Even Religious People Have Different Views?

September 16, 2009 · business, economics, education, environment, ethics and morals, faith, history, love, politics, society, war · 2 comments

Shocking! (sarcasm)

Surveys: U.S. Religious Activists Have ‘Widely Divergent’ Views

As much as I like some of the content on ChristianPost.com, today we have another article (see this post for another) which is too vague to be useful, other than to draw gross conclusions that can only be divisive, rather than edifying. I really hate it when news organizations (the mainstream/conservative/liberal/everyone press) don’t reference the actual questions. The phrasing of the questions is crucial!

For example, “Nearly half of conservatives (48 percent) believe scripture to be the literal word of God”. What was the question? Did they use “inerrant” or “literal” or some other word in the question? Did they ask the polled individual what they meant by that word?

In my denomination, The Church of the Nazarene, inerrancy is only applied to salvation1. So, if I answered, “the bible is inerrant in regards to salvation alone,” would that be a yes or no? Then it would be up to the poller to decide.

In regards to abortion, what are “most cases”? What kind of cases are people thinking about when they hear the question? I almost wrote that I was one of the 54%, because I read “some”. Imagine if “some” had heard “some” rather than “most”.

I guess I’m not a “conservative”. I think there needs be a lot of separation between state and church. I do not believe that because my faith helps me make decisions, that I should be banned from stating such. Nor do I think most people, if they truly thought about it, would want to squelch such (yes, there are a bunch of loud, obnoxious ones who would disagree with me).

I will say that this article notes the imbalance within the Christian community. Yes, helping your fellow man is a vital part of the Christian ethos and scripture. However, coercion by one’s government is not part of the deal. The Roman Catholic tradition has a great balance between what has become two sides, but Roman Catholics as a practical matter are having just the same issues.

The tradition, even in the Protestant Church (such as John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and the “grandparent” of my denomination), is there. It is the rhetoric, and the American desire for a “simple”, “black-and-white” answer that is creating this insanity, along with the quick response medium of the internet (to which, of course, I’m contributing).

It is also the church, as a whole, that is at fault in the responses to this poll. What is the church teaching? Is it teaching? Is it helping its people wrestle with the faith? It IS okay to wrestle with the faith! That’s what the church fathers did!

This also does bring back to mind this article at the (evil) FoxNews: Has Christian America Come to an End?

1We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments,given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith. (see Article IV in our Manual)

Did You Know? (Version 3.0)

December 6, 2008 · Technological Enervation, business, economics, education, environment, ethics and morals, faith, fun, history, science, society, technology · 1 comment

hattip: Douglas Karr

Turn Off the Lights for Your Health

December 19, 2007 · Technological Enervation, environment, faith, life hack, politics, science, society · 1 comment

Back in August, I wrote about light pollution. I can even still remember the night sky that caused me to write it.

Yesterday, a blog post appeared on the Clampham Institute website discussing the detrimental links between artificial light and cancer (hattip to: The Point). Apparently, in the same article in the New Yorker that generated the Wired.com story (which is what caused me to post in August), David Owens (the author of the New Yorker article) references this potential link between artificial light and cancer.

If artificial light is adding to cancer, what else does it do?

Even Dumb (or Bad) Movies Can Make You Think

December 14, 2007 · environment, ethics and morals, faith, science, society · Comments Off

In his review of I Am Legend, Todd Hertz says:

It’s an interesting direction for a movie about the impact of scientific advancement. So what is it saying about science and God? That scientific advances foolishly allow man to play God? Or that science is comparable to that fast car capable of good or evil, depending on the driver?

I like movies that make me ask questions, but the true point of a good movie is to make you think (or at least a factor in what I call a good movie). I don’t like it when movies give you all the answers (except for the fact that if they leave something open, people believe that there should be a sequel). What I find odd is that Mr. Hertz seems to knock the movie for not answering the questions, but then he has questions of the reader at the end of his review, that are not “right or wrong” questions, but questions that encourage thought and discussion.

Men and Marriage

December 5, 2007 · economics, environment, ethics and morals, faith, history, love, politics, society · Comments Off

Insurance companies are pushing hard for for peopl to take care of themselves with various wellness initiatives. For men, on of the biggest is marriage:

Marriage Could Save Your Life
hattip to:The Point

Marriage is also good for the environment

However, there are a few downsides.

Mercifully, God has granted me a wonderful marriage to a wonderful wife, so I’m not concerned about the downsides personally. With all the upheaval and lances aimed at (traditional) marriage, society had better start paying attention.

The Quiet (some say silenced) Side of Anthopogenic Climate Change

November 10, 2007 · education, environment, faith, history, science, society · Comments Off

KLTV had an interesting segment on one of their news shows recently about anthropogenic global warming. I wish I could embed it in this post, but they make it rather difficult, so here is the link.

