The Threefold Calamity of Human History and the Religious Meme

Through the years, I have written a lot about the tragedy that came as a global -and monstruous-earthquake over the Ancient World, that is, the coming of Abrahamanic Religion in the disguise of Christianity, which later on was "crowned" with the arrival of Islam. Still today one is hearing -with helpless dismay- that we must worship some character that has lived 2000 years ago. And that this character is alive, and that this character has "died for us", and that this character is going to save us...Forever.

That those that are advocating this unfounded belief come from a religion that has slaugthered the body, soul and mind of millions through the centuries, is something that apparently goes on without further comments.

This is one leg of the threefold table.

Then we have the father and mother of this global conspiracy that has passed through the ages as something respectable, and more, even quite holy, the Jewish texts that proclaim a so called God that thrives through the decapitation of children and the slaughtering of women and the torture of men. A so called "God" that is Jealous, and vindictive, and who -what a coincidence- asks for human sacrifices.

Then we have the third leg of the table. Those that even today put into practice and give that so called "God" what he apparently needs, the flesh and blood of the "infidels". Inviting self-immolation and treating women as a sort of lesser animal in the worst possible sense.

The maintenance of this kind of "reasoning" is damaging for brain evolution. I will repeat and clarify:

To sustain most of the so called "religious thinking" goes against brain evolution and in fact damages human nervous system possibilities in terms of evolution of its higher faculties. Indeed the higher instances of the brain are atrophied, and the most primitive ones are enhanced.

These are simple facts than only people with no knowledge of the human brain and nervous system could ignore or deny.

I wanted to make my point clear, because sometimes I have pointed my guns against people like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, "accusing" them of lacking enough information and/or experience about what Religion may mean at large.

There is a very important part of Religion, that most so called "religious" people as well as so called "atheists" like Dawkins and Harris simply ignore. That is the "Re-ligare" aspect, the Perception of Unity in Nature and the Universe. This perception is the natural state of a well functioning brain and nervous system, and of course, has nothing to do with organized religion of any sort. In fact, is a perception that cannot be sustained into the framework of organized religion.

I have stated very clearly my position toward people engaged into organized religion. Now let me be also clear about what I think about so called "atheists". It is a contradiction in terms of the most ordinary kind.

What does "atheist" mean?

They are negating a negation in itself.

If they say that "God" -whatever that may mean to them-does not exist, how and why they could be "atheists".

What would you think of people that call themselves "Adonaldists" or Amickeymousics". Could someone with a sound mind define himself or herself as a denier of the existence of Donald the Duck and Mickey Mouse?

Now, you tell me, how could people with a sound scientific background as Dawkins and Harris -and so many others- come with this self-defeating nonesense?

I will tell you how:

They have been taken by the Religious Meme, from the reversed side, which is part of the same "coin". The meme grows from both the support of active believers and active disbelievers.

I propose to let the Meme alone. Do not feed it in any way. Let the Meme starve!

Thriving, instead, in the Direct Perception of Reality.

And then let see what happens.

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio, Walden, Cordoba,Argentina,on March 5th 2010 (of the false calendar)

Sam Harris on Francis Collins

Dr.Harris has published a sort of continuation for his "saga" against Dr.Collins

To read it please go to: http://www.reasonproject.org/index.php/archive/item/the_strange_case_of_francis_collins2/

Putting aside the obvious irony about the title of the article, Dr.Collins' case is nothing sort of strange at all. The "christian" meme is one of the strongest still available in Western culture. Mr.Collins ravings about his faith are very personal, and should not be read outside the scope of private confessions.

Dr.Harris, a neuroscientist, must know that the best way to "fight" against paleo-limbic activity is to enhance cortical functioning. The "demens" part of the dubiously called "homo sapiens" allows this kind of situation, that is, that a brilliant geneticist and a religious peasant inhabit the same person, as is the case of Dr. Collins. That is not reason enough to make Dr.Collins unsuitable as head of National Institute of Health, on the contrary, a touch of Christian ethics may be helpful in an area that requires prudence in order to be able to abstain of doing absolutely everything that we can do and doubt a little in the name of "what is going to happen if you do absolutely everything that we can do" with the power of a technology that needs some restrain to avoid building unmanageable chaos out of our own uncontrolled inventions.

