Big Dogs House

In God We Trust

Jul 4, 2009 Political

I know, I will be attacked by the irreligious left, those pesky atheists that are so sure that they are correct, bless their stony little hearts- these are people who have no higher purpose in life but to live it, and unfortunately, they are well on their way to teaching your kids that there is no God. No wonder there are kids acting out. They have been left twisting in the wind by morally ambiguous people who offer no alternatives.

Our country was founded on Christian principles, despite the false assertions of the Godless left. While the signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution had many different sects of Catholicism, Protestantism, and there were Quakers, Deiists, and, I am sure, some agnostics among them, humanity beings are, while  if nothing else, diverse in opinion, the consensus would be that of an overwhelming Christian nature.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Pennsylvania co- signers of the Declaration of Independence said, “I’ve lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I have lived, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: That God governs the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We’ve been assured in the sacred writings that unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.”

That is a powerful endorsement from one of the fathers of our country, and one whose advice we disregard at our peril. But there are still voices that say that this is a diverse nation, one in which not all people are Christian, but other faiths as well, indeed there are others who observe no faith at all, and to that I say great- the more opinions the better, and civil discourse is a great part of what has made this nation what it is today. 

But we cannot forget our roots religiously, no matter what sect, or branch, or distinctly different religion we come from. While the Ten Commandments came from the Bible, and this is the basis of our laws today, virtually every major religion has their variant of codes of honor and morality that they find to be comforting, a source of strength as well as guidance.

Thomas Jefferson, a signer of the Declaration, once said,”And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

It is sad that many on the left feel that religion has no place in our society today- they seek to have religious symbols stripped from buildings on the grounds that someone might find the very sight objectionable, conveniently forgetting that a human neck is capable of turning the head away from the “offending” symbol, thus alleviating the offended party from the very sight. We have come to this; that a small minority, pesky though they be, have begun to dictate to the majority of the people in this country just how we as a country must act; how we as a country must worship, or not; and how we as a country must  change to conform the tiny but extremely vocal minority. The situation has become ridiculous. 

While religion has been the source of wars in the past, and seems to ignite contentious feelings, this is not the fault of the religion, but of fallible and often power- hungry people who twist the writings to serve their venal needs. This is not the fault of the religion, but of the interpreters.

” To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness, which mankind now enjoys… Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government- and all blessings which flow from them- must fall with them.”

The writer of that last quote was Jedidiah Morse, a patriot and Educator, who has been called “The Father of American Geography”.

And yet there are those who would strip God from all aspects of life in the United States of America- no Pledge of Allegiance, No “In God We Trust ” on our money, the list goes on- but religion is inextricably linked throughout our culture, and has been so for centuries.

Alexis De Tocqueville, a French Observer of America in 1831, and author of Democracy in America, had this to say;

“Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and they reigned in common over the same country.”

Long may they reign.

Tags: atheism, religion, ten commandments, Thomas Jefferson, way of life

Not A Judeo-Christian Nation

Jun 14, 2009 Political

Barack Obama said that we were not a Christian nation but did say we would be one of the largest Muslim nations (a patently false claim). His defenders here and other places claim that the Nation’s Founders did not put christian items in our Founding Documents and claim that Christian references were not in them on purpose. The nation was founded on Judeo-Christian teachings and values and that can be seen in a number of documents and writings including the Constitution.

Article VII of the Constitution:

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth. In Witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names. [emphasis mine]

Is there any doubt that the Lord is Jesus Christ since the dating system referred to him when used that way? It is true that dating was traditional but they did not mention the Lord in other dates and they could have easily left it out if they truly wanted a secular document.

Is it absolute proof that our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles? No, but taken with the references cited in the video it is obvious that the Founders did not have a completely secular vision and that Judeo-Christian history played a part of it.

Tags: constitution, judeo-christian, religion, secular

Religion- What’s it good for?

May 10, 2009 Political

There’s always been a tug of war over religion- which one is the right one, does it offer eternal life, does it exclude belief in, or tolerance of other offshoots of that religion or others? Just what HAS religion done for us, humanity? What has it done TO us? Does the one out weigh the other in a positive way? A negative way?

All of these are thorny questions, ones that not everybody has handled with grace and tolerance- witness the schism between the S’hia and Sunni sects of Islam. Each one holds the other to be apostate, and thus an enemy of true Islam, and this goes back to one small thing- when Mohammad died, he did not leave a will, directing the continued rule of Islam in one direction, thus leading to two different interpretations of the same religion, and conflict over the disparity between the two.

