Lord Byron, Ouch, Disabilities, and God - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

redravin40 · 11-20-2003, 07:18 PM

I don't agree with his feelings about god but I do see his point about how the disabled are mistreated in Gods name.
As someone who might have been stoned or burned for being possessed by demons (epilepsy), I can understand his feelings and share his respect for Byron.
This is from a very cool online magazine about disabilities called ouch.
Ouch

Mik Scarlet - Blasphemer General

Quote:

Byron is one of my all-time heroes, the first true disabled superstar.

Not only is his poetry some of the best ever written, but he was also one of the first people in our history to publicly turn against religion.
A man after my own heart. Byron claimed to be evil and cursed, but this stemmed from his being born with a clubbed foot.

All of us disabled people must have come across some religious nutter who kindly informed us that our disability is a punishment from God.
One such pillock who went on the record with his belief that all disabled people were being punished for an evil committed in a past life - Glenn Hoddle - is this week being connected with the manager's job at Nottingham Forest; a far cry from his beloved top flight club Tottenham Hotspur.
C'mon Glenn, did you never think that your team's appalling results were a punishment from the Almighty for talking such rubbish?

Can you imagine how much of this kind of thing Byron must have had to face back in a time when everyone believed God made the world and then had to go for a lie-down?

What did he do ...?
Well, he did what any great disability activist does and fought back against the society that condemned him as evil.
He mainly did this by shagging as many able-bodied people as possible, taking tons of drugs and writing shocking poetry.
He played on the disability evilness image to his advantage.
OK, I grant you that falling in love with his sister was possibly taking the "I am evil" thing a tad too far, but his actions and lifestyle made sure he wasn't a figure of pity.
No one saw him in the street and said, "Ah, look at poor limp-a-long Byron."

By the time he died at the age of 36, he had set the stage for a revolution, both in Greece and in the world of the arts. He also played a huge part in making people reconsider the role of faith in their lives. Soon, other great men would start questioning the word of religion and make discoveries that truly made real sense of the world we live in.

Setting the world free from the misinformation of religion did disabled people the greatest service ever. Most religions accuse us of being evil or marked or possessed. Their texts say that we are given our disabilities not by an accident of nature, but by some all-powerful super being who thinks we bloody well deserve it. Such doctrine makes it OK to treat disabled people badly, oppress us - and even kill us. Only Buddhists believe that disabled people are anything other than cursed, as far as I can tell.

Only a few months ago, a religious leader in the US beat a disabled child to death. He claimed he was trying to "beat out the demons" from a boy who had autism. This shows that the 'disability is evil' idea is a view that is still alive in various pockets - in this case the American bible belt. At least it is these religious zealots who are now cast as the evil ones by the media; anyone with a vague grasp on reality doesn't think, for instance, that someone with epilepsy is possessed.

Scarily though, religion is on a comeback tour. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world and Christian fundamentalism is on the rise too, as people look to religion to try and make sense of this confusing 'new world' we find ourselves in. It would appear that neither of these religions smile caringly on disabled people (jibber).

I understand that some need to feel they are here for a reason, and that some people are so scared of dying that they need to believe they go somewhere when they finally cash in their chips - but why do they feel the need to follow religions that are so filled with hate?

Though all religions have a message of love at their core, why do their followers end up judging everyone so much? Especially those who have no control over why they are judged?

I was brought up as a Christian, but as I witnessed more and more bigotry at the hands of 'the chosen' I realized that it was all rubbish. As a people, we know so much more now. We live in a time where man has walked on the moon. We can cure many diseases. We can read our genetic code and we know that we evolved from monkeys. We have learnt that Earth is just one of a billion billion billion planets, revolving around one of a billion billion billion suns, in one of a billion billion billion galaxies in a never-ending, ever-expanding universe. So even if there is a God, he must be far too busy keeping an eye on all that lot to really give a damn about us.

But if my blasphemous beliefs are completely wrong, and there really is a beardy old dude sitting on a cloud looking down on me as I type this, he certainly won't be cross with me because my body is a bit broken.
He might be a bit miffed that I'm writing this non-believer stuff, but I'm convinced that if he is the God that is at the root of all the world's religions, he would love me and forgive me.
He sure as hell wouldn't roll me up in a blanket and beat me to death because I'm disabled.

Are you a fan of Byron?
Does being disabled affect your relationship with God?
The major organized religions?

wilbjammin · 11-20-2003, 08:02 PM

This article reminds me of Nietzsche's "The Antichrist". In "The Antichrist" Nietzsche writes about how decadent Christianity is because its followers gain power by having a dependecy upon the weakness of others. By having a group below them to look out for and compare themselves too they feel powerful, of course, this also creates a decadent system that relies on weakness for strength (not to mention it is totally external). I've always hated how so many fall into treating handicapped people like less than people rather than giving them a chance on a social level, at the least, to succeed and thrive on a level with anyone else. I passionately hate how people treat mentally handicapped people like they would treat dogs. Just because someone is different and has more challenges does not mean you need to treat them like they're less than human, does not mean you need to help sustain them in feeling less than human and dependent upon you, and it does not mean that they don't realize they are being treated differently. Give people a chance to really feel strong within themselves, to find their strengths... don't just focus on their weaknesses. Give all people this chance. Give yourself this chance.

And hurrah for Byron!

11-20-2003, 08:02 PM	#2 (permalink)
wilbjammin * * *	This article reminds me of Nietzsche's "The Antichrist". In "The Antichrist" Nietzsche writes about how decadent Christianity is because its followers gain power by having a dependecy upon the weakness of others. By having a group below them to look out for and compare themselves too they feel powerful, of course, this also creates a decadent system that relies on weakness for strength (not to mention it is totally external). I've always hated how so many fall into treating handicapped people like less than people rather than giving them a chance on a social level, at the least, to succeed and thrive on a level with anyone else. I passionately hate how people treat mentally handicapped people like they would treat dogs. Just because someone is different and has more challenges does not mean you need to treat them like they're less than human, does not mean you need to help sustain them in feeling less than human and dependent upon you, and it does not mean that they don't realize they are being treated differently. Give people a chance to really feel strong within themselves, to find their strengths... don't just focus on their weaknesses. Give all people this chance. Give yourself this chance. And hurrah for Byron! __________________ Innominate.