Why the Animosity to Religion, part 1

Time was when the less faithful would at least tolerate those who had faith. That day has passed. Today the faithless have just as much animosity towards those who have faith as the faithful have towards the faithless. Indeed one reason for our highly polarized political life is that the animosity of the faithful, who are mostly Republicans is returned at full strength by the faithless, who are mostly Democrats. How did we come to this point?

911 for one thing. On September 11, 2001 we all watched in horror as the towers of the World Trade Center came down. They were brought down by men who acted in the name of Allah. Now some people blame Islam for this event. But some go farther and blame the idea of faith for it. The event itself was evil. It was done in the name of God. It was done by men who could never be convinced God did not endorse it. So we must conclude either God is evil or the men who were behind 911 are deluded fools. Either way faith has been exposed as wishful thinking. Dangerous wishful thinking. 911 the best advertisement atheism has ever had.

The question here involves the certainty of knowledge. Faith creates the illusion we have certainty of knowledge. But in reality there is no such thing as certainty of knowledge. All wise persons live with some degree of doubt. Doubt simply reflects our realization there is in reality no such thing as certainty of knowledge. It is only through doubt in what we presently know that we can grow in wisdom and knowledge. If we do not doubt we can never become wise. But doubt is not popular. Through faith we can rid ourselves of doubt. But in ridding ourselves of doubt we replace reality with illusion. Since we are no longer able to question our view of reality we cannot know when it is in error. Eventually reality retaliates against those who ignore it. And people of faith are always ignoring reality. How could it be otherwise? Understanding reality as it is requires doubt. And the purpose of faith is to eliminate doubt.

So here is one reason for the existing animosity to religion. Believing in any religion requires faith. Which means belief in any religion brings to the believer all the disadvantages of faith.
The faithful become arrogant. The faithful come to believe the holiest of ends justify the vilest of means. And those who disagree with them come to act the same. How could they not?

Does al-Qaeda care?

Those who support the war in Iraq claim opposition to the surge motivates our enemies to fight us all the harder. Weakening our resolve is supposed to be a part of the al-qaeda strategy for defeating us. But this is not true.

Al-Qaeda hates us. They will continue to hate us whatever we do. They don't care if we stay in Iraq or not. Indeed it would prefer we stayed in Iraq. We are easier to hit there and everything we do to defeat it in Iraq simply creates more supporters for it. Indeed to the extent that staying the course President Bush has put us on makes us hated the more al-Qaeda likes it.

Let's understand something. Let's understand it well. The enemy doesn't care what we do. He is not listening to our debates over how to defeat him. He is not strengthened by those who argue for what are sometimes called defeatist strategies. The enemy does not care if our resolve is strong or weak. The enemy does not care what Congress does. He does not care what the President does. Exhibiting strength does not awe him. Exhibiting weakness does not encourage him. The only thing the enemy cares about is our acceptance of his claim Allah has give to him alone the right to rule over all of us. We can either accept that claim or go to hell. And that as they say is that.

Oppose the Foot and Mouth Disease solution for Terrorism

What is the Foot and Mouth Disease solution for terrorism? If there were no Islam there would be no Islamic terrorism. And how do we insure there is no Islam? We kill all the potential carriers of the "Islamic virus." Which means killing all Muslims. Which means committing genocide against all Muslims. One must note the proponents of this strategy have yet to actually endorse genocide. But how else can they achieve their goal?

We call this the Foot and Mouth disease solution because it is similar to the way in which Foot and Mouth disease is controlled. Foot and Mouth disease is a contagious disease which affects hoofed farm animals. The disease is not fatal but does spread rapidly. To limit the spread of the disease it is standard practice to destroy all infected animals as well as animals subject to infection in the area of an outbreak. While killing these animals is hard on them doing so does lessen the economic damage done by an outbreak. It is therefore standard practice.

On the Islamophobic right advocating the same solution to the problem of terrorism is common. Indeed once one comes to the conclusion there can be no such thing as a moderate, or non-violent Muslim, it is inevitable. If we cannot reason with these people or trust these people, if we must kill them before they kill us then we must commit genocide in order to survive. Since those on the Islamophobic right condemn anyone who suggests we can reason with the enemy, talk to the enemy, negotiate with the enemy and avoid killing the enemy before he kills us as allies of the enemy it is obvious what their policy really and truly is. It is genocide.

The purpose of this blog

And that skunk sure does stink. Because it is dead. It was killed by all the drivers on the left and right who didn't see it. They were so caught up in their ideologies they couldn't see reality was not what they believed it was. Most of them didn't even care. After all, some on the right side argued, we make the realities to which others must adapt. Meanwhile some on the left side claimed there was no such thing as reality. Reality was something made up by the oppressors to rationalize oppression. Soon both sides came to believe the ends justify the means. Since both sides believed theirs was the best of ends they could rationalize most horrible of means. This blog means to expose such fanaticism for the danger it is. It does have its work cut out.