Aaron R Nelson.com

Before you read the following, know this:  Our recent local and federal debates on certain issues such as gay rights, abortion, stem-cell research and liquor have prompted this post.  I often find myself pondering why such seemingly obvious answers to these issues are up to debate in our nation and state. 

Folks, welcome to 2009.  You may have noticed that if you look back through history, our world has undergone its most drastic changes in the last 100 years.  In terms of technological, industrial, and philosophical advancements, nothing compares to the last century.  As our world advances, what is the one area of our culture that invariably becomes less and less attractive?  What is the one aspect that governs our lives that has declined in popularity more significantly than any other measurable characteristic in the last twenty-five years? 

Religion.

Surprising?  It shouldn’t be.  We live in a society that grows and prospers from our scientific advancements.  What’s more, humans can reasonably evaluate and prove, through evidence, how scientific and technological advancements have improved our way of life.  This is something that cannot be said for religion.  Someone can say “God provided it for us.”  But they cannot reasonably prove that statement.  Whereas a claim like “technological advancements in the medical field over the last 20 years have saved millions of lives” can be evaluated and proved true through universally accepted scientific means.  I know the classic “science vs. religion” debate is old and tired, but it is at the core of who we are as humans.

I am reading a fantastic book by best-selling author Sam Harris.  His book The End of Faith puts our current religious views under a microscope to examine what substance really lies there.  Before reading The End of Faith, I read Harris’ shorter Letter to a Christian Nation.  At only 114 pages in length, this is a breeze to read in one evening and should be considered by anyone, whether they be religious or not.  In Letter to a Christian Nation, Harris frames our current grapple between religion and science in quite eloquent terms:

“The conflict between science and religion is reducible to a simple fact of human cognition and discourse: either a person has good reasons for what he believes, or he does not.  If there were good reasons to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, or that Muhammad flew to heaven on a winged horse, these beliefs would necessarily form part of our rational description of the universe.  Everyone recognizes that to rely upon “faith” to decide specific questions of historical fact is ridiculous - that is, until the conversation turns to the origin of books like the Bible and the Koran, to the resurrection of Jesus, to Muhammad’s conversation with the archangel Gabriel, or to any other religious dogma.  It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.

While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in God still holds immense prestige in our society.  Religion is the one area of our discourse where it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about.  It is telling that this aura of nobility extends only to those faiths that still have many subscribers.  Anyone caught worshipping Poseidon, even at sea, will be thought insane.” 

Well put, Mr. Harris.

Now, consider this: based on a 2001 ARIS study, 14.1% of the U.S. population does not follow any organized religion.  Insert comment, “that’s not very much, Aaron.”  You’re right, but compare that to only 8% in 1990, and you have an insanely rapid increase, almost doubling the amount in 11 years.  To put that 14.1% in perspective, there are more Americans who say they are not affiliated with any organized religion than there are Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans combined.  This is a staggering and unprecedented decline in religious followers any way you slice it.  If this trend continues, in terms of Christianity alone, by the year 2042, non-Christians will outnumber Christians in the United States.  Furthermore, a 2002 USA Today/Gallup Poll found that nearly half of American adults appear to be alienated from organized religion.  If current trends continue, most adults in America will not call themselves religious within just a few years.

Why is all this change occurring?  Because we are entering an era where evidence, reason and logic supersede fantasy and faith in invisible super powers.  It seems as though humanity, as hopeless as it sometimes presents itself, has discovered that we aught to require reason and evidence in every aspect of our lives, including religion and faith.  Perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel…

Sources:

Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, 66-68.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm

I’m not one to normally post something like this, but I have found a tool so handy that I have to pass it along…

Have you ever watched a streaming video over the net and wished you could download and save the video to keep and watch over and over?  I know I have.  I found a tool the other day that allows you to do just that - save and keep streaming media.  The program “records” the live stream of video and saves it in its original quality as whatever type of media it originally was (Windows Media, Quicktime, Real, etc).  This program is amazingly efficient, easy to use, and useful.

Here is a screen shot and a link to download:

Download the program here:  WM Recorder 12.

Either buy a registration key to unlock the program, or find your own creative ways to do that on your own

Enjoy!

Now I’m not one to get all caught up in politics and such (okay, I am), but this one really got me fired up.

Consider this…you go to a local restaurant (bear in mind that is a restaurant, not a bar), you order yourself a beer which is watered down to 3.2%, and you stare at a large 10 foot wall in the middle of the restaurant that seems to be out of place and there for no reason.  What does it all mean?  It means that if you thought Utah’s liquor laws were crazy, you are about to be blown away.  The otherwise level-headed Senator from Orem, John Valentine, has proposed we erect 10 foot walls around all bar areas in restaurants throughout the state.  The next logical question is “why?”  This is a question that can’t be reasonably answered, because there is no logical, evidence-based answer to the question.  The made-up, ignorant, religious-based and idiotic reason for this is to “protect the children” (and anyone who personally does not consume alcoholic beverages).  To get the gist of just how ludicrous this ideas is, I have copied the verbiage for the proposed law straight from the Utah Legislature’s website:

 (e) On and after November 1, 2011, a restaurant liquor licensee may dispense an

1422 alcoholic beverage only

1423 (i) from an area that is:

1424 (A) separated from an area for the consumption of food by a restaurant patron by:

1425 (I) a wall that:

1426 (Aa) is floor-to-ceiling; or

1427 (Bb) starts at the floor and is at least 10 feet high;

1428 (II) a different floor level; or

1429 (III) a similar substantial physical barrier; and

1430 (B) not visible to or accessible by a restaurant patron;

1431 (ii) if the restaurant uses an alcoholic beverage or alcoholic product that is stored in an

1432 area described in Subsection (7)(e)(i); and

1433 (iii) if any instrument or equipment used to dispense an alcoholic beverage is located in

1434 an area described in Subsection (7)(e)(i).

To put that in layman’s terms, Senator Valentine is mostly saying, “I do not have faith in the parenting skills of our state’s various parents.  A child may mistake vodka for water and consume said beverage, which would be bad.  My religion tells me that alcohol=bad, I have never experienced a culture that embraces any other idea, so I think that restaurants with 10 foot walls hiding their liquor is the way our world needs to be.  I don’t care if you like to have a beer with dinner, I want to make it as inaccessible and unreasonably hard for you to get that beer as possible.  Why do I want to do this?  Because I don’t believe in liquor and therefore I’m going to make laws that make it so liquor is portrayed as an evil thing and harder for all of you to access.  My religious and personal beliefs should not just be mine, but yours too, because I know they are the right beliefs to have.”

Yep, and I’m not over exaggerating.  You want to talk about over exaggerating, look at this damn bill that this goofball has proposed.

You can read a full copy of the bill here: Utah State Legislature Senate Bill 187.

Please get involved if you feel as passionate about this as I do.  Contact your local representative, here is a list of the current state roster broken out by counties:

Senate

House

Here is my visual rendition of what this 10 foot wall issue is really all about.  Below you can see this wall in all its glory:

Are you hiding behind the wall? 

J Looney has a very well informed post on his blog concerning this same issue, check it out here.

Welcome to Utah, get out while you can…