The Heresy of 'Pro-Life' Christians

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Sunday October 07, 2012 · 7:28 PM PDT

2012/10/07 · 19:28

Our scripture readings in ELCA Sunday service often provoke my thoughts. My thoughts are never aligned with the Pastor's sermon, for sermons are typically generalized and oriented toward a certain orthodoxy. The last Pastor who made sermons a challenge to our lives was the late, great Bill Christman (a Presbyterian).

Proceed past the typographical florish for an unorthodox commentary on divorce and abortion.

MoGemStone

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Sunday May 06, 2012 · 1:29 PM PDT

2012/05/06 · 13:29

Enough has been said about Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's religion. Yes, as a Latter Day Saint (Mormon), Romney adheres to beliefs that are ludicrous. Almost anything conceived by an attention-seeking adolescent (Joseph Smith), whose personal standards led him to scam and manipulate friends and family, is ludicrous.

Criticism of a Presidential candidate for such beliefs has limited validity. In an absolute sense, criticism is valid. What does such valid criticism leave us? Every other major Presidential candidate in my memory has claimed religious beliefs which, despite mostly being different from Mormon beliefs, are exactly equivalent in their ludicrous elements. I will not belabor that point. Most readers can supply plentiful examples of offenses upon rationality by any particular religion. This is a subject which incorporates the supernatural, so deviations from rationality are inherent.

The pertinent consideration is what a candidate's personal beliefs and attitudes reveal about how he (or she, on occasion) will perform the duties of a President of the United States of America.

Poll

12 votes Show Results

Which of the answers above (& meaning below) would Romney use?

12 votes Vote Now!

Which of the answers above (& meaning below) would Romney use?

{A} Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

4 votes

{B} Obama has made us a Muslim country.

2 votes

{C} The Mormon Church will have an office adjoining the Oval Office.

0 votes

{D} I have the Freemason vote locked up!

0 votes

{E} Temple Loyalty Oaths are SECRET!

6 votes

Phony '-ologies'

MoGemStone

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Monday February 20, 2012 · 9:31 PM PST

2012/02/20 · 21:31

Rick Santorum, the William Jennings Bryan Memorial Presidential Candidate, says of his opposition to Obama,

It's about...some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible... .

I say that Santorum has some phony biology, geology, climatology, ecology, and (probably) darn near any other '-ology' that exists - because he bases (or imagines he bases) EVERYTHING on the Bible. Well, the Catholic Bible maybe. There are other Bibles, which I expect that he regards as 'impure' at best.

But then, what I have to say about Santorum is irrelevant, isn't it? He wasn't talking about THOSE 'ologies', as he made perfectly clear:

The Catholic church has a Theology that says this is wrong...the President of the United States is exercising his values and trumping the values of the church.

There, now it's settled. Move along now. There's nothing to see here. There is something to see below the typographical flourish. Read More

Ron Paul's Chip Off the Old Block

MoGemStone

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Friday December 23, 2011 · 10:35 PM PST

2011/12/23 · 22:35

Today's post is an encore for last year's Dr. Rand Paul, Civil Rights Patriot. The changing flux of the Republican primaries & caucuses has renewed its relevance this Christmas, 2011. The ensuing attention directed toward Ron Paul's many years of newsletters had developed minimal traction in prior episodes of exposure. This present episode must be exploited quickly, before attention wanes and the truth is no longer of interest to America's Cult of Celebrity.

MoGemStone

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Monday November 21, 2011 · 8:15 PM PST

2011/11/21 · 20:15

It has always been common for scientific fields to complement each other. A recent archeological discovery has revealed intact documents from the 20th and 21st centuries which were produced by the now-extinct humanoid specie Homo conservitii. They are currently being analysed, especially by comparison to similar documents from the 24th-century Homo ferengii, for clues to the evolutionary development of H. conservatii. This pre-publication description of the research is provided while research is finalized and a draft publication is composed and peer-reviewed.

The documents describe these species' social organization in terms of a concept which both referred to as acquisition. This was a significant element of humanoid societies until the 34th century, when biological and social evolution converged to eliminate superstition, greed, and arrogance. An unknown 18th-century Homo sapiens sapiens promulgated such differing concepts of acquisition [present possession, occupation, prescription, accession, succession] from these later species' concepts that it is clear that H. conservatii followed a highly divergent evolutionary path from H. sapiens.

