I've always wondered why we regard older people and people that have been dead a long time great. Especially in regards to our relatives. We have a mom and a dad then we GRANDparents. Just like your own parents, only grand. Why are they grand? What's so grand about being old? Ask any old person and they'll tell you being old fuckin' sucks. Is that why they're grand? They can deal with being old? It's a little aspect of our language that I don't understand. We do have alternate names to describe generations but no one really uses those terms much. Hell, I still don't know what generation I am, Generation X? Generation Y? Star Trek the next Generation? Fuck.
Grandma and grandpa, just like your parents, only grand. I'm sorry, but there is nothing grand about my grandparents. They're my family, I love them, but grand is not an adjective I would ever use to describe them if I had a choice of terminology. Especially my grandpa, whose cheese has been off the cracker a long time. Grand is word mainly used to describe something big, large, or grand in size. Like the Grand Canyon, or you pay a hundred grand for something.
As if this weren't confusing enough if you go to the next level you have great grandparents. Parents who are both great and grand and the same time. This is really perplexing to me because from what I know of my Great Grandparents they were far from Great, and no where near grand. Then you go to the even more dead relatives after that, you have your Great Great grandparents, then your Great Great Great Grandparents. Why do these people get an increase in greatness the longer they're dead? I mean I know I wouldn't exist without them but that hardly makes them great. They could be assholes for all I know!
All I can gather from this is that the more dead you are the greater you'll be. It's a concept alot of religious fanatics take to heart. I think alot of it comes from our fear of death. We're afraid death is going to suck, so we try to give death a bit of pizzazz and attempt to make it sound better. Like when someone dies and he's just a fuckin prick, I mean an asshole that really is better off dead. If you went to his funeral you'd think he was a saint, why? Because we have a hard time excepting the fact that death fuckin sucks and we don't want to think badly of those who are dead. But for all we know death can be fun! I mean you can't really know because death is not a place you can go and come back to tell people about(though that would be cool, flatliners bitches!)
But mostly I'm irritated with having to use this language and have to call my descendants great or grand. I'm irritated because this can be an opportunity to have some creative fun! Like coming with a unique name for your grandparents, customized to their personality! It would make distinguishing between the two families easier and how fun would that be? I would have a crazyma and an Insanitypa! You can put in any adjective that fits their character. Like the Decent-enoughpa, or my personal favorite, Deadpa!
Seems extreme, I know, but anything to get away from this greatness that these people get for no reason. I mean my great-Grandparents weren't great. In fact they were quite irresponsible. It also comes down to this mentality that the older are wiser, bullshit. This is a load of crap desgined to destroy the self-esteem of our current generation.
They always like to say "When I was at that age we were disciplined and respected our teachers." Bullshit! At best you may get someone to say, "Well, we did some stuff too but not as bad as this!" Really? Do you actually believe that? If so then explain this to me. Alot of grandparents are married because they accidentally got pregnant when they were really young. In fact, my great grandmother had my grandfather at the age of 15. Yet our grandparents will badger us about how terrible and hedonistic our generation is. It's a big load crap that is meant to keep the current generation low on self-esteem. Why else do you think we have a rise in Suicides, Anorexia, and Eating disorders? Because according to our grandparents, our morals have gone down the sewer. And now kids at the age of 15 are having unprotected sex, and getting pregnant, that never happened back in my day!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
No Intelligence Allowed...at all.
This note had been a long time coming. For those of you who are religious and believe in creationism and think that what I'm doing is not fair...well, you're out of luck. A week ago a film was released called, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" which is the most accurate tagline I've heard in a long time. The film is a documentary by Ben Stein of Bueller fame. As it turns out this guy saw a Michael Moore film and thought he could rip it off going in a different direction. The film makes the claim that evolution has destroyed american. Bold ain't it?
The documentary makes the claim that we as children of america are indoctrinated into the Darwinism way of thinking and any professor that questions this is immediately fired and has to find a new profession. I really don't know where to begin with this. I've only seen the first 10 minutes and hope to see the whole thing soon. However, I viewed many of Ben Stein's news appearances in promoting the film. So I will only criticize those until i actually see the whole thing. First off he claimed that kids who go to college are force fed a secular liberal agenda at these college universities. First off, this is stupid to begin with. I've been in college for a long time now and the only agenda I've seen of a major university is to make more money. Seriously, if there was a liberal college agenda, would there even be a Georgia State? A state university wants your money anyway it can get it, regardless of belief. They're not going to try and change you. It's against their business interests.
