food for thought

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Alright everyone... so I have been busy at school... but here is a little somthing that I have been working on so you guys know I am not wasting my time :P   ok yeah maybe wasting a little time but hey that is what school is for!

Religion, although teaches us such things as peace and tolerance, it also teaches us to fear and hate evil. Or what we may perceive as evil things. Religion is merely a tool. And any tool can be used to both create and destroy.  However if religion is used as a crutch for the human spirit as a sole means of support this will not allow any room for lateral free thought and will breed feelings of hate and contempt for other non-believing persons places or things.  If a person’s whole existence is based and devoted to someone else’s interpretation of The Word of God there will be mistakes.  But by the nature of religion that individual has no right to question God’s word as God does not make mistakes. However the same laws of nature still govern us, as they did before the western concept of God, and mistakes will be made. This essay will look at the exploitation of religion by focusing on the abuse of faith in God and though that abuse using an individuals faith to manipulate an outcome towards a means not from God. 

           

An infallible concept in the hands of a fallible leader will be wrong eventually, but the illusion of righteousness will lead to corruption and misleading of the human spirit devoted to that religion with pure intentions.  With the Western concept of religion, being that of a mono-theistic view, there is only one god and therefore there is no possible way to question that god.  As there is no being higher or even equal to God’s authority.  To argue that God actually command to kill in his name is not relevant to this argument, but to commit inhumane acts in the name of religion and someone else’s idea of what they think God wants is.  There has been conflict with western religions dating back to the days of Moses with the enslavement of the Jews in .  The Jewish people were declared God’s chosen people.  There was not an issue of competition in these early days where the popular religions were mostly poly-theistic. Rather, for the Jewish people this served as a very effective motivator to fight for freedom in land occupied by hostile inhabitants.  However with the coming of Christ and later Muhammad this concentrated three very powerful and influential religions in the same geographic area.  All of which lay claim to being the most righteous and closest to God.  Adding human nature into the equation of religion and Gods word it was only a matter of time before conflict would break out. 

            Present day conflicts still go on today killing in “The Name of God”.  To ignore this is ignorant of how religion is a crucial motivator in fighting.  The prayer of a suicide bomber before death even states that “God is great” and he will be absolved of all sins as he is a martyr and will be pure of spirit.  It is not hard to convince an individual, who has absolutely nothing in this physical life, to devote to the cause of another mans dream in this way.  In this case it is the hatred of the infidel that is the focus of the suffering he is in.  The suicide bomber before had nothing but his faith in religion to motivate him in his life, but now there is intense meaning to why he has suffered and now has a way to remedy that suffering and the suffering of his family. The suicide bomber has now been manipulated into believing that God actually wants him to be a suicide bomber.

            The Crusades, the Spanish inquisition, Salem witch trials, and even allegedly the current wars in the Middle East are all very real examples on how people have killed and are still killing in the name of God.  God’s word has been warped from its original intent of peace and love building to words of justification for a “Just War”.  This is not to say that there can never be a justification for a war to take place, but in todays culture words continue to loose their meaning and as a result the impact they will have on people will diminish.  We are constantly bombarded by information being fed to us stating who is bad and who is good.  How can we make the assumption of bad and good from armchairs thousands of miles on the other side of the world?  There will only be broad stereotypes applied to conflicts.  Black and white is what is seen as good and bad.  When there is a full spectrum of people in between good and bad that have several elements of both in their nature.   This is where mistakes will be made and this is where misinterpretation of God’s word takes place.

“One man’s martyr is another man’s terrorist” ~unknown

 

 

 

  “Every good man is capable of evil things but even an evil man can have love in his heart.” ~unknown

            Keeping this in mind religion has served in several conflicts as a moderator to the solution process.  The very same human nature that makes one subject to mistakes in the inturpretation of God’s word allows us to admit that mistakes can in fact be made.  It is only after this realization that both sides of a conflict can admit that they may be wrong and begin the negotiation and later the reconciliation process.  In order for religion to play a role in the peace building process there needs to be a return to “grassroots” ideals.  Ideals of love and mutual respect for all living persons and their environments they live in.  Ideals that we are all brothers and sisters in the eyes of God, and his love for us all is unquestionable and unwavering.  It is in this common ground found between all religions that we will find solutions for our problems. We must start to apply simple humanistic outlooks for integrating religion into the peace process.  Perhaps it is not common knowledge that elaborate plans will eventually fail elaborately.  Simple and straight forward ideas working towards forgiveness and rebuilding of society will be crucial to restoring the name of religion to the individuals who have lost their faith in conflicts.  Faith lost because of evil manipulation of God’s true intent for human life.

 

 

 

With age ccomes wisdom???

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Mood: good as always, Music: Morning coffee remixes! by moi!

Well good morning!  Another day in the wonderful life of me!! HA  no really its a good life....  after all how can it not be?  Lets be honest here people... as I have always said its your choice no matter what... and I still stick to it.  Yeah you may say "its easy for me to say as I sit here on my computer drinking my morning coffee".  And yes I am having a morning coffee... :)  But if you dont take time to enjoy the little moments you will miss the big picture!  I have been home from Afghanistan and the MIddle East since June now and well I have not done everything I wanted to but hey I am still moving foward!!  Got my ass back in school enjoying time with friends and family... and loving the small things in life.. 

Speaking of small things.... My birthday just passed last Tuesday... meh 27  why do people get worked up about age??  I wonder if its because they are reminded about their own mortality and their unaccomplishments?  If I were to dwell on all of my unaccomplishments I would probably not want to get out of bed in the morning!  Lets be serious... if your glass is half empty... you will want to save all your water till you really need it.... but the funny thing is when you are thursty its all really a sign that you have not had enought to drink!  So if you glass if half full..... drink a litte at a time and enjoy the small moments.  After all you never know when someone will come along and fill up your glass again for you!!  Because if your glass is too full it will over flow and the rest will get wasted.... and who wants to waste the good drink of life??

So make your choice, take small drinks and enjoy the small moments.  And yes my morning coffee is great with a good song from my decks :P   

Always...... ;)

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well what can I say I guess I am super busy with work and school I dont get much time to myself.... HA who am I kidding I always find time for me!  But man I am teaching on TWO courses now, dealing with all the recruits is a bit of a pain in my ass... these kids dont know what they are getting into I guess....  I blame the MEDIA hahaha no but I am sure video games have had somthing to do with them feeling like they are all special forces or somthing ..... meh whatever...  2 exams coming up... shit monday actually I better hit the books :D  ciao for now

always..