{"id":321,"date":"2009-07-27T20:43:06","date_gmt":"2009-07-27T20:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html"},"modified":"2009-07-27T20:43:06","modified_gmt":"2009-07-27T20:43:06","slug":"bigoted-atheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html","title":{"rendered":"Bigoted Atheism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sam_Harris_%28author%29\">Sam Harris<\/a>&nbsp;<span> <\/span>has a<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/07\/27\/opinion\/27harris.html\"> column in today&#8217; New York Times<br \/>\nobjecting <\/a>to Obama&#8217;s naming <a href=\"http:\/\/www.genome.gov\/10001018\">Francis Collins<\/a>&nbsp;<br \/>\ndirector of NIH.&nbsp;<br \/>\nHe objects solely because Collins is a Evangelical Christian.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">For those who have not read<br \/>\nHarris&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/End-Faith-Religion-Terror-ebook\/dp\/B000VUCIZE\/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1248740848&amp;sr=8-2\"><i>The End of Faith<\/i><\/a>,&nbsp;<br \/>\nand I have, his book is a withering but not very insightful criticism of<br \/>\nfundamentalism combined with an incompetent extrapolation of his critique to<br \/>\ncover religion in general.<span><\/span>&nbsp; Harris<br \/>\ngives good ammunition to those of us who want to use it,<br \/>\nbut that&#8217;s about it.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>He also<br \/>\ndemonstrates eloquently that self righteousness, willful ignorance, and<br \/>\nintolerance are not only problems in religious communities.<span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">In his column Harris did not<br \/>\nmention that his religious bigotry has led him to suggest nuclear first strikes<br \/>\non Muslim nations.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>In The End of<br \/>\nFaith he writes that if an &#8220;Islamist regime&#8221; acquires long range nuclear<br \/>\nweaponry<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">In such a situation the only thing<br \/>\nlikely to ensure our survival may be a nuclear first strike of our own.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Needless to say, this would be an<br \/>\nunthinkable crime [though I have just proposed it -diZ] &#8211; as it would kill tens of<br \/>\nmillions of innocent civilians in a single day &#8211; but it may be the only course<br \/>\nof action available to us, given what the Islamists believe. (p. 36)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">One would think a &#8216;serious thinker&#8217;<br \/>\nlike Harris would have carefully studied the &#8220;Islamist&#8221; mentality, especially<br \/>\nbefore signing off on murdering millions of people he admits are innocent.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>One would be wrong.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>He has studied it as closely as he has<br \/>\nstudied the Evangelical mentality.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Like the religious fundamentalists he despises, Harris knows the truth<br \/>\nwithout having to study an issue.<span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">For example, in a<a href=\"http:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/avbooth\/item\/20070617_religion_politics_and_the_end_of_the_world\/\"> 2007 debate<\/a><br \/>\nbetween himself and&nbsp;<span> <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chris_Hedges\">Chris Hedges<\/a>,&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Harris cites a PEW poll that<br \/>\nindicated, he claimed, substantial Muslim support for suicide bombing, the same<br \/>\nlogic he used to justify a nuclear first strike on a Muslim society, a strike<br \/>\nkilling millions.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>The<br \/>\nmoderator in the debate, Robert Scheer, broke in, observing &#8220;I actually studied<br \/>\nthe PEW poll carefully, and what it said was that in the face of an occupation,<br \/>\nwhere theoccupier is hurting your country and your people, that this is a<br \/>\nlegitimate attack because you don&#8217;t have alternatives.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>That&#8217;s what the PEW poll said.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">Harris advocates mass murder based<br \/>\non careless and slipshod research, and then says ALL Evangelicals, even ones<br \/>\nwith distinguished scientific records, are unqualified to head NIH.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">What a total loser.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">(Thanks to Mark Kleiman and<a href=\"http:\/\/www.samefacts.com\/archives\/religion_and_politics_\/2009\/07\/bigoted_atheism.php\"> his<br \/>\nexcellent blog<\/a>, The Reality Based Community, for alerting me.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>To forestall simple-minded supporters<br \/>\nof Harris who want to turn this into an atheist versus religious conflict,<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Kleiman is a secular Jew.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Harris&nbsp; has a column in today&#8217; New York Times objecting to Obama&#8217;s naming Francis Collins&nbsp; director of NIH.&nbsp; He objects solely because Collins is a Evangelical Christian. &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bigoted Atheism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bigoted Atheism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sam Harris&nbsp; has a column in today&#8217; New York Times objecting to Obama&#8217;s naming Francis Collins&nbsp; director of NIH.&nbsp; He objects solely because Collins is a Evangelical Christian. &nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-27T20:43:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bigoted Atheism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bigoted Atheism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","og_description":"Sam Harris&nbsp; has a column in today&#8217; New York Times objecting to Obama&#8217;s naming Francis Collins&nbsp; director of NIH.&nbsp; He objects solely because Collins is a Evangelical Christian. &nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html","og_site_name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","article_published_time":"2009-07-27T20:43:06+00:00","author":"Gus diZerega","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html","name":"Bigoted Atheism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-07-27T20:43:06+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-27T20:43:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/bigoted-atheism.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bigoted Atheism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/","name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Gus diZerega","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2","name":"Gus diZerega","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","caption":"Gus diZerega"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/author\/gdizerega"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}