Kayla

"I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator b/c literally there was no else…. + by God + by your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall."
-- Kayla Mueller


News of Kayla Mueller's death was reported today. So sad to see this young woman killed by religious zealots. So many on facebook and elsewhere today praised this woman as a saint and a hero. The question no one else seems to be asking is: What in the world was she doing in Syria to begin with?

My passive investigation reveals ISIS kidnapped Kayla at a bus stop in Aleppo, Syria. She was there by herself. She apparently thought her god was looking out for her. If she did, it appears she was incorrect.

It is too much to observe the similarities between Kayla and ISIS? Deluded religious zealots, the lot of them.

Down on the Firm

1. The boss expects me to find my own cases, sign them up, work them single-handedly, and handle the collections/accounting in those cases ("my cases").

2. I am required to spend much of each day working on the boss's cases -- perhaps half my time. Many of the boss's cases are complete losers, financially and otherwise. (As my mentor said: why would the boss want to spend any time on those dogs? He wouldn't. That's why he has an associate.) This creates Problem #1: my cases have real deadlines and I do not have the time or the help to meet those effectively; I am busy working on the boss's cases. 

3. Problem #2: The firm cannot pay me any more than a modest base salary because I do not bring in enough revenue in my cases. But I do not have time to even work on my own cases, much less go out and find new ones. The boss's thought on that subject: that's what nights and weekends are for. Yes: work all day billing hours, then go home and in your spare time learn new areas of the law, draft content for the firm's web site, find clients, and profitably work their cases. Problem #2 is quite a problem, as I am just at the firm to make money.

This is the same issue my predecessor mentioned to me on her last day at the firm. If all goes according to plan, I will warn my replacement about this issue in about 4 months.

Perfection

The perfect plan to glorify oneself:

1. Create a species and a world for it to live in

2. Let a few hundred thousand years go by as they slaughter themselves in your name, starve, and generally suffer

3. Send son (who is actually you) to be tortured and murdered

4. Wait a couple thousand more years for effect - more slaughter and suffering in the meantime

5. Take your devoted flock to paradise for an eternity of them praising you

6. Send the rest - the vast majority - to burn alive forever

Cult of Human Sacrifice

Christianity is not a religion that refutes human sacrifice. Just the opposite: Christianity is a cult of human sacrifice. Christians believe one human sacrifice was effective for all humanity. While possible, this appears quite improbable, just as is the thought that any other human sacrifice could actually work.

God Is... Good?

Plaza Towers Elementary School

Monday, May 20, 2013; 3:00pm.  A tornado hits Moore, Oklahoma. It kills 23 people and injures 377.  7 children die at Plaza Towers Elementary school alone that Monday.  On the national news that evening, one local resident, when asked about how he managed to survive the storm, says without missing a beat: "God is good!"


Idea 1:
A loving god is in control and, in fact, he planned every detail of the universe from start to finish.  He knows how many hairs are on your head and loves you!

Idea 2:
Innocent people are slaughtered on this planet every day.

How can we justify those 2 ideas?  We cannot.  Either your god is unable to stop innocent peoples' deaths, or your god does not care to.  Those are the only two alternatives, and neither is good for god.

Some readers may be tempted to defend their gods here, saying "Who can understand God's will? We are just human and we have no idea what God's plans are." What is so remarkable about this attitude: their own human understandings are what they use to determine their god's goodness in the first place.  Do you have an intimate, personal relationship with this god of yours, or not?


And what about the survivor who said on national television, on an evening when 23 of his neighbors had been crushed to death, including 7 children: "God is good."  What kind of person would, if a mass murderer killed all those people, say the murderer was good?  The thought that our gods are good because they have the sense to spare us when they're slaughtering our neighbors... this is one of the most remarkable and disturbing ideas imaginable.

Washed in Blood

An acquaintance, when describing his religious beliefs, proudly claims to be "washed in the blood." I resist the urge to tell him just how disgusting a claim that is.

In many backwards cultures over the years, blood was spilled to make up for errors. And not just blood: innocent blood. How very revolting. How many virgins have we sacrificed? How many animals' throats have we cut? How many children have we murdered?  Washing things in blood is a disgusting and horrific concept people should be ashamed to accept.

Here's a related question, and an important one: Does washing things in blood really get the stains out? Or does it cause even worse stains? Think about it.

Confidence

"The vast global Church/Mosque/Synagogue/Temple conglomerate... is the biggest business on the planet, bringing untold funding from hordes of gullible people, many of them extremely poor. It is by far the biggest confidence trick of all time."

Harry Kroto