Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Blame The Atheist?


An essay from the ex-boyfriend of Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham being crammed with ill-informed, ignorant and just plain wrong concepts should be no surprise. The self-righteous posturing of these dubious moralizers gives proof to the idea that no matter how stupid and inaccurate an idea may be, the more it is repeated ad nauseum by writers/pundits the more likely it is to be deemed truth.

The essay I saw recently by Dinesh D'Souza in Christian Science Monitor is a mashup of neo-con buzzwords and idiotic proclamations meant to appeal to thick-skulled xenophobes, that peculiar segment of society who crave desperately for some Bad Evil to blame for every woe of mankind.

A sample:

"
Moreover, many of the conflicts that are counted as "religious wars" were not fought over religion. They were mainly fought over rival claims to territory and power. Can the wars between England and France be called religious wars because the English were Protestants and the French were Catholics? Hardly.

The same is true today. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not, at its core, a religious one. It arises out of a dispute over self-determination and land. Hamas and the extreme orthodox parties in Israel may advance theological claims - "God gave us this land" and so forth - but the conflict would remain essentially the same even without these religious motives
.------
"
Whatever the motives for atheist bloodthirstiness, the indisputable fact is that all the religions of the world put together have in 2,000 years not managed to kill as many people as have been killed in the name of atheism in the past few decades."
------
"It's time to abandon the mindlessly repeated mantra that religious belief has been the greatest source of human conflict and violence. Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history."

D'Souza even has a new book out "The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left And It's Responsibility For 9/11." It isn't religion, he says, it's those damn secular Left Wingers.

But the sheer lunacy and plain mis-construction of history reveals his willful ignorance of facts, and a bizarre, if not fanatical religious devotion to neo-con morality. Clue phone time: if you expect politics to provide moral guidance, you will soon find yourself in a land governed by the objectives of religious war.

His thesis ignores the reality that Europe was racked by political and religious warfare for centuries, with political might obtained by first creating a religious and moral authority to conduct a God-willed warfare. Also ignored are the intent of the founders of this country, who sought to provide a clear and specific wall to prevent religion from being a state-endorsed objective.

History shows that the 17th century American colonies often saw laws demanding adherence to religion on pain of torture, death or exile. Much of the extermination of Native Americans was due to a moral certainty that the religious beliefs of "savages" were reason enough to destroy those peoples, and debate over whether or not to allow for certain Native American religious practices continues to this very day.

D'Souza also claims the warmongering mindset of Hitler, for instance, was that of an atheist. Yet, as noted in White's Creek Journal recently, Hitler proclaimed "
Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press-in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years."

The nonsense of D'Souza's essay is common chorus among so many who bang drums of cultural warfare. It may come as a surprise to some, but Christ teaches in the New Testament that one not attend the "mega-church" but rather gather in small groups in His name.

I noticed again with a frightening regularity this year that so many candidates seeking office felt compelled to include their religious orientation as part of their campaign for federal office. Sadly, none of them seem aware of this section of Article VI of the Constitution:

"
...but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

By all means, attend your church of choice. Be committed to your beliefs. But never confuse the function of government with the function of religion. And be wary of those who seek to combine the two.

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:23 PM

    Do these people even read history? It's obvious to me that they expect everyone to accept what they say as fact. Next they'll be telling us that there is this being that is all powerful and knowing and that we have to do certain things in order to earn our way... oh, wait, they do tell us that.

    Great post! I feel represented.

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  2. Definitely beware those who conflate government of the people and for the people with government of god through a specific religion for the people.

    Obviously, also beware those who may claim that those of any religious persuasion aparts from the preferred model, will not receive the same rights.

    Personally, I think there is going to be some massive problems in the US concerning fundamentalist religious beliefs and their desire for government to reflect their specific religious needs.

    It's not too unlike fundamental islamic countries who claim that all government must reflect their religious beliefs. Or that allah's authority must be the authority of men, and this religious authority must be installed into every aspect of governemnt.

    I wonder if both sides see how similar they are in thi respect?

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  3. BeepBeep -
    thanks most muchly for the visit and hope readers here will venture to your most thoughtful blogworks.
    and personally i thin we already having massive problems in the US due to the presence of fundamentalists intervention into our government, it's just that some chucklehead americans have yet to perceive it.

    please stop by again, BeepBeep!!

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  4. Boo! Don't be skerred fellas. Y'all and America will get by just fine without homosexual marriage and abortion-on-demand.

    And am I to conclude that you are willfully ignoring his thesis that atheism qua secular humanism has killed more people than religion?

