If You Believe in Peanut Butter Clap Your Hands....The Republican Debate and Evolution...RIP Bruce!

Its not as fun as I had hoped it would be to watch the republicans spiral downwards. Maybe its because the crash and burn is offering me too close of a view of the all too human egotistical and brutal foundation that these beliefs are based in. Sometime I can feel the hot putrid breath of dogma and it not only makes me sick to my stomach but makes me want to rebel in the usual ways. ...and thats just so boring anymore...
Not surprisingly, the only way that movements like the fundamentalist Christians, (or any other fundamentalist group for that matter,) gain speed, is through a lack of general education based in science and logic, and also through repetitive mind control, often practiced in groups, such as the repetitive prayer that is thought necessary to grow closer to God. I suppose that its a matter of degree when you consider any extremist Madrasa where young fundamentalist Muslims are rocking back and forth while studying the Koran for hours on end, or any Catholic school where you might find youngsters being indoctrinated with the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, or a cult somewhere looking towards the skies in anticipation waiting for the spaceship, or the schoolbus full of skinny, pale Hassidic boys going to school on Sundays back in the Brooklyn old days, looking out at us playing in the street with empty eyes. If the "truth" being taught in these community sessions is the actual truth, then is the problem that it wont stand up the scrutiny of logic and critical thought, or is it that man is so weak as to be in danger of being misled away from whatever truth it is being espoused by whatever movement that he/she needs to be brainwashed against what the human brain does naturally with raw information? It seems to me that any theory, backed up by papyrus scrolls, translated over and over by a series of men over thousands of years, should be able to stand on its own, beyond the answer that I hear too often that this truth is the real truth because X-scripture told me so!


America lags behind the rest of the world in critical thinking.
So, it was somewhere between a feeling of sublime happiness at being a small part of slipping a question or two into the republican debate, and the sinking aftermath of seeing the answer in the raised hands of who believes in evolution or not, that I hit a wall. Yes, the blogosphere was able to get some good questions into the debate via the online submission and voting system, but even with that fun fact, could we ever prepare ourselves for the truth of the answers?
As a whole. the republican field couldn't be more fun if Jeb were running...or his gal-pal Katherine Harris, for that matter. Rudy Guilliani was every bit as swaggering and macho Italian as I had hoped, and his attitude continually begs for some good revelations on his personal life that are bound to pile up beyond what he can push down with bluster. This doesn't even take digging; just scratch the surface when you're ready to be rid of him guys!
The rest of the field is splayed between the insaniac McCain who always seems about to blow, and the overly reasonable flip-flop Mormon Romney who cant, by any stretch of camera friendly pretense, make his record or religion go away...nor, can he take back the fact that is favorite book is by L. Ron Hubbard!...some of us are afraid of even opening those books, Mitt! Thats powerful stuff...speaking of mind control!




















In a worldwide poll asking about specific belief in evolution, people came down pretty hard on one side or another, as expected, with a certain amount being unsure, but America seems to fall right directly in the center...and how can this be? Are half of Americans so truly indoctrinated, afraid, overwhelmed, or uneducated as to not be able to critically evaluate the differences between what might be a fairy tale and what is actual evidence that cant really be denied?
When reasonable people sit down and talk, its usually clear that humans are able to reason, and that if they have the information beyond the group mentality and naked need for reasons for all of this, they will inevitably go with what seems logical and applies directly to their lives, explaining away the rest as some sort of misunderstanding. The social part of this stuff should not be underestimated, in that people are just used to the ritual passed down through generations, and it gives them a reason to get together. I's like to see the return of that philosopher intellectuals salon, where art and science are worshipped in the expectation of intelligence, literacy, and movement towards the future...what happened to that?
I was at a funeral last week and I watched hundreds of people recite by heart a lengthy Catholic call and reply, and then line up to eat a piece of the "flesh of Christ" and drink blood...Alot of these were people who I know don't live by the whole thing...some of them were never even communion-ized in the first place, so its questionable if the cracker to flesh thing even works for them or if its just so much appetizers before the reception at the Firehouse. I don't know why I always feel so outside of the rituals that seem to be so definitive in my community
, but I think that its because I THINK...too much...all the time...and maybe its a manifestation of OCD and a little more medication could temper that, or a way that my brain makes me be alone and not part of anything because of fear of the crowd and the hurt that that inevitably entails, or whatever...but to me, thinking is my form of prayer, and if I cant walk in the woods and look at the very real evolution happening in front of my eyes as everything changes so quickly, and reason it out and compare it to every level of society and the buildup and breakdown of whole societies, then I'm nowhere.










What if we really have NO purpose? What if we are hanging in a charm on a cat's collar, or just as likely, sitting on top of a flower held in some elephant's trunk; what then? I'd prefer to think hard about that and face the fear of nothingness than to explain it away in some fairytale. What if Dr Seuss was God and we missed the message? Hell, you're only king of all that you see insofar as you can pile your soldiers high enough before you come crashing down. Hows that for a real life cautionary tale?










I suppose that on the evolutionary ladder, somewhere down below most reasonable people, we can find the politicians who would be the "president," monarch, or power-brokers of this thing. And looking at that lineup the other night, I cringed...not because I think that any of them will ever be the US President, but because they think they can...and that is an example of a really embarrassing human failing: ego beyond what is reasonable and possible in the world. It reminds me of the Lotto...you gotta be in it to win it, but the chances of winning it are pretty much...none.

Look, if you're so sure of your point of view and belief, and if its all really true, then hold it up to scrutiny and let the chips fall where they may. I believe that's true with everything that is claimed off hand in service to what could be called "evidence" or groupthink. The minute you have to indoctrinate or strip away logical education...the minute you need to manipulate information so that it will be accepted by the masses, you've as good as shown the weakness in your belief. We should want to give everyone the tools that they need to face and understand reality. Belief is belief, and its really everyone's right to look up and decide that the Sun is God or whatever, but the minute that it starts to effect the society as a whole, its out.



RIP Bruce: A really nice guy with a beautiful song...he was a great friend of Will's and spent alot of time flying around in the play room as Will was playing video games. He died suddenly yesterday...suddenly...I don't know why...
RIP, boy...you will be missed!