Monday, September 27, 2010

I Have no Soul! by Brava

I Have No Soul!

I am poor; I have no soul

I am in pain; I have no soul

I have no father; I have no soul

I have no brother; I have no soul

My desires are just dreams

My future is a simple joke

Collecting ugly memories

Dealing with all these fools

Eating only judge prude

Drinking lies from the nincompoop

Engaging in symbolic hope; Fulfilling the status quo

The apathy of my sway is repulsive

The ignorance of the masses is obnoxious

The voice of the mastery said I don’t deserve

Nobody cares for my aesthetic sense; Striving for some hope; I have no soul

No future is awaiting; I concluded and sadly agree with the fools, I have no soul...

Brava :D

Mystical Creature

Oh deity of the believers in fairytales;

Make me believe and show me your fire

Many wonder if I forgot my blind erroneous tales

Scientific explanations have fulfilled my desires

The pain of knowing my presumptions were lies

Empirical evidence of nature’s own desires

My satisfaction to discover truth always rises

Emotions penetrate when the soul transcends higher

Divinity that most men will call upon

Certainty and facts mesmerized my discernment

To later find out it was all wrong

Substance in my discoveries complete my statement

Full of fables the world is constantly misinformed;

Intelligence and knowledge should always be the norm.

Brava :D

Friday, September 24, 2010

Religion as an illusion: By Sigmund Freud

Freud defines religion as consisting of "certain dogmas, assertions about facts and conditions of external and internal reality which tell one something that one has not oneself discovered, and which claim that one should give them credence.

" Religious concepts are transmitted in three ways and thereby claim our belief.

"Firstly because our primal ancestors already believed them;

secondly, because we possess proofs which have been handed down to us from antiquity, and

thirdly because it is forbidden to raise the question of their authenticity at all.

" Psychologically speaking, these beliefs present the phenomena of wish fulfillment. Wishes that are the "fulfillments of the oldest, strongest, and most urgent wishes of mankind." Among these are the necessity to cling to the existence of the father, the prolongation of earthly existence by a future life, and the immortality of the human soul.

In other words, religion is an illusion.

To differentiate between an illusion and an error, he lists scientific beliefs such as "Aristotle's belief that vermin are developed out of dung" as errors, but "the assertion made by certain nationalists that the Indo-Germanic race is the only one capable of civilization" is an illusion, simply because of the wishing involved.

Put forth more explicitly, "what is characteristic of illusions is that they are derived from human wishes." He adds, however, that, "Illusions need not necessarily be false." He gives the example of a middle-class girl having the illusion that a prince will marry her. While this is unlikely, it is not impossible. The fact that it is grounded in her wishes is what makes it an illusion.

Religion is an outshoot of the Oedipus complex, and represents man's helplessness in the world, having to face the ultimate fate of death, the struggle of civilization, and the forces of nature. He views god as a manifestation of a child-like "longing for [a] father."

In his words "The gods retain the threefold task: they must exorcize the terrors of nature, they must reconcile men to the cruelty of Fate, particularly as it is shown in death, and they must compensate them for the sufferings and privations which a civilized life in common has imposed on them."

Religion restricts this play of choice and adaptation, since it imposes equally on everyone its own path to the acquisition of happiness and protection from suffering.

Its technique consists in depressing the value of life and distorting the picture of the real world in a delusional manner--which presupposes an intimidation of the intelligence. At this price, by forcibly fixing them in a state of psychical infantilism and by drawing them into a mass-delusion, religion succeeds in sparing many people an individual neurosis.

But hardly anything more. There are, as we have said, many paths which may lead to such happiness as is attainable by men, but there is none which does so for certain. Even religion cannot keep its promise.

