Facing The Hate

From @denyreligion comes this link to a quick Proud Atheists post with the following video clip. XM host Michelangelo Signorile (@msignorile) is interviewing "Pastor"* Steven Anderson, the current hate-monger-of-the-moment:

Now first of all, I really have to hand it to Signorile: There's NO WAY I would have been able to resist flipping out on this man. People who rationalize absolute stupidity - and preach it to adults and children alike every Sunday - just drive me insane. Had it been an in-studio interview, I probably would have shown him what a criminal act really is.

Not good, and very counter-productive to our cause, I know. But that's how these people make me feel. This extreme kind of bob-and-weave reasoning is unhealthy to the human mind. It's like a poison that attacks what you know about right and wrong and warps it into some mutant form of gray matter palsy-induced pseudo-morality, rationalized by circular reasoning and outright lies.

Look. If you plot and carry out the murder of another human being - no matter what that target person does or has done - you are guilty of murder in the first degree, and should be punished accordingly. Life in prison, death, whatever sentence is handed down by either a Judge or a Jury of your peers - accept it.

This country wasn't founded solely on "God's Law." It just so happens that "God's Laws" are quite similar to the laws of Reason: It's wrong to kill, duh. It's wrong to steal, duh. It's wrong to fuck your buddy's wife, duh. It's wrong to lie, duh. But that's pretty much where the similarities end.

A freethinker knows it's wrong to hate someone for some petty reason, like skin color or sexual orientation, or even political views. Duh. But "God's Law" says that hate is perfectly OK, condemning - with prejudice - lifestyles with a peculiar selectiveness. It's OK to hate anyone that's different, "God's Law" says. Really? And here I grew up thinking hate was wrong and stupid. Silly me...

A freethinker knows it's wrong to try and impose your beliefs on someone else. Duh. We don't actively go recruiting - all we do is find folks who think the same way, and then we congregate and discuss stuff. Gee, just like you practitioners of "God's Law" do every Sunday! The big difference here is, folks like them are always trying to add to the flock. They're always trying to convince you that God makes them happier than they ever have been in their lives (how, I still don't know), and that there's no other way for you to be that happy unless you think exactly the same way they do.

That's the whole "With us or against us" mentality that not only spawned an illegal war in Iraq, but the very mentality that has divided this Nation like never before - Even during the Civil War.

A freethinker knows that a House Divided Shall Fall. Duh. But no, not "God's Law" followers. They're willfully ignorant of that little nugget of advice. No, they gleefully tip the balance, drive the wedge, pull out the fulcrum, take your pick. And they do so, happily, in the name of God. Gee, thanks, Fundies.

Former Minnisota Governor Jesse "The Body/Mind/Governing Body" Ventura once said in a Playboy interview that "Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers." I'd like to expand on that a bit. You see, it's these same weak-minded people who become the pawns of people like "Pastor"* Anderson. People like him see an oppertunity: If they exploit the fears and beliefs of these people, they can use them to gather strength for their own bigoted, hate-fueled outlook on life, and turn it into a political force.

Rationality and Common Sense should tell EVERYBODY - Atheist, Christian, whatever - that that is most certainly wrong.

Duh.

*I've known plenty of Pastors in my lifetime, and this man is nothing like the Pastors I have known. All have been kind, tolerant people who don't preach venom and bile - just misinformation, unfortunately.