Please forgive me for writing this article on Ascension Day – nowadays better known as “All Father’s Day”. I just experience, once again, how people have been traumatized because other persons (and their social systems) think they own the absolute “truth”. That hurts. Consequently, here I am again, trying to make a statement about virtues and vices. Even at the risk of talking beyond my own competence.

I doubt if such as thing as “the truth” even exists. We with the all the limits of our human existence only have certainties. They have nothing to do with the radical term “truth”.

Yet it is those certainties of ours we torture each other and ourselves only too often with. Consequently, I hope that the time for these truth claims will someday be a thing of the past. Just as I believe that words like guilt, morals or even revenge should become something we no longer need.

Unfortunately, it still happens that so-called truth is used for dogmatic purposes and then demanded of as many persons as possible, often using psychological force. And the subsequent moralizing makes us suffer and causes unhappiness and illness in many of us. That is bad!

The important virtues for a life lived with responsibility and social conscience are tolerance, ethical behaviour in the sense of humane decisions made according to shared and ethically responsible values, transparency and civil courage!

For instance, I believe humans basically wish to live autonomously and yet socially acceptable in communities. And that human happiness is nothing other than succeeding in making the opposing ends individuality and collectiveness meet in a healthy way. And the rest should be manageable autonomously with respect, ratio and common sense!

If we can do that, we will also re-discover our courage and joy in life.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

Ethics and enlightenment, too, are some kind of belief.

This sentence was something that really was hard to digest for me.
I used to believe that I am a non-believer. After all, I question everything and follow the principles of enlightenment and reason. I try to behave “ethically” – meaning that my decisions are based on a balance of values following a value system I myself worked out in a very responsible way. That would be a value system I consciously strived hard to achieve, having taken pains to finally arrive at a formula that is compatible with the world consensus which, for instance, can be found in the Golden Rule or in the UNO Charta. We are talking a value system where tolerance and civil courage are extremely important.

And then it dawned on me that this certainty of mine is also just a belief. It means that I, too, believe in something like the Christians, Jews and Muslims believe in a personalized God, or like other religions believe in their deities or just something higher in general. Or like the atheists happen to believe that there is no God. And they will probably soon come up with the foundation of a religion of their own. To be sure, this sounds logical, but then it seems to be a contradiction in itself.

Incidentally, I never asked myself the question whether or not there is a God. At least not as long as I can remember. Simply because I know I am not good at these kinds of topics. After all, it would mean that I know I know nothing.

Today, I would say: “I think I know nothing”. Well, I do not know anything and neither can I know anything… It all happens just between the ears. And how should I know if something we humans ourselves invented actually exists?

It is also part of my belief that there is no absolute truth. This is also because truth happens between the ears only. Besides the fact that “between the ears” is often a very chaotic place. As I see it, the head is capable of a lot of fantasy, but it is probably too small for reality. So how could the result be some absolute truth – if it was we ourselves who invented or felt everything?

Consequently, I now believe that all we think we know is just belief – some kind of religion. And the only hope that remains for me is that my own belief – in enlightenment and reason (which probably do not exist either, because they, too, are only our experience) – will be more help to me than the belief of others. Especially when they want to force their belief onto me (and others) – and threaten to punish us when and if we do not convert.

My second hope is that my belief in enlightenment, ethics and reason is probably a little more humane and ethical than all the varieties of believes you come across in this world.

However, I kissed the illusion that enlightenment, reason and ethics are absolute truths good-bye.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

P.S.
Well, this is one of those texts you can only write during a lonely train trip – in this case it was from Munich to Stuttgart.

Tonight, I woke up twice from the ringing of church bells. It was during the time frame that actually did not exist: between two and three in the morning. In Germany, this is possible, because it is Easter time and due to a very old tradition, you are permitted to make noises for everybody to hear in the middle of the night.

This morning, I browse through the internet and find in Google+ a citation published by Marcus Raitner which he found in the blog die ennomane:
“Freedom of faith is the freedom to even believe in absurdities. Freedom of opinion is the freedom to call precisely those things absurd. In this spirit: Happy Easter to You!”
There is nothing Marcus wants to add to this sentence and I, too, can only agree.

Here is the rest of the story:
In her blog, “die Ennomane” informed us about a sarcastically written text on the Christian Easter Cult. Said text had appeared on Good Friday in Der Postillon. It seems that the author was reprimanded for what she wrote in the article and felt she had to justify her words. This also led to a few comments. In my eyes, the comments were quite interesting, because they revealed a few patterns of thought that are typical for “believers”.

