I’ve written a lot lately about politics and religion. I should state my actual position on both, lest anyone jump to conclusions.
In politics I think we need tempered social support infrastructure, but maximum personal freedom. i.e. government programs that tax to provide services that we all need and can’t provide for ourselves (like defense, healthcare, etc.) are okay, but leave all the other stuff to the people. That means I’m for a way to provide healthcare to everyone (although it doesn’t have to be government run, it could be a tweak to current health care laws).
I think a person should be free to do whatever they want on their own property as long as they don’t compromise the rights of another. And yes, I think parents that smoke cigarettes around children are compromising the rights of the child.
I think abortion should be legal. By the same token that pro-lifers say pro-choicers don’t have the authority to decide when something isn’t (independent) life… pro-lifers don’t have the authority to decide when something is. I would think religious folks would leave that sort of decision up to their god. Abortion protects victims of rape and incest. Abortions are also not so complicated that they can’t be done outside of a doctor’s office. Outlawing abortion won’t stop it from happening, it’ll just stop it from happening safely.
Which brings me to religion. I think any religion anyone wants to believe in is fine (for them) as long as they don’t force it on others. Unfortunately the vast majority of religions in the world demand that their followers “save” or convert “non-believers.” This is central to organized religion as it is a policy that preserves its own existence.
I have many family members who are religious to various degrees. I’ve been to church services of many denominations. I’ve worked with devout Jews, devout Christians and even devout Jehovah’s Witnesses. I’ve had very good friends become born again and try to bring me along for the ride. None of these experiences has ever changed my feelings about religion. Basically, I think it is nonsense to say with any certainty that there is a god, let alone a specific god with a son who had long hair and lived 2,000 years ago etc. etc. etc. I think other people can believe it if they want – but don’t make social policy that affects my life (i.e. teach my children that the world is only 6,000 years old in school) based on your religion. Any political argument in which one side’s opinion can be boiled down to a religious argument loses.
Just yesterday I was listening to KKLA and the show was about how they didn’t believe that Obama was a Christian. Even though Obama professed he was in front of Rick Warren. I wish they were right. I long for the day when satisfying the people of this country is the president’s first priority, not satisfying God.
To be clear, I’m not an atheist. I think it is just as ridiculous to think with certainty that there isn’t a God. We can’t see infrared light, but that doesn’t prove it doesn’t exist. It is possible that God may one day step down from the clouds and reveal himself to all of us. Not very probable, but possible. Even if it does happen, it is highly unlikely that he/she/it will resemble anything like the religions of the world have told us to expect.
The bible is an old book. Nothing more, nothing less. We cannot know with certainty where it originated and who has changed it. If we don’t know either of those things, we certainly can’t take it’s contents as “the gospel truth.” In fact, the documented written history that we do have often contradicts the bible. Like the fact that no known writer from the period of Jesus’ life ever mentions him. A guy that can turn water into wine would be a scary amazing guy today, imagine 2,000 years ago. Yet, not one person thought to write this experience down until more than thirty years after his death? In a time when writing tools were not hard to come by this seems extremely odd, especially when you consider that Jesus was supposed to be “spreading the word.” We don’t even have any written evidence of Jesus’ supposed trial and Crucifixion. Are we to believe the Romans didn’t keep records? On the contrary, the Romans were actually known to keep immaculate historical and legal records (hey, we still use their numerical system for the superbowl!), so why nothing then officially of Jesus? If anyone found it (and I’m sure christian “scholars” have been trying for two millenia), you’d think it would be the first thing to come up when googling this.
For these reasons and many many many many many many many many more I am agnostic. I believe that we humans don’t actually know anything with certainty. Even the laws of physics are amended, and will be amended in a huge way in the next century to deal with quantum physics. As dumb as it may sound, films like ExistenZ and the Matrix provide enough food for thought to make anyone see this. Do you know you aren’t trapped in a dream right now? You don’t. I’m not saying we are, I’m just saying there is no way to prove your senses aren’t deceiving you. To know that with certainty would require the knowledge of a God. To believe our physical world is certain is a stretch, to believe in something (defined) beyond that that we can’t even observe with our flawed perception is ludicrous.
The concept of optical illusions also proves this point. What we see is what our brain interprets, not what actually exists.
On immigration my thoughts are mixed. I can see the need for security, the fact that a nation with limited resources “can’t let everybody in,” however, I also understand that my journey west was more miles than most Mexicans’ journey north and immigrants formed this country in the first place. When I think about it long enough I suppose I’m of the opinion that we let everyone in that doesn’t have a criminal record. If everyone is a citizen they’re entitled to minimum wage. That minimum wage should be set by commerce, by the way, not the government. “but we’ll run out of jobs” the anti-immigration folks say. … well then the Mexicans will stop coming. They’re coming here to work, despite the stereotype. NPR listeners already know this, as there were countless stories of migrant workers returning to Mexico last fall as jobs vanished in the floundering economy.
In fact, if we legalized anyone that came across the border, it would force natural born Americans to step up their game. We’d have an over abundance of low wage workers, forcing natural born citizens to take advantage of student loan programs and get a higher education. Delivering pizzas would no longer be an option for anyone you graduated high school with. …this is a GOOD thing. The better educated a society is the more it can achieve. Watch Idiocracy to see what happens if we go the other way.
Allowing everyone in would solve two problems. It would solve the current caste problem we have in the work force and it would solve the hypocrisy problem (everyone here now except for native Americans is descended from an immigrant).
Obviously there are many more issues in our world that I can offend people/relatives by stating my opinions about, but I think that is enough for today.
