For some...for too many men, and some women:
MAN?
100% Important.
Sperm?
100% Important.
Conception?
100% Important.
Masturbation?
100% unacceptable.
Abortion?
100% unacceptable.
Pro Life?
100% Important.
Birth?
100% Important.
Childcare, education, healthcare, welfare, veteran care, social concern?
100% unimportant
Suicide for cause?
100% unacceptable
Cannabis for any reason?
100% unacceptable
Logic, science, ethics?
100% unimportant
Money?
100% Important.
Religion?
100% Important... or at least act that way.
Priorities?
100% confused.
Enough of this. Try something lighter....JZ Murdock photos on Flickr
Showing posts with label Christian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian. Show all posts
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Blue Was The Sky - or, Ballad of the Dissonant Mind
I was standing on the street. All alone. The streets were empty. For the moment anyway, traffic was non-existent.
A man came up to me and said.
"Sky, it's purple."
I looked up at the sky. It was the clearest blue I had ever seen. Not a cloud in the sky. I looked at the gentleman next to me, standing there staring between two buildings at a piece of the sky to the south.
There was a large solid glass faced building between those buildings, down the street. It gave the buildings a slight reddish hue to their dark tones. But the sky between them, that small tall rectangular piece of sky he was staring into, was blue as blue could be.
I said: "Uh. Sure." He looked at me, reading something in the tone of my voice.
"It is isn't it? A beautiful purple. Never seen that before like that. Don't you agree."
I was caught. I could lie to a perfect stranger, let it go, and maybe he'd go away. He smelled slightly of something, I couldn't put my finger on it. Musty. Confused smells of stored clothing and cardamom maybe. Cardamom left too long in a cupboard.
"Well, the sky is blue as I've ever seen." He gave me an odd look of disdain. I felt a need to qualify my remark. "Those buildings, they have an odd color don't they? Kind of a purple color." He eyed me suspiciously. So I went on.
"Perhaps the sky and the buildings are playing tricks on your eyes?" I smiled at him, congenially. He reacted negatively to my comment, as if I'd called his being into question, as if I'd challenged his veracity, his sanity even.
"The sky is purple, I'm telling you. What we see is important, what we believe is more important. It speaks to who we are. I know. Yes. I know. You should know too."
What do you say to that? He was not happy, I could see beneath the surface, he was seething. I couldn't understand his passion, his adherence to his belief in a purple sky. I looked up. I looked up at the sky in such a way so as to invoke a desire in him to cast his gaze upward. But he continued looking straight ahead.
"That sky, is blue." I said this looking up above us, lifted my hand slightly to indicate the sky above.
"I've never seen a sky so purple," he said. He stared at the slice of sky framed by neo modern buildings and a super modern one beyond them, then looked over at me. As if daring me to disagree.
"Is there anything I can say to make you see that the sky is blue between those buildings?"
"Between the buildings? It's not purple just between the buildings." I looked up, back at him, between the buildings, up at the sky covering us, then back at him. He hadn't moved. I got the distinct feeling he may have had trauma to his neck, from the way he held himself. He wouldn't look up, or he couldn't look up. Something wasn't right.
"Purple huh?"
"Purple, no doubt about it."
"I always liked purple." He smiled.
"It's a good color. The color of sky."
I glanced over between the buildings. The sky appeared purple. A cold sweat broke quickly over my skin, and then just as suddenly disappeared as I glanced upward and saw a very blue sky. I looked back between the buildings and now the sky was again blue as it had been, as it was. I looked him full in the face.
He smiled, nodded and just, walked off. There was a bounce in his step. As if he was happy. Or had achieved something worthy of pleasure.
I looked back up and then forward. Perplexed.
The sky was still blue.
Up next on Monday, August 8th, 2016: "Donald J. Trump's Big Con".
A man came up to me and said.
"Sky, it's purple."
I looked up at the sky. It was the clearest blue I had ever seen. Not a cloud in the sky. I looked at the gentleman next to me, standing there staring between two buildings at a piece of the sky to the south.
There was a large solid glass faced building between those buildings, down the street. It gave the buildings a slight reddish hue to their dark tones. But the sky between them, that small tall rectangular piece of sky he was staring into, was blue as blue could be.
I said: "Uh. Sure." He looked at me, reading something in the tone of my voice.
"It is isn't it? A beautiful purple. Never seen that before like that. Don't you agree."
I was caught. I could lie to a perfect stranger, let it go, and maybe he'd go away. He smelled slightly of something, I couldn't put my finger on it. Musty. Confused smells of stored clothing and cardamom maybe. Cardamom left too long in a cupboard.
"Well, the sky is blue as I've ever seen." He gave me an odd look of disdain. I felt a need to qualify my remark. "Those buildings, they have an odd color don't they? Kind of a purple color." He eyed me suspiciously. So I went on.
"Perhaps the sky and the buildings are playing tricks on your eyes?" I smiled at him, congenially. He reacted negatively to my comment, as if I'd called his being into question, as if I'd challenged his veracity, his sanity even.
"The sky is purple, I'm telling you. What we see is important, what we believe is more important. It speaks to who we are. I know. Yes. I know. You should know too."
What do you say to that? He was not happy, I could see beneath the surface, he was seething. I couldn't understand his passion, his adherence to his belief in a purple sky. I looked up. I looked up at the sky in such a way so as to invoke a desire in him to cast his gaze upward. But he continued looking straight ahead.
"That sky, is blue." I said this looking up above us, lifted my hand slightly to indicate the sky above.
"I've never seen a sky so purple," he said. He stared at the slice of sky framed by neo modern buildings and a super modern one beyond them, then looked over at me. As if daring me to disagree.
"Is there anything I can say to make you see that the sky is blue between those buildings?"
"Between the buildings? It's not purple just between the buildings." I looked up, back at him, between the buildings, up at the sky covering us, then back at him. He hadn't moved. I got the distinct feeling he may have had trauma to his neck, from the way he held himself. He wouldn't look up, or he couldn't look up. Something wasn't right.
"Purple huh?"
"Purple, no doubt about it."
"I always liked purple." He smiled.
"It's a good color. The color of sky."
I glanced over between the buildings. The sky appeared purple. A cold sweat broke quickly over my skin, and then just as suddenly disappeared as I glanced upward and saw a very blue sky. I looked back between the buildings and now the sky was again blue as it had been, as it was. I looked him full in the face.
He smiled, nodded and just, walked off. There was a bounce in his step. As if he was happy. Or had achieved something worthy of pleasure.
I looked back up and then forward. Perplexed.
The sky was still blue.
Up next on Monday, August 8th, 2016: "Donald J. Trump's Big Con".
Monday, June 15, 2015
Religion in a Postmodern Multicultural World
Religion was mostly designed during a time of ego- and geocentricity. As a front against affronts by outside forces. As a buffer to live, a way to form cohesion among those of your own kind and, to help enforce reasonable laws of living for the benefit of all.
At some point it got out of hand, however. It always does.
UPDATE 4/26/20: Let me start here and you can come back to it. But you really want to know this information from C-SPAN:
You can come back to it later. But if you're confused by Donald Trump and Republicans and what is going on, it snaps it all together pretty neatly.
At some point it got out of hand, however. It always does.
UPDATE 4/26/20: Let me start here and you can come back to it. But you really want to know this information from C-SPAN:
The Power Worshippers
Journalist Katherine Stewart argued that religious nationalists are waging political war on American democracy and institutions. This was a virtual author program.
You can come back to it later. But if you're confused by Donald Trump and Republicans and what is going on, it snaps it all together pretty neatly.
Back to 2015:
Sure there are newer religions and the younger they are today the more ridiculous they seem to be.
From the older Indian religions, indigenous religions and the more notorious desert regions, the religions of Judaism, Catholicism, and Islam, to the babies of Mormonism and Scientology (a lie of a "religion" if ever there was one) and a "religion" who bullied US government officials into giving them tax-free and religious status. Something by the way, that needs to be addressed and rectified ASAP.
