US sucks

In 29 states, it’s still legal to fire someone solely because they’re lesbian, gay, or bisexual; in 38 states it is legal to fire someone solely for being transgender.

Atheist Related Quotes

• No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God. --George H.W. Bush


• An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated. --Madalyn Murray O'Hair


• Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? --Douglas Adams


• I believe that an orderly universe, one indifferent to human preoccupations, in which everything has an explanation even if we still have a long way to go before we find it, is a more beautiful, more wonderful place than a universe tricked out with capricious ad hoc magic. --Richard Dawkins


• Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life - weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today. --Lawrence Krauss


• Our Constitution was not intended to be used by ... any group to foist its personal religious beliefs on the rest of us. --Katherine Hepburn


• I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people. --Katherine Hepburn


• Among the more irritating consequences of our flagrantly religious society is the special dispensation that mainstream religions receive. We all may talk about religion as a powerful social force, but unlike other similarly powerful institutions, religion is not to be questioned, criticized or mocked. --Natalie Angier


• I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time. --Isaac Asimov


• [I]f I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. --Isaac Asimov


• Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. --Isaac Asimov


• Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism. --Isaac Asimov


• To rebel against a powerful political, economic, religious, or social establishment is very dangerous and very few people do it, except, perhaps, as part of a mob. To rebel against the "scientific" establishment, however, is the easiest thing in the world, and anyone can do it and feel enormously brave, without risking as much as a hangnail. Thus, the vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic about the bilge when a group of astronomers denounces it. --Isaac Asimov


• To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. --Isaac Asimov


• When I die, I shall be content to vanish into nothingness.... No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it. --H.L. Mencken


• People say we need religion when what they really mean is we need police. --H.L. Mencken


• When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?" --Quentin Crisp


• I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. --Susan B. Anthony


• What you should say to outsiders is that a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our Association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself shall not stand upon it. --Susan B. Anthony


• We do not want an official state church. If ninety-nine percent of the population were Catholics, I would still be opposed to it. I do not want civil power combined with religious power. I want to make it clear that I am committed as a matter of deep personal conviction to separation. --John F. Kennedy


• As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] ... it is declared ... that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever product an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.... The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation. -- Treaty of Tripoli, signed by John Adams


• The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. --John Adams


• A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumour. --Aldous Huxley


• You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion ... Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough. --Aldous Huxley


• An argument frequently used by believers [is] to force unbelievers to soften their terms by accepting their opponents' definition; "Atheist" means without a concept of God that is logically convincing, not with proof that God does not exist. --Jim Herrick


• God is a word to express, not our ideas, but the want of them. --John Stuart Mill


• Today the god hypothesis has ceased to be scientifically tenable ... and its abandonment often brings a deep sense of relief. --Sir Julian Huxley


• Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. --Francis Bacon


• My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image to be servants of their human interests. --George Santayana


• And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence. --Bertrand Russell

12 Essential Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk

1. Do one thing at a time. This rule (and some of the others that follow) will be familiar to long-time Zen Habits readers. It’s part of my philosophy, and it’s also a part of the life of a Zen monk: single-task, don’t multi-task. When you’re pouring water, just pour water. When you’re eating, just eat. When you’re bathing, just bathe. Don’t try to knock off a few tasks while eating or bathing. Zen proverb: “When walking, walk. When eating, eat.”
2. Do it slowly and deliberately. You can do one task at a time, but also rush that task. Instead, take your time, and move slowly. Make your actions deliberate, not rushed and random. It takes practice, but it helps you focus on the task.
3. Do it completely. Put your mind completely on the task. Don’t move on to the next task until you’re finished. If, for some reason, you have no choice but to move on to something else, try to at least put away the unfinished task and clean up after yourself. If you prepare a sandwich, don’t start eating it until you’ve put away the stuff you used to prepare it, wiped down the counter, and washed the dishes used for preparation. Then you’re done with that task, and can focus more completely on the next task.
4. Do less. A Zen monk doesn’t lead a lazy life: he wakes early and has a day filled with work. However, he doesn’t have an unending task list either — there are certain things he’s going to do today, an no more. If you do less, you can do those things more slowly, more completely and with more concentration. If you fill your day with tasks, you will be rushing from one thing to the next without stopping to think about what you do.
5. Put space between things. Related to the “Do less” rule, but it’s a way of managing your schedule so that you always have time to complete each task. Don’t schedule things close together — instead, leave room between things on your schedule. That gives you a more relaxed schedule, and leaves space in case one task takes longer than you planned.
6. Develop rituals. Zen monks have rituals for many things they do, from eating to cleaning to meditation. Ritual gives something a sense of importance — if it’s important enough to have a ritual, it’s important enough to be given your entire attention, and to be done slowly and correctly. You don’t have to learn the Zen monk rituals — you can create your own, for the preparation of food, for eating, for cleaning, for what you do before you start your work, for what you do when you wake up and before you go to bed, for what you do just before exercise. Anything you want, really.
7. Designate time for certain things. There are certain times in the day of a Zen monk designated for certain activities. A time for for bathing, a time for work, a time for cleaning, a time for eating. This ensures that those things get done regularly. You can designate time for your own activities, whether that be work or cleaning or exercise or quiet contemplation. If it’s important enough to do regularly, consider designating a time for it.
8. Devote time to sitting. In the life of a Zen monk, sitting meditation (zazen) is one of the most important parts of his day. Each day, there is time designated just for sitting. This meditation is really practice for learning to be present. You can devote time for sitting meditation, or do what I do: I use running as a way to practice being in the moment. You could use any activity in the same way, as long as you do it regularly and practice being present.
9. Smile and serve others. Zen monks spend part of their day in service to others, whether that be other monks in the monastery or people on the outside world. It teaches them humility, and ensures that their lives are not just selfish, but devoted to others. If you’re a parent, it’s likely you already spend at least some time in service to others in your household, and non-parents may already do this too. Similarly, smiling and being kind to others can be a great way to improve the lives of those around you. Also consider volunteering for charity work.
10. Make cleaning and cooking become meditation. Aside from the zazen mentioned above, cooking and cleaning are to of the most exalted parts of a Zen monk’s day. They are both great ways to practice mindfulness, and can be great rituals performed each day. If cooking and cleaning seem like boring chores to you, try doing them as a form of meditation. Put your entire mind into those tasks, concentrate, and do them slowly and completely. It could change your entire day (as well as leave you with a cleaner house).
11. Think about what is necessary. There is little in a Zen monk’s life that isn’t necessary. He doesn’t have a closet full of shoes, or the latest in trendy clothes. He doesn’t have a refrigerator and cabinets full of junk food. He doesn’t have the latest gadgets, cars, televisions, or iPod. He has basic clothing, basic shelter, basic utensils, basic tools, and the most basic food (they eat simple, vegetarian meals consisting usually of rice, miso soup, vegetables, and pickled vegetables). Now, I’m not saying you should live exactly like a Zen monk — I certainly don’t. But it does serve as a reminder that there is much in our lives that aren’t necessary, and it can be useful to give some thought about what we really need, and whether it is important to have all the stuff we have that’s not necessary.
12. Live simply. The corollary of Rule 11 is that if something isn’t necessary, you can probably live without it. And so to live simply is to rid your life of as many of the unnecessary and unessential things as you can, to make room for the essential. Now, what is essential will be different to each person. For me, my family, my writing, my running and my reading are essential. To others, yoga and spending time with close friends might be essential. For others it will be nursing and volunteering and going to church and collecting comic books. There is no law saying what should be essential for you — but you should consider what is most important to your life, and make room for that by eliminating the other less essential things in your life.

Bible Atrocities

GENESIS 34:13 – Shechem had premarital sex with Jacob’s daughter Dinah, which angered Jacob’s sons. Shechem and his father, Hamor, agree to circumcision for the men in the city in order for Shechem to marry Dinah and make Jacob’s other daughters eligible for the men of the city. Three days later, while the men are still enduring the pain of circumcision, Jacob’s sons attack the unsuspecting city, killing Shechem and Hamor with swords, looting the city, seizing the flocks, herds, possessions and wealth, plundering the houses and carrying off their women and children.

GENESIS chapters 6 & 7: Unhappy with the wickedness of man, God killed every living thing on the planet except Noah’s family. Men, women, infants and animals drowned in unimaginable terror and agony.