I copied some short phrases from the comments and will then relate my own ideas on those words I marked “bold”:

1. Antje Schrupp
   Comment by Antje Schruppp | March, 30, 2013 at 22:55:28
   I started associating the sarcastic, anti-religious jokes currently published all over the place with… a long time ago…
   …
   However, the manner in which it is exposed to ridicule adds up to being a mere power struggle, that is: to the question who will finally win against whom.    
Of course, being a Good Christian, I could decide to remain totally untouched and just turn the other cheek.    
With respect to the global perspectives, however, I dare to predict that “you” (that is: those who consider religion “gaga per se”) will be the losers in this power struggle. And that is something that gives me a little pause, because there actually are quite a few things about religions, especially their institutionalized forms, which badly need criticism and reform.
2. Enno
   Comment by Enno | March, 30, 2013 at 23:06:19
   …
   Hmm… well, threatening that we are going to be the losers in a global power struggle is really a great argument, isn’t it?
   …
3. Antje Schrupp
   Comment by Antje Schrupppp | March, 30, 2013 at 23:23:25
   You do not really believe that I was threatening you with anything, do you?
4. ….

Of course, the entire stream of comments can be read here: die ennomane » Blog Archive » Es hat einen Grund.

So here are my comments:

Personally, I found the article in Der Postillon rather negligible. All it did was re-kindle some well-known facts that had already been better formulated in a sarcastic and humorous but original way. The only novelty (and perhaps this was actually worth criticism) about the article was that he called religious rituals mostly “gaga”.

I am sure one could argue about when or under what conditions something is “gaga” or simply appears to be so. But then, who is to decide what is “gaga” today and what is not? To me, plenty of what I experience today seems “gaga”.

But what I find particularly noticeable is the choice of words in the arguments of the commentator Antje. Apparently, she represents the position of a Good Christian.
The first term I find worth noting is “Good Christian”. That is what Antje calls herself.

Basically, I can only excuse the “Good Christian” as a manner of speech, or else as some “thoughtlessly spoken flowery phrase”.  As soon as I take a closer look at the term, questions come up:

What exactly does it mean to be a “Good Christian”? Does it mean you have to have given up your autonomy and willingly submitted to rules set by someone else? Is it even possible for a human to give up his or her autonomy autonomously? Or is a Good Christian someone who just adheres strictly to the Christian rules while having kept his or her autonomy? But then, is that possible?

Or is a “Good Christian” just meant as the opposite of a “Bad Christian”? And then, what makes a Bad Christian – from whom Antje distances herself?
Linguistically spoken I find the “Good Christian” at least better than the “Believing Christian”. That is a term I often hear: I am a Believing Christian. So what would an “Unbelieving Christian” be?

And secondly, I am always personally concerned when I hear someone mention that a power struggle will be lost or won. It is what I hear quasi automatically from people who admit to a religious belief.

Incidentally, tolerance means that “everyone may believe in what he chooses to believe”. Why do the “believers” – who need this tolerance and claim it for themselves – keep talking about a power struggle that will have to be “lost” or “won”?

Incidentally, I would include all those in my definition of “believer” who think they know the truth, including the atheists. And how can mammals, even though basically capable of reason, but otherwise equipped with rather limited characteristics, think they know all the truth? What is God except a special metaphor for a special higher meaning, a term invented by humans?

And finally, it annoys me to read that believers who talk about winning or losing a power struggle show complete incomprehension when their words are perceived as threatening.

But here are a few personal thoughts:

When I was a small child, Easter was just great. We were allowed to seek Easter Eggs. Our joy was immense when we found some. The Easter Bunny symbolized the coming spring. I must have been five years old when I was given a second-hand children’s bike. The joy about this was of a very long duration.

Once I remember from my childhood that Easter was cold and snowy. We had no Easter-Eggs-Seeking in the garden. But we made the best of it: we carried the snow into or house with bowls, poured hot chocolate into moulds and let the figures get hard in the cold snow bowls. That was nice.

Then school started and that was the end of my joy. Easter became similar to pain, a symbol of human cruelty, of guilt and atonement. You had to fast in order to become clean. We learned about the Holy Grave. And that we are bad and someone else had atoned for all of it.

Today, we have another white and cold Easter. And since it is no fun to go out and there is no Easter-Eggs-Seeking either, I browse through the internet. Where I am confronted with enlightenment that never happened.

