Founding Fathers Opposed Darwin!

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American History, Anthony Weiner, boredom, David Barton, early humans, evolution, founding fathers, Health care, Herman Cain, immigration, lifestyle, Neandertals, paleontology, philosophy, psychology, Rick Santorum, science, self

Shocking? I guess it should be given the fact that Darwin didn’t publish his seminal work until 1859, more than half a century after our government was formed.

That is the claim however of the pseudo-historian David Barton. And he claims that no less of a questionable religionist than Thomas Paine, who died the same year that Darwin was born, argued that creationism must be taught in the schools.

If all of this leaves you a bit skeptical, well, Barton has plenty of other ideas that would make a big business  CEO grin from ear to ear. Jesus was opposed to minimum wage laws, and therefore unions, as well as progressive income taxes.

Even more shocking Mr. Barton explains the real impetus for the revolution was not economic, but a persistent dedication to the eradication of slavery. Somehow, England ultimately beat us to the punch on that, but no matter, it’s the thought that counts.

You can read all this and watch the actual interview wherein Barton espouses his unique “history” by following the link.

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Herman “step ‘n fetch it” Cain is busy these days, yakking up the airways with his bizarre understanding of the world. He too has a slippery grasp on history as he reminded us to “read that small section of the constitution” wherein we were promised life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Except that that little phrase doesn’t come from the constitution, but rather from the Declaration of Independence.

Cain then went on to and pontificated that as President, he would not sign any bills longer than three pages. Given that much of any bill deals with its impact on a plethora of other agencies and legislation and regulations and interfaces are essential for all these things to work together, this presents quite a problem. It suggests that Cain would end up signing zero bills. It also suggests Cain has no sense whatsoever of how the government operates.

Now Cain explains how he would deal with the problem at the border with Mexico–a wall, akin to the Great Wall, and one with a companion moat, and yes, filled with alligators!

Cain appears to subscribe to the Palin school of knowledge–just say what seems sensible to you, even when its demonstrable that you are not a very sensible person.

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“To thine own self be true?” Okay, but how exactly is one to determine who the true self is? It’s a lot harder question than you might have thought. Depending on what standard you use, you can end up at quite different conclusions. A very thoughtful article by Joshua Knobe.

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That leave you bored? Well join the club. Boredom is a human condition, no matter what anyone says. Even animals get bored. Boredom can be normal or abnormal, situational or existential. So if you find yourself bored, then read all about this subject! Nothing could be less boring.

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Memo to Antony Weiner: Dude, don’t miss the next meeting of “How I threw away my life”. Lots of your favorites will be there! Tiger Woods will offer the first testimonial. Also, a good move would be to check into rehab forthwith. That tends to get a sympathy vote. Sex addiction is the hottest trending rehab these days.

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When I was growing up, to call someone an Neandertal was essentially to call them something just barely above the level of ape. Today, our understanding is vastly superior, and we find that most of our old assumptions were wrong. Neandertal DNA shows up in some parts of today’s populations. And there is no evidence that Neandertals were in conflict with more modern man.

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These chin-ups are sure to pay off in the future!

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If you aren’t totally tired of Weiner jokes, then bop on over to Political Irony and see the late night comedians do their thing.

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Ricky “don’t google me” Santorum, just can’t stop being a boob. It’s his nature. He has told Johnny McCain that he don’t know nothin’ bout no torture, said that climate change is a patent absurdity, claimed he would make marriage inequality the center of his campaign, and so forth. Now in the growing Republican revision of history, he tells us that the D-Day invasion occurred precisely to insure the American right to private health care. Yes, he said that:

 

Almost 60,000 average Americans had the courage to go out and charge those beaches on Normandy, to drop out of airplanes who knows where, and take on the battle for freedom. … Those Americans risked everything so they could make that decision on their health care plan.

 

Yes, my friends, the ultimate nutjob said that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Lying For Jesus: David Barton (scotteriology.wordpress.com)
• You know, David Barton has a reputation for inventing quotes, but this is ridiculous (scienceblogs.com)
• Herman Cain’s Immigration Plan: A Great Wall of China and Alligators in a Moat (alternet.org)
• FYI – Most Neandertals were right-handers. (jwitness.wordpress.com)

Peeking Inside My Head

Tags

ego, faith, God, meditation, personality, religion, self

Eye of God

Sitting in the bar the other night, having a rousing conversation with God, I paused. . . .

Okay, so I wasn’t sitting in a bar, but I do have rather intense conversations with God on a regular basis. No, I’m not crazy, I don’t hear voices or see things that other folks don’t. Nothing so mundane and thoroughly explainable as that.

But I do imagine God’s response to things I think about a lot. It seems rather normal to me, and is, I find a pretty good check on my tendency to put me first. Who is me, after all?

