The Value of a Godless World
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Monthly Archives: September 2011
Jacobs: Response Healed The Land From Native Curse
Is South Korea an Example of Dominionism in Action?
Che Ahn is a one of the leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation . . . [He] believes the President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak illustrates how government apostles can fulfill their dominionist duties . . . Che Ahn said, “Once we do get to the top, we can make decrees and declarations that shift and influence that whole mountain.”
Read more, and watch video . . .
The Joy of Submitting to Authority
Among religions, Christianity in general (and Catholicism in particular) is a great example of an authoritarian hierarchy . . . The thing about being told what to do is that it provides a measure of psychological relief by convincing one that one is absolved of responsibility. Read more . . .
The Tea Party Debate
Tonight, we have a treat. The Republican Presidential candidates will vie for the support of America’s Stupidest Voters – the Tea Party party movement. This is not name-calling. This is reporting a verifiable fact. A recent Yale-George-Mason poll shows that 66% of the Tea Party members deny the truth of global warming and evolution. Really, on average, these people excel in stupidity. Interestingly, they also exhibit one of the primary characteristics of idiots – an inflated sense of their own intellectual superiority. Read more . . .
Prayer: The Ultimate Hypocrisy
The truth of the matter is that prayers get answered in the favor of the petitioner at about the same rate as doing nothing at all . . . When unbelievers point out the obvious lack of concern by their god, the inevitable doctrine of a “fallen world” and “free will” is tramped out. This is, of course, just another example of the “higher/mysterious” excuse for the obvious absence of the divine . . . It takes an astounding level of ignorance to attribute the lack of alleviation of this human suffering to an explanation as mundane and enigmatic as it being outside “his will” or not being in accordance with “his plan . . . “ The truth is that prayer is a placebo, and a dangerous one when it involves the ignorance toward science and medicine. Read more . . .
Apocalyptic GOP Is Dragging Us Into a Civil War
Lofgren, in describing the reasons for his defection from the Republican party, describes a Republican camp that increasingly acts not like a traditional peacetime political organization, but more like an apocalyptic cult or one of the authoritarian movements from early 20th century European history . . . But for the new GOP, compromise of any kind defeats their central purpose, which is political totale krieg. This party’s entire reason for being is conflict and aggression. There is no underlying patriotic instinct to find middle ground with the rest of us, because the party doesn’t have a vision for society that includes anyone outside the tent. Read more . . .
Robert Reich, “Inequality: The Real Cause of America’s Economic Woes”
Look back over the last hundred years and you’ll see the pattern. During periods when the very rich took home a much smaller proportion of total income — as in the Great Prosperity between 1947 and 1977 — the nation as a whole grew faster and median wages surged. Germany has grown faster than the United States for the last 15 years, and the gains have been more widely spread . . . How has Germany done it? Mainly by focusing like a laser on education (German math scores continue to extend their lead over American), and by maintaining strong labor unions . . . Reviving the middle class requires that we reverse the nation’s decades-long trend toward widening inequality. Read more . . .
This Little Girl, Born In The Wrong Body, Gets Nothing But Love From Her Parents
One family demonstrates how to rise above fear of the unknown and love each other unconditionally. Watch:
Christopher Hitchens, A Man of His Words
He is our intellectual omnivore, exhilarating and infuriating, if not in equal parts at least with equal wit . . . he is dying of esophageal cancer, a fact he has faced with exceptional aplomb. This fifth and, one fears, possibly last collection of his essays is a reminder of all that will be missed when the cancer is finished with him . . . He regards God as a superstition employed by religions for the purpose of control and repression . . . Hitchens finds much to love about America, but on the evidence of this collection, he seems to find it mostly in books . . . At a time when America is experiencing a resurgent campaign to proclaim us a “Judeo-Christian nation,” Hitchens delights in the plentiful evidence that the founders were not all that religious and certainly not interested in creating a sectarian country. Read more . . .
Always Question Authority 