Today and Yesterday

TODAY

AN ETERNITY AGO

My Car Dude

My car salesman called me last Friday and said, "you ready to buy that Caliber?"

"I don't have any money man," I replied with a hint of despair, "no one is buying anything."

"Tell me about it," he said with disgust, "on the one hand I've got the rich people telling me that they think Obama is going to take all their money so they're nervous about buying and on the other hand I've got the food stamp folks telling me that Obama is going to take their benefits away. I tell these people, 'Shit. You got money now you're gonna have money with Obama around. And the other folks need to quit worrying about the handouts.'"

Joaquin Phoenix and David Letterman

What do you think? I have enjoyed every Joaquin Phoenix performance I have seen. What do you think about this interview?

If you have trouble viewing here is the link for YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1xK6xz8d9Q

Daylight

I normally leave work around 6pm and for the first time in a long time there was daylight as I was leaving. The skyline had an orange tint to it rather than blackness. Call me crazy, but it was a great feeling to be driving home in the evening with daylight still lingering in the sky.

Going Down

In one month all of us are going to be unemployed. All of the banks are going to fail. The world as we know it is going to end.

Obama says, "America will die if His bill isn't passed."

The media and the government are doing a superb job of giving us some fear so that we will act in their best interests. The media wants our money and the government wants our support.

The last time I believed the government's fear tactics it was led by George W. Bush. Obama has been using fear lately. Pass another bailout or we are ALL GOING TO DIE. Sound familiar?

Obama = Bush? Say it isn't so. It is so. Fear is ruling the day; again.

Are you tired of it yet? Are you tired of the government blowing smoke up your ass?

I didn't think so.

Long live the Prez!

By 2012 I will be so sick of politics I'll just quit voting. Oh wait, I think, wait a sec, I think I'm there already.

The 5%

According to Religious Tolerance.org 8% of Americans "Never/almost never attend" religious services.

Who makes up the 8%?

1. Atheists
2. Agnostics
3. People that have been harmed by organized religion
4. People that do not care
5. People that do not fit in with organized religions
6. Others (insert another label)

One core belief of organized religion that I have struggled with is the teaching that you MUST belong to an organized group in order to a) be "right" with God and b) survive the wiles of the devil, i.e. survive in the World.

I believe point a) is a misrepresentation of the role the church was and is supposed to play in the life of a follower of Christ. I believe point b) has some validity, but I do not believe that organized religion (the modern definition of church) is the only asset we have at our disposal to combat the negative things in life.

Quite frankly I do not fit in with organized religion. In times past I was active with organized religion. I attended and took part in their functions and activities. I always felt out of place. After the event or activity I always asked myself, Where do I fit in?

When you look at your life do you feel like you fit in? Do you feel like you are in the right place? If you are unhappy about where you are in life what are you doing about your situation?

Do you go to work everyday waiting for it to be over? Do you constantly count down the days until Friday? "Happy Friday" they say.

I had a manager say to me one time, "If you look in the mirror every morning and dread the day before you then you are wasting your life. You have to wake up and feel good about the day. It is the only way to live a worthwhile life." In order for me to live a productive life I had to be honest with myself. Professionally and spiritually. The last three years have been very difficult for me. But they have also been extremely rewarding; mentally. Mondays aren't so bad anymore. I am ok with 8%.

Organized Religion: Is it good?

In my last post I ended with the idea that organized religion is not the only choice Christians have to worship their God. While I believe this I think there is another key point to be made; most people need organized religion.

Organized religion does a number of things very well. Organized religion plays a very important role in society and in an individuals personal interaction with other people.

Some quick bullets on the benefits of Organized Religion:

1. It teaches people how to behave in society; marriage counseling, grief counseling, addiction counseling, childcare counseling, etc.
2. It gives people a sense of community and belonging to something larger than themselves.
3. It helps feed the hungry, administer to the sick; it is a security blanket for people that are hurting.

In my experiences, especially with the last group I worked with, these three things are true about organized religion. I believe that 95% (this is an arbitrary percentage to emphasize the majority) of the people need something like organized religion in order to function properly in society. (The organized religion does not necessarily have to be Christian.) There are a lot of caveats with this that I don't have the time or space to talk about. So, you will have to do your own probing and research to see if you do in fact come to the same conclusion.

For the record I want to make it clear that I believe most people involved with organized religions need it. Organized religion keeps people honest, it teaches them how to live in a society, it cares for its members and in some cases even its non-members, and it provides people with a structure in which to live productive lives.

What about those of us that fall in the 5%? More later.

95%

There is a scene in the movie "The Bucket List" where the two main characters (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) are arguing the existence of God and talking about faith. In this scene Carter (Morgan Freeman), the Christian, says, "Are you saying that 95% of the people on the planet are wrong?"

Edward, the agnostic, replies, "If I’ve learned anything it’s that 95% of the people are wrong."

The idea of a god, a supreme creator of the universe, has been a part of humanity since the beginning of our recorded history. Is this evidence of a higher power? Not necessarily, but it is interesting. Humans have always looked to the heavens for guidance. We have always looked outside of the human experience for answers to our questions.

For some reason I question everything. I think it stems from childhood; growing up in a household where questioning things got you an ass whoopin. Now that I have the freedom to question I use it freely. One of the first things to fall under the microscope was my little Christian tribe; my belief system. The most startling revelation during my research was that, given time, all Christian denominations become organized to such a point that certain Biblical teachings and ideals have to be cast aside and ignored (maybe I'll post another blog on this).

When a movement becomes extremely organized the grunts (you and me) get lost in the shuffle. We are expendable. Do a comparison of the number of foot soldiers that die in war and the number of officers that die. The foot soldiers bear the brunt of just about everything. This idea can be seen all across society.

It was inevitable that when the church became organized it would function much like a government or military or corporation.

I still struggle with the idea of giving up on organized religion. I guess it is because that is what I know. The questions I ask myself are: How much am I willing to compromise with my beliefs and the beliefs of the tribe? Is going it alone with a few key people the best route to take?

Let's face it. Organized religion is not the only instrument Christians have at their disposal to worship God.