9 posts tagged “religion”

And it came to pass in the Age of Insanity that the people of the land called America , having lost their morals, their work initiative, and their will to defend their liberties, chose as their Supreme Leader that person known as “The One”. He emerged from the vapors with a message that had no meaning; but He hypnotized the people telling them, “I am sent to save you. My lack of experience, my questionable ethics, my monstrous ego, and my association with evil doers are of no consequence. For I shall save you with Hope and Change. Go, therefore, and proclaim throughout the land that he who preceded me is evil, that he has defiled the nation, and that all he has built must be destroyed.”

And the people rejoiced, for even though they knew not what “The One” would do, he had promised that he would bring change, and they proclaimed “Yes We Can”.

And “The One” said “We live in the greatest country in the world. Help me change everything about it!”

And the people said, “Hallelujah!! Change is good!”

Then He said, “We are going to tax the rich fat-cats,”—- And the people said “Sock it to them!” “—- and “Redistribute their wealth.”

And then He said, “Redistribution of wealth is good for everybody”

And the people said, “Show us the money!”

And Joe the plumber asked, “Are you kidding me? You’re going to steal my money and give it to the deadbeats??”

And “The One” ridiculed and taunted him, and Joe’s personal records were hacked, publicized, and ridiculed; though no crime could be found.

One lone reporter asked, “That shouldn’t be, isn’t that Marxist policy?”

And she was banished from the kingdom!

Then a citizen asked, “With no foreign relations experience and having zero military experience or knowledge, how will you deal with radical terrorists?”

And “The One” said, “Simple. I shall sit with them and talk kindly to them and show them how nice we really are; and they will forget that they ever wanted to kill us all!”

And the people said, “Hallelujah!! We are safe at last, and we can beat our weapons into free cars for the people!”

Then “The One” said, “I shall give 95% of you lower taxes.”

And one, lone voice said, “But 40% of us don’t pay ANY taxes.”

So “The One” said, “Then I shall give you some of the taxes the fat-cats pay!”

And the people said, “Hallelujah!! Show us the money!”

Then “The One” said, “I shall tax your Capital Gains when you sell your homes!”

And the people yawned and the already slumping housing market fully collapsed.

And He said, “I shall mandate employer-funded health care for EVERY worker and raise the minimum wage, and lower the white collar wage. And I shall also give every person unlimited health-care and medicine and even transportation to the free clinics.”

And the people said, “Give me some of that!”

Then he said, “I shall penalize employers who ship jobs overseas.”

And the people said, “Where’s my rebate check?”

Then “The One” said, “I shall bankrupt the coal industry, and perhaps even the oil industry (Cap & Trade/Carbon Tax) and though electricity rates will skyrocket, we shall soon build wind farms and solar power stations and drive green cars that I shall mandate in Detroit!”

And the people said, “Coal is dirty, coal is evil, no more coal! But we don’t care for that part about higher electric rates.”

So “The One” said, “Not to worry. If your rebate ($10/week) isn’t enough to cover your extra expenses ($3,000/year), we shall bail you out. Just sign up with ACORN and your troubles are over!” “Only the fat cats will have to pay.”

Then He said, “Illegal immigrants feel scorned and slighted. Let’s grant them amnesty, Social Security, free education, free lunches, free medical care, bi-lingual signs and guaranteed housing…”

And the people said, “Hallelujah!!” And they made him King!

And so it came to pass that employers, facing spiraling costs and ever-higher taxes, raised their prices and laid off workers; though they sold much less of their products. Others simply gave up and went out of business, and the economy sank like unto a rock dropped from a cliff. The banking industry was destroyed. Manufacturing slowed to a crawl. And more of the people were without a means of support.

So “The One” again blamed the prior administration, extended unemployment benefits to a year, bailed out his favorite banks, and then took over the banks and auto industries. “The One” said, “I am the “The One” - The Messiah - and I’m here to save you! We shall just print more money so the government will have enough!” “Surely one trillion dollars will make everyone happy.” And immediately the Fed complied and the money presses roared.

And China reconsidered their one trillion dollars of loans to the US ,, and threatened to call in their debts. Other foreign trading partners said unto “The One”, “Wait a minute. Your dollar is not worth a pile of camel dung! You will have to pay more.. for everything.. as your dollar becomes worth less.”

And the people said, “Wait a minute.. That is unfair!!”

And the world said, “Neither are these other idiotic programs you have embraced. Lo, you have become a Socialist state and a second-rate power. What factories are not owned by your government are owned by us. Now you shall play by our rules!”

And “The One” said “Americans are arrogant, divisive, and derisive!” “We will listen.”

And the people cried out, “Alas, alas!! What have we done?”

But yea verily, it was too late. The people eventually set upon “The One” and spat upon him and stoned him, and his name was dung. But the once mighty nation was no more; and the once proud people were without sustenance or shelter or hope. And the Change that “The One” had given them was as like unto a poison that had destroyed them from within, and like a whirlwind that consumed all that they had built.

And the people beat their chests in despair and cried out in anguish, “Give us back our nation and our pride and our hope!!”

But it was too late, and the once-glorious “Home of the Brave and Land of the Free” was no more..

-- An anonymous Pastor's Wife.

You may think this is a fairy tale, but it’s not. It’s happening RIGHT NOW, Already—- everything down to the last couple of lines….

The First Amendment to The U.S. Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble; and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The New School Prayer

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!

Amen

The Second Amendment to The U.S. Constitution

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Wisdom of Those in History

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." -- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers

"Men trained in arms from their infancy, and animated by the love of liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy conquest." -- From the Declaration of the First Continental Congress, 1775

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them" -- Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story

"Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. [...] To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." -- Senator Richard Henry Lee, 1788

"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them." -- George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788

"The great object is, that every man be armed. [...] Every one who is able may have a gun." -- Patrick Henry, speech of June 14 1788

The Ten Commandments (or how to live a happy life)

Commandments Are Like The Kite String

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

-- Jehovah

A Very Famous Sermon

Sermon

And again, blessed are all they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.

And blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

And blessed are all the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

And blessed are all the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

And blessed are all they who are persecuted for my name’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; For ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad, for great shall be your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.

Liberty And The Old Soldier

Friberg's Title Of Liberty

And now it came to pass that when Moroni, who was the chief commander of the armies of the Nephites [people Moroni just fought many years, and lost many friends, to gain their liberty and freedom], had heard of these dissensions, he was angry with Amalickiah.

And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.

And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land.

Great Wisdom & Humor

"Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first" -- Ronald Reagan

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help." -- Ronald Reagan

"Liberals love America like O.J. loved Nicole." -- Ann Coulter

"Teach the people correct principles, and they will govern themselves." -- Joseph Smith Jr.

Songs and Poems

Prayer

When your heart was full with anger,
Did you think to pray?
Did you plead for grace, my brother,
That you might forgive another
Who had crossed your way?

When sore trials came upon you,
Did you think to pray?
When your soul was full of sorrow,
Balm of Gilead did you borrow
At the gates of day?

Oh, how praying rests the weary!
Prayer will change the night to day.
So, when life gets dark and dreary,
Don't forget to pray.

-- Mary A. Pepper Kidder

Musings

Bail 'em Out?

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.  They failed and it closed.  Now we are trusting the economy of our country and our banking system to the same nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling whiskey.

U.S Lawmakers at work:

In 1999...

• 29 members of Congress have been accused of spousal abuse.
• 7 have been arrested for fraud.
• 19 have been accused of writing bad checks.
• 117 have bankrupted at least two businesses.
• 3 have been arrested for assault.
• 71 have credit reports so bad they can't qualify for a credit card.
• 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges.
• 8 have been arrested for shoplifting.
• 21 are current defendants in lawsuits.
• And in 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving, but released after they claimed Congressional immunity.
  

Now in 2009, it's hard to find any Democrat, in Washington DC that has paid their taxes.  Many of them are in the Presidential cabinet.  Which is why it is so easy for them to raise your taxes and spend it as if it is theirs.

Today ... 75% of them can't pass a simple high-school level test on the Constitution, the organization and purposes of the three houses of the Federal Government, and (get this) Congressional ethics rules.

Frequently, you go stumbling through the Internet and see some web sites thinking they are the grand master of intellect.  They proceed to ridicule and minimize those of religion, and then by a very ignorant and vague series of "proofs" proceed to demonstrate the "superiority" of the scientist or atheist.

I find these comparisons quite humorous.  They say ignorance is bliss, but those trying to "prove" those of religion are the ignorant ones brings me the most laughs.

Since those of science like to use facts to "prove" their case, let's do so here:

No Intelligence Behind This

Science says the universe, as we know it, started with a big bang.  Unfortunately they don't explain how it happened, why it happened, and what brought it about.  They also lack the ability to explain what was before.  So far, a believer in the divine has no problem with HOW the universe came into being.  They just simply say it was part of a grand plan by a grand intelligence.

Science says intelligence couldn't possibly be the author of such specific order, beauty, and majesty.  It's all accidental, or coincidence.

