It is incredible that supposedly intelligent people still can take the vastly different beliefs of billions of people, label them all as ‘religion’ and judge them all as being the same.
Religion is a word. That’s all it is.
Yet, even people we class as brainy can get stuck at the level of judgement where they start to make statements about religion as a whole. People judge Christians for their extreme views. But, many atheists seem to be treading the same path toward fundamentalism. I am talking about a tendency to see one’s perspective as superior to everyone else’s.
It’s not that there aren’t mad religious people. It’s not that extreme religious people haven’t caused untold suffering in this world — they have. …
We want the world to be a democracy — We think it is the only way to have a safe and fair government, and we see countries that do not have this as less evolved than us. Perhaps we even see them as needing ‘liberation’.
Countries have always had single leaders who get the final word on which rules to implement. Why is a dictatorship now seen as such a problem?
We hate this idea of dictatorship in the West. We think that everyone needs to get a say on what the rules are. Yet, we subscribe to a system where we get zero choices while remaining shrouded in the illusion of choice.
A single leader can be either brutal or benevolent.
They can also have many advisors, but they get the final say on rules. This way, things are straightforward. In a democracy, a politician can be benevolent and want to bring in…
If you had asked me two years ago what I thought about cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, I would have probably had the same reaction as most people today. The consensus is that Bitcoin is a volatile investment at best. At worst, it is considered a quasi-toy-currency created by a few nerds.
Six months ago, I began speaking to a friend who had gotten themselves quite deep into the crypto rabbit hole. In 2016, they pulled all of their investments and ploughed them all into Bitcoin. There were discussions about how my friend had lost his mind and put his entire family…
Look at this fucker, sitting there with his horse-faced wife, stuffing my art into his face like its cheap cereal and he is lying on the couch with the munchies. Does this fuck knuckle have any idea what it is like to sweat life and death over a potato? His wife is taller than him. I saw her when they arrived. The kid is shooting above his station. He is bald, and I want to use it against him.
Fuck, I have to calm down. This fucking heat makes me want to kill. I feel like one of those bastards…
Arguing over belief systems is a dangerous, childish game. Some might say that it misses the entire point of the religious path. Instead, perhaps you could consider what your belief system is actually doing for you?
Social media has opened endless debates about whose belief system is more ‘real’. It is easy to become inspired by something and then take it on as truth because it resonates with you. Some Christians believe in the bible so much that they go around preaching door-to-door. Buddhists can look down on others who question the concepts of karma and rebirth. Muslim men often dedicate their lives to the idea that they will be born in heaven surrounded by virgins. Some atheists assume that anyone believing in God is intellectually below them.
Everybody wants to prove that their faith is the correct one
Yet, whether any of these things are true…
Even in the future, there are traffic jams
‘The Old Squartilian cleared his throat and began - ‘As Quorntiti himself taught us, you are a biological sphere of matter, every part of which, rests on every other part. Through a form of neurosis, you become ignorant of the whole of which one is a part. You cannot be the part without being the whole. If you could be the part and not the whole, it would imply that the part would have to truly exist as a thing independent of everything else which it can’t because it leans on every…
Some people just aren’t cut out for job interviews
James was wearing an old camel-coloured tweed suit that Keith had lent him.“It’s fackin retro Mate innit? a vintage suit that is…” Keith had declared in his classic cockney accent. He sounded like he was on a market stall trying to pitch it to some fat tourist. Vintage it certainly was. Not vintage like a bottle of old wine though, it was more like vintage milk. Not only did it smell subtly of old man piss, but it was too clearly too small for him.
James did not own a suit of his own nor have the coin to find…
Is it possible to simulate death?
Somebody put a lot of effort into the Italian interior of this place — their art now lost on fat diners stuffing pizza into their face holes. I regret being one of them. When you are dying, you appreciate things. In those last moments, you become your genuine self because there is nothing left that is worth the pretence.
I’ve never been bothered by death as such, but in typical British fashion, I always wanted to die without making a fuss.
There is this gorilla of a man with garlic breath trying to give…
I made a conscious decision never to watch Terminator 3 or 4 or 5 or….well, you get the picture.
I doubt that anyone reading this will be thinking — ‘well you missed out’.
Terminator 2 was such an outstanding film that I felt any further elaboration was unnecessary. It turned out, according to the reviews, that I was right.
I remember when T2 first came out. It introduced the floppy-haired cool of Edward Furlong; A blistering motorcycle chase scene set to the immortal GnR song ‘You Could Be Mine’ and a new type of cyborg — one that didn’t need big muscles like Arnie because he was made of liquid metal. Booyah!
T2 was a standout part of my childhood, but at that time, the storyline was very much considered fiction. I couldn’t…
It’s February 14th, 2018, and I am staring down at a plate of glistening chicken skewers in a Thai restaurant. I remember the date because it was Valentine’s day and I was dining with another single friend.
‘Chickengate’, as we have come to call the event, had been cooking for a while.
I have never been the kind of vegetarian that pretends that the smell of meat is disgusting. I walked past the same restaurant on my way home probably a hundred times. To me, it always smelt enticing.
One pleasant day as I cruised past the steak house and enjoyed my usual stealthy microbiological nose meal, a voice that sounded like Alan Rickman came…
Frank T Bird
Collection of space particles endowed with a few jokes and sounds.
