The Rant Institute

  It makes no difference in what state a complex is formed whether in every-day life, in sleep, trance, dissociated personality, subconscious states, or hypnosis—they are or may be equally firmly organized and conserved, and they are Conserved, whether we can voluntarily recall the experiences or not. Whether they are to be come organized depends upon the mode and conditions under which “the impression is made upon the mind or nervous system, but, once organized, they are conserved and become a part of our personality.” Henry S. Munro, M.D. Handbook of Suggestive Therapeutics Applied Hypnotism Psychic Science , 1917.  This is the story of how the terrorism of a mother's love, in this case the "love" of the Virgin Mary for mankind, is no less cruel and traumatizing than 9/11. And I speak of this abuse because it was not only rampant in my family growing up, but because not speaking about it in order to keep the peace in my family - which I did for decades -  is pa...

 "[P]rescientific people... could never guess the nature of physical reality beyond the tiny sphere attainable by unaided common sense. Nothing else ever worked, no exercise from myth, revelation, art, trance, or any other conceivable means; and notwithstanding the emotional satisfaction it gives, mysticism, the strongest prescientific probe in the unknown, has yielded zero."  Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge , (First edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 46.

 "[P]rescientific people... could never guess the nature of physical reality beyond the tiny sphere attainable by unaided common sense. Nothing else ever worked, no exercise from myth, revelation, art, trance, or any other conceivable means; and notwithstanding the emotional satisfaction it gives, mysticism, the strongest prescientific probe in the unknown, has yielded zero."  Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge , (First edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 46.    Yet those who kill and die for those "myths" claim they are infallible, even though they so often disagree with their own pope as to what those very same myths mean on a moral level.

Let's "focus on what is, I believe, the major weakness of the argument based on the analogy between God and the loving parent.  What happens when a loving parent intentionally permits her child to suffer intensely for the sake of a distant good that cannot otherwise be realized?  In such instances the parent attends directly to the child throughout its period of suffering, comforts the child to the best of her ability, expresses her concern and love for the child in ways that are unmistakably clear to the child, why it is necessary for her to permit the suffering even though it is in her power to prevent it.  In short, during these periods of intentionally permitted intense suffering, the child is consciously aware of the direct presence, love, and concern for the parent, and receives special assurances from the parent that, if not why, the suffering (or the parent's permission of it) is necessary for some distant good."  William L. Rowe, "The Evid...

 "The most extraordinary Roman soldiers that Rome ever heard of were those soldiers that were set to watch the tomb of Jesus. They managed to fall asleep simultaneously in order to allow Jesus to pass unseen, and when they awoke, for a bribe they deliberately committed suicide by admitting that they had slept -- an admission that meant instant execution. Was ever invention so stupidly desperate and mendacity so recklessly absurd as that invention and that mendacity upon which rests the story of the Resurrection, upon which the whole fabric of the Christian faith has elected to stand or fall? The basis is too puerile to support a story told by an idiot for the purpose of imposing upon a fool."  W.S. Ross, "Did Jesus Christ Rise from the Dead?" An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism (ed. Gordon Stein, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1980), p. 211.  

It makes no difference in what state a complex is formed whether in every-day life, in sleep, trance, dissociated personality, subconscious states, or hypnosis—they are or may be equally firmly organized and conserved, and they are Conserved, whether we can voluntarily recall the experiences or not. Whether they are to be come organized depends upon the mode and conditions under which “the impression is made upon the mind or nervous system, but, once organized, they are conserved and become a part of our personality.” Henry S. Munro, M.D. Handbook of Suggestive Therapeutics Applied Hypnotism Psychic Science , 1917.  This is the story of how the terrorism of a mother's love, in this case the "love" of the Virgin Mary for mankind, is no less cruel and traumatizing than 9/11. And I speak of this abuse because it was not only rampant in my family growing up, but because not speaking about it in order to keep the peace in my family - which I did for decades -  is part of...