Let's concentrate on our own solar system.  Science says it's all a great big series of coincidences.  Let's cover these "coincidences":

• The location of the solar system.  It's on an outer arm of the Milky Way galaxy in a relatively calm location, away from star birth, far away from the chaos and radiation of the galactic center.  It's far away from violent gamma-ray bursts and other sources of deadly high energy radiation.  Interstellar traffic is also calm.  Being out so far also means a lower velocity of orbit around the galactic center.  The solar system is pretty well protected.
• 

  The Sun (Sol)
  The Sun.  Our star, Sol, is a magnificently tame and stable star with a fairly long and stable life span and a much smaller radiation output and relatively calm demeanor compared to other smaller and larger stars.  Perfect for cultivating life.
• The system itself.  Science is observing more and more planets around stars and so far has not found anything even resembling our solar system.  It's almost as if our solar system was the result of design.  Typical systems have their gas giants close to the star and most planets are in quite eccentric orbits.  Our solar system has remarkably stable planetary orbits with the planets arranged in a "convenient" order of size, which has the side effect of protecting the third planet.
• The Earth is very unusual.  It has a moon exactly one tenth the size of its planet (a veritable impossibility), and its orbit and distance is perfect for maintaining just enough tidal forces one the earth to keep it temperate enough for life.  These tidal forces help with the internal core to constantly generate an unusually strong magnetic field, which protects its inhabitants from stellar and interstellar radiation, and is usually reserved for gas giants.  These tidal forces also churn the oceans to generate flowing currents, which cause air currents, which cause hot and cold areas to be cooled and heated respectively, thus tempering the climate.
  

  Ocean_currents
• The Earth's continental positioning "coincidentally" allow for the tidal oceanic currents to flow around the earth in a beneficial manner, which also causes atmospheric currents to flow in a beneficial manner as well.  If the continents were in a different position, then the oceanic currents would stop and the jet stream would greatly change its course resulting in very hot and very cold localized regions and almost no temperate zones, as well as out of control weather.
• The Earth just happens to be in exactly the right orbital distance from its star for these temperate and life giving conditions to exist.  Of course, all purely coincidental.  Any closer and the Earth cooks.  Any farther, and the Earth freezes.
• 

  Volcanic_island
  Back to the Moon.  It's tidal forces, keep the Earth's mantle and core hot.  This causes land to be renewed, rain to fall, carbon to be broken down by the oceans.
• The life itself is quite "coincidental" as well.  You have plants, from trees, to algae, that process carbon-dioxide and turn it into oxygen.  Quite a "coincidental" symbiotic relationship to the other "accidental" forms of life which take in oxygen and expel carbon-dioxide.
• Then there is the size of the planet Earth.  Any larger and gravity would overwhelm the ability of life to stand upright, and make chemical processes more difficult in almost every aspect from volcanism to photosynthesis.  Any smaller, and our atmosphere disappears, and the ability to maintain a constant livable climate also disappears.
• Oh, let's now consider the unusually diverse number of minerals and chemicals at our disposal.  Scientific observations have shown that single minerals and chemicals tend to congregate on a per planet basis, usually based upon their weight.  Yet, we have everything from gold to hydrogen on our planet.  We even have the benefits of fossil fuels as if someone knew we'd need them.
• The land to water ratio also happens to be perfect, or "coincidental".  Too much water and storms take control and wreak constant chaos.  Too much land and temperatures rise without enough cool air to control it.
• Oh, then there's the tilt of the planet causing seasons, which make for excellent ways to grow crops and renew the land.  They cause rain and snow to fall, erosion to happen.  Which nourishes the oceans and nourishes the land.  This also helps with maintaining the climate.
• Then you have the variety of life.  Science claims it's all accidental, and all "evolved" from one single organism.  Yet, science can't seem to show HOW it happened.

Ask any mathematician about the beauty of the mathematics involved with the various objects in the solar system, especially the Earth and Moon.

I find it humorous that science, which claims things don't exist unless they can be reproduced in a laboratory, yet accepts so many "theories" as fact without this reproducible result.  Einstein had relativity to explain the very large, but it fails to explain the very small.  You have quantum mechanics which attempts to explain the very small, but falls apart with the very large.  Nevertheless, both cannot truly explain the universe around us.  They are just convenient explanations that "fit" for our needs.

I find it laughable when these "geniuses" fill in blanks for things they do not understand and then people build their lives around it trying to prove it is true, or end up realizing they wasted their lives on a theory that was a lie.  Does "dark matter" mean anything to anyone??

Scientific Theory

As I see it, I see far more evidence in the environment around us, both on Earth and off, that not only overwhelmingly proves that a grand intelligence was behind its planning, but that there is also great beauty in it not just chaotic perfection.  To see people ignore the obvious and say there's no such thing as a God shows me not only a closed mind, but one incapable of just looking and seeing the truth of it before their very eyes.  Everything from the genius of life and its complexity to the genius that organized the solar system to be a home for us, is more than obvious to the eye.  You can see it.  You can feel it.  You can smell it.  You can eat it.

It's not magic or hocus-pocus that is God.  God, is the grand architect.  Everything you consider as "science" he created.  Those magnificent laws in all of their perfection and mathematical beauty came from God.

How can anyone see the veritable number of so-called "coincidences" that resulted in this Earth being the grand location for life and deny it all being part of an intelligent design is just fooling themselves.  What science is learning is that for this to truly happen accidentally is even more and more impossible.  The odds are against them.  It would have be the culmination of trillions of "coincidences", all with incredible odds in and of themselves, to achieve what we now enjoy.

Sure, there are some religious people without any understanding of the beauty and intelligence of God, and think him to be some sort of "magical" being.  God is perfect.  Perfect knowledge, perfect in exercizing that knowledge which gives him great power, yet he does it out of perfect love.  Quite unusual for someone with absolute power.  Imagine, knowing all of the secrets of the universe.  This alone causes a great paradox for science.  If science were to know absolutely everything about the universe, both big and small, life and mineral, energetic and dormant, man and woman, they would be as God.

The paradox being in order to prove there is not a God, you must become God to do so.

Science, hasn't been able to disprove God.  They have only been able to expose those with false beliefs in a false God.  Even the Bible itself shows such things happening.  To disprove a "religion" does not disprove the existance of God.  Doing so is impossible.

This Is an Accident

However, one cannot expect to prove the existence as well, if the one insisting on proof refuses to see with their own eyes the truth of it all exposed to them plainly day after day.  The order of things cannot help but prove the existance of an intelligence behind its design.  Look at how much intelligence is merely trying to grasp its understanding now.

Anyone that has been following my various articles will soon realize that I'm a religious man and a strong conservative.  Some of my articles have concentrated on religious matters and some have been strictly political.  Well, this one is going to heavily combine both.  First, a little about why there is good and evil and how evil accomplishes its purpose with good people.  Second, I'll use that foundation to illustrate my points.  I'm not here to convert people, nor to exercize political correctness, nor will I express anything here as theory or "my opinion".  This may sound unacceptable to some and perhaps arrogant by others, as the world is too used to debating religion and truth.  What I'll be addressing here is what I know to be true.  If you have a genuine interest in knowing why I say "I know", then feel free to private message me.  I could not express these topics, of things I know to be true, and water them down to "my opinion".  I feel I would offend God if I did.

Nevertheless, I do respect your religious beliefs.  You have a right to believe (or not believe) in a manner you see fit.  Nevertheless, if I have piqued your curiosity and want to know more, then read on.

Misconceptions of The Devil

1 comment

Many people do not understand evil and the source of evil.  I have found many preachers of religion with misconceptions of evil.  Evil, is the art of distracting people from what is good for them.  Evil, has only one grand purpose, and that is to spread misery.  The author of evil is an individual named Lucifer.  Without getting into details, Lucifer used to garner power and influence in God's kingdom; until he decided to usurp God's glory and power for himself, and as a result of his choice and actions, he was forever cast out from God's presence and before he and his minions get their final judgement, they remain here on earth to try and make us miserable.  He bacame "the adversary" or "Satan".  He's pissed and has vowed to take everyone down with him.  He and his buddies have been here since then and have become very very good at what they do.

The tools of evil are:

• Subtle deception.  Which is the art of mixing a lot of truth with just enough lies to get you to believe the lies, because the truth gives it pliable credibility.  The more and more Satan can get you to believe the lies, the more lies he replaces the truths he hides them in.  Pretty soon, he can feed you a lot of lies without the truthful foundation because now he has you as a fanatical believer.
• Counterfeiting.  We see this every day, but can read about a great example of this in the Old Testament where Moses used his staff to perform miracles and the Egyptian magicians mimicked them with counterfeits.  This is a very clever means to deceive.
• Reversal.  He only acheives this goal after the previous methods have proved successful.  It's the art of actually getting people to believe that good is evil and evil is good.  Counterfeiting is key in this goal.  He uses the counterfeits of happiness, which is pleasure, and the counterfeit of liberty, which is anarchy.
• Envy and Jealousy.  The art of convincing people they are entitled to things they didn't earn or work for.
• Pride and Vanity.  The counterfeits of honor and charity are selfishness and narcissism (demanding respect instead of earning it).
  

Now I'll cover each tool in detail using real examples:

Subtle Deception

The entertainment industry today is an excellent example of subtle deception.  They numb your repulsive response by slowly and constantly "pushing the envelope".  What once was labeled by society as pornographic or repulsive, is now shown as "normal" in prime time.  Sexuality, being a very powerful instinct and tool (God needed us to multiply quickly) is the catalyst to how this is accomplished.  

The public education system is also another means of subtle deception.  Indoctrination and convenient absence of key truths being taught to children make for a fast track of misery.  The entertainment idustry and education are subtle partners here.

Ask yourself why things such as teen pregnancy, divorce, and higher crime rates climb higher and higher with each generation, if you need proof.

