I show you something fantastic and you find fault.
Published on December 13th, 2009, 10:07 am
Rift: News
colton_harris_moore_barefoot_bandit.jpg (16.28 KiB) Viewed 1355 times
He is 18 years old, and a legend. He's stolen 3 planes and flew them off of information on the Internet. He's boosted Mercedes Benzes, & has broken into homes and ate the ice cream out of the refrigerator while ordering night vision goggles off the Internet with the homeowners stolen credit card. People are saying he is a hero against capitalism. He robs from the rich, because the rich are rich. More interesting is he can't be caught.
Harris-Moore is known as "the Barefoot Burglar" because he once kicked off his shoes to flee deputies chasing him in the woods.
On Fox News, Harris-Moore's mother Pam Kohler outraged her tut-tutting interviewer by saying, "I hope to hell he stole those planes. I'd be so proud. But next time, I want him to wear a parachute."
I'm told that I had an uncle who chose a life of crime. He decided that the Robin Hood model was admirable, so he burglarized the homes of wealthy folks, prided himself over the fact that he never injured anyone. Until he got caught, of course. He ended up spending the rest of his days in prison. Died of complications from diabetes.
Looks like this kid will have a similarly shortened life unless he learns some vital lessons about living within the bounds of society, and soon.
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:Until he got caught, of course. He ended up spending the rest of his days in prison. Died of complications from diabetes.
Ouch, life? That's harsh. I would hate to live the rest of my life in prison. I attended a boarding school in a developing country for a short stint. When I went I was under the illusion that it would actually be a positive experience.(It was bittersweet.)
Long story. But don't get the wrong impression. I wasn't a bad kid. Naive perhaps.
It was a school for the abandoned. The rejects and orphans of society. Kid's whos family's thought it was too much of a bother to keep them at home.
I learned a bit there. I kept a journal. Considered running off and chancing life in the wilds. But then I wouldn't be able to make it back to the US (without hijacking a plane), and my family cared for me.
So the school was both my prison and my life support. Ironic huh?
Inside I wrote that life is just black and white and shades of gray. My bud didn't understand what I meant, I didn't bother to tell him.
I have changed my mind. Though. Once I found that truth was absolute.
Now my friend believes that truth is relative and I can't convince him otherwise.
Most kids their only got calls from their family on their birthdays. Some were completely abandoned.
I was the privileged one.
It was the poverty and pain the surrounded me that shocked me. It was a taste of reality, or another fantasy.
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:Until he got caught, of course. He ended up spending the rest of his days in prison. Died of complications from diabetes.
Ouch, life?
No, I'm sure the sentence he was service was far less. But he died in prison while serving it... so it was life, only in effect.
I attended a boarding school in a developing country for a short stint. When I went I was under the illusion that it would actually be a positive experience.(It was bittersweet.)
Long story. But don't get the wrong impression. I wasn't a bad kid. Naive perhaps.
All kids have less experience than we'd like them to have.
It was a school for the abandoned. The rejects and orphans of society. Kid's whos family's thought it was too much of a bother to keep them at home.
I learned a bit there. I kept a journal. Considered running off and chancing life in the wilds. But then I wouldn't be able to make it back to the US (without hijacking a plane), and my family cared for me.
So the school was both my prison and my life support. Ironic huh?
Complex. Sounds Dickensian. Like David Copperfield.
Inside I wrote that life is just black and white and shades of gray. My bud didn't understand what I meant, I didn't bother to tell him.
I have changed my mind. Though. Once I found that truth was absolute.
Isn't absolutism a form of binary world view? What precisely changed about your view?
Now my friend believes that truth is relative and I can't convince him otherwise.
Quite a disappointment for you, I expect.
Most kids their only got calls from their family on their birthdays. Some were completely abandoned.
I was the privileged one.
It was the poverty and pain the surrounded me that shocked me. It was a taste of reality, or another fantasy.
It wasn't always tangible.
Emotional.
If you haven't read any of Dickens' works I get the impression you might enjoy them. Little Dorrit, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, David Copperfield -- all great works dealing with just what you describe: living in a world where poverty shapes lives in so many different ways.
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:Isn't absolutism a form of binary world view? What precisely changed about your view?
A myriad of factors led to me changing my mind. These some of these event's were quite recent. To talk about how this came to be I would have to talk about my faith.
Ive had some sort of memory lapse. I can't remember much of my grade school years except a couple distinct events.
But looking back gives me a skewed perspective, but I shall tell this tale the best I can.
As a kid. I was raised a skeptic. I didn't believe in ghosts, Santa, fairy's, aliens, etc. (However I admit that I do not know everything and that their is a possibility that said beings may exist.)
But I believed in God.
(I've met a person who believe in aliens, ghosts, etc. but not God.)
