« Monday's | Main | Fourth of July Big Shots »
July 4, 2006
Notes from Ferdy - Notes on a Self-Evident Truth
Today is the 230th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. My favorite part of the Declaration is where it says all men are created equal. The signers declared it to be a self-evident truth, but at the time it was a pretty radical idea. For millenia, it had been known that sons are like their fathers, and so it made sense that the son of a baker would be skilled at making bread, and the son of a ruler is more deserving to have power over the lives of others. The Second Continental Congress not only repudiated that fact, they decided to make it the basis of government for an entire nation.
The roots of that principle can be found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 3, versions 32 through 35.
And the multitude sat about Him, and they said unto Him, "Behold, thy mother and thy brethren outside seek for thee." And He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brethren?" And He looked round about on those who sat about Him and said, "Behold, My mother and My brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother."
With a few simple words, Jesus turned the natural order of things on its head, declaring that If you dedicate yourself to good works, you are a child of God no matter who your father is. That is The Great Self-Evident Truth.
It is very easy for cats to embrace this principle, because we are solitary hunters, but humans are tribal, and even if the rational part of your brain strives to treat people as Jesus would want you to treat them, there's a whole neural network underneath that is judging people according to their current status in the tribe. For this reason, neither the United States of America nor the Christian Church have always been faithful to the Self-Evident Truth, but at least they're trying. Rather than give up in disgust on both institutions, as so many others have done, we should continue trying as hard as we can to keep them glued to their founding principles.
That, too, is a self-evident truth.
Respectfully submitted,
Ferdinand T. Cat
# At Tue 9:06 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (2) | More Notes from Ferdy | Tags: cats Christianity democracy Independence Day
Trackback Pings
» INDEPENDANCE DAY OPEN POST from Freedom Watch
Zell Miller's RNC speech sets the tone for today's July 4th news and notes: [Read More]
Tracked on July 4, 2006 11:46 AM
» INDEPENDANCE DAY OPEN POST from Freedom Watch
Post details: INDEPENDANCE DAY OPEN POST
Weekly Open Trackback Fest! Every *Tuesday*!!!
INDEPENDANCE DAY OPEN POST
By Layla Gonzalez
July 4th, 2006
Minuteman
Zell Miller's RNC speech sets the tone for today's July 4th news and notes: [Read More]
Tracked on July 4, 2006 11:48 AM
» Life, Liberty & Property Versus Islam and Communis from The Dumb Ox
Shuttle blast... NYT in 1776... Some things never change... The Islamic threat to liberty... [Read More]
Tracked on July 4, 2006 2:59 PM
» Happy Independence Day! from Pursuing Holiness
Ferdinand T. Cat at Conservative Cat comments on self-evident truths. You should read it.
... [Read More]
Tracked on July 4, 2006 7:09 PM
» I know where Osama Bin Laden is hiding from Planck's Constant
I did a very bad thing: I broke into the NY Times offices and stole some of their subscription lists. I think the Times will understand that, in the end, I did nothing wrong, for after all, it is in the public interest to know what I found out. [Read More]
Tracked on July 4, 2006 7:27 PM
Comments
Connections and "marketing platform" - if only the Bible spoke of living by these things, these would be faithful times indeed.
Posted by: Darius at July 4, 2006 11:34 AM
Posted by: Gigolo Kitty at July 4, 2006 5:36 PM
| HTML is not allowed in comments; however, if you put in a raw URL (http://www.somewhere.com/page.html) it will automatically be converted to a link.. Also, it is likely your comment will not appear unless you refresh the page manually after posting it. |