Counterfeiting

Communism and its intermediary Socialism is the counterfeit to God's idea of having all things in common.  To have a society where everyone has everything in common only works when all people choose to live that way and have the freedom to leave any time they desire.  It requires a great deal of love and charity to accomplish such a society in a successful way, where the concern and love for each individual takes precedence.  Such a society is doomed to fail with the presence of evil, pride, envy, jealousy, those hungry for power, etc.  The counterfeit to this United Order is Communism, which forces people to give up everything, and their lives are governed by those with their own interests and power in mind.  The only way even a short period of success is possible is, to actually prevent people from leaving, and punishing those with a desire for the freedom to exit the system.  The subtle deceptions are "for the good of the people" or "spreading the wealth", and the care for the individual is lost to mob rule.  Charity cannot be forced on anyone, nor can you steal from the talented and hard working and give to the lazy and slothful.  What always happens in a socialist to communist society, is those that work hard finally give up, because their extra hard work is not rewarded; in fact, the extra hard work is usually punished because it makes others (the people) look bad, and you're accused of being selfish.  The back side of the coin is that hard work is no longer required, and the government provides everything they used to have to work hard for.  So all they do is the bare minimum asked of them.  Did you ever see a quality product come from a Communist nation?  The cars were poorly manufactured, the buildings were of poor quality, even the USSR's space vehicles of the space program were of considerably lower quality than that of the USA.  Socialism and Communism do not succeed in their claims of eliminating poverty, but instead they do eliminate the rich in favor of making everyone, except high government officials, poor.  Everyone is "equal" that is true, but they are equally miserable in their poverty.

Karl Marx

Those that try to say socialism or communism are good, tend to be those that live isolated lives in universities having their livelihood already guaranteed.  So they sit and think about these things all day long, and they claim their superior intellect knows better.  The problem with this, is they have removed themselves from the responsibilities and experiences of society, thus they couldn't possibly understand it.  There are also great flaws in the arguments for socialism and communism.  They usually make comparisons in a fixed class society, which only existed in ancient Europe during the monarch period.  After the USA appeared and offered a better form of government and the concept of liberty for all, it eliminated the barriers of poverty and wealth.  This means those that are rich can become poor, and those that are poor can become rich.  This is all based upon personal responsibility and ingenuity governing their lives.  This is how our nation changed the world.  The USA has brought a higher standard of living to the world, and has the highest standard of living of any country.  This was all accomplished in less than 200 years with just ingenuity and liberty, the freedom to develop and the freedom to fail.  Socialism doesn't reward ingenuity and it protects you from failure.  Thus, the government controls your life, and it's usually a miserable one.  Why?  The "people" take precedence over the person.

Modest Wedding Dress

Pleasure is the counterfeit to happiness.  Pleasure is being taught as a means of gaining happiness and it always brings misery.  Rampant and uncontrolled sexual behavior brings the greatest misery filled with brief occurrences of pleasure.  You have young women losing their educational futures due to pregnancy because they chose pleasure over common sense, and becoming mothers whilst barely finishing their lives as a child.  Self respect and the respect of each other has been completely lost.  You have boys running around like chimpanzees in heat humping every willing partner mistaking partying and pleasure as happiness.  No longer do men and women have respect for each other's purity, but there's nothing to look forward to and appreciate in marriage for them.  A woman offering herself to her new husband is one of the greatest gifts and acts of love and trust in the world.  This is why the wedding dress is white, symbolizing purity.  Now days, that has been minimized and downplayed to a mere pleasurable animal act.

Once upon a time a man's word (or oath) was as strong as a written contract.  In fact, honor was the most important element a human could possess, and dishonoring one's self meant losing their ability to function in their society.  They couldn't do any business because everyone would know their word didn't mean anything.  Those that were successful, were those you could trust in their words and oaths.  Satan has succeeded in ruining this aspect of humanity, and replacing it with the substitute of anarchy claiming it as "freedom", which it is not.

Reversal

This is accomplished through ridicule, mainly.  The concepts of being "cool" or "hip" or the "new thing" are excellent ways of achieving reversal, especially with our children.  All children want friends and to be liked.  Well, if Satan can have enough willing participants in the entertainment industry to make evil look cool or hip, then he has an easy job.  Concepts of fornication being "normal" or "natural" or even expected if you want to be "cool" he introduces through those vehicles of fame.  Fame is popularity on steroids, and children mistake fame for the ideal life.  So they try to pattern their lives with the image projected in that fame.  Everything from piercing, to tatoos, to music, to clothing, all have had their changes from normality to their reversal.  Clothing was once a means to be modest and protect ones self from the elements.  Now it's to look most like the whore on the TV or movie screen (look up whore in the dictionary, they are being paid a lot to do it).

Fighting reversal requires good and responsible parenting.  If you think public schools run by the government are going to teach your child what is right and what is wrong, and what brings misery and what is real deception etc, then you are in for a big surprise.  You need to take responsibility for your child's upbringing.  You need to make sure they have the character and moral strength to recognize evil and deception when they hear it and see it.  They need to understand the lies of pleasure being happiness.  The counterfeit is the order of these two.  Happiness brings pleasure, the counterfeit says pleasure brings happiness, which is a lie.  Examples can see pleasure always ends up bringing misery.

Adolf Hitler

Hitler recognized how powerful reversal works on crowds.  He went from community organizer to German Fuhrer (emperor) in a few short years by saying what people wanted to hear, blaming the rich (which were usually Jewish) for their problems, promising change, promising he'd eliminate their poverty, give them homes to live in, cars to drive.  The third Reich would be the socialist utopia.  NAZI, afterall, stood for "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party)".  Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, promised to "fix the economy".  He proceeded to have the government take over companies, he then took over the banks, finally in a claim to "finally fix it all" he requested special powers to accomplish this miracle.  He was given full authority and named Germany's first (and last) Fuhrer (he added "of the Third Reich").  He promptly used his new authority to dissolve the parliament and appointed "Governors" over regions to replace mayors and town councils.  He did all of this because he caused people to cry and get emotional at his speeches.  People thought of him as the Saviour of Germany.  He loved the media and the media loved him.  In fact Time Magazine featured Hitler in a positive manner.  He carefully controlled what the media would and could say and the media didn't care.  They just loved him.  He started government work programs to build roads.  In fact, the modern freeway is a Hitler Germany invention.  Big problem, the rich were now slaves (or dead), conveniently relieved of their riches, and the poor were still poor but taken care of.  Members of the Nazi party were the only privileged and you had to be invited into the party to be a Nazi (you also had to be of the "pure race" as well).

Notice anything similar in that historical account to the happenings of today?  Satan uses techniques that usually work.  He's had thousands of years of practice to get it down.  You're smart, you can do the math.  Yes, it's where George Lucas got his ideas for the rise of the Emperor and fall of the Republic, but that's not what I mean.

Summary

You cannot think that Satan's counterfeits can ever accomplish anything good, even with good intentions.  Good can only have its roots in liberty and freedom of choice.  Charity, can only work when love is behind it, as it's only theft if it is forced.  Poverty can only be overcome with charity and hard work.  A free handout only results in a hand expecting more.  A hand-up teaches that person how to fill their hands themselves.  Charity is a means to give a hand up and not the never ending handout of government welfare.

The commandments of God weren't given by a divine tyrant.  They actually protect us and give us a means to live our lives to the fullest with happiness.  If everyone lives according to the ten commandments, to the letter, then the natural form of society would be a United Order in the end, but because people are not perfect, they will always fall short of that ideal.

Declaration Of Independence Signing

It is my belief that the USA and the land it sits on was blessed and started with God's influence.  A place for the imperfect to live in liberty.  It finally pulled the world out of the dark ages, which started when evil destroyed and killed the Apostles.  Seriously, think about it.  A bunch of rag-tag farmers (many without shoes!) defeated the greatest army and navy in the world!  This happened because God caused miracles to happen (not coincidences).  Great men were brought together, a grand council to which we have never seen again; our founding fathers!  Do you know of any man today, in the world, that would turn down the opportunity to become a king or emperor of a growing nation in favor instead of "just" being it's first President?  These founding fathers actually believed what they preached!  George Washington was one of the greatest men to be born in hundreds of years.  He wasn't perfect, none of them were, but they had honor and integrity.

Talk Show Heroes

To throw this all away because of Satan's counterfeits is a sad sad statement for the last two hundred years of growth and accomplishment.  Today things aren't Democrat versus Republican anymore.  Those days disappeared years ago.  It is now good versus evil and all of its counterfeits.  You hear Glenn Beck speak of 9 values and 12 Principles.  You have Rush Limbaugh speaking of Conservatism.  You have Mark Levin speaking of the coming tyranny.  You have Sean Hannity warning about the mob that is government.  All are good and well.  All are valid podiums to preach from.  All are legitimate cases.  However, though I support them and participate in their concern and activism, I cannot help but think that the root of the problem is simply Satan's distractions from God.  The principles we need to live by are contained as both the Ten Commandments and Jesus' beatitudes.  If people simply applied those principles and values to their lives, these issues and problems would be non-existent.

I honestly feel, these patriotic movements are treatments for the symptoms of the disease, not treatments for the elimination of it.  If you want liberty and freedom, then live the type of life from where those gifts are given.  Set an example, you cannot force others to live as you choose to.  You can only offer to share what you know if they accept the offer.  Be who you should be.  Turn off that questionable TV show.  Don't watch that questionable movie, even if edited for TV.  Don't buy that video game if it's immoral or encourages immorality.  Stand up for what is right, and don't put up with Satan's "political correctness".  Point out lies when they are told, regardless of venue.  Vote for honest people in government.  Voting for the best speaker or best looking is irresponsible and part of Satan's plan of misery.  George Washington was not a good speaker, nor was he a good looking man, but he was a great President and General.  Vote for those with integrity and morality, not a good haircut.

Don't take your education and basis for knowledge from the news media.  Learn for yourself.  Read more good books.  Always gain in knowledge and experience.  Never be "too good" to teach others when they ask for help.  Be humble and kind.  Be loving, yet firm.  Be knowledgeable, yet not arrogant.

