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Got Morals?

/ robinators19 / Leave a comment

Phil Robertson is at it again.

In a speech he gave at an annual prayer breakfast in Florida he spoke of a fantasy he has.  Instead of summarizing what he said I will just let you see it for yourself:

“Two guys break into an atheist’s home,” Robertson began. “He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters.  Two guys break into his home and tie him up in a chair and gag him.  And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot’em and they take his wife and then decapitate her head off in front of him.  And they can look at him and say, ‘Isn’t it great that I don’t have to worry about being judged?  Isn’t it great that there’s nothing wrong with this?  There’s no right or wrong, now is it dude?

“Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if this was something wrong with this?  But you’re the one who says there is no God,  There’s no right, There’s no wrong, so we’re just having fun.  We’re sick in the head, have a nice day.’ “

I know this was a bit graphic but I thought it was necessary to show just how far this guy has gone.  The point he was trying to make is that Atheists can’t have morals because they do not believe in a God.  A Christian God to be more specific.  Robertson feels Atheists are free to go and do whatever they want because they have no fear of God and are not worried about the ramifications of their actions stopping them from getting into the after-life in which they don’t believe in.  I’m concerned that Robertson doesn’t realize that there are laws against doing the things he is fantasizing about doing to this atheist family.

To follow his line of thinking you would conclude that murders and other violent crimes are only committed by Atheists because they have no morals.  While people who believe in a god have morals and could never commit such awful acts.

This got me thinking.  Are Atheists more prone to murder then those who have a religion and according to Phil Robertson have a moral code?  Coming up with such numbers was not an easy thing.  I don’t think that one of the questions they ask a murderer is “what is your religious affiliation?”  So we must take a more anecdotal approach.

You may recall back in February that an “Atheist” Craig Stephen Hicks killed three Muslim college students in North Carolina.  It was only hours after he turned himself in that the media had taken a look into his Facebook page and determined that he was an Atheist.  Needless to say this made breaking news.  An Atheist killer.  Big, big news.  Now, of all the high profile killings and mass murders how many have been followed with the breaking news that the killer was an Atheist?  Not too many.  In fact I can’t think of any others.  Remember we live in a time when the media can get all kinds of info on you in just a matter of hours.  That being said I can tell you that if a murderer in this country is found to be an Atheist or of a Muslim faith it will always be breaking news.  Remember the Boston Marathon bombings?  These weren’t just two crazy people, they were two crazy people following Islam.  On the other hand Timothy McVeigh was just a crazy guy with no mention of his religious beliefs.  My point is that out of all the school shootings, bombings, serial killers, copilots flying planes into mountains none of them are Atheists.  So for a group that Robertson claims has no morals Atheists somehow seem to avoid killing others.  Even though they make up 22% of the Population in the U.S.  Very few murders are attributed to them.  Why is that?

Could it be that Atheists, since they don’t believe in an after-life, cherish the life they are currently living and don’t want to end up in prison or on death row?  Could it be that they value life so much that they couldn’t imagine taking someone else’s?

Or, could it be that morals are something you get from your parents, family, friends, and society regardless of your religious belief and that people who decide to take another person’s life are just sick individuals who either didn’t have the right mentors growing up or just someone gullible enough to listen to Phil Robertson and act on his fantasy?

No matter what morals are let’s just be thankful that Phil found his because it sounds like he would be a very scary dude without them.

 

Those pesky facts.

What price would you pay?

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This last Sunday I watched an interview of Chris Borland on Face the Nation.  Many of you may be wondering who Chris Borland is anyway.  Up until recently he was a Linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers.  He made news because he had decided to retire from football after only one year.  A very talented player, with many years of playing time ahead of him, decided he had padded up for the last time.  It got me thinking.

Chris decided that he did not want to take the inherent risk that comes with playing in the NFL.  He didn’t want to play for ten years and then retire and have a poor quality of life after football.  As the years go by we are learning more and more about the dangers of playing a violent sport like football.  For years everyone knew of the physical toll the game took on your body and that your ability to get around would probably be limited but most people had no problem playing the game they loved and making a great amount of money for the price it takes on your body.  And then it happened, players started showing signs of head trauma.  Years of concussion upon concussion.  The disability was no longer physical.  It was mental and it wasn’t that easy to detect.

In 2013 the NFL settled with 4500 former players who had sued them for concussion related injuries.  Over 600 million was setup to cover medical expenses and that amount has been changed to have no cap on it so the NFL will have to pay everything for these cases.  During the case the NFL hired actuaries to calculate the amount of players that have had head trauma.  The number they came up with is astounding.  Of the 5900 players that were studied 28% had chronic head trauma caused by concussions.  That’s right 28%.  Just think about that for a moment.  There are currently 1,696 active players in the NFL.  That means that if you use the same rate as the players in the past (even though I think the rate is currently higher because of the speed and size of the players) 475 players playing right now are suffering head trauma.

