This weblog is dedicated to the Goddess and to saving the planet -- by gently replacing God the Father with God the Mother by the year 2035. Too simplistic? Nope, I don't think so. Female deities are role models for unconditional love. Violent sky/war gods are dangerous, to men as well as women. People are biologically programmed to need religion of one kind or another. (BTW, "thea"=Goddess, "theo"=god)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Goddess TELEVISION
Go HERE to help Karen Tate land a Goddess-Spirituality TV show.
Vote for Karen’s show as many times as you want/can/have the time for – but do it before July 3, because that’s when the voting ends.
Golden chance – help push the Goddess out there for the entire world to see and love!
Friday, April 09, 2010
Answering WILLIAM
“I have read your book, Switching to Goddess and very much liked the first half of it. But i have to say, i have real problems with the theory that famine and starvation caused the rise of patriarchy.
“People starving to death still happens today. And the problem of starvation is not that people turn into savages, Reports from charity organizations is that people who are starving become very lethargic and don't do much to help themselves.
“Also i think in desperate conditions a matriarchal tribe is far more likely to survive than a patriarchal tribe. This is because in a patriarchal tribe it will be the men who will commandeer what little food they have and the women and children won't have anything....” MORE>>>>
MY REPLY:
Dear William,
First, thank you for reading Switching to Goddess. I’m glad you agree with the book’s general premise; hopefully you can introduce it to one degree or another to those in your sphere of influence.
For humans, religion is like speech, upright posture, and the incest taboo – all human groups have it. The most important job ahead of us now is not to banish religion (which would be impossible), but to banish war religions, and replace them with something healthy. Healthy mothers love us equally, whether we’re rich, poor, male, female, pretty or plug ugly, so I think they make the perfect role model for us.
Evidence suggests that before roughly 4000 BC, many groups around the world were guided by this kind of mother love. What happened to change that isn’t as important as just switching back to this "mother mode" of interacting with each other and the world. On the other hand, if we can figure out what caused the change, it might help us shove the gears into reverse and ride back home to the “good old days.”
I think you make a good point when you say matriarchal versus patriarchal tribes are more likely to survive disastrous conditions. Your reasoning makes sense. However, I think what happened around 4000 BC was not your everyday garden-variety disaster, but disaster on a scale rarely seen on the planet. Evidence suggests that a good quarter of the earth dried up and left millions to starve to death. This was “Saharasia,” a giant strip of land stretching from the Atlantic across Africa and Asia and all the way to the Pacific.
Read Colin Turnbull’s The Mountain People (1972) for insight into what long-term starvation does to a group. It’s an eye-opener. Turnbull lived for a few years among a large group of starving, isolated Africans, the Ik, who had been barely surviving famine for several generations. I can’t even begin to describe the deep-down horror these people lived with. You wouldn’t even recognize them as human – either the men or the women.
But today’s starving people are surrounded by groups who aren’t starving, and so any barbaric mode of living they might develop is sooner or later swamped out by the rest of us leading relatively normal lives. Not so in 4000 BC Saharasia. There were no “normal” people to swamp out the behavior of the Ik-like groups that managed to hang on to survival in this humongous expanse of land.
And here’s what haunts me, William. Anthropologists can see a difference between modern indigenous cultures living in or near Saharasia, versus those living outside it. Saharasians have harsher child-rearing methods, harsher coming-of-age ceremonies, and to one extent or another, violence pervades much of what they do. What’s more, there’s a direct correlation between how violent an indigenous culture is, and how close to Saharasia it’s located.
All my best,
Jeri Studebaker
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Cousin Harold & TAXES