Sam Harris Scientific Crusade

Dr. Sam Harris, in line with Dr. Richard Dawkins and some others scientists, continues with his Crusade against all forms of religion. I must say beforehand that I am sympathetic with their view, with reserves, which are those that derive from preserving clarity of mind and avoid taking similar paths to those taken by the fanatics of religion from the other side around. One tends to mimetite with that that one hates. Hate is definitely not a scientific approach. I find the proposals of organized religions quite despicable from a rational point of view, and agree with Dr. Harris and Dr. Dawkins about the fact that religions have done a lot of harm to mankind through centuries, and even today. But I strongly believe that the weapons against religious idiocy cannot be the same applied by the advocates of "Sin and Hell".

To see the last article by Dr.Harris published at the New York Times, go here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/opinion/27harris.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=science%20is%20in%20the%20details&st=cse

And here is my published comment about it, just in case:

As I have pointed out several times elsewhere, Dr.Harris and Dr.Dawkins seem to be acting as the forefront of a new “scientific McCarthyism” Era.One thing is to consider science the best known tool so far to understand the universe -I fully agree with that- another thing is to confuse science with “the ultimate thruth” and act accordingly as the Roman Catholic Inquisitors did beginning a witch-hunting from the other side around. Dangerous path indeed.

The Magician's Creed

by Bob Markransky (http://www.dearbrutus.com/)

I. The human race is in imminent danger of self-destructing and dragging our mother earth down with it.

II. There will be no miraculous salvation due to so-called Mayan 2012 prophecies; or Jesus' or the Mahdi's return; much less from the irresponsible governments, corporations, media, and academics who go us into this mess in the first place.

III. The theory of probable realities states that each individual person decides the fate of the entire universe. If you truly choose to save the world, you will wind up in a probable reality in which the world is saved.

IV. The only chance for survival - not to mention prosperity - is for each individual to reject society's mutual suicide pact and make saving the earth and future generations their NUMBER 1 PRIORITY (as opposed to something they may get around to someday). This is the magician's equivalent of the Bodhisattva's oath.

V. Rejecting social conditioning means eradicating all trace of self-pity. Only by clear, sober, objective thinking - as opposed to the endless loop of yada-yada nonsense emanating from society - can each individual save him/herself and the earth.

VI. This type of thinking is based upon what each person's heart tells them. It is different for everybody; and everybody has to find their own answers for themselves by examining their own habitual thoughts, moods, and concerns minutely. To do this magicians use various techniques, including:
a) techniques of self-analysis such as Active Imagination and Recapitulation.
b) techniques of transformation such as resorting to tree spirits and the earth.
c) techniques of hopefulness such as Creative Visualization.

VII. Detaching from society's conditioning of self-pity necessarily implies taking complete responsibility for oneself rather than wallowing in helplessness or daydreaming. To do this magicians:
a) channel their own spirit guides themselves for information and advice;
b) go to nature spirits for validation rather than seek the approval of other people or society;
c) become as self-sufficient and frugal as possible, including growing at least some of their own food and reducing their needs to the bare minimum.

VIII. The goal of magic is to make everyday life more dreamlike; to be able to feel comfortable in situations beyond one's control. Feeling relaxed and in good shape even in the midst of a maelstrom is called "enlightenment". Enlightenment doesn't mean light as opposed to dark; but rather light as opposed to heavy.

The mental state of mankind

There are little occurrences that are announced almost anecdotal, even as a joke, but in essence are paradigmatic to understand or define a situation that otherwise could be very complex, almost elusive.

The Iraqui journalist that throw his shoes against George W.Bush has been sentenced to three years in jail.

A pathetic gesture of despair and impotence that even if it has succeeded would have produced a negligible bruise.

Three years in jail for some futile shoes thrown to the head of the serial killer who slaughtered 1.200.000 people.


1.200.000 people that will hardly find their right place at the news of a global system that stinks from every corner of its hypocrisy and its impudence.

1.200.000 people slaughtered with the tacit acquiescence of all the world, otherwise it would have been impossible “to throw” to the anatomy of this poor devil...three years of prison for his failed desire for justice.

This is the mental state of mankind: three years in jail for throwing some shoes, and on the other hand, freedom and enjoying of its millions for the worst genocide of the last decades.

