The Pageless Book

Well folks, unfortunately I will not be available to make regular updates this week. That’s right! I’m kicking back, putting my toes in the sand, and enjoying some time away from it all! The Pageless Book will return to it’s semi-regular schedule starting May 5th… that is if I’m not still drunk from drinking all those Long Island Iced Teas. Not to worry though - I have something to keep you occupied in the mean time. I have an assignment for my regular readers; read Count Your Sheep. It’s one of my favorite on-line comics. Count Your Sheep reminds me so much of Peanuts because it has such a consistent spiritual message in the same learning-how-to-be-human way. There are over five years worth of comics on this site, so give it a look see and tell me what you think.

Until then, Namaste.

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written by John

My lovely wife is currently writing a series of blog entries on the self improvement elements of the movie Labyrinth, which you can read by clicking on the link above. While researching for this particular project, Cathy came across another interesting post about the religious elements of the movie Labyrinth. Right up my alley, yes? Not really. Emily, the author of this piece, has tried to claim that Labyrinth is a Christian morality play. I can relate to the idea that the movie can be symbolic of a spiritual journey, but Emily tries forcing metaphors where they simply do not belong.

How so? Well, lets start with our protagonist, Sarah - Emily claims that Sarah is with child and is projecting her emotional confusion over what to do with her unborn child onto her little brother. It is made pretty obvious by the, er, uh… what proof of this exists in the movie? Are we so sure that it is not Ms. Emily who is projecting?

It gets worse, though. She claims that Hoggle is a personification of Jesus Christ. Hoggle, the coward - Hoggle, the gruff loner - Hoggle, the reluctant traitor, is Jesus Christ? If Hoggle is anything, he is the voice of Sarah’s own doubts and fears, playing a foil to her outward optimism and naivete.

When we first see Hoggle, he is just outside the gates of the labyrinth killing fairies with a pesticide. According to Emily, we are suppose to infer that these fairies are instead the embodiment of the homosexual culture, which Hoggle… er, um, I mean Jesus, is seeking to eradicate. Could it simply be that they serve as a lesson for Sarah that not all things are as they seem? Nah! That apparently isn’t Christian enough, so Emily projects her homophobia into this children’s movie.

And the article continues from there, drawing the conclusion that the talking door guards are symbolic of true and false religion, the cleaners symbolic of cults, and the wise man is symbolic of Eastern Religions. In an apparent fit of racism, she calls the fire gang “blacksploitation jive turkeys,” claims that The Bog of Eternal Stench is symbolic of an abortion clinic, and claims Sir Didymus is symbolic of the fallacies of science. At this point, it behooves me to ask whether this particular article is a parody or serious. I’m not entirely sure, to be honest.

“The Christian Themes of Labyrinth” does one thing right, however unintentionally. It shows how easy it is to ignore obvious explanations in favor of rationalizing the interpretation we expect to be true. We each see what it is that we want to see. Unless we make the truth that which we most desire, we will only see the contrived metaphors of our imagination. If I may suggest, perhaps the lesson we are supposed to learn from Labyrinth is the importance of balancing the imagination of childhood against the required clarity and purpose of adulthood in order to seek truth over fantasy. Then again, it now might be me who is projecting.

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written by John \\ tags: Christian, Metaphors, Morality, Movies, Religion

Photo Above by Mohamed Abdulla Shafeeg. Photo Below by Toni Lozano.

At the beginning of this week, I felt restless and discontent, but couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was bothering me. Although I am currently on vacation, I hadn’t been truly enjoying myself. What is it that was bothering me? For the life of me, I just couldn’t grasp it.

I discussed it over dinner with my wife, and she asked exactly what it was that I had planned to accomplish while I was off. My personal agenda included spending quality time with her, writing, hiking, and going down to the beach. Then she asked if there was something keeping me from doing those things. I explained that I just didn’t feel inspired to write and felt altogether disconnected. The problem was that I had not felt spiritually nurtured these past few days. Cathy then suggested that I write about the importance of daily spiritual nurturing - here I am doing exactly that.

