You are absolutely right, Aaron – my posting of Morford’s article was inappropriate. Knowing that I am dealing with Invincible Ignorance makes me the idiot, not you. I DO understand that because you believe you have immortality at stake, not to mention facing never-ending Hell to endure if you give up your belief, it is quite the burden for you to consider the ideas and concepts I have been discussing. I am free of that particular ideology and have nothing more than my own attempt to be intellectually honest at stake. People have a tendency to build a prison for their minds – being convicted by their on convictions. It is oh so human. I see the cage I put myself in – disrespect for your need to escape mortality. I really should know better to dismiss such a powerful need so lightly.

 

So, I have had to reconsider why I have been engaging is such a seemingly fruitless exercise. I doubt that it is for the possible wider audience of fellow students, few if any would indulge in such a time consuming effort – and probably fewer still would really find it interesting. I think it is because throughout history – that will to believe – has dominated human history, its politics and morays. Although humans no longer stone to death nonbelievers, in most countries, we cannot run for office, and must -even in the “land of the free” have a religious veneer in our government.  It is a marginalization I resent and feel that this will not change unless people have the courage to confront it. It is because I think that the NOW is what we live in – and that death is the end of my life, not the beginning of an eternity.

 

You ask me: “

What is the purpose of life?” I am supposing
you don’t believe in a life after death. Why do you live? Is there any
purpose to this life beyond trying to have a good time?”

 

Let me give you some personal background. I am 56 yrs. old. I have raised two children – working during that time as a home health aide, a death and dying aide, a grief counselor while attending Sonoma State –majoring in Gerontology. Once my kids were adults, and I felt more freedom to follow my own personal drives; I worked as a legislative activist for a statewide nonprofit, participating in legislative changes and the creation of new laws to protect “Consumer’s Last Rights”. I worked as a researcher for AARP, the Government Accountability Office, for Jessica Mitford (a writer) and Bob Treuhaft, a civil rights lawyer. I have been interviewed countless times by reporters; have been on over a dozen TV and Radio shows (including being interviewed by Dobson himself). I started two nonprofits. Currently I work on the issues of domestic violence, homelessness and prison reform. I also – as you know, have agreed to participate as a “teacher’s aide” for Mr. Rubin’s class on Critical Thinking.  Very little of my work has involved a “living wage”. I give you all this personal background to impress upon you that a person can indeed live a life with meaning without having to do so at the direction of some god or to reap personal reward like eternal life.  But, I am hardly the exception. Here is a list of some far more famous and far more important people who have managed to contribute much to humanity without the this belief;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVucvo-kDU

 

Another disturbing idea you state;

“I will say though, that I don’t get rid of the idea of suffering just
because of eternal life. Suffering is real, but it is a result of
disobedience.”

 

This pains me particularly because I have cared for dying Christians who were enduring great suffering and they had the added burden of the belief that God was punishing them for some “disobedience.”  I am also aware of countless infants and children who are dying of starvation – what kind of disobedience did these children commit?

 

You ask:

“What came before the Big Bang?”  And then you are suggesting that this is where god dwells- outside of time and matter.

 

Science evolves also; it takes a long time, and the daring of great minds to do the study of how the universe works. Keep in mind, it wasn’t very long ago that humans believed the world was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth – many people were persecuted for challenging those ideas, and like you – the religious powers believed that challenging of such notions were going against their beliefs. So, hang onto your seat, Aaron – scientists are indeed grappling once more with the unknown (although, unlike you – they do indeed think it is “knowable”;

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081216131106.htm

 

You say;

“Hitler was trying to further natural selection by eliminating “undesirables.”
You will also notice that was one example, look at all the major genocides
and you will see Atheism. I am not attacking you, but I am just contrasting
your idea that Christianity is the bloodiest religion. That is just false.”

