NAOS
Well-Known Member
Once he's done playing around, he finds his way back to a pleasant form of Libertarianism
Legalize marijuana?
- Thread starter larryselbows
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Once he's done playing around, he finds his way back to a pleasant form of Libertarianism
This is an accurate statement. I might have religious sorts of reasons for arguing how a child of God should live to be "like God, the Father", but I reject the State as the proper lawgiver. When Jesus was tempted by Lucifer, Lucifer offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, all the civil authority to compel everyone to do His Will at the point of a gun and the toe of a boot, but Jesus rejected that kind of authority and power.
Pathetic how organized religions always want the validation of State power, always want to establish their views as Law.
In other words, I want the State to empty out the jails and bankrupt the corrupt Penal Industry that depends upon Pot convictions and corrupts our politicians however redundant that influence may be, considering what the military industries, the medical industries, and the oil, ag, lumber, and insurance and banking folks do. . . .
From the point of view of large scale anthropology/sociology philosophers, I could argue either way about jthe goodness or badness of organized sports, with equal clarity and reason as I might argue about diet, exercise, rural agrarian lifestyle, access to public libraries or the availability of hemp or pot.
Hemp is/was a useful resource, abundant in temperate and subtropical climates. Used to be synonymous with rope, and colloquially equivalent to a noose. . . .Used to make paper from it too, as in "Manila" envelopes. Used to be standard material for sacks for grain and other stuff, as well as the Medieval common cloth peasants everywhere wore. . . However DuPont Corp had a petrochemical business and an invention called Nylon, and they wanted the market monopoly on rope. And for that millions of Americans have gone to jail.
I still won't smoke weed, and will still maintain to anyone who cares what I think that there are effects, and considerations, and that for all the so-called "natural" substances we can find in nature and inflict upon our body chemistry, if you don't see your way to just not use them, at least using them in moderation is good sense.
Well, a sort of libertarianism where religion substitutes the state, anyway.
I think there's a name for that and it isn't libertarianism. I think it's called theocracy.
NAOS
Well-Known Member
Nah, when all his cards are down, I don't think he goes there. The downfall of the vast majority of libertarians is that they substitute Reason or the rational world of the individual for some form of spiritual conviction (where the individual is part of something larger [which is the truth of things]). Reason and Individualism become their faiths. Babe doesn't make this mistake, but he's still a libertarian.
I dont' know. I think there has been a recent shift in his ideology. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I've changed.
Honestly I think he's either had a serious health scare or something along those lines and he's more focused on getting right with God. I could be way off, but that's what I'm seeing. He's presenting things very differently than he was say a year ago.
Well, since we can't do a habeus corpus on "God", or He refuses to take Stage Center in our little Statist Games, or because God seems to be an absentee ruler, a sort of missing Korean dictator if you will, "theocracy" is just another deceptive label for Statism. . . . right up there with Communism, Socialism, Fascism, and last Saturday Nights coup de etat entrenching a little brain trust of military honchos claiming the support of the masses.
The Bible predicts a theocracy in several places.. . . in the books of Daniel nad Revelations. . . . I suppose the glorious day will be when every knee will bend and every head bow to acknowledge Jesus is the Lord of Lords.
I'm questioning how Joseph Smiths's ideas of preparing for that day by establishing a body of men qualified by temple rituals fits with the notion of no man knowing the day or the hour when Jesus will start rule. But surely I question any two guys with a cardboard act declaring judgment day will constitute "theocracy"
Nah. The shift has been close-quartered uncle-dom where I've seen a bunch of teenagers equating "legal" with "that which no parent can call us out on". I know Statism isn't the answer, but until I can discredit the legislatures around the country and in Washington sufficiently that these morons hell-bent on self-destruction will properly rebel against State-legislated morality preferentially to their Mom's Orders, I've softened up just enough to be reluctant to whole-heartedly jump on the Pot Bandwagon.
I'm afraid I'm finally going through that mid-life crisis precipitated by caring about teenagers.
NAOS
Well-Known Member
You'd be happier if you worshipped the sun, moon, stars, etc. Everything in the sky. It's this Father thing that's causing you to undergo all this moralizing and second-thinking.
I'm pretty happy as it is. I get to worship my imagination while you are stuck with concrete objects like sun, moon or stars. . . . . uhhhhmmmmmm. . . . . well if you're like most atheists/ agnostics/ progressives, you still worship your imagination just as much as I do, only somehow in your case there is in fact a jack-booted thug or a fascist fat cat elite exploiting your beliefs as justification for their management regime over you.
At the very least, the superiority of my position consists of the hope that any real God is Just and a principled being who loves us and the universe around us. Whether that hope is backed up by said virtues in the form of universal management might be arguable still.
Without needing to make a final resolution of that debate, we can both agree here and now that human beings deserve the liberty to make their fundamental life choices, whether that includes using any natural plant in their own bodies and minds or not. Or for that matter, whether that choice involves any physical or chemical substance I suppose. But there are some things that are so incontrovertibly toxic and destructive we should at least hold tthe sellers of such things financially as liable as a drunk driver killing kids on our streets.
Can you be more specific?
♪alt13
Well-Known Member
He worships Tarot cards?
I (once in a while) agree we tend to worship "God"/whatever as we idealize and project our values upon the Universe. And yes, indeed< a lot of us like Pooh bear just about as much as we can like anything/anything.
And of course, those of us still in our formative/teen "independence" phase may assert that supremacy upon the Universe by pretending to worship "inverse Gods" as a way to make sure everyone knows we are "thinking for ourselves".
But seriously, folks. . . . .The God that Is can have some friends He loves, like Abraham, and me, if He wants.
I might not understand the whys or wherefors any better than you, but I make it point to stand up for my friends.
I think this went backwards. I think you were supposed to post the above and then I was supposed to post my pooh bear picture.
Otherwise, I don't get it.
Abraham was the man who, in Mormon lore, was about to be killed by his father as a sacrifice to some false god, and escaped into the desert and found the real God, which real God gave Abraham the ultimate test of his faith in commanding Abraham to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice. I couldn't think of anything that could be more of a "test of faith" for Abraham, whose whole sojourn in seeking God began with his (Abraham's) near-death experience. Ordinarily, people form strong negative values against the most horrible experiences in their lives, hopefully, and would never do that stuff to others. . . . although I have to admit that when it comes to abusive behavior, there is indeed a high rate of generational transmission. . . .
With the whole Hebrew/judeo-christian tradition, the whole assertion from the outset is that their God is the One Who Is. "I AM that I Am", the original first purposeful cause, the self-existing One, the Creator of all. . . .
If you don't get my statement above, you will of course not see the incongruous nature of a claim from a person who says he doesn't believe in God, specifically in the One Who IS. In the religious tradition the claim is revelation from Who/What "IS" to mankind, specifically to a few "chosen people" in the case of Hebrews or "believers" in the case of Christians.
unbelievers, or anyone who hasn't experienced the specific knowledge I refer to above, will of course "not get it". It can't make any sense. Abraham said he knew God beyond any reasonable question, and dealt with it like a fact. But he was greatly relieved when the angel appeared and directed him to offer the ram in the thicket instead of his son.
It's as unreal to you as somebody, say a Russian cosmonaut coming back from orbiting the earth, saying he has a message from the Orion galaxy that Earth is now a colony of their intergalactic New Universal Order.
You have a choice. . . . you can disbelieve, or believe. In either case, I would suggest, further investigation is in order.
I love Pooh, too. I don't think God is a blithering idiot, though.