Freethinker Sermonettes
revere | July 4, 2006The prinicipal author of the American Declaration of Independence, whose 230th anniversary the US celebrates today, wrote this:
The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
[snip]
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects form a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured,…
revere | July 2, 2006A Sermonette is a good place to reprint a confession of faith. This one is bit old (over 51 years) but (unfortunately) is still pertinent. It was uttered by Corliss Lamont, son of a Chairman of the Board of the infamous J. P. Morgan investment bank , who became a committed social activist during the Depression. In the 1950s, along with many others, he became the target of Senator Joseph McCarthy, godfather to Karl Rove and the current crop of illegitimate offspring of that vile opportunist (aka the Republican party). I grew up in the McCarthy days and recall vividly the pall it cast over…
revere | June 25, 2006A quiet Sunday in America. Here's something on being quiet from Richard Cohen in the Washington Post:
Pope Benedict XVI went late last month to that place where 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered -- that memorial to the very worst in mankind, that factory whose sole product was death, and this is what he said: "In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread silence -- a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God. Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?"
Others have asked how the Vatican under Pope Pius XII could have remained…
revere | June 18, 2006The Ten Commandments. They are so important to our civilization, they should always be in front of us -- always. In our churches. Our homes. Our bars. Our whorehouses. Even in the Houses of Congress. If we don't know them, how can we be decent Americans?
That's why Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, Georgia Republican, has co-sponsored a bill requiring their display in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. Like having your History of Western Civ notes on the refrigerator door so you can see them when going for a beer.
Listen (and learn!) as the CongressThing is interviewed by Stephen…
revere | June 11, 2006It's June, the month of weddings, and as it turns out the 34th anniversary of our own wedding. Mrs. R. and I are off at still another wedding this weekend, but I ran into some romantic vows to share with everyone. It seems two hackers decided to establish a symbolic link and coded their wedding vows so each word had exactly the number of letters of the decimal expansion of a personally chosen mathematical constant. Mako (the groom) chose the complexly tailored constant, phi. phi is also known as the Golden Ratio and is found in logarithmic spirals and numerous other constructions. The bride…