None
of us seem to care about the world outside our window. The millions
slaughtered overseas. The children dying of AIDS and sickness in
Africa. The people perhaps in your own family that are suffering
because of screwed up medical policies or lack of insurance. We all
know its around, surrounding our minds and suffocating our tolerance
for life. It looms over our heads always antagonizing, reminding you
one day you could and will end up like that. Maybe the next few hours
of your life will be the last. All that you ever held dear will be
cut off. The love of your life will take part of your soul with them
as they're lowered into the grave. Your friends and family may have
died September 11th, they may be dying in Iraq, or maybe they're
slowing drifting away on a hospital bed. How easy it is to just push
the thoughts away. Who can blame you for pretending? We're all just
big kids right? What would telling a child that their pets, parents,
and friends were all going to die make them do? How would they start
to think? Sure, people can suffer from diseases or get maimed in a
firefight. Unfortunately, nothing quite compares to a suffering mind.
Your eyes tear up and go blurry. Your head pounds and throbs over and
endlessly picking away at a spot just above your eye. Restless or
sleepless nights when you find yourself drenched in sweat and
methodically rocking your feet side to side. The world is real. Your
pain and confusion are almost too real to even handle. But what could
make it all go away? There has to be something so drastically perfect
and loving that evens the desperate odds in your mind. Innumerable
ideas or theories are desperately tossed about. People turn to alcohol or drugs to help convince their mind that some things don't have to
be thought about. But nothing goes away.
We're all connected. Whether you know (or at least think) you know everything there is about the world, you don't know anything if you don't empathize with that idea. If you can imagine endless suffering and pain in hell then so can the next person. It should bother you to think about babies being cut out of their mothers wombs, because its happening as recently as 2002. You don't like to think about it, imagine how the women felt dying from it. Everyone knows the kinds of insufferable thoughts that seem too hard to face. Their not all sympathetic to the idea that maybe they don't really know how to help you. While knowledge is not the perfect cure-all for the compounding problems on earth, I believe it is the basis of anything that seeks to even begin alleviating suffering. This so called "intellectual arrogance" in another realm of understanding is nothing more than the self righteous pride a religious person feels when they memorize scripture. The idea two sides of the same coin does not always apply to every conversation about religion. The bigger picture ensues a better understanding of people and their reasons behind their actions. The terms good and bad are so near-sided we change their meaning and twist them to feel comfortable about commands we ignore "from the pulpit." A "good" action can be taken on its base, but how many of you would call it good when you knew the motives, understood the variables, realized how ignorant one can be and still be considered good.
To say you respect my views in the last blog and then in the next sentence throw scripture at me and bring a devil scenario is to disrespect (or helplessly not understand) my views. We tolerate this verbal contradiction of belief(better known as respecting it) to such a crazy extent that we don't even recognize when the president calls on god for help or state supreme court judge admits to abiding a "higher power's" law. What about that little rule separating church and state? Parasites inhabit the mind and make you do things for the good of their health, not yours. They make animals, including humans, suicidal and incapable of reason. The diabolical genius of any cult convincing its members to drink the punch, wine, etc.. Yes, you can be brilliant, well endowed, a seemingly stunning example of humility and humanity and still be infested with bigoted ideas or completely off base assumptions and assertions with nothing but your strong inner feelings about them as justification. No one will tolerate the white guy screaming nigger over and over in a class room because his dad taught him to feel such strong hatred for black people. All ideas come to you like this. Unorganized or unreasoned and have to be sorted out as "right" or "wrong" in your mind. How quickly the terms embody new meaning when you find yourself in a new environment.
It bothers me that people can know so much about their minds (or have the ability to learn) and don't accept how futile the evidence paints the picture of their lives. And granted, its only futile if you choose to see it that way. If your brain had the infinite power of the universe and was running at the speed of light it would struggle to fully and unequivocally believe just 300 things. Scale that down to what your working with and ask yourself what your even capable of believing well before you say you actually do. Your mind can't even operate unless it reasons and deduces that what its taking in is helpful and "true." No I do not say that any person of religious faith is any less thoughtful, has struggled any less with questions, or is completely invalid as a human because they so vehemently attest to the truth and reason behind their beliefs. The problems arise and all boil down to evidence. Is your evidence based from really strong, compelling feelings and "miracles" or on something you can test? Something that can take on the full repercussions of what it means to be wrong. Here the great divide between science and faith takes foot. Who would even want to face the idea that what they have faith in could be wrong? Even scientists struggle with their convictions, but the scientific method and ideal hold true. Raised your entire life to believe a tsunami is evidence for the second coming leaves no question about why people confuse their meaning of the word evidence. Unfortunately, no matter how many times you are told by your parents, pastor, or friends that "because the bible says so" is any evidence whatsoever for valid belief, it isn't.
