Subdivisions

What color are you?
What shade of that color?
What country are you from?
What part of that country?
What state?
What part of the state?
What city?
What part of the city?
What neighborhood?
What part of the neighborhood?
What street?
What school?
What religion?
What denomination?
What language do you speak?
What dialect?
Are you rural, urban or suburban?
What is your political affiliation?
Are you Liberal, Moderate or Conservative?
Rich, poor or middle class?
Upper middle class or lower?
Capitalist or socialist?
What genre of music do you listen to?
What sub-genre?
What is your favorite sport?
Your favorite team?
Your favorite player?
Are you Gay or straight?
Male or female?
Tall or short?
Fat or thin?
What brand of shoes do you wear?
Are your pants baggy enough for you to be judged as "keeping it real?"
Are you a jock or a nerd?
Goth or prep?
Virgin or not?
Long hair or short?
Do you think I've taken this far enough?
The truth is, I've only scratched the surface of the myriad ways we find to divide ourselves.
Fences or moats, it doesn't matter. Any division is an obstacle to progress for both sides. One can get so caught up in making sure that everyone else is locked out that they find themselves locked in.
United we stand. Divided...

Christians and E.T. What is the Mystery?

This post will sound two ways. First, it will sound like I am saying something, when in reality, I am asking something. Second, it is going to sound like I am picking on a specific group of people. I am not. I am merely accepting an undeniable reality and asking "why?" Although the idea of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe has been dismissed by some Atheists and Agnostics, the overwhelming majority of people who refuse to even acknowledge the possibility are Western, Christian Creationists. Here is where it gets weird for me. Of all the people I could think of to have a problem with the idea, the Creationists should be the last on the list. Oddly, they are first. I am going to explain why I believe it is strange that Creationists would be so vociferously set against the idea, as well as what I believe to be the cause of their vehement reluctance to even entertain the possibility.
Christianity teaches many things about God. There are two basic precepts to the Christian view of God that factor into this discussion. First, Christianity teaches that God is eternal. To the Christians, this not only means that God will live forever and never die but that he has ALWAYS existed, without Beginning. I know most people believe they can comprehend the notion of living forever into the future. I do not believe we can. I believe that we have convinced ourselves that we understand the depth and implications of the concept. More than that, I do not believe that the Human mind can fully comprehend the concept of always being. Can we really understand what it means to have no beginning? It is concepts such as this that make Faith a necessary part of belief in any Diety. Faith is a mechanism through which we can fill in the blanks left by a lack of facts, information or ability to intellectually understand a concept. For the purpose of this discussion, we will assume that this Faith is not misplaced and that God has indeed existed forever. If He has, what has he been doing with his time?
Christian tradition teaches that God created the Heavens and the Earth in six days. I know Mike Huckabee believes this to be a fact. I know he is not alone. From our perspective, "six days" means six 24 hour periods. That leaves God with an enormous amount of wasted time on His hands. Archaeology and Anthropology have proven, beyond question, that whether we evolved or were Created, Humans have existed on this planet for millions of years. The Earth itself has existed much longer than that. Even if you accept that the writer of Genesis was engaging in some literary liberties and that it took a lot longer than six of our days, say hundreds, thousands or even millions of years for God to create the Universe and everything in it, that still leaves billions of trillions of years of God's time unaccounted for. What was he doing for the 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years before that? Not to mention the 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years before that? Now do you understand what I mean about having no beginning? I could have put a 1 at the top of the page and filled the rest of the page with zeros and it would still only represent a microcosm of the time Christianity teaches us that God has already existed. What has a being with His awesome creative powers been doing all this time? He sat around for an eternity to finally get off His cosmic Duff and create, what, US? The experiment He tried here, (I say 'experiment' because the Bible teaches that the purpose of the Great Flood was to wipe out the mistake and start over) He never tried anywhere else in the Universe? If not, then what has He been doing with all His time? Trying to figure out why Britney Spears, Ben Stiller and David Caruso have careers?
The second teaching of Christianity that factors into this discussion is the idea that we were created in God's image. This belief has the effect of making a person feel special. Taken literally, it means we are nothing short of God-like. That is, in the mind of a Christian anyway, a very unique thing to be. It has long been held by Christians that Mankind represents the pinnacle of God's handiwork. That attitude (and this is where you all get pissed at me) has always seemed like an exercise in arrogance to me. To understand why I feel this way, look at where the idea came from. Thousands of years ago, some guy wrote down that God created us, He did it in six days and we were made in His image. None of us know this guy. We heard that he claimed to be inspired by God to write what he wrote. We have no way of knowing if he really did claim that or if he did, if the claim was true. THAT is what Faith is for. We have chosen to believe it because it makes us feel special and it justifies the superiority, real or imagined, that we have seen fit to bestow upon ourselves.
As near as I have been able to figure out, it is this arrogance that demands of many of us that we reject the notion that, somewhere else in this vast Universe, God may well have created other forms of intelligent life with all the time He has had on His hands. We are just too unique and special for it to be possible for there to exist other races of beings equal to, or superior to us. Thus it is that the one group of people who should be most open to the idea, given their special knowledge of God's lifespan, not to mention His creative abilities, are the most likely to reject it out of hand. They are unique in all of Creation. The Bible tells them so. Pat Robertson tells them so. Therefore, the question is closed. Arrogance demands it.
Well, I'm not that arrogant. Are we the crowning achievement of God's creative power? I don't know. If we are, may I politely suggest that He needs more practice? By and large, we suck. I would think that an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God, with eternity and beyond to think about it, could do better than us. I am humble enough to allow for the possibility that He has tried. Perhaps somewhere, on some distant planets, live the results of other creative endeavours He has undertaken throughout limitless Time. Perhaps not. As it stands now, we have no way to know for sure. To insist that we are all there is, that nothing else in the Universe but God Himself can compare to how "amazing" we are, is an exercise in self-convincing, as well as unmitigated arrogance.
So here are my questions? Why do you believe we are the only sentient, intelligent or "advanced" life in the Universe? Why are you so insistent that the existence of such life elsewhere is impossible? Why is it so damn important to you that we are "all there is?" Can you explain to me how your Bible, which goes to such lengths to demand humility from you, permits such unapologetic arrogance?
It is possible that I am just hopelessly dense. Be that as it may, I fail to see how, if God created us to live here, He could not have created others to live elsewhere. Could someone please explain to me how those two concepts are mutually exclusive?

