Explanation of terms, titles, phrases and words

The Reasonables is a label we've coined to describe ourselves because we tend to think outside the box.^° We combine reason and emotion. We combine head and heart. We don't fit exclusively under any traditional label, such as liberal or conservative.

We refuse to ignore that which counters our present beliefs. We refuse to duck the tough questions. We refuse to live in denial.

We examine as much evidence as is possible. We examine all sides of issues and then offer reasonable solutions -- solutions that are based upon what the presently available evidence indicates. We examine trends and propose making changes before disasters happen. We speak up even when what we have to offer isn't popular. A good place to start looking for us is in what the carved in stone traditionalists call The Lunatic Fringe.^° Here's a quote describing "A Reasonable."

"I approach both religion and politics with a combination of head and heart. I call myself "A Reasonable" which means on some issues I'm conservative, on others, I'm liberal, and on still others, I simply don't have enough information to hold a strong opinion one way or the other."

The Age of Reason:

This is the age at which a child begins to think for him/her self and ask questions about what he/she is told. (typically at about seven years) Prior to age seven the child simply takes in whatever he/she is told and believes it as if it were true.

Karma

Karma means that we reap the consequences of our own actions and these consequences transcend lifetimes on Earth and extend into whatever we experience after the death of our physical bodies.

We are all subject to certain universal laws. even if we are ignorant of these laws and even when we deny they exist.   For example, humans cannot repeal the law of gravity, or the law of cause and effect.   The following statements are expressions of Karma;
"As you sow, so shall you reap."
"What goes around comes around."
"What you do to others, you also do to yourself."

The seeds we sow, turn into the fruit we reap. Because we cannot be sure of the exact nature of the universal laws, one is wise to sow peace, love, and compassion.
See: The Consequences of Intentionally Harming Others.

http://www.pro-truth.net/98-glossary.html#Karma ...

Leap of Faith

A "leap of faith" is a religious term and means to believe something with no proof at all. If you are talking about “God,” that’s all there is. Take it or leave it. There’s nothing else.
Why do we say that?

Because the transcendent unknown that we refer to with words such as "God" is the ultimate and most profound mystery of life.. It is simply impossible to know with provable certainty anything at all about "God."

Thus, everything said about that transcendent unknown is speculation, guess work, or pure fantasy. With absolutely no facts to go on, the only way to accept any religious belief is by way of "A leap of faith."

Every religion is based upon numerous leaps of faith. Those who say they know because their sacred text tells them it's so, have simply moved their primary leap of faith onto a book. With no proof at all, they declare their book to be God's instruction manual for all human beings. They also declare their book to be the one and ONLY book God ever wrote or inspired to be written.

How do they determine which of the numerous sacred books is the one and only sacred text. Most people base their faith upon the sacred book their parents believed in. And where did their parents get the wisdom to know which book is "the one and only sacred text?" From their parents who go it form their parents who got it from their parents, and in some cases, the chain goes all the way back to those who believed the Earth was flat. Mindless true believers don't seem to question the logic of this determination process nor do they question the antiquated belief system that it produces.

And the bottom line: They may be right. But so may those who believe in the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. None of us knows anything about God with provable certainty.

Everything religious is based upon one or more leaps of faith -- upon numerous, unprovable assumptions -- upon stories handed down to us for generations -- upon guesses, speculation, wishful thinking -- and upon an inherent need for answers to unanswerable questions.

Here are just a few assumptions / leaps of faith:

Humans are separate from God,
Man is made in the image of God,
         (What do you suppose that really means?   Imagine the
           ultimate source of all that is stuck in an insignificant puny,
            physical body.)
Human beings are inherently evil,
My religion is the only true religion,
Our sacred text is the only sacred Text,
Our sacred text is the literal word God,
My religion has exclusive access to God,
If I die while murdering those who believe in a
          different religion, I'll have a special place in heaven,
God murdered his son to prove he loves me,
I'm acting on instructions form God, and so whatever I do is OK,
Only Catholics go to heaven,
Our religious leader is infallible,
Heaven is a place above the clouds.

Here are some more extensive discussions of Leaps of Faith:

God's Conception-Magic Act .

Anti-abortionist's Five, Core, Unprovable Assumptions .

The Three basis Religious Assumptions .

More Cherished, Unprovable Assumptions .

Imagine a God... .