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  5. Ned W. -
    not ignoring it - refuting it.

    History and facts show his thesis to be blatantly false.

    Your (sadly real) shock and awe is most often found among neo-cons who feel inadequate if religion and government are not identical.

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  6. Anonymous10:51 AM

    Ned... "Y'all" obviously would not apply to anyone that is homosexual and wanted to get married, or to anyone contemplating an abortion. If any other segment of the population were being told that they could not choose the person to whom they wished to get married, then it would no doubt create a firestorm of controversy and would result in the overturning of any such measures. However, since it seems that the far right neo-cons have to have someone on whom they can unleash their prejudices, then us 'queers' must be an easy mark. Just remember that "y'all" won't be in power forever and next time it might be uneducated rednecks who are not allowed to choose their partners.

    As for atheism/humanism causing more deaths than the struggles over religion, go back and read some history...real history written by scholars that are objective. You will discover that religion has been the driving force in many wars that plagued Europe and the Middle East. And why is it that the most fervent backing of the current conflict in Iraq comes from the most "Christian" segment of the population? All of the people I know that are atheists or hunmanists oppose the conflict and also oppose violence in general.
    Read some history, read the basic tenets of your own faith, and try to form an opinion that is based on your understanding of what you have read and not on what someone else tells you to think.

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  7. Atheists are hated more than gays. We're trusted less than Mexicans. And yet there are like, what, 5 of us left in America? Yeah, we're a force to be reckoned with. Better watch out for the 5 of us, because we're tearing apart the very fabric of society, and we're coming to your town, and we're going to start a war (because that's how we roll)! And we're going to knock up your daughters and force them to get abortions like they do in Saipan (right, Mr. DeLay?)!

    This is all Richard Dawkins' fault. If that damned godless scientist bastard wasn't so stinking reasonable all the time, the snake oil peddlers and theocrats would continue to ignore us as they have done since Madalyn Murray O'Hair got herself murdered. But, no. Dawkins had to go open his big articulate mouth and now it's open season on the godless.

    These idiots have no sense of history, no idea of their own gospel. When John Ashcroft calls pacifism weak, he is calling his Lord and Savior weak. These are the brilliant minds we're dealing with here. Why, at the dawn of a new century, a new millennium, must we find ourselves walking backwards into the darkness of the 1200's? Where the eff are my flying cars??

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  8. Shaking. With. Rage.

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  9. no two ways about it - anyone who agrees with D'Souza's argument (or lack of one) is dumber than a sack of ten-penny nails (which at least have a useful point)

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  10. Anonymous7:30 PM

    "a new book out "The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left And It's Responsibility For 9/11."

    Speaking of 9/11, let’s take a few moments and look at some of the details of that horrible event that precipitated the "war on terror" and around which America’s foreign policy has been inextricably wrapped ever since.

