This third party question has been my ponder all summer, the other night I happened to surf by CNN and they were on the topic on the feasability for a strong independent candidate to emerge in next year's presidential election. The opinion was how dysfunctional our 2-party dominated political system has become with all the partisanship, and the all or nothing thinking. Now I see Yahoo news picked up on the topic as well. So although I began this post last week, I was still editing, but the time is now to speak up and just post.
But running as an independent would not work, said CNN. Even if someone won the popular vote, then the ultimate decision is then thrown to Congress, and well, we can see where the dysfunction lies for such a possibility of giving the people who they really want. Remember the 2000 presidential election?
So I recently sent out and posted the survey "What, Do You Think?" (which can still be taken - just scroll down) with hope to get a general pulse of where people are with regard to politics, philosophy, and religion. My concern that the so-called "Generation Z", basically my generation's kids, now entering or just out of college, are feeling very disenfranchised--to the point of apathy. Many have thrown their hands up completely and don't vote at all. I'm trying to update political and religious philosophies for successive generations to relate to better in the context of our times. I'm concerned about the world they are inheriting from us. We need to evolve to the next level. We've reached a flashpoint and someone needs to provide a touchstone.
Why philosophy? Because what we have to work with - the legacy of Socrates, in my opinion, is outdated and out of context for our times. Our ethics (or an apparent lack thereof) reflect this centrifuge. One example, the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting recession is the culmination of decades of stale ethics of Western thought compromised by greed, and combined with a collective cop-out of personal responsibility, and this is where religion comes into Western thought in a rather negative way. When the achievements and failures of an individual are given to God's will, there seems to be a general lack of personal awareness of free will. The European Enlightenment with Spinoza, Locke, Kant, and our own homegrown Age of Reason thinkers such as Paine and Franklin needs to be revisited. I just took a big jump there, but I said this is being posted before being completely sussed out. There's so much research and reading to do...
Diests are not athiests. Paine, Jefferson and Franklin, believed in Nature's God, which is how God was described in the Declaration of Independence with the full support of the many devoutly Christian majority of Founding Fathers. The Constitution was ratified with no mention of God whatsoever by very Christian statesmen, some of which were preachers, yet the secular humanist voice written into these documents is clear.
I still constantly hear how this is a "Christian Nation", and it makes me cringe. How must that feel to every American who is Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or any other of the melting pot of religions and cultures that has made this country what it is--and allowed to freely thrive because of the tenents of the US Constitution. Our Founding Fathers were the foremost intellectuals of that very important time in American history. Of those whom hung out with Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin called themselves "free thinkers".
Deism is the basis of my third party idea (of which I am still seeking a name and still working on the platform) and new philosophy for this millennium. It's about what is Human with a capital H. Deism, being a philosophy rather than a religion, can be combined with organized religions, and my hope is that it will be a moderating shift of perception of the literal images of the dogma or organized religions. For example, instead of an all seeing, omnipotent Creator hanging out in Heaven on some golden throne dishing out miracles and punishments, the shift of would be to God's creative mechanism--nature, but with a capital "N". Nature being the God's divine justice, we reap what we sow indeed, and Nature's Law is God's way of doling out the lessons. It is also science, biology, physics, and evolution is what drives it all. Yes, God created evolution as the creative force behind Nature.
One can be a Christian Deist, a Muslim Deist, a Buddhist Deist, Hindu Deist, Wiccan Deist, etc. but just being a Human of Earth is what really matters as the basis of the new Deism. It's fine to be a Deist and still go to church, to temple, to mosque, but with Deism the emphasis is on tolerance and reason with respect for Natural law, and to remember this is the same as God's Law.
The fundamentalist extremes for all religious doctrines worldwide needs to be tempered with tolerance. Sure Nature can be extreme and there will always exist people who reflect that as well, but with Deism, we can attempt to keep a better balance, an equilibrium, a homeostasis. Progress will always be driven by what we learn from the extreme elements in societies and cultures which naturally exists - and they will rise and fall just as organisms in Nature over time. Deism can be the global philosophy which unites all doctrines. Natural law is the common thread of truth which connects us all together beyond and beneath religion and politics.
We need to be freethinkers this way.
But running as an independent would not work, said CNN. Even if someone won the popular vote, then the ultimate decision is then thrown to Congress, and well, we can see where the dysfunction lies for such a possibility of giving the people who they really want. Remember the 2000 presidential election?
