The Cause of all Ethnic and Civil Discord

The Cause is simple and obvious. All Ethnic and Civil discord is caused by one group in a society feeling that their interests are either not being represented in the government or are being suppressed by other groups in the society. Simply put, no one wants to be told how to live their life. Most people will try to get along peacefully with everyone they come in contact with if they are given a choice. However, their are people out there whose fondest wish is that everyone should live as they do, either that or just be that everyone should be their slaves. When people are pushed too far by these meddlers they will often resort to violence in an attempt to secure their way of life, expecially if they are treated violently.

History is full of examples. I will mention a few to prove my point. First, the American Revolution was started to a great degree by the lack of representation of the American Colonies in the British government. The American Civil War was caused by the perception in the South that the interests of the Southern States were not being met in the US Government. The Israelis and Palestinians have been at each other's throats for over half a century now because the Palestinians feel that their is no room for them in a Jewish state and the Jews feel that Israel has to be a Jewish state. There are multitudes of other examples from recent history that anyone who has been paying attention can name with ease. All of them involved people who felt that their way of life was being threatened.

In my next post, I will propose a solution that I feel will at least alleviate this problem if not solve it outright.

Trying Children as Adults in Court

I think it is wrong to try anyone under the age of eighteen in court as an adult under any circumstances. I know that many people will go ballistic upon reading that last sentence but hear me out.

The usual reason given for trying children as adults is the heinous nature of the crime that they are accused of committing. My problem with the whole idea is that it is the child and not the crime that is supposed to be on trial. The child is innocent until proven guilty. Legally speaking it has to be assumed that the child has not committed the crime. It is the burden of the state to prove that he has done what he is accused of. Until the state has done so, he must be assumed to be a child. To do otherwise is to assume his guilt before the trial has begun.

Also, when a child is treated as an adult in court, he or she is treated exactly like an adult during the proceedings. Even an innocent child can easily be torn apart on the stand by an experienced lawyer. Everyone knows that children are not capable of the same level of reasoning as adults. It has been scientifically proven that most people do not have fully developed brains until the age of 25. Children are being sent to fight for their futures unarmed against professional soldiers.

Another thing that is stupid about trying children as adults is that after a child is found innocent they suddenly become children again. They cannot get a driver's license. They can't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. They cannot vote. I don't see how it is logical to consider them adults when they are on trial for their lives one day and then treat them like children again when they are found innocent the next.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not soft on criminals. If a child is found to be guilty of a crime then the discussion of whether they acted as an adult or not can begin.

What is right and wrong without God

I was recently told that it is impossible to define right and wrong without God. When I decided that God probably didn't exist, I began thinking about this very possibility. The first thing that leaps to mind is the old "might makes right" option (which is also God's option if you think about it). This option didn't appeal to me for obvious reasons. I'm not all that mighty and I don't want anyone applying their "might" to me or mine. What then can serve as the basis for morality?

I think that, if you asked everyone on Earth whether they wanted to live, the vast majority of them would say "yes". It is not logical to seek to deny someone else the right to live if we also desire that right. We cannot kill without the likelihood that someone will try to kill us. If you asked everyone whether they wanted to have their property stolen from them, most people would say "no". I cannot steal other people's property and expect them not to retaliate. I could go on but I think you get the idea. I cannot live as a law unto myself and expect to make it very far. Anyone who has been keeping up with the class can see that the Golden Rule is what I'm driving at here. The Golden Rule really does have a basis in logic and fairness. I think the Golden Rule and the principles I just derived it from are a very good basis for morality. The existence of a supreme being is also not needed to arrive at it. Even someone who has never heard of God would probably say that the Golden Rule is a sensible and powerful tool for living a moral life.

Funday

I am always hearing how people want more balance between their work and private lives. The media regularly reports that more and more Americans are working longer hours. Very few are even able to take the two weeks of vacation that most workers are allowed each year. Many families are growing farther apart because everyone is so busy that there is no time for the members to spend time or even communicate effectively with each other. I would like to propose a solution to this problem. I call it Funday.

Funday would be a bonus day that we would add to each week. This would be an extra weekend day. Monday through Friday would still be reserved for work, but now everyone would have an extra day to relax on the weekend. We could put it right after Sunday. My initial impulse was to call it Robertsday since it was my idea. A friend of mine came up with a better idea. He suggested that we could call it Funday. Not only does Funday sell better than Robertsday but it makes it very clear what the purpose of the new day would be.

The number of days in a week has been set at seven because of the biblical story of creation. There is no command from God that set the number of days in the week to be seven. The religiously devout just chose that number early on to fit with the story of Genesis. The only command God ever gave regarding the days of the week is that we must all rest and worship on the seventh day. If we have an eight day week those who wish can still do that.

The choice of the number of days in the week is an arbitrary one. I don't see why it can't be arbitrary in a fashion more to everyone's favor. If enough of us got together and demanded a change to the calendar it would happen. I can't see anyone objecting to an extra day off each week. Are you with me?

