'All' is such an easy word to mis-understand isn't it?

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   Stump Parrishposted 13 years ago

   Why do we have to endlessly recycle the old conflicts: first we fought about slavery, then segregation, then gender, and now sexual orientation, while gender identity is in the wings waiting. Why can't people look at the phrase 'liberty and justice for all' and simply accept that 'all' means 'all.' and not 'all who agree with me or think like me or look like me or act like me or have sex like me or pray like me or are holier than thou like me or dress like me or all who unplugged their brain like me' Why can't christians understand a word as simple as 'all'?

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   simeonvisserposted 13 years ago

   From an evolutionary perspective, there is a good answer to this question: we naturally like people who are similar to us and we fear those we are (too) different. That's why people belong to groups and exhibit group behaviour. Everyone who considers himself a Christian just beliefs what their particular denomination of Christianity believes and that fuels the discussions: "You don't believe what I believe", etc.

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      Stump Parrishposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Surely you're not accusing christians of evolving are you? lol. Do all who evlove eventually persecute and display out right hatred for those who differ or does this require religion to bring to fruitation?

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         simeonvisserposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Actually, evolution plays a role in religions too, see this recently published hub (not mine so no personal promotion of hubs): http://hubpages.com/hub/Evolution-of-Ch … -Religions
         
         I'm saying that it is human nature to prefer your own group rather than a different group.

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            Stump Parrishposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I'm aware of the clanish tendencies of mankind. I know that we naturally seek out like minded or no minded associates. Is the hatred and persecution of all others who differ a inevitable step in this evolutionary process, or does this reqiure a teaching force like religion?
            None of this explains why so many religious people lack the ability to understand the meaning of the word 'ALL'.  I am a little confused by your statement that religion evolves. I was under the impression, and I get it all the time that everything has been pre-ordained and planned. Is following a preconcieved plan actually evolution?
            
            Oh, and BTW, thx for stopping by.

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               simeonvisserposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               My personal experience is that religious people tend to think more black-and-white. People are either good or bad, they are either a Christian/Muslim or they are not, and they are either saved or they are not. They honestly believe that they are on the path to salvation while others are awaiting their impending doom.
               
               That's why it is so hard to understand the meaning of the word 'all' because they don't see people as alike. Yes, everyone is a child of God but some people are on the wrong path in life. So those people are not the same as them.
               
               If you think you are doing what God Almighty wants and you also think that others are doing things that God does not want, it is very easy to engage in hatred behaviour.
               
               
               
               I don't think everything is 'planned' although I do think one thing leads to another in life. But when we look back in history we can also see reasons that explain why something happens. They follow naturally from previous events. Things don't stay the same, they keep changing.
               
               
               
               No worries, I like discussions

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                  Stump Parrishposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Good point simeon, most religious people do think in black and white. They also work very hard to keep future generations from developing the skills they need to engage in any sort of critical thinking. They don't want their children questioning their beliefs in an attempt to appear as smart as they think they are. Why put up with questions from your kids about thing you have no clue about. Better to keep the children as dumb as the parents. This is a sure fire way to keep this country headed where they want it to go. You can see the results of the last twenty or thirty years of this plan in action today. Compare our graduating student against most other indistrialized nations and you will find that we are becoming the laughing stock of the world, and rightly so in my opinion. 30 years ago this country lead the world in educating students. Now students in other countries know more about American History than American students do. How do we fix this, well I'll tell you how. We remove the facts from history lessons and the important people like Thomas jefferson and teach our students a commonly accepted myth instead. Oh, I see the christian right is already doing this, my bad.

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                     exorterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Stump Parrish says, religious people keep the children dumb This is a sure fire way to keep this country headed where they want it to go. You can see the results of the last twenty or thirty years of this plan in action today. Compare our graduating student against most other industrialized nations and you will find that we are becoming the laughing stock of the world. 30 years ago this country lead the world in educating students
                     
                     I remember when they started taking God out of the schools, americans are taking God out of everything they can. that is why you can see everything doing down hill, taking God out started in the schools and Stump Parrish can see what has happened to the education in America,
                     If God went back into our schools you could see improvement.
                     it is such a shame that religious people is the ones that can not see the truth

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                        Jeramiposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        I agree.   BUT ?
                          This too was foretold.

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                        Stump Parrishposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        Extortor, Has god really been removed from school? The successful efforts of the religious right to rewrite history to suit their beliefs says no. That a teacher in the south is forbidden to teach comprehensive sex education because it offends the sense of decency according to the moral majority. That this education could save the life of a teenager, nor the fact that it is the best way to accomplish another christian goal, reducing abortions is beside the point.
                        
