I'm looking for some volunteers to help spread the word about the Church of Reality on the Internet. I'd like to get as many links to it as possible. In order to do that I need people to go to related sites like lists of religions and suggest the Church of Reality.
Also - if you have a home page or have friends who have pages I'd appreciate a link. The more people link the more we will get noticed. Also - if any of you have pull with DMOZ or other search engines - could use some help there.
I still believe that if everyone in the world heard the name "Church of Reality" and had an idea that it was a church based on believing in what is real - that it would raise the IQ of the planet by 5 points.
You can be part of the process that brings humanity out of mythology and armegeddon and put it on the track of positive evolution. If you want a future brighter than today - then go out and spread the word. Tell people how reality changed your life!
Here's what happens when religious fanatics are allowed to be generals in America's army. The think that they are on a mission from God.
The general is suffering from delusions. In his mind God controls him. America is a nation of Christians that is locked in battle with the evil Muslims who server Satan. Which makes it a holy war.
Of course the Muslims believe the same thing with the roles reversed. And thus the belief in conflicting mythical models leads to war and religious bigotry.
America is not a Christian nation. But there's a lot of Christians out there who will do anything to change that. And it's up to us to expose it and look at this from a realistic perspective and ask ourselves - is this really where we as a people want to go? I don't think so.
------
A highly decorated general who is one of the leaders of a secretive new Pentagon unit formed to coordinate intelligence on terrorists and help hunt down Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and other high-profile targets has a history of outspoken and divisive views on religion — Islam in particular, NBC News has learned.
HE’S A HIGHLY decorated officer, twice wounded in combat — a warrior’s warrior.
The former commander of Army Special Forces, Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin has led or been part of almost every recent U.S. military operation, from the ill-fated attempt to rescue hostages in Iran to Grenada, Panama, Colombia, Somalia.
This summer, Boykin was promoted to deputy undersecretary of defense, with a new mission for which many say he is uniquely qualified: to aggressively combine intelligence with special operations and hunt down so-called high-value terrorist targets including bin Laden and Saddam.
But that new assignment may be complicated by controversial views Boykin — an evangelical Christian — has expressed in dozens of speeches at churches and prayer breakfasts around the country. In a half-dozen video and audiotapes obtained by NBC News, Boykin says America’s true enemy is not bin Laden.
In June 2003, Boykin spoke to a church group over a slide show:
“Well, is he [bin Laden] the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man [Saddam] the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.”
Why are terrorists out to destroy the United States? Boykin said: “They’re after us because we’re a Christian nation.”
NBC News military analyst Bill Arkin, who’s been investigating Boykin for the Los Angeles Times, says the general casts the war on terror as a religious war: “I think that it is not only at odds with what the president believes, but it is a dangerous, extreme and pernicious view that really has no place.”
During a January church speech in Daytona, Fla., Boykin recalled a Muslim fighter in Somalia who bragged on television the Americans would never get him because his God, Allah, would protect him: “Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.”
The Somali was captured, and Boykin said he told the man: “Mr. Atto, you underestimated our God.”
In a phone conversation, Boykin tells NBC he respects Muslims and believes the radicals who attack America are “not true followers of Islam.”
Boykin also routinely tells audiences that God, not the voters, chose President Bush: “Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.”
Boykin tells NBC News that, given his new assignment, he is curtailing such speeches in the future. He says, “I don’t want … to be misconstrued. I don’t want to come across as a right-wing radical.”
God must be pretty lame to have to rely on this guy!
VATICAN CITY -- Marking 25 years as pontiff, Pope John Paul II told followers that God was asking him to continue leading the Roman Catholic Church despite his frail health.
"He (God), while knowing my human fragility, encourages me to respond with faith ... and he invites me to assume the responsibilities that he himself has entrusted to me," the 83-year-old pope said in a homily before tens of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter's Square Thursday night.
The pope, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and is unable to walk without assistance, delivered the homily during Mass at the Vatican.
Appearing frail and speaking with a wavering voice, the pope told his followers, "A good shepherd stays with his flock" -- a line thought by analysts to be a direct reference to the question of whether he might resign.
This is the blog of the Church of Reality. It's purpose it to announce events, point out how religion influences the world for good and bad, and to be a place where I post random thoughts about reality. I am looking for other authors to help me with this and to maintain this blog. If you are interested email the First One at marc@perkel.com.