Response:A Muslim Soldier's View from Fort Hood by Kamran Pasha

My response to a recent article in the Huffington Post about the recent tragedy in Fort Hood:

"If you can get people to believe in absurdities, you can get them to commit atrocities" - Voltaire.

How tragically appropriate these words are today. We need to take this as a lesson that no teaching is above the law of reason. All doctrines held as sacred must be accountable to reality, and we cannot afford to allow the fraudulent teaching of imaginary gods and monsters as literal truth in spite of overwhelming physical evidence against.

now the long version they wouldnt accept due to character limit:

The problem is fairly straight forward, in spite of all these mental gymnastics folks are trying to do to justify religion. What it comes down to is the idea of taking instruction from an imaginary being (aka "god") and trying to use ancient books full of made up gobbledy gook instead of reasoned, rational thinking to approach life and wisdom. The only reason this doesnt happen more often is because most people are able to ignore 99% of what these ancient texts teach, and focus on what tiny bits of them actually align with common sense. (the beattitudes in the new testament for example). I cant speak for the Koran, but the Bible is full of violence, anti-humanism, slavery, misogyny, elitism, racism, anti science and learning, all in the name of its twisted version of "justice". Anyone wishing to embrace the entire bible really must become an insane fundamentalist bent on the ultimate destruction of everyone who does not believe like they do. We can keep spouting "tolerance" etc, but in the end, we keep ignoring the elephant in the room, and that is the unwillingness to hold religious teachings to the same standards of accountability and reason we hold all other knowledge. We have legally outlawed slander, libel, and fraud with this approach without stepping on anyone's individual rights. Religion needs to be put in the same category as these things and we need to cease teaching this violent fantasy as if it is actually, literally true. That constitutes fraud, and you can probably trace almost every atrocity committed in the past 2000 years to this root cause.

I am not a fundamentalist atheist, I am merely pointing out that all teaching and knowledge needs to be held to the same standard, the same scrutiny, and nothing is "sacred" or above the law of reason. Once we do that, we will see this kind of attack become a thing of the past. Sorry if I offend, but it is the truth and most of us know it.

My friend is off to find a portal to the fourth dimension in the Andes.

So, my friend just stopped by and is now on his way to South America to find a portal to the fourth dimension to beseech the "White Brotherhood" of spirit beings to not unleash mother nature's menstral lava on us ignorant self centered earthlings in 2012.

Once he enters the fourth dimension, he plans on keeping in touch via telepathy, so that was nice.

I'm actually pretty sad about this. Another victim of religion / spirituality who is merely taking it to its logical conclusion. Once you start down the rabbit hole of "accepting that there is more to life than what you can see, hear, taste, touch, or scientifically prove exists", anything goes really. Billions of people believe more strongly in an imaginary place we all go to when we die than in people who live in other countries, and would see those other REAL people die before they let them insult their imaginary hope in pretend lands and beings.

Once you remove science and reason from the picture, you cant really question anything. There is no accountability, no standard by which to judge what is real and what is imagined. In church I could tell you that God told me that I should jump fully clothed into a strangers swimming pool, and you couldn't really dispute that as the Bible doesnt really address that. You could try, but without using science and reason, it would be pretty difficult without invoking a lot of mumbo jumbo yourself.

Mmmm...mumbo jumbo sounds like a delicious hot dog at this moment.

Anyway, I hope my friend discovers his sanity while he is there. Seriously. Given my past conversations with him there is less likelyhood he will find that than the portal to the fourth dimension, but I certainly am deeply saddened by his life decision to throw away a promising career as a biochemist to head into oblivion.

If anyone can offer advice as to how to address or help these kinds of people in a world totally obsessed with ignorance, spirituality and imaginary gods and monsters, please comment.

Can you Astral Project? a conversation with Tony Gerber

Tony is a very close friend, and an incredibly smart person whom I absolutely respect and love. In SL he is known as Cypress Rosewood. Here is a snippet of one of our many chats.

Tony: can you astral project?
Tree: I can imagine im in space, or something if that is astral projecting then yes and I can bend spoons with my hands!"
Tony: do you see a silver chord attaching you to the earth?

Tree: no usually im just floating free...sometimes Im a pilot of a super cool styrofoam airplane

Tony: now its important that you dont come to resent the "sources of stress" but try to detach yourself from them and deal with them logically, as if you are someone else controlling a body.

"I think Second Life is a good analogy for that...think of your body as an avatar and use your mental "alt zoom" to look down on the situation and then you can see the solutions better." -Tree Kyomoon

Be Sane or Insane

There are only two world views, Insane and Sane.
Insane means you believe in and live to serve imaginary beings. You make up your own reality and reject actual reality.Sane means you accept reality and disregard imaginary things. Put them aside, dismiss them as fantasy, myth, cultural faux pas, superstition.Thats it. Be Sane, or be Insane.