You have to put your hands together
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Pray
We had a lovely gentle chat today,
about being unknowingly led to pray.
“You have to put your hands together,
hold them up like this. Say thank you,
to ..a mystified look.. for the food we eat.”
My son is only four, he does not properly know
how to say the word ‘God’ or ‘Lord’ let alone know
what it means – why ever should he know?
I say to him as he shows to me,
it is just a thing you do in school,
a quiet time. A time to join in,
… but to think for yourself.
Take that time, as I used to in school
to quietly think for myself.
Quietly, calmly – every day.
It tastes insidious. Positively poisonous -
To the loving of all of life …
I tell him about all the dinosaurs, animals, the sharks,
fossils and his poster of the “Tree of Life” topped
by a man … Charles Darwin.
Are we, two-ways, drawing a child’s keen attention
across a forever riven world? So it is and so it is, all ways
given to all – ways of knowing, thinking, deeply feeling
revealing. There is no choice, in truth,
rejoicing, praising, singing …
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise ‘er Claude!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise ‘er Claude!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise ‘er Claude!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise ‘er Claude!”
“Claude?” I ask, but he does not know …
… he trusts, as he trusts “Bob the Builder” to be
innocent, educating, exuberant and funny, only words.
He does not know.
I explain that ‘some people’ look up to a someone -
a kind of person or man … a “god” – up in the sky.
A man who made everything, who looks down on us
and everything – and who looks after all things.
I tell him his Baba does not agree, or believe in this man,
that he does not need to worry or take it too seriously,
there is no big plan or anyone looking over,
no laws or orders from anywhere other than ourselves.
So, just take that nice quiet time
to think to yourself,
find out,
and think for yourself.
by Gareth Rosser
Thanks Gareth for permission to publish your work. You can read more of this poet’s work here:
Indian freethinkers battle child exploiting fundamentalists
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Story of a Humanist Campaign Against Religious Exploitation of a Child
How the fraud became public
It was on the lazy Sunday morning of 16 August that all hell broke loose. There were urgent and breathless phone calls from HM TV, Mahaa TV, INews and Studio N TV Channels asking me if I had heard of Sambhavi.
“Please switch on your TV sir – Sambhavi, a child of 7, is claiming to be the reincarnation of a childhood friend of the Dalai Lama. She speaks with great clarity and precision. She claims Tibet will be free in 2010, that there will be a great event in 2012, that the Dalai Lama is a friend of hers and that he would visit her soon in Surya Nandi temple in Kurnool District. It seems the child is in touch with the Buddhist leader by telepathy. Sambhavi is also saying that the Telugu Soothsayer of medieval times Veerabrahmendra Swamy‟s predictions will come true in 2012 and 2014. Her caretaker Usha Rani says she has miraculous powers. Would you like to comment?”
I was being invited to participate in live discussions on these channels; already Dr. Vijayam and Mr. Lavanam were on one of them, speaking from the Atheist Center in Vijayawada. There were some orthodox Hindus as well on the panels. My response was:
“It is nonsense, because rebirth implies we have a soul which can retain memories. No one has shown that the soul exists and we all know that the seat of memory is the brain which dies with the rest of the body. Claims of rebirth are culturally conditioned and we do not hear of them in Muslim or Christian or African societies. No claim of rebirth has ever been shown to be true either in Hinduism or in Buddhism”.
“But sir, they are also showing video clips of the child with the Dalai Lama. It seems he approves of it, and he has accepted that she was his childhood friend”.
“Have you verified this claim with the Dalai Lama? In any case, I would not be really surprised – you know that the Dalai Lama believes in reincarnation. He also is desperate that as he gets old he has to do his best to get Tibet on the world‟s radar again. This year is the 50th year since the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet and it is the 60th year of the People‟s Republic of China. The timing is good for some gimmicks! Some of the Dalai Lama‟s religious beliefs are ridiculous or even dangerous”.
“But sir, is he not the most important Buddhist leader?”
Excerpted from Nirmukta blog: http://nirmukta.com/2009/12/10/sambhavi-gudilona-badilona-story-of-a-humanist-campaign-against-religious-exploitation-of-a-child/
Follow the link to see what the Dalai Lama had to say.
Please stop slandering the human race
http://mwillett.org/atheism/religion-is-child-abuse.htm
It is about time that mankind stood up and declared that libelling and slandering our species is not acceptable. Blasphemy is a victimless crime but libelling and slandering humanity is not. If you say all Negroes are incapable of telling right from wrong and are inherently evil you will stand a good chance of being hauled in front of a court if you say it in front of the right witnesses. Why should it be any different if you expand the race you libel to the entire human race? Is not the central message of many religions effectively incitement to racial hatred with the human race as the victim?-M. Millett
Note: Mr Willett is a Brit. Apparently “Negroe” is still in vogue in Great Britain. In any case he is absolutely right about how preachers slander the human race as defective, weak, immoral and going to hell. Preachers stridently push this theme because they are creating a need for their services. They claim they have a cure for all humanities ills if we would only follow them. What is surprising is the Pope and his minions have been slandering the human race for centuries and no one seems to make the connection.