And there still some that may consider my discourse “pessimistic”...
But, ¿What could the other species of this blessed planet expect from such a specimen?
¿Is this “man”?
¿This?
There have to be something else!
And if it isn’t, we should create it!
Even leaving behind at the path our last drop of lymph and blood.
That’s why we are involved on this deed, away from the world’s madness and against all odds.

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio
Jardines de Prometeo
12 de Marzo de 2009 a las 9.09

Homo Sapiens-Demens, "America" and the End of Times

"America" is a funny country, that is, it could be funny if it weren't so bloody tragic.

I am writing "America", because "Americans", being as they believe they are, the "umbilicus" of the world, call themselves "Americans".

We...well, we are "just" Latin-Americans...Not "true" Americans at all, but perhaps a kind of subspecies. Despite the fact that Colon arrived to what we know today as the Antillas, and Americo Vespucio, the man after whom "America" was named, was an Italian (a Latin, of course) who died in Spain.
But, we must not forget that, for Americans, history began in 1786. At least the history that is worth telling about.

The government of "America" has killed about 1.000.000 Iraqis (it may be 1.200.000) since the beginning of Bush crusade in search of those now mythical "massive destruction weapons".

"America" represents the so called "First World", and Edgar Morin called our species "Homo-Sapiens-Demens". Following his thread -which BTH I believe is very interesting indeed- "America" could the true representant of the "Sapiens" and also the "Demens" part of man.

Please, allow me these ravings, as I am just a feeble Latin-American from the "Third World" and my "Third-Worldness" may have damaged my judgment.
But I just do not understand how a people that allow his government to pursue such a war against a far away Islamic country like Iraq -meanwhile hanging to death a "Saddam Hussein"- ends electing a Barack HUSSEIN Obama...

But the chances of understanding these things may just be far away the possibilities of a poor Third-World citizen like me.

This same First-World-King-Country has a Hollywood "Inteligentzia" represented among others by Steven Spielberg, Susan Sarandon and Brad Pitt that is fighting for the marriage-rights of homosexuals.

I happen to be a biological-prone Third-world citizen, and although I will never do something against a man or woman on account of his/her psycho-sexual orientation, I just cannot see how marriage beween them may be seen as a natural thing -similar to a male-female relationship- from a biological point of view.
I understand quite well that my position is far from been "political correct" in these times, but I will defend my own right as a Third-world savage to think as I do.

How can a system that has brought unmitigated disaster to this still beautiful blue planet be called "First-World" is something that simply lies beyond my understanding.

The only thing that comes to my brutish Latin-American mind is that perhaps Edgar Morin is wrong after all, and his "Homo Sapiens-Demens" is just plainly "Homo Demens-Demens".

Sometimes I feel that Human Race has been placed in this planet by an Alien force for destroying the Eco-System, in order for them to come later to a place more akin to their own nature.

Some time ago I was critiziced for defining "America" as an "unscientific democracy". But, been myself a specimen from the Third-World, I just may be lacking the abilities to understand these-and so many others-things and I am confined to see them as just plain lunacy

A New Inquisition is already here

A couple of months ago I called attention to the fact that some of the foremost - self called- atheists were walking through a ver thin line: their discourse smelling too much to old scents that we know all too well.

My suspicions are coming true, day by day more.People like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are carrying on a discourse that each day resembles more what they are trying to fight against.Perhaps this is the inevitable faith of outright opposition, namely, to make you "enemy" stronger, many times transforming yourself into the same thing you hate, no matter how disguised this could be presented.

We are on the verge of a New Inquisition: the Inquisition of the all-knowing-scientists and die-hard rationalists that simply pretend to negate anything that do not match their pretentious, all-embracing Weltaunschaung.One remembers with certain nostalgia men like Alan Watts or Aldous Huxley...But all this at last comes to the same: thriving for power; to have the last word; to impose oneself over the other human being; to exert authority.

And last but not least:What the heck know Mr.Dawkins and Mr.Harris about God's existence or God's inexistence? They cannot know anything about it. Talking too much about that gives us a clue about their true state of mind...To talk against organized religion is one thing. To go beyond that is just sheer madness.

No Way Out

If you have a soft stomach, please step back. Come tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow,
when everything will be “normal” again. Today, I am definitely not in that mood.
My tongue is loose and I will talk, loud and clear. If you have no problem with that, lets go on.