Now you may start to see some of what Chris was concerned about.  It made me start to wonder about how dangerous the NFL is compared to other occupations.  When I did my research into dangerous jobs I thought that maybe Police or Fire Fighters would be high on that list.  Surprisingly they don’t even make the top ten.  Maybe a soldier, that has to be the most dangerous.  Right?  Nope.  The most dangerous occupation is logging.  Out of every 100,000 loggers 128 die.  Next is fishing at 117.  A soldier is down the list a bit at 41 and the police and fire fighters come in at 11 each per 100,000.

In the past few years some very famous players have taken their own lives.  The most famous being Junior Seau.  When he committed suicide he shot himself in the chest so his brain could be studied.  He knew he had problems with his head and he didn’t know what to do to fix it.  He did know that he wanted his brain studied so that others may not have the same fate.  When his brain was studied it was determined that he had CTE. CTE or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain.  Symptoms include depression, aggression, and disorientation.  It can only be diagnosed after death and is caused by repeated head trauma.  18 NFL players that have died have been diagnosed with CTE.  Another 7 that have died are suspected of having it but the tests were not done.  They are estimating that currently 32 players that are still alive are showing systems of the disease.

Now it’s hard to calculate a death rate for this time of situation.  The players are dying after they retire so you can’t necessarily tie it to the number of active players playing in any particular year.  So, being the numbers geek, I found out how many players have played in the NFL all time.  That number is 25,000.  Looking at how many have died and are currently living with CTE the death rate comes in at 228 per 100,000.  Keep in mind that’s just the cases they know of now and that number is sure to grow.  So as an occupation the NFL is almost twice as dangerous as a logger, over five times as dangerous as a being a soldier, and 22 times as dangerous as a police officer or fire fighter.

With this information it is not hard to understand why Chris Borland has decided to call it quits.

What does this mean for the NFL?  Will more people quit?  Will it change the way they draft players?  Will they worry about drafting someone who is really intelligent that will figure it out and retire early?

The only thing that could solve this problem for the NFL is if they made the game less violent.  I mean a lot less violent.  I, for one, know this will never happen because football is an American game and there is really nothing that Americans love more than violence.

Let me leave you with this.  What would you do?  Would you play the game you love?  Would you pass up millions of dollars?  How much is it worth to want to live a healthy normal life?

Those Pesky Facts

Same-Sex Marriage Didn’t Destroy the World

/ robinators19 / 2 Comments

Earlier this week two friends of mine were married.  Two people who are very much in love, two people who have shared a home and happiness for many years. It just so happens to be two men, and you would be hard pressed to find two better people.

As of today the world has not come to an end because of this union.  In the same way it didn’t come to an end the first time a woman ran a marathon, a woman voted, blacks drank from the same fountains as whites, a black man was elected president of the United States (of course Fox News and their sheep would disagree with this one).  I could go on for days, trust me.

Same-sex marriage is now legal in 38 states in the US.  That’s correct.  Only 38 states.  It is true that we are the “United States” but in states that are still trying to set laws based on the Ten Commandments instead of the Constitution same sex marriage is still left in the, let’s call it, the Biblical age.  Why isn’t same-sex marriage legal in the entire country?  Same-sex marriage is legal in 22 countries around the world.  Why is America so far behind on this?  Israel recognizes same-sex marriage.  Think about that for just a second.

According to a report given to the office of the General Counsel of the U.S. General Accounting office there are 1,049 benefits awarded to heterosexual couples when they marry that are not awarded to same-sex couples.  Below are just a few:

  1. Access to Military Stores
  2. Assumption of Spouse’s Pension
  3. Bereavement Leave
  4. Immigration
  5. Insurance Breaks
  6. Medical Decisions on Behalf of Partner
  7. Sick Leave to Care for Partner
  8. Social Security Survivor Benefits
  9. Tax Breaks
  10. Veteran’s Discounts
  11. Visitation of Partner in Hospital or Prison

Now, I ask you, if the two friends of mine were allowed to have these benefits how would it affect the world in a negative way?

Why does marriage have to be defined as a man and a woman?  Why can’t it be defined as two people in love?  Why are we concerned about what the Bible says when it comes to laws in this country that’s first amendment to the constitution that prohibits the federal government from making a law “respecting an establishment of religion”?

We look back at American history with disbelief at how so many people could have been in favor of slavery.  How so many people thought that woman not owning property was acceptable.  How people dressing in white robes and hoods and lynching the Negros was just part of the South.  Isn’t it time that we wake up?  Actually try and learn from history.  Jump ahead of the curve.  Actually try and catch up with the rest of the world on this subject.

It’s time for a change people.  I know that “liberal” word change is hard for some people but it’s really for the better.  Change is a good thing.  Where would we be as a country if we didn’t (eventually) accept change?

You don’t have to be gay to support gay rights.  In the same way you don’t have to be a woman to support woman’s rights.  Let’s all get on board and support same-sex marriage until it is 100% legal in this country and we actually just refer to it as marriage.

Oh, and by the way, if you take the time to embrace everyone regardless of their sexual orientation you will probably find out that you have been missing out on being friends with some pretty amazing people.

Robin’s Pesky Facts