Sorry for the lack of posts... I intend to be on quite a Rant today. Interesting stuff floating out there in the ether....
1) Intelligent Design loses in Dover, Pennsylvania
First of all, I must say believe what you want..... Creation, Intelligent Designer, Buddha scooping the valleys out of the earth to create the mountains... whatever... But call a duck a duck and call Science Science.
Anyone who has even remotely check the definition of Science will find that one of the presuppositions of something being called a science is that it must have a level of detail that can or may be proved. Sorry, but Religion is based on faith, and I defy anyone to distinctly prove to me that God... or god... or gods.. any of them, exist. Now don't get me wrong, I believe in a higher power, that I call God, that has a son, that we call Jesus, that was born of a virgin named Mary. He died and rose on the third day (I now sound like the Nicene Creed). I Believe all that, so don't go calling me a commie, or evil, or Satan... But to prove beyond a doubt to someone that a greater entity exists is just not possible. Someone always says something like, "Haven't you had children... Haven't you seen a sunset... Haven't you felt that love between you and your wife.. That proves it!" Prove it! And while you are trying... I'll probably piss you off.
The problem here is that some people want so bad to make their religion everyone's religion that they cannot comprehend when someone does not see it their way. Not even all of us Christians agree on how our God intended for us to live, work, reproduce or even die. Religion is a personal belief and my question to those who say that we need to put religion back into our schools is this... Which one? And if you choose Christianity... Which version? And how hacked are you going to be when someone insists that your Protestant child is required to do the Sign of the Cross before the start of lessons each day? My prayers usually start out with that every time... Why shouldn't yours?
Now back to the issue at hand. The judge in the case stated that the reason he rejected the teaching of ID in the classes is that it in no way can be separated from its Religious foundations and that foundation is unprovable. Sure the Theory of Evolution (it is a theory by the way, why don't we call it that) cannot be thoroughly proved and some of it may never be, but at least you can try to prove it with hard concrete evidence. That is what science is all about. There is some faith in there, but it is the faith that the gaps in the theory will be fleshed out someday, somehow, by someone. The last time I checked, the "gaps" in my religion will only be filled when I die or the rapture occurs.
2) Spending cuts by the Government
How many of us would be able to get away with this in our great country? Already spend way more than we make in income to start with... Start spending more money because its for a "good" cause.... and then take an income hit by telling our employers, "No... I really think you should keep your money. I don't need it."
Well, that's what your "Conservative" leadership is currently doing. No doubt this is more "trickle-down" economics. My dad says, and he's a life long farmer who used to proudly vote Republican, "I was in the forces and there's only one thing that trickles down from the top and it ain't money."
Today, Mr. Cheney cast the deciding vote, 51-50 which means that some conservatives somewhere agree with those darn liberals, to cut spending by our government. Great, here's the problem... The cuts were in programs that help the poor of this country... Medicare, Medicaid, Student Loans, Lunch programs... I'm just so disgusted with the fact that we keep padding the wallets of people who have money, hoping and praying that we get lucky enough they send some of the crumbs our way.
3) Spying on US Citizens
Short and sweet on this one... You have a Secret Court that will give you permission to wiretap anyone within one hour if you really need it... You have a law that says that you will not wiretap any American Citizen without a court order... And you have Congressmen that say that they did not give their consent... And yet you still ignore the secret FISA Court, ignore the law, and ignore the concerns of congressmen.
Going on television after all of this and saying, "Trust us", is not a good way to win me over to your side... EVER!
4) Christmas as a Holiday among Holidays
I saved this one for last even though it kind of ties into the first rant. First of all , I love Christmas! Love it! I get up on the roof of my house on Thanksgiving afternoon and night and hang Christmas lights from eaves. I put up LOTS of Christmas decorations, including a Christmas Tree, while playing and singing Christmas Carols on the home stereo.
But....
The real war on Christmas should be fought by Christians against the Commercialization of this second of most Holy Days. While the "squeaky wheel" loud-mouths on both sides debate the Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays idiocy, nobody complains about who is really taking Christ out of Christmas. It isn't the clerk that says any of the various Holiday Greetings, and it isn't the person who writes X-Mas (which is a perfectly valid way to write the name for the holiday by the way... look here!) anywhere, including this post. The people taking Christ out of Christmas are the companies that have convinced us that unless you purchase the HOT ITEM of the year (read iPod, XBox 360, Cabbage Patch Doll, $500 piece of crap laptop, etc) you just aren't in the Christmas spirit.
