This I Know to be True
30 August 2007 by jimmerThe book of “Inquiry” is never complete.
The Religious had their books completed thousands of years ago by our primitive ancestors.
We are the voice of “Reason”, A light in the darkness.
The Religious are the same old tired and threadbare hissing of the Insane death cults.
The Pic is a view of the Earth from Apollo 8 in it’s swing around the moon. Just a slice of the moon.
In less than a generation the U.S. has been forced to live under a pall of unmistakable ignorance. 
We have been swindled out of our free thought universal triumphs and have been handed the latest version of the book of Deuteronomy. The Bush, Kennedy, Robertson,Falwell et. al. punch for a theocratic U.S. and it has left us nearly bankrupt of the vision that once guided this nation to be a Nation Among Nations. From spying on, well, everyone to torture to the elimination of the Writ of Habeus Corpus to waging war against a nation that did not attack the U.S. They have lead the U.S. and the world to the brink of an insane and winless world war that will NOT herald in a NEW age. It will herald in the end of life as we know it.
We are witnessing the best of Religious doctrine taking over in the world and what do they give us? Nothing but war and terror. They all have divided the pie and are making sure that they get their share. The current political albatross in Washington has little in common with even the most rancorous political differences of the the 1950’s. All politicians are kneeling and giving their obesiance to the religious.
What I know to be true. That we have put a man on the moon through Scientific principles and the religious did not. That at one time not so long ago the entire world marvelled at the achievements of a visionary U.S.. A U.S. that sent it’s men to space but has also gone out of it’s way to include other nations in the line-up. A U.S. that gave and gave. But through the misdirected leadership of an administration suffering from the god sickness it has abandoned it’s own people in New Orleans. It has cheapened the lives of people of other nations to the point where they are collateral damage or worse they aren’t worth fighting for. In spite of the numbers of dead due to genocide in Darfur, Rwanda, as well as other nations that could be helped. The U.S. has stopped helping and has gone away.
There is no vision except a vision of war and poverty if we continue to be led by such people. I started today wondering how we as a People had grown so far from our sense of being free. I realized that in many ways that while the U.S. was still under the leadership of real people that there was a vision that could be shared by all. Even by people who were not living here. It was the simple idea of each of us having a vision for ourselves. And it was a vision of a Nation that stood together without the fear of the unknown. It was not a vision based on what the Religious want or say. It was not a vision of the past. And it certainly was not a vision of war.
I end with this idea that came from the Apollo space program.
First the plaque that was left by the first people on the moon was a statement for all of mankind. That is why I consider religion to be a dismal failure in that they have divided the world and have caused more suffering than they have solved. They only care for themselves.
“Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon The Moon. July 1969 A.D. We Came In Peace For All Mankind.”
Second here is a short account of the Apollo 11 landing
That landing came during the flight of Apollo 11,which lifted off on 16 July 1969 and, after confirmation that the hardware was working well, began the three-day trip to the Moon. Then, at 4:18 p.m. EST on 20 July 1969, the Lunar Module—with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin aboard—landed on the lunar surface while Michael Collins orbited overhead in the Apollo Command Module. After checkout, Armstrong set foot on the surface, telling millions who saw and heard him on Earth that it was “one small step for [a] man—one giant leap for mankind.” Aldrin soon followed him out, and the two plodded around the landing site in the 1/6 lunar gravity, planted an American flag but omitted claiming the land for the United States as had been routinely done during European exploration of the Americas, collected soil and rock samples, and set up scientific experiments. The next day they launched back to the Apollo capsule orbiting overhead and began the return trip to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific on 24 July.
This flight rekindled the excitement felt in the early 1960s during the first Mercury flights, and set the stage for later Apollo landing missions. An ecstatic reaction enveloped the globe, as everyone shared in the success of the mission. Ticker tape parades, speaking engagements, public relations events, and a world tour by the astronauts served to create good will both in the United States and abroad.
The Goodwill that took 200 years to cultivate. This latest bunch of politicians have squandered while lining their own pockets and the pockets of their benefactors.
30 August 2007, on 1:55 am
Beautiful, erudite post, Jimmer.
I am truly scared for our nation.
The “silver lining is, I don’t believe that we are going to go up in a ball of fire–”a blaze of glory” if you will, (as much as the evangelicals hope and incant for such an ending).
No, I’m afraid that our great Republic, cum wannabe Empire is quickly going the way of many Empires past (much quicker than most–I guess everything is faster in our modern times.) I believe we are going to fizzle out into irrelevance, unless something is done very quickly (it may be too late). We are going to spend and bully and dumb-down our way out of existence. The greatest global damage that will likely occur is financial. Fortunately, the world will recover.
There are many out there that believe our nation is so resiliant, or so “blessed by manifest destiny” that we can work our way through this–that we can never fall from greatness. The thumb-dicks in the oval office are bound and determined to prove this hypothesis wrong.
This saddens me greatly–I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. I’m not going to blame the fundies that put the Comman-durrr-in-Thief in the Whitehouse for this tragedy (although they are a bunch of Fuck-wits for doing so). We are all responsible for allowing this to happen, to a certain extent.
I feel like I’m in a relationship that quickly turned abusive–I don’t recognize this country anymore.
30 August 2007, on 8:13 am
Nice post. jimmer.
A couple of quibbles.
I’m not sure the 1950s — the decade that gave us “under God” and “in God We Trust” — could be said to be any better re: religious freedom and the separation of church and state. If there had been blogs then, I’ll bet not too many atheists would have dared “come out” on them.