You see, I’m not very good at taking the time for my spiritual pursuits. I go to church on Sundays, but sometimes that isn’t enough. Church is a social gathering place, and as such a few Sundays out of the year focus on that social aspect - last Sunday was just one of those Sundays. Couple that with my habit of staying up well past midnight, as well as not taking proper care of my anxiety, and Johnny-boy becomes a soulless twitching zombie. It’s important that I find the time to do *something* spiritual each day, and writing about spirituality is too cerebral to count.

Why is it so important that I do something spiritual each day? Because it provides clarity and inspiration. I love to create and my main outlet for creativity is writing. Without proper inspiration, my writing becomes noticeably flat. Spiritual practices allow my to step away from my fears and live a fuller life. As an introvert, I have a hard time connecting with others - but spirituality makes it possible for me to let down my guard and become more personable. Although I am naturally an optimist, I have also had bouts of depression in the past. Spirituality helps me maintain a positive outlook and is good therapy when I find this challenging.

If nothing else, I should at the very least find time to meditate every day. Optimally, I would like to meditate, read, pray, and perhaps engage in a little qabalistic ritual every day, but that might be a bit of a tall order for me, seeing as I’m such a slacker. Regardless of what I do, doing a little bit each day is what I personally need in my life. I don’t pretend to speak for everyone, but I find it necessary. Perhaps you might feel the same way?

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written by John \\ tags: Inspiration, Life, Nurturing, Ritual, Spirituality

Photo Above by Rodrigo Achá. Photo Below by Hobvias Sudoneighm. Final Photo by Martin Kingsley.

In the science fiction movie “I, Robot” Will Smith plays the part of Detective Spooner who is paranoid of artificial intelligence and robotics. His reason for distrusting AI is very telling. Both the Detective and a young girl had been in a major car accident, trapping them in cars that were taking on water. The emergency rescue robots evaluated the situation and decided that the Detective had a slightly better chance of surviving, so they disregarded his demands that the child be saved first and saved his life instead. By the time the rescue robots turned their attention to the girl, she was already dead. In Detective Spooner’s mind, this was a serious flaw in the robot’s programming - they were too logical to be trusted to make moral decisions.

Morality is a particular process of human reasoning that dictates what the best course of action would be for humanity both as a whole and as an individual. Sometimes, such as in the example made by this movie, morality requires that we sacrifice ourselves for the greater good of all humanity. Most of the time, it is what we don’t do that defines our morality. However, to assume this means that we would be able to define what is moral and immoral in any given circumstance invites the formulation of an absolute morality without any choice involved.

Ultimately, it is choice which makes morality valuable. When choice is removed from the equation, morality ceases to be a noble characteristic. If choice in moral decision is stripped away, human emotion concerning morality no longer has meaning. Morality becomes a mathematical equation to be used and potentially abused by the best and worst of humanity in equal measure. It becomes a tool, and morality should never be reduced to being merely a tool.

As pointed out before, morality is a function of human reasoning - should this not mean that morality must be logical? No. It is not merely logic, if only because our emotions and personal experience form an integral part of our human reasoning. There is this dangerous and faulty notion that logic is synonymous with reason, and that morality can be broken down into a few phrases that require no interpretation. Trying to boil morality down to a set of absolutes, no matter how eloquent in their simplicity, removes the human element which defines morality. Even the Golden rule - “Do unto others as you would have done unto you” - requires a large dose of thought and common sense.

Detective Spooner understood this, even though he didn’t know how to properly express it. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before the artificial intelligence found a logical interpretation of the morality coded into it’s system that was inherently immoral. In the movie, that interpretation lead the AI to believe that in order to protect humanity from itself, all choice must be taken away. The robots, which had become such an important part of human life, turned on the humans who had made them and threatened to place all of society under their tyrannical rule.

