Congressional Democrats, since the election of President Obama, have passed cosmetic legislation that will likely hurt more than help the majority of Americans, while greatly enhancing the bottom-line of banking, oil and health corporations. Like their Republican partners in crime, they are allowing citizens to become more and more economically enslaved. For example, government sources announced not long after so-called health care “reform” passed, that projected costs for health care will nearly double by 2020.
Many Americans fail to understand that when employers pay for health care, we are in reality, paying for it ourselves. Employer cost for benefits is included in the “price at the pump” reality for all goods and services. And because the cost is ultimately borne by us, there is in reality no such thing as employer provided benefits.
If a manufacturer, trucking company and retail chain provide benefits for their employees, consumers purchasing the manufactured products delivered by the trucking company and sold by the retail chain, pay for the cost of these benefits. This includes the factory workers, truck drivers and store clerks who receive benefits, when they purchase goods and services themselves.
When an employer doesn’t provide health coverage, as is the case for most working class and poor citizens, then it greatly disproportionately effects them. Not only are they forced to pay for their own coverage or do without, they also end up paying for the health benefits of employees who do have coverage, in the form of higher consumer prices. Instead, if health care was paid for through federal taxation, citizens would pay for it based on their tax bracket and ability to pay.
The reality now is, upper-middle class and wealthier Americans typically enjoy premium health coverage paid for by their employers. Meanwhile, all American consumers end up paying for “Cadillac-plan” provided expensive high fashion eye-wear, cosmetic surgery and braces on children’s teeth. And, poor Americans suffering from cancer and diabetes often have no coverage at all. EVERYBODY pays while only a few receive premium coverage.
When Republicans talk about supporting “small” business, what their agenda is really helping, is very large private businesses and publicly traded corporations that gain significantly from tax reductions. Average wage-earners lose far more in service cutbacks than they ever gain by tax reductions. And, when Democrats talk about “reform”, it invariably results in the same thing, such as the projected rise in health care costs we all have to pay for.
Legislation backed by both parties severely hurts small business and the average American citizen and, the direction both parties are pursuing will ultimately enslave the masses beyond pre-20th Century industrial reality. And, it will eliminate any semblance of legitimate business, while driving more and more people into financial ruin.
Did the Democrats really reform health care? Is the Republican agenda any better? As long as politicians are allowed to be bought and sold by wealthy interests, does it even really matter which party is in power? You decide.
Why would someone who doesn’t believe in sin carry an anti-war, anti-pollution or pro-peace sign? If war and other human oppression is just part of a larger “natural selection” process, why do such people consider themselves more righteous than many other people? If there is no evil, why is it considered morally “wrong” to harm and morally “right” to help our neighbor?
Why are Rosa Parks and Albert Schweitzer considered morally superior to Bonnie Parker and Adolf Hitler? Why would all four arise in the same “advanced” modern species? Why is it called “justice” when people imprison other people? Who gets to decide and, why?
If babies are born moral and pure, why do we need to be taught how to morally behave? Why is there a concept of “hatred”? If we change the word “sin” to “social maladjustment” or “seething mass within”, does it lessen the pain and suffering people inflict on other people? Does changing terminology change the reality of what men and women do?
Why do we lie to each other? Why are there laws against murder, theft and false witness? Why are there university ethics classes? Why don’t we automatically love our neighbor as ourselves? Why did we crucify our greatest moral teacher? Why do human oppression and civil rights movements exist? Why is there a song entitled “We Shall Overcome”? What is it we are trying to overcome?
If people are born morally “blank” with no predisposition towards evil, as Freud assumed, why are we so self-destructive? Why do we eat and drink what we believe is harmful? Why do we abuse both ourselves and other people, often in the face of severe social rejection, lengthy incarceration and even execution? Why is there a “Nobel Peace Prize”? Why are adults rewarded for behaving like we believe we all should behave?
Why is it so difficult to teach children to be what our conscience dictates as “good”, while they are what we consider “bad” quite easily on their own, without any parental reward and, often in spite of repeated punishment? If it’s against human rights to murder, steal and lie, why do we do so? If this is not against our reproductive survival, why are Jesus and Gandhi considered exceptional people?
After thousands of years of education to the contrary, why do even our most educated people continue to add to the pile of global mass pollution, bilk the common masses with complicated financial schemes and, continue to create horrific weapons, even after the horrific evidence of the Great Depression and WWII? Why didn’t an “Age of Enlightenment” result in peace on earth, instead of even worse wars?
According to modern science and the Bible, our underlying motivations are deceptive and often different than we perceive in our own conscious awareness. Is it true we “all have sinned” and fall short of moral perfection? Are people really sinners?
What is today known as the “golden rule”, is found in similar form in at least 37 often non-connected cultures. Thus, the laws of God are clearly written on the conscience of humanity, as the Bible claims and as Jefferson echoed in the Declaration of Independence.
According to Jesus, “Therefore, whatever you want people to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets”. The added, “for this is the law and the prophets” in the society of Jesus, meant similar to as if today someone said, “this is the foundation of human rights and the sum and purpose of all reason, wisdom, philosophy, science, education, morality and ethics.” Is this really the best idea for achieving human rights in the modern age?