Today, my right-wing Cousin Harold got the following from me:
Dearest Cuz,
Since you detest taxes, why are you still using things taxes buy?
When your house catches fire, put it out yourself!
If someone burglarizes you, jail the burglar (I KNOW building your own jail is expensive, but … so are taxes).
You can’t drive on roads -- they’re paid for with taxes -- so you’ll have to knock on doors getting permission to prance across lawns to get where you need to go.
Also, you won’t be using bridges any more – get a good boat.
Hopefully you have money for private schools for the grandkids?
Sick? My, isn’t it dreadful you can’t drive on roads to a hospital!
And BY ALL MEANS don't forget: when America’s attacked, the military can’t protect *you* – the military’s built with taxes.
Your dearest Cuz who delights in keeping you honest,
Athana
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thnx to jared wilson for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.
Monday, February 15, 2010
& THE 2010 Stupid AWARD GOES TO…

...THE TEXAS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION!
My deepest regrets to all my Texas friends.
But really, dear ones, you might want to spit-polish your politician-picking process. I should be able to drop the following story into the TOO WEIRD TO BE TRUE pot. Unfortunately, since it IS true, it can’t be pitched into the pot:
Here’s the story:
According to the new Texas state education guidelines, pieced together by the wheezing old geezers you Texans fingered for your State Board of Education, Moses was a real, live dude who helped stitch together the U.S. Constitution:
“In the new [Texas state education] guidelines, students taking classes in U.S. government are asked to identify … the individuals whose principles of law and government institutions informed the American founding documents,” among whom they include Moses….” MORE>>>>
Last time I checked, Moses was just a Fig Newton of someone’s imagination. And, speaking of Fig Newtons, this same bunch of Texas bobble heads not only want to put Newt Gingrich into your history textbooks – they want to leave Ted Kennedy out:
“… the board considered an amendment to require students to evaluate the contributions of significant Americans. The names proposed included Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham, Newt Gingrich, William F. Buckley Jr., Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edward Kennedy. All passed muster except Kennedy, who was voted down….” MORE >>>>
Jeezum ... Newt Gingrich …. Name rings a bell. Wasn’t he kicked outa Congress for being a bad cookie? I sure hope you add his crimes to your textbook bio. And Teddy Kennedy – wasn’t he the “lion of the Senate,” loved by everyone left and right for all the fab legislation he managed to squeeze through the Senate?
(I’d say we need to keep our beady little eyes on Texas like sharp-shinned hawks, so they don’t strip the textbooks clean of John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt -- but I don’t wanna give the dudes any ideas…).
All this wouldn’t be so bad except that U.S. textbook companies follow Texas around like a bunch of sheep. Since Texas Christians pump out babies by the boatload, Texas buys most of the nation’s textbooks. Which means many to most other states feel forced to use the same texts.
Which also means that in the near future your kids could be penning school papers on Moses and Cookie Gingrich -- while remaining stone-cold stupid about Ted Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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thnx to benkuhns for the fab foto; go HERE to see more of his work.
Friday, February 12, 2010
GODDESS Goes RADIO
"....Voices of the Sacred Feminine Radio has been creating an archive of the brightest minds of our time for the last twenty months.... This is in response to your requests!
"Just some of the guests interviewed since last September:
Layne Redmond
Judy Grahn
Starhawk
Joan Marler
Barbara Walker
Genevieve Vaughan
Patricia Monaghan
Charlene Spretnak
Riane Eisler
Elinor Gadon
Isaac Bonewits
Phyllis Chesler
Ava Park
Miriam Robbins Dexter
Luisah Teish
Carol Christ
Jean Shinoda Bolen
"Be sure to tune in. Or call in. Or send your email questions prior to the show."
UPCOMING SHOWS:
2/17/2010 9:00 PM
Phyllis Chesler & Prof. David Hillman - Noted author, feminist and foremother Phyllis Chesler, famous for her book Women's Inhumanity to Women, will discuss her views of feminism, contemporary challenges of women, and her books, including Women's Inhumanity to Women. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HOUR hear scholar David Hillman discuss the new movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians as we delve into Greek Mythology we've learned through a Western/Christian lens versus what the ancient texts actually say and mean."
2/24/2010 9:00 PM - Cristina Biaggi
3/3/2010 9:00 PM - Heide Goettner Abendroth
3/10/2010 9:00 PM - Michael York
FOR MORE INFO >>>> GO HERE
Thursday, December 24, 2009
NEW BLOCKBUSTER Stars MOTHER GODDESS

Finally -- a film with some real religion in it.
I know it’s late, but if you still haven’t zeroed in on that perfect holiday gift for that special someone, BUY HER/HIM A TICKET to Avatar! (Mercy, buy tickets for that un-special someone. Buy tickets for everyone on your block. This is a film everyone needs to see. Take it from your Auntie Athana!)
Monday, December 21, 2009
Wishing YOU ALL A GODDESS-FILLED WINTER SOLSTICE!