GENESIS 19:6- In Sodom, Lot’s home was assaulted by a homosexual mob seeking to have relations with two angels. Lot volunteers his virgin daughters to the crowd, saying “you can do what you like with them” as long as the guests are left alone.

GENESIS 19:26: God, apparently un-offended by the proposed rape of Lot’s virgin daughters, turned Lot’s wife to a pillar of salt for the heinous crime of looking over her shoulder.

GENESIS 38: 8-10 – Onan was instructed by Judah to lay with his brother’s wife to produce offspring for his brother (who was put to death by God for wickedness). Onan slept with his brother’s wife but “spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother” (NIV). God found this wicked, so God killed him.

EXODUS 2:12 – Moses saw an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew. He looked around, saw no witnesses, killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

EXODUS 7:2-4 – God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and planned his “mighty acts of judgment.

”EXODUS 7:20-21 – God turned the Nile river to blood. The fish died, and the water was undrinkable.

EXODUS 8: 6-7 – God sent a plague of frogs which covered the land.

EXODUS 8:16 – God sent a plague of gnats.

EXODUS 8:24 – God sent a swarm of flies.

EXODUS 9:5 – God killed all of the Egyptian livestock with a plague.

EXODUS 9:10 – God sent a plague of festering boils on the people and animals.

EXODUS 9:22-25 – God sent a hail storm to Egypt, striking man and animal, stripping the land.

EXODUS 12: 29 – God killed the first-born in every Egyptian home that wasn’t marked with lamb’s blood.

EXODUS 17:13 – Moses held out the staff of God, allowing Joshua to kill the Amalekites.

EXODUS 21:20-21 – According to God’s law, it was wrong to beat a slave to the point of death. But if the slave survived and got back up within a few days, the beating wasn't punishable, because the slave was the property of the master. (God endorsed slavery.)

EXODUS 32:27 – After seeing the golden calf, God commanded the Levites, “Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.” 3,000 were slaughtered, and God was pleased.

LEVITICUS 26:7-8 – God rewarded obedience with assurances that enemies will all die by the sword.

LEVITICUS 26:22 – God warned that, if the people didn't listen to Him, he would send wild animals to rob parents of their children, destroy cattle and leave the roads deserted.

LEVITICUS 26:27-29 – God threatened hostility, punishing people for their sins “seven times over,” making them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters.

NUMBERS 12:9-14 – God was displeased with Miriam, so he struck her with leprosy and banished her from the camp for seven days.

NUMBERS 15:32-26 – A man gathered sticks for a fire on the Sabbath. By God’s command, he was stoned to death.

NUMBERS 16:27-33 – The men were rebellious, so God caused the earth to open and swallow up the men, wives and children.

NUMBERS 16:35 – A fire from God killed 250 men.

NUMBERS 16:49 – A plague from God killed 14,7000

NUMBERS 21:3 – The Lord gave the Canaanites over to Israel, who “completely destroyed them and their towns.”

NUMBERS 21:6 – God sent venomous snakes, which bit and killed many Israelites.

NUMVERS 21:35 – With God’s approval, the Israelites went into the city of Og, killed the king, his sons, the army (leaving no survivors) and took over the land.

NUMBERS 25:4 – God told Moses to kill the leaders of Shittim and expose their bodies in broad daylight.

NUMBERS 25:8 – Phinehas, son of Aaron the priest, killed an Israelite man and Midianite woman with a spear, plunging the spear “into the woman’s body.”

NUMBERS 25:9 – A plague from God killed 24,000.

NUMBERS 31:9 – Under God’s command, the Israelites captured the Midianite women and children, and “they took all the plunder and spoils.”

NUMBERS 31:17-18 – God commanded Moses to kill all of the male Midianite children and “kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.” The virgins are presumably raped. (NOTE: How could the soldiers know which women were virgins?)

NUMBERS 31:31-40 – God divided the plunder to the soldiers, the priest, the Israelites and for tribute to the Lord. 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys and 32,000 virgin women.

DEUTERONOMY 2:33-34 – Under God’s leadership, the Israelites utterly destroyed the men, women and children of Sihon. “…we left no survivors.”

DEUTERONOMY 3:6 – Under God’s leadership, the Israelites destroyed the men, women and children of Og. They plundered the livestock and possessions.

DEUTERONOMY 7:2 – God told the Israelites, regarding their enemies, to “destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.”

DEUTERONOMY 20:13-14 – God laid down the rules for battle, instructing the slaughter of all of the men. Women, children, livestock and possessions may be taken as “plunder for yourselves.”

DEUTERONOMY 20:16 –“…in the cities of the nations the LORD your god is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.”

DEUTERONOMY 21:10-13 – According to God’s law, if an Israelite soldier was at war with an enemy, and he saw a beautiful woman that he found attractive, he could capture her to be his wife. She must then shave her head, trim her nails and discard the clothing she was wearing when captured. She could mourn her father and mother for a month. If the soldier wasn’t pleased with her for any reason, he could “let her go wherever she wishes.”

DEUTERONOMY 28:53 – God’s punishment for disobedience included eating “the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you.”

JOSHUA 6:21-27 – Under God’s direction, Joshua destroyed the entire city of Jericho…men, women and children…with the edge of the sword. They pillaged the silver, gold, bronze and iron for God and burned the city.

JOSHUA 7:19-26 – Achan took a robe and some money from the plunder. Joshua and the Israelites took Achan, the loot, his sons, daughters, cattle, donkeys , sheep and possessions to the Valley of Achor, where all were stoned and burned.

JOSHUA 8:22-25 – God helped Joshua battle and slaughter 12,000 men and women in the city of Ai. None escaped.

JOSHUA 10:10-27 – God helped Joshua slaughter the Gibeonites.

JOSHUA 10;28 – With God’s approval, Joshua put the city of Makkedah“ to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors.”

JOSHUA 10:30 – The Lord gave the city of Libnah to Joshua. Everyone in the city was “put to the sword.”

JOSHUA 10:32-33 – God gave his approval as Joshua killed every man, woman and child in Lachish with the sword.

JOSHUA 10:34-35 – Everyone in the city of Eglon was killed by the sword of Joshua and his army.

JOSHUA 10:36-37 – God approved as Joshua killed the king of Hebron, its villages and every citizen. “They left no survivors.”

JOSHUA 10:38-39 – Joshua took Israel’s army to attack Debir. They killed everyone.

JOSHUA 11:6 – God commanded Joshua to defeat the enemy at the Waters of Merom. “You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.”

JOSHUA 11:8-15 – Joshua’s army, under God’s command, did not spare “anyone that breathed.”

JOSHUA 11:20 – “For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded moses.”

JUDGES 1:4 – God gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into the hands of Judah. 10,000 enemy killed.

JUDGES 1:6 – Adoni-Bezek (of the Canaanites) fled, but Judah’s army chased him down and sliced off his thumbs and big toes.

JUDGES 1:8 – God approved the attack by Judah on Jerusalem. Judah’s army killed and set the city aflame.

JUDGES 1:17 – With God’s approval, Judah and Simeon utterly destroyed the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath.

JUDGES 3:29 – The Lord delivered the Moabites into the hands of the Israelites. “At that time they struck down about then thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped.”

JUDGES 4:21 – Jael drovea tent stakes through the head of Sisera.

JUDGES 7:19-25 – Under God’s direction, the Gideons defeated the Midianites. They killed and decapitated their princes and delivered the heads to Gideon.

JUDGES 8:15-21 – Gideon punisheed the men of Succoth with desert thorns and briers. He then “pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.”

JUDGES 9:5 – Abimalech murdered his own brothers.

JUDGES 9:45 – Abimalech and his men killed everyone in the city. Then he scattered salt over it.

JUDGES 9:53-54 – Abimelech was laying siege to the city of Thebez when a woman cracked his head with a stone. “Hurredly, he called to his armor-bearer, ‘Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say “a woman killed him”.’ So his servant ran him through, and he died.”

JUDGES 11:29-39 – Jepthah sacrificed his beloved daughter on the altar after God gave him victory in battle.

JUDGES 15:15 – Samson killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass.

JUDGES 16:27-30 – God helped Samson pull down the pillars of the temple, killing 3,000.