Upon closer examination, most of the so-called “golden rules” found in other societies, including the one attributed to the Jewish teacher Hillel, are considerably different than that taught by Jesus. A similar one to Jesus is found in a saying attributed to Mencius. But unlike Mencius and all of the other known sages of history, only Jesus gives this positive, pro-active version the all-important status of being the foundation for all that matters towards positive human enlightenment and achievement.
So-called “golden rules” found in most societies instruct us not to harm others as we do not wish them to harm us. But Jesus teaches us to reach out and help other people, even if they do not first help us. Consider how much less effective it is to tell a child not to harm someone, than teaching the same child to pro-actively treat others as they like to be treated. For example, is a homeless widow better off if someone just doesn’t harm her or, if someone provides her food and shelter? Isn’t it far more effective to teach us to help each other than just saying we should do no harm?
Some modern intellectuals claim we should instead, treat other people as “they” wish to be treated. This supposed “improvement” contains at least two significant flaws: 1) It is rather difficult to know how another person wants us to treat them unless we first befriend them as we wish to be treated. 2) If we treat others as they wish to be treated without any measurement against our own well-being, we will soon be extremely tired, penniless and destitute.
Today, the term “empathy” is favored by many, apparently because it is less religious sounding than the idea of loving our neighbor as ourself. Although it is a good idea to empathize with others, is this idea really an improvement over teaching us to pro-actively love our neighbor as ourselves?
Is the Jesus version of the golden rule the best idea? Does anybody else have a better idea for curing what ails a race called “human”? Do we want less than the best for our children? You decide.
Is it really accurate, as some intellectuals claim today, to blame belief in God as the cause of war and other human oppression? Is this any more correct than blaming science and education? Isn’t it more honest to instead, blame people who mis-use technology and belief in God for their own nefarious purposes?
Obviously, someone can aim the fickle finger of fate at war waged in the name of religion. But, even before the invention of the wheel leading to ever-improved knife, spear, bow and chariot design, human science and education has been intricately entwined with waging war. Military applications have long been interlaced with government-funded science, education and modern space exploration.
Consider the Manhattan Project, nuclear missiles and space-ray weapons. And, the rise of oppressive imperialism alongside industrial age invention; the American, French, Russian and Chinese revolutions; WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. Incalculable human oppression has been aided by science and technology and, waged in the name of nationalism, democracy, capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism, anarchism and other intellectual idealism and often, just plain old fashioned human greed and lust for gold.
Arguably because of their belief in God, billions of people have helped the sick, poor and oppressed masses throughout the ages. Consider names like Isaiah, Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez and, celebrities like Danny Thomas, Jerry Lewis and Martin Sheen. Consider the Union Rescue Mission and LA Mission on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Throughout the European “dark” and Middle Ages, many individuals, including some popes, established public hospitals, housing and bread lines.
Consider modern electricity, medicine, surgery, global travel, computer technology and other marvels of a 21st Century age of science and wonder. And to be fair, weigh this in the historical balances against WMDs, global mass pollution, depletion of fisheries, rain and other forests, fresh water pollution, mountains of garbage and cesspools of toxic waste left in the wake of the “Age of Enlightenment”.
Why is oppression waged in the name of Christianity, Islam and other religions any worse than that waged in the name of manifest destiny, communism and fascism? Is human oppression a result of sincere belief in God? Or, is it rather, a result of human beings wrongly using the sincere beliefs of others for their own devious purposes?
Isn’t it more likely that we all contribute to the negative downside of human history, whenever we fail to treat other people as we ourselves, wish to be treated? Isn’t it more accurate, as Jesus pointed out and as Freud, Jung and modern behavioral science agree, to blame the “seething mass” of irrationality and frustration buried deep within individual human beings, as being the real cause of our problems?
If we are going to rationally and fairly blame something as being the “cause” of our problems, maybe it’s wise to first take a good look in the mirror. Does belief in God cause human oppression? You decide.
Ancient Galilee covered an area of approximately 1,000 square miles. The area of the earth is about 197 million square miles. Thus, it would take approximately 197,000 ancient Galilees to cover the surface of the earth.
Earth is larger than it’s immedite neighbor planets. But, roughly 1,400 earths would fit by volume inside of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. And yet, the sun compromises over 99.8% of the total mass of this same solar system.
Most astronomers believe our sun is larger than an average star. Yet, our sun is tiny compared to a star called Arcturus. And, Arcturus in turn, is very small compared to another star known as Antares. VY Canis Majoris is the largest known star in the universe and next to it in illustration in a typical book-sized drawing, our sun becomes essentially invisible to the unaided eye.
Even this largest of stars would easily fit within the vastness of our own solar system. But our solar system is but a grain of sand in a Milky Way galaxy of 200 billion stars, which is about only 1/5 the size of galaxy M-31, also known as Andromeda, estimated to be 220,000 light years in diameter. And yet, M-31 is miniscule compared to the estimated 6 million plus light year diameters of the largest known galaxies.
