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So I’ve been running into some bad luck here lately.

My site has been hacked twice in the last week and a half.  So I’ve had to go through and fix the posts that they have replaced and reset my settings, which makes it look like my old posts are new.  Quite annoying.  Hopefully I’ve figured out how to keep them from doing that again.  If not, I’ll persist.

Yesterday I was writing a post and was most the way thorugh it when a small surge hit the house turning off the power for a second.  I lost everything, which confused me because Worpress used to autosave every few minutes before 2.6.  Hmm, maybe it’s a setting I have to find now.  Maybe people complained about it for some reason.

A lesser person may think that a blog like this is being “told” something.

It’s just a little bad luck.  We all must endure some bad luck on occasion.  That’s how life works.

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My boss doesn’t read.  Well, he never did before and has expressed his dislike for reading many times.

We have some downtime during the days often and I have been reading various books.  Both fiction and non-fiction.  Whatever gets me through the day.  He generally sits in his office and plays Tetris on his cell phone.  Sometimes I solve Sudoku puzzles.  It’s a great atmosphere.  Sometimes he reads the news and we discuss what’s going on in the world, but those moments are short and rare- the way they should be.

I took a week off and when I came back, my boss was reading.

There it was.  The neat pages with the gold edges.  And it was leather bound too.

My boss had the Bible open right on his desk and has the entire week.  He spent the entire week studying it as if he were seeking something great.

He asks me what I’m reading.  I started a book Tuesday that I finished Thursday; reading it only during work hours.  I tell him Tuesday that so far the main character is posing as a suicide line worker and all he does is tell people to kill themselves.

What a good, strange book that was.  He asked me again the next day and I didn’t want to tell him more.  It was about a man who grew up in a church cult so he didn’t quite get society and socialized norms.  He later became a media-made messiah.  His friend sees the future.  The cult killed themselves.  They were phony.  The author writes in short sentences this way.  He bounces back and forth through ideas.  He doesn’t use quotes often.  The book was good.

My boss never mentions his Bible.  He never tells me anything.  Other than that he goes to church and teaches Sunday school so his Sunday mornings are booked, he doesn’t mention anything about his religion.  That is good.

He plays on his church softball team.  They suck.

He played on my heathen softball team.  We won the league.

I’ve also worked through some Dawkins for something to read.  That’s called preaching to the choir so I have a hard time reading it.  I’d probably read the Bible easier.  I’ve also spent some time this last month reading Palast, Chomsky, and Hartmann.  I don’t think my boss knows who any of those people are.

There we are, though, the good and evil of our civilization in one office.  He’s reading all the proof and arguments that he needs to understand that his god exists and to refute any point that an atheist like me could make.  I’m reading all the proof I need that there is no god and gathering quotable information to refute any arguments a Christian, Muslim, or Jew may make.

There is no HR for 1,000 miles.  Although, a phone call could make it feel as if HR is real close.

I wonder if my boss got in trouble.  If his newly wed wife got mad at him for something.  If he’s trying to find the arguments to make a point to her or show that he’s a better person today than he was a week ago?

He doesn’t read!  The Bible is very tough to read.  Maybe he has a slang version?  A leather-bound, golden page edged, slang version.

I don’t think the Bible is appropriate for workplace atmosphere.  I will never complain.  I’m unoffendable.

I’m amazed at just how many people have had their Bibles open on their desks at work over the years.  How many people think that it’s appropriate to read their religious texts in plain view of the world.  I guess that their belief system suggests they do.  It allows them to create a clique of Bible readers.

I often wonder why they don’t read something else.  Why it is that they not only have to spend all their free time reading this text, but they squeeze it in any chance they can.

I feel like telling them that I know how it ends.

Spoiler alert…

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I think my friend just likes to get me worked up on occasion. She sent me this e-mail yesterday even though she knows better. I will post it in pieces.

Death is certain but the Bible speaks about untimely death !
Make a personal reflection about this very interesting, read until the end…it is written in the Bible ( Galatians 6:7 ): ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.= Here are some men and women who mocked God :

So I will consider this 40 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed. Untimely death is what King suffered, so I wonder when he did his mocking? Here are some examples.

