Wednesday, November 12, 2008

An Acid Attack


I'm with Hitchens and Dawkins.

And if you're not yet, you ought to read this story about two young Afghan girls attacked with water pistols filled with acid by Taliban militants.

The reason?

They were on their way to school.

Do we really need more evidence of the corrupting and violent nature of religion than the blindness of innocent schoolgirls? Intelligent human beings are capable of codifying morality without the obscure absurdism of magic books and invisible creatures that historically tends towards oppression and warfare.

I'm perfectly aware that many will say these are just the "bad" religious people, but I'm quite capable of locating the "good" ones as well, most of them are my neighbors who voted to support Proposition 8 here last week...


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8 comments:

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Religion is fine. I can put up with it but people who pervert their own faith I have enormous problems with.
To the best of my knowledge, Buddhists, having been guilty of standing by idly perhpas, have never gone to war.
And, although neither true Taoists nor followers of confuscious can claim to be a relgious faith, they don't fight unless picked on.
Faith is fine. People fuck up everything with their primitive and tribal mentallity.

Anonymous said...

"I can put up with it but people who pervert their own faith I have enormous problems with."

Isn't that "faith" the root of the problem in the first place? Trusting in abstraction leads perfectly moral individuals to commit immoral acts.

Besides, I doubt that argument would have much success with the young girl pictured above.

Oberon said...

.....all religion is.....man made.
.....our ignorance is the reason for.....faith.
.....all the major religions teach the golden rule......that works.
.....god made man in his image.....but then.....man made god in his image.
.....fear has perverted religion, turning the golden rule.....into the war of the gods.
.....ignorance creates fear...fear creates intolerance....intolerance creates extremism....extremism creates hate....hate creates destruction.
...ignorance + fear + intolerance + extremism + hate = destruction.
...ignorance = destruction.
.....faith is innocent...ignorance is not.
religion divides us, spirituality brings us together.
...we cannot fault man for faith...we can however, hold man and religion, responsible for ignorance.

Russell CJ Duffy said...

my name is cocaine jesus.
that's what the cj stands for.
i don't give a flying fuck for religion per see BUT there are many, who you simply group in one big bunch, whose faith i admire. conscientious objectors for one, who refused to go to war and yet won medals for bravery. they didn't compromise their faith.
there are others, however, like bush, who spout a lot of shit and pretend to be christian but are anything but.
it is easy to mock those with faith. they are easy targets. i catergorically DO NOT have faith but i respect those that really do.
if you want to make some sad and quite frankly dubiously aged statement about your own perverse views on faith...up to you.
personally i do my own thing and keep my mouth shut.
as for the poor girl whose face has been ruined by some arsehole zealot, whoever did that has no faith whatsoever. they should be put away.

Anonymous said...

Why does that zealot have no "faith"?

He obviously believes in what he believes in strongly enough to douse an otherwise innocent young child with acid without any empirical cause: I'd call that faith.

And a conscientious objector isn't necessarily a religious individual: faith in a humanitarian principle is based on real world evidence and experience (ie: the results of war), unlike those who go to war based on faith in God.

Oberon said...

....you must first define, "faith".

from the dictionary,
......faith 1:allegeance to duty or a person:LOYALTY 2:belief and trust in God 3:complete trust 4:a system of religious beliefs.

so the definition of "faith"...is what your trust is "in".....duty, a person, God, or a religion.

....the word "trust" more deeply describes "the reliance on the truth of something"...or truth.

.....so you might say that faith boils down to what you "believe" is true......or "your belief"

....and as i've said before....

...the "truth" has nothing to do......with what you "believe".

....in other words......faith is not always founded on truth.

....i have faith the sun will come up in the morning......but i have no faith in war.

Shimmerrings said...

Thank you for defining faith... I think people get confused and relate faith to religion... when they are two separate things.

Strategicus said...

these guys are a continuation of a long historical process initiated by the CIA and its hirelings Pakistans ISI and shit Saudi intelligence by training the islamists against USSR.....and now we have the Texan Nazi conquest of Iraq and operation never ending freedom.....clueless without any strategy....directionless....