A very very short and modest touch on an immense topic:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and one of the most radically debated topics in the history of our country. The right of U.S. citizens to express themselves freely has been controversial danger to our society, while simultaneously the stifling of expression has often reflected the divisive and harmful behavior human beings can display in defense their personal beliefs. To say that a single brush can be used to paint every decision regarding the freedom of expression would be an egregious error of human judgment at the very least. This innate nature of expression has and will continue to stir controversy at the highest judicial level. Indeed the First Amendment has seemed to have affected nearly every fringe of societal development in the United States.

Just a small portion of an essay I'm working on. Thought I'd share it.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and one of the most radically debated topics in the history of our country. The right of U.S. citizens to express themselves freely has been controversial danger to our society, while simultaneously the stifling of expression has often reflected the divisive and harmful nature of human beings when it comes to personal beliefs. To say that a single brush can be used to paint every decision regarding freedom of expression would be an egregious error of human judgment; at the very least. This innate nature of expression has and will continue to stir controversy at the highest judicial level. Indeed the First Amendment has seemed to have affected nearly every fringe of societal development in the United States.

This is a continued conversation with an ex-girlfriend who asked me if I could believe in love, without the belief in a God.

She said:

Now for the deep stuff: I can't really argue w/ you because at this point I have no idea what I believe. I know that I can care about people a lot, but I'm not sure if I'm capable of real love. Sometimes I care more about strangers than I do my close friends. I understand what you are saying though, especially the part about providing your reasons for loving yourself instead of getting them delivered to you. I don't know. Love just seems like such a vague concept that I don't understand at all. I guess I love my family. I mean I like spending time w/ them and I genuinely care about their happiness as much as if not more than my own; is that love? But love for a boyfriend? I'm not so sure. I think it's all hormones.

The following is a very limited list of the proposed ammendmentst that never left the walls of Congress:

1876- An attempt to abolish the United States Senate
1876- The forbidding of religious leaders from occupying a governmental office or receiving federal funding (I would like everyone to notice the year, and to take a minute to deal with your disapointment)
1878- An Exevutive Council of Three to replace the office of President.
1893- Renaming this nation "The United States of the Earth"
1893- Abolishing the United States Army and Navy
1894- Acknowledging that the Constitution recognize God and Jesus Christ as the supreme authorities of human affairs (whew!)

This is a message I wrote to an ex-girlfriend when she asked me if I believed in love, because I didn't believe in God.

I remembered you wrote me a message asking if I believed in love and I never wrote you back. This is a subject that I have taken alot of my time tossing over. To answer your question, yes of course I believe in love. I have an immeasurable amount of love for my family and my close friends (The number of those has dwindled over the years). To me, love is the emotion that emerges when you care about someone's well being as much or more than your own. This emotion can easily be triggered without a belief in a God or Gods. One of the most basic of human instincts is the protective attitude mothers have toward their children. And likewise for emotions felt for the mother by the child. The saying "motherly instincts" did not come about by accident. Mothers have an innate disposition to feed, clothe and shelter their children. This is love in its purest form. Of course there are many different forms of love and the arising complications from this emotion are almost unlistable. (e.g. falling in love, falling out of love, platonic love, love of hobbies, love of possessions ect.)

Right now my suite-mates are in the next room contently basking in the fact that the creator of the universe is on their side and, furthermore, loves them. There is a good possibility that the time they spend amongst their peers reaffirming eachother's positions and discussing the enlightening parts of the Bible has kept them from adequately questioning their own existence. These are the products of traditional Southern Baptist homes. Since the beginning of their existence they have been indoctrinated into this belief system and, likely, have never been provided an alternative viewpoint. This is the core problem with the growth of religion amongst civilized people. They have simply never questioned their belief system and, frankly, why should they? There has been no instance in their life that has provided them with an alternative explanation for anything. Why are we here? To serve God. Why be good people? Because God wants us to be. Who could really argue with conveniant worldview if they had never been rationally (hehe) provided an alternative viewpoint without someone (parent, pastor, friend) whispering dogmatic rationalizations in their ear?

Over this past summer I completed my first full-time paid internship with a local bi-weekly newspaper. I will say that the grip that religious superstition has on this community is frighteningly tight. Save the "sermons" I overheard while eavesdropping in local vacation Bible schools, in fact save the religious utterances I heard firsthand from preachers I interviewed. The scariest part was the political influence at the highest levels of this municipality. This obligation felt by local leaders that they must espouse a impression of unchallengable patriotism bound by religious convictions and a "common" faith in God came at the price of the taxpayer's pocketbooks, and nothing else.

So this is the first time i've blogged on here. First of all, I'd like to introduce myself. My name's Sam and I live in north Mississippi. I first came out as an athiest in the seventh grade as a result of influence from my family and the contradictory behavior I observed from my Christian classmates. I have never recieved more ridicule in my childhood than I did in the proceeding weeks after I first shared my non-belief with some teammates after football practice. It is noteworthy to establish that I didn't grow up in MS, but central Oklahoma, an area that seems like the secular center of the world in contrast with where I currently live.