Recently I had the opportunity to spend some time with a couple I love very much and it was great to get to see them and chat and all that. These two also have chosen to be fundamentalist Christians. As with many (most?) fundamentalists, this association is very important to them and defines their identity. During our conversation, the subject of marriage and divorce came up. Excuses were made for divorce that are just nagging at me. It’s another case where folks like these use the Bible however they see fit. On one hand, homosexuality is condemned unequivocally as wrong on its face. But Jesus never said one word about homosexuality. Jesus had as much to say about The Gay as he did about The Who. The same evangelicals march in lockstep and wring their hands over the evils of abortion. They spend their lives petitioning the government to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies and forego their own right to life and pursuit of happiness, while the other side of their mouths decry government intrusion and overreach. And the list goes on.
But something Jesus did specifically express disdain for is divorce. Jesus (or words later authors ascribed to the character) specifically said not to get divorced. Jesus didn’t say “don’t be gay”, but he did say “don’t get divorced”. He didn’t say “well, unless it’s inconvenient to stay married”. Related and in case it’s not totally clear, “don’t commit adultery” is one of the Ten Commandments. They want to engrave one of the versions of these Commandments on massive granite blocks and embed them in front of public buildings so everyone will turn from their wickedness, but they don’t care as much about actually living it themselves unless it’s convenient. A clerk who has been married many times won’t give out a marriage license to a gay couple, and the modern-day Pharisees flock to her defense. 
This is yet another reason why the Founding Fathers specified religion can’t form the basis of our laws, freeing us from the worries of Sharia Law, be it from Muslims or Christians. People don’t obey even the most basic precepts of their religion, yet they often want everyone else to obey. Christians make up more of a majority in the U.S. than most other “Christian” countries, yet half of all marriages end in divorce, which is literally forbidden by God and their savior. If religious people spent less time moralizing to others (and brainwashing their children and rejecting science) and instead just lived what they ostensibly believe and held themselves to their alleged standards, atheists like me would spend less time bothering them for their hypocrisy. But as history has and always will continue to exhibit, that’s just not going to happen.
clinging to religion
I miss my grandma
Some years ago now my grandpa PBUH passed unexpectedly just before Thanksgiving. I recall talking to him on the phone the week prior and happily telling him that I’d see him next week, but I never got to see him again. Everyone who knew my grandfather loved him. He would cheerfully talk to strangers, he would always listen, and he was smart and funny. My grandfather was a great man and he will always be missed.
Unfortunately now this year my grandma PBUH will not be joining us either. Opinionated, ornery, and particular, she was perhaps less easy to love but – leaving it at that #respect – my grandfather adored her and appreciated her. She raised a fine family the best she could under often difficult circumstances. Like many separated by generation, she and I disagreed on politics and religion, but I will always credit her for her determined efforts to save my soul and her constant willingness to freely debate the issues of the day. Too many people refuse to discuss and defend their opinions but not my grandmother. She loved many and many loved her, and we will all miss her this year and every Thanksgiving we have left.
It’s important to be thankful for the time we get to spend with family. You never know when it will be the last.
Review of “Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution”
Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a new respect for life. I’m have a pretty mechanistic outlook at this point, a ‘scientific materialist’ – there is no creator, no animating force. My wife probably got some chuckles as I shared passages of this book with her and talked about how reading this book is the best argument for creation I had encountered in some time. Certainly the book does not espouse such things but it does beautifully illuminate the earliest moments and tiniest details of life, all of which is mind-blowingly amazing. It was a wonderful read (I mean sure, science makes me sleepy but I read before bed so that’s perfect, and also science can make for interesting dreams #bonus). I thought a book with the title “10 great inventions of evolution” might be like, “Chapter 3: Thumbs” but this was well serious and way beyond anything like that. According to the Kindle I highlighted 94 passages. It was stunning read for me. The first chapter (life’s first great invention) is “life” — how life came to be on this planet (maybe, probably) and then throughout the book it’s made clear how we share so much in common with everything living. The last bit on the evolution of consciousness was riveting. In the end, great book about science, how we got here, what we (might) know and how we can know it. Fascinating and YAY SCIENCE! “The story that unfurls is more dramatic, more compelling, more intricate than any creation myth.”
“And that is why I said that, for the first time in history, we know. Much of our growing body of knowledge is provisional, to be sure, but it is vibrant and meaningful. It is a joy to be alive at this time, when we know so much, and yet can still look forward to so much more.”
“This world of marvels, it seems, springs from two deep accidents. On such tender threads hangs fate. We are lucky to be here at all.”
“a ‘consensus’ [genetic] tree can be built, giving the most probable relationship between all eukaryotic organisms. Such an approach is a far cry from gaps in the fossil record: we can see exactly how we are related to plants, fungi, algae, and so on (see Fig. 4.2). Darwin knew nothing about genes, but it is the fine structure of genes, more than anything else, that has eliminated all the distasteful gaps from the Darwinian view of the world.”
“Let me say that again, as I don’t know any other fact as shocking in all of medicine: a tiny change in the mitochondria halves our risk of being hospitalised for any age-related disease and doubles our prospects of living to 100.”
“The most specialised cells of all are the neurons of the human brain. Unlike more mundane cells, neurons are practically irreplaceable, each one wired up with as many as 10,000 synaptic connections, each synapse founded in our own unique experience.”
What? 