CHRISTIANITY: IS IT REALLY ABOUT GOD, OR MANIPULATION AND GREED?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

CHRISTIANITY: IS IT REALLY ABOUT GOD, OR MANIPULATION AND GREED?

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I give truth and common sense priority over any kind of political or religious ideology, because politics and religion are one and the same, they both deal in manipulating the naïve, gullible and uninformed for money and power. So my one and only philosophy is to follow truth wherever it leads and regardless to whose ox it gores.
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With that, most Christians would say, but "the word of God" is truth, and then immediately start quoting the Bible to prove their point and suggest that I'm a closed-minded heathen destined to go to Hell if I don't change my thinking. But these people have been so completely indoctrinated in Christian dogma throughout their lives that they completely fail to recognize that the only reason they accept the Bible as "the word of God" is because the Bible says it is, and they have absolutely no other evidence of that fact other than the Bible itself.
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But that's where "faith" and/or gullibility comes in, and why faith plays such an important role in ALL religions. Even though Jesus was born in the desert, and even the Bible describes him differently, Christians portray him as a White Scandinavian with blue eyes. If that were true they wouldn’t have had to crucify him, he would have died of Sunburn.  So if they even lied about what the man looked like, what are the chances that they're telling us the truth about what he, or anybody else said? It's not very likely. So I view Jesus as an enlightened philosopher - period. He wasn’t God, or any more supernatural than the rest of us. That’s why when they stabbed him, he died just like the rest of us are going to - and he's not coming back, so we need to give that Hocus-Pocus nonsense a rest. This is real life, not Mother Goose, and we're adults, not children.
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In a 1841 speech, Frederick Douglass said he was in church and witnessed a young Christian White woman go into a trance. When she came out of it she claimed to have visited Heaven.  When she was asked were there any Black people there, she hesitated, and then said, “I don’t know.  I didn’t go into the kitchen.”  Can you believe that any person who is that far out of touch with reality is being informed by God? 
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Nevertheless, one of the main tenets of Christianity is that its adherents maintain absolute and unwavering "faith" in what they are told.  One of the worst sins that can be committed by a Christian is to lose faith - not just faith in God, but faith in what they're being told about God. This serves two very important purposes.  First, it prevents people from even thinking about whether or not what they're being told makes sense, and secondly, it allows preachers - or "men of God" - to step into God's place as his surrogate.  So essentially, they become God, and speak on his behalf. As a result, many Christians are not actually worshipping God, but their preachers. That's why they make them so rich.
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When Christians give to the church, subconsciously, they think they're buying their way into Heaven. For a mere 10% of their earnings they can receive absolution for all of the dirt and abuse of others they've committed that week. That leaves them perfectly free to go out and commit more social atrocities the following week - like firing people from badly needed jobs, mowing down unarmed Black people on the street, or letting the people who commit said murders go free - and all in good conscience, and with God's blessing. So it's the perfect solution for everybody - it keeps scoundrels free to commit sin, and the "men of God" in big homes and fancy cars.  And they do all of these things in the name of God, and with the ardent support of the very people who are the most negatively impacted by it. 
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But truth and common sense dictates that it's all nonsense. If a devout Christian born in Georgia had been born in Israel, he would be a devout Jew, or if in Iran, a devout Muslim, or if he’d been born in China he would be a devoted Buddhist. That clearly demonstrates that religion is not of God, but of man. People are actually socialized into believing what they believe. If God had created religion to guide us, would he have created so many of them that they would cause man to hate, brutalize and murder one another?  I don't think so, not a loving God. 
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PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MIND 

GOD GAVE YOU, JUST LISTEN TO ME.

