Tag: imagine

The madness machine

On By StevoIn anthropology, conspiracy, critical thinking, Environment, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, UncategorizedLeave a comment

OMFGWTAF! Are these festering rotten scroatbags serious!?!? The first time I heard of this BS I thought – no way, they didn’t just drop that dam dirty bomb of distraction.

Well, after several hours to process, and do some online “research” – it seems this is a real event. They dropped the bombs and kill3d kids and teachers. KIDS AND TEACHERS!!
Then – more bombs. One twisted crackpot religious lunatic kill3d.
Then – our brave servicemen kill3d and our rotting puss-filled corpse of a potus praises statues and fukkin curtains… and when these brave service person’s, who had paid the ultimate price, bodies were returned home with honor, the hateful childrapistpotus did not remove his hat to honor the fallen – WTAF!!

But it just cant be reality…I must be fukkin dreaming. Nobody in this country would actually say something so incredibly lame…maybe from north Korea…or one of those other backward, greedy dicktater-led countries that do not seperate church and state like the USA does…or once did anyway…our founding fathers are spinning in their graves.

…but what about the constitution? Isnt that a binding…sacred…almost religious document? Now it seems that those who once preached to uphold the constitution at all cost, no matter what, no matter who dies…now those same people are just choosing to ignore it…WTAF!

Oh…and never mind the huge and in fukkin BOLD fact that we…our entire culture…has absolutely zero…ZERO…credible evidence – that ANY of the mystical gods, angels, and SO MUCH other random BS in the Bible and other evidence-lacking dusty ancient sacred books and all the words vomiting from the mouthpieces kings and clergy of the multitudes of religions and denominations – have ever even existed at all. In all logical likelihood the reality is this: all the stores in all the old religious books are simply lessons and myths to help ancient folks make sense of the world and culture around them. These old books are only reality inside the readers own head.

When I was young I was taught that in any important decision, one should put evidence first, and the decision second. The reverse of that is a decision without supporting evidence, and those who use this misguided strategy are in search of one of two things:

An emotional response possibly seated in a personal desire or need.

Or

Greed and control seeking hubris. Hubris is dangerous.

To make decisions without factual, logical, supporting evidence is insane.

It seems that these people – that some of us have chosen to place into power – are absolute fukkin deranged lunatics that should be locked securely in padded rooms.

For them to actually say the unbelievably and stupendously stupid things they have said about bringing about the “end times,” or “armageddon,” or whateverthefuk – with the most outrageous of them all that his orange painted magasty DJT was sent by jeezus/god et. all. – is totally and rabidly barking mad.

I still keep pinching myself hoping to wake up from this bizarre nightmare…but no, apparently I am awake and this IS reality.

So many human lives have been cut short, so many civilizations turned to vine or dust covered rubble, so much knowledge has been lost, destroyed by religiopolitical cult leaders claiming their way is better because they claim that an imaginary god figure said so – often through the mouthpiece of a fat, bloated, king, president, chief, or bigman…and even more bizarre and inexplicable – they followed the imaginary god/king’s made up commands and destroyed so many real and beautiful things that actually physically existed…and they did it all believing they were correct and in the name of their chosen leader or god that they could not even see worth their own eyes. Either they all were deranged lunatics, or greed and power mad driven charlatans with absolutely zero empathy predating upon their followers, or both of these things.

Sadly it seems history is repeating itself.

It seems that the dangerous cults of lunatic fringe religion are trying their best to bring back holy wars at the cost of…everything moving forward.

The toxic weight of the religious trauma this is going to instill into everyone who survives this mess will be immeasurable.

Speaking of religious trauma – for the first few decades of my life I was traumatized by the religion i was born into – Christianity. From a very early age I was confused by all the bizarre talk of loving each other, taking care of others, including the weak, the old, the poor, the homeless, the immigrant. ..but then, quickly followed by and absolutely terrifying to a young child – follow my invisible all powerful sky dwelling God, or burn in hell, suffer horrifying end times BS, Jesus this and Jesus that, the heaven and hell, fire and brimstone, rivers of blood, multiheaded beasts, 666, demons, devils, nostradomous, nukes, the cold war, yada, yada, yada. Even while writing these words I still feel the anxiety welling up inside me – but I know this is not a god or devil pulling my strings…it is the constant programming I received from the church, my culture, my (well meaning) parents and family who were also under the spell of all the religiopolitical madness. All of it that still to this day causes a PRSD type reaction in my mind. All this twisted mystical hate and fear filled BS really traumatized my young brain and truly wrecked my evidence based decision-making process…for many years.

