Bible literalism

There are many debates based on the concept that the Bible is literally true, in every respect.

The Bible says that God created Man out of the clay of the earth, and evolutionary theory says that Man developed from other, earlier forms of life.

There are places in the Bible that refer to the Earth as flat, and the night sky as a tent roof with holes in it. Literalists have come up with complicated explanations of how that isn't really so.

There are many trivial passages in the Bible that seem to contradict each other, and Literalists have come up with flimsy explanations of those as well.

Then there is the book of Revelations....

Every Bible believer that I have ever encountered says that it is metaphorical. The ten-headed beast is really the government, or science, or the Roman Empire. We are not really going to see these monsters, they all represent something else.

Interesting. The Bible is literally true in every respect, except that the book of Revelations is metaphoric?

How about this. Other parts of the Bible are metaphoric as well.

The Bible really does refer to the Earth as flat, and the sky as a tent as a metaphoric way of describing the unimportance of physical settings when dealing with the spirit.

One of the Gospels says that Jesus and his followers were on their way into Jerusalem, and another says they were on their way out of Jerusalem, when Jesus cursed the fig tree. Maybe that contradictory detail is still in there because it does not matter whether they were going into town or out of town, just what happened as they passed by.

And, perhaps, the description of God creating Man from the clay of the Earth is a more elegant and poetic say of saying that he made Man through a long complicated process that involved shaping other creatures first, and then refining them over eons.


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Marine flinging a puppy, observations.

I am both amused and disgusted by the most common response to this video.

Such a large number of people are arguing that it must be a hoax or fake of some kind. I looked at it. If it is a hoax, we have got some world class writers and actors in the Marines.

The arguments for the video being a fake are really, really reaching. The simplest, and most plausible explanation for the video is that it is exactly what it seems to be.

Maybe that makes me sound cynical about human nature. Which is worse, though? That one person committed an impulsive shocking act to see how the people around him reacted, or that a group of people planned to make a shocking and defamatory video?

I am amused that so many people are trying so hard to work out a way to look at the video and say that no one threw a live puppy off a cliff.

I am disgusted that so many people are unwilling to face the facts of life. Things like this happen. Not everyone in the world is nice. Young men in combat get screwed up.

Working hard to explain it away will not make it have not happened.

The callousness in the video is only one of many instances that happen every day. This is just a clear, uncomplicated expression of it. Many of us have had our moments of not caring, of impulsive viciousness. We just find ways to justify it to ourselves in our minds.

Tell me you have never done something you are ashamed of.

Tell me you have never told yourself: "Well, I was just a kid, and I didn't know any better. I would never do something like that now."

Emotional illness and Subculture

This musing actually started with the old question: "Do crazy people know they are crazy?"

Looking back at my twenties, I can see clearly that I was nuts. At the time, though, it was not so clear. I knew something was wrong, that I was unhappy, but that was all. Every once in a while the magnitude of my emotional injury would be clear to me... and then I would go back to not really understanding my problem.

I got to wondering why this was. Perhaps it was because I didn't have the coping skills to face my madness entirely. Maybe it was like being in a car crash. All you really need to know is that you need to go to the hospital. You don't need all the gory details. Maybe it was familiarity. I had been screwed up for so long, it seemed "normal".

Then I realized that most of the people around me were also screwed up, in similar ways.

Is emotional damage endemic in some places?

Think about how we find a comfortable social circle. We tend to gather with people who are like ourselves in some way. Not necessarily in a good way. Alcoholics and heavy drinkers hang around with other drinkers. They hardly ever meet non-drinkers. Stoners socialize with stoners. and so on. So, when you look around you, you fit in. You are "ok". Your social setting becomes "the norm".

So why not a society of damaged people? Women who think that if they love their husband enough, he will change. Men who cheat on their women. People who deceive themselves, and everyone around them. Grifters. Users. A whole culture of it.

It's not so fantastic. I lived there.

Rural East Texas in the '80's. People listened to country music songs about cheating and getting drunk. (while complaining that their kids listened to rock music that was all about sex and drugs!) They all cheated and got drunk. It seemed that nothing could be accomplished without a cooler of beer. The people I moved among married and divorced, and fought. They got busted for drunk driving. Anyone I met that was over 21 had an ex, and children. Sometimes children by several different exes. "Friends" lied about each other behind their backs, women saw each other as threats, and no one had a financial plan. All the women were miserable.

So, I would look around me, and decide that I was sane.

But, deep down, I knew better.