    One thing that struck me as odd in the days after 9/11 was Bush saying "We will not tolerate conspiracy theories [regarding 9/11]". Sure enough there have been some wacky conspiracy theories surrounding the events of that day. The most far-fetched and patently ridiculous one that I've ever heard goes like this: Nineteen hijackers who claimed to be devout Muslims but yet were so un-Muslim as to be getting drunk all the time, doing cocaine and frequenting strip clubs decided to hijack four airliners and fly them into buildings in the northeastern U.S., the area of the country that is the most thick with fighter bases. After leaving a Koran on a barstool at a strip bar after getting shitfaced drunk on the night before, then writing a suicide note/inspirational letter that sounded like it was written by someone with next to no knowledge of Islam, they went to bed and got up the next morning hung over and carried out their devious plan. Nevermind the fact that of the four "pilots" among them there was not a one that could handle a Cessna or a Piper Cub let alone fly a jumbo jet, and the one assigned the most difficult task of all, Hani Hanjour, was so laughably incompetent that he was the worst fake "pilot" of the bunch, with someone who was there when he was attempting to fly a small airplane saying that Hanjour was so clumsy that he was unsure if he had driven a car before. Nevermind the fact that they received very rudimentary flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station, making them more likely to have been C.I.A. assets than Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. So on to the airports after Mohammed Atta supposedly leaves two rental cars at two impossibly far-removed locations. So they hijack all four airliners and at this time passengers on United 93 start making a bunch of cell phone calls from 35,000 feet in the air to tell people what was going on. Nevermind the fact that cell phones wouldn't work very well above 4,000 feet, and wouldn't work at ALL above 8,000 feet. But the conspiracy theorists won't let that fact get in the way of a good fantasy. That is one of the little things you "aren't supposed to think about". Nevermind that one of the callers called his mom and said his first and last name ("Hi mom, this is Mark Bingham"), more like he was reading from a list than calling his own mom. Anyway, when these airliners each deviated from their flight plan and didn't respond to ground control, NORAD would any other time have followed standard operating procedure (and did NOT have to be told by F.A.A. that there were hijackings because they were watching the same events unfold on their own radar) which means fighter jets would be scrambled from the nearest base where they were available on standby within a few minutes, just like every other time when airliners stray off course. But of course on 9/11 this didn't happen, not even close. Somehow these "hijackers" must have used magical powers to cause NORAD to stand down, as ridiculous as this sounds because total inaction from the most high-tech and professional Air Force in the world would be necessary to carry out their tasks. So on the most important day in its history the Air Force was totally worthless. Then they had to make one of the airliners look like a smaller plane, because unknown to them the Naudet brothers had a videocamera to capture the only known footage of the North Tower crash, and this footage shows something that is not at all like a jumbo jet, but didn't have to bother with the South Tower jet disguising itself because that was the one we were "supposed to see". Anyway, as for the Pentagon they had to have Hani Hanjour fly his airliner like it was a fighter plane, making a high G-force corkscrew turn that no real airliner can do, in making its descent to strike the Pentagon. But these "hijackers" wanted to make sure Rumsfeld survived so they went out of their way to hit the farthest point in the building from where Rumsfeld and the top brass are located. And this worked out rather well for the military personnel in the Pentagon, since the side that was hit was the part that was under renovation at the time with few military personnel present compared to construction workers. Still more fortuitous for the Pentagon, the side that was hit had just before 9/11 been structurally reinforced to prevent a large fire there from spreading elsewhere in the building. Awful nice of them to pick that part to hit, huh? Then the airliner vaporized itself into nothing but tiny unidentifiable pieces most no bigger than a fist, unlike the crash of a real airliner when you will be able to see at least some identifiable parts, like crumpled wings, broken tail section etc. Why, Hani Hanjour the terrible pilot flew that airliner so good that even though he hit the Pentagon on the ground floor the engines didn't even drag the ground!! Imagine that!! Though the airliner vaporized itself on impact it only made a tiny 16 foot hole in the building. Amazing. Meanwhile, though the planes hitting the Twin Towers caused fires small enough for the firefighters to be heard on their radios saying "We just need 2 hoses and we can knock this fire down" attesting to the small size of it, somehow they must have used magical powers from beyond the grave to make this morph into a raging inferno capable of making the steel on all forty-seven main support columns (not to mention the over 100 smaller support columns) soften and buckle, then all fail at once. Hmmm. Then still more magic was used to make the building totally defy physics as well as common sense in having the uppermost floors pass through the remainder of the building as quickly, meaning as effortlessly, as falling through air, a feat that without magic could only be done with explosives. Then exactly 30 minutes later the North Tower collapses in precisely the same freefall physics-defying manner. Incredible. Not to mention the fact that both collapsed at a uniform rate too, not slowing down, which also defies physics because as the uppermost floors crash into and through each successive floor beneath them they would shed more and more energy each time, thus slowing itself down. Common sense tells you this is not possible without either the hijackers' magical powers or explosives. To emphasize their telekinetic prowess, later in the day they made a third building, WTC # 7, collapse also at freefall rate though no plane or any major debris hit it. Amazing guys these magical hijackers. But we know it had to be "Muslim hijackers" the conspiracy theorist will tell you because (now don't laugh) one of their passports was "found" a couple days later near Ground Zero, miraculously "surviving" the fire that we were told incinerated planes, passengers and black boxes, and also "survived" the collapse of the building it was in. When common sense tells you if that were true then they should start making buildings and airliners out of heavy paper and plastic so as to be "indestructable" like that magic passport. The hijackers even used their magical powers to bring at least seven of their number back to life, to appear at american embassies outraged at being blamed for 9/11!! BBC reported on that and it is still online. Nevertheless, they also used magical powers to make the american government look like it was covering something up in the aftermath of this, what with the hasty removal of the steel debris and having it driven to ports in trucks with GPS locators on them, to be shipped overseas to China and India to be melted down. When common sense again tells you that this is paradoxical in that if the steel was so unimportant that they didn't bother saving some for analysis but so important as to require GPS locators on the trucks with one driver losing his job because he stopped to get lunch. Hmmmm. Further making themselves look guilty, the Bush administration steadfastly refused for over a year to allow a commission to investigate 9/11 to even be formed, only agreeing to it on the conditions that they get to dictate its scope, meaning it was based on the false pretense of the "official story" being true with no other alternatives allowed to be considered, handpicked all its members making sure the ones picked had vested interests in the truth remaining buried, and with Bush and Cheney only "testifying" together, only for an hour, behind closed doors, with their attorneys present and with their "testimonies" not being recorded by tape or even written down in notes. Yes, this whole story smacks of the utmost idiocy and fantastic far-fetched lying, but it is amazingly enough what some people believe. Even now, five years later, the provably false fairy tale of the "nineteen hijackers" is heard repeated again and again, and is accepted without question by so many Americans. Which is itself a testament to the innate psychological cowardice of the American sheeple, i mean people, and their abject willingness to believe something, ANYTHING, no matter how ridiculous in order to avoid facing a scary uncomfortable truth. Time to wake up America.