JUDGES 18:27 – The Danies go on to Laish, against a peaceful and unsuspecting people. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city.

JUDGES 19:22-29 – A traveler from Bethlehem, his concubine and servant stayed as guests of an old man in Gibeah. Wicked men of the city surrounded the house, demanding to have sex with the male guest. The old homeowner offered his virgin daughter and the concubine, imploring the mob to “do to them whatever you wish.” The concubine was raped and died. The traveler put her dead body on his donkey, went home, took a knife, and hacked her into twelve pieces. He then sent the pieces to each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

JUDGES 20:43-48 – The Israelites killed 25,000 men. 600 men fled to the desert. The Israelites went and put everyone in the towns “to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found.” Then they burned the towns down.

JUDGES 21:10-12 – The assembly killed every male and non-virgin female in Jabesh Gilead. They found 400 virgins to bring back for themselves.

SAMUEL 4:10 – The Philistines killed 30,000 Israelite soldiers.

SAMUEL 5:6-9 – As punishment for stealing the Ark of the Covenant, God afflicted the Philistines with tumors in their “secret parts.”

SAMUEL 6:19 – Some of the men of Beth Shemesh looked into the Ark. God punished them by killing all 70 of them.

SAMUEL 7:7-11 – God helped Samuel’s men kill the Philistines, “slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car.”

SAMUEL 11:11 – Under God’s blessing, Saul and his army slaughtered the Ammonites “until the heat of the day.”

SAMUEL 14:31 – Jonathan and his men slaughtered the Philistines and “pounced on the plunder,” eating meat with blood in it. God supported the slaughter of men but was displeased at the eating of unclean meat. So Saul built an altar to the Lord.

1 SAMUEL 15:7-8 – God commanded Saul to attack the Amalekites and “totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

1 SAMUEL 15:33 – “Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal.”

1 SAMUEL 18:27 – David and his men killed 200 Philistines, presenting their foreskins to the king to win Michal in marriage.

1SAMUEL 30:17 – David killed all but 400 Amalekites, who escaped.

2 SAMUEL 2:23 – Abner thrust the butt of his spear through Asahel’s stomach.

2 SAMUEL 3:30 – As revenge for Asahel’s death, Joab and Abishai killed Abner.

2 SAMUEL 4:7-8 – Ish-bosheth was lying on the bed in his bedroom. Recab and Baanah went into the room, stabbed and killed him. They decapitated him and took the head to David at Hebron. David was not pleased that an innocent man has been murdered.

2 SAMUEL 4:12 – David punished Rechan and Baanah by killing them, chopping off their hands and feet and hanging their bodies by the pool at Hebron.

2 SAMUEL 6:6-7 – The oxen carrying the Ark of God stumbled, and Uzzah reached out to steady it. God punished his “irreverent act” by killing him where he stood.

2 SAMUEL 6:22-23 – Michal mocked David for exposing himself to slave girls. Michal was punished by God, who made her barren of children for the rest of her life. (Also note the contradiction in 2 Samuel 21:8, where Michal is said to NOT be barren, but instead has five children.)

2 SAMUEL 8:1-18 – David’s acts included killing 2 out of 3 Moabite soliders, hamstringing 6,900 chariot horses, killing 22,000 Syrians, and striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Verse 6 says “…The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.”

2 SAMUEL 10:18 – David killed 700 charioteers and 40,000 Aramean foot soldiers.

2 SAMUEL 11:14-27 – David coveted Uriah’s wife. So he had him killed in battle so David could have Bathsheba for himself.

2 SAMUEL 12:1 – For David’s murder of Uriah, God killed David’s child.

2 SAMUEL 13:1-15 – David’s son, Amnon, fell in love with his own sister, Tamar, a virgin. She protested his advances, (verse 14) “but he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.” Afterward, Amnon hated her and cast her out of the room.

2 SAMUEL 13:28-29 – Tamar’s brother Absalom ordered his men to get Amnon drunk, then kill him for raping his sister.

2 SAMUEL 18:6-7 – David’s army slaughtered 20,000 men in the forest of Ephraim.

2 SAMUEL 18:15 – Joab took 3 javelins and plunged them into Absalom’s heart. Ten other men struck and killed him.

2 SAMUEL 20:10-12 – Joab plunged a dagger into Amasa’s belly, spilling his intestines onto the ground. Amasa died, wallowing in his blood inthe middle of the road.

2 SAMUEL 24:15 – God sent a plague on Israel to punish David for sin. 70,000 people died.

1 KINGS 2:24-25 – Solomon killed Adonijah.

1 KINGS 2:29-34 – Solomon killed Joab.

1 KINGS 13-15-24 – A prophet lied to a man, telling him it was fine to eat bread and drink water in a place the Lord had previously told him not to. The deceived man ate and drank there. God sent a lion to kill him, “and his body was thrown down on the road.”

1 KINGS 20:29-30 – The Israelites fought the Syrians. Enemy body count for a single day = 100,000. A wall fell on the 27,000 remaining people.

2 KINGS 1:10-12- Elijah called down fire from heaven. 50 men were consumed by the flames.

2 KINGS 2:23-24 – 42 children made fun of Elisha on the roadside because he was bald. Elisha cursed them. Two bears came out of the woods and mauled them to death.

2 KINGS 5:27 – Elisha cursed Gehazi and his descendants, forever, with leprosy.

2 KINGS 6:18-19 – The enemy came toward Elisha, and he prayed to God, “Strike these people with blindness.” God made them blind. Elisha then tricked them and led them to Samaria, where God opened their eyes again.

2 KINGS 6:29 – A woman cried out to the king of Israel, lamenting a great famine. She was upset because she had agreed to cook her son and eat him, but after the deed, another woman had refused to do the same.

2 KINGS 9:24 - Jehu tricked Joram, then murdered him with a bow and arrow, piercing his heart.

2 KINGS 9:27 – Jehu ordered his men to kill Ahaziah, king of Judah.

2 KINGS 9:30-37 – Jehu had Jezebel killed. Horses trampled her and her blood splattered the wall. Dogs ate her flesh and her remains were called “refuse” (trash).

2 KINGS 10:7 – Jehu had Ahab’s 70 sons beheaded. He then sent the heads to their grieving father.

2 KINGS 10:14 – Jehu ordered the death of Ahab’s family…42 people.

2 KINGS 10:17 – According to God’s word (spoken to Elijah), Jehu went to Samaria and “killed all who were left there of Ahab’s family; he destroyed them…”

2 KINGS 10:19-27 – Jehu trapped the Baal worshippers in the temple. He then told the guards, “Go in and kill them; let no one escape.” They slaughtered the worshippers and burned down the temple, using it as a latrine from that day forward.

2 KINGS 11:1 – Athaliah destroyed the royal family.

2 KINGS 14:5 – Amaziah executeed the officials who murdered his father.

2 KINGS 14:3-5 – God was unhappy with Azariah, even though he had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places had not been removed, and God was jealous of their sacrifices on that altar. So God afflicted Azariah with leprosy as punishment.

2 KINGS 15:16 – Menahem attacked the city of Tiphsah. He destroyed the town and “ripped open all of the pregnant women.”

2 KINGS 19:35- An angel of the Lord killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp.

2 CHRONICLES 13:17 – God delivered the Israelites to Abijah and Judah. 500,000 enemy dead.

2 CHRONICLES 21:4 – Jehoram killed all of his brothers, and some of the princes of Israel...put to death by sword.

ISAIAH 13:15 – Isaiah saw a prophecy regarding Babylon. “Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished.”

ISAIAH 13:18 – God’s punishment for Babylon was further described. “Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants, nor will they look with compassion on children.”

ISAIAH 14:21-23 – “Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the sins of their forefathers; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. ‘I will rise up against them,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

ISAIAH 49:26 – God’s punishment on those who come against Israel. “I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior…”

JEREMIAH 16:4 – The word of the Lord about the children born in this land says “They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like refuse lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the bests of the earth.”

EZRA 6:12-13 – Darius’ decree said that, if anyone changed his edict, “a beam is to be pulled from his house and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it.” Then the house was to be demolished.

EZEKIEL 20:26 – Israel rebelled, and God’s punishment was sobering. “I let them become defiled through their gifts- the sacrifice of every firstborn- that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the Lord.”

EZEKIEL 23:34 – God said that prostitutes would drink a cup of scorn and tear their breasts.

EZEKIEL 23:45-47 – God punished adultery. “…Bring a mob against them and give them over to terror and plunder. The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.”

HOSEA 13:16 – Because Israel had rebelled, a wind from the Lord would blow in. They “will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, and their pregnant women ripped open.”

(Most of our focus has been on the Old Testament, but we’ve thrown in afew New Testament zingers just to quell the “Law VS Grace” crowd.)

MATTHEW 5:17 - "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus endorses the mass murder, rape, slavery, torture and incest written about in the Old Testament.

MATTHEW 8:12 – Jesus warned of eternal torture in hell, “into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

MATTHEW 10:35-36 – Following Jesus means the possibility of turning a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, etc. “…a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

MATTHEW 11:21-24 – The cities of Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum were not impressed with Jesus’ great works, so Jesus said “Woe to you” and cursed them to a fate more unbearable than that of Sodom.

MATTHEW 8:21 - A man sought to follow Jesus, but he wanted to bury his recently deceased father before he went. Jesus replied, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." Jesus ignored the man’s grief.

MARK 4:10 - In Jesus’ parable of the sower, he told his disciples that he spoke to others in parables so they’d remain confused...”otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.”

MARK 7:10 - Jesus taught that any child who cursed his parents should be killed according to Old Testament law.

LUKE 8:32-33 - Jesus cast demons out of a naked man and into a largeherd of pigs. They fell over a cliff to their death. The town asked Jesus to leave.

LUKE 12:47 - Jesus warned that a servant of God who does not heed his master will be “beaten with many blows.”

LUKE 19:26 - In the parable of the ten minas, the master (God) said of those who chose not to follow him, “...bring them here and kill them in front of me.”

JOHN 6:53-66 - Jesus said to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Despite the metaphorical tone, many disciples were uncomfortable with the idea and chose to walk away.

ACTS 5:1-9 - Ananias lied about the money he’d made on sold property, keeping some for himself. God killed him, then killed his wife for being in on it.

ROMANS 1:26-27 - Paul says that lesbians and homosexuals deserve death.

EPHESIANS 1:4-5 - Despite all of Jesus’ instructions to accept him as savior, Jesus also says God “predestined” those will be saved according to His pleasure.

HEBREWS 12:20 - God says that animals must be stoned to death if they lay foot upon Mt. Zion.

1 PETER 1:20 - Despite God’s failed experiment in the Garden of Eden, the mass execution of Noah’s flood and the final solution of Christ’s sacrifice, Jesus was predestined to be crucified all along. ”He was chosen before the creation of the world,”

REVELATION 6:8 - In the End Times, God gives Death permission to slaughter 25% of the earth’s population by “sword, famine and plague, andby the wild beasts of the earth."

Everything is OK

Yahweh's Amazing Miracle

Atheists SECRETLY believe in Yahweh

Christianity Debate

Challenge to Theists

Special Investigation

Atheist Alert!

A Personal Relationship With Jesus

Gods Forgiveness

What would Jesus NOT do?

10 Genres of Metal in 3 Minutes

The Four Horsemen Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens

Boycott Christmas

http://www.xmasresistance.org/

Evolution explained Mrs. Garrison

Dawkins argues Blonde

Get em when they're young

The enemy is at home

Why America is Broke

Banksy vs Bristol Museum

Waking life script 22

(A guy is playing a pinball machine, seemingly the same guy who rode with him in the back of the boat car. This part is played by Richard Linklater, aka, the director.)

Hey, man.

Hey.

Weren't you in a boat car? You know, the guy, the guy with the hat? He gave me a ride in his car, or boat thing, and you were in the back seat with me?

I mean, I'm not saying that you don't know what you're talking about, but I don't know what you're talking about.

No, you see, you guys let me off at this really specific spot that you gave him directions to let me off at, I get out, and end up getting hit by a car, but then, I just woke up because I was dreaming, and later than that, I found out that I was still dreaming, dreaming that I'd woken up.

Oh yeah, those are called false awakenings. I used to have those all the time.

Yeah, but I'm still in it now. I, I can't get out of it. It's been going on forever, I keep waking up, but, but I'm just waking up into another dream. I'm starting to get creeped out, too. Like I'm talking to dead people. This woman on TV's telling me about how death is this dreamtime that exists outside of life. I mean, (desperate sigh) I'm starting to think that I'm dead.

I'm gonna tell you about a dream I once had. I know that's, when someone says that, then usually you're in for a very boring next few minutes, and you might be, but it sounds like, you know, what else are you going to do, right? Anyway, I read this essay by Philip K. Dick.

What, you read it in your dream?

No, no. I read it before the dream. It was the preamble to the dream. It was about that book, um Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. You know that one?

Uh, yeah yeah, he won an award for that one.

Right, right. That's the one he wrote really fast. It just like flowed right out of him. He felt he was sort of channeling it, or something. But anyway, about four years after it was published, he was at this party, and he met this woman who had the same name as the woman character in the book. And she had a boyfriend with the same name as the boyfriend character in the book, and she was having an affair with this guy, the chief of police, and he had the same name as the chief of police in his book. So she's telling him all of this stuff from her life, and everything she's saying is right out of his book. So that's totally freaking him out, but, what can he do?

And then shortly after that, he was going to mail a letter, and he saw this kind of, um, you know, dangerous, shady looking guy standing by his car, but instead of avoiding him, which he says he would have usually done, he just walked right up to him and said, "Can I help you?" And the guy said, "Yeah. I, I ran out of gas." So he pulls out his wallet, and he hands him some money, which he says he never would have done, and then he gets home and thinks, wait a second, this guy, you know, he can't get to a gas station, he's out of gas. So he gets back in his car, he goes and finds the guy, takes him to the gas station, and as he's pulling up at the gas station, he realizes, "Hey, this is in my book too. This exact station, this exact guy. Everything."

So this whole episode is kind of creepy, right? And he's telling his priest about it, you know, describing how he wrote this book, and then four years later all these things happened to him. And as he's telling it to him, the priest says, "That's the Book of Acts. You're describing the Book of Acts." And he's like, "I've never read the Book of Acts." So he, you know, goes home and reads the Book of Acts, and it's like uncanny. Even the characters' names are the same as in the Bible. And the Book of Acts takes place in 50 A.D., when it was written, supposedly. So Philip K. Dick had this theory that time was an illusion and that we were all actually in 50 A.D., and the reason he had written this book was that he had somehow momentarily punctured through this illusion, this veil of time, and what he had seen there was what was going on in the Book of Acts.

And he was really into Gnosticism, and this idea that this demiurge, or demon, had created this illusion of time to make us forget that Christ was about to return, and the kingdom of God was about to arrive. And that we're all in 50 A.D., and there's someone trying to make us forget that God is imminent. And that's what time is. That's what all of history is. It's just this kind of continuous, you know, daydream, or distraction.

And so I read that, and I was like, well that's weird. And than that night I had a dream and there was this guy in the dream who was supposed to be a psychic. But I was skeptical. I was like, you know, he's not really a psychic, you know I'm thinking to myself. And then suddenly I start floating, like levitating, up to the ceiling. And as I almost go through the roof, I'm like, "Okay, Mr. Psychic. I believe you. You're a psychic. Put me down please." And I float down, and as my feet touch the ground, the psychic turns into this woman in a green dress. And this woman is Lady Gregory.

Now Lady Gregory was Yeats' patron, this, you know, Irish person. And though I'd never seen her image, I was just sure that this was the face of Lady Gregory. So we're walking along, and Lady Gregory turns to me and says, "Let me explain to you the nature of the universe. Now Philip K. Dick is right about time, but he's wrong that it's 50 A.D. Actually, there's only one instant, and it's right now, and it's eternity. And it's an instant in which God is posing a question, and that question is basically, 'Do you want to, you know, be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?' And we're all saying, 'No thank you. Not just yet.' And so time is actually just this constant saying 'No' to God's invitation. I mean that's what time is. I mean, and it's no more 50 A.D. than it's two thousand and one. And there's just this one instant, and that's what we're always in."