 

I did include the link that showed that Hitler was a Catholic. Perhaps you missed it. I think this may be the reason that the Pope at that time did not excommunicate Hitler, but oddly enough – he did excommunicate –doomed to eternal hell- anyone who was cremated, like all those victims of the holocaust.  That law was just changed in 1970. What I DO agree with you on is; 1) both intolerance for other religions and 2) intolerance of religion itself have been used from the earliest day of human kind as an excuse to kill. I believe that the real motive was personal power and wealth (resources; land, water, slaves and most recently oil).  A country developed upon no god is relatively new to humans. But –again- power as the real motivator wins, look at how cozy and indebted we are to China- a country that is armed to the teeth- and how intolerant we are to Cuba- a country that wouldn’t even be able to defend itself if invaded. Longer views of history shows that Christianity has done the most killing, all those people in the “new world”, the Crusades, all those people in Africa who resisted slavery, all those people slaughtered in the name of god in the old testament, it does all add up to an impressive number, BUT –as I said before… religions, or the intolerance of them, is just a very handy tool to manipulate people. We don’t know much about the earliest civilizations, but we do know Zeus, Thor and countless other gods were used for the same purpose. You don’t believe in those gods. I just go one god further than you do, Aaron.

 

Something seems to be built into religious concepts that allows for the justification to kill rape and plunder. I guess once you can convince people that you speak for god, well – hey! What authority can be bigger than that!?  If they think you will go to hell if you disobey, and even if you die, you will live forever, I tell you Aaron, no notion created by humans has shown such promise for manipulation and abuse.

 

Of course here is where we disagree- I know you don’t advocate killing in the name of Christ (at least I am assuming so), but it doesn’t seem to bother your god one bit. Just look at the 10 commandments; Thou shall not kill, – from the Old Testament, and yet god is instructing ruthless murder in the next breath; stoning of adulterers and people who work on the Sabbath, etc.  I know you say that the Old Testament is “just a recording of history, that doesn’t mean that it was right”. But all these guys were saying that this was God’s orders. Where the authors of all those books – Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, etc all lying?  Or did god just suddenly have a change of heart?

 

Which brings up another problem I see; the conflict of being all powerful while at the same time being all knowing. If one knew everything that ever was and ever will be, then that means nothing will ever change in the future, the present, much less the past. No surprises, no changing anything. How does that leave room for being all powerful, if you cannot change anything? One belief seems to cancel out the other. And even more conflicting…how does that jibe with the notion of “free will”? If god knows everything you did and everything you will ever do, and he is the one who controls all this, at what point are you ever really free of anything? It all sounds rather mindless to me.

 

It’s all the silly things that people swallow without questioning; even the very basics, such as always referring to god as a he. Why would god need genitalia of any kind? Who else is this being having sex with? Why is god a “jealous” god? “Thou Shall Not Have Any God Before Me!”  This seems to imply that “he” has real competition in heaven.  And then there is the Trinity idea. Was it too much for one all powerful being, or did he feel the need for company?  I think my biggest problem with religion (even if it substitutes an ideology, like communism) is that it’s so called “morality” is not based on critical thinking but on whatever some god (or dictator) said.  This makes it terribly delusional, dangerous and destructive.

Letter to the Editor -printed Feb.5 08

San Francisco Chronicle

Feb. 5 2008

Test of democracy

Editor – If someone takes $100 from you and offers to give you back $1, do you: 1) Vote for this “economic stimulus.” 2) Know you are being swindled.

If your government borrows trillions from two of the most oppressive and heavily armed countries in the world to invade and occupy a country that has no weapons of mass destruction, only oil, do you: 1) Think that this promotes democracy. 2) Know that democracy is for sale.

Confessions from the Closet

Confessions from the Closet

 Why I Switched

 

 

For the past twenty years, I have dedicated my life to activism. I have started two nonprofits, testified in numerous Senate Hearings and have convinced legislators to change laws.  I’ve had the incredible good fortune to work with Jessica (Decca) Mitford and Bob Treuhaft (both former communists) on their last book: The American Way of Death Revisited or “Death Warmed Over” as we called it.

 

 Still, even with this resume, the people who have had the greatest impact on my world views have been two Presidents; Nixon and Bush Jr.

 

It was while watching the Watergate Hearings that something deep inside this (then 20 year- old) middleclass housewife changed. A few years later, I left suburbia and headed to Northern California, driven with a need to live a larger life.

 

My activism started when I tried to sell caskets wholesale in San Francisco in a “funerary art gallery.”  The mortuaries refused to allow families to purchase anything from outside vendors.  I went “undercover” in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to bring enough evidence for a ruling on restraint of trade. Then in the early 90’s, morticians began charging AIDS “handling fees”.  These obnoxious and scientifically unwarranted charges took me to Sacramento, the capital of California, to protest alongside the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (politics can certainly bring you interesting alliances).

