Unjust War & Pacifism

I would like to write a post on my pacifist beliefs, but since I'm constantly being asked "well what would you have done in World War II?" and I don't have a real answer to that one yet, I'm currently re-evaluating my stance. But I don't believe war solves anything.

I think that fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity. It's completely counter-productive. The best answer I have right now to the aforementioned question is this: killing innocent Germans who have been forced to fight, did not stop Hitler, nor the death camps. Hitler killed himself out of fear. You could argue that was due to our (the Allies) involvement/presence, but my point is even if that were the case, many innocent German lives were taken to achieve that end. Is that justified?

If you're wondering (slightly off-topic) about whether I'm pacifist in the sense of self-defence, the answer is no I'm not. I am anti-war in the sense of: I don't think it's right to police other countries for things such as nuclear weapons, I don't think it's right to pick fights, I don't think it's right to kill/injure innocent people. With breaches of human rights I think we must be careful. We need to know that we can actually have an impact and change something, that the person(s) in question are in definite breach of human rights and won't back down (e.g. policing and censoring internet doesn't count). We can't just storm in willy-nilly and get our people killed. We must also try not to take any life at all, especially innocent lives.

However, if someone comes up to me provoking attack and they will hurt me, they are then guilty and I have the right to defend myself since I am innocent and it is them who have crossed a line by choice. Having said that, I would try not to use overly accessive means.

Going back on topic to my views on war, I most definitely disagree with wars I find bullying and pointless such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq being pointless because we knew full well they did not have WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) but we made some pathetic excuse that they did and we knew, fiddle some papers to make it 'legal' (how you can have 'legal' and 'illegal' war criteria in such a violent and chaotic situation I do not know, who makes these rules? Why should we stick to them? It's war!) and stormed in to the public would think we were cracking down on 'terror' and Al-Qaeda. Afghanistan is pointless because we will never be able to stop the Taliban and even if we did what's to stop another group along the same lines forming?

I hate seeing innocent lives being taken on both sides, I hate seeing the effect it has on people and most of all I hate the propaganda that's spread about how these people are 'heroes' and how shocking it is when they die (deaths are sad but it's war, people will die, why so shocked?), when they signed up of their own accord and really we're picking fights not defending anyone from anything. The worst part is the effect it has on families: wives losing husbands, children losing fathers, wives and children hardly seeing their husbands/fathers, mothers losing sons and worst of all children losing mothers.

At this point I'll stop talking and show you a video that illustrates my point, it makes me cry the whole way through:

Thought of the Day: The Implant

This post is one of my more off-topic posts, a post that isn't an answer to a question that I've been asked, nor is it a thought connected to philosophy or theology. It is however a thought linked to society and the theology of how men and women should be treated within a sexual relationship. It's kinda hard for me to write about in a way that isn't overly offensive and in a way that gets my views across but here it goes.

A few of my friends have had or have the implant and recently it's made me think a lot about my attitudes toward it. An impant (for those who aren't sure) is a small plastic tube that's inserted into a woman's upper arm. It releases a hormone to prevent pregnancy. (For the more technical and detailed explanation, click here). It can last up to 3 years.

I came to the conclusion that I think it's pretty disgusting. Not just the fact that it looks weird, you're taught it's bad to have foreign objects in your body and then you can have this thing that looks like a straw sewn into your arm. Not to mention how gross it looks to have it put in and taken out. But on top of all that, I think it affects the way guys treat girls.

I know it's a woman's own choice if she has an impant or not (and that has just made me think, I wonder how old you have to be? In the UK they'll do anything to stop teen pregnancies so I'm thinking a 13 year old could get one quite easily without family members needing to know). But it still makes me think of movies and things like 'A.I.', 'The Terminator' and 'I, Robot' where robots are editied, opened up, had bits added and removed to improve them or to stop them being a certain undesirable way. That's pretty much how I see girls with implants.