So although it is claimed that religion was placed on Earth as a blessing to mankind from a loving God, in reality, organized religion is without a doubt the most evil and destructive force on the face of the Earth.  It’s the primary source of all manner of hatred, bigotry, and misery in the world, and that's an indisputable fact. 
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Nevertheless, if a person chooses to be a "Believer" that's up to them.  Ordinarily there would be no problem with that if people would simply believed what they believed and go on about their business. But that's not good enough for people who are prone to be religious fanatics.  They're convinced that they're carrying out God's will, so they want to proselytize, and shove their religious beliefs down everybody else's throats, and then, go on to demand that laws be passed to institutionalize their beliefs. A perfect example of that mindset at work was senatorial candidate, Roy Moore. He wanted to make it against the law for gay people to marry, but thought it was perfectly alright to molest 14-year-old girls. We have the same problem with Donald Trump, who routinely uses narrow-minded religious bigotry to gain support for mean-spirited social policies. So instead of the people's so-called love of God spreading love and enlightenment throughout the world, it's being used to sew hatred, misery, and division among the people.
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The fact is, God is whatever force, entity, or process that’s responsible for what we refer to as existence, so if we exist, God exists, regardless of whether God is a he, she, or it - but he hasn't said a word to nobody. The mere fact that we’re here to question God’s existence, however, proves God’s existence. But that’s all we know, and that's all we have to know - period.
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I recognized these facts as a mere child, and I also recognized that I didn't have to be religious to be Godly.  I'm one of the most God-loving people I know, but I don't feel that I have to believe in walkin’ dead men, talkin' snakes, or have to put up with foolish preachers struttin' around on stage giving paid spoken-word concerts every Sunday morning to prove I love God. Embracing that nonsense is where loving God crosses over into brainwashing and Voodoo, and it's shocking to me how many otherwise intelligent people buy into it.
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As a rule, the more undereducated people are, the more religious and bigoted they tend to be, and if they're Black, they tend to be more conservative, critical of other Blacks, and eager-to-please and submissive toward Whites. I could never identify with such people, so as a young adult I came up with my own religion.  I guess you could call it the Gospel of Wattreeism. My Bible is only one page long, and has only three Commandments:
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1). LIVE THE BEST LIFE YOU CAN.
2). HELP OTHERS WHENEVER YOU CAN.
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3). MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS.
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Now, that's Godly, because it doesn't create hatred, hostility, mayhem, or chaos, and I think God would agree with my basic theology, because God’s where I got it, not from some money-hungry and fanatical preacher. It's important to remember that Jesus didn't have any "faith" in the word of any man. He found God within himself, because that's where God resides, and when I seek God’s council, that’s where I look.  On the other hand, the video below portrays what you get from organized religion - maybe not always so blatant, but the end-game is always the same - money:

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CHRISTIANITY: IS IT ABOUT GOD, OR GREED?

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Eric L. Wattree 

wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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HOW A KID RAISED IN THE CHURCH CAME TO REJECT CHRISTIANITY

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

HOW A KID RAISED IN THE CHURCH CAME TO REJECT CHRISTIANITY

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I was recently in a discussion with a gentlemen on religion and he asked me, "You say you believe in God, and you seem to have Christian values, so why do you say you're not a Christian?" My answer was very simple - because God blessed me with common sense, and while I do have values, they're nothing like those that I've seen from so-called Christians, or any other religion. So while I believe in God, I make it a point to keep the word of man out of anything that has to do with my spirituality.  For me, God is whatever force is responsible for creating what we call reality - period. That's all I have to know, and that's all I have to contemplate.
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An individual's organized religious beliefs are merely an accident of birth, and a form of socialization. The very same man, who was born in Georgia, and who was raised to be a devout Christian, would more than likely be a devout Muslim if he'd been born in Iran, a devout Jew if he'd been born in Israel, or a devout Buddhist if he'd been born in China. So again, organized religion is nothing more, or nothing less, than a form of socialization, and it has absolutely nothing to do with God. In fact, religion is anti-God, because you can trace nearly every form of narrow-mindedness, hatred, and bigotry, directly back to man's religious beliefs.
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Man uses religion to try to make himself feel special, as though he has some special connection to God, so by its very nature organized religion is discriminatory, not only toward other groups, but other creatures. From their point of view, it's not that they hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like themselves - it's just that God does. So their religious beliefs are used to both make themselves feel superior, and also, to validate their hatred and distrust of others unlike themselves.  But from my point of view, since God created all things, what makes man think that God loves him any more or less than he does a parakeet?  Thus, religion is nothing more than a reflection of man's arrogance.

