Some people are either liars, or just plain stupid.
This whole argument over whether or not America is a Christian nation, or one which is "founded on Judeo-Christian values" is indicative enough for me that the United States is at risk for eventual destruction. No theocracy has ever, nor will ever, make any formal recognition of human rights, nor will in any way take measures to protect even the notion of rights, which is the bedrock of modern civil society, the only hindrance to the natural law of "might makes right", which, though fine for the larger part of the animal kingdom, is a disastrously ineffectual code for humanity, as history has demonstrated.
The Judeo-Christian God is not interested in our freedom. He is one of the most corrupt characters ever imagined in the mind of man: a jealous, wrathful, vengeful, petty, violent, emotionally-driven tyrant who desires nothing but to hear himself praised without end for all eternity, and who has promised nothing but perpetual pain and torment for any and all who will not make it their single purpose to appease that desire. The Bible is not a moral book. It is at times a good book, in the sense that Paradise Lost is a good book: it has a definite poetic beauty, occasional glimmers of wisdom, and some sound moral advice; but on the whole it is a heap of ancient superstition and ignorance, no better or worse than the mythological or sacred writings of other various origins.
**edit 2/25/2011 not going to go through all these and modify them to my new way of thinking; I'm just gonna let them stand so anyone who might read in this little tiny nook tucked away in a fold of a cranny here in netville can see how my thinking has come along, backwards forwards up & down, over the years** WAB
It is a fact that most Americans claim to be Christians, but even if, at some time in the future, every single citizen of the United States is a devout Christian except one single non-Christian, the Constitution will still protect the rights of that single non-Christian to worship any God he pleases, without interference from any other citizen, or his government; and it will also protect that person's right to worship no god at all. The majority, however this body be comprised, has no rights, as a body. Only individuals have rights. So, conversely, if at some time in the future every single United States citizen is an atheist except one Christian, that single Christian will still have the right to practice his faith without interference from any other citizen, or his government. This is what it means to have freedom, what it means to have rights. Rights protect individuals, not groups.
Idiocy comes just as much from the left as from the right. Talk of gay-rights is just as nonsensical as talk of Christian-rights. Rights are not privileges. If a gay man is beaten in the streets by a gang of imbecilic thugs, it's not his rights as a gay man which have been violated, but his rights as a man. If two gay men are left alone to enjoy a loving relationship and are protected from harassment by individuals, by society at large, or by the government, it's not their gay-rights, or privileges, which are being recognized, but their rights as individual citizens. If Christian Americans go to church as they please, worship God as they please, baptize their children and raise them according to the tenets of their faith, do all of this in a civil and law-abiding manner, and are safeguarded from obstruction or intervention by other members of society or by the government, it isn't their Christian rights, or privileges, which are being recognized and protected, but their rights as citizens. The same goes for Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, Hindu Americans, and Buddhist Americans. The same also goes for Wiccans, Scientologists, Subgeniuses, and atheists.
I am an atheist, but I do not suggest that my rights as an atheist are in jeopardy by our nation's current religious mania. It's my rights, period, which are in jeopardy. I do not recognize the authority of the Bible, nor do I see any reason to suppose that my government's constitution is in any way connected to the Bible, or owes anything whatsoever to the Bible in regard to its nature and origin. The God of the Bible is a specific deity with a name, a definite character, and a definite will and desire insofar as what he expects from the people who serve him. The God mentioned in the Declaration Of Independence is a noun which in fact references any number of deities, to account for any number of deities which the prospective citizens of the United States might choose to recognize and worship. We are granted the freedom to worship any God whom we choose to recognize as our Creator. For many of the founding fathers, this was the God of Deism, the passive and benevolent Aristotelian Prime Mover, a magnificent and incomprehensible entity which would never be so human as to set up an infantile system of eternal punishment and reward and hold that over the heads of humanity like some petulant supernatural schoolmaster.
Most importantly, the name of Jesus Christ is not mentioned in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, and so it boggles the mind to consider how some people continue to insist that America is a "Christian" nation. The absence of the name of Jesus can be nothing if not deliberate. If the founding fathers had truly thought that this country was "founded on Judeo-Christian" ideals or values, could the name of Jesus fail to appear in the very documents which were intended to create and establish said country, accidentally? Certainly not. These were highly intelligent and serious gentlemen. They intentionally left that name out, and with very good reason.
If there are some people in this country who truly do wish to stomp out a person's right to practice their religious faith, then shame on them for their stupidity and arrogance. I honestly do not know anyone like that, though I know that such idiots have existed. The separation of church and state is intended to work for the benefit of everyone, not just the secularists. After all, of every Christian crying over the fact that creationism is not taught in school, it has to be asked: if the Biblical creation myth is to be taught in school, alongside scientific theories, then why stop there? What is to stop a Buddhist teacher from teaching his religion in class, or the Hindu teacher, or the Muslim teacher? Or better yet, how would Presbyterian parents feel about their child being taught the finer points of Mormonism in a public classroom?
And finally, a religious story and a scientific theory are not on equal footing, despite wishful thinking. One is traditional, passed down as ritual, and accepted on faith, while the other is the result of objective research and study, an accumulative body of certain knowledge and conjecture, ruthlessly tested and re-tested. Why it can be seen as decent to lie to a child and try to convince her that the flimsy and contradictory (not to mention bloody and even kinky) nonsense in Genesis represents the absolute truth is a mystery to me; but please feel free to do this in the privacy of your own home, if you feel so compelled. You have that right, and may you forever keep it; but your right to bring your child up in your own faith at home or in church is equal to my right to allow my child the liberty of some day being able to recognize bullshit when he sees it, a skill which he will no doubt need to cultivate in the future of these United States.
