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Ashamed that my home state of NC is regressing into ignorance
OK, I admit it. I was proud in 2008 when North Carolina became a Blue State as it showed we are making progress as secular, logical human beings and not be blindly driven by Religion. Not that there is anything wrong with the values taught by most major religions, however I feel that religion and politics do not and never should be mixed. It is widely known (if you didn’t know, it is well documented in historical written communications by almost all of them) that the majority of our Founding Fathers were atheists. ** Corrected – True they were not atheist as we define it now, but they were all non Christian Deists, which is generally viewed by the pious masses as just as bad.
Government should focus on the needs of the people and use logic and knowledge to properly govern the society. Yet it seems that the conservative right and even moderates are continually turning a blind eye to science and relying on their religion for information regarding areas of great importance.
(See: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/21/opinion/stepp-conservatives-contraception/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7 or http://www.asanet.org/press/conservatives_trust_has_fallen.cfm)
The point that I am trying to make is that we should use factual knowledge and logical decision making in approaching each political issue. Example: We know that drinking alcohol impairs our ability to perform basic physical and mental tasks, thus driving a vehicle or operating dangerous machinery while impaired should be avoided. No one can dispute that fact, as basic biological science explains why this impairment occurs.
However when it comes to religion in general, all the earth is just making a best guess at the existence of God and all dogma’s that are associated with them. We don’t know for certain, that is true fact, much of anything other than some characters mentioned in historical religious texts actually did exist. We don’t know which religion is the correct one if any at all. So why are we basing our opinions on critical social issues on what we think a deity or their half human offspring might want us to do!
To think that just this month North Carolina voters went out in force and voted to add a ban of homosexual marriage to our states constitution even though it was already against the law, just boggles my mind. When I asked a few of the people voting for the amendment, all the answers I got were like: because the bible says its wrong or God doesn’t condone it so it must be wrong and thus it needs to be double banned! Wow all this is just based on a guess that the bible is the true word of God. Just a thought, what if it’s not? I would imagine most folks who voted for it are nice people in general and capable of feeling remorse and the like. So if they made the wrong guess, then all of them actively have taken freedom away from so many. Do they feel bad? Of course not because they KNOW what God wants! Give me a break. I do know they surely would be pissed off and feel scorned if the roles were reversed and heterosexual marriage was banned.
To add even more complexity to this issue, lets not forget that churches and the pastors and other staffers are paid from the donations of the congregation, and that the churches and all there money is tax exempt. Well the founding fathers also put something else into our constitution, it is called separation of Church and State. Since the two entities are supposed to be completely separate, the religious masses are not supposed to use their preaching from the pulpit to direct or influence voters. However that is exactly what is going on today, so since these swindlers pastors and their churches are greatly effecting the very functioning of true democracy I say we should remove the tax exempt status from them all, we all know the economy could use the money!
It is due to this blind ignorance that bigotry is allowed to grow and flourish even within our youth which are general more intelligent that the previous generation. I hate seeing stuff like this:
In summary religion and homosexuality have something in common, they both are fine as long as you keep it to yourself. What you do at home sexually or what you believe in religiously, no matter how crazy it may seem to some, should have NO place in politics.
I know there is no chance NC will be a Blue State again this election year, but I hope that we can eventually remove this non-empirical approach to formulating opinions on social issues and in turn you would think it would improve the divide that currently exists in the county due to religious and political parity.
Tolerance and Peace are the tenants to be teaching to our youth, not religious fighting and political strife. Everyone on this earth has the right to equality. We are all equal, regardless of our beliefs, preferences, wealth, etc.
I will now point out what you have correct and incorrect in your rant. Don’t have time now, but will provide proof or further explanation latry.
Dead wrong:
1. Becoming a Blue State (i.e. – preferring Obama over McCain) does not indicate logical thinking. I also doubt it has much to do with religion, but I would defer to any respected polls on that.
2. I am almost certain you are dead wrong about the Founding Fathers being Atheists. Will verify soon.
3. Government should not focus on the needs of the people as you believe. It should serve as an arbiter of fairness and equality, ensuring all Americans are treated equally under law and that we are protected against all those who would harm our safety and liberty.