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That's why a person's religious beliefs are nearly inseparable from his or her political beliefs.  Many Christians don't believe in global warming, equality among people, that Jesus was Black (not that it matters, since he was just another insightful man, and nothing else), or that the Bible didn't prohibit the wholesale slaughter of up to 100 million native Americans, tying Black people up next to the mules, killing 6 million Jews, or dropping two atomic bombs on the innocent civilians of Japan. Christians claim that they did these things in the name of God. What they do believe in, however, is quietly allowing, and even supporting, the ascent of a nasty, bigoted, and un-Godly man like Donald Trump. Many Christians believe that Trump came into our midst as a result of the will of God, which is complete nonsense, but their religious delusions and myths justify their hatred, anger, bigotry, and greed.
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Thus, religion is invariably used to validate the most malevolent part of man's nature. It allows his hatred, selfishness, and greed to be written off as God-approved, and with respect to Black people, it allows our apathy to be written off as justified - "All we have to do is sit and wait, because God is coming to our rescue." That was the position taken by many in the Black clergy who criticized Martin Luther King. They said his activity was stirring up unnecessary animosity toward the Black community, and that all he had to do was be patient and thing would work themselves out. 

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In that regard, what about Black people - why do they embrace this nonsense, and in many cases, even more passionately than Whites?
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Black people tend to be such devout Christians because they've been taught, first by slave masters, and then by rich, slick-talking Black preachers, that God's going to deliver justice upon them "by-and-by."  But what they don't understand is, God did his part when he gave us a brain, so "God helps those who help themselves." That's the way of nature - God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think. So you either do what you were created to do, or you perish - period. That's a fundamental law throughout the universe for all things that exist.  If a planet drifts to close to it's parent star, it's over, and that's it. So as Black people, we are not going to be able to pray ourselves out of our current condition; we're going to have to think our way out of it, or we're not going to survive, because that's what God created man to do - think, not conjure up stories about a walking dead man coming to our rescue.  Dead men don't walk, and snakes don't talk in this universe - at least in our part of it. That's just not the way things work, and if you believe that it does, or even can work that way, you have more faith in what man says, than what God has done.
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But what makes people so passionate about their religion is it allows them to believe what's convenient for them to believe. That's why in spite of the atrocities that has been committed by this so-called "Christian nation" that have been listed above, we have Americans walking around with tears in their eyes talking about "God bless America."  Such people represent a monument to man's capacity to delude himself.  If we do an objective assessment of the atrocities committed by the United States in its relatively short existence, it will become immediately clear that this has been the most brutal and un-Godly nation in the history of humanity. Our historic record would make one think that the United States was founded by a cult of Devil worshipers - and this comes from a man who loves America. But I love what it can become, not what it has been. So if we are ever to truly become the nation that our founding documents lie so eloquently about, it is a must that we begin to think clearly, and stop believing in talkin' snakes.    

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Ephesians 6:5-9 says, "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ." Those are not my values - and for so-called "good Christians" to simply sit back and say, "We're praying on it" don't fly with me, because they’ve been "praying on it" for centuries now:

