So, yeah, hey there. Been a while. Sorry about that. There's actually a new thing that I'll probably be putting up info about in not too long a while, but not quite yet. So, yeah, there're Billyhank words out there, somewhere, for those who care, and I'll spill 'em soon.
But tonight, I'm both enamored and frustrated with the idea of Intelligent Design. I have, for years, been perfectly happy to balance the idea of evolution on one hand with the idea of God setting the shit into motion on the other. To quote DEVO: "God made man but a monkey supplied the glue." I have no problem with this, truly. But it is, and this is important, A MATTER OF FAITH.
Because, as we all know, God, in any shape or form, is an article of faith. Exclusively. God cannot prove itself, because proof denies faith, and without faith, any adherance to those amorphous laws supposedly handed down by who-the-fuck-ever is absolutely meaningless. There's no morality if you're following laws ONLY because you KNOW that you'll be rewarded or punished. That's like when you were a kid and were really, really good the week before Xmas, or when you slow down to 55 mph when a state trooper comes rolling up your bumper on the freeway.
See, I think what's going on here with these folks is not so much that they believe in God and believe in behaving in the way they think God wants them to act (which I'm sure they do, mostly), but that they just want to be right. Y'know? It's like those idiots that wrote the LEFT BEHIND series, or when Jr. goes out of his way to try and save a bag of caucasian breathing meat down in Florida after legally slaughtering scores of Texan blacks and hispanics when he was governor of the one-star state. They don't believe so much in the idea of morality for morality's sake, they believe, firmly, in the idea of reward and punishment for adhering to a particular set of rules. So they're doing everything they can to adhere to the rules, expecting to be seated at the Right Hand of the Father, blah, blah, blah. Again, I say, if these are the folks that're going to be in Heaven, I'm almost relieved that I'll be heading for hell.
Intelligent Design (also known by the WAY too cutesy ID) seems to be trying to buck for that reward at a more materialistic level. Essentially, you indoctinate the kids into believing something that puts any control of their lives so far out of their hands that they can't believe they'll ever really have any freedom or control (which, yes, is exactly what's going on now, but that's relating more to the government...this is God we're talking about, fer Christ's sake), and then put yourself in a position of acting as a conduit between them and the Great Googley Moogley. And reap, reap, reap the benefits. Essentially, this is how you become Pope for the eccumenicals and fundementalists.
And the cool thing is, you get to claim you're a scientist and fuck all those liberals right in their God-damming eyes.
It's tough to argue with ("What, you're saying there's NO problems with Darwin's theories?" "Well, of course there are, but..." "So you won't even LISTEN to my ideas? I thought you were a scientist...") and it seems like too many folks are bending over. The thin edge of the wedge is coming mostly from the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based (my face is red, yes) group that's trying to present themselves as a forward-looking, technology-centric thinktank looking to change the world into a kinder, gentler, more compassionate place, but who couldn't have less personal interest in Intelligent Design. Two problems with that: 1. Their Fellows seem to have a lot of religion in their backgrounds (and, also, they're mostly fellas...3 chicks and 34 guys...in Seattle? Guys, c'mon...) and 2. They've got pro-Intelligent Design propaganda all over their front page.
I dunno. It's just one more thing that's being used to define who's right and who's wrong, but the ethics that are being put out there are all about fear and power and rightousness. There's nothing in any of it to allow for moral and compassionate Humanists, Agnostics, Athiests, or, shit, just anybody who ain't Christian. Seems to ignore pretty much EVERY FUCKING THING THAT JESUS EVER FUCKING SAID, doesn't it? It's not about forgiveness, it's not about joy, it's not about free will, it's about poking holes in free thought, it's about bringing fear (or at least intimidation) to the people, it's about putting one small group of power-mongers in charge of what a whole lotta kids (and dumb adults) are gonna think.
Or to quote Adam from Mythbusters: "Everything we can't explain is God."
Of course, he was speaking of about the superstitions of ancient peoples. Isn't it time that we got over that kind of stuff?
But tonight, I'm both enamored and frustrated with the idea of Intelligent Design. I have, for years, been perfectly happy to balance the idea of evolution on one hand with the idea of God setting the shit into motion on the other. To quote DEVO: "God made man but a monkey supplied the glue." I have no problem with this, truly. But it is, and this is important, A MATTER OF FAITH.
Because, as we all know, God, in any shape or form, is an article of faith. Exclusively. God cannot prove itself, because proof denies faith, and without faith, any adherance to those amorphous laws supposedly handed down by who-the-fuck-ever is absolutely meaningless. There's no morality if you're following laws ONLY because you KNOW that you'll be rewarded or punished. That's like when you were a kid and were really, really good the week before Xmas, or when you slow down to 55 mph when a state trooper comes rolling up your bumper on the freeway.
See, I think what's going on here with these folks is not so much that they believe in God and believe in behaving in the way they think God wants them to act (which I'm sure they do, mostly), but that they just want to be right. Y'know? It's like those idiots that wrote the LEFT BEHIND series, or when Jr. goes out of his way to try and save a bag of caucasian breathing meat down in Florida after legally slaughtering scores of Texan blacks and hispanics when he was governor of the one-star state. They don't believe so much in the idea of morality for morality's sake, they believe, firmly, in the idea of reward and punishment for adhering to a particular set of rules. So they're doing everything they can to adhere to the rules, expecting to be seated at the Right Hand of the Father, blah, blah, blah. Again, I say, if these are the folks that're going to be in Heaven, I'm almost relieved that I'll be heading for hell.
Intelligent Design (also known by the WAY too cutesy ID) seems to be trying to buck for that reward at a more materialistic level. Essentially, you indoctinate the kids into believing something that puts any control of their lives so far out of their hands that they can't believe they'll ever really have any freedom or control (which, yes, is exactly what's going on now, but that's relating more to the government...this is God we're talking about, fer Christ's sake), and then put yourself in a position of acting as a conduit between them and the Great Googley Moogley. And reap, reap, reap the benefits. Essentially, this is how you become Pope for the eccumenicals and fundementalists.
And the cool thing is, you get to claim you're a scientist and fuck all those liberals right in their God-damming eyes.
It's tough to argue with ("What, you're saying there's NO problems with Darwin's theories?" "Well, of course there are, but..." "So you won't even LISTEN to my ideas? I thought you were a scientist...") and it seems like too many folks are bending over. The thin edge of the wedge is coming mostly from the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based (my face is red, yes) group that's trying to present themselves as a forward-looking, technology-centric thinktank looking to change the world into a kinder, gentler, more compassionate place, but who couldn't have less personal interest in Intelligent Design. Two problems with that: 1. Their Fellows seem to have a lot of religion in their backgrounds (and, also, they're mostly fellas...3 chicks and 34 guys...in Seattle? Guys, c'mon...) and 2. They've got pro-Intelligent Design propaganda all over their front page.
I dunno. It's just one more thing that's being used to define who's right and who's wrong, but the ethics that are being put out there are all about fear and power and rightousness. There's nothing in any of it to allow for moral and compassionate Humanists, Agnostics, Athiests, or, shit, just anybody who ain't Christian. Seems to ignore pretty much EVERY FUCKING THING THAT JESUS EVER FUCKING SAID, doesn't it? It's not about forgiveness, it's not about joy, it's not about free will, it's about poking holes in free thought, it's about bringing fear (or at least intimidation) to the people, it's about putting one small group of power-mongers in charge of what a whole lotta kids (and dumb adults) are gonna think.
Or to quote Adam from Mythbusters: "Everything we can't explain is God."
Of course, he was speaking of about the superstitions of ancient peoples. Isn't it time that we got over that kind of stuff?
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