The Big Issues: Anyone up for a Game of End-Times Bingo?

I'm an avowed atheist, but apart from occasional lapses, I try to limit my anti-supernatualist "preaching" to light-hearted piss-taking of thick-skinned religious friends.

Wherever we sit within the many spectra of faith systems though, a conscious concern for Sustainable Human Flourishing forces reflection on the positives and negatives of religion… For me this is especially true at times like this when such madness is again on display in places like Cairo and Benghazi - insanity that has reached my adopted home of Belgium and even as far away as my erstwhile secular homeland of Australia. At times like this, I must pause to reflect on the potential for religious extremism to affect those that I love.

I have to say though, that while I consider religiously motivated terrorism to be a real danger, it seems a massively over-hyped threat when compared with two elephants that quietly share a room with today's most popular religions, specifically:

Goldman Sachs is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity...

The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

That quote is from this brilliant Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi. I have nothing insightful to add, but wanted to post it out of respect for all the wonderful people putting themselves on the line in the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy America, and Occupy Together protests.

We can only hope that this movement will continue to grow, and that we will finally find a way to contain the bloodsucking parasites that are so negatively impacting Sustainable Human Flourishing.

If you choose to live in a participatory democracy, then I hope that you will seriously consider your responsibility to get out there and participate - whichever side you support, it looks like the game is on.