Aug
29
August 29, 2009 by Brandon | Leave a Comment
For better or worse, I’ve come to realize that my personality has somewhat been affected by my views. And by views, I’m sure everyone reading this knows exactly what I’m referring to.
I know for a fact, for example, that it is going to be difficult, if not near impossible, for me to ever have a relationship with a religious woman. This is mainly due to the fact that I cannot respect those beliefs, and inevitably that person is going to take offense to that. And that is mainly due to the fact that they inevitably are going to say something so stupid that I will not be able to let it go and will comment on it.
Religion aside though, I’ve also discovered I simply can’t tolerate ignorance.
Allow me to qualify that. I’m really not going to be bothered by someone who, let’s say, isn’t as intelligent as I am. And I am by no means suggesting that I’m some brilliant piece of work, whose genius casts such a shadow that it leaves everyone around me in a pitch shroud of perpetual fatuousness. Absolutely not. What I mean is willful ignorance; the type of stupid that someone harbors and refuses to relinquish, no matter how many facts, figures, or truths you have in your arsenal to bombard them with.
When someone states something as fact, but it’s actually incorrect and I know it is incorrect, I have the most difficult time refraining for correcting them. If such statements persist, eventually I’m going to speak up.
That being said, let’s make one thing clear: your preference for Coke or Pepsi is opinion. Your favorite color is opinion. Whether you like fall or winter better is your opinion. I will even accept being liberal, conservative, democrat, republican, socialist, libertarian, or what have you, is opinion. However, the age of the universe being between 13.5 to 14 billion years old is not an opinion. It is backed up by scientific theory and reproducible tests, such as measuring background radiation. And when all you can come back at me with is, “Were you there? You can’t prove it. Respect my opinion, opinions can’t be wrong,” I will flat out tell you that you are wrong.
And that’s if I really like you. If I don’t, I might lash out further. Perchance I may tell you that what you are confusing as opinion is not an opinion at all; it is the lazy, utter disregard for mountains of evidence simply because you feel like ignoring it. I might call you intellectually dishonest and willfully ignorant for your refusal to accept the proof in front of you because you, for whatever the reason, decided it wasn’t worth your time.
I could continue for several minutes with you, snarking on how horrible your life would be without the various theories that makes your daily life possible – theories that you seem to think are a matter of simple opinion. Because you seem to think a scientist woke up one day and decided, along with which color socks he preferred, that he just felt like making the universe 13.5 to 14 billion years old, never mind all that scientific mumbo-jumbo you can’t seem to wrap your head around.
I just can’t take it.
There was a time when I’d rationalize such behavior coming from individuals. I tried to convince myself it is the crazy beliefs and ideas they have which are ridiculous and unworthy of my respect, and I’d compartmentalize it away from the person in question, lest I’d judge their character based on the nonsense they were spouting. However, I’ve realized that there is no compartmentalizing it. The stupid things people think and believe, and their reluctance or outright refusal to enlighten themselves on the matters, does reflect on them.
At some point, I am going to begin to lose respect for you as a person when you boorishly stomp your feet and insist that the moon landings never happened, and present me with no evidence other than you think that’s the case. Or that 9/11 was an inside job. Or that there is no birth certificate. Or that evolution isn’t a fact. Or that… well, I think you get the idea.
Aug
26
August 26, 2009 by Brandon | 1 Comment
As if Texas doesn’t have enough to deal with regarding religious discrimination and constitutional rights violations, a prison in the state is apparently refusing to accommodate a Wiccan man’s religious beliefs and practices while he is serving time.
Most prisons that I’m aware of will offer an inter-faith chapel that can easily cater to a prison population of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. However, Charles Arthur Roberts, a practicing Wiccan, claims he needs the aid of another practitioner for his religious rituals, a request that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has failed to uphold.
Frankly, I think that the requests are altogether retarded, for Wiccans, Christians, and whatever. Being in prison does not infringe upon your right to believe whatever you want to believe. The constitution does not, however, uphold your right to practice whatever you want to believe. There’s a big difference there.
I could say it is my sincere religious belief to sacrifice a lamb every day, but no one is going to accommodate that belief, nor should they.
Perhaps Mr. Roberts should have considered practicing his peaceful, nature-based religion, which has a core dogma of harming no one, prior to obtaining his five year sentence for aggravated assault. If he had, he wouldn’t find himself in prison to begin with. So I somehow fail to find myself being sympathetic to his cries of discrimination.
Aug
25
August 25, 2009 by Brandon | 4 Comments
Mr. O posted a link to this elsewhere, and made the prediction I’d repost it here. Apparently Mr. O has the gift of prophecy!
Jesus Saves! Provided you keep up with monthly premiums and can afford the co-pay
Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 07:01:33 AM PDT
And Conservative Jesus sayith unto him, thou think I am a communist or Nazi? I provideth the best healing practices in the land, for only those that afford and fill out thy proper paperwork in triplicate and assure me that your HMO will cover all expense.
