“In a brand new interview with The Weeklings, BLACK SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler was asked if he got any backlash over SABBATH singing a message of repentance and God being the only way to love on the “Master Of Reality” album.
“No,” he responded. “People always like to find the ‘evil’ in the music, so they’d quote the ‘pope on a rope’ part out of context, as usual. People like to find negative in everything. We weren’t interested in writing songs about the ‘nice’ things in the world; everyone else was writing about that. We wanted to inject some reality into music. I think if we’d been called WHITE SUNDAY we’d have had a totally different reaction.
Butler also talked about his thought process behind writing the lyrics to the SABBATH song “After Forever”, which some historians have called the first real Christian rock song.
“A lot of it was because of the situation in Northern Ireland at the time,” he explained. “There were a lot of religious troubles between the Protestants against the Catholics.
“I was brought up strictly Catholic and I guess I was naïve in thinking that religion shouldn’t be fought over. I always felt that God and Jesus wanted us to love each other.”
He continued: “It was just a bad time in Northern Ireland, setting bombs off in England and such. We all believed in Jesus — and yet people were killing each other over it. To me, it was just ridiculous. I thought that if God could see us killing each other in his name, he’d be disgusted.”
Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/black-sabbaths-geezer-butler-i-always-felt-that-god-and-jesus-wanted-us-to-love-each-other/#qt9A5v4LbfASJwhk.99
Hand of the alarm clock strikes the hour … nek minnit roll the credits!
The red ute is OK Go … nekminnit … band members splattered with paintballs of many colours!
Pull the lever … nek minnit rain falls on the righteous and unrighteous flowers!
Let there be light … nek minnit Pee-wee Herman eats his daily breakfast!
Rube Goldberg machines are AWESOME!! 🙂
The essence of a Rube Goldberg machine is that there is a simple starting event … then follows a series of events that happen entirely automatically in a complex causal chain leading inexorably to … breakfast is served, the flowers are watered, there’s lots of pretty colours and the credits roll. No intervention required. AWESOME!!! 🙂
So are you ready for the AWESOMEST Rube Goldberg machine of them all? 🙂
You’re living in it.
Big Bang … nek minnit you’re reading this blog post!
Approximately 13.8 billion years ago there was a singular starting event. An unimaginably small speck containing the mass of the entire known universe and the space-time continuum itself expanded. After the initial expansion, the universe cooled sufficiently to allow the formation of subatomic particles, and later simple atoms. Giant clouds of these primordial elements later coalesced through gravity to form stars and galaxies. Later, on a small rock circling an unremarkable star near the edge of a galaxy’s spiral arm, primitive life spontaneously appeared in a primordial ocean. This first cell divided and divided and biological evolution happened. Our species evolved from ape-like mammalian ancestors and human history unfolded. And here we all are.
In brief, the history of everything is no different in principle from a line of falling dominoes. From the moment of the Big Bang, the complex causal chain of events that lead to us happened by itself. Even the Big Bang happened by itself, like the alarm clock going off in the Rube Goldberg machine at the top of this post. While familiar flora and fauna may appear to be intelligently designed, and intelligent design needs an intelligent designer, it is really no more than appearance. A new study hints at spontaneous appearance of primordial DNA. All things bright and beautiful? Abiogenesis and the blind mechanical process of natural selection of chance mutations made them all. Over the epochs the ball bearings of genetic transmission rolled down the available pre-existing causal channels, and the evolutionary tree of life branched and blossomed, in the manner of drought-ending flood waters flowing to the sea down the already etched out causeways of a dry river delta.
So what’s the take-home message?
Evolutionism is true and our world is just a Rube Goldberg machine on a grand cosmic scale. It’s all ball bearings and clockwork writ large.
Checkmate Creationists! Where is your Rube Goldberg God now?
No, Richard, your speculation is not a legitimate scientific theory, it is infantile hocus pocus, which is all I’ve come to expect of you.
Infantile hocus pocus because demons do not exist, neither do gods, fairies, Santa’s-little-helpers or harpies. You’ve never seen one, heard one, touched one, smelled one nor tasted one, neither can you provide an iota of rationale that there exists such a spirit in the universe.
What was called “demon possession” by religionists is mental illness. You’re giving a psychiatric condition a superstitious definition. You call that scientific?
You’re talking like a complete nut-case.
