Everyone Matters, Or No One Matters

 

There is a TV show called Bosch that aired on Amazon. It is about a homicide detective, Harry Bosch, brought to life by actor Titus Welliver, who did an excellent job playing the complex character. I was surprised by the ideas presented in the show, because being literally set in Hollywood, there is not a lot of crappy woke ideology present. Instead, there are old fashioned values. How life is important. To everyone. And how when lives are snuffed out, their loved ones deserve justice. Bosch had a saying that he used throughout the show: "Everyone matters, or no one matters."

That is how I feel. I have, for a long time, decades even, felt that the gift of life is sacred. See my articles “Modern Slavery” published in May of 2007, “Exporting Death” July 7, 2010 and “The Unspoken” from October 15, 2017.

That is why when I recently read of CNN promoting and legitimizing the cartels that I was outraged. I wrote many things angrily but honestly, about the deaths that are occurring in the US. Over a million overdose deaths since 2017. People get hooked on a substance that has 50x the addictive qualities of heroin the first time they try it. Then if they don’t die the first time, they continue to use until they die. I hate that. I know people whose lives have been completely ruined by this horrible thing.

Then, a certain person whose name I will not mention came on my thread on May 6 and started standing up for CNN. He started dismissing the involvement of cartels and placing blame on those who died. He was stating that I was dishonoring both those who had dealt with addiction as well as our losses in the Viet Nam War. This person is not from the US. To my knowledge, he has never dealt with these issues in society.

Then he compared me with freaking Hitler and said I was goose stepping back into World War Two. He accused me of wanting to kill people who disagreed with me (which I believe meets the definition of LIBEL.)

I responded with great restraint and addressed the idea that CNN was indeed attempting to legitimize the cartels. I stated that I felt that this was treasonous. We continued the discussion in private tells and he informed me that I would have to make a public, written retraction in order to keep him from de-friending me and removing me from all association.

I viewed this, and still do, as an attempt to get me to forswear and reject my solemn commitment to viewing life as sacred. 

I refuse. I will not bend the knee to this idea that 1,000,000 US lives do not matter.

So, after misinterpreting my post, after comparing me to Hitler, after accusing me of “advocating for state-sanctioned ideological killings,” and demanding that I publish public written retractions of my views to appease him, I said no.

I sent him a note afterwards, telling him that he had placed clothes on me which do not fit, asking for at least some kind of reconciliation. I did not back down from my convictions. He never replied.

As of this time, I am considering options. Comparing people to Hitler is fighting words where I come from. He stabbed me in the back when he claimed he was my friend.

Everyone matters, or no one matters.

G. Houtchens

Armchair coach

Amateur historian

With Thanks to Mel Gibson and David Wood

 With Thanks to Mel Gibson and David Wood

 

In an interview with Joe Rogan, Rogan said to Gibson, “The part that requires the most faith is the resurrection,” to which Gibson replied, “Yes.” I immediately stopped the video in disagreement.

I say No.

No, it is not the part of Christianity which requires the most faith. Why? Because it is in mankind’s nature to attempt to survive. It is an innate part of Mankind’s being to continue living. People will not willingly die for a lie. Therefore, why would the surviving apostles and Paul be willing to testify even at the point of death that Christ is Lord; that he came back from the dead? Doubting Thomas, according to tradition, traveled to India on foot and there died in his stubborn resistance to preach the gospel there. Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified upside down. Why?

Unless… unless they knew the resurrection of Jesus to be true. Unless the saw the evidence with their very eyes. Unless they experienced personally, firsthand, the resurrected Lord and savior of mankind. Unless they absolutely knew that Jesus was who he said he was.

It seems to me that being an atheist takes a much greater amount of faith. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in any natural process, the total entropy (chaos, disorder, randomness) of a system and its surroundings always increases. In other words, things tend to break down into simpler elements, not build up in more complexity. Human beings are incredibly complex. How could a wrist watch be formed by itself out of raw elements, materials, metals and bone? The wafer-thin springs, the delicate gears, the tiny screws, the perfectly formed sprockets… only to assemble itself together… by chance.

But DNA is much more complicated than that. Imagine a zipper with four kinds of keys that stretches from here to the moon. All the keys on each side of the zipper must match exactly in order on opposite sides all the way, all 238,000-some-odd miles to make self-replicating cells that support life. Imagine the complexity needed to even bring the smallest organisms of life into existence. That flies in the face of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

As a former Science teacher, I think it is a good idea to have a skeptical outlook where science is concerned. However, one must have a realistic outlook. Science is severely limited, both by our limited senses and by our limited minds. There exists such things as love, as fulfilled prophecy in scripture, as the story of God’s love for man, that science attempts to explain very poorly. Just like creation in the face of ever-expanding entropy.

Some people might explain it mathematically. The smartest man in the world, with an IQ over 200 believes in God, and God’s love towards man. The existence of our Maker seems readily apparent to me.

Which brings me to the astounding, one take story of David Wood. It is violent. Provocative. It takes David’s journey to extremes. It’s also worth the watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb2ggj9mKM0