The Freedom To Succeed

The platforms of the candidates for president of the United State represent  very distinct ideology.  Joe Biden represents a culture that supports abortion on demand as a central component and societal right. The platform is one of growing government control of our lives. It isn't the party of JFK as some say. Donald Trump represents a culture of respecting the life giving process and the liberty and pursuit of happiness that is at the foundation of our freedoms. It isn't the same Republican party of yesteryear and his disrupting influence has upset some of the establishment. It is known and been discussed that Donald Trump, like many of his predecessors and I suppose millions of others, had extra-marital affairs where adultery was involved. How long ago was his last incident and to what extent is he pursuing such now?  It would seem based on what little I know about it 12-15 years ago. It isn't like Bill Clinton's carrying on in the White House while he lived there. Ha

Pope Francis in November 2014 at the colloquium on marriage and the family opened with this statement: “We now live in a culture of the temporary, in which more and more people are simply giving up on marriage as a public commitment. This revolution in manners and morals has often flown the flag of freedom, but in fact it has brought spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. … It is always they who suffer the most in this crisis.” In referring to those of the rising generation, he said it is important that they “do not give themselves over to the poisonous [mentality] of the temporary, but rather be revolutionaries with the courage to seek true and lasting love, going against the common pattern”; The movements of sexual freedom have sought to establish the idea that it is not the governments business or anyone's for that matter what two people do in the privacy of their own bedroom. It is however the combined effects o

Where does the pursuit of happiness take us when we think of the continuation of our species? When we think of achieving some illusive semblance of world peace, where does it begin?  Does it begin in the halls of Congress, the boardrooms of corporations, in our intimate relationships, or the proverbial bedroom of every couple in the world? Whether one is an atheist or a believer in God all must acknowledge the existence of the creative force that allows us to continue existing as human beings.  We are after all here in a bubble of time with eternity on both sides of our individual and collective existence.  Within each of us exists elements of power that allows for the circle of life to continue.  These powers are not held by a single person within themselves.   Even though we die by the billions on a continuous basis there is also continuous replenishment of our human species.  The life forces that determine the creation of a new soul are held separate by two genders.  One half is hel

Perhaps one of the most obvious facts of life is that we make choices and decisions. This opportunity to act is often referred to as free will.  Most people don't seem to think twice about their apparent freedom or how it came to be, other than being born and alive to take part in a society someplace in the world. One question debated by Christian apologists and agnostics is if God is all good, all-powerful, and all-loving why does he allow for evil and suffering? Atheists claim that this fact is contradictory and disavows traditional Bible theologian's claims of an all-powerful loving God. Some philosophers even claim there is no free will saying that all outcomes are predetermined, some even to the extreme of predestined. This discussion also has some companion considerations: Why do bad things happen to good people and vice versa, and why would God create someone knowing in advance they would go to hell?  If the earth is a place to live by personal choices, it is impor

Some time ago I became interested in the many similarities and differences as to how the Christian faith is understood.  The online presence of biblical professors and teachers with their websites and youtube channels offer active discussion forums to engage in conversations about Christian and biblical theology. The discussions I had were interesting and informative. One topic of interest was the fall of Adam and Eve.  Again and again, I was told that partaking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a serious mistake, and death was the punishment.  Christian theologians and philosophers generally seem to agree that Adam and Eve were meant to live in the paradisiacal security of the Garden of Eden forever. Was it really God's intent that they forgo the risks, the suffering, and death pertaining to mortality and remain static innocent souls living with the devil?   How can  a place  be paradise if Satan was a resident? Based on the Bible, Christians beli

"To stop dead in your tracks" is a figure of speech, an idiom that has long been used to describe a sudden stopping of momentum.  Dead in your tracks, or his tracks or in their tracks has nothing to do with guns or dead people or people that have been shot by a gun.  Here is an example as to why and how we have "fake news" and the press actually creates a story out of nothing but idiomatic rhetoric.  Here is an excerpt from an MSN article regarding Kelly Ward's recent fundraising letter using the idiom. PHOENIX (AP) — "The head of the Arizona Republican Party faced a backlash Friday after sending a fundraising email that said Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kelly, who rose to prominence when his wife was shot in the head, will be stopped “dead in his tracks.”  MSN.com As I pointed out above, to stop dead in one's tracks has nothing to do with guns or shooting and yet the article ties the two together to give the impression that Kelly Ward wo