MoGemStone

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Saturday November 19, 2011 · 6:58 PM PST

2011/11/19 · 18:58

I am often motivated by scripture readings in Sunday service to write about them from a different perspective than is customary. Recently, the Gospel Reading in our little ELCA Lutheran Church was the parable in Matthew 25:14-30. Christian commentaries and sermons on this parable typically describe it in terms of judgement (especially of the unsaved, who are "servants" (sometimes translated 'slaves') - entrusted with the monetary denomination "talent" representing God's blessings to which we are to be faithful) :

MoGemStone

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Monday October 24, 2011 · 7:16 PM PDT

2011/10/24 · 19:16

One of the early lessons in Physics is the Conservation of Energy. Energy comes in two broad categories (forms), kinetic and potential. Energy can be in either form, and the form can even be changed. Electric utility companies like to produce energy when there is little demand, store it, and release it when demand is high and generators can't handle the load. One way of doing this, pumped-storage hydroelectricity is to pump water to an elevated reservoir. The water at height stores gravitational potential (weight) energy. That potential is very stable, only subject to little practical things (like leakage) that change the potential energy back to kinetic energy. The big practical thing is releasing water to flow through electric generator turbines.

~ It is kinetic energy that gets 'er done. Potential energy deserves a comparable respect. ~

The precise language of Physics sometimes uses the same words which are used rather loosely in other contexts. One such context applies the phrase 'potential life' to human reproduction. We have heard this phrase repeatedly, so we know what is meant by it - or, at least, we know what we are meant to think it means. We are meant to think that it means (and here, I will attempt a precise statement of that meaning) 'mated human gametes are capable of becoming a developmentally-complete human organism and should be regarded as equivalent to that human'.

MoGemStone

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Monday July 04, 2011 · 9:31 PM PDT

2011/07/04 · 21:31

You don't really need to find out what's going on
You don't really want to know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone, keep your dirty laundry
'Dirty Laundry' - Don Henley

Many readers have followed the dramatic events of Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011. You have read many accounts of incredible perseverance, bravery, and resourcefulness. Even those Joplinites who were undamaged, or like me, barely on the fringes of the storm, have been affected deeply and indelibly. The community showed an immediate cohesiveness that was matched by the generosity and efforts of thousands of volunteers from across America. This tragedy has been Joplin's finest moment.

A moment seems now to be too accurate a term.

MoGemStone

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Sunday February 20, 2011 · 7:01 PM PST

2011/02/20 · 19:01

I have a mix of friends on a social networking site. There are a quite a variety of styles, beliefs, attitudes, and talents. Straight, Gay, Christian, atheist, Moslem, undecided, conservatives of several inclinations, and (this IS my group) liberal commies - err, liberal progressives.

Roger (a pseudonym) is a libertarian conservative - gun-lovin' and truck-drivin'. He tries hard to put up a show of original thought, but the 'I'm so totally independent, and everyone else can damn well be independent too' attitude doesn't hold up well in dialogue.

Poll

32 votes Show Results

What's with Roger?

32 votes Vote Now!

What's with Roger?

What a jerk.

1 vote

He apologized - at least he's a NICE paranoid.

10 votes

It's not paranoia, it's pent-up rage.

4 votes

OMG, he has guns? And AMMUNITION?

3 votes

We all have a bad day occasionally.

10 votes

Aha! You really have been deleting his posts.

0 votes

He gets this way after the wife uses the whip.

0 votes

He was justified. Commie liberals are ndg.

1 vote

My first spouse had issues like his, too.

0 votes

He needs to take those meds on time.

3 votes

The Republican-Lysenko Party

MoGemStone

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Saturday February 19, 2011 · 8:46 PM PST

2011/02/19 · 20:46

The modern GOP is irresponsible and dangerous.

The operative phrase {link above} is that legislators seek "... to reverse the agency's scientific finding ..." regarding the EPA & AGW. Imagine seeing reports from Washington that legislators seek : "... to reverse the FDA's scientific finding that aspirin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug" ; or "... to reverse the TSA's scientific finding that driving slower saves gas." Legislators' jobs are to determine policy & implementation, not decree the facts of nature.

Poll

0 votes Show Results

0 votes Vote Now!

I Am Thankful This Christmas

MoGemStone

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Saturday December 25, 2010 · 9:04 PM PST

2010/12/25 · 21:04

I am thankful this Christmas that science and humanitarians have allied to improve the lives of countless people.

I hadn't recently read of the Carter Center's progress in combatting guinea worm, and this article was a welcome reminder of the important accomplishments of President Jimmy Carter. There is precedent for the eradication of a human pathogen - smallpox, was eradicated under the direction of the United Nations' World Health Organization.

MoGemStone

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Sunday November 28, 2010 · 2:59 PM PST

2010/11/28 · 14:59

Libertarians, in a panoply of forms, emphasize individual liberty over group control. Even I, your favorite blogger (right?), am somewhat Libertarian, leaning in the direction of Egalitarianism and Pragmatism. During recent political events, the most-publicized form has been Conservative Libertarianism.

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The Heresy of 'Pro-Life' Christians

Framing the Romney Question

Phony '-ologies'

Ron Paul's Chip Off the Old Block

Conservative Rules of Acquisition

Occupy the Bible

Kinetic and Potential Life

Dirty Laundry

Somebody Was Having a Bad Day

The Republican-Lysenko Party

I Am Thankful This Christmas

Libertarianism vs. Man-Made Disaster