Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Week 22: Don’t Know Why [I Didn’t Come]


Don't Know Why [I Didn't Come]
There is something remarkably transcendent about the fact that we speak so many different "languages" but still end up saying the exact same thing.  

From Week 21: 
All my revulsion over literal interpretations of religious texts the world over, and the mental slavery such readings impose; all my contempt for a “people’s movement” that perpetuates the superficial form of marriage over the real tradition of love, simply because “that is how it has always been;” all the weight of the world comes into sharp focus over the head of an unsuspecting 8 year old boy…who promptly bursts into flames and dies a shrieking heat-death.
From Theodore B. Olson, representing the LGBT community in the trial over their fundamental right to choose who they want to marry: 
The latest words from the...proponents [of Proposition 8 are], "We don't know. We don't know whether there is going to be any harm [in allowing same-sex marriage]."
[I would argue that] "we did it because we don't know" is the same as saying "we don't know why we did it."  And I would submit that "we've always done it that way," that "it's a traditional definition of marriage"...is the same [as saying] "because I say so."
From Jean-Luc Picard, representing Commander Data (an android) in the trial over his fundamental right to choose his own destiny:
"Commander Riker has dramatically demonstrated to this court that Lieutenant Commander Data is a machine. Do we deny that? No, because it is not relevant – we too are machines, just machines of a different type. Commander Riker has also reminded us that Lieutenant Commander Data was created by a human; do we deny that? No. Again it is not relevant. Children are created from the 'building blocks' of their parents' DNA. Are they property?
From Marilyn Manson:
Those who move beyond the album's title and the most blatant aspect of what I do, will then understand what I am trying to say.
From Vexen Crabtree, the minister of the London Church of Satan:
Any Satanists who actually worship the Devil, rather than revering Satan as an abstract value, are immature, unstable, and nothing to do with us.
Through which we can infer:
Any Christians who actually worship Christ, rather than revering Christ as an abstract value, are immature, unstable, and the reason why people like Becky Fisher (of Jesus Camp fame) should be jailed for pedophilia. 
A sentiment echoed by Origen Adamantius, an early Christian scholar and theologian; and Paul of Tarsus, the Apostle to the Gentiles:
Origen: Christ crucified is teaching for babes.
Paul: But when I become a mature man, I put away childish things.
Finally, from the lovely Emily Dickinson:
As by the dead we love to sit,
Become so wondrous dear,
As for the lost we grapple,
Though all the rest are here,--

In broken mathematics
We estimate our prize,
Vast, in its fading ratio,
To our penurious eyes!

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