Where is Religion? Part 2

Now that you've hopefully made is safely past the first gauntlet, we arrive at big reason #2. (Making them BIG reasons sounds way more important.)

There is no "I" in team. Anyone who has played sports or been involved in some sort of team operation has heard this tired cliche. Anyone who is known as a "smart ass" has responded with this:

But there is a me.

Ahh yes, The D had to run a couple laps after uttering that brilliant one to his football coach in high school. Were it so humorous in today's socIety, where I is right in the middle and prevalent. (How convenient for me and my blog) Society today is geared toward us, the individual. Products are changed, introduced and eliminated to attract you, the consumer. Emails pop up in your inbox everyday advertising things that are tailored to your interests based on web surfing. TV comes in hundreds of channels to make sure you can get exactly what you want. Even reality tv puts you, the viewer and voter, in charge of the people in the show. (It is a very, very, very sad day in America when more people vote for American Idol than for the president. It's a travesty and a shame and pathetic.) You're told to look out for number one, what's best for you. You watch as politician after politician gets caught up in a scam because they were greedy and selfish. What I'm every so subtly getting at is that life in America is all about you.

With this selfishness (promoted or otherwise) that has invaded society, comes a loss of service. Let me explain a little better. What is a servant? As always, let's define

1. a person employed by another, especially to do household duties. 2. a person devoted to another or to a cause, creed.

The very definition is the opposite of selfishness. With selfishness comes many things, but being this is a specific topic, I will stick to it. Religion, and I'm speaking in terms of protestant/christian religion since it's all I'm very familiar with, is not there to serve you. Yes, there are things within that can help you, help your life, give you peace of mind, hope for a wonderful eternity after death, etc., but it is certainly not there to serve you. However, with everything else in life aimed at pleasing us, we often take that mentality and influence into the church, and expect religion to be the same way. It's as if we should go on religion.com and expect the religions to bid for our services like a car insurance company.

Yes, I know, it sounds ridiculous, but there are many times where people take religion and chance it to fit their needs and desires, kind of like a theological buffet. I'll take a bit of forgiveness, some peace of mind, a little of this heaven here, that looks good, I'll pass on the judgement and sin, and oh dear, the fire and brimstone just doesn't look fresh, no thanks. To these people, religion should make them feel good and happy and peaceful and help them out in times of need (notice the selfish theme in those demands), but shouldn't tell them what to do or scold them. Their relationship with God should be on their terms and involve only what they want, the true nature of selfishness, and the exact opposite of being a servant.

This part, however, is what turns a lot of people off from religion and church. Morality. There are a growing number of people in this country that have ascribed to a nihilistic relative morality in which right and wrong is subject to the individuals lifestyle and desires. How much easier is it to live a moral life if you yourself decide what a moral life is? It is the crowning achievement of selfishness and pomposity! But how can you be a religious person and still decide your own morality in this sense? Who wants to be bothered with religion when you can make your own morality?

And here comes the next small point within the big one right on the heels of that statement. Ease! Not only is life here in America a me centered life, but it's also a fast paced, immediate gratification and accessibility existence every single day. Information is readily available on lightning fast computers, cell phones, hundreds of radio and tv channels. Cell phones allow us to talk to anyone we want immediately. Don't want to wait for it to dial and for the 2 rings? Text message someone! Food is fast, microwaveable, or bought at any of the fast food joints that surround our daily travels. When we want something, we want it now.

This culture of immediacy has changed our perspective on life. We think in shorter and shorter terms everyday as life becomes faster and faster. Any need that pops up, we can take care of right away with our access to so many things. In some cases, that's great. Thirsty? Get a drink. Hungry? Get a snack. Feel an emptiness in your soul? Go do some drugs.

Wait. One of those doesn't fit. With such an instantaneous satisfaction of our needs, we expect it to be that way for them all, and unfortunately, often try to satisfy them all with quick fixes. Far too often, people use temporal means to satisfy ethereal needs. Please read that again. In essence, it's the crux of the last part of this point. Religion, church, relationship with God, whatever you want to call it; none of these are short term fixes. None of these will provide instant and tangible results every single time. To many who have been overtaken by this culture, that just isn't good enough.

So no, there is no I in team, but there is a me, and as I can attest, that will get you the immediate fulfillment, of running some laps.