I realize this is a wordy post, but something that has been bothering my conscience for a while.

On December 18, 2008 I wrote an article containing poignant quotes of wisdom and warning.  I continue on that theme, but instead of small quotes, I'll be posting what I call parables of thought or wisdom.  Some are short articles written by others and some are fiction written by unknowns.

When reading about them, put the history of the time they were written into perspective with the present.  Some you may find that their words apply even more to now than when they were written, which is called "prophetic wisdom."

What's Does California's Proposition 8 Really Mean?

Location:  City Hall, San Francisco, California
Time:  Possibly now

Clerk:  Next!
Tim & Jim:  Good morning.  We want to apply for a marriage license.
Clerk:  Names?
Time & Jim:  Tim and Jim Jones.
Clerk:  Jones? Are you related? I see a resemblance.
Tim & Jim:  Yes, we're brothers.
Clerk:  Brothers? You can't get married.
Tim & Jim:  Why not? Aren't you giving marriage licenses to same gender couples?
Clerk:  Yes, thousands. But we haven't had any siblings. That's incest!
Tim & Jim:  Incest?  No, we are not gay.
Clerk:  Not gay? Then why do you want to get married?
Tim & Jim:  For the financial benefits, of course. And we do love each other.  Besides, we don't have any other prospects.
Clerk:  But we're issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples who've been  denied equal protection under the law. If you are not gay, you can get married to a woman.
Tim:  Wait a minute. A gay man has the same right to marry a woman as I have.  But just because I'm straight doesn't mean I want to marry a woman. I want to marry Jim.
Jim:  And I want to marry Tim, Are you going to discriminate against us just because we are not gay?
Clerk:  All right, all right. I'll give you your license. Next!
J, J, R & J:  Hi. We are here to get married.
Clerk:  Names?
J, J, R & J:  John Smith, Jane James, Robert Green, and June Johnson.
Clerk:  Who wants to marry whom?
J, J, R & J:  We all want to marry each other.
Clerk:  But there are four of you!
J, J, R & J:  That's right. You see, we're all bisexual. I love Jane and Robert, Jane loves me and June, June loves Robert and Jane, and Robert loves June and me. All of us getting married together is the only way that we can express our sexual preferences in a marital relationship.
Clerk:  But we've only been granting licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
J, J, R & J:  So you're discriminating against bisexuals!
Clerk:  No, it's just that, well, the traditional idea of marriage is that it's just for couples.
J, J, R & J:  Since when are you standing on tradition?
Clerk:  Well, I mean, you have to draw the line somewhere.
J, J, R & J:  Who says? There's no logical reason to limit marriage to couples. The more the better. Besides, we demand our rights! The Mayor says the constitution guarantees equal protection under the law. Give us a marriage license!
Clerk:  All right, all right. Next!
David:  Hello, I'd like a marriage license.
Clerk:  In what names?
David:  David Deets.
Clerk:  And the other man?
David:  That's all. I want to marry myself.
Clerk:  Marry yourself? What do you mean?
David:  Well, my psychiatrist says I have a dual personality, so I want to marry the two together. Maybe I can file a joint income-tax return.
Clerk:  That does it! I quit! You people are making a mockery of marriage!

What Is an American?

An American

You probably missed it in the rush of news ..., but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So I just thought I would write to let them know what an American is, so they would know when they found one.

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them choose.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. The best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes.

Americans welcome the best, but they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.

These in fact are the people who built America. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers in the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families. [I've been told that the people in the Towers were from at least 30, and maybe many more, other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.]

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

So look around you. You may find more Americans in your land than you thought were there. One day they will rise up and overthrow the old, ignorant, tired tyrants that trouble too many lands. Then those lands, too, will join the community of free and prosperous nations.

And America will welcome them.

-- Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law in Northern Virginia.  National Review September 25, 2001.

In our home we have what is now called the parable of the bicycle. It dates back to when my daughter Sarah, who was seven years old at the time, came in and said, “Dad, can I have a bike? I’m the only kid on the block who doesn’t have one.”

Well, I didn’t have the money then for a bike, so I stalled her. I said, “Sure, Sarah.”

She said, “How? When?”

I said, “You save all your pennies, and soon you’ll have enough for a bike.” And she went away.

A couple of weeks later I heard a “clink, clink” in Sarah’s bedroom. I asked, “Sarah, what are you doing?”

She came to me with a little jar, a slit cut in the lid, and a bunch of pennies in the bottom. She said, “You promised me that if I saved all my pennies, pretty soon I’d have enough for a bike. And, Daddy, I’ve saved every single one of them.”

My heart melted. My daughter was doing everything in her power to follow my instructions. I hadn’t actually lied to her. If she saved all of her pennies, she would eventually have enough for a bike, but by then she would want a car. I said, “Let’s go look at bikes.”

We went to every store in town. Finally we found it—the perfect bicycle. She was thrilled. Then she saw the price tag, and her face fell. She started to cry. “Oh, Dad, I’ll never have enough for a bicycle!”

So I said, “Sarah, how much do you have?”

She answered, “Sixty-one cents.”

“I’ll tell you what. You give me everything you’ve got and a hug and a kiss, and the bike is yours.” Then I drove home very slowly because she insisted on riding the bike home.

As I drove beside her, I thought of the atonement of Christ. We all desperately want ... to be with our Father in Heaven. But no matter how hard we try, we come up short. At some point all of us must realize, “I can’t do this by myself. I need help.” Then it is that the Savior says, in effect, All right, you’re not perfect. But what can you do? Give me all you have, and I’ll do the rest.

-- Steven E. Robinson, New Era, April 1994.  [ed:  An excellent example of how works (James 2:18,20,26) and grace (Eph 2:8) are in harmony.]

The Copper Clapper Caper

Officer:  I'm a Cop.  I was working the day-watch out of robbery when I got a call from the ACME School Bell Company.  There had been a robbery.
ACME:  There's been a robbery
Officer:  Yes sir, what was it?
ACME:  My Clappers!
Officer:  Your clappers?
ACME:  You know, those things inside a bell that makes them clang.
Officer:  The clangers.
ACME:  That's right.  We call them "clappers" in the business.
Officer:  A clapper caper.
ACME:  What's that?
Officer:  Nothing sir.  Now can I have the facts?  What kind of clappers were stolen on this caper?
ACME:  They were copper clappers.
Officer:  And where were they kept?
ACME:  In the closet.
Officer:  Uh huh...  Do you have any ideas who might have taken the copper clappers from the closet?
ACME:  Well...  Just one, I fired a man.  He had swore he'd get even.
Officer:  What was his name?
ACME:  Claude Cooper.
Officer:  You think he....
ACME:  Yeah!  That's right!  I think Claude Cooper copped my copper clappers I kept in the closet.
Officer:  Do you know where this Claude Cooper is from?
ACME:  Yeah, Cleveland.
Officer:  That figures.
ACME:  What makes it worse, they were clean.
Officer:  Clean copper clappers?
ACME:  That's right.
Officer:  Why do you think Cleveland's Claude Cooper would cop your clean copper clappers kept in your closet?
ACME:  Only one reason.
Officer:  What's that?
ACME:  He's a Kleptomaniac.
Officer:  Who first discovered the copper clappers were copped?
ACME:  My cleaning woman, Clara Clifford.
Officer:  That figures.  Now let me see if I've got the facts straight here.  Cleaning woman Clara Clifford discovered your clean copper clappers, kept in a closet, were copped by Claude Cooper, the kleptomaniac from Cleveland.  Now is that about it?
ACME:  One other thing.
Officer:  What's that?
ACME:  If I ever catch kleptomaniac Claude Cooper from Cleveland who copped my clean copper clappers I kept in the closet ...
Officer:  Yes?...
ACME:  I'll clobber him!
-- Jack Webb & Johnny Carson 1968   

The Constitution and Religion

“I am the greatest advocate of the Constitution of the United States there is on the earth. In my feelings I am always ready to die for the protection of the weak and oppressed in their just rights. The only fault I find with the Constitution is, it is not broad enough to cover the whole ground.

“Although it provides that all men shall enjoy religious freedom, yet it does not provide the manner by which that freedom can be preserved, nor for the punishment of Government officers who refuse to protect the people in their religious rights. … Its sentiments are good, but it provides no means of enforcing them. It had but this one fault. Under its provision, a man or a people who are able to protect themselves can get along well enough; but those who have the misfortune to be weak or unpopular are left to the merciless rage of popular fury.”

-- Joseph Smith Jr., October 5, 1843, Founder and first President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  U.S. Presidential Candidate 1844.  Brutally murdered by a mob June 1844.

Why Do Men Die First?

Why do men die first? This is a question that has gone unanswered for centuries, but, now we know. It requires a bit of explanation, first:

If you put a woman on a pedestal and try to protect her from the rat race ... you're a male chauvinist. If you stay home and do the housework ... you're a pansy. If you work too hard ... there's never any time for her. If you don't work enough ... you're a good-for-nothing bum. If she has a boring repetitive job with low pay ... this is exploitation. If you have a boring repetitive job with low pay ... you should get off your lazy behind and find something better. If you get a promotion ahead of her ... that is favoritism. If she gets a job ahead of you ... it's equal opportunity.

If you mention how nice she looks ... its sexual harassment. If you keep quiet ... its male indifference. If you cry ... you're a wimp. If you don't ... you're an insensitive bastard. If you make a decision without consulting her ... you're a chauvinist. If she makes a decision without consulting you, she's a liberated woman.

