It is a great book. We have to start looking at the problem of Faith and Reason from the perspective of insights we have gained from genetics, the study of brain, as well as from our understanding of what we call the “spirit,” and not from empathy. After all human beings have been physical, mental, rational, social and emotional beings from time immemorial and not when Aristotle and Plato said so around 300 B.C. The question is, why are we losing the sense of empathy and the feeling of intimacy in the twenty-first century?
The human intelligence—rational, emotional and spiritual is embedded in this thing called “spirit”, life , breath, pneuma, ruach, prana, jiva, chi, and so on, and not in our educational systems, business practices and political cultures. The DNA content of all humans living on this planet is 96.6 percent the same. Among the 25,000 genes in the human gene pool, the Creator does not seem to have inserted a single gene that predisposes human beings to acquire and master skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Reading and writing were invented about 5,400 years ago. Alaphabets were invented about 3,800 years ago. It is only in 1450 A.D that the first printing press was invented.
Reading, writing and arithemetic are skills that are taught but not caught. Otherwise why would an infant take the first two years of his life to be able to speak the language of his parents while the same child takes ten years to acquire skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic in a structured environment of repetetive practice? Why would a young lady take another twelve years after graduating from high school to specialize in an area of study like physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, history, theology, sociology, and so on? Even with schooling, one among ten children, not counting children with dyslexia, will not acquire skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Ever since Descartes (1596-1650), we have been turning our brains into thinking machines giving more importance to a certain method of thinking while giving less importance to spirituality and community. Spirituality is a feeling while beliefs and religion come under cognitive thinking and cultural constructs. While wanting to become smarter than what the nature has designed us to be, we are becoming thinking machines and problem solving machines at the cost of losing our sense of sympathy, empathy, and the feeling of intimacy. We have taken Descartes and Leibnize’s mathematical formulas and taught our scientists, technocrats, the bankers and Wall Street merchants to become our “progressive gurus” to lead us into the new promised land. Who can take us back into the land of sympathy, empathy and intimacy at a time when human intelligence seems to be merging with the intelligence of lifeless machines, at least according to sa-called the “singularitarians?”
Charles Mark

Thank you! Enjoy!

Anna Lekas Miller
GRITtv Web Intern

” The criticism from members of the Tea Party is surprising to Paul’s campaign not only because Paul has long been a firebrand willing to buck party lines, but also because the Texas congressman is widely credited with helping to begin the Tea Party movement back in 2007, when Paul raised a surprising $4.3 million at a fundraiser event that occurred by design on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

…Still, it will be difficult for challengers to convince voters that Paul, who receives most of his campaign contributions from individuals — 97 percent of his contributions in the 2006 election cycle came from individual donors, not PACs — is not the grassroots candidate they’re looking for.

As Fox reports, Paul’s campaign isn’t convinced it faces a significant threat in the March 2 primary:

Paul Campaign manager MarkElam said internal polling shows Paul safely above the fray in next month’s primary and that he is “happy to take on all comers.” And he said Paul spends plenty of time in his district.

The Texas congressman is something of a political force. He’s become somewhat of a brand name among devout libertarians, and his 2008 presidential campaign supporters were among the most enthusiastic in the country. As of the end of last year, he had a 124-to-1 fundraising advantage over the most well-heeled of his challengers. Fundraising reports showed he had $1.9 million on hand, compared with the $15,508 Graney had amassed. The two other candidates, Wall and John Gay, had less than that.

“So far none of the candidates have shown a lot of traction,” Elam said.

http://digg.com/d31KC9J

This reminds me of a parable from the good book where a Levite and Priest come upon a man who fell among thieves and they both individually passed by and didn’t stop to help him. Finally a man of another race came by, he got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy and got down with the injured man, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his brother.

You see, the Levite and the Priest were afraid, they asked themselves, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”

But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

That’s the question before us. The question is not, “If I stop to help my brother in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help my brother, what will happen to him or her?” That’s the question.

God bless all my brothers and sister that stood side by side with our brothers and sisters in need, when you saw a wrong you tried to correct it, you may argue the methods but not the reasons. I know God will not discriminate by country of origin, our sex, our orientation, color of our skin, or our religion as men do.

Oh, where exactly was a speech going on? Thats right, no where, but keep plucking that chicken.

Or as Carri said “It’s a plot by the fundamentalist rightwing party of tyranny called Republicans. They foment hate, they sneer, they make excuses for their behavior and blame everyone else. They advocate the supremacy of their America – a lily-white America. They are scared and frightened becuase (gasp) a black man has been elected to the White House. They are losing conrol and like cornered animals, they are lashing out. This is the national leadership from whom these studants take their cues.”

Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a ton of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term. In fact, the Associated Press’ annual Trend Report chose the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009. Here’s a page with a good overview of recent media interest in GenJones: http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html

It is important to distinguish between the post-WWII demographic boom in births vs. the cultural generations born during that era. Generations are a function of the common formative experiences of its members, not the fertility rates of its parents. And most analysts now see generations as getting shorter (usually 10-15 years now), partly because of the acceleration of culture. Many experts now believe it breaks down more or less this way:

DEMOGRAPHIC boom in babies: 1946-1964
Baby Boom GENERATION: 1942-1953
Generation Jones: 1954-1965
Generation X: 1966-1978
Generation Y: 1979-1993