On the radio, I hear about the religious super festival as it is celebrated with a huge amount of ego-centrism. Including great patter. Except: that is not what reality is like. Yesterday, the agreement on weapons transfer failed, the environmental facts get more depressing each day and today they again talk about love and humility.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

A pope gave notice, lightning struck, and a Meteorite (Meteorit) explodes in Central Russia – this cannot be a coincidence! It is high time that zoo directors, along with leaders of states and their advisors all over the place remember their central competence: the carefree happiness of the animals entrusted to them.

It borders on the irresponsible if we leave humans in particular totally in the lurch when it comes to finding causal connections. What we need is a definite, official declaration. Why don’t we have a state religion that explains how the unpredictable coincidences and accidents of the universe are a prudent and planned destiny of the all-encompassing logic?

Instead, every individual person is left alone with his or her small and error-prone understanding.

The average citizen is overstrained, which makes him unhappy. How is he – probably equipped with only a G8 graduation diploma – supposed to come to terms with the number 13, which incidentally is made up of the last two digits of the year 2013? Hardly anyone takes the pain to actually take a closer look at the digit 2. Because it, too, like the 13, is a prime number.

The Zero between the two prime numbers probably indicates the nullity the world – exposed between two primes one of which even is the 13 – will have to accept as its future destiny.

Consequently, we can under no circumstances ignore the cosmic events that happened during the last few days. They are just harbingers of the approaching apocalypse. Some among us have foreseen this for a long time already.

The least we can expect from our government is that it protects us against all harm. But that is exactly what it fails to do. The meteorite could just as easily have hit the nuclear power plants of Biblis or Schweinfurt. A few thousand kilometres between Russia and Mid-Germany are less than a stone’s throw if you think in cosmic dimensions. Nobody is prepared to deal with this kind of scenario. Our governments failed.

Now it almost happened and the media distract from the problem. People like the astronaut and physics professor Ulrich Walter of Munich are cited, saying shamelessly: “It was pure coincidence”. But every human being not narrow-mindedly thinking in terms of physics or other precise sciences knows that this cannot be a coincidence.

It is providence, that is what it is. And there is a moral quality to it, because it is the punishment of justice that will never permit for humans to just live in the here and now and perform the routines of their daily work. Because everyone only thinks of him- or herself, living just in his or her small world. Obviously, there had to come a time of reckoning for this.

So where are the zoo directors telling us in the face of these cosmic powers that it feels basically small-time slutty if there are still people on strike because they want more income at Hamburg airport; if some people are still worried about saving both Greece and the Euro – and, yes, how irresponsible politicians behave if they now start thinking about winning or losing in the coming Federal Elections?

In the hour of misery, the truth will come out: politicians, too, only think of their own well-being. Consequently, every one of us will have to deal with the unpredictability of cosmic events and accept what little consolation the zookeepers will hand out.

kjg
(Translated by EG)

It is one of the lessons I learned that the quiet days of Christmas and the New Year are quite suitable for re-evaluating your own life compass. Where am I heading towards? I tried again this year. Incidentally, however, there is no tomorrow without today and no today without yesterday. Consequently, my pondering led me back to my roots. This is about things that particularly moved me during my course of life. And I remembered times long past. Now, in order to put a lid on them as well, I will publicly describe those times. Maybe others who experienced similar things can benefit, too.

When I was eight years old, they prepared me for Holy Communion – also known as First Holy Communion (Erstkommunion). After a fairly normal catholic upbringing (not very intense, more sanctimonious), I – along with other Catholics in my class – was massively instructed during religious education lessons at primary school.

We were in the third form. After Christmas, the preparations for the momentous event got really under way. The first step towards First Holy Communion was to make us all extremely familiar with the martyrdom of Christ. I remember highly sadistic self-adhesive pictures. We had to buy them and then illustrate hand-written texts in our “Passion Exercise Book”.

After Easter, the “bootcamp” gained momentum. First came confession. We had to practice intensely for this. Confession would make us clean. Since confession makes us free from all sin, it must happen shortly before the First Holy Communion. For example on Saturday afternoon if you intend to take the Holy Communion on Sunday. And then you have to do everything in order to prevent sinning during the night from Saturday to Sunday – for example against pinching a bit or having unchaste thoughts (in fact, at the age of eight the latter was not yet a problem). We also practiced doing penance after the confession. You had to say the Pater Noster and the rosary slowly and humbly.

The re-education continued. After the confession came the Holy Communion. We learned that, for a good Catholic, it is the highlight of the week. Even if the week was really bad, it does not matter. Because we live for the Sunday, when the Lord comes to visit us. For an eight-year-old, there were quite hard weeks in 1958. Except that mostly Sundays were no better, either.