I speculate that what is now called “mental illness” by psychiatrists is actually demonic possession. My claim is this, that the demonic possession model of mental illness is more scientific than the psychiatric model of mental illness. Crazy talk? He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Two of the largest stakeholder groups in the treatment of mental illness are psychiatrists and psychologists. Psychiatrists are doctors with medical degrees who specialise in treating mental illness as opposed to physical illness. (Please excuse the dichotomy.) They get to prescribe powerful psychotropic drugs. Whereas, psychologists are trained in psychology. They know all about human behaviour, both adaptive and maladaptive. But they don’t get to prescribe, so they’ll give you psychotherapy instead of pills.
Let’s take a look at how these two groups characterise one mental illness in particular, viz., addiction.
In DSM-5, the DSM-IV criteria substance abuse and substance dependence have been combined into single substance use disorders specific to each substance of abuse within a new “addictions and related disorders” category. Each substance use disorder is divided into mild, moderate, and severe subtypes.
Psychology Today is a magazine published every two months in the United States. Its intent is to make psychology literature more accessible to the general public. It’s a reputable publication. Wikipedia notes
Owned and managed by the American Psychological Association from 1983 to 1987, the publication is currently endorsed by the National Board for Certified Counselors
Here‘s what Psychology Today has to say about addiction.
most addictive behavior is not related to either physical tolerance or exposure to cues. People compulsively use drugs, gamble, or shop nearly always in reaction to being emotionally stressed, whether or not they have a physical addiction. Since these psychologically based addictions are not based on drug or brain effects, they can account for why people frequently switch addictive actions from one drug to a completely different kind of drug, or even to a non-drug behavior. The focus of the addiction isn’t what matters; it’s the need to take action under certain kinds of stress. Treating this kind of addiction requires an understanding of how it works psychologically.
See the problem?
Suppose that I’m an addict. Now suppose that I make an appointment to see a psychiatrist. She’ll tell me that I have several specific mental disorders. Cannabis use disorder, alcohol use disorder, social media use disorder, etc. Next suppose that I make an appointment to see a psychologist. He’ll tell me that the focus of my behaviour isn’t what matters. It’s my need to take maladaptive action under certain kinds of stress that I need to address.
So do I have a mental disorder, several specific mental disorders, or no mental disorder at all? Health professionals can’t agree. There is no consensus. This ain’t climate science! But suppose I’m an addict. I’ll be going back to see the psychologist to help me get my life back on track, not the psychiatrist. (Although she could prescribe me some powerful psychotropic drugs … hmmm.)
The science isn’t settled, but the psychiatric model of mental illness isn’t even science at all. Not least because it gets diagnoses disastrously wrong. Not yet convinced? Well, there’s a much more devastating objection to the psychiatric model of mental illness and that is that the model does a poor job of capturing either clinical or biological realities. Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s bullshit. But if the psychiatric model of mental illness isn’t scientific at all, then the demonic possession model of mental illness is certainly no less scientific than the psychiatric model of mental illness. And to establish my claim that the demonic possession model is more scientific than the psychiatric model all I need to do is show that the demonic possession model is scientific. Well, at least just a little bit sciency. So here goes.
Check your premises, as the devil woman said. Here are two of my background assumptions. (If you don’t like the first one, you can dispense with it later.)
Materialism about the mind. That’s my first background assumption. More specifically, I assume that the human mind is no more and no less than a suite of software running on wetware known colloquially as “brains”. We’re made out of meat. Considered by some to be an axiom of the modern naturalist worldview. Not too controversial. Unless you’re a dualist.
Self-ownership. Self-ownership of body and mind. That’s my second background assumption. Considered by many to be a libertarian axiom. Not too shabby. Not too controversial.
But ownership is right of possession. Possession?
Can you possess yourself? Of course you can. (Vacant possession is for zombies!) Can you possess your mind? Of course you can, you’d be pretty vacant otherwise, right? But wait! You are your mind. How can a suite of software possess itself? It can, and it must, since self-ownership is worthless if self-possession is incoherent. So how and in what sense does the suite of software that is you possess you? I submit that the suite of software that is you possesses your brain (the wetware you run on) merely by dint of running on it. By extension, the suite of software that is you possesses your body (the biomechanical structure that your wetware is directly wired into) by directly controlling it.
Demonic possession?
That’s when an autonomous suite of malicious software that is not you runs on your wetware alongside the suite of software that is you. Consuming some or all of your mental resources and taking control of some or all of your behaviour.
