Ah the subject of religion rises into prominence once again. Do not blame me for this time I was spurred on by Stratofrog. She sent me a link and opined that I might wish, once again to discuss man's relationship to God, to the God of Hosts.

Before I get into philosophical discussions of religion and its effect upon politics, I like to lead my readers in prayer from diverse sources so that we may, together, better approach this sensitive subject.

TAO TE CHING

Let us first turn our pages to the writing of Lao Tzu, a man with a name that sends people into convulsions just attempting to agree on a correct spelling of his name; even before guns are fired over discussions of interpretation.

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

Let us now turn our pages to the book called The Bible, interpretations of which have led nations into wars, some of which lasted a century or more depending upon how you gauge the beginnings and endings of things.

The Bible

Psalm 23: 1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

 2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

 3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

 4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

 5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

 6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.  (King James)

Finally we must turn our prayer books to THE KING OF SERMONERS:

SAMUEL JACKSON

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you. PULP FICTION

What can I say. Twain reminds us that man is the only animal with the TRUE RELIGION and he has several of them. 

Many theologians, anthropologists, psychologists and small boys have questioned what prayer is really there for. I mean, why does the human being pray? Is he seeking advice? Is she seeking solace for some loss? Is he seeking internal strength so that he may once again arise and fight the dragons that ravage the hillsides?

Or is he merely a miserable son of a bitch seeking revenge against his perceived enemies?

Praying for President Obama's death has become a sick cottage industry for some evangelicals on the lunatic fringe. Bumper stickers, T-shirts, and teddy bears are sold with the wholesome-sounding slogan "Pray for Obama" but tagged with the more troublesome "Psalm 109:8"--which reads "May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership" followed by "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow."

In Wingnut circles, it's known as the "Imprecatory Prayer." Offered not just from select pulpits, but increasingly expressed through tweets and forwarded via email, this decidedly un-Christian Christian subculture has found its most enthusiastic advocates in a few Obama Derangement Syndrome-afflicted preachers--notably Orange County's Wiley Drake and Arizona's Steven L. Anderson.

Pastor Wiley Drake kicked off this Presidents' Day Weekend with an email blast to his supporters saying "Imprecatory Prayer is now our DUTY" and announcing a daily teleconference call to advance the cause. Drake has been an enthusiastic advocate of imprecatory prayer since he announced that God answered his call with the murder of Kansas abortion clinic doctor George Tiller in church last May. "George Tiller was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler," Drake said at the time, "so I am happy. I am glad that he is dead." This emboldened him to add "the usurper that is in the White House ... B. Hussein Obama" to the list said in his church on Sundays   http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-14/praying-for-obamas-death/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL3

People tend to follow the lead and the words of their pastors, priests, reverends, ministers and shamans. Whoever passes the basket during the services on the Sabbath, I guess. And there are zealots out there. If the zealots happen to be Muslin, they are terrorists of course. But the sheep tend to absorb the sentiments of their religious leaders. Now some of the zealots, Muslim or not have severe psychological problems as in any group or organization. Some of these more mentally unstable people may feel that their prayers are being answered; that is asking them to pick up the mantel and carry out the wishes of their religious shepherd.

Has there been a violation of the Patriot Acts here? Or, does the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution preclude applying to calls for terrorist acts as long as the person has a theological degree from Close Cover Before Striking University?  And as long as the person is not a Muslim of course.

Oh but you say: dick, dick, dick, dick, dick...you dick. Why must we be tortured again with a memo on religion?  These are just a few nuts of no real consequence. Nobody really believes this crap. Or we are dealing with such a small segment of the real population, that there can be no real consequence to this all.

Well Stratofrog sent me the following link:

A growing number of science students on British campuses and in sixth form colleges are challenging the theory of evolution and arguing that Darwin was wrong. Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Qur'an as scientific fact and at one sixth form college in London most biology students are now thought to be creationists.

Earlier this month Muslim medical students in London distributed leaflets that dismissed Darwin's theories as false. Evangelical Christian students are also increasingly vocal in challenging the notion of evolution.

In the United States there is growing pressure to teach creationism or "intelligent design" in science classes, despite legal rulings against it. Now similar trends in this country have prompted the Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific academy, to confront the issue head on with a talk entitled Why Creationism is Wrong. The award-winning geneticist and author Steve Jones will deliver the lecture and challenge creationists, Christian and Islamic, to argue their case rationally at the society's event in April.

"There is an insidious and growing problem," said Professor Jones, of University College London. "It's a step back from rationality. They (the creationists) don't have a problem with science, they have a problem with argument. And irrationality is a very infectious disease as we see from the United States."

