I said that your leftism was unchallenged as a direct response to your reaction of surprise when I asked for clarification on why Cruz terrifies you.
If you genuinely need to ask why Cruz terrifies me, perhaps your rightism has been left unchallenged.
Where would I even begin with Cruz? Setting aside for a moment that I disagree with him on almost every issue, he’s a Dominionist Christian, who was raised by a religious zealot, and his campaign is currently being funded by the Keep the Promise SuperPAC. He had a deluded vision that America was a Christian nation and it desperately needs to return to those ideals. I fear the idea of any man having access to “the button” who sees the world through the prism of religion.
That's not a very large leap when you consider the liberal echo-chamber of anti-diversity of thought.
I hope that’s not to suggest that conservative thinking isn’t (at best) equally insular. For the record, I do like to listen to the handful of conservative voices I respect to ensure my thinking doesn’t become limited.
Thanks also for giving me the green light to assume things about you.
No worries. It’s the same carte blanche I give all people on the internet who’ve never met me.
You can give anyone a title and claim experience. Failures in the State Department causing American deaths in Benghazi along with major lapses in judgement in the use of a personal email server are very disqualifying behaviors.
The word “Benghazi” must ring some sort of collective conservative clitoris. It’s equal parts amazing and appalling that Hillary has spent more time answering for four deaths than the Bush administration has spent answering for 7,000 dead American soldiers and over a million wounded.
Like what? Which 'other cultures'?
Babylonians, Sumerians, etc. Google it if you’re truly interested. Much has been documented about where the Old Testament took its ideas from. Be it the Old or New Testament, many of the codes and beliefs were “borrowed” from other cultures.
Are you of European descent? I ask (and don't let questions surprise you please) because a lot of the attacks on Christianity and western society in general stem from the self-criticism we have that the other races do not exhibit in the broad sense (even though Christianity is a middle-eastern religion). This is probably the more boring of the subjects we're discussing, but feel free to answer or brush aside as you see fit, sire.
Russian and Irish. My thoughts on Christianity mostly stem from having been a Christian for a period of time, having witnessed the frightening amount of circular reasoning necessary to justify the belief system, having consequently done an intense amount of reading on the topic, then having come out the other end of it an atheist. And while my atheism was more militant when I first landed there, my position on religion has evolved to one of “live and let live”. That said, I admittedly have zero tolerance for people trying to legislate their beliefs or stifling science when it fails to align with their religious texts.
He was a very influential atheistic philosopher who provided tons of insight into the modern progression of nihilism in our society brought on by the emptying of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, and essential value to human existence. Pretty good reads. You should brush up on it.
My point about you referencing Nietzsche is that it felt like little more than an appeal to authority. Nietzsche doesn’t speak for all atheists, nor are his philosophies anything but
his philosophies.
You're making two very conflicting arguments and trying to take both trophies.
If I can grab two trophies, why shouldn’t I try?
You cannot claim both that Ted Cruz is a "true believer" while attempting to make a hypocrisy argument.
While I understand why you might see it that way, my point was not intended to conflate the two arguments. The two points overlapping is due more to the nature of trying to have a discussion within this format. I’ll attempt to better explain.
There’s this strongly held belief on the Right that they own the moral high ground on all things. However, this argument seems flawed (at best) given their Hawkish views on diplomacy, their unwillingness to stem the flow of guns, their desire to constantly cut welfare and social security, their denial of global warming, and their unending quest to lower taxes on the rich. It seems highly unlikely Jesus would support any of these positions.
With regard to Cruz being a “true believer”, I’ve found that Christians generally fall into two major groups; those who are “spiritual” about their beliefs and those who take a scriptural view of the world. I see Cruz as the latter type. As such, I believe he will be especially dangerous on the foreign policy front.
Atheistic morality in the west only exists in the borrowing from a Christian worldview. It's either ignorant or dishonest to say otherwise.
I’m not even sure where to begin, given how demonstratively absurd your statement is. For starters, as I pointed out earlier, the core ideas you ascribe to Christian morality are not originally Christian. Second, and this is offered really more as an aside, science has been making interesting inroads that seem to indicate our morality is inborn and possibly not even limited to humans. Third, your holy texts either advocate or justify everything from rape and incest, to infanticide and genocide, to slavery and stoning. The notion that the foundations of the Judeo-Christian ethos is moral is both historically and scripturally untrue.
Religious and non-religious conservatives give more of their own money to charity than the left does...voluntarily.
Evidence please.
The left depends on keeping the poor right where they are by shoveling more welfare down their throats and eliminating any incentive to climb out of it.
If the left didn’t want to see the poor rise above their circumstances, why would the left push to make college free for all? The left has taken up cause after cause to make college more attainable and affordable to the poor, all the while being fought by the right at every turn. In the history of the world, no one trying to repress a people did so by fighting to educate them. And in that light, if you can’t see how your point is purely the product of the conservative thought bubble, I don’t know what else to say to you.
R.