Religion was all fine and dandy thousands of years ago. Though not really. Constantine in Rome and the Christian leaders led to the Council of Nicaea, rebuilding things in that image so that an empire didn't fall. And of course, the religious leaders had their own agendas. Like eliminating anything making Jesus look merely and only human.
Well, it seemed reasonable at the time, to be sure. It did save the empire, for a while, anyway.
But nowadays it has become dysfunctional in this multi-cultural world where religions and cultures rub up against one another. Where ego- and geocentrisms hold very little weight in the overall scheme of things. Where transportation of people and information have lost the barriers once paramount in maintaining the stranglehold of religion.
Knowledge is the bane of religion and it is now everywhere, we are thankfully awash in it. We are also sadly awash in the ignorance of incorrect information that people believe to be knowledge and is one of the greatest dangers we face today. The individuals and the grouping of individuals with selective ignorance and low information.
Low information in that it is shallow. We are the most information available and yet by ratio perhaps, the least knowledgeable humans in history. We scan on our cell phones all day long but only to a shallow degree.
So we know little about much, one might say.
That and thinking emotional beliefs circumvent or replace actual knowledge have crippled us at a time when we should be brilliant and doing amazing things. Far beyond still, what we are actually doing.
Knowledge is not power, wisdom is.
Knowledge can be wrong.
Wisdom by its definition, cannot be.
It is your choice which you wish to strive for.
Of course, the comeback from the modern theist to that statement is:
"Well, it's a personal thing and so, of course, it still works."
The problem with that is that, no, it's not and if you really look, it doesn't. Work, that is.
It has become more than a personal thing and in some as in the American evangelical Christian movement, it has become politicized, polarized and even exported to Africa. As it has in Uganda where rather slimy US evangelicals have talked locals into a mindset that has led to the killing of gay males and the open raping of gay women.
Why? How is that "Christian"? And yet as we know, it also very well is.
So it is still dysfunctional.
The religious (mostly Christians and Muslims, and no not all of them but those involved) need to pull it back, to make it merely personal once again where it belongs, so that all may live in peace.
Then, we're good again.
Christians too frequently confuse old and new testaments of the bible. Some Muslims today are confusing fundamentalism with literalism. Or political delusions with fundamentalism.
People really need to come first.
Any religion who is offended by Humankind, who inspires even some of their followers to act in such ways, merely because of who we truly are as humans with all our failings, frailties and difficulties, perhaps what they really need is to find a different race of beings, some other species to disdain and abuse. And just leave us all alone.
Any religion that teaches murder of another human, is not a good religion and is fundamentally flawed.
May I suggest, mosquitoes as an alternate species to abuse? And yet, they are also needed as food for other creatures.
Something that Jesus was pointing out and that so many of his modern followers now forget when they go back to the old testament... whenever oddly enough, it makes them feel good and more secure. When Jesus clearly came to close the book on the Old Testament.
But Jesus didn't teach secure. He taught to love thy neighbor.
He hung with the outcasts. How is that security?
It's standing up against the authorities to take care of others and yet, what do we see nowadays? Much turning of backs on the needy in Christianity down to the point even of murder, or dismemberment in Islam.
Look. If you are going to become belligerent and political, you also have to stand up for what is wrong in your religion. Or in what others are doing in your religion. You don't get a free ride for spouting ignorance, hate, and stupidity. The world is becoming too small for that anymore. The religious now need to grow a little, to grow up as a whole.
Politicizing your religion doesn't just mean you get to speak out for your beliefs. It also means you have to speak out when it makes you uncomfortable, to stand against injustices both outside and IN side of your religion.
Especially, INside your religion. Because that my friend is YOUR responsibility. Not mine, not ours. Yours and yours alone...your group's responsibility.
Why is it, why should it be that so often those outside of religion are the ones who have to fight the good fight for religion?
If you want your religion, fight for it. But fight sanely. Police yourselves and allow others to help. But don't put the burden on them when it's your arena. Your desire. Your need. Why do so many assume their need is that of others? Even when they do not know it. Or want it? And so some murder them because if they don't feel it, death.
It occurs to me that up until recent times, "God" was such a part of people's lives that it wasn't necessary to do things like put it on money, or write it into laws, something our Founding Fathers didn't want to begin with.
They didn't want it because they were wise, educated, and knew how badly legislating things like religion can be (please see Middle East, or American conservatives today). "God" used to be so inherent in daily life it was a nuance to conservation. But also people died over those considerations, something we generally believe today is ridiculous, if not criminal.
We've been hearing about this topic more and more over the years since "In God, We Trust" was first put on money back in 1952 sadly replacing "E Pluribus Unum", One out of many. Which had summed up our nation's orientation to be inclusive of all (if not in practice, surely, in theory, intent, and desire)?
As the concern and consideration of "God" has decreased over time those who are so close to it have felt a need to bring it more and more into our attention by doing things like putting it on money. Or more recently and insanely, trying to alter our politics, our citizen's rights hard fought for and legislate it into laws (not seeing the irony in their also hating and legislating against things like Islamic Sharia law).
People can have their religion, but forcing it into the national attention over and over is only in the long term going to cause a societal irritation that will eventually backfire. Throwing in another religion (Islam) which has literally been killing masses of people (as opposed to the self-proclaimed typically racist and unbalanced Christians who are killing ones-at-a-time), just makes it all the worse overall.
Think about it. That means that the concept of "God" has been decreasing overall for a very long time.
Legislating it will only speed that process.
Sure there are newer religions and the younger they are today the more ridiculous they seem to be.
From the older Indian religions, indigenous religions and the more notorious desert regions, the religions of Judaism, Catholicism, and Islam, to the babies of Mormonism and Scientology (a lie of a "religion" if ever there was one) and a "religion" who bullied US government officials into giving them tax-free and religious status. Something by the way, that needs to be addressed and rectified ASAP.
Religion was all fine and dandy thousands of years ago. Though not really. Constantine in Rome and the Christian leaders led to the Council of Nicaea, rebuilding things in that image so that an empire didn't fall. And of course, the religious leaders had their own agendas. Like eliminating anything making Jesus look merely and only human.
Well, it seemed reasonable at the time, to be sure. It did save the empire, for a while, anyway.
But nowadays it has become dysfunctional in this multi-cultural world where religions and cultures rub up against one another. Where ego- and geocentrisms hold very little weight in the overall scheme of things. Where transportation of people and information have lost the barriers once paramount in maintaining the stranglehold of religion.
Knowledge is the bane of religion and it is now everywhere, we are thankfully awash in it. We are also sadly awash in the ignorance of incorrect information that people believe to be knowledge and is one of the greatest dangers we face today. The individuals and the grouping of individuals with selective ignorance and low information.
Low information in that it is shallow. We are the most information available and yet by ratio perhaps, the least knowledgeable humans in history. We scan on our cell phones all day long but only to a shallow degree.
So we know little about much, one might say.
That and thinking emotional beliefs circumvent or replace actual knowledge have crippled us at a time when we should be brilliant and doing amazing things. Far beyond still, what we are actually doing.
Knowledge is not power, wisdom is.
Knowledge can be wrong.
Wisdom by its definition, cannot be.
It is your choice which you wish to strive for.
Of course, the comeback from the modern theist to that statement is:
"Well, it's a personal thing and so, of course, it still works."
The problem with that is that, no, it's not and if you really look, it doesn't. Work, that is.
It has become more than a personal thing and in some as in the American evangelical Christian movement, it has become politicized, polarized and even exported to Africa. As it has in Uganda where rather slimy US evangelicals have talked locals into a mindset that has led to the killing of gay males and the open raping of gay women.
Why? How is that "Christian"? And yet as we know, it also very well is.
So it is still dysfunctional.
The religious (mostly Christians and Muslims, and no not all of them but those involved) need to pull it back, to make it merely personal once again where it belongs, so that all may live in peace.