Vote for Mulligan

I do not like either of the current presidential candidates.

I thoroughly detest Obama. He is an ubber-liberal. I don't like liberals because they are always trying to tell me how to run my life. They feel that they know what's better for me than I do. They think government is the cure for all humanity's ills. I think it is fairly obvious that government is the cause of most of our problems. The liberals pander to the lowest common denominator. They know that is where most of the voters are. They want to take money from the wealthy and give it to the poor precisely because the poor can vote and they greatly outnumber the rich. It is illegal for them to buy votes with their own money. So they buy votes with the taxpayer's money instead. The only reason they act like they care about the poor is so they can get elected. We don't want their help and we don't need their oppression.

I don't like McCain much either. Though I generally come closer to agreeing with republicans on more things than democrats, there are quite a few areas where they irritate the heck out of me. As you may already know I'm not religious, so the strong religious influence on the party is a big irritant to me. In recent years they have adopted a very oppressive stance with some of the laws they have pushed through. I don't like the Patriot Act. I don't like people being held in prison at Guantanamo indefinitely without trial. I hate warrantless search and seizure. I don't care for wiretaps either. These activities are exactly the sort of thing that our founding fathers risked their lives rebelling against. Our country owes its existence to its opposition to this sort of oppression. Now, add to this McCain's support of these policies, his lack of charisma and his less than great leadership skills and you can understand why I will have a hard time voting for him.

Therefore, let's have a Mulligan on this election. That's right. I want a do-over. Let's start over from the beginning and see if we can't find somebody to run who is not trying to enslave us all. Surely in a land of 300 million people we can find someone worthy of the name Mr. (or Madam) President.

Viva Mulligan!!

Free Will in Christianity

Free will is an essential component of all Judeo-Christian religions. People have to have a choice of whether to sin or not. They must be able to choose to ask forgiveness for their sins. If a person has no choice but to sin unrepentantly then sending them to hell is more than a bit unfair. Even God cannot fairly punish someone for doing something that he forced them to do. If God created someone who absolutely had to sin and not care about the consequences it would be the height of spitefulness to send them to hell for it. So, I think it is safe to say that for the whole heaven and hell thing to be fair everyone must have free will. But, If God is omniscient, do we really control our own actions?

If you ask any christian they will say that God already knows how everything is going to turn out. According to them, he knows every single detail of every single thing that will happen in the entirety of the lifetime of the Universe. He knew that if he created the Universe you would come into existence and that you would do all of the things that you will do in the course of your life. He had the choice of whether to create the Universe and make these things happen or not. Free will is nonexistent in this case. If God knows beforehand that you will have no choice but to act in a certain way because of what he did, who is really responsible?

There are only four possible answers to this question that I can see;

1) No one has free will and God will punish unbelievers unfairly.
2) No one has free will and God is taking all the blame.
3) We have free will, God doesn't know the entire future and punishment can be justified.
4) There is no such thing as God.

I don't think any christian would be happy with any of these possibilities. Please post if you have thought of other options.

Religion

I spent the first 32 years of my life trying to give Christianity a chance. I went to church regularly for several years. Somehow it all never seemed exactly right. One day I decided that I had heard enough from the proponents of Christianity. I decided to learn more about other religions including atheism. I wound up deciding that I was an agnostic with strong atheistic suspicions.

I'm 99% sure God doesn't exist. That last 1% accounts for my agnosticism (if that's even a word). As anyone with a background in logic knows, it is nearly impossible to prove a negative. Just because you haven't found something yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Hence the persistence of such legends as Bigfoot and UFO's. While you can strongly doubt that they exist there are no practical ways to totally disprove their existence.

Another thing that I'm pretty sure of is that if God does exist he is probably nothing like anything any of the major religions describe. There are so many problems with the concept of God that they have come up with that it seems unlikely that their beliefs are accurate.

I will clarify what I mean in some of the posts that will follow. Also, don't worry that this will primarily be a blog about religion. I will give my views on all topics that I'm interested in.

Introduction

I'm creating this blog for the same reason many others do. I want a place to write down my thoughts on whatever interests me. I also want other people to see and comment on those thoughts. I have found that discussing my thoughts with others often reveals angles that I didn't think of. While it has been my experience on the Internet that most people don't have much to say that is worth listening to, the exact opposite is true of many people out there. These are the people I'm trying to reach.

I will try to stay true to the spirit of the name of this blog in most of my posts. I will be trying to vex people enough that they feel compelled to connect with me and post their own opinions. Unlike many people, I'm interested in opinions that contrast with my own. At the same time, I do not change my mind easily, but it has been known to happen from time to time.

Let me also mention that I am not an English major nor do I have plans of becoming one. I apologize in advance for any slaughter I may inflict on the language. I'll try to keep the damage to a minimum.