Someone recently asked me why I so often include this symbol 8) on my tweets and online writing. They told me they had done some searching online for the meaning of this symbol and had no luck in finding anything. I was kind of shocked for two reasons. One; that there is nothing online about this symbol(or related symbols) and two; that there was someone out there who didn't inherently understand the meaning of it.
We discussed it for a bit and I jokingly stated that maybe I should wiki it since I'm really the only person I know of that uses this particular version of the symbol on a regular basis. She thought it was a great idea and I countered with deciding to do a short blog on it instead....for now any ways.
So here it is, for those that don't already understand the deep and unfathomable meaning of this symbol 8) it's just a smile. Just turn it 90 degrees to the right and you see it immediately. A lot of people use the old standard smiley face :) which is also very nice, but I found that it was too impersonal. I also see people using =) for a smiley face and this also is a fine example of the art. I've just always(since getting online) preferred the 8) smiley because it just seemed more open. I mean look at the eyes 8. two open circles eyes wide open to what is to come. Of course the fact that you can see what life is and can be good or bad and still smile is very important.
So for me this symbol 8) is my simple way to send a smile along to those I interact with online. I can't always(in fact seldom am I able to) send a smile directly, so this lets me at least send the thought of a smile along. Better yet, it's a smile with eyes wide open to the hope and despair, the love and hate, the joy and pain we all go through. It's a reminder that as long as you can still smile, there will always be that hope over despair, that love over hatred, and that joy over pain to keep you going.
It may be sappy or silly to a lot of people, but I like to try and bring some glimmer of hope or goodness to those I have the privilege of meeting. That is why I try to send smiley faces when ever appropriate and sometimes when not quite so appropriate. I think if we could all smile at each other a little more often, it could make a difference. At the very least it couldn't hurt. So if you get a tweet or something scribbled on your wall and there is a smiley at the end, even though it isn't a huge effort, it is still someone wanting to put that little extra into the world. Take it for what it is and maybe pass it along to the next person you type at 8)
Thursday, September 29, 2011
A couple examples of why I'm an atheist
I have certain irreconcilable (for me) problems with the Judeo/Christin religions, that will always be the core of why I am an atheist. I won't even go into how the universe came into being, there are much more serious issues that bother me. I will try to lay them out in this post so that anyone can see what I'm talking about.
First we have to define God. According to the bible God is an all knowing, all powerful perfect being who created the heavens and earth and everything within them. He commands the sun to rise and set, he placed the stars in the sky, and everything happens by his will. I think this is a fairly accurate description according to biblical text.
Now here are my problems with this. First; if God created everything he also must have created evil and the bible even supports this. God created the "heavenly host" all the angels which are supposed to be too numerous to count. Angels are supposed to be perfect beings modeled directly from god. Yet. when God created Adam and Eve and gave them dominion over all the animals he also set the angels to serve them. This upset Satan and caused him to oppose God. God then cast Satan out of heaven and one third of the heavenly host followed Satan. How could a perfect all knowing all powerful being first create a supposed perfect being that would turn out so imperfect as Satan is supposed to have been? Also How could an all knowing God not have seen it coming?
Second; God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and then put temptation in the form of the tree of knowledge of good and evil right smack in the middle of the garden and with no explanation told Adam and Eve not to eat of it. So if Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil, how were they to know that it was evil to disobey God until/unless they actually ate the fruit? Also Why would God put such temptation there in the first place if he did not expect them to eat of it? Don't forget this is supposed to be an all knowing being. Did he set them up to fail?
Just these two examples are enough to cause me to have serious doubts about God. Either God is not all knowing, or he knowingly let his angels be corrupted. Either he did not think Adam and Eve would eat of the forbidden fruit, or he knowingly placed temptation as the center of Edan so that Adam and Eve would be forced to sin. Either God is not all knowing and hence can not be the God of the bible, or he is malignant and is not worthy of worship.
Until someone can come up with a real explanation for these and many other examples, then I can not worship nor believe in such a deity.
First we have to define God. According to the bible God is an all knowing, all powerful perfect being who created the heavens and earth and everything within them. He commands the sun to rise and set, he placed the stars in the sky, and everything happens by his will. I think this is a fairly accurate description according to biblical text.
Now here are my problems with this. First; if God created everything he also must have created evil and the bible even supports this. God created the "heavenly host" all the angels which are supposed to be too numerous to count. Angels are supposed to be perfect beings modeled directly from god. Yet. when God created Adam and Eve and gave them dominion over all the animals he also set the angels to serve them. This upset Satan and caused him to oppose God. God then cast Satan out of heaven and one third of the heavenly host followed Satan. How could a perfect all knowing all powerful being first create a supposed perfect being that would turn out so imperfect as Satan is supposed to have been? Also How could an all knowing God not have seen it coming?