Then, we're good again.
Christians too frequently confuse old and new testaments of the bible. Some Muslims today are confusing fundamentalism with literalism. Or political delusions with fundamentalism.
People really need to come first.
Any religion who is offended by Humankind, who inspires even some of their followers to act in such ways, merely because of who we truly are as humans with all our failings, frailties and difficulties, perhaps what they really need is to find a different race of beings, some other species to disdain and abuse. And just leave us all alone.
Any religion that teaches murder of another human, is not a good religion and is fundamentally flawed.
May I suggest, mosquitoes as an alternate species to abuse? And yet, they are also needed as food for other creatures.
Something that Jesus was pointing out and that so many of his modern followers now forget when they go back to the old testament... whenever oddly enough, it makes them feel good and more secure. When Jesus clearly came to close the book on the Old Testament.
But Jesus didn't teach secure. He taught to love thy neighbor.
He hung with the outcasts. How is that security?
It's standing up against the authorities to take care of others and yet, what do we see nowadays? Much turning of backs on the needy in Christianity down to the point even of murder, or dismemberment in Islam.
Look. If you are going to become belligerent and political, you also have to stand up for what is wrong in your religion. Or in what others are doing in your religion. You don't get a free ride for spouting ignorance, hate, and stupidity. The world is becoming too small for that anymore. The religious now need to grow a little, to grow up as a whole.
Politicizing your religion doesn't just mean you get to speak out for your beliefs. It also means you have to speak out when it makes you uncomfortable, to stand against injustices both outside and IN side of your religion.
Especially, INside your religion. Because that my friend is YOUR responsibility. Not mine, not ours. Yours and yours alone...your group's responsibility.
Why is it, why should it be that so often those outside of religion are the ones who have to fight the good fight for religion?
If you want your religion, fight for it. But fight sanely. Police yourselves and allow others to help. But don't put the burden on them when it's your arena. Your desire. Your need. Why do so many assume their need is that of others? Even when they do not know it. Or want it? And so some murder them because if they don't feel it, death.
It occurs to me that up until recent times, "God" was such a part of people's lives that it wasn't necessary to do things like put it on money, or write it into laws, something our Founding Fathers didn't want to begin with.
They didn't want it because they were wise, educated, and knew how badly legislating things like religion can be (please see Middle East, or American conservatives today). "God" used to be so inherent in daily life it was a nuance to conservation. But also people died over those considerations, something we generally believe today is ridiculous, if not criminal.
We've been hearing about this topic more and more over the years since "In God, We Trust" was first put on money back in 1952 sadly replacing "E Pluribus Unum", One out of many. Which had summed up our nation's orientation to be inclusive of all (if not in practice, surely, in theory, intent, and desire)?
As the concern and consideration of "God" has decreased over time those who are so close to it have felt a need to bring it more and more into our attention by doing things like putting it on money. Or more recently and insanely, trying to alter our politics, our citizen's rights hard fought for and legislate it into laws (not seeing the irony in their also hating and legislating against things like Islamic Sharia law).
People can have their religion, but forcing it into the national attention over and over is only in the long term going to cause a societal irritation that will eventually backfire. Throwing in another religion (Islam) which has literally been killing masses of people (as opposed to the self-proclaimed typically racist and unbalanced Christians who are killing ones-at-a-time), just makes it all the worse overall.
Think about it. That means that the concept of "God" has been decreasing overall for a very long time.
Legislating it will only speed that process.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Fears of Immigrants and Religious AntiDiversity
During WWI America interred over 2,000 German citizens in country. Among the notable internees were geneticist Richard Goldschmidt and 29 players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Wikipedia). On top of that we required a quarter of a million Germans to register.
During WWII America placed over 100,000 Japanese American's in internment camps on our homelands and over 11,000 Germans. What made them internment rather than concentration camps? Spin? Locally to me on Bainbridge Island, just a few miles from where I live there was an internment camp.
During Vietnam many soldiers referred to Vietnamese by racial slurs, which is pretty normal during war time, dehumanizing the enemy to make it easier to deal with the thought that humans are trying to kill you and that you have to kill other humans. Then if you survive the war, you one day have to return to civilian life and not kill again.
War is hell. After war can be its own kind of hell.
During the Middle Eastern wars going back to the 1980s, many called the enemy as well as the civilians, by racial slurs. Because of Islamic terrorism we have begun to turn our attention and anger toward the Islamic religion rather than those who are actually attacking us as well as and actually mostly, other Muslims.
What does all this have in common? American exceptionalism at its worst?
Certainly a lower mental state of being, of compassion, of understanding, of comprehension, of essentially being human.
During the Bush Administration and the Iraq war after the attack on 9/11, even president Bush said that we were at war with terrorism and not Islam. Recently, President Obama has said the exact same thing.
It's interesting to note that some Republicans and conservatives have called Mr. Obama names, questioning his loyalties, picking and picking at his efforts rather than diving in and trying to help get things done, all merely because he has the higher mental state, the understanding, the comprehension to note that Muslims are really not our enemy (and thanks for that because there' a lot of them!), but the terrorists are.
Religion in general is a problem across all religions however, but really that is another issue entirely that we may well need to address sooner than later. One that we need sooner than later, evolve out of.
It's getting even scarier in the Middle East because the line between who are terrorists and who are citizens, is murky. This current trend of terrorist activities has also been very attractive to younger and younger people. They wisely cut the issues of their odd religious beliefs, supplanting them with more rational issues of camaraderie and adventure.
It's a mind worm overall, an addiction of concept, a call to action, to honor and other bullshit beliefs that are far more effective to draw people to the Middle East to fight in a stupid war against the people of the Middle East by lowlifes, criminals, murderers, terrorists, basically just the sad and disaffected.
Nations of the world need to get a handle on this quickly.
They are a cancer that is doing damage in many and varied ways, not the least of which are American citizens treating the Muslim community like second rate citizens, if not treating them as traitors to a country that for many of them is their's through and through.
The Muslim woman born in Brooklyn, is an American.
The Muslim man born in Montana, is an American.
Just as much as the Japanese Americans caged in America during WWII. As the Germans in WWs I and II who may not have even been American (yet) but were still loyal and very happy to be here.
We have to stop this kind of thing before it gets any more dangerous than it already is.
There are also Christian groups and people who are reacting against the Muslim community.
They are calling them names, interrupting their public (and peaceful) gatherings where the only non-peaceful people ARE Christians attending a gathering that they are not even invited to or welcome at.
They are saying we cannot abide or accept non-Christians, how the Islamic God is not the "real God", as if there were one to fight over which only makes them even more sad than they are to begin with.
Granted, many Muslims believe that about the Christian God, too, but many do not as there are actually very close ties between the three predominant desert religions of Judaism, Christian and Islamic.
But here's my point.
The issue here is not that Islam is the wrong religion, or that Christianity is, or Judaism is. Religion is wrong anyway and that is much of what is causing all this nonsense.
So in Christians making all this noise over how horrible Muslims are, it is on so many levels they who are the bad people. It's not that we don't need Islam in America, but we really don't need any religions here. We don't need their lack of paying taxes, their judgmental attitudes, their treating other religions who are not their religion, as something bad. What are you, two people, two years old?
American Christians need to stop acting like childish cretins, immature haters. Drop all this nonsense about religion and your favorite magic Dude in the sky.
That however is not the point here. It is not what this is all about and it is really, beside the point.
May who or what ever the God of your choice is, love you and help you in like kind to learn to love all others who are like and unlike you.
For those of you whose God wants you to do otherwise, may you and your God receive a deservedly long enduring and painful demise that wipes you both from human history for all of time, like so many other losers calling themselves either humanlike or Godlike.
It all doesn't have to be that way though.
This, is America. Remember? America.
"Land of the free, home of the brave."
Did you all fail your Civics class in high school?
Did any of you even finish high school?
Why are so many of you concentrated in the south?