    Debunking Popular Mechanics lies:
    http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=6880
    someone else debunking Popular Mechanics crap:
    http://www.serendipity.li/wot/pop_mech/reply_to_popular_mechanics.htm
    still more debunking Poopular Mechanics:
    http://letsroll911.org/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5505
    and still more debunking of Popular Mechanics:
    http://www.reopen911.org/ericreubt.htm

    Poopular Mechanics staff replaced just before laughable “debunking” article written:
    http://www.reopen911.org/hiddenhand.htm
    another neo-con 9/11 hit piece explodes, is retracted:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/180806hitpiece.htm
    Professor Steven Jones debunks the N.I.S.T. “report” as well as the F.E.M.A. one and the 9/11 commission "report":
    http://www.infowars.com/articles/sept11/wtc_buildings_collapse_steven_jones.htm
    N.I.S.T. scientist interviewed:
    http://www.teamliberty.net/id235.html
    F.B.I. says no hard evidence linking Osama bin Laden to 9/11 which is why his wanted poster says nothing about 9/11:
    http://forum.afghansite.com/index.php?showtopic=9349
    Fire Engineering magazine says important questions about the Twin Tower “collapses” still need to be addressed:http://fe.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=OnlineArticles&SubSection=Display&PUBLICATION_ID=25&ARTICLE_ID