And then she tells me that actually this is the narrative of everyone's life. That, you know, behind the phenomenal difference, there is but one story, and that's the story of moving from the "no" to the "yes." All of life is like, "No thank you. No thank you. No thank you." then ultimately it's, "Yes, I give in. Yes, I accept. Yes, I embrace." I mean, that's the journey. I mean, everyone gets to the "yes" in the end, right?

Right.

So we continue walking, and my dog runs over to me. And so I'm petting him, really happy to see him, you know, he's been dead for years. So I'm petting him and I realize there's this kind of gross oozing stuff coming out of his stomach. And I look over at Lady Gregory, and she sort of coughs. She's like [cough] [cough] "Oh, excuse me." And there's vomit, like dribbling down her chin, and it smells really bad. And I think, "Well, wait a second, that's not just the smell of vomit," which is, doesn't smell very good, "that's the smell of like dead person vomit." You know, so it's like doubly foul. And then I realize I'm actually in the land of the dead, and everyone around me is dead. My dog had been dead for over ten years, Lady Gregory had been dead a lot longer than that. When I finally woke up, I was like, whoa, that wasn't a dream, that was a visitation to this real place, the land of the dead.

So what happened? I mean how did you finally get out of it?

Oh man. It was just like one of those like life altering experiences. I mean I could never really look at the world the same way again, after that.

Yeah, but I mean like how did you, how did you finally get out of the dream? See, that's my problem. I'm like trapped. I keep, I keep thinking that I'm waking up, but I'm still in a dream. It seems like it's going on forever. I can't get out of it, and I want to wake up for real. How do you really wake up?

I don't know, I don't know. I'm not very good at that anymore. But, um, if that's what you're thinking, I mean you, you probably should. I mean, you know if you can wake up, you should, because you know someday, you know, you won't be able to. So just, um ... But it's easy. You know. Just, just wake up.

Waking life script 21

(Main character with man walking on street covered by a red fog)

You haven't met yourself yet. But the advantage to meeting others in the meantime is that one of them may present you to yourself. Examine the nature of everything you observe. For instance, you might find yourself walking through a dream parking lot. And yes, those are dream feet inside of your dream shoes. Part of your dream self. And so, the person that you appear to be in the dream cannot be who you really are. This is an image, a mental model.

***

(Main character meets the same girl he saw in the beginning when he was on the phone. [In fact, this is not the same individual.])

Do you remember me?

No. No, I don't think so.

At the station? You were on the pay phone and you looked at me ... a few times.

I remember that, but I don't remember that being you.

Are you sure?

Well, maybe not.

I was sitting down and you were looking at me.

(He mumbles as she draws close ... and he wakes up.)

(He looks over at his alarm clock, the numbers flow, and he realizes that ... he's ... still ... asleep.)

(Main character is watching TV, switching channels)

My little friend, dream no more. It's really here. It's called Efferdent Plus.

In hell, you sink to the level of your lack of love. In heaven you rise to the level of your fullness of love. You see ...

Hurry up! Come on! Get in the car! Let's go.

Allegedly, the story goes like this. Billy Wilder runs into Louis Malle, this is in the late 50's, early 60's. And Louis Malle had just made his most expensive film, which has cost 2 1/2 million dollars. And Billy Wilder asks him what the film is about. And Louis Malle says "Well, it's sort of a dream within a dream." And Billy Wilder says "You just lost 2 1/2 million dollars."

... I feel a little more apprehensive about this one than I did about ...

(Gobbledygook.)

Down through the centuries, the notion that life is wrapped in a dream has been a pervasive theme of philosophers and poets. So doesn't it make sense that death too would be wrapped in dream? That after death, your conscious life would continue in what might be called a dream body? It would be the same dream body you experience in your everyday dream life. Except that in the post-mortal state, you could never again wake up, Never again return to your physical body.

***

(Main character is walking into a convenience store. A man is walking out.)

As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough.

***

(Main character goes into the convenience store. The clerk is the same guy who drove the boat car)

What's the word, turd?

Hey, do you also drive a, a, boat car?

A what?

Like, you gave me a ride in a car that was also a boat.

No, man, I don't have a "boat car". I don't know what you're talking about. Man, this must be like parallel universe night. You know that cat that was just in here, who just ran out the door? Well, he comes up to the counter, you know, and I say, "What's the word, turd?" and he lays down this burrito and he kind of looks at me, kind of stares at me, and then he says, "I have but recently returned from the valley of the shadow of death. I am rapturously breathing in all the odors and essences of life. I've been to the brink of total oblivion. I remember and ferment a desire to remember everything."

So, what'd you say to that?

Well, I mean, what could I say? I said "If you're going to microwave that burrito, I want you to poke holes in the plastic wrapping because they explode, and I'm tired of cleaning up your little burrito doings. You dig me? 'Cause the jalapenos dry up. They're like little wheels.

***

(Main character sitting in a restaurant with an older lady.)

When it was over, all I could think about was how this entire notion of oneself, what we are, is, is, just this logical structure, a place to momentarily house all the abstractions. It was a time to become conscious, to give form and coherence to the mystery, and I had been a part of that. It was a gift. Life was raging all around me, and every moment was magical. I loved all the people, dealing with all the contradictory impulses. That's what I love the most -- connecting with the people. Looking back, that's all that really mattered.

***

(Sitting in a park, a woman approaches him, showing him a drawn picture of himself.)

Waking life script 20

(The main character is now on a subway, and from his body language, it seems he's expected it to stop before it has.)

***

(We see a bridge from afar, and move to it. Now on the bridge, we see a shining light, from which a crazy looking guy with a big afro appears. This is poet Timothy "Speed" Levitch.)

"On this bridge," Lorca warns, "life is not a dream. Beware. And beware. And beware." And so many think because Then happened, Now isn't. But didn't I mention the ongoing "wow" is happening right now? We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance where even our inabilities are having a roast. We are the authors of ourselves, co-authoring a gigantic Dostoevsky novel, starring clowns. This entire thing we're involved with called the world, is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be. Life is a matter of a miracle that is collected over time by moments, flabbergasted to be in each other's presence. The world is an exam to see if we can rise into direct experience. Our eyesight is here as a test to see if we can see beyond it. Matter is here as a test for our curiosity. Doubt is here as an exam for our vitality. Thomas Mann wrote that he would rather participate in life than write 100 stories. Giacometti was once run down by a car, and he recalled falling into a lucid faint, a sudden exhilaration, as he realized that at last something was happening to him. An assumption develops that you cannot understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely. Which is to say I do not exactly disagree. I would say that life understood is life lived. But the paradoxes bug me, and I can learn to love and make love to the paradoxes that bug me. And on really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion. Before you drift off, don't forget. Which is to say, remember. Because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting. Lorca, in that same poem said that the iguana will bite those who do not dream. And as one realizes that one is a dream figure in another person's dream, that is self awareness.

(The 60's-like stars twinkle around his head, and he wanders off in an ecstatic trance.)

Waking life script 19

(Main is character coming out of a subway and bumps into a girl.)

Excuse me.

Excuse me.

Hey. Could we do that again? I know we haven't met, but I don't want to be an ant, you know? I mean, it's like we go through life with our antennas bouncing off one another, continuously on ant auto-pilot with nothing really human required of us. Stop. Go. Walk here. Drive there. All action basically for survival. All communication simply to keep this ant colony buzzing along in an efficient polite manner. "Here's your change." "Paper or plastic?" "Credit or debit?" "You want ketchup with that?" I don't want a straw, I want real human moments. I want to see you. I want you to see me. I don't want to give that up. I don't want to be an ant, you know?

Yeah. Yeah, no. I don't want to be an ant either. Heh. Yeah, thanks for kind of jostling me there. I've been kind of on zombie auto-pilot lately, I don't feel like an ant in my head, but I guess I probably look like one. It's kind of like D.H. Lawrence had this idea of two people meeting on a road. And instead of just passing and glancing away, they decide to accept what he calls "the confrontation between their souls." It's like, um, freeing the brave reckless gods within us all.

Then it's like we have met.

(They shake hands)

***

(Same two people talking in a room.)

