Romney speaks...and i develop a headache

So as i was reading the NYT this morning (instead of work...I know) and i saw the article about Mitt Romney speech at the GHB Presidential Library on faith and his presidency. In it he goes on to say that he will not be beholden to his church leaders and that a President should not beholden to any one faith. Brought tears to this old mans eyes.

Then he had to go ruin my morning.

Continuing on, he says:

"We should acknowledge the Creator as did the Founders – in ceremony and word. He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in the teaching of our history, and during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places. Our greatness would not long endure without judges who respect the foundation of faith upon which our Constitution rests. I will take care to separate the affairs of government from any religion, but I will not separate us from 'the God who gave us liberty.'

I really see this as a missframing of the intentions of the founders. I think they wanted to protect religion/freedom of belief, just as they would all of our other freedoms, and not to, as he apparently wants us to believe, create space for religion within the decisions of our government. The fabled history he mentions of our currency and pledge are a fairly recent invention, not intended by the founders but later McCarthyism or decisions by the Treasury Dept. I personally have no problem with menorahs and nativity scenes in public places, we share this country with people of faith. However, i do not think the government should pay one dime for such displays and that people can use those same public spaces for their own declarations of faith. If you get your menorah, i get my Darwin Day display. Alls fair.

Why Faith has anything to do with Freedom is beyond me. I understand that they believe in a god that created everything and created free will. However this was the same guy, who after creating free will, demanded us only obey him. He also forbade eating from the tree of knowledge. What is freedom if we cannot use it, nor the knowledge to use it?

I think that we are naturally free, it is not a god given right endowed by a creator. Does one ask who gave a tiger or a sparrow its freedom? Of course not, they exist free in nature. So why cannot man exist in the same way. Our freedom exists because we exist. Our concept of free will arises out of the fact that we are sentient beings. We do not owe thanks to a creator for what we have evolved to posess. Why thank anything for a natural process. 'Thanks Gaia for all this gravity, love this falling shit that you brought us!' "Hey Vulcan, that metalworking thing really does come in handy! I just love my Dodge Ram!"

I dont think we will get away from religious nonsensce until we own up and accept that freewill is ours, and all the bad and good that has come from it is our damn fault.


....yeah i got a bit ranty in there