Twitter

I have recently become slightly addicted to Twitter. My wife teases me about it. The computer will chime and she will joke..."some one just tweeted you." I am building friends there and meeting new people, but there is something pretty rich about it. These little url attachments have introduced me to a whole new world of sites that i could never find on my own.

So if you have time. Twop by and tweet me. I have to run...just received 11 new tweets and have to check them out :).

Finding God (part 1) Good and Evil

Good and Evil

As I have been thinking about the presence of God perhaps one of my first thoughts was about the existence of evil. When I hear people speak of God they often use words like omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and many phrase from the Bible speak of his goodness and excellence. So...where does evil come from and is there such a thing? Lets look at the logic argument.

1. If there is evil then we accept there is good. A comparison that can be made between the behavior of free thinking individuals.
   
2. Instinct alone does not control the actions of humankind. Instinct is a piece of the data we collect and process when we make decisions. There is a choice involved.
3. One chooses to act morally or immorally. One is seldom wholly committed to one or the other. In fact this is very rare. More likely each person is a blend of moral and immoral behavior. We are free to choose our actions.
   
4. As actions become a choice, moral will define good behavior and evil will define immoral behavior.
   
5. There are many generally accepted principles of goodness and evil; e.g. charity, trustworthiness, murdering, stealing and dishonesty are a few. These widely accepted principles are a universal moral law.
   
6. Then a moral law exist that transcends religions, ethnic origin and geographic origin. These beliefs are universally true.
7. If there is a moral law it originated somewhere. For there to be a moral law, there must be a moral law giver.

Logic would explain that we are free to act on our own accord. Free to choose behavior that has been defined by a moral law giver. In other words; there are some absolutes in life. We are free to decide if we shall pursue a life that attempts to walk the path that agrees with these truths or if we will pay them no regard at all.

Choosing to be moral or immoral does not guarantee success. Each of us will likely be faced with situations where we fail to take the path we would find most congruent to our past behavior. Circumstances may intervene that cloud a usual practice or make it less desirable. However, one may take a general path towards goodness just as one may choose a path of hedonism and self fulfillment.

This week consider the possibility of a law giver. How did we establish the ideas of good and acceptable behavior?

Rhetoric: Harmful or Helpful

The "Art" of reading and writing persuasively is called rhetoric. It may seem a bit odd that fiery rhetoric, we often hear in political debates or on the daily news shows, is very similar to the Greeks and their goal of persuasion. However just because it's old doesn't mean it's good, you may note the major failure in the Greek world ( think Alexander the Great).

Rhetoric hopes to fashion an argument that is persuasive, not always honest. If we tell a story and cover a single perspective, we get a flat image that lacks depth. It is very difficult to make worthy decisions based on this type of information. More over, rhetorical discussions often ignore scientific evidence and speak more deeply to the soul of man. These are discussions of passion.

One may ask if rhetorical arguments are even worth while these days. The answer would be a resounding yes! Just remember to listen to more than one side of an argument. This will add the depth that a single view blurs. Check out Cicero and The Murder Trials. Great examples of a superior orator and rhetorician.

America

The thought occurs to me that we Americans may from time to time forget about our freedoms. We may get caught up in the day to day issues and forget to be thankful for all that is given to us as part of our birthright. Thankfully, we remind each other every year on the 4th of July at least in some small way that we are indeed free. The innovators of democracy, free markets, and liberty have an important responsibility to mankind.

Although we may at times be unpopular, let us never forget the charity and benevolence that our citizens display to the world. We are always ready to send our free people to the center of a danger zone to help those in need. We only need to look as far as Europe, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan to see images of valor and displays of the courage of America's youth. Don't stop there, look also to Myanmar, India, China, South America and see examples of America's generosity toward their fellow man.

Americans care about people, not skin color, geography or beliefs. While it is true, we would be happy to spread Democracy to the world, it is out of care for others and pride in our system that we do.

Happy Birthday America!