While we don’t face such a drastic turn of events outside our works of fiction, those who ascribe to an absolute version of morality frequently make poor decisions that affect us all. Morality is not separate from the human experience; assuming that all moral decisions, can be reduced to binary thinking is not only laziness, but also dangerous to us all. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of moral absolutes. So when I tell you that morality is a function of human reasoning, do not assume that I am telling you how to think or what to think - instead hear me as telling you to think and come to your own conclusions.

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written by John \\ tags: Artificial Intelligence, Humanity, Morality, Reason, Will Smith

Photo Above by Hickory Hardscrabble. Photo Below by Jason Meredith.

“Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God.”
- Albert Einstein, 1879-1955.

It is commonly accepted that morality is intrinsic to religion and spirituality. The first thing that most people think in regards to other religions is the list of rules and restrictions concerning conduct for members of that religion. While some of these rules are common sense, such as “thou shall not kill”, other rules, such as keeping the Sabbath or abstaining from pork, seem frivolous. These rules are theoretically the basis for the morality taught by any given religion. Is it just an assumption that leads us to associate religious mores with morality? Are we wrong to think that morality and spirituality are mutually inclusive?

I’m not so sure. My immediate reaction would be to say that morality is a construct of society, rather than the mandate of the Divine. I find the majority of the thou-shall-nots associated with religions are meaningless and, in some cases, detrimental. However, when I really think about the subject of morality in regards to religion, part of me cannot help but wonder if I might be over simplifying.

I think part of my indecision lies in the spiritual nature of simply doing the right thing. While rationally I know that my idea of right and wrong was formed by the example of my parents and, to a lesser extent, the stories and traditions of our society, the experience of the connection and appreciation of another human being is deeply spiritual to me. It is that appreciation, not the laws written in any given holy text, which drives me to do the right thing and strive to be a “good person.” I don’t even know how I would go about defining the term “good person” in an objective manner, making it hard for me to speak of morality in any useful way.

The most universal moral teaching that is found in almost every religion, “The Golden Rule,” may provide a clue as to the deeper relationship between religion and morality. The Golden Rule simply states that each person should treat others in the same manner they would want to be treated. In the simplicity of this universal teaching, we find the one thing that all moral teachings attempt to protect; every member of society. Morality is an attempt to keep society functioning and to protect every member of that society equally. Humanity is a social creature by nature, so it stands to reason that we would each be adapted to a social life and have inherent rewards for acting in a way that benefits society. One of these inherent rewards could very well be a feeling of spiritual connection.

Perhaps religion, a social construct and vehicle for spiritual experience, is associated with morality because morality is a social construct which can sometimes lead to spiritual experiences. This doesn’t mean that morality is the sole domain of religion, or that everyone who is religious is moral. It does explain how the two could become so entangled that we might believe that morality to be an exclusive function of religion, even though it isn’t. I am yet to completely make up my mind, however, as to the role that spirituality (as oppose to religion) plays in morality. I would like to hear other opinions regarding this subject. Please, if you have any comments about the ideas I’m presenting in this article, I’d like to hear from you.
Originally Published October 16, 2007

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written by John \\ tags: Humanity, Morality, Questions, Reason, Spirituality

Photo Above by J. Samuel B. Photo Below by Srsly Guys. Final Photo by Patrick David.

There are a wide range of moral and ethical issues that challenge Western Society today - so many that our attention is strained between those issues we most care about, and the issues that are the most sensational. Issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and terrorism so aptly distract us from the serious moral and ethical issues of poverty, corporate/political corruption, and human-rights violations simply because they are more controversial. However, there is one moral issue that is pushed so far into the background that it seldom is even considered a moral issue.

Despite being so often ignored, education is a serious moral issue. At first blush, it seems like a stretch to claim that education is just as important as the eradication of poverty or crime, but please hear me out. Education is the key to resolving many of the challenges we face as a society; it’s the key to unlocking the greatness of which our human family is capable.

Why do I believe that education is so important to the future of our society? There is the obvious answer… Future economic prosperity and scientific advancement both hinge on the intellectual prowess of the children we raise. Sometimes that is all we see when it comes to education. We must be willing to pass on more than technical knowledge because that is nothing more than the bare minimum. Companies and politicians have pushed this paradigm of education that best fits the agenda of economic progress while ignoring other aspects of education.

