Atheists: Religion a "virus" that must be "cured"

Reading a letter this morning from a Christian ministry that we support, and it was relating a portion of an interview on the BBC between atheist Daniel Dennet and host Stephen Sackur:

SACKUR:  It seems to me you posit the idea that religions are evolving.  That, in essence, they're evolving in a way which is going to leave them extinct.  They are no longer necessary or useful for human beings.  Am I right?

DENNETT:  Well, first of all, even if they're no longer necessary or useful, they might not go extinct.  The common cold is not necessary or useful; it's not going extinct, is it?

SACKUR: Richard Dawkins talks of religion in a way -- to think of it almost like a virus.

DENNETT: That's why I used that example.  There are lots of symbiotes, lots of parasites and viruses and bacteria that thrive on us and other species, and some of them are very useful to us.  We couldn't live without them.  The flora in our guts, for instance.  We couldn't digest our food without it.  Some are just along for the ride, they don't hurt.  And a few of them -- a small minority -- are really harmful. They're bad for us.

SACKUR: And in that sense, in the intellectual sense, in the idea sense, religion is bad for us, and therefore we need a cure.  Is that what you're saying?

DENNETT:  A cure... yes, yes indeed, I think a lot of people are really afflicted by their religion, and I would love to see them cured.

And just for reference, here is a quote from Richard Dawkins in 2006 to which they are perhaps referring:  "Let me explain why; when it comes to children, I think of religion as a dangerous virus.  It's a virus which is transmitted partly through teachers and clergy, but also down the generations from parent to child to grandchild.  Children are especially vulnerable to infection by the virus of religion."

So, let me get this straight - these leading atheist leaders are the bright, shining pathway to a glorious future of humanity, and anyone who gets in their way is a virus that needs a good shot of the penicillin of atheism to cure them (or kill them off).

Before we get too caught up in the wonderfulness of atheism and it's potential to bring humanity to a new and brighter future, let me remind my readers of the history of atheism in the last century or so:

• Soviet Union (Lenin, Stalin, and their successors)
• Nazi Germany (Adolph Hitler)
• Facist Italy (Benito Mussolini)
• Red China (Chairman Mao)
• Cambodia (Pol Pot)
• Viet Nam (Ho Chi Minh)
• North Korea (three generations of Kim)
• Cuba (the Castro's, not to mention Che Guevara, who is dead)
• A host of other lesser lights like Ceausescu, Amin, Chavez, and Mugabe.

What is the common thread of these regimes?  Atheism.  Most are Marxist, but some have their own "denominations" of atheism.  We should ask the hundreds of millions of people murdered by these regimes if atheism was a shining path to the future for them.  Ask them if they would recommend these atheistic systems for a society looking to improve itself.  Ask them if atheism improved their lives.  Friends, we know the answer to those questions - those atheists brought nothing but slavery, misery, poverty, and death.  That is the end of atheism in all it's forms.

Frankly, you see where the current crop are going in the dismissive way that Dawkins and Dennett look at religion and religious people.  They are a problem to be gotten rid of.  Re-educated if possible, but gotten rid of as an infestation like they were a bunch of termites.  We see the characteristic thinking of all those on my list in these these men - willing to kill those who don't think like they do.  And make no mistake - if they are in power they will kill you if you don't convert to their atheism.

Now, the atheists will take my remarks here and point to the religious wars of history and say "see - you're just as bad!"  Take Jillian Becker, atheist and contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph, who wrote in 2012:  "Has anything caused as much human suffering as religion?  You might say disease, but religion itself is a disease, of the human race and of individual minds.  Persecution, war, torture, terror, bodily pain, mental anguish, profound misery, wasted lives are the chief products of religion."

Ms. Becker - I answer emphatically: YES - ATHEISM!  See my list above for examples.

Have there been religious wars?  Yes, absolutely. Atheists like to point to the Crusades as a major case in point, and the standard line is that the Christians made war on the muslims for religious reasons.  Well, the truth is, the Crusades were a response to the Islamic expansions into Southern and Eastern Europe, and to the slaughter of Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land (after many years of peaceful co-existence).  Many myths have been promulgated over the last century as to the reasons for the Crusades, which we are now finding to be false.  Myths like a population explosion in Europe and needing more land for all those children, or non-firstborn sons who would not inherit family lands being the ones to go on the Crusade, or even that it was as much against the Jews as it was against the muslims.

But let's say all the myths are actually true.  Let's say that it was everything that standard history says it was, and more.  Let me then ask this question:  has this mindset continued through to today?  Do we see Christian armies plundering and pillaging and laying seige and taking over? Let's expand it and ask the same question about Buddhist or Jewish or even Scientologist armies doing that?  Have we seen that over the last hundred years?  200?  300?  (and if you say George W. Bush I'm going to smack you because you know that isn't true!)

