RichardSRussell (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} richardsrussell) wrote,@ 2008-03-09 14:09:00 |
|
Blessing the Faithful
Ever notice how politicians seem to feel compelled to wrap up every public address with “God bless America”? Thomas Paine woulda puked.
But at least they cast a wide net and include everyone as the supposed recipients of the blessings. Not so our intrepid interlocutor of the Appleton Post-Crescent, who restricts himself to
Kurt Williamsen concludes his essay with this paragraph:
= = = = = =
On that note, to all the faithful, I extend wishes for a very merry and blessed Christmas.
= = = = = =
Left unsaid, but clearly implied: “And to all you unfaithful out there, burn in hell, you sinful heathens.”
Conversely, and FWIW, as an atheist, I wish all folx — faithful and faithless alike — the very best of health, happiness, prosperity, peace, joy, and love not just during the holiday season but all year long.
And, ya know what? Add all my good wishes together with all of Williamsen’s blessings and prayers and you still don’t have a booger in a bushel basket.
Wishing for things (just like praying for things) isn’t gonna do diddly to make them come true. In order to make things happen, ya gotta go out and work. You have to invest the time, energy, money, creativity, and enthusiasm to actually accomplish something.
Take the disgrace of our national health-care “system”, by far the most expensive in the world on a per-capita basis, despite the fact that 47 million Americans are effectively excluded from it by being uninsured. And kiss off that myth about all the rest of us getting the world’s best health care in return for the huge amount of money we’re shelling out. The USA ranks well below the middle of the pack in the industrialized world by virtually every measure of health care available, from life expectancy to immunization rates to deaths from preventable diseases.
My good wishes for health and Kurt Williamsen’s blessings (which may no longer apply now that we’re a month past Xmas) are of no help whatsoever to a single mom with a sick kid whose coughing just keeps getting worse and worse.
That’s one of the most pernicious things about religion, especially the unthinking kind espoused by Williamsen. It gives people the illusion that they know things when they don’t. Prayer gives them the illusion that they’re doing something when they’re not. Preaching gives them the illusion that they’re helping people when they aren’t.
Take all that time and money wasted in church and apply it to something that people really need, like truly universal health care — the kind that’s no harder to get than the services of the fire department — and the country would be far better off.
Instead, people like Williamsen, not content to simply squander their own time pursuing the chimera of religion, feel compelled by the brain viruses that have zombified them to lure others into their fantasy world — starring Jesus, the Santa Claus for adults — and to turn their backs on real-world problems and the real-world solutions to them.
Don’t just take my word for this, put it to the test for yourself. Pay conscious attention to the next dozen things you do, starting with reading this article on your computer, maybe going on to flipping a light switch, grabbing a cup of fine Colombian coffee, reading a book or magazine, watching TV, and so on. How many of those things were brot to you by religion? How many of them were brot to you by science?
But there’s an aspect of Williamsen’s essay that’s even more pernicious than his open invitation to waste your time, money, and brain on religion, and that’s his outrageous lies about atheists. Lying is bad enuf at the best of times, but demonizing a minority group by lying about them is dangerous and damnable.
I’ll get into this more tomoro.
Tomoro: Atheists Are Your Friends
Ever notice how politicians seem to feel compelled to wrap up every public address with “God bless America”? Thomas Paine woulda puked.
But at least they cast a wide net and include everyone as the supposed recipients of the blessings. Not so our intrepid interlocutor of the Appleton Post-Crescent, who restricts himself to
Kurt Williamsen concludes his essay with this paragraph:
= = = = = =
On that note, to all the faithful, I extend wishes for a very merry and blessed Christmas.
= = = = = =
Left unsaid, but clearly implied: “And to all you unfaithful out there, burn in hell, you sinful heathens.”
Conversely, and FWIW, as an atheist, I wish all folx — faithful and faithless alike — the very best of health, happiness, prosperity, peace, joy, and love not just during the holiday season but all year long.
And, ya know what? Add all my good wishes together with all of Williamsen’s blessings and prayers and you still don’t have a booger in a bushel basket.
Wishing for things (just like praying for things) isn’t gonna do diddly to make them come true. In order to make things happen, ya gotta go out and work. You have to invest the time, energy, money, creativity, and enthusiasm to actually accomplish something.
Take the disgrace of our national health-care “system”, by far the most expensive in the world on a per-capita basis, despite the fact that 47 million Americans are effectively excluded from it by being uninsured. And kiss off that myth about all the rest of us getting the world’s best health care in return for the huge amount of money we’re shelling out. The USA ranks well below the middle of the pack in the industrialized world by virtually every measure of health care available, from life expectancy to immunization rates to deaths from preventable diseases.
My good wishes for health and Kurt Williamsen’s blessings (which may no longer apply now that we’re a month past Xmas) are of no help whatsoever to a single mom with a sick kid whose coughing just keeps getting worse and worse.
That’s one of the most pernicious things about religion, especially the unthinking kind espoused by Williamsen. It gives people the illusion that they know things when they don’t. Prayer gives them the illusion that they’re doing something when they’re not. Preaching gives them the illusion that they’re helping people when they aren’t.
Take all that time and money wasted in church and apply it to something that people really need, like truly universal health care — the kind that’s no harder to get than the services of the fire department — and the country would be far better off.
Instead, people like Williamsen, not content to simply squander their own time pursuing the chimera of religion, feel compelled by the brain viruses that have zombified them to lure others into their fantasy world — starring Jesus, the Santa Claus for adults — and to turn their backs on real-world problems and the real-world solutions to them.
Don’t just take my word for this, put it to the test for yourself. Pay conscious attention to the next dozen things you do, starting with reading this article on your computer, maybe going on to flipping a light switch, grabbing a cup of fine Colombian coffee, reading a book or magazine, watching TV, and so on. How many of those things were brot to you by religion? How many of them were brot to you by science?
But there’s an aspect of Williamsen’s essay that’s even more pernicious than his open invitation to waste your time, money, and brain on religion, and that’s his outrageous lies about atheists. Lying is bad enuf at the best of times, but demonizing a minority group by lying about them is dangerous and damnable.
I’ll get into this more tomoro.
Tomoro: Atheists Are Your Friends
