@kittykat said:
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> was not always like this. Overall <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is the best place to live and invest in, even though there are some
crazy things going on. These crazy and absurd things are because of the
new religious movements in which the Christian fundamentalists are
trying to takeover and integrate religion and state to reflect their
“moral” values. It’s so absurd that I read a survey that 67% of
Americans (in the survey) believe in the bibles account of human
creation over evolution.-Katrina
Yeah, though as far as I understand it there's quite a revolution
happenning in right wing/evangelical belief presently. Lots of
people are moving away from the usual arguments between liberalism
& conservatism and trying to understand the bible they way it
was actually written. In this case, Genesis, a lot of people are
realising that it was most probably picture language passed from
generation to generation by the camp fire, and not some kind of
dictation to Moses while he was picking up the 10 commandments.
The problem, as I understand it, is that evangelical theology relies
heavily on the view that every single word of the bible comes from God
(in the sense that God intended it to be precisely as it is whether the
words came directly or indirectly - though most theologians have dumped
the 'dictation' theory), and that way evangelicals have some kind of "rule
book" through which to judge right and wrong. I think its because
people like simplicity - it becomes easy to say "this is right" or
"this is wrong" if the bible is taken like that.
But like I say, I think a lot of people are coming round to the
idea that the bible is a book of people's experiences with
God. Not a rule book, or blueprint as some people insist.
People become a heck of a lot more accepting when they take understand
it this way - it stops being about politcs and people judging people,
it stops being about right and wrong, but about your experience with
God. Perhaps Christianity would have more of a positive influence on the US and US Politics if
that were the case. Perhaps the Pope might suggest that "if
you're going to have promiscuous sex then do it protected" rather than
consign millions of Africans to die from the result of aids and leave
lots of orphaned kids (as mentioned by The Times this week). The
way I understand it, God has an answer for sin in Jesus, but hell no
lets insist they pay the price anyway. I mean what is this deal
with us humans having to be right & stubbornly x or y to the point
of death ?!
I made an interesting observation the other day.
I think the theory of evolution is an excellent theory and I think,
to some degree, that it's been observed in a micro level (if I
understand it right we haven't had enough time to observe it on a macro
level yet). But evolution as a theory for the 'origin of species'
is a more interesting one. Personally I have absolutely no idea
about the method the universe came into being - I think primarily
because I wasn't there. But the interesting thing is that in one
circle there are a lot of people who believe in 'creation' theory and
you're not allowed to challenge them, or you're looked down on, and in
another circle there are a lot of people who believe in evolution as
the theory for the 'origin of species' and again, you're not allowed to
challenge them or you're looked down on. As far as I understand
it both theories require as much belief as each other and there are two
distinct camps that are totally convinced. Whatever happenned to
telling the truth by saying "I don't know!" ? We have a few
theories, lets enjoy them and investigate them, but why do we need to
take sides? Come on now, we should be bigger than that by now.
Whatever happenned to enjoying a mystery?
I'm sure its the fault of the USA. :)