Blame shifting

No one likes to admit mistakes, come on it means you are not perfect.  If we are taking some of the blame, we still like to spread it around so that it is not just on us.  You know how it goes, you get caught doing something wrong.  You probably did not intend to do it, but you made a bad choice or two and the consequences of that action scare you.  So you try to take the heat off.  It might sound something like this  “well sure I did that, but if so and so had of done this, or hadn’t done that I would have never been in the position to make that choice”.  You know you’ve done it.  I’ve done it, people do it all the time, because shame is a terrible feeling.

 I came to see how ridiculous blame shifting really looks to the third party though.  I saw it in this news story about the tiger who escaped his pen this week and killed a zoo visitor, and injured 2 others.  I saw the zoo director on TV today doing some pretty heavy blame shifting.  It seems that the walls in the tiger enclosure were too short.  They were only 12 1/2 feet tall and the regulated height is 4 feet higher.  Rather than admitting the mistake and dealing with the consequences the guy says something to the effect well however many months ago the zoo had inspectors out and they never said anything about it.

So if you know what the regulations are, and you know how high your wall actually is you don’t do anything about it because no one said anything?  That’s like me at my job, just walking by someone who is having a seizure because no one tells me to help.  This is apparently not the zoo’s first infraction…you’d think that they would take a look and  try to clean up their act.  After all zoologists are scientists are they not?  Scientists claim to be the intellectual superiors to everyone else.  Well 2+2=4

The lesson to be learned here, is blame shifting doesn’t work.  You need to worry about your own actions, and take ownership of them.  Then maybe you would take a little pride in what you do, and things like this might be better prevented.

Diet Time

Well the new year will soon be here.  In 2008 I am going to try to be healthier, which will include…less calorie intake, plus I am going to try to be a vegetarian.  I love meat, but I think it is better for you on so many levels.  I might try to exercise…and I am going to avoid fast food of all kinds at whatever the cost.

 Fast food has always been my downfall.  I don’t even like it but I am pretty addicted.  I get grumpy when I don’t have it.

 I need to get healthier though, I have a lot of stomach and other health problems (none serious), but it can all be linked to my diet.  My doctor has told me on more than one occassion that I am on a fast track to diabetes, so with the fact that I am going to be 30 years old this year…it’s time.  So this time next week I will be preparing for a life change.  (although it will be on the 2nd because I want one last Turkey dinner which we will have on New Years Day).

Anyways that’s the health update.

Isn’t Atheism just another religion?

I’ve been hearing a lot about Atheism in recent days.  I guess perhaps considering the life choice I have decided to make (becoming a minister), that I have made myself more aware of other thoughts out there.  I want to understand the opinions of people like Richard Dawkins, Ellen Johnson, Peter Atkins and others.   I don’t believe that Christians should live with their heads in the sand ignoring the opinions of atheists.  For me it is not enough to simply rely on the Holy Spirit.  We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. 

Christians tend to get too scared when a new work of atheism comes out, not remembering that these people in the fore front of atheism today, are not the first and will not be the last.   Instead of getting scared, or simply praying about it, we need to understand what other viewpoints are.  One of the biggest criticisms I have heard atheists say about Christians is that they (Christians) don’t use rational thought or in other words Christians don’t use their brains.  Which sadly in some cases is very true. 

 Now I try not to be very judgemental of anyone for their personal beliefs, I don’t think it is now, or ever will be my place to judge others.  However there is one thing that bugs me about atheists, they tend to blame religion for all of the worlds major problems.  Sadly this isn’t far from the truth, however that aside, isn’t atheism just another form of religion?

Religion can be defined as a set of common beliefs and practices held by a group of people (these practices can be part of group ritual and individual practice and belief) .  So atheists have their own “religion” of sorts, because they too can fall under this definition.   So really if religion is to blame for everything, don’t they fit in there somewhere too?  I’m willing to bet that just as there are Christian, Jewish, Muslim (the list can go on) extremists, there are somewhere in our midst also, atheist extremists.  I’m not really sure there is one group of people out there who are better than others. 

Friday is too weird?

So I have been neglecting my blog lately.  I’ve been too busy with the usual Christmas activities, and then so tired from them when I have been home that I have not felt like writing.  I did reflect on the rest of the promises in my Soldier’s Covenant, but I just have not had time to write them out…and don’t think I will for a now.  However that I might in the future.

I came across this article today. 

I think that it is ridiculous that a court can tell someone what to name their child.  Apparently it is for the protection of the child, to save him from future name calling.  However I don’t think the name is that horrible.  Friday?  Ok so it is a little strange, but if this name is so crazy, how come no one intervened with Gwenyth Paltrow when she named her kid Apple. 

I guess in a different country the rights and freedoms of it’s citizens are very different.  Seems to me though that it’s the parents right to name their kid…if the kid doesn’t like it it could always change it later.  Or the parents could change it if they realized the kid was not being treated nicely because of it.