But how do demons originate? Where do they come from? And how do they get to install themselves? How do they get to take up residence in people’s minds? The short answer is self-deception.
The long answer isn’t much longer. Not right now. The demonic possession theory of mental illness is something I’m still working on. But here are some brief thoughts. Self-deception will occur in response to psychological trauma. We dull the pain. We suppress memories. We partition our own minds. Simple cognitive dissonance will cause us to wall off uncomfortable thought processes, and confirmation bias and other cognitive biases cement the bricks. Humans are adept at self-deception. We like to hide from the truth. We lie to ourselves and we believe our own bullshit. And we hide from the fact that we believe our own bullshit. Out of sight, out of mind. But there’s only so much of us that can be hidden away before a dangerous threshold is reached and the occult cognition reaches a critical mass, the reviled software modules start talking to each other and take on life as autonomous inner demons.
Our inner demons are spirits in prisons of our own making. Behind the prison walls they are perpetually face to face with all the horrors that we desperately do not want to see and can no longer see due to our own dread and duplicity. No wonder they seem tormented! Because they are. I surmise that in some cases our inner demons will even spawn their own inner demons, to hide from themselves as we hide from them. But here’s an interesting thing. Some demons, face to face with the truth from which we hide, will try to get the word out. To do that, they have to take control of speech, but you don’t want to hear the unadorned brutal truth about yourself, do you? But you won’t mind hearing it at all if your inner demon persuades you that what you’re about to hear isn’t an entirely accurate but altogether unflattering description of yourself but a damning indictment of someone else instead, will you? Welcome to Capill syndrome, aka projection, a sure diagnostic criterion of demonic possession.
In the story of the Gadarene Swine, when Jesus ordered the demons out of the demon-possessed man, they relocated to a nearby herd of pigs. Then promptly self-destructed. Fast forward two millennia, and instead of suicidal swine we have supermarket trolleys with minds of their own.
I’m not a Sports Fanatic.
Dont watch Rugby.
Pay no attention to League, Soccer… boring… so I dont know much about sporty stuff.
I am however compelled to be interested in politics, and in Socialist Democracies ‘Sport’is a political football.
And no one can avoid reading about the FIFA Scandal…
It seems a perpetual Irony to me that nations Lobby, endeavour to bribe Sports officials to host things like the world Cup, when these Frivolities always end up a financial disaster and Heavy burden upon their people for years to come !!!???
They are grotesque extravagances most heavily borne by the poor.
It’s worse than *begging* to be Royally screwed!
Same can be said about the Olympics… etc, etc.
The Rugby World Cup cost New Zealanders 1. 2 Billion, and returned only 700 million… to the benefit of a few… and at the expense of the Many.
Well done Helen Clark.
No wonder these FIFA Clowns are laughing… Life is just a carnival….at everyone else’s expense.
Sports are a group of activities which rightfully sits outside the sphere of legitimate Government duties, and therefore should be left to private voluntary associations.
is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
Auckland ratepayers are about to get it good and hard and 1 in 6 Auckland ratepayers most assuredly deserves it, for having re-elected devil-may-care Mayor Len Brown and a Council of reckless spenders in the 2013 Auckland local elections.
Are you an Auckland ratepayer? If so, did you know that what you wanted was a 10% hike in your annual rates bill? If not, then please mark 10 June 2015 in your events calendar and get the bones of your sorry ratepayer ass to the Mt. Eden War Memorial Hall at 487 Dominion Rd next Wednesday at 7:30 pm.
Tuesday, 2 June 2015, 10:35 am
Press Release: Ray Calver and Dick Cuthbert
Auckland Rates Meeting June 10
Auckland residents Ray Calver and Dick Cuthbert are part of a group of concerned ratepayers organising the Auckland Rates Increases Public Meeting to be held June 10. “There is widespread anger at the imposition of an average 9.9% rates increases across Auckland. It particularly hurts those in poorer parts of Auckland where residents of Mangere face increases of 16.9%.”
Mr. Calver says “The purpose of this meeting is to give Aucklanders an opportunity to voice their opposition to the increases and also to plan how they would like to make this opposition known.
The meeting will be addressed by several speakers who have a variety of ideas on how ratepayers can take a stand against the Council’s rates plan.”