If you ask her to do something she doesn't enjoy ... that's domination. If SHE asks you ... it's a favor. If you appreciate the female form and frilly underwear ... you're a pervert. If you don't ... you're gay. If you like a woman to shave her legs and keep in shape ... you're sexist. If you don't ... you're unromantic. If you try to keep yourself in shape ... you're vain. If you don't ... you're a slob.

If you buy her flowers ... you're after something. If you don't ... you're not thoughtful. If you're proud of your achievements ... you're full of yourself. If you don't ... you're not ambitious. If she has a headache ... she's tired. If you have a headache ... you don't love her anymore. If you want it too often ... you're oversexed. If you don't ... there must be someone else.

Why do men die first? Because they want to.

--Author Unknown

I have learned early on in my life, that those of the past, and many of those that have lived longer than me can teach important lessons in life.  Experience and history is the worlds best teacher of what works and what does not.  Unfortunately, most of society, in its self-centered arrogance, tends to ignore history thinking they know better.  The fact that history has shown this to be a mistake over and over has no effect, because the arrogance of the current society makes them think they are special.  Call it culture, call it technology, call it so-called "enlightenment" it almost always ends up backfiring with their society just another part of history that hopefully the next will finally learn from.

I have assembled together a series of good and poignant quotations of those of the present and the past to best illustrate what everyone could use to better warn them, better live their life, better govern, and even enjoy a good laugh.

You may have noticed it has been a long time since I wrote an article here.  It's simply because I have been working long and hard on this one.  This one may not be Pulitzer material (thank God!), but it's something I feel good about writing, and I hope at least someone reading it can find help, advice, assistance, solace, comfort, or just simple knowledgeable enlightenment about the world around them.

All of those I quote here have some form of wisdom we can learn from.  Not all of them are benevolent, not all of them are someone I'd trust to be alone with my children (if I had any), and some may make my blood boil, however, they are experts in their field, some terrifyingly so.  Most, however, are people I would invite to dinner and would be quite comfortable to have around children.  These quotes fall into three categories, the wise, the ridiculous, and the ironic.  You'll soon see what I mean.

Also remember, wisdom can come from quotes of those far from being wise, and hence the quote becomes ironic or even ridiculous to give us wisdom.

I will go topic by topic, in what I think are important issues of current times, and what we can learn from these wise, and not so wise, people about them.

Let's get started.

Government Bailouts and New American Socialism

• "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." -- Thomas Jefferson (one of the founders of the Democrat Party and our Nation)
• "But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." -- John Adams (One of the founders of our Nation and second President)
• "In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress." -- John Adams
• "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower (First Supreme Allied Commander Europe WWII and 34th President, Republican)
• "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." -- John F. Kennedy (35th President, Democrat)
• "That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise." -- Abraham Lincoln (16th President, Republican)
  
• "The great masses of the people... will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one." -- Adolf Hitler (Charismatic and articulate political orator, German Chancellor, called by those that heard him speak "the Saviour of Germany", and responsible for the murder of millions in WWII)
• "Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." -- George Orwell (Author)
• "How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin." -- Ronald Reagan (Actor and 40th President)
• "The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away." -- Ronald Reagan
• "The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan
  
• "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." -- Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemins, Author)
• "Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself." -- Thomas Jefferson
  
• "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C.S. Lewis (Author)
• "Never spend your money before you have it." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "My Uncle was an American; but he was one of the lucky ones.  He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter Presidency." -- Hillary Flammond ("Top Secret" movie)
• "Already there are insidious influences working termite-like to destroy this basic principle of true democracy." -- David O. McKay
  

• "Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
• "All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." -- Sir Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister during WWII)
• "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -- Martin Luther King Jr. (Civil Rights Leader)
• "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." -- Ronald Reagan
  
• "I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison (American Founding Father and 4th President, Democrat)
  
• "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." -- Vladimir Lenin (First Soviet Premiere, and communist revolutionary)
• "To be turned from one's course by men's opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold an office." -- Quintas Fabius Maximus (Roman General)
• "What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler
• "But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." -- John Adams
• "I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -- John F. Kennedy
• "I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves." -- Ronald Reagan
• "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress." -- Mark Twain
  

Media and the So-called "Fairness Doctrine"

• "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." -- Harry S. Truman (33rd President, Democrat)
• "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." -- Thomas Jefferson
  

Religion, Atheism, and Government

• "A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -- C.S. Lewis (Author)
• "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other." -- John Adams
• "Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality." -- Carl Sagan
  
• "Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book..." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
• "In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born." -- Ronald Reagan
• "A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril." -- Sir Winston Churchill
• "Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
• "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." -- Carl Sagan
• "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.  He hath loosed the fatefull lightnight of his terrible, swift sword; His ruth is marching on.  He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgement seat.  Oh be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant my feet!  Our God is marching on.  In the beauty of the lillies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that transfigured you and me.  As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free, while God is marching on.  Glory, glory, hallelujah!  Glory, glory hallelujah!  Glory, glory, hallelujah!  His truth is marching on." -- Julia Ward Howe

Education and Intellectuals

• "An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
• "Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom." -- John Adams
• "Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement." -- C.S. Lewis
• "The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all." -- John F. Kennedy
• "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." -- Mark Twain
• "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience." -- George Washington (Revolutionary War General, First President)
• "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." -- Sir Winston Churchill
• "The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane." -- Nikola Tesla
• "Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain." -- John F. Kennedy
• "Congratulations, there is now a level zero." -- Master Shifu (Kung Fu Panda)
• On European Socialism... "I'm not European.  I don't plan on being European.  So who gives a crap if they're socialists?  They could be fascist anarchists, and it still doesn't change the fact that I don't own a car." -- Ferris Beuller
  

• "The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes." -- Harold B. Lee
• "Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
• "I always wanted a happy ending... Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity." -- Gilda Radner
• "The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children." -- King Edward VIII
• "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -- Bill Cosby
• "If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty.'" -- Jeff Foxworthy
• "I asked for a car, I got a computer.  How's that for being born under a bad sign?" -- Ferris Beuller
  

• "Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway." -- John Wayne
• "I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
• "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death." -- Patrick Henry
• "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." -- Alexander Hamilton
• "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." -- Sir Winston Churchill
• "Americans never quit" -- Douglas MacArthur
• "The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it." -- George Orwell
  
• "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." -- Ronald Reagan
• "Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you." -- Harry S. Truman
• "In war there is no substitute for victory. " -- Douglas MacArthur
• "Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "God gave us the gift of life. It is the most precious gift ever. To be unarmed is to be helpless to protect that gift; that is outright irresponsible." -- Ted Nugent
• "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
• "Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!  America!  America!  God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.  Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stress a throughfare of freedom beat across the wilderness!  America!  America!  God mend thine every flaw, confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.  Oh, beautiful for heros proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!  America!  America!  May God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine.  Oh, beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!  America!  America!  God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotrherhood from sea to shining sea." -- Katherine Lee Bates
• "Everyone has this most precious of all life's endowments-the gift of free agency -- man's inherited and inalienable right." -- David O. McKay
• "We have peace in our time" -- Neville Chamberlain (shortly before World War II broke out).  Ask him how well appeasement foreign policy went.
  

Environmentalism and So-called "Global Warming"

• "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." -- Mark Twain
• "Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense." -- Carl Sagan
• "Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality." -- Nikola Tesla
• "The evidence in support of these predictions [of global cooling] has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it." -- Newsweek 1975
• "The debate is over" -- Albert Gore Jr. (There never was a debate, just a consensus of 2500 scientists in need of government funding, when 37500 other scientists with contrary opinions and findings offered to debate, the 2500 refused.)
• "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it." -- Master Oogway (Kung Fu Panda)
• "The greatest loser in any argument is the one who's argument is so weak, that their only response is to attempt silence the opposition." -- SuperSparky

Believe it or not, I had to really shorten this list.  With wisdom, comes volumes of understanding and in just a few words.  Wisdom cuts to the bone.  It says it like it is and is not politically correct.  I found the wisdom of some, who'd you never expect, be the most profound.

We cannot forget the past if we hope to survive the future.  Remember, "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." -- John Wayne

This article is sort of a "I really should have written about this in the other article" type thing.

Somehow I just couldn't get this topic out of my head.  Perhaps it was viewing the History Channel recently, and their fetish with constantly misunderstanding or misrepresenting Christian (and Jewish) beliefs about the Earth and its history.

Here are some myths I typically hear from "experts".

The Earth Is The Center of The Universe Myth

The first thing I want to write about is the so-called "Christians believe the Earth is the center of the universe" myth.  Granted, there were many arrogant weasels in the dark ages that loved to think of themselves that way, and even enforced it as so-called "doctrine", but it's not something Jesus nor his Apostles ever taught.  It was not taught by Moses either.  Granted, the people of the Earth and God are the only topics in the scriptures, but the Earth is not mentioned as being exclusive, nor the center of the Universe.

I'd like to side-step a moment before I continue with this, and remind those that have actually read the Bible, about Jesus' number one pet peeve he always had with the Jewish powers that be (usually the Pharisees).  Jesus spoke of the Mosaic law, as it is written (and given by him before his birth mind you, so he is an expert), and the ridiculous additions people would add on to it.  Things like limiting the distance you can walk on the Sabbath, or eating corn from the stalk while walking through a corn field on the Sabbath, or healing on the Sabbath, or saving your ox on the Sabbath, etc. etc.  Jesus emphasized the Sabbath was made for the good of man and not simply as a limitation on every seventh day.  Point?  Man loves to fill in non-existent blanks with their own stupid rules and so-called dogma, usually out of ignorance, but also for power.