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A PORTRAIT OF DELUSION

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THE CONVERSION

"Come here nigga and let me teach yo crazy, animal ass about the Lord. The first thing you got to learn is to Love thy Neighbor . . . especially me."
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"Yes sir, Massa. Why would anybody not love you, Sir? You so good to me, Massa. Anybody don't love you needs to have dey ass beat real good, Massa."
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"Shut up, nigga. I'm talkin'."
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"Listen, you been blessed already, and you don't even know the Lord. The Lord made it where you don't have to worry 'bout a thing. I feed you, I put clothes on yo nasty ass, and I give you a shed to sleep in, and all you have to do is whatever the hell I tell you to. Do you know how blessed you are?"
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"Oh, indeed I do, Massa. You take good care of me. I's so happy."
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"Now, listen real good 'cause dis impotant. God said, thou shalt not steal from me, thou shalt not kill (unless I tell you to), thou shalt not stick another coon's wife (unless we tryin' to make some mo niggas), and nigga, whatever you do, thou shalt not even look like you want to stick a white woman, or we gon lynch yo black ass. You here me, nigga?"
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"Oh yes, Massa. We know dat! But Massa, I thought you said thou shalt not kill?"
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"Dat means people, fool - real people! Dat don't go for niggas. God wants us to keep you in yo place."
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"Dat's right, Massa. We sho gotta keep niggas in dey place. No tellin' what a happen if we let dese niggas git loose. God so smart.".
"I said shut up, nigga, and listen to the word."
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"The next thing you got to learn is, whatever happens on this plantation is God's will bein' done. And if you listen to me, you'll get to live like I do when you die and go to Heaven."
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"Live like you, massa? A nigga ain't got no business livin' dat good. What a Po nigga like me gon do with all this? You know I ain't got sense enough to run nothin' like this."
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"Just shut up, nigga!" When you dead you gon get some sense - the lord gon give it to you. The Lord can do anything, even give sense to a nigga. And he gon give you all the other niggas you gon need to help you in the fields, too."
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"Massa, you so good to me! Thank you for tellin' me all dis. I'm gon be a good nigga - the best nigga you ever seened. Look, I'm gon pray for you right now, and thank the Lord for givin' me so good a massa."
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"Shut up and get up off your knees, ya dumb nigga! The fields need tendin'! You pray to the Lord on your own time. God don't won't you talkin' to him when you s'pose to be workin'."
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"A couse, Massa. What I been thinkin'? I's so dumb. I don't know why you put up with me, Sir."
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"How many times I got to tell you to shut the hell up, nigga?"
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"Yes Sir, I's a shuttin', Massa. I's a shuttin', right now."
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"Now get yo ass out there in that field and let's get some work done around here . . . Oh, and Toby, have yo woman meet me in the barn. I need to tell her 'bout the Lord too."
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"Yes sir, Massa."
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"And another thing, Toby, if my momma come a lookin', tell her I'm playin' in my tree house."
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"Why you gon go fibbin' to yo momma, Mr. Tommy? She knows you like to sit wit Lou Ann."
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"Just shut up, nigga, and do what I said! And tell Lou Ann to wear that pretty dress I like, cause we gon be talkin' 'bout the Lord, so it's gon be like chuch."
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"Yes Sir, Mr. Tommy." . . . "Whaaaaaaat a friend we have in Jeeeeesus . . ."

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How so many Black people can embrace this un-Godly hypocrisy, and a philosophy that promotes self-hatred is beyond my understanding. But what I do understand is that people believe what they’re taught to believe, including the misguided values of self-hatred, bigotry, and hypocrisy.  But I'm virtually certain that there are those who are going to want to challenge many of my assertions, but  before you do, be prepared to answer two questions. First, why is it that the more connected a Black person is to the South, the more apt they are to be a Christian? And secondly, why is the "Bible Belt" the most bigoted, narrow-minded, and mean-spirited part of this country?

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Motherhood: The Most Valuable Profession in Our Society

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Motherhood: The Most Valuable Profession in Our Society

