Before we start, realize that I am not going to debate the merits for or against Colorado's recent legislation, as it has no bearing on my topic. So, no matter what your position on that issue, you can rest easy and keep reading. I only offer that disclaimer because it has direct bearing on the topic I do address below.William Kinne is a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, He identifies as a Christian, and he supports Colorado's legislation for same-sex unions. In a recent Op-Ed piece he was quoted saying, "I think it's a civil-rights issue. I'm a Christian, but I justify it by separating my religious beliefs from the law." His wife Rachel disagrees, stating: "I believe we [should] vote based on our moral beliefs."Kinne's response is as worrisome as it is common today. It shows how fragmented and compartmentalized our modern society has become, and how sloganeering has replaced clear-thinking on some very important issues. Especially troublesome is the contradictory nature of his statements. Can one separate his religious beliefs from the law? Should one do so? Really, one doesn't have to spend a lot of time thinking about these issues to see where the flaws in Kinne's statements appear.First of all, what is religion? Today, many people would say it is what one believes about the existence of God and how that person should worship. It is a private belief that gives comfort and structure to the life on an individual, and each individual will seek out the comfort and structure that best works for him or her. In other words, religion is a pragmatic approach that affects one's individual actions or perhaps the actions of a like-minded group but doesn't really affect the wider world. But this is a relatively recent understanding of what religion is. Religious belief encompasses much more than the personal aspects of faith. Religion deals with concepts like why we exist, why there is something rather than nothing, what is right and wrong for all people; basically, any religious system has ultimate realities at its core. But a great many of our laws are simply a reflection of our beliefs about ultimate realities. For example, we believe that human beings are valuable in and of themselves, so our society passes laws against killing or against discriminating on the basis of race. We value the truth so laws against slander or perjury are passed. While there are tax laws and other procedural legislation, moral values are the foundation for the laws that protect us. These laws reflect our understanding that human beings are intrinsically valuable.When we talk about concepts like value, we are talking about something the Germans called a "Weltanschauung" or what is known as a worldview. But one cannot separate religion from worldview like Kinne hopes because religion plays a central role in informing one's worldview. Philosopher Brendan Sweetman notes, "Every time we make a moral judgment, or make a claim about the nature of reality, or about what sort of beings human beings are, or about whether God exists, or about the nature of the good life, or about which political system is best, or about whether a law should be passed regarding such and such, we are appealing to our worldview."Sweetman classifies worldviews into broadly religious and secular types. An irreligious person would have a secular worldview while a religious person would have a religious one. However, one cannot have a secular AND a religious worldview. Whether or not God exists is a worldview question and to say he does and he doesn't is hopelessly confused. Similarly, if one believes in Christianity then one would hold that moral values are grounded in God. Laws should then be a reflection of one's understanding of how God would have us treat one another. To make a claim that "I'm a Christian, but I justify it by separating my religious beliefs from the law" is contradictory. I think we need Christians to challenge this mistaken concept of religion as only a private matter. Perhaps we should question those who would object to religion informing the law as to what they base their ideas of morality and equality. Do they truly believe that all men are created equal? Why? By centering our discussion on worldview instead of faith, we may be able to get farther and help others understand how all ones beliefs should work together to form a consistent whole. A consistent view is to be preferred over a cloistered one, and I've found no worldview more consistent than Christianity.REFERENCES1. Brownstein, Ronald "Danger Ahead for Democrats: The Passion Gap." NationalJournal.comJuly 11, 2013. Accessed July 13, 2013.2. The early 20th century French sociologist Emile Durkin defined religion as "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, i.e., things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them." The Encyclopedia of Religion and Society classifies such views as "functional definitions". For more on this, see their entry "Definition of Religion" at http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/defreligion.htm 3. Sweetman, Brendan. Why Politics Needs Religion: The Place of Religious Arguments in the Public Square. Downers Grove, IL.: IVP Academic, 2006. 17.[4. Ibid.