In groups so frequently conservative and Republican?
You are an American too and though you may think you are a Christian first, you are still an American. You live here and here has given you the right to practice your silly religion in peace and safety. Why can't others do that too? What don't you get about let other's enjoy their silliness just as you do?
In America we have the right to live a peaceful life, to pursue happiness and pal, you're damaging people's calm for absolutely no reason whatsoever. You're ruining good citizens' pursuit to their happiness in their own ridiculous religion and ways which honestly, are no more ridiculous than your own.
So knock it off! Grow up. Be a good citizen yourself, first. Voice your opinion, but at least have an intelligent one and voice it at the right time in the right places and let others have their meetings as people aren't invading your meetings; and if they did, you would disingenuously cry, "Religious Persecution", when you seem to be the ones doing this the most.
Practice your silliness but let's get back to practicing our ridiculous beliefs in private where we can be less ashamed of our silly beliefs (because that's part of what this is about, in others having their ridiculous beliefs, it really shines the light on just how ridiculous your beliefs are that that always angers people).
Think your American Christianity is oh so different from Islamic Terrorists Islam? Really? ISIS bans teaching evolution in schools, just like so many Christians are pushing for in American schools. Isn't it interesting that both religions stem from the Middle East. So it really is just another middle eastern desert religion, after all.
Remember that common areas are for everyone, and not just you, not just the vocal minorities, not just the deluded and brain damaged ones. Just let them practice their own silliness.
Otherwise, you may soon find out that we will all wake up to this nonsense overall, rid ourselves of religion altogether as we should, and you will find you have a very different kind of life than you wanted or intended. And none of you wants that. Right?
The more you push the differences between religion, the more you point out how different religion is from the direction humanity is headed, and the quicker you will bring about the demise of magical thinking as a "thing".
Although... a life, a nation, a world without religion, sure would solve a lot of our problems.
Either way, we don't need no American bigots here.
If you really don't like us being free for everyone, teaching science in schools, ISIL will surely welcome you with open arms, with a knife behind their back and one soon to be in yours too I'm sure.
So feel free to visit them soon, anytime....
Update April 22, 2015 - Earth Day.
From Salon magazine - 6 reasons religion may do more harm than good
#terrorist #religion #atheist #christian #islam #muslim #isis #isil
During WWII America placed over 100,000 Japanese American's in internment camps on our homelands and over 11,000 Germans. What made them internment rather than concentration camps? Spin? Locally to me on Bainbridge Island, just a few miles from where I live there was an internment camp.
During Vietnam many soldiers referred to Vietnamese by racial slurs, which is pretty normal during war time, dehumanizing the enemy to make it easier to deal with the thought that humans are trying to kill you and that you have to kill other humans. Then if you survive the war, you one day have to return to civilian life and not kill again.
War is hell. After war can be its own kind of hell.
During the Middle Eastern wars going back to the 1980s, many called the enemy as well as the civilians, by racial slurs. Because of Islamic terrorism we have begun to turn our attention and anger toward the Islamic religion rather than those who are actually attacking us as well as and actually mostly, other Muslims.
What does all this have in common? American exceptionalism at its worst?
Certainly a lower mental state of being, of compassion, of understanding, of comprehension, of essentially being human.
During the Bush Administration and the Iraq war after the attack on 9/11, even president Bush said that we were at war with terrorism and not Islam. Recently, President Obama has said the exact same thing.
It's interesting to note that some Republicans and conservatives have called Mr. Obama names, questioning his loyalties, picking and picking at his efforts rather than diving in and trying to help get things done, all merely because he has the higher mental state, the understanding, the comprehension to note that Muslims are really not our enemy (and thanks for that because there' a lot of them!), but the terrorists are.
Religion in general is a problem across all religions however, but really that is another issue entirely that we may well need to address sooner than later. One that we need sooner than later, evolve out of.
It's getting even scarier in the Middle East because the line between who are terrorists and who are citizens, is murky. This current trend of terrorist activities has also been very attractive to younger and younger people. They wisely cut the issues of their odd religious beliefs, supplanting them with more rational issues of camaraderie and adventure.
It's a mind worm overall, an addiction of concept, a call to action, to honor and other bullshit beliefs that are far more effective to draw people to the Middle East to fight in a stupid war against the people of the Middle East by lowlifes, criminals, murderers, terrorists, basically just the sad and disaffected.
Nations of the world need to get a handle on this quickly.
They are a cancer that is doing damage in many and varied ways, not the least of which are American citizens treating the Muslim community like second rate citizens, if not treating them as traitors to a country that for many of them is their's through and through.
The Muslim woman born in Brooklyn, is an American.
The Muslim man born in Montana, is an American.
Just as much as the Japanese Americans caged in America during WWII. As the Germans in WWs I and II who may not have even been American (yet) but were still loyal and very happy to be here.
We have to stop this kind of thing before it gets any more dangerous than it already is.
There are also Christian groups and people who are reacting against the Muslim community.
They are calling them names, interrupting their public (and peaceful) gatherings where the only non-peaceful people ARE Christians attending a gathering that they are not even invited to or welcome at.
They are saying we cannot abide or accept non-Christians, how the Islamic God is not the "real God", as if there were one to fight over which only makes them even more sad than they are to begin with.
Granted, many Muslims believe that about the Christian God, too, but many do not as there are actually very close ties between the three predominant desert religions of Judaism, Christian and Islamic.
But here's my point.
The issue here is not that Islam is the wrong religion, or that Christianity is, or Judaism is. Religion is wrong anyway and that is much of what is causing all this nonsense.
So in Christians making all this noise over how horrible Muslims are, it is on so many levels they who are the bad people. It's not that we don't need Islam in America, but we really don't need any religions here. We don't need their lack of paying taxes, their judgmental attitudes, their treating other religions who are not their religion, as something bad. What are you, two people, two years old?
American Christians need to stop acting like childish cretins, immature haters. Drop all this nonsense about religion and your favorite magic Dude in the sky.
That however is not the point here. It is not what this is all about and it is really, beside the point.
May who or what ever the God of your choice is, love you and help you in like kind to learn to love all others who are like and unlike you.
For those of you whose God wants you to do otherwise, may you and your God receive a deservedly long enduring and painful demise that wipes you both from human history for all of time, like so many other losers calling themselves either humanlike or Godlike.
It all doesn't have to be that way though.
This, is America. Remember? America.
"Land of the free, home of the brave."
Did you all fail your Civics class in high school?
Did any of you even finish high school?
Why are so many of you concentrated in the south?
In groups so frequently conservative and Republican?
You are an American too and though you may think you are a Christian first, you are still an American. You live here and here has given you the right to practice your silly religion in peace and safety. Why can't others do that too? What don't you get about let other's enjoy their silliness just as you do?
In America we have the right to live a peaceful life, to pursue happiness and pal, you're damaging people's calm for absolutely no reason whatsoever. You're ruining good citizens' pursuit to their happiness in their own ridiculous religion and ways which honestly, are no more ridiculous than your own.
So knock it off! Grow up. Be a good citizen yourself, first. Voice your opinion, but at least have an intelligent one and voice it at the right time in the right places and let others have their meetings as people aren't invading your meetings; and if they did, you would disingenuously cry, "Religious Persecution", when you seem to be the ones doing this the most.
Practice your silliness but let's get back to practicing our ridiculous beliefs in private where we can be less ashamed of our silly beliefs (because that's part of what this is about, in others having their ridiculous beliefs, it really shines the light on just how ridiculous your beliefs are that that always angers people).
Think your American Christianity is oh so different from Islamic Terrorists Islam? Really? ISIS bans teaching evolution in schools, just like so many Christians are pushing for in American schools. Isn't it interesting that both religions stem from the Middle East. So it really is just another middle eastern desert religion, after all.
Remember that common areas are for everyone, and not just you, not just the vocal minorities, not just the deluded and brain damaged ones. Just let them practice their own silliness.
