Can’t we just agree to disagree?

No! That’s the resounding answer I tend to get from friends, family (oh man do I get it from the family), newscasters, religious leaders, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindu’s, Scientologists, sports fans, etc. We can’t both have an opinion that’s valid. I’m right and you’re wrong! Bill O’Reilly thinks so. Keith Olberman thinks so. Sean Hannity thinks so. Pat Robertson thinks so. Mugabe thinks so. Al-Sadr thinks so. Kim Jong-il thinks so. Red Sox fans, Yankees fans, Red State / Blue State people, Obama, Clinton, McCain – they all think so. They’re right and if you don’t agree you’re wrong. There is no dialogue – just debate.

In America, at some point during this century, we went from being able to have healthy dialogues to having debates. People feel the need to have to prove themselves right, many times by beating someone down. If I hear someone’s opinion it’s not just good enough for me to understand it, I have to agree with them. If I don’t agree I’m not intelligent. Or I’m close minded. Or I’m uninformed. Maybe they turn up the decibel levels of the conversation. Maybe they get emotional with me. Maybe they decide to talk about me behind my back. When did this happen? Why can’t opinions be different and both be correct? They are opinions after all.

I started this blog as a way to get dialogue going about my brother the Atheists book. Some of the anecdotal feedback has been good: “thanks for letting me know about your brother the Atheists book”; “interesting questions your brother the Atheist is raising”; “good insight into the wackiness that is organized religion – thanks for posting it”. However some has been confusing: “Why are you so angry about your brother the Atheists book?”; “why is your brother the Atheist so angry with your blog?”; “why can’t you see that’s he’s right and you’re wrong?”

Lets get this down in print right now – I’m not angry about the book! I’m not angry with my brother the Atheist! Heck – I want him to sell a million copies, write another book, sell another million copies, get on Oprah and decide to share some of the wealth with me (if he doesn’t share the wealth I’ll be forced to tell all of those embarrassing stories related to bed wetting, fear of spiders, experimentation with cross dressing, etc…. whoops, maybe I just did!). He and I are great friends – at least from my point of view. We travel together, our wives are close friends, we do business together, we make each other laugh, we talk regularly. I don’t think our relationship has changed at all over the past several months/years. The book was not a surprise to me, nor was it a surprise that my brother is an Atheist. He and I have talked about this since we were teens. And for all of my close minded readers, I’m not going to have an issue with his beliefs – sorry. It’s his decision to believe what he wants to. It’s a well informed decision.

Now, hopefully everyone is on the same page here. It’s ok to be different, to like different things, to believe differently. Here are some of the things I believe:

I believe in global warming (sorry Dad) and that it’s our responsibility to help the planet. I believe that Obama would make a better president than either McCain or Clinton. I think Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity, etc are all full of crap and tend to lie or embellish to get their points across. The same goes for Al Franken who’s the same as Rush only left leaning. I think Pat Robertson and Dr. Dobson should retire before they open their mouths the next time. I don’t believe there’s any news agency that’s not biased, and therefore everyone should watch / read multiple sources (not all conservative or all liberal) to get a true picture of what’s going on out there. I disagree with the war in Iraq. I don’t think we should have gone to war in Vietnam. I think ice cream is disgusting. New born puppies smell nicer than new born babies. U2 and REM are the greatest bands of this and most other generations. Dave Mathews Band is overrated. Tequila is the greatest drink invented, next to a Flaming Moe. Baseball on TV sucks. The NCAA tournament is the greatest sporting event in the world. Popeye’s fried chicken is proof of a god. Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino are mailing it in during the late stages of their careers. The Office is currently the best show on TV. Reality TV sucks (all of it) and dumbs’ down all of us. The electric car was a great idea killed by big auto and the government. Frank Caliendo is not funny. The band of gold in the song is a wedding ring.

If you don’t agree with my opinion, ok. Tell me why. Post a comment. I won’t get mad. I might not agree with you… and that’s OK. So what? It’s just my opinion, right?

Ape shall not kill Abe!

