Therapy

...By the sword in my hand
I will conquer the land...(Tyr)

Its been too long, again. Seems like I can't keep this going everyday. I really need to do that, it feels therapeutic.

I talked to my best friend Mike last night. It felt really good. I feel out of sorts in this state with all its religiosity and ignorance, not to say my state is any better, it's just that back home I am use to talking with really smart people. My family is smart, my brother might be the smartest guy I know, my dad didn't go to college but his mind is sharp and he can follow what kev and I talk about and my mom is smart too.

A great example of the diffference is like how one time about a week ago Gammy asked why the corn on the cob she bought is so sweet, she didn't remember it being that sweet years ago. I knew the answer--oh that reminds me I don't think I am that smart myself, I just remeber smart things, in this case my bro and Mike talked about this and I commited it to memory--And I told her that a few years ago agricultural scientists modified the genes of corn to develope a third sweetness gene, making corn sweeter.

I might as have been talking about seamonsters. Nobody at the table believed me. So I asked them if they thought the corn they have now is the same the Aztecs used 3000 years ago. They said sure, why not. I had to explain to them corn or Maize was originally a grass that prehistoric people of MesoAmerica cultivated some 12,000 years ago. Through years of selective breeding they developed a plant that had larger and tastier parts until gene modification technology was created to change individual genes in a plant, rather than the all new genes you get from cross breeding. It doesn't matter. What ever, they didn't know and thought I was making it up. Back home they know that, and if they didn't they'd believe me and mike and my bro would back me up. I guess I'm not accustomed to people not believing me. I didn't know that about myself, as though I need the social acceptance. Why is that? I just need to be the smart guy I guess. But I usually don't like to be the smart guy.

I went to church yesterday with Loo. We have an arrangement, I go with her so she doesn't go alone and I hold the book, the singing book, whatever it is called. All I have to do is show up and hold the book, no more. There were times she wanted to go to church functions or 'help the homeless,' which meant evangelizing to them, rather than helping them. And she said I should help the people. I said trying to guilt them into joining the church is not help. I think help should be given without strings. If you want to help the homeless find a shelter that isn't owned by a church and volunteer to feed people. But see, nobody wants to do that because they wont get credit for it. People want credit for doing something good. I think doing something good is the reward and I don't want credit, at least not the ostentatious credit people seem to need. They get there name on a list that goes in the paper with letters from homeless people thanking people by name. Meanwhile the homeless stay in the shelter.

What am I talking about? I guess its pretty random, pero asi es la vida.

My brain jumps around randomly, or at seeming randomness.

Did you know there isn't a shred of evidence for the Jewish Exodus out of Egypt? 400,000 slaves wandered the desert for 40 years and didn't leave a trace of any evidence they were ever there. Israeli archeologists have had to admit as much, which was poorly publicized. If it were known by the majority of people that there is no evidence for an important biblical story such as Exodus it might force them to confront the reality that there wasn't a Jewish exodus, that the whole story was fabricated.

Why?

That's the question I want to know, although I can hazard a guess from my understanding of ancient history. Jerusalem was ruled by a pathetic group of people that repeatedly lost many wars against powerful enemies, namely against Sargon of Akkad. Babylon, Sumeria, Nubia and Egypt knew about each other--and traded often-- as well as the "violent death cult to the north" (Jerusalem). IT is quite possible that because Jerusalem failed to have an empire, or any amount of success it resented those other kingdoms that didn't fail. Perhaps that would explain how the biblical account of ancient history has little to do with actual ancient history as we know it today. Perhaps that explains why the bible talks of destroying Babylon, Sumeria, Egypt and Nubia through plagues, prophets and the like. Whereas the reality is much different and those places are still here, meaning they couldn't have been destroyed.

I can see it now, see them sitting down fabricating stories of victory in war, and the oral tradition passing that on until the battles become wars, tribes become empires and Jerusalem, with the creator of the universe on their side, beats everyone with his magical powers.

I can't believe people still believe that story. It seems an obvious farce.

Sam Harris said, "An atheist is no more than someone who has listened to the claims of religion, read the Bible and found the claim ridiculous."