Fighting the evil
Offline From an Oklahoma newspaper article in regards to "Stonewall Jackson"
His military career spanned barely two years but it was so spectacular Jackson is almost as famous today as he was in 1863 when he died in battle. When people list the great Generals of the Civil War Jackson is always high on the list. In his time, he was ‘the’ hero of the south and an absolute scourge and terror in the north, everyone knew his name and his skill in war. Yet beneath the fame Jackson was an extremely complex, odd, humble, and God fearing man. He was as immune to praise as he was to fear in battle. His sense of peace and bliss was the product of his fervent sense of God. An orphan and alone most of his life he had turned to God to give him purpose. On a battlefield no one could be colder; he told a minister once that his job “was to send men’s souls to hell.” Yet he spent large parts of each battle praying. Above all his attributes and quirks there was always God and his cause, to protect the south from the evils of northern interference. He lived this cause and died in the service of his country.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
- Login to post comments
Did you post this to highlight the contradiction in Stonewall's nature - god fearing yet a total lemon-sucking, man-hating psycho? In fact, now I put it like that, he sounds like a normal fundy.
BTW, Americanos, is there still a 'thing' between North and South, or has all that Civil War stuff gone under the bridge? Do you guys still think about it?
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
That's nice to know we have religion to help humanity cope with the horrors of war. No need to investigate or eliminate the root causes of war. We've got opiate to help us go into battle and an opiate for the grieving families. All the death and misery is Gawd's will, so why change?
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
God helping him fight the evils of the north and dying in the service of his country...
This is an actual desription of him in the Altus times, not some book or random blogger propping him up.
I wanna know what were these "evils" of the north.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
There are still a lot of rednecks who wear Confederate flags, or stick them on their trucks. So I guess I'd have to say it is still going on. But there are aren't any North vs South gang wars or anything. Confederate flags might instigate some race related violence now and again, but it is isolated.
But there are still gang wars. Gangs are not exclusive to street gangs. Gangs are our evolutionary survival mechanism as a species. If we group together we and cooperate against a threat we perceive a better chance at survival, even if it is false in reality.
Gangs are nothing but labels and we all have labels. Maybe if humanity would recognize it's common goal of reaching old age we'd be better off.
Labels will exist, borders will exist, there is no way around that. But what we should do as a species, is not get rid of "gangs" but see our common human condition as being our priority, not our labels.
We wont always like each other or say nice things about each other, but we all want to reach old age.
It is not that differences exist, they always will. It is that we far to often as a species make our labels and our differences the priority when our common human condition should be our priority.
WHAT DO ALL HUMANS HAVE IN COMMON?
We all want food.
We all want shelter.
We all want to feel safe.
We all want to bitch without fear.
We all want love.
Labels will exist and always will but we cant get beyond them collectively as a species until we accept that we are the same species capable of the same range of human emotions and actions.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
From the way you speak, it is probably even less likely you will understand why we find those beliefs pretty much baseless.
You may not realize that many here have "been there, done that", and broken free of the mind-trap that you have got stuck in. It usually is a process of serious search for truth, initially to find answers in scripture to quell the doubts that have arisen internally or as a result of points made by non-believers.
We are 'cultivating'' a more open , free approach to truth, and we have done more than sow the seed of enlightenment in several individuals, who have thanked us for removing the scales from their eyes.
I can guess how you will regard what I have said so far, but I am mildly curious just what is it that convinces you that your beliefs are actually true?
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Bob, where did James Myers make the post you just quoted? I can't find it.
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/20482#comment-302150
=
I clicked on the link and it just brings me back to this same thread which has no posts from James Myers in it. Am I doing something wrong?
I don't understand why the Christians I meet find it so confusing that I care about the fact that they are wasting huge amounts of time and resources playing with their imaginary friend. Even non-confrontational religion hurts atheists because we live in a society which is constantly wasting resources and rejecting rational thinking.
It shows up for me as post #5 in this thread, but it shows as " (not verified) ".
You can't see it??
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Nope, for me, post #5 is a post by Brian37 which talks about gangs and priorities of the human race.
I don't understand why the Christians I meet find it so confusing that I care about the fact that they are wasting huge amounts of time and resources playing with their imaginary friend. Even non-confrontational religion hurts atheists because we live in a society which is constantly wasting resources and rejecting rational thinking.
Hmm, must be a quirk of being a mod with "non verified" posters. I don't usually respond to them. If I try to actually 'quote' them in reply, I am informed the post "does not exist"....
In this case I just copied the text of the post then wrapped it in quotes.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
To be fair to the guy this was the 1800's. Everyone was a religious quack including all of the generals. He and lee were military geniuses though.
" Above all his attributes and quirks there was always God and his cause, to protect the south from the evils of northern interference. He lived this cause and died in the service of his country."
died in service to his country, love that line
I Am My God
The absence of evidence IS evidence of absence
It still bubbles under the surface. Reconstruction never really was able to fully do the job (leading to Northerners never being truly satisfied, and ashamed of the KKK and Jim Crow that rose out of it AKA **** YOU PRESIDENT JOHNSON), and the South still holds obvious grudges, and won't admit defeat, and calls the war to this day an act of Northern aggression. Any time you see the Confederate flag, hear revisionist history about those honorable 'rebels,' it's hard not to become outraged, but sometimes Southerners just do it to be provocative, or to be a contrarian. They really have no right to be proud of that legacy, but it happens nonetheless.
Even today, with someone like me, an almost complete pacifist, and so disconnected from the Civil War and Northerners (my ancestral family was actually from the South, and my ancestor Bill Wilson actually lived on the border, and fought the Union with guerrilla tactics after his house was burned down)... when I hear someone even vaguely talk about secession in the modern day, I urge them to think about it, because if they did secede I would be all for openly engaging them in war. Unless all their politicians gave up their posts to the Union, all the military bases were surrendered and evacuated, etc., it would NOT be a peaceful secession. So Rick Perry, Palin, et al should really not casually throw around secession talk in my humble opinion.
But if you ask most Americans, I'm sure they'll say it's all completely water under the bridge. This is usually due to the ignorance of historical events (seriously go around and ask what CENTURY the Civil War took place in, let alone the decade), and not knowing the true scope of what the war did to our country.
Interesting link about which US presidents owned slaves. http://www.nas.com/~lopresti/ps.htm
As I said, this was a recent news article and the authors own words included "the evil north". Apparently there is still some hate going on. Living in Texas I don't see the confederate flag around much, it is not politically correct to have the actual flag in plain sight even here. I do laugh when I see these silly stickers on the rear window of a pickup with the flag and ReDnEcK scrawled in wacky lettering in the middle of it, as if it is cool to be a backwater country bumpkin racist moron. Well that pretty much sums up the redneck stereotype imo. People here make fun of people in Oklahoma and Arkansas though...huh.
One of the few things in life I truly hate is country music, they can talk about beer and god in the same sentence. What kind of christians are these?
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin