Some great religion stupidity

So, I was checking my email and got a letter from a friend who I've known for over 20 years now and has recently gone all super retarded Mormon on me (something that's starting to bug the fucking hell out of me). Here's another example of this stupidity (the following is the exact email I was sent and in read as a warning as extreme religutardness and the stuff in italics is what they directed at me):

I thought about your txt message last month. You said or asked if some one could prove to you that God is all loving as it is said in the Bible? I came across a talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks that should answer that very question.


I hope  this helps. But you need to read the whole talk. You'll see why.


The love of God does not supersede His laws and His commandments, and the effect of God’s laws and commandments does not diminish the purpose and effect of His love.

I have been impressed to speak about God’s love and God’s commandments. My message is that God’s universal and perfect love is shown in all the blessings of His gospel plan, including the fact that His choicest blessings are reserved for those who obey His laws.1 These are eternal principles that should guide parents in their love and teaching of their children.

I.

I begin with four examples which illustrate some mortal confusion between love and law.

• • A young adult in a cohabitation relationship tells grieving parents, “If you really loved me, you would accept me and my partner just like you accept your married children.”
  
• • A youth reacts to parental commands or pressure by declaring, “If you really loved me, you wouldn’t force me.”
  

In these examples a person violating commandments asserts that parental love should override the commandments of divine law and the teachings of parents.
The next two examples show mortal confusion about the effect of God’s love.

• • A person rejects the doctrine that a couple must be married for eternity to enjoy family relationships in the next life, declaring, “If God really loved us, I can’t believe He would separate husbands and wives in this way.”
  
• • Another person says his faith has been destroyed by the suffering God allows to be inflicted on a person or a race, concluding, “If there was a God who loved us, He wouldn’t let this happen.”
  

These persons disbelieve eternal laws which they consider contrary to their concept of the effect of God’s love. Persons who take this position do not understand the nature of God’s love or the purpose of His laws and commandments. The love of God does not supersede His laws and His commandments, and the effect of God’s laws and commandments does not diminish the purpose and effect of His love. The same should be true of parental love and rules.

II.

First, consider the love of God, described so meaningfully this morning by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” the Apostle Paul asked. Not tribulation, not persecution, not peril or the sword (see Romans 8:35). “For I am persuaded,” he concluded, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, … nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (verses 38–39).
There is no greater evidence of the infinite power and perfection of God’s love than is declared by the Apostle John: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Another Apostle wrote that God “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). Think how it must have grieved our Heavenly Father to send His Son to endure incomprehensible suffering for our sins. That is the greatest evidence of His love for each of us!
God’s love for His children is an eternal reality, but why does He love us so much, and why do we desire that love? The answer is found in the relationship between God’s love and His laws.
Some seem to value God’s love because of their hope that His love is so great and so unconditional that it will mercifully excuse them from obeying His laws. In contrast, those who understand God’s plan for His children know that God’s laws are invariable, which is another great evidence of His love for His children. Mercy cannot rob justice,2 and those who obtain mercy are “they who have kept the covenant and observed the commandment” (D&C 54:6).
We read again and again in the Bible and in modern scriptures of God’s anger with the wicked3 and of His acting in His wrath4 against those who violate His laws. How are anger and wrath evidence of His love? Joseph Smith taught that God “institute[d] laws whereby [the spirits that He would send into the world] could have a privilege to advance like himself.”5 God’s love is so perfect that He lovingly requires us to obey His commandments because He knows that only through obedience to His laws can we become perfect, as He is. For this reason, God’s anger and His wrath are not a contradiction of His love but an evidence of His love. Every parent knows that you can love a child totally and completely while still being creatively angry and disappointed at that child’s self-defeating behavior.
The love of God is so universal that His perfect plan bestows many gifts on all of His children, even those who disobey His laws. Mortality is one such gift, bestowed on all who qualified in the War in Heaven.6 Another unconditional gift is the universal resurrection: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Many other mortal gifts are not tied to our personal obedience to law. As Jesus taught, our Heavenly Father “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
If only we will listen, we can know of God’s love and feel it, even when we are disobedient. A woman recently returned to Church activity gave this description in a sacrament meeting talk: “He has always been there for me, even when I rejected Him. He has always guided me and comforted me with His tender mercies all around me, but I [was] too angry to see and accept incidents and feelings as such.”7

III.

