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I read what you say, wc edwards, and I see a mind at work; one that questions and wonders. I observe how your creativity gives rise to originality. I am stimulated to consider and absorb the points you raise. I am not motivated to challenge anything you say which is rare for me. I think that's because we have managed to avoid the pitfall of ad hominem arguments. I discovered that I am pretty much an Existenialist. I didn't know it until I came across a definition of it. And I came across a definition of it while in my liberal arts mode of learning a little bit about a lot of things. When I said that whiteness did not represent what I valued in life, this is what I had in mind because you don't have to be white to be well read and conversant on a lot of subjects. To me, knowledge is king and is, indeed, power. It represents the gateway to wisdom, and unlike education you don't have to obtain it from the halls of academia. It's been said that there is nothing new under the sun and I am inclined to believe that the answers to all that we seek are right there in front of our eyes just waiting to be recognized. As for religion, I was merely paraphrasing Marx's reference to it being the opiate of the masses. People do need something to tranquilize them in the face of life's uncertainly and death's inevitability. They also need to be intimidated into controlling their inner lizards that can rear their ugly heads and strike out. Power-seeking leaders were shrewd enough to recognize this and exploit it in the name of a god they created in the image of man. The Nicene council waaay back when set out to do this - and succeeded, giving Christianity its strangle hold on the western world. Apparently, people also need something to cheer for - a team to identify with and root on. That's the explanation I come up with for the spontaneous explosion of enthusiasm for the USA's soccer team competing in the world cup tourney. This country is so desperate to be associated with a winner that its population went overboard for a sport that previously inspired yawns by the great majority of people. Naturally, the social media enabled this phenomenon by giving all the arm chair fans a forum for hash tags. Finally, I look at the low approval ratings for Obama, at how beleagured he is thanks to the success of Republican opposition that represents the true nature of white America and its attitude toward black men, and Obama earns my support by default. If the great majority of people are against him and these people come from all persuasions and are not actually in agreement with each other when it comes to other issues, then because Obama is pleasing nobody, he doing something right and the collective disapproval has nullified itself. Since the President is not acting in the interest of any group but following his own agenda, the country will stumble along on the path of Obama's good intentions and I really think that as flawed as he might be his intentions are not evil. He is in limbo, holding down the fort for a new leader and SHE will fall heir to this wrath as America's implosion from within gains momentum. The scenario of present day America is stranger than fiction and scarier. A parallel civilization watching a TV series or movie depicting life on the planet Earth would be mesmerized by what this world has become.

People have to be kept within the boundaries of herds that are maintained through fear. Humanity can't be trusted to be humane. I'm still thinking about that one. I don't know if I have an answer. It's an idea priests and pastors struggled with when they began to doubt the existence of Hell. Some of them began to doubt that a just God would create and maintain a hell. Some of them worried that maybe they should not let the public in on their doubts and discussions. They kept it secret. Some felt so bad about it, they tempered it: it wasn't eternal, not a life sentence, but for a while until you were reformed. Some thought even if Hell wasn't real, it might help to deter crimes. Life is a sort of hell and I've often toyed with the idea... Your point also I think is related to atheism and the drive for artificial intelligence and robots--atheism makes people fearless or totalitarian--there is nothing higher than us and we are the only gods so some of us anyway can do what we want because we can, because we know what's best. At one point H.G. Wells had this idea that God Men will save the "race". I suppose he meant the human race if not a superior race--species-wise.