 

 I began to look at the agency regulating the funeral industry and stepped into a hornet’s nest of corruption. I started testifying in hearings and talking with politicians (even odder bedfellows).  I was labeled “The Scourge of the Funeral Industry” by the Boston Globe and was quickly swept up with interviews and exposes for national and international television networks.  I started a nonprofit that distributed consumer information to help people know what choices and rights were involved in purchasing funerals.

 

These activities brought me to the attention of the “Queen of The Muckrakers” Jessica Mitford.  She asked me to be her researcher on updating her national bestseller The American Way of Death.   I found myself in an exciting and heady venue and spent many hours struggling to learn the history of the politics of the left while I lived with Decca and Bob. Their struggles for civil rights made me feel like a dilettante.

 

Because Ms. Mitford died prior to the release of her book, I was thrust into doing the national book tour.  The day I landed in New York, to appear on The Today Show, the scandal of Monica Lewinsky broke. Obviously upstaged, we rescheduled for later in the week. On that day, President Clinton started his assault in Bosnia. Between the Bimbo and the Bomb, my spotlight died out, and I returned to the West Coast.

Still dedicated to battling the funeral industry, I continued to fight in “The Fine Old Conflict” as Decca called the communist theme song of The Internationale.

 

One day I was asked to investigate a homeless shelter by assuming my “undercover” role. It was indeed more of an eye opener than anything I had done previously in my life.  It showed me how intrinsically corrupt government-funded programs are, and how easily “faith based” charities (funded by taxes) can accumulate power and wealth over the powerless and poor.  I confronted the city council with proof of embezzlement and corruption, but was ignored. The only highlight of the event was my being threatened to be arrested for impersonating a homeless person (I actually pulled a rib muscle from laughter). Unfortunately, the people who shared the shelter with me were dumped onto the streets so that they could not testify. Two of them died over the next year and I did a lot of soul searching about my methods and goals.

 

I started my second effort to create change using the internet to search for individuals who tackled major societal problems differently than the standard institutionalized systems.  This is when I furthered my education in how badly government deals with all social issues. The most innovative ideas and real solutions are usually shunned by government, and my contacts were with movers and shakers who were well outside the entrenched government agencies. Learning about the problems in our “justice” system and working for prison reform was nearly overwhelming.  There is something deeply wrong with California when it has the largest prison population (per capita) than any other country in the world. Being tagged the most “Liberal” state in America somehow seems bizarre!

 

When listening to my old comrades of the left talk about what our government should do, I find myself trying to convince them that only programs which work on a local level and are not restricted by the strings that come with government funding have a hope of succeeding.  The response was always that we just needed the government to “fix” those problems too.

 

My greatest example of how impossible this is to do is from my years of trying to work on behalf of consumers against the abuses of the funeral industry. The state regulatory boards were run by the industry they were supposed to be overseeing.  After many exposés and years of victims testifying in hearings, the politicians promised change. They got rid of the public boards and created a Bureau in which the only people who now have access to government are the lobbyists.  To add salt to our wounds, they added more taxes on the cost of death to pay for it.  The FTC, who promulgated the “Funeral Rules” in 1982 after the exposé of The American Way of Death, has handed oversight over to the National Funeral Directors Association, and has promised funeral directors to withhold knowledge of industry wrongdoing from the public if they make “tax deductible contributions” to the FTC.  When my friends protest that this was done by those “damn Republicans,” I tell them they are misinformed- both of these actions were taken by Democrats.  When I have confronted the responsible politicians themselves, they have told me that I needed to be more “realistic” and learn the art of “negotiation.”  More than once I was told they could help me get me a “good paying” job in government.  Having had an insider’s view of government, I couldn’t help but feel insulted by that suggestion.

 

Then Bush Jr. and his neoconservative gang took over the White House.  It was Nixon again, with a better PR machine, and once more something shifted in me politically.  I watched the futility of the left’s struggle against the fast paced erosion of our rights.  The first time I heard Ron Paul speak I felt I must be hallucinating; how could someone whose views so connected with mine be a candidate for president?  And most embarrassing of all – how could he be a Republican?

 

 Research on his ideas brought me to the Libertarian Party.  I roamed the net, reading posts and articles in Libertarian Blogs from all over the world.  I subscribed to Reason Magazine.  I felt a little like I should be reading this stuff in a dark closet with a flashlight.  Many ideas were new to me, and some of them conflicted with cherished beliefs.