If the believer finally sees himself obliged to speak of God's 'inscrutable decrees', he is admitting that all that is left to him as a last possible consolation and source of pleasure in his suffering is an unconditional submission. And if he is prepared for that, he could probably have spared himself the détour he has made. T_T

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Brava's School Friends

Poem Mariah Anderson


Son of a bitch


Turbulent since the second grade, we’ve got history, the church and me

Referrals for talking when the priest was, giving dirty looks to the
guy on the crucifix

And two expulsions from catholic school later, it’s no wonder this
girls devotion withers

Time has killed more than the crusades, and I don’t fight for higher
powers

I have more enjoyable wastes of hours

The church and me are siblings

We bicker then pretend to make up for my mother’s sake, it’s fake.

The church is the math teacher who wouldn’t show me how to multiply

So I didn’t learn ‘til grade nine and by then, I’d failed all the tests.

And the rest is history as they say but the church and me got hell to
pay

It was my biggest contender ‘til I discovered it was a pretender and
now my protector…

Is myself. 

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Brava's Bloggers friends

Yo, BRAVATRAVELS!

cztheday said:

When responding to Sarah Palin comment; "We need to take our country Back"

Heh. Excellent post, Q. Lets go back to educating only half our population (after all, why would we educate "chattel?"), using lobotomy as the first line of treatment for the mentally ill, equating retirement with desperate poverty, openly and wantonly polluting our air and drinking water, denying higher education, health care, and home ownership to all but the privileged few and being a land of opportunity only for white anglo-saxon Protestant males who were born in this country. You know, this would be a LOT funnier if we hadn't elected Ronald Reagan to two terms...

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Dalai Lama’s 18 rules for living

At the start of the new millennium the Dalai Lama apparently issued eighteen rules for living. Since word travels slowly in the digital age these have only just reached me. Here they are.

  1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
  2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
  3. Follow the three Rs:
    1. Respect for self
    2. Respect for others
    3. Responsibility for all your actions.
  4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
  5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
  6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
  7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
  8. Spend some time alone every day.
  9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
  10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
  11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
  12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
  13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
  14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
  15. Be gentle with the earth.
  16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
  17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
  18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

All-Religions

All-religions show the same disparity between belief and practice, and each is safe till it tries to exclude the rest. Test each sect by its best or its worst as you will, by its high-water mark of virtue or its low-water mark of vice. But falsehood begins when you measure the ebb of any other religion against the flood-tide of your own. There is a noble and a base side to every history.Thomas Wentworth Higginson :D