The only way I was ever able to dig myself out of the mind killing grave that was that twisted religious death worshipping religiopolitical cult, was to remember what my amazing mom taught me about evidence supported decision making and critical thinking. Without evidence supported critical thinking skills, you will fall for and follow anyone and anything that promises paradise. My mom was also a teacher, she encouraged me to read and learn about anything that interested me, and she supplied books, frequent trips to the public library, and the power of the acquisition of factual knowledge. Through her I learned that knowledge conquers fear.

This is why I choose to not follow any religion. This is why I choose to follow the evidence wherever it leads and use the methods and tools of science and my own brain to make decisions for myself and others.

The only “religion” I respect is Buddhism – and its not even a religion, its a practice based on peace, kindness, compassion, and self discovery.

In my experience, most modern religions very rarely use evidence to support their decision making process…but dusty old words from an ancient book, written and rewritten by countless bloated kings and authors, and then taken far outside of their historical context…sure, why not. In fact, it is often the exact opposite, with the evidence from the last 2026 years suggesting that more blood has been shed in the name of religions than in all wars ever waged on planet earth. The rivers of blood have already been shed and if there is an actual hell, we are now living in it and DJT and his mindless minions are the devil and his demons.

These people are absolutely fukkin insane.

Examples: 911 and Iran – so many parallels between the radical islamic terrorists who attacked the WTC and Pentagon, and the lunatic fringe chrustofascist malignant morons now pulling the strings of yet more bloody oil wars in the middle east.

Oh, let us not forget the E. Files. Remember all the violat3d young girls, women, boys and men, the redrum and kanabilism, the pain, the endless lies, and the disgusting fear mongering and toxic racist h8. If there ever was an antichrist, the vile potus and his demented lunatics running this once great land are the embodiment of that mythical sentiment.

But all that is just my humble evidence-supported opinion.

If this speaks to you in any way, I have written at (even greater) length about the topic of religious trauma, and what it took me to shake off the sticky, gripping, toxic tentacles and hugely heavy anchors of religion. It is one of my longest blog posts and it helped me sort through my thoughts and finally get out from under the thumb of the religio-political mind control system that many of us in the US were all exposed to beginning from day one. If you are struggling with what is going on in the world or within your own mind, then feel free to read my post through the below link. If it helps you sort things out then please feel free to share, and I wish you, and all of us luck, love, and peace with whatever comes our way.

Knowledge conquers fear.

Do only Good and Pretti things.

Be the change.

Choose wisely.

One Love.

Peace.

Religiopolitical Trauma Sucks – aka Knowledge Conquers Fear

VOTE…while you still can.

On By StevoIn anthropology, conspiracy, critical thinking, Environment, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Please get your butt out there and VOTE.

Pray to whatever god(s) you believe in – or lack thereof.

Think good thoughts.

But let us remember that these religiopolitical/societal experiments in governing ourselves are just that – experiments.

Over the last ten thousand or so years of human civilization, there have been many societies that have risen and fallen, and just as many experiments in governing the populace. So many political organizations, religions, kings, queens, gods and goddesses have been invented, worked for a time, and faded away or fell flat on their faces only to disappear into the pages of dusty unopened books, the sands of time and/or the rock strata, and some, like ours – are novel and are still in the testing phase.

Just because this experiment is the one we are testing and living through today – does not mean it is the only way or the best way to govern a society and its people – in fact, recent evidence suggest that this experiment may be failing on many fronts.

If this grand experiment does in fact prove to be a total failure, it will need to be ended and relegated to the history books as yet another example of what not to do.

Therefore, it is not productive or helpful to believe this ongoing experiment is the end all be all best way to govern a large population of people, and therefore, as it is only an experiment in governing – it is not at all helpful to yourself or others to get all bent out of shape when someone you know or love chooses to support another “team” and/or if your chosen “team” loses its seat at the table.

Nor is it at all helpful to harm others or their property with your actions or words because, in all probability – in a century none of this will matter and the world will have moved on in its never-ending orbit around the sun and the thinking members of its population will have adapted to meet the challenge…or not.

There are only two choices in the game of life: adapt or die.

Improvise, adapt, overcome, evolve, survive, and thrive.

Make good choices.

Do only good things.

One Love.

Unless.

Peace.

Part 2.
If your “team” (political, religious, or sport) doesn’t win the game and in response, you are choosing or planning violence, hatred, intimidation, spreading evidence-lacking FUD, and/or harm/damage/vandalism to citizens and/or their property, and/or wildlife or nature – then the simple fact is this: you are not a patriot of whatever country or religion you choose to reside within.

If you support or promote past or future violence, hatred, intimidation, spreading evidence-lacking FUD, and/or harm/damage/vandalism to citizens and/or their property, wildlife and/or nature – then you are not a patriot.

What you are is a bully and a terrorist and a danger to society and to everything your religio-political affiliation stands for.

