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First, to any and all Christians who claim to believe the world is ending tomorrow, I don’t believe you for a second. I invite you to prove me wrong. Spend the rest of today donating every single penny and asset you have accumulated over you life to charity. Give up your house, your life savings, everything you own (maybe pack yourself a lunch) to the underprivileged. You won’t need it anyway, and the charity will look good on your resume when pining for positions in heaven. What’s the matter? Not enough faith? I thought not.
But before the second coming of christ (giggety giggety) we have another very important event: today is Draw Mohammad Day! Here is my 2011 contribution, a fine display of microsoft paint skills, if I do say so myself.
If you have no idea what this post is all about, here is a great vid from one of my youTube favs, Thunderf00t, explaining everything.
The radical form of Islam being preached in Afghanistan (and other places) is a symptom of the upheaval and chaos that is endemic of the region. With no security, no law and no justice, it is who has the biggest gun makes the rules. Currently the radical followers of islam occupy that role and the repression of women is the cornerstone of their particularly warped take on the religion of “peace”.
We recently received a comment on a similar post about the insane ass-backwardness of Islam, and religion in general, decrying the lack of respect and tolerance for religion and religious practices.
“While I have little respect for religion I have too much respect for the people that do practice it to support a Draw Mohammad Day, or for that matter a Piss on a Crucifix Day. It just seems like another opportunity for otherwise sane progressive people to join with the far right in attacking Muslims.”
This seems to be a fairly mainstream progressive opinion. Fairly wrong as well, but wrongness aside, the comment lends insight to one of obstacles progressive thinking needs to overcome when arguing the issues. Our opponents, usually people who sponsor socially regressive policies (pro-death penalty, anti-abortion, anti-socialism etc), decry progressive positions (for a myriad of BS reasons but I’m making a point here about cultural relativity and ‘tolerance’) because of the lack of an absolute moral position. Because progressives usually are not as xenophobic, racist or intolerant as regressive voices the progressive position is framed as being a moral willy-nilly free for all that permits all behaviour because it is believed that morality and the behaviour that stems from said behaviour is based on the society and culture being viewed.
Cultural Relativism (CR). CR is great in small doses, but should not be used as a basis for moral judgments because human societies are capable of cruel despicable laws/customs that by deontological standards, are atrocious. Allow me to cut off the boilerplate religious response to my admission that CR is heavily flawed when it comes to making moral judgments by saying that a supreme being in any form is not necessary for the formation of a moral system. We can make moral judgments without divine guidance or literacy in irrelevant ancient texts by using our reason and intuitions alone (see Utilitarianism and Deontological Moral systems).
In the video included in this post women, housed in their burka cloth prisons, are risking their lives for the simple act of attempting to become literate. They face persecution and death simply because they wish to free themselves from the torpid ignorance which is religiosity. So can one simply say that the cultural practice of cloistering and oppressing half the population merely because they have the double XX chromosome is a good one because we must only judge societies by their own intrinsic standards?
The argument is a gross simplification of what CR is, but some progressives seem to endorse the idea that tolerance means we have to condone the reprehensible actions of others because it is “OK” in their society. Basing your morality on any one system is a recipe for moral failure as all systems have inherent flaws that can amplify human suffering if taken as gospel.
The problem with morality is that, by nature, it is inherently complex and comes with many layers of conflicting values and ideas that must be judiciously weighed before coming to an (often unsatisfactory) answer. Regressives have little time for complexity and depth of thought and often adumbrate easy moral solutions based on unrealistic binary models.
So, to address the issue raised in the video clip, yes it is morally and functionally wrong to prevent women from becoming literate and educated. One must look at the problem not only through the prism of the CR analysis but also Utilitarian and Deontological moral systems. If all societies were to adopt the fundamental tenets of Islam would people be better off? Does the system promote great amount of utility for individuals and society? When cast in the light of a multifaceted moral analysis a moral stance can be taken that is nuanced and guided by rational thought (rather than musty rules from a magic a book). The system (delusional religious belief) that encourages such egregious misogynistic cultural practices must therefore be criticized for promoting such a view of women.
