The Fear of What Other People Think, Prisoner in Our Own Mind:

- By Bahram Maskanian

Constantly worrying about and living with the fear of what other people think?

The greatest confinement and most difficult to scape from is the prison, a dark hiding place we built in our own mind to hide from shame and the fear of what other people think?  You are effectively shamed of being whom you are, you are told that no matter how good and decent you may be, nevertheless you are a sinner, all of us, the humanity are born no good sinners. 

Since the overthrow of the thriving matriarchal social governing system rule of 8,000 years, and replacing it with the brutal, criminal and barbaric patriarchal Judaism and its two derivatives: Christianity and Islam, beginning little over 3,000 years ago, the criminally minded political hustlers and the religious mullahs have been exploiting this fear of what other people think as part of their many arsenals and mind control tools very successfully.

All they needed to do was writing it down in a form of religious manual, known as bible and tell the ignorant masses this is the law given to them exclusively by the lord, at the late hours of the night, in a dark cave, when no one was looking, where no one was around, to be handed down to you, the public!

Keep in mind that all of these all male political hustlers and the religious mullahs, without exception, have been nothing but bunch of pedophiles; living intimately in caves together with domesticated animals and kidnaped, or bought slave boys.

If this lord did really exist, she could have appeared at high noon in the center of town and villages and say what she wanted directly to the people, after all she is the lord and all mighty and wise.  Why would she use bunch of criminal bastards to deliver her message to the people, why not do it directly, since the message is intended for the public anyway!

They then enforce and compel you to follow these idiotic manmade crap; by instilling the fear of the non-existing hell, and promises of high rewards of non-existing heaven for your conformity, of living the life of shame and poverty, pain and misery, or suffering barbaric punishments conducted brutally in Public Square, etc., while the very same political hustlers and the religious mullahs themselves are living in lap of luxury, doing all that supposedly sends one directly to hell.  

Now the question is why out of all human behavior prohibit sex, making it sinful?  Why denigrate female human beings to a subservient level and beneath their male counter part, scraped of all their inalienable rights, not even allowed to speak?  Why make the barbaric practice of slavery and the other two, ordained holy laws?

Simple, because these pedophiles: political hustlers and the religious mullahs, through personal experience have gained the knowledge of what sexual frustration harmful affects are and how they can easily be exploited for their own benefits. 

Long-term sexual frustration causes a highly violent state of mind.  All religious wars of genocide, plunder and dominations could have be won only by utilizing; rootless, sexually frustrated, violent men who would do anything in hope of gaining wealth, power and the means of owning female, or male slaves, or both.  Thus following their idiotic and barbaric religious manuals to go to heaven to get more sex slaves there, is this male god they are worshiping a pimp?

The patriarchal: all male political hustlers and the religious mullahs have been using fear to further their own agenda and narcissistic ambitions at an unimaginable loss, in terms of human life, human knowledge and discovery, where countless scientists brutally murdered, burned on stick as heretics.

If you do not trust the Hubble telescope and all other observatories all around the Earth, you can make a small investment of a few hundred dollars and buy your own telescope to see for yourself, up in the sky, that there is no heaven. Furthermore, we all know there is no hell deep within the Planet Earth; rather it is full of heavy metal core at the center and molten rock, magma, or volcanic lava, surfacing in many places all around our beloved Planet Earth.

Just for giggles, let say you were the god and in the time span of billions of years built our massive, magnificent and brilliant Universe, filled with countless billions of Galaxies, one of which would be our Milky Way Galaxy, filled with millions of planetary solar systems, similar to our planetary solar system and stars, could you have possibly forgotten that all the stars and their planets are all round globes, not a flat rectangular surface???

We must never forget that morality, integrity, honor, honesty, ethics, reason and common sense are all combination of learned and built in human qualities and attributes.  We should also understand that all of the criminal, violent and evil conducts are all learned behavior.  We should never allow any political, religious, or any other group to take away our natural ability to be good, compassionate and caring human beings, by teaching us and our children the horrible fabricated myths of religion, any religion!   

Now that you know, you must break the shackles and free your self from the prison of shame and what other people may think?   Be a good, compassionate and caring human being, live your life using the unmatched power of reason, common sense principles and ethical standards as your guide.

Bill Maher - The Mass Delusion

George Carlin - Religion, A Major League Bullshit

When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!

But I want you to know something, this is sincere, I want you to know, when it comes to believing in God, I really tried. I really, really tried. I tried to believe that there is a God, who created each of us in His own image and likeness, loves us very much, and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize, something is fucked up.

Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the résumé of a Supreme Being. This is the kind of shit you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently-run universe, this guy would've been out on his all-powerful ass a long time ago. And by the way, I say "this guy", because I firmly believe, looking at these results, that if there is a God, it has to be a man.

