Atheism and religion inthe news VIII

Zombie's picture

Hello all once again. Thanks for all the nice PMs you have been sending me.

I want to make a point regarding non-American news sources. First off, people who live in America don’t usually realize how dominant their culture has become across the world. Because of that people who live outside of America usually know a lot more about America than Americans know about the outside world. Second, foreign media tends to be a lot more critical about America than what most yanks read for two reasons; America is the worlds only superpower, other nations feel bullied at times and they enjoy hearing stories that take America down a peg or two. The other reason is much more simple, by criticizing America, they don't have to examine themselves critically. E.g. Come to Canada some time and call Bush a war criminal or say that the Vietnam war was wrong/immoral and most Canadians will agree with you. Try mentioning that Canada, while denouncing that war officially, made tons of money selling military supplies and raw materials for the same during the entire period. If you think Bush is a war criminal, look at Lester B. Pearson (Canadian prime minister during the second world war) and you'd have to come to the same conclusion probably.

I just want Americans to understand that by posting some of the links I have, that I wasn't attacking America in particular. Every country has things in its history or what its currently doing that are shameful. America just gets a lot more attention because they are so powerful and their influence so widespread.

Anyway, on to the news of the day.

An atheist blogger visits a church and reports on what he saw.

This quote pretty much sums it up.

Quote:
On my drive home it was all I could do to not despair or grieve for the future of humanity.

Link

Kellym78 of the RRS rips D’Sousa a new one.

Probally a bit incestuous to link to another blog on this site to mine, but I liked this article. J

Quote:
Ultimately, D'Souza is doing nothing more than belated damage control for his belief of choice. In order to achieve that, he uses deception and rhetorical ploys. Apparently Dinesh hasn't discovered that repeating lies to a crowd of bobble-headed lemmings will not make any of this rubbish less ridiculous. What I will do, given the fact that I am not an outright liar, is not deny that christians were involved in the abolitionist movement. There were many. There were atheists and freethinkers as well. For him to pretend that it was all because of the Jesus worshippers, while the atheists "stood by and watched," is nothing short of blatant dishonesty. I honestly pity anybody who believes this load of drivel, and any newspaper that prints it should be relegated to the tabloid section.

Link

Iraq War Fuels Global Jihad

For a different point of view on the Iraq war.

Quote:
Ordinary Muslims, not just Islamists and jihadists, view the “war on terror” as a war against their religion and values. Many Muslims who had initially condemned Al Qaeda and 9/11 are having second thoughts about bin Laden’s fight against the Americans and their allies. Bin Laden has gained credibility in their eyes. “Now he is defending the Ummah,” confided a young rising poet, Massoud Hamed.

Link


Goodspeak arrives in England

No, I'm not explaining that literary reference.

Quote:
"Ministers have adopted a new language for declarations on Islamic terrorism. In future, fanatics will be referred to as pursuing "anti-Islamic activity". Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam.

Link

Christian Evangelical has an interesting way of dealing with critical newspapers.

Quote:
If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em out. That seems to be Pat Robertson’s policy for press criticism.

Link


Polygamous towns rebuilding library.

Guess who is suspected of burning it down in the first place?

Quote:
The communities on the Utah-Arizona state line haven't had a library for years. And nobody's quite sure how the books mysteriously disappeared.

Link

Year of living biblically book review.

For those of you who havn`t bought it yet, you might like this review.

Quote:
there is a page spread of 42 pictures documenting the growth of the author’s facial hair. Yes, it is easy to get his latest work confused with a book about beards.

link

Islam and Americas election

A discussion on what Islamofascism means and who uses it.

Quote:
The code word "Islamofascism" has become a staple of rhetoric. It braces the talk not only of pundits, but of all the major Republican candidates - from the tough guy at one end, Rudy Giuliani, who lambastes Democrats for not using the word or its equivalent, to the "nice" candidate at the other end, Mike Huckabee, who defines Islamofascism as "the greatest threat this country [has] ever faced."

link


Morte alla tyrannus et dei