Bad Dreams

Not exactly nightmares, but still very unpleasant. I am tired of having these bad dreams.

I dream that my husband is gone for some reason, and I have had to move back to East Texas and live in a crappy little apartment, and work in a filthy factory with no safety equipment.

It's a relief to wake up, and realize it was a dream, and I am in my nice bed, in our house in New Mexico. But the sadness hangs on.

I don't know why I am having these dreams again. Maybe because sales are bad this month, and I am behind on the studio bills. Having to return to my former life would be about the worst thing I can think of. Rationally, I know it can't happen. I have too many friends here, and more skills. I have been clean and sober for 15 years. I have so many more resources than just my husband.

Maybe the dreams must mean that my life would be crap without him.

Creationism vs. Evolution

I am amused by people who "don't believe in evolution" who own breed dogs.

Hunger Studies 1

People speak of "World Hunger", and don't realize how vague they are being.

There are three different kinds of hunger, quite different from each other.

Simple Hunger: This is what we feel when our stomach is empty. Most of us are familiar with this one, and know that it is pretty easy to ignore for a while. It is known worldwide, but can hardly be considered a problem.

Systemic Hunger: This is what we feel when our blood sugar is low. It is felt in the body in general, rather than in the stomach. This is not easy to ignore, but is not always recognized as a need for food. Systemic hunger is a problem in parts of the world where people cannot lead a regular lifestyle, and eat erratically. It can cause anxiety and hysteria.

In parts of Africa, rashes of young women being struck down with screaming fits were found to be easily cured by an injection of glucose. Widespread systemic hunger may be behind many unstable cultural situations, an unrecognized disruptive influence.

Survival Hunger: This is felt when the body's fat reserves are depleted. It is as imperative a need for food as the need for air. This hunger can NOT be ignored*. Our bodies need at least a little internal fat to get through a night's sleep without having to get up and take in more calories. Very few people in a stable culture have felt this.

People who deliberately keep their body fat low have felt it briefly. Ballerinas and fashion models report having sudden binges of eating everything they can get their hands on. Body builders sometimes find themselves skipping the protein shake, and gorging on something deep-fried.

This starvation is usually what people mean when they say "World Hunger". However, it is not something that can be solved by throwing food at it. Since the industrial era, all famines are caused by politics, not nature. The demands of survival would drive these people toward food, unless they were stopped by another deadly threat, such as the point of a gun.




*Anorexia is an emotional disorder in which the sufferer seems to ignore survival hunger. They are not ignoring it. They are feeling it as a sense of accomplishment, or in some other distorted way that allows them to continue refusing food.

Thoughts on the Abortion Issue

Pro-life and Pro-choice are two views that will NEVER be reconciled. The debate centers around whether or not a fetus has a soul. This is something that can never be determined by science, or by faith.

Even legislation will never be able settle the issue. No matter what laws are made, there will be protests, and efforts to change it.

However, I would think both sides of the issue could agree on one thing. Abortion is a tragedy.

The fact that an abortion takes place means that a pregnancy, which should be a cause for celebration and anticipation, has become a cause for fear and doubt.

From that viewpoint, wouldn't the solution to the abortion debate be to prevent unwanted pregnancies? Then, whether or not a fetus has a soul is moot.

But no, they disagree on how to do that. One side wants to teach birth control, and intelligent sex, the other wants people to wait until they are married to have sex at all.

Again, it is the battle between moral stricture, and personal choice.

Personally, I can't see why anyone who wants to see an end to abortion would want to deny people access to birth control.

"Abstinence only" ignores the well documented fact of the "weakness of the flesh". Fercrissake, it's described in their own holy book.

Why can't the approach be, "Wait until you are married, but if you DO fall to the weakness of the flesh, here is how to limit the damage."

(I have never liked the idea of keeping information from people for their own good. Separate rant on that later.)

A "good girl" doesn't carry a condom in her purse, because she does not intend to have sex. So, if does have sex, she can say, "It just happened... I didn't mean to." What a set up.

How about this concept: The good girl DOES carry a condom in her purse, as a tool to keep herself a virgin. Really! A guy who does not respect her is not going to want to use the condom. Demanding use of the condom can slow down a seduction, and give the girl a chance to regain control of the situation. Then, if the weakness of the flesh is too much, even for this, at least there is less chance of unwanted pregnancy and disease.

Sex education should include use of contraceptives, and why using them is a sign of self-respect.





Besides, to my point of view, the idea of two virgins marrying, and vowing to only have sex with each other for the rest of their lives is sort of..... kinky!