The writing styles, the (mis)translations, and historical claims of the book can all be studied and tested. Take note of where you get the evidence as well. Every source is going to have at least a hint of personal bias if not outright agenda to capture your mind. Don't for a second think that one ideal, one person, or one book... is the be all end all authority about anything. Whether we like the results or not the evidence backed facts remain. This is too big a problem for religious people and I hate to see the desperation, denial, depravity, delusion, defensiveness, and dogma sound all the sweeter if any discussion tries to push their minds further. I can't blame them for feeling bad or angry. Even more resent the very idea of questioning anything in the first place. I can asess responsibility upon those that don't take the information and use it to change and conclude that others can be helped by hearing what they now know. They can use it to better themselves and finally face the increasingly undeniable contradictions one must live, and blindly embrace, to be a "moderate believer." I've said it before, I don't care what you believe if it isn't harming anybody, but who can really appreciate how much universal harm is done when ideas and reasoning are abused to justify blind ignorance.
We're all connected. Whether you know (or at least think) you know everything there is about the world, you don't know anything if you don't empathize with that idea. If you can imagine endless suffering and pain in hell then so can the next person. It should bother you to think about babies being cut out of their mothers wombs, because its happening as recently as 2002. You don't like to think about it, imagine how the women felt dying from it. Everyone knows the kinds of insufferable thoughts that seem too hard to face. Their not all sympathetic to the idea that maybe they don't really know how to help you. While knowledge is not the perfect cure-all for the compounding problems on earth, I believe it is the basis of anything that seeks to even begin alleviating suffering. This so called "intellectual arrogance" in another realm of understanding is nothing more than the self righteous pride a religious person feels when they memorize scripture. The idea two sides of the same coin does not always apply to every conversation about religion. The bigger picture ensues a better understanding of people and their reasons behind their actions. The terms good and bad are so near-sided we change their meaning and twist them to feel comfortable about commands we ignore "from the pulpit." A "good" action can be taken on its base, but how many of you would call it good when you knew the motives, understood the variables, realized how ignorant one can be and still be considered good.
To say you respect my views in the last blog and then in the next sentence throw scripture at me and bring a devil scenario is to disrespect (or helplessly not understand) my views. We tolerate this verbal contradiction of belief(better known as respecting it) to such a crazy extent that we don't even recognize when the president calls on god for help or state supreme court judge admits to abiding a "higher power's" law. What about that little rule separating church and state? Parasites inhabit the mind and make you do things for the good of their health, not yours. They make animals, including humans, suicidal and incapable of reason. The diabolical genius of any cult convincing its members to drink the punch, wine, etc.. Yes, you can be brilliant, well endowed, a seemingly stunning example of humility and humanity and still be infested with bigoted ideas or completely off base assumptions and assertions with nothing but your strong inner feelings about them as justification. No one will tolerate the white guy screaming nigger over and over in a class room because his dad taught him to feel such strong hatred for black people. All ideas come to you like this. Unorganized or unreasoned and have to be sorted out as "right" or "wrong" in your mind. How quickly the terms embody new meaning when you find yourself in a new environment.
It bothers me that people can know so much about their minds (or have the ability to learn) and don't accept how futile the evidence paints the picture of their lives. And granted, its only futile if you choose to see it that way. If your brain had the infinite power of the universe and was running at the speed of light it would struggle to fully and unequivocally believe just 300 things. Scale that down to what your working with and ask yourself what your even capable of believing well before you say you actually do. Your mind can't even operate unless it reasons and deduces that what its taking in is helpful and "true." No I do not say that any person of religious faith is any less thoughtful, has struggled any less with questions, or is completely invalid as a human because they so vehemently attest to the truth and reason behind their beliefs. The problems arise and all boil down to evidence. Is your evidence based from really strong, compelling feelings and "miracles" or on something you can test? Something that can take on the full repercussions of what it means to be wrong. Here the great divide between science and faith takes foot. Who would even want to face the idea that what they have faith in could be wrong? Even scientists struggle with their convictions, but the scientific method and ideal hold true. Raised your entire life to believe a tsunami is evidence for the second coming leaves no question about why people confuse their meaning of the word evidence. Unfortunately, no matter how many times you are told by your parents, pastor, or friends that "because the bible says so" is any evidence whatsoever for valid belief, it isn't.
The writing styles, the (mis)translations, and historical claims of the book can all be studied and tested. Take note of where you get the evidence as well. Every source is going to have at least a hint of personal bias if not outright agenda to capture your mind. Don't for a second think that one ideal, one person, or one book... is the be all end all authority about anything. Whether we like the results or not the evidence backed facts remain. This is too big a problem for religious people and I hate to see the desperation, denial, depravity, delusion, defensiveness, and dogma sound all the sweeter if any discussion tries to push their minds further. I can't blame them for feeling bad or angry. Even more resent the very idea of questioning anything in the first place. I can asess responsibility upon those that don't take the information and use it to change and conclude that others can be helped by hearing what they now know. They can use it to better themselves and finally face the increasingly undeniable contradictions one must live, and blindly embrace, to be a "moderate believer." I've said it before, I don't care what you believe if it isn't harming anybody, but who can really appreciate how much universal harm is done when ideas and reasoning are abused to justify blind ignorance.