God’s choicest blessings are clearly contingent upon obedience to God’s laws and commandments. The key teaching is from modern revelation:
“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
“And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated” (D&C 130:20–21).
This great principle helps us understand the why of many things, like justice and mercy balanced by the Atonement. It also explains why God will not forestall the exercise of agency by His children. Agency—our power to choose—is fundamental to the gospel plan that brings us to earth. God does not intervene to forestall the consequences of some persons’ choices in order to protect the well-being of other persons—even when they kill, injure, or oppress one another—for this would destroy His plan for our eternal progress.8 He will bless us to endure the consequences of others’ choices, but He will not prevent those choices.9
If a person understands the teachings of Jesus, he or she cannot reasonably conclude that our loving Heavenly Father or His divine Son believes that Their love supersedes Their commandments. Consider these examples.
When Jesus began His ministry, His first message was repentance.10
When He exercised loving mercy by not condemning the woman taken in adultery, He nevertheless told her, “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11).
Jesus taught, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
The effect of God’s commandments and laws is not changed to accommodate popular behavior or desires. If anyone thinks that godly or parental love for an individual grants the loved one license to disobey the law, he or she does not understand either love or law. The Lord declared: “That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Therefore, they must remain filthy still” (D&C 88:35).
We read in modern revelation, “All kingdoms have a law given” (D&C 88:36). For example:
“He who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory.
“And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory.
“And he who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom cannot abide a telestial glory” (D&C 88:22–24).
In other words, the kingdom of glory to which the Final Judgment assigns us is not determined by love but by the law that God has invoked in His plan to qualify us for eternal life, “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7).




I hope this was useful. Another thing, something a lot of others have a hard time with. Getting on your knees and asking for your self to God Him self if He is real. You will know within your heart if it is true or not. You are my best friend. I want to end with my own personal testimony.  I have knelt down and felt God and his love for me. Never have I ever felt such a love as His love. You are my friend, and what ever I can do to help, I will always be there for you. Thank you as well for all the help you have given me over the years. I haven't said that enough. And I'm sorry. Good luck. :-)

Honestly...this whole "talk" reeks of nothing but mindless belief in something that obviously hasn't been read. How do I know? Well...ANYONE who has actually sat down and read the bible would know that Jesus didn't come to bring peace but came with a sword and the intent to disrupt families and tear them apart. Ultimately what this is, is someone outright cherry picking the bible and only focusing on the feel good crap that goes on, not the whole thing.

My response to this email as follows:

That's a nice talk, however, it cherry picks only the feel good stuff of the bible and doesn't even touch on things that are FAR removed from the human concept of love. Case in point:

Matthew 10:34 

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Revelation 19:11 

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

 

Those two verses alone show that Jesus is not about Love but War. To see for yourself, read through the bi9ble, cover to cover and see exactly how vile and disgusting God/Jesus are.

Items to consider Pt. 5

Invite to the Fold - We should "reach out" with fellowship and "invite back" less active ward members; inviting them back to activity, to priesthood ordinances, and to temple activity.

First, when they "reach out" this means calling you incessantly and saying stupid crap like "you're always welcome to come to our meetings" or something that's activity related. Ever since I was too old to be with the kids, i.e. graduating from high school, all the activities they want to do are play basketball or go to meetings on Sunday's. *yawns* damn, just thinking of that is making me tired and sleepy.

Why does this make me sleepy? Well, back before I figured out I was an Atheist I attended church regularly. Sadly I didn't have any other way to spend a Sunday back then. Of course, now I do have a LOT better things to do actually.

They also will come by a person's house to "invite them back" to whatever stupid crap their doing that week. I swear, they come across that if they could actually drag you out of your house, they would....LITERALLY. and I'm sure if they had their way they would.

If it wasn't for the fact that I still live with my parents while I'm going to school, I would have one VERY simple thing to tell them "FUCK...OFF!" If they still didn't get it from that, then I'll delve into their fap fantasy of Jesus and Joseph Smith.

10 Items to consider Pt. 4

Sorry it's been so long since I updated, I've been a little busy lately.
Share the Gospel - We need to share what we have (the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the saving ordinances of the gospel) and pray for missionary opportunities to do so.

Wow...we "need" to share this...more like "we have to shove it down the throats of everyone including our own members".

Also, just so everyone understands, I am ADAMANTLY opposed to missionary work. This is for a few reasons:

1) Missionary's ALWAYS take the approach that they're right and you're wrong and will take this that they HAVE to save your soul before the second coming. I have yet to meet a single missionary who has NOT done this.
2) Sharing your religious beliefs is akin to basically slapping someone across the face and saying "You're wrong asshole" and while there are some who say that they're not forcing it upon anyone, and that may be true, but that does not mean I want you to come up to me and start confessing to me about your fap love fantasy with an imaginary being
3) Proselytizing in some areas is actually illegal and doing so can get you arrested. One such place that comes to mind is Dubai in the United Arab of Emirates. It's actually against the law to proselytize there with punishment including prison time (something I wish were true in the US)

Lastly, if someone really wants to hear your drivel about your imaginary sky daddy, they will come to you, you should not, under ANY circumstances, go to them...no matter the situation cause it's ALWAYS wrong.

