I tend to ramble. This has been one of those times. But yesterday when I went to sleep, I also wanted to be dead by this time today. I just thought Id try to relate what I was thinking of on my first day on the planet after the night that was supposed to be my last. _________________________________ If you demand PROOF of evolution and say that it is merely a theory (quotes to insinuate illegitimacy and contempt) with gaps please allow my indignation that a story of virgin birth and a boat with a 900 year old man that carried all the creatures of the land for 40 days seems a bit of a stretch. Proof? Are we really still having these debates? One may believe whatever makes their heart content. But if I am to believe and understand the outrage of the Christians in America who use words like oppressed and discriminated against, but who also insist that there is also a right they retain that allows them to impinge upon others when proselytizing, spreading the good news, condemning heathens, apostates and atheists (like me) to an eternity of suffering for OUR belief (or lack thereof) - then the plot is getting lost.. Christians can say what they want in support of their religious beliefs, but if someone else has any news at all that they dont already accept, the Christians somehow turn the rules inside out, and others shall bite their tongue and keep thy thoughts to thyself. Am I to be forgiven for being a little unsettled, for realizing the there is much perversion of the word freedom going on in our society today? My dad used to say, If it makes you feel good, you can swing your arms until your hearts content. But the freedom to swing your arms ends at the tip of my nose. Thats why I lose friends (and dont lament their absence) if anyone else ever has the bad taste to say freedom of religion does not mean freedom FROM religion My first Facebook unfriend happend thirty seconds after those words appeared on my screen. Lets be blunt: The Christians are atheists about every other religion on Earth but their own. This brutal irony seems to escape them. If they behave as if their intolerance towards other points of view are their right, but none shall have the right to behave toward them as they feel entitled (even compelled) to behave toward others. Freedom, as a word if not a concept, is being bastardized far beyond what any logical definition could mean. You may believe whatever you want. You may not demand others must believe it. You may not incorporate it into the civil code that applies to all of us. And please, if that golden rule that has been quoted to me since I was old enough to understand what it means could mean anything, please Try to grasp the hypocrisy that is being used as a political and rhetorical football in America today. If Christians are being oppressed, then the rest of us who feel that Christians have abused, dismissed, discounted our views, impugned our motives and loyalties, and accused of of being unwitting and helpless agents to a nefarious force that we dont acknowledge even exists (and that is why they say is precisely the reason we are helpless escape slavery to evil) Its a very simple concept. If you disparage, contest, dismiss, ridicule, and deride my views; if you impugn my motives and suggest that I am incapable of resisting evil impulses because I dont have the leader of YOUR beliefs in my heart, you are perverting that freedom of religious expression that you claim to hold so dear. (Ive always wondered, by the way, when a person says that I must be following the devil and am unable to resist his evil influence because I dont acknowledge their God, what is it at that moment that keeps me from running for the nearest blunt object and bludgeoning them to death as if to prove they are right? I say my logic and common sense does that; they say it is because God is on their side and protecting them from me. Think about this. Maybe you cant, I know some have no idea what Im talking about. You have the right to believe in whatever you want, within the limits of our civil code. You dont need the Ten Commandments to tell you that you shall not kill, its written in language that our law enforcement officers can act upon if someone gets the idea. However, if your religion tells you that gay marriage is against your religion, you cannot make that a reason to enact it into law. Why not? For the same reason that a Muslim cannot suggest we behead any infidels (that would include both of us, thank you) And THAT, my fellow American, is why logic and reason are more important than what you believe, and why, whether you like it or not, is why youre unwittingly quite grateful that we have secular laws and not religious ones. Congress shall pass no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibit the exercise thereof You can exercise your religion, but we cant pass a law (only congress can do that, and thus they are expressly proscribed from your cause) that says your religion and your beliefs must be held to the exclusion of someone else. The Supreme Court is likely to rule on this in the future; hopefully in the next few years. Because our society cannot go on pretending that we have not invented a new bogey to pin all evil on, masturbating that if we just get rid of the bogey (burn the witch) that the crops wont fail, and the country will be all better again. The country will be better when we - the United States of Who Are We Kidding - stop attacking each other from within and making a mockery of the word united. You cant say all men are created equal and still mistreat women, you cannot say that freedom of religion is sacred and then impugn other religions beyond your own; you cannot say that someone is suspicious or dangerous just because they dont see the world the way you do. If you do this, please spare us the indignation when others behave the same as you do, but in a different direction. You practice your religion, I dont stop you. I dont practice your religion, you dont condemn me for it. We cannot be a free people if some people feel they know the limits of what another persons freedom should look like. If this is the understanding, it must go both ways, and then you had better pick up a rock because its going to go downhill fast from there. Google Balkanized. Its usually listed as an antonym for United This may have some bearing on our situation.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 23:38:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015