Ronald Reagan - Greatest American?

I just finished watching The Discovery Channel’s Greatest American program.

Our fellow Americans voted; here are the results:

1) Ronald Reagan [WTF!]
2) Abraham Lincoln
3) Martin Luther King, Jr.
4) George Washington
5) Benjamin Franklin
6) George W. Bush [You gotta be kidding!]

Now, I know I have to move to CANADA!

Other figures who inexplicably made the top 100 nominee list [in no particular order]:

Oprah
Dr. Phil
Michael Jackson
Elvis
Billy Graham
Barbara Bush
Laura Bush
Tom Cruise
Mel Gibson
Rush Limbaugh
Madonna
Michael Jordan
Condi Rice
Donald Trump
Martha Stewart

I think our fellow Americans lack historical perspective overall. IN 200 years, Reagan will be a paragraph in the history books, while Lincoln will remain a chapter. It seems the voters have been affected by the recency of Reagan’s passing and their own historical ignorance. Celebrity does not equate with greatness.

One way to make the vote more meaningful would have been to require that any nominee must have died more than 25 years ago. This would eliminate the skewing due to recency effects and historical ignorance.

Gawd Bless America!

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian [Text taken entirely from: http://www.evilbible.com/Top_Ten_List.htm whose policy permits such credited "thievery" ]

• 10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, [yet] feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
• 9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, [yet] you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
• 8 - You laugh at polytheists, [yet] you have no problem believing in a Triune God.
• 7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, [yet] you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!
• 6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, [yet] you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.
• 5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), [yet] you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.
• 4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering, [yet] consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."
• 3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.
• 2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
• 1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - [yet] still call yourself a Christian.
  

Women as Property

Exodus 20:14 “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Old Testament punishment - Leviticus 20:10 “And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.”

The issue here is one of property rights – not marital sanctity. Consider that polygamy was common and condoned (a man with many wives {polygyny} that is – never a woman with many husbands {polyandry}), the use of concubines was accepted, and surrogate reproduction (the old-fashioned way) was a recurring motif in Genesis.

This is undeniable to any intellectually honest person – that is, one who has no prior emotional commitment that would force him to equivocate and deny the distasteful facts - who has conducted even a cursory review of the Bible.

Further reading for your spiritual pleasure:

“When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town. But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.” Deuteronomy 20:12-14

“If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.” Deuteronomy 22:28-29

“If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with [i.e. rapes] her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife.” Deuteronomy 22:23-24

They must be dividing the spoils they took: there must be a damsel or two for each man, Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera's spoil, an ornate shawl or two for me in the spoil. (Judges 5:30 NAB)

……… ad infinitum

[For further inspiration see: www.evilbible.com]

Feigned Outrage Over Newsweek Article

As Alanis Morissette sings, "Isn't it ironic?" Scott McClellan, the White House spokesperson, expressed moral outrage at the publication of a Newsweek article that indicated a desecration of the Quran at Guantanamo interment camp. We, as intelligent citizens, are supposed to find a causal link between that article and the outbreak of violence in Pakistan. Damn those traitors at Newsweek! How dreadful!

The truth is that anti-American sentiment was already at explosive levels in Pakistan. According to Afghan president Hamid Karzai those riots had nothing to do with the article. Even Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers said the Pakistani violence was attributable to other causes. Hmmmmmm.

Do you suppose the Bush administration was offering a red herring for our consumption? I think so. Things aren't faring so well with the Bush/Cheney/Wolfowitz/Rumsfeld/Perle world reconstruction plan. It must be the "liberal media!"

As today's New York Times reports, according to a military inquiry, incidents of Quran desecration have occurred. Surprised? When the leadership advocates a culture of disrespect the chain-of-command will spread it like an infection.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/04/politics/04koran.html?th&emc=thp

We have heard about abuses of detainees for some time. Was the Newsweek article really a scoop? Give me a break. Mr. McClellan we're not that stupid. Nice Try.

Nixon Apologists Make Their Rounds

With the revelation of "Deep Throat's" identity (Mark Felt), Pat Buchanan and his ilk have gotten more face time than ever. Blinded partisans such as Charles Colson, Pat Buchanan, G. Gordon Liddy, Ann Coulter, etc., have labeled Felt a turncoat. These perennial Nixon apologists became irrelevant to any serious political debate long ago. In a bizarre perversion of ethics these people assert that loyalty trumps justice or truth. Such thinking has a comfortable home in the Mafia but not in a society of laws. Would these would-be rehabilitators of Nixon's legacy accuse an undercover agent - who later busted the drug ring he had infiltrated - a "snake" as Buchanan did Felt? Of course, for Ann Coulter, merely disagreeing with her venomous reactionary extreme brand of conservatism makes one a traitor.

Thoughts on God

Any discussion of God often begins with a precising definition, lest particularistic sectarian types assume their God is the subject. I however prefer to exorcise the loaded term from the discussion. Let's call it the ultimate reality.

In light of our current knowledge - which will one day be deemed primitive - it is impossible for an intellectually honest thinking person to believe such nonsense as biblical inerrancy, divine authorship, the literal readings of Noah's ark, the garden of Eden, Jonah and the great fish, Job, Joshua and the stilled sun, etc.; or, for that matter, the preposterous teachings of the resurrection, virgin birth, trinity, and prophecy.

Having cleared that debris from the table, I would say that belief in the ultimate reality is not incompatible with experiential evidence. The intuitive notion that life has an underlying relevance need not be demonstrated by empirical tests. However, when one presumes to prove the existence of ultimate reality, or to impose their subjective convictions on their fellow man, one must establish their claim with universally verifiable objective evidence.

Consider the apologist (defender of traditional Christian dogmas). He is constantly devising contortions of logic to prove what is prima facie absurd. The apologist is a case of a reasonably intelligent and creative mind attempting to rationalize ex post facto that of which he has already been emotionally persuaded.

If there is a transcendent consciousness in the universe, I suspect that entity is more pleased by the employment of cerebral faculties in solving human problems and the genuine appreciation of the wonder of life than the dutiful worship of sycophantic toadies.

The God portrayed in the dubiously canonized collection of Judeo-Christian texts is not one that I wish to emulate. He is frequently petulant, peevish, intemperate, jealous, vengeful, hateful, deceitful, intolerant, unfair, and impersonal. It amazes me how far the standard packaged God of Christians has strayed from that often-unpleasant biblical deity. This once again demonstrates the human tendency to construct a god palatable to one's own ideals and tastes. It is the projection of the ideal man onto a mythical figure - an archetype.

If there is a God or family of Gods in our universe, he/she/it/they could not conform to the primitive deity of the Bible. I have no doubt that such a one/ones would be far more advanced than the tribal god of an ancient semi-nomadic Canaanite tribe.

Rational Family Values

TEACHING KIDS TO YAWN AT COUNTERFEIT WONDER by Dale McGowan:
http://www.atheistalliance.org/family_issues/essay-mcgowan2.html

YOUR KIDS AND RELIGION by Robert M. Price, Ph.D.:
http://www.atheistalliance.org/family_issues/essay-price1.html

Christianity Plus by Dale McGowan:
http://www.atheistalliance.org/family_issues/essay-mcgowan5.html

Good And Bad Reasons For Believing Richard Dawkins
http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/dawkins2.html