Otherwise, you may soon find out that we will all wake up to this nonsense overall, rid ourselves of religion altogether as we should, and you will find you have a very different kind of life than you wanted or intended. And none of you wants that. Right?
The more you push the differences between religion, the more you point out how different religion is from the direction humanity is headed, and the quicker you will bring about the demise of magical thinking as a "thing".
Although... a life, a nation, a world without religion, sure would solve a lot of our problems.
Either way, we don't need no American bigots here.
If you really don't like us being free for everyone, teaching science in schools, ISIL will surely welcome you with open arms, with a knife behind their back and one soon to be in yours too I'm sure.
So feel free to visit them soon, anytime....
Update April 22, 2015 - Earth Day.
From Salon magazine - 6 reasons religion may do more harm than good
Whether you're religious or not, is your choice, obviously.
But it's not a bad thing to review this list just to be sure this has no bearing on you and yours.
But it's not a bad thing to review this list just to be sure this has no bearing on you and yours.
Religion properly handled, can be rewarding for many, as long as it doesn't get out of control. That is my primary argument with it. Those who allow it to become more than it should be, negative in nature, or abusing others. Think Middle East in ISIS or locally with religion getting into politics and how it has been affecting non religious citizen's rights.
This is America where we're all supposed to be protected for those things being perpetrated upon us, by way of another's belief system that disagrees with our own. And vice versa. Pushing an agenda, can backfire and does, and has.
So protect your beliefs, allow other's beliefs to also remain protected.
Also as this update is on Earth Day, here's my blog for this year's Earth Day.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Our best example for handling God Myths is actually.... Santa Claus
Someone brought up a good point the other day about God. He's about as useful as, Santa Claus.
It made me think about my kids when they were younger. I used to do it up, kids put out cookies and milk, a note to Santa and went to bed. I'd eat the cookies, drink the milk, leave them a thank you note from Santa.
My son, when he was in 4th grade, told me he doesn't believe in Santa. I was both proud and sad for him. I tried to hold up the pretense but he gave me an analytic breakdown of how Santa simply can't be real, how I was Santa, and what I had been doing to prolong that myth. I was surprised but also pleased and impressed with his critical thinking skills.
I didn't agree so much as point out the facts.
IF you "believe" in Santa, you get more gifts. If you don't, well....
He refused to buy any of it. Finally, I said "Well look, I choose to believe in Santa because I like the idea, it's fun, harmless, and in the end, I like receiving more gifts. But you're welcome to act as you see fit. HOWEVER, you DO NOT tell your little sister. Got it?"
As for his younger sister, she went through a period of going to church in her teens, one she chose. One that unnerved her mother but that I figured she would soon outgrow, was for purposes more of its social aspects and about something she wasn't getting at home (as we were then divorced) than any true belief in "God", and so she did and eventually came to realize religion is all exactly about what is is.
Then I tried to explain how it helps to build the idea of wonder in life, of magic in the world and I believe those who don't have that understanding of the concept of magic in the world as adults, simply lose out on much of what is wonderful in life. There IS magic in the world. It's just not, "magic",per se.
So he dropped it. But he made it clear from then on he really didn't believe in Santa and so we kind of worked it out in that way. He does have a strong fascination for magic now as an adult, however.
All this made me think about religion and the "God" concept, in general.
There may be some things that are positive about it existing, though it could also be handled in a more safe and sane way through other means. But belief in "God" should also end at some point, just as Santa is useful for a time, and then should simply be let go, with a fond farewell and a move into adulthood and more mature and informed ways of thinking.
Environmentally, the God concept comes from our parents when we are very young as they are our first Gods. Genetically, our beliefs in the "Other", the "Greater" that which is all powerful and exists "out there", comes from a time that predates our humanity.
We can and I think we should, extend and buffer life for our children through parts of their young childhood, allowing them to experience magic in life.
But if we do, at some point, it should end and we should offer them more useful, productive, and more sophisticated forms.
I'm not saying we should raise our kids with "God" beliefs, but even if we did, it really should come to a conclusion at some point before they become adults. They should be led, coached, educated to have that realization come upon them naturally, organically, as it did with myself and my children.
Religion for most of us, for those who continue to believe, one of those odd animals wherein we do grow up, we do realize the silliness of it all, but then through the concept of "faith" we allow ourselves to continue to believe in what we know in our hearts is utter nonsense, but as it allows us a structure to follow and misbelive that it functions as an overall rule of law for all humans, and it simply does not, though still, many of us choose to close our minds and continue believing in those childhood mythologies.
And so we have entire cultures and nations around the world who hold this nonsense as reality until they die, who propagate it and perpetuate it among their young and in so many cases kill those, like my son, who would sanely and rationally refuse to believe in it in his young innocence into adulthood.
Religions, where people believe it is important what we wear or don't wear, what we eat or not, whether we grow facial hair, how we abuse others, especially women, for God's (really, men's) sake, and so on.
All things that at one point in ancient history may (or may not) have served a purpose and yet which are simply no longer necessary or even useful and frequently actually counterproductive, allowing certain factions to use their religion as a springboard for full out atrocities.
It's funny how wonderful one's religion is till you do a survey of all religions, add in sociology and psychology, anthropology and physics and finally start to realize one overarching necessity in the next step in our development... atheism, or at very least, non-theism.
It made me think about my kids when they were younger. I used to do it up, kids put out cookies and milk, a note to Santa and went to bed. I'd eat the cookies, drink the milk, leave them a thank you note from Santa.
My son, when he was in 4th grade, told me he doesn't believe in Santa. I was both proud and sad for him. I tried to hold up the pretense but he gave me an analytic breakdown of how Santa simply can't be real, how I was Santa, and what I had been doing to prolong that myth. I was surprised but also pleased and impressed with his critical thinking skills.
I didn't agree so much as point out the facts.
IF you "believe" in Santa, you get more gifts. If you don't, well....
He refused to buy any of it. Finally, I said "Well look, I choose to believe in Santa because I like the idea, it's fun, harmless, and in the end, I like receiving more gifts. But you're welcome to act as you see fit. HOWEVER, you DO NOT tell your little sister. Got it?"
As for his younger sister, she went through a period of going to church in her teens, one she chose. One that unnerved her mother but that I figured she would soon outgrow, was for purposes more of its social aspects and about something she wasn't getting at home (as we were then divorced) than any true belief in "God", and so she did and eventually came to realize religion is all exactly about what is is.
Then I tried to explain how it helps to build the idea of wonder in life, of magic in the world and I believe those who don't have that understanding of the concept of magic in the world as adults, simply lose out on much of what is wonderful in life. There IS magic in the world. It's just not, "magic",per se.
So he dropped it. But he made it clear from then on he really didn't believe in Santa and so we kind of worked it out in that way. He does have a strong fascination for magic now as an adult, however.
All this made me think about religion and the "God" concept, in general.
There may be some things that are positive about it existing, though it could also be handled in a more safe and sane way through other means. But belief in "God" should also end at some point, just as Santa is useful for a time, and then should simply be let go, with a fond farewell and a move into adulthood and more mature and informed ways of thinking.
Environmentally, the God concept comes from our parents when we are very young as they are our first Gods. Genetically, our beliefs in the "Other", the "Greater" that which is all powerful and exists "out there", comes from a time that predates our humanity.
We can and I think we should, extend and buffer life for our children through parts of their young childhood, allowing them to experience magic in life.
But if we do, at some point, it should end and we should offer them more useful, productive, and more sophisticated forms.
I'm not saying we should raise our kids with "God" beliefs, but even if we did, it really should come to a conclusion at some point before they become adults. They should be led, coached, educated to have that realization come upon them naturally, organically, as it did with myself and my children.
Religion for most of us, for those who continue to believe, one of those odd animals wherein we do grow up, we do realize the silliness of it all, but then through the concept of "faith" we allow ourselves to continue to believe in what we know in our hearts is utter nonsense, but as it allows us a structure to follow and misbelive that it functions as an overall rule of law for all humans, and it simply does not, though still, many of us choose to close our minds and continue believing in those childhood mythologies.
And so we have entire cultures and nations around the world who hold this nonsense as reality until they die, who propagate it and perpetuate it among their young and in so many cases kill those, like my son, who would sanely and rationally refuse to believe in it in his young innocence into adulthood.
Religions, where people believe it is important what we wear or don't wear, what we eat or not, whether we grow facial hair, how we abuse others, especially women, for God's (really, men's) sake, and so on.
All things that at one point in ancient history may (or may not) have served a purpose and yet which are simply no longer necessary or even useful and frequently actually counterproductive, allowing certain factions to use their religion as a springboard for full out atrocities.
It's funny how wonderful one's religion is till you do a survey of all religions, add in sociology and psychology, anthropology and physics and finally start to realize one overarching necessity in the next step in our development... atheism, or at very least, non-theism.
Monday, August 4, 2014
'Merka (that's America) and Its Followers
My love of America was questioned the other day because of my attitude and comments in general. So this is a comment to all those who see (or would see) me that way.
This is a comment to the political nut cases out there and all their supporters like Fox News and the Republican party for the most part. Also, the ones who aren't nuts but rich, who abuse us all and their positions in America, or for the purposes of this argument, 'Merka, using the back hills slang version that has so come to symbolize all of those types.
Look, I'm pro America. Pro, "real" America, not the modern, saccharine version pushed on us by questionable types of late.
I spent my time in the military, did my Service with its generous awards, ending in a Good Conduct Medal. I got my official Government Certificate for serving during the Cold War. I got a degree in Psychology from a University. I've had cross-cultural college classes, had those classes with people from the Middle East, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere.
I've met interesting people from around the world and, I did not kill them, going against the American way of late.
Yet, I hesitate to say I'm a patriot anymore because that has come to have an odd meaning, one that leaves a strange taste in one's mouth. If, you're a traditional patriot, that is. Of late, Patriot has come to mean racism, hate, idiocy, dunderheadedness, right wing nutcase-aphilia, fat beer belly hick with a gun theisms... and things like that.
I'm not any of those things so where does that leave me. In the Chinese Communist Revolution, I would have been dragged from my home and shot as an intellectual. I'm proud of that, actually. Because I have a brain and I use well, the mind contained therein. I use logic. Real logic, not the political kind of crap that is so rampant now a days and not just in America. Because we have infected the world. We infected the world with a good infection and now along with that, we have infected it with a kind of moronic sensibility, emboldened with our making friends with low characters, supporting the wrong people for economic gains and for corporate greediness.
I love the concept behind America, what we are supposed to be, supposed to stand for, not what some are pushing now a days as, 'Merka, which has come to mean I really don't know what, other than selfishness, greed, isolationism, uncharitability, uncompassionate, right winginess, conservativism (to the point of banal idiocy), superficiality, hyper confused Christianity, and so on and on.
I've always said that I'd fight and die for your right to free speech, even for you to say stupid crap like how you hate people; to say stupid shite like we hear online ad nauseam in the news, on a more than daily basis and instantly, in many cases.
Sure, in this country, it's your right to speak your mind. But why? Why have such a tiny mind from which to pull such banalities? Having a right doesn't mean you have to use it to say such nonsense.
That being said, from a psychological POV we do to vent, to get it all out, to allow those with disparate point of views to point out to us, who they are, what their beliefs are, and basically, as we've seen over and over, just who the crazies are.
It's healthy, it's the human condition.
Maybe if we just vent enough we will blow out our frustrations and fears because that's what all this is.: Fear and Frustration. The realization that you are not and never will be one of the Nouveau riche. That ideal has failed, the American dream of becoming rich like the rich, has died; mostly because the not rich have voted to give power to those who abuse their position; the legislators who have been bought by the corporations who take from us and then convince the have nots, to call themselves, "the Takers", rather than the backbone of this nation who are mostly, the middleclass; a class of people the rich have abused for far too long for their own selfish benefits. And the worm may be turning on their cadaverous bodies.
The more you talk, the more we know you are there, know who you are, what you think and how you work. You are insidious, the new American cancer that we can't cut out and have to instead take a long time to rehabilitate. You'll only be happy when you are rich. Right? But guess what, that ain't gonna happen. Interesting conundrum, right? You, are our bruised loop of insanity.
See, it would help everyone if you would just stop, read a damn book (one that makes some sense), and join us in being Americans. The traditional American, the one the original dream was all about, the one people around the world appreciate and wish to achieve. See the dream only was ever that you can better your position, not to become rich. That was an idea that was sold to us but those who were rich and wanted to blind us from cutting their taxes, giving more of ourselves, receiving less money so they could have more and more, and more.
But then one day? All your venting of your bitching and abuse, your hate and misdirected anger, will actually do us more good than you; once it's properly directed at the right people, and that ain't us, those who you are misguidedly directing it at now.
So think about it. We know you. You are limited in your spotlight now because as we've been notified long ago (and do you even know by whom? Do you? You don''t, do you? By Marshall McLuhan.), that one day everyone will get their fifteen minutes of fame. Now is your time. Soon it will be ours again and that will last much longer than the embarrassing, short term insanity that you have been exhibiting. Catharsis isn't that useful when it is used to a childish degree.
It's useful when it's used to be productive and directed consciously to things that are right and true. To shine a light on what has been hidden for so long, but really isn't a secret anymore. But those deceivers hidden in the shadows for so long have now turned the light back upon those who shined the light on them, blinding the wronged people now from seeing the right people and their insidious actions.
You have marked yourselves, in public, on camera, online, and in permanency. The more you vent, the more powerful you become, but only in the short term; because in the long term, the more powerless you will become. The pendulum will swing back to us again, to sanity, and then you will evaporate and turn into good people out of necessity, except for those few who will scurry into the dark like the cockroaches you are.
And so again and in closing, thanks. Thanks so much for pointing out you and yours to us. Because it won't be long now that I will no longer be embarrassed to call myself a Patriot once again. After you shut up. After you join us in reclamation of our new, "Old" Patriotic American ideals.
Oh and, thank you for your service....
This is a comment to the political nut cases out there and all their supporters like Fox News and the Republican party for the most part. Also, the ones who aren't nuts but rich, who abuse us all and their positions in America, or for the purposes of this argument, 'Merka, using the back hills slang version that has so come to symbolize all of those types.
Look, I'm pro America. Pro, "real" America, not the modern, saccharine version pushed on us by questionable types of late.
I spent my time in the military, did my Service with its generous awards, ending in a Good Conduct Medal. I got my official Government Certificate for serving during the Cold War. I got a degree in Psychology from a University. I've had cross-cultural college classes, had those classes with people from the Middle East, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere.
I've met interesting people from around the world and, I did not kill them, going against the American way of late.
Yet, I hesitate to say I'm a patriot anymore because that has come to have an odd meaning, one that leaves a strange taste in one's mouth. If, you're a traditional patriot, that is. Of late, Patriot has come to mean racism, hate, idiocy, dunderheadedness, right wing nutcase-aphilia, fat beer belly hick with a gun theisms... and things like that.
I'm not any of those things so where does that leave me. In the Chinese Communist Revolution, I would have been dragged from my home and shot as an intellectual. I'm proud of that, actually. Because I have a brain and I use well, the mind contained therein. I use logic. Real logic, not the political kind of crap that is so rampant now a days and not just in America. Because we have infected the world. We infected the world with a good infection and now along with that, we have infected it with a kind of moronic sensibility, emboldened with our making friends with low characters, supporting the wrong people for economic gains and for corporate greediness.
I love the concept behind America, what we are supposed to be, supposed to stand for, not what some are pushing now a days as, 'Merka, which has come to mean I really don't know what, other than selfishness, greed, isolationism, uncharitability, uncompassionate, right winginess, conservativism (to the point of banal idiocy), superficiality, hyper confused Christianity, and so on and on.
