Tuesday,
September 2, 2008 at 8:39pm
I have to stop watching debates. It sickens me to think that people with Ph D's can reach a level of dishonesty that is frankly sickening. Some of you may not find it surprising that after watching another debate between Dinesh and Hitchens, I still want Dinesh sniped. I only got through about 5 minutes of the opening argument in a debate between Ehrman and Craig, and had to stop because of how ridiculously Craig managed to present the “facts” that “most historians agree” about Jesus's resurrection. It doesn't take a doctorate in biblical studies to read, nor does it take a genius intellect to fact check. Those are the only skills I practice, and they allow me the privilege of becoming angry and sick when the amassed bullshit comes spewing from their putrid gullets. Dinesh, no surprise, did his usual dance around questions and has seemingly forgotten the words “yes” and “no” are still legitimate and understandable ways of conveying an answer. Craig manages to find extra biblical sources written 5-7 years after Jesus's alleged resurrection (despite not a single document placing the event any less than 40-70 years afterward, let alone confirming its truth), and maintains an extremely vague and naively formulated notion of what “evidence” means. I shouldn't be unable to contain myself in yelling at my Ipod when someone is speaking. I can't fathom the reasons someone would put themselves in a debate, when a meagerly interested layman who can use The Google, can gather more than enough real evidence to silence the lies.
I have to stop watching debates. It sickens me to think that people with Ph D's can reach a level of dishonesty that is frankly sickening. Some of you may not find it surprising that after watching another debate between Dinesh and Hitchens, I still want Dinesh sniped. I only got through about 5 minutes of the opening argument in a debate between Ehrman and Craig, and had to stop because of how ridiculously Craig managed to present the “facts” that “most historians agree” about Jesus's resurrection. It doesn't take a doctorate in biblical studies to read, nor does it take a genius intellect to fact check. Those are the only skills I practice, and they allow me the privilege of becoming angry and sick when the amassed bullshit comes spewing from their putrid gullets. Dinesh, no surprise, did his usual dance around questions and has seemingly forgotten the words “yes” and “no” are still legitimate and understandable ways of conveying an answer. Craig manages to find extra biblical sources written 5-7 years after Jesus's alleged resurrection (despite not a single document placing the event any less than 40-70 years afterward, let alone confirming its truth), and maintains an extremely vague and naively formulated notion of what “evidence” means. I shouldn't be unable to contain myself in yelling at my Ipod when someone is speaking. I can't fathom the reasons someone would put themselves in a debate, when a meagerly interested layman who can use The Google, can gather more than enough real evidence to silence the lies.
I'm still debating what aspects of the
debate format I truly hate the most. We can start with the ten minute
rants the persistently ignorant debater may go on. A Dinesh rant can
drift so far from any established topic, you wonder if he even
listens to the opposition before he opens his mouth. Or maybe I am
disgusted with the idea that granting someone the opportunity to
“rebut” somehow redeems the previous bullshit they've attempted
to pass off. Let's not forget that generally debates are open to the
public, so one of the most redeeming factors must be that a mass of,
perhaps ill-informed people, can now walk away with a song in their
hearts and a tear in their eye after having been touched by Dinesh,
yay. Maybe its the complete ignoring of what it means to commit a
logical error, phonetic faux pas, quote mine, and mischaracterization. Of course I could just as quickly mention the
manner in which Dinesh's tone goes beyond presumptuous and pious onto
something his fervently flapping lips and flailing arms are
struggling to mimic. It could all just boil down into the vote at the
end about who “won” that really got me, but this feels more like
that despicable icing on an ever growing and disgusting cake. These
debates have done little more than make me agonize for the guys on
the other end of the table, and clench my brow in baffled disdain for
the pathetic conductor weaving such a masterful train wreck.
Evidence is not something we take to be
true until something new comes in and trumps it. Evidence comes AFTER
and in SUPPORT of the question at hand. With that said, when a
fucking idiot says the evidence for Jesus's resurrection is the
gospel accounts, indeed actually written no less, by Mark, Mathew,
Luke, and John, I don't care if they are a Ph D, they are emphatically
wrong. They are not wrong because I say so, they are wrong because
they choose to accept an outright destructive and backwards notion of
the methodology behind drawing conclusions and formulating arguments.
How ridiculous would I look if I said something like “evolution is
true because Dawkin's says so in The Ancestor's Tale”? This is
exactly what those who fight for religion do. The presuppose, they
already have their answer, everything needs to be forcibly packed
within the confines of the story whether it makes sense or not. Why
do we grant ourselves the right to give up thinking because someone
is a “noted scholar and department head” of some name dropped
university. Titles do not depict the character of an honest, and dare
I say capable, person to wrestle with any given issue at hand. The
mere facts alone that Dinesh has no training in biology, no training
in physics, no training in textual criticism, and hasn't even grasped
the notion of properly quoting someone who is sitting five feet from
him, should be enough to automatically disqualify him as someone
deserving your respect as a Crusader for the faith.
