I know the "faithful" all too well!

Sorry William, but as a liberal and secular humanist, these people do not have anything in common with me. The faithful are as blind as they are foolish. I cannot find common ground with uninformed parishioners of mystical beings that simply do not exist.

These are the very same people that virulently picket the funerals of fallen soldiers, who happen to be gay, with signs proclaiming, "God hates fags."

The same pious minions who believe in an incredulous deity -- who was ostensibly given birth by a virgin woman -- and then rose from the dead to ascend into the ether two millennia ago, never to be seen or heard from again.

These same subordinate cronies are idolaters of vile and hateful people such as, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Chuck Colson, Ralph Reed, and the ever-odious Tim LaHaye – proselytizer and purveyor of end-times theology nonsense.

These are the same sheeple who want to impose their extreme, zealous dogma on America and remake it into a theocracy and not a democracy. (See former congressional representative Katherine Harris and current presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.)

Moreover, evangelicals believe that the Bible – an apocryphal book of duplicitous dictums – as the inerrant word of God, yet it was cobbled together at the behest of the pagan ruler Constantine, in 325 A.D. to appease the radical fanatics of Christianity to quell their occultism demands and bring about civil disorder.

Lest we forget the chief charlatan of this rapturous pack of imprudent, myopic, scornful, xenophobic, homophobic and judgmental flock of believers – Pat Robertson. This is the very same Pat Robertson who infamously blamed the events of 9/11 on gays and claims to openly have audible chats with the All-Mighty.

Finally, the "Godsquad", are indeed the same flakes who wish to place a permanent moratorium on stem cell research, preach abstinence-only over practical solutions to adolescent sexual desires and then ultimately plant a flag and a Bible in a woman's uterus signifying it as property of the church and state.

They covet the idea of teaching superstition as empirical science (See the Creationist Museum in Kentucky), swindle and bankroll billion of dollars from uninformed, gullible followers of a fatally flawed conviction – in order to sustain and build a permanent Christian-based theocracy in a country that was founded on and built around secularism and separation of church and state.

No William, whatever specious microcosm of an anecdotal example you purportedly found during your "telephone news conference" – that "we liberals" have a "lot more common ground than most of us would have guessed" is patently false.

There are 30-40 million irrational people walking around this nation willfully and ignorantly eschewing science, reason, and rationale, all the while deluded and attempting to replace wisdom and common sense with fiction, folklore of yore and monotheistic mythology.

The Moral Majority, who helped usher in the Reagan era of reactionary thinking are the same dutiful dullards who have proven – and history clearly shows – that religion has stood in the way of reason, science, peace, and progress, as well as, has been the impetus behind more wars than any other cause or influence in the last 2,000 years.

It is high time to exclude, exempt, and nullify religion; all religion and their cultish followers, from the discourse of sane dialogue on how to resolve the calamity we now face as a nation and a species.


-Frank J. Ranelli

by Frank J. Ranelli (61 articles, 142 quicklinks, 27 diaries, 338 comments) on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 7:38:31 PM
 

Blowing smoke

This is an a group even more obsure than Jim Wallis, etc.  They have no influence over the voting christian right.

by JesusReyes (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments) on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 8:57:53 PM
 

A good assessment, Bill

Not all people of faith, including those who profess to be "fundamental", are snarling warhawks.  It is only the rest, to whom I refer as "Holy-Rollers" who promote the overthrow of our government, our society, and our way of life.  If President Bush were truly motivated by Christian principles he would find no opposition from this faction of religious conservatives.  They are concerned with service to their principles, not with the Judeo-Christian priciples of war and salvation by conquest.

 May they find the strength to prevail.

by Mary Pitt (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 162 comments) on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 9:30:16 AM
 

Wow...bus me to a concentration camp now Frank...

Jeez Frank, that is awfully Hitlerish of you.  You speak only of the fringe religious zealots who picket and do other short sighted acts out of ignorance.  I could easily say the same for the liberal treehuggers who called a friend of mine a baby killer when he entered LAX after taking two to the chest in Bhagdad.  There are extremists in almost every group/organization on the planet...get over it!

As for Pat Robertson and some of the other televangelists...my scorn for the majority of them far supercedes your own as they have made it  increasingly more difficult for true Bible believing Christians to seem credible at all.

Stem Cell research, abstinence, and abortion...Stem Cell research is about the ends justifying the means.  Tons of good data was collected in concentration camps but does that justify the means by which it was gathered?  As for abstinence...it works!  It is not for the schools to decide anyway, it is for the parents to educate their children and act appropriately.  As for abortion, I realize it is a personal choice but the line needs to be drawn in the sand as to when a life is a life.  Some would allow children to be aborted up to two weeks after birth which is not abortion at all but clearly murder...or maybe it is not so clear to some. 

Creation vs. Evolution...there would be no question except the evolutionary theory is failing to provide a lot of answers as to how macroevolution occured and other "natural" processes might have occured.  There is increasing evidence, based on solid science, that strongly contradicts the theory of evolution.  And might I remind everyone that it is a theory.  Besides, theories and science should constantly be challenged or they will become unquestionable fact defended by those who have no scientific knowledge at all.  This is a complete role reversal from a few hundred years ago when scientists were all but killed for challenging the beliefs of the church.

This next statement scares and excites me at the same time..."It is high time to exclude, exempt, and nullify religion; all religion and their cultish followers, from the discourse of sane dialogue on how to resolve the calamity we now face as a nation and a species."  This looks like a statement straight from "Mein Kampf".  While you intolerance scares me a bit as a Christian, I should only be so lucky as to some day suffer as my Christ did for my faith.

 Keith Rudder

by Keith (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 10:14:23 AM
 

IS RELIGION EVIL?

There are few issues that have  legitimately to do with religion. Some religious people are admirable- Liberation Theology is an example. The Quakers were abolitionists. No problem. They were doing the work of Jesus in the political arena, but they were not furthering a political agenda of their own, there's a difference. When it becomes an issue is when they leave the church and collate themselves into political institutions- environmental agencies, schools, the Pentagon, local and federal government, in an effort to make Christianity supreme over others, to turn the country into a theocracy. . No one should be allowed to profess a religion if they are getting paid with tax money. Churches should be taxed. If God is so powerful, let God support them. No church should be allowed to charge for its services. The early church met in people's houses, and they worshipped as they wished without interference as long as they stayed there. What has happened is that religion has come out of the closet and become a huge, billion dollar profit-making BUSINESS, and as such it affects everybody, it affects our economy, and it impoverishes our standard of living by syphoning money away from social services.

by Guajolotl (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 132 comments) on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 10:54:40 AM