--The D

(I apologize to my readers for this post. I'm very very tired and worn out and my mind just isn't with it right now. To me, it is my best effort within these circumstances, however far from my best work. I will do my best for tomorrow which will be far more passionate and personal. Please join me.)

Where is Religion? Part I

I recently had a conversation with someone, and the topic turned to religion. The person I was talking to was wondering why religion has taken such a back seat in today's society, and why it has lost importance and become nearly archaic. It brought up a lot of thoughts over the past couple days, and so I've decided to explore this topic with you, my readers. (Ok, I only have one reader, but I'm campaigning for plural readers.) I've thought about this over and over, and have come up with three reasons for this happening. Being that I would like to talk about each reason with enough depth to be of value, and because it's my damn blog, I'm going to split it up into a 3 part series, one per night starting tonight. Well, let's get started.

1. When was the last time you were in awe? For those of you who have read my entries over the years, you know I love to define terms so I know exactly what I'm talking about. Let's define awe:

a mixed feeling of reverence, fear, and wonder.

Now try and answer it. When was the last time you were honestly in awe? It's a tough answer for anyone. I myself am not completely sure, and I pride myself on being someone who thoroughly enjoys little things in life that are meant to be noticed and appreciated. But awed? I'm not sure.

There is a startling lack of awe in this country. (I speak in terms of America because of my lack of cultural and sociological knowledge of other countries. Canada doesn't count though, they're like JV America) Rarely in everyday life are we awestruck by nature, or something that happens, or anything really. Not a heck of a lot even surprises us anymore! Think about this, you get in your car, turn it on, play a cd and get GPS directions to anywhere in the country right on your screen in the dashboard. (I don't have GPS, but I'm just saying) Raise your hand if this impresses you. Exactly, no hands, not even mine. But think about it for a second. Do you know how complex that whole process is? That satellites up in freaking space are beaming down information that is precise within a couple feet!? It's amazing! But to us here in lavish America, it's daily life. I won't bore you with examples of more things that should amaze us but don't. Instead, I'll bore you with the reason behind it.

Science.

Ahh yes, science. Before I even start, I will try and fend off the knee-jerkers before I get a bunch of comments like "Why are you against science!?" or some other idiotic rant. I'm not against science by any means. Science has created a level of comfort and progress unheard of in the history of mankind. Besides that, there's a lot of science that's just damn cool to know about. Big fan of science over here, big fan. What people use science for however, is a different story. Science to me just shows how amazing this world is and points to a creator. But in this time of ever increasing knowledge (which creates an ever increasing feeling of independence and pseudo-sophistication), science is often used to disprove religion, rather than establish even more credibility for it.

Science has given us reasons for everything, seen and unseen. There's even a lot of science so advanced, that normal adults will never understand. It has percolated into everyday thought that everything must have a reason; everything has a rational explanation. This is what I refer to as the over intellectualizing of America. That's why no one is in awe anymore. We have come so far in this country, and it is wonderful because of the luxuries it provides and the quality of life it has improved, but it has filled us with a sense of pride, super confidence, and a corner on the market of sophistication. This also ties in with how we look at previous generations. Let me explain.

Religion to the previous generations was a vital part of life. I'm not saying it isn't now to a lot of people, but you can't disagree with it's decline in importance in today's society. To the generation that came to America in the first place, they came for religious reasons, desiring a land where they could practice their religion without persecution. (Regardless what history books NOW say) Our founding fathers were no doubt religious. The documents that we adhere to to this day (i.e. Constitution, Declaration of Independence) allude to God on several occasions, and in their personal writings, they founding fathers speak of God many times over. Moving up a hundred and some odd years, the previous generations in the 1900's still stuck to religion as a base for so many other things, and were not ashamed of it. Pop culture in the 50's and early 60's even had God in it, and no one got all hussy about it. Religion was important to the generations of our past. However, the scientific explosion of the past 40 years has given the more recent generations this feeling of being so much more sophisticated than our parents and grandparents. But how does this relate to religion? I'll explain again.

Progress is the driving force behind science. Oddly enough, it is also one of its products. There are two types of progressive thinking in my opinion. First, a progressive thinking that desires to build upon something already in place to make it better, but not eschew the original. Second, a progressive thinking that desires to eradicate the original and replace something that you think is better. Here's where religion comes in. Religion, by many, is seen as the credo of the generations before us, and because of our intellectual pride, it is unfortunately seen as antiquated. This is where progressive thinking #2 comes in. Instead of seeing religion and building upon it by adding science, we have come to try and replace it with science.

