Thursday, August 15, 2013

The End of it All--Egypt, Fundamentalism, and You

Egypt now becomes the instructional mirror when religion -- any religion -- mixes with the state. It is a road map to conflict, death and perdition. Our Founding Fathers, I believe, knew and saw clearly history's toll of religion enmeshed with the state. They knew Europe's discord emanating from centuries of religious wars and the importance of the Constitution's separation clause to prevent that in the New World.

Religion fundamentalist and extreme will keep groups warring with each other and nation states warring against each other for decades even centuries as those in one religion think its religion owns the ultimate truth to the exclusion of all else. The issue, no matter where, is the merging of religion with the state and its guarantee to devolve that state into chaos.

The state must be free of the religious albatross keeping its jackboot of tyranny on a population's neck preventing it from the expansion of thought. The brain was meant to think and to use that thought to improve man's survival. Religion is responsible for keeping mankind and womankind down. Religious fundamentalist thought will be the rationale for the ultimate end of life itself as self-immolation becomes the norm seeking heaven's gate. Heaven's gate will not exist but the belief in it will unleash eternal war which ultimately will end it all.

Simple Complexity

I wrote a response to a blogger who commented on an MSNBC article entitled “Fan dies after plummeting 65 feet during Braves game at Turner Field” link here and below.  Some bloggers, as is their noxious habit, were inconceivably unfeeling, rude and crude discussing the fate of the unfortunate man.  Others, of course, were much more compassionate. It gave me pause to think on issues surrounding the fall and the human response to it:
Through the instantaneous and ubiquitous news media we are able to see in a nanosecond every nasty catastrophic piece of news. Train wrecks boost ratings. When networks report on disaster after disaster, shooting after shooting, and accident after accident it is, of course, all about money.  Media sells better with bad news than with good unless it shows two pandas rolling around like kids.
Some humans are uncaring, rude and crude but others are capable of great kindness and compassion.  The kindness and compassionate traits of man work toward survival of those that possess them.  The compassionate capability we in variation do possess is within the DNA of man's survival; translation: compassion works to keep us alive. Those who have it and possess the ability to work with others retain a superior capacity to survive the earth’s onslaughts.
Science is science -- physics is physics, chemistry is chemistry and biology is biology. The earth is governed by all of its laws.   Man’s survival, however, depends upon how man works with others to conquer a neutral planet's natural metamorphosis and the ability of him to overcome its forces that tend toward destruction. The planet has a natural ability to renew itself and man does too with an important addition.  Man must use his big brain to figure out how to overcome our planet's assaults since we are not endowed by nature with other physical attributes our animal cousins possess to accommodate earth’s physical offense.  We cannot run very fast, have no thick coat to protect from cold, no claws to climb trees or sharp teeth to kill.  What evolutionary advantage man does have is a big brain. It has created throughout man’s history the plethora of technical advances that ensure his survival better than any other mammal on earth.
Whatever happened to the man who fell IS a tragedy upon which we can contemplate, commiserate and even build an edifice to ensure it not happen again.  The height from which the man fell and the physical composition of his biological body dictated that he would not be capable of overcoming the earth’s gravitational force that sent him crashing onto a hard cement surface. Man’s bones, skull, brains and other organs succumbed to the laws of science which interrupted permanently the continuance of his life.
The laws of science -- biology, chemistry, and physics command the existence of life.  Man’s ability to offer compassion, sympathy and understanding assist in man’s own ability to survive.  Humans help another in trouble because it is advantageous for all of us to help.  Survival of the fittest is a truth.  Compassion, understanding and empathy are part of that truth and assist in no small way toward the evolutionary survival of man.  It is as simple and complex as that.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/12/19995616-fan-dies-after-plummeting-65-feet-during-braves-game-at-turner-field#comments

NOT ANYMORE

  I wrote this last week and for the most part sat on it because I did not want my writing to imply anything against Israel. As stated agai...