Is Obama facilitating change or forcing it? Here's today's quote.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. ~ William Pitt
In our recent political history, this might be applied to some of the actions of GW Bush, such as the war on Iraq, wiretapping, suspending habeas corpus for Gitmo detainees, etc.
It could also be applied to the Obama Administration, in the way that they forced through their various enormous spending bills, as well as their upcoming "carbon offsets" (a.k.a as 'cap and trade') legislation. Trust me, it will be urgent and necessary.
As we have seen in the Obama administration, you don't need time to read or openly debate legislation, you just need time to manipulate a majority vote.
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The video below is interesting, though a little hard core for me – it both appeals and repulses. But I like this quote:
All true passion comes out of anguish.
It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error.
I came across this while reading today (yes, it was pleasure reading ;):
It is this same basic question of historicity, moreover, that sharply distinguishes Christianity form the mystery religions that flourished in the Middle East at much the same time and with which it has often been compared. There are, of course, certain parallels and similarities between them, although these have been much exaggerated, as B.M. Metzger and others have shown.
Many of the supposed parallels, indeed, result from an arbitrary amalgamation of heterogeneous elements drawn from a number of different religions, out of which is built up, in Albert Schweitzer's words, "a kind of universal mystery-religion which never really existed, least of all in Paul's day."
The NT, moreover, was written almost esclusively by Jews, whose "strict monotheism and traditional intolerance of syncretism" would have militated strongly against any wholesale borrowing from pagain cults.
But the fundamental difference is the historical basis of the Christian faith over against the mythological character of the mystery religions. The deities they proclaimed were no more than "nebulous figures of an imagineary past," whereas the Jesus of the apostolic kerygma has a historical person who had lived and died only a very few years before the first NT documents were written.
The mystery religions essentially celebrate a dying nature god who then, like the coming of spring, is revived or reborn. There is all the difference in the world between this and the resurrection "on the third day" of a historical figure to whose resurrection appearances many could testify from personal experience.
It is significant, moreover, that the references to a three-day gap between death and revival that we find in regard to Attis (possibly Adonis according to one account) and Osiris cannot be dated earlier than the second century A.D., while the tradition about the resurrection of Christ on the third day, as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15, can be traced back to well before the middle of the first century.
So, if borrowings were made from one religion to another, it is tolerably clear which way they went.
See also Did Christianity Borrow from the Mystery Religions?
From Marcus Tullius Cicero, on W vs. Obama? (courtesy of Church of the Masses):
"I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity."
"Evolutionists have done to science what hypocrites have done to
religion. They leap through the so-called paleontological record like a
Disney cartoon kangaroo, making statements that have more to do with an
overripe imagination rather than with true science. They are
unregulated speculators with ridiculous theories that are leaving the
minds of todays youth bankrupt, and they need to be held to some sort
of intellectual accountability. Im just one incompetent idiot thats
trying to do that."
"Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes."
– Pope John Paul II
False absolutes and idolatries like scientism (science is the only valid way of knowing), evolutionism (‘it’s real science, I swear! As sure as gravity’), feticide (‘it’s just a blob of cells, and it is better to kill it than to allow it to suffer’), eugenics (‘we’re just helping Darwinism along, it’s for the good of the species’), slavery (‘of course they are less evolved!’), sexual permissiveness (‘people can’t be expected or encouraged to abstain, it’s against nature’ or ‘just because we can never produce progeny doesn’t mean that it’s unnatural’), etc.
Superstitions and errors like … [anti-religionists and thinkers (somewhat mutually exclusive groups), have a field day]
Here are some of my favorite quotes about politics, by politicians or somehow vaguely connected to politics only in the deep recesses of my brain.
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Just to show that I can listen to and appreciate a good quip even if I disagree with the sentiment, here are my favorite atheist (or "agnosticish") quotes from Quotes of the Day.
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