As Health Care Reform has taken over the national dialogue, we felt it was time to look to our Savior for answers. From The Modern Conservative Holy Bible:
Mark 8:22-23
(22) And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. (23) And he telleth the man “Thou co-pay is $1,000. Canst thou afford?” And lo, the man said “nay.” And Conservative Jesus took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, toldeth him to get off his lazy asseth and get a jobeth. (24) And he sent him away to his house, saying, Thou art a socialist tool that never speaketh of pre-existing conditions.
Matthew, 23—24.
And Conservative Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and collecting His Monthly Healing Premiums. He healeth all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people with adequate insurance, leaving others to dieth, as was his capitalistic wont. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all uninsured sick people that were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and Conservative Jesus telleth the lunatic, possessed palsy-sufferers that he had a business model and he can not help them until the day they have the insurance and co-pays necessary and what did they think, this was a charity or something?
Mark 1:40-43
(40) And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. (41) And Conservative Jesus, moved with profit-lust, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, maybeth thou should have thought of this earlier, when you wasted money on clothes and food. (42) And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, for he was dead. (43) And Conservative Jesus sayith unto him, thou think I am a communist or Nazi? I provideth the best healing practices in the land, for only those that afford and fill out thy proper paperwork in triplicate and assure me that your HMO will cover all expense.
Follow the words of thy Conservative Lord and treat the lowliest amongst you with the disdain they deserve. For Jesus knew that profit margins and year-end bonuses were the way and the light.
Only those that may help themselves and have good enough jobs may be healed, sayeth Conservative Jesus. May his Randian glory be praised and may single-payer communist thought be banished to hell with the others unable to afford heaven or health.
–WKW
Aug
23
August 23, 2009 by Brandon | Leave a Comment
I’ve been neglecting my blog it seems, as my subconscious sent me a message last night while I was asleep.
I had a dream that I was arguing about the existence of god with some random person. It was fairly brief; the person asked me why I didn’t believe in God. I answered the question with another question. “What god?”
This confused her because she was obviously only thinking of one specific god. I continued, “There are a lot of different gods.” I started to ramble off some different gods and in the middle of it I was rudely woken up by my alarm. Here’s the kicker: I was actually disappointed I didn’t get to finish my dream.
So as luck would have it, there is an interesting story out of New Jersey (from 1970) for me to discuss. A judge denied a couple the ability to adopt a child because they aren’t religious. Specifically, the judge cited Inestimable Privilege, which in New Jersey states, “no person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.”
The judge believes that “the child should have the freedom to worship as she sees fit, and not be influenced by prospective parents who do not believe in a Supreme Being.”
Of course this idiot judge would be denying every single Christian parent adoption rights, because what if the child decides they want to be Muslim? Or Hindu? Or Wiccan? Why, I do believe that child would be influenced by the beliefs of his or her parents, who would most likely force them to go to church and Sunday school. Or if they’re Catholic, possibly to a Catholic school.
Needless to say, the family appealed and the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
It’s a shame the judge didn’t suffer any consequences for blatantly ignoring this couple’s constitutional rights to satisfy his personal bias. I’ll have to do some research to find out whether or not the New Jersey Supreme Court sided with the couple. I suspect they did.
Aug
13
August 13, 2009 by Brandon | 5 Comments
I had an incident yesterday while parked at the mall, similar to one I had before that I wrote about here. I was coming back to my car with my girlfriend and we were having an issue finding where I was parked. I came across the bumper of a car that was similar to mine; it was the same make and same color, but it didn’t appear to be mine because some things were missing…
It took a second for me to realize that this was my car, because the Darwin Fish emblem still attached to it was a dead giveaway. But my two Obama bumper stickers were torn off the back.
The fact that the stickers were torn off wasn’t what raised my ire so much. It was the sheer hypocrisy behind the act. Here we obviously had anti-Obama people, whom I’d wager think Obama’s an evil, dirty socialist, bent on destroying the “America they grew up in,” and the course of action that they take to make their point is destruction of property, theft, and an effort to limit my free speech. Who are the real people trying to destroy America in this situation?
They are, of course. But they’re too full of the hate and misinformation being championed by right-wing talk show hosts and demagogues to see that.
But really, what does health care have to do with religion? What do stolen bumper stickers have to do with any of this?
Well, I’m wondering where the religious leaders in this country are, and why they’re so quiet. They speak out against gay marriage as a moral issue. They speak out against abortion. But where are they when the country is debating health care options to help those who are in need?
It seems to me the Jesus fellow that the Christian right worships would love the idea of universal health care. I mean, if I remember correctly, he went around healing people. For free. And advocated paying taxes. Sounds like a liberal if you ask me.
Yet the televangelists and pastors in the pulpits are oddly silent on this major issue that is facing our country. Do they not agree that it is a moral imperative for our nation to help our citizens in need when they need it most? Why are they not standing up against the lies about death panels? Why are they not trying to convince people that this is the right direction our country should take? Why do they not fight for the weak and poor like they claim to do?
I suppose I’ll never understand how the religious in this country ever aligned with the conservative party. The ideals and values of peace, compassion, love, and tolerance that they claim their religion touts is stifled by the greed and corruption that is inherent in unrestricted capitalism and profit for the sake of profit.
I’ve never really been too worried about the state of this country, but I’m beginning to feel somewhat discomforted by the events which are unfolding. The hypocrisy and willful ignorance being displayed these days is frightening.
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