NOTE: I am Agnostic. I am neither a believer nor a disbeliever. I do not have enough information to make a decision about the existence of God, and Faith doesn't cut it for me. I accept the possibility that there is a God, just as I accept the possibility that there might not be. I am not convinced we just evolved, nor am I convinced we were created. I also do not believe those two states to be mutually exclusive. If there is a God, it may be that we were created to evolve. It may also be that other societies, on other planets, were created to do the same or that they have evolved as we have. Accepting that, I am forced to accept the possibility that other cultures may exist elsewhere and that they may be less or more advanced, (and by unimaginable margins) than we are.
Although comments and thoughts from all are welcome, I wrote this in the hopes that those who believe in God might be willing or able to explain to me why they seem so dead set against the idea of other worlds being inhabited by intelligent life forms of some kind. This is not an attack. It is the result of decades of observation and curiosity about what I have observed, mostly in a particular group of people. If I don't ask, I can't understand.

Sometimes, They Say it for You...

Kind of hard to argue with folks who obviously took their education so seriously. If anyone has all the answers, it would be scholars like these.

A Simple Kindness

And it came to pass that one day, as Jesus walked along the road, he happened upon a small child, traveling in the other direction. As she neared, he could see that her tiny body was covered, from head to foot, with open, weeping sores. Her once angelic little face was a rictus of pain and grief, the tracks of long-dried tears, as well as those of more recent vintage, cut lines through the dust that caked her pallid, sunken cheeks.
Despite her wasted condition and forlorn countenance, when her eyes happened upon Jesus, they were filled with a light of great joy and hope.
"Lord! Oh, my Lord!" she cried, stumbling toward him and falling to her knees to clutch desperately at the hem of his garments. "Please, Lord," she beseeched him, openly weeping at his feet. "Please, that you might help a chld who suffers so."
Taking her by her tiny hands and helping her to her feet, he asked, "Child, what has become of you that you should be found along this road in such a state of want and despair?"
"My mother was a harlot, Lord, and she did leave our house one night to ply her tawdry wares and did never return to us. My father has since given himself over to wine, spending his nights in drunken stupor, only to sleep at noonday. No longer does he rise to labor for our daily bread. I am hungry, Lord, and more, I have been stricken with a great pestilence of unknown cause, which brings me great pain both night and day. I heard in our village tales of a baker in another town who, for a pittance, shall give me bread for my aching belly. I am told that, in this same town, there waits an apothecary who, for great price, would provide to me a cure for the pestilence that has overcome me and brings with it such pain. It is to this town that I do so struggle to make my way, though I fear it is too great a distance and I may yet weaken and die here, among the weeds at the side of this lonely road."
"What is it you require of me, O child of my Father?" Jesus inquired, stroking her matted hair.
"O Lord," she pleaded with what seemed the last of her strength. "But that you could spare a few coins from your purse for this child, that, upon my arrival in the town, I might purchase a crust of bread for my aching belly and give unto the apothecary his due that he might cure me of this dread disease, or I may surely lose all hope."
Jesus looked into the eyes of this helpless child for a long time. His heart was heavy with the knowledge of her merciless pain.
"It is true," he said to her. "The sins of your father and mother have been visited upon you and your suffering continues to be great. You are very wise to know that you may well die here, among the weeds along this road, with the goal yet in sight."
Her eyes fell upon the the eyes of her Lord with a hope beyond compare. She sensed her salvation to be at hand at last.
"You know well, my child, that my purse is indeed filled with many coins. But I will have no coins for you this day, nor any other day," Jesus said, turnig his back to walk away.
"For I am not a Socialist."