Friday, September 10, 2010

Religion has no placed in Modern Society

Religion has no placed in Modern Society. By Brava I am certain that modern society will benefit from an environment of education, diversity, respect and that religion will only continue to regress it citizens. Can you imagine? A world without Religion! According to The Journal of Religion and Society: prosperous societies with higher rates of belief in, and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, Drug used, inequality, teen pregnancy, abortion and discrimination. The question I ask is how religion has affected your life? When you think of an answer reflect on it. I can tell you that no matter if you practice any form of organized religion or not somehow your life has been affected either in a positive or in a negative way. My purpose today is to encourage you to open your mind to new information and to understand the negative effect of religion throughout history. I want to establish evidence to convince you to open your mind and to understand that religion is a personal choice and it has not place in Modern Society. Because the topic of religion is so controversial it has a great deal of opposition to my view. A great thing to start a conversation and learn about each others point s of view. For example, many religious organizations argue that religion and morals go hand and hand. They also argue that a society without religion is more likely to fail because United State has always been a religious country. That argument is baseless and history has shown the contrary. why should be any different now? I defend my point by showing you how our country is falling behind, in education, technology, social diversity, equality,progress and economics. Have you ask your self; How many societies had failed because they base their government on religion? ex. Spain, Germany, Russia, United States, China, etc… It is a fact that throughout history religion has been the cause of many crimes committed against humanity. Great example to that is, the holocaust, the inquisition, the crusade, September 11, Radical Muslims beheading, and slavery. Furthermore there is a large list of dictators who were completely religious or even if there were atheist they base the government on religious misinformation and fear. The outcome of their government does not need to be explain, they are responsible for over 20,000,000 millions of death and few examples come to mind. Francisco Franco Spain-1939-1975 Fascist died in office. Joseph Stalin USSR-1924-1953 Communist -Revolutionary regime died in office. Adolph Hitler Germany -1933-1945 Fascist World War II, Jewish Holocaust committed suicide. Mao Tse-Tung China-1945-1976 Communist Revolutionary regime died in office Moreover, United State had eight years of President George Walker Bush, who is consider to be one of the most religious President of our time. His presidency left behind a country full of disgrace, failing economic, two wars, inequality, and the worst education rate in history. When are we going to learn? How many people have to continue dying? before we realize that our country should be complete secular. Education and equality should be our most important priority. Another important point is the examples of many secular countries that are very prosperous regardless of their secular view of the world and the commitment to keep Church separate from their government. i.e Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, Bahamas, Finland, Sweden, Bhutan, Brunei, Canada etc…. These countries have moral values and civil order and there are consider to be very successful and happy. There is an article in time magazine by Iva Skoch title "Least Religious countries", were he explain how non-religious countries are strongly correlated with high levels of societal health, such as low homicide rates, low poverty rates, low infant mortality rates, and low illiteracy rates, as well as high levels of educational attainment, per capita income, and gender equality. Most nations characterized by high degrees of individual and societal security have the highest rates of organic atheism. Also According to Richard Dawkins author’ of the bestseller “God Delusion” he explain how secular societies show advancement and are not less moral that those religious society. Religion should be a personal choice and should not have any part on our government and society as a whole. The problem with our society is that it dedicates too much time worrying about personal believes, who is sleeping with who, is this person gay or straight and is failing to get the new generation adapt to the new world of diversity and understanding. Moreover our children are not finishing their schools well educated because lack of resources and well prepared teachers. We are loosing our edge and eventually we would not be able to be competitive with the rest of the world. The controversy around religion and society has been a part of our lives for generations and it has always been a important factor to human development and growth; however it is time to open our mind and to find a common ground were people worship whoever they want in the privacy of their home and allow the government to go on with its business without interference of any type of influence by religion. Separation of church and state is a matter of diversity, open-mindedness, respect and a legacy for our future. Brava :D

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

President Thomas Jefferson's opinion in the matter of Separation of Church and State

The phrase "separation of church and state" is derived from a private letter written by President Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to Baptists from Danbury, Connecticut. In that letter, referencing the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Jefferson writes:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.- Thomas Jefferson

John Stuart Mill defines the harm principle in the matter of Freedom of Speech

The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right... The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

John Stuart Mill, [3

Sunday, September 5, 2010

My brother Domingo died on a Friday...

Ever since I can remember my brother always been around me. My brother was the second son my father had from his first marriage. When I was born he was twenty one and full of life. He was kind and sweet and always make jokes. My first memory of him is when I was four and he gave me a sweet. What so special about a sweet anyone will ask. It was the way he made me feel when I got it. "eres especial e inteligente nunca lo olvides" He said. ( "You are special and intelligent never forget it"). Those words are stock in my head for ever and somehow have help me to accomplish everything I set my mind to do. Domingo was shy and funny and his whole life was about family and togetherness. He love his wife Dominga a funny coincidence in life where to people meet and they happen to have the same first and second name Domingo Antonio and Dominga Antonia. they started dating in the middle of the seventies, love each other dearly and been together ever since. They had two beautiful daughters, three gorgeous grandchildren and lived a simply but happy life full of routines, schedules and laughs. Domingo always love music our father a musician by profession always was around listening to music and sharing his passion for it. Domingo loved great food and great whiskey. He would get together with family every Sunday and drink and talk and make jokes. I love him and I remember how many times he was there for me always! He was one person I can count on. My brother, kind, sweet and full of laughs forever his memory will be with me and I will always try to recreate his favorite melody. rontonkoncontuntuntukutuntukututukutu