2006-10-02

Rental Capsule vs. Neutral Places

Although I lack the patience to create anagrams by hand, I enjoy using online anagram generators to discover alternate arrangements of letters of names of people and organizations. Due to its moderate length and the absence of uncommon letters, the name of this blog is rich with possibilities and may be rearranged into several interesting anagrams. I recently found two which deserve special comment because they represent the two opposing worldviews which are its focus of discussion and which may be found in this post's title.

Rental Capsule
This anagram represents religion. In religions with a heaven, such as Christianity and Islam, life on this planet is seen as nothing more than a temporary testing-ground for eternity. In religions with reincarnation, such as Hinduism, life is seen as nothing more as a temporary testing-ground for a future life. As such, in either case, our lives are disposable and of limited worth. Such a devaluation of human life creates an apathy toward suffering in this world and a willingness to sacrifice this life for the false promise of another life. Rental capsule thus represents theists' attitude toward their bodies and their planet.

Neutral Places
This anagram represents secularism. Religion has been a major source of violence throughout history to this very day. Religion is primary point of antagonism in Palestine (Jews vs. Muslims), Iraq (Sunnis vs. Shiites), Northern Ireland (Catholics vs. Protestants), Kashmir (Hindus vs. Muslims), Sri Lanka (Buddhists vs. Hindus), Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Indonesia and the Philippines (Christians vs. Muslims), the Balkans (Catholics vs. Orthodox vs. Muslims), and the Caucasus (Catholics vs. Orthodox vs. Muslims). Let us not forget that religion is also the primary motivation behind Islamic terrorism which has struck too many nations to list. Communism in China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba, promoted as irrationally and as dogmatically as any authentic religion, is the other significant source of tension and potential violence in our world. Imagine, however, a world in which these memes have all vanished: a peaceful and harmonious existence emerges as people begin to see each other as human persons and not as infidels whose very existence offends their gods. Religion is the disease and secularism is the cure. Neutral places thus represents a truly secular planet, free from religion and superstition.

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