A World Gone Mad!
The Bible says that the "love of money is the root of all evil." Like most things in the Bible, it's wrong. Or at best, only partially true. Religious extremism, hatred of children, the joy of cruelty, plus the lust for power, and the excessive love of money are at the root of most evil.RELIGION
Religionists say that we should surrender to the will of "god." Are they suggesting that we should follow all of god's rules and regulations? Should we stone disobedient boys to death? Should we stone young girls to death for not bleeding on their wedding night? Should we stone to death everyone who works on the "sabbath?" (bearing in mind that the sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday as christians believe.)
And seeing as both "god" and Jesus condoned slavery, should we reintroduce the slave trade? Should we amputate our hands and gouge out our eyes, as recommended by Jesus, for harboring a lustful thought? Should we castrate ourselves "for heaven's sake?" My question is, which of "god's" laws and rules do fundamentalist christians want us to obey? All of them? Right, begin by stoning yourselves to death!
"Every injustice and cruelty imaginable was inflicted on man, woman and child while the world suffered under "god's" law. Every civilised and humanitarian reform we presently enjoy is the result of defying "god" and his sadistic nature." Professor Alan J. Douglas
On September 11th 2001, nineteen Muslims obeyed "god's" laws and murdered almost 3,000 "unbelievers." Hundreds more deaths followed, and I dare say there will be many more. Everybody following "god's" laws. It's all in the Holy Qur'an, "unbelievers" must be killed � "god's" commandment. Incidently, the same "god" worshipped by Jews and christians.
The world has suffered under "god's" laws for thousands of years. Moses slaughtering entire cities of men, women, children and babies, was obeying "god's" laws, as were Saul, Joshua, David and all the other monstrous "patriarchs." The torturers and murderers of the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions were obeying "god's" laws. The Crusaders were obeying "god's" laws. The Conquistadors were obeying "god's" laws. The slave traders and plantation owners were obeying "god's" laws. The Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre was conducted by people obeying "god's" laws. Countless atrocities have been committed by people who were obeying "god's" laws.
God was on the side of the Catholic and Lutheran Nazis, he was on the side of the Jews being crammed into gas ovens, he was on the side of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, and he was aboard the Elona Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan. God was on the side of America � One Nation Under God � and he was on the side of the men who flew planes into the World Trade Centre. God is always on the side of whoever kills and whoever is killed. Trust God? Sure can.
Isn't it time we rid ourselves of "god" and gods altogether?
There can be no peace on this planet so long as people remain in a state of suspended animation and continue to worship fabricated deities which should have been flushed down the lavatory of life centuries ago.
BRUTALITY and NEGLECT
Politicians are fond of uttering platitudes like, "Children are our future." Then having uttered, they move on to more important matters like the economy, travel allowances, the sale of Telstra. We have laws against child abuse and neglect, but very rarely are they enforced. Few children receive a loving, secure and fun-filled childhood. They don't vote, therefore they don't count. Parents use brute force against their children because they can. It's a parent's "right" to strike their children. The Bible encourages the violent abuse of children, so if "god" instructs parents to beat their children with a rod, who can say otherwise? Besides, it's cheaper to discourage your child from poking his fingers in the fire by slapping him, than buying a fire guard, and immensely more satisfying. And why put sharp knives out of reach when you can smack her around the head instead?
There is a respectable name for this form of brutality, it's called "discipline." In the name of discipline, parents can legally bully their children into submission. It takes no thought, no wisdom or intelligence, just a powerful right hand, a belt or a stick. It's what in our sick and savage society, we call "normal."
"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahil GilbranQuite apart from the millions of children who are deliberately abused by their parents each week, approximately 5,000 children a day are injured in the home because parents can't be bothered to take a few obvious precautions against injury. That's just Australia!
Scaldings, burns, knife wounds, falls, poisoning, drownings, accidents in the car... most could be avoided if parents cared for their children. Oh sure, most parents are very sorry after the event, and that's all society expects of them. Be sorry after the event and that's OK.
Most parents wouldn't and don't have a clue how to raise children. Very few understand the first thing about child psychology, besides, why waste time studying child psychology when there's Australia's Funniest Videos on TV? With any luck there'll be a clip of a kid being smacked on the head with a swing.
Young African girls are subjected in their thousands to genital mutilation, parts of their vaginas are sliced off with unsterilized knives by unqualified butchers, no anaesthetic, and all in the name of "culture." Although it's predominantly a Muslim practice, their religion isn't to blame. It's just traditional, and who gives a damn about the suffering of children? They can't fight back so it's cool to torture them.
THE JOY of CRUELTY
From fox hunting in England to bullfighting in Spain, there's nothing some humans enjoy more than watching animals suffer. The English Royal Family, while incompetent at most things, are masters at killing wild animals. The Duke of Edinburgh, while speaking on behalf of the World Wildlife Association, boasted of shooting thousands of ducks and pheasants each year. Not necessarily a quick death, most of these birds are wounded, and they can lie undetected for an hour or more before the brave huntsman wrings its neck.
