Posted by Stephane Bouliane I came across a quote a few days ago that says: "A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. The moral is that we don't know the real deep nature of people as long as they don't have power(s) they could potentially use to control, abused or hurt other people. Getting knowledge about how to fight, how to kill will NEVER turn someone who's really peaceful into a murderer... but that person will become well equipped to defend his/her life and the life of other people such as family members or even the unknown wreak persons that eventually could need our help to survive an attack just around the corner on the street. On the opposite side, there's a lot of "apparently quiet people" who are in real fact totally revolted against many thing in life, but they learned to swallow their emotions and to apparently "submit" to most people, rules, and laws around them because they feel that in case of "physical confrontation", they would probably loose against most people. So they rationalized claiming that they are "pacifist"
Learning iaido or any other martial arts will never turn you into "what you're not"... Now about the religion aspect... Yet, with time, I started to look at the "big picture" of our religion and noticed a few disturbing facts that aren't exactly what we could call logical: - According to bible & Jesus, "when someone slap you in the face, you should present the other cheek... All that sounds very "right" and familiar beliefs in our religion... Most Catholic & Christian strong believer would agree with that. So here's those fact that I failed to understand the logic: Ok... let's forget about the crusades and pretend that they were right doing so because many of their enemies were "evil musleums"... How about those people who were accused of "witchcraft" and "speaking to the devil" because they were seeking "knowledge" by trying to heal sickness using plants... Those "evil witches" were trying to SAVE LIFES... Yet, the Christian church were TORTURING them with branding to get their confess that they were working for/with the devil" (the only way to stop the torture)... after confession, the "witch" was condone to be BURNED ALIVE to "save his/her soul". Well... ok... may be they were right and it was demonic to try to save life with anything else than praying... and it was an "act of Christian love" to BURN those people ALIVE... So let's talk about money: Also let's not forget all those priest who got caught sexually abusing children! Finally let's talk about financial fraud. Earlier in this message I said that my mother was a "real believer" As a good catholic, she gave money (about the official 10% of her total earning) to the local church. She was not rich, having barely enough to keep a roof above her head and food in her plate, but "she knew" that it was the "right thing to do". About 3 months ago, the very same priest (Levis Martel, city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada) that were in charge of our church for the last 25 years got arrested for FINANCIAL FRAUD and got his personal house of $350,000.00 seized by law. (I'm happy that my mom died peacefully (but unfortunately painfully) from cancer before that scandal. How many other priest already got caught doing similar financial rip off? Im sure that everyone reading this know have heard of similar case in their area (money, pedophilia, etc) Let's take for granted that "the Supreme being" do exist (no matter which religion). Would it be possible that some (non-believers) spiritual leaders pretended that "god want this" and "God want that" with the goal of manipulating the mass of believer for their selfish desires?
or even simply as a megalomaniac power trip ? Would it be possible that the act of confession be a simple way for a human (the priest) to get a lot of power over the believers (similar to the way the C.I.A. get power by spying to know "what other people are thinking & doing secretly" ? Would it be possible that religious principle such as Could well intentioned people have pretend that God said "No sex before wedding" and wrote it in the bible so people would obey god, creating a more stable environment for children. If so, now that condom exist, it doesnt make sense anymore. God didn't himself take a feather & ink to write the bible... The facts are that simple men were holding the feather who wrote the Bible The real questions that remain remain: (by the way, its a well known fact in psychiatry that schizophrenic people often think that its God, the Maiden, an angel, etc which is talking to them when they ear voices
Even worst: when those people go for several years before getting medical treatments, they come to the point to believe so much that they have direct phone line with above and are used to Gods voice guiding them directly that when they start taking their anti-psychotic pill and stop earring those voice from above, they panic and quit taking medicine because with those pills they cant ear God anymore.) These are the questions that are being raised in my mind & hart when I think about God. I don't claim to "know the truth", and I specially don't try to convince anyone about anything. I have way too many respect of other people to "force a believe" on anyone. This message is barely my "2 cents" about being careful not to get stuck into guilty feeling caused by "human control attempt"... God is supposed to be a God of love and forgiveness... If a human do his best to don't hurt other (while doing what must be done to protect in self defense), and try to spread love and respect around him, it should be easy for God to know hes a good man because hes everywhere, and to know the deep inner thoughts of everyone. Isn't it Jesus who said: "We can recognize a tree by the fruit it producing" ? Following the logic, according to Jesus, you should know by yourself (without the need for a spiritual leader to tell you so) if you're on the right track or the wrong one, by asking yourself a very simple question every time you doubt if it's right or wrong: "When doing _________, am I producing "good" or "bad" fruits in my life and other people life?" Stephane "Doubt is the beginning of wisdom... it's only when we doubt that we start to ask ourselves the "right questions"... and it's by asking ourselves the right questions that we find "right answers"...
on April 14, 2004, 12:15 am, in reply to "iaido and religion"
Hi LJ,
A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence."
I was raised in "roman catholic" religion and my mother was really into our religion playing a lot, etc. So I'm very familiar about "what's wrong" and "what's right" according to my religion...
- We should love each other...
- We should give all money which is not the bare essential for our need, to help other people who don't even have the bare essential to survive...
- If our religion is that good, would someone please help me to understand those "Holy war" (medieval crusade) where huge amount of knights were going into other country, KILLING & EXTERMINATING people who were not ready to "see the light" by converting themselves to Christianism?
Let's not forget that they were KILLING "devilish human" in the name of God and Christian church... they were wearing the cross on their armor and shield...
If it's "right" to be poor, and "evil" to be rich, would someone please help me understand why in medieval time the churches & priests were often as rich as the King? Still the same questions about todays facts: If Christian & Catholic church believe into "being poor as a holy quality", why is that that the Vatican (the Pope) is richer than several country in the world?
That was in my city
- Did God really spoke to those men who wrote the bible?
- Were they simply well intentioned men who lied that "God said that" with the goal of making human try to act as good as possible?
- Were some of those people simply hallucinating that "God spoke to them"?
Let's not forget that schizophrenia is not a modern psychological problem. It always existed since the beginning of time, but it's just during the last century that psychiatricians putted a name on it.
I hardly believe that God wouldn't understand that you were well intentioned and had non-violent goals in mind when learning martial-arts, which are before anything else a "mental discipline that bring inner peace & harmony"
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