Grasping for permanence
Once again slipping through my fingers
Daring me to try again
I'm laying down my poet's pen
Never picking it up again
Words no longer can describe
The thoughts that swirl inside my mind
Best they drag me down alone
Nothing here you need to know
Friday, February 15, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Atheist Campus Crusaders - a favorite topic
This post was in response to an article in Religion Dispatches, Are Atheists the New Campus Crusaders?
(I would provide a link to the article but for some reason the site isn't loading.)
With all due respect to my friends who are atheists but I have to point out that, IMO, these non-theist college students are displaying every bit the level of hypocrisy found in many campus religious outreaches. My issue has to do with unbelievers constant complaint that Christians try to shove their religion down their throats. And it's true, that happens a lot. So the academic atheist's response? Shove their anti-religion "beliefs" down theirs. This all looks like "atheist evangelism" to me. And that very concept, as far as I'm concerned, is contradictory to their insistence that they are NOT a religion.
But what bothers me the most is what atheist crusader Jesse Galef had to say: “I don’t think it’s unfair to say that groups like (the former Campus Crusade for Christ) are our cultural opponents.” CULTURAL OPPONENTS??? I have to say it again...CULTURAL OPPONENTS??????????????? I don't discount the fact that Christians' built-in predisposition to proselytize can often come off as strategic assaults (if you've ever foolishly invited Mormon missionaries into your home you'll probably understand what I mean). But atheist evangelism has, at it's core, nothing more than breaking down and eradicating beliefs that pose no threat to them and are of no harm to anyone secure in their faith. There seems to be a distinct "meanness" in their zeal to "convert". I can't help but see them as obsessively wanting to take away something from people they look down upon (and don't try to argue that they DON'T look down on believers, because the very idea that someone needs to be changed, needs to be re-wired and de-programmed is as condescending as the old folks in the front pews tossing out the tired "love the sinner, hate the sin" saw when pressed to discuss the possibility of gays in their church).
Cultural OPPONENTS??????????????? Why is that necessary? I'm not favoring believers over non-believers. I respect the right for everyone to hold dear the principles that give their lives meaning. Just because those principles aren't always the same with each person does not mean we have to go to war with those whose experience is not our own. And it doesn't mean that we have the right to demand that others adopt our principles because maybe we've somehow deluded ourselves into thinking that those we live by are better, are more rational, are more fulfilling than theirs. I'm not taking sides here, in this monumental CULTURE WAR (??????????????????????). I'd rather be a peacemaker. The only message I have to the atheist that has it's roots in religion is "do unto others as you would have them do to you". The only message I have for the believer that has atheistic overtones is "never stop exploring, always question". Those mandates are what I want to live by. And as much as I think those principle would benefit all of humanity I can't expect everyone in the world to adopt them.
(I would provide a link to the article but for some reason the site isn't loading.)
With all due respect to my friends who are atheists but I have to point out that, IMO, these non-theist college students are displaying every bit the level of hypocrisy found in many campus religious outreaches. My issue has to do with unbelievers constant complaint that Christians try to shove their religion down their throats. And it's true, that happens a lot. So the academic atheist's response? Shove their anti-religion "beliefs" down theirs. This all looks like "atheist evangelism" to me. And that very concept, as far as I'm concerned, is contradictory to their insistence that they are NOT a religion.
But what bothers me the most is what atheist crusader Jesse Galef had to say: “I don’t think it’s unfair to say that groups like (the former Campus Crusade for Christ) are our cultural opponents.” CULTURAL OPPONENTS??? I have to say it again...CULTURAL OPPONENTS??????????????? I don't discount the fact that Christians' built-in predisposition to proselytize can often come off as strategic assaults (if you've ever foolishly invited Mormon missionaries into your home you'll probably understand what I mean). But atheist evangelism has, at it's core, nothing more than breaking down and eradicating beliefs that pose no threat to them and are of no harm to anyone secure in their faith. There seems to be a distinct "meanness" in their zeal to "convert". I can't help but see them as obsessively wanting to take away something from people they look down upon (and don't try to argue that they DON'T look down on believers, because the very idea that someone needs to be changed, needs to be re-wired and de-programmed is as condescending as the old folks in the front pews tossing out the tired "love the sinner, hate the sin" saw when pressed to discuss the possibility of gays in their church).