Finding contemptible religious people saying horrible things on youtube is not a difficult task. This particular individual is all over his Sky-daddy allah and how women need to be beaten so they can quickly learn their place and proper behaviour within Islamic religious society.
We can dispense with any notion of Islam (christianity, judiasm etc.) being the religion of peace and harmony. Oh certainly this man may be a crank and not represent the “true faith” but does this lessen the horror of what he is saying? We have our share of absolute cranks here in North American, but we are protected from their delusional insanity because of the secular tenets of our society.
In countries that do not share the same dedication(?) to rationality the damage these people can do is significantly multiplied.
We can safely file this entire shit for brains episode under “how religion makes you stupid and how it makes you do stupid things” or even “religious belief = full on pants-on-head retarded”.
Islam the aptly named religion of peace is responsible for the recent riots and the killing of (more) innocents in Afghanistan. Of course we almost instantly know when Westerners are killed in Afghanistan. Contrast this story with the media coverage of the native people are slaughtered every day in Afghanistan if when they are counted. Pro-innocent civilian death concerns aside, the general assholery of war seems to have gone exponential as of late. People are losing their minds because some crack pot christian god-bag in Florida burnt a Qur’an or two. It is therefore logical to riot and kill people because you burnt their magic book. (!)
“At least nine people were killed and dozens more injured Saturday after protests took a violent turn in Kandahar city, the office of the Kandahar government said.
On Friday, Afghans protesting the Qur’an burning stormed a United Nations compound in northern Afghanistan, killing seven foreigners.”
Unbelievable. People have to die because the extra-deluded are getting their shit in a twist over the actions of a christian
Captain deluded to the resuce!
fundy-loon in Florida. It gets better though. Pastor Dense as fracking Neutron-star has the gall to say this:
Wayne Sapp, a pastor at the church, called the events “tragic” but said he did not regret the actions of his church.
“I in no way feel like our church is responsible for what happened,” Sapp said in a telephone interview on Friday.”
This epitome of douchatude does not “feel like our church is responsible” for what happened. Out here in rational land the stupid meters just fused solid. As a self appointed spokesperson of the atheist rationalist community let me spell this gordion knot of a problem out for you.
Many muslims are batshite-crazy deluded over their magic book. Given previous incidents (cartoons etc) it takes little in the way of worldly knowledge to guess what would happen if you well..oh say..publicize and then burn their mystical tome of puerile foolishness religious righteousness. I may have spoken too soon, perhaps this wisdom of the ages does escape the religious as they do have the tendancy to avoid facts when dealing with reality. How many other groups of people that, with the fracking Everest sized mountain of evidence for evolution crammed sideways up their ass, can still bray about the veracity of the biblical flood and the other assorted creationist mind-farts they purport to believe in?
I’ll be charitable and say only a select portion of christians are as ass-backwards as their Islamic counterparts. Don’t get too smug my christian friends, this slots you only milimeters above those with a profound belief in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
So essentially, this is a story about two religiously addled groups who possess only the IQ necessary to breath and pray, insulting each other and seeing who wins the title for committing flossing-baby-out-of-your-teeth evil.
“An Associated Press photographer estimated the crowd at a few thousand and said demonstrators had smashed his camera and roughed up other journalists.
We want you to live in the Dark Ages too!
The desecration of the Qur’an has outraged millions of Muslims and others worldwide.”
The level of backward, barbaric, nuclear grade stupidity has also outraged the non addled worldwide.
Welcome readers to our next semi-regular feature here at DWR. The last Sunday Featurette was called the Sunday Creationist Smackdown and was geared toward providing a basis for succinctly arguing down the creationist god-babble one encounters on the Internet. The focus of this feature will be different.
The authors of this blog are in agreement that all religions are primarily an authoritarian, misogynistic,dehumanizing , regressive (really too many adjectives to list, but you get the idea) feature of societies. In a better world, religion and magical belief would be marginalized and placed in the dustbin of history to be used as a learning opportunity on how not to structure human society.
