Sunday, August 08, 2010

Reflections on the Ninth of August

By Gary G. Kohls
August 8, 2010

On the 9th of August 1945, an all-Christian B-29 bomber crew took off from Tinian Island in the South Pacific with the blessings of Catholic and Protestant chaplains.

Read on.

7 comments:

Morton Kurzweil said...

What is the lesson of this morality play? Is it that God exists, or that belief is the creator?
Good and evil are founded on the certainty that morality and ethics are derived from truth in religious teaching. Knowledge of truth and lies requires intellect, not the emotional commitment to social acceptance.
Where was God in Auschwitz? Where was God during the genocide of Japanese Catholics?
God is the idealized expression of a culture, the identity of a social belief.

Anonymous said...

Even the finest teaching is not the Tao itself.
Even the finest name is insufficient to define it.
Without words, the Tao can be experienced,
and without a name, it can be known.

rosemerry said...

Thanks Gary! I have also been reading the story of photographer Dorothea Lange, who recorded the treatment of Japanese-americans, 100 000 of whom, down to 4 generations born in the USA, were imprisoned, deprived of all their goods, vilified and had their lives destroyed by the bigotry against Japan after Pearl Harbour. It is easy to criticise other countries, but I do not know how Japan could ever forgive the USA for its barbaric acts on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Anonymous said...

If there is no God, then there is no sin (think about it).

What then?. We have our humanity to fall back on?. But taken as a whole, we know that that doesn`t exist (note, no question mark there).

Back to God then...Its all we have left.

Anonymous said...

"but I do not know how Japan could ever forgive the USA for its barbaric acts on August 6 and 9, 1945."

What about all the "barbaric acts" of Japan.

There is no Japan, there is no USA...All there is on this world are human beings. We are all one family. We have all been brainwashed into believing in concepts that don`t exist. By making up concepts, feeds the dark side of our primeval impulses, while completely damping down our intellectual reasoning. Primeval impulses are still more powerful then our intellectual reasoning. Mankind is still in a kind of evolutionary flux. Its a long,long road, I wonder is mankind will allow himself to reach the end????.

John L.Opperman said...

It is the so-called "Leaders" who go to war for greed and the arrogance of power over others, using every lie and deceit, sending duped people, intentionally kept ignorant by these same criminal "leaders", to their death, the goal is to destroy humanity and awareness of all the is rational and decent.
In every case, god's religions/religion's gods is the cheerleader to the horrors and misery of both/all sides.

Unless and until...? we come to our senses and establish self-rule, the evil of the establishment will continue until life itself will be unable to continue.
~John L

Anonymous said...

I COME AND STAND BY EVERY DOOR
(THE LITTLE GIRL)

I come and stand at every door
but none can hear my silent tread.
I knock and yet remain unseen
for I am dead, for I am dead.

I'm only seven tho' I died
in Hiroshima long ago.
I'm seven now as I was then
when children die they do not grow.

My hair was scorched by swirling flame,
my eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind.
Death came and turned my bones to dust,
and that was scattered by the wind.

I need no fruit, I need no rice,
I need no sweets or even bread.
I ask for nothing for myself,
for I am dead, for I am dead.

All that I ask is that for peace
you fight today, you fight today,
so that the children of the world
may live and grow and laugh and play.

Nazım Hikmet [1956]

http://tinyurl.com/343k78d