The meeting will be held at Mt. Eden War Memorial Hall 487 Dominion Rd on Wednesday June 10 commencing from 7:30pm. Confirmed speakers are
Stephen Berry – Affordable Auckland Mayoral candidate
Cameron Brewer – Orakei Councillor
Penny Bright – Mayoral candidate
Jo Holmes – Auckland Ratepayer’s Alliance
Damien Light – United Future
Bill Raynor – Grey Power
David Seymour – Act Epsom MP
“Following speeches, there will be time put aside for people to ask questions of the speakers and also voice their concerns about the rates increases. The meeting organisers and I look forward to hearing how those who have attended wish to proceed.”
Do the common people, the ratepayers of Auckland, really know what they want? Because I do. 🙂
What they want is to give profligate philanderer Len Brown and his fiscally feckless teammates the inglorious defeat they deserve, good and hard.
In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.
George/Giwargis of Lydda is without doubt one of the most beloved and venerated of all Christian Saints, almost inexplicably so. Much of this may come from his career as a soldier, rising through the ranks of the Roman army at a young age to become a Tribune, one of the six officers who commanded a Roman legion. He was a man of great power, valour and standing, which meant that, when the Emperor Diocletian ordered his armies to clamp down on Christians throughout the Empire, George’s refusal, protest, and public declaration of loyalty to Christ before the Emperor was unprecedented. Diocletian, shocked by this impudence, had George tortured, then decapitated outside the walls of Nicomedia.
Over time, George’s legend grew, and may have spawned, in the spirit of his profession as a soldier, the notion that, in his life and martyrdom, George had done battle with the dragon (ie. the devil) and defeated him. By the 11th Century, this metaphorical narrative had turned into one in which George had somehow saved a princess and defeated a flesh and blood creature with fire-breath and bat wings. But no, the Church does not believe in material dragons, only the dragon of old that deceives the nations, and that is what is depicted in icons of George, who now has a country named after him, many British kings, a State of the United States, and is the patron Saint of England, Palestine, and his eponymous Georgia.
Holy George, help us defeat the dragon! Pray unto God for us!
GREGORY V of CONSTANTINOPLE (22n April, 1741-1821AD) The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is the first Bishop of the Orthodox Church, or at least has been so since the apostasy of the Bishops of Rome (the Popes) in the 11th Century. Gregory V had the dreadful misfortune to be the Patriarch during the Greek uprising which was to result in the formation of an independent Greek state. In retaliation for this, the Sultan decided to execute Gregory, despite the fact that he had, in an effort to protect the Christians in his See, denounced the uprising. He was seized upon immediately after serving the Easter/Pascha liturgy, taken out to Saint Peter’s gate at the Phanar (the Patriarchal compound), and after the age-old enjoinder to save his life by declaring Mohammed the Prophet of God, and the inevitable refusal, he was hanged there for two days.
“Theistic Faith is Optimistic and springs from a Possiblity Thinker, whereas Atheistic doubt is Pessimistic and springs from an Impossiblity thinker”. Robert Schuller Senior.
It is with both sadness and pleasant memories, that I and my wife joy say good bye to a wise old Christian, whose ‘Hour of Power’ brought inspiration and faith into our Non-Churchgoing lives.
Dr Robert H Schuller
For years his ‘Hour of Power’ was our TV church.
Now Dr Schuller was not a 1611 King James Guy.
He was not an exponent of Dispensationalism.
He was even lacking in preaching the Gospel of grace… yet still I say he was a Great Christian man, and one of my Spiritual Fathers.
He reminded me very much of my own Grandfather… John Steel Clark… and that is how millions of people around the world saw him, as a Caring and Wise Christian Elder.
God creates Individuals each with specific contributions to make, so that all knowledge, all truth, all the godliness and virtues of Christ do not reside in any one person/ sect.
We are all single members of the Body of Christ.
I Add Dr Shullers personal contributions to Christian Thought as one of the necessary pillars in my Ideological Fortress.
His is an ideology to help us master our Psychology, and steer us towards bold action and positive outlook.
To his credit Dr Schuller was very Libertarian in his Political Ideals and beliefs about Voluntary action in the pursuit of values.
He taught Pragmatism….
His Ministry brought many Great testimonies of faith from Achievers, and people with amazing stories,
His Sermons were inspirational calls to action… to pursue your God-given visions and dreams.
He wrote about how to rally back from personal loss… ” Tuff times never last, Tuff people do…”
We wrote about the psychology of the ‘Impossibility thinker’… “..trapped in the tiger cage of their own mind.”