I digress from the standard entries to take a moment to remember Charlton Heston. A favorite actor of mine and my brother the Atheist, we'll miss him. Of course we loved him in all apocalyptic movies he made: Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, Soylent Green. Quotes from these movies and others permiate our communications and have for years. "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!" Just sitting around some days one of us will pop off with some reference that our wives will cringe over.
And he was the voice of God. We grew up watching the Ten Commandments every Easter - it was how we learned a lot about the bible, watching Chuck transform from a pretty boy Egyptian to a studly yet dirty Jewish slave. My brother the Atheist personalized my copy of his book with quote from Planet of the Apes, and he refers to the Ten Commandments in the text. If you haven't seen these movies you should buy them today at Amazon.com or get them from Netflix! Is it interesting that he was both a man who made all of those movies related to God and scripture, and he also was the face of how humans will be destroying the earth during the 60's and 70's? Of course he also was the face of the NRA for a lot of years, which was very sad to me - I couldn't ever get on board with his "we should all be allowed to own guns" rhetoric. Yes people, I'm a Christian who believes the NRA is a waste of time and that the gun lobby is evil. Write it down, print it out, and of course feel free to send me hate mail. Guns are bad, people with guns can be bad, and mixing the two together is not a good idea!!

We'll miss you Chucky - and I guess they will have to pry that gun from your cold dead hands!

A little angrier than expected - and so am I!

Well, the book was a surprise to me. It's angrier than I expected. Some of it is funny, and some asks good questions. Of course there are differences from what I believe throughout the book - but that's OK. I'm not one to think everyone needs to think like me (although I am the smartest man I know - just ask my wife!), so that's OK. I was surprised by some of what I'd consider mean-spirited-ness in the book. But the more I reflect on what his experience with Christians has been it seems to support why my brother the Atheist has a real issue with Christians. So many Christians seem to miss the boat on the whole evangelism thing. Yes, you should spread the word of God. Yes, you should share your beliefs. I'm in total agreement here. No, you should not SCARE anyone into believing what you believe. No, you should not HARASS anyone if they don't believe what you believe. No, you should not become a BAD EXAMPLE and forget that Jesus is about loving everyone... man, Christians and others who feel like it's a contest to get someone to "be saved" drive me crazy! Notches on your belt; points of light; saved souls; you're not being judged by how many names you come home with after being out in the world. You're being judged by being true to your beliefs and faith. You're being judged by being Godly in your daily walk. You're being judged by your willingness to follow Christ. I can tell from his book that the Christians he's run into where some bizarre number crunching zealots who pushed and pushed him and his wife until they get tired of the rhetoric. When they politely said "no thanks" the backlash began. It reminds me of the old time track people used to leave for me before I was saved - the one with the picture of Hell on the back and the warning to repent today "lest ye be cast into the burning lake for eternity". While I believe in Hell and Heaven, what's the point in scaring someone or pissing them off (that's going to make my wife happy)? Man, what's wrong with people? It reminds me of Michelle's favorite bumper sticker (seen a lot in Colorado Springs near Focus on the Family) - "Lord, protect me from your followers". How real is that? Dudes on TV (Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell, Benny Hin, John Ankerberg, etc) that make our lives harder. They say wacky stuff, say they're the spokes person for all of us, and then we're left to clean up their messes. Just shut up and let us be real people to real people and maybe through relationship non-Christians will see we're pretty much like them. Sometimes confused, sometimes not good, sometimes scared, sometimes we don't have all of the answers (again not me - refer to the smartest man comment)... most of us are normal people with normal problems and normal issues. Where people after all. And all people are flawed. I'd love to actually live my life showing the world what kind of a man I am, and then when asked I can tell them what I believe. Heck, I might even share it with someone as I'm building a relationship with them. But forcing my beliefs on someone is not going to be well received. I don't like tomatoes. Never have. No amount of pressure from some dude on the street selling tomato's is going to change my mind. However if a friend, or brother, or my wife says "try a tomato", it carries some weight and I just might try it (of course tomatoes are a bad example since they're pretty slimy inside - but hopefully you get my very simple point). Well, I could rant all day about this but I'm going to take a break, maybe I'll have a beer, and then I'll write a little more about the book and my thoughts.