THE SOURCE OF MORALITY

Most Christian ministers will staunchly maintain that the Bible and biblical principles are the foundation of morality.  Anyone without that foundation is, according to them, doomed to an amoral life governed by situation ethics and their own lusts.

P. Z. Myers, a biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris, has written an article which thoroughly debunks this stance.  It is available here:  http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/why_i_am_an_amoral_family-hati.php

I can honestly say that I never really accepted the old Worldwide stance that a man was to be the dictating ruler over his spouse.  That was partially due to the example engrained in me by my own father.  Although my mother always respected him and thought he should run the family ranching business, my father never made a major decision without first talking it over thoroughly with my mother and considering her input.  I'm sure he never struck my mother and doubly sure he never "cheated" on her.

My father and mother did not attend a church while I was growing up.  They followed me and my sister into Worldwide later.  But, they always did their own thinking, and I'm sure several of the ministers of their local congregation were not pleased that they didn't "jump" to obey some of the authoritarian advice they were given in their fifties and sixties, such as, "Sell out and move to Bismarck so you'll be closer to church."  They would have been left destitute in their old age (they lived into their mid and late nineties) if they had blindly obeyed.

There was, of course, the predominantly "christian" influence of the society around them, but they were very sceptical about religious doctrines, and my mother often said that a lot of people only went to church to hide their meanness.

When I married, I didn't have the attitude many other men in the organization had.  I viewed my wife as an equal and that caused her to disrespect me and tell me, especially toward the end of our relationship and after, that I wasn't a man.  By that time, I was becoming very sceptical and disillusioned, so her biting comments only served to anger me, not make me feel inadequate.

She divorced me when the organization loosened up in that area.  When she filed for divorce, I had begun to see that governments and religions took authority to themselves for purposes of control, proclaimed myself divorced, figured the court would eventually catch up and began the search for a compatible partner.  I have been married twice since and widowered once.  In none of those relationships have I been a controlling dictator.  Nor, have I cheated on either of those wives.  I was faithful to my second wife even while being geographically separated from her for more than eight years prior to her death from cancer.

My faithfulness while in the voluntarily married state was not based on religious strictures.  It was based on human ethics and decency.  I no longer look to a god for authority over my life, since I'm convinced no such entity exists.  Unlike Gingrich, I feel no need to apologize or justify anything. 

YOU CAN'T CURE STUPID

As usual, I went to Huffington Post as one of the first things I do in the morning to keep abreast of what is happening in the world.  It's my home page.  I clicked on the following article:

"Unlike many other states, Texas does not ban workplace discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status. But don't be alarmed; the Lone Star State is working on that whole civil liberties thing. Last week, Republican State Rep. Bill Zedler introduced HB 2454, a bill that would establish new workplace protections for proponents of intelligent design. Here's the key part:

An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member's or student's conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design or other alternate theories of the origination and development of organisms.

And you thought Berkeley was crazy. On the upside, maybe the University of Texas will be able to help a few of the folks who are falling through Texas' fraying social safety net. Out of a job? Come up with an elaborate theory about how a flying spaghetti monster created the universe. A tenured professorship awaits."

Don't get me wrong.  I like most Texans, just like I like most other people.  But there is an element of ignorance and denial of reality among them that makes them, and by implication, the whole United States of America, the laughing stock of the educated and enlightened world.  It pains me no end that my son had to move to Houston to find work and that my little and brilliant grand daughter has to be subjected to that kind of irrational educational system.

My other blogs make it abundantly clear how ridiculous this kind of statute is.  Therefore, I'll just let it go at what has already been said.

 

 

LIFE IS A PILE OF S++T FOR JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY ONCE IN AWHILE

I woke up this morning to a facebook entry by my daughter, Nancy, now nearly 40, that she wrote in the wee hours of the morning.  It detailed her lifetime struggle with depression and how thankful she is to finally begin finding her way out through proper professional counsel and the right medication.

I had been unaware of how deeply set and serious her problem was.  I knew she had a problem, and her serious overweight should have indicated how deep the problem was, but we just don't see into the depths of another person's struggle, and we all tend to keep such embarrassing details to ourslves.  So, those around us don't realize what we are personally struggling against and probably wouldn't be able to really help much if they did.  Few have the professional training needed and couldn't legally prescribe any chemical help if they did.

Nancy is now on her way to a semblance of a normal, successful and rewarding life.  Yes, it's later than she would want, but I didn't start my recovery from cultic Armstrongism until I was the same age as she.  The important thing is the recovery has begun.

She is steadily losing weight.  She has a happier outlook on life and has begun the shooling she always let her depression dissuade her from in the past.