One could say that in a sense Stephen Sackur was right when he said that religions are evolving - at least some of them are.  Evolving to the point were they are more interested in establishing and maintaining peaceful relationships with other countries and even other religions than they are conquering and ruling over them.  But somehow this is a bad thing in the eyes of atheists.  It's a virus that has to be cured.

I have tried to use neutral terms such as "religion", or give a list of religions as examples, rather than to focus on one specific religion.  However, I think Jesus has something to say on this issue:

"For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
(Luke 6:43-45)

If we are honest, I think we have to look at the world and at history, and judge the fruit of these different systems.  Which ones have produced good fruit?  Which ones have produced bad fruit?

On the whole, I don't think there is any question where the atheists fall on that scale.

Ultimately, this argument is about truth.  Is there such a thing as truth?  If so who or what defines it?  And where does your truth lead you, in terms of how you view the world and the people in it?

Where do you think atheism lands in that discussion?  What fruit has it produced?  Has it evolved to the better?

The Boston Massacre

The big media outlets seem to be dubbing last weeks bombing at the Boston Marathon "The Boston Massacre". I have to say that while the term massacre may possibly be technically correct, the real Boston Massacre was about free men defending themselves from a tyrannical government, not attempting to slaughter innocents.

This is why I have a problem with the term Boston Massacre being applied to this event. It somehow equates an act of murder by two cowards with heroic resistance to tyranny.

Frankly, I see no equivalence whatsoever.

"Marathon Bombing" is a much better term.

Another Detroit sports legend hangs 'em up.

First it was Steve Yzerman.  Then Nicklas Lidstrom.

Now, it's Jason Hanson.

Hanson announced his retirement today after 21 seasons as the placekicker for the Detroit Lions.  Hanson was a model of consistency and excellence on a team that has had little of either in the last 30 years.

Here is the Detroit News article on his decision and his career.

Thanks, Jason, for your class and for being the one Lion you could always count on.

Behind the scenes of John 3:16

This is from a somewhat surprising source - a movie review of "Olympus has Fallen" on WND.com by Drew Zahn, entitled "How could a loving God create hell?  Original here. 

A pivotal scene in the film, however, prompted me – as it will many in its audience – to ask a question of significance: “What would I do if I were in that one character’s shoes?”

My answer to the question led me further to an epiphany about God, about Christ and about the creation of a place none of us would ever wish to truly ponder, a place called “hell.”

In this pivotal scene – and I surrender no spoiler in discussing it in these terms – the president of the United States is threatened with the prospect of watching his son be tortured or killed. The movie’s villain hopes plying the president’s love for his son will extract from the commander-in-chief a code that can be used to wreak mass destruction on a global scale. The choice threatened: to watch his son be tortured or watch the world burn.

What a brutal choice for a father to face.

Yet what would I, the father of sons and daughters, do in this character’s place? What would I say to my son if he were placed upon the terrorist’s torture block, knowing that negotiating for my son’s life would mean surrendering the lives of millions?

I sat in the parking lot after the film and pondered the question.

Yet it didn’t take long for me to come to an answer. Perhaps my answer would be different in the heat of the moment. I don’t pretend to think I’d have this clarity when my son’s screams were ringing in my ears, but in the stillness of a darkened car in a darkened parking lot, the answer came to me.

What would I say to my son?

“My son,” I heard myself saying, “I love you, and I’m sorry, but remember John 3:16. I am the father, and you are my son, and I love you.”

John 3:16: “For [the Father] so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son …”

The answer settled in my soul – painful, agonizing, but right in my heart. I would not spare my son if it meant the death of millions of other sons.

But I can tell you this much: With the sound of my son’s agony resounding in my mind, I would remember every blow, every howl, every scream. And if I somehow made it out of that situation alive, president or no, if I caught that terrorist who tortured my son, no law, no badge, no gun, no force on earth would shield that man from the full measure of my wrath, burning and heaped down upon his head for all eternity.

And with that thought, I suddenly understood hell.

For the Father did seek to save the world, and the price was the brutal torture and death of His Son at the hands of men.

If God is a God of love, and He loves His Son, then we men, above all, have sound and good reason to fear the Father’s eternal wrath. It could not be otherwise and God to be a God of love.

And in that fury, that imagined rage I felt for briefest moment, I asked myself, what would satisfy my wrath? What would stay this father’s hand from a vengeance most fierce and horrible?

One thing. Only one thing. If my son, somehow brought back to life, were to say to me, “It’s OK, Dad. This one is with me. I forgive him.”

Then, and only then, would that man escape my wrath.

According to Scripture, we are the torturers, the terrorists, the brutal slayers of the Son of God, and the Father’s wrath is in store for us. Not just for those that lived in Jesus’ day, but for the whole of humanity.

Yet so magnificent is the love of Christ for his enemies that He said, “Father, forgive them.”
Somehow, Christ, come back to life, is willing to say to His Father, “It’s OK, Dad. This one is with me. I forgive him.”

