It seems to me that our President is trying to get out of hot water with a little sleight of hand on the contraception issue. The original rule said religiously affiliated employers must provide full contraception coverage. Obviously this didn't sit well with Catholic leadership (though the average woman in the pew could care less since most of them used some form of contraception regardless of what the church said).
The new rule says that insurers (not the employer) must offer free coverage to women working at religiously affiliated institutions. Just where, exactly, are the insurance companies going to get the money to provide this "free" coverage? Might they raise the cost of insurance (in which case, isn't the employer still paying for it)? Might the government pay them, in which case the money comes from the taxpayers, which for the most part are the employees, so it's not really "free".
I don't get it. The original rule said the employer had to provide the coverage, it didn't say that women had to take advantage of it! Apparently, the bishops don't trust their female parishioners to follow their made-up rules without financial consequences.
Showing posts with label religion god. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion god. Show all posts
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Bill Maher: ‘Atheism is a Religion Like Abstinence is a Sex Position’
This is just too good to not share:
Monday, November 14, 2011
Isn't there a fine line between.........
Isn't there a fine line between someone who hears voices in his head and acts on them (e.g. a psychotic) and someone who hears voices in his head and acts on them (e.g. a presidential candidate who does it because "God told me to")? Do we want someone as president who makes decisions based on some unseen, non-accountable, supernatural being or based on sound, reasonable, informed judgement?
Hang it up Mr. Cain.
Hang it up Mr. Cain.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Where Are The Candidates That Represent Most Americans?
It is a foregone conclusion that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President in 2012. Like him or not, the opposition is a bunch of bible thumping right wing ideologues that pander to the money of several key groups and represent an ideology that says god and business rule.
I'm sorry my friends, god only exists in whatever ideology people make up and business is only interested in turning a profit. Neither act in the best interest of the general population.
Where are the politicians who represent the mainstream "middle earth" people who just want a peaceful, prosperous society where we seek some middle ground between the extremes of liberal and conservative.
I think it's time for an INDEPENDENT to emerge that will strike a chord with the majority of Americans regardless of political affiliation. If that person can overcome the enormous disadvantage of election financing (also known as buying the outcome), we might find ourselves on the road to recovery. In the meantime, prepare for absolute gridlock for the next year and a half.
I'm sorry my friends, god only exists in whatever ideology people make up and business is only interested in turning a profit. Neither act in the best interest of the general population.
Where are the politicians who represent the mainstream "middle earth" people who just want a peaceful, prosperous society where we seek some middle ground between the extremes of liberal and conservative.
I think it's time for an INDEPENDENT to emerge that will strike a chord with the majority of Americans regardless of political affiliation. If that person can overcome the enormous disadvantage of election financing (also known as buying the outcome), we might find ourselves on the road to recovery. In the meantime, prepare for absolute gridlock for the next year and a half.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
How Did We Get In This Economic Mess?
There has been a lot written over the past year about who is to blame for the economic distress we are experiencing. I would like to propose that GOD, whoever or whatever that is to most people, is to blame.
A peculiar aspect of our civilization is that we begin to indoctrinate our children in the belief of the god fairytale almost from birth . This indoctrination is primarily performed by someone on whom they are completely dependent, the parents. In all other cases, from Alice in Wonderland to The Wizard of Oz, we teach our children that they are just stories. Yet we teach them that the God Story is real, not imaginary, not a fable with a message.
There are two main effects of this. First, we teach our children that their senses and ability to reason are defective. Even though the concept of a supernatural god makes no sense, they are asked to suspend our disbelief and have "faith". Second, we teach them to place an inordinate amount of trust in the leadership of whatever religious organization we belong to.
There is a third, but more subtle issue as well. This is that, because of our early training, we are predisposed to ignore the facts when they do not correlate with what we want to believe. For example, if our religion says that the earth is less than 5000 years old, we look to our religious leaders to provide an explanation that twists the scientific facts around in totally irrational ways to show that the young earth claim is valid. And millions of people believe it! On the other hand, many religions simply change their dogma to be consistent with the science and millions of followers nod their heads and pray. Don't they realize that yesterday they were claiming that god told them the earth was created 5000 years ago? Did god change his mind? Did he make a mistake? Did the people interpreting "god's word" make a mistake? How many more mistakes are they preaching?