Cultural OPPONENTS??????????????? Why is that necessary? I'm not favoring believers over non-believers. I respect the right for everyone to hold dear the principles that give their lives meaning. Just because those principles aren't always the same with each person does not mean we have to go to war with those whose experience is not our own. And it doesn't mean that we have the right to demand that others adopt our principles because maybe we've somehow deluded ourselves into thinking that those we live by are better, are more rational, are more fulfilling than theirs. I'm not taking sides here, in this monumental CULTURE WAR (??????????????????????). I'd rather be a peacemaker. The only message I have to the atheist that has it's roots in religion is "do unto others as you would have them do to you". The only message I have for the believer that has atheistic overtones is "never stop exploring, always question". Those mandates are what I want to live by. And as much as I think those principle would benefit all of humanity I can't expect everyone in the world to adopt them.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Dream Journal - early morning, Feb. 1, 2013
Most of the dreams I have are forgotten within moments after waking. The more intense ones may last a couple of hours before completely vanishing from my memory. But the one I had last night has stuck with me all day and I think I should probably write it out as best I can.
So, it starts with me and my wife at a concert or a movie, some kind of function that requires a theater. There is an intermission and we leave each other to go to the restroom, etc. I'm standing in a stall relieving myself and there's a guy in the one next to me who is controlling the flow of his urine in such a manner that the splashes made by the stream actually have a rhythm recognizable as a well known song. I'm amazed at this talent and try to compliment him. He just looks at me with sort of a condescension in his facial expression. Obviously he has no desire to talk to me. I say a few things on the way out, all of which are completely random and have nothing to do with the situation. Instead of saying "goodbye" I say "Be-bop-a-lula, baby!"
The program starts back up but the wife is nowhere to be found. I look all over for her and ask total strangers if they know where she's at. I start to panic. Next thing I know I'm in a car with my father driving. I start to grill him about where my wife might be, convinced that he knows. He says nothing...in many of the dreams I have of him he does not say a word. I get really, really pissed off that he won't tell me. I get mouthy and disrespectful, but he just looks straight ahead and drives.
Then I realize that wherever he is going is where my wife will be. It's not too long after that revelation that we pull up to a house and he gets out, walking to the door. I do the same and all of a sudden I know where I am and that my wife is probably not there. It's my mother's house.
I walk in and there she stands...she didn't look like my mother in the dream, but I knew this was who it was. I could not help but believe that dad had taken me to her because she didn't have long to live and I just broke down, sobbing "mama, mama, mama" with my head on her shoulder. Don't know where my dad went off to, but it was at this point that I woke up.
I lay in the bed almost as if I'd had a nightmare. I tried for a long time to put the pieces together and figure out what it all meant. The easy answer would be that my relationship with my mother is for all intents and purposes non-existent and this was a precursor to the inevitable time of reckoning. Then I thought there must be some reason that dad was the one who drove me there. They had been divorced for many years before his passing but she was always his true love. His demeanor was almost solemn as he took me there. Then there's the connection between losing my wife and finding my mother. There's got to be some kind of Jungian explanation for that. As for the pissin' musician, who knows why I still remember him. Maybe it's because he was so talented.
So, it starts with me and my wife at a concert or a movie, some kind of function that requires a theater. There is an intermission and we leave each other to go to the restroom, etc. I'm standing in a stall relieving myself and there's a guy in the one next to me who is controlling the flow of his urine in such a manner that the splashes made by the stream actually have a rhythm recognizable as a well known song. I'm amazed at this talent and try to compliment him. He just looks at me with sort of a condescension in his facial expression. Obviously he has no desire to talk to me. I say a few things on the way out, all of which are completely random and have nothing to do with the situation. Instead of saying "goodbye" I say "Be-bop-a-lula, baby!"
The program starts back up but the wife is nowhere to be found. I look all over for her and ask total strangers if they know where she's at. I start to panic. Next thing I know I'm in a car with my father driving. I start to grill him about where my wife might be, convinced that he knows. He says nothing...in many of the dreams I have of him he does not say a word. I get really, really pissed off that he won't tell me. I get mouthy and disrespectful, but he just looks straight ahead and drives.
Then I realize that wherever he is going is where my wife will be. It's not too long after that revelation that we pull up to a house and he gets out, walking to the door. I do the same and all of a sudden I know where I am and that my wife is probably not there. It's my mother's house.
I walk in and there she stands...she didn't look like my mother in the dream, but I knew this was who it was. I could not help but believe that dad had taken me to her because she didn't have long to live and I just broke down, sobbing "mama, mama, mama" with my head on her shoulder. Don't know where my dad went off to, but it was at this point that I woke up.
I lay in the bed almost as if I'd had a nightmare. I tried for a long time to put the pieces together and figure out what it all meant. The easy answer would be that my relationship with my mother is for all intents and purposes non-existent and this was a precursor to the inevitable time of reckoning. Then I thought there must be some reason that dad was the one who drove me there. They had been divorced for many years before his passing but she was always his true love. His demeanor was almost solemn as he took me there. Then there's the connection between losing my wife and finding my mother. There's got to be some kind of Jungian explanation for that. As for the pissin' musician, who knows why I still remember him. Maybe it's because he was so talented.
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