Badger baiting is another favorite English pastime. Here the terrified animal is locked into a cage and dogs are set onto it. The dogs often receive vicious and sometimes fatal wounds, but eventually the badger succumbs to the overwhelming odds, and it is ripped apart, still screaming.
In Japan and other Asian countries, dogs and cats are dunked into scalding water, then skinned alive while still breathing. In China, thousands of bears are held captive, locked for their entire lives in tiny cages, and drained each day of their bile. The Chinese believe that bear bile has medicinal qualities when in fact it has none at all.
The walls of hunting lodges around the world are lined with the heads of antelopes, boars, moose, rhino, lions, tigers... in fact if it walked or crawled it was fair game for the guns of brave men who, from the safety of their Land Rovers, shot and killed these beautiful animals. What heroes.
Bear baiting and cock fighting are banned now in most countries, but still they go on. The Japanese haul sharks from the oceans just to slice off the fins, then the wounded creature is tossed back into the sea to die slowly or be devoured some while later.
The international community has raised a fuss about the wholesale slaughter of whales and dolphins, but nothing is said of the "manly" sport of fishing for swordfish and marlin. How come some sea creatures are protected while others are fair game for the sadistic delights of man?
And do we ever stop to think about horse racing? It's so much a part of our culture that it never dawns on us that the horse might hate every second of the training and the race. Animals can't talk, they can't tell us what they actually feel. So because a horse is capable of carrying the weight of a man, we assume it was put on this planet for us to ride at breakneck speed. But my guess is that the horse does not enjoy being whipped and spurred, and forced against its will to gallop with a man on its back.
We humans are capable of carrying a weighted rucksack on our back, but does that mean we enjoy being forced to run as fast as we're able while carrying the weight? I don't think so, but we force animals to do it because we can, and because they can't complain.
Speak to the survivors of Japanese labor camps, ask them if the enjoyed being forced to work, just because they could. Very few, if any, men enjoyed being subjected to the whips and boots of their Japanese masters, but we're happy to do the same to animals because, in our opinion, they're "dumb."
Well, if it's any consolation, the Japanese thought that the men who built the Burma railway were pretty dumb. All they had to do was whip them and they worked. Just like race horses.
Most of us, to some degree, share some responsibility for cruelty to animals. How many of us are prepared to pay an extra dollar for "free range" eggs? How much thought do we give to the barbaric methods used to slaughter animals for meat? I don't want to give the impression that The Real Wild Church is a fanatical cult like the Hindu Jains, who avoid stepping on cockroaches and ants lest their souls should come back to haunt them. What I'm saying is, we need to become aware of what's happening in our world and we need to speak out against deliberate cruelty.
POWER POLITICS
North Korea is almost certainly building nuclear weapons. The people starve while Kim Jong Il builds nuclear weapons. In common with every power hungry tyrant there has ever been, the caesars, the popes, Queen Victoria, Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Ze Dong, Idi Amin, Peron, Pol Pot, Ceausescau, Pinochet, Saddam Hussein, Milosovitch, and thousands more besides, to Kim Jong Il, human life is expendable and worthless.
Did Saddam Hussein have Weapons of Mass Destruction? Has he buried them somewhere? It's taken the Chinese more than fifty years to discover the wherabouts of Japanese mustard gas. Thousands of tons of the deadly stuff are still missing. So we may never know the answer to Iraq's missing WoMaDs. But we do know with reasonable certainty that Kim Jong Il will soon be able to threaten the world.
President Clinton and ex president Jimmy Carter both visited Kim Jong Il to defuse the situation, to encourage him to desist from building nuclear weapons. President George W. Bush, on the other hand, has refused to speak to Kim Jong Il, so the nuclear program is back on track, full speed ahead.
Russia's nuclear missiles are ageing, which sounds like a good thing until you realize that so are the fail-safe mechanisms designed almost fifty years ago to prevent an accidental firing. Twice in last ten years Russia has come within a few minutes of launching a full-scale nuclear attack on the United States of America due to false alarms.
America's response to all this is to keep world tension wound up to the max. Spend countless billions of dollars on a "Strategic Defense Initiative" which will force the Russians to put their 6,000 nuclear missiles on a constant state of red-alert. Then all that's needed to trigger WW111 is a weather balloon or a flock of seagulls to stray across Russian radar, and whoo hoooo! Duck and Cover!
Pay the Israelis billions of dollars a year to drive Palestinians off their land. Create things like "The Road Map to Peace" while doing everything possible to ensure war.
The saddest thing about all this is that millions of American teenagers think it's great. Armageddon is just around the corner and "god" is going to punish the baddies. Jesus will pay us another visit and rule over the goodies for a thousand years. When they and their loved ones are dying of radiation burns they'll realise their mistake. But it will be a shade too late by then.
