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Wherever you come near the human race theres layers and layers of nonsense.
"Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep."
"Human vanity can best be served by a reminder that, whatever his accomplishments, his sophistication, his artistic pretension, man owes his very existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains."
Paul Brand wrote in the March 4, 1983 issue of "Christianity Today:"
Blood spatters the pages of mythology and of history. Drinking it gives strength and new life: to the ghosts of the dead in The Odyssey, to the Roman epileptics who dashed onto the floor of the Coliseum to quaff the blood of dying gladiators, to Kenya’s Masai tribesmen who still celebrate feast days by drinking blood freshly drawn from a cow or goat.
In early history, blood assumed a mysterious, almost sacred, aura in human relations. An oath held more power than a person’s word, but blood made a contract nearly inviolable. The ancients, unashamed to act out the physical literality of their symbols, would sometimes seal blood contracts by cutting themselves and mingling their blood.
We moderns inherit quaint symbolic tokens of the intrinsic mystery of blood: a wedding ring on the "/leech finger," which was believed to contain a vein that led directly to the heart, or perhaps a child’s game of "blood brothers" in which two participants solemnly and unhygienically act out their undying loyalty. We echo misconceptions, too, when we use such terms as "pure blood," "mixed blood," "blood relations," harking back to the days when blood was assumed to be the substance of heredity.
Even after blood has been analyzed in laboratories and demythologized, it still retains some power, if only in the queasy feeling it evokes when we see it shed. There is something horribly unnatural—to some, physically nauseating-about watching the juice of life seep uncontrollably out of a living body. No wonder religions throughout history have exalted blood to sacral status. A ravaging plague, a minor drought, a desire to triumph over enemies, a decoy for the gods’ anger—anythi...
Dr. Scott Peck wrote a book titled, “People of the Lie.” Early in the book Peck tells one of the stories form his counseling practice that helped lead him to see that evil is a genuine reality in the world. He calls it, “The Case of Bobby and His Parents.” Bobby was a 15 year old boy who was sent by the court to see Dr. Peck because his grades in school were falling. He was depressed and he had an accident with a stolen car. Dr. Peck met with Bobby and heard his story. After meeting with Bobby a few times, Dr. Peck was alarmed by what he saw. He was even more alarmed by what he heard. He learned that Bobby’s older brother, Stuart, had committed suicide in June of the previous year. Stuart had shot himself in the head with a .22 caliber rifle. Stuart’s suicide had clearly been the cause for Bobby’s academic slide and personal depression. But there was more. At Christmas time Bobby’s parents gave him a .22 rifle. “Isn’t that the same kind of gun your brother used to kill himself?” an amazed Dr. Peck said to Bobby. “It wasn’t the same kind of gun,” Bobby replied. “It is the same gun.” Dr. Peck was stunned. Bobby’s parents were all but telling him to commit suicide too. Dr. Peck called the parents to this office. They seemed to be quite normal, blue collar, church going, and hard working people. Dr. Peck confronted them with their deed. “Don’t you see that giving Bobby this gun is like telling him to go out and kill himself?” Dr. Peck inquired. The parents, Dr. Peck tells us, could see no such thing. They were blind to the consequences of their own deeds. In his continued work with Bobby and his parents Dr. Peck began to formulate the thesis that these parents were evil people. Bobby was in the clutches of evil powers. This evil resided in his parents. They were people who could simply not tell the truth about themselves. This is Dr. Peck’s definition of evil. Evil people deceive others by building layer upon layer of self-deception around them. Evil people are not the same as sinful people. It is not their sins in themselves that distinguish between evil people and sinful people (everyone is sinful). The differe...
Greed cost you more than you know. Here is how, by greed, an Eskimo catches a wolf.
The Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. He then adds layer upon layer of blood, until the frozen blood completely conceals the blade. The hunter next fixes the knife in the ground with the blade up. A wolf smells the blood and when he discovers the bait he licks it, tasting the fresh-frozen blood. He licks faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder, the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. In his mad craving for blood, he does not notice the razor-sharp sting of t...