OK, back to the topic at hand.  The "Earth is the center of the universe" is a man-made dogma that has no origins nor basis in the scriptures.  The "Earth-centric" beliefs started from ignorance and molded into doctrine as many things did at the time of Jesus.  The account of Earth's organization in the book of Genesis, speaks of the Earth, but it doesn't say everything revolves around it.  The only thing we can say is that the teachings in the books in the Bible are all written to the people of the Earth and nothing more.  Anything else is guessing and conjecture.

The "Earth-centric" belief is a tradition that has damaged Christianity far too much in history, and it has to stop.

The Earth Is 6000 Years Old (give or take a few) Myth

OK, I want people to remember part one of this article, and Moses' account of the organization of the Earth, before jumping down my throat.  This is one of those misunderstood issues with the Earth simply perpetuated from the use of "create" in the Bible instead of "organize", a translation error.  It's amazing how a poor translation can create so much confusion with just one word!  I have some things for you to think about:

1. The materials used to organize the Earth and where they came from is not covered, nevertheless, God commanded materials be brought together to form the solar system and everything needed to support man on Earth.  How old those materials are is unimportant, but can cause confusion.
2. It is written in Genesis that this organization took six periods of time to complete.  This is translated as "days", but could have just as easily been translated as months, years, centuries, etc.  It was a vague phrase denoting periods of time.  The translators chose "days".  Frankly, I have no problem with 6000 years ("a day to God is a 1000 years to us," look it up), but it's not important if it really was a day or not.
   
3. The Garden of Eden is a specific place on the Earth, not the whole Earth, and nowhere does it say how long Adam and Eve lived in that Garden before they were tossed out.  It could have been millions of years, or week.  We don't know.  We do know that, in the Garden, everything was preserved and unchanging, but we know nothing of what went on outside the garden while Adam and Eve were in it.  This leaves a large question mark on the "after organization" age of the Earth that wasn't part of the Garden of Eden.
4. The Garden of Eden was in Africa, or the Middle East or wherever.  Listen, everyone seems to forget one very important thing in the Bible.  There was this big flood, and everyone, but Noah and his family, were killed in it.  Water has currents, it flows quite easily.  Sure, it rained 40 days and nights, and I'm sure a lot of other things happened to contribute to the deluge (ice caps?), but we know the Earth was a veritable Water World for a time.  I'd say it was a VERY LONG TIME before the ark could land on land, and I'm sure the ark had food as well as animals to cover it.  Nevertheless, they could have started anywhere on Earth and landed anywhere on Earth.  Like most people, they named things after the old things ("New" York, "New" Hampshire, etc.) so their naming of rivers where they ended up gives no credence to where the Garden was originally.  Just because there's a river called "Sidon", doesn't mean it's THE "Sidon" mentioned in relation to the Garden of Eden.  For all we know Noah and Adam could have lived in Australia or the Americas for that matter, and there was the Garden's place.  So using existing landmarks to "place" the Garden of Eden is a fruitless endeavor.  You can travel pretty far drifting in a boat.
5. Dinosaurs.  Of all the rediculous "fill in the blanks" stories I have heard from so-called "Christian Scholars" about the Dinosaurs.  They even peddle this BS on young children claiming Jesus road Dinosaurs!  Please, please, please, stop making Christians look like comeplete idiotic nutjobs with this Dinosaur BS!  Please refer to #3 above and then re-think about what might have happened to the Dinosaurs.  The fact is, they are not mentioned in the Bible ANYWHERE.  So stop making up stories about them.  There are many logical and reasonable possibilities for them and none go contrary to teachings in the Bible.  God has a good reason to keep that knowledge from us and I can live with that.

If UFO's and Aliens Were Found to be a Truth, Then It Would Rock The Foundations of Religion!  Myth

Oh please help me to stop laughing about this one!  So, you mean that to find proof that the Earth isn't the center of the universe, and that God has other creations as infinite as the stars, is supposed to be some sort of threat to religion?  The only threats I see are to the false dogma's perpetuated by some religions that the Earth is God's only unique location for life.  It would just mean that the reality of God's intelligence is far superior to that of even man's imagination.

Why would God bother with all of the trillions and trillions of galaxies and stars unless his plans far exceeded mesely (and arrogant) Earth?  While I do believe the Earth has a special purpose, I do not believe it is exclusive in the universe for life.

Technology Is Evil!  Myth

This is another myth I cannot help but laugh at the blind stupidity of some that feel this way.  Everything on Earth has dual uses.  It can either be a tool for good or a tool for evil.  It doesn't matter what the tool.

God made us stewards over this planet and gave us the materials to better our lives.  Every natural resource is a gift and for our responsible use.  Every animal, every tree, every plant, all oil, coal, water, wind, gases, solids, metals, etc. were put here for our responsible use.  To claim they are evil and shun them is frankly, in my opinion, a slap to the face of God.  God taught us that everything must be done responsibly and in moderation applies to the Earth.

• Is it OK to use oil?  Of course, why would God put so much of it in the ground, unless he knew we were going to need it?  Does that mean to use it irresponsibly and create a mess of things?  No, but it does mean God gave us oil to use.  Remember, everything can be used for good and for evil, and oil falls under this.  Pump oil, but be careful not to make a mess.  Burn its byproducts, but make sure you don't cause harm to people and the other resources of Earth.  Be smart about it.
• Is it OK to cut down trees?  Of course, just make sure you replace what you took so there's more for the next generation.  Going overboard with clear clutting isn't being responsible stewards, but neither is ignoring the resource that is there for our use.
• What about animals and eating meat?  To all of my vegan friends out there, God said to eat meat is OK, and necessary, but only if it is done responsibly and sparingly.  Having a steak for three meals a day would be gluttonous, but having a steak for dinner isn't wrong at all.  Meat is great for keeping the body warm and is high in protein.  Nevertheless, there are many more fruits and vegies than meat.  Try eating more of them.  That's what they are here for!
• Computers, are probably God's best tool for spreading truth and knowledge to the world, unfortunately, it's also good for evil uses as well.  Like everything God has given us, we need to show responsibility when using it.
• Nuclear power is also God's gift.  It's one of the most powerful for good use, and most dangerous for evil use.  Just because evil can exploit it, doesn't mean it is evil.  The amount of energy that can be extracted from nuclear material is absolutely amazing.  God expects us to use it wisely, not ignore it, or cowar in fear of it.
  

Technology is a gift from God, and should be treated as such.  Like every gift, it can be misused, so responsibility is required for its use.'

"Stupid-stitions"

Every society and culture has their superstitions.  Superstitions have no place in science nor Christianity, yet I see Christians everywhere that have sailed off the deep end with their superstitions (or "Stupid-stitions as I calll them), which have no basis in fact nor scripture.  It's a form of "fear gossip."

• "Bar-codes are the mark of the beast!!"  Um folks, get a grip.  Bar codes make everyone's life easier, especially stockers and cashiers, and weren't designed to be tatooed on anyone's forehead.  Get a grip!  A bar code is a technology that makes it easy for computers to read important information off of a label.  That's it, no need to type it, just use a laser scanner to find out what it is.  That's efficient, not evil.
• "Everything with 666 on it is evil and I'm going to die!!!  Ahhh!!!"  I remember working for a small electronics store, and there was this highly stupid-stitous lady that would always come in to buy parts.  If any total (sub-total, tax, total, etc.) had "666" in it, she'd panic and add something else to the price or ask to have split receipts made up just so that number would not be in the total.  Soon, all of my fellow employees would have fun with this lady and adjust the totals so something always would give 666 in it (always discounting by the way, although it didn't matter, she would pay with the totals that way).  Sometimes it was worth the few cents out of our pockets to balance the till just to have some fun.  It's just a number folks, get over it.  If someone wants to implant or print something on your forehead, then I would start to be concerned.
• "I saw Jesus or Mary on my toast / cat / tree / puddle of mud / as a shadow on a wall / cloud in the sky / stain on my bathtub etc."  Cool optical illusion, but not a miracle.  God rarely, if ever, does blatant miracles (parting the Red Sea, etc).  Usually God is subtle and everything he does is useful and has a purpose.  Nothing, and I mean nothing is ever for "show".  Even Elijah's exploits all had their important purposes.  Jesus on a piece of toast is just plain stupid.  Yes, God does miracles every day, but he's not wasting his time on toast.
  
• "Witches!!  Stories about (make believe) magic are evil!  Burn them!  Burn them!!!"  Get a grip people!  I mean get a grip!  Yes, magic, the kind designed to deceive and mimic God's miracles is evil in that context.  However, that does not make the entertainment art of "magic" evil, nor does it mean Harry Potter(tm) is evil.  Get a grip people!  God gave us imaginations and encouraged us to develop our minds, grow in understanding and learning, and tell each other stories, put on performances, etc. for entertainment.  A children's book about make believe lands full of mystical creatures and with "magic" powers and such isn't evil.  It's developing the child's mind to be able to be creative and find unique ways to handle problems in their real lives.  It allows them to see even make believe is a place with real problems and smart solutions.  Make believe is a training ground for real world responsibility and creativity.  I do not believe modern technology could have happened if the inventors of the past hadn't read the fanciful books of all types of imaginative authors from science fiction to magical fantasy.  God expects a parent to ground a child in reality so they know the difference between real and pretend, expects them to teach a child right and wrong, so a child's journey into make-believe is healthy and safe.  Be an active part of your child's life and video games, books, TV, and movies will never hurt them.

Misunderstandings

Ah yes, the inevitable misunderstandings.  Some mostly brought on by paranoia, or cultural taboos and traditions.