There are a lot of “spiritual” teachers today in the world, more than ever.
Now, could somebody tell me what the heck is that suppose to mean?
I was looking at a video of a gentleman whose secretary contacted me lately, and he was introducing himself –no tongue-in-cheek,by the way, but seriously as a stone- as a “spiritual teacher”.
My goodness!
I can accept a carpentry teacher, a cooking teacher, a physics teacher, a 4th grade teacher,
a kindergarden teacher, and even a philosophy teacher
–to show you how open I am!- but a “spiritual teacher”?
What? Is there someone that is going to explain the squaring of the circle to us?
When such type of speculation is used on a supposedly serious basis,
I know for certain that I am in the presence of a complete idiot or a crook, or perhaps even both.
What? Is he going to explain God to us?
GOD?

Old Jean Paul Sartre had a precise word for this kind of guy:
Salaud!
That means someone acting on bad faith and lacking in integrity.


There is a saying in the Middle-East –where I have been for quite a while many years ago- “Oh, Lord, kill those who not knowing anything, pretend to lead others to your Realm”. Gurdjieff repeats this quote in his “Meetings…”.
If this admonition could be heared and answered by God, the so called “New Age” would become immediately empty.And who knows, perhaps the world would be a better place to be.

After announcing that he was a “spiritual teacher”, he kept on talking about god…
OK. I had enough. I will repeat it again: When I hear a man pretending to talk about God I know for certain that I am in the presence of either an absolut moron or a crook, perhaps both!
Just for the record, he was announcing that he has “ a message from god”.
No kidding.
Now, you tell me, what kind of idiot you need to be to listen to this kind of crap?
There are million of such idiots in the world today, my friend.
People who, of course, live in fear. How do I know that? Because to be terrified is the only reason to accept such crap.

Now, let me confide to you that there is nothing
to worry about because there is absolutely
no way out.

People gets into all this folly because beneath the surface there is an overwhelming fear of death. Well, let me tell again: there is no such a thing.
Do not panic. I have not become a “new age teacher”-I’been too damn long around to fall into that pit- neither I have born-again into the christianism that I dropped away eons ago.
We are not going to die, never, ever because we have never been alive, never, ever.
We have never been alive in the sense that everybody believes. That is, as a separate entity.

Today I was in a lucid day, and to be lucid is to be a little sad, a little, nothing to be alarmed about. Like saying, well, today is going to rain, but not too much.

I was walking along the dead who believe otherwise.
There is no such a thing as a living man. In that sense, we are as cold and dead as a rock.
As Lautremont wrote: “We are capable of endure anything, with the condition that nobody says anything about it”
People have chosen real death instead of Life. They are choosing that because they are eager to attach themselves throughly and completely to a conceptual dream.

Today I saw a lot of biped caskets walking around.

We are not going to die twice. There is no such a thing as “individual life”.
Life is living itself as a whole, undivided process. We have never been alive as we believe we were. And I am not playing with words or joking. Not on the least.

Are you still with me, my friend? Lets go on a little further.


We are just a dissapearence. We are an absolute and continual vanishing. As those stars whose brightness we still see, but then the physics explain to us that they are already dead and gone,
thousands of years ago. It is just a reflection what we see and saw.

I met a man once.
He was called Rajneesh.
In those days he was still Rajneesh.
Later, the world began to hear from him as “Osho”.

This man was strucked by a lightning.
For a while, everything was OK.
The light of the lightning was flowing on him.
He was gentle and still. A very rare happening.
The lightning was talking through him with no interference, yet.
Then, the man began to think astray.
Rather, he began believing he was thinking by himself.

What else should I say about this most common and sad event?
Today, his books are sold at supermarkets.
Really, this no metaphore but a fact.

What can people get from such a drained fruit?
The dead keep burying their own.

When you are just tuned on,
gentleness naturaly flow.
But the flow is just the flow,
not your concept of the flow.
Therefore, sometimes,
if the dog's barking
is molesting your meditation,
you may kill the dog!
(as old Crowley told)

As I said before, today I am not in the mood.To be frank, I am never on it, but just restrain myself a little to avoid making too many waves. What for?
Those who know what I am talking about do not need to read it here to know.
Those who don’t, are completely deaf and waterproof to All.

