Changes

I have recently undergone some big changes in my life that have made a big impact on who I am. I have transitioned into the middle ground, and now am Agnostic. I am also less aggressive towards others on political/religious topics, for I feel that only by taking time to understand a person's reasons for their views will we ever be able to find common ground and compromise. I have also found a creative outlet in which to voice my opinion and to teach others. Through filmmaking, I envision that I may be able to send across messages that can help make a better and more productive society. I have finally gained enough confidence to start pursuing my goals, be creative, and possibly connect more with friends. Which brings me to the last topic, of who I am. Who I am is not yet relevant to public knowledge, for at the present time, I am just a man on a journey of self-discovery. Mark Staco isn't a person, a pen name, or even me. Mark Staco is an idea. An idea to voice out who you are inside, to not be afraid of the public, to find who you really are. Mark Staco is a symbol. A symbol of how we must reach our lowest before we can ever hope to obtain our best. To me, Mark Staco is among the first stones on my pathway of life, proof that when I put my mind 100 percent on something, I can fully acheive what I set out to do. For all the love and support, I would like to thank the amazing communities I have met over this project, for you have gotten me through a very difficult yet vital period of time in my life. Stay strong, and never give up on yourselves, for sometimes that extra 10% is all you need.

Life: A Philosophy

In life, we are fated to meet our destiny. This destiny is unchanging because we can not predict it. Any attempt to change our destiny is in affect actually creating it. If you attempt to change destiny by making an opposing choice, you are in fact fulfilling your destiny to make that opposing choice. Destiny is based on the choices we make. If we our headed towards destiny, our opinions are unchanging. If we are not yet in the right direction, are opinions will be altered as necessary. Every decision we make influences our destiny, and our destiny in turn influences every decision we make. Every moment in our lives is a guide. This guide leads us to the path that leads us toward our destiny. Everything is set in stone. Control is an illusion, for we control nothing yet everything. We make decisions that create our destiny, but our destiny has already required us to make those choices to meet it. Time is an unending cycle where everything is possible but only one thing will happen. Good and Evil are two sides of the same coin, so Evil can never be destroyed and Good can never overcome Evil. Every force has an opposite. They are equal, they are the same, and they exist to create a whole. Where there is one, there is the other. Destroy one, the other ceases to exist. Without them, life is just an existence. With them, we find our purpose.  We all have a purpose to fulfill, even if that purpose is to not have a purpose. The goal is not to know your purpose, know the future, or to attempt to change the unchangeable. The goal is to know yourself, and to understand why we have made the choices we make. In the end, every choice we have made has lead us here, and us being here will lead us closer to our destiny. The path is in front of us, and it may be difficult, but it is our path, and it is ours alone. Know Thyself and you will know all that is necessary to know.

Self Dependency

In society, dependency is a very important aspect of living, and there is many ways to do it wrong. If your social, you may mostly depend on people. This isn't a bad thing, but people are fallible and mortal beings that from time to time tend to move to another location. If your religious, you may depend on God. I myself used to do this. The issue with that, besides the fact that praying feels like talking to yourself (and if you ask me, it probably is), is that God has the same return rate on prayers as wishing does. The other problem is that like wishing, YOU ARE essentially DOING NOTHING. If you base your life on a system that hopes for things to magically happen on their own, you are going to be disappointed (and without a house, food, clothes, and everything else). If you want something done in life, the best thing to depend on is YOURSELF. You, unlike other people or God/wishing can set priorities, put in extra effort, and actually get a job done. That's what is more revered in life anyway. People don't really care about how your life was handed to you by someone else, but how you put in the effort to make it yourself, because inside, we all want to be self-dependent.

Under Oath

Why do we use a Religious Holy Book in governmental processes. Isn't church and state supposed to remain separate? Plus, if your not a Christian, you could be swearing on a Harry Potter book and it would feel the same way. Plus, what's the point of the swear anyway. Your telling someone to tell the truth so help them god, yet if their not religious, it's not going to increase their odds of telling the truth. Why don't they just say "Your under oath and lying is against the law." And if they need a book for historical tradition, why not use the Constitution. This is, in fact, a court of LAW you know.

Answers

I find the major issue I've encountered in my mental transformation is that people are always looking for a specific way of living that has all the answers. The honest truth is, no one has all the answers. There is no book you can buy, no speech nor sermon written, no thought ever conjured up that could even begin to create a righteous pathway for every human being on this planet. What's worse is that every group that believes it has all the answers will look at any opposing groups and claim their value is severely lessened because they don't have the answers to every single question ever made. And instead of saying that we can't know everything, people will attempt to increase the value of their beliefs by being apologetic and "creating" ways that they can justify them. People as a whole have become mindless slaves of ignorance and hypocrisy. Only by acknowledging the possibility of our wrongness can we truly find the reality of our rightness.

Our Abandoning Father

Let's talk for a second as though the god from the Judaic Christian Islamic religions is real. This character is often referred to as our heavenly father, so will look at him like humanities father figure. A father that was out of the picture before we are born, pays child support on his own terms, sends us mixed messages on the proper way to live life, and happens to show up many years later to judge us on our lives. What a great example of paternal excellency. Come to think of it, there are a lot of religious families based on the values of white trash. My point is, if you want to find examples of a mentally and physically abusive taskmaster of a dad, you don't have to go much farther than the Holy Books of the big 3 religions. So the next time someone tells us the importance of family values with religion, feel free to look up with a smile and remind them of the great example provided by Our Abandoning Father.

Death Penalty and Religion

I have recently noticed that their are a large number of religious individuals that support the death penalty. I have an interesting explanation for this. A majority of these people believe that god is the highest judge of the land, and you get judged when you die. I feel some religious people may feel that if someone committed atrocious crimes, giving them death will send them straight to final judgement, where they will be punished. The flaw with this is that if there is no afterlife, you are sparing these people from the alternative, life in prison and possible rehabilitation. Basically, you spare these people from the opportunity of punishment and improvement.  I imagine a time where prisons are unnecessary and everyone helps others out. Is this a pipe dream.......probably. But it's a nice one. Till then however, I don't feel unnecessary death is a positive thing.