An Atheist Condemns Religion

The Atheo-Left is stirred to a passionate defense of Islam once again. In an article for the NYT, Religion Does Its Worst, Cohen manages to defame both Christianity and Islam. Cohen does not have an adequate comprehension of either.

What Cohen sees in Islam really is a religion of peace. To worry about Sharia being used in courts as a meta-law, is Islamaphobia, one of the Leftist phobia slurs which assign insanity to anything Leftists don’t like. Interestingly there are no equivalent terms “Christaphobia”, or “Constitutionophobia”, which are epidemic amongst the Atheo-Left.

The Religion of Peace does not mirror the horror that the Left sees in the butchery of dozens in the fits of pique that afflict the adherents of the Religion of Peace. There are no Imams issuing fatwas against those who kill innocents in barbaric tantrums. In fact, the Imams encourage such rage, issuing fatwas that result directly in butchery.

Cohen, however, is appalled that the feckless Muslims, who have no apparent free-will or consciences and are absolutely controlled by actions half a globe away, were triggered into their barbaric frenzy by the ritual burning of their book of law… by a Christian. Obviously they could do no else but slaughter the first non-Muslims they encountered. This is supported by Karzai, by American generals, and by the pansy pols in Washington D.C.: Do not incite these people because they are incapable of self-restraint. In other words, they are barbarians; we must accede or they will kill someone, maybe lots of someones. Cohen demands actions by Muslim leaders, but still it is primarily the fault of the Christian actors of hate.

The entire episode proves the point of Terry Jones, who burned the Qur’an inside his church, an action without fanfare and press coverage, and without any perceptible intent to inflame Muslims. The paleo-press didn’t even notice it; it was picked up off the internet by Muslims who are watching for ways to be incited. They were successful.

Cohen is worried for Islam in America. He cites politicians who denounce “creeping Sharia”, ignoring the legislative movement to make reference to Sharia a necessity in places like Oklahoma. Says Cohen:

”I spent time last year with Paul Blair, a pastor in small-town Oklahoma, a state where Islamophobia is rampant. He told me Muslims were “not here to coexist but to take over.” He told me there are only two possibilities in Islam — “the house of Islam or the house of war.”

That sort of message is going out in a lot of U.S. churches. It’s dangerous. Already, Muslims are victims in 14 percent of religious discrimination cases when they make up 1 percent of the population. “

Is it possible that Muslims are suing much more than other populations out of both pique and the need for the dominance of their views, which are contrary to, and at odds with, western views and laws? This is not considered by Cohen. For him, it is merely an indication that Muslims are somehow abused in the USA. The idea of a world-wide caliphate is a “grotesque caricature” in Cohen’s world.

But what if, what would the world look like, if Christians rioted in the streets and formed homicidal mobs which went looking for random Atheists to kill, just because an Atheist desecrated icons (say communion wafers or American flags)? Would the Atheist be held responsible for the incitement?

What would the world look like if Christians, based on their holy book, demanded the death or enslavement of all non-Christians?

What would the world look like if Christian leaders issued fatwas demanding the death of specific offenders of their faith?

What would the world look like if the victims of rape in the USA were stoned to death while the rapist skated away?

There is nothing in the red print of the Bible that even remotely resembles any of that.

Cohen says,

”This column is full of anger, I know. It has no heroes. I’m full of disgust, writing after a weekend when religious violence returned to Northern Ireland with the murder of a 25-year-old Catholic policeman, Ronan Kerr, by dissident republican terrorists. Religion has much to answer for, in Gainesville and Mazar and Omagh.”

Yes, Roger, the article is filled with anger and hate. And misdirection and ignorance of actual religion outside the Atheist strawman.

Atheism still has not answered for the half billion murders by the Atheists of the 20th century, Roger. And let’s see, the Northern Ireland conflict is one of English occupation of Irish territory. The religious differences in northern Ireland are epiphenomenal to the colonial issue, as anyone with a little historical knowledge would understand, Roger. (Where else in the world are Catholics and Protestants killing each other?) And I suspect, Roger, that you did not devote a single sentence to the Atheist desecrations of Christian icons and other constant Atheist provocations (free speech and all).

Roger concludes,

I see why lots of people turn to religion — fear of death, ordering principle in a mysterious universe, refuge from pain, even revelation. But surely it’s meaningless without mercy and forgiveness, and surely its very antithesis must be hatred and murder. At least that’s how it appears to a nonbeliever.”

This understanding of “religion” is hollow, an Atheist caricature. It fails to separate the man-made components from the eternal truths, ecclesiasticism from exceptionalism. And yes, for some beliefs anyway, the very antithesis is hatred and murder, those very characteristics of Atheist controlled societies which are historic and hardly deniable, as well as Islamic societies for the last 1500 years.

Christianity is hardly perfect, with populations of Pharisaical dogmatists that corrupt the meanings behind the historical document. But Christianity is a voluntary association; Islam is not. And the Atheist, secular, thrust is for positive rights and mandatory controls over a population that is inadequate to the task of caring for itself,making its own decisions. It comes down to voluntary Christianity and liberty on the one hand, and the totalitarians of Atheo-statism and the one-world caliphate on the other. The evidence for that is plain. It is historical. It is reality.