July 26, 2004

Religious Monitors

A while back I pointed to an article on the religion gap we have in America's politics today. It's because of this gap that we start seeing things like this:

At least two organizations are monitoring the content of Sunday sermons by U.S. pastors and threatening to report churches to the Internal Revenue Service if they hear political messages they deem inappropriate under federal guidelines on tax-exempt status.

Earlier this week, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, headed by Barry Lynn, filed a complaint with the IRS against Ronnie Floyd, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark., accusing him of preaching a sermon promoting President Bush's re-election July 4.

Basically this group (and others) is going around to churches to ensure that preachers aren't promoting ideals that reflect the platform of the Republican party. That's what it boils down to...plain and simple.

I've got news for them...the ideals that traditional churches promote are pretty much going to be in line with the platform of the Republican party. Is that surprising?

Another group, located in Kansas, calling itself the MAINStream Coalition is doing the same thing.

An interesting thing about groups like this is that they always claim to be "non-partisan" (kind of like Tennesseans for Fair Taxation). The introduction on their website states:

The MAINstream Coalition is a non-partisan, non-sectarian organization which strives to preserve separation of church and state, freedom of religion and speech, pluralism, individual rights, the importance of the family, public education, and tolerance and compassion for all.

Non-partisan, eh?

While the group maintains it is non-partisan and objects across the board to all kinds of politicking in the pews, the organization's website shows the Mainstream Coalition has a strong political agenda of its own. Policy statements posted include the following:

-strong support of Roe v. Wade
-strong support of late-term abortions
-strong support of sex education
-strong support of human cloning
-strong support of hate-crime laws
-strong support of gun control
-strong support for teaching of evolution
-strong opposition to prayer in schools
-strong opposition even to the wearing of religious symbols on government property

Like I said...about as non-partisan as TFFT.

Comments:

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Meet Ayn Rand, founder of the Libertarian Movement
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_index
Is this really what you want for America?

Notice her list doesn't include christianity
http://rous.redbarn.org/objectivism/index.cgi
Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, philosophy, reason, ethics, morality, individualism, capitalism, liberty, rights, free market, art, Branden, Objectivism, Ayn Rand, realism, epistemology, egoism, freedom, politics, Aristotle, psychology

Posted by: The Token Librul at July 27, 2004 12:28 AM

Are they as non-partisan as the non-partisan voter guides the Christian Coalition sends out every four years? The ones with republican candidates in all capital letters and push-poll questions?
No one objects just because a minister "preaches" for Saddubya. But at that point, his church no longer qualifies for tax-exempt status. He must choose, under the law, whether he is a minister or a political operative. And since law-abiding republicans are always for "law and order," it should be an easy choice.

Posted by: The Token Librul at July 27, 2004 12:35 AM

Those non-partisan voting guides promote Christian issues. Their views on these issues typically land in the Republican category. That's the whole point of the "religion gap".

Posted by: Jakester at July 27, 2004 09:54 AM

What gap? In the last quarter-century, "christianity" and "cancervatism" somehow have bizarrely become the same thing. But I wonder if Jesus really would read Ann Coultergeist or agree with Falwell and Robertson that 9/11 punished America for allowing libruls to live here.

Posted by: The Token Librul at July 27, 2004 04:09 PM

teaching evolution? i can't believe it! where do conservatives think the building blocks of the science that built the bombs they have been dropping on Iraq for the last 12 years came from?

Posted by: jakec at July 28, 2004 07:42 AM

I would gues you would say "evolution", right? That is, the THEORY of evolution.

Posted by: Jakester at July 28, 2004 01:00 PM

correct sir. it is a building block of modern science - if you believe in science, that is.

nice screen name, btw.

Posted by: jakec at July 28, 2004 02:09 PM

I believe what the Bible says about science- that God created the Heaven and the Earth in 7 days, just as I believe everything else the Bible says.

Posted by: Jakester at July 28, 2004 02:57 PM

the bible mentions modern science - is that in genesis or something?

Posted by: jakec at July 28, 2004 04:17 PM

I was referring to the biblical account of creation which is also supported by modern science.

Posted by: Jakester at July 28, 2004 04:22 PM

no it isn't - religion is not science and vice versa. religion, at it's core, violates the scientific principal - cannot be proven or denied. also, please show me one scientific principal that states the creation of any astrological body is possible in 7 days ... anyway, you are saying that god created the bombs that have been killing iraqis the last 12 years, right?