Science has become our intellectual tower of Babel.

Read that one again and think about it. If you know anything about the tower of Babel, great. If you don't, I'll give a quick lesson. After the flood, you know, the one with Noah, his descendants moved to this new place, and decided to build a tower so high, that it would reach to heaven. God, seeing this prideful display, confounded their speech so that further work on the tower would be impossible because no one could understand each other. Actually, it sounds rather amusing, but that's your history lesson.

Part 1 in a nutshell? Science has created a vacuum in the unexplainable, and in many minds, replaced religion, seeing no need for a God when everything else can be explained or intellectualized. If it can't be explained now? Well, look at our progress! It will be soon. Proof is what is required now, not belief. And brick by scientific brick, our tower rises.

Part 2 tomorrow night!

Muslims and ILLEGAL immigrants

Whether or not you follow politics and current events is immaterial right now. Today, news was out about a terrorist plot to kill "as many Americans as possible" at Fort Dix in NJ. Some of you may have heard about it, some of you may not pay attention. I'd like to take some time to delve into this subject and some things behind it, and i urge you and plead with you just to give me a few minutes of your time and read on. After all, whether you like politics, or hate it, it affects you in many, many different forms, and can be as important as life or death. Thing I'm exaggerating? How about the thousands of people who died in 9/11, I'm sure many of them couldn't give a crap about politics, and yet it was part of their demise. Moving on.

To give a quick recap, a group of 6 men who lived in NJ had been infiltrated by the FBI after a video store clerk called the cops after receiving a suspicious video tape they had asked him to convert to DVD. That's the gist of it, and that's pretty much what you'll hear on TV and in print. These 6 men had planned to use AK-47's and other firearms, possibly using RPG's as well, to kill as many Americans as the could at Fort Dix. Why Fort Dix? Because one of them delivered pizza there for a long time and knew the place like the palm of his hand.

What you may not hear is that all 6 were muslim. Surprised? I hope not. If you're surprised by that last statement, I will ask you to please get a clue. 4 of the 6 were born in the former Yugoslavia and are ethnic Albanian (see: Muslim). One was born in Jordan, and another in Turkey. Now Darrell, you say, how can you assume they are muslim just because of their birthplace? Good question. The video they wanted reproduced at the video store was titled "19" in reference to the 19 hijackers of Sept. 11th. They replicated other al-Qaeda videos in their dress and actions, and chanted repeatedly, Allah Akbar, which means god is great. So yes, they were all muslim. Further more, only three of these men were legally in the United States. Yes, that's right, three of the men were ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS (I will never call the anything other than that) Wow, you mean, not all illegal immigrants are Mexican? Nope. Let's move on.

For now, we'll look at the Muslim aspect. Again, it should come as no surprise considering that basically every act of terrorism in this modern age has been committed by Muslims doing this in the name of Allah. This alone begs scores of questions. I will attempt a few.

1. Considering we have yet another in the long line of terrorist plots by muslims, is there some reason that we are not profiling in every arena of society? Profiling has been given such a dirty name lately, but we forget that there are FBI and CIA people who are professionals at profiling. It's one of the ways they catch serial killers! That you wouldn't target young to middle aged Muslim men for more searches than anyone absolutely flies in the face of logic. Oh, but Darrell, most Muslims are peaceful individuals and are not associated with this fanaticism. You're right, absolutely. 99% of all Muslims are peaceful, I won't dispute that, I agree. As of now, there are about 1 billion Muslims in the world today. Anyone know what 1% of a billion is? That's right! 10 million. So if only 1% of all Muslims hate us and want to kill us, then I would profile them like nobodies business, cause that's still a LOT of people who hate us.

