LUCIUS SENECA

SENECA,

LUCIUS ANNAEOUS

(the Younger)

Roman philosopher,

statesman, dramatist

(0005-0065)

• “It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.”

• “The mind unlearns with difficulty what has long been impressed on it.”

• “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false and by the rulers as useful.” (What Great Men Think of Religion, Ira D. Cardiff, 1972)

WHY TORTURE IS WRONG - Part 2

See also, my original post on

Why Torture is Wrong

From Madeleine Albright’s

The Mighty and the Almighty,

p. 195-197 (2006):
“...Torture may work sometimes but usually it does not. Napoleon, no bleeding heart, observed more than two centuries ago, ‘The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile.’

“As John McCain has argued, this debate is not about what our enemies are like; it is about us. If we rationalize torture or make exceptions for special circumstances, so will everybody else. Governments that routinely abuse prisoners will point to the United States for justification. Our standing to insist on the humane treatment of Americans in foreign prisons will be diminished. America will be known as the kind of country that tortures people or that arranges for others to do so. For what purpose? To defeat the terrorists? The effect will be just the opposite. Guantánamo has presumably kept some members of the terrorist class of 2002 out of action, but at the cost of significantly enlarging the class of 2006. The detention center there should have been shut down long ago. As for Abu Ghraib, it was the biggest gift Al Qaeda’s propagandists could have received...

“...In the time since the first photos from Abu Ghraib appeared, pamphlets have circulated in Arab communities showing those shameful images along with pictures of dead Palestinians and Iraqi children... In a region of long memories, I fear these images will be fueling anti-American violence for generations to come."

Madeleine Albright

(1937- )

1st woman U.S. Secretary of State (1997-2001)

20th U.S. Ambassador to the UN (1993-1997)

LET THERE BE LEGOS™

I recently discovered The Brick Testament website which features Biblical stories illustrated with Legos™. The Bible Review chose the unusual art for the worst Bible art award in 2002 while Stuff chose it as the best combination of toys and God's wrath in 2005.

The Brick Testament made it into Rolling Stone magazine's Hot List 2005 (10/06/05). "It's filthier than Hustler. It's more violent than The Sopranos. It's pretty impressive for an illustrated Bible made entirely of Legos™." Rolling Stone goes on to say that the artist creates "strangely compelling pictures online and occasionally publishes his work in glossy, coffee-table friendly books ---if incest, gang rapes, beheadings, bestiality and wholesale genocide are your idea of parlor chitchat."

The Biblical tableaus are designed in Legos™, then photographed with a digital camera by The Reverend Brendan Powell Smith, the son of an Episcopalian Sunday school teacher. East Bay Express (10/26/05) reports that at age 13, Smith decided to reassess his boyhood superstitions. "I didn't start out with the goal of questioning my religious beliefs, but eventually got around to it... Belief in God just didn't make the cut." About reading the Bible cover-to-cover for the first time while studying philosophy at Boston University, he says, "I must say I was pretty shocked." Smith is now an avowed atheist.

Spin magazine (February 2002) described the Biblical scenes as "alternately childlike, disturbing, and hilarious." Smith is quoted: "If there's an unspoken intention to the site, it's to have those who believe in an all-loving and merciful, family-values-supporting God be confronted with the barbaric, heinous, and grotesque stories from the divinely inspired book their religion is based on. Plus, it's a cool Lego™ project..."

To answer the question, "Is he really a reverend?" the website's reply is: "Most ministers, priests, or other religious clerics would not actually use 'The Reverend' before their own names, for to do so would be presumptuous and rather vain. The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith is not an ordained member of any earthly church, and is widely regarded as being both highly presumptuous and extremely vain."

Smith says he sometimes receives complaints from people upset by his depiction of sex in the Bible. He adds, "No one has ever complained to me about the far more prevalent depictions of violence."

The artist adds ratings to each scene: N=nudity, S=sexual content, V=violence, C=cursing. The Bible Review (8/14/02) says, "Genesis, it seems, is least appropiate for children. Paul's letters come next."

Spin says to ignore the ratings "if you wanna see Lego™ Adam giving it to Lego™ Eve from behind."

Note: click on the "press" link at the top of the The Brick Testament website for more press coverage and the "about" link for more information about the site.

To see other amazing art created from Legos™, go to:

35 AMAZING PIECES OF LEGO ART

WEB URBANIST

THE ART OF THE BRICK®

or, search for "Lego art" on the web

SCHOPENHAUER, on Religion

SCHOPENHAUER, ARTHUR

German philosopher 

(1788-1860)

“Religion is the masterpiece

of the art of animal training,

for it trains people as to

how they shall think.”