I never saw anything that suggested this liberal bias. At Ball State I've met about every walk of life you can imagine. There's a healthy Christian section but there's also a health Muslim section, Gay/lesbian section, and yes liberal section. So right off the bat this claim is largely ignorant especially coming to a man who hasn't been to college since 1930.
Next is a very common claim I hear from every creationist on the planet. The claim that "I didn't come from no puddle of goo." and the grammar in that claim is so elegant that this becomes a very valid argument. The idea that humans were improved overtime to adapt to conditions seems incredibly against God. I don't know why this is and if anyone can explain why this is so blasphemous be my guest to comment.
Next claim by creationists is that they would have no problem as long as both sides were presented in the science classes. I would have no problem if the science of creationism was presented in the classroom, unfortunately, there is none. Creationism has nothing to do with science. I find it amazing that when questioning evolution the creationists question every bit of data there is yet when you ask them for their evidence you get the same old "because God made it so!" and that is not science. Lack of evidence of one thing is not evidence for another.
Another claim is that scientists who question evolution are being persecuted for their beliefs. This is fascinating to me, are these people being persecuted for mentioning creationism? Yes! But at that same time evolutionists are being persecuted for not mentioning creationism in the classroom. In fact, more and more school districts are requiring the teaching of intelligent design in the classroom as if it were a science along side evolution. But there is problem I have with that. Creationism is not science. No matter how much it tries to be. Bill O'Reilly once said and I quote, "Why can't you just mention in biology class that there are theologians who believe that a higher power was responsible for the first life." I will answer this, because it's biology class and not a theology class. If theologians want to say this in a theology class I doubt there'd be much controversy over that.
There's is an argument that when you ask these atheist, liberal, hippy, evil doers how did life begin they shrug and say they don't really know. Well, yeah, we don't know how life began but that doesn't mean that you do. As I said a lack of evidence for one thing is not evidence for another.
This is the best one yet, that darwinism leads to social darwinism. That the better race has a moral duty to eliminate another race and that there would've been no holocaust if there were no darwinism. This is a claim that is ignorant to a point that I can't even comprehend. Yes, it was darwin that caused the holocaust. I mean what the hell? Is this what a creationist scientist does? Say "hey I heard something about survival of the fittest so that must've been what hitler was thinking." Well guess what Darwinism talked about natural selection and Hitler's selection was anything but natural.
I take most offense to this claim because it all falls into the idea that atheists are morally inferior. That if you don't believe in a God you don't feel that there's any purpose to life and so you're free to do all the evils of world. This is plain old fashioned discrimination. And if you Christians are feeling so persecuted what about the atheists that you say causes all the evils in the world? You see how this can go back and forth forever until the of time? I can say that religion causes all the wars in the world, you can say atheism causes all the wars in the world, and mel gibson can say all the jews cause all the wars in the world and where does that leave us? FUCKIN NOWHERE! All this amounts to is calling atheists a poopy face. That's all I see it as. Yes, Ben Stein can do a documentary on this and be protected under the first amendment. But in turn I have the right to call him a fucking idiot and have the right to say that what he is doing is morally wrong, dishonest and I'm just as protected.
However, there is still claim that creationism should be taught under the first amendment. Well, that first amendment also includes a separation between church and state. You can teach evolution all you want in private schools but public schools is a different story. Because creationism is not a science, faith is not a science, and there's no way to make it so. Refuting Darwinism by saying "It didn't happen all of the sudden", and then say "God made it all happen all of the sudden." is a circular argument. With Darwinism, BAM! There it is! And with God, BAM! There it is! Why must Science be required to be ever changing yet Religion so perpetually static?
Stein asked the public, "If Darwinists are so right what are they so afraid of?" I'll tell you what we are afraid of. We're afraid of a time when we go into a public classroom and have someone's religious agenda forced on us. We're afraid of the day that fanaticism takes over what was once a free thinking society. We're afraid of being forced to accept one powerful almighty God. Because that is not a free society. Christians may feel persecuted for not getting their ideas into science class but what about the Muslim, the Pagan, and the Wiccan ideas of the origins of life. Why can't they be taught in the science classrooms? Oh wait! Yes! Because none of them are science!
The documentary makes the claim that we as children of america are indoctrinated into the Darwinism way of thinking and any professor that questions this is immediately fired and has to find a new profession. I really don't know where to begin with this. I've only seen the first 10 minutes and hope to see the whole thing soon. However, I viewed many of Ben Stein's news appearances in promoting the film. So I will only criticize those until i actually see the whole thing. First off he claimed that kids who go to college are force fed a secular liberal agenda at these college universities. First off, this is stupid to begin with. I've been in college for a long time now and the only agenda I've seen of a major university is to make more money. Seriously, if there was a liberal college agenda, would there even be a Georgia State? A state university wants your money anyway it can get it, regardless of belief. They're not going to try and change you. It's against their business interests.