I don't think there was a period of time where I didn't believe in God, rather there where periods of time where I followed God or I choose to seek pleasure over everything else. (Not that pleasure is bad.) I just wasted a lot of time. I left empty unsatisfied and looking at death. I was pretty twisted, I had morbid fantasy and felt that death was merely a curiosity. However my family loved me. I didn't want to hurt them by leaving. So I kept going back to empty pleasures.
When I was young believing and following God was natural. Like breathing. I prayed for wisdom when I was young. Solomon did and God was pretty pleased with him so I figured it would be a good thing to do. However I prayed for just enough and not too much because Solomon ended up pretty screwed up near the end.
I grew older. I grew colder. I began to have a superiority complex where I felt I was better then all my peers in grade school. (I thought about things no one else did.) At the same time I felt I was inferior and I made my friends through fighting. After grade school I looked back and said "What am I fighting for?" Was any of it worth it? It wasn't. I fought much less.
Highschool. I found that I was ignorant. I found that I was imperfect. A sinner. I began to understand small fragments of humanity's beliefs.
I learned about relative truth and absolute truth. I thought and I debated.
Finding truth changed my world view. Here was my proof.
_________________________ God is truth and he never changes. ______________________________
God is truth.
Psalm 33:4 For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth
John 18:37 & 38 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
God never changes
James 1:17 (King James Version) 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Hebrews 13:8
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
-------------
Do you believe in truth?
The basics of the message is you only have two choices. You can believe in the truth or you can believe in the lie. You can believe truth is absolute or you can believe truth is relative.
Your belief must be based upon something.
If you believe truth is absolute: You must base you belief on something that never changes. Only one being fits this description: God
If you believe truth is relative: You must base you belief on something that always changes. People base it upon their opinion.
The problem with basing truth upon your opinion is that it renders you completely illogical.
i.e: Truth is relative. = Absolute = Logical contradiction i.e: Attempt to prove truth is relative without using an absolute.
Basically truth is based upon my opinion because of my opinion. You can't have a logical debate with that.
Further more relative truth has far reaching impact on all other areas of life. No longer can you have absolute morals. No longer can you say this is right or this is wrong.
No longer can you be sure of reality.
For as long as one person somewhere in the world disagrees with your opinion, you have a contradiction and can no longer be sure that your truth is better than there truth. As long as there is one entity who could possibly exist and contradict your opinion you can no longer be sure that your truth is better than there truth.
If believe truth is relative: Truth Logic Morals Reality
Don't exist.
It's all your opinion.
Note this: Sin does not exist. It is merely the absence of God. In the same way darkness does not exist, it is merely the absence of light.
In the same way relative truth does not exist, it is simply the absence of truth.
However sin requires truth to pervert. Like a parasitic micro-organism it cannot survive without a host. _______________
John 1:1-5 (King James Version)
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2The same was in the beginning with God.
3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. ____________________
1 John 1:4-10 (King James Version)
4And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
-------------- I have omitted many details, but I want to avoid giving a life story.
I found the truth and it grounds me in reality.
So this song really spoke to me.
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
Now my friend believes that truth is relative and I can't convince him otherwise.
Quite a disappointment for you, I expect.
Beyond words. Some of our debates I left feeling like I had finished slamming my head into a stone wall.
He told me he really didn't care about truth and stuff. He was tired of talking about it. He was interested in card games. Thought I should play to.
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:If you haven't read any of Dickens' works I get the impression you might enjoy them. Little Dorrit, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, David Copperfield -- all great works dealing with just what you describe: living in a world where poverty shapes lives in so many different ways.
Just a thought...
Thanks for the recommendations. I have read and enjoyed a few of his books. Oliver Twist, and parts of David Copperfield.
How ever it's not just poverty poverty.
It's spiritual. Even here they have it. It's just hidden under decorations, under pretense and political correctness.
To the horror of his teenage Facebook fans and Hollywood screenwriters everywhere, After two years on the lam, 19-year-old Colton Harris-Moore AKA the "Barefoot Bandit" was arrested after a high-speed boat chase in the Bahamas:
The marina’s security director, Kenneth Strachan, saw a barefoot young man about 2 a.m. Sunday carrying a gun with a knapsack over his shoulder running up the dock. "They’re going to kill me," the man told Strachan, according to a statement issued by the resort.
The man had arrived on Harbour Island from the nearby island of Eleuthera in a 15-foot skiff, said resort manager Anne Ward in the statement. Strachan put out a call for help, telling Ward to come as soon as possible.
Upon her arrival, Ward told guards to disable the skiff’s engine as the man ran through the resort property, attempting to steal a boat from a nearby house as a crowd gathered at the marina, the statement said.
However, Ward said he ran aground in the second boat, as he didn’t realize how shallow the water was. Police and marina authorities surrounded his boat, and police shot out its engines, she said in the statement.
"At one point, the boy threw his computer in the water and put a gun to his head. He was going to kill himself. Police talked him out of it." Authorities loaded the suspect into the resort’s work truck and took him to the Harbour Island police station, she said.
