BELIEFS ARE FLEETING
One of the more interesting comments left below a recent blog posting of mine is that I have to decide what I must believe. That is totally anathema to me. I've lived a long time, and things I thought were absolutely true now appear to me to be not true. An open mind, free of judgments and belief systems is a healthy mind. But people insist they must believe in some scripted menu for life, some road map for life, some exclusive deduction about life that far too often excludes "the others." Below are some current "beliefs" that may or may not be true. However none are true because they fit some pre-conceived belief system or political posture...
People enter the field of psychiatry or psychology to find themselves. * People enter the field of theology to find God. * Chicago is called the "Windy City" because of the wind [NOT true]. * Trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Umar Abdulmutallab in federal court shows Obama coddles terrorists. * The Bush administration almost always indicted terror suspects as criminals and tried them in federal courts. * When viewing how the federal court system worked in trying terrorists, Republican Mayor of New York and GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, commented: "I was in awe of the system. It does demonstrate that we can give people a fair trial." [Jane Mayer story in 'The New Yorker']. * The Bible tells children to kill their parents when they conflict with the theology of the day. * The Bible tells parents to kill their children when they are sinful. * The Bible chastises rich people and tells people to give away everything and follow Christ. * The Bible tells people to pay their taxes and "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." * Roman Catholic priests married and had families until the Church felt is was losing too much money as these priests left their estates to their families...and thus the Church required priest to be celibate. * Some Popes married. * Rabbinical Judaism terribly mistreated the Essenes. * Adolf Hitler was greatly helped to power in Germany by American industrialists. * A young George W. Bush fathered a fetus that was then aborted with his family's help. * Because of the lies and exaggerations uncovered at an East Anglia university, climate change is a hoax. * Global warming and climate change are the same thing. * Record snowfalls in the southern U.S. states prove there is no global warming. * When climate change occurs, weather patterns and fronts are altered and areas that were traditionally cold are warmed and warm areas receive more preciptation including snow because evaporations around the globe put moisture in the air. * Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. * Official birth certificate records show Obama was clearly born in Hawaii. * Amazingly, the same people who criticize Obama for being a member of a specific church also say he is a Moslem. * A higher percentage of Roman Catholics in the U.S. use contraceptives then people in the general population. * Violent crime has gone down in states that have eased up on laws related to concealed weapons. * Violent crime has gone down to a greater extent in states that have greater restrictions on gun ownership. * Crime has gone down in states that have enacted capital punishment. * Crime has gone down to a greater degree in states that have no capital punishment. * Using the term "Libertarian Party" is alot like the Nazis advocating liberty for big business to do what it wants to do...that's is how Nazism took hold in Germany when corporations like I.G. Farben, Messerschmidt, Krupp, etc. got whatever they wanted, including huge military contracts. * The health care reform advocated by Democrats would have saved Medicare, offered health care to tens of millions of Americans without it, and got costs down because big insurance companies would FINALLY have some competition for rates. * Newt Gingrich would make a great president. * Paul Ryan would make a great president...as long as nobody carefully looks at his plan for America. * More Republicans have decided not to run for Congress than Democrats. * Today the term Independent means one is independent of intelligent thought and information. * Reid and Pelosi have been horrible leaders in Congress. * The Haitian earthquake happened because Haitians made a deal with the devil. * Stop reading!, in confuses the issue. * Rush Limbaugh is officially a convicted criminal. * These kinds of absolutes are not at all helpful in moving the nation or the world forward.
