have perished or fled as a consequence of the occupation. And for decades the Chinese presence has persistently chipped away at Tibetan culture. Nevertheless, before the Han arrived, Tibet was a feudal society with two main classes: serfs and serf owners/monastery masters - " a xenophobic religious dictatorship, feudal in outlook, which stifled economic progress and tolerated slavery", in the words of the Rough Guide to Tibet. Serfs were forced to hand over a large percentage of their meagre agricultural output to the serf owners and to labor for them. Serfs were inferiors, like African–Americans in the Jim Crow South, prohibited from using the same facilities and even language as serf owners. Worse than serfs were ‘chattel slaves’, who were often starved, beaten and worked to death. A master could turn a serf into a slave any time he wanted. Children were routinely bought and sold in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa. Lamaist Buddhism may have been the essence of the culture of Tibet, but it was also the ideology of a specific oppressive social system. Between the 1400s and the 1600s the abbots of the largest monasteries seized power. Because they practised celibacy their new political system could not operate by hereditary father–to–son succession. A new doctrine was created, with newborn children identified as reincarnations of dead ruling Lamas. The central symbol of this system was the fourteen-and-counting men called the Dalai Lama, said to be the early Tibetan nature–god Chenrezig. The Dalai Lama was the biggest serf owner. Legally, he owned the whole country and everyone in it. In practice, he or his family directly controlled many manors and pastures, thousands of serfs and hundreds of house slaves. When he moved from palace to palace, he rode on a throne chair pulled by slaves as his bodyguards beat people out of his path. Most of the time there was no adult Dalai Lama on the throne. The most powerful abbots ruled as regents, training and manipulating the child–king. Tibetan monasteries were not holy, compassionate Shangri–Las. They were fortresses; armed villages of monks with military warehouses and private armies. The monasteries expected—demanded—that the peasants support them. Maoist revolutionaries said there were ‘Three Great Lacks’ in old Tibet: lack of fuel, communications and people. The revolutionaries proposed that these ‘lacks’ were caused not by the physical conditions but by the social system. They were the result of the ‘Three Abundances’ in Tibetan society: abundant poverty, oppression and fear of the supernatural. The bottom line is that while it was unfortunate that China invaded Tibet, it improved life for many people. Yes, it was unfair. No, it was not politically correct. Yes, it has resulted in a decline of the cultural uniqueness of Tibet. But those prone to whinging about the political incorrectness of the Chinese government should stop to think about the actions of other nations in history, from the European invasion, rape and pillage of the Americas and elsewhere to the recent the invasion of Iraq. From what I see there is little difference between the way the Chinese and the western powers flex their muscles - except that the Chinese tend to only invade their neighbors, rather than sending armies half way around the globe. April - July 2008: This site is being renovated - apologies if some links do not work. To return to the active website, click here
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If God existed, he would... If God existed, he would be an atheist. Seven years ago, Chuck Johnson started walking across the USA carrying a ten-foot cross and surviving on the kindness of strangers. He does this "to remind people they need Jesus in his life". Chuck's devotion to his religion loses some of its luster, however, when you read that his original 86-pound oak cross has been replaced by a 12-pound version made of PVC fencing with two wheels on the bottom.... story spotted on www.religionnews.com According to an Associated Press story, the split between two faith-based political groups has intensified, with the new leader of the Christian Coalition of Alabama suing the organization's old leader. Randy Brinson, the new president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, claims in a lawsuit that John Giles took the assets of the Christian Coalition of Alabama when he left to start Christian Action Alabama and won't return them. In Brinson's view, Giles is setting a bad example for Christians interested in Alabama politics. "This is not the way to engage people of faith in the political process," Brinson said. Giles calls Brinson's suit "frivolous and baseless" and said a close examination of the suit will show that the new Christian Coalition of Alabama is in the "palm of gamblers." Montgomery Circuit Judge Gene Reese, who's handling the suit, has not yet scheduled any hearings. story spotted on religious news service Crosswalk |
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