This is, I must say, rather ease to experience by yourself at any time.
You most certainly don't need DMT, psylocibin or mescaline
though they can be useful to some but just for a while,
When the peptidic receptors are no longer excited to secreting,
your brain and nervous system will go back to their usual metaprogrammed stupidtity, their natural state, that is why the Caucasian used to say that we have to go contra natura….
But do not be anxious:
everything is to no avail,
as we are completely,
absolutely dead.
Because as longer as there is someone there,
there will be only death.
(By the way, not the DEATH as Pleroma about what I am going to talk in a couple of days)



For certain, you do not need to be afraid
We are not going to die.
I'm sorry, but we have never been alive.

Everything must go down,
through the drain
down into the dump.
You have to let it go.
No I,
no me,
no self at all.
There must be nothing
In-between for Life to flow.

Therefore, my friend,
stay at ease,
let it completely go.

There is absolutely
no way out.
Now:
into the Abyss
Jump!


At 8:15 PM, at the City of Buenos Aires, as someone told me.

Plagiarism

If someone, sometime,
could accuse me of plagiarism

-it has never occurred so far to me,
although it must be impossible
to avoid performing
the alleged felony
almost everytime-

I would just say:
be careful,
How do you know for sure
that I plagiarized him?
Why are you taking
the officially established
flow of time
so much for granted?
How do you know that,
on the contrary,
he did not plagiarize me?


Manuel Gerardo Monasterio
3.07 AM

Man

My House like Babel,
inhabited by so many
who nothing understand!

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Thriving in the solace of aloneness,
surrounded by the sleep of those who
most certainly will "awake" in the morning
to continue their eternal nap
Buenos Aires, Jardines de Prometeo,
2.53 AM September 6, 2007

Further anagrammatic lunacies about Nietzsche’s "Gott ist tot"

Do we know what are we barking off
when we spitting highly pronounce
the Nietzsche’s dictum “Gott ist tot” ?
We just don’t know where is that dog:
It is definitely a most unreached dot.

We just don’t know what shit we’ve got!
But our guts are full of conceited plots
which talks a lot about our lot,
but doesn’t add a tinny dot to Nietzsche’s
dictum that Gott is surely tot.

What is that oddity mostly odd
that we have chosen to call just God?
Which crazy dog?
The one barking in the dot!
The infinite Absentia that we have togged
with bonnie cloth to wrap the fraud
The Gott which ist so tot
is nothing but a joke,
a floating dot in our plot,
which is the story that flows a lot
about the plenteous brood
of a very sterile dog.

Is Nietzsche’s Gott really tot?
Ask the rotten dog!

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

On Nietzsche's "Gott ist tot"

How could a concept die?

Concepts have their "lives" in that most dubious sparkling neurochemical "pastische" from which comes what we call "thought".

Therefore, a concept is free from being attached to the delusion -possibly the result of some hardware severe malfunctioning- of being alive as a separate entity (of course, such an animal does not exist)
This "interface" now writing is the only one known capable of maintaining such follies as daily bread.
Contrary to this little robotic-monkey presumptions, concepts are dead meat by their very definition.
They cannot die or be killed twice.

And about God, paraphrasing Heidegger -in one of his extremely rare moments of simplicity- we may say that if God is God, he is not “die-able”.

If “Got ist tot”, we just don’t know,
what we most surely know is that
Nietzsche is dead, that is: Er ist tot.
To that final dictum its impossible to add a dot.


PS: Kempis, in a rapture of clairvoyance and anticipating Nietzsche's final predicament, around 1441, wrote: "vita hominum tanquam umbra cito pertransit; quia nihil permanens sub sole, quia omnia vanitas et afflictio spiritus; sic Transit gloria mundi." Among other pristine phrases, which clearly depict the miserable position that we sustain confronted with such Intangibles as God or Not God. We are airy creatures that vanish in a blink. Veritable children of a realm of relativity. What purpose could we find in dealing with such Absolutes? They are completely alien to our very nature. They are properly domain of the gods, and we melt on its nearness, as moths approaching the attractive but deadly flame.



Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Be Careful: in order not to transform yourselves into that same "horror" that you denounce

"People represents not so much an aggregate of ideas and theories as of obsessions."
E.M.Cioran


Scholars and researchers like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, whose basic endeavor toward debunking the atrocities of religion I have always applauded, are slowly beginning to lead a new mutant-legion. The question is in what are they going to be transformed.

