Holy Book Bigots (Cartoon)

11 Comments

1. 

   zephyr

   September 17, 2012 | 7:49 pm

   True, but western religion is no stranger to feeding intolerance. The greater point has to do with religious inspired hatred. Needless to say, it’s insane: You’ve offended my imaginary friend so I’m going to kill a bunch of people that had nothing to do with the offense of my imaginary friend. Ignorant, superstitious, and dangerous barbarism. Yes, making the video was stupid and irresponsible, but let’s put the blame where it lies: Ignorance and the violence it can inspire. Humans are truly a dangerous species, we make all the other objects of our phobias pale in comparison.

2. 

   Rcoutme

   September 17, 2012 | 7:56 pm

   Zephyr, interesting that you mention us being dangerous. On a recent program on one of the learning channels (Discovery, I think, maybe Science channel) a researcher suggested that the human brain was waaaayyyyy to big. The intelligence needed to hunt the animals that we were hunting pales in comparison to what we actually have. The researcher theorized that our extra brain capacity was due to our need to outsmart the most dangerous animal on the planet: other humans.

3. 

   ProWife

   September 17, 2012 | 7:59 pm

   Maybe there should be Internet filters for those that do not like freedom of speech!

4. 

   SteveK

   September 18, 2012 | 12:26 am

   @ Nominal

   Sure thing friend it’s only the Muslims, Christians wouldn’t act like this over a silly movie… Except when they do!
   

   On October 22, 1988, a French Christian fundamentalist group launched Molotov cocktails inside the Parisian Saint Michel movie theater while it was showing the film. This attack injured thirteen people, four of whom were severely burned. The Saint Michel theater was heavily damaged, and reopened 3 years later after restoration.
   .
   Following the attack, a representative of the film’s distributor, United International Pictures, said, “The opponents of the film have largely won. They have massacred the film’s success, and they have scared the public.”

   One thing you can count on from religious fanatics, whatever their stripe… a holier than thou attitude and denial.

5. 

   SteveK

   September 18, 2012 | 12:56 am

   Islamic religion is now the age Christianity was 622 years ago.
   .
   And where was Christianity in 1390… Emerging from the Crusades and getting ready to rape the cultures of the Americas, the Philippines, and much of Japan and China.
   .
   All in Gods name of course.

6. 

   ShannonLeee

   September 18, 2012 | 6:36 am

   The bible was used to justify 400 years of slavery in the US. There are people alive today…I have met one… that still believe that the bible says that africans are an inferior race.

   Almost every religion can be used to justify violence.

7. 

   SteveK

   September 18, 2012 | 1:56 pm

   It was also the very foundation for ending slavery in the U.S.. Or have you forgotten John Brown? Or the battle Hymn of the Republic? Or the general attitude of the northern states based in Christianity? Or President Lincoln’s speeches??

   To imply Christianity was “the very foundation for ending slavery in the U.S.” is misleading at best. And, as the writer seemed to have left out the general attitude of the southern states based in their take on Christianity, I think he knows this too.
   

   Southern Religion and the Civil War
   .
   Civil War historians have long pointed to pro-slavery views as central to southern religion of the Civil War era. In recent works, David Chesebrough (Clergy Dissent in the Old South, 1996) points to the Nat Turner rebellion and William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator in 1831 as cementing the nexus of pro-slavery sentiment among southern Christians. Goen identifies slavery as the principle issue which led Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists to split North and South by 1845. Genovese (The Slaveholders’ Dilemma: Freedom and Progress in Southern Conservative Thought, 1820-1860, 1992) provides irony, demonstrating that religious conservatives North and South were in agreement over most significant issues, other than slavery.
   .
   Slavery was rooted in a religiously-oriented, sectionalist southern culture. In Southern Evangelicals and the Coming of the Civil War (2000), Edward R. Crowther examines the intellectual and cultural history of the white, antebellum South and weaves together the themes of religion molding culture and culture shaping religion. Religion and culture were mutually reinforcing, with religious sentiments paralleling states’ rights ideology, collectively resulting in separation, secession and Civil War.
   .
   Modern historians differ somewhat on the relationship between religion and southern sectionalism, however. Some historians focus on sectionalism defining religion. Christine Leigh Heyrman, in Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (1997), utilizing journals of late 18th and early 19th century Baptist and Methodist ministers, concludes that religious leaders accommodated slavery in order to gain ground in the South.
   .
   [...]

8. 

   The_Ohioan

   September 18, 2012 | 8:32 pm

   Holier than thou attitudes aren’t exclusive to religious adherents.

   I recently attended a lecture by a local college professor about politics during the years in the leadup to the Civil War. I asked what percentage of the population were thorough abolitionists during that period and he and his wife (also a civil war expert) disagreed but finally decided about 15%. Which goes to show how few people it takes to drive a nation’s destiny. If the abolitionists could have foreseen the terrible toll of the war (in today’s population almost 7 million deaths) they may have had second thoughts. Of course no one thought the war would last even a year. Unintended consequences. And, yes, both sides thought God was on their side just like today’s enemies do.

9. 

   The_Ohioan

   September 18, 2012 | 9:16 pm

   But it was promoted by a “Christian” clergy member, Terry Jones. The tendency to consider all Christian to be just like Terry Jones and the tendency to consider all Muslims to be just like the Mullahs and the rioters is deplorable, but apparently unable to be repudiated by reason alone.

10. 

    SteveK

    September 18, 2012 | 9:43 pm

    The tendency to consider all Christian to be just like Terry Jones and the tendency to consider all Muslims to be just like the Mullahs and the rioters is deplorable

    Amen

11. 

    The_Ohioan

    September 19, 2012 | 12:47 pm

    [Florida pastor Terry Jones said he supports and is promoting a film criticizing Islam that has sparked worldwide outrage from Muslims, including violent protests in Libya where a U.S. ambassador was killed in a firebomb attack on the embassy Tuesday.

    The Gainesville-area pastor, known for his virulent opposition to Islam, issued a statement on his website defending the film "Innocence of Muslims," directed by Sam Bacile of California, who describes himself as an Israeli Jew.]

    http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-09-12/news/os-terry-jones-movie-embassy-bombing-20120912_1_florida-pastor-islam-protests

    [Authorities in Cairo have ordered the arrest of seven US-based Egyptian Coptic Christians for their alleged involvement in an anti-Islam video.

    The crude production posted on YouTube has sparked violent protests and riots across the Muslim world for its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

    It is unclear who made the film, but it has been linked to an Egyptian Coptic Christian living in the United States.

    An arrest warrant has also been issued for US Christian pastor Terry Jones.

    ...

    Florida-based Mr Jones is said to have promoted the film.]

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19640175