Friday, December 14, 2012

Violence should remind us that we need God not regulation

     My heart and prayers goes out to the victim's families. No parent should have to endure such pain.     

News article here:
http://newtown.patch.com/articles/reports-of-shooting-at-sandy-hook-elementary-school


     The shooting today in Newtown, CT should remind us that we all need God. Especially a shooting towards children that can only be defined as evil. Everyone wants to find the cause and the solution to these types of horrible tragedies.  What should we regulate? What type of community program should we create?

   Ultimately it is important to note that a person who is committed to committing a heinous crime will probably succeed, no matter what things (guns, knives, bullets,etc...) we regulate. There is no program or law that can prevent evil from existing in our world. We live in a broken world.

    As our culture moves farther and farther from God I fear these types of tragedies will continue. We must reject the deceitful truth claims of our culture (i.e. humans are the product of evolution, marriage is not important, drugs aren't so bad, God does not exist, etc...) and to raise our children with the correct worldview. There is no other solution that will be effective. We cannot regulate or control evil, because evil is not a thing. Evil is the absence of good. You can only decrease evil by increasing good and you can only increase good by turning our hearts and minds to God. I pray for spiritual revival in our country and our world.

     The probable response is going to be more gun control. However, it is important to note that crimes happen even without guns, (http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/world/asia/china-knife-attack/index.html). Should we outlaw knives too? In 2009, 24,518 people died from alcohol related deaths.  Should we make alcohol illegal? To be fair, it should be noted that 31,347 peopled died from gun related injuries in 2009 and that 59.8% of those were suicide. [1]

Why Not Renew the “Assault Weapons” Ban? Well, I’ll Tell You… « Kontradictions
http://kontradictions.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/why-not-renew-the-assault-weapons-ban-well-ill-tell-you/

     There is probably room for improvement in gun law, but we have to be careful not to go overboard. Reasonable clip sizes, consequences for people who do not secure their gun properly, etc.. but often there are already legal avenues to address those issues. Our country was founded on liberty and peopled have died to give us liberty. True liberty means having the right to make your own choices and not having the government make every choice for you. With that liberty comes the responsibility to make wise choices. We must create a culture that teaches people to make wise choices and to have a moral foundation. If I have to choose between liberty and regulation I will choose liberty every time. If you give the government an inch, they will take a mile. We have to take responsibility for our poor actions not regulate the possibility away.




Sources:
1. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Does the US Debt Ceiling Have a Purpose?

People like this want to remove the US Debt Ceiling:

Kill the debt ceiling once and for all! - Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/04/kill_the_debt_ceiling_once_and_for_all/

People like this see some dangers in removing the US debt ceiling:

Geithner: Raise U.S. debt limit to infinity
http://www.infowars.com/geithner-raise-u-s-debt-limit-to-infinity/

My take on it:

       If the democrats do not want the republicans to use the debt ceiling as a political weapon, then they should spend less and decrease the national debt. I see the debt ceiling like a limit on my credit card. It may not directly control income, budgets, or how money is spent (as the first article asserts), but it still limits how much I can spent when I ignore my budget and spend recklessly. To say it has no purpose at all is to ignore the whole reason for its existence.
           There may be other checks and balances within the government (as the first article asserts), but that doesn't mean we should get rid of this one. We need all the checks and balances we can get when the government is this corrupt and dysfunctional. The republicans should not use the debt ceiling to push an agenda that is unrelated to the debt ceiling. However, it seems reasonable to me for them to use the debt ceiling to remind government officials (both republican and democrat) that US spending and debt are not suppose to be infinite!

Is The Universe A Computer?

Why The Universe Is Not a Computer After All | MIT Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/508246/why-the-universe-is-not-a-computer-after-all

This review of a scientific paper is interesting. It says some really powerful stuff like:

“This assumption…is so strong that many physicists can’t even articulate what other type of universe might be conceptually possible”

“It’s basically the assumption that the way we humans solve physics problems must be the way the universe actually operates”

“It is the least-questioned (and most fundamental) assumptions that have the greatest potential to lead us astray”


I think these are important concepts that we as humans need to realize when we mentally digest the latest headlines about science. Really smart scientific minds can be lead astray by failing to question fundamental assumptions. Using science as the foundation for how you process truth is risky. What if they are not questioning an assumption they should be questioning, before drawing a conclusion?