                        I think you will have a dificult time proving your theory. That education began it's decline in this country at about the same time men quit wearing the duck tail hairdo is perhaps the better explanation for it's decline. It makes as much sense as your example of your reasoning. Removing religion from the public school system would actually improve the quality of the education in question. The Texas School board is an over used example of how claiming god has been removed from the schools is a falsehood. Knowledge is whats being removed from our childrens education and it's the christians doin the removing.

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                           Stump Parrishposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           Sry couldn't keep quiet about this, lol. The religious right in texas has begun to rewrite the history of this country to suit it's beliefs...Removing facts about our nations history from an American History curricullumn is not a good way to improve the quality of education our students receive. This is why most industrialized countries graduates know more about our country than our own students do. Keeping actual knowledge from the next generation of students accomplishes 2 things. It makes the previoius generation feel better about their beliefs as no one from the next generation has a reason to question the previous one.  It gives you results that are showing up all over the world. America is rushing to last place in every catagory. Let's keep Raising our kids according to the wishes of the Stupid is as Stupid Does crowd. By all means keep every scrap of knowledge you can locked up or them youngins is gonna start athinking for themselves like they did when we let em be hippies in the sixties and seventies. Gotta nip this nonsense in the bud I tell ya. Dumb 'em down and put 'em to work like the good little worker ants we like. 5  hoursa day of The Faux News Network is mandatory extra credit homework a night.

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                              exorterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                              I was in school when you could pray and when you could no longer pray in school, after several years, the students could go out side the school to do their praying, there was a big deal made because a town wanted the ten commandments posted outside their court house, God is being removed even from a lot of churches
                              
                              By they way I do have fond memories of the 60's and 70's
                              if pot was not against the law I would use if for my back instead of man made pain killers

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   Jeramiposted 13 years ago

   This may appear to be changing the subject, but this is what comes to mind when reading the previous posts.
   
     It is common for people to think that mankind has evolved.
   
     Have we really?  I think,  Not in the last four thousand years.
     We are no different than they were back then.
   
     We have gained a wider understanding of things that are,
   Yet our natural instincts are set in stone.
   
     We have learned different techniques to suppress these natural tendencies when required for our survival and for the survival of our intentions.
   
      If you could just snatch one of those people through time, into the present, it would take no time for them to mentally adapt into today's society.
   
       To think ourselves superior to them in any way is to fool ourselves.
   
      It has always been about surviving and maintaining some level of comfort.  We find this easier to do in a group.

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      fits3x100posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Stump! I sooo agree with what's bugging you about the dumbing down of America....and sooo disagree with what is at it's root.
      All? Do you mean like "all religious people?" In Iran an openly gay man would be executed...immediately...without a trial. I take offense at being lumped into any group like this.
      Re-writing history started in the uhhhh....let me see....Garden of Eden?
      In the late 1790's the average farm family in this country sat down to discuss the Federalist papers after dinner...most legal professionals today would be challenged by the language, let alone the concepts discussed at those tables. The primary textbook? ugh...the Bible.
      During the 1860's a home schooled poor boy led this country through the Civil war. Hundreds of thousands of men and boys died to secure the freedom of a people so different from themselves that to  imply selfish reasoning would be asinine. The overwhelming majority of those boys were publicly educated...in small schools...primary textbook? ugh-huh... My Grandparents and their parents were among them.
      1905...my Grandmothers valedictorian speech was about following Jesus' example to help create a sound basis for leadership.
      1968.  US Supreme Court Rules in Epperson V. Arkansas in favor of  teaching Evolution and set's the framework that has made it illegal to this day to teach virtually anything inferring intelligent design.
      Roe  V Wade... again devaluing Christian belief.
      Stump. Dude. I so agree that we as a people are dumber than a box of rocks. But I'm sorry man, my beliefs are so "old fashioned" that they sure as Hell can't be blamed for this crap.
      My Son would be a great kid to talk to. He's just 15. Can tell you the commanding Generals and their movements/consequences right down to individual unit commanders in most Civil War engagements. Napoleon's Campaigns...same...Atrocities of Rome...Calvinism...the Dark ages.... Speaks French fluently, Farsi passably, now learning Thai and Mandarin. There's more. We will discuss that personally I hope someday. But suffice it to say, he is not publicly educated. He does not believe exactly as I believe...but he know why he believes...what he believes. To infer, that because I'm a Christian, I desire his or anybodies "ignorance"? Come on man. Please don't lump folks...even if everybody else does.
      Usually, if everybody thinks a thing, it horribly false!

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