So I'm doing this project, and I'm hoping that you'll be interested in doing it. It's a soap opera, and, so, the characters are the fantasy lives or the alter egos, of the performers who are in it. So, pretty much just figure out something that you've always wanted to do, or a life you've always wanted to lead, or occupation or something like that. And we write that in, and then we also have your life intersect with other people's in the soap opera in some typical soap opera fashion. And then I also want to show it in a live venue and have the actors present so that once the episode is screened, then the audience can direct the actors for subsequent episodes with menus or something. So it has a lot to do with choices and honoring people's ability to say what it is that they wanna see, and also consumerism and art and commodity, and if you don't like what you got, then you can send it back, or you get what you pay for, or just participating, just really making choices. So, you wanna do it?

Uh, yeah, yeah, that sounds really cool. I'd love to be in it, but, um ... Uh, I kind of gotta ask you a question first though. I don't really know how to say it, but, um, uh, what's it like to be a character in a dream? 'Cause, uh, I'm not awake right now. And I haven't even worn a watch since, like, fourth grade. I think this is the same watch too. Um, uh, yeah, I don't even know if you're able to answer that question, but I'm just trying to get like a sense of where I am and what's going on.

So what about you? What's your name? What's your address? What are you doing?

[Laugh] I, I, you know, I can't really remember right now. I can't really, I can't really recall that. But that's beside the point, whether or not I can dredge up this information about, you know, my address, or, you know, my mom's maiden name, or whatnot. I've got the benefit in this reality, if you wanna call that, of a consistent perspective.

What is your consistent perspective?

It's mostly just me dealing with a lot of people who are exposing me to information and ideas that seem vaguely familiar, but, at the same time, it's all very alien to me. I'm not in an objective, rational world. Like I've been flying around. Uh ... I don't know. It's weird too because it's not like a fixed state, it's more like this whole spectrum of awareness. Like the lucidity wavers. Like, right now, I know that I'm dreaming, right? We're, like, even talking about it. This is the most in myself and in my thoughts that I've been so far. I'm talking about being in a dream. But, I'm beginning to think that it's something that I don't really have any precedent for. It's, it's totally unique. The, the quality of, of the environment and the information that I'm receiving. Like your soap opera for example. That's a really cool idea. I didn't come up with that. It's like something outside of myself, like something transmitted to me externally. I don't know what this is.

We seem to think we're so limited by the world and the confines, but we're really just creating them. You keep trying to figure it out, but it seems like now that you know that what you're doing is dreaming, you can do whatever you want to. You're dreaming, but you're awake. You have, um, so many options, and that's what life is about.

Well, I understand what you're saying. It's up to me. I'm the dreamer. It's weird, like, so much of the information that these people have been like imparting to me. I don't know. It's got this, like, really heavy connotation to it.

Well, how do you feel?

Well, well, sometimes I feel kind of isolated, but most of the time I feel really connected, really, like, engaged in this active process. Which is kind of weird because most of the time I've just been really passive and not really responding, except for now, I guess. I'm just kind of letting the information wash over me.

It's not necessarily passive to not respond verbally. We're communicating on, on so many levels simultaneously. Perhaps you're, you're perceiving directly.

Most of the people that I've been encountering, and most of the things that I would want to say, it's like they kind of say it for me, and almost like at my cue. It's, it's like complete unto itself. It's not like I'm having a bad dream, it's a great dream. But ... it's so unlike any other dream I've ever had before. It's like the dream. It's like I'm being prepared for something.

Waking life script 18

(Main character is walking along railroad tracks, beside a train. A guy jumps out of the train with a "Free Radio" t-shirt on)

Hey.

Hey.

You a dreamer?

Yeah.

Haven't seen too many around lately. Things have been tough lately for dreamers. They say dreaming's dead, that no one does it anymore. It's not dead, it's just been forgotten. Removed from our language. No one teaches it so no one knows it exists. The dreamer is banished to obscurity. Well I'm trying to change all that, and I hope you are too. By dreaming every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it's ever faced. Ever. So whatever you do, don't be bored. This is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting.

***

(Main character is walking with a thin looking boy, who gradually turns into something else as he talks.)

A thousand years is but an instant. There's nothing new, nothing different. The same pattern over and over. The same clouds, the same music, the same insight I felt an hour or an eternity ago. There's nothing here for me now, nothing at all. Now I remember. This happened to me before. This is why I left. You have begun to find your answers. Although it will seem difficult, the rewards will be great. Exercise your human mind as fully as possible, knowing it is only an exercise. Build beautiful artifacts, solve problems, explore the secrets of the physical universe, savor the input from all the senses, feel the joy and sorrow, the laughter, the empathy, compassion and tote the emotional memory in your travel bag. I remember where I came from and how I became a human, why I hung around, and now my final departure is scheduled. This way out. Escaping velocity. Not just eternity, but infinity.

Waking life script 17

(Four guys are walking down the street. They take turns talking)

If the world that we are forced to accept is false and nothing is true, then everything is possible.

On the way to discovering what we love, we will find everything we hate, everything that blocks our path of what we desire.

The comfort will never be comfortable for those who seek what is not on the market.

A systematic questioning of the idea of happiness.

We'll cut the vocal chords of every empowered speaker. We'll yank the social symbols through the looking glass We'll devalue society's currency.

To confront the familiar.

Society is a fraud so complete and venal that it demands to be destroyed beyond the power of memory to recall its existence.

Where there is fire, we will carry gasoline.

To interrupt the continuum of everyday experience and all the normal expectations that go with it.

To live as if something actually depended on one's actions.

To rupture the spell of the ideology of the commodified consumer society so that our repressed desires of a more authentic nature can come forward.

To demonstrate the contrast between what life presently is and what it could be.

To immerse ourselves in the oblivion of actions and know we're making it happen.

There will be an intensity never before known in everyday life to exchange love and hate, life and death, terror and redemption, repulsions and attractions.

An affirmation of freedom so reckless and unqualified, that it amounts to a total denial of every kind of restraint and limitation.

***

(The same four guys see an old man up on a telephone pole.)

Hey, old man, what you doin' up there?

Well, I'm not sure.

You need any help getting down, sir?

No, don't think so.

Stupid bastard.

No worse than us. He's all action and no theory. We're all theory and no action.

***

(The same four guys see an old man sitting at a bench)

Why so glum, Mr. Debord?

What was missing was felt irretrievable. The extreme uncertainties of subsisting without working made excesses necessary and breaks definitive. To quote Stevenson: "Suicide carried off many. Drink and the devil took care of the rest."

Waking life script 16

(We enter a movie theatre where, on the screen, we see a film of two men who are talking with one another. The first speaker is filmmaker Caveh Zahedi - to the right in the image below - and the second is poet David Jewell.)

THE HOLY MOMENT

Cinema, in its essence, is, well it's about an introduction to reality, which is that, like, reality is actually reproduced. And for him, it might sound like a storytelling medium, really. And he feels like, um ... like ... like ... like literature is better for telling a story. You know, and if you tell a story or even like a joke, like you know "This guy walks into a bar and, you know, he sees a dwarf." That works really well because you're imagining this guy and this dwarf in the bar and there's this kind of imaginative aspect to it. But in film, you don't have that because you actually are filming a specific guy, in a specific bar, with a specific dwarf, of a specific height, who looks a certain way, right?

So like, um, for Bazin, what the ontology of film has to do is it has to deal with, you know, with what photography also has an ontology of, except that it adds this dimension of time to it, and this greater realism. And so, like, it's about that guy, at that moment, in that space. And, you know, Bazin is like a Christian, so he, like, believes that, you know, God obviously ended up like, everything ... he believes, for him reality and God are the same. You know, like ... and so what film is actually capturing is like God incarnate, creating. And this very moment, God is manifesting as this. And what the film would capture if it was filming us right now would be like God as this table, and God as you, and God as me, and God looking the way we look right now, and saying and thinking what we're thinking right now, because we are all God manifest in that sense. So film is actually like a record of God, or of the face of God, or of the ever-changing face of God. You have a mosquito. Do you want me to get it for you? You got it.

I got it?

Yeah, you got it.

And like the whole Hollywood thing is just taking film and trying to make it like the storytelling medium where you take these books or stories, and then you like, you know, and then you have the script, and you try to find a person who sort of fits the thing. But it's ridiculous, because it's not, it shouldn't be based on the script. It should be based on the person, you know, or the thing. And in that sense, they are almost right to have this whole star system, because then it's about that person, you know, instead of, like, the story.

