In thinking further (or, my arguments against feminism)... (part 1)

If we think about sin, we'll essentially see that the things defined as sin are things that harm others or somehow tear down the community.

The ten commandments in fact are a litany of do-unto-othersisms:
1. Don't kill who? Others
2. Honor who? Others (your father and mother)
3. Don't steal from who? Others
etc. etc. etc.

It's as though God felt we needed reminded that we are a social organism, and humanity as a whole (or the tribe or the other form that community might take) MUST be more important than ME.

So, if we challenge our selves to look into the aspects of the ancient Jewish religion which modern sensibilities find most disturbing:

Women - why are they commanded to be subservient to men?
Homosexuality - why would it be sin?
Destroying other cultures and ways of life because they hold fundamentally different values? (worship other gods etc)

The problem of sin nature ("So, what of sanctification")

It's disturbing to me that many tend to equate "sin nature" to "human nature". I can say it no more plainly - This is destructive.

Case in point - it is completely in my nature to want to give my girls big hugs and praise them when they've done well. It s completely in my nature to want to want to be intimate with my wife. Most people would believe these things are good.

It is also completely within my nature to occasionally want to kick someone in the teeth, or be intimate with women who aren't, in fact, my wife. The vast bulk of those who make up any sort of moral standard distribution in the bell curve sense related to this certainly agree that these things would be BAD.

I am able, without too much undue intellectual exertion, to think of twopossibilities; the evolutionary and the religious.

1 - evolutionary: Humanity has evolved a nature without any intervening divinity. Because of interactions between the actions brought about by this nature and the environment in which my ancestors lived, certain traits have led to more success in survival and the production of offspring than have others.

Due to the complexities inherent in the higher order species, these traits are, at time, at odds one with another. Example - most modern human males experience a tension between the urge to spread the genes (not my wife) vs. nurture existing offspring and strengthen family (wife). These dual options present the tension between quality vs. quantity, and are further complicated by the evolution of predatory species which use our reproductive traits against us, much in the same way a hunter would use deer musk.

In this model, right and wrong are simply constructs of our highly evolved social nature that we have superimposed over an essentially a-moral process.

2 - religious: Jeanie's explanation is one of the more sensible treatments of the sin nature that I've encountered.

She seems to be proffering (at the risk or speaking for her by elaborating on her assertions) that sin nature is a specific subset of human nature. More explicitly, it is a tendency to self-centered behaviors that are not only destructive to the community, but either directly or indirectly to one's self. The sin nature is, therefore, the egocentricity with which we are all born.

It is not difficult to recognize the process of socialization that begins shortly after birth, during which we learn empathy for others and are taught things like how to live with one another, good citizenship, etc. It seems obvious to me that this is not a spiritual or religious process, at least not in the strictest sense, although it could be argued that it is in the sense that absolutely everything bout a homo religiousous (humanity) is in some way religious or spiritual.

If we accept Jeannie's definition of the sin nature, and accept that the religious experience is essentially that of the subverting of the sin nature to something higher, where does that leave us?

It would seem that this is a long lived process, essentially spanning religious and non-religious activities and, in most cases I'm sure, the vast bulk of one's years on earth. Some are extremely successful (Mother Theresa, for example), and others fail miserably.

So, what factors play into this process? How much is rooted in the spiritual, and how much the biological? (or, is there even a distinction to be made?)

And, if this is a process, what is to be made of this crazy doctrine of sanctification?

Song lyric - work in progress

Think melodic and poetic - sort of a U2 influence.

Are you still there for me?
Am I still there for you?
Have either of us ever been there at all?

The design at play
The end of the day
The time of my life
The time of yours

The things I say
The one, the way,
The twist of the knife
It pours

I know I’ve hurt you
Did you really live for me?
Or was your devotion
To people I never see?

The doubts that rend
The thoughts I bend
The looming cliff
The chance to choose

The value Grey
Lack will to stay
The wager stiff
Will I even know if I lose?

Bend my thoughts
My mind strains at the edge of it’s capabilities
The flat-spin ensues.
The wine helps me hit the silk.
Problems I cannot solve
Questions I cannot answer

SongList

I'm having a terrible time getting the song list down to only 3. Here's a brainstorm - most of these will be immediately disqualified -
1. Another brick in the wall (parts 1 and three, with some 2 but not overdone)
2. Yoda (by wierd al - to toon of Lola)
3. Mrs. Robinson
4. Weed with Willie
5. Semi-charmed life
6. Fat lip
7. Zero, 1979, Tonight - Tonight, etc. from Smashing Pumpkins.
8. 50 ways to leave your lover
9. Phantom of the Opera
10. Punks in the Beerlight
11. Catholic School Girls Rule
12. Something by Ray Stevens (Maybe Hugo Human Cannonball?)
13. Been caught Steelin'
14. Brain Damage
15. Do the evolution
16. Betterman
17. Give up the Funk
18. At least 1 Morphine song (Bueana?)
19. Sit on my face (Monty Python)
20. Old fashioned Morphine
21. Lightning Crashes (Live - throwing copper)
22. Twisted Transistor
23. Ghost Riders in the Sky (have a great rendition with Johny Cash & Willie Nelson)
24. The Middle
25. All along the watchtower
26. Flagpole Sitta
27. Something from Buck Cherry?
28. Dammit! (Early Blink 182)
29. has the whole world lost it's head (Go-Go's, baby :))
30. Seven Deadly Sins (Flogging Molly)
31. Bleed like me? Or something from Garbage 2.0
32. I am the highway
33. Who I am hates who I've been

Hatred

I hate that I missed Tuesday Hatred over at AdamKotsco.com.

I hate that i never ever see plus sized women in hot-pink or powder blue panties anymore. (Where did the 80s go?) Seriously, I still remember an add in a catalog that had a curvy black woman with a cutsie fro in a powder blue bra and pantied ensemble. Her skin was perfect, and her hair sort of teased at her big brown eyes. I need a moment...

I hate that you cannot get anesthesia over the counter. I'd never be conscious again, baby.

I hate no longer being able to drink real pop. Gad-Zukes! I'm jonesin' for a soda.

I hate not feeling guilty for cruising for porn in any non-relative sense. The only thing to prevent said ogling is my wife's dislike for the behavior. That's enough, but shouldn't there be more?

I hate never agreeing with anything that I hear at church - ever. "No room for gray in religion," says he. "My ASS!" says I. (Well said, Joe.) What planet are these people from?

Mmmmmm...... Powder Blue.....

I don't need no arms around me ...

I don't need no drugs to calm me...
I have seen the writing on the wall.

Don't think I need anything at all.

NO! Don't think I need anything at all!

Just daignosed with Diabetes

Thank you, God, for this one more reminder of the effects of my lifestyle, and may i finally have the willpower to change it.