If you pray, you might add this to your prayers: "Dear God, protect us from those who think they know the truth and are intending to force their fantasies onto the rest of us."

http://www.pro-truth.net/98-glossary.html#LeapofFaith ...

The Universal Spiritual Perspective on Life and on Abortion

This page has been move to: 75-Universal-spirituality

http://www.pro-truth.net/75-universal-spirituality.html

One-life-ism

One-life-ism is the religious belief that humans life only one life on Earth and then go to heaven, hell, or some other undefined place after death. This is the basic belief of Christianity. It's also part of the Islamic belief system. One could also say atheists believe in one-life-ism. For a clear distinction between one-life-ism, reincarnation, and atheism, see the page titled: The Three Religious Assumptions in The Book of Timeless Truths and Wisdom^®.

The Beginner's Mind

This page has a new home: http://www.lifecoach4vip.com/trp80y-glossary.html°

Belief Box

A belief box is not a physical box; it's a person's mental mindset, and it controls his/her behavior and dictates his/her level of health. A belief box is an invisible prison made up of stories that have been accepted by a person as real, true, and factual. Regardless of whether of not the beliefs represent reality, they are accepted by the subconscious mind as real and the person lives his or her life as if their beliefs actually were real. In the Christian Bible, when Jesus referred to the "demons" which He removed via his healing, he was most likely referring to beliefs that limited the person's life.

Think of a belief box as a barrier between the known and the unknown, between the possible and the impossible. Think of it as a an invisible prison you put yourself in because of a belief.°

The most pervasive (and most destructive) example revolves around religious beliefs. There are three widely held, mutually exclusive religious beliefs (one-life-ism, reincarnation, and atheism) that dictate the behavior of billion of people. (that's billions with a "B") Only one of these beliefs can be real which leaves literally billions of people basing extremely important, life altering, Earth-altering, soul-altering decisions on false beliefs. Some even commit murder and spread mayhem in the name of a god about which they can prove absolutely nothing.

When asked why they engage in vile and criminal behavior, the common answer is: "I do as I do because that's what God wants me to do." The fact that their beliefs are unsupported by the physical evidence doesn't seem to matter to these people. The fact that their beliefs are contradicted by other religions doesn't seem to matter, either.

We all have beliefs that, in one way or another, limit our lives. Commonly religious beliefs dominate, control, and sometimes overwhelm the believer's life. For example, what are the beliefs that compelled the men who hijacked the airplanes that were intentionally crashed into the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001? What are the beliefs that compelled those who murdered doctors and nurses because they provides abortion services? As another example, examine the beliefs that dominate the anti-abortion movement.°

For more clarity on belief boxes, readers are refereed to:

Self-created significances° 42scs

Selective Perception° 42sp

A Belief Box as a Prison° ch101-76b

An Analysis of a Typical Anti-abortion Promoter's Proclamation° 48

Have you ever been wrong? °

and to:

An Interview With "The Devil",° Topic # 23, Separation of church & State / The Beginner’s Mind and Topic # 85, More of the Same / Do the Same Thing Harder.

If you really want to know about thinking outside the box we invite you to the website titled Paul's View - On all kinds of things at http://www.paulsview.com/thoughts.htm#Box ° Here's an example of his work. It's called:

"Thinking Outside the Box"

"I could never understand what people mean when they say, "Think outside the box." Where's the box? I didn't know I was in a box. If I am in a box, how did I get there? If I'm not in a "the box" how did I get out of it? Is it my box or someone else's box? Before you start thinking outside the box it would be a good idea to find out what box you are in."

"From all I know, boxes are meant to put things in. We are raised from the very beginning to put our toys back in the box. When we get older we are told to put our tools back in the tool box. Everything has its box. The box may be called shelves, or drawers, or cubbyhole, or whatever, but they are still the box in which certain things belong. It's the old idea that "everything has a place and everything in its place". Things outside their box are considered to be out of place, making a mess. Do those who promote thinking outside the box really want us to make a mess with our thoughts, or have messy thoughts?"

"The implication seems to be that the answer will be somewhere "out there." But there is an awful lot of room "outside the box." So do we start our "outside the box" thinking by looking close to the edges of the outside, sort of in familiar territory, or far away? And what if I spend all my time looking outside the box and the answers were inside all the time?"

"I think that those who tell you to "think outside the box" are in the box themselves. What's more, they know the answers are in the box. They want you to waste all your time thinking outside the box so they will come up with an answer and you will not. That way they will get the promotion and not you."

