Religion often is misused for purely power-political goals, including war.
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Children of Our Age
We are children of our age,
it's a political age.
All day long, all through the night,
all affairs--yours, ours, theirs--
are political affairs.
Whether you like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin, a political cast,
your eyes, a political slant.
Whatever you say reverberates,
whatever you don't say speaks for itself.
So either way you're talking politics.
Even when you take to the woods,
you're taking political steps
on political grounds.
Apolitical poems are also political,
and above us shines a moon
no longer purely lunar.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
And though it troubles the digestion
it's a question, as always, of politics.
To acquire a political meaning
you don't even have to be human.
Raw material will do,
or protein feed, or crude oil,
or a conference table whose shape
was quarreled over for months;
Should we arbitrate life and death
at a round table or a square one?
Meanwhile, people perished,
animals died,
houses burned,
and the fields ran wild
just as in times immemorial
and less political.
poem by Wislawa Szymborska

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance.
quote by Vaclav Havel

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A cult is a religion with no political power.
A cult is a religion with no political power
God As Opium Of The People
one of the greatest misunderstood
quotations in all of human history
derived from an attempt
to examine religion from
a purely objective focus a
new scientific perspective
so what is the new yardstick?
this new analysis and critique
class religion; quoted by theist
and atheist to impress masses
The true origin of famous quotation
religion is the “opium of the masses”
is as we shall see; far more complex;
than generally commonly portrayed! ! !
Marx defined religion by only
two primary criteria; divisible
as materialism related analysis;
an expression as either material
realities or as economic injustice
Marx claims problems in religion
are ultimately problems in society;
a medically examined; probing test
reference would be; ‘religion is not
the disease, but merely a symptom’
Marx’s criticism of religion; was
it is exploited; by the oppressors
to make the people pliable accept
distressing; experiences; endured;
due to poverty; social exploitation! ! !
funny how when men achieve great deeds;
they claim all credit; while resultant action
consequences of all errors; of induced greed;
is all political propaganda blamed on Creator
poem by Terence George Craddock

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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
quote by Robert A. Heinlein

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In every society in human history, including the United States, those in power seek to imbue themselves with the attributes of religion and patriotism as a way of getting greater support for their policy and insulating themselves from any criticism.
quote by George J. Mitchell

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I would find myself backing away from all of the ""isms,"" all of the communities. I have always been able to be misused by every community But that is OK. I would rather be misused than neglected.
quote by Anthony Braxton

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Despite my emphasis on technology, I do not view laws as inherently evil. My goals are political ones, even if my techniques are not. The only way to fundamentally succeed is by changing existing laws. If I rejected all help from the political arena I would inevitably fail.
quote by Bram Cohen

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Concept
Do I need power
In spreading my ideas
And what is the definition of power
Coercion
Deceit
Brute power
This all leads to degeneration
Spread the ideas
With the power of love
Make a new path
Let the common intelligence
Rise and say
What is true and what is wrong
Let the people be free
To collectively and individually
Decide
Their present
Define their past
And set goals
For their future
What is then my contribution
To make a paradise of ideas
For achieving the goals
Whom I am addressing
Who is my audience
Where should I preach love
And who should lead every one towards the path
poem by Sadiqullah Khan

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Behold Changing Faces Of Persecution
The history of religious persecution
the names honour roll of martyrs
who have died for their faith
goes back thousands of years
crosses countries continents
genders all sections of societies
religions like new boys on the block
suffer pain martyrdom as faith price
emergent religions begin to rise
are eliminated or rise to dominance
when if power political control
is attained so often comes the turn
abuse of power distortion of prophets
original message tolerant love peace
becomes distorted by those who use
religion to further agenda political
need to convert control dominate
becomes crusades wars international
conflict as despots annex land claims
empires resource need oils aggression
political pretext is always righteous
war on terror to protect nations freedoms.
poem by Terence George Craddock

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If you make the unconditional commitment to reach your most important goals, if the strength of your decision is sufficient, you will find the way and the power to achieve your goals.
quote by Robert Conklin

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Wasteland
Out into the wasteland
Out into the wasteland
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion at all
No religion
Emissionary man amongst the heathen
Cant you see a modern primitive
I came back, Im gonna find,
Im gonna give religion
When there was, no religion at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion, no religion at all
Theres a man in need of resurrection
(no religion)
Cant you see a modern primitive
(no religion)
But Im a man I need my love and
Freedom (no religion)
When there was no freedom at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion at all
No religion
No religion at all
In vr land
The future of fun
Tell me what to do
In vr law
Computer crime
Um, so sublime
A fantasy scene
In my machine
Give me secret of life
Let me know, yeah, what I am
And you know that I could get
Outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion, no religion at all
Im outta the wasteland
So far from the the deadland
Ow, Im outta the wasteland
No religion, no religion yeah
Im outta the wasteland
So far from the the deadland
Yeah, Im outta the wasteland
No religion, no religion at all
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion at all
No religion at all
No religion
song performed by by Billy Idol

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It is economic power that determines political power, and governments become the political functionaries of economic power.
quote by Jose Saramago

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I think the real problem for American religion are those minority of fundamentalists who try to identify political policies with religion.
quote by Andrew Greeley

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Truth is here
Truth is here in the history
In the civilisation fully
Resumed and it is a poem.
The relation we have made
With the stone with the flower
With the bird with the sky
Not ours.
The truth is in our
Poetic world ours only ours
And we move forward
In search of another world
That is purely poetic
Purely in truth
Purely in peace
Purely in harmony.
poem by Gajanan Mishra

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It's very simple. If the American people care about a lot of things including corruption in government, then, in fact, if you use the power to appoint in order to do political business, to clear fields, to save your party money and so on, if it's not a crime - and I believe it is - it certainly is business as usual, politics of corruption.
quote by Darrell Issa

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When the modern corporation acquires power over markets, power in the community, power over the state and power over belief, it is a political instrument, different in degree but not in kind from the state itself. To hold otherwise — to deny the political character of the modern corporation — is not merely to avoid the reality. It is to disguise the reality. The victims of that disguise are the students who instruct in error. Let there be no question: economics, so long as it is thus taught, becomes, however unconsciously, a part of the arrangement by which the citizen or student is kept from seeing how he or she is, or will be, governed.
quote by John Kenneth Galbraith

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Sonnet: Misuse of Power
Oh, how power is misused in this world!
To subjugate the weaker-willed of men;
How power corrupts most men manifold!
Making men slaves; gain wealth, subdue the pen.
Power suppresses the poorer nations,
Kicking them off the arms-race forever;
Power wins all wars and decrees sanctions,
Steals money/ land/ food in ways cleverer
Power can win the hearts of beauteous dames,
By threatening punishment in dire ways;
Separating friends/it can win most games,
And bring wars to end within fewer days
Power rules, yet misrules men in this world,
And can bring anyone into its fold.
poem by John Celes

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You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it is going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, its always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
quote by Robert M. Pirsig

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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