Day 205
I am all in favour of separating church and state. Churches should be allowed, and I mean fully allowed, to choose who they marry and who they hire. If they don't want gays involved, or inter-racial marriages, or married priests, or female priests, or whatever else, then so be it.
My hope, in the longer term, is that churches sticking to these backward ideologies will go extinct and be replaced with new churches that recognize a more modern morality. As pillars of communities, I do see a level of importance in churches (in spite of my Atheism). As my wise grandmother points out, it is in part our loss of having a sense of community with our neighbours that has forced us into insidious self-involvement and detachment from others as we drive long distances to centralized box stores, and to coffee shops surrounded by parking lots instead of boardwalks. There is great merit in the idea of localities and gatherings of small neighbourhood communities. Churches are up to the task, and for that (if not much else) I offer a degree of admiration for their existence.
The religious fascination with, and concentration on, people's sex lives baffles me. But more to the point, I honestly have no idea how people go about living with the idea in their head that they're being watched every moment by some sort of 'supreme being' and being judged based in part on what they decide to do with their sexual apparati on their spare time.
Let's speak candidly for a moment. Does God, the so-named supreme creating and governing being of the entire universe - a universe consisting of literally billions of galaxies (each containing countless billions of stars and even more planets) - really care where I put my penis? I mean seriously, think about that for a moment. Am I so special in the grand scheme of things? Is my penis worthy of that level of divine concern and attention? The notion is as flattering as it is shudderingly creepy, but I must respectfully disagree with those who believe it.
Apparently on earth there are well over one billion insects for every one human. There are also hundereds of stars in this galaxy alone for every one human. There are also hundreds, if not thousands, of galaxies in the universe for every one human. With these things in mind I occasionally take a good look up at the sky, followed by a good look down to the ground at an insect.
People should exercise more. And they should have more sex. Hell, sex is good exercise come to think of it. Logically speaking, given how massive the internet porn industry is, there must be literally tens of millions of men who spend all their time indoors getting fat and pasty and emotionally unhealthy watching the stuff. Which also means, logically, that there are tens of millions of women who don't have sexual partners when they probably want sexual partners! Either that or a select few men are getting all the good stuff, which I doubt.
The solution seems pretty obvious to me. Men should get out, exercise, and stop with the porn. Then they will meet women, have real sex, get even more exercise, and voila, society will improve just a little bit. Honestly guys, there are oodles of women - good, fun, smart, attractive women - living their lives right this moment wishing they had a man. And you're sitting there watching other people, paid professionals, do it on the internet.
And it is ironic that, if you ask a porn star (I watched a documentary once about the porn industry), they'll tell you it's just a job, and most of the sex they don't really enjoy anyway.
But it is difficult. I sit here writing with full knowledge that a universe of smut is at my fingertips for free. Any crazy, dark, twisted, socially unacceptable, or unusual sexual idea (emphasis on 'or') I dream up can be witnessed in a matter of seconds. As a sexual creature, I find it genuinely difficult not to indulge, and I don't always win that battle either. But what I can honestly say is that whenever my romantic life is hopping (so to speak), my inclination to stray to the internet all but disappears. And ces't la vie, with many things. Unhealthy habits often have a snowball effect, bringing down one's physical and emotional health and turning one increasingly back toward said habits.
It takes a lot of confidence and honesty to take a hard look in the mirror, at who you really are. I find that I can learn a lot about myself not by thinking about how often I am honest or dishonest, but how often I feel the desire to lie. Usually the only times (setting aside lies we tell for the honest best interest of others) we want to lie are those in which we feel guilty, or inferior, or appalling, or otherwise objectionable. When I live a healthy life physically and emotionally, and I do right by those around me, I never feel like I have to tell a lie in the first place, and the dilemma simply dissolves. As for the dark side of my mind - the side that our morality and laws and compassions are not particularly compatible with - I find that hiding it only makes it more consuming.
Confidence and honesty are good bedfellows. The 'controlling' boyfriends (and girlfriends) out there have a way of making their significant others feel guilty or dishonest when they've done no such thing to deserve the feeling. To that extent, confidence in oneself is a necessary condition for freedom; good works and good health are not enough, strange as that may sound.
And I can only think that avoiding the idea that some personal deity is watching and caring for you is a healthy way to go. When you are alone, you really are alone. When you are with people you love and who love you, you are with them and only them. When you take your last breath, that is in all likelyhood the end of consciousness.