Don’t be bully.
Don’t be a terrorist.
Don’t let the fairy tales you have chosen to believe in, poison your mind and make your decisions for you.

Wake up.
Think for yourself.
Grow up.
Get help.
Be a good human.
Make good choices.
Do only good things.

If you know someone who is exhibiting these troubling symptoms – please report them to the authorities ASAP – it just may save a life or lives.

Heavy Thought Time

On By StevoIn anthropology, critical thinking, earth, Environment, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, Science, space, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To create a life is rather easy, people do it all the time.

To create good people, that is possibly the most difficult thing we will ever do.

We have all heard about the nature vs nurture debate, and from where I stand as an observer of nature, I see many deep connections between all living things everywhere I look – connections that run like fungal mycelium throughout the deep-time tapestry of life.

These ancient genetic connections are incredibly apparent to me because I see them in myself. I was adopted as a newborn and spent the next several decades with wonderful, loving parents who nurtured and cared for me, giving me a comfortable home, an education, and most of all, the ability to think for myself. They let me choose my own path – they did not force on me any specific religion, politics, or any other worldviews – they let me choose for myself who I was to become. They were the nurture side of the coin that I received in this coin toss called life.

On the nature side of the coin: From a very young age, my curiosity about the natural world around me was incredibly strong. I have always had a deep empathetic nature and a deep connection to animals, nature, wildlife, and the silent teachers that exists in the forest, an endlessly flowing river, the rolling ocean waves, and the deeptime knowledge that exists in every rock, tree, mountain, water drop, and in our own DNA – these are teachers that only some of us can hear.  Due to these deep connections to the natural world I always wondered if I had inherited this intense love and focus on nature from my biological family.

Then, in 2018, I used the tools of science to find my genetic family and my suspicions were confirmed – my love of nature was indeed genetic – my father and all my family members were great lovers of nature and all things wild and wonderful. My father and I shared so many things in common – even down to things like favorite foods, TV shows, music, vehicles, wildlife, it is really astounding how many deep connections we share.

So for me specifically, the nature vs nurture argument is no longer a debate – i am a product of both of these things.

From my point of view, and from my lived experience – I believe that at birth we carry within our genetic code, a singular sequence specifically written by the experiences of our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and far far back into deeptime, to a time before we gave ourselves names, before we harnessed fire, before we were even human. This ancient code sequence is the nature side of the coin. It is a hard written instinct stamped into our DNA by the experiences of all our ancestors. This ancient code is expressed,  like it or not, by our consciousness.  But what the heck is consciousness anyway?

In an attempt to answer this age old question we need to flip the coin back over to the nurture side again and ask – what about our consciousness?  Where does it come from?  What is it that allows us to look in the mirror and say “Hello me, i recognize that i exist…i think therefore i am.” 

Where does the consciousness  originate?  Some say it is all in the mind…and maybe this is so.  However, I sometimes wonder if it comes from outside the body…another realm of existence that we have yet to identify.  Maybe we and all life on earth are part of this unique and massive energy field…this Singularity…and we are greatly limiting ourselves when we think that we are separate, apart, alone individuals.  But in reality…a reality we have not discovered yet because we are not yet ready, not evolved enough to experience that reality and understand it…maybe we are all connected deeper than we could ever imagine.  Maybe when our body exhausts itself and ceases to exist, maybe our unique consciousness – our soul – retreats back into this unknown realm, this undiscovered country, to rejoin with the rest of the whole where it then shares its lifetime of experiences with its “peers” afterwhich it is reset, and then born again as another lifeform on earth…or another planet in the vast cosmos – and the cycle continues.

I do not believe in omnipotent beings – a god or gods – and therefore i do not believe a devine creator being gives us each a unique consciousness – at soul – at birth.  I have this hypothesis that at birth, our consciousness is a blank clean slate…like a new computer waiting to have is blank but eager to learn storage drives filled up with all our unique photos, music, stories, history – the unique things we save close to our hearts and minds – the things that make us, us.

Maybe we are all born with this same basic, “blank slate” consciousness.  Maybe this blank slate consciousness is exactly the same for everyone – it is a carbon copy of whatever the first one was, whatever the first human being was.  Then, as we live and grow and are exposed to our family, friends, society, the media, religion, politics, science, culture, war, love, hate, bullies, hippies, laughter, passion, sickness, trauma, etc – maybe it is only after this exposure to all these unique outside experiences and influences, coupled with the genetic expression of our instinctual nature knowledge passed down from our unique evolutionary lineages, does our unique consciousness truly becomes ours, and only ours.  It becomes unique to each human due to the unique experiences each of us has experienced as well as the deep genetic connections we brought forward in time from our unique ancestrial DNA.

Maybe the “me” and “you” parts of our thinking brains are exactly the same until they experience life, the universe, and everything around us during our first few years of life – and then we become the unique individuals that we are – we become the you and the me that we see in the mirror.