This whole argument over whether or not America is a Christian nation, or one which is "founded on Judeo-Christian values" is indicative enough for me that the United States is at risk for eventual destruction. No theocracy has ever, nor will ever, make any formal recognition of human rights, nor will in any way take measures to protect even the notion of rights, which is the bedrock of modern civil society, the only hindrance to the natural law of "might makes right", which, though fine for the larger part of the animal kingdom, is a disastrously ineffectual code for humanity, as history has demonstrated.
The Judeo-Christian God is not interested in our freedom. He is one of the most corrupt characters ever imagined in the mind of man: a jealous, wrathful, vengeful, petty, violent, emotionally-driven tyrant who desires nothing but to hear himself praised without end for all eternity, and who has promised nothing but perpetual pain and torment for any and all who will not make it their single purpose to appease that desire. The Bible is not a moral book. It is at times a good book, in the sense that Paradise Lost is a good book: it has a definite poetic beauty, occasional glimmers of wisdom, and some sound moral advice; but on the whole it is a heap of ancient superstition and ignorance, no better or worse than the mythological or sacred writings of other various origins.
**edit 2/25/2011 not going to go through all these and modify them to my new way of thinking; I'm just gonna let them stand so anyone who might read in this little tiny nook tucked away in a fold of a cranny here in netville can see how my thinking has come along, backwards forwards up & down, over the years** WAB
It is a fact that most Americans claim to be Christians, but even if, at some time in the future, every single citizen of the United States is a devout Christian except one single non-Christian, the Constitution will still protect the rights of that single non-Christian to worship any God he pleases, without interference from any other citizen, or his government; and it will also protect that person's right to worship no god at all. The majority, however this body be comprised, has no rights, as a body. Only individuals have rights. So, conversely, if at some time in the future every single United States citizen is an atheist except one Christian, that single Christian will still have the right to practice his faith without interference from any other citizen, or his government. This is what it means to have freedom, what it means to have rights. Rights protect individuals, not groups.
Idiocy comes just as much from the left as from the right. Talk of gay-rights is just as nonsensical as talk of Christian-rights. Rights are not privileges. If a gay man is beaten in the streets by a gang of imbecilic thugs, it's not his rights as a gay man which have been violated, but his rights as a man. If two gay men are left alone to enjoy a loving relationship and are protected from harassment by individuals, by society at large, or by the government, it's not their gay-rights, or privileges, which are being recognized, but their rights as individual citizens. If Christian Americans go to church as they please, worship God as they please, baptize their children and raise them according to the tenets of their faith, do all of this in a civil and law-abiding manner, and are safeguarded from obstruction or intervention by other members of society or by the government, it isn't their Christian rights, or privileges, which are being recognized and protected, but their rights as citizens. The same goes for Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, Hindu Americans, and Buddhist Americans. The same also goes for Wiccans, Scientologists, Subgeniuses, and atheists.
I am an atheist, but I do not suggest that my rights as an atheist are in jeopardy by our nation's current religious mania. It's my rights, period, which are in jeopardy. I do not recognize the authority of the Bible, nor do I see any reason to suppose that my government's constitution is in any way connected to the Bible, or owes anything whatsoever to the Bible in regard to its nature and origin. The God of the Bible is a specific deity with a name, a definite character, and a definite will and desire insofar as what he expects from the people who serve him. The God mentioned in the Declaration Of Independence is a noun which in fact references any number of deities, to account for any number of deities which the prospective citizens of the United States might choose to recognize and worship. We are granted the freedom to worship any God whom we choose to recognize as our Creator. For many of the founding fathers, this was the God of Deism, the passive and benevolent Aristotelian Prime Mover, a magnificent and incomprehensible entity which would never be so human as to set up an infantile system of eternal punishment and reward and hold that over the heads of humanity like some petulant supernatural schoolmaster.
Most importantly, the name of Jesus Christ is not mentioned in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, and so it boggles the mind to consider how some people continue to insist that America is a "Christian" nation. The absence of the name of Jesus can be nothing if not deliberate. If the founding fathers had truly thought that this country was "founded on Judeo-Christian" ideals or values, could the name of Jesus fail to appear in the very documents which were intended to create and establish said country, accidentally? Certainly not. These were highly intelligent and serious gentlemen. They intentionally left that name out, and with very good reason.
If there are some people in this country who truly do wish to stomp out a person's right to practice their religious faith, then shame on them for their stupidity and arrogance. I honestly do not know anyone like that, though I know that such idiots have existed. The separation of church and state is intended to work for the benefit of everyone, not just the secularists. After all, of every Christian crying over the fact that creationism is not taught in school, it has to be asked: if the Biblical creation myth is to be taught in school, alongside scientific theories, then why stop there? What is to stop a Buddhist teacher from teaching his religion in class, or the Hindu teacher, or the Muslim teacher? Or better yet, how would Presbyterian parents feel about their child being taught the finer points of Mormonism in a public classroom?
And finally, a religious story and a scientific theory are not on equal footing, despite wishful thinking. One is traditional, passed down as ritual, and accepted on faith, while the other is the result of objective research and study, an accumulative body of certain knowledge and conjecture, ruthlessly tested and re-tested. Why it can be seen as decent to lie to a child and try to convince her that the flimsy and contradictory (not to mention bloody and even kinky) nonsense in Genesis represents the absolute truth is a mystery to me; but please feel free to do this in the privacy of your own home, if you feel so compelled. You have that right, and may you forever keep it; but your right to bring your child up in your own faith at home or in church is equal to my right to allow my child the liberty of some day being able to recognize bullshit when he sees it, a skill which he will no doubt need to cultivate in the future of these United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment