View Full Version : What is the single biggest problem with America today?
Eurodriver
06-28-15, 15:13
If you had to summarize (what you believe) was wrong with this country in one overarching issue, what would it be?
Entitlement? Sensitivity? Violence?
Feel free to expand as little or as much as you wish, but do try and keep it to the single most significant issue.
Simple..... Put unadulterated ignorance.
By this i mean people that think they have an answer to questions they do not even understand.
Digital_Damage
06-28-15, 15:37
Financial,
Income disparity is snuffing out the middle class. Most issues can be pointed to that.
Tax code needs to be fixed, corporations shipping financial gain overseas while not increasing job opportunities.
The_War_Wagon
06-28-15, 15:57
Lack of corporal punishment in public schools since 1960.
Kids need to learn from an EARLY age - STOOPID has repercussions, & it hurts!
The media. Between them fanning the flames with false info on multiple topics and their refusal to do even a little bit of investigating into government corruption, they have totally bastardized what they once stood for.
SilverBullet432
06-28-15, 16:03
Facebook and CNN
Political Correctness. You can no longer "speak your mind" without fear of someone taking offense and more importantly having the courts enforce punishment on what you expressed.
Lack of patriotism! People are voting to maintain their position in life with NO regard for the future of our country.
progressives
pretty much at the root of all the problems that has happened to the country the biggest of course is which the whole communist ideas of the collective not the individual and of course how has that worked out for communist countries ? and we are now on that path
Inkslinger
06-28-15, 16:50
Lack of corporal punishment in public schools since 1960.
Kids need to learn from an EARLY age - STOOPID has repercussions, & it hurts!
Well let me tell you, it didn't end in the 60's. I was in elementary school in the 80's and I had teachers beat the shit out of me! Paddles, yard sticks, their hands, you name it. My 3rd grade teacher, a hulk of a man, once picked me up and held me by my hair! All of this was encouraged by my mother. In this day and age, her and half of my teachers would have been arrested.
As far as the problems in America, it's more than one thing.
FromMyColdDeadHand
06-28-15, 17:05
Financial,
Income disparity is snuffing out the middle class. Most issues can be pointed to that.
Tax code needs to be fixed, corporations shipping financial gain overseas while not increasing job opportunities.
This is a symptom of the problem, not the problem.
The problem that there is little real economic growth. Even the weak growth that we have is largely just iEconomy- not really improvements, just slicker things. We are actually in a deflationary general cycle based on demand, but we keep shoving money into the economy- but it is staying at the corporate level tied up on the balance sheet looking for ever smaller gains. It looks like corps are making mad money, but that is because there is inflation in the finance sector that hasn't leaked into the real economy- yet.
We have lower growth and the issues above because the general nature of a more slowly growing populace and we have already built our infrastructure (not that it couldn't use a refresh). That is cyclical, but the related issue is that we have gotten way over burdened in regulations and complexity. It is way harder to start a company than it was 30 years ago- and I'm not talking about doing some app that will be forgotten in a few months- I'm talking about really making things. Low opportunities mean that younger people, don't see the advantage of working hard if things aren't going to change for them much.
We have entered a time of 'masterbation economics'. A whole lot of hand waving and jerking around, but not really getting you anywhere, but you feel better in the short term.
Plus, listen closely;
You can't talk about income inequality while you are letting in metric ass loads of poor people into our country. That isn't a corporate greed problem, it is a math problem.
That said, the one thing that would address all the problems is some sort of balanced budget at the Federal level. This free money gives Progressives all the money they want for their plans and papers over the price for it. Even Rahm Emmanuel had to balance a budget in Chicago and all of a sudden, he wasn't so liberal anymore and was attacked for it.
The federal budget makes whores out of politicians and leads to most of the issues listed here either directly or by effect.
PatrioticDisorder
06-28-15, 17:26
Immorality, which is the result of Soviet subversion, a seed planted many decades ago finally comi to fruition.
Business_Casual
06-28-15, 18:06
Immorality, which is the result of Soviet subversion, a seed planted many decades ago finally comi to fruition.
This is correct, without morality, man is unrestrained. It is the problem identified in the Garden of Eden, where Adam (man) takes the fruit by choice. Eve was tricked into it.
Immorality, which is the result of Soviet subversion, a seed planted many decades ago finally comi to fruition.
Close to my opinion. I say lack of God and faith. If people base their morality on society, and society goes to crap, your beliefs have no foundation.
This leads to words not having meaning
Equality means everyone gets the same outcome
No one needs to take responsibility for their actions.
Work ethic goes to crap
Society dictates what is right, and entertainers control society, and got controls entertainers, so we are now controlled, unknowingly by the govt.
Rights then come from govt and can arbitrarily be taken away.
