1. Christopher Hitchens at AAI 07

Comment #80483 by Pandemonium on October 22, 2007 at 12:40 am

Windweaver: Following on comments long ago, I knew that 1.2 million Iraqis have died since the invasion (in excess of normal), but the 200,000 was the estimate directly killed by US forces (as opposed to Iraqis killing each other, etc.). Also -- I always find the term "anti-semitic" amusing, as Arabs are Semites too!

Keith: The Golden Rule doesn't say "Do unto others before they get a chance to do unto you" -- that's the Rambo interpretation. It's "Treat others like you'd like to be treated yourself." So, Hitch, in his indiscriminate bloodlust, is wishing hell to be unleashed upon us.

Notice how aggressive and rude the usually smooth and courteous demeanor gets whenever he's asked this question about his fondness for war. IT seems to me to be a clear case of cognitive dissonance wherein he has to work overtime to justify such an insane position along with all his vaunted enlightenment and rational thinking.

I was raised by egalitarian anti-theists, and I was taught that life is precious and life is real, life is earnest. There is no afterlife -- this is the only life we ever get. Thus, no one has the right to take it away from anyone else except in self-defense.

2. Christopher Hitchens at AAI 07

Comment #80196 by Pandemonium on October 20, 2007 at 3:08 pm

Hitch, while linguistically gifted, has serious defects, hypocrisy among them. While espousing the Golden Rule, he encourages the heinous crime of war; while condemning anti-Semitism, he freely lets anti-Muslim sentiments pour forth. His war apology is full of holes -- Saddam could have been taken out in a plane crash on the way to an OPEC meeting -- there was no need to murder a nation unless there was a darker purpose in mind, that of occupation and control over that nation's resources which is now exposed as the true reason for war. He does not address Abu Ghraib, Blackwater, and the numerous US military massacres that heighten nationalistic resistance. Reliable estimates indicate that ~200,000 Iraqis have died as a direct result of US action. The vast majority of Iraqis want the US out of their country. If Hitch has any regard for democracy at all, he must take that into account.

Hitch, scion of a British military line, has imperialism so deeply ingrained that he is unaware of it. I have seen this in many Europeans -- they cannot quite rid themselves of millennia of deference to royalty. We who have never had kings chafe at imperialism when we realize it is our own.

3. Debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox

Comment #78393 by Pandemonium on October 12, 2007 at 4:30 pm

Whenever the Hitler/Stalin/Mao/Pol Pot bit arises, I wish our side would be ready with some details that everyone should know. Hitler and Stalin both studied for the priesthood. Hitler used Christianity to rally people. Stalin had syphilis which drove him mad. Both tried to start their own religions around themselves. Buddhists are nontheists to begin with, so atheism was not a factor in the atrocities of Mao & Pol Pot; communism as a religion was.

4. The Out Campaign

Comment #59981 by Pandemonium on July 31, 2007 at 10:43 am

The reason to come out is to dislodge the illusion of ubiquity that sustains religious complacency. It is critical to changing the dynamic, to open up crania to the realization that we must solve the planet's problems ourselves, that there is no sky physician to save us and that destruction is only destruction, not the initiation of a thousand years of glory.

I came out years ago, and it was interesting how my ex-Catholic, non-religious friends hammered me. They just couldn't stand the word "atheist". Yet, I was born and raised by atheists, really, anti-theists -- and that is simply what I am, thankfully, utterly incapable of faith. I am no different from who they had known for decades, yet the word made them recoil. It has taken time, but they are now fully on board.

5. Physician, Heal Thyself

Comment #55033 by Pandemonium on July 9, 2007 at 6:58 pm

I wonder if these persons actually were religious nutter/proto-terrorists before becoming doctors and simply pursued and used the trust and power accompanying the position in order to position themselves to be able to do this sort of deed. After all, they were young, recent immigrants, and it was an obvious way to get in easily.

Sort of like the creationists now getting degrees in biology in order to attempt to gain credentials in order to try to knife knowledge in the back.

6. Interview with Dan Dennett on Danish TV

Comment #55030 by Pandemonium on July 9, 2007 at 6:42 pm

The problem we are facing now with the placebo of religion is that it is soporific and the imbiber is behind the wheel of a rather large and hazardous machine. The planet is at a turning point at which all hands must be on deck, and, as a bumpersticker I once saw said: "Be Alert. We need more Lerts."