But this was not a problem, because, after all, we only had to suffer the misery of this earth until death would deliver us. And then we, as chosen Catholics, would get to heaven. To be sure, it was not easy, because the devil was after us pure souls everywhere. Always and everywhere, sin and atonement were present. So first and foremost, we had to get through. Which is why there was confession and Holy Communion.

Then we practiced Holy Communion. You were not allowed to eat breakfast before the Holy Communion. Mental purity and physical abstinence were absolutely indispensable requirements if you wanted to host the Lord.

He came in the form of an oblate, the Host. The pastor put it onto our tongue. That was also something we practiced. We had to let the body of the Lord melt in our moths, because  “you cannot bite the body of the suffering Jesus with your teeth“ – said our religious instructions teacher.

Well, that is what it was like. Those were all things they pushed into our childish brains. For a certain span of time, they were even a success. Because when you are nine years old, you still believe what the grown-ups tell you.

Today, I am glad to have discovered shortly after my First Holy Communion that I cannot really find much use for the “punishing variant” of God. Neither did I, at the time, think of a ”loving one“. However, it did not take long for me to discover that God was easier to find between the massive trees that grew in the quiet of the Wittelsbacher City Park than in our Church of St. Antony. And my decision was made.  When I had confirmation – that is the second certification a true Catholic has to suffer – I already was in a state of inner rebellion. I only suffered the ceremony under protest.

That is how I experienced it. Today, I wonder what would have become of me if I had ”purified myself“ every Saturday and then “received the body of the Lord” on Sunday. How would I then have been supposed to suffer life?

Consequently, I am very happy to have put a lid on my Catholic past when I entered puberty.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

A short time ago, I saw “Moses” at the Münchner Volkstheater. I was deeply moved by the play. It also activated my knowledge about  “the burning thorn bush on the Horeb Hill“. This episode marks a significant change in religious history, because here was the first time God made a pact with his “chosen people“ – at least that is how the story is interpreted by the humans. And ever since then, the traditional and often so-called “holy“ stories of human history are characterized by a God who plays the role of an alliance partner with your own interests or group.

In my book, however, the very idea of a “chosen people” drives me crazy. I think of a terrible analogy with our late history. After all, we, too, ran after a maniac less than a hundred years ago. He claimed to lead a race of superior beings into a thousand-year future, as was befitting for said race. And in doing so, he caused endless misery. Perhaps he, too, heard a ”burning thorn bush“ speak to him at some time in his life?

And there is no end to insanity. Tanks are blessed by military priests. Suicide murderers blast themselves into the sky in the name of God. And God is constantly called the alliance partner with their own interests. This is the exact opposite of a world full of love, respect and honour. And in the “Holy Land”, the situation is more complicated than ever before …

All I can recommend to you is: go and see Moses at the Volkstheater. And in a few days, I will tell you about my own religious experiences when I was between nine and ten years old.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

P.S.
The picture is part of the press release (Pressematerial) submitted along with the play. It belongs to the Münchner Volkstheater. The copyright is with the photographer Arno Declair.

I received very special Christmas Greetings from my friend Klaus-Jürgen Grün. He and his team at PhilKoll live in the realm of philosophy.

I am now downloading it to the global and eternal internet. As we all know, said internet will never forget. After all, I wish to share nice texts and preserve them for posterity.

In his award-winning article: “On the Basis of Morals“,  Arthur Schopenhauer tells us his definition of the festival of love:

“Well, taste is certainly an individual thing;

But for me personally, there is no better prayer than the closing lines of dramas in ancient India (and also those of English plays performed in front of the king).

They were:
May all living creatures remain free from pain.”

Somewhere else, he reminds us that the so-called religion of love

clearly is deficient in a huge and important aspect, in that it limits all its regulations and leaves the entire world of animals without rights.

It is different in moments of happiness

for the Brahmin or Buddhist. Instead of roaring a „Te Deum“, he goes to market and buys birds. Later, after having walked out of the city gates, he frees them.

No further comment!

RMD
(Translated by EG)

P.S.
Arthur Schopenhauer (* February, 22nd,  1788 at Danzig; † September, 21st, 1860 at Frankfurt/Main) was a German philosopher, author and university teacher. On October, 18th, 1813, he earned his doctorial title from the University of Jena for his work: “Ueber die vierfache Wurzel des Satzes vom zureichenden Grunde” – About the four-fold root of ample-reason-axiom.
Well, that is almost 200 years ago now!

P.S.1
I took both the picture and the signature from the central media archive Wikimedia Commons.

It is sensational: On Saturday, September, 8th, Rupert Lay was again a guest of the Ronneburger Kreis. He spoke on his favorite subject:

”GOD“ – A NEW WAY OF THINKING

Unfortunately, I could not be there, because I had to fly to China and attend the wedding of my oldest son. Otherwise, I would certainly have been there.

