June 26, 2014
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Atlas Shrugged
A LINK for later
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I think for myself. I always have. Well, at least since the age of 7, when I remember clearly how strongly I objected to being told by a close relative that I believed in the same religious crap that he did.
I doubted then, and still do, in the existence of a Supreme Being who "created" the universe in which we live. I'm perfectly willing to coexist with people who have faith in this or that. To me, "God" means "good" and somewhere along the way the letter O got dropped from the inside. And "good" is another way of expressing the power of love, and I even once sincerely answered yes to the minister's question, "Do you consider yourself religious?" Because being "religious," to me, is believing in the power of love.
The minister in this case was the settled minister at the Unitarian Universalist congregation to which I've belonged for the past 23 years. A healthy percentage of us UUs share thoughts similar to mine. But we all of us think for ourselves. That's what defines us.
So anyway, it's not particularly hard to understand why one of the things I love about Ayn Rand is her rabid atheism. I'm NOT an atheist, per se, because as I suggested near the beginning, all I have are doubts. I'm not QUITE a pure agnostic, because I'm not persuaded that God, if he or she exists, can never be known. That's how I think agnosticism is defined: a lack of belief in God because God is unknowable. But I'm close. I just say, God is PROBABLY unknowable. If he or she exists.
I'm even less a believer in Christianity, however you want to define that branch of human thought or belief.
Now let's move from religion to politics. I fell in love with Ayn Rand's books when I was 19 years old, and my first presidential vote was for Barry Goldwater. After that I voted for Richard Nixon twice, followed by votes for Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan (twice), Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton (twice), Ralph Nader, and Barack Obama (twice). Most of my fellow UUs are confirmed Democrats, and I'm a member of that party only because I joined in 2008 to help get Obama nominated. (We have closed primaries in Florida.)
But I still love Ayn Rand, even though she was a scummy human being and her philosophy and politics were borderline demented. Not that I'm happy being "Atlas Shrugged" bedfellows with the likes of Ron Paul, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck. I'll see Part 3 of "Atlas Shrugged: the movie" because I loved loved loved that book. As for John Aglioloro, while I'm grateful he went to the trouble to purchase the rights and get the movie to the big screen, I deplore his lack of professionalism when it came to producing the movie. Part 1 was pretty good. It got horrible reviews because of political differences between Objectivism and the liberal press. Part 2 stunk. Part 3 will probably stink, but I still feel a need to bear witness.
I may be inclined to vote Republican someday, but I don't know when or if. Currently, that party and all of its members are nobody I want to be associated with.
The article I linked at the top is of moderate interest, so I'm sharing.
Comments (6)
Great post. A lot of thoughts go through any and every "thinking" mind. Trying to fathom the physicality of God, can be daunting. I just believe in the Light, the Power, and Omnipotence.
I used to be a Republican.... until GWB invaded Iraq on the basis of his lies and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people of Iraq. Like you, I cannot find or see any worthy republican who would get my vote at the next election.
Am I a Christian, Maybe....Am I religious, no...
God is very real to me...He created all, knows all....I believe that He gave His only Begotten Son, to die on the cross, for the sins of the world.....
I believe that Jesus rose from the Tomb to live forevermore....I believe that, through His Son, I am saved, by His grace....I walk in Faith Of Jesus Christ my Lord....
I'm not even going to go into the political stuff....Except to say to Zsa....How quickly you forget! 9/11....They came over to our country high-jacked 3 planes, the first 3 hit their targets, the last one, the passenger's knowing they were going to die, regardless, took the upper hand, preventing that plane from hitting the White House....
You condemn Bush, for sending our Soldiers to combat, to fight the terrorist on their own grounds, what a shame......
I'm sorry, it wasn't 3 planes, there were 4... The 2 towers, the Pentagon, and the White House.....
Thanks for the clarification and refinement of some of your credo. I admit I did wonder how Ayn Rand fit into the picture. It's perhaps cheaply reassuring that we share almost 100% our thoughts on the putative architect of the universe. Although it can be disarming to realize that we are a chance occurrence a 'gift' of physics, no more, barring any real proof of a Grand designer I'll try to live with the facts.
(By the way your link to the 'Faking Cultural Literacy' article was for me an important heads-up. Mea mucho culpa, and I'm Googling a workaround as we speak ha.)
I believe to <God who sings and makes life change . jesus is a human figure of God.
In friendship
Michel
Hello!
I am trying to reconnect with xanga people but painstaking clicking on screen names from comments to get from one person's site to the next, with unfortunately little success. I generally have been looking for other poets, but you're comments here have grabbed my eyes. Religion is such a fascinating subject, although it is so tragic that it has been misused for so much destruction. I, myself, am devoutly Wiccan, but one of the things I like about Wicca is that you can be Wiccan and believe in one deity, two deities, many deities, or like myself, no deity at all. Or at least not a literal one. I think that humans have a tendency to personify things to make them easier to comprehend, so while I believe in the Powers That Be, I dont think they are a sentient being. More like the force of gravity, I think they just pull you along in the direction you are supposed to go. I have never read Atlas Shrugged, but I think I will need to look into that. I too am very liberal (although only old enough to have voted for Obama twice, or thrice if you count the primaries.) But my interest in politics was awakened when America invaded Iraq, twisting the 9/11 tragedy into an excuse to attack innocent people that had nothing to do with it. There was not even one Iraqi among the 19 hijackers! I marched in several of the anit-war protests. Anyway, reading this brought all of that to mind and I thought I'd say hi to a like minded individual. Please feel free to stop by my page. I will warn you that my poetry gets a bit dark, but lately its been much more positive.
~J
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