I've always said that I'd fight and die for your right to free speech, even for you to say stupid crap like how you hate people; to say stupid shite like we hear online ad nauseam in the news, on a more than daily basis and instantly, in many cases.
Sure, in this country, it's your right to speak your mind. But why? Why have such a tiny mind from which to pull such banalities? Having a right doesn't mean you have to use it to say such nonsense.
That being said, from a psychological POV we do to vent, to get it all out, to allow those with disparate point of views to point out to us, who they are, what their beliefs are, and basically, as we've seen over and over, just who the crazies are.
It's healthy, it's the human condition.
Maybe if we just vent enough we will blow out our frustrations and fears because that's what all this is.: Fear and Frustration. The realization that you are not and never will be one of the Nouveau riche. That ideal has failed, the American dream of becoming rich like the rich, has died; mostly because the not rich have voted to give power to those who abuse their position; the legislators who have been bought by the corporations who take from us and then convince the have nots, to call themselves, "the Takers", rather than the backbone of this nation who are mostly, the middleclass; a class of people the rich have abused for far too long for their own selfish benefits. And the worm may be turning on their cadaverous bodies.
The more you talk, the more we know you are there, know who you are, what you think and how you work. You are insidious, the new American cancer that we can't cut out and have to instead take a long time to rehabilitate. You'll only be happy when you are rich. Right? But guess what, that ain't gonna happen. Interesting conundrum, right? You, are our bruised loop of insanity.
See, it would help everyone if you would just stop, read a damn book (one that makes some sense), and join us in being Americans. The traditional American, the one the original dream was all about, the one people around the world appreciate and wish to achieve. See the dream only was ever that you can better your position, not to become rich. That was an idea that was sold to us but those who were rich and wanted to blind us from cutting their taxes, giving more of ourselves, receiving less money so they could have more and more, and more.
But then one day? All your venting of your bitching and abuse, your hate and misdirected anger, will actually do us more good than you; once it's properly directed at the right people, and that ain't us, those who you are misguidedly directing it at now.
So think about it. We know you. You are limited in your spotlight now because as we've been notified long ago (and do you even know by whom? Do you? You don''t, do you? By Marshall McLuhan.), that one day everyone will get their fifteen minutes of fame. Now is your time. Soon it will be ours again and that will last much longer than the embarrassing, short term insanity that you have been exhibiting. Catharsis isn't that useful when it is used to a childish degree.
It's useful when it's used to be productive and directed consciously to things that are right and true. To shine a light on what has been hidden for so long, but really isn't a secret anymore. But those deceivers hidden in the shadows for so long have now turned the light back upon those who shined the light on them, blinding the wronged people now from seeing the right people and their insidious actions.
You have marked yourselves, in public, on camera, online, and in permanency. The more you vent, the more powerful you become, but only in the short term; because in the long term, the more powerless you will become. The pendulum will swing back to us again, to sanity, and then you will evaporate and turn into good people out of necessity, except for those few who will scurry into the dark like the cockroaches you are.
And so again and in closing, thanks. Thanks so much for pointing out you and yours to us. Because it won't be long now that I will no longer be embarrassed to call myself a Patriot once again. After you shut up. After you join us in reclamation of our new, "Old" Patriotic American ideals.
Oh and, thank you for your service....
Monday, April 14, 2014
Three Counters to the Extreme Conservative Mindset
There are three major elements to be aware of in debating the conservative mindset:
If you keep getting into debates (or worse, bickering types of arguments), with people who maintain the extreme conservative mindset, you may find you are getting nowhere with either them. Or their argument is against what seems to be perfectly rational and something settled long ago. Or something that has been proven by perhaps even the majority of scientists in the entire world but is for no apparent reason currently controversial.
What's going on there? Are you feeling frustrated? Part of the problem is, people's tactics have changed therefore, we need to update the meanings of some of the trap words they are using. Words that once meant one thing to all of us, but now are being used against us, in a very different way; thus at times, trapping us in our own arguments.
One tactic they like is to say that it is you how has a closed mind, which let's face it, is pretty irritating. But, just laugh about it when you noticed it. As long as you have made the due diligence to have an informed opinion, that is. And to have an opinion on something means that you have closed your mind (for now) on that topic, by definition. So just tell them that a closed mind means that it can be opened, not that it is locked closed as usually, that would be them, not you. Right?
Don't let people try to mistake confidence for arrogance. Sometimes they will say that you are being arrogant in your solidarity on your opinion, cuz after all, gravity exists, and the Earth has been around longer than 6,0000 years. Look, it's okay to seem a bit arrogant at times when you are either that good, or that correct. It is never okay to be arrogant however, or to seem so when you simply don't deserve that arrogance. See, people who are very good, can seem arrogant to others who are not. It'st that feeling that "you are so much better than me, that you have to be extremely humble around me so I don't feel bad." Hogwash. That's your issue. They are that good, so you be a little humble around them as you're in the presence of greatness; again, if they truly are that great.
There's an awful lot of people around now a days projecting that kind of arrogance when they have absolutely no right to do so. Like a lot of Americans, when they visit other countries. Okay, maybe America is that great of a country, but it's very likely that you had nothing whatsoever to do with that. I mean, died in any wars lately? Cured cancer? Won in the Olympics?
Anyway, when you know or you are really that good at something, it can seem like you arrogance to others. Or you can feel irritated or annoyed by those others for wasting your time on things, especially as an a priori consideration; where they do not, or can not see that it is due to something they are lacking; like skill, or knowledge.
You mind should only be closed for the time being on any topic, but not entirely closed overall. A permanently closed mind which never updates with new information can actually be quite deadly and the Darwin Awards are full of those types; just as Darwinian selection eliminates those from the gene pools. As long as you have sought the necessary knowledge and found a conclusion, at that point you close your mind on that topic so that you can now progress and take a stand and get things done. The thing about a closed mind is, it can be opened again when new information arrives.
Many forms of belief do not have closed minds, a good thing up to a point but not necessarily. Frequently they require (or desire) a sealed mind. A very different critter from a merely closed mind.
Science requires one to find the best information and synthesize it appropriately along with verification and a conclusion and thus consider for now, that it is a closed topic; so you can do work and progress to a yet newer truth.
Religion generally wants a sealed mind once the basics are put into place. Makes sense as once God gave His word, well, that should be it, right? Except that hasn't panned out very well over time. If it truly is God's word, well, he's been wrong a lot. Another considering is humankind progresses and so God's word needs to be updated from time to time. But he doesn't update it and yet if he tries, religions around the world will fight against it, because after all, the religion is right and unchangeable. Because, it's God's word.
And yeah, I know....
Though some are more reasonable than others, all really seem to want a mind sealed to anything to detract from their teachings and thereby, "shake the faith". Though I would argue that if you can shake faith, it's a defective form of faith and should be updated, which is not readily acceptable for obvious reasons.
Some people will say that science is faulty because it does change and what was once true, is no longer considered valid when replaced by updated information. But our best efforts are always to find a truth and update it with new information as it becomes available; thereby keeping us updated with the best available information.
So when someone tries to shoot down your beliefs that religion leaves much to be desired, relax. A lot of the issue that traps you, are just the traps that have been developed against scientific thinking for thousands of years.
For example, if someone tries to convince me that there is a vacuum in the room we are in and yet I'm breathing air quite easily, I may disagree with them and tell them that, as I know they are incorrect. If they persist I will not go against them on it at that point, as it is obviously not true and if they can't see that, there is really little I can do about it. I'm not going to perpetuate an argument or make up names for my position as I have no position, it is just something that... is. That is the trap they pull you into and then you find you are in a never ending cycle of argumentation with them. They are now wasting your time, and money, and in some cases our nation's money; our money.