No woman could or would ever fuck things up like this. So, if there is a God, I think most reasonable people might agree that he's at least incompetent, and maybe, just maybe, doesn't give a shit. Doesn't give a shit, which I admire in a person, and which would explain a lot of these bad results.

So rather than be just another mindless religious robot, mindlessly and aimlessly and blindly believing that all of this is in the hands of some spooky incompetent father figure who doesn't give a shit, I decided to look around for something else to worship. Something I could really count on.

And immediately, I thought of the sun. Happened like that. Overnight I became a sun-worshipper. Well, not overnight, you can't see the sun at night. But first thing the next morning, I became a sun-worshipper. Several reasons. First of all, I can see the sun, okay? Unlike some other gods I could mention, I can actually see the sun. I'm big on that. If I can see something, I don't know, it kind of helps the credibility along, you know? So everyday I can see the sun, as it gives me everything I need; heat, light, food, flowers in the park, reflections on the lake, an occasional skin cancer, but hey. At least there are no crucifixions, and we're not setting people on fire simply because they don't agree with us.

Sun worship is fairly simple. There's no mystery, no miracles, no pageantry, no one asks for money, there are no songs to learn, and we don't have a special building where we all gather once a week to compare clothing. And the best thing about the sun, it never tells me I'm unworthy. Doesn't tell me I'm a bad person who needs to be saved. Hasn't said an unkind word. Treats me fine. So, I worship the sun. But, I don't pray to the sun. Know why? I wouldn't presume on our friendship. It's not polite.

I've often thought people treat God rather rudely, don't you? Asking trillions and trillions of prayers every day. Asking and pleading and begging for favors. Do this, gimme that, I need a new car, I want a better job. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday His day off. It's not nice. And it's no way to treat a friend.

But people do pray, and they pray for a lot of different things, you know, your sister needs an operation on her crotch, your brother was arrested for defecating in a mall. But most of all, you'd really like to fuck that hot little redhead down at the convenience store. You know, the one with the eyepatch and the clubfoot? Can you pray for that? I think you'd have to. And I say, fine. Pray for anything you want. Pray for anything, but what about the Divine Plan?

Remember that? The Divine Plan. Long time ago, God made a Divine Plan. Gave it a lot of thought, decided it was a good plan, put it into practice. And for billions and billions of years, the Divine Plan has been doing just fine. Now, you come along, and pray for something. Well suppose the thing you want isn't in God's Divine Plan? What do you want Him to do? Change His plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a Divine Plan. What's the use of being God if every run-down shmuck with a two-dollar prayerbook can come along and fuck up Your Plan?

And here's something else, another problem you might have: Suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? "Well, it's God's will." "Thy Will Be Done." Fine, but if it's God's will, and He's going to do what He wants to anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn't you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It's all very confusing.

So to get around a lot of this, I decided to worship the sun. But, as I said, I don't pray to the sun. You know who I pray to? Joe Pesci. Two reasons: First of all, I think he's a good actor, okay? To me, that counts. Second, he looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn't fuck around. In fact, Joe Pesci came through on a couple of things that God was having trouble with.

For years I asked God to do something about my noisy neighbor with the barking dog, Joe Pesci straightened that cocksucker out with one visit. It's amazing what you can accomplish with a simple baseball bat.

So I've been praying to Joe for about a year now. And I noticed something. I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same 50% rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't. Same as God, 50-50. Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe, the wishing well and the rabbit's foot, same as the Mojo Man, same as the Voodoo Lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles, it's all the same: 50-50. So just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself.

And for those of you who look to The Bible for moral lessons and literary qualities, I might suggest a couple of other stories for you. You might want to look at the Three Little Pigs, that's a good one. Has a nice happy ending, I'm sure you'll like that. Then there's Little Red Riding Hood, although it does have that X-rated part where the Big Bad Wolf actually eats the grandmother. Which I didn't care for, by the way. And finally, I've always drawn a great deal of moral comfort from Humpty Dumpty. The part I like the best? "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again." That's because there is no Humpty Dumpty, and there is no God. None, not one, no God, never was.

In fact, I'm gonna put it this way. If there is a God, may he strike this audience dead! See? Nothing happened. Nothing happened? Everybody's okay? All right, tell you what, I'll raise the stakes a little bit. If there is a God, may he strike me dead. See? Nothing happened, oh, wait, I've got a little cramp in my leg. And my balls hurt. Plus, I'm blind. I'm blind, oh, now I'm okay again, must have been Joe Pesci, huh? God Bless Joe Pesci. Thank you all very much. Joe Bless You!

Copyright 1999 - by George Carlin

The Two Commandments - By George Carlin

This is from George Carlin's book "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" Hyperion, 2004, which contains several critical articles on religion and on other issues, and which is recommended for your reading pleasure.