I never saw anything that suggested this liberal bias. At Ball State I've met about every walk of life you can imagine. There's a healthy Christian section but there's also a health Muslim section, Gay/lesbian section, and yes liberal section. So right off the bat this claim is largely ignorant especially coming to a man who hasn't been to college since 1930.
Next is a very common claim I hear from every creationist on the planet. The claim that "I didn't come from no puddle of goo." and the grammar in that claim is so elegant that this becomes a very valid argument. The idea that humans were improved overtime to adapt to conditions seems incredibly against God. I don't know why this is and if anyone can explain why this is so blasphemous be my guest to comment.
Next claim by creationists is that they would have no problem as long as both sides were presented in the science classes. I would have no problem if the science of creationism was presented in the classroom, unfortunately, there is none. Creationism has nothing to do with science. I find it amazing that when questioning evolution the creationists question every bit of data there is yet when you ask them for their evidence you get the same old "because God made it so!" and that is not science. Lack of evidence of one thing is not evidence for another.
Another claim is that scientists who question evolution are being persecuted for their beliefs. This is fascinating to me, are these people being persecuted for mentioning creationism? Yes! But at that same time evolutionists are being persecuted for not mentioning creationism in the classroom. In fact, more and more school districts are requiring the teaching of intelligent design in the classroom as if it were a science along side evolution. But there is problem I have with that. Creationism is not science. No matter how much it tries to be. Bill O'Reilly once said and I quote, "Why can't you just mention in biology class that there are theologians who believe that a higher power was responsible for the first life." I will answer this, because it's biology class and not a theology class. If theologians want to say this in a theology class I doubt there'd be much controversy over that.
There's is an argument that when you ask these atheist, liberal, hippy, evil doers how did life begin they shrug and say they don't really know. Well, yeah, we don't know how life began but that doesn't mean that you do. As I said a lack of evidence for one thing is not evidence for another.
This is the best one yet, that darwinism leads to social darwinism. That the better race has a moral duty to eliminate another race and that there would've been no holocaust if there were no darwinism. This is a claim that is ignorant to a point that I can't even comprehend. Yes, it was darwin that caused the holocaust. I mean what the hell? Is this what a creationist scientist does? Say "hey I heard something about survival of the fittest so that must've been what hitler was thinking." Well guess what Darwinism talked about natural selection and Hitler's selection was anything but natural.
I take most offense to this claim because it all falls into the idea that atheists are morally inferior. That if you don't believe in a God you don't feel that there's any purpose to life and so you're free to do all the evils of world. This is plain old fashioned discrimination. And if you Christians are feeling so persecuted what about the atheists that you say causes all the evils in the world? You see how this can go back and forth forever until the of time? I can say that religion causes all the wars in the world, you can say atheism causes all the wars in the world, and mel gibson can say all the jews cause all the wars in the world and where does that leave us? FUCKIN NOWHERE! All this amounts to is calling atheists a poopy face. That's all I see it as. Yes, Ben Stein can do a documentary on this and be protected under the first amendment. But in turn I have the right to call him a fucking idiot and have the right to say that what he is doing is morally wrong, dishonest and I'm just as protected.
However, there is still claim that creationism should be taught under the first amendment. Well, that first amendment also includes a separation between church and state. You can teach evolution all you want in private schools but public schools is a different story. Because creationism is not a science, faith is not a science, and there's no way to make it so. Refuting Darwinism by saying "It didn't happen all of the sudden", and then say "God made it all happen all of the sudden." is a circular argument. With Darwinism, BAM! There it is! And with God, BAM! There it is! Why must Science be required to be ever changing yet Religion so perpetually static?
Stein asked the public, "If Darwinists are so right what are they so afraid of?" I'll tell you what we are afraid of. We're afraid of a time when we go into a public classroom and have someone's religious agenda forced on us. We're afraid of the day that fanaticism takes over what was once a free thinking society. We're afraid of being forced to accept one powerful almighty God. Because that is not a free society. Christians may feel persecuted for not getting their ideas into science class but what about the Muslim, the Pagan, and the Wiccan ideas of the origins of life. Why can't they be taught in the science classrooms? Oh wait! Yes! Because none of them are science!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
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