Political and Religious Musings

Sunday night was the Fox Debates and they were probably Mitt Romney's finest moment so far. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to turn that performance into votes.

I found that Mike Huckabee said something really interesting in the debate while talking about immigration. Here's a quote:

"And I know I’m going to be questioned, do I still stand by that idea that we treat the children differently, who didn’t commit acrime? And let me just be very clear, yes, I do stand beside that,because I don’t think you punish a child for what a parent did." Mike Huckabee answering a question on immigration from Chris Wallace during the Fox Debate on January 6, 2008 (link to transcript: http://thepage.time.com/fox-news-forum-transcript/

"...because I don't think you punish a child for what a parent did." I thought about this commnent for a long time because I was always under the impression that LDS theology was the only Christian based theology that rejected the concept of original sin. In fact our second Article of Faith reads:

2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. http://scriptures.lds.org/a_of_f/1/1-13#1

Am I mistaken that Baptists believe in original sin? I found this quote on the internet, so who knows how reliable it is:

Man and Original Sin
"About “man” the SBC (Southern Baptist
Convention) teaches that “Man is the special creation of God, made in
his own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His
creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.
In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with
freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin
into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man
transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence
whereby his posterity inherit a nature and environment inclined toward
sin.” http://www.orlutheran.com/html/baptist.html"

So if I get it right, Huckabee the Baptist believes in original sin and that we all suffer for Adam's transgression, but Huckabee the Governor believes the children of illegals should not be punished for the crimes of their parents. Likewise, Romney the Mormon believes that we are to be punished for our own sins, and not Adam's transgression, but Romney the Governor believes that children of illegal immigrants are also illegal immigrants and should be punished accordingly.

Isn't this an interesting paradox? It reminds me of the bizarro Seinfield episode where the gang encountered another gang who all looked and acted the opposite of them.

Speaking of interesting paradoxes, remember this one?:

Zeno's Paradox
In order for a person to cross a room, that person must first cross the halfway point of the room. In order to reach the halfway point, the person must first reach the midpoint between the origin of the walk and the halfway point. And to reach halfway to the halfway point, the person must cross the halfway to the halfway to the halfway point.

Zeno argued that the process could be continued forever. The gist of the argument is that in order to reach the other side of the room, an infinite number of points must be crossed. And logic tells us that an infinite number of points cannot be crossed in a finite period of time. Therefore, it is impossible to cross a room.

So how are you going to get your ice cream tonight?

Dutkiewicz