There are a growing number of people who take up incorrect positions on things that are obvious, and in many cases obvious to most people as well as experts; and yet they persist on their disagreement and delusions out of mere ego, philosophy, or more frequently, theology.
All I'm saying is, you need to stop going about arguing as you would have done, historically. Things are changing, they have changed. We all have to be aware of this and stop handling it as we have always done. We need to break the cycle of finding new ways to continue believing in things that we have long since proven incorrect. We need to leave those people behind who can't keep up and after a while they will simply disappear through attrition and evolution.
Another issue in arguing with these types of people is the disparity in specificity within the argument. Frequently in arguments (debates that is and hopefully you see the difference) the two or more parties debating are on different planes of the same argument. One may be arguing a broader point and the other may be arguing a more specific, narrow point. When that happens you will seldom resolve the issue and more likely both walk away frustrated.
Finally, this is also true when someone skips logic from one form to another; sometimes within the same sentence. This is an issue either with people who are ignorant about forms of logic (which happens all the time), or those who are more highly skilled in logic, know exactly what they are doing and use it as a tool of obfuscation.
Please understand, this isn't meant to fix all this, but to make it obvious because I suspect once you know about this it will all become much easier and that was really my only content in saying all this. If not to help get around some of the blatant obfuscations on the part of those who are trying to spew nonsense into the mainstream.
So you see, you don't have to walk away frustrated with these kinds of arguments. Merely see what is going on. To just be aware of things kinds of things is a huge benefit and a useful tool to use in order to further spread genuine knowledge and start on the road where this form of behavior goes into the useless bin where all useless forms of thought need to go, along with all those winners of the Darwin Awards.
Of course you can always use something like Snopes.com too and for those who claim that to be a conspiracy you can use A Guide to Arguing With a Snopes-Denier on them....
Cheers!
- The "Closed Minded" concept
- Specificity vs Generalities
- Jumping Forms of Logic
If you keep getting into debates (or worse, bickering types of arguments), with people who maintain the extreme conservative mindset, you may find you are getting nowhere with either them. Or their argument is against what seems to be perfectly rational and something settled long ago. Or something that has been proven by perhaps even the majority of scientists in the entire world but is for no apparent reason currently controversial.
What's going on there? Are you feeling frustrated? Part of the problem is, people's tactics have changed therefore, we need to update the meanings of some of the trap words they are using. Words that once meant one thing to all of us, but now are being used against us, in a very different way; thus at times, trapping us in our own arguments.
One tactic they like is to say that it is you how has a closed mind, which let's face it, is pretty irritating. But, just laugh about it when you noticed it. As long as you have made the due diligence to have an informed opinion, that is. And to have an opinion on something means that you have closed your mind (for now) on that topic, by definition. So just tell them that a closed mind means that it can be opened, not that it is locked closed as usually, that would be them, not you. Right?
Don't let people try to mistake confidence for arrogance. Sometimes they will say that you are being arrogant in your solidarity on your opinion, cuz after all, gravity exists, and the Earth has been around longer than 6,0000 years. Look, it's okay to seem a bit arrogant at times when you are either that good, or that correct. It is never okay to be arrogant however, or to seem so when you simply don't deserve that arrogance. See, people who are very good, can seem arrogant to others who are not. It'st that feeling that "you are so much better than me, that you have to be extremely humble around me so I don't feel bad." Hogwash. That's your issue. They are that good, so you be a little humble around them as you're in the presence of greatness; again, if they truly are that great.
There's an awful lot of people around now a days projecting that kind of arrogance when they have absolutely no right to do so. Like a lot of Americans, when they visit other countries. Okay, maybe America is that great of a country, but it's very likely that you had nothing whatsoever to do with that. I mean, died in any wars lately? Cured cancer? Won in the Olympics?
Anyway, when you know or you are really that good at something, it can seem like you arrogance to others. Or you can feel irritated or annoyed by those others for wasting your time on things, especially as an a priori consideration; where they do not, or can not see that it is due to something they are lacking; like skill, or knowledge.
You mind should only be closed for the time being on any topic, but not entirely closed overall. A permanently closed mind which never updates with new information can actually be quite deadly and the Darwin Awards are full of those types; just as Darwinian selection eliminates those from the gene pools. As long as you have sought the necessary knowledge and found a conclusion, at that point you close your mind on that topic so that you can now progress and take a stand and get things done. The thing about a closed mind is, it can be opened again when new information arrives.
Many forms of belief do not have closed minds, a good thing up to a point but not necessarily. Frequently they require (or desire) a sealed mind. A very different critter from a merely closed mind.
Science requires one to find the best information and synthesize it appropriately along with verification and a conclusion and thus consider for now, that it is a closed topic; so you can do work and progress to a yet newer truth.
Religion generally wants a sealed mind once the basics are put into place. Makes sense as once God gave His word, well, that should be it, right? Except that hasn't panned out very well over time. If it truly is God's word, well, he's been wrong a lot. Another considering is humankind progresses and so God's word needs to be updated from time to time. But he doesn't update it and yet if he tries, religions around the world will fight against it, because after all, the religion is right and unchangeable. Because, it's God's word.
And yeah, I know....
Though some are more reasonable than others, all really seem to want a mind sealed to anything to detract from their teachings and thereby, "shake the faith". Though I would argue that if you can shake faith, it's a defective form of faith and should be updated, which is not readily acceptable for obvious reasons.
Some people will say that science is faulty because it does change and what was once true, is no longer considered valid when replaced by updated information. But our best efforts are always to find a truth and update it with new information as it becomes available; thereby keeping us updated with the best available information.
So when someone tries to shoot down your beliefs that religion leaves much to be desired, relax. A lot of the issue that traps you, are just the traps that have been developed against scientific thinking for thousands of years.
For example, if someone tries to convince me that there is a vacuum in the room we are in and yet I'm breathing air quite easily, I may disagree with them and tell them that, as I know they are incorrect. If they persist I will not go against them on it at that point, as it is obviously not true and if they can't see that, there is really little I can do about it. I'm not going to perpetuate an argument or make up names for my position as I have no position, it is just something that... is. That is the trap they pull you into and then you find you are in a never ending cycle of argumentation with them. They are now wasting your time, and money, and in some cases our nation's money; our money.
There are a growing number of people who take up incorrect positions on things that are obvious, and in many cases obvious to most people as well as experts; and yet they persist on their disagreement and delusions out of mere ego, philosophy, or more frequently, theology.
All I'm saying is, you need to stop going about arguing as you would have done, historically. Things are changing, they have changed. We all have to be aware of this and stop handling it as we have always done. We need to break the cycle of finding new ways to continue believing in things that we have long since proven incorrect. We need to leave those people behind who can't keep up and after a while they will simply disappear through attrition and evolution.
Another issue in arguing with these types of people is the disparity in specificity within the argument. Frequently in arguments (debates that is and hopefully you see the difference) the two or more parties debating are on different planes of the same argument. One may be arguing a broader point and the other may be arguing a more specific, narrow point. When that happens you will seldom resolve the issue and more likely both walk away frustrated.
Finally, this is also true when someone skips logic from one form to another; sometimes within the same sentence. This is an issue either with people who are ignorant about forms of logic (which happens all the time), or those who are more highly skilled in logic, know exactly what they are doing and use it as a tool of obfuscation.
Please understand, this isn't meant to fix all this, but to make it obvious because I suspect once you know about this it will all become much easier and that was really my only content in saying all this. If not to help get around some of the blatant obfuscations on the part of those who are trying to spew nonsense into the mainstream.
So you see, you don't have to walk away frustrated with these kinds of arguments. Merely see what is going on. To just be aware of things kinds of things is a huge benefit and a useful tool to use in order to further spread genuine knowledge and start on the road where this form of behavior goes into the useless bin where all useless forms of thought need to go, along with all those winners of the Darwin Awards.
Of course you can always use something like Snopes.com too and for those who claim that to be a conspiracy you can use A Guide to Arguing With a Snopes-Denier on them....
Cheers!
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