I’m tempted to say that I’m not really who you think I am, or I think I am, most of the time. This is a bit of a test actually. Imagine someone, anyone asking you, who are you? Note your response. . . . I’ll give you a minute.

If you said, “I’m a wife, mother, accountant, Catholic, feminist,” etc, etc, etc, you’ve fallen into my trap. You are repeating what other people define you as, what your ego defines itself as. That’s not at all who you are actually.

(TRUMPETS PLEASE). You are: “a spiritual being having a human experience.”

The ego takes the sum total of memory, of experiences, and conversations, of the looks given and received, words said and received, and creates a “personality” from this, and declares itself IT. Our conscious mind does this automatically it seems, without direction.

Yet, those of us immersed in meditation practices know that hidden deep inside, under all the chaotic yammering that goes inside our heads, is our real self, inextricably bound to God, or at least  many of us so  believe.

It is God as us, that spark called Spirit, shared with this living flesh, abiding in us, as us, watching, experiencing, and when given permission by “us” acting through us.

It’s at the same time, simple as a drop of rain, and as complicated as the most detailed of chemical compounds. We ignore it, and go blithely on our way, stumbling through life, thinking we are personality us, or we recognize the true us, and spend hours upon hours searching and trying to connect, to be aware of God within us.

It’s hard, and it can take a lifetime. It sometimes no doubt is never achieved, this blissful state of Oneness we so desire. Yet, those of us convinced of its reality, cannot stop the quest.

I was over at Dave’s blog earlier today, commenting on a post he did on Bill Richardson and the death penalty. I saw a “quote of the month” that was ironic to me, true and not true at the same time. To paraphrase, it said basically, that you are probably on the wrong track if you find that God dislikes the same people you do.

No doubt there is a lot of truth in that, but it’s one of those things, that also carries its opposite I think, or it can. It depends you see. Depends on whether you are on the right track in fact. Then perhaps your sense of good and bad is pretty darn good, and God would agree with you in principle at least.

Now, you have to understand that I start from the premise, that no one is lost. I don’t believe in hell, except for the fact that you can create a pretty darn nice one here on earth. God is sad when we do that, but he can’t stop us from our choices.

I believe that God calls us to him, but those who can’t or won’t answer, for whatever reason, aren’t punished but received home with open arms come that point of transition. What comes next I have no clue, but I sure hope its growth and learning, and lots of traveling around the universe, seeing all the sights and having important  work to do.

I do tend to think that those who progress farther along the path in life graduate higher and have more important work than others, but that doesn’t mean that the non-believers are left to being janitors, it just means they start learning from farther back.

This means of course that the proverbial bad guys (Hitler, Dalmer, bin Ladin, Stalin, etc, etc, etc, ) get there too. This drives some people utterly wild with anger. I find it right and good that God does thusly, and I find it amusing that it rankles some minds to distraction.

After all, these self-proclaimed righteous types always claim they do “right” because they love God. Truth is, they do it because they feel this is the price to be paid for eternal life. And it drives them batty to think that they “sacrificed” so much for nothing. They cannot and will not allow that it is possible. Why society would fall apart if everyone acted out from their baser instincts.

I guess that depends on what you think about humanity. I tend to think that we basically “get it” instinctively that we can’t steal, kill, and otherwise disrupt each other willy nilly and survive. What we do to another would and will be done to us. Common sense tells us to behave and to do so fairly rationally.

After all, I know of no study that suggests that atheists are law breakers and immoral turds to a degree any larger than anyone else. In fact, I think they tend to be at least as good as everyone who professes God.

So like I said, I have these conversations with God. Sometimes they are a hoot. Like this one:

“Okay, Pops, what do you REALLY think of George Dubya and Darth Cheney? The truth!”

God: “Two of my favorites actually smartie. George is like a big dumb kid, with a good heart, hoping to please. But I admit, you can get lost in that head of his. Not much up there, if you get my drift.Easy to manipulate and he ends up doing stupid things. He never got over that meeting when they sat him down and told him they wanted to run him for president. Reality never really set in until about year 7, when he started to get the feeling he had been. . . err used. That’s why he wouldn’t pardon Scooter Libby, just wanted to stick it to Dick for running his presidency into the ditch.”

“Dick, now there’s a piece of work. He actually thinks he’s me. Thinks he knows what I want. Couldn’t be more wrong, but wow you can’t get passed that arrogance. I keep toying with the idea of letting him think he’s gone to hell when the time comes, just for a few minutes…just to shake him up. Otherwise, he’s gonna argue with me about how we conduct business up here. And well, there is only ONE of us after all.”

Hope you enjoyed the trip through my head!