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The primary reason that our society is falling apart is because we’ve devalued the most important profession in our society - motherhood. A stay-at-home mother and housewife is a sociologist, a psychologist, a medic, a financial planner, a teacher, an interior decorator, a chef, a chauffeur, an escort, and a lover, all balled up into one sweet bundle. Yet, society treats them like they’re of little or no value. As a result, women flooded into the job market, and society’s children have been deprived of the most important socialization experience of their lives. This, in turn, has led to crime, rampant drug abuse, the breakdown of our educational and political system, and the general disruption of our society, because the American family is not only the foundation upon which everything else in our society is built, but it is the primary reason for building a society in the first place. 
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Congress has clearly demonstrating that we can do without them in a pinch - they haven’t done a thing in years - but we simply cannot survive without a strong and viable American family. That should make motherhood, and the American housewife, the most lauded and protected profession in America.
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Yet, during the fifties and sixties, we began to chip away at this important institution. Due to our chauvinistic attitude towards women, many mothers and housewives tore off their aprons and began to demand equality with men. They demanded that they too be afforded the opportunity to go into the more "prestigious professions" of medicine, law, science, and business, that, until that time, had been considered the all but exclusive bastion of men.
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That created a severe problem for the nation, because, in terms of their relative value to society, women were already MORE than equal to men, because these mothers and housewives were responsible for the very lifeblood of society - our future. These women were charged with a responsibility that was more important to our society than any doctor, any supreme court judge, or any CEO. Thus, our narrow-minded insistence on relegating motherhood to second-class status in our society is directly responsible for, literally, throwing our babies - and our future - out with the bath water.
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We’re currently paying a severe price for our bigoted attitude towards women - as we will eventually pay for all areas of institutional bigotry - because the most obvious solution to some of our most tenacious problems - our dysfunctional educational system, the breakdown of the family unit, and the proper socialization of our children - is for a large number of women to temporarily leave the job market, return to the home, and reassume the essential function of nurturing and guiding society’s future - at least until their children reach an age where they are relatively self-sufficient. But that’s not going to be easy. In fact, I expect to be attacked by some for even suggesting it, because our society has made the word "housewife" - again, the most important profession in our country - a bad word. To many women it’s going to be perceived as the equivalent of asking Black people to return to slavery for the best interest of the country.
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So in order to convince women to return to the home en masse, society is going to have to bestow upon motherhood the kind of stature, prestige, and compensation that’s commensurate with their value to society - and we owe them that, because the fact is, the business community has essentially been working women for free for the past fifty years now.
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Prior to women coming into the workforce in large numbers, a family of five could be supported on one income. But after women came into the workforce, the cost of living began to gradually rise until it consumed the woman’s entire income. So now whether or not a woman decides to enter the workforce is no longer a family option. The woman MUST work just to maintain a standard of living that could previously be sustained by her husband’s income alone.
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So while business has indeed accommodated a woman’s ability to enter the workforce, it’s the business community itself that derives all of the benefits, not the woman and her family. The business community benefits in many ways from the toil of working women. First, working women have enabled business to nearly double the cost of everything in our economy; secondly, business is obtaining what is essentially free labor from women; and finally, it’s using that free labor to either layoff or lower the wages of the working woman’s husband. And where is all of that extra money going? It’s going into the pockets of grossly overpaid CEOs and executives, even as our children suffer, and society is rendered dysfunctional by a destabilized family structure.
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So we’ve got to turn this trend around, both through social pressure, and legislation. First, mothers and housewives have to be made equal partners with their husbands. If a woman defers her career or education to raise the family’s children while the husband pursues a medical degree, that medical degree, and all of the future income derived therefrom, should be considered community property, and half hers - for life.  After all, by deferring her own education to raise the family, she invested heavily in her husband's education.  And the reverse should also be true for stay-at-home dads.
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In addition, the same principle should apply for employment. When a company hires an employee, it should be understood that they are hiring a partnership, so any and all compensation derived from that employment should be issued to both the husband, and the wife - and if one partner so chooses, the compensation should be divided between the two of them. That way, should the stay-at-home partner decide to further their education after the children become self-sufficient, they’ll have their own source of income to pursue that goal.
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In case of divorce, the partner who deferred his or her career to raise the children should continue to be compensated by the employer of the working partner until such time as the child-rearing parent has achieved financial parity with the working partner. If the child-rearing parent never achieves parity, the employer of the worker should pro rate the second partner’s compensation to make up the difference in income. But of course, there would be exceptions, like if the caretaking parent is proven to have been a liability, such as by being found guilty of being the primary cause of the destruction of the marriage, guilty of adultery or reckless and irresponsible behavior, or gross deception and manipulation.
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And finally, in order to get corporations to cooperate with these policies, the people are going to have to place pressure on congress to pass a "Worker’s Bill of Rights." And included in that legislation, there should be a provision that would require any company or corporation who wants to do business in the United States, to pay it’s employees a living wage, provide affordable healthcare, and maintain a given level of employment based on the amount of profit that it generate within our borders. thereafter, if the corporation decides to thumb its nose at such legislation and take its business elsewhere, that’ll open up the market to domestic entrepreneurs.
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But in order for such policies to be put into place, the American people are going to have to come to the conclusion that they’re tired of being manipulated by multinational corporations that have a vested interest in lowering the standard of living of the American middle class to conform to that of third-world countries. We’re also going to have to stop allowing bought-and-paid-for politicians to keep us divided. In that regard, a good rule of thumb will be to always remember that the bigger a politician’s war chess, the less likely he or she is to be working in the interest of the people. If we remember that, money in politics will become a liability rather than an asset.
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What I’m suggesting may seem far-fetched at this point, but so did the New Deal at one point in our history. So even if it seems far-fetched now, as the corporatists continue to drag American workers under the bus, I guarantee you, it won’t be long before we see the light - and that light will reveal that saving our women and children is the key to our survival, not protecting multinational corporations that’s sending their money to Dubai.
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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