So I recently sent out and posted the survey "What, Do You Think?" (which can still be taken - just scroll down) with hope to get a general pulse of where people are with regard to politics, philosophy, and religion. My concern that the so-called "Generation Z", basically my generation's kids, now entering or just out of college, are feeling very disenfranchised--to the point of apathy. Many have thrown their hands up completely and don't vote at all. I'm trying to update political and religious philosophies for successive generations to relate to better in the context of our times. I'm concerned about the world they are inheriting from us. We need to evolve to the next level. We've reached a flashpoint and someone needs to provide a touchstone.
Why philosophy? Because what we have to work with - the legacy of Socrates, in my opinion, is outdated and out of context for our times. Our ethics (or an apparent lack thereof) reflect this centrifuge. One example, the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting recession is the culmination of decades of stale ethics of Western thought compromised by greed, and combined with a collective cop-out of personal responsibility, and this is where religion comes into Western thought in a rather negative way. When the achievements and failures of an individual are given to God's will, there seems to be a general lack of personal awareness of free will. The European Enlightenment with Spinoza, Locke, Kant, and our own homegrown Age of Reason thinkers such as Paine and Franklin needs to be revisited. I just took a big jump there, but I said this is being posted before being completely sussed out. There's so much research and reading to do...
Why religion? Because zealots and fundamental extremists here and abroad undermine any progressive thinking because of the literal interpretations of their respective doctrines. Groupthink abounds from propaganda because of fear and xenophobia. There is an invasive movement (yes, Bachmann, Perry and Palin are Christian Revisionists) to tear apart the US Constitution, which has effectively kept the church out of the state, outlined rights of its citizens, and created an unprecedented framework for the democratic free world for almost 250 years now. It is a secular document and why it works so well. Sure, democracy and capitalism are currently having some more growing up pains, but we must not let fear and propaganda rule us and change what this country was truly founded on.
By this blog, I will defend the U.S. Constitution against meddling Christian Revisionists and their totalitarian ambitions. Our Founding Fathers went to church and all (except one) were Christians, but there was another very popular philosophy at the time--Deism, inspired by the European Enlightenment which Thomas Paine called the "Age of Reason". Paine, the only one of our Founding Fathers with the balls to say he was NOT a Christian, but a Deist, was best buds with Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and James Madison. Jefferson and Franklin have been described as Christian Deists, whereas Adams and Madison still stuck to their Bibles, they were still fine with having the conversations and accepted the beliefs of their progressive peers.
Diests are not athiests. Paine, Jefferson and Franklin, believed in Nature's God, which is how God was described in the Declaration of Independence with the full support of the many devoutly Christian majority of Founding Fathers. The Constitution was ratified with no mention of God whatsoever by very Christian statesmen, some of which were preachers, yet the secular humanist voice written into these documents is clear.
I still constantly hear how this is a "Christian Nation", and it makes me cringe. How must that feel to every American who is Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or any other of the melting pot of religions and cultures that has made this country what it is--and allowed to freely thrive because of the tenents of the US Constitution. Our Founding Fathers were the foremost intellectuals of that very important time in American history. Of those whom hung out with Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin called themselves "free thinkers".
Deism is the basis of my third party idea (of which I am still seeking a name and still working on the platform) and new philosophy for this millennium. It's about what is Human with a capital H. Deism, being a philosophy rather than a religion, can be combined with organized religions, and my hope is that it will be a moderating shift of perception of the literal images of the dogma or organized religions. For example, instead of an all seeing, omnipotent Creator hanging out in Heaven on some golden throne dishing out miracles and punishments, the shift of would be to God's creative mechanism--nature, but with a capital "N". Nature being the God's divine justice, we reap what we sow indeed, and Nature's Law is God's way of doling out the lessons. It is also science, biology, physics, and evolution is what drives it all. Yes, God created evolution as the creative force behind Nature.
One can be a Christian Deist, a Muslim Deist, a Buddhist Deist, Hindu Deist, Wiccan Deist, etc. but just being a Human of Earth is what really matters as the basis of the new Deism. It's fine to be a Deist and still go to church, to temple, to mosque, but with Deism the emphasis is on tolerance and reason with respect for Natural law, and to remember this is the same as God's Law.
The fundamentalist extremes for all religious doctrines worldwide needs to be tempered with tolerance. Sure Nature can be extreme and there will always exist people who reflect that as well, but with Deism, we can attempt to keep a better balance, an equilibrium, a homeostasis. Progress will always be driven by what we learn from the extreme elements in societies and cultures which naturally exists - and they will rise and fall just as organisms in Nature over time. Deism can be the global philosophy which unites all doctrines. Natural law is the common thread of truth which connects us all together beyond and beneath religion and politics.
We need to be freethinkers this way.
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