The question is, of course, are you with the Son? Have you placed your only hope of salvation in His intercession on your behalf before His Father? Or do you persist in torturing Him?

One great big reason "The Sequester" should happen

From The Washington Post:  Sequester might ground lawmakers

Forget threats of furloughed workers or reduced security at embassies.
Here’s what might be the most powerful incentive yet for members of Congress to come up with a deal to avert the sequester: the head of the Air Force today warned that the spending cuts that will go into effect March 1 could cause the military to eliminate those lovely miljet flights that lawmakers enjoy.

The Shekel - Coins, Law and Commentary: Democrat Cognitive Dissonance On Women And Guns

My friend Aaron over at The Shekel nails the utter foolishness of the biggest gun controllers in Washington:

The Shekel - Coins, Law and Commentary: Democrat Cognitive Dissonance On Women And Guns

Suzanna Hupp testifies again before Congress

Yesterday, Suzanna Hupp testified before Congress on the effects of gun control laws.  This testimony is as moving today as it was in the early 90's when she did it the first time, telling Congress her firsthand account of the Luby's Massacre where the gunman killed both her parents.

I link to the Website of Jews for the Protection of Firearms Ownership, which has conveniently put videos of both testimonies together for your viewing.
http://jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/movieplay-hupp-congress-swf.htm

I'm probably preaching to the choir, but perhaps someone will stumble across this blog and see these videos of the true impact of gun control and understand how evil and despicable it is to take the right to self defense away from free men and women.

Perhaps even Colorado Rep. Joe Salazar will see this testimony and realize that his idea of women who are about to be raped would be better served by blowing whistles than blowing the brains out of their attacker is perhaps...silly.

I Just have to say it...

Spank!

MSU 75, UM 52

Dear Sen. Feinstein

Setting aside for a moment the fact the Bill of Rights is about rights, not needs, this gentleman answers the question quite directly from his own experience:

A Jew Without a Gun, by Robert J Avrech

Not that the Congress will listen to actual, you know, logic and reason.

Tiananmen Square Survivor reacts to Obama Gun Restrictions

Well, if folks won't believe me when I talk about what the 2nd Amendment means, maybe they'll listen to this gentleman, who has some up-close and personal experience with tyrannical government - Red China.

Musical Interlude #1

This is terrific!

And this one too!

http:\\thepianoguys.com

New Arrest in the War on Terror

A teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, the Attorney General Eric Holder said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

‘”Al-Gebra is a problem for us,” the Attorney General said. “They derive solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values.” They use secret code names like ‘X’ and ‘Y’ and refer to themselves as “unknowns”, but we have determined that they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, ‘There are 3 sides to every triangle’.

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Obama said, “If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, he would have given us more fingers and toes.” White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the President. It is believed that the Nobel Prize for Physics will follow.





http://www.commonsenseevaluation.com/2010/02/15/the-al-gebra-movement/

Republicans Cave

Why do we even differentiate between Republicans and Democrats any more?  They are all the same.  There isn't a dime's worth of difference between them, as evidenced by their total collapse in passing the bills to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff".

There is no principle in the Republican party any more.  They have given the President everything he wanted, and will drive us even more deeply into financial ruin.  Why does the Republican party exist any more - they only do the bidding of the Democrats.  Even when they had the majority, they couldn't do anything with it.  Except be Democrats.

Ban Hammers!!

The Detroit News ran a story today about an Oakland county man who was attacked while he slept by his 19 year old son, who used a two pound hammer to inflict skull fractures and other broken bones.

In keeping with the lessons coming from Dianne Feinstein and her colleagues in the Senate, it is obvious what we must do to stop these senseless hammer crimes. We have to ban these evil devices which have no legitimate purpose. No civilian needs a two pound hammer - no one needs more than a one ounce hammer. And we need to register those one pounders so if they are used in a crime we can track them. Oh, and when you die your estate has to return them to the government for disposal

Sounds pretty silly doesn't it? Well, that's the "logic" of gun banners.

The First Amendment is already under attack

On Saturday I posed the question about the relative importance of the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution, and how the political left is all about the First but not the Second.

Well, as WND.com reminds us today in this article, the left has been attacking the First Amendment since the 2009 passage of Obamacare.

The article reminds us that the free speech rights of the First Amendment have already been compromised by this law, which imposes abortion and contraceptive coverage on all, including those business owners who have deep moral and religious convictions against such practices.  So these business owners are forced to choose between their convictions and bankruptcy, due to the fines imposed by Obamacare.

Friends, the government is not the benevolent force for good that you are expected to believe they are - they are malevolent, always seeking to expand their control over every thing and every one.  Every American MUST fight against these control freaks and their incessant attacks against the rights of free men and women.  The Constitution is the only thing that stands between you and these totalitarian utopianists, and they are trying to get rid of it one Amendment at a time.