These top researchers were worried by the universal folly of religions always spreading like a mind disease through mankind history. I understand that their worry -which I duly share- is completely rational and quite legal.
But little by little I am discovering awful signs of -let me be a little "Dawkinsnian" myself- "memetic contamination".

Many letters at Richard Dawkins' site begins with a "I am an atheist" or something like that. Not only at his site. It sounds like a new "declaration of faith". Sorry, but the resemblances with " I am a baptist" or "I am a presbyterian" or "I am an adventist" or "I am a Jew" or "I am a muslim" or...etcetera...seem loud and clear to me.

Call me a paranoic. And I will answer that most of the times, if paranoids are not completely right, at least they thrive well for survival.

I don't like the tendency of this thread. It sounds too much like a new religion.

Besides, if you look at the faces of several self-called atheists or agnostics speaking at TV shows or videos, there is a kind of slow but sure mimicry with the religious fanatics faces...and minds.

I am worried. Very worried indeed.
My growing feeling is that we are stepping out of the saucepan to fall into the barbecue.

There is a lot more in Memetics that we may even begin to dream about.
We are inmersed into a memes-soup and contagion is always imminent.


Passion?
Yes.
But not so much that it degenerates into fanatism.
Religious bigots are not so far away and alien to ourselves as we may think.

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Nisargadatta Video (2 of 2)

There is nothing misterious -neither mistyfying-about a man like Nisargadatta. He is just an ultimate example of Self-Inquiry.

The results, by the way, are very far away from the "Hollywodian" cliche of an Indian Teacher or Guru.
Very simple, very unpretentious, and little to be gained in terms of wordly "powers" or goods, quite on the contrary. Paraphrasing U.G.Krishnamurti (not to be confused with the better known Jiddhu Krishnamurti) we may say that if one does not want to loose everything that a man may have in the world, it is better to stay away from this INQUIRY.

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Nisargadatta Video (1 of 2)

Nisargadatta and Ranjit are both from the lineage of Siddharameshwar.
They represent Advaita Vedanta in its ultimate form.

Nisargadatta has been "accused" of being an “atheist” which is of course a preposterous assumption, as Nisargadatta endeavor is a very practical one, based completely in Rational Inquiry, as such, it has nothing to do with something in which reason will sink without remedy, as it happens with the subject of God.

Nisargadatta has been also known as a Gnani, that is, one that follows the path of Knowledge , as it is understood in Vedanta, Self-knowledge.The Gnani inquiries in search of “true identity”, if something like that exists at all, a fact that each one must discovered by oneself.
In this sense, Gnanis are truly Scientists of the Mind.

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio



"A simple man, Nisargadatta Maharaj, was a householder and petty shopkeeper in Bombay where he lived, and died in 1981 at the age of 84. He had not been educated formally, but came to be respected and loved for his insights into the crux of human pain and the extraordinary usidity of his direct discourse. Hundreds of diverse seekers traveled the globe and sought him out in his unpretentious home to hear him. To all of them he gave hope that "beyond the real experience is not the mind, but the self, the light in which everything appears...the awareness in which everything happens."

By the people at http://www.vedanta.com

Around Darwin's beliefs

"I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such abstruse problems. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble to us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic."
Charles Darwin


So much has been written about Darwin, that people are overwhelmed by the amount and content of all those statements, enough to discourage them to go to Darwin's own copious works. And the fact is, that beyond Darwin's opinions or conclusions on the very evolutionist issues that have made him famous, he was a philosophical mind of the very first order.
An incredible observer, subtle, precise,witty, and despite everything written against him by men that lack this virtue, he was an extremely humble and sober thinker.

He knew quite well the limits that many men, both from the religious as from the scientific field, completely seem to ignore, namely, that God and the Origins of the universe are matters just beyond our understanding.

I will go one step further, these things lie even far beyond all the possible streching of our imagination.

I will give a simple example:
Suppose that a microbe situated on a tiny spot of the skin in your ankle tries to make a composition of what you are.
Of course, someone may say that my comparison is preposterous due to the fact that the microbe is supposedly a sort of mindless entity, at least completely un-rational. But on behalf of the microbe I could say that in comparison, knowing what we know -which is only a glimpse- of the size of the universe-, the microbe has a big advantage over us, the scale is far smaller than between God and us.

Why are both scientists and religious men so eager to give their verdict on this most absurd matter?

Because of Fear. Unbearable Fear.