10 items to consider Pt. 3

Part 3:

Apply Spiritual Filters - We should apply two filters when we consider church or family activities:
(1) Does the activity draw us closer to Christ?
(2) Does the activity bless and strengthen families.

Well, first off, number 1 relates back to item number 1 of the letter. This "Christ-like" behavior is, by societal stands, despicable at best. Let's look at some examples of some of the things Christ said or approved of:

Families will be torn apart because of Jesus (this is one of the few "prophecies" in the Bible that has actually come true). "Brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death." Matthew 10:21

In the parable of the unforgiving servant, the king threatens to enslave a man and his entire family to pay for a debt. This practice, which was common at the time, seems not to have bothered Jesus very much. Matthew 18:25

Jesus will reward men who abandon their wives and families. Mark 10:29-30

Jesus says that everyone in heaven is single. Does that mean that married people can't go there, that they must get a divorce once they arrive, or what? Luke 20:35

If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you must abandon everything, including your family. Luke 14:33

That's just 4 of a MULTITUDE of examples I can get. So it's obvious that in order to be closer to Christ, I should abandon my family, tear them apart (I'm sure me being an atheist alone will do that), and be perfectly cool with slavery O_o *thinks* Yeah...I'd rather be closer to my computer...at least if I tear it apart I can rebuild it as often as I want.

Now, number 2 of these activities. How in the hell is being closer to Christ supposed to bless and strengthen families when we saw just above in Matthew 10:21 that families will be torn apart. So obviously we're not strengthening the family...as far as blessing it...the ONLY way I can this being a blessing is if it's an abusive family (rape, beatings, etc.).

This, again, shows that the person who wrote this letter knows absolutely nothing about the bible, let alone Christ. The sad part is, I'm sure if I showed them these rather contradictory Christ-like attributes, they would probably either dismiss it as a lie (even though it's in the bible) or even say something along the lines that it's being taken out of context. I don't know how "For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law." can be taken out of context as that's pretty cut and dry.


Tomorrow, part 4 - Share the Gospel.

10 items to consider Pt. 2

So the next item on the list is this:

2) Work Honestly - We have a duty to employers to work honestly and provide quality. Particularly in these economically challenging times, we should work with gratitude; earning an "honest day wages".

The thing here is that this is a double-edged sword. While we as employees have a duty...no, duty is too strong of a connotation, the better word here is expectation to work honestly and provide quality, the same goes to the employer in that they should also be providing all the tools that are needed to perform at an employees best. You wouldn't tell a computer system admin to work without a computer...

Ultimately what this comes down to is nothing more than the golden rule "Treat others as you wish to be treated". Religion thinks they are the purveyors of this thought when it's much older than bronze aged fiction.

As to the issues of earning an "honest days wages", this almost comes across as a hypocrisy. Why am I calling this a hypocrisy? Well, for those that don't know, the Mormon church asks that all their members give 10% of their earnings back to the church. The hypocrisy here is that the Mormon church hasn't done an honest day of working to receive this money. Instead they manipulate their believers and get them to believe that by handing over 10% of their earnings, this some how makes them look better in the eyes of God, Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith (considering most of them regard Joseph essentially as a god...not bad for a liar and a thief).

So, overall, I'm to be an honest and hard worker and being told to do so by an organization that's built upon lies and taking innocent suckers money...wow...P.T Barnum would be proud, plus he said it best "There's a sucker born every minute" (Yes, I know that it can't be tracked to him directly but he's never denied saying it either)

Yay, more moronism....I mean mormonism

So today I had another visit with home teachers (with those unfamiliar with mormonism, home teachers are 2 guys they send out to talk to male members of the church and are required to do so once a month, even if it means giving that person a call to talk to them and see how they're doing and to give a testimony) today. In true mormon tradition, they showed up late and then went on about something church related. then one of them handed me this envelope with a letter inside. Neither the letter or the envelope were addressed to me, just a general letter.

One side goes on about how there was just the "opportunity" to have a stake conference recently and how the stake president gave 10 items to "consider in the days ahead". So, the next 10 days (with today being number 1) will be spent disseminating these 10 items. All of them are being typed verbatim from the letter.