Wanna Bet?

I have a suggestion for our President, to be followed by an invitation to place a friendly wager, and then I'm done.
Here's the suggestion: Mr. President, if you would like to expose Conservatives to be the party of blatant, unapologetic, conscience-free self interest that they are and always have been, they are offering you the opportunity of a lifetime. PLEASE don't pass it up. Here's what you do. Change the Health Care bill. Propose the following bill:
No American adult who now has no access to medical care shall be provided access. No health care for adults who have no insurance. NONE. If they die, they die. Those are the breaks. It's a tough world.
Instead, the ONLY people who will be allowed to see a doctor when they need one, or get medication if they need it, even if they have no insurance and no money, are THE CHILDREN. That's right. Universal Health Care for CHILDREN ONLY!
That's it. That's the bill. Now take that to the Hill and demand an up or down vote. I guarantee, Conservatives will vote it down. Not because it's a bad idea. It isn't. It's a great idea AND it has the added benefit of knuckling under to every objection to Universal Health Care that has been raised by Conservatives every time a Moderate or Liberal has brought the subject up in the past 70 years. These are not the reasons they will vote down a bill designed to save the lives of thousands of children per year. They will vote it down because it came from you.
These sniveling, whining cowards have proven they would vote down a suggestion to put out a fire in an all-white Christian day care center if the suggestion came from (GASP!) a Liberal. Expose them for the elitist, I-have-mine-fuck-the-rest-of-you lying, two-faced, grinning, glad-handing, cowardly sacks of shit every REAL American has always known them to be, if only because they have sweated their fat, pasty, country club asses into a lather to prove it time and time again. They WILL vote it down. They have no choice. After all, none of them had the brains to think of it, therefore, the rules of their Party require them to kill it. Anybody want to bet on it? I'll stop taking my heart medication and let myself die if a single Conservative votes to pass the bill I've proposed here. JUST ONE. Think about it. One less person thinking for himself in this country. Ooooo, what to do? WHAT TO DO? I'l bet you Conservatives are hopelessly confused about what your next move should be, aren't you? Do we vote for the bill and do our duty to rid America of someone who dares to think for himself? Do we kill the bill and leave someone who has the guts to speak his own mind rather than recite the lines fed to him by his handlers walking this Earth? What to do? WHAT TO DO? Come on Conservatives...time to put up or shut up. What's it gonna be, Pussies?

Along the Way

Life is funny. It can race by you like a NASCAR driver on Meth or it can cruise sedately by like a deep river passing over level ground. Either way, if you're paying attention, you stand to learn a lot. I've picked up quite a bit in 48 years. Some of it has even proven to be useful. Today, I thought I would share with you some of the things I have learned...along the way.

If your dog or your horse doesn't like someone, you probably shouldn't either.

Ignorance is nothing more than a lack of information. Stupidity, on the other hand, is having that information and refusing to use it or refusing to accept the information in the first place. For this reason, ignorance is curable, stupidity is not.

Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. It's in the heart.

The only way to change a bigot is to remove the full diaper and replace it with a clean one. Anything else is a waste of time.

We've all heard "those who can, do...those who can't, teach." This is not true. The truth is, "those who can, do...those who can't, mock."

If cats were as smart as people say they are, they wouldn't need nine lives.

You will never get too old to need your parents.

When the police tell you that, if you're innocent, you don't need a lawyer, call a lawyer. I guarantee every man who has been exonerated by DNA heard those exact words from a police officer. That should be proof enough.

If you're unhappy with the government, don't blame the government. Much like your children, your leaders will do as much as you let them get away with.

If the saying, "guns don't kill people. People kill people" is true, then the same holds true for television, movies, music and video games. You can't have it both ways.

If you don't have the knowledge or the tools to fix something, call a professional. Machismo can be very expensive.

You can't blame the omelet for the eggs being spoiled.

Ladies, if you are starting a new relationship, let him drive on your first few dates. Why? Because men make love the same way they drive. If he's one of those guys who floors it when the light turns green, races to the next light, then slams on the brakes, this is good information to have before you slip between the sheets.