Pascal wrote: "The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me"

In the original French the phrase sounds even more depicting of that sense of horror that overcomes this little creature that we are when confronted with such vastness.

The need for some kind of certainty in the midst of the unfathomable, has always been an incentive for producing theories.
We must not forget, though, that such measures are nothing but placebos. Sort of intelectual barbirutates or moral benzodiazepines to diminish the excruciating "angst" that overwhelms the thinking animal confronting such a "Beast".


Darwin, as many many thinking men -my most humble truly yours one of them- could not possibly accept that an All-Benevolent God could possibly be behind so much pain, anguishes and catastrophes as we have down here. Such a though must certainly be simply abhorrent for any rational creature. Although priests of every faith are an exception. Or perhaps they simply do not enter into the first proposition.

My own predicament is rather awful. As I cannot rationally accept that a Good God could be behind all this, if there is a God after all behind this, he could only be my worst enemy. In the very best of the possible agreements, mutual love would be definitely out of the question.

To soothe my very own and very intense "fear and tremble", I am on the side of the old Gnostics, who believed that this whole manifestation was the work of the evil Demiurge, and that the Good, All Loving God rests away from all this pestilence.

May we all thrust and rest in His Profound Love and Peace which most certainly CANNOT be from this world.

PS: Yes, I know, if we accept this gnostic proposal we must confront the fact that the GOOD GOD that has nothing to do with all this is not "almighty" as an alien force is operating beyond his realm...Well, I began this disquisition quoting Darwin on the impossibilities of our mind to grasp such things. "THIS", which the ancients depicted as "Mysterium tremens".



Manuel Gerardo Monasterio
Jardines de Prometeo,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
at 10.10 AM September 4, 2007

The Question

God Is,
but does He exists?

We exist,
but do we Are?



Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen"

I began my life obsessed by the subject of God and immersed in the research of all the diverse religions. Mine has been a long, too long route to Damascus. And a deep Night of the Soul.
Finally the existence of God began bringing me more restlessness than Its possible absence.
Because, ¿What kind of God could have created such a thing? What could be the Nature of THAT?

The presumption of the religious men, who pretend to be the authorized spokesmen of God’s Word, seems to me absolutely abominable. There isn’t a greater Blasphemy than pretending to know what God is, wht God looks for o what God wants. And it is the upmost Blasphemy, because it means sheer Nonsense.

"If you think you know what the hell is going on, you're probably full of shit."
Robert Anton Wilson


Some days ago a couple whose little daughter got restore from a usually fatal illness, was praising God “for having realized the miracle” of saving the child’s life”.
That most natural attitude in the majority of people, brought me instead a sensation of unbearable horror. Because, What happen then with the thousand children that died on that same day? Which was God’s will in these cases? Did God spare this little girl's life and abandoned the rest?

In a situation like this - that most certainly presents itself daily in thousands of different forms with people as fervent believers as those were- to believe in a god that exists in a participative way in the destiny of men produces in me an indescribable uneasiness.

That is why I consider Wittgenstein one of the great religious philosophers, and I have used as a title his last phrase in the Tractatus:

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Religious philosopher I have said, because there isn’t a more certain and deep religion than Silence, which is the only that does justice to THAT about nothing can be "think of", or "say about". The immensurable pile of words that men have spent through the centuries to speak about that about nothing can be say, gives us a clear notion of the tremendous ignorance in which mankind drowns itself today and always.

Could someone call my position "agnosticism"?
May be.
For me it is simple reason and plain common sense.


Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Suggestion for Psychologists and Students of Psychology

After 30 years of professional practice of Psychology and Psychoterapy, I believe that the most fast and efficient way to learn psychology is to study Etology. Studying animal behavior you are going to learn psychology faster and better than reading all of Freud, Jung and Lacan works.


Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

XXX Century Avatars

Such is the amount and deepness of people's credulity and the fickleness of historians, that it will not be surprising that in the XXX Century, Donald the Duck and Mickey Mouse could be remembered as great blood and flesh spiritual masters and founders of religions!


Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Vivekananda in the streets of Calcutta

Walking along the streets of Calcutta, his natal city,Narandranatah Datta -Naren for his intimate friends-and known by the world as Swami Vivekananda-one of the true spiritual giants of mankind, overwhelmed by the surrounding horror and misery proclaimed:

"What kind of god could have made this? Even I would have done it better!"