Phillygunguy
06-28-15, 18:26
Liberalism
FromMyColdDeadHand
06-28-15, 18:27
There is no morality. There are things we say before we do things and things we say after we do them to justify them. It really doesn't stop what we are going to do.
Lack of critical thought capability gets my vote.
An Undocumented Worker
06-28-15, 19:23
The Collective lack of a sense of humor.
Wow! ONE thing.
IMO it is the 'screw you buddy, I've got mine' mentality that permeates America today. The most American question of all is not 'What can I for America/Society/Others?' (kind of like the heroes of our childhood) rather it is 'What's in it for me?'
In a nutshell people don't care about other people anymore, only themselves and their special interests.
We've seen the evolution of a political system that allows rich corporations and individuals to buy elections. We are only concerned that the other party does right and follows the rule of decency and law, our side gets a pass. Has either Democratic or Republican party official EVER caged their own party's voter registration rolls?
We've long been a Nation that's foreign policy doesn't reflect what is right in terms of Judeo-Christian Values, rather what is most expedient. What do you think the Founding Fathers would have put in the Constitution about the planned, prolonged torture/mistreatment of prisoners/enemy combatants? (I'm not talking battlefield expedient here, gang)
We've become a Nation where achieving our ends justifies the means.
That was long, but it is one theme.
Moose-Knuckle
06-28-15, 20:30
If you had to summarize (what you believe) was wrong with this country in one overarching issue, what would it be?
Entitlement? Sensitivity? Violence?
Feel free to expand as little or as much as you wish, but do try and keep it to the single most significant issue.
Oh this is an easy one Euro.
The single biggest problem with America today is . . .
Homo sapiens
hoh-moh sey-pee-uh nz
noun
1. the species of bipedal primates to which modern humans belong, characterized by a brain capacity averaging 1400 cc (85 cubic in.) and by dependence upon language and the creation and utilization of complex tools.
2. humankind.
Racism.
Used either as a reason to hate, kill or feel entitled. Racism today is as bad as it ever was in the 60s. We need to remove "race" from just about everything associated with government and have ACTUAL equality instead. Race should play no more significance in a persons life than their hair color. And as Rachel has shown, you can change it when you want to.
Supposedly that has been the goal for what? 60 years?
Over-regulation. A rule book should be just that, one book; not a library of code, regulations, and laws.
Not just an American problem, but Keynesian triumph over reason.
If you want to see a root cause of many of the other problems listed, look no further. Morality is also compromised when one no longer has to bear the consequences of not living a moral life.
Take a little marxism, mix it with political correctness, dress it with a generally useless generation of incompetents in power, then place it between two slabs of Keynesian regulation/tax/overspending/entitlements/shell-game money printing fantasyland monetary and fiscal policy and you have a perfect shit sandwich.
SomeOtherGuy
06-28-15, 23:33
#1, systemic corruption. I'm not talking about simple bribe-taking or anything that's even technically illegal. I'm talking about the changes to various systems that result in inherently self-serving and corrupt motivations, which result in corrupt behavior. The current state of campaign finance would be an ideal example, but this issue exists across virtually everything in government and large portions of the private sector, including Wall Street and health service billing in particular.
#2, the sheer size of the country, in terms of population. There is a size at which management becomes impractical, democracy becomes a farce and everything tends to go towards an empire and/or dictatorship. I think we've passed that size threshold. There are no larger countries that operate well (China, India), nor any near-peer-size countries that operate well (Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh). The most populous country that seems to operate with some semblance of real democracy is Canada, at a little over one-tenth our population and far less racial and cultural diversity. The best functioning democracy in the world seems to be Iceland, which has literally one-one thousandth of our population (0.1%).
MountainRaven
06-29-15, 00:29
Ignorance. Willful ignorance.
People keep talking about how they want to have national discussions about gun control, race, gender inequality, income inequality, the environment, human migration, &c., &c., &c. But no one wants to expend the effort to uncover the causes and find solutions and have a rational discussion on the grounds of what science shows and where our ideals point.
No, we get people talking past each other, oblivious to the fact that they are drowning in their own emotions - and trying to drown everybody else with them.
Instead of interest in solutions based in science and an understanding of the human animal, people are more interested in political, fiscal, moral, philosophical, rhetorical masturbation. People are more interested in clinging to any tiny shred of evidence that supports their own pre-conceived notions of how the universe should work rather than trying to see the universe as it does work and seriously considering the perspectives and points of view of those who disagree - and honoring the fact that we're all human beings and we all want the best for everyone, we all want people to be happy, we just disagree on what road to take.
Too many people would rather die ignorant than live enlightened.
