Sunday, August 21, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Children-peers
Our children will be adults for much longer than they will be children. All things considered, it is more justifiable to view the act of conceiving and creating a child as the conception and welcoming of a peer.
As with everything, the Latter-day Saint theology proves here to be remarkably profound: the bodies that women conceive, carry, and nurture, become the mortal shell for personages coeternal with themselves. Paul's words here seem pertinent that they, without us, cannot be made perfect. They need a way to get to earth*, we can birth them here.
Who is greater, the one who opens the gate, or the one for whom the gate is opened? No condescension, no magnanimous act from us, no stooping to render service to lesser creatures -- children are not children.
The decision "not to have children" isn't just a decision not to have a small, cute human to hold, lose sleep for, clean up poop for, get stretch marks for, be needed by. It's also a decision not to have a grown-up.
* Article title: "We are the aliens we've been looking for"
As with everything, the Latter-day Saint theology proves here to be remarkably profound: the bodies that women conceive, carry, and nurture, become the mortal shell for personages coeternal with themselves. Paul's words here seem pertinent that they, without us, cannot be made perfect. They need a way to get to earth*, we can birth them here.
Who is greater, the one who opens the gate, or the one for whom the gate is opened? No condescension, no magnanimous act from us, no stooping to render service to lesser creatures -- children are not children.
The decision "not to have children" isn't just a decision not to have a small, cute human to hold, lose sleep for, clean up poop for, get stretch marks for, be needed by. It's also a decision not to have a grown-up.
* Article title: "We are the aliens we've been looking for"
Friday, July 22, 2011
What should be LAW and what should not?
Anything I find myself morally justified in forcing my neighbour to do, or not do, could be written into law. Any act that I would not force, at gunpoint, or with the threat of imminent incarceration, another person to do, or refrain from, should never receive my approval to be done by any government or police force.
How can I give my consent for one group to use the threat of force when I, myself, would not use it?
How can I give my consent for one group to use the threat of force when I, myself, would not use it?
Ron Paul for President, 2012
What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body.
--T. Jefferson
--T. Jefferson
Monday, May 30, 2011
Questions
1. Did the things in various books of scripture actually happen as they are described?
2. Does it matter?
3. Perhaps most importantly, is there really a Final Judgment? One day when we'll wake up and see the very Jesus we have been wondering about and doubting?
4. Why is it so easy for us to not think about His imminent return? the actuality of our meeting Him?
2. Does it matter?
3. Perhaps most importantly, is there really a Final Judgment? One day when we'll wake up and see the very Jesus we have been wondering about and doubting?
4. Why is it so easy for us to not think about His imminent return? the actuality of our meeting Him?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Dilemma
I feel today that anyone can already find anything they want to read on the internet.
What can I offer you?
What can I offer you?
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
TV and movies
Why do movies and television captivate our attention? What need is being filled by watching? I can buy into answers involving "escaping everyday realities," "relaxation," "unwinding," etc. from adults (even though I don't quite believe them), but such answers are totally inadequate for children. In my experience, TV/film does exactly the opposite for children: winds them up, makes them less relaxed, and makes them think that "everyday realities" include car chases, deaths, gunfights, flying people, cliff-hanging and a hundred other varieties of peril.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Getting smarter
I think I figured something out: all I need to do is make good choices all the time.
Rebuttals?
Also, I wonder how often laze and avoidance could provide us with clear directives for what we should be doing. I wonder how often the thing we don't want to do is exactly the thing we need most to do. You don't want to talk with this person -- call them. You're afraid to walk out on your government job and work for yourself -- quit today. You'd rather browse new listings on ebay than write -- shut off the computer and pick up a notebook.
We humans seem to be the inheritors of a peculiarly factioned conscience -- peculiar among among animals, I mean. "For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, I do." What? Are humans the only species faced with this schismed psyche? Have only our wires been crossed? Original sin, spiritual rebellion, satanic influence, evolutionary error, the procrastination gene, temporary survival of the misfits, etc. -- whatever the name, I think no one can reasonably refute the claim that we, perhaps singularly among lifeforms, are possessed of a nature that at once is motivated by self-preservation, and desperately attracted to self-destruction.
I wonder if this provides needed evidence for the man-is-a-descendant-of-God-not-apes hypothesis. Even if our skeletons and genome are near identical, how do you plumb this discrepancy? Do monkeys make choices to not do the very things their preservation instincts move them to do? Why the heck do humans? Ants with fungus growing in their brains sometimes act like we do.
Animals primary inclination is to conserve energy when you can and stock up when you have the chance. They fat-load for times of no fat, then are content to wait for the famine. Or sleep through it.
Rebuttals?
Also, I wonder how often laze and avoidance could provide us with clear directives for what we should be doing. I wonder how often the thing we don't want to do is exactly the thing we need most to do. You don't want to talk with this person -- call them. You're afraid to walk out on your government job and work for yourself -- quit today. You'd rather browse new listings on ebay than write -- shut off the computer and pick up a notebook.
We humans seem to be the inheritors of a peculiarly factioned conscience -- peculiar among among animals, I mean. "For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, I do." What? Are humans the only species faced with this schismed psyche? Have only our wires been crossed? Original sin, spiritual rebellion, satanic influence, evolutionary error, the procrastination gene, temporary survival of the misfits, etc. -- whatever the name, I think no one can reasonably refute the claim that we, perhaps singularly among lifeforms, are possessed of a nature that at once is motivated by self-preservation, and desperately attracted to self-destruction.
I wonder if this provides needed evidence for the man-is-a-descendant-of-God-not-apes hypothesis. Even if our skeletons and genome are near identical, how do you plumb this discrepancy? Do monkeys make choices to not do the very things their preservation instincts move them to do? Why the heck do humans? Ants with fungus growing in their brains sometimes act like we do.
Animals primary inclination is to conserve energy when you can and stock up when you have the chance. They fat-load for times of no fat, then are content to wait for the famine. Or sleep through it.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Things that most of us do, but shouldn't
Be employed by someone else
Treat our children like we own them, and/or that they owe something to us
Wear shoes
View advertisements
Watch comedy TV shows
Let dogs scare us
Want others to be like us
Accept that things are supposed to be the way they are
Treat our children like we own them, and/or that they owe something to us
Wear shoes
View advertisements
Watch comedy TV shows
Let dogs scare us
Want others to be like us
Accept that things are supposed to be the way they are
Friday, January 21, 2011
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