From the monthly archives:

February 2007

Religious bigots over in Katy?

by Karen on February 28, 2007

in Religion

Some Christians over in Katy are riled up. Muslims in Katy purchased a house and 11 acres of land late last year. They plan to build a proper mosque as well as a school and some other things on the site. In response, the man next door has started having pig races every Friday night on the property line. You see, they are concerned about the traffic snarls such a building would cause. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that pigs are “unclean” to Muslims and that Friday is a special day to his new neighbours. Nope, it’s the noise.

Of course, there’s this site also. It was privately registered shortly after the KIA’s purchase of the property. It is, to put it mildly, anti-Islam. The ringleader is one Craig Baker who has sent what can only be called threatening letters to the KIA wherein he attempts at one point to blame the Muslims for an expected devaluation of his and his neighbours homes for what would be little more than Christian Flight should they build the mosque ( I have these letters if they disappear off the site). Back in the day this was called White Flight and many of white people tried to stop blacks from moving into white neighbours by using this very same argument. Not. about. racism. at. all.

And if that’s not proof enough of the less than forthrightness of Baker and his cohorts - how about the encouragement to call the FBI for suspicious behaviour in the left column? Or the names and numbers of various officials about a third way down the page? Those listings have absolutely nothing to do with harassing the Muslims who are using the existing home as a makeshift meeting place, right?

Now while I can agree that the building of churches, mosques and what have you in a neighbourhood can cause problems, this whole situation smacks of Christian intolerance. There was a big dispute here in Houston when the Compaq Center was ‘rented’ to Joel Olsteen. I don’t recall any group doing what these Katy people have done concerning the mosque. A site calling Islam a stand in for the Klan? Letters threatening to coerce the state into using Eminent Domain to stop the building of a mosque? Insinuating all these rich non-Muslims will move if the Muslims continue on with their building project?

Furthermore, in the lawyer’s letter it seems that Mr. Baker being less than honest about the situation with the pigs. On November 24th (the friday before the date of the letter) Mr. Baker built an illegal racetrack for his pigs on a strip of land in front of the Muslim’s property that does not belong to him but was impossible for Muslims to avoid.

And with that bit of information, I think it’s clear that Baker and his cohorts are bigots who are engaged in a campaign of harassment. The “real problem” is that the Muslims aren’t backing down. Poor Craig, eh?

Encouraged by The Daily Show (appropriate clip: “Loathe Thy Neighbour”)

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I just found this over at Unscrewing the Inscrutable. Professor Paul Campos of the University of Colorado has decided that it is reasonable to discriminate against atheists because we’re different from them, the theists. Not that professor believes we exist to begin with.

Like many of theists past, present and probably future, the professor has attached a new meaning to atheism. In the professor world, a “genuine” atheist is really someone who shows a decidedly “big whoop” attitude to the idea that the universe or even the planet could shake us off like a dog shaking off bathwater.

This is wrong, of course, as an atheist is merely someone who doesn’t believe in gods. The phrase “I’m an atheist” says nothing more than that. But then admitting that makes it kind of hard to come up with reasons to discriminate against atheists, eh?

What I find really disturbing about the professors piece is how he attempts to downplay religious violence.

Still, Steve believes - correctly in my view - that in general the differences between religious believers are less important than the differences between believers and nonbelievers, and that this distinction is and ought to be relevant to political life.

Religious violence is “less important”? Theists have killing each other for centuries over theological disputes. They’re still killing each over theological disputes. Hell, the man the professor is defending made the remark in retort to a theological attack by a heckler. Everywhere we look theists are attacking other theists.

Less important? I beg to differ. I’d say that the propensity of theists towards killing people who believe differently is extremely important and something we should pay a lot attention to before they kill us all.

Of course, this points towards something else. The inability of many theists to be useful in stopping such violence for all time.  Seriously, anyone who can say “stopping people who disagree with me on religous ideas” is more important than “stopping people who will kill me over religious ideas” is by default a part of the problem.

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Christian Right is a tad upset

February 28, 2007

It seems they’re having trouble locating an acceptable candidate to carry their war banner into the next presidential election.
Many conservatives have already declared their hostility to Senator John McCain of Arizona, despite his efforts to make amends for having once denounced Christian conservative leaders as “agents of intolerance,” and to former Mayor Rudolph W. [...]

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Creationists indoctrinating Children

February 27, 2007

Here’s a short documentary about the indoctrination of children by adults into creationism. It’s disturbing in ways I can’t quite put into words.
Some screenshots:

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Alice Says: Hating atheists isn’t a choice. It’s the natural reflex of a bigot.

February 27, 2007

UPDATE:  This is apparently a hoax.
Alice Shannon of Soldotna, Alaska has a “strong opinion” about atheists. We should vacate the premises immediately as this nation is based on freedom of religion which means you have to choose one of the Christian sects. Alice also inadvertently proves a secular point though.
Many of those who [...]

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Religious Liberals: Friend or Foe?

February 26, 2007

I’m starting to see a pattern in ‘liberal’ religious circles and I don’t like it one bit. Ministers, rabbis, pastors and what have you are coming out of the woodwork it seems and they have a common message.
Richard Dawkins is an extremist.
Richard Dawkins is an atheist fundamentalist.
Richard Dawkins is ‘this close’ to [...]

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EC Bills Fail in South Dakota

February 26, 2007

A South Dakota bill that would have required that information about the availability of EC be given to rape victims failed last week. Which is just as well I supposed as anti-choice advocates managed to tack an amendment on that would have allowed any provider or facility to opt-out.
As originally written, SB187 wouldn’t force [...]

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History Channel: 600 Years of Godless Inhumane Behaviour

February 25, 2007

The History Channel is premiering a show about the “Dark Ages”. As we all know it was a pretty bad time to be a European, but guess why the History Channel thinks that was so? Well, it was 600 hundred years of godless inhumane behaviour. (Promo here)
Never mind that the [...]

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Anti-Christian for all the wrong reasons

February 25, 2007

For the longest time I’ve thought it was my often hostile remarks about Christianity that was the root cause of any “anti” Christian accusations made against me. I’ve also been under the impression that I was Anti-American because I’m not an imperialist asshole servant of the state.
I’ve been wrong.
I’m really “anti” Christian/American because in [...]

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Slavery and the Christian Church in America

February 25, 2007

A campaign is being mounted to credit Christianity with the end of slavery via a documentary called Amazing Grace. I have but one question. Is there anything Christians won’t lie about? Christianity has never opposed slavery and the reason is quite simple.
The bible supports the practice of buying [...]

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