 

My first issue of Reason was titled “The Right to Own a Bazooka”.  My husband sneered at it and dismissed it as “rightwing lunacy.”  When I announced to my husband that I was beginning to sympathize with Libertarian views on politics, he was far from pleased.  His mental association with Libertarians was almost synonymous with the Ku Klux Klan. Fortunately for me, he teaches Critical Thinking.  His strong advocacy for reasoning has given me an opportunity to discuss issues and thoughts on politics and liberty in depth.  Here was an open mind against which I could freely bounce ideas and conflicts.  He thinks that the Libertarians have been purposely maligned and that most people do not really understand the issues clearly.  I wholeheartedly agree. Both political parties see government as Santa Claus or God, put there to moralize and/or reward us.  Although I don’t want to own a gun (much less a bazooka), I fear the government’s creation of a private army (Blackwater) more than I fear citizens bearing arms.

 

I still have a great deal to learn, but my trust that government can provide solutions to social problems has been damaged, and my convictions irrevocably changed.  My hostility towards the war in Iraq and the erosions of our civil rights has fueled my exploration and acceptance of different views, ones that in my youth I would have discounted out of hand.  When my friends ask why I am a Libertarian, I explain that it is due to my deep humanitarian leanings.  I have learned that poverty and war are institutionalized conditions that serve governments well.  This gives my friends pause.  As I talk about the failings of the Democrats to stop the war – the largest cause of impoverishment-they nod and lean in to listen. Like my husband and I, most Democrats are frustrated and disenchanted with the politics of the Democratic Party. And like us, they have never studied the diversity of opinions found within the Libertarian Party. There is great opportunity in the present political atmosphere to get solutions and ideas out to those who have fallen into the trap of thinking that Left/Right and Democrat/Republican are the only viable options. The field is ripe for change.

 

 

 

Tibute to a remarkable woman and friend

http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=10-16-07&storyID=28229

My Days as an undercover homeless person

November 5^th, 2002

 

Statement of Karen Leonard to City Council regarding Brookwood Shelter

 

Dear City Council Members;

 

For five days and nights, I lived at the Brookwood shelter as a homeless person. This has given me insights into the living conditions of these residences that I believe is important to those who have rule over their lives.

 

Although people from Catholic Charities refer to Brookwood as these people’s “home” whenever they try to prevent people from the community coming into the shelter to interact and work with the people there, in reality, this place more closely resembles a “halfway house” for criminals. Although they have committed no greater sin than not having enough money to afford a place of their own in Sonoma County, we treat them as though they are the enemy in our midst.

 

Imagine living these realities; you work at night, but you are not allowed in your “home” to sleep during the day. When your children get out from school, they cannot go “home” for many hours, and you cannot afford day care. If either you or your children are sick, you cannot go “home”. Although you are not allowed to have any visitors in your “home”, police are allowed to walk through your room any time they choose. Although a budget for $7,000 dollars has been allotted in monies paid by taxpayers for your phone use, the only phone available to you is a pay phone you must share with 40 other people. Although an ample budget was set for furnishing, the only furniture there is was donated from the sheriff’s jail. Although there is a budget for food, the only food that arrives is food that the grocery stores can no longer sell because it is no longer fresh. You must mop floors while people are walking on them; because you cannot do them when everyone is gone…you are not allowed inside then, either. You may have to come “home” from a long day of work or job hunting and cook for 40 people. You must sleep with the lights on. You are blamed for everything that goes wrong, and told you deserve this because you are homeless. Although you need a good paying job to be able to pay rent, the only well paid people in your “home” are the guards who are not there to keep you safe, but to keep your neighbors safe from you. Even though the waiting list to get subsidized housing is two years or longer, you are told your stay here can only be at most a few months. The stress factors in your life, and those around you are stupendous, and yet you are told in countless ways, every day, you are not worthy of respect and the neighbors loathe the sight of you. And you must constantly remind yourself, that you are the “lucky” one, staying in the best shelter Santa Rosa offers, and complaints can land you back on the street.

 

These were my experiences during my short stay at Brookwood. After that I began showing up at the Brookwood’s Advisory meetings. I was not welcomed, in fact I was threatened to be arrested for impersonating a homeless person, and ordered to leave. When I finished laughing I asked for the statute that makes pretending to be homeless a crime. I stayed and returned again the next month, even though again I was told to leave.

