Good without God: Are Christians, well, UnChristian?
The authors focused on the perceptions of Christianity by young “outsiders”—atheists, agnostics, and adherents to faiths outside Christianity—but they also report what young Christians have to say.
The book has been a sensation covered in the media as well as the pulpit and in discussion groups around America. (View one of the authors on national TV here.)
Here’s what the young outsiders say: Christianity is judgmental, hypocritical, anti-homosexual, and too involved in politics.
Many young Christians have troubled feelings themselves. Eighty percent of young churchgoers agree that Christianity is anti-gay. About half say it is judgmental, too political, hypocritical, and confusing, according to summary of research findings.
One of three young Christians believe their faith is old-fashioned and almost as many say it is out of touch with reality, boring, and insensitive to others.
If you are in the 16-to-29 demographic, do you agree? What are your thoughts about Christianity?
If you, like me, saw 29 long ago, what are your thoughts about these findings of young Americans and what they believe?
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Yes, broadband speed is important, yes network connectivity is crucial, No, the network gap doesn't matter.
The US cannot compete; we've won the shooting wars and lost the peace. Other nations have a nationalized telecommunications system. Oh... they charge for television by the way, BUT there are no commercials.
Our telecomm system has been created by greed. Want to see the KING of Greed? Look at GM; Ed Whitacre retired as chairman of SBC. What is SBC? Oh, they bought Ameritech and abuoth a dozen or so more telecomm companies, they bought AT&T for the name. Then Ed took his bazillions and ran.
When ATT/SBC did cell phone improvements, they did them in POLAND.
Other nations around the globe are installing 4G; yep, that's right, ATT & Verizon make a big deal about their 3G... Hey Guys! get caught up with reality.
Why are we falling behind? Other nations recognize that TV and Radio and Internet and your local library and their eGovernment will all come to your home or place of work a lot better if it is FASTER.
Other nations are installing ubiquitous broadband. Broadband, FREE, for everyone, NOT JUST THE CITIES. Look at the US involvement in broadband for rural areas: oh, you have to look at USDA, the same people that set rules for pigs, cows, sheep, corn, wheat, fruit... Yep, unh huh, I shure doo believe them folks when they talk about technology.
Why does this happen? In our FREE Market ECONOMY? In our CAPITALISM?
Well, you see, once upon a time our nation's founders said "monarchy is bad. We don't want dukes and earls and ladies and lords" and then they created the Congress. And in this country where Capitalism is KING, and the consumer is supposed to set the market, our dukes and lords show up in the Senate and House as well to do people who somehow arrive wealthy but leave WEALTHY.
If you don't believe me, grab a handful of the legislation that is pending in the senate, read it. Why is it most of it contains the words "to ensure commerce".
And I thought our Congress was for the people.
Nope, we've lost the peace. We need Osama to come in and destroy our telecomm, then Japan and Germany can pay their bills by rewiring the USA.
Oh, I could go on: you see, I study and teach and preach what is known as ICT Policy.
You're touching on a topic very close to my life.
We have many readers throughout ReadTheSpirit online magazine who access our sites with high-speed Internet connections and sail through all the topics they care to read. But we also hear from many who find it difficult to navigate the Web—and some who aren't on the Web at all on a regular basis.
My own parents who are in their 80s are brilliant people who are widely read and highly educated, but due to eyesight, mobility and the challenges of ever-changing Internet protocols, they often find themselves "knocked offline" for weeks at a time. Often, it's some software that's hung up somehow and they need assistance to get back online.
This is especially troubling because the middle-aged adults in our family have set up cool things like special family Internet connections and they miss out on this. They also don't have any easy access to the many government-provided reference Web sites in the periods when they're off line.
I am against cell phone use of any kind while driving. The technology already exists in most phones to stop it: the GPS in the phone can determine your movement. Also, the accelerometers, which are now small chips, are present to determine the orientation of the phone as well (they are what make the Wii work). Simply combine the GPS and the acclmtrs, and you can stop cell phone use while moving at speed. (Now that would be really nice, it would eliminate cell phones on bus and trains as well). Short of that, the cell phone companies can track your gps signal and know when you are moving, turn off all use but 911.
"I'm sorry, but your party is in a moving vehicle. Please leave a message or call back later"
A recent NY Times op ed stated the simple truth, that using your phone while driving is simply too convenient to give up. Which is why it is so prevalent. So how do we fix the problem that it is also dangerous?
"...the way to stop people from using cellphones while driving is not to make it a crime. Too many drivers value convenience more than safety and would assume they wouldn’t get caught. A more effective approach is to get telecommunications companies to tweak technology to make it difficult or impossible to text and drive."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/opinion/05silberschatz.html
I could not agree more. I wish I could tell you differently, but I know that I will continue to use my phone in the car until it is not possible to do so.
