{"id":3701,"date":"2015-03-28T17:17:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T17:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/?p=3701"},"modified":"2015-03-28T17:17:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T17:17:35","slug":"why-religion-has-to-go-regulating-sin-makes-us-feel-superior-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/?p=3701","title":{"rendered":"Why Religion has to go: Regulating Sin makes us feel superior, special."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cardrayburke1\"<\/a>
\nRoman Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke.
\nIn a recent HuffPo article, the Cardinal lays out the inescapable truth of of it all:
\nCardinal Raymond Burke: Gays, Remarried Catholics Are Just As Sinful As Murderers<\/a>.
\nFrom the article:
\n\u201cIf you are living publicly in a state of mortal sin there isn\u2019t any good act that you can perform that justifies that situation: the person remains in grave sin,\u201d Burke said in an interview with LifeSiteNews, a U.S.-based web service focused on battling abortion and promoting other conservative causes.
\n<\/em>
\n\u201cAnd to give the impression that somehow there\u2019s something good about living in a state of grave sin is simply contrary to what the (Catholic) Church has always and everywhere taught,\u201d said Burke, who spoke to LifeSiteNews in Rome.<\/em>
\nHe’s not lying, nor making this up, he is simply restating Catholic dogma that goes way, way back.
\n\"cardrayburke2\"<\/a>
\nMore:
\nAsked if being \u201ckind\u201d and \u201cgenerous\u201d and \u201cdedicated\u201d is enough, Burke replied: \u201cOf course it\u2019s not. It\u2019s like the person who murders someone and yet is kind to other people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter to religion how good a person you are, it matters only if you follow the rules. If you broke one of their made-up rules, being good otherwise isnt important, adherence to the Church’s rules is what it is all about.
\n\"cardrayburke3\"<\/a>
\nAnd more:
\nOn the surface, Burke\u2019s comments break little theological ground; the church has always taught that sin is sin, and some sins are especially serious. For example, cohabitation, homosexual relations and adultery (which is how the Catholic Church views the relations of a couple who are divorced and remarried without annulling the first marriage) are viewed as mortal sins, as is murder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Living in sin, Mortal Sin<\/strong> is really really bad. If you fornicate without being married, have gay sex, divorce and have hetrosexual sex without someone else OR KILL SOMEONE<\/strong>…yes, murder another human being, you have committed mortal sin. These are equal in the eyes of the Church, the sight of the Lord.
\nMake love to your gay partner, have sex with your girlfriend, get a divorce (without permission from Holy Mother Church) and make love to your new wife and it is as bad to the Church<\/strong> as killing another human being.
\nWhat assholes. Do we really need to pay any attention at all to this shit in 2015?
\nThese ideas were dreamed up millenia ago. They were primitive musings about god and behavior then and they arent any more intelligent or real now.
\nThey are all made up. By men. To control people, to create power through false authority by controlling behavior, sexual behavior especially and relegate women to lesser status.
\nI chose all the images for this post and placed them in order on purpose.
\nThe title image was a depiction of original sin:
\n\"originalsin\"<\/a>
\nAccording to Genesis in the OT the first woman Eve, tempted by a serpent (tellingly depicted also as a woman in this painting) convinces Adam to sin with her by eating fruit (not an apple) from the tree of knowledge that God commanded them not to. Another hokey old myth from 2-3,000 years ago is all it is. One of hundreds, thousands of little episodes included in the mythic stories from dozens of cultures way back when to explain how the world works, how the heavens go, what ultimate reality really is or what some god or another has in mind for us to do and especially not do.
\nThe first sin in the Xian faiths, and in many others. From this myth the concept of Original Sin that we all inherit was developed in the writings of St. Paul and later St. Augustine. They made it up. Interpreting the just as made up Adam and Eve myth.
\n\"staugustine\"<\/a>
\nSt. Augustine.
\nThey thought about it, hearing the thoughts in their heads as inspired by their god and declared us all sinners, from the moment we were born. Humanity to Augustine is massa damnata <\/em>, sinners from the get go before we even perform one of the sinful behaviors that Cardinal Burke relates that only add to our sinfulness.
\nThe Catholic Church, unlike some Protestant sects says you don’t inherit the guilt of sin, just the inclination toward it. No shit, how kind of them.<\/p>\n