The Chinese were lucky to contain the Sars virus earlier this year. Scientists know that it is only a matter of time before the next pandemic hits. A pandemic, on a scale at least as dreadful as the 1918 Spanish Flu which killed twenty million people worldwide. As anitbiotics become less effective, and viral strains become more virulent, the next big one could decimate the population of the world. Or worse.
China's response to this is to send a rocket up in the air. Soon they hope to put a man on the moon. "Experts" tell me that it's all worth while because the spin-off effect is things like Teflon.
So here we are, on planet Earth, with countless millions of people dying each year from cancer, heart disease, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, malaria, hunger, water poisoning, diarrhea, plus numerous other deadly diseases and complaints, and mankind's answer to the problem is to send rockets into space because, incidentally, we might discover an even tougher Teflon. Or perhaps a really efficient fabric softener.
MONEY and GREED
No atrocity is too cruel if the price is right. The Motorola Company in the USA manufactures the detonators for land mines because the price is right. The fact that thousands of children all over the world have had, and are still having their legs blown off by Motorola detonated land mines bothers the shareholders not one jot. It isn't their kids being killed and maimed so why should they care?
Tobacco companies have for decades known of the harmful effects of tobacco. Millions of people every year dying of tobacco related lung and heart disease, but the companies are forever looking for more lucrative and cunning ways to market their deadly product. What does it matter if millions of children lose their mums or their dads, just so long as the board of directors and the shareholders earn top money?
Animals are put through the most excruciating agony by the cosmetics industry. Rabbits are locked in boxes with their heads thrust through a hole. Chemicals are squirted into their eyes, which are then taped over so's the chemicals can't be washed out with tears, and then the "scientists" measure how long it takes for the rabbits' eyes to burn and for them to eventually go blind. This is so women can enjoy the benefits of a better mascara or eye shadow. L'Oreal are notorious for their brutal treatment of animals, but so are dozens of other major companies. Revlon is one of the few companies with a 'No Animal Cruelty' policy.
All manner of bizarre, fiendish and diabolical experiments are carried out on animals in the pursuit of money. There may be some excuse for the use of animals in essential medical research, that's debatable because most of that is profit driven. Dogs, monkeys and chimpanzees are routinely tortured to death by drug companies seeking new products to supply a market which doesn't really need the new products, but which will be talked into buying the new products by slick advertising.
Thousands of children are sold into slavery to earn money for heartless men, many of whom are westerners. The environment is being destroyed to earn money for big corporations. But worst of all is the armaments industry. Every conceivable and inconceivable weapon of mass destruction is designed and created by companies hungry for the "defense" dollar. Yet none of these weapons can be used for defense, we're well past that stage. Within years, or sometimes months, of America developing a new deadly weapon, other nations develop a similar weapon, and so the race is on to build even deadlier weapons. And so it goes on, and so it will go on, until the destruction of our planet is realized.
And what's it really all about?
Quite apart from a religious belief in an after-life, most people seem to believe they're going to live forever. Otherwise, why this clamor for more and more wealth? Why would a man, worth millions, and in some cases, billions of dollars, strive for more and more? What does he think he's going to do with it when his body turns to ash or maggot shit?
What good did all that gold do for Tutankamen? Is Howard Hughes living it up somewhere? Paul Getty and Nelson Rockefeller driving divine Cadilacs? Unlikely, in my opinion. We know next to nothing about Tutankamen, and no one gives a stuff about the other three corpses.
There's nothing wrong in striving for a good income, and enjoying the fruits of one's labor. But how much wealth does one person need to be happy on this planet?
And is wealth the key to happiness? The opposite does apply, the key to misery, or one of them, is poverty. But following America's lead, we have become a world obsessed with wealth. Not content with a paid-for home, people are buying several houses, dozens even, in one case recently, over 200 houses. What is wrong with these people? What dreadful childhoods they must have had. Compelled to devote their lives to the accumulation of wealth in order to experience a smidgen of security.
Or are they driven by a need to be noticed, "Please mummy, notice me! Tell me I'm good at something. Anything!" Whatever the cause of their addiction to wealth, it is pathetic.
And as for security, all the money in the world can't buy it. What if they get struck down with cancer? Perhaps they could sell their houses, yachts and share portfolios, buy a rocket, send it to Venus and who knows, someone might accidentally discover a really efficient hair restorer.
In the 21st century mankind will face moral dilemmas on a previouly unimagined scale. Baby cloning, human "spare parts," total mind control, ever more deadly weapons of mass destruction, and so on. Unless we establish an ethical base and structure NOW, religious extremism and the mighty dollar will dictate the future direction of this planet.
The world has gone mad, and it's getting madder by the month. The Real Wild Church has been formed to examine our predicament and to find a better way of life. A better way of life for children, for adults, for animals, and for the planet as a whole.