Item #1 "Be Christ-like - We have a great responsibility be more like Christ - in language, in attitude, in a spirit of caring. Our language must be above reproach. We cannot swear. We cannot make demeaning comments. We should avoid cynicism."

First and foremost...I sure hope that's not how the talk was given cause that one bit of missing grammar makes it sound...stupid.

Secondly, FUCK THAT! Oh, wait, wasn't supposed to swear >_> Then again, the "swear words" to me are nothing more than something I'll use in my vocabulary as an adverb or an adjective (where applicable) throughout my daily life. So if someone says to me "Fuck you" I'll just look at them and say something about how I'd rather not with them or ask them where at. It just doesn't insult me. The same thing goes with flipping me off, it's just a finger, not something to be all O_O over when you see it. Am I desensitized to it...not really, cause I don't view it in the same societal standards as everyone else.

Thirdly, they want me to be more "Christ-like". So, I should:

"Jesus says that he has come to destroy families by making family members hate each other. He has "come not to send peace, but a sword."Matthew 10:34-36"

or "Jesus is criticized by the Pharisees for not washing his hands before eating. He defends himself by attacking them for not killing disobedient children according to the commandment: "He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death." (See Ex.21:15, Lev.20:9, Dt.21:18-21) So, does Jesus think that children who curse their parents should be killed? It sure sounds like it. Matthew 15:4-7"

or "Jesus had no problem with the idea of drowning everyone on earth in the flood. It'll be just like that when he returns. Matthew 24:37"

So...to be "Christ-like" I should be destroying families, have a giant stoning of all the children who cursed their parents (and everyone has at one point, even if out of anger), and agree that drowning all but 8 people on the entire planet is perfectly acceptable behavior. >_> Well then sign my up for the first family now and I'll start there.

No making demeaning comments and avoiding cynicism...uh, yeah, no, a LOT of people just don't get it unless you demean them, and I don't know a single person who DOESN'T use cynicism on a daily basis.  I think cynicism is just part of our daily culture and I sure as hell am not planning on changing that anytime soon.

So, just the fact that they're saying they want everyone to be all nice and loving, proves they know NOTHING about their sky daddy and his son....cause they're both super confusing...I have less time being confused about what to wear with the gender issues than they are.

So, coming tomorrow, item # 2 "Work Honestly"

Testicles...God's perverse attractions

First and foremost, I want to say that I am in NO means a bible scholar or anything near that. I do my research like anyone else who isn't an expert in the field, I use Google and what it finds (like Wikipedia). So the following is just a random search of something I've heard happening in Christianity before (I believe it was just Roman Catholic, but I'm not sure).

Today, I'm going to talk about people known as Castrato. If you don't know what a Castrato is, you can read more on the Wiki page. I will get into the section labeled "Castrati in the European Classical tradition".

First and foremost, these are men who have lost their testicles. This does not mean getting something as simple as a modern day castration where they just snip one of the 2 tubes connecting the testicles to the rest of the body, this is the full removal of the testicles from the male body.

What does this mean for the prepubescent boy who has gotten this done (more than likely with parents approval or forced)?

Their limbs will grow longer and their chest cavities will be bigger allowing for an increased amount of air being introduced into the lungs (something I will touch on in a min). It also keeps their vocal cords at the prepubescent stage (that part where it makes young boys sound like young girls).

So, what is my point in all this? Well, to start, the castrati were used during the Middle Ages as individuals in choirs in most churches of the time. This was due to the fact that women were not allowed to be part of the choir. As such, they needed males who could sound like females...and not just by replacing prepubescent boys every year or so (not that this has stopped the bishops and cardinals anyways).

However, here is the part that starts to make me wonder. Not just about the churches practicing this, but in their god in general.

King James Bible
He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

Wait a second...those that are "wounded in the stones"? That's the castrati. Obviously god doesn't like them so much that they can't hold offices of any sort (depending on your interpretation of the interpretations of some Bronze Aged fairy tales), but even if you have been mutilated, you can at least sing pretty to the people of the church?

O_o Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!!!

Now has that for something truly messed up. Though, I guess I should be surprised, the first 4 commandments are just god being a rather vain asshole...so wanting some boys to remain girls (something that he obviously didn't do or make) so he could have some pretty music waft up to heaven seems rather worse in comparison.

Of course, I am transgendered so I find very little use of them to begin with (the body still produces sperm, but, it's as useless as a screendoor on a submarine), however...if I was told at the age of like 6 or 7 that I was going to have them removed so I could be a choir singer...I'd have 2 simple words and some actions to follow:

FUCK YOU!!! t(=_=t)