Here are two links that I consider very important.
First
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/13/burzynski-cancer-film.aspx
My connection is so slow that I am still waiting for the download. But, Janet went to Dr Burzynski and we definitely believe that he has a breakthrough technology that is the only known cure for many types of brain cancer. The team Hannah blog that I referred you to in the past is just one example of it curing a cancer that was absolutely positively branded as incurable by the medical establishment.
I’m quite aware that many websites love to discredit him. I tried for months to reason with one of them. But, it was obvious that the whole purpose of the website was to discredit Dr. Burzynski. I was actually amazed that they would allow me to put my comments on there. But it became apparent that for every good thing I said, they posted 10 other ridiculous lies.
I assume that most of the doctors that said that Hannah was incurable are not bad people. They are just working with what they think is the best available information. The tragedy is that many technologies like this are being blocked by big Pharma through the corrupt FDA. The FDA would not allow him to use antineoplastons to help Janet and she and thousands of others may have been alive today if they had.
I also found this successful cure link:
http://www.burzynskipatientgroup.org/laurel-press/233
The second very important link is
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/12/malala-un-address/2511915/
You can cancel the advertisement at the beginning or Google for other articles about this wonderful woman, actually really still just a VERY brave girl.
The Taliban tried to execute Malala because she vocally supported education for women and other basic rights that we take for granted. They shot her in the head. How can such a repressive ideology not be the work of the Devil? If you do not believe in a Devil, then substitute “Evil People.” Like the comic book ultra villains. They use a religion as their excuse to do evil. Sadly, we have people far too much like that in the USA using different religions as excuses to justify their evil intent.
This is by no means intended to imply that America is worse than many other countries. Religion has been used as justification for atrocities since before recorded history.
Just to repeat the principal points of my position. Not to imply in any way that you need to agree with me or should change what you have already decided on the subject. Just to say where I’m coming from at this moment. And I reserve the right to change over time.
I have met several otherwise bright people in my travels, who try hard to convince me that religion is the only reason for “Good” in the world.
I will have to water down my opinion of that by many orders of magnitude and just say that I believe that it is nonsense. Very, very dangerous nonsense. Over and over again we have examples all through history of religion being used to justify tremendous atrocities. Haven’t the majority of wars throughout history, been justified by religion?
Over and over again we have examples all through history of atheists and agnostics, being wonderful, benevolent people. Doing wonderful good works. Not because they think some mind in the sky commands them to do so. But, because it just seems like a good idea. Kind of an obvious good idea.
Religion and a ‘concept of good and evil that I would agree with,’ are two entirely different, unrelated things. I obviously feel very strongly about that. If you disagree, then I would ask you to put on your thinking cap. Hopefully you can remember where you left it.
I also feel strongly that everyone should have religious freedom. That includes the atheists and agnostics, because what is that, but their view about the subject of religion?
I have met a frightening number of Americans who are all for religious freedom. But, somehow they think that means that their particular flavor should be supreme and forced down the throats of everyone. While all the others, and so often they attempt to denigrate all other religions by calling them cults. But they think that all these other cults, should be squashed and particularly atheists and agnostics. Once again, I cannot really tell you what I think about that position without exposing you to my rich vocabulary of words that really shouldn’t be written down. So I will just say that I think they’re full of poop and dangerous to society. I hope their brain transplant gets approved soon.
If you believe in a God, and I certainly do, then I would hope that you believe that your God is very powerful. He, she, or it should not need your help and ask you to go out and harm people. He, she, or it should not be threatened by people that have not yet arrived at your brilliantly enlightened idea of reality.
To my mind, freedom of religion is such a simple and useful idea. How else would you be allowed to practice YOUR religion, or YOUR disbelief in a higher power? If there is a mandated belief on this subject, what are the odds that it will be yours? Therefore, many, probably most people are going to be unhappy with the result. To me the obvious solution is to be allowed to believe what you want to. Won’t your God work it out just fine in the long run? If someone doesn’t think that their God is up to the task, I suggest that is proof that they need to shop around for a new one.
To me it is sort of like the idea of democracy. If we let everyone have an equal say in what happens. And it is very important that they think that they have an equal say in what happens. Actually, I’m not convinced that Americans really do. But that’s another topic.
But, if everyone thinks that they have an equal say in their government, then it seems to me, that it has a stabilizing influence. It discourages revolution and Civil War. I agree that sometimes those are necessary, but I think in general they are bad idea.