The same sort of schism with Christianity- first was the Catholic church, with its eventual corruption (the selling of blessings, etc) that led to the schism that Martin Luther fostered, that became Protestantism, with Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Methodist sects of Christianity.

And then you have the Mormons, and Quakers, and others, oh my.

We won’t even get into the Eastern religions in this discussion, not that they are not important, but for this discussion, they are not germane to the conversation.

“Religion is the opiate of the masses”, was a favorite maxim of the communists, as they attempted to leach the religion out of their citizens, but for all their atheistic rant, they never quite kept the faith out of everyone’s life. So why? Why does religion hold such sway over people? What does religion do for the people?

For starters, religion grounds people, gives them a reason to go through another day, despite what at times seem like insurmountable odds. Belief in a higher being gives many people some solace in times of need. To those who do not believe, it might be a useless waste of time but to those who do believe, the peace that this belief brings is, no pun intended, a Godsend.

But let’s get down to the nitty- gritty here- just what has Religion done for people over the years?

The obvious thing is that the Ten Commandments has given us a baseline for our acceptable behavior towards other people, and started us on a pathway to a society that has laws that punish the defendant, and compassion towards the victim. Virtually every major religion has a version of these commandments, that give us a pathway to civilized behavior. This is a good thing, otherwise you have no society at all, as everyone is out for themselves, and if there is no God, and no afterlife, what is the use in following laws?

Some might say that this is the case now, but I would say that this is because not enough people have taught their children well. Religion has not been the problem- not teaching the religion has been the problem. Part of this is the disintegration of the family, where a father or mother is absent, and the children do not have a parent set that reinforces the laws and codes of behavior that the child is expected to adhere to. The phrase “God- fearing” is often used in a negative connotation to the adherence of the Commandments, but this is really a positive in the scheme of things.

If you have a fear of God and/ or his Judgement, your obedience to the Commandments may be reinforced, and you might be better able to resist the myriad temptations in life. God, in effect, becomes another parent, one who never grows old, or dies. Praying is just having a conversation with God- and everyone needs someone to talk to, even if, at times, the talk is all on one side. God is nothing if not a good listener.

Atheists often denigrate me and my faith, poo- pooing the beliefs of the Christian peoples. That’s all well and good, for I am not evangelical. I think that God has provided the book, but there will always be people who do not want to read, so I am fine with their atheism, except when it gets in my face.

That’s not socially acceptable, or very gracious, but I have come to expect ungracious behavior from some, as well as ridicule, to which I simply reply that if I am wrong in my belief, I simply lose some time in my life, but if they are wrong, they risk losing eternal life. That’s a gamble I wouldn’t take.

Do you feel lucky, punk? Well. do you?

Tags: atheism, ethics, God, religion

Evolution, Denied

Apr 27, 2009 Political

The Liberal Left just love to trot out old Charles Darwin, at every chance they get, mistakenly believing that his theories on the Evolution of the various species, indeed of man himself, abrogate the belief and even existence of God. The Left love a secular world. They could not be more wrong, but God gives everyone the free will to accept or deny his existence, so if that is what Liberals choose to do, that’s fine with me.

What I can’t understand however, is the way they, like Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, deny the theories of Darwin, as they relate to businesses and economics. Libs, the rooster is crowing. (For all who didn’t get the reference, read a Bible).

Businesses, corporations, and monetary entities have a life of their own, and when healthy, they grow, they expand, and they can and will gobble up the weak among them. All quite similar to the natural world. Companies grow and evolve, often changing into something different than their original shape, business- wise.This is evolution in a corporate environment, and it’s a healthy thing when business grows- more jobs, more money, more opportunities to advance in a corporate sense- all well and good.

What liberals fail to understand, or accept, ( and here’s the blatant hypocrisy), is that when corporations fail to adapt to changing conditions in the business environment, they begin to fail, to die, as it were. This too, is a part of the natural world of business. The corporation fails, and other corporations swoop in and strip the corpse of all assets that might be valuable, thus making themselves stronger. This is how the business world operates when it is left on its own. Like the dinosaurs, nothing in the business world is too big to fail. Everything has its time, and then fades away.

When, however, you artificially prop up a corporation, and keep it limping along past its lifetime, you do no one any favors, indeed you tend to favor the ill corporation to the exclusion of everything else, and the systemic illness begins to spread to other businesses, because they have been denied and ignored in favor of the sick corporation, so their business has suffered also.

