Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Deep problems with America

America has some serious problems.

I hate to admit it, but America is destined for failure. But should we have expected anything else from a man made institution? Since man is inherently selfish, is it even right for us to expect him to create something everlastingly good? The answer is no. We should expect that everything that man creates will be flawed just like man himself - no matter how good a particular man is, there is always at least a small amount of selfishness in him and everything he does.

This is not to say that there aren't a lot of good people out there, because there is. But I believe that there are considerably far more "good intentioned people" than "good people". What is the difference? Good intentioned people believe they are doing good when in actually they are causing more harm than good. Good people also believe they are doing good, and they really are. This leads us to the question of who determines what is really good. I choose to base my answer on Natural Law, how and why man was created from the beginning. Basically, who is man created to be. Going one step further brings us to the question of how can we possibly know the answer to the how, why, who questions. This is where many Americans are deeply divided. I rely on faith and reason for my answers.

Ultimately, this last question will bring the country down - if we cannot agree on who man is created to be, then we will never agree on how to get there. Every answer to this question has a different goal, and thus different means to get to that goal. Liberals are aiming at a very different end goal than conservatives are. This gulf is too deep and wide to be crossed by man. There can be no reconciliation or compromise to the question of who man is created to be. We did not make ourselves, and we cannot change our own purpose. To compromise would be to reject our belief and live a lie. We would go from being good people to good intentioned people who cause more harm than good, because even though our understanding of reality may have changed, reality itself has not.

I am not overcome by this doom and gloom because I believe that God has destined us for salvation. But God is the only one who can provide this salvation - God alone can save us from ourselves. So I have hope because of what God has done and will do for me. I place my hope in Him, not in America nor its people.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes, man can be selfish. Yes, America has a great divide between both sides to bridge. Yes, America is in a lot of trouble as is most if not all of the world.

But really, god will save us. We're waiting for a purple people eater to solve our problems? This type of thinking drives many of the problems in our society. We're very ready and eager to use god, hashem, or allah as the reason for our actions or our way out of our actions.

In truth we are a flawed race, nothing and nobody is perfect, we need to take responsibility for our actions and our place in the universe. Only we, not some imaginary folk character, can strive to work together to better ourselves.

This is not easy, easy would be relying on an invisible deity to solve our problems for us. If you don't like how things, work change them. If you don't like the state of your country, get involved, change it. When enough people try to change things amazing things can happen.

Using faith as a crutch and salvation as an end goal will accomplish exactly nothing.