Why aren't we seeing those battles fought? Especially on television during the Today Show, Good Morning America, or whatever the heck CBS is running right now (does anybody still watch them before 7pm?). Christmas is supposed to be about the Christ Mass, intended to celebrate the Human Birth of our Godly King, not whether you should have to take off the bottom row of branches from the Christmas Tree so you can fit all of the presents underneath.
Don't get me wrong... I love presents as much as the next guy. Getting and giving. But nobody is complaining about the True Meaning of the Season being stripped out of our collective minds and steamrolled by Black Friday.
And finally, as I have discussed with my Good Friend Larry... What's wrong with wishing people Happy Holidays? Don't understand all the Hubbub, bub. And for those who are actually uninitiated, the term Holiday is taken from the Combination of the works Holy and Day. The British took the term to mean any days they got to miss from work because the only days they got off were Holy Days. As I told Larry, I'm sorry that we "dumb" Americans aren't smart enough (or maybe just too lazy) to know the true meaning of the word, but that does not remove the fact that wishing someone a Happy Holidays is really the same thing as Merry Christmas (or Happy Christmas for the Brits). What is the Big deal? Oh, and if you want, it can also cover all the other Holy Days that are celebrated at this time of year. There are lots; pagan, Jewish, African-American, Christian (Lots of Catholic ones), and others. Read more about them here and...
1) Intelligent Design loses in Dover, Pennsylvania
First of all, I must say believe what you want..... Creation, Intelligent Designer, Buddha scooping the valleys out of the earth to create the mountains... whatever... But call a duck a duck and call Science Science.
Anyone who has even remotely check the definition of Science will find that one of the presuppositions of something being called a science is that it must have a level of detail that can or may be proved. Sorry, but Religion is based on faith, and I defy anyone to distinctly prove to me that God... or god... or gods.. any of them, exist. Now don't get me wrong, I believe in a higher power, that I call God, that has a son, that we call Jesus, that was born of a virgin named Mary. He died and rose on the third day (I now sound like the Nicene Creed). I Believe all that, so don't go calling me a commie, or evil, or Satan... But to prove beyond a doubt to someone that a greater entity exists is just not possible. Someone always says something like, "Haven't you had children... Haven't you seen a sunset... Haven't you felt that love between you and your wife.. That proves it!" Prove it! And while you are trying... I'll probably piss you off.
The problem here is that some people want so bad to make their religion everyone's religion that they cannot comprehend when someone does not see it their way. Not even all of us Christians agree on how our God intended for us to live, work, reproduce or even die. Religion is a personal belief and my question to those who say that we need to put religion back into our schools is this... Which one? And if you choose Christianity... Which version? And how hacked are you going to be when someone insists that your Protestant child is required to do the Sign of the Cross before the start of lessons each day? My prayers usually start out with that every time... Why shouldn't yours?
Now back to the issue at hand. The judge in the case stated that the reason he rejected the teaching of ID in the classes is that it in no way can be separated from its Religious foundations and that foundation is unprovable. Sure the Theory of Evolution (it is a theory by the way, why don't we call it that) cannot be thoroughly proved and some of it may never be, but at least you can try to prove it with hard concrete evidence. That is what science is all about. There is some faith in there, but it is the faith that the gaps in the theory will be fleshed out someday, somehow, by someone. The last time I checked, the "gaps" in my religion will only be filled when I die or the rapture occurs.
2) Spending cuts by the Government
How many of us would be able to get away with this in our great country? Already spend way more than we make in income to start with... Start spending more money because its for a "good" cause.... and then take an income hit by telling our employers, "No... I really think you should keep your money. I don't need it."
Well, that's what your "Conservative" leadership is currently doing. No doubt this is more "trickle-down" economics. My dad says, and he's a life long farmer who used to proudly vote Republican, "I was in the forces and there's only one thing that trickles down from the top and it ain't money."
