Charlie speaks out on the Ten Commandments Monument!
I don't care!!
I seem to be the only one who does not care. Honestly, I don't give a rat's ass whether it stayed or went.
So, the day they removed it I saw the Gallup poll on CNN: 77% disapproved of the removal of the monument and 19% approved. Now lets see, 77 + 19 = 96� They mentioned no other categories for the missing 4%. But it certainly means that no more than 4% of the people can not care as much as I don't care. Incredible.
That is what really amazes me about all this. That this is what people get so worked up over. September 11th, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 1 or 2 U.S. soldiers still dying daily in Iraq, and nuclear tensions with North Korea -- and this -- this "Ten Commandments Monument" is what people get all worked up about.
Lets look at this another way. Who exactly is it that is offended by the presence of a Ten Commandments Monument in a courthouse? Yes, the Ten Commandments are a Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious icon -- more on that in a minute. But it also seems to me that being the ancient law, and arguably the basis for most of our own law in the United States, there is a historic, legal basis of appropriateness for building a monument to the Ten Commandments in a courthouse.
So, certainly Christians, Jews and Moslems would not be offended by the Ten Commandments. Who then would be? Hindus? Buddhists? Well, no, not really, I don't think so. I'm not an expert on eastern religions, but I have studied them a little, which sadly I think makes me much more knowledgeable about eastern religions than most other non-Asian Americans. The Hindu and Buddhist idea of what God is, is that God is unknowable. Only God can understand and know God, and know what God is.
It is I believe a misnomer to call Hinduism (and by extension Buddhism) a polytheistic religion. Yes, Hinduism has a large pantheon of varied gods. But they are all merely manifestations of the Divine, of Brahma, the Divine energy of the universe. The Deity that poured the whole universe forth from himself. The Divinity, that as parts of the universe, we are all tiny parts of.
So, since only God can know God, any Hindu god is really no more than someone's idea of what God is, or some part of what God is. Gods then are like mental models for contemplating what God really is, which is unknowable by us, since we are not God, and by definition all we are are tiny, separated parts of God, or in the western view, created by God. There is really no hope at all that we, mere mortal us, can ever even get close to understanding God.
In the eastern view then, I speculate that the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God is viewed as just our idea of what God is, and really, due to our limited, mortal capacity, nowhere near a true understanding of what God really is. Our idea of God is also really just our mental model for trying to understand God, that infinite Divinity that really is unknowable by us, His creations.
Given this, I can't see Hindus or Buddhists taking issue with any theological aspect of western religions, such as a Ten Commandments Monument in a courthouse! The Ten Commandments would be just as representative of God to a Hindu or Buddhist as they are to a Jew, Chriatian, or Moslem -- just an idea about God from another culture, that's all. Viewing our God as just our way of trying to contemplate the Divine, I can't see Hindus or Buddhists branding Jews, Christians, or Moslems with any epithet equivalent to 'pagan' or 'heathen'. I find it interesting that eastern religions are thus tolerant of western religions in a way that western religions can never return the favor.
So, having covered the five major religions of the world, who is there left to be offended by a Ten Commandments Monument in a courthouse? The rabid proponents of the separation of church and state? The separation of church and state was I think, a stroke of brilliance by our founding fathers, and an idea I completely agree with, and would never argue against. But I also would not advocate taking it to a ridiculous extreme either. Now that we've gotten that dastardly Ten Commandments Monument out of the courthouse, are we going to take "In God We Trust" off our money and rewrite the Pledge of Allegiance without the reference to being "One Nation Under God"?
Like I said, 1 or 2 soldiers are still being killed daily by Saddam Hussein's resistance in Iraq and we still haven't caught that Osama Bin Laden bastard. And Ten Commandments Monuments in courthouses are what people get worked up about. Wake up people!
So it would seem that the only people who really have a motivation to see the Ten Commandments Monument removed are those who are afraid that it will offend someone else. Who that would be though, I doubt even they could say. It seems as if there is no one who is offended directly, themselves, by a Monument to the Ten Commandments in a courthouse.
Except perhaps the Satanists, The First Church of Satan, but I don't think there are really very many of them... I also don't think they are really a "faith" per se, so much as they are just a group of hedonists and nominal nihilists who enjoy messing with the heads of devout Christians more than anything else. In other words people with "issues", probably stemming from themselves having had overly strict and domineering, but extremely faithful parents.
Hopefully now you can see why I think this Ten Commandments Monument "issue" is so ridiculous.
And while I'm commenting on current events, I'm a republican who really hopes Cruz Bustament� wins the California recall election -- because I want to see Terminator 4!!