2. Why do Muslim extremists hate us so much? According to people I have talked to on this subject, and this also goes along with much I've heard and read in certain news arenas, it must be because of something we did to them. Oppression is a good one batted around, though I'm not sure what oppression they refer to. Here's the problem. First, we look at this fanatical brand of Islam through American tinted glasses. Things here are relatively rational. There is an explanation for things, there is a cause and effect in place here in America for the most part. It is stupid to use logic that works in America for other cultures and regions that have had a history of fanatic violence dating back to the 7th century! This is not some new development people! By looking through these glasses, we come to the conclusion that there MUST be a reason for it, it couldn't be irrational. Hmm, wrong. Just today, by odd coincidence, I ran across a story in the Daily News. It talked about a TV show called "Tomorrow's Pioneers" for Palestinian kids that had a Mickey Mouse clone dancing and singing and talking to these delightful children. (For those of you who don't know Palestinians, they are the country always fighting Israel. Yes, the middle east.) In his squeaky cute voice, Farfur the mouse, the clone of Mickey, tells children to drink milk, pray daily, and to take up AK-47 assault rifles to defeat Israel and the US. Yummy. He taunts Bush, Rice, Israeli prime minister current and past. His side kick, a girl named Saraa, says things like "we want to resist against the enemy, and we don't want to surrender." This is only a piece of the story and what they were saying to little kids in that area. Yeah, this sounds rational. We must be oppressing them by not letting Barney spew this hatred.

I would also like to point out one quick thing before moving quickly to illegal immigration. Back in mid February of this year, a lone gunman opened fire in a Salt Lake City mall, killing five and wounding four people before being shot by an off duty cop. His name was Sulejmen Talovic, he was 18, may he rot in hell. Our foully departed was a MUSLIM refugee from...*drum roll*...Bosnia! Means nothing to you does it. Didn't think so. Bosnia is party of the former Yugoslavia, where four of the six men in this latest terrorist plot came from as well. Hmm. I'm not making some wild assumption, but it's an interesting point, and should be thought about. Moving on.

Not enough will be made about the fact that 3 of these guys are ILLEGALLY here in the USA. This begs some more points and questions. In regards to the immense problem we have with illegal immigrants (not freaking undocumented workers, they're ILLEGAL), there are two issues. What to do with the millions already here, and what to do about the millions trying to get here. As far as I'm concerned, we should place top priority on closing our borders to illegals. Legal movement between countries is fine; illegal is not. It is, in fact, illegal. Just making sure I mention that seven or eight times. Most people think that the illegal immigration issue is just about Mexicans coming across the border in droves. While it is mainly about that, and mainly concerning economic issues, it's not the only thing. Our insecure borders leave a weak, vulnerable point through which people wanting to "kill as many Americans as possible" can enter into our society, blend in, and plot our destruction. Have you heard about the story of middle eastern men shaving off their beards and posing as Mexicans coming across our southern border? Please wake up and pay attention! Our southern border is a sieve right now. It is estimated that around 8,000 people cross the southern border EVERY DAY. Every freaking day!!! Not everyone of those people are nice and gentle Mexicans just looking to have a better life for themselves. Some of those are people looking to kill you, yes, YOU. To them, it makes no difference what your political stance is, how much you love Iranian culture, how much you make, or whether you have the latest iPod or not. To them, you are an American, and that is reason enough to shoot you, cut your head off, or whatever despicable act of death they have in mind. This issue trumps politics because of those very reasons, and yet nothing is done.

If you've read this far, I thank you. I feel that there is a lot of really important issues here that affect every single one of us in this country (that are here LEGALLY, not ILLEGALLY like all the ILLEGAL immigrants). I've heard so many reasons for not liking politics, whether it's boring, or not entertaining to them, or it just doesn't affect them. Like I said about the victims of 9/11, it makes no difference whether you like it or not, it WILL affect you, and that effect could be life or death. In my mind, that's reason enough to pay attention. As always, I encourage intelligent comments and questions as I have done plenty of research about all this stuff and given a lot of my intellect to the topic. I would appreciate the same. Below are a couple links that are also important.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070508/NEWS01/70508027

This link is a brief description of the men involved in this plot.

http://epaper.pressofac.com/images/Duka%20Dritan%20Complaint.pdf

This link is the actual complaint in this case and is a very interesting and detailed read about these men, their actions and their words which were recorded by the FBI infiltrators and is written in this. Simply to read some of the things they say is very important in understanding this blind hatred they have for you and I, and their desire to kill us all, regardless of everything else. Please read it, even just for that reason alone. And please, get involved. You don't have to join up on a campaign or something like that, just know what's going on in this country and in the world. You are affected by a score of political issues, both socially and economically, and if you sit back and ignore it and continue to spend all your time watching Dancing with the Stars and worrying about the plight of Paris Hilton, then you will have no say or idea about those effects that could mean dire consequences for you, whether you like politics or not. Thanks.

The D