I always thought the “Because I said so!” exclamation was a sign of lazy parenting. I’m not judging any of you who may have said it, I have probably used it myself. When you’re at the end of your rope and don’t have the patience for any more questions, it is the tired Mom and Dad’s final line of defense. “I am in authority over you and I do not have to explain myself to you.”
But it is lazy…
A lot of people probably think I explain things to my child way too often. (I know Teresa thinks I do) I want her to ask questions and I especially want her to question authority. That includes my own. I’m hoping to cultivate a curious child that always wants to know why things are so. I don’t want her to blindly accept rules because they were always in place. Question everything, form your own opinions, calculate the consequences of all possible actions and then act! I don’t understand how knowledge can be a bad thing.
I was coming home today and I saw a car go by with a bumper sticker. Right below their Florida “Educator” license plate, the large black/white sticker was one of those, “God said it; that settles it; whether you believe it or not!”
Lazy. The fact that this was prominently displayed below the license tag saying this person was an educator just scares the shit out of me. What ever happened to objective reasoning? What ever happened to “There are no stupid questions”? I think the whole “God settles it…” idea translates to, “I never question the things that define me. I have no desire to grow as a person and I am quite comfortable with the status quo.” Let’s hope this “educator” is a gym teacher. I’d hate to think somewhere out there kids are learning that the Earth is flat, only 6000 years old and that the moon gives off it’s own light. Fuck Copernicus and Galileo, they never brought the booze to a wedding party and they never walked on water. What the hell could they know?
I’m pretty sure if I went around saying that I believe everything my invisible friends says (sensible or not), and that my invisible friend celebrates incest, genocide and slavery, they’d lock me the fuck up! And they’d be right to do so.
Really, these people scare me. Mostly because they have the protection of “normalcy”.
July 31st, 2009 at 5:57 pm
“Fuck Copernicus and Galileo, they never brought the booze to a wedding party and they never walked on water.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! I was on the phone with a customer and started laughing out loud when I read that. I had to mute the phone and they kept saying “Hello? Hello?” but it took a while to gather myself after that one!
August 4th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Okay, I’ll show my ignorance “Celebrates Incest?” Tolerates, sure, even ignores, but celebratory? I must have missed that passage.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:00 am
You must have also missed the passage in the “Book of Chris” that loudly proclaims that I am often full of shit and hide that fact by using gross exaggerations and hyperbole…
But, in this particular case I think there is some amount of truth to my accusations.
If we swallow the “factual Bible” line, then it follows that the entire population of the Earth was started by one man and one woman. That really could be the end of my argument. The plaintiff rests Your Honor…
But, again the population is wiped out in the Noah tale and we have to repopulate the Earth from three brothers and their wives…
And if the numerous accounts in Genesis of people sleeping with their first cousins, half sisters, aunts and nieces doesn’t count, (we are in the south you know. Those kinds of things are still okay around here…) then we’ll skip directly to Lot and his two daughters.
After mommy was turned to salt, they moved to a cave where the girls got daddy drunk and “took his seed”. (I’ve never been THAT drunk!) And they pulled it off TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW!!! Did god punish these girls for raping their father? No. For their efforts, God blessed each of them with sons.
It really is the Jerry Springer-trailer park story of the Bible…
So really, their god celebrates alcoholism too. Lot getting so drunk that he “sleeps” while a young girl bounces him into an orgasm? Then repeats the same action the next night? Try telling the judge at the paternity hearing that you were too drunk to know what was going on…
And the wedding a Cana? Really, we’re in a desert here, water is fine thanks.
“Drink my blood (psst, it’s only wine)” If you get away from the obvious zombie-Jesus thoughts (eat my flesh, drink my blood, rises from the dead) then why didn’t he just offer his blood as a glass of water? There’s so much that could have been tied in with that. Purifying water? Waters of life? An internal Baptism? Nope. Water isn’t good enough for the alcoholic god.
Okay, enough, enough, ENOUGH!! I have to stop here or I’ll go on and on and on… I also refute your claim of “ignorance”, I think you were just setting me up for another rant purge!
August 6th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
No – there was no argument as to whether or not Incest occurs in the Bible – that’s a given. My question was where is that incest CELEBRATED. it’s tolerated, downplayed, but not celebrated as far as I know.