Intelligent design (Introduction)

by Abel , Friday, November 04, 2011, 19:29 (4768 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: "Admirable though it is to “practice the tenets of honesty, tolerance and peace”, I would admire you even more if your tenets included love for your fellow humans rather than a general condemnation of humanity because of its “ongoing stupidity”. Why this misanthropy? Are you perhaps a lapsed Catholic?"

I would point out dhw that the things you truly love are those that you trust. Thus since I trust my wife, close friends and family, I love them.
When I was a youthful fool I used to trust strangers (what do you tell your children about them?), but then I learned they cannot be trusted. I'm not talking just about the liars, thieves, prostitutes and politicians (I know I'm being redundant), I am also talking about the murderers, the robbers and the rapists.

As a wise man, I know that if I said, "A man should not beat his baby to death with a baseball bat because he is mad at his wife", the vast majority would agree with me. Unfortunately, I also know that a few would not. That, in my mind, is problematic. Since I cannot trust strangers, I cannot love them (their children and pets are another story).

Though those in the medical field might incorrectly identify me as a philanthropist because of the value of the gifts that I have given them, they are wrong. I gave those gifts because I am an idealist and an altruist, not because I trust humanity (and therefore do not love them as a whole). I do love them as individuals, however.

I am not a lapsed Catholic, I can assure you. Their robes are red with the blood of saints. Their oppressive doctrine created the Dark Ages. It took the four horsemen and the one who is like a son of man, to shatter this church's (Satan's) hold on Europe. Should the Catholics, Jews or Muslims chose to oppress the advance of the truth (science) again, they will find that God cherishes the truth much more than the witless fools who wish to destroy it.