We regard Newton as one of the greatest scientists of all time: he discovered Gravity and invented calculus. Each one of these would already secured him a place in history.

But he was obsessed with religion and exploring "Gods" creation - he actually wrote more theological texts than scientific ones.

In his time science and religion were still closely tied together. Every professor in Cambridge had to become a Minister in the Church of England - he hated that idea and was freed from that duty.

I think before watching any fundamental (Christian) preacher or politician one should always watch this very video.

Many people always say they know what God or Jesus wants from them or us. But what God wanted in the old testament is pretty different from what Jesus and his Daddy later propagated in the new one.

So maybe now 2000 years later there might be some new additions as well?

Need to make some money with religious devotionalia? Then buy Fred’s Holy Toaster Stamper - and a book on "How to sell stuff on eBay". Don’t miss all the other great stuff from Fred!

*Thanks to Jason for another great tip*

I can perfectly understand why men in the Middle East go gaga about Haifa Wehbe. She is hot, a great singer and simply delicious (with some help of plastic surgery - which seems very popular in the Middle East).

Is plastic surgery islamic?

But as usual religious fundamentalists couldn’t handle all her sexual power and banned her from performing in Bahrain. Muslim Fundamentalists would not only ban her and put her in a Burka, but ban music in general. Even cell phone ring tones are considered a disturbance of faith. I can’t wait for a fatwa against Nokia.

I am just afraid that she will be the target of an attack - like it has happened against other outspoken woman before. So much about the reference for woman is Arabic countries.

Hey Darling, you can perform in my place anyday!

Pain is certainly a main ingredient of Christianity. So some fanatics celebrate Jesus crucifixion by getting nailed to a cross themselves. I am not sure sure good old Bene approves of such madness …

Ouch.

Of all the spring festivals Holi seems the happiest to me.

From Wikipedia:

Holior is an annual Hindu spring festival, predominantly celebrated in North India and Nepal. It takes place over two days around late March or early April. As per the Hindu calendar, it falls on the last day on the month of Phalgun, which is a Purnima (or Pooranmashi, Full Moon), and on the first day of Chaitra. It is a celebration also of the Hindu New Year, as Chaitra is the first month of the Hindu Year.

It is also called the Festival of Colour. On the first day, a bonfire is lit at night to signify burning Holika. On the second day, known as Dhulandi, people go around until afternoon throwing coloured powder and water at each other, although the powder stings the eyes.

A special drink called ‘thandai’ or bhang is also consumed sometimes, which actually contains small amounts of marijuana(Cannabis sativa). People invite each other to their houses for feasts and celebrations later in the evening. Rangapanchami occurs a few days later on a Panchami (fifth day of the full moon), marking the end of festivities involving colours.

In Hindu mythology, Hiranyakashipu was the king of demons, and he had been granted a boon by Brahma, which made it almost impossible for him to be killed. The boon was due to his long penance, after which he had demanded that he not be killed “during day or night; inside the home or outside; not on earth or on sky; neither by a man nor an animal; neither by astra nor by shastra”. Consequently, he grew arrogant, and attacked the Heavens and the Earth. He demanded that people stop worshipping gods and start praying to him. But his own son, Prahlad, was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. In spite of several threats from Hiranyakashipu, Prahlad continued offering prayers to Lord Vishnu.

He was poisoned but the poison turned to nectar in his mouth. He was ordered to be trampled by elephants yet remained unharmed. He was put in a room with hungry, poisonous snakes and survived. All of Hiranyakashipu’s attempts to kill his son failed. Finally, he ordered young Prahlad to sit on a pyre on the lap of his sister, Holika, who could not die by fire by virtue of a shawl which would prevent fire affecting the person wearing it. Prahlad readily accepted his father’s orders, and prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as the shawl flew from Holika, who then was burnt to death, while Prahlad survived unharmed, after the shawl moved to cover him. The burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi. It is also said that later Lord Vishnu came in the form of a Narasimha (who is half-man and half-lion) and killed Hiranyakashipu at dusk (which was neither day nor night), on the steps of the porch of his house (which was neither inside the house nor outside) by restraining him on his lap (which is neither in the sky nor on the earth) and mauling him with his claws (which are neither astra nor shastra).

In Vrindavan and Mathura, where Lord Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated for 16 days (until Rangpanchmi in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna). Lord Krishna is believed to have popularized the festival by playing pranks on the gopis here. Krishna is believed to be complained about his dark colour and Radha’s fair colour to his mother and so decided to apply colour to her face. The celebrations officially usher in spring, the celebrated season of love.

