Do you believe that Religion is a negative force?

Are you opposed to brainwashing kids?

Do you believe that religion has held back development?

Do you think that religion is misogynistic?

Do you believe atheists can be as moral as believers?

Do you believe in an interventionist god?

Do you think all religions were created by people?

What do you think about the thousands of religions that have died out?

How many gods have there been?

Is there a difference between religion and spirituality?

You might find these books interesting:

Antitheist’s Dictionary: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798389994171: Books

This book consists of definitions of religious words interpreted by a cynical antitheist. While hilarious it is sacrilegious, offensive and controversial. If you are religious and easily offended then I suggest you steer well clear. If you are not religious (or are of a less sensitive nature to your more serious religious colleagues) then dip in and have a laugh along with me. However, I should warn you; I have serious intent as well. I view religion as a social menace that should be kept clear of children, schools and the State. I believe history has shown religion to be a major source of evil worldwide. I believe it creates war, misogyny, torture, hypocrisy, exploitation, bigotry and hatred. There is little good that ever comes out of it. I hope all religion withers away naturally. Until then I respect your right to believe in whatever brand of superstition you wish – just as long as you do not try to force it on anyone else!

The Antitheist’s Bible: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798391606536: Books

A controversial, blasphemous novel full of sacrilege and irreverence, laced with pathos and humour. One man struggles with the death of his mother, retirement from a career he loves and a desire to do something with the remainder of his life. He moves towards retirement while wrestling with the hypocrisy of religion, its power and wealth. He wants to expose the rotten heart of manmade religion.
Jihads, Crusades, Evangelists, ISIS, Religious Fanatics, Brainwashing, Pogroms, the Holocaust, Burqas, Torture, Heretics, Inquisitions, Witch-Hunts, Misogyny, Daft Costumes, Rules and Dogma, Terrorism, Life After Death, Heaven, Hell, Satan, Fear, Bibles, Torah, Koran, Persecution, Anti-Semitism, the Taliban, Control and Intrigue – that’s the religion we have created. He’s sick of it.
He wants to write, to travel and read; to live. In his eyes the world is full of wonder and awe. He sees a huge difference between religion and spirituality.
The first book he will write will be an expose of the power-struggle, brainwashing and greed that is organised religion. It will be called The Antitheist’s Bible.
This is that story.

The Book of Ginny: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781500890742: Books

WARNING – Sexually Explicit and Religiously Dangerous! This book is a sexually explicit expose of religion. If you are easily offended by sex or hold strong religious views I suggest you read no further. Ginny was a young party girl with a close group of friends. Life was good. She had a job she enjoyed and her world was fun. There was the round of parties, clubs, dancing, drugs and sex that provided the spice. Apart from one or two ‘aggravations’ such as getting herself prosecuted for shoplifting life was pretty sorted. Then came the voices and life would never be the same. She had been chosen and instructed to spread the word. Ginny put the world of sex, drugs and dancing behind her and embarked upon the task of delivering the new gospel to the world. At first it seemed to go so well but then she discovered that there were many with vested interests who were not so enamoured with any new revelations. They had a battle on their hands.

The Teachings of White Eagle: Amazon.co.uk: Forsyth, Lewis Fraser, Goodwin, Opher: 9781790978670: Books

As I understand it, White Eagle was a Native North American Chief who specialised in healing and led a spirit team of healers, including Uncas. He had ‘passed over’ to the spirit world hundreds of years before. He was one of a number of benevolent spirits who worked through my Grandfather. He is quite a renowned spirit teacher and healer. There is an active White Eagle Lodge with branches in the UK, Ireland and worldwide. I presume this is the same White Eagle that my Grandfather ‘worked’ with.

These are the teaching of White Eagle as dictated from the spirit world through my grandfather Lewis Fraser Forsyth.

Forever

Forever

The sky goes on forever.

                There was a beginning

                                There will be an end.

The end will go on forever.

We enter into forever

                For a short while

We see forever

                We live in forever

But only for a short while.

We invent

                We think

                                We solve problems

But we cannot understand.

