snowdeal.org > ex machina

ex machina

in classic form, richard dawkins stirs the pot, although i'm guessing he's not going to convince anyone who doesn't already think along these lines:

"I am trying to call attention to the elephant in the room that everybody is too polite - or too devout - to notice: religion, and specifically the devaluing effect that religion has on human life. I don't mean devaluing the life of others (though it can do that too), but devaluing one's own life. Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end."

"Our leaders have described the recent atrocity with the customary cliche: mindless cowardice. "Mindless" may be a suitable word for the vandalising of a telephone box. It is not helpful for understanding what hit New York on September 11. Those people were not mindless and they were certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had sufficiently effective minds braced with an insane courage, and it would pay us mightily to understand where that courage came from.

It came from religion."

i think there are many points that richard is glossing over, including the simple fact that it is not religion per se, but religion doctrine manipulated in the hands of a powerful rhetorician that is the issue. however, i think the point is still important to keep in mind, especially when you listen to george bush proclaiming that the u.s. is on a crusade to rid the world of evil doers:

""We've never seen this kind of evil before," the president said.

"But the evildoers have never seen the United States in action before either, and they're about to find out."

He vowed to "rid the world of evil-doers," delivering a fresh round of warnings against Osama bin Laden."

bookmark: del.icio.us ::digg it ::furl ::reddit ::yahoo ::

9/17/2001 08:10:00 PM 0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

[ rhetoric ]

“"it is hard to be brave," said piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal." rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said: "it is because you are a very small animal that you will be Useful in the adventure before us."”

the complete tales & poems of winnie the pooh

[ about ]

this site chronicles the continuing adventures of my son, odin, who was unexpectedly born on the fourth of july at 25 weeks gestation, weighing 1 pound 7 ounces.

he's quite a fighter and you can always send him a postcard to the most current address listed here if you're inspired by his adventures. see the postcard project/google maps mashup to see a map of the postcards.

if you're new, you can browse the archives to catch up. and don't forget to watch a few movies that i made while we were in the neonatal intensive care unit. or if you want the abridged version and you can find a copy, you can read about his adventures in the november 2005 issue of parents magazine.

[ search ]

[ outbound ]