• "Polygamy is evil!"  Um...yes and no.  Once again, I urge you to read your Bible.  Like all things, both physical and spiritual, evil can conterfeit it or use it for its own purposes.  Sure, we read about David and Soloman and their wives etc, but I'm not going to actually talk about them.  To understand them you need to understand Abraham, God's friend.  Yes, God called him a friend.  This has a lot of deep meaning.  Nevertheless, not directly related to the issue, but a means of showing Abraham's integrity, honesty, and strength.  God promised Abraham a son and (seed "as the sands on the seashore", or lots of descendants), and Abraham had a wife (Sarah) that couldn't bare children.  If you carefully read the account of Abraham, there are certain truths you learn about God's law and marriage:

1. Sarah offered Hagar, her servant, to be the means of Abraham "raising up seed".  She, being the first wife, consented to a second wife.
2. Like any decent and honest man in that position, Abraham got scared and asked God about it.  Abraham was God's friend and had integrity, and loved his wife.  He thought he couldn't satisfy love and integrity in this situation.  He was stuck, and asked God what to do about it.  God gave him permission and commanded him to do as his wife asked.

So what have we learned about polygamy so far?

1. God uses it sometimes to "raise up seed".
2. The first wife must consent to it.
3. God must command it and approve of it.

Without these three criteria, polygamy turns into evil's conterfeit, a counterfeit of deceit and perversion, an abomination towards God.  Without those conditions, monogamy is the rule, period.

So, God gave Solomon and David permission for their wives (initially).  By the way, the difference between a concubine and wife is, all are "married" to the king, but only children of "wives" can inherit the throne.  Which is why Isaac got the inheritance from Abraham and not Ishmael.  Hagar was a "concubine" and Sarah was the wife, yet both were married to Abraham.

End of Revelation

I mean the means where by God communicates to man.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say God is done with Prophets and inspired men.  Recognizing who is a real prophet and who is a wolf in sheep's clothing is our responsibility.  People never listened to the prophets of the past and ridiculed and stoned them for their message.  What makes you think that isn't happening today?

I don't believe God ever leaves us alone to fend for ourselves.  He's always inspired people to do his work.  Want to know how to spot a fraud?  Simple, read James 1 and Galatians 5.  Paul tells us how to recognize spiritual truth and James tells us how to verify it.  If someone is preaching and not displaying the attributes of the Holy Spirit that Paul teaches about, then it isn't from God.  If they are screaming and yelling, are bitter and hateful etc, then God isn't inspiring them, nor is their message coming from God.

The Book of Revelation's "warning" as a lame excuse or argument for the end of prophets.  The Book of Revelation is a single book among many in a collective volume or library of books called the Bible.  In fact, the Book of Revelation was written long before many of the books in the New Testament.  If John's warning in Chapter 22:18-19 was to mean all accounts, books and writings from God, then we would have to throw away most of the New Testament.  The words "...If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." were written to mean the words written in the Book of Revelation, and not all scripture in general.  John meant to not change the account of the vision he saw about the end of the world.  Nobody is supposed to change the words or add to them (although it's obvious someone in the past has) of the account of the vision.  Common sense people!  The books in the Bible are not in the order that they were written.

Conclusion

I hope to finally put this topic to rest, at least for myself.  My next article will most likely be political.

I truly know there is a God, and he is our father.  He sent us, his literal children to Earth to learn, grow, and be tested.  Part of this test involves us choosing right and wrong, learning good and bad, seeing good and evil, knowing joy and misery.  Seeing and experiencing the opposites so we gain in wisdom and intelligence and make the right choices.  God sent us his most obedient son, our big brother, Jesus, to satisfy two eternal laws that were impossible to satisfy on their own, and kept us from returning to God.  That was "Justice" and "Mercy".  Being without sin, Jesus satisfied justice for our sins, which prevents us from returning to God, and he satisfied Mercy for us in the same action.  This was Jesus' most important purpose, and shows perfect love for doing so.

I know this to be true.  It makes logical sense to me.  The universe makes sense with the piece of the puzzle.  Knowing there is a God is quite comforting, and knowing he has a grand plan for me, makes it all that more exciting to live.  I am so thankful for my right to make my own choices in life, and a country that also gives me those rights to make them.

Christianity isn't about telling people on street-corners they are going to go to hell.  That's not what Jesus taught us.  Jesus taught us to be and act like him to the best of their ability.  To treat everyone with love and kindness, not hatred and vitriol.  It is not our position to tell someone they are going to hell, that judgement is reserved for Jesus Christ himself.  We, however, are expected to teach by example and show what is right, and let the individual choose in peace.  The parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told has so many meanings in this area, that it would take another article to explain it.  I'll leave that for another day.

Science, pure science, the truth, comes from God and proves God's existence.  Some scientists my deny that fact by showing a blind eye to the obvious, but that doesn't change the facts.  Some Christian's so-called explanations for things not told to us need to stop.  Seriously, Jesus riding dinosaurs?!  Give me a break!

There is a bizarre and disturbing war of misunderstandings going on between science and those claiming to be Christians.  Oddly enough, there are those on both sides that claim the universe just "popped" into existence, although by completely different methods.  I am amused at the whole situation.

Here's the scenario:

Science:

The universe began as an infinitely small singularity of infinitely large mass that suddenly exploded and created the matter of the universe, which eventually became solar systems, galaxies, clusters and super-clusters of today.  What they don't say is why (or how) it exploded, how the singularity got there, and how the singularity was formed.

Everything you see is by sheer accident and purely random choice of happenstance, no intelligence involved.

Man and the animal kingdom evolved from a chemical soup, or came from a comet, or [insert newest theory here].  Evolution is the rule.

Much of Christianity:

God, an intelligent being that's everywhere and nowhere without substance etc., but loves us all, decided to say a few words and magically the universe appeared at his mere words.

Man and the animals appeared at God's mere words as well, and have always been as we see them now.

The beauty and grandeur of everything supports intelligence.

----------------

Now, with that said, I can see why those on either side of the aisle can think the other one is completely nuts.  From a scientific point of view, a scientist sees the mainstream Christian view as an energy creature straight out of Star Trek, that can change shape and form, with mystical magic powers said an enchantment and waved his wand, made everything appear, and decided to sight see as Jesus and tell everyone he can save them.  That, with a few exceptions, is an atheist's point of view of the mainstream Christian.

Who's fault is this?  It's (here come the flames) modern Christianity's fault.

Before I go on, I must say that I am Christian, and I belong to a church that is Christian.  However, since this article is based on my opinion, I'd prefer to keep the name of this church silent.

Christianity has been around for nearly 2000 years.  In this time, you have to be an idiot if you think that some of the words of the prophets, apostles, and Jesus himself haven't been lost or corrupted over this time.  I do know the things the prophets and apostles wrote about were true as they were written by their own hand.  However, politics, desire for power and human error (as there were no copy machines) have resulted in these writings either going missing, missing key and important information, been purposefully changed by one desiring power, and even simply having the real meanings getting lost in translation after translation and copy after copy.

First, a little lesson.  For many centuries after Jesus and his apostles, the various churches (sorry, but "Catholic" wasn't the only one, it just was the biggest) used hand written copies of the writings of these men.  Many were copies of copies of copies.  Some were abridgments, and some were commentaries of the originals.  Each church had a library and each Parrish could only store a small amount and so the priests usually had their favorites they would preach from, and only they were allowed to read them (odd, since Jesus preached to everyone, not just his Apostles).  This was too cumbersome to have all of these scrolls and books around, so it was decided to come up with a standard canon or library all parishes would have and be able to preach from.  It was also decided that this library would be small enough to just be bound into one volume.  Incidentally, that Latin for "Library" is "biblia", which is where we get the word "Bible".  So, a bunch of self-righteous, lazy, and uninspired bone-heads decided to ditch the vast library of religious knowledge they had access to, and only put their favorite parts into a small book and call it the "Library" or "Bible".  Eventually, the other books either rotted away or were just simply lost to history.

So, here we have the Bible.  It's based upon writings that were inspired by God and written by holy men, but it has gone through the careless filter of ignorant, power hungry, and careless men to become the volume it is today.  This is why there is so much confusion.

Then add on to the top of that the various "creeds" by, certainly, uninspired men.  Yes, the creeds, all founded by committee and not all members of these committees were all Christians.  Some had pagan members.  These creeds were designed to stop the bickering and fighting between churches, and were ordered by the sovereign (and not allowed to leave until a consensus was made).  So, the best they could come up with was that God was a big mysterious "nothing" that was everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and manifested itself in three different forms (Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit).  This is God being formed by committee.  It's also total BS.

Now, back to the universe...

Christianity and science could co-exist if both parties really knew what the other was REALLY talking about.  For example, there is no word "create" in Hebrew.  The word "QaNeh" is usually translated to "create".  The Hebrew "QaNeh" means "to build a nest", the English word originates from the Latin word "creat" which means "to bring into existence".  OK, we have a problem here.

To a Hebrew (from which we get the "creation" account in the Old Testament), the word "create" is an abstract concept, and nothing in the Hebrew language can translate to "create" or "creation", or even "creator".  In fact "organize", "organization", and "organizer" would have been better words.  Many Christians see God as a being that makes something appear out of nothing, this is incorrect.  It is not what Moses wrote down, nor told his children.  The Hebrews saw God (metaphorically) like a "bird" who goes about acquiring and gathering materials to build a nest, and saw man as the "eggs" he was building the nest for.   This something out of nothing is an incorrect and recent concept.  It is not "Biblical" as many would claim.

If you carefully read the account in Genesis (that Moses wrote) you will notice that if you replace the words "create" (and all similar) with "organize", your perspective changes.  Oddly enough, what Moses describes can't be much different than what we hear on the Science Channel.

