Mercy and the Saints

Health care, science and medicine. And governance. They are enormously vast topics. I'm reading the American Heart Association's annual report, and I want to make note of some of the donors. Shine a light.

Mercy Health System, Janesville, WI
Mercy Iowa City
Mercy Hospital & Medical Center
Mercy Hospital of Portland
Mercy Medical Center

Mount Carmel Health System
Mount Sinai Heart
Mount Sinai Medical Center - CT Surgery
Mount Sinai School of Medicine Office of the Dean

UnityPoint-St. Luke’s Hospital
St. Helena Adventist Health
St. John Medical Center, Tulsa, OK
St. Joseph Health System, Sonoma County
St. Joseph Medical Center, Tacoma, WA
St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, Syracuse, NY
St. Mary’s Medical Center, Huntington, WV
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center, Missoula, MT
St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings, MT
St. Vincent’s Health System - Jacksonville

Saint Francis Hospital Inc.
Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, Reno, NV

People get the idea, right? There must be a reason why such "elite" establishments align and identify themselves with the Saints. And concepts like .. mercy.

Want to know what I think is SO funny?

Ever walk into a hospital or clinic or something, and notice the hand sanitizer right at the doorway? As soon as you walk in?

lol

Want to know what that makes me think of? HOLY WATER. When you walk into a Catholic Church (or other Churches too, I don't know) there's Holy Water to bless yourself.

And I also see hand sanitizer handi-wipes at the doorway of grocery stores and some pharmacies. I think it's HILARIOUS! It makes me laugh. Not in a sinister way. But I think it's very amusing. Fun. Joyful. I *like* hand sanitizer. lol

Anyway, whatever. I just think if people are going to hate and rage against religious people and religions and God .. and hold all these hateful, contemptuous ideas and concepts in their heads .. then know what you're hating. Then I challenge people to ask themselves if there's WAY MORE to the story than they're aware of. Because there is.

Good Friday.

 

To disagree with something is not necessarily to hate it.

 

Almost all your posts are about being hated on... Just saying. Ever heard of the self fulfilling prophecy?

 

I'm not talking about disagreement. I'm talking about societal, cultural hatred.

In regard to disagreement, I prefer discussions and conversations. That is a unique position because most people are conditioned and prone to *argue* and debate. I can't relate or vibe with that. I can get hooked into it, but I prefer something better.

 

Really? A unique position? Aren't you special

 

Discussion and debate - I can't really see the fine nuances of difference between the two, other than 'debate' sounds a bit more formal.

If people just agreed 100% with each other all the time, life would be very boring, and probably things would become very static.

 

The topic of this thread is Mercy and the Saints. I talked about an observation I've made. Did that interest you?

St. Joseph, St. Mary .. open for discussion and conversation. Mercy .. open for discussion and conversation.

 

Mercy is a good quality for human beings. Few sensible people would deny that.

As for the parallel between holy water and hand gel, I'd have to say that the first one is probably less effective than the second at preventing the spread of bacteria. To me, holy water seems like a bit of hocus pocus, and many protestant types would not like the idea much either I suspect.
But that said, it's an idea people have had in various cultures for millenia. Hindus have believed for a very long time that the water of the Ganges is sacred for example. The river is highly polluted and filthy, but the Sadhus bathe in it every day. Having one's ashes sprinkled on the Ganges after cremation is considered to guarantee liberation or a better birth next time.

Here in the UK we have out national health service, and hospitals are rarely named after saints. Everyone pays via taxation, so it's not left up to charitable institutions to fund healthcare for the masses.

 

It is developing that antibacterials are producing hardier strains. Acquired immunity works for everyone. Water by itself is a sufficient solvent and dilution, flooding, is as effective as restriction in keeping proportions low.

 

Don't drink the yellow holy water.

 

"Expect poison from the standing water" - William Blake 'The Proverbs of Hell'.

 

It is like a prenuptial agreement reserving the right to bow out without seeming unable or unwilling to reason further. A request we not be held accountable but respond graciously for the accounting all the same. I don't think it is a unique position but one that recognizes sometimes it's better to be happy than right.

 

Makes sense to me. Being right feels really really good, but not when you're chronically unhappy because of it.

 

"He who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet"[/I], (feet are the terrain or world model you walk upon,)
- jesus of Nazareth 'the new testament', (translation thedope)

 

A good interpretation.

I'd always thought it meant something like to get the underlying basics right, the foundation, and everything else follows on from that. But it's the same thing. If one has an imbalanced or narrow or otherwise skewed model of the world, nothing built up on that basis is likely to have much real value or endurance.