My point is that our training to ignore facts that aren't consistent with what we want to hear flows into other areas of our lives besides religion. We see a house that we really want. The facts are that it's over priced and it costs far more than we can afford. We are offered a variable rate mortgage with an initial payment that we can afford. What do we do? We ignore the "facts", just as we have been trained to do since birth, and we buy the house. Unfortunately, when the payment is adjusted 5 years down the road we can't afford it anymore.
Oh, so the banks are the bad guys for offering this low introductory rate. Remember, most of the bankers, from the clerks to the executives, have been indoctrinated the same way from birth. When the Rev. Rick Warren tells them that god wants them to be successful so they can give mega-bucks to the church, they take it to heart. So, the banker understands the fact that he is overextending credit, yet he sees himself becoming more "successful" and he is blinded to using reason and he reacts based on his early childhood indoctrination.
Until we begin the education of our children with a respect for understanding and reason rather than wishful thinking, we will continue to struggle with making decisions in a rational manner. I think most humans are intelligent enough to be able to think through fundamental day-to-day moral issues within the framework of the human species and the environment that surrounds us without the need for fabricated sacred stories that are interpreted by a special few.
Perhaps if we teach our children to think for themselves, they will become more responsible consumers and distributors of information and resources.
If you are one of the many who have doubts about your religion and are seeking a change, you might want to check out a Reasonable Alternative.
A peculiar aspect of our civilization is that we begin to indoctrinate our children in the belief of the god fairytale almost from birth . This indoctrination is primarily performed by someone on whom they are completely dependent, the parents. In all other cases, from Alice in Wonderland to The Wizard of Oz, we teach our children that they are just stories. Yet we teach them that the God Story is real, not imaginary, not a fable with a message.
There are two main effects of this. First, we teach our children that their senses and ability to reason are defective. Even though the concept of a supernatural god makes no sense, they are asked to suspend our disbelief and have "faith". Second, we teach them to place an inordinate amount of trust in the leadership of whatever religious organization we belong to.
There is a third, but more subtle issue as well. This is that, because of our early training, we are predisposed to ignore the facts when they do not correlate with what we want to believe. For example, if our religion says that the earth is less than 5000 years old, we look to our religious leaders to provide an explanation that twists the scientific facts around in totally irrational ways to show that the young earth claim is valid. And millions of people believe it! On the other hand, many religions simply change their dogma to be consistent with the science and millions of followers nod their heads and pray. Don't they realize that yesterday they were claiming that god told them the earth was created 5000 years ago? Did god change his mind? Did he make a mistake? Did the people interpreting "god's word" make a mistake? How many more mistakes are they preaching?
My point is that our training to ignore facts that aren't consistent with what we want to hear flows into other areas of our lives besides religion. We see a house that we really want. The facts are that it's over priced and it costs far more than we can afford. We are offered a variable rate mortgage with an initial payment that we can afford. What do we do? We ignore the "facts", just as we have been trained to do since birth, and we buy the house. Unfortunately, when the payment is adjusted 5 years down the road we can't afford it anymore.
Oh, so the banks are the bad guys for offering this low introductory rate. Remember, most of the bankers, from the clerks to the executives, have been indoctrinated the same way from birth. When the Rev. Rick Warren tells them that god wants them to be successful so they can give mega-bucks to the church, they take it to heart. So, the banker understands the fact that he is overextending credit, yet he sees himself becoming more "successful" and he is blinded to using reason and he reacts based on his early childhood indoctrination.
Until we begin the education of our children with a respect for understanding and reason rather than wishful thinking, we will continue to struggle with making decisions in a rational manner. I think most humans are intelligent enough to be able to think through fundamental day-to-day moral issues within the framework of the human species and the environment that surrounds us without the need for fabricated sacred stories that are interpreted by a special few.
Perhaps if we teach our children to think for themselves, they will become more responsible consumers and distributors of information and resources.
If you are one of the many who have doubts about your religion and are seeking a change, you might want to check out a Reasonable Alternative.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