The advisory committee went through quite a lot of commotion during those two visits of mine. After having talked with the “neighbor” who was selected to be on this committee I discovered that this committee has never taken a vote. It has never followed the original guidelines of its conception. Police presence has often outnumbered the people from the public. The public members have been refused their right to see Brookwood’s budget, and have been told they have no business discussing the operations of Brookwood. Although the advisory committee is suppose to be composed of a majority of people from the community and be ruled by consensus, in the six months since its conception it has yet to achieve either of these goals.

 

But one amazing thing did occur. A tenacious woman from the community insisted in being able to interact with the residences of Brookwood. She was told firmly that she would be interfering with the “rights” of the homeless to their “privacy”.  Fortunately, another public member pointed out that Catholic Charities has no authority over the lives of these people once they are outside of the shelter. A magical thing then occurred, the people inside the shelter and the people in the rest of the community organized. They created a wonderful Halloween party for the children inside Brookwood, and began to socialize together. I believe this is the start of something wonderful. This happened in spite of the Advisory committee’s efforts to marginalize and exclude the outside community from participating with the inside community of Brookwood.

 

If the City Council allows Catholic Charities to have complete authority over this public advisory committee there will be no oversight of how this agency runs Brookwood, and oversight is sorely needed. I must also remind everyone here, that the residences of Brookwood are part of our community and are not to be treated like property. The rights of the people in this shelter need to be defended, and respected. Most of the people in Brookwood were born and raised here in Sonoma County; they must be regarded as part of the community and not segregated and alienated from the rest of the community. Changes in policy must be allowed in order to improve the quality of life for these people within our community. There is more to the public’s concerns than simple fear and ignorance, and yet these are the only sentiments being catered to. I fear that caring for the homeless has become big business, both costly and largely ineffective. As a tax payer, whose funds are used in services to the poor, I demand greater accountability and transparency in these operations. It is not the people without houses I fear, but those whose livelihoods come from distributing services to the poor that I suspect of having vested interest in keeping the haves and have-not’s separated.

 

 

Prison Reform

66 California Inmate Deaths Preventable According to Prison Receiver Robert Sillen

Karen Leonard September 20, 2007 at 11:03 AM

There are very good studies in Behavioral Science that proves incarceration and punishment NEVER changes behaivor. There are also very successful alternatives to incarceration that are already being incorporated in other countries. But it seems that nothing will sway Americans from just being cruel. The closest we get to any change in our adicctive knee-jerk behaivor concerning crime and punishment is when we follow the bottom line and underline that change will save money. For anyone wanting to see how ridiculously barbaric our country is concerning prisoners, I would suggest reading Kind and Usual Punishment- the first expose on the prison business.

Letter to Editor-Orange County Register

Comments sent to the O. C. Register’s Opinion editor

Name: Karen Leonard
Email: karenl53@comcast.net
City: Willits
Subject: Treating the Mentally Ill
Comments: My thanks and great appreciation go to Mr. Carona for his courage to report the truth about our inflexible and damaging correctional system(a misnomer if ever there was one!). Our own society should be diagnosed as somewhat schizophrenic- we say we stand for truth and justice and heap horrendous abuses on the most helpless in our society. Although the facts concerning the abuse of treating mentally ill patients by incarcerating them does not move society to action, the realization that this system ends up costing us much more will certainly get the public’s outrage going.

Editor AVA May 16, 2005

 

I want to express how much I appreciate the AVA, particularly for publishing discourse concerning religion.

It has been my belief that religion is the bane of humankind, and that the idea of heaven has created a hell on earth. Once we evolved an ego, the inability to accept death has been the primary reason our species created a God or Goddess (in our own image, of course), that would have the power to control the unknown. It has been an incredibly useful tool of preachers and politicians to control society.

I will always remember Arthur C. Clark’s book, The Fountains of Paradise. It tells the story of human’s first contact with an artifact from an alien culture; a solar powered satellite that receives and sends radio signals. The world holds its breath for the first broadcast from the alien computer onboard the satellite. After listening to all the human broadcasts for three months it responds with a question…“Unable to decipher difference between Beatle mania, Football and Religion. Please Explain.”

Thanks again for the anti-religious refrain. It gets very scary when you know you are in a very small minority. We need much more discussion on the freedom from religion.

 

Karen Leonard