I have never unfriended anyone but I certainly am not opposed to the idea and wouldn't be offended if someone did so to me. I view Facebook as simply another method of human interaction similar to phone calls, texting, or actual face-to-face conversations. And so to me being "defriended" by someone would be no different than me deleting an old acquaintance's cell phone number who I haven't spoken to in years.
Your questions are:
Have you been unfriended?
How did it feel?
Did it damage the relationship—or were you relieved?
Have you unfriended anyone?
Were there hurt feelings?
This is exactly what I am talking about. So what if someone drops you from their Facebook account? It should really be de-Faced, shouldn't it?
Apparently the current generation of pre-teens, teens, and "young adults" are emotionally damaged.
Have you ever unfriended someone because he punched you in the face? Yep, did that, got punched in the face and he was no longer my friend. Apparently he was insecure about me talking to his girlfriend. Now THAT HURT. Dropping me from your cell phone? PEH!
But the corollary to that story is this: never once did I consider retaliating with a knife or a gun. Besides, I gained more girlfriends by just taking the punch.
Life must be pretty fragile in that generation that they get hurt by someone De-facing them (your "unfriending"). Yes, I am on a few social networks. I am cautious though, and only communicate with those of my choosing. Requests from people to be added to my "network" are pretty much ignored or dropped; we don't need to be instantly connected to someone to communicate with them.
Am I hurt if someone unfriends me? Why did they friend me in the first place? More often than not it will be students following my blog, and they'll drop me like a hot potato as soon as semester ends. Thank Goodness.
I'd have to say about 98% of my friends are not connected. Maybe they've unfriended me in their own way, who knows? I know I'll often get that call from someone I haven't seen in 25 years, or heard from for 10, but you know what? They still consider me friend and they'll find a way to contact me... maybe even by snail mail.
Remember that saying "hold your friends close and your enemies closer"? Maybe unfriending is the kindest act of all: someone once considered me dangerous to them so they held me close. Now I am a true friend and they are unfriending me; I can be given the freedom our friends should have, to come back into our lives, when they choose.
This may be the canard of the day; unfriend someone to make them your friend.
Unfriending is the only chance that a social network won't collapse under association bloat. (I'm sure there's a trendier name.) A social network is an awful lot like a very small town and in small towns everyone knows everyone else's business. Unfriending is one way to help keep some parts of one's life relatively private. And if I learned I'd been unfriended for a hamburger, I'd laugh unroariously... then try to get my own burger!
When I first joined facebook in high school, it was a competition to see who had the most friends. As we all grew up with this new online social networking technology, the rules and parameters have changed. Today, there are more social norms around who to friend, how to do it, and when it's appropriate.
I think unfriending can be completely appropriate. That girl who you sat next to the first day of psych class, before she dropped it the next week. Unfriend her! The man you met on vacation 5 years ago, who you haven't spoken to since. Unfriend him! Why bog down your social network with lots of weak ties? It is easier to navigate, and now more socially acceptable, to keep things smaller and tighter. Nothing personal...
I USE these technologies but I'm sure not ruled by them! I use my computer to purchase and to sell on eBay. I'm on facebook. I use a landline with an answering machine and my cell phone is in my car and only I turn it on to call in an emergency. I do not Twitter, belong to chat groups or ever use my cell phone in public. How do I see the attention age? As disruptive and time wasting. Every driver I have ever seen on a cellphone is a distracted driver who goes slower then average, makes too wide turns (with one hand) and we know absolutely this contributes to auto accidents overall. Yes, some few people may need to talk while driving such as police or sales or medical personnel. The rest ABSOLUTELY Do Not need to be on the phone!!!.
In the supermarket; yack, yack, yack, totally oblivious to others around them, blocking aisles, moving at half the speed they should and generally slow things down. I also do not want to hear you discuss the five brands of dish soap with your whomever. Do you realize how ignorant you sound? You can't pick a dish soap without consultation?
I was in the beautiful petrified forest in Arizona with these giant trees millions of years old in gorgeous colors. A truly spiritual place. Except for Boozo from California standing on top of one of the trees shouting into his cell phone to the boys back at work at the top of his lungs, as if that made it easier to hear him. I almost was going to be really rude to him and tell him to leave and do that at his car in the parking lot, for Christ sake!! Or the woman in Hawaii at the national cemetery in the Punchbowl, where so many of our heroic dead are resting, loudly yaking with a family member in complete disregard for where she was or how inappropriate her behavior was. Stupid rude!
No. This is NOT the Attention Age but the Inattention Age. People pay no attention to where they are, what they are doing at the time or who is around them. They sit at computers doing Facebook or Twitter on cell phones and have no real interaction with anyone. Social interaction is gone for them and they are isolated with only an illusion of being "with" others. These were TOOLS to improve life, not take it over! We have lost our way in the "new" believing wrongly that it is better. It is not allway true that new is improved!!