Fortunately, however, the Ronneburger Kreis made a recording of the presentation! So – here is a huge “thank you” to the Ronneburger Kreis and, of course, above all, to my old teacher and friend Rupert for having agreed to have the camera in front of his nose all the time.

The location of the event was the Frankfurt Hotel Rödelheimer Hof and the starting time was 3 p.m.

Rupert Lay was born in 1929 at Drolshagen and joined the Jesuit order after graduation from high school. He studied philosophy, psychology, theoretical physics and theology, later also economics. After his habilitation, he taught philosophy and philosophy of science at the St. Georgen order college. He worked as a priest, psycho-therapist and gave seminars for managers. He wrote many books. Now he has been living several years at the Frankfurt Seniorenstift.

For me, he is the German Nestor when it comes to “Ethics in Management”.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

This is also one of the things I read during my vacation as I browsed through an old newspaper:

Now the German Ethics Council has been asked to come up with a proposal about how to solve the problem of circumcision of male Jewish toddlers in Germany. During the last few days, I had also read a number of statements on early circumcision by various German medical experts. Among the experts, there was a pediatrician, a pain and anesthesia expert, a medicine professor, a hospital director and a psychologist.

To me, it did not sound very encouraging. Besides, it gave me pause. It seems that an early circumcision is far from a nice ritual. And it is also by no means trivial or free from consequences.

Then I read that an allegedly relevant Jewish Rabbi is against all anaesthetics during the circumcision procedure. And that Turkey also already commented with the “Turkish Minister for European Affairs seeing free religion jeopardized in Germany”.

Now this motivated me to do some research in the internet. Among other things, I found a rather lengthy comment (Stellungnahme) – it sounded rather absurd to me – by the “Central Council of Jews in Germany”.

However, there is one group I never hear anything from on the subject. For me, however, this group would be particularly relevant. I am talking the women. How do the Jewish mothers feel if they have to witness their toddlers being painfully mutilated by strange men shortly after their birth?

How does that go with a mother’s love? Do the mothers really want this for their babies? Or do they just sacrifice their children because they are weak and fearful? Because they lack the courage to resist an inhuman tradition in their cage of a millennia-old bourgeois suppression?

Or is it, maybe, a lot more complicated? Maybe there is a secret sort of “anarchical sexual understanding”, including a “special form of penis envy“ behind all this? Maybe women basically look kindly upon circumcisions for this reason? As some sort of punishment for men and in order to make sure men are and remain clean?

Well, I would welcome some counter-arguments by women!

RMD

(Translated by EG)

Shadow at long last …

Johannes sat down on the red-painted bench.

From behind, he could feel cold air coming from the forest.

Wet and resinous.

Before him, in the sun – the baking hot knoll.

Surrounded by forests.

With a gap only in the south.

It allowed Johannes to look far into the land.

Which dissolved in the fleeting heat.

There was a road leading exactly towards it.

It seemed like there was little traffic.

Grass was growing on the gravel road.

To the left, there was a huge wheat field.

Stretching right up to the forest.

To the south, it also disappeared behind the summit.

When the wind was right, Johannes could feel the sweet smell in his nose.

Identical to the smell on his aunt’s granary.

Where he had hidden with his cousin Klara:

In order to do some cuddling and kissing …

On the right hand side, a meadow lay next to the road.

Further down, several trees.

Forming a semi-circle.

Behind that, a farm.

The buildings forming a quadrangle.

Above it – nothing but heat.

Yellow heat.

Johannes stood up from where he sat in the shadow, back into the heat.

Onto the hot gravel road.

The grass on the meadow stood far too high.

It should have been mowed.

The wheat, too, was more than ready.

Stems going up to his knees.

Strong.

Green.

Johannes approached the group of trees.

Birches and elder.

A woman was sitting in the shadow of the trees.

She looked round and sweaty.

Her red face seemed friendly.

She handed out lemonade.

To two fat children.

Johannes gave a greeting.

Behind the woman, he suddenly saw a man.

He was partly covered by the overripe elder tree.

Hardly wearing anything.

On a frame that looked like a cross.

Nailed to it with big nails.

He did not seem to be doing too well.

His face looked untended.

His mouth was wide open.

Like he wanted some lemonade.

Perhaps he was dead.

No flies on his light skin.

Johannes saw that clearly.

He went down to the village in order to notify the police!

KH
(Translated by EG)

PS:
I took the picture “Green Wheat” from Wikipedia.