(Jon Winokur, The Portable Curmudgeon)

THE RAPTURE

END TIMES

Despite Jesus's saying that the end would occur before the death of the last Apostle (Matthew 16:28), "The Rapture" has been predicted time and again over the past 2000 years, with each generation of Christians believing it was going to happen within the current generation's lifetime.

Jehovah's Witnesses set the end year as 1874, then (oops!) 1914, and then (oops!) 1975. Wrong. The founders preached that the "Catching Away" would happen within the lifetimes of the founders. Wrong again.

Several decades ago, during one sect's specific prediction of the imminent Rapture, Madalyn Murray O'Hair (founder of American Atheists) made an announcement that, if the Rapture occurred, members of the American Atheists would adopt the pets which were left behind. Obviously, they didn't have to take in even one abandoned pet.

James Randi (illusionist, The Amazing Randi) published "Forty-Nine End-of-the-World Prophecies ----That Failed" in Appendix II of his book An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural.

Many people beieve that when The Rapture occurs, believers will vanish from the earth and instantly be taken up into heaven.
On an Amazon.com review of the book Are You Rapture Ready? reader g notcold commented: "I picked this book up by accident and I loved it. Crazy people are funny. But they're even funnier when they seem to take themselves seriously." S.G."bigtime reader" wrote: "People floating up to heaven when the end times come, saved by the Lord while everybody left behind will fry....what a crock! I think there is some mental illness going on here. "
And W. Christie wrote: "This book fails to answer a basic question many Christians have: what if it isn't a convenient time to Rapture? For example, everytime I sit on the toilet, I say "Please, God, don't take me now! I've been constipated 6 days, and here on the 7th I'm about to lose 10 pounds, so don't take me flying until I'm done". Other people ask about what happens if the Rapture occurs while they are having "marital interactions" (there is no sin in the marital bed). I can't picture my wife and me floating up to heaven naked and intertwined like pretzles! I think the book should have given us more tips on how to be ready for Rapture, and whether God will make allowances for sitting on the pot or on our wife's face! We do keep rain coats and umbrellas in all rooms and in the car, in case we are Raptured during a winter storm."

WHAT WAS FALWELL SMOKING?

Jerry Falwell described The Rapture this way:

"You'll be riding along in an automobile. You'll be the driver perhaps. There'll be several people in the automobile with you, maybe someone who is not a Christian. When the trumpet sounds, you and the other born-again believers in that automobile will be instantly caught away ---you will disappear, leaving behind only your clothes and physical things that cannot inherit eternal life... Other cars on the highway driven by believers will suddenly be out of control and stark pandemonium will occur...on every highway in the world." (as quoted in The Mighty and the Almighty, Madeleine Albright, p.155 footnote.)

Falwell met his maker on May 15, 2007 at age 73. Apparently, he missed The Rapture.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist adding this video clip to this post:

The book advertised below Beam Me Up, Jesus is subtitled, "A Heathen's Guide to the Rapture" and is a humorous take on rapture mythology.

ISAAC ASIMOV on the Bible

ASIMOV, ISAAC

Russian-born 

American biochemist 

and author 

(1920-1992):

        “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”

See also posts on how the Bible helped me to reject religion and become an atheist:

        WHY I AM AN ATHEIST: The Bible - Part 1

        WHY I AM AN ATHEIST: The Bible - Part2

MARK TWAIN ON TORTURE

Most people have never read Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, probably because it has been universally panned as Twain's worst book, even though Twain, himself, considered it his best work.

However, there are a few passages that are memorable, maybe even brilliant, such as one in Chapter 16, Volume 2 at the Gutenberg Project.

(We could easily substitute "Dick Cheney" for "Bishop Cauchon" in these passages.)

16 Joan Stands Defiant Before the Rack

(Twain writing as the Sieur du Conte:)

...We entered the circular room on the ground floor, and I saw what turned me sick—the instruments of torture and the executioners standing ready! Here you have the black heart of [Bishop] Cauchon at the blackest, here you have the proof that in his nature there was no such thing as pity...

The guards were in their places, the rack was there, and by it stood the executioner and his aids in their crimson hose and doublets, meet color for their bloody trade..

After a little, Joan arrived and was brought in. She saw the rack, she saw the attendants... as for fear, she showed not a vestige of it...

Cauchon made a solemn speech. In it he said that in the course of her several trials Joan had refused to answer some of the questions and had answered others with lies, but that now he was going to have the truth out of her, and the whole of it...

He was sure he had found a way at last to break this child's stubborn spirit and make her beg and cry...He talked high, and his splotchy face lighted itself up with all the shifting tints and signs of evil pleasure and promised triumph.. And finally he burst out in a great passion and said:

"There is the rack, and there are its ministers! You will reveal all now or be put to the torture.

