Now over on Goodreads
Hello Facebooks Folks. Come over and join me on Goodreads, it really is the platform to sell ebooks on. I had my own independent blog but the host was either drunk, nuts or believed he was part of the invasion force from Mars. Perhaps he was. Anyway, Now that the blog is defunct I'll be dealing up my books and articles over on Goodreads. Join me over there. One weird little thing, 99% of you are friends, but there are a few people that I have had failings out with. I looked for your names on Facebook but couldn't find them to delete them, I have virtual mountains of friends, but suffice it to say, if you get this general generic message you don't need to let me know how you wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire. I know that. And always remember, I'm a better man than you are. If you were on fire I would piss on you. So...Welcome over friendly friends and book lovers.
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You know I really believe that Buk was the greatest writer that ever lived. I never thought of him as a poet really,just a writer of short nonfiction. But whatever
some of my favorite quotations from Voltaire:If Adam had enough knowledge to intelligently name all the animals, either he had already eaten of the fruit of knowledge, or God didn’t need to forbid him the fruit.
The Deluge: A punishment inflicted on the human race by an all-knowing God, who, through not having foreseen the wickedness of men, repented of having made them, and drowned them once for all to make them better--an act which, as we all know, was accompanied by the greatest success.
Is it possible that God explained to the Jews the way they must go to the bathroom in the wilderness (Deut. 23), yet hid from them the dogma of a future life? Jonathan Swift said that according to God’s laws revealed to Moses, God had taken more care of the Jews’ hinder parts than he did of their souls.
Every people has attributed to itself some imaginary origin, yet none has approached the true one.
Give me the name of one people among whom incredible prodigies were not performed, especially when few knew how to read and write... The daughters of the high priest Anius changed whatever they chose into wheat, wine or oil. Athalida, daughter of Mercury, was resuscitated several times. Aesculapius resuscitated Hippolytus. Hercules dragged Alcestis back from death. Heres returned to the world after passing a fortnight in hell. The parents of Romulus and Remus were a god and a vestal virgin. The Palladium fell from heaven in the city of Troy. The hair of Berenice became a constellation.~Voltaire, Miracles and Idolatry, cited from Hitchens (2007)
It is truly extravagant to define God, angels, and minds... when we do not know why we move our arms at will. Doubt is not a very agreeable state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.
Holy Scripture: A book sent down from heaven. Holy Scripture contains all that a Christian should know and believe provided he adds to it a million or so commentaries.
If there are atheists, who is responsible but the mercenary tyrants of souls who say: “Believe a hundred things in the Bible either manifestly abominable or mathematically impossible; otherwise the God of mercy will burn you in the fires of hell, not only for millions of billions of centuries, but for all eternity.”
A small Danish (Protestant) sect went around killing as many newly baptized infants as they could discover, thereby preserving them from sin, from the miseries of this life, and from hell, and sending them infallibly to heaven. In the light of their beliefs they were acting rationally, but they did not secure Voltaire’s approval: “These charitable persons omitted to consider that most fathers and mothers are sufficiently worldly to prefer having their sons and daughters with them than to see them slaughtered as a passport to Paradise.”~A. J. Ayer, Voltaire
Many of the most famous theologians and churchmen were not declared criminals because they were the ones defining what was or wasn't a crime in their culture. See The Criminal History of Christianity (in several volumes) https://edwardtbabinski.us/scrivening...
See also chapter two of Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists, "Fundamentalism's Grotesque Past" https://books.google.com/books?id=QSe...
~The Genius Of The Crowd - Charles Bukowski ~there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day
and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love
beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average
but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect
like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock
their finest art
You speak well of Goodreads. Perhaps I will look more closely.