I realise at this point I may sound pretty offensive to some people, but it's how I honestly feel. Even if you're in a loving, serious, long-term relationship, or even in a marriage, it seems to me like you've been edited to be more desirable or more convenient for a man. You can be used for sexual purposes without the unsatisfactory result of becoming pregant. You've been tailor made for a man's selfish purposes. If you chose to have it because you don't want to get pregant, I still feel like it's the same thing. You may have initially chosen to do that for your reasons, but you've still set yourself up to be more convenient for a man.

I'm not particularly feminist either, I don't care if men want to claim they're stronger, or that they can handle bigger cars, but I do care if men think they can mistreat women purely because they're men. I also have a problem with women who encourage men to do this, either by being hookers, dressing like they're in a porn movie when they're going to class, etc. The implant I feel, inadvertantly encourages men to see women as sex objects, because it's more risk free for them.

The girl is the one who has to go to the doctor, have a minor surgery, have a foreign object in her body, have her hormones messed up for 9 months, have her cycle messed up for 3 years and then have another minor surgery to either change it or have it taken out. Meanwhile the guy can just carry on with life and worry about nothing when it comes to having sex. I don't really think that's fair.

So to conclude, I think the implant is not only disgusting and unnecessary, but I think it enables men to further objectify women. I for one will NEVER be putting one in my body, mark my words ;)

"How can God punish ME for the way HE created me?"

A friend asked me this week why God punishes us for our sins when he created us imperfect, meaning we will always sin even if we choose to follow Him and repent of our sins. The answer to this question can't be summarised too briefly and I will explain further, but to try and summarise: the reason is that in order to make us perfect and able to stop sinning against Him, God would had to have created us without free will. Since we have free will, we aren't perfect and will always sin, but we still have the choice (because of free will) to acknowledge that sin is wrong, turn from it and repent.

If that short version is a sufficient enough explanation, hopefully once I've explained it further it will make more sense. So stay with me!

God's desire for a genuine relationship with us is paramount to His creating of the world. He desires a deep, meaningful relationship with us. Think of it like a relationship you yourself have. You would not want a person (whether it be a parent/child/sibling) to love you and have a relationship with you for the sake of it - because you're there or because you're being forced to by someone. It is exactly the same for God. He doesn't want robots that are forced to love Him or follow Him, he wants a real relationship with children who love Him and follow Him because they choose to. That is why God gave us free will.

The reason He can punish us therefore, is because with this free will we all have the choice to try not to sin, to turn away as much as we can and to say we're sorry when we fail. If we do this, it is perfectly acceptable in God's eyes, we are doing what He has asked of us in the best way we can considering how He made us. To know this and to continue sinning with no remorse and no attempt at changing our ways, is to deny the plan God has created to avoid sin and punishment. That does warrant punishment.

He is not punishing us for the way we have been created, for our imperfection or for the fact we have once sinned, as he knows this to be the case before we are even born. God punishes us for turning away and refusing to adopt His plan of salvation - to wipe us of our sin and imperfection and to in future make us perfect. This way we can enjoy a true relationship with our Father and He with His children.

I leave you with this verse:
"He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them" - 2 Corinthians 5:15

Thought of the Day: Everyday Miracles

Someone asked me recently if God performs miracles today. I believe he does, but not in the same way as he used to. We don't have Jesus on Earth today, so we see less of people being healed on the spot and with medical advances we don't have as many people in need of healing in everyday life, e.g. leprosy. We don't need God to part the Red Sea. However, God is still perfectly capable of healing and he still does, but that is just one type of miracle He performs. I have heard many stories of miracles performed today, including healings.

But consider this: before we complain about God not doing what we want, not saving people, not healing people, not protecting people, think about just how many times in a day God does do these things. For example, a driver loses control of his car momentarily and mounts the curb. Maybe God intervened by stopping pedestrians who would have been walking on that path at that time from going outside. That would be God protecting people, but who would ever know this was the case?

I think situations like this are examples of small miracles from God that could be happening all the time, but unless someone realises it, they go unnoticed, leaving people to assume that God is no longer looking out for us and performing miracles. And that's before we even start to think about bigger miracles God performs ;)