Saturday, November 28, 2009
The Bible says...
Is it just me or does the God of the Bible command us to do some pretty wicked things in his name? Well as they say "the Lord works in mysterious ways."
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Ten Commandments
TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'
THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'
FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'
FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.'
SIX: 'You shall not murder.'
SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.'
EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.'
NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'
TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'
What about Thou shall not rape? Or Thou shall not molest children? Or Thou shall not worship money(not just your neighbors)? Or Thou shall not have or keep human slaves? What a jealous God who devotes the first 3 commandments to himself and not some of the supposed universal truths that we live by today that I think would be better and more useful than to condemn worshiping another God.
Can morality exist with out God?
The argument is made by religious people again and again. “Without religion we wouldn’t know right from wrong.” I deeply disagree and let me tell you why. First off what is right and wrong? Is it relative to the culture, I think so. I don’t think that there are universal rights and wrongs. I can say that it is wrong to kill and steal and rape, the most basic evils that just about every society condemns. But what about killing in war, or self defense? Is it ok to kill in defense of your country, your religion or your freedom? There are times where it can be argued that killing is justified in some circumstances.
As to the basic question of whether we need divine information to know what is right or wrong, think about this point. Think if how complicated our man-made laws are here in the U.S. regarding every aspect of our society from children to the elderly to the credit cards in our wallets, to the dying, to the unborn. Our man-made laws are extremely complex so much so that you have to practically be a lawyer to understand your credit card agreement. Think about the internet, when this new technology came out we had to sit down and come up with rules and regulations and laws regarding what would be right and wrong on the World Wide Web. Would there be an expectation of privacy? Would it be free and open and not controlled by a monopoly? Would there be penalties for stealing information online? What would happen to child pornography senders and receivers?
We had to sit down and write all these rules about what is right and wrong, and we didn’t need divine intervention. In other countries their rules differ on what is right or wrong. My argument is simple: if we intelligent primates can think up extremely complex laws regarding every aspect of our society then we must have been able to think up the ten commandments or all the morals in the Bible, Torah, and Koran and all the other religious texts.
My new role model
I think that he is a very bright voice for reason and if you're interested in the subject of religion you should definitely check him out.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Kids...
I think that a lot of our problems with bad people are due to the fact that we have a lot of bad parents. Abusive, neglectful, or entirely absent. There are people who have way too many kids. No one today should be having 5 kids, or 8 kids. I think people should have 2 kids maximum. In third world countries where people don't have access to contraceptives or where religion or cultural reasons forbid sex education, condoms, birth control or abortions, and where people are extremely poor, they are reproducing at an alarming rate. There is massive over population in many third world countries. This creates more poverty.
It is true every child is born innocent. They have no choice in what circumstances, economically, geographically, they are born into. But their parents are. When an adult chooses to bring a child into this world they are playing God. They know what type of situation that child is going to be born into. If people are so poor they can't even afford to buy a pair of shoes, why do they have so many kids that they are unable to care for? There are cultural reasons why people have lots of kids, many traditional cultures require a woman to bare lots of kids. It is a left over from our primitive days where humans were numbered in the few millions and there was rampant disease that killed a third of all babies born.
So, we are left with this instinct to have babies, have babies, have babies, and now there are almost nearly 7 billion of them and the earth's population will double in another 50 years or so.
I think we need to stop this ridiculous idea that we must populate and have lots of kids. There are too many kids on the planet and they are mostly coming from extremely poor parents who can't even afford to support themselves.
This is one reason why I am totally pro-choice when it comes to abortion and disagree with religion on issue relating to reproduction and contraceptives. I believe old school thinking, whether religiously based or not is ruining the lives of our children and the future of our planet and humanity.
Hip Hop's Problems
Over the years as I've gotten older I began to turn away from hip hop and the hip hop lifestyle. Mind you, everyone who listens to hip hop doesn't behave or act a certain way, but generally hip hop culture produces a certain mentality that I think promotes ignorance, and is self destructive.
Over 50% of inner city high school students are dropping out, this has been happening for quite some time. Rappers brag about dropping out of school to sell drugs, how they hated learning and cut class. How many rappers brag about getting straight A's and pursuing higher education? Exactly.
Rappers are almost obligated to get involved in some legal trouble, as it adds to their street credibility. Getting caught with a gun, beating up a girlfriend or someone else, getting caught with drugs, knocking up random girls and getting them pregnant, all are positive acts that help rappers get respect and provide subject matter in their material. Almost every rapper has knocked up a girl and got her pregnant.
The materialism in hip hop speaks for itself. This worship of money and materialism as if it is the most important thing in the world is ridiculous. There are so many hip hop videos that show rappers with wads of cash and jewelry, with a face that says "look what I got, bitch, aren't you jealous?"
What impression does this leave on the minds of the listeners? Let's face it, hip hop culture is all about instant gratification, jealousy, envy, showing off, and worse of all greed. It's kind of like Wall Street, only drugs and albums are the main sources of income.
The critics say positive hip hop doesn't sell. I understand this, it's the same reason why sex sells in the movies and violence does too. I just wish there was a more intellectual sub genre of hip hop that was positive and also commercially viable. And I wish that we didn't have this incredible ridiculously ignorant standard for which we judge our rappers and what rappers are to have done. I wish "ghetto credibility" was a thing of the past.
Don't get me wrong, I respect the format of hip hop as an art form, but I will not embrace the culture of ignorance.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
It's Getting Cold
It wasn't much of a summer anyway. It will probably be a long cold winter, but who knows, mother nature has a way of always surprising us.
I almost forgot about this blog. No one reads it and I don't really care.
I think I'll start writing about my politics and my huge interest in sociology, economics, religion and human nature. I have all these ideas in my head and I talk about them with my friends. But words disappear into thin air and are forgotten. The written word lasts much longer, so I feel I should write what I think so that it could exist maybe, possibly forever.