* John Lennon * * ( Singer ): *
Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said:
‘Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain.
Jesus was OK, but his subjects were too simple, today we are More famous than Him’ (1966).
—Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot
six times.

I love that this is the first one. An icon of the 60’s and 70’s, Lennon was shot by a fan in 1980 (14 years after the comment). Besides, John Lennon also said this not too much later.

I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I’m sorry I opened my mouth. I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn’t knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it’s true more for England than here. I’m not saying that we’re better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it’s all this.

News conference in Chicago, where he apologized for the above statement, which was accepted by the Vatican. (11 August 1966)

So much for forgiveness. The Vatican accepted his apology, but the fundamentalists won’t?  And why did it take so long to find a crazy fan to take care of the dirty work?  The fact is that a person need not agree with Lennon to know he was a peaceful man.

How about a few more examples of their god’s anger and spite?  Including a person that had to be identified as not just a composer, singer, and poet, but as a bi-sexual composer, singer, and poet.  Oh, well death was necessary in that case.

*Cazuza ** (Bi - sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet): *
During a show in Canecio ( Rio de Janeiro ), While smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said: ‘God, that’s for you.’
—He died at the age of 32 of AIDS in a horrible manner.

* * The man who built the Titanic * *
After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how Safe the Titanic would be.
With an ironic tone he said: ‘Not even God can sink it!’
—The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic!

* Marilyn Monroe * (Actress) *
She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a Show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said:
‘I don’t need your Jesus ‘.
—A week later, she was found dead in her apartment

* * Bon Scott * * ( Singer ) *
The ex - vocalist of the the group AC / DC. On one of his 1979 songs he Sang: ‘ Don’t stop me, I’m going down all the way, down the highway To hell ‘.
—On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he Had been choked by his own vomit.

Oh, those bad, bad people.  I wonder if anybody dies who does not mock their god?  I wonder if anybody has untimely death for no reason at all?  Innocent people who die from causes outside of their control like a virus or by being at the wrong place at the wrong time or simply as a hazard of being alive.

Every time I see one of those signs that says don’t drink and drive- in memory of… that represents an untimely death.  Every casualty of war represents an untimely death.  Every single time a natural disaster hits some place the death toll represents a whole lot of untimely deaths.  Were they all non-believers?

That’s OK.  The e-mail had a purpose.  Shouldn’t it?  The e-mail shouldn’t be just to scare us, now should it?  No, it’s to encourage us.

Many more important people have forgotten that there is no Other name that was given so much authority as the name of Jesus.

Many have died, but only Jesus died and rose again, and he Is still alive .

* ‘ Jesus ‘ *

Jesus said ‘ If you are embarrassed about me, I will also be embarrassed about you
before my father. ‘

I’M TOLD THIS WORKS !!!!!

Just repeat this prayer and see how God moves !!

‘ Lord, I love you and I need you, come into my heart, and Bless me, my family, my home, and my friends, in Jesus’ name.

Amen.’

Oh.  So it’s about saying a prayer.  And I missed the mark.  I was referencing mostly non-famous people.  Their lives are the only ones that matter when a point is being made; not everyday Joe.  Well then.  I already referenced Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now, unless cheating on your wife is punishable by death somehow, there was the case of John F. Kennedy.  He was Catholic.  I’m sure I’ve seen pictures of him being a good Christian at some point.

The 90-year-old founder of the French-based Taize Christian ecumenical community has been stabbed to death at a prayer service.

That guy got it during prayer!  Holy smokes.

Another quick search brings up Pope John Paul I who lasted in office only 33 days.  Untimely death would be the guy who becomes pope but doesn’t get to do anything with it.

I am going to be late for work if I don’t stop writing.  The fact is that people die.  So the original author of the e-mail found some examples that “proved” a point.  I disagree.  I think if we search hard enough we can find enough examples to prove any point.

Why should you pray?  Because you’ll die a horrible and early death if you don’t.

I know I missed many more examples.  If you have some, please leave them.

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