User:Marknw

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"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
- Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863

The main challenge of our age is the growth of intolerance and sectarian violence that arises from radical fundamentalisms of all kinds.

All religions are true.

However, a religion does not need to be believed or interpreted literally in order to be valuable and taken seriously.

I agree with historian Sir Kenneth Clark when he said at the end of his series "Civilisation":

"I believe that human compassion is superior to ideology."

Religion isn't the problem. I am deeply fascinated with all religions. It is the literal, legalistic, political and mean spirited way that some people interpret and use religion that is the problem.

"It is folly; instead of transforming themselves into angels, they transform themselves into beasts; instead of elevating, they lay themselves lower."
- Michel de Montaigne, 1533 - 1592, French philosopher writing during the Wars of Religion.

To paraphrase John Dobson (astronomer), "there are three pillars to human happiness: love, peace and freedom. You cannot sacrifice freedom for the sake of love and peace."

[edit] Other words that I think are important

These words are not meant and used (I hope) by me in a pejorative way, but I think they are very important to know about:

Parable
Allegory
Metaphor
Myth (not used as meaning "a falsehood", but as a sacred story)
Mythology

I want to use them only to promote understanding.

[edit] Korean War

Here are the casualty estimates from Wikipedia for the effort to defend the existence of the rule of law, religious freedom and a free secular democracy on the peninsula of Korea during the Korean War.

1,271,244 to 1,818,410 US, Western Allied/UN

1,858,000 to 3,822,000 Chinese and North Koreans, 315 Soviet KIA, died of wounds or disease (including 168 officers)

[edit] Oath of Citizenship of the United States of America

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.  

		The Oddball Barnstar
		You are awarded this for being very, very odd