Pretty soon this malaise spreads to the ancillary businesses that served parts of the corporation, and, much as the Swine Flu has begun spreading among the population, so do the effects ripple among the smaller businesses, when the smaller businesses could have been freed up to find another corporation to service if the “too big to fail” corporation had been allowed TO FAIL.

So we come to the very root of the hypocrisy the Liberal Left, of as they like to call themselves, “progressives” ( a term they had to reach back in the past for- a “retro” re-branding). Here, on the one hand, these people worship at the statue of  Darwin, saying that we have been descended from monkeys, and there is no God, just random atoms colliding helter- skelter. If someone brings up any weaknesses in Darwin’s THEORIES, these people are ridiculed as weak- minded, ignorant, superstitious country bumpkins. After all, EVERYONE who is wise just knows that religion is SO yesterday.

These same people who grovel at the feet of  Darwin blatantly ignore the same rules, or theories when they apply to businesses and corporations, and that is inconsistent, much as saying that gravity is a law, but rubber balls are exempt from following this law.  The strongest part of Darwin’s theories on natural selection is the part about survival of the fittest, so why would anyone ignore this part of his theories?

Survival of the fittest- come on, let’s hear all you liberals say this- shout it from the rooftops. What? No? You don’t want to believe this, because you might be scared you are not fit? Maybe not- after all, you are the ones who want to coddle everyone and everything. The unfortunate by- product of all of this coddling, is that now you have immature people, or, in this case, corporations, entities that cannot take care of themselves as they should.

The eagle, the symbol of our country, has a way of raising his young that ensure the survival of the species. As the chicks fledge out their feathers, and begin to sit on the edge of the nest, flapping their wings, and building up their strength, the parents begin to take away the nest. One by one, the sticks that made up the nest begin to disappear, until these chicks are left with no option but to fly or fall. The parents will follow their children on their first flight, but they ensure that their children WILL make their first flight, thus launching their own life. If, for some reason, the chick could not fly, it would have crashed and died, and while the parent might have felt grief, the world goes on.

And so the world must go on, but not with crippled corporations. I drive a chevrolet, but if GMC fails, then that is the fault of the brains of that company, including the unions and anyone who had a part in deciding the direction that company was going in. The same thing applies to Banks and other institutions.

If you wanted to skew business evolution, to give some companies corporate steroids, you would all take your money out of banks that had taken the TARP funds, and put your money in those banks that didn’t take the government bribes. This would reduce the government’s grip on financial institutions, and cause these smaller banks to grow- but that would be good, for these banks didn’t make the bad decisions that led to government control.

Perhaps it’s time we gave the liberal left a lesson on evolution, and survival of the fittest.

This plan will work, and it will give the good banks a good boost. If the Left can mess with evolution, so can we.

Tags: business, evolution, liberals, religion

Were tornadoes a message from God?

Aug 25, 2008 Political, Satire

The Democrats have all gathered in Denver for their convention love fest. Despite a lack of limousines, Dems were able to get to their “green” convention in the style they accuse out of touch Republicans of using.

Barack Obama hopes to make people believe he is no different than anyone else who has gone to school on scholarships and student loans and has had to figure out how to afford child care and activities for the youngsters. He might hope people will believe that but he and his wife spend more on piano lessons and camp than most people make in a year. Their kids go to private school and they own a home that cost them more than a million dollars even if a convicted lobbyist helped them buy it for political favor.

The Democrats also want us to believe that they are the party of faith. They barely acknowledged faith four years ago and their secular ways are touted whenever it is not an election year. They realized though, that the religious right is a big voting block and they would like to tap into it. What better way than to have a number of diverse religious groups and to start things off with a prayer? The Democrats are carefully moving into this area and claiming it is because Obama is giving people a seat at the table. The truth is that George Bush beat them with values voters and the left wants to tap into that group.

When there is no election the Democrats love to dismiss religion and invoke such non existent claims as Separation of Church and State (which is not written in the Constitution) and they love to side with the ACLU when it attacks religious groups. They use to dismiss religious voters until the Conservative Christians became a huge force. Now Democrats want to tap into that base. How they expect to do so when the Democratic platform involves killing unborn children and when their presumptive nominee advocates allowing children born alive to die is beyond me.

Perhaps this is why there were four tornadoes near Denver last night. Maybe God is expressing Himself in the debate.

Perhaps last night’s tornadoes were a prelude to Thursday night.

One can only HOPE…

Sources:
Yahoo News
Rocky mountain News

Tags: abortion, convention, dnc, religion, storms