Religion

by

No, no… the Muslims have a point

The Saudi Arabia-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation is planning to sue the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo following its publication of a front cover depicting the Prophet Mohamed.

“It’s hate speech,” they argue. And they have a point.FRANCE-ATTACKS-CHARLIE-HEBDO-MEDIA-FRONTPAGE

You see, in most of Europe,”freedom of speech” is limited.  They don’t have a 1st Amendment over there, after all. Certain types of speech are illegal, such as denying the holocaust. Nazi symbols are prohibited.  In France, there is a law prohibiting speech that is “defamatory or insulting, or which incites discrimination, hatred, or violence against a person or a group of persons on account of place of origin, ethnicity or lack thereof, nationality, race, specific religion, sex, sexual orientation, or handicap.”

What a terrible law.

But the Muslims have a point. If you are banning hate speech, you need to ban all hate speech. You can’t make it illegal for anyone to say something bad about Jews while allowing Charlie Hedbo to insult Muslims with every issue.

My hope is that this lawsuit will point out the hypocrisy of any law that punishes speech.

We have to protect speech we hate.  We have to protect speech that is insulting.

Speech everyone agrees with doesn’t need protecting.

by

Man in Dress Says Gay Marriage will Harm his Non-marriage

A man wearing a dress in Italy today declared that even though he has never had sex and is not married, allowing all people to be able to marry the person they love will destroy families.

Citing the supernatural, the man argued with a straight face that if people in love create loving, caring families, that such a thing would cause loving, caring families to be ruined.  papa

Surprisingly, his audience did not laugh him out of the room.  Perhaps they were just being kind to the old fellow, dressed as he was in a flowing white gown and a quaint little cap, which he said was required by the aforementioned supernatural being who spoke to him in his head and which no one else could hear or see.

Ironically, in other areas the man was completely coherent and spoke passionately about the evils of unbridled capitalism, the importance of caring for those less fortunate, and how we should all love each other no matter what.  Apparently, the magical being who speaks to him said, “Whoa there, kid, let’s not go too far.  Sure, love them all but don’t let them love each other if you know what I mean.”

 

 

by

Porn watching highest among the repressed

A new study has found a very high consumption of porn in sexually-repressed middle eastern countries.  According to google searches, of the top eight countries searching for porn online, six are Muslim.

This is actually not surprising. The more repressed a society is about sexuality, the more they will secretly seek it out, despite whatever their religion tells them.  up-question_ron_jeremy_01

We have seen this in America as well. The state that consumes the most porn is Mormon Utah, followed by most of the southern Christian-dominated states (with the exception of Hawaii for some reason). The people who are most likely to say they support “family values” and complain about seeing sex on TV are the ones most likely to be searching it out on their computers.

More disturbing is seeing subject of the porn search. One of the top search terms in Iran is “pain.” In Pakistan, it’s “animals.” Syria wants porn about incest.

In the middle east, searches for gay sex are prominent in their top ten. In America, states where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought more porn per capita than states where a majority disagreed. In the states that fought against gay marriage, the search for lesbian porn was high on the list.

Hypocrisy runs rampant.  And are we surprised by any of that?

by

Yes, the Mohammad Cover is Insulting. And?

NBC just did a segment on their news about how brave Charlie Hebdo magazine is for putting a drawing of Mohammad on their cover after what happened to them. I couldn’t help but notice that NBC specifically refused to show the cover themselves and only described it.

Here it is, in case you are interested.FRANCE-ATTACKS-CHARLIE-HEBDO-MEDIA-FRONTPAGE

They then interviewed French Muslims who were upset about it, calling it insulting. “I don’t go around insulting your religion,” they said. “Why must you insult mine?”  Fortunately, none of the ones interviewed showed any sign that they intended to cause harm to the cartoonists.

Is the drawing insulting to Muslims?  Of course.  Just like the thousands of examples I can find of the way Jesus has been portrayed in comics, movies, cartoons, and comedy bits is insulting to Christians.

Tough.

If your faith is so weak that you can’t handle criticism of it, maybe you should rethink your beliefs.

And, just as an aside, killing people who disagree with your religion isn’t really a very smart way to gain converts.  Just saying.

