Devil is waiting!

Religion photo by Frizztext

70% of Americans believe in the devil as a Gallup Poll found out: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/what-percent-of-americans-believe-in-the-devil/

I am an atheist. No God, no devil waiting for me. Fairy tales for children. But for adults? Please give a better education, maybe a little Greek philosophy, Socrates, Epicurus? Or German philosophy, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx? Maybe then not 70% of US citizens believe, that there a devil is waiting for some of us? Nor 70 virgins, as Muslim terrorists hope?

me, writing about Epicurus, for example:
It is the shabby trade of the denominations and religion bureaucracies, that they (with infiltrated awe for God and the beyond) again and again try to stir up and bedevils naive humans: Epicurus (341 – 270 BC) wanted to cut those puppet works. In the today’s fundamentalist meets (“in the sky”, the Taliban suicide assassins are instructed (swindled), “you will get seven virgins for reward”) religious stir-up-neighborhoods and other morass know how to produce foolish terrorists. The scholars barely can be waiting to enter the promised life after death. “The Clash Of The Civilizations” (Samuel P. Huntington) since September 11 made a worse climax, 2300 years after Epicurus – and this completely uninfluenced by any realizations of Greek philosophy. One could generally doubt, if philosophy is able at all, to clear up brains. Fortunately in parts of Western cultures and counter-cultures however fragments of Epicurism, Skepticism and Stoicism are still living on. Epicurus (with honorable persistence) tried to weaken the fear of Gods and their punishment-actions and the awe concerning the certain coming death (all animals fate) – and on the other hand he recommended to keep a distance to the political scene (which too often is involved into corruption or riot, filled with hollow slogans or hate-sermons).

photo of a priest by frizztext

He preferred not to work on public places but only in his lovely garden, talking to a handful of well-known friends. This conception requires to proof not only the habits of a sensible life-style but more deeper the patterns of personal identity and the consciousness of using time. “A free live is not able to acquire much money , because this is not easy to get without being serviceable to the rich or the mediocre people …” Epicurus wrote – and he is not frightened at the opulence deficit. “The voice of our bodies: do not be hungry, thirsty, cold!” Indeed, some non-European, i.e. African nations are demonstrating persistently to the rest of the world, how to overcome with low costs – without loosing dignity. Today, an Epicurean is thought of as an exhausted wine-sipping decadent, practicing unalloyed hedonism and wild orgies, sex and drugs and rock and roll. This is completely wrong. Pleasure is defined by Epicurus as the avoidance of pain and passion, of mania and addiction, is defined as a stabilization of emotions. Epicurus preached as a goal of our mortal life to minimize our excitements and anxieties, dependencies and crazes. Not an everlasting carnival was intended, but calmness as a lifestyle. Of course not a cramped indigence and having of no wants combined with self-punishment and self-indebted hate-the-own-body-attitude. Few philosophers have been more maligned and underappreciated. Epicurus still delivers important annotations. A last one: “You must comprehend the fact, that a long and a short statement are able to reach the same aim.” I hope so.

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