A few Winter Solstice Goddesses:
• Alcyone (Greek): Alcyone is the Kingfisher goddess. She nests every winter for two weeks, and while she does, the wild seas become calm and peaceful.
• Ameratasu (Japan): In feudal Japan, worshippers celebrated the return of Ameratasu, the sun goddess, who slept in a cold, remote cave. When the other gods woke her with a loud celebration, she looked out of the cave and saw an image of herself in a mirror. The other gods convinced her to emerge from her seclusion and return sunlight to the universe.
• Bona Dea (Roman): This fertility goddess was worshipped in a secret temple on the Aventine hill in Rome, and only women were permitted to attend her rites. Her annual festival was held early in December.
• Cailleach Bheur (Celtic): In Scotland, she is also called Beira, the Queen of Winter. She is the hag aspect of the Triple Goddess, and rules the dark days between Samhain and Beltaine.
• Demeter (Greek): Through her daughter, Persephone, Demeter is linked strongly to the changing of the seasons and is often connected to the image of the Dark Mother in winter. When Persephone was abducted by Hades, Demeter's grief caused the earth to die for six months, until her daughter's return..
• Frau Holle (Norse): Frau Holle appears in many different forms in Scandinavian mythology and legend. She is associated with both the evergreen plants of the Yule season, and with snowfall, which is said to be Frau Holle shaking out her feathery mattresses.
• Frigga (Norse): Frigga honored her son, Baldur, by asking all of nature not to harm him, but in her haste overlooked the mistletoe plant. Loki fooled Baldur's blind twin, Hod, into killing him with a spear made of mistletoe but Odin later restored him to life. As thanks, Frigga declared that mistletoe must be regarded as a plant of love, rather than death.
• La Befana (Italian): This character from Italian folklore is similar to St. Nicholas, in that she flies around delivering candy to well-behaved children in early January. She is depicted as an old woman on a broomstick, wearing a black shawl.
• Spider Woman (Hopi): Soyal is the Hopi festival of the winter solstice. It honors the Spider Woman and the Hawk Maiden, and celebrates the sun's victory over winter's darkness
~from the article "Thanks to Deities of the Winter Solstice,”
by Patti Wigington
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Thanx to Oriana.Italy for the pic; go here to see more.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Keeping COMPANY WITH A GNAT’S EYEBROW

He’s also shouting about a 2nd American Civil War – Abortion-Rights dudes in the left corner, and Right-to-Lifers – where else? -- in the right. (Pssst! Don’t tell anyone, but I think he means ‘war’ with real guns and live ammunition….)
And here’s a comforting bit of news: biggie Republicans in Congress are actually being seen with this gnat’s eyebrow (Sam Brownback, Jim DeMint, and Michele Bachman, for starters).
Thnx to Rachel Maddow for the tip on this situation. Check out dailykos for MORE >>>>>
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YAJ is short for Yahweh-Allah-Jehovah, who many think is three separate deities, but who is really just one god -- the god of Abraham.
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a big round of applause to astrophotography for the foto of the gnat's eyebrow.
CULTURE WARS: WHO Killed BABY JESUS?

Shooting back from the hip, Washington Post writer M. Kessler says Christian-dude Chuck Norris woulda killed Mary even before she’d delivered Jesus.
Afterall, Mary was an unwed mother. Before he’da let her give birth in his holy Christian manger, Chuck woulda let her freeze to death out on the plains.
Dudes, dudes, I say! Stop your sniping! Save your lovely breath! Nobody killed baby Jesus -- Jesus never existed!
Not one shred of evidence exists that a man named Jesus of Nazareth walked the planet from 1 to 32 AD. None. Nada.
As in zip, zero and zilch.
Posted by Athana
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thnx to okinawa soba for the pic; go HERE to see more
Monday, December 14, 2009
Striking A NERVE?