Hat Tip to: NewsBusters.org

The New City Transit System

November 10, 2007 · business, economics, environment, society, technology · Comments Off

A professor at MIT has come out with a design for a individual/public-transit concept, with cars for rent on every corner. Frankly, sounds like one of the many sci-fi books I’ve read over the years, but as a victim of mass transit, I can certainly understand this concept as a better than nothing situation.

The article: MIT reinvents the wheel with foldable, stackable car ( archived copy )

Hat Tip to: Slashdot

Rightly Green

October 30, 2007 · environment, politics · Comments Off

The left would have us believe that to be an environmentalist you have to believe in catastrophic threats, dramatic increases in government power and economically draconian solutions. Such a big-government bureaucracy, trial-lawyer-litigation and excessive-regulation “environmentalism” does a poor job of protecting the environment while it erodes individual freedom, destroys jobs and weakens our country.

The time has come for the development of a mainstream environmentalism as an alternative to big bureaucracy and big litigation environmentalism. You could call it “green conservatism,” but it’s really the mainstream environmental approach that has worked so well in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt epitomized this approach when he said, “The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose and method.

Newt Gingrich

One of the things that truly bothers me about “the right” is that they have allowed the environmentalist-left to define the situation. This seems to be a regular behavior of the Republican Party as a whole. Of course, “the right” has ignored the environmentalist-left for so long that even those of us supposedly on “the right” don’t want to be painted with the environmentalist tag, as it invariably comes with a “left-leaning” connotation.

“Right-wing Christian” people are starting to attempt to redefine the framework and are being vilified by both “the right” and “the left.” I’ve been recycling since I was a kid. There are stories about my avidness that cause many to just shake their heads. I understand what happens when things are no longer repaired, but just thrown out.

What has happened in regards to environmentalism is what is happening to the entire democratic (yes, officially republic) system and the society of the Unites States as a whole—over politization.

I’m all for a candidate who will “heal” the nation, but that won’t happen. I wish I could figure out how to get people that are so busy vilifying the other guy to talk. Maybe, for once, something good might actually get done, rather than political payoff and pork.

Who Grew My Food?

October 2, 2007 · business, education, environment, society, technology · 1 comment

Okay, I have to admit succumbing to the marketing part of this, but it is pretty cool. Using a code on the label of a banana, you can see where that banana was grown, and who grew it. That is pretty slick. I understand the mantra of buy local, and living in a strongly agricultural community I know some of the people who grow the food I eat (which is pretty cool in and of itself). Regardless of how you feel about buying from someplace outside of your local area (Hey, it’s a banana. It’ll be outside of my local area.), seeing the source of food removes a few more layers of distance between the tables of far too many (sub)urbanites and the soil.

Full Reprint Below

DOLEORGANIC.COM
Banana Code Connects Consumers & Farm

“In a world where the concept of ethics seems to have gone bananas, it turns out that bananas can teach a lesson or two about ethics,” observes Andrew Wooldridge, of Inside Work. With the launch of doleorganic.com, consumers can use the three-digit code on labels for Dole organic bananas to virtually visit the farm where the fruit was grown: view the fields via Google Earth; read e-mails from farm workers; learn about the growing regions and their local communities.

“Customers can personally monitor the production and treatment of their fruit from the tree to the grocer,” says Wooldridge. “The process assures the customer that their bananas have been raised to the proper organic standards on an environmentally friendly, holistically minded plantation.”

The site reflects Dole’s dedication to transparency, sustainability and corporate responsibility. It’s these kinds of practices, together with the company’s commitment to nutrition education, which won Dole recognition in Ethisphere Magazine‘s 2007 World’s Most Ethical Companies Ranking, as the most ethical company in the “Agricultural & Food Processing” category.

Doleorganic.com includes a blog, which features correspondence between an American consumer and workers at the Don Pedro Farm in La Guajira, Columbia. One letter is from a harvester, Hicho Arpushana, of the Wayuu Indian Tribe, who says, “Because people like you choose our product, I have a good job in this farm and my wife and seven children have a better life…I will keep harvesting the best bananas for you.”  Likewise, the consumer says she will now be thinking “of the people and the beautiful landscape at Don Pedro Farm every time I eat a Dole organic banana.” She’ll also be enjoying a bevy of nutrition benefits, including:

See Full Issue

How Not to Make a Cleaner Environment

September 4, 2007 · business, economics, environment, politics · 1 comment

This was slashdotted today, and I can see why: Dirty Secret—Green Cars Automakers Won’t Sell You (Archived Copy)

Not only can’t you buy one, but the government says it’s currently illegal for automakers to sell these green cars outside of the special states. Under terms of the Clean Air Act—in the kind of delicious irony only our government can pull off…

Someone is bound to say that it is the Bush Administration’s fault, and it is, only because they didn’t cut red tape that other already put up. Still this is just wacked, but as it says above, “only our government can pull [it] off…”

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