Posted by: jakec at July 29, 2004 07:11 AM

http://www.godsaidmansaid.com/topic3.asp?Cat2=262&ItemID=797

Posted by: Jakester at July 29, 2004 07:44 AM

neat - you can link to a biblical source which states the age of the earth as 6000 years. that's not science - it quotes scripture and people who claim to understand geology. i can find astronomers who believe in ptolemy and a flat earth - doesn't make it science.

Posted by: jakec at July 29, 2004 08:41 AM

We'll just ignore the fact that it is based on SCIENTIFIC STUDY AND PRINCIPLES.

Posted by: Jakester at July 29, 2004 08:46 AM

sorry - Dr. Henry Morris is a hydraulic engineer not a geologist. forgot to mention that - still doesn't provide much in the way of "scientific" evidence ...

Posted by: jakec at July 29, 2004 08:51 AM

i'm am currently re-reading the article - looking for the SCIENTIFIC STUDY AND PRINCIPLES.

i found this: "Julian Huxley, who was the keynote speaker of the 100th anniversary celebration of Charles Darwin’s doctrine of evolution, he was asked why he thought evolution was globally embraced so quickly. His answer was that it permitted its adherents sexual freedom."

that sounds like more religious-based hate speech to me.

Posted by: jakec at July 29, 2004 08:55 AM

oh, your buddy henry morris has also written extensively reagarding creationism and race. read below:

"Morris has written that the "racial character" of a certain population results in that population being "less intellectual," "philosophical," and "religious" than the other approximately two-thirds of humanity."

i can see why you would want to align yourself with this guy and his "science". i guess god hates non-caucasians, too, right?

Posted by: jakec at July 29, 2004 09:03 AM

God hates noone. Where did that come from?

Posted by: Jakester at July 29, 2004 09:15 AM

also - these "scientists" are retrofitting science to parallel their religious ideologies. where as true science would not care if the earth was 6 years old 6000 years old, or 6 billion years old. this violates basic scientific principal ...

Posted by: jakec at July 29, 2004 09:16 AM

it was sarcasm - appearantly dr morris believes in racial inferiority through creationism. if god created the earth and thus, inferior races (as he seems to believe), he doesn't sound to fond of them.

Posted by: jakec at July 29, 2004 09:18 AM

here is some science that refutes the "science" in the link you sent me ...

http://gondwanaresearch.com/rate.htm

Posted by: jakec at July 29, 2004 09:27 AM

"In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for 'Science.' The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc." ("There's no such thing as global warming, the earth is only 6000 years old, and the dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark.")

Posted by: The Token Librul at July 29, 2004 11:42 AM

But didn't God create the heavens and the earth in six days, and rest on the seventh? Or is Jerry Falwell selling videotapes proving it was really seven days, and that the dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark?

Posted by: The Token Librul at July 30, 2004 01:40 AM

THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE
(Many people get it, but much of the world doesn’t, yet)