 

by

The French Cartoonist Massacre

The murder of cartoonists in France points out again the difference between Christian and Muslim extremists.  When people criticize Christians, the Christians scream that they are being persecuted and otherwise make ridiculous claims that anyone who questions their beliefs or makes fun of them are intolerant or evil. But Jesus Christ, they don’t go out and murder the people who said it!

While the vast majority of Muslims in civilized democratic countries do not agree with such actions, the fanatics from the more militant branch of the “religion of peace” are still stuck in the middle ages.  (Let’s not beat around the bush here:  Christians did these same sort of terrible things hundreds of years ago as well.)  I am happy to see so many French Muslims decrying this and denouncing this action.

But I can’t explain such hatred, ignorance, and evil.  So, since I clearly love editorial cartoons, I’m going to post some of my favorites concerning this tragedy.

 

by

Neil DeGrasse Tyson makes a non-religious joke, Christians everywhere are insulted

On Christmas Day, noted scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson posted some funny tweets:

“On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton!”

“This year, what do all the world’s Muslims and Jews call December 25th? Thursday.”tyson

“Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).”

Come on, those were funny indeed.  But of course, Christians all over complained that the scientist was insulting their religion.

He responded to the criticism with logic, as if that would make a difference to these people:  “If a person actually wanted to express anti-Christian sentiment, my guess is that alerting people of Isaac Newton’s birthday would appear nowhere on the list.”

Let’s face it, the first two there are standard jokes a stand-up comedian would tell.  You start off saying something wherein everyone knows where you’re going, and then boom, you hit them with the unexpected punch.  The third is just an observation about the commercialization of Christmas that even Christians should agree with.

Tyson, like the majority of scientists, is an atheist although he never uses that word to describe himself.  He says very clearly that he thinks faith and reason are irreconcilable.  “Everybody who tried to make proclamations about the physical universe based on Bible passages got the wrong answer,” he says.  He refuses the label “atheist” because he says that there shouldn’t be a word for not believing in something.  “I don’t play golf, so is there a word you can use for me as a non-golf player?”

Here, of course, is where I disagree with him. No one is being discriminated against for not playing golf, but atheists are looked down on in society and often have to fight for their rights.  Because of that, too many atheists are “in the closet” which, as we have seen with the gay rights movement, does nothing to help people realize that they’re really not that different from everyone else.

 

 

by

Why I Love Christmas

“Mike, you’re not a Christian.  Why are you celebrating Christmas?”

My 2014 Christmas tree!

My 2014 Christmas tree!       (That’s my cat Mrs. Conclusion admiring the shinies)

Well, gee, I’m also not a Pagan or a Wiccan, but I celebrate Halloween.  Some holidays have become secular so that everyone can enjoy them.  I know plenty of Jews who set up Christmas trees and exchange gifts.  (And, even though I am not Jewish either, I join them for the traditional Christmas Chinese dinner.)

You don’t have to be Christian to agree that much of what Jesus taught were good ideas.  Peace on earth, goodwill to all, caring for those less fortunate, being with your family — how can you be against that? Why wouldn’t you want everyone to share in that, no matter what their beliefs?  Not to mention festive lights, presents, Christmas parties, Santa Claus, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (The Chuck Jones one, not the Jim Carey one).

That’s why it’s so frustrating to have angry Christians complaining that we have stolen their religion (“Put Christ back in Christmas!”).  Let’s ignore for the moment that Jesus was probably born in the spring (when shepherds watched their fields) and that much of this holiday was stolen from earlier religions. Wouldn’t a true Christian be happy that others are celebrating peace?  That others use this season to promote the values they supposedly teach?

I know many Christians who welcome all to celebrate with them, no matter their beliefs. I have a feeling that this Jesus guy would approve.

by

Merry War on Christmas, Everybody!

Last year I gave a challenge to which no one could meet.  So let’s try again:

Find me one example of anyone trying to prevent people from celebrating Christmas.  Just one.grinch1

What you’ll find are a bunch of whiners complaining that they don’t get to force their religion on everyone else.

Every example Fox News gives for a “War on Christmas” always boils down to something like “They won’t let us force kids to sing our religious songs!” or “They say ‘Happy Holidays’ which acknowledges that not everyone is a Christian and therefore they are attacking us!” or “They are refusing to allow us to use taxpayer dollars for a religious display.”  (And yes, I used Fox News specifically because absolutely no one spoke of a “War on Christmas” until Fox invented it and saw their ratings boost.)

