According to Yahoo News, Utah lawmakers easily passed a resolution through the initial hearing that would make the Browning M1911 the official state gun of Utah. Whatever. That's unnecessary, and the only point to it is pro-NRA grandstanding.
The reason for my post is that Republican Representative Carl Wimmer said that the semi-automatic pistol: "defended American values and the traditions of this country for 100 years".
Here's my problem. The moment I read that, I immediately thought: you don't defend values with guns-- you defend borders and people with guns. Values are ideas. You don't enforce ideas at gunpoint! Well, you do if you're Christians, just ask the Native Americans. Ideas are attacked with reason, and defended with words. This guy just illustrated what's wrong with this country.
I have values-- lots of them, and they are very well thought-out because I think about them constantly. But I guarantee you that when someone like him says "American values", he's talking about something very different from my values.
And traditions aren't defended with guns either. Traditions either stand the test of time or they don't; in a kind of Darwinian evolutionary process, traditions fade away if they don't reflect the current values of society. Tradtions, to conservatives like him, mean all the wrong things. Traditions should not defended. They should be able to survive on their own. If they can't, the sooner they die, the better. That's what I have to say to representative Wimmer.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
About praying...
Someone I knew from school is a 'friend' on Facebook. While she's not technically a 'friend' anymore after 35 years, she's somewhat friendly. She posted the following statement as her Facebook status: "Pray to end abortion today".
This is not going to be about abortion. We all have our beliefs, and so be it. This is going to be the response I would like to send, but won't. She has the right to her opinion, and the right to voice that opinion. I'm not going to hammer her in public. Or maybe I'll change my mind someday. Here it is:
How's that working out for you? It's been since 1973 that Christians have been praying to end abortion... how come it hasn't happened yet? The bible says that god will answer prayers...
John 16:23 has Jesus saying "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." In Matthew 21:22, Jesus tells his followers: "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." And Mark 11:24 says the same. Matthew 7:7 continues the bribery by attributing this unfulfillable statement to Jesus: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you", and so does Luke in 11:9. How does this compare to reality?
Matthew 18:19 goes further by saying: "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."
Well, it's fair to say that MORE THAN TWO christians have prayed to end abortion. In fact, it must be the most prayed about topic among all believers (along with winning the lotto). But abortion is still legal and still happening. Does it really take 40 years and millions of abortions for god to get around to answering all these prayers?
Why pray "today"? Praying up until yesterday has resulted in absolutely nothing! Why pray at all? If there's an omnipotent god, surely he knows what's going on. Every abortion happens by the express consent of god. And if god allows people to act on their free will, and will punish those who offend him, and the souls of the aborted fetuses are in heaven, then what the hell are you so upset about? It all sounds like god's plan. Who are you to beg for him to change his plans? He could have ended it any time he wanted to... no need for all this pathetic man-made legislation!
START THINKING! This is EVIDENCE. Explicit claims were made in the bible, and they have proven to be false. The reason why abortion-- the most prayed-about issue of our time-- continues to occur is that there is no one listening to your prayers. Heaven has no ears to hear, no hands to help. It's just cold, empty sky, people!
This is not going to be about abortion. We all have our beliefs, and so be it. This is going to be the response I would like to send, but won't. She has the right to her opinion, and the right to voice that opinion. I'm not going to hammer her in public. Or maybe I'll change my mind someday. Here it is:
How's that working out for you? It's been since 1973 that Christians have been praying to end abortion... how come it hasn't happened yet? The bible says that god will answer prayers...
John 16:23 has Jesus saying "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." In Matthew 21:22, Jesus tells his followers: "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." And Mark 11:24 says the same. Matthew 7:7 continues the bribery by attributing this unfulfillable statement to Jesus: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you", and so does Luke in 11:9. How does this compare to reality?
Matthew 18:19 goes further by saying: "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."
Well, it's fair to say that MORE THAN TWO christians have prayed to end abortion. In fact, it must be the most prayed about topic among all believers (along with winning the lotto). But abortion is still legal and still happening. Does it really take 40 years and millions of abortions for god to get around to answering all these prayers?
Why pray "today"? Praying up until yesterday has resulted in absolutely nothing! Why pray at all? If there's an omnipotent god, surely he knows what's going on. Every abortion happens by the express consent of god. And if god allows people to act on their free will, and will punish those who offend him, and the souls of the aborted fetuses are in heaven, then what the hell are you so upset about? It all sounds like god's plan. Who are you to beg for him to change his plans? He could have ended it any time he wanted to... no need for all this pathetic man-made legislation!