I have a problem with the Ten Commandments. Here it is: Why are there ten! We don't need that many. I think the list of commandments was deliberately and artificially inflated to get it up to ten. It's clearly a padded list.

Here's how it happened: About five thousand years ago, a bunch of religious and political hustlers got together to figure out how they could control people and keep them in line. They knew people were basically stupid and would believe anything they were told, so these guys announced that God - God personally-had given one of them a list of ten commandments that he wanted everyone to follow. They claimed the whole thing took place on a mountaintop, when no one else was around.

But let me ask you something: When these guys were sitting around making the shit up, why did they pick ten? Why ten? Why not nine, or eleven? I'll tell you why. Because ten sounds important. Ten sounds official. They knew if they tried eleven, people wouldn't take them seriously. People would say, "What are you kidding me? The Eleven Commandments? Get the fuck outta here!"

But ten! Ten sounds important. Ten is the basis for the decimal system; it's a decade. It's a psychologically satisfying number: the top ten; the ten most wanted; the ten best-dressed. So deciding on ten commandments was clearly a marketing decision. And it's obviously a bullshit list. In truth, it's a political document, artificially inflated to sell better.

I'm going to show you how you can reduce the number of commandments and come up with a list that's a bit more logical and realistic. We'll start with the first three, and I'll use the Roman Catholic version because those are the ones I was fed as a little boy.

• I AM THE LORD THY GOD, THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.
• THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.
• THOU SHALT KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH.

Okay, right off the bat, the first three commandments - pure bullshit. "Sabbath day," "Lord's name," "strange gods." Spooky language. Spooky language designed to scare and control primitive people. In no way does superstitious mumbo jumbo like this apply to the lives of intelligent, civilized humans in the twenty-first century. You throw out the first three commandments, and you're down to seven.

• HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER.

This commandment is about obedience and respect for authority; in other words it's simply a device for controlling people. The truth is, obedience and respect should not be granted automatically. They should be earned. They should be based on the parents' (or the authority figure's) performance. Some parents deserve respect. Most of them don't. Period. We're down to six.

Now, in the interest of logic - something religion has a really hard time with - I'm going to skip around the list a little bit:

• THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
• THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS.

Stealing and lying. Actually, when you think about it, these two commandments cover the same sort of behavior: dishonesty. Stealing and lying. So we don't need two of them. Instead, we combine these two and call it "Thou shalt not be dishonest." Suddenly we're down to five.

And as long as we're combining commandments I have two others that belong together:

• THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
• THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE.

Once again, these two prohibit the same sort of behavior; in this case, marital infidelity. The difference between them is that coveting takes place in the mind. And I don't think you should outlaw fantasizing about someone else's wife, otherwise what's a guy gonna think about when he's flogging his dong?

But marital fidelity is a good idea, so I suggest we keep the idea and call this commandment "Thou shalt not be unfaithful." Suddenly we're down to four. And when you think about it further, honesty and fidelity are actually parts of the same overall value. So, in truth, we could combine the two honesty commandments with the two fidelity commandments, and, using positive language instead of negative, call the whole thing "Thou shalt always be honest and faithful." And now we're down to three.

• THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S GOODS.

This one is just plain stupid. Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going: Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays “O Come All Ye Faithful,” you want to get one, too. Coveting creates jobs. Leave it alone.

You throw out coveting and you're down to two now: the big, combined honesty/fidelity commandment, and the one we haven't mentioned yet:

• THOU SHALT NOT KILL.

Murder. The Fifth Commandment. But, if you give it a little thought, you realize that religion has never really had a problem with murder. Not really. More people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason.

To cite a few examples, just think about Irish history, the Middle East, the Crusades, the Inquisition, our own abortion-doctor killings and, yes, the World Trade Center to see how seriously religious people take Thou Shalt Not Kill. Apparently, to religious folks - especially the truly devout-murder is negotiable. It just depends on who's doing the killing and who's getting killed.

And so, with all of this in mind, folks, I offer you my revised list of the Two Commandments:

First:

• THOU SHALT ALWAYS BE HONEST AND FAITHFUL, ESPECIALLY TO THE PROVIDER OF THY NOOKIE.

And second:

• THOU SHALT TRY REAL HARD NOT TO KILL ANYONE, UNLESS, OF COURSE, THEY PRAY TO A DIFFERENT INVISIBLE AVENGER THAN THE ONE YOU PRAY TO.

Two is all you need, folks. Moses could have carried them down the hill in his pocket. And if we had a list like that, I wouldn't mind that brilliant judge in Alabama displaying it prominently in his courthouse lobby. As long he included one additional commandment:

• THOU SHALT KEEP THY RELIGION TO THYSELF!!!