Blake's thing about 'poison from the standing water' is open to interpretation.
By standing water he may well mean ideologies which have been around too long and descended into dogma and ritual. Traditional conservative modes of thinking and seeing the world, which only tend really to obscure the direct experience of the moment. Even a true glimpse of eternity. That would fit with Blake's idea about the need for creative energy and inspiration.

 

It is easy for me to see hospitals and clinics, grocery stores and pharmacies as mini "churches", of sorts. Not as houses of worship, but that they're engaged in a practice very similar to Churches. In other words, the practice of ritual or blessings .. and cleanliness is Godliness .. is replicating from one house to another. Quite an observation I've made, but I'm not competing.

You think blessings are "hocus pocus"?

Masaru Emoto’s Water Crystal Experiments



Are hospitals and science becoming more religious or are they extensions of religion? Do people think they're only exploiting religion, for profit? I'm not the one who named the hospitals. I just point it out.

Those who are against religions and God (which are super enormously vast, broad subjects) should consider the evidence of hospitals named after Saints.

Christ was a healer. God is a healer. Many people with various titles and names of identity are healers.

The world is never going to be devoid of God and religions (or governments, for that matter!). If people can see, the medical establishment is not entirely separate from what is most closely associated with religion (Saints). And that is worthy of honest thought, for the purpose of understanding. In the name of Peace, not war.

If people want to fight a war against God and religions, and religious people, they should realize who and what they're fighting against. To the average person in society, both religion and government are bad. There are more examples of what is bad and wrong and less examples of what is right and good.

When I think of Mercy, I think of God. But it seems to me that in some parallel universe somewhere, Mercy sits at the bottom of a septic tank .. buried beneath a mountain a human ignorance, hatred and bullshit. The ruthless, the merciless and the barbaric. No hand sanitizer to be found and certainly no blessings. How terrible.

As for the Saints, and why certain ones were chosen .. to me, that's a great question.

 

I chose the jesus statement it because it appeared to me to be similar to the blake statement and in keeping with the washing to deal with infectious or toxic agents theme.

 

I think we cannot escape the effects of our own thinking.

because when the saints come marching in you would like to be one of their number.

 

Shops and pharmacies exist to make a profit for the owners. Also, they actually sell material objects which are useful or even necessary. Churches too are businesses no doubt.

.

Personally I have no wish to fight a war against anyone, religious or otherwise. However, I do feel free to criticize things if I see grounds for criticism, including religions. That doesn't mean I hate religious people, or want to do them down. I am not religious, but I don't reject the whole thing of spirituality. It doesn't have to come via organized religion as such.

The thing with mercy, is that in this world it's completely in the hands of human beings. Some may be merciful because they believe in one or another religion, others because they have humanist values which abhor cruelty and violence.

You say saints are 'chosen' - but how about others too? Great artists, composers, scientists? Maybe it's the usual combination of genetic inheritance and neural imprinting that makes such a one, maybe more than that. Nobody knows for certain.

I wouldn't deny that in past history, some saints played a significant role. Only someone ignorant of history would make such a claim.
My feeling though is that we now live in a different age in which the world has become globalized. The closed cultural systems of the middle ages that allowed for saints to have a major impact no longer exist.
In this present world I think it's actually dangerous that we have these different religions like Christianity and Islam which really, behind ideas of ecumenism etc are actually quite incompatible and hostile to each other.

There's absolutely no chance that Christianity, Islam or any of the other old religions is going to attain world domination. So I think we need new forms of spirituality which are more direct and less bound up in historical conflicts and unswerving dogmas.

As you can see I've taken time here to try in part to explain myself. I hope it helps.

Beelzebub.

 

I will speak for myself, thank you. Only I know my nature, my reasons and purposes.

The vast majority of people, by conditioning and habit, argue and debate (I see the word debt in debate, but that's beside the point). In my view, argue and debate is fundamentally illogical. If the foundation has flaws, the outcome is going to be less than ideal.

Here is an example:

From World Without Torture,

ABOUT US

The greatest threat to the fight against torture is apathy: that we silently accept that torture exists.

I see that statement as fundamentally incorrect. Let's apply a famous idea:

Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

If words become actions, then fighting torture, fighting against torture, is extremely illogical.

Does Humanity have a habit of fighting? I think the answer is yes.

Is Peace Humanity's destiny?

Not when our language is slain and twisted, like Noam Chomsky points out in his example of libertarian. We need to perfect our language if we are going to do good in the world.

I do not like argue, debate and fighting because they are more destructive .. less constructive. Unless you're competing to win or making war, war, war.

How can World Without Torture's statement be re-written so that it scientifically, mathematically allows for the goal and intended solution to manifest? Remember, words are creation.