- Human Interrelationships
- Corporal punishment fails to correct behavior in the long-term and serves only to create resentment and a feeling of diminished self-worth within the child that leads to further developmental issues within the future that can only be off-set if the child has a naturally loving, affectionate, and sensitive disposition which allows them to view their past with a perspective of empathy and understanding, which is rare especially if their family life doesn't nurture it, and/or if their parents provide the child with tender love and support.
- Vegetarianism
- Although it is the nature of all creatures to consume in order to obtain energy and survive, and although the ideal, healthy human diet (as far as I know) is one of little amounts of meat coupled with a large proportion of other foods, as a human being who is capable of making a conscious choice to either spare or take the life of an animal I think it would be best for the world and the universe as a whole to make the decision to spare it's life, especially when a large proportion of my species decides to consume more than their fair share of them. And, in so doing, I practice empathy, love, and compassion which has an innumerable deal of worth in and of it's self.
- Religion
- Religion results mainly from a lack of scientific understanding and a great deal of imagination, which leads all societies into assumption that the actions of their surroundings are dictated by spiritual forces, or deities, and that there exists several different types or stages of religion.
- If the society more often confronts environmental issues, such as coming monsoons or blazing summer droughts, than their deities are more often animalistic or environmental.
- If their society more often confronts political issues, such as conflicts with competing tribes or stressful inner political strife, then their deities are more often anthropomorphic.
- When the dominant society is tolerant and democratic towards the sub-cultures within it, than it is more often polytheistic.
- When the dominant society is intolerant of the sub-cultures that exist within it and it is totalitarian, then it becomes monotheistic, usually with the leading political figure identifying him or herself with the monotheistic god and/or with a written text attatched to the religion in order to transport a universal code of commands across cultural lines and maintain control.
- When a society is politically secularized, democratic, tolerant of the religious beliefs of it's sub-groups, and makes it's decisions based upon scientific analysis and evidence rather than religious superstition, then it's members become ethically relativist, and eventually atheistic or belief in a deity which oversees elements of life that still lack scientific explanation and that aren't concerned with moral questions, such as in the case of the cosmic god.
- The god of the Abrahamic religions is only widely recognized and accepted today due it's ability to adapt to ever-changing political needs over the last six thousand or so years. A more rigid or less accessible set of beliefs would've been abandoned for more favourable ones which would be capable of justifying the political power of kings, emperors, and religious leaders through connection to a deity as well as to inspire compassion, hope, and law in order to keep the general population appeased. But since it's basis is built around monotheism, which insists upon infallibility in spite of ludicrous claims, and secularism demands evidence of those claims, than it's likely that the Abrahamic god's authority will slowly diminish in so long as the society prefers secularism, tolerance, and democracy over religious superstition and totalitarianism, which can be seen to be true as evidenced by Bruce Almighty. :) But, if the society takes a spill and a dictatorship is created with strong religious or, mainly conservative/nationalistic, idealogical support, then it would bring rise to a monotheistic god or something quite like it, whither it be the Abrahamic god or another.
- Monotheism inherently discourages empathetic understanding for animals because, should an imaginative group of people come to empathize with the animals they slaughter, then rites and rituals to atone for the slaughter will be created and the animal will be elevated to the level of a deity. These then gives rise to the belief in local deities which threaten the authority of the monotheistic deity. So it's often the role of the monotheistic tradition to provide the people with a system of stratification which places humans above animals.
- The up-side to supernatural beliefs which are sympathetic to the death of animals is a greater respect for nature. The down-side is when the imagined ramifications of killing an animal are considered to be so astronomical that animal or human sacrifice is required to seek appeasement. In the story of Abraham and Isaac, in which god wishes for the Abraham to sacrifice his son as a test of obedience, only to inform Abraham in the last moment to desist. From a modern perspective, this tale seems barbaric. The insistence upon blind obedience in the Old Testament is taken to such terrifying heights. But to those who crafted the fable, the lesson could have been that one shouldn't sacrifice one's sons, and by that token anybody, to God. This could have been a highly enlightened perspective in a time when other indigenous superstitions could've easily brought human sacrifice into vogue.
- Oh yeah: I don't believe in the Abrahamic god. There's good in those religious, which can't and shouldn't be denied, and since I don't think it's plausible that I'll have the opportunity to live beyond this life, I don't make a big deal over whither or not somebody is of one religion or another, in so long as they're a good person. Trying to "convert" them would be a waste of time and only emphasizes our differences and alienate people when what we need is love, compassion, and understanding between people more so than conflict. But, I personally think compassion can do without religion and just because I'm agnostic, it doesn't mean I should consider human life as meaningless and feel as though, because there's moral ambiguity in life, that I should act any less good than I would if I was religious. In fact, I think I have the capacity to be more empathetic and more understanding without religion than with it because without it, I'm able to make up my own mind about what actions I should take and in what I think is good when a religion, which was built on a structure of superstition along political lines, would ultimately be limiting in some aspects.
- Gov'ment
- The government is given too much power when it's allowed to execute it's citizens.
- The government is given too little power when it's not allowed to provide it's citizens basic health care coverage.
- A society loses it's heart and soul when it loses it's natural beauty. Just as diversity reminds us to be tolerant of those who are different than us, being close to nature reminds us that humans aren't all that exist on this world. And the peace that nature brings to the soul is completely invaluable.
- Little Beliefs
- There's nothing sexier than a compassionate soul with a rich, vivid imagination.
- Everything has it's limitations and nothing fulfills all the potential needs necessary for total, self-sufficient survival and autonomy. I suppose if I had to point to a creature which is most self-sufficient and beneficial to the world and the environment around it, I would say that would be a tree. With the exception of some sunlight, water, space, and time, a tree takes nothing of importance to other living creatures, unless if there are other living creatures which feed on pollutants, in the ecosystem and it only provides shelter, food, shade, resources, and oxygen, the most precious gift of all. It's a wholly beautiful creature, the tree. But if I was to look at any other creature, then I may think the same about them after a little bit, hypothetically.
- I treat everything I come across as though it could it potentially be a living being whither it be a cloud or a word. I can't prove that they are in any way, which begs the question "how do you define 'living' anyways?" But it helps me consider the ways in which they impact their "ecosystem", the nature of their "evolution" and how they've come to assume the form that they have after imagining what it would be like to exist and mature within their environments with all the factors I can muster up coming into play. And as far as their sentience is concerned, I just wonder what quality would that take on? Such as, if a particular squid communicates to other squids by flashing colour, does it think in buzzing, all-consuming waves of colour as well? And then I go into further questions such as whither it has a concept of it's self or not and a concept of it's environment or not, and if so, how developed would it be and what would it entail given it's needs and such? It's such silly, unformed science based on scant pieces of information I piece together and a great deal of imagination, but it's what I come to love to do, and I think those sort of pursuits are really valuable even if they're just a few items in the recipe of a fully formed idea (especially if it remains in the realm of supposition and not superstition).
- Observations on The Wheel of Life:
- The World of the Animals seems to be on the upward rise of the circle towards enlightenment, and so I see it as an improvement upon remaining in the realm of Hell, the nadir of the Circle of Life. This is a good thing. However I feel that the way that it is interpreted, as a world of complacency and stupidity, is obsolete and lacks a necessary compassionate understanding for the natural world. I believe that entering into The World of the Animals is synonymous with entering into the realm of nature and through natural observation and increased awareness of the complex beauty it offers, one may achieve the inner-peace and insight necessary to truly move into the realm of the personal and interpersonal, which is the Human Realm; the realm of Societies and Psychologies.
nov 17 2008 ∞
feb 21 2009 +