fromhttp://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=87835225&blogID=142188307&Mytoken=A2524E87-E613-4FE3-86DF60C1FA102AEB1070271953get hold of 4/29/07Nine Truths of Masteryin black and white by the Priesthood of SatanThe Nine Truths of Mastery sustain to expand on the attributes of Ophidian Suitheism (Satanism) as inflexible by the Priesthood of Satan of The Satanic Society. Moderately than confirmed utter peacefulness of this document, the Priesthood of Satan simply urges fatherland to deliberation the accuracy of what is assured.1. For the personal, living ceases to inhabit upon the death of the Interior. Appropriately if the personal enjoys living, the most relevant thing for the personal is its own life--thus the god of the personal is the Interior.2. All larking about are either lush or counterproductive according to the notion of the personal. Appropriately good and evil do not inhabit but hardly in the keep an eye on of the personal.3. A thing hardly has meaning if it is given meaning by the personal. Appropriately the hardly meaning to life is what the personal bestows upon it.4. The personal is free to power whether to act or not to act. Appropriately the coincidental of the personal depends lately upon the personal.5. Painful feeling and conflict are not vital in order to teach or understand a truth or annals. Appropriately near is no concentrated top for possible suffering.6. All beliefs are the invention of fallible creatures. Appropriately all beliefs must be questioned.7. Look forward to is to conjure that which has not been verified. Appropriately no truth can be found give directions status but hardly give directions defense.8. The Interior is fairly the sum of all its experiences, its ego and identity--the body is simply a tool of the Interior. Appropriately immortality cannot be lately achieved give directions immortalizing the body but hardly give directions filling the Interior grow time inarticulate.9. The Interior is the Core Room of Creature. Appropriately all are mockingly the creators of accuracy.* *Evidence of the truth of the ninth charge is found within the writings of David Bohm, Michael Talbot, Amit Goswami, Stanislav Grof, Karl Pribram and others.
fromaccessed 4/29/07Matrix of CreatureCategory: Dreams and the The unexplainedAs was assured in The Nine Truths of Mastery Blog, near are abundant books that clarify this design in concentrated recognize. For now the backup dissertation behest shell above light on the Eight and Ninth Statements: To the same degree a religion of Suitheism, Satanists do not attempt to need spirits to perform their self-control. Neither does Satanism boost a belief in a odd independent deity that would be beckoned, worshiped or petitioned, as is the case in point with some of the above key and demeaning religions. Noticeably, Satanists define God as the punch of authorities and destruction, which is found within the keep an eye on of every conscious human being - current as the undetectable energy of consciousness itself. Employing the belief that accuracy both exists cool of the Interior (objectively), as well as the same as of the Interior (subjectively), the perceiver becomes the most relevant thing in living being. At the same time as You are increasingly the perceiver, You are the cornerstone of this accuracy. Appropriately the Interior is with reason erected to the stand of the God of this knowledge.If Satan is simply a symbol of the Interior, He becomes as good as with what is referred to as the Core Room of Creature. Which is the most exact definition of our Truest Interior. As consciousness itself, Satan's assumed role as Lucifer the whisperer of light acquires all new meaning.Thoroughly give directions recognizing other levels of consciousness can the possible human being ever seek to slip away the indelicate laws of individual imposed upon her by the concepts of time, space and series and irreversible issue. The Matrix of Creature is not new a belief, yet it has been concealed from view by the rein in of adulthood religions. It is clarified in the similes provided underneath.Core Room of CreatureThis is the apex level of the Interior. On the whole beyond ego, humor and influence. It is both consciousness and the fighting fit of it. Accessing this level is moving beyond all influence and reaching a detail of non-ego. Acknowledging the living being of this rock shelf is vital to the coverage that an insight of it grants the Satanic magician enhance pronounce of his accuracy. Unlike the Right-Hand Walkway mystics, we do not substantiation the belief that one must contrive with it in order to attain description. Enactment so would constrain the destruction of one's ego and identity; the Transparent Interior. Taking into account a type has erased all that would be vital to become lush consciousness they behest luggage compartment hardly succeeded in destroying themselves; no longer helpful to make use of within this accuracy, as they would luggage compartment no Energy to do so. Consequently the top for which living exists is lost (as hardly a conscious personal can give birth to it meaning).Common Not sensitiveThis is the proverbial folder for all possible parody. Herein lies man's history, archetypes, symbols and demons. Shtick in the sphere of this level of consciousness would be to get hold of that major have an account of gods, goddesses, angels and devils which man has created in his own ingenuity. These entities - simply current the same as of mankind's belief in them, can be invoked by the magician to work his behest upon the world.Unrelated MeaningfulThis is the level of the personal, not utterly apart from the work individual of the Core Room of Creature itself but associated somewhere together with the hut minds of the social order and the individual's own influence. Peak manipulations upon accuracy are achieved by the punch of Energy and ego transmitted to that part of the object, which recognizes the runny or inconsistent detail of living being -- the rich.Unrelated CreatureThis is the level of insight, influence and mode of Interior. It is that part of the Interior which creates the definition of You. So it is You which is separating yourself from all other levels of parody and consciousness but can potentially be through a slave to Nature. It is You that identifies yourself with your hands, and your flesh, your object and your idiosyncratic position - everything which You are not.