God is the master of delegation.  Choosing prophets, apostles, etc. proves this.  Like a foreman on a construction site that gets credit for it and is responsible for it, God is the same with how this Earth was organized.  This is why God has angels etc.  This is how he can seem to be everywhere at once.  He has servants (angels) everywhere.

Let's see, Moses says "the Earth was without form".  A sounds like the solar system is just one big pile of supernovae rocks and hydrogen gas.  A pretty dark place.

So when God says "Let there be light".  He's giving an instruction on organizing the materials necessary to form the solar system.  What is the first thing that happens in solar system formation?  Why, I do declare, a star is formed by a quick collapse of hydrogen into a gas ball supporting nuclear fusion which gives off light.

"Let there be a firmament" and so on sounds like gathering debris to form a planet with an atmosphere, a "firmament".

Then we see water and dry land forming.  Once it was ready, here come the plants.  Let's see now, my own practical mind says God commanded his servants to plant seeds.  Does Moses say where they came from?  Nope, but I'd venture to guess there has been seeds and plants for many eternities.

Then we learn that sea life was placed here first.  Moses doesn't say how, but I'm sure it's the same way we would bring fish to another planet should we travel there.  Yes, I believe the animal life was brought here, and has always existed throughout eternity.

Next comes the land animals, I believe placed here as well.

All these things were done at God's word.  Not by "magic" or "poof!", but by servants obeying a command.

Before I continue, let my scientific friends consider their "accident" or "random" theory for a moment.  Consider the following:

• Sol, our sun is of a relatively small and stable form of star.  Anything any larger or smaller would make life nearly impossible either through heavy radiation, or pulsing or irregular output.  It's also an unusual star.  It's stability is not the norm.
  
• The distance from Sol to the Earth is pretty specific for our radiation dose and temperate climate.  Any closer and we fry, and any further we'd freeze.
• The orbits of the planets, although technically elliptical, are all perfectly stable and almost circular.  Very friendly for stable seasons and climate on the Earth.  In fact, these almost circular orbits seem to not be the norm, according to recent observations.
• The positions of the planets is very unique.  Our gas giants are on the outside, very far away, and in stable orbits.  Observations so far (and computer models) show gas giants migrate to their repsective stars to be consumed, and usually are in wild heavily elliptical orbits, thus swallowing any rocky planets.
  
• Our gas giants are organized in order of size, with the biggest being closest to Earth.  This makes for an excellent "first strike" cleaning system of rocks (asteroids) and other debris from striking the Earth.
• Our moon is way too large to have been captured and the proto-earth (Earth MKI) theory has many holes in it.  Yet it's there.  It stabilizes the Earth's spin, and slows it to 24 hours.  It keeps it tilted to allow for seasons.  It exerts a gravitational pull resulting in tides and ocean currents and weather patterns.  The ocean currents, which keep the climate stable and the UK moderate, among other places.  Air currents that clean and circulate the air which feeds the plants CO2 which gives us oxygen.  All of this from the moon, which is very large for its planet and in a nearly perfect circular orbit.
• The Earth's magnetic field.  This field keeps us from cooking from the sun's radiation, and the atmosphere does the rest.  It's very hard to find any rocky planet with a magnetic field.  Only the gas giants usually have them.  Ours is tremendously strong for the planet's size, as well.  The large Moon's tidal forces help contribute to this.
  
• The Earth itself.  The configuration of the continents allows for ocean currents which temper the climate and keep the oceans not too warm and not too cool, thus supporting life.  Plate tectonics, to allow for stabilizing of the Earth's internal heat, which fuels the magnetic field.  Which also turns everything combined into one giant temperature stabilizer.
• Natural resources.  My goodness, all of the liquid and solid based resources to help us better our lives.  None of the other planetoids have such a diverse number of resources.  Obviously this was set aside for man to use.
• The perfect order of it all.  Plants, to form oxygen and the nourish the Earth.  Animals, to eat the plants and earth, to release CO2 for the plants to turn into oxygen.  Rivers, to feed all of them.  Rain, to form the rivers.  Oceans to collect and process the natural wastes and supply the rain.  Storms, to cleans the ground; natural fires, to renew the earth to give new places for things to grow.  The beauty of the plants, and the mountains, all for their own vital purposes.  Everything wreaks of intelligence behind it.  Thousands of perfectly happening "accidents" is no accident.
• Then there's the position of the solar system.  It's in a relatively "safe" place of the Milky Way Galaxy.  Out in the proverbial suburbs, if you will.  Away from the supernovae, gamma ray bursts, and other dangers the universe has to offer.  A place where our sun's own magnetosphere has the strength to protect us from everyday galaxy weather.
  

OK, now finally we have man.  Notice how God, the Father, himself does this step.  We really don't know how, and frankly it's not important to me right now.  Nevertheless, the specifics of man being formed is that God made man in "his own image".  How hard is that for people to understand and grasp?  God made us to look like him!  So, is God a mysterious nothingness that is both everywhere and nowhere?  No, of course not.  God "looks" just like us.  Although I'd venture to say in a more perfect form.  Jesus tried telling that to his disciples many times.  He said he was the "spittin' image of his father" (paraphrasing obviously).  Gee, that means his father looked like him.  Wait a minute, his father was someone else.  So when Jesus says he and his father are "one" that certainly means they have one purpose or think alike, where the heck a bunch of dark-aged boneheaded idiots thought he meant they were the same being is beyond me.  It's one of the truths about God that was not lost to history in the Bible.  Heck, the account of the baptism of Jesus plainly says God the Father is one individual, Jesus is another, and the Holy Spirit is a third individual.  When Apostles say they had visions seeing Jesus on the right-hand of God, they didn't see a guy standing on his own right hand.  They saw a father and his son standing next to him.

This brings meaning to us as God's children.  This means we literally are his children.  Get over it.  Yes, humans are special and distinct from the animal kingdom.  It's why God gave us dominion over everything in and on the Earth.  There's a good reason why we are here.  When Jesus says "everything in my kingdom is yours" you may want to consider the vast aspects of that incredible promise.  Eternal life is different than immortality.  God and Jesus are eternal.  Just think about what that means.

My scientific friends.  The rules of God are quite literally perfect science.  Everything makes sense, has order, and is always in complete conformity with the rules of true science.  Unfortunately for Earth science, they don't know everything.  If they did, they would be God.  There are obviously higher laws that govern the behavior of the lower ones.  We on Earth only see the lower laws, and that's part of the plan.

Now my Christian friends.  You can't go to a university or seminary to learn about what the scriptures mean.  Nor can you trust a bunch of angry men's compromise theory of the nature of God either.  Such knowledge is taught through carefull and prayerful study.  How do we know this?  This very question was asked of James, an Apostle and Jesus' half brother.  James 1:2-6 basically says to not just take a book's or man's word for truth (sometimes called "blind faith" or fanaticism).  James says God loves to give knowledge to those who sincerely seek it, and NEVER chews them out for asking ("Upbraideth not" means he won't be angry with you for asking).  If you ask and expect to really receive an answer, then you will receive an answer.  What he was basically saying was study hard, and think it out in your mind first, and when you come to an impasse or a point to where the "need to know" needs to come before further action is taken, then that's the time to sincerely, humbly, and patiently ask God, expecting an answer.  You will receive that answer.

To a scientist that isn't the "scientific method".  However, if God does exist, and God does personally answer heartfelt and sincere prayers for knowledge, then this answer must be so obvious and personal that it cannot be denied as to its origin, thus proving it sufficiently enough for the individual.  This is the method God has given us to find out what is true and what is a lie.  Who do you trust and who do you mistrust?

Many Chrstians misunderstand how to pray and its purpose, which is the main reason why atheists misunderstand and are scared of the prospect of a supernatural being controlling someone's life.  First of all, God gave us brains and an intelligence of our own to think for ourselves.  He gave us Prophets and Apostles to write about how to live and treat each other.  God expects us to know these things.  God also expects us to educate ourselves as much as possible about the topic at hand.  He expects us to study out a problem in our minds, come to a conclusion or choice, and then ask God if this is the right choice.  Prayers of "tell me what to do" in most instances will get you the answer "see if you can figure it out first".  God put us here to have us make choices and have the freedom to make good and bad choices.  This is how we learn.  Asking God to tell you what to do about each and every aspect of life is not his desire, nor plan, and frankly you'll find yourself no better off.  Want to pass a test?  Good, then study hard and ask God to help you remember.  Asking God to give those, that didn't study, the answers, won't work.

God's a "fill in the blanks" God, not a "spoil the rotten lazy child" God.

So how does all of this fit with "Intelligent Design?"  It's very simple.  Science is blind to all of the perfection and intelligence around them.  Each single one they claim is accidental or random.  Yet as a whole it's an amazingly perfect collection of random accidents to come together so perfectly to be so mathematically unlikely that the odds of even ONE thing happening (like the large moon and small earth coming together) is so remote, that the odds favor an explosion in a print factory to accidentally form the dictionary from the resulting debris.  Combine all of the "accidents" odds together and you get an astronomically large number that represents more than the total number of atoms in the universe (to one) odds of everything on the earth happening as it did.

Those of science just open your eyes, there's evidence of intelligence everywhere.  Those of Christianity, pull your head out and actually learn the truth about what you are supposed to believe and share with others.  Stop basing your beliefs on the uninspired and committee born creeds of the dark ages, and just read and learn from the scriptures as they were intended to be learned.

Both science and Christianity will actually find that they are quite similar and that true science and true Christianity has an eventual convergence.