Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Addictions and problems...

Text from here (Bad language therein, but a relevant message) ßYou have been warned!

 

This hurts on a few levels for me. As I read this and pondered it afterwards, I was struck by how many people search for ‘something’ to give their life meaning; it can be God, possessions, power, fame, anything.

   I found it sad that these people have, for whatever reason, given up on their belief in God, I find it equally distressing that they will, most likely, never want to try to find Him again because of their unanswered questions and bad experiences.

   And yet they feel like ‘something’ is missing. But it can’t  be God, or spirituality, or faith, because they have rationalized Him away. He can’t exist because they say so, and thus they won’t search for Him.

   I know from personal experience that addictions can’t be permanently overcome by willpower alone. Christ and His Atonement is the only way to find a way to become whole again. I feel bad for these people because they have cast aside the only real opportunity to change their situation that they have. I feel bad because the truth may come to them some day (or it already has) and they will reject it because they have told themselves that such faith is not rational, it can’t be proven, and thus is false, dangerous and not worth their time. Therefore they will remain mired in their problems, hoping for ‘something’ to come along and help them change.

   How powerful and destructive the mind can be, and how easily ensnared by cunning ‘logic’ it is!

   There is no problem with going on faith, on asking questions, on finding out the truth about things. However, to use the finite, imperfect mind to try and figure out Deity is ultimately a futile exercise. Worse, to become frustrated and disillusioned because we don’t have or can’t comprehend all of the answers leaves us, finally, to ourselves, to wallow in the slavery that Satan enjoins upon us because of the darkness of our supposedly ‘enlightened’ mind.

   I fail to understand why ‘faith’ is so derided by those who don’t believe in God. Even atheists and infidels work on faith: we have faith that if we work, then we will be paid, that the sun will rise tomorrow upon a new day, that those whom we love will love us in return and not hurt us. Why, then, is it so difficult to accept that there is a Supreme Being who directs the universe?

   To me it seems more simple to accept Authority and to find out whether or not what I have been taught is correct through prayer and study than it is to go it by myself. I see no weakness in that dependence.

   And finally: I am a sinner just as in need of the Atonement as anyone else. I am not superior, nor am I very far along in my purification and perfection process. In fact, I would classify myself to be among the few who are just barely past the starting line on the way to the Father. I just feel bad that there are those who have taken God out of their lives and yet are still searching for ‘something’.

 

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

OK, I can't just let this one pass by...

Your link : http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/07/obama.school.speech/index.html

 

Pres. Obama is set to give a speech to back-to-schoolers on the ‘Net Tuesday. Apparently lots of parents have their shorts in a knot over the possibility of the President pushing a ‘partisan agenda’. There are reports of school districts banning the speech, and some parents won’t be letting their kids go to school for fear that they will be ‘exposed’.

    Now that the text of the speech has been released, it must be a huge surprise that the President merely wants to encourage young people to get educated and to work hard.

   A quote from CNN: "The president's speeches tend to be [about] what's wrong with the country and what can we do to fix it," said Bill Hogsett, a parent from Dallas, Texas.

   "I believe this is the greatest country on Earth, and I try to teach that to my children. ... I don't want them hearing that there's a fundamental flaw with the country and the kids need to go forward to fix it."

   OK, sir, why is it wrong to tell children that there are problems that need to be dealt with? True, children shouldn’t have to fully shoulder the burden of fixing the problems that you/I/we have created, but if they are to be responsible citizens,  why shelter them from the truth? Isn’t the axiom ‘Knowledge is power’? So, why not empower the children instead of keeping their head buried in the sand along with your own?

   Let’s be honest: this country has serious problems. Welfare babies, addictions coming out of our collective orifices, apathy, dishonesty, rights being taken away wholesale, the excessive empowerment of the minority over the collective good are just a few of the problems that confront this nation. None have an easy solution. But to ignore the problems does nothing to aid in a recovery, and ultimately dooms those whom we seek to protect because they then become part of the problems because they have never been clued in that there are problems in the first place; or they are allowed to find out but not told how important it is to be responsible and how a person’s actions and choices can affect other people.

   I see this man’s  reaction as that of a parent who is not involved with his children. If he had been, his response probably would’ve been ‘I’ll talk it over with my child when they come home from school because I am involved and informed...’Instead he succumbs to political frothing, scared that someone might/will present ideas that might perhaps be at odds with what he believes. Instead of using this opportunity to teach and to listen, he has already made the decision to deny the right of information and the opportunity of logical thinking (how can we think logically if we never have differing points of view?) from someone just because of his political slant and because he doesn’t think his child should be exposed to other points of view.

   I don’t agree with a lot of the things that the President does. I don’t agree with a lot of the things that he and his political party stand for. For what it’s worth I think Republicans are just as bad as the Democrats, and that Republicans have just as many problems with their ideology as everyone else. However, I support his good desire to help children be educated and to work hard, and he is the President. We don’t have to like all of the things that he does, and we certainly don’t have to take the things he does that we don’t agree with lying down, but to presume ( a better word that is synonymous to assume) that he is going to push a leftist message on children as part of an agenda is ludicrous.

   It is not our duty to blindly support him and those who are in authority over us (ecclesiastically, politically, financially or otherwise).Our duty is to think about why we do what we do, to consider, logically, other options, and to divest ourselves of those things (thoughts, habits, feelings and problems) that keep us from progressing.

   Fearing new information that may conflict with the knowledge that we already have, and shunning it, is wrong. The largest reason as to why the Gospel of Christ hasn’t permeated every land is because people fear the truth. It is not wrong to consider the different sides to a topic.

   Heavenly Father wants all of His children to not be ‘sheeple’: those who follow because it is easiest and never think about why they do what they do. These people are quickly scorched by adversity. No, I think that He wants children who will ask the questions ‘Why’, ‘How’ and ‘What’. Those who ask and want to know will receive answers and will be better than those who have always had it and never bothered to ask in the first place.

   To bring it full circle: being aware that there are problems and clueing young people into them is no crime. The availability of information is both a blessing and a curse that can be tempered by interaction and discussion. Truth can come from any side, any political slant, any person. Don’t deny someone, no matter how old, the chance to broaden their understanding because you are afraid of the source. There is only one Source of truth, and no one mortal person has a monopoly upon it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Weird will stipulations on CNN.com...


Subject: Weird will stipulations on CNN.com...




The #9 guy sure didn’t like women very much, did he?