    Twin Towers’ construction certifiers say they should have easily withstood it:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2004/121104easilywithstood.htm
    USA Today interview with the last man out of the South Tower, pursued by a fireball:
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/12/19/usat-escape.htm
    Janitor who heard explosions and escaped has testimony ignored by 9/11 whitewash commission:
    http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/ignoring_9-11.html
    Janitor starts speaking out about it and his apartment is burglarized, laptop stolen:
    http://kurtnimmo.blogspot.com/2005/08/apartment-of-nine-eleven-hero-william_28.html
    Firefighters tell of multiple explosions:
    http://www.wnbc.com/news/1315651/detail.html
    Eyewitnesses tell of explosions:
    http://research.amnh.org/users/tyson/essays/TheHorrorTheHorror.html
    Interview with another firefighter telling of explosions:
    http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Banaciski_Richard.txt
    Firefighter saw “sparkles” (strobe lights on detonators?) before “collapse”:
    http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Fitzpatrick_Tom.txt
    Other eyewitnesses talk of seeing/hearing explosions:
    http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/11/more-proof-911-inside-job-witnesses-to.html
    Surviving eyewitnesses talk of multiple explosions there:
    http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/veliz-bombs.htm
    Cutter charge explosions clearly visible:
    http://www.rense.com/general63/cutt.htm
    The pyroclastic cloud (that dust cloud that a second before was concrete) and how it wouldn’t be possible without explosives:
    http://st12.startlogic.com/~xenonpup/physics/
    Detailed description of the demolition of the Twin Towers:
    http://gordonssite.tripod.com/id2.html
    Freefall rate of “collapses” math:
    http://www.911blimp.net/prf_FreeFallPhysics.shtml
    More about their freefall rate “collapses”:
    http://www.serendipity.li/wot/second_wave.htm
    Video footage of the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers:
    http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/video%20archive/
    Video footage of the controlled demolition of WTC # 7 building:
    http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html
    More of WTC # 7 controlled demolition:
    http://www.wtc7.net/
    Naudet brothers' video footage of the North Tower crash:
    http://www.911blimp.net/vid_Naudet.shtml
    Photos of the Pentagon’s lawn (look at these and see if you can tell me with a straight face that a jumbo jet crashed there):
    http://www.911blimp.net/cached/HuntTheBoeing!.htm
    More photos of this amazing lawn at the Pentagon:
    http://cryptogon.com/docs/Introducing%20the%20amazing%20Penta-Lawn%202000!%20(9-11).htm
    Very unconvincing fake “Osama” “confession” tape:
    http://welfarestate.com/wtc/faketape/
    More about the fake “Osama” tape:
    http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osamatape2.html
    Fake “Mohammed Atta” “suicide” letter:
    http://www.welfarestate.com/wtc/fake-letters.txt
    Commercial pilots disagree with “official” 9/11 myth:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/september_11_us_government_accused.htm
    More commercial jet pilots say “official” myth is impossible:
    http://www.masternewmedia.org/2001/10/31/commercial_jet_pilots_analysis_of_the_twin_tower_attack.htm
    Impossibility of cell phone calls from United 93:
    http://www.physics911.net/cellphoneflight93.htm
    More about the impossible cell phone calls:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO408B.html
    Experiment proves cell phone calls were NOT possible from anywhere near the altitude the “official” myth has them at:
    http://physics911.ca/org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9
    Fake Barbara Olson phone call:
    http://www.vialls.com/lies911/lies.htm
    Where the hell was the Air Force?
    http://www.welfarestate.com/wtc/af-scramble.txt
    More about the Air Force impotence question:
    http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0331-11.htm
    Sept. 10th 2001, Pentagon announces it is “missing” $2.3 trillion (now why do you think they picked THAT day to announce it? So it could be buried the next day by 9/11 news):
    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
    Unocal pipeline-through-Afghanistan plan:
    http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0513/p05s01-wosc.html
    Unocal pipeline-through-Afghanistan plan mentioned:
    http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/05/19/OutOfAfghanistan
    More on Unocal Afghan pipeline:
    http://www.newscentralasia.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1031
    The attack on Afghanistan was planned in the summer of 2001, months before 9/11:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm
    Pentagon deliberately misled 9/11 Commission:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=EGG20060802&articleId=2887
    Evidence destruction by authorities and cover-up:
    http://www.flcv.com/coverup.html/
    9/11 whitewash Commission and NORAD day:
    http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/071204_final_fraud.shtml
    The incredible fish tales of the 9/11 Commission examined:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20GR20051213&articleId=1478
    Jeb Bush declares state of emergency 4 days before 9/11 for Florida, saying it will help respond to terrorism:
    http://www.eionews.addr.com/psyops/news/jebknew.htm
    Steel debris removal from Ground Zero, destruction of evidence:
    http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/groundzero/cleanup.html
    Over two hundred incriminating bits of 9/11 evidence shown in the mainstream media:
    http://thewebfairy.com/killtown/911smokingguns.html
    Tracking the “hijackers”:
    http://www.welfarestate.com/911/
    “Hijacker” patsies:
    http://911review.org/Wiki/HijackersPatsies.shtml
    “Hijackers” receiving flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station:
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0208/S00085.htm
    Several accused "hijackers" still alive and well, wondering why they are accused:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1559151.stm
    Yet the F.B.I. insists that the people it claims were the "hijackers" really were the "hijackers":
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/fbi_denies_mix_up_of_911_terrorists.htm
    No Arabs on Flight 77:
    http://www.sierratimes.com/03/07/02/article_tro.htm
    Thirty experts say “official” 9/11 myth impossible:
    http://911fraud.blogspot.com/2005/06/us-governments-offical-911-story-is.html
    “Al Qaeda” website tracks back to Maryland:
    http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/alqmaryland.html
    Al Qaeda videos uploaded from U.S. government website:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2004/140704governmentwebsite.htm
    Operation: Northwoods, a plan for a false-flag “terror” attack to be blamed on Castro to use it as a pretext for America to invade Cuba, thankfully not approved by Kennedy back in 1962 but was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and sent to his desk:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/us_terror_plan_cuba_invasion_pretext.html

    ReplyDelete
  11. Elightenment --

    fascinating collection of ideas and links and i appreciate you spending the time to include them here. some i have read, some i have not.

    one of the more troubling aspects of events of that day is the destruction of building WTC 7 in the indentical way of the Towers, even though they were not struck by any plane or debris enough to cause the building to implode. the 9-11 Commission held no investigation of that event.

    much to ponder. thanks again for reading and sharing your thoughts!

    ReplyDelete