Looks like I’m back. I read recently that you shouldn’t tell people what you plan on doing because what you are planning won’t happen. So I am posting this as a notification of an update to the back end as well as a kind of preface to a few posts that I am working on.
Interesting things that have happened this past week:
An argument between Lord Sacks and Stephen Hawking was reignited. Did God create the universe? Each man arguing vehemently for their faith in their beliefs. Hawking believing in the scientific evidence, Sacks looking to his faith in religion. Articles spawned up each day for the rest of the week asking, what I think are very important questions. In the very least the topic finding a place in the national media spurred discussion. I am particularly attracted to the philosophical questions that much of the current scientific evidence regarding astronomy lead to.
This comes as religious tensions across the globe are high and election season is hot. The aim of the media is to focus on the minority of zealots and the misinformed. The differences between Islam and Christianity–West and East–are being scrutinized. The mosque being built near where the World Trade Center once stood has inflamed an already mounting social struggle. Sensationalized news articles ask seemingly probing questions like, “where do American Muslims go?” and “where do Muslims fit in American society?” all because of a resurgent cache of bigoted know nothings.
The timing really is amazing for all of these lines of separate events to be intersecting the way they are. But, nothing is coincidence. The so called end to combat operations in Iraq as well as a conservative march on Washington marking the puberty of a new political movement that still doesn’t know what it stands for. Talking points circulate around the Tea Party camp but no real motivation for change other than hefty support for the pundits and entertainers that lead them.
Thanks to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and their zombie followers, there are those that again must rehash what should be a deceased argument. Some believe that the US was founded as a christian nation. This discussion is tiresome and the seriously erroneous opinion has been refuted by, most notably, the Treaty of Tripoli and various other documents that outline the intention of the separation of church and state as well as the intention of the founders.
The problem is further escalated by a Floridan pastor who is calling for an “International Koran Burning Day.” Two wrongs have never made a right and in this particular case, it is a horrible time to start burning books publicly. Asking profiled people in Arizona to show their papers and burning books in an Old Testament, eye for an eye mentality is asking for trouble. Someone did point out to me, however, that this is simply a part of the public debate and that, in his opinion, protests such as this do not harm either side of the issue. As a political debate this issue can be solved within that framework but the warnings from Patraeus do seem prudent. After all, the printing of cartoons that some found offensive did lead to violence.
What a strange political system we have created in this country. The new century has watched the US’s image fail beneath inflated egos and stock options. This feral beast is a corporate theocracy. Word of mouth is out of control.
The focus of the collective consciousness is on existence, religion and faith:
Are We Living in a Designer Universe?
Imam Breaks Silence
Move the New York City mosque, as a sign of unity
Judge Blocks Arizona’s Immigration Law
American Soldiers Killed in Iraq
Condemnation of Koran Burning
The Treaty of Tripoli (Article 11)