The reason I think that education is of the utmost importance is due to the freedom and individuality that an education can provide. A proper curriculum teaches a child how to think critically, make decisions for themselves, understand views that may not be their own, encourage them to question authority in a constructive manner, and express themselves both in a practical manner as well as artistically. This is the type of education that makes for a strong society and gives us the back-bone to confront the other moral issues in a serious manner. However, this type of education makes the job of politicians that much harder and seemingly provides no profit on an economic level.

How can this different education lead to the resolution of other issues such as poverty, crime, and war? When the majority of individuals in our society are no longer willing to simply follow without question, more presumptions that we have held as a society will come into question. People will demand that politicians and corporations be held accountable for their misdeeds. We will no longer be bound by what is best for our economic development, because the paradigm that supported that way of thinking will have been dismantled. Without being dominated by the question of cost and financial benefit, we will finally be able to have an honest conversation about problems that plague humanity.

Ironically enough, the reason why we are so divided in our goals is because we are so easily led. If each individual was educated to think for themselves and question leadership, I strongly believe we could confront the moral and ethical issues in a mature and productive manner. Because there are so many people vying for power, and so few people willing to seriously question those in control, what we end up with is childish name calling at best and needless violence at the very worse.

However, all of this is easier said than done. In order to administer such an education program, the political-corporate complex would have to be convinced that a new education program is in their best interests. We would also have to convince them to pay to bring together the brightest child psychologists and education specialists to create an education program geared toward social, emotional, and intellectual development. Finally, the political-corporate complex would have to be persuaded to fully fund that education program without having had the chance to change or censor any part of that education program. While all politicians say that they are for better education standards, very few of them are truly willing to give up that much control. That, my friends, is the great dilemma of education.

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written by John \\ tags: Education, Freedom, Humanity, Individuality, Politics

For those who haven’t seen it yet, I currently have a guest post up at The Positivity Blog! Seven Steps to Change the World is about what we as individuals can do to enact powerful change in our society. Go and give it a look-see…

Namaste.

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written by John

Photo Above by Danielle Blue. Photo Below by Wired Protocol.

I come from a lower middle-class family with two blue-collar working parents. When my mother had first met my step-father, he was a union steel worker, which was at the time a secure job you could count on until retirement. Someone forgot to tell the company owners that, because throughout my childhood our family suffered temporary lay-offs which lead to unpaid bills and eventual eviction notices. I don’t blame my parents; they were raised in an industrial society and were unprepared for the shift to a technological white-collar based economy.

In time, the temporary lay-offs stretched from weeks into months, until one day they closed down the plant at which my step-father worked. This event sent my parents into a panic. I remember long nights of listening to them argue about money, bills, and blaming each other for how bad things had gotten. At some point, I became tired of worrying and fearing the next crisis. Had we not survived these issues before? My parents had always seemed to pull their resources and their wits together at the last minute, finding a means for us to survive as a family. I began to see all the arguing and worrying as a waste of time and energy that could have been better spent resolving or even preventing my family’s financial problems. We would always survive; the question became how well we would survive.

In stark contrast to my parents, I had developed hope for the future. Now this wasn’t a naive hope - after all we had been through, I learned that hard times are always a pink slip away. However, times would not always be hard, and every passing moment of in-fighting was another lost opportunity to make the hard times a little less hard. Why waste that energy and time?

So, when my wife came home early from work seven months ago and told me with a stunned look on her face that she had been let go, I didn’t panic. I knew that we would make this work - no stressing needed. I was pretty confident that she would have a new job within the next couple of months. Even though I was wrong, and we have struggled through these last seven months, I knew that we would survive. There was no question in my mind that this was a temporary situation.