For a long, long time, I have felt that the well-known theory of intelligent life on other planets should be expanded and taken one step further.
I am a religious person, being a member of a very large mainstream religion. I believe that every human is related, whether it is through Adam and Eve, or Through animals that Darwin has claimed evolved into humans. (I believe the Adam and Eve account of the human family).
There has been much speculation over the centuries as to what our purpose is, on this earth. Many people claim that we are just wandering around through time without purposes or results. Others claim that our purposes are limited, such as to gradually build immunity to diseases for future generations, before we die.
I believe we are here on earth for many, many reasons. I believe that, after everything is taken into consideration, every moment that we are here eventually results in advancing life and existence for not only human society but also in elevating all species and life forms that exist.
Countless years have passed since the beginning of time, the planet earth itself being billions of years old. Human technology only began to rise above primitive levels around the early 1900’s. Almost all of the multitudes of amazing miracles of technological discoveries and inventions, such as electronic circuits and jet airplanes, have only appeared since then, during the last 100 years. The possible technologies that we could develop in only 20,000 years (instead of 100 years), is probably beyond our imaginations. Just the last billion years alone contained 50,000 times 20,000 years. In only one billion years, the possible evolution of technology could have surpassed all ability to comprehend it, many times over. The planet earth is billions of years old. Countless solar systems and galaxies like ours also exist and are likewise billions of years old.
I would be surprised if there weren’t other planets like ours, containing many life forms, within all of these countless galaxies in the universe. I would be just as surprised if none of these other planets and life forms did not have enough time, over billions of years, to develop highly advanced societies and technologies. If other civilizations were able to evolve their technologies far beyond ours during these billions of years of existence, we might well see their inventions as miracles and view their powers and abilities as wondrous.
Even a single society, whose technology was so highly evolved, would be viewed by humans as a higher power, even as a deity by our limited comprehension.
I often used to wonder why such an advanced civilization wouldn’t completely change our lives and environments to match their levels, if they were really here with us. But then I finally realized that we generally try to avoid changing, harassing, or otherwise impacting other species, such as lions and other animals in Africa and other areas around the world, with our advanced cities and technologies.
We try to allow them to continue living in their primitive surroundings for many reasons; Not only out of respect for their unique existence but also in order to study them and maintain their natural place in the cycle of life. We have learned so much for our own advancement by studying and preserving all the species of life around us. We continually try to protect and preserve all species of life as a whole, while trying to avoid altering their natural habitats and their specific interactions and evolutions within their environments as they currently exist. More advanced civilizations could easily be giving us the same room to grow, exist, and develop.
If there existed an extremely advanced society that was devoted to introducing and encouraging the evolution of technology and civilization on other planets and in other galaxies, their devotion to Earth’s technological and societal evolution could yield even more inventions and discoveries yet unknown. Their advanced wisdom and knowledge would increase even more.
Our limited intelligence would probably see such advanced individuals as almighty Supreme Beings. If visitations and revelations from them were limited or mostly unseen and undetected, we would further view these beings as mysterious and all powerful.
There have been many documented sightings of “UFO’s” over the years. In addition, there have been numerous sightings of “other worldly beings“.
Many religions also have numerous accounts of visitations by angels and heavenly messengers, throughout the centuries. A person might be considered narrow-minded if they dismissed all of these accounts as nonsense.
Many would consider such a person even more narrow-minded, if they believed that we are the only intelligent beings in the whole universe, with the only evolved technology that has ever existed.
If all of the human societies and cultures are able to allow other species on Earth to develop on their own, we are then able to learn so much about them and about ourselves.
if we are allowed the same freedom to develop on our own, by more advanced entities, (especially with the huge amount of technological evolution that we have experienced in the last 100 years), then perhaps they are likewise able to increase their observations, knowledge, and wisdom.

Posted by: name on August 20, 2005 02:45 AM
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When I mentioned ?highly advanced societies and technologies? in the paragraphs above, I should clarify what I mean by that. I mean that their technologies would probably be beyond our imagination in the level of capability that they possess, in at least some of the following ways:

1) They could have practically unlimited interplanetary traveling capability, and therefore also virtually unlimited technologies, resources, and space in which to implement their activities.

2) They could have virtually unlimited computer and database resources (such as we would comprehend it), to permanently record and catalog every physical detail of every human being and every life form that ever existed. In addition, they could record every non-physical detail of every human and every life form, such as moment by moment life stories.

3) They could even have the technology to capture, extract, and encapsulate all of the actual brain functions and all of the nervous system functions of a human being, at the exact moment that the person?s body dies and ceases to perform this capability on its own. They would be able to use materials and mechanisms in the encapsulation process that would be durable enough to last a long time, perhaps even forever. For lack of a better term, we could then call this encapsulated vessel a spirit or soul. This could be done for both human beings and also all life forms that have ever existed.

4) They would probably be able to combine these capabilities, to create an after-life existence for every human being and every life form, with conditions that would be virtually everlasting.

As I said before, these technologies are probably beyond our ability to imagine them completely. I am sure that it would be just as difficult for the ancient pyramid builders to imagine our modern machines, such as the stealth bomber, cruise missiles, and miniaturized computers.

There is one additional thought, about these extremely advanced societies and technologies, that came to mind. If their technologies were truly advanced far beyond our imaginations, to the point that they literally are all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-knowing, then they would essentially be Gods, in every way. They would have unlimited possibilities and realities. We, on the other hand, have been allowed to live our lives as mortals, in our own unique and natural surroundings.
Even though we are placed in a fairly un-tampered and primitive environment during our mortal lives, these advanced entities could still encourage our endeavors to learn and to grow as much as we possibly can, through writings, revelations, angels, messengers, spiritual leaders, and religion in general. They would undoubtedly give us many teachings on living our lives to the fullest, and on the after-life that follows our mortal experience. Some might even say that God sent us a Son, to lead us to a higher purpose.
In any event, when I use the phrase ?mostly unseen and undetected?, I mean that numerous entities could very well be all around us, all the time. Even though they would possibly be ever-present, all-knowing, and all-seeing, we nevertheless might not always be able to see or detect their presence.
It definitely is something to look at, from time to time.

Posted by: name on August 31, 2005 01:58 AM
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Posted by: name at September 7, 2005 08:59 PM