Second; God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and then put temptation in the form of the tree of knowledge of good and evil right smack in the middle of the garden and with no explanation told Adam and Eve not to eat of it. So if Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil, how were they to know that it was evil to disobey God until/unless they actually ate the fruit? Also Why would God put such temptation there in the first place if he did not expect them to eat of it? Don't forget this is supposed to be an all knowing being. Did he set them up to fail?
Just these two examples are enough to cause me to have serious doubts about God. Either God is not all knowing, or he knowingly let his angels be corrupted. Either he did not think Adam and Eve would eat of the forbidden fruit, or he knowingly placed temptation as the center of Edan so that Adam and Eve would be forced to sin. Either God is not all knowing and hence can not be the God of the bible, or he is malignant and is not worthy of worship.
Until someone can come up with a real explanation for these and many other examples, then I can not worship nor believe in such a deity.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Progressives need to work together
"President Obama caved to the republicans once again." "He hasn't kept any of his promises." "He's to weak to stand up to the tea party and fight for our progressive future." You hear this a lot today in our main stream media. It's the big meme of the day for "hard core" progressives, or the "pro left pundits" It's like a mantra and the thing about it is that it's total hogwash.
President Obama has gotten more accomplished against greater odds than any other progressive president in my life time. Lets take a look at some of the things he has done.
He has passed a health care bill, something that even Clinton couldn't do. It may not be perfect, In fact there are a lot of things that need to be improved upon, but it does help the average citizen tremendously. Included are fixing the pre-existing condition clause, expanded access to health care and subsidies to help those who can't afford it, free wellness check ups for seniors, and cut over payments to insurance companies by Medicare among other things.
He got "don't ask don't tell repealed in our military so that any American with a desire to serve our country is now (as of this Tuesday) able to do so without compromising themselves.
He has overhauled the credit card industry and put limits on the fees that can be charged to consumers.
Obama got the Dodd-Frank bill passed. Even though it doesn't go far enough in many peoples view, it is a definite start to re-regulating the financial system that caused the 2007 meltdown.
He fought for and got help for our 9 11 first responders who risked their lives for our fellow country men. This is something that should never have been a fight, but our dear friends the conservatives felt that the first responders apparently didn't need any help.
He also passed the stimuli's bill which kept us from dropping into a much more serious depression than we were already in. I know many say it wasn't enough, but with the full force of the republican party pushing against it, I think he did an amazing job getting anything at all.
Though he didn't initiate it, he did complete the tarp bank bail outs and managed to recover almost the entirety of the cost put into it.
He has increased infrastructure spending which had been almost nonexistent before. And when this jobs bill passes, it will add more money to improving our crumbling infrastructure. This is one that I personally think we need much more of.
The list goes on and on. It is just incredible the things Obama has gotten through extreme opposition from the right and whining from his supposed supporters on the left. To say that President Obama has done nothing since taking office is an outright lie.
If you are a democrat, progressive, liberal, or even a poor old dirty hippie like myself, you should be shouting it from the rooftops that Obama is our man for the White House. For anyone to say the president is weak or afraid to stand up to the tea party, especially if they claim to be progressives, is just undermining our chances of getting Mr Obama a real progressive congress and Senate so he can really make some changes for the better.
Sometimes it seems to me that we progressives are our own worst enemy when it comes to politics. The Pro left as they have come to be known seem to think Obama has let them down. He's not progressive enough for them, he doesn't keep his promises, he is in cahoots with the bankers, he didn't raise millionares taxes, they have a long litany of complaints that are in fact bogus. These people wouldn't be happy even if Obama turned the US into the socialist country that they so dearly want us to be.
These people muddy the truth and cause the general population to take the wrong message home. They think that if they beat up on Obama enough, he will suddenly magically change everything and single handedly topple the conservative destruction of our country. The exact opposite is true. The constant harping on Obama discourages voting by making the average person think "what difference who is in office, they are all bad"
Well think about this. If we don't re-elect Obama we will be faced with a republican government that has done nothing but protect the ultra rich at the expense of the middle class and poor. They will put an end to medicare, social security, the EPA, food stamps, women's reproduction right, and put an end to separation of church and state. Who knows what else these wing nuts will try to do to us.
If we let the tea party and their republican flunkies continue to push their lies as truth, if we let them defeat Obama because we just don't have the political will to fight them, if we just lay down and let them walk all over us, then we deserve what we get.
So if you want to see our country continue to move forward instead of backwards, you must do your part. Raise your voice and be heard. Tell everyone you know what is happening. Organize a progressive club to disseminate the truth. Post blogs, tweet, stand on the corner and tell everyone that goes by, I don't care how you get the message out, just do it. If we don't then our country will be consumed by the right wing and you wont recognize your own country in another 10 or 20 years.
President Obama has gotten more accomplished against greater odds than any other progressive president in my life time. Lets take a look at some of the things he has done.
He has passed a health care bill, something that even Clinton couldn't do. It may not be perfect, In fact there are a lot of things that need to be improved upon, but it does help the average citizen tremendously. Included are fixing the pre-existing condition clause, expanded access to health care and subsidies to help those who can't afford it, free wellness check ups for seniors, and cut over payments to insurance companies by Medicare among other things.