Which is an incontrovertible proof that even the saintest of men have a moment of lucidity.

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Identification

Every "spiritual"teaching that we may ever need is condensed in the following:

If you don't "identify" yourself, the circus suspends its performance immediately.

If you "identify"yourself, the circus begins its performance once again.

The fact that so much has been written about "spirituality" and the alleged "spiritual life" is a clear proof of the kind of crooks that are usually leading ashrams, founding churches or creating religions.

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

True Spirituality

True Spirituality is an intimate affair.
Wittgenstein used to vaguely talked about “'das Mystische”, a realm inaccessible to analysis or articulate description.
I have used the word “true” attached to “spirituality”, because any manifestation that goes away from that indispensable “intimacy”, must be suspected. This obviously includes any relation whatsoever with organized religions, that in this sense, must be observed as possibly anything, except Spirituality.
I quite understand that my statement is rather nasty, but I don’t think that Spirituality can be bent and twist to fit into anything of the sort.
In organized religions we have morals, codes, rules and a lot of collective manipulation. But Spirituality is rather alien to all of them.
This seemingly extreme opinion is really in concordance with the essence of Jesus sayings in the Gospel. Not that I need to arrive to an agreement with what the Gospel said, but just for the record.

Wittgenstein “vagueness”, which has been criticized, here and there, could not be otherwise, taking into account the elusive nature of the issue involved. As Lao Tzu clearly wrote, “The Tao that could be explained is not the real Tao”.

Once the true role of organized religions is understood –to establish some particular moral standards that mostly will serve the needs of the most powerful men and corporations at a given time and place- it must be also clear that any pretended wisdom about what lies before or beyond this life, is just a rather conceited supposition.
The all-embracing power of organized religions has always come from the alleged visions of the alleged visionaries of the alleged Gods. Too many allegations for the rational mind to be comfortable with.

True Spirituality is a process that comes and goes mostly in Silence. It is a rather unseen activity, but its fruits are and have always been visible and tangible: kindness, tenderness, compassion, acceptance, forgiveness and peace. Not precisely the sort of fruits that we are watching coming out from organized religions in today’s world.


Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Two comments on an Article by Sam Harris at Newsweek

Commenting Sam Harris article "The empty wager" at the online version of Newsweek:
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/sam_harris/2007/04/the_cost_of_betting_on_faith.html

I wrote the following:


Sam Harris is, together with Richard Dawkins and a little bunch of first line scientific writers, one of the few that is confronting the madness of a belief structure that has, systematically and inexorably, led to innumerable collective catastrophes. He is worried, very much so, and with outstanding reason. Religious belief as has been preserved by organized religions, is a calamity that has to be confronted by rational minds all over the world. The clash between those beliefs and super-advanced technology will provoke further holocausts, poisoning, in way to that final destiny, our daily lives in every possible manner. 100% support to Dr. Harris work.


After posting my initial comment, I took a look to other commentators. I think that many rationally prone people would agree with me, and I most certainly do not want to offend any person that feels otherwise, but each time somebody defends his or her faith on account of a man or god, whose accountability rests on the far past (like Buddha, Jesus, or whoever) saying I am a Buddhist, or I am a Christian, etc, I cannot help but think in the following comparison, I imagine a person two thousands years from now, proclaiming: I am a Mickey Mouseian, or a Donald Duckian...
Can just we grasp whatever we can from God HERE AND NOW without resorting to some past, improvable and alien experience?

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio

Sam Harris Part 4 of 4

Sam Harris Part 3 of 4

Sam Harris Part 2 of 4

Sam Harris on his "The End of Faith" 1 of 4

Philosopher Sam Harris discussing issues included in his bestseller "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason". This series at YouTube consists of 4 small videos, which I am posting here. This is an abridged version of the full AVI which is about 1 hour 25 minutes long.

Both Sam Harris and, before him, Richard Dawkins, have began a sort of "holy" war against religious beliefs. I am saying "holy" because in some ways both scientists seem to be applying a similar sort of zeal as religious pundits do to defend their views.

Despite everything that I could say -because I am far away from agreeing with everything they propose- - Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins campaign represents a much needed and purposeful "rational dam" to organized religions outrageous conceptions and their obnoxious effects on every field of human life

Manuel Gerardo Monasterio