4. Your drunk driving example seems irrelevant to political issues, unless you are implying that we should all agree that drunk driving should be illegal. If you are, you are once again dead wrong. Being a drunk driver is no worse that being an elderly, incapable driver, or perhaps a distracted driver, or even just a terrible driver. In all cases you are driving a machine which has the ability to kill a person or damage property. If a person drives drunk with no problems, then no harm is done. If a person kills someone with their vehicle due to negligence, does it really matter if they drinking? Either way, someone lost their life and freedom, and the guilty driver (murderer) should receive equal punishment (life in prison or possibly killed by victims family if they choose). To make drunk driving illegal is to take away a portion of our liberty, our freedom. By the same token, some people (maybe 8%) are perfectly capable of texting while driving with no distractions (this has been proven). Why should these people be punished (have their freedom restricted) just because the other 92% are incapable. People should be responsible enough to decide for themselves whether taking a drink or a text is worth the risk of killing someone and spending the rest of their lives in jail.
5. The ‘separation of church and state’ mentioned in the constitution does not mean that the two are supposed to be completely separate. However, I don’t have the time, nor the ability to prove this to you.
6. The idea of removing tax exempt status from churches is fine, but only if you remove it from all organizations that attempt to influence voters, such as moveon.org, which I doubt you intend.
Correct:
1. we should use factual knowledge and logical decision making in approaching each political issue.
2. However when it comes to religion in general, all the earth is just making a best guess at the existence of God and all dogma’s that are associated with them. We don’t know for certain, that is true fact, much of anything other than some characters mentioned in historical religious texts actually did exist. We don’t know which religion is the correct one if any at all
3. I know there is no chance NC will be a Blue State again this election year
Dr. Gushy
Just an FYI that Dr. Gushy is a close friend of mine that I have known for over 20 years. He still resides in my birth state of PA and we remain close and discuss a wide range of topics regularly. He is a conservative that kind of serves as a counter balance to my liberal tendencies.
1. We disagree on item number one as our fundamental ideologies differ so much. I do not think anything will change that. This is an opinion piece, and you are entitled to your thought process in which to you it is illogical to vote for Obama. I’m sure years of listening to Rush Limbaugh had no impact on your conclusions.
2. Only John Adams and Jefferson have admitted being atheists in private communications that still elude mainstream acceptance. Most of the Founders were Deists, which is to say they thought the universe had a creator, but that he does not concern himself with the daily lives of humans, and does not directly communicate with humans, either by revelation or by sacred books. They spoke often of God, (Nature’s God or the God of Nature), but this was not the God of the bible. They did not deny that there was a person called Jesus, and praised him for his benevolent teachings, but they flatly denied his divinity. Some people speculate that if Charles Darwin had lived a century earlier, the Founding Fathers would have had a basis for accepting naturalistic origins of life, and they would have been atheists. We’ll never know; but by reading their own writings, it’s clear that most of them were opposed to the bible, and the teachings of Christianity in particular.
3. Half Moot and half irrelevant. The needs of the people are protection of equality and safety etc.
4. I was just trying to point out how we can easily see the science behind why drinking and diving is bad and therefore recommend against it. However other social and political hot buttons issues are not treated with the same level of logical vetting. I.E. religious dogma or policy is blinding people to the science that should be applied to social problem solving.
5. You are correct in that Separation of church and state is not directly referenced in the US constitution. Earliest reference is Jefferson stating “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
However the Treaty of Tripoli states: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”
So the way I interpret these statements is that religious affiliation should not dictate policy or other functionality of democracy.
6. I agree fully with removing tax exempt status for groups like MoveOn just like removing it from churches and others that have any actual political influence and I am also fully against PAC’s (super or regular
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I am forced to correct your claim that I am a Conservative. I am actually a Libertarian.
1. Fine – issue resolved.
2. Here is a link that should prove almost everything you are saying is wrong. Please read it. http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/41075
3. So are you agreeing with me that the “needs of the people” which should be fulfilled by government do not include welfare, public education, affirmative action, bailouts, research grants, studies, and subsidies? If so, I am proud to announce that you are more Libertarian than Liberal. If not, please retract your comment that my original response was “half moot and half irrelevant”.
4. Political issues do not end with “recommendations”. They end with laws. This is why your choice of drunk driving was a poor example of a political issue, unless you are tying it to a proposed law.
5. Treaty of Tripoli? For real? Wow.
6. Awesome.
I left NC once, for many years I stayed away. Now I wish I had never returned. I’m surround my religious idiots and trailer park trash with the IQ of a gnat. I’m seriously looking into leaving the state again, this time for good, leaving it with one less highly skilled worker.
When you leave, might I suggest you move to Cuba, Greece, France, or Russia? Based on your hostility towards religion, I assume you voted for Obama. These countries have been practicing Obama’s ideology for decades. I imagine you’ll feel right at home.