You can wiki this stuff and read for hours, all the theological interpretations and nuances held by the different sects, expounded upon in excruciating detail by theologian after theologian (Xian theologians LOVE “nuance,” it keeps them in business) and despite the authoritative certainty with which they hold their endlessly competing views you easily get the idea they have no idea what the fuck they are talking about, they are making it up as they go along.
\nThat’s what all theology is, what all church leaders do. From the lowliest youth minister, to the struggling street preacher, the famous TV evangelist to the Cardinal, to the Pope himself and the bazillions of theologians past and present: they all pontificate on old myths in their Scripture and tell us how they think<\/em> their god demands we behave. <\/p>\n

Makes ’em feel pretty special, authoritative, righteous. The Cardinal thinks he is doing all of u a favor, trying to right humanities boat and follow what he thinks is god’s plan. (The ISIS boyz think they are doing humanity a favor as well by getting anyone within their reach to follow their god’s plan, oh joy.).
\nAnd he feels special, apart, righteous, authoritative.
\nJust look at his images. Three different funny hats.
\nWear any one of those to the next party you go to, huh?
\nAh, but in Church context, along with flowing robes, special vestments that symbolize learned authority…he is a respected Church leader.
\nThat’s the lie, that’s the scam.
\nThat “holy men” are special, learned, wise cuz they wear funny clothes and read from old, old books.
\nWe could kill it overnite by ignoring them, utterly.
\nWhat if the Pope talked and nobody listened?<\/p>\n

The Cardinal is not special.<\/strong>
\nHe knows nothing more than you me or your neighbor nor anyone else on the planet. He just an old white guy. He does not have special knowledge, nor authority. No theologian, no church leader, not the Pope nor Dalai Lama know anything more about how the world really works nor how you must behave…than you do or anybody else does.
\nThat’s the lie, that’s the scam.
\nWomen are not the cause of “original sin”…there is no such thing. They made it up. And women are not the devil’s gateway as the conduit of sin through improper sexual behavior, which all religions define in some way. Sex done wrong is so bad for the Cardinal and his Church that it is as bad as murder.
\nWhat an asshole concept sin is. Like slavery, racism, or women not being educated or able to vote it is another idea held up solely by religions that we could finally outgrow.
\nWhat if the Cardinal spoke, and nobody listened, nobody respected him solely because of his robes and funny hats? <\/p>\n

You can ignore them and everything they say.
\nIt works. I’ve blogged before on Birth Control<\/a>. The vast majority of educated Catholics living in developed countries whether predominantly Catholic or not, use birth control and ignore all the voluminous theology behind the prohibition to interrupt what Holy Mother Church defines as natural sex.
\nAnd divorce. Catholics divorce as much as any group and ignore the state of sin they are said to live in should they have sex with someone else. Gays worldwide have sex, whether Catholics, ex-Catholics, never been Catholic, never heard of Catholicism. Worldwide much Catholic dogma is completely ignored.<\/p>\n

It works.
\nIgnore them. The Cardinal, the Pope, all theologians and religious leaders, the Lama, ministers, priests, imams, the lot.
\nThey have no power if we ignore them. They have no power unless we give it to them.
\nThey are not special. They know nothing more than anyone else. It’s all made up.
\nSin is an asshole idea whose time has come to be relegated to the dustbin of history. (thnx, Hitch).
\n\"IKR\"<\/a>
\nend religion now.
\nIgnore it.<\/p>\n

(758)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roman Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke. In a recent HuffPo article, the Cardinal lays out the inescapable truth of of it all: Cardinal Raymond Burke: Gays, Remarried Catholics Are Just As Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[103,290,432],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3701"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3720,"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions\/3720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wearedone.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}