On souls. No one knows what it is. Or how to define it or where it comes from. Or even if it is anything more than higher consciousness and self awareness (ie a bigger brain). I am convinced animals with larger brains also have consciousness. And I am also sometimes amazed that some really dim humans (and thre are many of them) don't seem to have consciousness. Therefore does a smart dolphin have more of a "soul" than a dumb-bell person? And why worry about a microscopic fertilized human egg which will never become a human when we routinely allow tens of thousands of dolphins to be slaughtered every year? And what about lab monkeys undergoing vivisection without painkillers? It is very possible that the "soul" is just self-awareness which comes from higher consciousness and brain-power. An evolutionary advance. As for the afterlife and transmigration of souls, I had a near death experience with a vision of a "beyond" but it could have just been a chemical hallucination. My father almost died twice and though a devote Christian saw nothing except in one cases pornographic imagery. And he's never looked at porno in his life, nor would he. Mysteries upon mysteries.
Morality is and should be an open subject, and very subjective. Freedom of speech and thuoght should equal freedom of morality. Let's face it, no one has the final word or answer. Politicians will generally bend with whatever society feels is moral, because personal morality and values do motivate voters. They represent our morality therefore. That is the imperfect beauty of democracy. But with all the mind-bending $100,000,000 political advertising budgets we lose some of our ability to see clearly or truthfully. It's almost impossible to see past some of this spin.
What I feel these days is a moral war going on where a party beholden to conservative Christians is trying to dictate morality. This was the case prior to the 60's and if we're not careful it may escalate. I know even morally moderate Republicans are concerned. Shaming people into conforming to a single defined set of moral rules which are imperfect and self-serving is in my opinion in itself immoral. "We are right and you are wrong". Period. forget science. Forget the environment. Forget the poor. We are doing it this way and if you are against us you are a bad person. And the other party gets defensive and has to define a different morality or else. A contest to see which party can be most strict and moral, Meanwhile soft money is making them all corrupt tools of special interests, at least part of the time.
Unfortunately this moral battle has been there all our lives and will remain there for the rest of our lives. That is why life can be so confusing. Just take the issue of sex, for instance. America is both the most sex-crazed and the most sexually-repressed nation at the same time. Then throw in the danger of AIDS as well as the unliklihood of catching AIDS from normal sex with a condom and it's even more confusing. The majority of people in this country especially the young are totally confused about sexuality. There is a mass schitzophrenia about the subject these days. We want it but we can't have it. We're bad if we want it but celibacy sucks, let's face it, as does frigidity and guilt. Rambling away, gotta go - |
