Monday, October 25, 2010

Opinion Nation

This nation and its people would be a better place but for one thing, that every individual has a right to their opinion. This is an insidious belief that is as pervasive as it is detrimental.

It is the right of the individual, as given and protected by government, to have an opinion. It is not the right to an opinion. There is a very fundamental difference between the two.

The prior, the right to have an opinion, is the simple idea that the individual shall not be forced into any one idea nor belief. That the individual has the freedom to pursue their own opinion. That last is very important, "...the freedom to pursue their own opinion.".

What is more commonly seen, however, are individuals that have their own opinions but failed to pursue them. Their opinions are rarely grounded in fact but in what they want to be true or what they're afraid is true. The common defense when questioned is usually something along the lines of, "This is America and I have a right to my opinion!".

As if the very fact of their holding an opinion is all the justification required for its existence.

It is not.

5 comments:

  1. Whether right or wrong we live in a country where the majority rules, therefore every American has the right to an opinion and the right to express it. Senators have to work with what the people in their state tell them; and so on.

    Unfortunately, the majority tend to be Bible thumping, uneducated and controlling. What better way to keep the masses in check than to keep them ignorant.

    If the Atheist, middle of the road liberals (because any extreme is not good, whether republican or democrat)stepped forward and made just as much or more noise than the religious right do then we may have a chance to convince people that the system is broken.

    Until then, we just have to deal with the fact that the majority elected everyone in power and all those politicians are working for the majority.

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  2. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for the people to disolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the seperate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of natures God entitled them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the cause which impel them to seperation.

    *Congress July 4, 1776

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  3. After the F.B.I. bang down my door asking what in the world possessed me to try and secede my neighborhood from the union I'm going to point to you....

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  4. Wow, Lilly...judgmental much?

    As a Christian it always amazes me that the atheist's argument usually seems to be that we must be ignorant if we don't believe the way you do.

    How about we're just two different groups of thinking, intelligent people who simply disagree?

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  5. Anonymous

    Thinking differently would mean having two different opinions. Facts are facts, there are mountains of evidence that point to evolution, but since the bible says.....then that somehow becomes the truth? It's ok for Christian's to say Atheist are evil non believers with no morals? What I find is that most Atheist are good, educated, moral people who do it without needing the bible or a superior being tell them to.

    Government and church are two completely different things and should be treated as such. Everyone can have their opinions and agree to disagree but facts are facts and THAT is what people need to discuss and resolve.

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