It is granting these kinds of
concessions to characters like Dinesh that are slowly eating away
what our country's founders fought and died for. It is when we give a
platform to someone so adamantly stupid and dishonest, from which to
practically corral the curious yet uninformed masses, that we compile
our problems and fuel the rate of our destruction. Pat Condell is one
of the most outspoken Youtubers on what's happening in Britain when
Muslim ideals, namely treating women like property, executions, hate
speech, and ignorance, are going to become exempt from criticism. The
Muslim community can be governed my Sharia Law instead of the laws of
the country. Do you understand what this means? I've linked to his
talk about it HERE. Whether there are suicide bombers within
Christianity or not, does NOT detract from the real issue of doing
anything, absolutely anything, because of unsubstantiated faith
claims. It isn't the mere facts of the Crusades and Inquisition that
make Christianity wrong. Dinesh loves the phrase “atheist regime”
as if it makes any fucking sense whatsoever to call the absence of
something the motivation for anything. By doing so he makes the
argument about body count, not process or reason, alluding to
only a few thousand (50-80, not “6 a year” as
he'd so non nonchalantly tell you) dead in the past, compared to the
millions dead at the hands of Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, etc. who
of course did all those things because they didn't believe in God. It
wasn't totalitarianism, communism, psychotic mental dispositions, or
a litany of other factors and pressures, it was because they didn't
have God. Of course, no one would ask where God was while the ovens
were heating up, but that's because they all know the answer. Next
time I punch a baby in the face, just know it's because I found out
the truth about Santa Claus.
Freedom of speech should not entail an
ordained right to be considered correct before you present your case,
yet this is what we concede. For example, when someone is introduced
as Father or Pastor so-and-so, they are automatically granted a
higher status when it comes to understanding “faith” affairs, or
even when it comes to giving advice or guidance. I find it quite
obvious that if a leader like that tells you to pray and read the
bible more in response to financial or relationship troubles, they're
frankly stupid. For whatever reason, and I've been mulling this one
over for a while now, when you start a sentence with “my personal
conviction, opinion, or view” it somehow makes you feel like you
are exempt from being made fun of, being wrong, and being made a fool
of. “According to me” only says to me “I have no clue what
anyone else may have to say.” This is just sad and pathetic.
Consequently, this is something we frequently see during debates.
Some useless story about where the presenter is coming from and their
path towards faith, is manifested as “evidence” behind the
“truth” and “facts” they are getting ready to lie about.
Dinesh is not only a fan of this, but he also throws mud at his
opposition, attacks positions not on the table, and interjects random
factoids, all of which are laced with half truths or outright lies.
I'm convinced that we are going to go
down in flames, maybe much sooner than I had previously speculated.
Are their fighters for reason and rationality, of course. Do they get
a voice in public policy? No. Do they have the answers that can be
packaged and shipped like the sound bites of religion and
Republicans? No. Are there even enough of them to switch strategies
and induce a violent uprising that would force natural selection upon
those who enjoy rotting their brains and wallowing in complacency?
Maybe with enough planning...
Some of my
predictions for this lifetime:
- America will be threatened with a nuclear bomb by an Islamic nation who is both willing and able to launch it.
- More and more people will coalesce around religious or “spiritual” ideals as a result of their seemingly inexplicable combativeness with nihilism and reality, rendering them helpless and panic prone when faced with a life threatening problem.
- Technology will drive us to always look for a new “fix” under the guise of words like “economical,” “environmentally friendly,” and “new and luxurious” all the while ignoring and never realizing what actually causes happiness.
- A lesser tragedy will invoke the same kinds of responses we had to 9/11 that will further extinguish once sacred rights and privileges.
- People will become exponentially ignorant, lazy, and afraid as the growing problems refuse to wait for us to become comfortable with solving and understanding them.
The less you care, the quicker these
things will happen. Keep pretending you live in a bubble and watch as
your reality changes day by day. Are you going to wait until you turn
on the television to see a mushroom cloud before you stop worrying
about getting your feelings hurt by learning something you didn't
want to know? I await the day some new illness, who's greatest foe is
stem cell research, starts wiping out the world because pandering to
religious groups has stifled its progress. It was one too many when
the first kid died because the parents believed in prayer and not
going to the hospital. It is one too many who does not appreciate
what it means to vote and be able to criticize the many many problems
that will never get better without action.
These bullshit religious texts aren't
saving us from global warming, no god posted a bulletin saying
anything about what a fetus can or can't feel during an abortion, it
is not a loving act to fuck alter boys in the ass, cover your women
in black cloaks, tell your children they aren't capable of being good
without a threatening god, persecute gays, execute by way of holy
edict, deny horrors of totalitarianism, destroy your planet, pretend
to love those who are evil, or martyring yourself for others “sins”
that need to be acknowledged and grown from, not excused. ALL of
these things come from faith, bias, ignorance, denial, delusion,
fear, laziness, complacency, guilt, spite, immaturity, and piety, not
revealed truth. From a universal perspective, you aren't even
bacteria, yet you feel you are entitled to eternal happiness and
perfect love. You seek this by way of opposing everything that fought
to give you such an ego. Your faith brings nothing to the table. Your
faith will be what kills you, and if I could sit back and watch you
burn without resenting my own existence, I would.