The Internet has allowed for a great deal of critical examination and refutation of religious dogma. The more rational inquiry there is into the rotten edifice of religion, the sooner it can be brought down and brought to heel allowing humanity to further progress into the 21st century without the delusional impediments religion brings to the table.
This video is the story of one woman’s trek into hell, sponsored by Allah and Islam. Her offence, being a woman for one, and secondly having the audacity not to wear a veil in public. Apologists say that Islam is a religion of peace, to which I say, where is this woman’s peace? Where is her dignity? Islam, like christianity is misogynistic, totalitarian and filled with xenophobia and hate. When it spills into the light we can see exactly how ugly “keeping the faith” is…
Let the first DWR Religious Disservice begin now!
Trigger warning for violence and rape.
Mother Jones has an article and photo essay about the women self-immolating in Afghanistan reaffirming the utter lack of misogyny (funny how that correlates with religious belief) present in religiously deluded societies.
The furour brought about by threatening to burn the koran has made it all the way to youtube as Thunderf00t has recently had to deal with assertions he is ‘bigot’ and endorses genocide for the nations of Islam. Of course, he was misconstrued and most likely misunderstood by the people in question. The key part of Thunderf00t’s message is simply this: We cannot take a step back from our rights to free speech (a cornerstone of civilized society)when they cause a violent reaction in the Islamic world. It is they who have the erroneous expectation that they have the right to apply their religious laws to the rest of the world. Once the centre of learning and advanced civilization the nations of Islam allowed the radical fundamentalists to plunge their world into a backward state of being resembling the Dark Ages (thank you christianity) of old.
When I rail against religion is precisely because of its threat to modernity and civilization. Religious thought is antithetical to most human rights, free speech and progress.
Thunderf00t comes to similar conclusions in his video, but of course multi modally thanks to the wonder known as youtube.
The infidels are swarming in the middle east. Measures must be taken to combat this outbreak of critical thought and rationality. Fortunately brothers (any sisters present get out now, double shame if you’re not barefoot and burqa’d) action is being taken.
“CAIRO – Egypt’s most prominent democracy advocate accused President Hosni Mubarak’s government Saturday of posting Facebook photos of his daughter in swimsuits and at events where alcohol was served in an attempt to discredit him.
Keep your eyes on this 'atheist'!
Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.N. nuclear chief, was quoted in the independent Al-Dustour newspaper as saying the government is “waging a campaign of sheer lies” by using the photos to portray him and his family as nonbelievers — a politically damaging accusation in an increasingly conservative Muslim country.
We have the infidels, women in public with bathing suits and even a greater sin, dare I say it? Alcohol. Warm up your stoning arms people.
“The more than 30 photos were posted under the title: “Secrets of 
the ElBaradei family.” Some show his daughter in swimsuits at the beach and sitting at events in front of what appeared to be bottles of alcohol. Drinking is forbidden in Islam and conservative Muslims would generally consider a woman appearing publicly in a bathing suit to be immodest.”
The scandal. It is shocking. Truly shocking.
“ElBaradei has drawn the government’s anger with a campaign he started early this year boldly calling for electoral reform and constitutional amendments that would allow a credible candidate to challenge the ruling party in next year’s presidential election.
Respected internationally and untouched by the corruption tainting much of Egypt’s regime, ElBaradei brought together a coalition of young activists and opposition groups to push for change.”
Yes! We shall smear this activist for opposing our regime. There may be a few rotten apples in the barrel of the Egyptian government, overall we are a transparent, open democracy.
“The Facebook site also says his daughter is married to a Christian and shows an image of what it purports is her real profile from the social networking site listing her religious status as agnostic.
The Facebook site also accuses ElBaradei himself of being an atheist and of seeking to deceive Egyptians by touring mosques and being photographed praying.”
The forces of freedom in action.
We saved the best for last a double hit! ElBaradei’s daughter is married to a Christian and ElBaradei himself is an atheist!
Checkmate brothers! We have ferreted out this unbeliever in our midst, he claims he wants responsible government by the people, but we have exposed him. He wants to take our gods away and we all know the sinful immorality that will follow once that happens.
Never fear though brothers we shall keep reason safely at arms length! Allah Ackbar!
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