Climate Change

I've often heard jokes about elderly people making statements about "these kids today".  Jokes about how they all echo comments such as: "I had to walk 25 miles to get to the school house barefoot, in 2 feet of snow, with the wind blowing in my face so cold that ice would freeze when tears would form".   I am no meteorologist.  Furthermore, I possess no crystal ball.  I have no idea of what the future may bring to this planet, or bring to anyone who walks upon it.  I do have a very well formed, if not well informed, opinion on the topic of climate change.  That is to say, I have no doubt that global warming is real, but I have serious doubts about its suggested cause.

History has a tendency to repeat itself.  You can see it on the micro-temporal level, we have pop culture trends for example.  Slicing up a good pair of jeans to make them look worn, colorful hair courtesy of temporary dyes, and the band One Direction are all popular among their respective cultures in youth.   When I was a teenager about twenty years ago, you could replace One Direction with New Kids on the Block and make the exact same statement.

Growing the scope now to a more macro-temporal level, you can see the fall of various dynasties, and empires - the Egyptians, the Romans, the Mayans, etc.  Battles over land, battles over religion, battles over trade, but always battles.

Medieval Ice Skating by Esaias van de Velde

If you back the scope up even further still, we reach my point.   The ice age was an event that most elementary school kids have heard about. However, it's often taught as if it were a single event.  I will spare this post my ranting about the failure of the American school system, but suffice it to say, it was multiple events.  There were at least five major glacial ages.  Also, there are known events - or at least a known event - called the Little Ice Age.   While not a true ice age, this was a period where the climate changed, and was considerably colder than what was considered normal for the time period and it happened in medieval times, and was thought to last about 500 years. There are a few theories behind it, but I am fond of one known as solar variation.

So now we come back to the here and now and global warming - climate change as it's often cited in reference to the present day.   There are deniers, and there are enthusiasts, and each side will claim the other is a bunch of nut jobs.  Given enough time, surely one will call the other a Nazi and invoke Godwin's Law (I'm willing to bet in some far corner of the internet - or maybe just on reddit - this has already happened).

However, I propose this thought.  We could be coming out of a little ice age of our own.  Our meteorological advancements have inadvertently pulled the proverbial wool over our eyes.  Meaning that today, we know so much about the weather that we are missing the obvious.  Could we be still emerging from the little ice age that happened during the Tudor reign of the UK?  We have only been recording data for a little over 100 years after all.  Is global warming truly a man-made, chemical induced, phenomenon, or is it simply nature repeating itself - thawing us out, before eventually freezing us back up again?

Maybe if we had a full history we would see a bigger picture that tells us, this is normal.  It would tell us that we are just experiencing the temperature equivalent of a low tide.  In a couple of hundred years it will all cycle around and things will be just as they were when you were a kid.  Only the elder stories then will be about driving to school with no AC when it was 82 degrees outside in November, in Wisconsin.

Anti-Christian Christianity

Slowly I'm coming to realize that my problem with Christianity is not the religion.  It's not the story of Jesus himself.  It's not the fact that the matter of biblical canonization was... questionable.  It has little to do with the fact that there are so many different versions of the bible, that you really need a BA in history to fully understand what the reasons are behind each.  Nor is it the fact that there are so many different denominations of the Christian religion across the world that practice in such different ways that it's hard to say, in today's world, what Christianity truly is.  The real reason I have a problem with Christianity is... Christians.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” - Ghandi. 

Don't get me wrong, I have known some fantastic folks who follow Jesus.  In fact some of my best friends are very devout Christians.  However, the majority of Christians in America, in this day and age, certainly appear to miss some of the things that I consider explicitly defined in the text of the bible we have.

I firmly believe that the Jesus in the bible, living today, would support social programs and universal healthcare.  He would not deny happiness of anyone. While he would know if it were a choice for them, in absence of that knowledge he'd still give the benefit of a doubt - instead of assuming they were "choosing" to be ridiculed and different.  He would not fill his closet with furs and hang gold and diamonds from his ears and neck.  He would not drive a car that costs more than a minimum wage worker's annual salary.

Unfortunately, I feel that many of today's Christians would disagree with me on all of the points above.  Regardless of the fact their most important book, the Holy Bible, the supposedly infallible word of God, would tell them to take their riches and give them away to receive their reward in heaven.  It saddens me that we live in a world filled with the self-righteous and pious who would besmirch and bastardize something as good and pure as the teachings of Christ.  However, I guess that is the way it has always been, and will continue to be.

Politics, Religion, and The United States of America

I love being a citizen of a country where people have the right to say what they want to say, do pretty much anything they want to do, and make a better life for themselves through hard work and sacrifice.  A country where we elect our leaders, and can alter the system anytime we see fit.  However there is a political shift in this country, and I believe it has the strength and desire to disrupt this country and change what America truly represents.

Many people will quickly point out that this country was founded on religion, which I don't entirely dispute. However, when talking about the founding of this country a good history lesson will tell us pretty quickly that it was more about running away from the tyrannical hand of combined church and state in England. 

Since we no longer allow much in the way of religious discussion in our classrooms -- in this pinnacle of freedom, it may not be so obvious what this all means.  So here is a quick history lesson.  In the early-mid 1500's during the reign of King Henry VIII of England, there was a rift between the King and Pope Clement VII.  At the time Catholicism was the Christian religion.  The reformations that brought about protestant religions had not yet started.  Around this same time Martin Luther was discovering what he considered to be atrocious behavior by the church and published his 95 theses.  

Henry wanted a divorce from his first wife -- most of that part of the story is well known -- and was willing to do pretty much anything to make it happen.  He also had some religious reformists serving on his privy council.  This culminated in the rising of the Church of England, which was essentially forced upon you if you lived in England - you could opt for a beheading instead like Sir Thomas More.  Meanwhile reform was afoot elsewhere by the followers of John Calvin and Martin Luther.

Fast forward now to the first born daughter of Henry VIII, who would eventually become Queen of England.  She earned the nickname Bloody Mary because of the slaughter that took place in the name of converting England back to Catholicism (nearly 300 burned at the stake for heresy in only 5 years).  Upon her death, her sister, Henry's other daughter Elizabeth came to power and brought peace back to England and the Anglican Church.  It was King James (yes that King James, of  Bible Version fame) who was Presbyterian, and rejected much of the "purification" philosophies of the reformers, who finally pushed the Pilgrims over the edge and prompted them to leave England.

So, the Pilgrims left England to escape the combination of Church and State (King James and the Church of England).  The Puritans were Calvinists, and they were angry with King James as well, so they broke rank for pretty much the same reasons.  The rest of the settlers starting with Jamestown (i.e. King James' Town) were sent here by England to colonize the new land.  This was all about colonization, and had nothing to do with religion.

So when someone says this country was founded on religion, bear in mind it was very much founded on FREEDOM OF RELIGION, which should not be confused with a specific religion itself.  If you want to go down that road, it was certainly not any denomination that would hoist the King James Version of the Holy Bible proudly into the air.  

History should tell us that we do not want to go down the road of faith-based legislature.  Unfortunately, every election year I'm reminded of how so many in this country want to mix the two.  I fear that one day we will allow too much co-mingling and bring about a multitude of problems.  Granted, we will likely never get to the state of capital punishment over religious beliefs.  However, those who push their religious agenda need to realize that it works both ways.   What if someone was trying to force you to face Mecca while saying your beloved prayers in school?