On Saturday, my wife visited me on my lunch break at work and told me that she had an interview with a local company. This company she was referring to has a great reputation, and she is looking forward to working for them. After such a long period of shrinking prospects and temporary positions, we may finally be looking at the opportunity for which we’ve been waiting. The hard times are almost over. Do you know what? They weren’t all that hard after all.

What does this have to do with spirituality? It shows that hope does win out in the end. These financial issues that I have witnessed in the past and am living with in the present are a microcosm of the ills in this world. Faith - that which is at the very heart of spirituality - does not need to be blind, deaf, or dumb to our present situation to be maintained. Not once when I expressed hope for the future did I ignore the truth of the present, and I am aware, even now, that this new opportunity isn’t guaranteed. However, it is the message of spirituality that, no matter how horrible things become, we have the capacity to survive, adapt, and even thrive. It is what experience has taught me and what history proves. Even in our worst hour, we have been living off the fruits of Hope.

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written by John \\ tags: Faith, Family, Life, Spirituality, Work

Photo Above by Jarnocan. Photo Below by Ralph Hockens. Last Photo by Tracy Olson.

Yesterday I wrote about the questionable policies of the Church of Scientology, in my attempt to show why I applaud Anonymous in opposing the Church of Scientology. Today, I am interesting in talking about some of the more specific acts of this organization - in particular, illegal acts. However, I find myself at a loss. When I went to research for this article, I found that I could barely scratch the surface in the 500 - 700 words I normally write. As such, I’ve decided to only detail a few of the more grievous offenses this so-called Church.

Operation Snow White is the code-name of the Scientology project to infiltrate government agencies (both U.S. and Foreign) and destroy undesirable documents related to the Church of Scientology and its founder, Ron L. Hubbard. The FBI uncovered the operation as apart of a raid on Scientology property in 1977. The documents included plans to not only steal and destroy documents, but to plant false documents, and wiretaps on the IRS. This led to the conviction of eleven of the top ranking members of the Church, including Ronnie’s wife, Mary Sue Hubbard. You can read more about Operation Snow White here.

During the same raid, the FBI uncovered another project, Operation Freak Out, which targeted the journalist and author Paulette Cooper. In the early 1970’s she had written a book on the church which was considered libel by the church. The purpose of Operation Freak Out was to incriminate Paulette Cooper in anyway possible to destroy her credibility. This first began with escalating sexual harassment including subscribing her to pornographic magazines, obscene phone calls, and letters to her neighbors with various unsavory claims about her sex life. Then they forged bomb threats on stationary they had stole from her home and mailed it to the New York Church of Scientology in such a way to make it seem like she sent them. The final phase of Operation Freak Out conspired to frame Paulette Cooper with the Federal crime of making threats on the life of the President of the United States. You can read more about Operation Freak Out here.

Thankfully, the Church of Scientology was raided before they could put this plan into action. However, what I want to point out about this is the timing; these acts of harassment all occurred after the Fair Game policy was supposedly discontinued. All evidence suggests that the Fair Game policy is still in effect. What evidence? The evidence found on Xenu.net - claims of harassment, assault, false imprisonment, extortion, and invasion of privacy backed up by court documents. These are only the people who have come forward.

Now, to be fair, these are individuals who are outside the Church. We should judge the Church of Scientology by the good it does for its members, employees, and their children. You should keep this in mind, while reading the following stories:

Adeline Dodd-Bova describes her time as a teacher in Scientology schools and writes of troubling cases of insufficient sleep and children having little or no food. Even more disturbing is her description of children whose sexual and physical abuse were not reported to Social Services.

Mary Tabayoyon’s sworn affidavit describes several instances of women coerced into having abortions under threat of severe punishment. Note that Scientology considers abortion to be a serious sin, so these women were also being coerced into committing a grave violation of their religious beliefs.

Stacy Young’s sworn declaration states that RPF (Rehabilitation Project Force) “slave labor” is used to build luxury facilities for Scientology celebrities and are paid $5 a week for 70-hour weeks.

