ASHES TO ASHES

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Live if you will, die if you must
Who knows what will happen, when we bust ?
Will everything that is of us, rust ?
Or will our breath, catch a gust ?
And whip us up, into angelic delight ?
To sip, of ambrosia nectar ?
And listen to Jesus strum, on his Sitar ?


Parody on psalm 23

Love is my guiding star

Not old fables quite bizarre

Science & technology are my friend

They are things on which I can depend

Religious fraud leads in a crooked path

makes you cling to nonsense about which the educated laugh

Even though I walk in a world of dangers

microscopes and telescopes have dispelled some peculiar strangers

Scriptural bunk gave me a stinking sore head

But reason was paracetamol that makes me glad I'm not dead

Some say if there is no heaven or hell 

then things for Hitler would work out well

But would you approve if Hitler wanted to make his camps eternal ?

I think such a decision would be infernal

Don't overrate iron age peasants Jesus & Mo

There knowledge was far less than their rampant ego

Jesus sat by his fire predicting the end

With stars falling to Earth when the heavens did end

But we 21st centurians surely know

Stars are massive and distant so that story won't go

Just like the sign of Hezekiah is  a lie complete

As our planet can't reverse to make the shadow retreat

Nor can our days lengthen: Joshua's tale is a fib

And evolution is true so woman didn't come from a rib

It's viruses and bacteria which are a main threat

Microorganisms evolving might beat their nemesis yet.

But the gods are a fiction, a failed hypothesis we made

And realizing the reasons to think this lets me rest in a sunny glade.

A WILDLY (improbable) IMAGINARY HELL

Do some infernal priests say,  I’ll be tormented when I die ?
Will fish hooks tear my eye ?
Will crocodiles  chew  my thigh ?
and ravenous rats savour stomach pie?
Will Piranhas be feasting upon my toes ?
Will Monstrous Triassic  ichneumon, be adding to my woes ?
Will a conga eel, devour my willy ?
I think they’re talking, very silly
When my body’s disappeared, how will I experience that ?
Or will I somehow get, an indestructible body back ?
Do I tread above, a pit of liens
Well The End of Christianity, will devour those lines
You think I’m poised above, a wretched pit
And I must do something, to avoid falling into it
You think I’ll be roasted, on a spit ?
Or perpetually drawn & quartered, unless my resistance, quit
Or in keeping with Geneva convention
Just very lonely like in detention ?

If the ministers trident, has some points on which you are stuck
Then Loftus has great news; you’re in good luck
If the myth of hell has cast it’s spell, and chilled you to the bone
Then Prices books are like hearty soup, to put warmth back into home.
If your head feels like it has been caught, betwixt a rock and  stone
Then give the revy friendly Keith, Parsons a phone
Or enter into dry humour zone
With Christopher Hitchens, ‘ The portable atheist ‘; a weighty tome
If you thought you were walking the plank, above a fiery flame
Then Loftus’ writings will slam, the damper on the same
If your life was being driven, ass by an electric cattle prodder
He’ll take the batteries out, so you can become a plodder
And enjoy a humorous Yule
Instead of stampeding like a crazy mule

Jesus hands were kind hands, that's what I was told But on analyzing the stories I wonder if they were miss sold Ever since I accepted the party line, I'd been feeling kinda low But now I feel muchl happier to realize it is not so Have we been given a rock and told it was a fish ? I nearly broke my teeth on that old rotten pish They set the default position for everyone to go to hell but i'm not ashamed to say that doesn't sit with me too well On the contrary i think a loving god would take us all to a life divine So I hope that whether it is extinction or party, things will work out fine For Jesus to be a hero he'd need to have cancelled hell but to have won the victory yet continued the suffering really doesn't sell What if these stories are mostly fictions, a lot of make believe what is they've used old myths a newer tale to weave What if you've been worrying about stuff that really isn't real Well then you can laugh about it and not longer in such things deal.

WE WISH YOU A MERRY XMAS

We wish you a merry Xmas [repeat 3 times ]
,And a godless (god free) new year
 Good tidings we bring, to you and your king,
 If there is a good God, then we’ll all go to heaven,
 Yes , if there is a good god; then we’ll all go to heaven,
 Or if there is a good god; we might cease to exist.
 Yes if there is a heaven, we’ll all be there,
 But if there is not one, then we will be nowhere,
 But it won’t be the Bible god or the Koran god ,
 It won’t be the Torah god, that I find there

A Sarcaustic prayer. Come let us follow the example that Matthew 5v44 claims that Jesus taught; for us to extend the love of God to those who have acted as enemies to us & pray for them. Our Father who art in hiding, non existent are your works ( at least in recent millennium ) God of inaction & indifference We pray for those who have acted against our interests, as Christ allegedly taught, perhaps with a wry smile on his face ? We pray that you might extend to them your non interventionist policy that we witness 99.999% of the time in the lives of those whom we hold dear. Since this is clearly your will almost all the time & since it is claimed you will never learn or change we pray with great confidence, believing that it is odds on that you will let those who have done acts of extreme anti social, disrespectful behaviour succumb to whatever cancers and disease befalls them. We thank you for the promise that whatever we ask for as long as it is your will will be granted. Though observation of history also shows that those guilty of the cruelest tyranny have often escaped the life shortening illnesses which afflicted the most caring. In any case we pray that you would extend the level of care you bestow on us to our enemies too i.e sweet F' all and multiply the blessings abundantly that you showered us with and pour them on those who persecute us too - as it will still be as naught. We pray that they may not receive help, just as our nearest and dearest also did not receive help. That you might treat these others as you wished your own (possibly chosen ones) to be treated i.e adandoned to the ravages of natural selection God we specifically remember Billy who has spent much of his past few years bullying people, generally acting in a thuggish way and driving like a maniac. In this, his difficult time, now paralyzed from the waist down after the car crash, we thank you that his ability to carry out anti social acts has been much curtailed. We pray that a miraculous healing for him might be as likely as it was for all the other folk in times before modern medicine i.e vanishingly slight. But that never the less he might be held, blessed as we are as a child of your care, every day in the thrall of unanswered prayer, ever looking but never receiving a positive answer. We pray too for Nigel who is in prison for rape & grievous bodily harm. As we sit here shivering in our cold church hall we remember him in his centrally heated cell with it's constant 70 Fahrenheit air temp, with en suite bathroom , sky tv and PS4 game station, clean water and three square meals a day. God help us not to think it is funny that he has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. We don't know or understand why this didn't happen before he carried out the attacks nor why you are not more consistent in allowing this fate to befall those who have acted in this way but we pray that as with nearly all cancer, that you would let it run its course & that no one would be weak minded enough to fund the thousands of $$$$ worth of chemo therapy it would take to give him a chance. As this seems to have been your will in recent times all we ask is that you might carry on in your unchanging ways at least to those who have caused us grief and unhappiness.

ANCIENT PEOPLE THOUGHT BREATH = SPIRIT

Try reading the ancient Egyptian papyrus of Ani 1500BCE. Those people thought their breath was their spirit. See Ecclesiastes 3v19 Mans fate is the same as the animals, all have the same breath / spirit, John 20v22 Jesus breathed on his disciples and said 'Receive the holy spirit', Job 37v10 The breath of God produces ice.  Interesting to look at Acts 2v2 talking of arrival of Holy Spirit- "Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the house" Anyway  where is heaven? Where did the wind come from. Up in the sky? How could you know where it came from?  Look at on-line Bible Biblos.com Gen 1v2 the Hebrew word for 'Spirit of God' is the same as 'wind'. Bible was written in pre-scientific culture where people guessed at basic things. They thought spirit / breath forced into you to make you alive.