I love High Tech www. And all the Knowledge at our fingertips.
I accept the Noah/Atlantis Flood was a Yearlong Flood, that damaged our Planet, broke the land into Continents, Tipped the axis, etc.
Around North America are many Ice Caves. I accept the Ice Canopy, set up at Colonization in Genesis, fell by Central America, where Science says a Meteor from Space fell.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/naked-science/3569/cave-crystal-giants-2
All the Ice from our Ice Crystal Atmosphere Canopy, above the firmament in Genesis, was deposited, as the Tidal Waves deposited the debris, bones, etc., in layers on the New Topsoil.
Genesis 7:11. KJV. In the six hundredth year of Noah's Life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."
2 months 17 days since the Planetary Flood began. This changed the Original land area that was joined Planetwide, before the Flood
Genesis 8:14 Noah was in the Ark 1 year, 1 month, and 17 days, and then left the Ark, some proposed a boat as large as the Titanic Ocean Liner.
Which makes sense when the Noah/Atlantis High Tech Science Society is accepted as a Planetary Society like we have today.
In my research, it stated at the beginning of the USA, as Humans moved West, they used ice caves to keep their food fresh. Most of these have melted now.
I could not find information about Ice Caves in other locations like there are in Central and North America. Most of the Ice was deposited At our Poles, as the waters receded.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=Ice+Crystal+Caves&FORM=SOLTDF&pc=SOLTDF&src=IE-SearchBox
I am knee-deep in this technology. It is one of the core elements of our products, it is part of what my dissertation research is being performed on.
A good book: "Digital Nation". Talks about the generation born around 1990-1991, they are digital natives. Others are digital immigrants (born before that era but not really a digital person) and the third is digital settler - I'm one of them - folks that built this stuff (I predate the Internet, I was on ArpaNet doing research in 1974.)
It is kind of sad, really. I don't mind having the Dick Tracy wrist radio and television handy when I want it, but I also know about the off button.
Are there more digital natives craving this type of instant attention because they were home schooled and learned few social skills? If kids REALLY dated, would this be the way things are? (Two adult children - of 7 - hang with their group a la "Friends"... no real dating, no real intimacy, no heartbreak, they just don't learn.) One nephew, HS age, was dumped and, of course, threatened suicide. I explained the fish in the sea theory to him and he got over it, but think about how many don't.
Sure, they're in contact ALL the time, and, for what? I think the stupidest thing I've ever heard of is cell phones in combat. Places I went, things I did, we didn't want any distractions, we didn't want any outside interference, and we certainly didn't want our mommy's calling us.
Well, there will always be drones and workers in our society. But very few queens in the hive. Its the old sled dog analogy: for everyone but the lead dog the view never changes.
I like being lead dog. I like being alone to think things out. I like solving things by myself. I can play the game on the network, connect with old friends and lovers, and likewise, I can turn the machine off.
I won't even begin to tell you how your private information is being stolen; if you have access to scholarly journals let me point you to subjects like "Leakage in Online Social Networks". That should turn your hair grey.
I also find some of these social media outlets a great way to connect and re-connect with former classmates and colleagues from around the country and the world.
I saw Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.com, speak the other day. He said "I think we are in the midst of one of the most profound cultural revolutions in history right now, and NONE of us has ANY idea where it is going to take us. I find that incredibly exciting, and feel like I have to play some part in it, or I'd be missing out."
In terms of values, many of you may know that Craig has a VERY strong values-based agenda with the site - most simply summarized in The Golden Rule, and that it is a universal good to occasionally act as your Brother's Keeper. He made no religious allusions whatsoever - perhaps strictly consciously so - but he sees the need for unity between deep human values, business, a "fair" rate of return, and, yes, technology.
Despite all the change, in other words, he clearly doesn't think this cultural revolution means our deepest values are in any danger of becoming obsolete - quite the opposite.
I know that currently, for many artists; Facebook and other social media outlets are an important tool for relaying information regarding performances, master classes, guest artist residencies, etc... My colleagues and I regularly exchange information this way and it is often the first place I find out about local events.
An education for David Thompson and the Americam Anglo-African American media from one who lives the truth in
American each day; Facts on Latino Americans.
1. Hispanic/Latino Americans are native of America we were here when the MayFlower came in 1620 with Anglo-African Americans.
2. Latinos are not born in Mars so there is no way we can be"undocumented aliens".This there life on Mars???
3. Latino Americans are the largest group without medical care.There is no way we are getting free health care.
4.What we Latinos Americans want for X MAS is a "DAY WITHOUT BEING A RACIAL PROFILE GROUP in our own native America.
5. We will be most "THANK FUL" to have a day without racism.
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