Truffaut always said the best films aren't made ... the films ... The best scripts don't make the best films, because they have that kind of literary narrative thing that you're sort of a slave to. The best films are the ones that aren't tied to that slavishly. So I don't know. The whole narrative thing seems to me like, um ... Obviously, there's narrativity to cinema 'cause it's in time, just the way there's narrativity to music. But, you know, you don't first think of the story of the song, and then make the song. It has to come out of that moment. And that's what film has. It's just that moment, which is holy. You know, like this moment, it's holy. But we walk around like it's not holy. We walk around like there's some holy moments and there are all the other moments that are not holy, right, but this moment is holy, right? And if film can let us see that, like frame it so that we see, like, "Ah, this moment. Holy." And it's like "Holy, holy, holy" moment by moment. But, like, who can live that way? Who can go, like, "Wow, holy"? Because if I were to look at you and just really let you be holy, I don't know, I would, like, stop talking.

Well, you'd be in the moment, I mean ....

Yeah

The moment is holy.

Yeah, but I'd be open. And then I'd look in your eyes, and I'd cry, and I'd like feel all this stuff and that's like not polite. I mean it would make you feel uncomfortable.

Well you could laugh too. I mean, why would you cry?

Well, 'cause ... I don't know. For me, I tend to cry.

Uh-huh. Well ... Is, is full ...

Well, let's do it right now. Let's have a holy moment.

Okay.

(Long moments pass with them staring at each other)

Everything is layers, isn't it?

Yeah.

I mean, there's the holy moment and then there's the awareness of trying to have the holy moment, in the same way that the film is the actual moment really happening, but then the character pretending to be in a different reality. And it's all these layers. And, uh, I was in and out of the holy moment looking at you. Can't be in a holy ... You're unique that way, Caveh. That's one of the reasons I enjoy you. You can ... bring me into that.

(They turn into cloud people looking at each other)

Waking life script 15

(Main character walks into a white building - with stained glass windows - and approaches a man sitting in a chair.)

Hey, how's it going?

You know, they say that dreams are real only as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life? See, there's a lot of us that are out there that are mapping the mind-body relationship, of dreams. We're called the oneironauts. We're the explorers of the dream-world. Really, it's just about the two opposing states of consciousness which don't really oppose, at all. See, in the waking world, the neural system inhibits the activation of the vividness of memories. And this makes evolutionary sense. See you'd be maladapted for the perceptual image of a predator to be mistaken for the memory of one, and vice-versa. If the memory of a predator conjured up a perceptual image, we would be running off to the bathroom every time we had a scary thought. So you have these serotonic neurons that inhibit hallucinations that they themselves are inhibited during REM sleep. See this allows dreams to appear real, while preventing competition from other perceptual processes. This is why dreams are mistaken for reality. To the functional system of neural activity that creates our world, there is no difference between dreaming a perception and an action, and actually the waking perception and action.

***

(A guy is playing a ukelele.)

I had a friend once who told me that the worst mistake that you can make is to think you are alive, when you're really asleep in life's waiting room. The trick is to combine your waking rational abilities with the infinite possibilities of your dreams. 'Cause if you can do that you can do anything. Did you ever have a job that you hated? Worked really hard at? A long, hard day at work, finally you get to go home, get in bed, close your eyes, and immediately you wake up and realize that the whole day at work had been a dream? It's bad enough that you sell your waking life for ... for minimum wage, but now they get your dreams for free.

***

(Main character sees a friend sitting down in a chair.)

Hey man, what are you doing here?

I fancy myself the social lubricator of the dream world, helping people become lucid a little easier. You know, cut all that fear and anxiety stuff and just rock and roll.

By becoming lucid you mean just knowing that you're dreaming, right?

Yeah. And then you can control it. They're more realistic and less bizarre than non-lucid dreams.

You know, I just woke from a dream. It wasn't a typical dream. It seemed more like I'd walked into an alternate universe or something.

Yup, it's real. I mean, technically it's a phenomenon of sleep, but you can have so much damn fun in your dreams. And of course everyone knows fun rules.

Yeah.

So what was going on in your dream?

Oh, a lot of people, a lot of talking. You know, some of it was kind of absurdist, like from a strange movie or something. Mostly it was just people going off about whatever, really intensely. I woke up wondering where did all this stuff come from?

You can control that you know.

Do you have these dreams all the time?

Hell, yeah. I'm always going to make the best of it. But the trick is, you got to realize that you're dreaming in the first place. You got to be able to recognize it. You got to be able to ask yourself, "Hey man, is this a dream?" See, most people never ask themselves that when they're awake, or especially when they're asleep. Seems like everyone's sleep-walking through their waking state, or wake-walking through their dreams. Either way, they're not going to get much out of it.

The thing that snapped me into realizing I was dreaming was, uh, was my digital clock. I couldn't really read it. It was like the circuitry was all screwed up or something.

Yeah, that's real common. And small printed material is pretty tough too. Very unstable. Another good tip-off is trying to adjust light levels. You can't really do that. If you see a light switch nearby, turn it on and off and see if it works. That's one of the few things you can't do in a lucid dream. What the hell. I can fly around, have an interesting conversation with Albert Schweitzer. I can explore all these new dimensions of reality, not to mention I can have any kind of sex I want, which is way cool. So I can't adjust light levels. So what?

But that's like one of the things that you do to test if you're dreaming or not, right?

Yeah, like I said, you can totally train yourself to recognize it. I mean just hit a light switch every now and then. If the lights are on, and you can't turn them off, then most likely you're dreaming. And then you can get down to business. And believe me, it's unlimited. Hey, you know what I've been working on lately?

What's that?

Oh man, it's way ambitious, but I'm getting better at it. You're going to dig this. Three-sixty vision, man. I can see in all directions. Pretty cool, huh?

Yeah, man. Well, I got to go man.

Okay, later man. Super profundo on the early eve of your day.

What's that mean?

Well, you know, I've never figured it out. Maybe you can. This guy always whispers it in my ear. Louis. He's a reoccurring dream character.

(Main character turns the light switch on and off as he's leaving - 4 and a half times - and the light stays on. Other guy shrugs his shoulders. Main character begins and continues floating through to the next part.)

Waking life script 14

(Main character wakes up, washes his face, grabs the phone, and dials.)

Hey man. I guess you already took off or something. But, uh, remind me to tell you about this dream I had last night 'cause there's some really funny stuff in it. All right, man. Uh, I guess I'll catch you later. Okay.

(Main character grabs the remote and begins changing the channels on TV.)

... bareback riding. Copenhagen William and his horse Same Deal.

... for a hat band. Sew it into the inside of the ...

For I do not await the future, anticipating salvation, absolution, not even enlightenment through process. I, I subscribe to the premise that this ... this flawed perfection is sufficient and complete in every single ineffable moment.

The Blonde Bee, the Firefly, Praying Mantis ...

... lunatic macaroni munchkin with my googat ...

... venerable tradition of sorcerers, shamans and other visionaries who have developed and perfected the art of dream travel, the so-called lucid dream state where by consciously controlling your dreams, you're able to discover things beyond your capacity to apprehend in your awake state.

... series, winning back-to-back ...

... why don't you tell us about what Felix is doing ...

... a single ego is an absurdly narrow vantage from which to view this ... this experience. And where most consider their individual relationship to the universe, I contemplate relationships ... of my various selves to one another.

While most people with mobility problems are having trouble just getting around, at age 92, Joy Cullison's out seeing the world. Now I'm free to see the world.

Waking life script 13

(A boy and girl are sitting in a coffee shop, possibly at a bookstore like Borders or Barnes & Noble, or more likely a bar. Alex Nixon and Violet Nichols, respectively.)

What are you writing?

A novel.

What's the story?

There's no story. It's just ... people, gestures, moments, bits of rapture, fleeting emotions. In short, the greatest stories ever told.

Are you in the story?

I don't think so. But then, I'm kind of reading it and then writing it.

***

(A guy in a bar, actor Steven Prince, talking with a bartender, Ken Webster.)

It was in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere, but on the way to Vegas, so, you know, every once in a while a car would pull in, get gas. It was the last gas stop before Vegas. Office had the chair, had a cash register, and that was all the room there was in that office. I was asleep, and I heard a noise. You know, just like in my mind. So I got up, and I walked out, and I stood on the curb of where the gas station ends, you know, the driveway there. I'm rubbing the sand out of my eyes, trying to see what's going on, and way down at the very end of the gas station they had tire racks. Chains around them, you know. And I see there's an Econoline van down there. And there's a guy with his T-shirt off, and he's packing his Econoline van with all these tires. He's got the last two tires in his hands, pushes them into the thing, and then I, of course, I go, "Hey, you!" This guy turns around, he's got no shirt on, he's sweating, he's built like a brick shithouse, pulls out a knife, it's 12 inches long, and then starts running at me as fast as he can, going AAAAAAAHHHHH. I'm still ... "This is wrong." I walked in, stuck my hand behind the cash register where the owner kept a .41 revolver, pull it out, cocked the trigger, and just as I turned around, he was comin' through the door. And I could see his eyes. I'll never forget this guy's eyes. And he just had bad thoughts about me in his eyes. And I fired a round, and it hit him. Boom. Right in the chest. Bang. He went - as fast as he was coming in the door, he went out the door. Went right up between the two pumps, ethyl and regular. And he must've been on drugs, on speed or something, you know, because he stood up and he still had the knife, and the blood was just all over his chest, and he stood up and he went like that, just moved a little like that. And I was pretty much in shock, so I just held the trigger back and fanned the hammer. It's one of these old-time ... Poom, Poom, Poom, Poom, Poom! And I blew him out of the gas station. And ever since then, I always carry this.

(He pulls out a revolver.)

I hear that. A well-armed populace is the best defense against tyranny.

I'll drink to that. And you know, I haven't fired this for such a long time, I don't even know if it'll work.

Why don't you pull the trigger and find out?

(He shoots the bartender in the chest. The bartender gets up, grabs the gun hidden behind the counter, and shoots the other guy in the head. Both fall dead. Puddles of blood form and red flows down the screen.)

Waking life script 12

(Main character sitting with a man in a bar/restaurant. University of Texas at Austin philosophy professor Louis Mackey.)

There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life and those who suffer from an overabundance of life. I've always found myself in the second category. When you come to think of it, almost all human behavior and activity is not essentially any different from animal behavior. The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship bring us, at best, up to the super-chimpanzee level. Actually, the gap between, say, Plato or Nietzsche and the average human is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher, is rarely achieved.

Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress but rather this endless and futile addition of zeroes. No greater values have developed. Hell, the Greeks 3,000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential? The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this: Which is the most universal human characteristic - fear or laziness?

Waking life script 11

(There's a chimp sitting next to a projector. The words "NOISE AND SILENCE" are written onto the screen and the chimp begins lecturing. Voice of Steve Fitch.)

Our critique began as all critiques begin: with doubt. Doubt became our narrative. Ours was a quest for a new story, our own. And we grasped toward this new history driven by the suspicion that ordinary language couldn't tell it. Our past appeared frozen in the distance, and our every gesture and accent signified the negation of the old world and the reach for a new one. The way we lived created a new situation, one of exuberance and friendship, that of a subversive microsociety, in the heart of a society which ignored it. Art was not the goal but the occasion and the method for locating our specific rhythm and buried possibilities of our time. The discovery of a true communication was what it was about, or at least the quest for such a communication. The adventure of finding it and losing it. We the unappeased, the unaccepting continued looking, filling in the silences with our own wishes, fears and fantasies. Driven forward by the fact that no matter how empty the world seemed, no matter how degraded and used up the world appeared to us, we knew that anything was still possible. And, given the right circumstances, a new world was just as likely as an old one.

(The lecturing chimp eats his notes and "TO BEGIN AGAIN ... FROM THE BEGINNING" is placed on the screen. A young male's face is flashed on the screen, and the projector runs out of film.)

Waking life script 10

(Two women are having lunch - English professor Lisa Moore and author Carole Dawson)

Time just dissolves into quick-moving particles that are swirling away. Either I'm moving fast or time is. Never both simultaneously.

It's such a strange paradox. I mean, while, technically, I'm closer to the end of my life than I've ever been, I actually feel more than ever that I have all the time in the world. When I was younger, there was a desperation, a desire for certainty, like there was an end to the path, and I had to get there.

I know what you mean, because I can remember thinking, "Oh, someday, like in my mid-thirties maybe, everything's going to just somehow gel and settle, just end." It was like there was this plateau, and it was waiting for me, and I was climbing up it, and when I got to the top, all growth and change would stop. Even exhilaration. But that hasn't happened like that, thank goodness. I think that what we don't take into account when we're young is our endless curiosity. That's what's so great about being human.

Yeah, yeah. Well do you know that thing Benedict Anderson says about identity?

No.

Well, he's talking about like, say, a baby picture. So you pick up this picture, this two-dimensional image, and you say, "That's me." Well, to connect this baby in this weird little image with yourself living and breathing in the present, you have to make up a story like, "This was me when I was a year old, and then later I had long hair, and then we moved to Riverdale, and now here I am." So it takes a story that's actually a fiction to make you and the baby in the picture identical to create your identity.

And the funny thing is, our cells are completely regenerating every seven years. We've already become completely different people several times over, and yet we always remain quintessentially ourselves.

Hmm.

Waking life script 9

(Old man sitting at a table. Otto Hofmann.)

The quest is to be liberated from the negative, which is really our own will to nothingness. And once having said yes to the instant, the affirmation is contagious. It bursts into a chain of affirmations that knows no limit. To say yes to one instant is to say yes to all of existence.

***

(African-American writer Aklilu Gebrewold)

The main character is what I call "the mind". Its mastery, its capacity to represent. Throughout history, attempts have been made to contain those experiences which happen at the end of the limit where the mind is vulnerable. But I think we are in a very significant moment in history. Those moments, those what you might call liminal, limit, frontier, edge zone experiences are actually now becoming the norm. These multiplicities and distinctions and differences that have given great difficulty to the old mind are actually through entering into their very essence, tasting and feeling their uniqueness. One might make a breakthrough to that common something that holds them together.

And so the main character is, to this new mind, greater, greater mind. A mind that yet is to be. And when we are obviously entered into that mode, you can see a radical subjectivity, radical attunement to individuality, uniqueness to that which the mind is, opens itself to a vast objectivity. So the story is the story of the cosmos now. The moment is not just a passing empty nothing, yet - and this is the way in which these secret passages happen - yes, it's empty with such fullness that the great moment, the great life of the universe, is pulsating in it. And each one, each object, each place, each act leaves a mark. And that story is singular. But, in fact, it's story after story.

Waking life script 8

(Guy with a bullhorn is driving through the city streets yelling - Libertarian talk show host Alex Jones)

You can't fight city hall, death and taxes. Don't talk about politics or religion. This is all the equivalent of enemy propaganda rolling across the picket line. "Lay down, G.I. Lay down, G.I." We saw it all through the 20th Century. And now in the 21st Century, it's time to stand up and realize that we should not allow ourselves to be crammed into this rat maze. We should not submit to dehumanization. I don't know about you, but I'm concerned with what's happening in this world. I'm concerned with the structure. I'm concerned with the systems of control, those that control my life and those that seek to control it even more! I want freedom! That's what I want! And that's what you should want!

It's up to each and every one of us to turn loose and show them the greed, the hatred, the envy, and yes, the insecurities because that is the central mode of control - make us feel pathetic, small so we'll willingly give up our sovereignty, our liberty, our destiny. We have got to realize that we're being conditioned on a mass scale. Start challenging this corporate slave state! The 21st Century is going to be a new century, not the century of slavery, not the century of lies and issues of no significance and classism and statism and all the rest of the modes of control! It's going to be the age of humankind standing up for something pure and something right!

What a bunch of garbage - liberal Democrat, conservative Republican. It's all there to control you. Two sides of the same coin. Two management teams bidding for control! The C.E.O. job of Slavery, Incorporated! The truth is out there in front of you, but they lay out this buffet of lies. I'm sick of it, and I'm not going to take a bite out of it! Do you got me? Resistance is not futile. We're gonna win this thing. Humankind is too good! We're not a bunch of underachievers! We're gonna stand up and we're gonna be human beings! We're gonna get fired up about the real things, the things that matter: creativity and the dynamic human spirit that refuses to submit! Well that's it! That's all I got to say! It's in your court.