The Turtle House

Thursday, 20 November 2014

Of Birth and Death

In general, I believe in the right of a mother to choose that a child be carried to birth or not carried to birth. I believe this is within the rite, and indeed is the right, of being a woman.
I support men and women, and young men and women, using contraception as the norm of their life together until they both wish the norm to change to creating someone in their own images, per se, together.
As a person, when it comes to death, I believe, aside from accidents etc, that I have every right to decide when and how I die and to carry out this task, as required, but without the assistance of others. To demand the assistance of others is unfair and immoral and cowardly. In this matter the Self has the responsibility and it cannot be passed on to another living being.

My Religion

The thing with me is this: I don't regret or feel guilty about using contraceptives in my illustrious and somewhat craven past. I don't regret the abortions made in deliberations with past partners. I regret marriages far more than I regret divorces. I regret meeting some people far more than I regret marrying them.
I find that Christianity, so far as I know it from my present study of the congregational and doctrinal manifestations in this early epoch of the 21st Century, is highly dependent on people feeling absolutely horrible about themselves and their actions. I doubt that Christ had any such intention. I doubt Christ has anything at all to do with Christianity, per se, in the current epoch, and I seriously wonder if he ever did.
I am strongly drawn to some Christian, Islamic and Buddhist scriptures, for sure, because of their beauty and wonder, yet when you really research them all, they are fundamentally and equally appalling in terms of human rights, same sex expression and relations, contraception and indeed the importance of Man rather than People.
I have used passages from the Great Really Really Old Books as well as small enlightenments from Michel De Montaigne, atheistic Zen, Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, and great novelists across the cultures and races of the Earth to gradually create or build my philosophy and indeed, my religion, per se. I think we all have this responsibility. Just because someone puts stuff on your dinner plate, it doesn't mean its good manners or good health to eat every bit of it.
I'm very fond of Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, and have underlined and italicised the magical thinking of this lovely mind (If God isn't magical thinking, I don't know what else to call Him or Her, or Them):

“We have given you, O Adam, no visage proper to yourself, nor endowment properly your own, in order that whatever place, whatever form, whatever gifts you may, with premeditation, select, these same you may have and possess through your own judgement and decision. The nature of all other creatures is defined and restricted within laws which We have laid down; you, by contrast, impeded by no such restrictions, may, by your own free will, to whose custody We have assigned you, trace for yourself the lineaments of your own nature [...]. We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer.

R.E.M. - Losing My Religion (Official Music Video)/ Looking for Churches in Cairns

My life partner has had a strong spiritual desire to examine current Christian Religions and to find one that is suitable. We've spent the last few months basically stalking the Great Religious congregations of our locale, appearing in their midst on Sundays etc and asking questions about baptism, membership, et al.

First we went to the Catholic Cathedral and sat and kneeled and prayed through a few Masses. These various Sign of the Cross and Genuflection skills were very well known to me as I was brought up in a strong Irish Catholic household. (I myself am happy enough in my life with my own understanding of Existentialism as my core belief in this world...if one can ever be 'happy' with existentialism, per se. It is an angsty way of thinking).

Secondly, we went to the Church of England and heard a sermon basically condemning Buddhism. I agreed with the sermon entirely. There were mostly very old white people there, the old women of whom seemed to look angrily at my wife, who is Asian, younger and somewhat more beautiful than I am...so went went elsewhere.

Thirdly we sat in on 8 Lutheran services at one church over 8 weeks, had tea and coffee etc and gave the pastor information about us and how my partner was very interested in being baptised into that branch of Christianity and for 8 weeks he said he would contact us, which he didn't. Once again we noted the scowls on the jowls of many of the old white women in the congregation.

So, Fourthly, we returned to the Catholic Cathedral, went to Masses and had tea and cakes afterwards and asked about baptism etc.

A priest was kind enough to get in touch with us and we met up and discussed the matter and he gave us a 200 page book regarding preparation for entering the faith. At no point in the discussion was I able to say 'well, my dear partner, who I love, is interested in being a Catholic, but I'm not, but I am here because I love her and support her wishes.

Currently, we've been referred to a Church Counsellor/Chancellor regarding our past marriages...so the Church can work out how they can...um...help us. I guess this is quite commendable and, indeed, in some other universe, even charitable.
I suppose the issue is that we don't necessarily feel guilty as both of us are really convinced that we didn't actually kill Jesus. The Jews did that.

On Putin, Tony Abbott and MH17

Dear Editor, The Cairns Post

I quite agree with Malcolm Bell in his letter of Nov 20 TCP that condemning Putin as Mr Abbott has done regarding the downing of FlightMH17 is a very silly thing to do; even though it briefly made Abbott popular. There is no evidence that Russian backed separatists shot down the plane. The Ukrainian army has a multitude of the kind of weapon apparently used. The separatists have one or two. No one knows who did it apart from the folk who did it. Anyone else who knows, well, isn't saying.

The US, of course, says it was the Russians; but the US said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, when they didn't; the US said Mohamar Gaddafi was responsible for bombing a plane, when he wasn't; and the US, although having massive surveillance and high tech radar and laser weaponry in the area around the South China sea exactly where flight MH370 went missing, had no idea at all what happened to flight MH370.

In taking the fictional path to bravery, Mr Abbott simply stood on the misery of the flight MH17 victims' families to gain a bit of popularity. We can all make up our own opinions, Mr Abbott, but we can't all make up our own facts.

John Fitzpatrick