Today, Mr. Cheney cast the deciding vote, 51-50 which means that some conservatives somewhere agree with those darn liberals, to cut spending by our government. Great, here's the problem... The cuts were in programs that help the poor of this country... Medicare, Medicaid, Student Loans, Lunch programs... I'm just so disgusted with the fact that we keep padding the wallets of people who have money, hoping and praying that we get lucky enough they send some of the crumbs our way.
3) Spying on US Citizens
Short and sweet on this one... You have a Secret Court that will give you permission to wiretap anyone within one hour if you really need it... You have a law that says that you will not wiretap any American Citizen without a court order... And you have Congressmen that say that they did not give their consent... And yet you still ignore the secret FISA Court, ignore the law, and ignore the concerns of congressmen.
Going on television after all of this and saying, "Trust us", is not a good way to win me over to your side... EVER!
4) Christmas as a Holiday among Holidays
I saved this one for last even though it kind of ties into the first rant. First of all , I love Christmas! Love it! I get up on the roof of my house on Thanksgiving afternoon and night and hang Christmas lights from eaves. I put up LOTS of Christmas decorations, including a Christmas Tree, while playing and singing Christmas Carols on the home stereo.
But....
The real war on Christmas should be fought by Christians against the Commercialization of this second of most Holy Days. While the "squeaky wheel" loud-mouths on both sides debate the Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays idiocy, nobody complains about who is really taking Christ out of Christmas. It isn't the clerk that says any of the various Holiday Greetings, and it isn't the person who writes X-Mas (which is a perfectly valid way to write the name for the holiday by the way... look here!) anywhere, including this post. The people taking Christ out of Christmas are the companies that have convinced us that unless you purchase the HOT ITEM of the year (read iPod, XBox 360, Cabbage Patch Doll, $500 piece of crap laptop, etc) you just aren't in the Christmas spirit.
Why aren't we seeing those battles fought? Especially on television during the Today Show, Good Morning America, or whatever the heck CBS is running right now (does anybody still watch them before 7pm?). Christmas is supposed to be about the Christ Mass, intended to celebrate the Human Birth of our Godly King, not whether you should have to take off the bottom row of branches from the Christmas Tree so you can fit all of the presents underneath.
Don't get me wrong... I love presents as much as the next guy. Getting and giving. But nobody is complaining about the True Meaning of the Season being stripped out of our collective minds and steamrolled by Black Friday.
And finally, as I have discussed with my Good Friend Larry... What's wrong with wishing people Happy Holidays? Don't understand all the Hubbub, bub. And for those who are actually uninitiated, the term Holiday is taken from the Combination of the works Holy and Day. The British took the term to mean any days they got to miss from work because the only days they got off were Holy Days. As I told Larry, I'm sorry that we "dumb" Americans aren't smart enough (or maybe just too lazy) to know the true meaning of the word, but that does not remove the fact that wishing someone a Happy Holidays is really the same thing as Merry Christmas (or Happy Christmas for the Brits). What is the Big deal? Oh, and if you want, it can also cover all the other Holy Days that are celebrated at this time of year. There are lots; pagan, Jewish, African-American, Christian (Lots of Catholic ones), and others. Read more about them here and...
Have a Merry Christmas,
a Happy New Year,
and Happy Holidays to everyone!
a Happy New Year,
and Happy Holidays to everyone!
Comments
As usual your about half right. I think your arguements against Intelligent design have almost as many holes in it as the theory of evolution itself. All I could do was to keep my eyes from rolling out of my head on your rant against tax cuts. Yeah, since I got a tax cut last time I guess that makes me rich. Right. I am not saying that I would not be voting to use the money in other places right now but you know that these tax cuts have good straight to the middle class and you just need to come to terms with it yourself. If you don't want to, you can feel free to give me your tax cut check when you get it. Or are you going to be getting one because your family is also rich? Maybe you should request to pay more taxes. I think the IRS would be glad to take it. On the spying issue, I would like to see what all comes out on this before I condemn or come to the side of our President. I will be watching this carefully. OK. I agree with you generally on section 4. Well written blog but I will be linking and blogging about the Intelligent Design issue. It merits more Blog Debate between us.
your conservative friend