Though I've been a complete and unapologetic atheist since I was 12, I'd rather have one million people who think like Chris Hedges, than one Christopher Hitchens with power on this planet. I don't know what the hell happened to Hitchens' once-lucid brain. Was it booze, not enough fame, creeping obesity? Hard to believe that this is the same person who wrote a scathing (and factual) book on the crimes of Henry Kissinger, but who now praises Bush and Cheney's Iraq Disaster? The man has gone completely around the bend. In his wrinkled and too-snug white suit and open shirt, he …
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Marta
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mlwmohawk You make many excellent points, which I completely agree with. However, we must be careful not to appear condescending to Theists--at least the one we want as friends. My own mother ( an otherwise intelligent, educated person) had the audacity to tell me" "Of course you believe in god! You just don't realize it." That kind of patronizing attitude makes enemies, and I want to keep my Theist friends. I just don't discuss religion with them. Spirituality, yes, but not religion. In my ideal world, there would be no religion, and spirituality would be based on ethics and common sense. …
Posted to Atheism’s Unholy Trinity
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mlwmohawk Zeus=God Jesus= Dionysus, Horus, Osiris, Virgin Mary= Isis, Venus, Athena And so on, in every culture, and with the ages, each one builds on the earlier. I find it fascinating, from an anthropological point of view. Easter Bunny is not a "god,” but a fertility figure, but I get your point, and I agree with what you are saying But one cannot put Bishop Tutu, MLK, Dali Lama and Gandhi in the same basket as those money-grubbing narrow-minded leeches like Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, the pope, Sai Baba, Rev. Hagee, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, George Bush, televangelists etc, who basically do …
Posted to Atheism’s Unholy Trinity
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mlwmohawk I wish education and science were the cure for the need for religion, but I don't think that's the case. I think it's much more complex than that. There are many educated people who are religious and there are many uneducated but thinking people who are Atheists. My entire family received a good education with an emphasis on science, as there are many who are in the medical field. However with the exception of one brother and me, they are all Catholic (in their defense they all believe in Evolution) but they go to Church and speak of God as …
Posted to Atheism’s Unholy Trinity
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mlwmohawk Today's NEW SCIENTIST has an interesting article which relates to this discussion. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13983 Religion is a product of evolution, software suggests God may work in mysterious ways, but a simple computer program may explain how religion evolved By distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will flourish. However, religion only takes hold if non-believers help believers out – perhaps because they are impressed by their devotion. [NOTE from Marta: NOW, that's a SCARY thought!] "If a person is willing to sacrifice for an abstract god then people feel like they …
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notabilia Atheist bashing on this forum? I'm an atheist, and have not felt that. Hedges is an excellent writer haunted by what he witnessed in Serbia, Iraq, Central America and other areas of death and destruction on this sad planet of ours. He's not blaming Atheism for these wars, far from it. War is about acquisition, and religion is the prefect mask to hide the evil as the predators murder and pillage. His gripe is not with Atheists, or even Atheism, but with people like Chris Hitchens-- not because Hitchens is an Atheist, but because Hitchens has become a Super Hawk …
Posted to Atheism’s Unholy Trinity
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mlwmohawk Absolutely NO argument there. It sent a chill down my spine when I heard that Republican Presidential candidates Huckabee, Brownback and Tancredo had said they did NOT believe in Evolution. We are the most militarily powerful country in the world, yet 3 candidates and the majority of the US population are back in the Dark Ages. They don't believe in Evolution, but they believe in Astrology. I'd say we have a dangerous problem.
Posted to Atheism’s Unholy Trinity
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Sounds like Nevada Ned has done his research, and my hope for a Liberal Jewish lobby that counteracts AIPAC is not yet here. However, I disagree with opeluboy. There are MANY American Jews (in addition to Israeli Jews) who DO "give a fuck" about Palestinians, and who are sickened by the fascist policies of the Israeli government. To assume all Jews think the same is as offensive as saying that all Muslims, women, Black people or Latinos think the same. And it leads to more hatred and paranoia on all sides. PEACE NOW!
Posted to New Jewish Lobby Counters Neocons
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opeluboy Off the top of my head, these two came to mind. Did you see Steven Spielberg's MUNICH? Have you read any of Noam Chomsky's books? Both have been called "self-hating Jews" by the Right-wing, and had many death threats, so other artists and writers are more subtle, but they do work behind the scenes. I generally don't know the ethnicity and/or religion of politicians. I know Lieberman (a Jew) is an AIPAC whore, but so are McCain & Hillary and neither are Jewish.
Posted to New Jewish Lobby Counters Neocons
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opeluboy Adam Sandler??? Larry King??? Well, if you wait for those two, you might as well wait for the entire Likkud party to endorse a Palestinian State, and donate a few billion dollars to Islamic madrassas. Don't know anything about Seinfeld's politics--he seems like a nice enough person, but totally disinterested in anything but himself and his "toys" As far as Jon Stewart, uhmm. I'd like to think he was more open minded than what you say, as I think he is truly brilliant and very politically aware, but he was one of the many that misquoted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (The famous …
Posted to New Jewish Lobby Counters Neocons
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opeluboy I don't think we disagree that much. Many more Jews oppose a Palestinian state than ones who not only want one, but actively work toward it. I have no hope that Streisand or Woody Allen would change, but I'd like to think Lewis Black would. I didn't know Stewart was Zionist (in the negative sense). That's too bad Have you heard of Israeli-born historian Dr. Ilan Pappé? If you haven't check him out. His parents were German refugees of the Holocaust, but he's so radical, he makes Chomsky look centrist by comparison. So much so, that he had to leave …
Posted to New Jewish Lobby Counters Neocons
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evanj I don't consider "radical" a negative word, like "extremist", which has the connotation of spousing violence For me, a radical is a person whose beliefs vary radically from those of the current norm. I'm a radical, but certainly not an extremist. Yeah, Benny Morris is quite a creep isn't he? For him to say that he still considers himself on the Left, but that sometimes Ethnic Cleansing is necessary??? WTF? Left as in "Stalin Left", obviously. Makes my head spin
Posted to New Jewish Lobby Counters Neocons
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