"Speak."

Then she made that great answer which will live forever; made it without fuss or bravado, and yet how fine and noble was the sound of it:

"I will tell you nothing more than I have told you; no, not even if you tear the limbs from my body. And even if in my pain I did say something otherwise, I would always say afterward that it was the torture that spoke and not I."

...You should have seen Cauchon. Defeated again, and he had not dreamed of such a thing. I heard it said the next day, around the town, that he had a full confession all written out, in his pocket and all ready for Joan to sign. I do not know that that was true, but it probably was, for her mark signed at the bottom of a confession would be...evidence...

Consider the depth, the wisdom of that answer, coming from an ignorant girl. Why, there were not six men in the world who had ever reflected that words forced out of a person by horrible tortures were not necessarily words of verity and truth, yet this unlettered peasant-girl put her finger upon that flaw with an unerring instinct. I had always supposed that torture brought out the truth—everybody supposed it; and when Joan came out with those simple common-sense words they seemed to flood the place with light. It was like a lightning-flash at midnight which suddenly reveals a fair valley sprinkled over with silver streams and gleaming villages and farmsteads where was only an impenetrable world of darkness before. Manchon stole a sidewise look at me, and his face was full of surprise; and there was the like to be seen in other faces there. Consider—they were old, and deeply cultured, yet here was a village maid able to teach them something which they had not known before. I heard one of them mutter:

"Verily it is a wonderful creature. She has laid her hand upon an accepted truth that is as old as the world, and it has crumbled to dust and rubbish under her touch. Now whence got she that marvelous insight?"

The judges laid their heads together and began to talk now. It was plain, from chance words which one caught now and then, that Cauchon and Loyseleur were insisting upon the application of the torture, and that most of the others were urgently objecting.

Finally Cauchon broke out with a good deal of asperity in his voice and ordered Joan back to her dungeon...

The Bishop's anger was very high now. He could not reconcile himself to the idea of giving up the torture. It was the pleasantest idea he had invented yet, and he would not cast it by. So he called in some of his satellites on the twelfth, and urged the torture again. But it was a failure.

With some, Joan's speech had wrought an effect; others feared she might die under torture; others did not believe that any amount of suffering could make her put her mark to a lying confession. There were fourteen men present, including the Bishop. Eleven of them voted dead against the torture, and stood their ground in spite of Cauchon's abuse...

Edited for brevity --the full text can be found HERE.

Look for these previous posts:

Christians Behaving Badly #11 (Church goers support torture)

and Why Torture is Wrong

MORE FROM ROBERT HEINLEIN

HEINLEIN, ROBERT
American author
(1907-1988)

See also: 

WISDOM OF LAZARUS LONG - Part 1

WISDOM OF LAZARUS LONG - Part 2

• “The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed” (Revolt in 2100, postscript, 1953)

• “Correct morality can only be derived from what man is — not from what do-gooders and well-meaning aunt Nellies would like him to be.” (Starship Troopers, 1959)

• “How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?” ("Doctor Pinero" in Life-Line, 1939)

• “I have never been impressed by the formal schools of ethics. I had sampled them—public libraries are a ready source of recreation for an actor short of cash—but I had found them as poor in vitamins as a mother-in-law’s kiss. Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything. I had the same contempt for the moral instruction handed to most children. Much of it is prattle and the parts they really seem to mean are dedicated to the sacred proposition that a “good” child is one who does not disturb mother’s nap and a “good” man is one who achieves a muscular bank account without getting caught. No, thanks!” (Double Star, 1956)

• “Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal.” (Assignment in Eternity, 1953)

• “Morals — all correct moral laws — derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.” (Starship Troopers, 1959)

• “No philosophy that he had ever heard or read gave any reasonable purpose for man's existence, nor any rational clue to his proper conduct. Basking in the sunshine might be as good a thing to do with one's life as any other — but it was not for him and he knew it, even if he could not define how he knew it.” (Methuselah’s Children, 1958)

• “A religion is sometime a source of happiness, and I would not deprive anyone of happiness. But it is a comfort appropriate for the weak, not for the strong. The great trouble with religion — any religion — is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak uncertainty of reason — but one cannot have both.” (Friday, 1983)

• “The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it — once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth.” (Gwen Novak /Hazel Stone, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, 1985)

• “You don’t pay back, you pay forward.” (Answer to Jerry Pournelle when he asked Heinlein how he could pay him back for helping him with his writing career, as reported in Pournell’s Starswarm, 1997)

Learn more about Robert Heinlein HERE 

Find more quotations from Robert Heinlein HERE

Read about his character Lazarus Long HERE