Posted on 11/18/2008 7:24:10 PM PST by Wegotsarah.com
As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.
Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.
I'm bathing in holy water as I type.
To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.
Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.
The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.
But they need those votes!
So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Armband atheists are creepier. I’m afraid that they’ve asked themselves an evil question with their “Just be good, for goodness sake” slogan. The answer being, “Or what?...nothing.”
While that seems trivial, that answer can be murderous, quite literally.
Already they embrace the idea that life is meaningless, at least other people’s lives. So life just becomes a race with the clock to do what you want to do before you die. And if that involves harming others, so what?, you’re all going to die anyway.
They miss a very important point. If life is meaningless, why try to proselytize others about atheism, or hate people because of their religious faith?
It is also easy to see why they are so terribly bitter about how “unfair” life has been to them so far. How it’s unfair that they weren’t born handsome, popular, loved, wealthy, smart, talented, and things like that, even though other people are like that It’s unfair.
But if your life is based on your own whims, and such people bother you, why not hate them and try to tear them down? Why not, indeed.
Or why not even kill them? Why not? Other people crowd their space, and most of them they hate, so why not hope they all die, so you can have more? They’re just billions of stupid religious nobodies.
Such armband atheists tend to be very miserable. They no longer have God in their mental equation, and they see that the hand of cards they were dealt in life is pretty meager indeed. They also must be dreadfully afraid of dying, so the one type of killing they object to is capital punishment.
For two reasons, I suppose. First of all they resent the idea that if they kill somebody on a whim, or for pure hatred, that people they despise, inferior people, religious people, would have their lives in their hands. Second, they also don’t want the idea of having their one-shot life curtailed. Even living in prison is better than nothingness.
Armband atheists have an awful lot of control issues, and that nagging fear that if they’re wrong, the misery they suffer after life is going to be a lot worse than the misery they suffer during life.
I suggest the Washington Compost stick with figuring out why it continues to lose readers.
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/mediapolitics/capitalcomment/4400.html
I was under the impression that the armband reference was to Nazi’s wearing swaztika armbands; as throwing Nazi references liberally around is the mode du jour over on the left.
Well said. In a large sense, some atheists are merely unwilling satanists.
MG2008, you are what you are- I'm not asking. But, please, respectfully, explain to me what the GOP did this year that evinces it is the party of "the conservative religious right"?
I have a strong faith, but if the GOP was trying to appeal to me on that basis this year, I missed it. Honestly, please explain how that manifested itself. Thanks
I dont need to be a southern Baptist to believe in limited government. I dont need a bible to tell me abortion is wrong.
Who gets to define what is good, moral, charitable, evil, etc.? You? Me? MTV? A Saddam? A Stalin?
To ancient Aztecs - cutting out the still beating heart of a human sacrifices (including children) was the highest order of good.
To a large percent of Muslims - killing, raping and enslaving infidels is the highest order of good in Islam.
To Hindus - Attacking, ignoring, prejudicing against and letting die for people in lower order castes is perfectly alright.
To certain Pacific Tribes - eating your enemy was the highest form of good.
And I could go on for pages...
The actions you mentioned are good works from a Christian viewpoint:
Matthew 22:37-40 -- Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." And Jesus also said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Luke 6:31; Luke 10:27 (affirming of Moses) and Matthew 7:12)
But by no means has this "philosophy" been accepted the world over as "good or moral." Not by a long shot.
What makes murder inherently wrong (to Christians) is not that it feels wrong, but that a transcendent Creator to whom we are answerable commands: "Thou shalt not murder." What makes kindness to others inherently right (to Christians) is not that human reason says so, but that God does: "Love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord."
What is "good or evil" without God? Without any footing for moral actions - anything can be rationalized as good or evil. You can just make it up as you go along. Good actions can be whatever society thinks it is with the popular culture at the time. If that be in Nazi Germany or Pol Pot's Cambodia or North Korea - that means doing "good" is slaughtering millions of people and sending millions more into misery. But, by their own human standards at the time in history, they were all doing good.
You and I grew up and live in a country founded in Judeo-Christian values, so it may seem obvious to you what is "good." But that is due to the Judeo-Christian influences on you (even if you don't believe in God or have never been in a Church). To others without that kind of influence, doing "good" can be radically different.
It would be hoped that more people would see those things; it’s sad that it can’t be so.
"Nietzsche is Dead!"- God
Well said.
Good insights, good post.
A well reasoned comment.
I think the things that drives atheists nuts is that they don’t, and can’t know what comes after. It sort of shoots their man-god notion to hell so to speak. If man is not all powerful, who is? If no one is, then why don’t we just have a free for all? What’s stopping us?
I think it’s funny that my atheist acquaintances are far more zealous and annoying than any Christian I’ve ever encountered.
I could not disagree more with this author. I actually think that McCain did not play up this enough. Contrary to what elitists (of both parties) think, most common folk in the fly over country think that religion and morals are good things that should have a place in our public discourse.
The author is merely a Christian hater. She is trying to marginalize the future influence of Christians because she hates everything about them. Nothing more.
Wow, that article was a bubbling fountain of vomit.
Excellent post. You have it exactly right.
They also know not to shove it down other people's throats. The same goes for civilized non-believers.
Nobody cared that Nixon was a heathen Quaker(!), or even that Reagan was not a devout churchgoer. Hell, nobody even protested when we had a Mormon running for the GOP nomination back in 1968. Politicians should neither bash the religious, nor attack the secular.
A final word of advice to my religious friends: with the white population becoming increasingly secular, you folks will have a lot of work to do to bring persons of color into the coalition.
Which brings me to my concern- which is if conservatives or non-conservatives fallaciously claim that the GOP is slave to religion, then one can rightly conclude that the proponents of the wrongful claim have ulterior motive.
The motive may be different dependent on who's making the erroneous allegation, but the end is the same---to deprive those with deeply religious convictions from a say in governing the nation. And if so, it's persecution-it's wrong- it's elitist- and it's not what this nation is about.
Catholic Hispanics are rabid Dems. Mormon and Evangelical Hispanics tend to vote like their white counterparts. Thus they could be persuaded to vote GOP with the right candidate. So there’s potential for a coalition. But it doesn’t help when Tancredo blames the Cubans for making Miami a “3rd world city”.
1. That's way out of line. You're better than that, Bruce.
2. How would we ever know if it did happen? She has her head so far up her butt it would be misdiagnosed as some sort of colonic infarction.
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