It seems obvious to me that a democracy cannot possibly be the best possible government if your definition of best means “the greatest good”. Some people are obviously much smarter and more knowledgeable about important things and how to get them accomplished than others. But, I think that the last 10,000 years of experimenting with government has shown that the odds of mandating or forcefully installing the people that YOU think are smarter and more knowledgeable about important things in charge of your government, does not happen very often. And most people will disagree with your choice.
That becomes a very unstable system, with the worst of the crud, constantly trying to float to the top. So, that is why I believe that a ‘democratic system’ is the best we have come up with so far.
I’ve read several articles recently about surveys taken all over the world. They ask individuals their opinion of the level of corruption in their countries. The corruption of political leaders, law enforcement, religious leaders, everybody. In these studies the US does not come out very well at all. In these studies most Americans think that America is quite corrupt. That’s a shame. Especially if it is true. And I know that you and I are working to reduce that corruption, but it’s a big country and I do not assume that we will turn it all into Mr. Rogers Neighborhood very soon. But I keep trying, and appreciate that you do also.
In that vein, I encourage you to always vote to the best of your ability, and to also spread ideas that you think are good, to the best of your ability. And, if you can think of some other way to help, have at it. Even if you think I’m full of poop.
Like the bumper sticker says:
“Practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty”
I do it because it feels good, but if the only way I can get you to do it is because ‘Dave said so,’ I can live with that. Thanks.
Dave
Alegria1976's Blog 
We went to Shabbat services at our temple last night. Monday will be a day of mourning for the Jewish people, so our rabbi chose to focus on the haftorah reading, which is Isaiah 1:1-27. This text tells us that the bad things which befell the Jewish people at that time were because of the collective actions and failings of said Jewish people.
Our rabbi’s remarks on this text were along the lines of the following:
This is the doctrine of collective guilt, now illegal under international law. Interestingly, there is a passage in our High Holy Days liturgy which has the Roman emperor using this doctrine as an excuse to torture 10 Jewish sages to death. This doctrine has been used and is still in use by bad people right up to the present. You can hear it almost every day on your TV.
This teaching in Isaiah tells us that people always want to externalize blame. They blame their problems on other people and they blame their god or gods. And all the time, blame is hardly the point. The point is where do you go from here? How do you go forward? How do you avoid reacting to past events and instead act on your principles in the present?
End of my paraphrasing of Rabbi’s remarks.
Most of human culture lost the whole point of religion a long time ago, as soon as our culture figured out that power politics could make use of religion to make the rich richer. The powerful always attempt to hide and subvert the purpose of religion.
If one reads the texts of the Abrahmic religions with an open mind, one quickly sees that they are a historical record of the struggle of humans to create a better society than the one that exterminated the Neanderthals and Denisovans. They are not a cookbook nor a “how to.” Rather they are a record of the diversity and evolution of thought which informed various experiments.
This is the reason that, as is well known, one can find support for any viewpoint in these texts. This is not a defect. It is the purpose of the texts: to show that there was and is a diversity of thought, and that is a good thing. That’s the reason they were saved and edited into their present form. Our ancestors were not all fools. If anything, we have more fools now.
What is now known as “secular humanism” was of course created by scholars of these texts. They have subtracted the idea that the powerful can use god or some promise of never-never land to force compliance, another step in the evolution of these religions.
Hi Dave – first, I love reading your thoughtful and thought stimulating blogs! I just started reading Deepak Chopra’s book “The Third Jesus”, and the basic premise is that there are really 3 “Jesus'”. The physical man who lived and who’s teachings are the foundation of Christian theology and thought. Next is the Jesus the Son of God which is the embodiment of an institutional religion with specific dogma, a printhood and devout believers. And finally the third Jesus, the “cosmic Christ”, a spiritual guide whose teachings embraces all humanity – not just the church built in his name. It’s an interesting read, and makes many interesting observations about the current dichotomy of Jesus as all good vs. Jesus as all punishing and how organized religion utilizes this. Chopra’s viewpoint is that Jesus’ teaching were/are a calling for the individual to join him in Chris consciousness, on a higher spiritual plane, which completely changes the teachings from literal interpretations. The final sentence in the book is “Your goal and mine isn’t to imitate Jesus. It is to become part of him, or as he said- to abide in him We can do that at the level of consciousness by becoming part of the unending process that turns separation into unity.”
Interesting thoughts! Each individual as an expression of the whole.
Luv you….