The Problem These Days

Page E16

Fair The Town Voice First

The Problem These Days

By Arlon Staywell RICHMOND — Asked which is the most significant problem facing America today many might answer it's the economy. No reputable school of economics would describe the economy as robust or even healthy. It's an economy face to face with crippling debt. Unemployment is over double recognized acceptable limits. Gas prices are high. But as high as they are, the roads are still full and many third world countries might trade their problems for ours.
National security can top the list easily. Things seen as matters of life and death can do that. But there can be the question whether it takes more courage to sit in the cockpit of an F-18 or walk the streets at night in some parts of the United States.
Energy can be a primary concern, especially these days. The distribution of resources being what it is, energy can complicate those first two issues considerably.
Other issues get perhaps less clamor. Some believe that learning continues to be a function of spending on education even after the basic levels of spending have been met. And that even after computers have lately reduced, not increased, the amount of text brought to bear on a problem. One would hope intelligence requires less money later to actually produce things, or what was the point really? And some believe the individual possession of firearms would solve much. Indeed we know that more individual responsibility is needed. Constantly throwing all blame to large, faceless organizations and to nondescript, hidden forces in society has left many with no concept what blame is. But the movement toward more individual responsibility could really use more help from others beside the gun rights people.
At the very bottom of the list, quite many would say, is the problem that America lost all religion. Far too many people today wouldn't guess for a minute that God has the answers America needs today.
This website logs the details of how people who prefer not to rely on God at all rose to power.
Undisciplined Darwinism
When primitive, low power microscopes still hid the complexity of the simplest life forms it was easy to believe that Darwin would soon explain an abiotic origin of life. Of course he did not, and never claimed to, but the answer seemed so close as to be counted in advance anyway. Being able to explain the origin of life abiotically meant far less dependence on a creator god for answers. A few, certainly not most, proponents of Darwinism insist that Darwinism was and is no challenge or threat to our religion. But there religion is at the bottom of the list anyway. I did not take the "easy" biology courses for non-science majors and journalists. I took the "difficult" courses for science majors. The college administrators don't like those labels, but some people use them anyway. I can do calculus, there are examples on this website. I have participated in the discussions of the origin of the phospholipid barrier, self replicating RNA and such arguments for an abiotic origin of life as there are today. I know from hard work and science and math that life did not likely arise abiotically.
Cultural Inversion
Especially in America where the railroads and later the highways allowed more people to live more comfortably in the countryside, the roles of the cities and the countryside became somewhat "inverted." The cities filled with people who had little or no traditions. Many in the countryside lost or altered their traditions to suit a sort of a "wilderness." Yet those in the cities believe they are better educated as perhaps some were in other scenarios. So now the cities launch an assault on tradition in the guise of education.
God's Own People
The problem these days is that God's own people are afraid to speak out. I am bold. I maintain this website. I write for Examiner.com. There seem few however rallying to this cause. And while there are several other websites with purportedly similar purposes, none seem to address the real issues as we see here.
"Religion" remains at the bottom of the list of things needing attention.
By "religion" is not meant the misunderstandings of beginners that have plagued mankind from time immemorial, as much if not more so in Judeo-"Christian" tradition. Rather is meant "religion" with more fullness of understanding of human nature, truth, power and justice.
Equipped as we are to put intelligent design in our public schools, no one, aside from me, seems ready to do that. Or they are "ready" but afraid to speak out because the number of the opposition remains so large.
A meager handful of states, more or less, have taken a strong stand in support of traditional marriage. And because it is a meager handful, the threat of a Supreme Court override of tradition appears imminent.
Are you afraid? Maybe you know people who have a casual attitude about marriage. Maybe their several children have different fathers and mothers. Maybe they have "important" jobs anyway. Maybe you don't. To challenge them and Darwin too? How silly would you look? Yet I challenge them every day.
A funny thing happened in that regard recently. Some of those casual marriage people had the audacity to blame my "long haired drugs" for their rather disorderly families.
You might not believe this, but those weren't my drugs or my friends, those were their drugs and friends. I have argued consistently that illegal drugs should remain illegal because they are known to impair the ability to handle large quantities of scholarly text. In rare cases some rather fanciful literature, perhaps drug inspired, has obtained some limited success. Some musicians have maintained some success after taking drugs. But my argument that illegal drugs impair the ability to handle large quantities of scholarly text remains without challenge. Myself and others on the debate team were of course sorely disappointed when William F. Buckley supported legalization of marijuana. But such success as we have seen from people who abuse drugs has not been long lasting.
But, Arlon, all you have to do is go to the movies and there is Russell Brand with long hair and drugs! The truth is that I did oppose the Vietnam conflict. Long hair, as explained on this website, is a disadvantage in combat and thus can signify opposition to war. But all you have to do is look at the history. The "domino" effect did not occur. Rather communism collapsed. Okay, a mere shadow of communism remains in the Far East, perhaps because of cultural differences, but do you really mean to say illegal drugs defeated communism? No, no. Russell Brand is in the movies because you shouldn't believe everything you see in the movies or on television. And you should think more critically, in 500 word articles perhaps, about heart transplants, time dilation, Darwin, and of course military propaganda, just as I do couldn't hurt.
Blame the movies and television if you like, but don't blame me. My intelligence is and always has been rated top in the country by any comprehensive measures there are. I don't like to talk about that much because I never put much stock in those tests. But I will say that no one on illegal drugs has written or likely can write as forcefully about the scientific truth as I do here.
There might be people out there whose lives were messed up by drugs. I don't doubt it at all, but that is not my fault. There is definitely evil out there. Thank God it's rare. There might be child abuse and people having sex they can't or don't control. That's so very evil it's difficult to picture in the mind. I have difficulty believing anyone could be so evil unless there was some awful drug involved. Others say not so, it happens with and without drugs.
Juvenile and Ineffective
The current efforts of the Republicans seem to be focused on smaller government, freedom and gun rights. Such a narrow focus, however just, has so far proved too juvenile and ineffective. You need more courage to address the complexities we address here. And you probably need to take the biology for science majors, as I did, not the one for "journalists" and non-science majors.
Arguments for "freedom" don't work when you don't have a good grasp who's crossing whom. "Freedom" isn't supposed to mean making marriage so trivial homosexuals actually do have the "same" thing. There is too much confusion about which are the fists and which are the noses to talk about "freedom" effectively yet.
People do want order in their lives. Without God they turn to the false science in the current health care reform bill. But the same "doctors" can't defend marriage. There are quite many people in the medical "field" who aren't really doctors. They went to short "technical" or "nursing" programs instead. Much of the support for the recent health care reform comes from them. In sports, if something, a knee for example, doesn't work the coach won't tell you to just take a pill and keep going. But that is what erectile dysfunction ads do. Now perhaps if the coach finds there isn't really anything wrong with your knee you might be asked to keep going, and without a pill; but for a real problem to be solved by a quick pill? That's utter nonsense. It's from a "faith" in medicine. People need order in their lives and will make it up if they can't find it.
Too many people today are happy with the government because that government coerces best which can explain things without God, or it seems so to the poorly educated. But the purpose of government should not be to coerce our lives into order. The purpose of government has been and should be to minimize coercion, to stop that fist before it hits this nose, to hold natural parents responsible to their children, to uphold the institution designed to best do that, not to give liars and frauds jobs selling snake oil.
Fearing illegal drugs is a natural and healthy thing. But those drugs don't work here, never have, never will. So take heart and courage and stand up for the truth without fear.

The Town Voice Home | Religion Index E1 | E15 | E16 | E17