Assault on Scientology?

This is the Anonymous video purporting to be a warning of attack against Scientology. If only people would get this mad at Benny Hinn... (spooky)

Here is an entry on a counter- Scientology group called Project Chanology

Seems some people think the uppers in Scientology have not been playing very nice and have mounted an all out computer assault on the Church of Scientology's web presence. According to Wiki, they have taken the Scientology website down a couple of times.

Here is what he says:

"Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind–for the laughs–we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell.You cannot hide; we are everywhere.We cannot die; we are forever. We're getting bigger every day–and solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, for we are many.Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are your SPs.Gradually as we merge our pulse with that of your "Church", the suppression of your followers will become increasingly difficult to maintain. Believers will wake, and see that salvation has no price. They will know that the stress, the frustration that they feel is not something that may be blamed upon Anonymous. No–they will see that it stems from a source far closer to each. Yes, we are SPs. But the sum of suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC.Knowledge is free.We are Anonymous.We are Legion.We do not forgive.We do not forget.Expect us."

Food for thought

http://animalethics.blogspot.com/2008/01/meat-cancer-and-cumulative-case-for.html

Are you persuaded by her argument?

Zombie Church

A good friend of mine recently put together an interesting critique against the current instantiation of "Christians" and called them the ZOMBIE CHURCH.

From Wikipedia:

A zombie or zombi is a reanimated corpse. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou, which told of the dead being raised as workers by a powerful sorcerer. In modern horror fiction, zombies are generally undead corpses brought back from the dead by supernatural or scientific means, and are rarely under any one's direct control. They typically have very limited intelligence, and hunger for the flesh of the living.

The Church is the "Body of Christ" right?

Is resurrection ALWAYS a good thing? I mean, if it were, why are people so afraid of Zombie's?

Two things that jump out at me from this good piece of zombie scholarship are:

• A zombie is re-animated corpse


• A zombie has hunger for the flesh of the living

Is the current prevailing Christianity the "living spirit" re-animating that which is dead?
Is the current prevailing Christianity the spirit of the dead, hungering for the "flesh of the living"?

The Church is constantly being spoken of as a body. And it goes without saying that the resurrection is a huge part of the Christian church's narrative. But what if parts of the "body" should not have been resurrected? Is it possible that there are portions of the church that exist in a zombie like state? Seeking after flesh??

Questions I ask myself:

• Why is Christianity so fixated on blood?


• Why is the Body the featured metaphor?


• Is there any validity to the critique that Christianity is life taking, instead of life giving?...

What is the difference between being a Zombie and Re-birth?

for Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

"Walter Rauschenbusch had done a great service for the Christian Church by insisting that the Gospel deal with the whole man, not only his soul but his body; not only his spiritual but his material well being. It has been my conviction ever since reading Rauschenbusch that any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of a men and is not concerned about the social and economic conditions that scar the soul, is a spiritually moribund religion- only waiting for the day that it be buried."

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"Stride Toward Freedom" 1958

"The attractivenes of an historical figure for later generations is often generated as much by one's failure as successes. It is not a bad thing to be a failure. If one is a great enough failure, it sometimes means ones place in history is secure"
- Winifred Rauschenbusch Rorty

Why Philosophy is Useful

I think PHILOSOPHY is important.
It gets a bad rap sometimes due to its unique vocabulary. And lets face it, books and arguments about essences and logical fallacies aren't really that sexy. But nonetheless, I think the study of philosophy is an important process; it is a posture that can be used to refine our internal values and to make sure that we are in concert with our values (and ultimately solidarity with our community)

Philosophy can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.
I take as some of my general operating assumptions to be the following:

• Humans (in general) after satisfying the lower 4 levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs (sex, food, shelter, safety, etc.) find it psychologically satisfying to pursue the escape of "the grip of time and chance". We are born. We self actualize. We bury our Grandparents, our Parents, our Siblings, and then... facing our own death. We want to have control... Our inquiry into understanding comes from this desire for control.

This is where the project of Metaphysics comes in. What else is out there? How can we (or can we at all?) get beyond that which we can manipulate with our faculties? Beyond the "hard sciences"?

• Language is one of the defining elements of Humanity. Humans, as far as we can tell, are unique in our creation, because we have the ability to "describe". This portable, memorable descriptivism is our great power over the environment we live within.

Language is tricky. Beautiful, useful, vitally important, and elusive. Language tricks us from time to time. It is a shape shifting medium of understanding; operationally unstable, yet powerful and useful. The noun "language" is often more of a verb than a noun. We think of it as static, because functionally it stays relatively stable, but it is actually dynamic. It morphs over time and in accordance to our needs. "Language" is a verb. It is something that we do.

It is process. We can point to a fire and think of it as a noun, but it is actually a verb (more like "the process of burning") Fires are warm, fires are good for so many things, but they should be watched, always watched.

This descriptivism (and more importantly re-descriptivism), is our great evolutionary advantage over our environment. We use descriptions (words) to organize with other anthropoids with which we share common values to accomplish certain tasks. When these descriptions cease to yield a result that is favorable, we quit using them, or we re-describe. This re-description is the "doing" of language. It is in this re-description that the power of language resides. It is important to recognize the capacity we have to redescribe- because to think of words as static is to fall victim to the tool.

Language is in the service of man. And in as far as language fails, we must re-describe in a way that is more useful, more beneficial to the shared values of a particular community.

Law is for the man, not man for the law...