START THINKING! This is EVIDENCE. Explicit claims were made in the bible, and they have proven to be false. The reason why abortion-- the most prayed-about issue of our time-- continues to occur is that there is no one listening to your prayers. Heaven has no ears to hear, no hands to help. It's just cold, empty sky, people!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Hypocritical Christians, again...
In January of 2011, Julie Powers Schenecker of Tampa Florida shot her teenage son on the way to soccer practice. She then drove back to her suburban home and shot her teenage daughter in the back of the head while she was studying on the computer. Mrs. Schenecker is the wife of an Army Colonel. She complained that the three day waiting period to purchase her handgun inconvenienced her scheme to murder her children. The reason she gave police when they arrested her was that her children were "mouthy"-- they talked back to her and disrespected her.
Reading the comments attached to this news story is facinating. Self-confessed Christians say how horrible they think this crime is, and how they can't possibly understand how a mother could commit such a terrible act. Without a doubt, this is a horrific crime, and the murderer should spend the rest of her life in prison, or sentenced to death.
What is facinating is that Christians, who obviously have never read the bible, are not connecting the motive for this crime to the law of God. Look up online for Exodus 21:17. Regardless of the translation you look at, it says the following: Anyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death. This statement is ALL OVER the "holy" bible:
Matthew 15:4, Jesus speaking: For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark 7:10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leviticus 20:9 "'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deuteronomy 27:16 "Cursed is the man who dishonors his father or his mother." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Proverbs 20:20 If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.
Christians will say how horrible the Tampa murders are, but will refuse to admit how horrible the bible is. They will defend it. They will tell you that it doesn't mean what it says, and that those were different times.
Reading the comments attached to this news story is facinating. Self-confessed Christians say how horrible they think this crime is, and how they can't possibly understand how a mother could commit such a terrible act. Without a doubt, this is a horrific crime, and the murderer should spend the rest of her life in prison, or sentenced to death.
What is facinating is that Christians, who obviously have never read the bible, are not connecting the motive for this crime to the law of God. Look up online for Exodus 21:17. Regardless of the translation you look at, it says the following: Anyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death. This statement is ALL OVER the "holy" bible:
Matthew 15:4, Jesus speaking: For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark 7:10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leviticus 20:9 "'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deuteronomy 27:16 "Cursed is the man who dishonors his father or his mother." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Proverbs 20:20 If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.
Christians will say how horrible the Tampa murders are, but will refuse to admit how horrible the bible is. They will defend it. They will tell you that it doesn't mean what it says, and that those were different times.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
"Why is the Truth so Difficult to Ascertain?"
This is a question posted by a friend of mine on Facebook. Here was my reply.
Because we are born knowing nothing... all of us-- from the lowest to the highest. While that sounds obvious, people assume certain members of society have special knowledge and pathways to "The Truth". This is a delusion. The way to the truth is Reason, because it's the only tool we have. As such, we must sharpen that tool. The first step is to be honest and admit the difference between what we "know", and what we "believe". People say they know things "with every fiber of my being". No, they don't-- they believe.
The other thing about "truth" is that all knowledge is subject to revision with the discovery of new facts. ALL KNOWLEDGE, including religlion. To deny this is to have stopped thinking-- committing intellectual suicide. Skepticism is above knowledge, not below it. People have a desire to have instant truth, to know all answers now. Sometimes the best answer, the HONEST answer, is simply: we don't know yet. Where did the universe come from? We don't know yet. What happens when we die? No one knows, except that scientifically speaking, it looks like nothing at all happens. Where did humans come from? We do know that one... evolution. My point is that people should not expect all the answers all at once. And this is what religion pretends to provide...
Because we are born knowing nothing... all of us-- from the lowest to the highest. While that sounds obvious, people assume certain members of society have special knowledge and pathways to "The Truth". This is a delusion. The way to the truth is Reason, because it's the only tool we have. As such, we must sharpen that tool. The first step is to be honest and admit the difference between what we "know", and what we "believe". People say they know things "with every fiber of my being". No, they don't-- they believe.
The other thing about "truth" is that all knowledge is subject to revision with the discovery of new facts. ALL KNOWLEDGE, including religlion. To deny this is to have stopped thinking-- committing intellectual suicide. Skepticism is above knowledge, not below it. People have a desire to have instant truth, to know all answers now. Sometimes the best answer, the HONEST answer, is simply: we don't know yet. Where did the universe come from? We don't know yet. What happens when we die? No one knows, except that scientifically speaking, it looks like nothing at all happens. Where did humans come from? We do know that one... evolution. My point is that people should not expect all the answers all at once. And this is what religion pretends to provide...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)