To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens: "Holding an infant is what many would call a transcendental experience; you experience the innocence and significance of a new life. But it is also a moment in which you realize that you are going to die. You have to die to make way for this new life."
My hope, in the longer term, is that churches sticking to these backward ideologies will go extinct and be replaced with new churches that recognize a more modern morality. As pillars of communities, I do see a level of importance in churches (in spite of my Atheism). As my wise grandmother points out, it is in part our loss of having a sense of community with our neighbours that has forced us into insidious self-involvement and detachment from others as we drive long distances to centralized box stores, and to coffee shops surrounded by parking lots instead of boardwalks. There is great merit in the idea of localities and gatherings of small neighbourhood communities. Churches are up to the task, and for that (if not much else) I offer a degree of admiration for their existence.
The religious fascination with, and concentration on, people's sex lives baffles me. But more to the point, I honestly have no idea how people go about living with the idea in their head that they're being watched every moment by some sort of 'supreme being' and being judged based in part on what they decide to do with their sexual apparati on their spare time.
Let's speak candidly for a moment. Does God, the so-named supreme creating and governing being of the entire universe - a universe consisting of literally billions of galaxies (each containing countless billions of stars and even more planets) - really care where I put my penis? I mean seriously, think about that for a moment. Am I so special in the grand scheme of things? Is my penis worthy of that level of divine concern and attention? The notion is as flattering as it is shudderingly creepy, but I must respectfully disagree with those who believe it.
Apparently on earth there are well over one billion insects for every one human. There are also hundereds of stars in this galaxy alone for every one human. There are also hundreds, if not thousands, of galaxies in the universe for every one human. With these things in mind I occasionally take a good look up at the sky, followed by a good look down to the ground at an insect.
People should exercise more. And they should have more sex. Hell, sex is good exercise come to think of it. Logically speaking, given how massive the internet porn industry is, there must be literally tens of millions of men who spend all their time indoors getting fat and pasty and emotionally unhealthy watching the stuff. Which also means, logically, that there are tens of millions of women who don't have sexual partners when they probably want sexual partners! Either that or a select few men are getting all the good stuff, which I doubt.
The solution seems pretty obvious to me. Men should get out, exercise, and stop with the porn. Then they will meet women, have real sex, get even more exercise, and voila, society will improve just a little bit. Honestly guys, there are oodles of women - good, fun, smart, attractive women - living their lives right this moment wishing they had a man. And you're sitting there watching other people, paid professionals, do it on the internet.
And it is ironic that, if you ask a porn star (I watched a documentary once about the porn industry), they'll tell you it's just a job, and most of the sex they don't really enjoy anyway.
But it is difficult. I sit here writing with full knowledge that a universe of smut is at my fingertips for free. Any crazy, dark, twisted, socially unacceptable, or unusual sexual idea (emphasis on 'or') I dream up can be witnessed in a matter of seconds. As a sexual creature, I find it genuinely difficult not to indulge, and I don't always win that battle either. But what I can honestly say is that whenever my romantic life is hopping (so to speak), my inclination to stray to the internet all but disappears. And ces't la vie, with many things. Unhealthy habits often have a snowball effect, bringing down one's physical and emotional health and turning one increasingly back toward said habits.
It takes a lot of confidence and honesty to take a hard look in the mirror, at who you really are. I find that I can learn a lot about myself not by thinking about how often I am honest or dishonest, but how often I feel the desire to lie. Usually the only times (setting aside lies we tell for the honest best interest of others) we want to lie are those in which we feel guilty, or inferior, or appalling, or otherwise objectionable. When I live a healthy life physically and emotionally, and I do right by those around me, I never feel like I have to tell a lie in the first place, and the dilemma simply dissolves. As for the dark side of my mind - the side that our morality and laws and compassions are not particularly compatible with - I find that hiding it only makes it more consuming.
Confidence and honesty are good bedfellows. The 'controlling' boyfriends (and girlfriends) out there have a way of making their significant others feel guilty or dishonest when they've done no such thing to deserve the feeling. To that extent, confidence in oneself is a necessary condition for freedom; good works and good health are not enough, strange as that may sound.
And I can only think that avoiding the idea that some personal deity is watching and caring for you is a healthy way to go. When you are alone, you really are alone. When you are with people you love and who love you, you are with them and only them. When you take your last breath, that is in all likelyhood the end of consciousness.
To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens: "Holding an infant is what many would call a transcendental experience; you experience the innocence and significance of a new life. But it is also a moment in which you realize that you are going to die. You have to die to make way for this new life."
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