If all this is so, then to guide an innocent young human into adulthood as a parent, teacher, or mentor, is possibly the greatest responsibility one could ever hold.

Choose wisely.

Think before you speak.

Be a good human.

Do good things.

Another Thought Experiment

On By StevoIn anthropology, climate change, critical thinking, earth, Environment, nature, religion, Science, space, UncategorizedLeave a comment

If a highly advanced, long-lived, extraterrestrial species from another galaxy landed on Earth today and told us we were all part of a long-term planetary biology/evolution “lab” experiment designed and implemented several million years ago in the attempt to discern the direction biological evolution would take under the unique environmental conditions offered by this planet and its star…

…and/or…

If Jesus (or any other religious prophet) returned and/or appeared – and he was a dark skinned, barefoot, long haired, “herb” smoking, robe wearing, bisexual, “hippie” “dude” whose pronown was “whatever man” and he was asking all of us to destroy our walls, weapons, governments, religions, superficial labels and divisions, and all coexist and live in harmony…

Recent events suggest that many people who call themselves religious would probably deny the flesh and blood evidence standing in front of them, and cry “demon,” “witch,” ” infidel,” “imposter,” – and then try to crucify and/or dissect them.


Sadly, the fearful, preconceived notions of what many believe their god and/or extraterrestrial visitors should be are far too limiting and microscopically small, to allow them to see the grandeur of the cosmos as it actually exists, and all the amazing possibilities it may hold.

We are our own most limiting factor.

The Matrix

On By StevoIn critical thinking, Science, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Who out there with an ounce of grey matter would actually decide to change who they vote for/support because they saw a name/slogan on a sign on the side of the road, on a bumper sticker, on a flag or banner, watched a mudslinging TV spot/interview attempting to harm a challenger, believed someone else’s gossip or manufactured drama, or put on an article of clothing with their insignia/motto stamped upon it?

Who with an ounce of grey matter would actually give their own money to these people so they can litter the planet with even more of their propaganda?  The majority of these people have far more money than any of us will ever be able to even imagine and yet, somehow, they have conned good people to give them even more money.  The insanity of it all boggles the brain.   

I see all this me me madness as a pathetic and wasteful attempt to prop up all these insecure humans in perceived high places who seem to have a great need for attention, for competition – it is a truly weak attempt to satisfy a pathological need, an unhealthy all-consuming lust to win – at any cost.

What is this bizarre preoccupation some humans have to win, to be in control, to feel powerful, to be important, to be worshipped?  I believe it is an evolutionary hold over from our – eat or be eaten us vs. them tribal days.

It is an illusion. 

It is not working for us any longer.

It is time to stop the madness.

It is time to evolve out of the vestigial evolutionary tools of the past that have become dangerous delusions of the present that now work to control our minds.

It is time to grow up out of our tribal us vs. them childish evolutionary mindset.

If all these flag, banner and sign waving politicians and pontiffs would just stop trying to prop themselves and their followers up with hollow promises and just stop and think for a moment and use the brain they often boast that they have – maybe they would then realize how much time, energy, and money they have spent on all the ridiculous boasts, lies, signs, flags, banners, ads, commercials, and other single-use litter that serves no real purpose. 

What if they actually decided to stop the endless competition, put their heads, hearts, knowledge, maths, and monies together, and started to work together to solve the big problems we have as a species?

What kind of amazing things could be accomplished if we could only stop competing with each other and start working together?

Sadly it seems that many of us are stuck fast in a deep rut.  We are taught from an early age that we must compete with “the other” to get anywhere in life.  We are taught that our side is “good” and the other side is “bad” and we are fed this illusion from all “sides” – at home with controlling parents, at school with grades, bullies, and competitive sports, at work with bosses and subordinates and climbing ladders, in religion with fathers, kings, gods and devils, good and evil, in politics and the military with the us vs. them mentality – until we are programed and conditioned to believe it is all true.  We then blindly distrust those from the other “side” or the “middle” who show us any evidence to the contrary, we blindly ignore their facts, we choose to ignore common sense, we quickly toss out the science, we stop trusting and loving friends and family who do not fit into or follow our limited world view, we put our politics and religion above observable facts, love, and humanity – this is when we have become nothing more than mindless automatons controlled by the matrix that we ourselves created.

It is time to destroy the matrix.

It is time to wake up out of the bizarre mindset that politics and religion are the only way to exist as human animals.

There is more to life than this madness.

John Lennon famously asked us to Imagine.

Now is the time to Imagine what we could become if we could only step out of this destructive toxic box we have locked ourselves within.

Step out of the box.

Shed your scarred old skin.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Knowledge conquers fear.

Do only good things.

Unless.

One Love.