He got "don't ask don't tell repealed in our military so that any American with a desire to serve our country is now (as of this Tuesday) able to do so without compromising themselves.
He has overhauled the credit card industry and put limits on the fees that can be charged to consumers.
Obama got the Dodd-Frank bill passed. Even though it doesn't go far enough in many peoples view, it is a definite start to re-regulating the financial system that caused the 2007 meltdown.
He fought for and got help for our 9 11 first responders who risked their lives for our fellow country men. This is something that should never have been a fight, but our dear friends the conservatives felt that the first responders apparently didn't need any help.
He also passed the stimuli's bill which kept us from dropping into a much more serious depression than we were already in. I know many say it wasn't enough, but with the full force of the republican party pushing against it, I think he did an amazing job getting anything at all.
Though he didn't initiate it, he did complete the tarp bank bail outs and managed to recover almost the entirety of the cost put into it.
He has increased infrastructure spending which had been almost nonexistent before. And when this jobs bill passes, it will add more money to improving our crumbling infrastructure. This is one that I personally think we need much more of.
The list goes on and on. It is just incredible the things Obama has gotten through extreme opposition from the right and whining from his supposed supporters on the left. To say that President Obama has done nothing since taking office is an outright lie.
If you are a democrat, progressive, liberal, or even a poor old dirty hippie like myself, you should be shouting it from the rooftops that Obama is our man for the White House. For anyone to say the president is weak or afraid to stand up to the tea party, especially if they claim to be progressives, is just undermining our chances of getting Mr Obama a real progressive congress and Senate so he can really make some changes for the better.
Sometimes it seems to me that we progressives are our own worst enemy when it comes to politics. The Pro left as they have come to be known seem to think Obama has let them down. He's not progressive enough for them, he doesn't keep his promises, he is in cahoots with the bankers, he didn't raise millionares taxes, they have a long litany of complaints that are in fact bogus. These people wouldn't be happy even if Obama turned the US into the socialist country that they so dearly want us to be.
These people muddy the truth and cause the general population to take the wrong message home. They think that if they beat up on Obama enough, he will suddenly magically change everything and single handedly topple the conservative destruction of our country. The exact opposite is true. The constant harping on Obama discourages voting by making the average person think "what difference who is in office, they are all bad"
Well think about this. If we don't re-elect Obama we will be faced with a republican government that has done nothing but protect the ultra rich at the expense of the middle class and poor. They will put an end to medicare, social security, the EPA, food stamps, women's reproduction right, and put an end to separation of church and state. Who knows what else these wing nuts will try to do to us.
If we let the tea party and their republican flunkies continue to push their lies as truth, if we let them defeat Obama because we just don't have the political will to fight them, if we just lay down and let them walk all over us, then we deserve what we get.
So if you want to see our country continue to move forward instead of backwards, you must do your part. Raise your voice and be heard. Tell everyone you know what is happening. Organize a progressive club to disseminate the truth. Post blogs, tweet, stand on the corner and tell everyone that goes by, I don't care how you get the message out, just do it. If we don't then our country will be consumed by the right wing and you wont recognize your own country in another 10 or 20 years.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Is god able to stop evil but not willing?
I was told last night by a person who claims to be in training for the priesthood that "The absence of good or evil has no bearing on the omnipresence of God" and that "God allows evil to exist so that good can come out of it". I read these statements and it just boggles my mind. How can, in a world supposedly created by god, good and evil(or the absence there of) have no bearing on God? Did he not (according to the bible) create the heavens and earth and all that inhabit them? If god created everything, then he also created evil and is solely responsible for it.
The argument I got to my statement was "He(god) is not bound by the ramifications of evil. He can change it at will." and "guilty by association fallacy". To which I say, there is no fallacy of association, if god created everything he also created evil, you can't have it both ways. God can not create everything, but not be responsible for evil which is a part of his creation. If as I was told, god can change evil at will, then that once again proves my point that god being able to change evil and not doing so is in itself an evil act.
The guilt by association "fallacy" is just plain ignorant. The argument used to support this supposed fallacy was " If you witness a crime, are you evil because you were in the presence of it?". The problem with this argument is that once again, if god created everything, he also created evil and so is inherently associated with said evil and so in turn is evil himself. Or you could say that if God is a witness to evil and has it in his power to stop it and doesn't then he is as guilty of evil as the actual perpetrator is.
Lets go back a minute to this "God allows evil to exist so that good can come out of it", that's like saying I'm going to allow someone to rape you because it will make you a better person down the road. It still boils down to if god allows evil to exist when he has the supposed power to vanquish it, then he is also evil.
How anyone can interpret this any other way is beyond me. Either god is the almighty all knowing creator of heaven and earth and all that is found within, Including evil, or he did none of it and is just another myth from the bronze age.
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