Prudentius, writing years after Julian's death, proclaimed of him: False to the Lord, although true to the world

An apt summary of humanism. I love it.

Thank you Julian! May your tribe continue to increase.

My favorite Roman Emperor, Flavius Julianus, was a true philosopher king. Though trained in Christianity, he rejected its exclusivism and advocated the resurgence of the 'pagan' cults. The 'bearded one' also threw his support into a campaign to rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

He is the kind of leader we need for such a time as this, when militant, angry fundamentalist Christianity threatens to create a new theocracy in America.

May God bless to our lives the memory of his short life!!

If there were such a place or thing as 'hell', then the lowest rung would be reserved for this SOB--Flavius Theodosius, Spanish General who was appointed Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire by Gratian.

To him we owe the finalization of the church-state merger, based on his decree that anything contrary to Nicean theology (Jesus=God) was to be accounted heresy. On his watch Arian Christians (and Jews) were persecuted; buildings destroyed and dogma enforced.

Religion kills folks dead

I'm nearing the end of my patience with American Christianity. It is the enemy of progress. It is a bleached sepulchre containing only dead bones. It is the milstone hanging around my neck.

My soul is dead today. And there is good reason for progressives to feel so. Our country follows the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, false prophets of the religious and political right. Even the mainline churches are stuck in the sediment of past traditions, proclaiming a theology of the past, no longer relevant or appealing to enlightened minds.

What enlightened person could possibly think that God could mate with a human virgin? (What was it like for Mary? Did she orgasm? Did her hymen break? Was there blood on the sheets? What was it like for the Holy Spirit? Did the Spirit achieve orgasim? Did He have a smoke afterward?) The virgin birth worked for early Christians living before they knew anything about sperm, eggs and zygotes. It certainly doesn't work for us today. It yields the kind of ridiculous musings I've just joked about. It is unappealing, even dangerous baggage from the past. Should we go on to mention original sin, substitutionary atonement, the deity of Jesus, the bodily resurrection? Certainly Christians have better things to do than shovel this compost.

It would be so refreshing to be surrounded by curious minds, open to new experiences and new expressions of the soul.

There is an incredible amount of prejudice in Evansville, IN. Mention Hispanics and inpenetrable walls go up. They are 'illegal aliens', and they 'don't speak the right language' are the common rejoinders.

I tire of American exceptionalism. It is not just uncivil; it is immoral. I'm tired of borders and politics, and the dehumanization of all 'outsiders' by American imperialists. It's sad that Christians are fooled by this nonsense. In my judgment, American Christians are more American than they are Christian. They worship Caesar, not Christ. Or perhaps it's better to say that they worship Caesar (the United States) as the Christ. The Kingdom of God is borderless, and it transcends all rights and prerogatives of any nation.

I continue to tire of American Christianity. It is completely vacuous.