 Try  Biblos Gen 1v2 & look at index for Hebrew of Spirit of God. Same word used in Psalm 51v11 'take not your Holy Spirit' from me  just means don't take life giving breath away or I will die. See John19v30 "Jesus bowed head and gave up his spirit" = breathed his last?
Well if you go to Biblos and look at Acts 7v59 where Stephen says "Jesus receive my spirit (pneuma)"= breathed his last fits well, then look through other references of pneuma. In Rev 11v11 there is a story where many people are struck down dead then v11 But after 3.5 days a BREATH OF LIFE (pneuma) from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them "come up here" [Richard Branson?] & they went up to heaven in a cloud [Spaceship One ?]. The End is nigh?

Also 1 Corinthians 14v14 For if I pray in a tongue my spirit (pneuma) prays  but my mind is unfruitful. V15 So what will I do?  I will pray with my spirit (pneuma), but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit but I will also sing with my mind
John 3v8 The Wind (pneuma) blows wherever it pleases.

Ezekiel 37v5 The sovereign lord says to these dry bones: I will make breath (this word can mean wind or spirit) enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. V9 come from the 4 winds, o breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded and breath entered them; they came to life v14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.

MATERIAL GIRL OR FANTASY MAN ?

We wish you a merry Xmas,
We wish you a merry Xmas
We wish you a merry Xmas
And a godless New Year
[ alternatives- And a freethinking New Year / And a god free New Year ]
Good tidings we bring , to you and your kin
The future is bright , so be of good cheer.
If there's a heaven, we'll all be there
And if there's a good God, we'll all be there
But probably, there is no supernatural realm
So we'll go no where.
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Madonna , ' Material girl ' [parody , as sung by a believer in orthodoxy ]
People try to tell me reasons, why ,what I believe ain't true
But my minister, and his flock, tell me not, to listen, to you
You try to tell me reasons why what I believe ain't true
But my fearful thoughts and apologetics won't allow me to listen to you
Cause, I live in a fantasy land, and I worship a fantasy man
Yeh, I live in a fantasy world, which is why I call myself, Christian
[ However maybe many who call themself Christian do have strong belief in the idea of being loving & caring & the good samaritan. But maybe when it comes to reality it is more about being careful, doing your job well. Being good for goodness sake or just helping others cause it makes you feel good, or as a return favour or to gain their favour]

John Loftus shows me many bits, where what the Bible says ain't true
But fearfulness like paranoia hinders me listening to him
So I'm stuck in a fantasy world and I worship a cosmic tyrant
Yeh I'm stuck in the Bibleverse suffering from stockholms syndrome.

I CLOSED MY EYES DREW BACK THE CURTAIN

Andrew Lloyd Weber, "Any dream will do" from Joseph & amazing dreamcoat

I closed my eyes, whaaahh, Drew back the curtains, aaaarghh
To see for certain, whaahhh, what I thought I knew
But fears like paranoia, stops me from perceiving aaaahhh
Any different ideas aaahhh, only one nightmare / dream will do
I thought I must believe, what I'd been told to think
Or else I'd disappear, down the hole of a sink
Yes I thought I needed to hold the absolute correct doctrine
or I'd be damned for not believing fantasy ,fiction

One of the best bits in the Bible says:
Romans 12v17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay" etc - quote from Deuteronomy 32v35, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."

So why didn't the God of the Israelites give a commandment 6b If there is any terminating needing done I the Almighty, all powerful god will do it all by myself and I don't need henchmen, I don't want people to pick up weapons against each other ever. I am perfectly capable of supernaturally teleporting people up to my judgment seat when they are about to commit serious crime. Or maybe I will just speak personally to each person to reason with them and convince them to behave in a civilized manner.

The Bible gives examples of what you would expect if there was a real god doing real stuff e.g Acts 5v1-11 has Ananias & Sapphira drop dead, Acts 10v11 has the Lord hurl hailstones on the Amorites.

