Brave New World

I always thought blogging was a little pretentious, sort of shouts out: “my thoughts are so interesting READ ABOUT ‘EM.”  But then looking at facebook and twitter, it seems as if people are so dependent on social interaction that they’ll respond to the increasingly dramatic one word facebook statuses like “tired, sad, hello.”  I’m not gearing up to do another facebook rant, if you want to read one you can check my old xanga, from a couple years back, which I still feel applies.

Anyway, if people think not even daily but constant updates on their lives are necessary, and others are actually reading ’em, than maybe me posting once a week more or less won’t be too much.  If you do have a twitter account or you’ve posted a one word status and I’ve offended you I’m not sorry and I don’t apologize; and you know what?  I am a little pretentious and arrogant, but I think I’m good at hiding it ;), so deal with it.

Right now I want to talk about a hypothetical I thought of a couple of weeks ago, which I’ve been playing around with:

For the sake of argument and the hypothetical let’s assume that everyone believes that premarital sex is a sin or immoral, I don’t care what you believe that’s between you and your god, but just bear with me.  Well, Jack and Jill, two unrelated individuals, are stranded on an island with no hope of rescue.  They have everything that they need to survive on the island and it looks as if they will be there for the rest of their lives.  Luckily, for their sanity, the two fall deeply in love and develop a deep and strong relationship.  At what point would it be OK for them to start having sex? Technically speaking what determines if they are married or not?  If you think that they can never officially be married and therefore can never have sex without it being immoral or sinful than you need to worry about something other than this hypothetical because you’ve probably got a whole different set of issues.

Who determines their marital status?  Can it just be an agreement between two individuals?  Therefore religiously speaking, are all the ceremonies and intermediaries even necessary?  I’m not saying that everyone go have premarital sex and forget about the consequences, what I’m asking is if marriage is even a religious issue.  I guess this technically isn’t a hypothetical because for me there is a clear answer.  Marriage is defined by society, on that island society consisted of Jack and Jill, so therefore the definition of marriage could not involve more than two people or else it would be impossible.  So applied to our society, what is really necessary?

If you’re talking about marriage as a legal issue, then I feel all religious sentiments need to be thrown out the window.  Do you think God actually cares about a piece of paper or what a court thinks?  When you throw in marriages for convenience, arranged marriages, etc, who’s to say which one God would approve of.  A lot of people who are against gay marriage, I guess you could tell that’s where I was headed the whole time, bring up the sanctity of marriage as an argument.  Since when was sanctity or morality handed out by the government?  If you believe that religion has to play a role in marriage as a legal issue, than you are basically making a pope out of the government.

Whether homosexuality is a sin or not, marriage is a social construct.  I’m not married so I can’t say for sure how I will feel, but I’m confident that those who are in a healthy and meaningful marriage draw the “sacredness” of their marriage from things and places other than what the government tells them.  Also, I know I assume a lot, and I don’t know as much as I think, but I do know that it is better for the Church that it is separate from the State.  I love the US and I believe in the possibilities of the system, but I also believe that the government has done way too many things that Christians would not want to be associated with.

All in all, I’m not against marriage, I do believe there is a sanctity within each marriage, but that it is drawn not from the sake of their marriage but the relationship between two people brought before their god, with their own faith.  And, believe it or not, I’m not against the Church but for those who keep pushing for the US to be a Christian nation, or to bring prayer back into schools, etc etc; I don’t think you know what you’re asking for.

Fshoo, I didn’t plan on the first one being so heavy, the next ones should be lighter.

I guess I’ll let you guys in on a little secret to lighten up the mood.  I’ll tell you guys the recipe for me and Eddie’s special hotdog, we don’t have a name for it yet it’s still being debated upon.

Ingredients:

1 baguette, don’t spend more than $2 at Publix/Kroger, if you are you’re spending too much.

1 Summer Sausage, the ones that come in the plastic wrap and it’s shaped like a horseshoe, i guess you could try the other varieties b/ the generic one works fine.

1 Microwave

Directions:  Cut the baguette down the middle longways, but don’t cut all the way through, it’s a hotdog, not a sandwich.  Cut the sausage longways too, like the baguette, and put it into the bread.  Microwave for I’d say 1:30.  Cheese optional but greatly appreciated.  It shouldn’t cost you more than $5.  Don’t use any sauce, i.e. ketchup, etc.  That’s what all the juices from the sausage are for.

And that’s how we pass the time when we’re bored.