ETA: And I'm not just talking about willful ignorance with regards to facts and scientific understanding of a problem and its potential solutions. I also mean the utter refusal of people to deal with each other as the rational/emotional animals they are, instead of writing off their philosophies and ideals as racism, a moral defect of character, or mental illness.
Proud ignorance.
Fjallhrafn absolutely nailed it with the last part, more so than my initial thought did. Being unwilling and incapable of civilized discourse takes away any viable means of correcting so many other issues that it ends up being the biggest aggregate driver of stupid stuff.
I'm pretty sure proud ignorance is the same as willful stupidity lol.
i bet if you asked a lefty they would say global warming and the confederate flag but will be something besides the flag in a few days :)
"Humankind cannot bear too much reality."
-T.S. Eliot
The biggest problem is the denial that there actually exists objective truth and reality. Or as philosopher Peter Kreeft states it:
The issue of moral relativism is merely the single most important issue of our age, for no society in all of human history has ever survived without rejecting the philosophy that I am about to refute. There has never been a society of relativists. Therefore, our society will do one of three things: either disprove one of the most universally established laws of all history; or repent of its relativism and survive; or persist in its relativism and perish.
http://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/05_relativism/relativism_transcription.htm
5 batshit crazy militant lunaic leftists on the Supreme Court just declared (again) that reality is whatever they say it is. If they say that homosexual sodomy is no different than the intimacy between a man and his wife, then it is so.
The banks and the government believed that they could provide hundreds of billions in loans to people regardless of their credit worthiness or current income, and everything would turn out just fine forever and ever.
Bush and Obama believed that sound foreign policy in the Middle East was to invade and drone strike the entire region to pieces, overthrow governments, and then classify islamic militant nutjobs as "moderate freedom fighters", train, fund and heavily arm them, and then unleash them in the most unstable part of the world, and everything would come up roses and daffodils.
The Catholic Bishops believed that secretly moving homosexual pederast priests from parish to parish would not eventually blow up in their faces. Yeah, that sure worked out well for them, not to mention thousands of underage children. Perhaps they should read Ann Coulter a bit more.
Despite the growing media consensus that Catholicism causes sodomy, an alternative view -- adopted by the Boy Scouts -- is that sodomites cause sodomy. (Assume all the usual disclaimers here about most gay men not molesting boys, most Muslims being peaceful, and so on.)
It is a fact that the vast majority of the abuser priests -- more than 90 percent -- are accused of molesting teen-age boys. Indeed, the overwhelmingly homosexual nature of the abuse prompted The New York Times to engage in its classic "Where's Waldo" reporting style, in which the sex of the victims is studiedly hidden amid a torrent of genderless words, such as the "teen-ager," the "former student," the "victim" and the "accuser."
http://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2002/03/21/should_gay_priests_adopt/page/full
Sadly however Miss Coulter is going to have to revisit her article as now the Boy Scouts have decided to play make-believe and allow grown homosexual males to take young boys out into the woods.
Hell, just look at what is in my sig on this forum. At least one member here actually posted that animal "rights" activists are right to call hunting for food "murder", meaning that they are also right to call hunters "murderers".
That is the denial of reality, the "hey, let's all live in make-believe land", to which I am referring.
To continue.
Student debt has skyrocketed past $1 trillion, and it's not slowing down.
Some 60% of Americans spend more (about 103% respectively) than they take home.
Black households without fathers is sill over 70%.
White households without fathers is heading in that direction.
The national debt will blast past $20 trillion in just a few short years.
The ability of anyone to stop the inundation of millions, perhaps tens of millions, of illegals, the overwhelming majority of whom will always vote for more and more government money and programs taking care of them as much as possible, simply does not exist.
The military industrial complex that exists today when compared to what existed at the time when Eisenhower first utter that phrase, is rather like comparing Mike Tyson in his prime, to Pee Wee Herman when he was 4.
The mass surveillance of the NSA makes the East German Stasi look like Maxwell Smart on his shoe phone in the "cone of silence".
And on, and on, and on. The belief that any of this is sustainable is simply living in make-believe.
And of course the very real problem with all of this is that reality never allows us to mock and deny it for too long.
And the more and longer we deny reality, the more brutal and painful it is going to be when reality finally says "ahem".
And if there is one thing I am absolutely sure of in this world, it is that that "ahem" is headed right for us.
Leaveammoforme
06-29-15, 03:50
Moved away from God.
All the proof you need is all the people that would contest that statement.
The symbol of our nation was colored as a rainbow. How our nation can mock Gods promise and be surprised at the direction our nation is headed is beyond me.
Step outside tomorrow and pause. Take it all in. The chirping birds, sky, trees, grass, barking dog a few houses down and whatever else you notice. Observe the harmony of everything working together. Remind yourself that it all is just a giant cosmic accident.
I suggest instead that you drop to your knees.
Picking one problem is not easy, but since I'm limited, I would say the near complete apathy of the public with regards the way the government operates.
Our Founding Fathers revolted under a far less oppressive government that we have now, and I have a strong feeling they would be stunned to learn what we tolerate from ours.
Averageman
06-29-15, 06:08
Picking one problem is not easy, but since I'm limited, I would say the near complete apathy of the public with regards the way the government operates.
Our Founding Fathers revolted under a far less oppressive government that we have now, and I have a strong feeling they would be stunned to learn what we tolerate from ours.
I think it is going to difficult to point the finger exactly where one problem started all of this, or which is the biggest problem.
I would have to agree in part it has a lot to do with the above though.
The MSM is no longer about reporting news, it would see that at most, a story is picked up and then given an agenda driven angle and reported as news rather than opinion. This solves a lot of problems for the progressives as they can edit then disperse an opinion as if it were fact.
The public school system is no longer about an education, it seems to be more about turning out little leftists. I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Gaining someones attention and keeping it long enough to show them the facts about these things is difficult at best, it competes with things that offer a more immediate gratification.
Picking one problem is not easy, but since I'm limited, I would say the near complete apathy of the public with regards the way the government operates.
I agree that that is certainly a problem, but I believe it would still have to considered a sub-problem that falls under what I think to be the greatest problem as I attempted to illustrate on the last page.
Perhaps this can act as an example of what I mean, and why.
http://www.libertynewsnow.com/transgender-female-mma-fighter-brutally-injures-female-opponent/article1545
A guy says, "I'm a girl", then climbs into the ring with an actual girl, and in about 60 seconds or so literally cracks her skull. Of course the announcer kept referring to him as "she" and even in the post fight interview with the girl with the cracked skull, who knew she was fighting a man, said "I have fought many strong women before, but never as strong as her. She just dominated me!"
My point is that no matter what problems we face, we will never be able to even begin to address them if the vast majority of people actually believe that reality is subjective, that it is whatever they themselves want to pretend it is, and everyone else has some sort of responsibility to recognise their "reality".
To wit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsNWHpldrOA
Lack of a proper education and I am not speaking of Higher Ed but K-12 especially 5th grade through 9th.
Outlander Systems
06-29-15, 07:15
It can all be summed up in one word: HONOR
We as a society do not value, espouse, reward, hell, we don't even believe in it. This country is ruled by an entitlement mentality.
Honor. A little bit would go a long way in fixing most of what ails us.
Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
Belloc illustrated the problem(s) nicely on pg3.. The simple refusal to accept reality, and understand it's ramification's. The price that's going to be paid for this stupidity, will be brutal. I've pretty much given up trying to get people to understand the gravity of the situation this country now finds itself. We are in a downward destructive spiral. The crash will be spectacular. Those of us who understand what's going on and the price that's about to be paid, can only prepare for the worst, and sit back and wait. And when the whole thing finally does collapse, those of you who were ready, will get treated to the sight of 10 of millions of people running around in a panic like chickens with their heads cut off, as reality bitch slaps them again, and again.. It'll be brutal, They'll get the lesson first, then the exam..
skijunkie55
06-29-15, 08:02
Respect for human life on every scale.
Lack of understanding regarding the basis of all free societies - the concept of God-Given/Natural Rights and the concept of the "Social Contract". I am born with certain rights as bestowed upon me by God, or Nature, depending upon your viewpoint.
In general, I rank these rights in the following order:
1. Life - the most important. Without my right to life, I am unable to pursue the others.
2. Self Defense - I must first protect my life to attain the others.
3. Thought/Expression (Speech)
4. Self-Determination of Action
5. Property
I could on, but you get the idea.
For example, the 2nd Amendment. The Constitution does not grant me the right to protect myself. It merely affirms my God Given right.
This basic lack of fundamental understanding leads people to believe rights come from other men/government.
Finance....The can is only kicked down the road so far. It's not just our government. Most of this country is living way above their means. How many payday loan shops are in your town? Too many.
Most of the business out there are super deep in debt. Mine is, and I hate it.
Our fantasy land is funded by the trust and confidence that the dollar is king. When the dollar stops being king, our lives will change greatly.
Anyone looked at car prices lately? But you can finance it for 8 years....[emoji46]
What is the single biggest problem with America today?
Pride.
Finance....The can is only kicked down the road so far. It's not just our government. Most of this country is living way above their means. How many payday loan shops are in your town? Too many.
Most of the business out there are super deep in debt. Mine is, and I hate it.
Our fantasy land is funded by the trust and confidence that the dollar is king. When the dollar stops being king, our lives will change greatly.
Anyone looked at car prices lately? But you can finance it for 8 years....[emoji46]
Speaking of payday loan shops.. Where I live, a shop opened up with a new twist on that.. Now you can get a loan using your car title as collateral. To me, pay day loan shops are a sign of failure...
brickboy240
06-29-15, 10:14
Yep...financial issues is the biggest problem in America today.
Right under this is the mainstream media. They also add to the financial problem with their lack of reporting on financial issues as well as their portrayal of rampant material gratification and status symbols.
Denying reality:
No gun signs means you're in a safe place...
Rewarding the shiftless with endless give away programs (so called entitlements) paid for by those who work and sacrifice - unrealistically expecting the "horn of plenty" will never run dry, when countries like Greece are there for us to see how this denying of reality pans out...
Viewing Obamacare as workable...
Expecting the majority will always be ruled by the highly vocal minority.
There's a lot of more, but you get my drift.
I have no statistics, no data to support, but in my opinion the single biggest problem with America is an increasing distancing from faith. Pick whatever religion, if one is "in the faith", most of the other problems are curtailed...pride, debt, lawlessness, infidelity, more support on man's law rather than God's law...many Americans don't have a moral compass, and the lack of one is actually encouraged by the government and society.*
*Not saying one needs to be religious/in the faith to have a moral compass
Biggest problem with America is the federal Government. Period.
It is the cause of all the symptoms posited in this thread thus far.
And when it comes down to it; the root cause of the fed gov problem is "We the people" aren't willing to do jack about it because we have gotten too soft in our easy lives and will keep our collective heads in the sand to keep living the easy life until it is too late.
We should have done something a long time ago to reign in this behemoth hydra headed monster of a federal government- but we continue to bitch and moan and not take responsibility and ACT to right all the wrongs
Moved away from God.
All the proof you need is all the people that would contest that statement.
The symbol of our nation was colored as a rainbow. How our nation can mock Gods promise and be surprised at the direction our nation is headed is beyond me.
Step outside tomorrow and pause. Take it all in. The chirping birds, sky, trees, grass, barking dog a few houses down and whatever else you notice. Observe the harmony of everything working together. Remind yourself that it all is just a giant cosmic accident.
I suggest instead that you drop to your knees.
Amen. Kind of funny, as a young man, beginning to move back to the Church, I asked the Professor in my universe astronomy class, if he had any religious beliefs. This guy, who was teaching to a lecture hall full of faceless, nameless students, spent about a half-hour outlining to me how everything in his course supported his belief in God. He had looked at nature from the beginning and could see nothing but intelligent design.
Inkslinger
06-29-15, 14:18
You guys saying God are wrong. You don't need to believe in God to be a descent, respectful, productive member of society. I'll even add that religion is one of the problems in the world today.
PatrioticDisorder
06-29-15, 14:27
You guys saying God are wrong. You don't need to believe in God to be a descent, respectful, productive member of society. I'll even add that religion is one of the problems in the world today.
While true, Judeo-Christian values are a glue that has held a moral society together for a long time, it simply works. I will also note strong belief in God is a well known protective factor against suicide and depression, it certainly helps people as they enter their integrity vs. despair developmental stage in life.
But to your point it's why I pointed out immorality or as a couple others have noted moral relativism, which is a direct result of KGB subversion decades ago. Everything else listed by other posters including governmental (financial irresponsibility) are symptoms of an immoral society, immorality is the root cause and subversion via the Soviets decades ago was the trigger.
people like you perfect example ! cant let others say/believe what they want without telling them they are wrong you are correct !
You guys saying God are wrong. You don't need to believe in God to be a descent, respectful, productive member of society. I'll even add that religion is one of the problems in the world today.
Doc Safari
06-29-15, 17:28
Everyone does what is right in his own eyes.
Inkslinger
06-29-15, 17:32
people like you perfect example ! cant let others say/believe what they want without telling them they are wrong you are correct !
So you feel your religion and beliefs are correct and superior to other religions? There are countless religions. Most, if not all, based on fiction. Each think they are the end all be all. You can believe whatever you want, doesn't make it fact. Look at Muslim countries, there's no shortage of their "God", so what's their problem? I'm not going to derail this into a religious debate. But with all the problems in this country, when someone says it's because of the lack of God, the BS flag comes out.
You guys saying God are wrong. You don't need to believe in God to be a descent, respectful, productive member of society. I'll even add that religion is one of the problems in the world today.
I have a challenge for you. Deny, if you can, any of this.
The most beautiful music, architecture, art, poetry, and literature, ever written or created, in the entire history of man, was the result of Christianity.
Some of the most profound philosophy, the birth of the university, and the establishment and development of the sciences, happened in the heart of Christendom.
The understanding of the individual as individual never existed anywhere, at any time, before Christianity came upon the seen.
You should know ahead of time that these are sentiments expressed by atheists, and no, I don't mean petulant internet atheists, but academics who have written and lectured on the subject.
So you feel your religion and beliefs are correct and superior to other religions? There are countless religions. Most, if not all, based on fiction. Each think they are the end all be all. You can believe whatever you want, doesn't make it fact. Look at Muslim countries, there's no shortage of their "God", so what's their problem? I'm not going to derail this into a religious debate. But with all the problems in this country, when someone says it's because of the lack of God, the BS flag comes out.
The problem with your "theory" is that for it to be correct you have to know for an absolute certainty that God does not exist. And since you can't ever know that for certain, you have to take it on faith, which means your world view is simply a faith based one, no ontologically different than any other.
"Can't You Lead a Good Life Without Believing in Chistianity?" by C.S. Lewis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9fR1vSxNEQ
you just proved my point perfectly about people like you being part of the problem ! hahahahahaaaha
So you feel your religion and beliefs are correct and superior to other religions? There are countless religions. Most, if not all, based on fiction. Each think they are the end all be all. You can believe whatever you want, doesn't make it fact. Look at Muslim countries, there's no shortage of their "God", so what's their problem? I'm not going to derail this into a religious debate. But with all the problems in this country, when someone says it's because of the lack of God, the BS flag comes out.
Inkslinger
06-29-15, 18:15
I have a challenge for you. Deny, if you can, any of this.
The most beautiful music, architecture, art, poetry, and literature, ever written or created, in the entire history of man, was the result of Christianity.
Some of the most profound philosophy, the birth of the university, and the establishment and development of the sciences, happened in the heart of Christendom.
The understanding of the individual as individual never existed anywhere, at any time, before Christianity came upon the seen.
You should know ahead of time that these are sentiments expressed by atheists, and no, I don't mean petulant internet atheists, but academics who have written and lectured on the subject.
Look, you're obviously more well read on this subject than I. I will deny the music, art, architecture, literature and poetry. The arts are completly subjective. Your "most beautiful", and mine probably aren't the same.
Inkslinger
06-29-15, 18:17
The problem with your "theory" is that for it to be correct you have to know for an absolute certainty that God does not exist. And since you can't ever know that for certain, you have to take it on faith, which means your world view is simply a faith based one, no ontologically different than any other.
Your abiltity to prove their is a God is as strong as my ability to disprove him.
Inkslinger
06-29-15, 18:20
you just proved my point perfectly about people like you being part of the problem ! hahahahahaaaha
So, explain exactly how I've proven your point?
ETA: Look, don't explain. I don't really care. Like I said, I'm not trying to derail this into a religious discussion. I never said I didn't believe in a higher power. I do believe though, that not one religion on earth has the right answer. If this earth was all that existed, I would say maybe one of them had it right. There could be trillions of earths, with trillions of different interpretations of God. Are they all different or all the same? Who knows! But to say that the lack of jebus is the driving factor in this cluster f of a country is laughable at best.
WickedWillis
06-29-15, 18:30
Teaching everyone to think as one, and that if you are not politically correct you are an abomination. You cannot have your own opinions, and you cannot disagree with anything anyone does in their personal life because then you are a racist, bigot, heathen, Christian or white.
Your abiltity to prove their is a God is as strong as my ability to disprove him.
Actually, no, not really.
20 Arguments For God’s Existence
http://www.strangenotions.com/god-exists/
How to Prove that Transcendentalism is True
http://www.strangenotions.com/how-to-prove-that-transcendentalism-is-true/
So now you have rather painted yourself into a corner, and either have to admit that what you just posted is actually patently not true, or you must refute the argument for the existence of transcendentalism. Good luck with that.
In any case what you did not, and cannot deny, is that your materialist world view is based entirely on faith, and nothing more.
TacticalSledgehammer
06-29-15, 21:46
Uneducated/uninterested (on the issues) voters, voting with their emotions, reinforcing their sense of being.
wildcard600
06-29-15, 22:29
I have a challenge for you. Deny, if you can, any of this.
The most beautiful music, architecture, art, poetry, and literature, ever written or created, in the entire history of man, was the result of Christianity.
Some of the most profound philosophy, the birth of the university, and the establishment and development of the sciences, happened in the heart of Christendom.
The understanding of the individual as individual never existed anywhere, at any time, before Christianity came upon the seen.
You should know ahead of time that these are sentiments expressed by atheists, and no, I don't mean petulant internet atheists, but academics who have written and lectured on the subject.
I must have missed the class in history where they explained that the ancient Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Maya were all christians.
Who knew ?
