[EN] No comment / [RO] Fără comentarii (35) – Friday, 13 / Vineri, 13

[EN] Around the world, more and more people don’t believe in God… It’s not fashionable anymore… [RO] În întreaga lume, din ce în ce mai mulţi oameni cred în Dumnezeu... nu mai este la modă...

[EN] But as the so-called irrational belief in God fades, crappish beliefs – and surely irrational fears! – flourish. [RO] Dar, pe măsură ce aşa-zisa credinţă iraţională în Dumnezeu se stinge, credinţe prosteşti – şi temeri iraţionale! – înfloresc.

[EN] In many parts of the world, people (albeit ‘civilised’ – not practicing Shamanism or Wicca) are afraid of number 13. [RO] În multe părţi ale lumii, oamenii (altfel ‘civilizaţi’ – nu practicanţi de Shamanism sau Wicca) se tem de numărul 13.

[EN] It’s called triskaidecaphobia. When it’s Friday, 13, the fear is at it’s worst – some don’t even live their houses on such a day. [RO] Se cheamă triskaidecafobie.  Când este vineri 13, frica este cea mai rea – unii nici nu-şi părăsesc casele într-o astfel de zi.

[EN] In New York City, rich people – who would have descrided themselves as rational – were not afraid to rise skyscrapers… [RO] În New York City, oameni bogaţi – care s-ar fi descris drept raţionali – nu s-au temut să ridice zgârie-nori…

[EN] But they did not dare to name a 13th floor… This custom is as alive there as it was at the dawn of the last century. [RO] Dar nu au îndrăznit să numească un al 13-lea etaj. Acest obicei este la fel de viu acolo precum era la început de secol 20.

[EN] From the USA to EU countries and Russia, millions of people live with this fear – in milder or pathological forms. [RO] Din SUA până în ţări UE şi Rusia, milioane de oameni trăiesc cu această frică – în forme mai blânde sau patologice.

[EN] Few of them may be ‘practicing pagans’. Most are blind consumers of popular beliefs, wearing the noose of progress. [EN] Puţini dintre ei or fi ‘păgâni practicanţi’. Cei mai mulţi sunt consumatori orbi de credinţe populare, purtând laţul progresului.

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

God’s place in a humanist society (20) [Locul lui Dumnezeu într-o societate umanistă]

Can a bunch of rocks (be them gemstones), crystals and other objects with ‘magic powers’ offer answers to any of human being’s most burdensome questions?

Do they know where are we coming from and where are we heading to? Should we revere them as our ancestors of billions of years ago?

Can they predict our future, helping us avoid its traps and take advantage of opportunities? Can they lead us on the path to happiness?

Can they make our death, if not avoidable, at least meanigful? Can they take save us or somehow help us save ourseleves from meaninglessness?

What does matter know about our minds, bodies and spirits? Oh, if we were to look through Darwinian horse glasses, maybe it could all make sense!

As long as even our dreams and feelings are but ‘chemical reactions’, as many ‘wise’ scientists say, it appears logical that matter knows more about us than we know ourselves.

There is no God, no ultimate moral authority, there’s but an array of ‘laws of physics’, smart guys like Stephen Hawking claim from the soapbox height of their ‘scientific authority’.

Others, wiser than the above mentioned ‘wise people’, exploit the need for answers or (maybe more likely) for ‘having fun’ of many.

Thus they open stores like this Psyche’s Garden (in St Andrews) selling stones that “alleviate pains,” “dissipate negative emotions” or “facilitate meditation and stimulate the third eye.”

They may not truly believe that Yoga, Shamanic and Wiccan traditions, Tarot, Astrology, and this ‘spiritualised’ Mineralogy, held any valuable answers for mankind.

As business savvy people, they have just find out how to profiteer in a world where ‘spiritual goods’ can be traded like any other things.

It may be profitable enough to sell little stones as if they had any miraculous powers, as if they could open doors for answers to question of spiritual nature.

They don’t. They are all hoaxes of funny ways of killing one’s time, although there’s really nothing fun about wasting time.

The interest in these stones – be it expressed as part of a genuine ‘spiritual quest’ or ‘just for fun’ – only proves how much in need of their Maker people in secular societies are.

There’s an unquenchable thirst for a meaning, for something deeper and greater than all the prefabricated meanings offered as tradabele goods or cultural values.

Sadly, people don’t realize that the meaning of life is but one and there are not alternative choices available, like there are plenty in the consumerist world we are living in.

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]