by

What is theology?

The pseudoscience of the divine whose aim is rendering people subservient to the fiction of god – M Onfray

Or as Thomas Paine put it

The study of theology as it stands in Christian churches is the study of nothing, founded on nothing, rests on no principles, proceeds by no authorities, has no data, can demonstrate nothing and admits of no conclusions.

by

Nietzsche spoke too soon

Though a good prophet, spoke too soon when he said God is dead and we have killed him.

It’s been 120 years since the good prophet breathed his last but all around us we are surrounded by irrationality that should have died when god died.

This is manifested in many ways. In many places, morals come to us from the sky, dictated by a god who is perfect, mysterious, vengeful and hidden- if you are philosophically inclined- ; in most jurisdictions we have laws that are informed by the religious persuasions of those who handed them down to us.

Then there is the obsession with objective Truth and all objective whatever-s that when you really bother to think around, leads you down the rabbit hole occupied by the gods.

The good prophet, in Genealogy of morals tells us to craft a new morality. And in his thus spake Zarathustra, invites us to be ubermen. Maybe it is time we took him seriously and thought about our morals. We may in the end not have to overhaul them, but to admit they are not from or by the gods, but they are covenants between men and women for sociable living. I simply don’t want anyone stealing my cow, not because it is an edict from high heavens but because i don’t want to be inconvenienced!

by

What’s in a name?

Shakespeare wrote that which we call a rose by any other name, would smell as sweet.

My interest is on how do names come about? How did I end up being referred to as a Luo, Kenyan and African? Who is it that confers a name? My other names relate to the time of my birth and all. Would it still be me if the names were changed?

Why for example did the Europeans coming to Africa invent tribes- where they found nationalities? What did they find different in Africa from where they had come from?

It is this historiography that interests me.

by

we bring you good news from the Vatican

If you have been in the pursuit of holiness and found yourself restricted by many rules or conditions, we have good news for you. And this news comes to you from St. Paul’s ambassador or the guy with the direct link to Peter, pope Francis.

Redemption, for those seeking it, comes from god. And to receive it, you need faith in the gospel message. And in case you are Jewish and still confused, the Pope ain’t making this up. He says pick your battles with St. Paul, not him.

Now you have got the message, you cannot claim ignorance when you find yourself in hell. I told you already.

by

who died and made you king

Yes, I know there is a song and even the meeting of the sentence but i just think it is an appropriate heading for what is to come next. Yesterday i was reading this post where I think the suggestions made were way reasonable. That America should focus on peaceful means and all until our resident defender of western values showed up to inform us that is idle talk, dreams of 12 year olds, so to speak. The military industrial complex and the emperor must all be appeased and pursuing peaceful coexistence through trade and cultural exchange and limiting the military to national defence and maybe international peacekeeping missions with other nations.

Maybe I am missing something since I live so far removed from the military or its workings that maybe it is important to have military outposts in every other country, occasionally have your spy agency overthrow democratically elected presidents and have drone assassinations miles away from home where children caught in the crossfire are collateral damage (what were they doing there, playing? Don’t know there are drones overhead?).

Tell me what you all think? William Astore or Tildeb?

by

Could this be the reason

Trump wanted NATO members to increase their military spending?

As far as most of Nato’s European members who contributed troops to Afghanistan were concerned, this was a theatrical exercise designed to keep the US committed to the defence of Europe. In the case of the Poles and the people of the Baltics, the great spur here was fear of Russia. In the case of the French, it was largely because they can only maintain their sphere of influence in Africa with American help. In the case of others like the Germans, it was because they knew that they were not capable of summoning up the fighting spirit or the military spending to maintain peace in the Balkans and deter Serbian or Turkish aggression there. The memory of Europe’s 1990s failure in Bosnia runs deep. 

This makes for quite interesting reading but it is long-ish.