A 21-year-old medical student and member of the Islamic Society, who did not want to be named, said that the Qur'an was clear that man had been created and had not evolved as Darwin suggests. "There is no scientific evidence for it [Darwin's Origin of Species]. It's only a theory. Man is the wonder of God's creation."

A former lecturer in organic chemistry at Portsmouth polytechnic (now university) and ICI research scientist, Dr Rosevear said he had been invited to expound his theories at many colleges and had addressed the Cafe Scientifique, a student science society, at St Andrews university, Fife. "The students clearly came expecting to have a laugh but they found there was much more to it. Our attitude is - teach evolution but mention creationism and let students decide for themselves."

Most of the next generation of medical and science students could well be creationists, according to a biology teacher at a leading London sixth-form college. "The vast majority of my students now believe in creationism," she said, "and these are thinking young people who are able and articulate and not at the dim end at all. They have extensive booklets on creationism which they put in my pigeon-hole ... it's a bit like the southern states of America." Many of them came from Muslim, Pentecostal or Baptist family backgrounds, she said, and were intending to become pharmacists, doctors, geneticists and neuro-scientists  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/21/religion.highereducation

Strato noted that we Americans have been infected by this horrendous virus that will not only leave all of us brain dead in the coming decades, BUT THAT WE ARE SPREADING THIS GODDAMNABLE VIRUS THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD.

Oh but you say, really, I mean the fundamentalists are different from the evangelists...blah, blah, blah.

We The Guardian adds a special note of definition to this article in case there is some disagreement over what is at issue in the U.K.:

The doctrine of creationism holds that the origins of humanity and the Earth are recent and divine as related in the book of Genesis. Strict creationists believe Adam and Eve are the mother and father of humanity and God created the Earth in six days. Support for creationism in the UK has traditionally lacked real vigour but in the US a recent poll found 45% of Americans believed God created life some time in the past 10,000 years. Recently American creationists suffered a setback when Ohio's board of education threw out a model biology lesson plan which gave credence to creationism.

Okie dokie. So it is only in the area of education that causes us concern FOR THE BRAIN DEAD DISEASE, IS IT.

Three of the repubs during the 2008 debates made it clear that they do not believe in evolution.  And I wish to make this clear. We are talking about people who think the earth/universe is less than 10,000 years old. 45% of America is all ready brain dead folks.

That only leaves us with probably 30% of the population who could qualify to become doctors, nurses, geologists, astrophysicists, biologists and good taxi drivers because you know goddamnably well that in all of these polls at least 25% of respondents DON'T KNOW.

And in the field of politics, as I already stated, three of the repubs running for President of the United States of America denied the basic tenets of Evolution. 

My God we have a witch who is surely running for this office;  someone who thinks that devils and evil can be taken out of the human body by pagan rituals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkb9_zB2Pg

And one repub leader is rising from some graveyard in Pennsylvania who scares the shite out of me.  Sometimes the political arena looks like a group of characters in one of those damn Dracula/Wolfman/Zombie epics.

You just cannot kill these bastards.

OK, we got the message. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) is feeling out a bid for the White House.

Not only is he making a second trip to Hawkeye State on March 9 to speak to the Iowa Christian Alliance, but he's also making a trip to New Hampshire on April 30.

Santorum will headline the Cheshire County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner on April 30 in Keene, New Hampshire. The former Senator, who lost re-election to Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in 2006, first visited Iowa in October 2009 then traveled to South Carolina earlier this year.

Party spokesman Ryan Williams says Santorum was invited to speak at the dinner by state GOP Chairman and former Gov. John Sununu

Sununu also has invited Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) to visit the state.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/eyeon2010/2010/02/santorum-to-iowa-new-hampshire.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=eye-on-2010

Here are some wonderful gems that have spewed out of  this nutso's mouth:

"I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving." -Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sept. 6, 2005 (Source)  http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/currentevents/a/katrinaquotes.htm

"What the Democrats are doing is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, 'I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It's mine.' This is no more the rule of the senate than it was the rule of the senate before not to filibuster."
 �Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.�
  http://www.johnnygoodtimes.com/archives/001437.shtml

The elementary error of relativism becomes clear when we look at multiculturalism. Sometime in the 1980s, universities began to champion the importance of 'diversity' as a central educational value."
Thank God for Bob Jones University!

In 2003, in an interview with the AP, Santorum said "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."  http://www.sirened.com/2006/10/idiotic-quotes-by-rick-santorum/

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?