Christianity and slavery

During the 1700s, slavery and the slave trade began to be questioned.

A new kind of Christian ethics and morals emerged.

Nothing i written in stone.

 When the British parliament voted to abolish slavery in the colonies in 1833, the Bench of Bishops voted against — as they did on almost all reform bills. To get the bill through, Parliament voted to compensate slave owners (There was no compensation for the slaves themselves). The Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 provided for £20 million to be paid to West Indian plantation slave owners in compensation for the loss of their 'property'. The Anglican Church received £8,823 for the loss of slave labour on its Codrington plantation in the West Indies.

Individual Anglican Churchmen had to be compensated separately. Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, and three business associates received nearly £13,000.

http://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/gaa_slavery.htm

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/feb/09/religion.world

Calm down

You don't have to realize yourself.
You don't have to be someone, achieve something, become something.
You don't have to be fabulous, happy, serene, radiant, loving, successful...
These are all neurotic commandments from the self improvement industry.
It's not a crime to be tired or displeased.
You have the right to be, simply what you are, for the time being.

Beliefs

Do you agree that suicide bombers,
members of destructive religious cults,
political fanatics, drug addicts,
neurotics and depressed people
are bewitched by crazy beliefs and ideas?

Do you agree that many beliefs and ideas,
spiritual as well as religious or secular,
can create serious problems?

Do you agree that it is possible that also you are holding on to
beliefs and ideas that create problems for you
or for people around you, even though you're not aware of it?

Do you agree that it is difficult, but not impossible,
to let go of a crazy belief or idea?

Do you agree that the first step is to understand
that a crazy idea is just a crazy idea,
not the truth of the matter?

The map and the territory

You have a map that matches poorly with the landscape. Maybe it is too old. And you have a crappy inner compass that shows the wrong direction. But you don't want to get yourself a new map and a new compass because you're stubborn and stingy. Good maps and good compasses are expensive.

Only a stock market crash can save us

Ordinary folks across the world want cheap gas for their cars. We do not care if the planet becomes uninhabitable in fifty or a hundred years. We live here and now. Huge protests arise, both here and in poor countries if prices on gasoline are increased too much.

Only a tiny minority wants to limit their consumption and save energy. The overwhelming majority wants more of everything and as cheaply as possible. Farmers in Brazil and Indonesia will not stop clearing rain forests. They want to raise cattle or grow oil palms. Chinese and Indians will not stop burning coal. They need cheap energy.

Therefore it is totally unrealistic to expect a climate agreement in Paris which leads to a temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius. Politicians can negotiate till the cows come home; the great majority does not give a damn about their solemn speeches and declarations. The only hope for humanity is a huge stock market crash; that the current economic system collapses.

Human true nature

Selfish people usually come to the conclusion that human beings are 

selfish by nature. They see selfishness and greed everywhere.
It is normal to be selfish, they say. They believe that friendliness,
helpfulness and love are nothing but covers, a means to a selfish end.

People who are not completely selfish often think that a human being 

is a mixture of good and bad. They feel that they have a little devil
sitting on the left shoulder, whispering in the left ear, and a little angel
sitting on the right shoulder.

Ordinary decent men can be transformed into monsters when they are sent to war
and hardened criminals can repent and change their ways when they find Jesus.

Rabbits are fearful and lions are lazy but what are we made of, really?

Some people believe that human beings, deep down somewhere,
have a true, unconditioned nature, an essence, others believe that we don't.
They believe that we are in constant flux; that nothing in nature is unchanging.

I have no idea about these things. How would I know?
What is your take? What do you think?

Where did you get your beliefs from? Have you listened to a bunch of windbags
on YouTube and made their beliefs your own?  How do you explain that different
teachers have arrived at different conclusions?
Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and atheist teachers produce different explanations?
Why is that so? Have some of them misunderstood something?
What kind of people do you trust, and why?

Who are you?

You have a nationality. You belong to a group or a tribe.
You are a leftist or a rightist, a protestant, a Hindu, a something.
You have a professional role. You have an identity.You are a clown or a crook.
You are a looser or a smart ass. You are an actor in in a play, or in different plays.

However, your character is not You.
You are not Hamlet or Ophelia when you are alone in your bed.
You are not the good girl or the bad boy in the bathtub by yourself.
Who are you, really, when you're alone with yourself;
just sitting here, or lying here, reading this?
Who are you when you are not acting? Who are you, really?