Can't find the exact quote right now, but, to paraphrase: " Not to know and practice basic ethical concepts (religious/"natural law"/moral philosophy, et al) is willful ignorance. Not to know and not to care that you do not know, is to be utterly depraved."
The upshot: "We have found the enemy, and he is us."
I must have missed the class in history where they explained that the ancient Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Maya were all christians.
Who knew ?
Well that'll teach you to skip class so as to go to a friend's house and play x-box.
Well let me tell you, it didn't end in the 60's. I was in elementary school in the 80's and I had teachers beat the shit out of me! Paddles, yard sticks, their hands, you name it. My 3rd grade teacher, a hulk of a man, once picked me up and held me by my hair! All of this was encouraged by my mother. In this day and age, her and half of my teachers would have been arrested.
As far as the problems in America, it's more than one thing.
Catholic school, by any chance?
blah blah blah blah
You shouldn't be able to vote.
Not only the biggest problem, but the problem, is the belief that there is a fatal problem. People become hopeless and resentful of their countrymen, and invent problems that don't actually exist.
I love our system. I love our country. I hate a lot of things about it, but I'm damn glad I live here and wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
FSM bless America.
You shouldn't be able to vote.
You know, puerile histrionic petulance isn't even attractive in children.
Freedom of speech. It gives a platform to charismatic but utterly nonsensical individuals that can lead our country and countrymen astray.
But it is also our greatest strength. Where else in the history of the world could we have a discussion like the one going on right now and not have one side executed for heresy/apostasy/atheism/dissent/treason/because it's monday? I mean yes there are technically examples where this exact discussion could happen and no one would be executed, but it's a rarity and almost unheard of before America.
Mr.Anderson
06-30-15, 01:16
Pornography
Taking things that should be between a man & woman, something private, and plastering it all over.
Magazines in the checkout isle where little kids get see what they think is a woman on the cover and its some G*****n freak.
Or they're going down the highway and see your stupid stick figure stickers on the back of your vehicle in sexual positions.
Or splattered all over billboards and tv.
PG13?? REALLY???
I dont want my 16 yr old watching it. Hell, My wife and I wont even watch that garbage.
Influecing our teenagers to dress like whores or thugs. Ok, thugs isnt sexual and thatsmy no.2 thing. You asked for one.
I think you get my drift. Read my sig line.
Inkslinger
06-30-15, 05:59
Catholic school, by any chance?
Nope. Good old public school. None of it would have happened if I went to catholic school. The church's higher moral compass prevents them from doing bad things to children.
Ah, yes--the last acceptable prejudice.
Farming your kids out to public school indoctrination has been such a howling success for the last 150 years or so, too.
The largely successful demonization of the Right by the Left. Debate about whether an proposal is right or wrong has been replaced by defining the proposer as good or evil. No need to argue the merits anymore. Just label your opponents -ist, -phobic, greedy, hater, denier etc. consistantly through the schools and fellow traveler media and low-info mob will grow and shout down your critics.
But is makes for interesting times and we Bible believers never expected this world to improve to improve the human condition without outside intervention. We just do what we can to slow the decay and sell tickets for the love train.
WickedWillis
06-30-15, 10:31
I love how people judge others because somehow their sins are different than yours.
brickboy240
06-30-15, 10:33
Porno is worse that the bloated overgrown govt?
I seriously doubt that.
Inkslinger
06-30-15, 10:35
Ah, yes--the last acceptable prejudice.
Farming your kids out to public school indoctrination has been such a howling success for the last 150 years or so, too.
Apparently the sarcasm in my post is not obvious.
I love how people judge others because somehow their sins are different than yours.
Are you implying that they are not, or that they cannot be? Because I rather believe that the sins of pedophilia, rape, and murder are, "somehow", different than my sins.
Just knocked this out to a friend of mine re current events. Thought I'd throw it out here FWIW.
Dear J,
I had trouble bringing up the article before but got it today. Not quite sure how much I agree with, but I guess it's a matter of how damned awful you happen to think things are. (The curse of knowing some history, I guess.)
But--I do have a fairly dog-eared and marked-up copy of the book mentioned in the article, "After Virtue", by MacIntyre. Toward the end of the book he cautiously observes some parallels between Rome's decline and the present:
"A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves to achieve instead--not often recognizing fully what they were doing--was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point. What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us.And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. this time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are not waiting for a Godot, but for another--doubtless very different--St. Benedict."
A few random, personal observations...As I have mentioned, I spent my high school years plunked down in the middle of a Benedictine monastery in darkest Minnesota--similar in some respects to the "new forms of community" mentioned above, and not entirely dissimilar to them (think MR with a much better class of people!). The crucial difference isn't where it is, but how the people in it think. And what they do.