Faith can do as much harm as it does good.

Forty-five is not "middle-aged," unless you live to be ninety.

If discrimination is wrong when it works against you, it is still wrong when it works for you.

If it were true that we get smarter as we get older, scammers wouldn't be able to consistently and successfully target the elderly.

If it seems like nobody likes you, the problem is probably you.

The fact that people believe in "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" is the biggest reason the owners of Discount Auto Parts and The Home Depot are so rich.

Just as it is possible to be right yet remain uncertain, it is just as easy to be certain and still be dead wrong.

Most homeless people are just people who weren't rich when the bad thing happened in their lives. The Dupont, Hilton, Bush and Kennedy families are full of lazy people, addicts and the mentally ill, yet none of them have ever been homeless. Think about it.

I know your mother probably told you if you want people to like you, just be yourself. Unfortunately, this won't work very well if you're an asshole.

So, now it's your turn. Tell me what you have learned...along the way..

Who Wants to Live Forever?

There's no time for us.
There's no place for us.
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us?
Who wants to live forever...when love must die?
- Brian May

As a child, like most children, I had my fascinations. History, society, technology and the future were the topics that most occupied my young mind. You see, for as far back as I can remember, I have felt like a man out of time. I have never felt that I fully belonged in this time in Human history. If you ever read a story or watched a Twilight Zone episode that involved someone who was suddenly displaced in time, that is how it feels to be me. I know. I'm frigging weird. I've learned to live with it.
I have always imagined what it would be like to go back to various points in history and see, firsthand, what it was like to live through those times. I have also wondered what it would be like if I could go far into the future and see how things turn out for us. This last musing naturally led to thoughts of immortality. What would it be like to live forever? To be able to watch it all unfold, see how (or, perhaps more appropriately, if ) we made it in one piece. Will we survive ourselves? As I have grown older, I have not lost my fascination with history or society. I have found, however, that my fantasy about living forever has waned. Understand, I'm not talking about eternal life in Heaven or Hell, nor am I talking about the eternal life in a Paradise here on Earth, like the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in. I'm talking specifically about the idea of living forever in the world as it is and as it shall become.
With the passage of years, two things have happened that have put me off the idea of being immortal. First, after much observation and contemplation, it has become clear to me that our world will likely never see an era of marked improvement. This planet won't get any cleaner. It is not one of our goals to reduce pollution. The damage we are doing to our planet will never diminish, mainly because not enough of us are at all concerned about the environment we create for ourselves and our progeny. Some of us don't even believe that pollution is bad. Many believe that the Earth and the resources upon which we depend are impervious to contamination, damage or destruction and even if they aren't, we are. This is nothing short of stupidity but it is a widespread and proudly held stupidity, therefore it is likely to be a part of our world view until the very end. There are people, many of them in undeserved positions of power, who could sit on a melting block of ice and swear that it is growing instead of shrinking. That they could do so vehemently and with a straight face does not bode well for our future.
From a societal perspective, the future is even more bleak. There will never come a time when the majority of us will be willing to put aside all the differences we create and imagine in order to do what is best for the only race that ultimately matters, the Human race. Humanity is determined to resist the idea that we are all one People and that we need to see ourselves and each other that way in order to ensure our own survival. If survival depends on accepting each other, caring for each other and cooperating with each other, and it does, we would rather welcome our own extinction with open arms than put aside our petty bullshit and save ourselves. Humanity's unparralleled ability to be deliberately obtuse will most definitely be our undoing because, to most of us, this outcome is preferable to exercising the humility necessary to let go of our many excuses for hating anyone who is even slightly different. Over the years, it has become clear to me that I have no desire to see how this ends, any more than I would want to watch a schoolbus full of first-graders hurtling over the side of the Grand Canyon. I know how that will end. There is no reason to watch it.
The other thing that has quelled my desire for immortality is a little more personal. Over the course of my life, I have been forced to bury nearly every person I have ever loved. At this point, all that remain are Anita, my kids and a handful of half and step-siblings. I am already tired of saying goodbye, even as I know that I have more farewells left to say before my time is done. To have this continue for generations, centuries, millenia, while I lived on and on, is an experience I have decided I can live without. The Human heart, at least on a personal level, seems to have an unlimited capacity, as well as a pressing need, to love. When all of your loved ones have died, it would only be a matter of time before your heart led you to open up and love again, only to lose them, too. I don't know how much of that a person could take before they went mad but I have no desire to be the test subject.
So, those are my reasons for not being in a hurry to achieve immortality. What about you? Would you be interested in the oppportunity to live forever? Why? Why not?
Let me know first, then you can call the nice men with the white coats and the neat little van to take me away...