"Now, have I been thinking outside the box, or what?"

your belief system http://www.pro-truth.net/98-glossary.html#BeliefBox ...

Bet to Pot Ratio

In any given situation that involves a decision, there is something to gain and something to lose on each side. Comparing what can be gained to what can be lost is, in the gambling world, called the bet-to-pot ratio. The same principle applies in other areas of life.

For example, would you have sex with someone for ten cents? Probably not. Would have sex with someone for ten million dollars? Probably yes. The Ben Franklin approach to decision making is an en example of how to apply this principle to your life.

Chief Seattle

This page has a new home.

http://www.choice101.com/89-chief-seattle.html

Futile Gesturing:

Futile gesturing is taking an action that one knows will not produce the desires result, but taking that action anyway. That knowing may be hidden in denial of what the evidence says about the topic. It's an act done in desperation, out of illusion, or it may be a deceptive way of accomplishing a hidden agenda. Futile gesturing is also commonly used as a way of justifying failure.

Treating symptoms and ignoring the problem is the most common form of futile gesturing. It's common for politicians to propose solutions that won't get society where they claim they want it to be.

Insanity: The U.S. anti-drug war and the anti-terrorist war are both extremely costly and extremely ineffective activities, neither of which is going to solve the problem they claim to be addressing. Both are futile gesturing. Both are insane. Einstein gave us the classic definition of insanity, "Taking the same action over and over again and expecting a different result."

Hidden Agenda: Another aspect to consider is that what appears to The Reasonables as a act of futile gesturing may be ( for the person or group taking that action or actions) an intention activity designed to fulfill a hidden agenda. The ultra-conservative Christian leaders' anti-abortion war is the perfect example of a hidden agenda. The anti-abortion war also fits the definitions of both insanity and futile gesturing. For a more detailed analysis of this example, see the section below titled: Hidden Agenda

http://www.pro-truth.net/98-glossary.html#FutileGesturing ...

God's Cosmic Trash Bin For Human Beings:

This section has been moved to a new address:

http://www.choice101.com/17-conception-magic.html#God'sCosmicTrashBin1

Conception Magic Conception Magic God's Conception Magic Act ...

God's Conception-Magic Act

This section has been moved to a new address:

http://www.choice101.com/17-conception-magic.html

Indulgences (Selling Indulgences)

Selling indulgences was an ingenious money-making scam set up by the early Roman Catholic Church.

An indulgence defined: "The purchase of a pardon which secured the buyer's salvation or released the soul of another from purgatory."*1

Here's how the scam worked: You gave The Roman Catholic Pope money and God forgave you your sins. It was a money-back-guaranteed, ticket to heaven.

Indulgences had their hay day with the sixteenth-century, GAY Pope, Pope Leo X.*2 He became Pope in 1513 and is famous for his zeal at selling indulgences. In those days the governments were ruled by what was called the "established church." It ruled every aspect of European life. People had to obey the laws of the church and pay taxes that went to the church. Whether or not they followers of the faith was irrelevant.

The church leaders peddled the story that without the church's blessing, God would not let you into heaven. The people, being uneducated and having no other source of information, believed the story. Thousands of people purchased indulgences. Leo was such a good salesman that he even gave the purchaser a piece of paper acknowledging God's forgiveness.

Pope Leo X is also famous for sparking the wrath of Martin Luther who, posted his famous "95 Theses" on the church door on October 31, 1517. Luther's theses attacked Pope Loe's practice of selling indulgences and triggered the European revolution know as the Reformation.

*1 Accordance with Catholic teaching, purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.

*2 Now we can't say with absolute, provable certainty that Pope Leo X was a homosexual; however, when we read descriptions of naked young boys coming out of cakes at his parties, one could reasonable apply the same criteria to Pope Leo X the has been applied to former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: "If he wasn't gay, he certainly gave a good impression of someone who was."

http://www.pro-truth.net/98-glossary.html#Indulgences ...

Hidden Agenda

This Section has a New Home http://www.lifecoach4vip.com/trp80y-glossary.html#HiddenAgenda

Horse Blinders:

Back in the late 1800's, the major means of transportation on busy city streets were horse drawn carriages. In order to keep their horses from getting spooked by the hustle and bustle of the nearby people and carts, the wagon drivers would attach leather eye covers on the horsed head so the horse could only see what was straight in front of its nose. The carriage driver controlled where the horse's nose was pointed. Anything that was not within the horses very limited field of view was essentially non existent as far as the horse was concerned.

