If we accept that “men” have been made in the image or likeness of God, then whose image are “women” made in?
If it is true that nothing can come from nothing and that noting can come from something that is less perfect than itself, then how can it be that “women” have come from “men” when it is self-evident that “women” are much more beautiful than “men”?
Beauty is one of the necessary conditions of defining perfection.
I have been thinking to myself about this project that I know I cannot afford by myself and of which I am relying on the community to help make possible. And what I have been thinking is that if god and the universe what this to be, then it will come to pass and I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the next because that is what is directed of me to do.
I wish I had the power to conjure up the voice of the great spirit and grasp the ever so gentle whispers of assurance, but that is not who I am. I am a man who by rights should not be alive, let alone at the University of Washington studying History and Philosophy preparing for Law and the United Nations. It is only by grace that I am.
So, I guess it boils down to faith and trust that this is what I am supposed to be doing and just keep doing the next indicated thing.
What an incredible journey life is.
In all things I come to you
because you fill me with light
& my heart is dark
& now I am weighed down with carnivorous plight.
My mind is vexed with judgments
& I cannot see past my own eyes
For a foggy brainstorm of prejudices
& cavernous lies
Have taken hold of what is rightfully yours
It is the time of dime
the priest in me enshrined
the scholar in me lost
& hallowed in books throughout all time.
But I still cannot hear your voice
I never saw your burning bush
Yet I still kneel at your alter
& I know that I am a renegade son
Attempting to push
my way through this world into heaven.
I am going through hell
burning, working, twenty-four-seven
scratching more pennies than quarters
struggling, losing more dollars,
& I would do anything to win
But the gamble snatched me at the collar
& I had to learn the hard way
That I cannot buy my way in to your home.
But even recognizing this, that there is nothing that is not impermissible to doubt, even my belief in God and the most simplest and general things like arithmetic and geometry, I am still susceptible to being fooled because of my credulity, my willingness to accept for true that which I lack evidence to confirm.
Don’t mind me, I am reading #ReneDescates‘ Meditation One, and I now know that nothing in the world, or out of this world really exists. There is an “Evil Genius” plotting against me, and no I am not a paranoid schizophrenic, mad man, I am a philosopher who is completely justified in my doubting all that is or is not.
I think it is ironic how people pick and choose what of a religion to honor when it suits them to do so, but ignore the parts that do not fit so well with their perspective. I have studied several cultures who practice several religions and I have repeatedly encountered the sobering fact that regardless of what is written it is interpreted in many ways by many people. Not that I am not arguing that religion is bad, here I am just asserting an observation: If a person looks hard enough, they will find some line or other in a religious text to justify an act; or likewise to un-justify an act.
The point is that there is a difference between practicing a religion and “using” a religion and religion can be highly dangerous when it is used, no matter what religion it is.
For example: It was used to justify slavery, to justify the subjugation women, to justify colonization, to justify witch hunts and burning, and now it is being used to foster hatred of people who choose or are with someone of the same sex. In all of these cases religion has been “used” as a tool to justify some form of oppression which drives a wedge between human beings. To be fair, religion has also been the impetus for much good in the world, but for the sake of this conversation wherein the propagation of hostile views are being justified by religion, I feel that these points bear a lot of weight.
Regardless of the justification for it; hatred is still hatred and oppression is still oppression. Religion, as a moral standard does not give people a blank check for their behaviors, they are still morally responsible for their actions however ‘right’ they believe themselves to be.
Renaissance Revolutionary 