Forever is always beyond us.

Opher 22.8.2024

Because we find some things, like infinity and the evolution of consciousness, impossible for us to grasp we make things up.

We live in an infinite universe. We glimpse a little of it. We are able to see and think.

We do not know where the universe came from or where it is going. We theorise on Big Bangs and distant entropy in which the stars all go out and the universe becomes cold, dark hydrogen.

We theorise about evolution and the astounding development of consciousness and intelligence.

In the midst of infinity we live for a brief moment.

We find these ideas so astounding, so complex, so vast that we cannot understand.

Our brains are wired to assume everything has a purpose.

So we invent simplistic answers. We invent gods, devils, fairies and magic kingdoms. We find that more comforting.

But we are really adrift in the midst of forever.

Every second we have is precious. It’s all we have.

We’re a chemical scum – nothing more!!

So many people spend their life wishful thinking. It’s a flaw in our chemistry. We are genetically programmed to look for patterns and reasons. It’s a survival gene. Unfortunately, you can build stone circles, cathedrals, temples and mosques; you can invent thousands of gods, you can devote yourself to prayer – but that doesn’t manufacture an afterlife or any deity who will rescue you from danger. Hard luck!! Time we lived in the present and appreciated the wonders around us. Then we might look after it a lot better!

Bali – Glorious land of temples, beaches and crowds.

We set off from our hotel to explore and endd up in a restaurant where were had an extremely cheap fabulous fish meal and beer. A fabulous day.

Gods, Men and When – a poem about dead religions

I wrote this poem after walking through the temple of Karnak in Egypt recently and then visiting the glorious technicoloured tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

I was standing among the dead Gods and faith of the past.

This is another poem from my 8th book of poetry which will be appearing in print shortly.

Gods, Men and When

Dead gods and decaying pharaohs

Amid heaps of rock

Under a searing sun

Where it hardly ever rains.

 

Lost beliefs and faith

Strong enough to build empires,

Now buried in sand,

Slipping between the grains.

 

Such colossal majesty and splendour,

Built on sand

Without foundation.

 

Such fantastic effort and sacrifice,

Based on hope,

Binding a nation.

 

Such is the way of gods and men

They come and go,

Leave their mark

And vanish in the when.

 

Opher 21.4.2017

 

 

Gods, Men and When

 

It always seems to me that we never learn from the mistakes of the past or see ourselves in people who have gone before.

The mighty Egyptian empire was based around a philosophy that bound them together – that there was a god who had to be worshipped and sacrificed to, that the priests and pharaohs were special and had divine powers and had to be obeyed.

The religion unified the nation. The monuments, temples and tombs are testament to the power of that religion and the pharaohs. Huge enterprises, trade and war were undertaken merely in order to satisfy the gods. Massive expenditures of time, effort, manpower and resources were placed into building those tombs, statues, obelisks, pyramids, sphinxes and temples. Thousands, maybe millions died to complete them. Did the pharaohs really believe the lavish arrangements were the key to the afterlife? Or did they serve to denote power, solidify the status, impress enemies, and subjugate the people?

Who knows?

What we do know is that those gods and beliefs no longer hold sway. All that sacrifice, energy and effort was hollow. They were not real gods and that was not the way to the afterlife. Thousands of years, lives and sacrifice down the drain.

Yet we still appoint Kings and Bishops, Imams and Emperors, Popes and Dictators and create new gods to worship. Gods that are the real ones this time. Gods that will last for ever. Gods that demand sacrifice, worship and ever bigger temples, cathedrals, mosques and churches.

I cannot help thinking that a lot more could be achieved if we were to work out that the kings, bishops, imams, emperors, dictators, popes and the rest are just ordinary people, just like us, with inflated egos and a heap of psychological problems, that there is no god demanding that we dress in a certain way, pray five times a day and worship in peculiar manner, neither is there any afterlife. Then perhaps we could put our energies into a more equal society and do away with poverty, ignorance and the superrich and overly powerful.

We never seem to learn from the past.