The Unreasonable Man

The new normal: no more depictions of the prophet Muhammad unless you want to be threatened with death.

BBC has the story here of how South Park’s makers are now being threatened, and had to remove Muhammad from their cartoon.

And why do we tolerate this? We should not give religion the time of day. Unfortunately, it seem we cave in too easily because we seem to give religion some special status. Like it’s true or something.

It’s perfectly OK to be religious. It is NOT ok for you to force that religion and its taboos and rules upon others.

Excellent article on that, here:

http://www.heraldscotland.com

Well said. Articulate and right.

Tonight, I feel energized by watching Bill Maher on HBO, saying the things I think. He is funny, irreverent, honest and intelligent.And he gets away with saying things 100 times more bluntly than I ever will!

Now CNN is asking some preacher where God is in Haiti.

And then they nod understandingly and appreciatively when the cleric waffles about how God is in us, etc., and they thank him profusely (and, it seems to me, sycophantically) for those “important thoughts”. (or some such words).

I’m not sure why I even watch any American media outlets.

Just drove by this. Waiting for the coffin bringing home another 23-year old dead soldier, killed by stupid, intolerant, medieval people who are kept stupid and medieval by their belief in an imaginary space god. Another kid who will never have a family.

And why do we tolerate this? Believing in space gods is wacko but OK. But killing in the imaginary deity’s name is not. Blasphemy should be made mandatory.

I mean, I don’t get it. Criticizing people who believe in “Homeopathy” or “Magnetic healing” (or magnetic bracelets) is OK, but criticizing those who believe in their right to tell me what to do because of their imaginary space gods is not?

…at the religious idiots who carried out the 9/11 attacks, when you look at the terrible images. As usual, The Big Image has excellent -big- images.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/remembering_september_11th.html

You all know I think religion is the greatest evil in the world. I’ll stand by that. Name me a bigger one, that makes people suspend all feeling and kill-kill-kill, and “know” that they are right and I am wrong. Becasue of some imaginary 5000-year old space God.

Nationalism is number two evil.

Both these are used by cynical leaders, of course, for their own purposes. And it’s easy: invoke God or “your country” and people will willingly go kill other people at your command. Gross.

61% of Americans will not “admit” to “believing in” evolution: Gallup poll

Perhaps that’s why a Darwin film cannot yet find a US distributor: link.

Laughably primitive.

….is explaining things in a simple manner. Like Einstein, in hois 1905 paper on the electrodynamics of moving bodies, linked here. That is the special relativity paper, and it is amazingly clear. A recent series of Berkeley “history of science” lectures that I listened to in the car last week clarified a few more things, making it even more interesting than it was before. Einstein had a great gift for putting things simply.

The BBC USA correspondent, who left the USA recently after seven years, compared the US (which, like me, he likes) to sometimes seeing like “merely an eating contest”. He also pointed out the “medieaval superstitions” the US suffers from.

One example of such superstitions here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8180116.stm

Sigh! What a waste of energy.

Surely you have to think that of the Taliban. Bearded God-idiots who kill pretty young people like Karine Blais, the 21-year old soldier who was killed by a roadside bomb the other day in godforsaken Kandahar. I was on eth 401 highway today as her body was being repatriated.

Yes, these bearded Taliban morons are monsters. Years ago when the Taliban were forcing women to die in the desert rather than see a doctor (which was forbidden), I was already saying “nuke ‘em”. I am all for cultural relativism, but for years I have thought that these people do not deserve to be included. There is no relativism here. Nazis bad, Spanish inquisition bad, Pol Pot bad, Mao Tse Tung bad, Homeopathy bad, UK Nannytoritarian Government bad, Taliban bad.

(Do you like my little UK snide there?)

Anyway - we should all stand up and say “anyone who says that he knows God and that God has told him to do cruel things and that he is the only one who knows what God wants” is a moron who does not deserve a second thought. Unfortunately, that includes most religious people, by the very definition of religion.