Euthanasia defies reality. Some people and sects actually believe that not only is suffering inevitable but it is necessary just as others question that without evil can there really be good or what does health mean if there be no sickness? I suspect a further argument would be thankfulness for brutes like Saddam; for what value would democracy carry without its counterpart? Yet is not a preemptive strike upon such butchery in a sense a denial of euthanasia by putting an end to the suffering...
The word terror was first introduced to the lexicon [“reign of terror”] during the French Revolution, since the beginning of time it was called massacre of mostly innocents — now labeled genocide —and usually in retaliation from other nations or from internal strife. Now only the names have changed, such as IRA, Zionists, al Qaeda, Baathist, PLO, FARC, the left and right in Italy two decades ago. At one time some were considered freedom fighters. To assist in distinguishing guerilla warfar...
Atheism, agnosticism, and humanism are not faiths; they are philosophies. They have no right to infringe upon traditional customs regarding the symbolic value of beliefs. Examples: “In God We Trust,” the White House Christmas tree, and Christmas trees across the nation; prayer in Congress, Christmas Day, and all other religions celebrating their faith. However, the Ten Commandments without purging cannot be displayed on public soil or buildings. Purged of its uniquely religious overtones its d...
I find it intriguing that there are folks who are adamantly for or against capital punishment as though there were some ironclad a priori causation for such views. Those for it, seem always to fall back on the “eye for an eye” rationale; those against resort to taking a life is God’s matter and not one of humankind to sit in judgment. In practice neither is valid; for there are innumerable variables in deciding the appropriate sentence. Nevertheless, what is a priori is that murder is wrong. ...
Built into the teaching profession is the saccharine psychology that teachers love children. Perhaps in a vague sense this is true; however, the sentiment of loving children is essentially maternal and a throw back to the one-room-schoolhouse, and should not be perceived as a prerequisite to good teaching — unless the concept is linked to Socrates’ pejorative of “midwife of ideas.” Socrates cared for ideas when they were his but scorned ideas of others that did not measure up to his own. A mat...
Politics and religion don’t mix — easier said than done. True, there is the separation clause that ostensibly keeps religion — instruction and display — out of schools. The clause also prevents public display of religion on public property. Christmas, however, being the only religious national holiday, gives rise to controversy over religious displays, except for lights and perhaps modest articles of faith. The tradition of a national holiday lends genuineness to the posture that the nation is...
Uncertain World There is scarcely any certainty in the world. The best that can be expected is the mental impressions upon things an events. When we infer that Saddam is Saddam [S=S] there is certainty since the subject and predicate are the same. When we state S=M, the predicate adds to the subject, even though the subject itself is not changed: Saddam is a Murderer. However, the statement is an assertion and not true unless followed with contingent predicates or sufficient reasons, such ...
Nietzsche’s inquiry into the nature of God as omnipotent and omniscient, concluded that He could not be goodness but rather cruel if “being himself in possession of the truth, he could calmly contemplate mankind , in a state of miserable torment, worrying its mind as to what was the truth?” Believers would immediately counter that humankind is not privy to truth except when God wishes to reveal it, and in the meantime faith is tentative knowledge. However, it is not as simple as eithe...
Agnostics and those of faith are not far apart. Generally agnosticism means that one cannot be sure that a deity exists; on the other hand a worshiper may claim the existence of God or gods, but the implication is in virtue of faith which by its very definition cannot be certain, though denying lingering doubt. Agnosticism is in reality skepticism — not able to hold a tangential divinity in the palm of a hand and therefore in all probability does not exist or at least unprovable. Yet many agno...
Can something as gross as a Picasso produce an aesthetic feeling wherein one is arrested in beauty? Obviously there is no beauty in asymmetrical concoctions so that the aesthetic experience must be modified to an arrestment of a myriad of internalized experiences or nightmares of the viewer. This may seem presumptuous in light of the esteem of this artist as arguably proclaimed the finest artist of the 20 th century. Still, traditionally art was deemed beautiful when it imitated and exc...
What does it mean to be conscious of? Conscious of the outside world or conscious of oneself? To Heidegger it is the latter. One must first be awed by the, presence, nay, the power and dread of being in the world. Animals of the wild sense the dread, animals domesticated feel comforting presence of being cared for by a structure not their own. Humans feel the power of being in the world by the sheer strength of intentionality, that is the ability to project their being onto a world they have ...
Apparently, blogger Anathema needs some explanation for my blog on individualism. It is not necessarily opposed to holism, which is a theory predicated on collective action springing from a priori ideas similar to Plato’s realm of ideas, except that they tend to omit the required active intellection of an individual to sort out these forms of consciousness. This not simply the chicken or the egg dilemma; it rather presupposes that the collection of forms are already out there whether or not ...
The philosophy of individualism implies that the universe is made up of individuated material down to the infinitesimal particle, ruling out a holistic responsibility for reality. Even in the big bang theory which ostensibly calls for that mysterious infinitesimal “thing” — the mother of individualism in which all things are at rest in potentiality — to exhale its becomingness but not as some grand scheme of seamless wholeness but rather as helter-skelter free spirit of things finding individu...
There is a fascinating lure about Buddha. A man gifted with health and material splendor from noble birth, nevertheless, grasped the essential tragedy of existence, becoming sensitized to the millions of his countrymen suffering under the power structure of caste. Buddha walked among them, loving them, instructing them, giving them hope and courage—most important, courage. Here he promised them literally nothing but the strength of themselves within: One man on the battlefield conque...
Pervading the country today is a throw-back to the daybreak of time when man's only companionship was a crude weapon to preserve what his animal stimulus forebode was a confused identity. Citizens of these "united" states devolve to primitive foundations by yielding to radical assertions that the enemy is government and welfare. They have lost all sight of their state of grace handed down by the founding father's contract with progeny. They are destructive seces...