Take, for example, Mr. Robert Sheaffer at “The Debunker’s Domain.” Mr. R.S. must have spent months -- if not years -- scouring the planet for every document he could scare up that might possibly besmirch the notion of Goddess.
For the best yucks, read all the way to the final article. In “Why Is the ‘Goddess Movement’ Being so Vehemently Promoted?” Mr. S. explains that it’s all a lesbian plot (to what? Turn him into a lesbian?).
Frankly, my dears, methinks mi’lady doth protest too much….
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Thnx to dogwelder for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.
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P.S. For a refutation of nearly everything Mr. R.S. says, read Switching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future, by Jeri Studebaker, 2009, O Books: Winchester, UK. You can put your hands on a copy of STG at almost any online bookstore.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
INTERNATIONAL Childless PEOPLE’S DAY

In honor of these most awesome of the Earth’s awesome, I hereby dub today, December 10, “Childless Peoples’ Day.”
Thank you, fab Childless People, for working to wipe human-flesh pollution off the face of the Earth. You blow me away!
Of course parents are important too. Parents will pump out the people who’ll celebrate Childless People’s Day – kids who -- we all pray -- will become childless themselves one day.
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Thnx to fbako for the foto; go HERE to see more of her work.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
ANCIENT GODDESSES Score BIG

Two days ago, one of the biggest US newspapers ever – The New York Times –actually printed an article about that “little-known” Goddess culture, Old Europe!
And from what I understand, this article was plopped onto the front page of this Grandmama of all US newspapers!
According to the article, since Old European figurines, jewelry and other stuff are currently on display at New York University, Old Europe is now being “rescued from obscurity.”
‘Bout time, I say!
Of course the article is not without its flaws.
First, the author downplays the notion that women had power in Old Europe, or that the “ubiquitous” female figurines were – gasp! – goddesses (Oh no! Not scary goddesses!).
The explanation at the end of the article as to what these figurines “were” is a hoot. Don’t miss it! Apparently the author threw a bunch of words into a bag, shook hard, dumped the words, and then printed them out on paper.
The resulting paragraphs read like crow tracks rambling across a snow bank.
Second, a guy’s quoted saying the Old Europeans had a social hierarchy – you know, social classes, snooty snobs, and all that ick? Hafta give the author of the article credit, though. At least he clears his throat and voices a gigundo concern, namely this: if the Old Europeans had snooty snobs, why didn’t the snoots live in nicer houses than everyone else did?
Thing is, Old Europe *had* no “nicer” houses with “nicer” stuff in them. All the houses were equal, and plumped up with equally nice furniture, dishes, art, and so forth.
Well, enough of my rambling. Here for your reading pleasure, are a few snippets from the article, A Lost European Culture, Pulled From Obscurity, by John Noble Wilford, published November 30, 2009
Before the glory that was Greece and Rome, even before the first cities of Mesopotamia or temples along the Nile, there lived in the Lower Danube Valley and the Balkan foothills people who were ahead of their time in art, technology and long-distance trade.Go HERE to read the entire article.
SNIP
Their graves held an impressive array of exquisite headdresses and necklaces and, in one cemetery, the earliest major assemblage of gold artifacts to be found anywhere in the world.
SNIP
Until recent discoveries, the most intriguing artifacts [found from this culture] were the ubiquitous terracotta “goddess” figurines, originally interpreted [sic] as evidence of the spiritual and political power of women in society.
SNIP
At its peak, around 4500 B.C., said David W. Anthony, the exhibition’s guest curator, “Old Europe was among the most sophisticated and technologically advanced places in the world” and was developing “many of the political, technological and ideological signs of civilization.”
A few towns of the Cucuteni people, a later and apparently robust culture in the north of Old Europe, grew to more than 800 acres, which archaeologists consider larger than any other known human settlements at the time.
SNIP
“The concentration of imported prestige objects in a distinct minority of graves suggest that institutionalized higher ranks did exist,” exhibition curators noted in a text panel accompanying the Varna gold.
Yet it is puzzling that the elite seemed not to indulge in private lives of excess. “The people who donned gold costumes for public events while they were alive,” Dr. Anthony wrote, “went home to fairly ordinary houses.”
SNIP
An entire gallery is devoted to the [human and primarily female] figurines, the more familiar and provocative of the culture’s treasures. They have been found in virtually every Old Europe culture and in several contexts: in graves, house shrines and other possibly “religious spaces.”
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The pic above shows a Cucuteni goddess figurine. She dates from 4045-3800 BC.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Clawing YOUR WAY INTO HEAVEN