Also, what’s Kennedy (JFK?) doing on that list. You mean the guy who said this…?
And this?
30 August 2007, on 8:19 am
Great post. I agree with you. I’m also pretty concerned about this country.
At the moment, I’m just waiting it out until the next election. Hopefully, our new President will be able to make things at least a little better.
Also, did you hear about the law that is proposed to ban saggy pants in Atlanta? That is the dumbest thing that I’ve ever heard of. I think it’s a shining example of something that’s starting to go wrong in this country: petty rules that limit personal freedoms.
30 August 2007, on 8:46 am
Not a bad post, but I think there are some damned if you do damned if you don’t decisions we’ve made. Trying to stop violence in Africa is one of those.
The US is often blamed for trying to be the world’s policeman, yet we get blamed as well if we don’t do something in a certain place where someone feels we should. Practically all of the violence in Africa is due to religion and tribal culture clashes. There’s no way we’re going to be able to resolve those matters. Only Africans themselves can solve them by throwing off the shackles of barbaric tribal customs.
Vastleft, I think the Kennedy mentioned might not be JFK. And you’re right about the 50’s, I was going to bring that up myself. And those religious folks back then were largely Democrats.
30 August 2007, on 10:07 am
The Kennedy mentioned is Justice Kennedy? This is the first time I have ever heard the 50’s painted as a time of blossoming humanity. The 50’s are more remembered (at least by me) for Jim Crow segregation, the red scare, when our WWII gen. grandparants could be openly racist…
30 August 2007, on 10:44 am
I’ll take Jimmer’s larger point and go it one further. The intellectual evolution of Western Civilization has been quagmired since Constantine adopted the cross for his stanchion in the fourth century. The luminaries who’s feats of logic and science we curious skeptics know like disprayer beads- from Galileo, Giordano Bruno, Copernicus, the Medicis, Da Vinci, up through Thomas Paine and our own founding fathers, to Goddard, Oppenheimer, and Einstein, have had to push doubly hard just to be heard over the dull roar(sound/fury/nothing) of religion transfixing the populace. They are anomalies, however. It makes me wonder what the natural progression of human knowledge- and civilization, would have been were it not for the advent of monotheism. As if the Jews needed something else to be blamed on them. Monotheists!
30 August 2007, on 10:54 am
It’s that fucker Abraham’s fault.
30 August 2007, on 11:11 am
The Kennedy is Dr. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian church. He churned out volumes of Family Value propaganda.
Reread what I said about the 50’s
I did not paint the 50’s nicely. I stated what I know and that is that even during the most rancorous politics they were nothing like they are today. The Democrats are not even capable of fighting this admin. Which makes me realize that they are complicit with Bush. The political process is no longer progressive and moving forward. It has stopped at the door of religion and that door is closed to many of us without the secret handshake or maybe secret footsie thing.
The door beyond is open but not to the religious. As I stated their books have been written and that is that. I was making the point that the current vision in the U.S. is a vision of death and suffering. Sponsored by the religious. Our way to a better future is not that way.
30 August 2007, on 11:13 am
RDZ
Exactly.
30 August 2007, on 11:23 am
I was thinking similar things last week about a couple of crises in the making in Africa and China.
Theocracy is damnation.
30 August 2007, on 12:46 pm
At the least, Democrats are pandering to the religious in order to gain votes.
30 August 2007, on 3:04 pm
Women of the earth, unite! ‘Tis finally time to take over the world!
(Oops, did I say that out loud? Never mind, then; move along, now; nothing to see here…)
Kidding, of course; the use of “man,” “men,” and “mankind,” so customary at the time, in the Space Program references sparked off that particular train of thought. A righteous post, jimmer…
30 August 2007, on 8:54 pm
Revenant, that’s one of the major downfalls of the organized left- appeasement. Unfortunately, political reality seems to demand such hand-holding with the more moderate churchers- given the percentages of self-professed believers amongst the electorate. The right, as much as I despise just about everything they stand for, at least has spine- insane, twisted, corrosive spine but spine all the same.
30 August 2007, on 10:07 pm
Eve
I was thinking of you when I wrote
“First the plaque that was left by the first people…”
I know what you mean though. Another score for those who would divide us is that they have done so along gender lines.
31 August 2007, on 10:37 am
True, jimmer.
The Space Program language, along with classic Star Trek, also always remind me of a lecture I attended once given by a famous female shark expert (can’t remember her name, though). She showed film of her and her expedition, which included Jaws author Peter Benchley, diving with whale sharks (in the Pacific, I think; boy, my memory’s rotten this morning).
At one point on the grainy film we saw her scuba-geared figure, dwarfed by a giant shark, clinging to its huge dorsal fin as it descended into ever darker depths, and Benchley, narrating the action, rather sententiously declaiming something along the lines of “going where no man has gone before.” The scientist herself, watching the film with us, then piped up into her microphone without missing a beat:
“But where woman has often already been.”
31 August 2007, on 3:18 pm
Eve, Your remarks remind me of the quip, “We put a man on the moon, why can’t we put them ALL there?”
2 September 2007, on 1:11 am
Karen
Your a doll. Do you think you could arrange it that I would be one of the first to go?? Hmmm Pretty please.
3 September 2007, on 12:18 pm
jimmer
Hon, if it means that much to you, you can be co-pilot.
5 September 2007, on 11:13 pm
[The shark expert is Dr. Eugenie Clark.]
Very nice post, Jimmer, and full of powerful insights. I was only slightly distracted by the confusion between “it’s” and “its”. What say you check back with your high school English teacher? Love you guys!