Space is so vast, that the nearest star to our sun is over 24 trillion miles away and yet, there are an estimated 100 billion galaxies of stars in the observable universe. Some scientists believe that the currently visible approximately 13.5 billion light year radius, represents an area smaller than a period on this page, compared to the actual size of our universe. And some scientists believe there may be as many universes as there are stars in our own.
It is fair to say that creation may go on forever and ever. And thus, someone standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee today might feel overwhelmed and incredibly insignificant. But this is only part of a much larger or as some might argue, smaller picture.
There are an estimated 10 trillion cells in an average adult human body, perhaps 50 times as many as there stars in our Milky Way galaxy. And about 100 trillion micro-organisms live in a typical adult human gut, about 100 times as many as there are stars estimated to be in the Andromeda (M-31) galaxy.
About 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms are thought to be contained in a typical adult human body. Atoms are similar in size of our solar system in relation to the sun and and planets, in comparison to the size of various sub-atomic particles within them. And similar to the sun in relation to the planets, the nucleus of an atom contains over 99% of its total mass.
If someone were to illustrate an atom in true scale, showing its protons and neutrons as being about 1.5 inches in diameter, then electrons and much smaller yet other particles, would be less than 0.1 millimeter in size and, the atom itself would be about 6.25 miles in diameter.
Human beings are very large in the light of subatomic particles and, very small compared to the size of the observable universe, thus we are placed inbetween the largest and smallest expressions of creation art. And, just as a great artist like Rembrant might paint a large mural and yet, pay close attention to the smallest detail of facial expression and slightest variation of color, how much more then, does our Father in heaven, in a grand expression of creation art, pay close attention to the most microscopic realities of creation?
And then, there is the sacrifice of God’s son for the human race on a Roman cross, the ultimate expression of God’s love beyond any and all magnitude of comprehension. Thus, it is no small wonder that no one can deserve God, no matter how righteous, intelligent, strong or otherwise superior to others, we in vain may fancy ourselves to be.
Many people casually assume their religion or viewpoint of God is mainly correct, without ever stopping to consider what and who the known evidence demonstrates God really is and, how little they actually know about either God, life, love or anything else. Atheists and agnostics pretend the grand design of the universe could somehow magically exist without any Grand Designer, as if a living being as incredibly complex as a fruit fly, could somehow randomly appear on it’s own and magically over time, change into a somewhat less credible human being fancing him or herself as being “educated”.
Thus, we should be quite careful about trusting religionists, scientists and other educators to actually know much more of value than the average truck driver or motel maid. And, we should be even more careful about passing on to our children what we supposedly know is true about God.
Or otherwise, will the lies we tell our children and mis-information we leave them, come back to haunt us for a very, very, very long time? After all, as the Bible says, let God be true but every man and woman a liar and, there is a most obvious of reasons for the cross.
DID THE DEMOCRATS REFORM HEALTH CARE?
November 9, 2010Congressional Democrats, since the election of President Obama, have passed cosmetic legislation that will likely hurt more than help the majority of Americans, while greatly enhancing the bottom-line of banking, oil and health corporations. Like their Republican partners in crime, they are allowing citizens to become more and more economically enslaved. For example, government sources announced not long after so-called health care “reform” passed, that projected costs for health care will nearly double by 2020.
Many Americans fail to understand that when employers pay for health care, we are in reality, paying for it ourselves. Employer cost for benefits is included in the “price at the pump” reality for all goods and services. And because the cost is ultimately borne by us, there is in reality no such thing as employer provided benefits.
If a manufacturer, trucking company and retail chain provide benefits for their employees, consumers purchasing the manufactured products delivered by the trucking company and sold by the retail chain, pay for the cost of these benefits. This includes the factory workers, truck drivers and store clerks who receive benefits, when they purchase goods and services themselves.
When an employer doesn’t provide health coverage, as is the case for most working class and poor citizens, then it greatly disproportionately effects them. Not only are they forced to pay for their own coverage or do without, they also end up paying for the health benefits of employees who do have coverage, in the form of higher consumer prices. Instead, if health care was paid for through federal taxation, citizens would pay for it based on their tax bracket and ability to pay.
The reality now is, upper-middle class and wealthier Americans typically enjoy premium health coverage paid for by their employers. Meanwhile, all American consumers end up paying for “Cadillac-plan” provided expensive high fashion eye-wear, cosmetic surgery and braces on children’s teeth. And, poor Americans suffering from cancer and diabetes often have no coverage at all. EVERYBODY pays while only a few receive premium coverage.
When Republicans talk about supporting “small” business, what their agenda is really helping, is very large private businesses and publicly traded corporations that gain significantly from tax reductions. Average wage-earners lose far more in service cutbacks than they ever gain by tax reductions. And, when Democrats talk about “reform”, it invariably results in the same thing, such as the projected rise in health care costs we all have to pay for.
Legislation backed by both parties severely hurts small business and the average American citizen and, the direction both parties are pursuing will ultimately enslave the masses beyond pre-20th Century industrial reality. And, it will eliminate any semblance of legitimate business, while driving more and more people into financial ruin.
Did the Democrats really reform health care? Is the Republican agenda any better? As long as politicians are allowed to be bought and sold by wealthy interests, does it even really matter which party is in power? You decide.
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