I submit to you that every so-called attack on Christmas is, in reality, fought in defense and wouldn’t even exist if these Christians weren’t trying to require everyone to obey their beliefs.*

Instead, there are some Christians who apparently are so insecure in their beliefs that if you say something like, “I respect your beliefs even though I do not share them and sincerely hope you have a happy holidays,” they are convinced that you are out to destroy everything they believe in.

So there’s my challenge.  Find me an example where that’s not the case — where someone is trying to prevent Christians from celebrating Christmas.

(And I mean real examples, because no matter what, there will always be some lunatic who is trying to prevent his neighbors from displaying a religious symbol because he wrongly thinks the Constitution requires it or because aliens told him to or something.  No matter what, there will always be one or two idiots on every issue.)

* and yes, I acknowledge that most Christians are good people who do not act this way, and are more concerned with keeping the Christ in “Christian” than the Christ in “Christmas.”

by

Bill Maher was right

You can criticize a religion without advocating for discrimination against the people who practice that religion.

Bill Maher had a great debate with fellow liberals on his show last week.  Ben Affleck accused him of being biased against Muslims for the things Maher said about their religion.  But those are two separate things.

It appears to me that the Islam religion (to some of its followers) is where Christianity was 500 years ago — it does not tolerate dissent, and punishes its enemies with death.affleck3-640x350

Does every Muslim follow that strict doctrine?  No, of course not, just like every Christian does not follow the terrible things in Christianity’s doctrines, either.  Even 500 years ago, there were progressive Christians fighting against the terrible things their church was doing.

So it’s clearly wrong to assume every Muslim believes in the extremist views of that religion any more than you should assume every Christian thinks that adultery or eating shellfish be punishable by stoning to death.

But you can’t deny that there are many more Muslims who believe that certain blasphemy should so be punished.  Don’t believe me? Try drawing a picture of Mohammad and see if you don’t have to go into hiding, even in America.

The key is that liberals need to be consistent and not hypocritical.  You can’t criticize southern Christians for being prejudiced against gays while looking the other way when Muslims sentence their gay citizens to death.  And why do they do that?  Because of their religion … which is not exempt from criticism.

Some people get hung up over the fact that this is a religion, and believe that we should treat it differently.  As I’ve said before, the fact that your bigotry is based on your religious belief doesn’t cancel out the bigotry.  It’s still bigotry no matter how you came by it, and the fact that you really, really believe it doesn’t excuse it.

Followers of Islam who do not believe in such extremism need to force their religion to change.

Partially the problem is the liberal goal of accepting multiculturalism — to embrace our differences, in the same way Mr. Spock teaches us that Vulcans love “infinite diversity in infinite combinations.”  But there are some things we should never accept.  Taking away the rights of others in any culture is wrong.  And, you know, beheading innocent journalists to appease your god is also wrong.

And if we don’t call them out for it, and lay the blame where it belongs with the religious belief that encourages such actions, then we are partners in the crime.

by

There’s that demand for special treatment again

Hey, you know how some people whine that women and gays are asking for “special treatment” when they are really only asking for equal treatment?

Well, here’s the latest group demanding special treatment — special, not equal.  A group of Orthodox Jewish men caused trouble on a flight because they refused to sit next to women, which they believe would make God angry or something.   o-ORTHODOX-PLANE-570And then they complained that because they were not given special treatment, they were being discriminated against.  You know, in the same way Christians who don’t get exclusive right to post their religious commandments in public places are discriminated against.

Now, don’t take this the wrong way.  Sometimes there really is religious discrimination (especially against Muslims) and it has nothing to do with special treatment, but instead about equal treatment.  That’s not the case here.

It is nice when businesses do their best to accommodate people with special needs, which includes religious requirements.  I’m sure if these men had contacted the airlines beforehand and made seat reservations (which can be done online), the airlines would have been more than happy to help them.  But to show up and then harass women into moving from their seats (including insisting that they move away from their husbands and family) doesn’t make anyone think “Oh, those poor people, being discriminated against because of their religion.”

I wish I could make demands like these guys did when I get on an airplane.  “I’m sorry, but my religion forbids me from sitting next to grossly overweight passengers or screaming babies.”