Interestingly, we have a couple of other developments up here in Wyoming: Wyoming Catholic College (which I was somewhat around for the founding of about 10 years back) and is, to put it mildly, counter cultural--and a very small "starter" monastery up around Cody. Just pebbles in the pond.
I find the combination of character, virtue, and intellectual (and actual) firepower to be an "interesting" notion for the "interesting" times we find ourselves in.
"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto."
WickedWillis
06-30-15, 12:28
Are you implying that they are not, or that they cannot be? Because I rather believe that the sins of pedophilia, rape, and murder are, "somehow", different than my sins.
No, I am implying that "Christians" And boy, do I use that term loosely these days, are so caught up in what others are doing that they don't reflect on their own sins and transgressions against God. Of course the sins you listed are top-tier horrible things, and should be judged by everyone who has not committed them themselves. John 8:7 "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
No, I am implying that "Christians" And boy, do I use that term loosely these days, are so caught up in what others are doing that they don't reflect on their own sins and transgressions against God.
I don't think that is it at all. The petulant scream of the lunatic leftists that "what we do in our bedrooms is no one's business!" has always been, as we again plainly see, a complete and total lie. It was always a fundamentalist agenda hell bent on indoctrination of innocent children and on forcing people to equate homosexual sodomy with the bond of intimacy between a man and his wife. No one very much cared what they were doing until they themselves decided to make what they do in their bedrooms everyone else's business.
To wit:
The New School: Homosexual Propaganda and Your Kids
The logic works like this: If homosexual acts are moral, as so many now insist, then they should be normative. If they are normative, they should be taught in our schools as a standard. If they are a standard, they should be enforced. And so it has come, and is coming, to be. Education is an essential part of the drive to universalize the rationalization for homosexual behavior; so it must become a mandatory part of the curriculum. What began as a plea for diversity ends with a demand for conformity.
The government is using taxpayer's money to indoctrinate children in a militant leftist depraved ideological agenda. This was always, from the beginning, their intention.
And they do not even deny this. In the same way that many gun-grabbers actually admit that their goal is confiscation and complete prohibition of private ownership of firearms, so too many of the so-called "homosexual marriage" advocates admit that they in fact been lying the entire time as to what is their real agenda here.
http://thefederalist.com/2014/04/09/bait-and-switch-how-same-sex-marriage-ends-marriage-and-family-autonomy/
“Gay marriage is a lie,” announced gay activist Masha Gessen in a panel discussion last year at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. “Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we’re going to do with marriage when we get there. It’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist.”
WickedWillis
06-30-15, 12:53
I don't think that is it at all. The petulant scream of the lunatic leftists that "what we do in our bedrooms is no one's business!" has always been, as we again plainly see, a complete and total lie. It was always a fundamentalist agenda hell bent on indoctrination of innocent children and on forcing people to equate homosexual sodomy with the bond of intimacy between a man and his wife. No one very much cared what they were doing until they themselves decided to make what they do in their bedrooms everyone else's business.
To wit:
The government is using taxpayer's money to indoctrinate children in a militant leftist depraved ideological agenda. This was always, from the beginning, their intention.
And they do not even deny this. In the same way that many gun-grabbers actually admit that their goal is confiscation and complete prohibition of private ownership of firearms, so too many of the so-called "homosexual marriage" advocates admit that they in fact been lying the entire time as to what is their real agenda here.
I still view a difference in the Government's stance on marriage, and holy matrimony.
I still view a difference in the Government's stance on marriage, and holy matrimony.
But is that not rather immaterial to the fact that even Judge Roberts, who in his dissent pretty much admitted that he was for the individual states legalising homosexual "marriage", flat out blasted the majority decision by these miscreants as being pretty much a full-on liberal legislating from the bench attack on the Constitution?
http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w522/mtjh45/SupremeCourtJustices_zps1xfgn6xa.jpg
But is that not rather immaterial to the fact that even Judge Roberts, who in his dissent pretty much admitted that he was for the individual states legalising homosexual "marriage", flat out blasted the majority decision by these miscreants as being pretty much a full-on liberal legislating from the bench attack on the Constitution?
http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w522/mtjh45/SupremeCourtJustices_zps1xfgn6xa.jpg
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2015/06-overflow/20150630_const.jpg
The pussification of america.
People who can take care of them selves don't need the government to do it for them.
The pussification of america.
Continues.
http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w522/mtjh45/445_zpscirylhqc.jpg
Problem?...we need to repent.
.
WickedWillis
07-01-15, 11:21
Problem?...we need to repent.
.
If we are getting into biblical extermination, rapture like end times, we are too far gone to repent to whatever God we have continually blasphemed.
Political correctness gone amock.
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