There is another story about the origin of holi. The Kamadeva is God of love. Kama’s body was destroyed when he shot his weapon at Shiva in order to disrupt his penance and help Parvati to marry Shiva. Shiva then opened his third eye, the gaze of which was so powerful that Kama’s body was reduced to ashes. For the sake of Kama’s wife Rati (passion), Shiva restored him, but only as a mental image, representing the true emotional and mental state of love rather than physical lust. The Holi bonfire is believed to be celebrated in commeration of this event.

The Holi Festival looks like a tradition I want to import to grey Germany - although this chap doesn’t look too happy.

Get an even bigger color rush with a big Holi image pool on Flickr.

Forget intelligent design - the Beauty of our Universe is the only real proof for a higher being. God created this amazing universe with all it’s glory - and once he was finished he wanted to share it’s beauty with others. That is why he created intelligent life that understood and appreciated the beauty of creation.

It is amazing that making money from willing believers is still so easy in the 21st century. Religion and fraud always made a great combination - doesn’t matter if it was done by the Holy Mother Church, some Indian pseudo guru or modern day tele-evangelist. The religion itself doesn’t matter - the attitude and willingness to milk your fellow believers does.

More disturbing than anything is that so called true believers are so easily cheated out of their money. Just tell them something they want to hear and swear that God sent you - and they open their wallets. The desire of some people to want to believe can be used and abused for almost anything - spending money on jets, hookers or drugs is the least of this chain of problems. I don’t mind people wasting money for such things - instead of bullets and bombs to kill infidels or exerts political influence.

Rob Hubbard was correct: “If you want to make a little money, write a book. If you want to make a lot of money, create a religion.”

Until the great Iconoclasm triggered by Martin Luther - Christian art was to believed to have divine powers - reflecting those depicted. So praying or touching a Madonna statue or altar piece was not just worship - but a physical connection and portal to higher plane. Many pieces of art were meant to have miracle powers.

That is why many processions literally tried to carry the holy person depicted all around town - to bring the saints blessing to every person and house.

Before many artworks of old Masters became JUST great pieces of art they often were important religious objects. It took the bloody days of the reformation and destruction of huge amounts of church art to get religion and idol worshipping ‘out’ of art.

After the Renaissance and the Reformist Iconoclasm there was a huge change in art: the topics, attitudes and perspective of European Art changed completely. And instead of mostly the Holy Mother Church and the feudal class normal (rich) citizens, and companies commissioned artwork.

Still remember how this song drove me mad on the dance floor. Now only 10+ year later I saw the video for the very first time. Enjoy!

What a wonderful movie: quiet, challenging, personal and thoughtful. You hardly see any movie about a spiritual lifestyle today. It’s actually based on a true story.

Since good old Ratzinger is still with us I expect another year of human chaos and madness - the Rapture is still NOT upon us.

Enjoy your sinful life’s!

Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens sat down and had a nice chat about Atheism, Science and Religion. Certainly a great crowd pleaser for the anti-religious faction.

First hour of the discussion:

Second hour of the discussion:

Please make sure to read the details and background about this little chat here. They are selling the discussion also on DVD to get some funds for the protection of Ayaan Hirsi Ali - who is still threatened my religious fanatics.

Thanks to Edosan for this one.

It’s never too early to prepare for the next christanized consumer festival to celebrate yet another pagan event …

The second part of this great documentary goes back to the great religions and philosophers of India. It shows that the idea of free, spiritual and humanitarian societies is almost as old as humanity itself. We were not all about war, domination and ignorance.

The human spirit was ALSO always about making this a better place for all. Enjoy!

Here is a great description of this painting taken from Euroweb.hu:

Bruegel painted this picture when he was still living in Antwerp and supplying drawings to the engraver Hieronymus Cock. Turning his back on the then-dominant Italian models, he plunges into the then old-fashioned tradition of Hieronymus Bosch’s world. An apparently inextricable mixture of persons and shapes offers itself to our bewildered gaze. Emerging from distant depths in a halo of light, monsters are thrown to earth as from a breaking wave. Angels combat them, led by St Michael, thin as a rake in his golden armour, striking with his sword at the dragon with the seven crowned heads on which he has his foothold.

