Recently where I am in America there are a bunch of people who say we need to bring God back into American life. I have one question for them. Which God? Would that be Allah, Yahwah, or Christ? You aren’t limited to monotheistic religions. The hindu pantheon? Hello vishnu. Or dead religions. Why should it matter if people are still paracticing it? The Roman pantheon maybe? Jupiter, Hecate, Mars, or Vulcan? Perhaps the ancient egyptian pantheon? Set, Amon Ra, Osirus, or Horus? Perhaps some religion that we don’t even currently know about… After all, all religions have equal validity. None of them can be proven or disproven. Whatever god or gods exist, I think I just offended all of them. No offense intended guys.
So what is their reasoning for wanting to increase religious activity? Many people relate belief in a 'peaceful' god to a peaceful society and increased morality. There may be some evidence of that. What religions can do is to unite a group of people into sharing a set of common desires, often where traditional families are concerned. If true then what is the alternative? Seemingly a disorganized and potentially chaotic society. What they misunderstand is that it isn’t necessary to invoke religion to achieve the same result. But what is missing is a focused effort to bring people together under a common banner in such circumstances. Atheism doesn’t offer such an organizing influence, secular humanism is not sufficiently a large organized institution to offer any help, and …. what else is there? When people have concerns they tend to want to group together with other like minded people and religions have for many centuries offered that organizing influence. To dissuade people from calling on superstitious institutions we need to provide a viable alternative. This lack of an alternative has been recognized somewhat by Pres Bush who has noted that many social support organizations offer inadequate coverage and he wants to supplement that with faith based institutions. He has a point to some extent, but his solution is not really addressing the core issues. Cris
Apart from the fact that this sounds ominous in itself, it is also dangerous in that God as a solution to anything halts a more rational, less simplistic analysis of societial problems. Also the focus is diverted from solving the problems of society using whatever works to solving the problems in a way that is consistent with the dominant sects interpretation of God's will. eg. Teenage pregnancy. The most pragmatic and effective solutions(education, contraception) are not implemented to the extent they could be because of this very reason.
Yup - high quality education every time. The more we know the less we need religion. Religion ruled when illiteracy was the norm.
But isn't America God's own country? I'm sure I heard Bushy say that once... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
If anything god is an israeli, at least in the christian religion. Nearly every religion ever has fought a war based on defending theirs or converting somebody else.
Which would be salad. It's very simple. God is power. O'Brian said so in "1984". Salad is power. Xev said so when she was drunk. Ergo, God is salad.
Hearing Americans say they need to bring God back into American life makes me say only one thing: "I'm so very glad I live in Canada." Or, if I'm drunk when Americans are around... "We shoulda finished the job in 1812." with a liberal amount of slurring, followed by wild drunken cat-calls.
America has nukes and they aren't even competent enough to make a good beer? I dunno kinda unsettling j/k Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Why is it so Important to some many people that others share there belifs. Are they that insecure?
What's more disturbing is just WHO's finger is on the 'button' in the Oval Office. I'm not sure the problem is so much insecurity is a sense of righteousness combined with inherant bigotry. Both their government AND their religion tells them that they are perfect and unable to do wrong, so they figure EVERYBODY should be like them, whether said people like it or not.