Why didn't the Levites in Exodus 32v27 refuse to slay those who were undecided about "following" God , saying to Moses, "Well you just gave us commandment no. 6, Do not murder, so we are afraid you got your orders mixed up and we might break that commandment. Also if God shows himself reliably to be of real benefit then i'm sure everyone will be queuing up for stuff and being really grateful soon enough"

Note Exodus 32v35 has the Lord striking with plague those responsible for making the golden calf. Though it could have just been a coincidence and no one in the Bible understood microbiology or gave understanding as to how to make antibiotics or how they work. So anyway why didn't Moses just say that the protection of the Lord would be removed from those who made the golden calf and they would get plague, instead of telling the Levites to attack their fellow Israelites? Also it is odd that Exodus 2v12 has Moses so concerned for the life of the Israelites but in Exodus 32 he acts just as badly as the slave drivers he criticised. Why didn't Moses just try to reason with the slave driver or his superiors to get better treatment of the Israelites ? Why didn't he warn of a supernatural punishment by god rather than pick up a weapon himself?

CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN

From  ' The Sound of music '  [how come Maria doesn't make skeptic observations of the Bible. How come she doesn't say, " I'm leaving the convent because i've been reading Robert Ingersoll & Thomas Paine & Democritus and I've realised that the orthodox image of God is not truly loving or godly or good but rather tyrannical. In any case I think that Charles Darwins theory of evolution rather disproves the Bible idea of creation & original sin and therefore it becomes obvious that the Bible is mostly mythical and probably based on astrology and previous primitive religions & god delusions. So bye I'm off to study science & reason not proto thought"]
Climb every mountain
Read high and low
Read the books of Robert Ingersoll
Then you will be free

Climb mount Improbable
Ford every stream
Read the books of Richard Dawkins
Then you’ll find your dream

If you want to be loving, then conclude that hell is myth
That doctrine is damnable, a good god wouldn't do it

Climb every mountain
Be sceptical of old writ
It contains ideas, barbaric
You can think better than it

Don’t believe the Bible
Its mostly faction
Only pick out the good bits
Like the golden rule

A loving God wouldn’t do hades, he’d take everyone to heaven
But probably there are no gods, so why worry about them

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Dawkins brings the extra dimension to the debate about religion. By proposing the model, " There is no cosmic God " he gives 3 D vision to analysis of religion.
           Have you seen the 3D film version of " Life of Pi "? If you watch it without glasses it just looks blurred. This could be an analogy to what the Bible looks like if you thought it was inspired by a God but with Dawkins' 3D specks,       " We evolved by natural selection, the Bible is 100% human guesswork, 0% divine inspiration ",  then the data fits into place without a whole load of excuses.
           In the Life of Pi you could maybe see the tiger as Abrahamic religions. Your father tells you to fear it. It gets into your boat by accident, it can drive you crazy and you don't know whether to stay in the boat with it or to jump out. There comes a point when you try to get it out of your boat, maybe you do manage to exclude it,  but because you never  
found a different explanation for it , you let it back in again even though it eats up your life and makes it more difficult. As your thinking develops and you see different aspects of it you maybe begin to see it as a human / organic creation and learn to tame it.. Eventually it just becomes an irrelevance that leaves and is forgotten about.
           1 Kings 7v23 gives a value of Pi as 3 .  " He made a sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim.... It took a line of thirty cubits to measure round it . " A bit sloppy from the creator of the universe ? Was the universe fine tuned with Pi = 3 ? How come the film doesn't mention this ?
             The best line in the film is from Pi's father who says, " Science has done more for humanity in a few hundred years than religion did in 10,000 ". However the same man criticizes Pi for embracing 3 religions simultaneously whereas if anything i would say it was intelligent to know and compare what each said.
              Like Dawkins said ~ ' just because you hope something will be real doesn't make it true '. If you know the atheist position then it gives the freedom to dream and fantasize a little but still keep your feet grounded in reality. If you only have the indoctrinated black and white position of orthodoxy then you could be imprisoned by it. However if you took the view, " I'm going to live a decent life and go to heaven " , isn't that quite positive ? People go with the flow for an easier life if they're not too troubled by it.