Yesterday, we participated in a used eyeglass sorting party for my local Lion's Club.  During the social part, we learned of the heartbreak one member couple went through in losing one of their children to a degenerative disease.   Unless that had been shared with us, we never would have guessed.

It is normal to think that other people have a breeze with life and nothing but blessings.  The longer I live, the more I learn, I realize that nobody escapes trial and heartbreak.  No matter how much money and apparent success people have, there are always things somewhere in their life that hang heavily from their psyches.  Nobody escapes this life unscathed.  It just isn't possible with all the vagaries of happenstance.

SAME OLD SAME OLD

There is a new article out this morning on Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-adam-jacobs/a-reasonable-argument-for_b_831185.html.

In this article, Rabbi Adam Jacobs claims to present a reasonable argument for the existence of God.  I thought maybe he'd have something new, so I brought up the article, only to find that it's the same old drivel I and others have thoroughly repudiated over and over.

Basically, its the old saw about life being too complicated to have arisen by chance, so a god had to have done it. 

He totally ignores the obvious fact that, if life is too complicated to have originated by chance, where in heaven or hell or whatever did a vastly more complicated form of life he calls "god" just happen to magically appear?

It's only about 150 years since we began to have the tools and awareness to start our search for the true origins.  In that time, we've made marvelous strides toward ultimate answers and the faith based pronouncements of religion have come out on the losing end time after time. 

They've had thousands of years to provide clear and demonstrable proofs and all they have to offer is the same old blatherings of priests, scribes and prophets who well may have been suffering from frontal lobe epilepsy of some sort, certainly motivated by a desire to preserve their exalted status among the population.  All they can retort is something like:  "Ok, we were wrong on that but how do you answer this, Mr. smarty pants evolutionist?"  Then, they bring up something scientists are still investigating that their religion purports to answer -- conveniently without any scientific proof whatsoever.

Nice try, Rabbi.  However, there are a few of us who demand real meat on those weathered old bones.

JUST DO IT -- AN OLD COWBOY'S WISDOM

I got a haircut today.  A new barber I'd never met before was in the shop.  Like many barbers, he was a fountain of conversation.

He recounted an incident that happened when he was a young barber in Payson, Arizona.  An old cowboy came in periodically for a "cowboy cut."  It was regular in most ways, but he didn't want his mustache, nose or ear hairs or eybrows trimmed.  Reason:  they helped keep the flies out.

One day. the old cowboy was a bit pensive and commented that if he had his life to live over again, he'd "just do it."  The young barber asked him what he meant, whereupon he said that the greatest regret of his life was that he didn't have the courage to "just do" many of the things he often wanted to do.  Now, it was too late.

The young barber took that counsel to heart and when an urge like traveling up and down the Mississipi came over him, he just did it.  He has now settled down in a house he owns in Camp
Verde, but his fondest memories are of the many things he courageously set out to do because of that old cowboy's advice.  In all cases, he survived and gained from each experience.

No cowboy gave me that advice, but as I look back on my life, the things that give me greatest satisfaction with my life are those things I "just did."

Pulling up stakes and going off to Ambassador College at twenty-one was the first big one.  I had many reasons not to do that.  I could have had a far different and perhaps much more secure future by staying on and inheriting the family ranch.  Fear of the unknown could have kept me from taking that step.  I know, Ambassador College was no bargain as educational institutions go, but it gave me a college education and writing and editing experience I'm utilizing right now at this computer.  It gave me a confidence in myself and an appreciation of what I could do if I just set out to do it.

When my career with the college and church came to an abrupt end, I was faced with the fearsome prospect of finding a job in the commercial world or establishing my own business after floundering around for a couple of years.  Establishing a business is no piece of cake, but I found a way to do it.  I recount this experience in my book:  http://www.hwarmstrong.com/believing-the-unbelievable.pdf .

When my wife divorced me, I was faced with living alone or trying to find another partner.  I set off into the new and intimidating world of singles organizations and ended up in square dancing where I soon found a compatible mate.

Life in the Los Angeles area became less and less ideal for a number of reasons and I again walked away and moved to Phoenix.  Establishing a new business and just surviving involved more fearsome obstacles, but, again, I survived and eventually prospered. 

After many years in Phoenix, becoming a widower and again finding a mate in the square dance world, life there became less and less desireable.  So, another move.  This time, to Cottonwood, AZ where I expect to spend what remains of my life.

Included along the way are the memories of two trips to Hawaii that we could have easily said we really couldn't afford and just frittered away the money some other way and a wonderful trip to Louisiana and several days in New Orleans.

I haven't covered all the many compulsive things I've done that constitute my fondest memories.  What I've recounted just illustrate how important it is not to let fear of the unknown limit us.

There is a time to "JUST DO IT!"