Or, by pumping nails into the heads of peacefully sleeping men:
“Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be…. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.” ~Judges 5.24-26.
Excepting the deep-down brain dead, what woman would willingly call herself a Christian?
And what cool dude would touch a Christian woman with a ten-foot pole?
Thnx to Jo Harpley for the foto; go HERE to see more of her work.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
BURKA WEARERS Bamboozled

In truth, the veil stands for political ideology and male power."
MORE >>>>
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Thnx to jjay69 for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.
Friday, August 28, 2009
PLEASE Pass THE YAJ*

And each sect beats up on its own, the Reformed Baptists blistering the Free Will Baptists, and the Evangelical Methodists bellowing about how the United Methodists don’t have a *clue.*
And so on.
Even in YAJ houses of worship there’s a feast of fussing and fighting. How to spend the church coffers. Who to hire to replace the priest (rabbi, iman, etc.). How many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Maybe the way to sweep away the entire mess is just to let YAJ fight himself harder and faster, and faster and harder -- until he becomes a puddle of butter.
And we can take that butter home to Mama, who’ll make us some pancakes.
Yum!
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*YAJ: the god Yahweh-Allah-Jehovah. Most think YAJ is three separate gods, but they're wrong. YAJ is just one mean old dude with a split personality. He's the god of the Old Testament patriarch Abraham.
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Thnx to jeromestarkey for the foto of the Afghan dog fight. Go HERE to see more of his work.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
WARFARE IS not IN OUR DNA
OPTIMISTS called the first world war "the war to end all wars". Philosopher George Santayana demurred. In its aftermath he declared: "Only the dead have seen the end of war". History has proved him right, of course. What's more, today virtually nobody believes that humankind will ever transcend the violence and bloodshed of warfare. I know this because for years I have conducted numerous surveys asking people if they think war is inevitable. Whether male or female, liberal or conservative, old or young, most people believe it is. For example, when I asked students at my university "Will humans ever stop fighting wars?" more than 90 per cent answered "No". Many justified their assertion by adding that war is "part of human nature" or "in our genes". But is it really?MORE >>>>
Friday, July 10, 2009
CHICKEN WINGS & Red PEPPERS
The aroma is wafting out to me on my sunporch and I’m salivating.
AND thinking about how the wonderful chemicals and substances and nutrients in these foods come directly from Mother Earth – really, they ARE Mother Earth, Her gift to us.
Amazingly, She gives of Her Body to sustain us and keep us alive and in good health.
Thank you Great Mother. I adore You more than words can tell.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Dressing THE BRIDE