Lisa McPherson died in the custody of Scientology in Clearwater, FL. She was treated by a Scientology doctor who was not licensed to practice in Florida. In addition, it appears that Scientology had put Lisa on the Introspection Rundown. Her family is suing Scientology for wrongful death.

The Church charge its members hundreds of thousands of dollars to be treated in this manner. Worse yet, because they have declared themselves a religion, they are not required to pay taxes. The organization known as the Church of Scientology is, in my opinion, the most corrupt cooperate enterprises in the English speaking world today. This is why Scientology deserves to be protested against. A cry for justice must not be misconstrued for religious intolerance.

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written by John \\ tags: Crime, Death, Morality, Religion, Scientology

Photo Above by Bryan Gosline. Photo Below by Vincent Diamante. Last Photo by Todd “Hryckowian”.

Little more than two months ago, I first wrote about the actions of an internet group going by “Anonymous” and their war against the cult of Scientology. At that time my main question was whether or not the actions of Anonymous are religious persecution, or whether they had a valid reason to protest against Scientology. It was my opinion that Anonymous had excellent reasons why we should protest against Scientology. I was one of the first, if not the first, blogger to write about Anonymous and the brewing confrontation. For standing up and voicing my opinion, I was rewarded with a huge influx of traffic and comments to my site.

I would be lying if I said that it didn’t scare me a little. I didn’t want my site to become a strictly Anti-Scientology website. I was afraid that the popularity of that particular article threatened to limit the scope of what people expected of me as a religion and spirituality writer. So, I avoided that topic for the next two months.

Yet, now as I look back upon that article, I realized that there was an awful lot I didn’t explain. Most importantly, I hadn’t properly explained exactly what it is that the Church of Scientology has done to incur the wrath of so many people of the internet community. Sure, there is a long history overly aggressive tactics against copyright infringements and criticism, but the same can be said of the more aggressive international conglomerates.

What has the Church of Scientology done that is so reprehensible? Well let us start from the top. Scientology represents itself as a program of self improvement which relies on techniques that have not been tested in any controlled scientific manner. While the same can be said about holistic practices and new age self improvement, everyone in the holistic or new age community would be quick to say that holistic medicine should be used in conjunction with traditional medicine.

Neither The American Medical Association or American Psychological Association have endorsed Scientology and both actively discouraged treating Scientology as legitimate medicine. Because these organizations failed to acquiesce to Ron L. Hubbard’s ambitions, he declared both psychology and psychiatry to be poisonous unfounded sciences. This would be just another ironic twist if Scientology did not then strongly discourage the use of psychiatric medicine, even for those who desperately need it.

But how is that different than Christian Science, who abstain from medical treatment? It isn’t; of everything that the Church of Scientology does, this is the least of their offenses. There is also the matter of Scientology’s disconnect policy, which has ruined hundreds of families, ended marriages, and separated parents from their children. If the Church deems a particular person to be “suppressive,” that is in opposition to an individual member’s personal development within the Church, they mandate that member to sever all ties with the suppressive person. This, of course, only serves to further isolate their members from the rest of society.

Again, similar policies have been enacted by other young religions, which forces us to ask whether or not Scientology is any worse than these. It is the Church’s “Fair Game” policy that sets Scientology apart from these legitimate religions. The Fair Game policy reads that suppressive persons -

May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed. (HCOPL 18 October 67 Issue IV, Penalties for Lower Conditions)

The next year after the Fair Game policy was put in place, the Fair Game policy was allegedly canceled. However, pay attention to how the cancellation of this policy was worded.

The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease. FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations. This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP. (HCOPL 21 Oct 68, Cancellation of Fair Game)

This had left many people wondering if the Church of Scientology had merely canceled the term “Fair Game” and left the actual policy in tact. There is a great deal of evidence that suggests the Church is still operating under the assumption that any non-Scientologist may be deprived of property, injured, tricked, sued, lied to, or destroyed. Tomorrow, I’ll discuss the specific crimes that the Church of Scientology has allegedly committed.

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written by John \\ tags: Anonymous, Cult, Morality, Religion, Scientology