Monday, December 1, 2014

Grayscale

People seem to often think in black and white. No, this isn’t some racist thing… I’m talking “yes” and “no” here, “right” and “wrong”.

There are enemies on both sides of practically every argument. Take the political structure of America for example: party members love to attack the other party, but both sides are right and wrong in their own areas. A 100% Republican country may sound absolutely terrible, but so does a 100% Democratic country. Both parties have done great things for our nation, and likewise they have both done great wrongs.

Nothing is ever simple when humans are involved. Human emotion coats our attempted logic with an immeasurable amount of variables, making nothing certain. Good people do terrible things at times; nobody is perfect, everyone makes mistakes.

I consider myself Independent politically because I cannot justify identifying as either a Republican or a Democrat; I see enemies on both sides. Voting for president isn’t choosing the candidate that’s right to run our country, it is choosing the lesser of two evils. My Republican family got very upset when I voted for Obama in 2012; I didn’t vote for him because of his political party, I voted for him because I sure as hell did not want Romney in office. If you don’t agree with my views, that’s perfectly fine… every single person on this planet is different, and no two people believe exactly the same things.

Often, I find, there is more than one answer to a question of morality… or perhaps it is a lack of an answer altogether. I believe that abortion is wrong but I also believe a woman has the right to have one if it is important to her that she does so. I believe that anyone and everyone should be able to marry whoever the hell they want as far as gender identities go, but I also believe that a sixteen-year-old dating a nineteen-year-old is a lot better than a twenty-year-old dating a seventy-year-old. Don’t agree with me? That’s fine, I’m never going to run for president or Congress so you have nothing to worry about.

I believe that everyone is equal regardless of biological sex or gender identity, and yet I also know you cannot treat everyone equally; my ex-girlfriend, for example, is someone you should avoid certain topics of discussion with. That doesn’t make her any less human, it makes her unique: she taught me that we all have scars, whether they are visible to the world or not, and you can never assume anything about anyone unless that someone is yourself. (It is worth pointing out, though, that I favor women to men for my friendships and pretty much every other kind of relationship possible; not that women are superior, but that men are often inferior… if that makes any sense whatsoever)

I believe everyone has a right to an opinion. I also believe that everyone has a right to share that opinion verbally or in writing, given it isn’t oppressive toward a person or group of people. Some opinions may be best isolated in your mind or with your close, trusted friends and family, but you still have a right to that opinion so long as you do not cause anyone any danger by acting out your opinion.

Are you still reading? Have you read this whole thing? That was the point of typing this all out. No responses needed, I only wrote it so it could be read. If you would like to, I encourage you to write something like this regarding your own opinions — again, so long as it won’t restrict the rights of a person or group of people — and share it with your followers as well.

I am nobody special to this world, my voice will likely disappear upon my death. Sadly, this is true for most of us. So make a difference while you live, work to make the world a better place; not what’s best for you, but what’s best for humanity. That is all.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Intelligent Design and Natural Selection

Christians -- as well as many other religious groups -- believe in Intelligent Design, meaning we believe that all existence was designed rather than "just happening". However, Atheists and lots of Agnostics believe in Natural Selection and Darwinian Evolution instead, believing that the Universe began from a massive explosion of a massive glob of matter -- without a clue where that ball of matter came from, by the way -- and over the period of billions of years, a "primordial ooze" turned into humans.

My point with this post is not to debate the two viewpoints. Yes, I am a Christian and I believe in Intelligent Design... but don't fret, I'm not here to preach. My point is actually the same for both sides, in a way. The main idea is faith, which is commonly associated with religion. Many Atheists and Darwinian Evolutionists think faith is only for religious people and not for them, but that isn't true. Think about it: can you provide physical, observable evidence of one kind of creature becoming another? Not beak changes, but a living organism becoming an entirely different kind of living organism.

You can't, evolution says it happened over "millions and millions of years". Therefore, they examine the evidence and it leads them to believe evolution is the cause. They have faith that evolution is the truth, without seeing changes -- such as apes into humans -- with their own eyes. So while not all evolutionists are atheists and vice versa, evolutionists have faith just like Christians and other religious people.

As a Christian, I thought about all this and came to this conclusion: since the Christian Bible says God gave us free will and wants us to choose to follow him, Intelligent Design cannot be obvious. Think about it: if it was obvious, people would believe in it much easier and free will would be less of a factor in their choice. Therefore it is imperative that something combats that opinion, so that people need to have faith and follow their hearts to reach the truth.

This leads directly into my final point: you cannot prove -- or disprove -- either Intelligent Design or Natural Selection. Creationism and Evolutionism cannot be either proven or disproven, it is not possible with the abilities of the human brain. It is up to us to pick a side, to dig deep within ourselves and figure out what we believe and what we have faith in. So whether you believe what I believe or not, I ask one thing: know WHY you believe what you believe. Don't follow your beliefs blindly, and question EVERYTHING. It can help solidify your beliefs, or help you realize what makes more sense to you than what you currently believe.

On a final note, don't call anyone "wrong" for what they believe. In many areas, such as the one discussed in this post, there is no way to decide definitively whether or not someone is correct or incorrect.

   --     Taken from Timothy McSwain's Quora Blog on Quora.com     --