Re: OT - Your Comments on the recent,,,
Re: OT - Your Comments on the recent,,,
- Subject: Re: OT - Your Comments on the recent,,,
- From: Jon Pugh <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 21:43:47 -0700
At 12:38 AM +0100 9/14/2001, Mr Tea wrote:
>
Following the unspeakable events in the US, there was an upswell of reaction
>
in lists & forums that I subscribe to. While all the usual pundits were
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being wheeled out in the media, here was another set of voices. The rest of
>
us.
As an Internet loudmouth used to asserting his right to blather, I would like to agree with this. Despite being off topic, brief tangents help us all to learn about each other and grow to be friends (and enemies, I suppose). Mailing lists are often like family, in that you can't choose the members and you can't get rid of them either.
What sets me off is that I've kept hearing from the talking heads "how the world changed on September 11th" and I think that's nonsense. The world is exactly the same as it was last week, apart from the cosmetic changes of a locale in NY and the heartbreak of a nation. However, this was possible yesterday and it will be possible tomorrow. It will need to take a different form, because as the plane that missed shows, we're not afraid of dying either. It's not going to be "sheep in a can" on airplanes now. I pity the next guy who tries to hijack a plane with a box cutter.
I would also like to apologize to any Muslims caught up in the revenge (talk *or* actions) being bandied about. Most of us realize that normal people aren't fanatics, regardless of religion. In fact, one of the defining aspects of America is that we are not controlled by religion (although it is certainly debatable how much influence religion has here).
Personally, I'm an educated atheist. I don't see evidence of God. I see evidence of people fooling themselves because of they give in to despair, and God is a way of convincing themselves that life isn't so scary. These fanatics presumably believed their God was waiting to bless them. Everyone else thinks they're wrong. Everybody is wrong. Even the scientists don't know what the truth is.
We define life. We are part of life. We are embodied by both the good and the bad that has happened in this world. However, we cannot let old wounds take us down. We have to overcome our differences and realize that we are all earthlings, and we're all riding this ball together.
The middle east is a nightmare. Israel cannot just vanish, anymore than Palestine has. This appears to be the crux of the issue, at the moment. However, Islam and Christianity have been at each other's throats for millennia. They both claim the same God, and the same holy land. I fear that the crusades have never ended, and I doubt I am the only one.
This fight's apparently not over until God says it is, because no one can convince these people that they've been fighting over nothing, like all fights that last longer than life. At some point, the survivors must simply decide to stop fighting.
As for the scientists, they realize that God doesn't interfere in human affairs. They can't measure Him or His "effects". Religious artifacts like the Shroud of Turin are not miracles (dated to the 14th century). The Bible is a work of mortals, as is the Koran and *all* other religious writings. Religion is a placebo or a tool, depending on who is using it. These suicide bombers were used, like all churches have used people for their ends (the inquisition, the crusades, Galileo and even the Salam witch trials).
However, despite this lack of divine meaning, life is far from meaningless. We give it meaning, in the context of our individual lives. That takes work and will power, and not everyone possesses enough of those. Nevertheless, that's what we need to bolster in mankind, a faith in ourselves. Not a false faith, from empty words of praise, but the realization that the universe is ours to enjoy as we can. Despite the countless ways with which we die, we live in so many ways too, that our diversity really is our biggest strength.
Evolution has taught us that diversity is good, but we still have too much of it. Talk of the US middle class completely fails to account for that fact that this middle class is still among the 5% of the richest people on the planet. We have an injustice in place that needs a remedy, and I for one hope that it does not involve dropping everyone into abject poverty through terror and destruction.
And remember, if it's foolish to believe in 100 Gods, then it's only 1/100th as foolish to believe in just one God.
I apologize for the length and the heretical language, but I know what *I* believe, and I believe the world will go on just as it has, despite the actions of suicidal idiots who gave their lives for a fictitious redemption in a questionable afterlife.
Jon