Geraldine captures the heart & soul of what on this blog we call the 6000-year "slippery slide" of the Goddess into Her current underground hideaway. But read all the way to the end, because there you'll find a golden promise:
Sure, ‘twas as though the granite bonesWhen I read this poem, I want to sing it. Actually, I did sing it, in a Medieval kind of minor key that I just made up as I went along.
And flesh of earthen Mother,
Rose up, said, “Well, I’ve a will to be wed
To my white and golden lover
My white, my gold-haired lover.
“He’s a son of the sun and a son of my own
So the sun and the sky I will wed,
For they say I’m owed a warrior bold
To protect the fields in my stead
To preserve the land in my stead.”
Will Sheelah-na-Gig then jig for joy?
Will fairies then dance in a ring?
Or will Morgan le Fay angrily say,
“We’ve started a terrible thing
Oh, begun a terrible thing.”
“Oh, Mother”, we said, “don’t marry that man,
We need no warriors bold and brave -
His kind will call you whore and hag,
Rip minerals from your caves,
Yes, rape iron and oil from your caves.
“No, Mother, don’t marry the son of the sun,
His sons will bring you sorrow -
They’ll shit in the ocean and piss in your wells,
For you there’ll be no tomorrow,
For all of us no tomorrow.”
And Sheelah-na-Gig won’t jig for joy,
The fairies won’t dance in a ring -
And Morgan le Fay will sadly say,
“We’ve started a terrible thing
Oh, begun a terrible thing.”
We’ll give you a day like you never had
A day of praises, joy and mirth -
Far better than tying yourself to that lad
A day for Mother Earth
Just to celebrate Mother Earth.
We’ll dress you in green; we’ll dress you in brown,
We’ll polish your lakes, from swords make ploughs,
And braid wildflowers into your crown -
And berries for your brow,
Gather berries for your brow.
And Sheelah-na-Gig will jig for joy,
The fairies will dance in a ring -
And Morgan le Fay will gravely say,
“We’ve avoided a terrible thing
Oh, escaped a terrible thing.”
But oh, my darlings, sad to say,
She wed the warrior bold and brave.
His sons forced all our maids away,
Ripping minerals from the caves,
Raping iron and oil from our caves.
So we went down to Troytown,
One cold and bitter winter’s day -
And danced into the Maizey Wheel,
And never came out again,
Not for five thousand years and a day.
And Sheelah-na-Gig is forced to church,
The fairies are no longer near.
And Morgan le Fay’s called bitch and whore,
There’s no place for the Lady here,
No, no place for the Lady here.
***
Now the dragon paths are trod again,
The veils are lifting from our eyes -
As earthen mother breaks her chains,
Flicks the warriors off like flies,
Flicks the warriors off like flies.
We’ll dress her in green; we’ll dress her in brown,
And polish her lakes, from swords make ploughs,
And braid wildflowers into her crown -
With berries for her brow,
Yes, to bind around her brow.
And Sheelah-na-Gig will jig for joy,
The fairies will dance in a ring -
And Morgan le Fay will gladly say,
“Our mother is everything
Mother Earth is everything.”
And Sheelah-na-Gig will jig for joy,
The fairies will dance in a ring -
And Morgan le Fay will sing all day,
“Our mother is everything
Mother Earth is everything.”
©2004, Geraldine Charles
For me, singing this poem is a powerful experience. Try it, I think you'll like it!
In Switching to Goddess, I call for artists of all kinds to create works of art that bring The Goddess to the attention of the world.
This poem certainly does just that. I wonder if Geraldine would mind if a musician in our community put this poem to music?
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Thnx to Geraldine for letting me use this foto of her.
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Postscript: July 5, 2009. Geraldine said she has music to go with the poem. However, anyone who wants to put new music to it can, just give her credit for the words. Also, she's going to ask a good friend of hers -- a professional singer -- to make a podcast of the song. Alright!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
MRS. B. BOWERS Explains MARRIAGE
THE WICKED CHILLY LINK BETWEEN War & RELIGION

It’s no accident either that the History Channel offers almost nothing but shows on war and the bloody, blood-soaked Abrahamic religions*.
Fact is, there’s a wicked chilling link between war and the Abrahamaic religions*: It’s the Abrahamic and other war religions that cause war.
So how do we rid the world of war? Well, unless you’re willing and able to scrap the war religions, might as well forget it and go home, prop your dogs up, and snooze.
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*The Abrahamaic religions are Christianity, Judaism and Islam. So few differences exist among these three that they might as well be one religion. And since they spread like cancer, they now infect over half (53%) of the people in the world.
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thnx to spatial mongrel for the foto; go HERE to see more.