The combat of the archangel with the fallen angels is described in the Book of Revelation (12, 3-9) and was frequently illustrated from the Middle Ages onwards. In Bruegel’s rendering, the violence is expressed not in the bitter nature of the battle - indeed St Michael and his sparse troops do not appear particularly threatened by the demons - but by the intensity of the fall - infernal and endless - of this crawling, hideous multitude that invades the entire surface of the picture, in a remarkable unity of action which increases its impact. By borrowing minutiously observed elements from the plant, animal, mineral and human worlds and combining them to form hybrid, deformed beings, Bruegel invents creatures that are the most repulsive, but also the most curious and fantastic imaginable. Mussel shells grafted onto a gigantic shrimp, a human head with butterfly wings attached to a shapeless, bloated body, a puffy gnome carrying a sundial and with a plumed helmet on his head, viscous fish with arms, lizard scales, crustacean paws… a seemingly endless list. Within the "mêlée", every element is differentiated by the scrupulous rendering of the textures. With their long, refined silhouettes, St Michael’s allies, elegantly garbed in delicate, luminously coloured albs, are automatically on the side of the Good, in a state of grace that enables them to dominate effortlessly the monstrous hordes, moving around in a clear and azure sky which is in profound contrast with the darkness reserved for the rebels.

Bruegel reveals himself here to be a marvellous colourist, dexterously distributing accents of red, green, blue and white and alternating the dark browns and lighter beige ochres with brio.

Too bad I only have such a small copy of this great painting. For years now I have been looking for a better image to zoom into details. No luck so far. Someone out there who has a larger and better file?

Distrust any religious establishment that doesn’t enjoy the ultimate power of the universe and life: to have sex and procreate.

Unless you fuck yourself how can you explain and share the creative God’s blessings of sexuality? Life = Sex = Universe … and therefore must be godly …

Bouguereau painted many biblical, pagan and really trivial moments in his life. Most biblical paintings pick a well known or popular scene to play to the audience or the rich patron.

In this case Bouguereau has chosen a very unusual situation: Adam and Eve mourn the death of Abel - who was famously slain by his Brother Cain. Abel was the first human to die - and also the first one to by slain by his own kin and kind. And he is also considered the first Martyr.

What a great start for humanity after being exiled from Paradise.

Death scenes make great drama and many painters really go for christian kitsch and symbolism (especially in biblical scenes). Bouguereau keeps it very simple and very human.

The painting has also a very personal meaning: Bouguereau painted it after the death of his second son.

More? Adolphe-William Bouguereau @ ArtRenewal.org and Wikipedia

Dedicated to Lisa and lucecorner - who both asked for more paintings with music. Bitteschön!

Today we celebrate Nikolaus here in Germany - we don’t have Father Christmas on the 24th (we rather say the Christchild is coming on that day). Here is an excellent website about the different Santa Claus traditions all over the world …

Why isn’t there a Saint for Chocolate? I think the Holy Mother Church would win back many modern people by providing relevant Saints for Shoppers and Lifestyle choices: Saint Fitness, Saint Porn, Saint Walmart, Saint Windows, Saint Latte …

Plus every business has to print the Saint on the related product - complete with URL and PayPal account for donation.

Once again the somewhere a Muslim mob goes bonkers and wants to kill someone for an insult. Once again the West shakes it’s head and tries to understand all the madness about a Teddy Bear named Mohammed. Once again we secular people try to reassure ourselves that only a few radical Muslims are willing to kill poor Gillian Gibbons. Once again the secular people in the West fail to understand that Religion can’t be tolerated, because it will always breed idiocy and violence.

Highly recommended: read some of the comments on the BBC website regarding the current situation with Ms Gibbons and Sudan. Plus: learn how governments once again play the religious card to make petty politics.

No matter how old, traditional and pompous your ceremony is, enlightenment and any higher spirits won’t drop down on you automatically.

Usually it has quite the opposite effect: having received some spiritual recognition via ceremony is often like a blank cheque for ignorance. Why bother - I already got my holy approval.

And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him.
And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.

And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also.

Genesis 38: 7-10 (KJV)

I find it very disturbing how simple and often primitive people imagine heaven and hell. I think any eternal being would know something better …

The lack of imagination of eternal bliss sounds more like hell to me.

Since religious zealots are so en vogue these days here is a reminder of a good old tradition: stoning. A cruel punishment for the eager masses to participate. Since more and more people are calling for tougher punishments for all sort of crimes and even anti-social behavior they should remember WHY we developed a more human system of imprisonment and punishment in the west.

A legal system that is not based on religious rules, nor morals based on any Gods. And the notion was to regard criminals still as fellow citizens - and not as ‘bad apples’ that had to be destroyed or locked away forever.

I think the mob should do the dirty work themselves and have the images burned into their souls - so they never forget.

First dig a whole for your victim.

Call some friends, find some stones - and let’s begin …

It should be said, that stoning is a slow process - it takes some serious battering to kill someone - and watch their agony.

Stoning is still used in some countries.

More? video of an actual modern stoning (not recommended as family entertainment)