For centuries, the major churches have put the psychological equivalent of horse blinders on their followers.. They tell their followers what to think and discourage learning how to think. Here's what they tell the parishioners: If you come into anything that contradicts our church theology, 1) immediately stop listening/reading/viewing/etc. 2) Turn away and refuse to hear/read/see any more. Why? Because all that stuff is Satan's work, and if you pay attention to it, you'll loose your faith and condemn yourself to hell FOREVER!

Christian Anti-abortion leaders even refer to their followers as sheep. How many sheep do you know that are noted for their independent thinking?

Attempting to change the mind of an anti-choice true believer is like "Whipping a dead horse." or "p___ing into the wind." As another old saying goes, "Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig." And if you want to get biblical, "Cast not your pearls before swine."

So if you want to get really radical, simply start thinking outside the box.. You'll be amazed at what the result will be.

http://www.pro-truth.net/98-glossary.html#HorseBlinders ...

Leaders Versus Followers ...

Distinguishing Between Pro-life Leaders and their Followers:

Regarding the anti-abortion movement, we want to make a clear distinction between leaders and followers. This topic is covered in considerable detail as part of our Pro-Choice Position Statement, Section S -- Dishonoring a Trust .

Lies of Omission:

This section has been moved to a new address:

http://www.choice101.com/19-lies.html

Manley P. Hall (1901-1990)

Founder of the Philosophical Research Society. From an early age, Mr. Hall studied the full range of the worlds ancient wisdom traditions. Unlike so many of his contemporaries, he concluded that wisdom was not to be found on only one path or in only one religion. Instead, he saw wisdom as the highest realm where philosophy, religion, and science come together without boundaries. http://www.prs.org .

Public Prayers

This item has been moved to page titled:
Church and Sate -- How do they relate?
http://www.choice101.com/81-cs.html#PublicPrayers

Posting the Ten Commandments

This item has been moved to page titled:
Church and Sate -- How do they relate?
http://www.choice101.com/81-cs.html#TenCommandments

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is an ancient language in which many of the sacred texts of the Eastern religions are written.

SNAFU

This is a long-standing military slang term which means: Situation Normal, All Fucked Up.

Soylent Green

Food fed to the people is the 1975, science fiction film, Soylent Green Staring Charlton Heston. The food turned our to be made from the dead bodies of fellow human beings.

Spin Doctor

A spin doctor is a person whose job is to make something or someone look better than he, she, or it is, or to make an opponent look worse that he or she is. Spin Doctors commonly distort the evidence by emphasizing one aspect of it while completely ignoring anything that contradicts the image they are intending to have the public believe. Those with a political agenda are notorious for peddling spin-doctor distortions of the evidence.

Lobbyists are spin doctors. They are hired by someone who has an agenda to peddle to our legislators. Unfortunately, they often are parties to legalized bribery, in the form of campaign contributions to those who vote for their position. As Will Rogers once said (and its even truer today): "We have the best politicians that money can buy."

http://www.pro-truth.net/98-glossary.html#SpinDoctor .. .

The United States Constitution

Granting or Restricting

The United States Constitution ( including its amendments) does not grant you any rights. You already have the rights to life, liberty, free movement, free speech, property ownership, free trade, etc, and governments do not have the right infringe upon these God-granted rights.

Unfortunately, the American Constitution's Bill of Rights is mislabeled. The amendments are not granting rights. They are actually declarations of restriction. They restrict agents of government, specifically prohibiting certain actions and allowing others.

Teaching that the constitution grants you rights is still one more example of mis-education done with the underlying intention to deceive and manipulate. the public.

Source of Rights:

The Declaration of Independence (July 4,1776) actually acknowledges that your rights come from God and not from any government.

... All men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ...

First Amendment

The discussion of the First Amendment has a new address:
http://www.choice101.com/81-cs.html
#FirstAmendmentConstritution.

Article Six ...

Article Six, Clause Three (Direct quote)

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Constitution Preamble ...

U.S. Constitution -- The Preamble

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

"Although the preamble is not a source of power for any department of the Federal Government, the Supreme Court has often referred to it as evidence of the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution." Quote from: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/preamble/