July 5, 2002
Edited: December 30, 2008

Why all these topics?

Eventually, I hope this site is of interest to different kinds of readers. But in particular, I hope it’s of interest to those readers like me who are inclined to give up their mind and identity as a way of finding the truth to basic questions about the world. I hope to encourage such readers not to make that mistake or to somehow free themselves someday if they have already made it. It’s these types of serious and sometimes disturbing questions about life and the world that I want to talk about. And I hope to show it is possible to approach these things as an individual with a free mind, and to hold on to real values and valid ideas, without being intimidated by contrary views that seem to be more popular.

In other words, don’t join a cult because the world seems so wrong !   Of course “the world” is wrong, and the world has always been a mess – because so many hand over responsibility for their thinking and their lives to political and religious tyrannies.

For example, abortion was a disturbing issue to me when I was young, and it still is. And it was one of these subjects that made me think the world was all bad, and that I had to follow “the true Church”.  But I did not find more clarity about this subject in religion or in the Bible.  Morality – principles – right and wrong – these things are independent of the Bible and “divine revelation”.

One reason for independent moral judgment is to protect yourself and make judgments about “authorities” that want to control you and ruin your life.  Another subject that needs to be discussed is the fact that the Bible itself is seriously flawed.  When the Bible started to fall apart for me, that was the last stage in my becoming free of the controlling fears of hell and end-time prophecy, and all the wasted energy spent on doubts, contradictions and undeserved guilt.

As a teenager, the cult leader’s message sounded so compelling, because the culture I lived in seemed to do all it could to neutralize my values.  But I should have found out more facts about this particular expert on value neutralizing before I joined his church.

The cult leader sings a song like this:  “The world is so full of evil now because people aren’t obeying prophets like me as they did in the good old days.”  Well, people have never stopped following dictators like him, and dictatorial ideologies, which better explains why the world is full of evil, and always has been.  What “good old days”?