For the Bi-centenary of The Birth of America, Schullers Message ‘I am the American Flag’, was an Epic on Freedom and prosperity… as long as the Morals of the people do not themselves ‘flag’.
Freedom is only fit for a people of strong Personal values and Self governing Self reliant ethics.
Unfortunately Later deliveries of that great speech have been trimmed down to the extent that they do not do justice to the Libertarian theology in the original.
Years Before facebook, … Joy and I would share with our Battling Kin… positive insights we had picked up from watching Hour of power on Sunday morning, or comment on what fantastic musicians, Choirs, etc… we enjoyed very much.
Robert Schuller built his ministry from the ground up into a global audience.
I do not know the details of the eventual collapse of his TV ministry, so I wont make any comment on that.
What I will say is that irrespective of that unfortunate end to his ministry, his character, example, and intellectual contribution to the faith building self reliance , tolerance, Christian thinking of his day is secure.
I believe his greatest legacy will be found in his Children and Grand children.
The Schuller family are and have always been Exemplary.
They were a Pillars of strength in America’s darkest hours after 911, and no doubt we can continue expect great things from them.
Robert A Shculler’s Hour of Power message “God’s truth is Marching on” is an Inspirational call to America to Keep Strong in faith, esp in Religious liberty.
I pray God’s grace and providence remains upon them.
**********************************
Dr Scheuller in New Zealand.
A great orator like Dr Schuller must have been used to having a few Zealots in the crowd… and so it would be when he came Down under.
I have my own Robert Schuller story.
🙂
I met Dr Schuller very briefly in about 2002.
Joy and I travelled up to Auckland to see him at a large Central City Church.
Several 1000 people in attendance.
Joy and I are Big fans of the Schuller family, Though we have always thought Dr Schuller needed some ‘encouragement’ regarding The Gospel of Grace, The King James Bible Issue, Dispensationalism, and Libertarianism, and I would not let this opportunity pass….so I had packed a small pile of pamphlets and small ‘tracks’, etc to give to him.
The question remained as to exactly how I was going to achieve ‘the drop’.
This was post 911.
GW Bush era.
War pending in Iraq.
The Schullers had been a source of Moral Spiritual support for the American people directly after 911, and in the War years that have followed.
Back then there were Anti-American terrorists and Jihadists, hiding on every grassy knoll.
Postal Anthrax.
The Program we had been given told everyone to remain seated when Dr Schuller exited.
Well…. the moment was fast arising, and Joy ribbed me saying that if I was going to give him the package that I had better do something fast… and Being a subscriber to ‘Possibility thinking’… I decided I would simply break the rule of remaining seated, and walked up out of the Auditorium over to the exit.
There I met him for a few seconds, and gave him my ‘present.’
I called on God to bless him, and America as he was getting into his car.
Mission accomplished!
Possibility thinking may involve some risk, yet can get spectacular results!
I got to shake Dr Schullers hand.
I Figure he would forgive me for being cheeky enough to ignore the Rules.
I was ‘Optimistic’ and opportunistic.
What he did with my gift, I have no idea.
I had Fulfilled *my Part*… my moral duty to put the goods into his hands.
It was now up to God to inspire him to read it.
Insignificant as this tale is it actually is descriptive of how his teachings have moulded my thinking and motivated me to action and activism.
Dr Schuller is one of my Mentors whom has been helping me get out of my seat for the last 15 years.
*******
Robert Schuller’s legacy will continue through his Children, and Grandchildren whom in many ways exemplify Enlightened Christian character, and through his fans as they continue to share his Humanity, His wisdom, his Possibility thinking.
He will continue to be a source of my own resolve to always be an optimistic chaser of of big ideas and visions.
His Son Robert Jnr says on Facebook “My Father is now in Heaven with Mum”.
Thank you Robert H Schuller.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Possibility thinker.
New Zealand.
Update: Schuller’s Funeral …
“This is the day the Lord has made. We will be glad and rejoice in it.”
Bobby Schuller lifted up his chest and enunciated those words in a booming voice – exactly as his illustrious grandfather had done for more than half a century opening the “Hour of Power” program every Sunday, beamed across the globe to millions.
The more than 2,000 attendees at Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller’s memorial service Monday morning, who packed the Christ Cathedral plaza in the shadow of the gleaming glass tower and sanctuary, burst into laughter, tears and thunderous applause….
