PeeZee must be busy, because he hasn’t yet responded to something that hits close to home: an editorial in the Colorado Springs Gazette accusing him, and other atheist/Darwinists, of fomenting violence and murder (think Columbine shootings and Discovery Channel standoff):
Those who commit atrocities to fight for the cause of Darwin are similar to those who commit atrocities for the sake of Jesus or Muhammed. They are con men, striking out in hatred and justifying their acts with figures greater than self. . .
Just as James Dobson and other evangelists cultivate audiences in order to spread their beliefs, so do atheist evangelizers. The bigs are Britons Christopher Hitchens, who is battling cancer, and Richard Dawkins, who turns 70 in March. Myers, who grabbed attention by vandalizing sacred religious property, is a young and energetic American evangelist on track to become the James Dobson of atheism. . .
The more atheists push their beliefs — through terror or preaching — the more they appear as another evangelical movement with faith in a philosophy that can never be proved or disproved. Atheists, welcome to the club. All you’re lacking are orphanages, AIDS hospices, missionaries, and thousands of charitable foundations. Get on it.
The author of this screed is Wayne Laugesen, a notorious conservative/libertarian. I won’t do the heavy lifting on this one—that rightfully belongs to its target. But here’s the theme song for the children’s prayer/brainwashing videos that Laugesen and his wife co-produce, “Holy Baby!“:
If you want to see a nauseating 24-minute “Holy Baby!” video, go here.
Oh, and there’s a poll about whether atheists are as charitable as believers. Curiously, it seems to have already been Pharyngulated.
It really is a sad state of affairs. How can anyone possibly think that questioning religion is akin to suicide bombing or the inquisition? People really need to learn what perspective is, then get some.
Well obviously stabbing a cracker is terrorism of the worst kind!
Jesus died, over and over again, in PZ’s rubbish bin! There can be no greater crime than to abuse a cracker.
(Except of course the passage through a believing Catholic’s digestive system and the transsubstantation of the flesh of Christ into Catholic poop.)
Reminds me of the line from Monty Python:
“But nothing’s predictable in this tough, harsh, highly competitive world where today’s champion is tomorrow’s crocodile [poop]”.
PZ as “the James Dobson of atheism.” He’ll love it! 🙂
Welcome to “Focus on the Cephalopod”
Hrkk! I’m not sure if the diatribe or the video makes me more sick to the stomach. I guess I have built up calusess to the kind of hate smoldering in the editorial, but the “Holy Baby” bypassed all my defenses. I’m going to have nightmares tonight…
Yep, and I’m all out of brain-bleach.
Valdalizing sarced religious property? It’s not like he spray painted graffiti all over St Peter’s Basilica! It was a freakin’ cracker!
It wasn’t just any goddamned cracker though – it was baby Jesus’ foreskin!
Yeah, that was my first reaction. “Property?” Um, the only things PZ “vandalized” were things that he owned. This is the most misleading spin on Crackergate yet!
Oh. My. Skyfairy.
What a load of crap. To respond to it skirts the danger of giving the idiot the kind of attention he’s begging for…
At least PZ should enjoy the “young & energetic” part.
Don’t you know the destruction, the thousands of lives lost and the millions more reduced to nothing, that comes from pharyngulating polls?! Think of the authors and editors that are left no hope, no life after having their polls pharyngulated! Has this so-called Dr. Meyers no shame in is actions?! Will not not condemn this man Mr. Coyne?!
I’ver run across Wayne Laugesen’s articles before. He is crazy stupid.
That was obvious as soon as Jerry described him as conservative/libertarian.
There is no surprise that the right wing conservative/libertarian will stoop as low in the muck as they can to lie and defame and accuse people of things they did not do or say. That is the state of the Fascist right wing in the US.
Holy Baby: making childhood religious indoctrination more goddamn creepy than you had ever thought possible!
I just googled Laugesen and found his Facebook page, on which he describes himself as a:
Well then.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Sounds like a typical christian meltdown.
I have a hunch if they lived in a crowded place they still would be left alone.
And the mostly self-sufficient part is just making me dissolve in laughter. Sorry, that just does not cut it, you either are or you are not self-sufficient. What is he and his family doing wrong? Is it that Twinkie addiction that makes them go to stores? Nah, it is bullets.
“gun-totin’ … Mother Earth hippies”
Only in America!
Who’s committing atrocities to fight for the cause of Darwin? That’s a stupid opening line that starts the reader off believing the worst of evolutionary science, based on nonsense.
What does adding Christopher’s illness add to this bloke piece, except to make a cheap blow?
Wayne Laugesen no doubt wonders why Dawkins etc make such ruthless arguments against the religious beliefs, but this quoted piece sums up the exact reason why we need knock religion off it’s pedestal. When nonsense like is allowed to be written, which stimulates hate and ignorance, we don’t have a choice but expose it’s source of what it truly is.
I see you agree that Dawkins’ being an old fart makes him not an authority on anything. 😛
?
I find Dawkins’ insightful.
This Wayne is a nitwit, making up rubbish and pointing out irrelevant stuff for cheap shots.
I agree that the arguments put forth by people like Dawkins and Hitchens are required to strip the ideologically based authority out of religion. Especially when they make stupid, hate inspiring jargon like the quoted piece by Wayne Laugesen.
“Darwin’s cause”
______
Pardon me, is the chappie still alive and is sponsoring some kind of charity event? If so, I can’t attend because I am going to the Germ Theory Ball and shortly after, the Gravity Gala.
Side note, but what disturbs me even more than this stupid editorial is the proliferation these online polls that presuppose that an opinion is an acceptable answer to questions of fact. Seriously – who the hell cares about my opinion about whether atheists are more or less charitable than religious people? I don’t get to have an opinion, and neither does anyone else. It’s not a question that can be answered with the sort of response you’d give to “do you like chocolate or vanilla better.” You have to have data to answer this question about charity; opinions are orthoganal to the issue!
It really troubles me – the elevation of subjective feelings and cognitive biases to the same level as facts and data is everywhere, and it’s getting worse.
Similarly, the sheer stupidity and arrogance of that recent poll on NPR asking people if Stephen Hawking was right or wrong about the universe left me gobsmacked. Average Joe on The Street does not get to have his opinion on cosmology considered in the same room as Stephen Hawking’s.
Perhaps I’m romanticizing the past (and yes, I know America has ever had a profoundly anti-intellectual streak that gets euphemistically described as “populism”), but it does seem there might have been a time when more people might actually have been embarrassed to act in public as if their musings were on the same level as the most famous cosmologist since Einstein.
I think you’re probably on to something. I call it the “let’s agree to disagree” culture. More and more in the mainstream, especially in the media, we have people acting as if ALL questions just come down to one’s “point-of-view.” During the fight over the health care bill, you had cable news stations asking “Does the Democrats’ bill create ‘death panels’?” and they’d put two talking heads on to debate the question, one who said that the “death panels” existed in the bill and the other who said they didn’t. Never mind the FACT that the whole “death panel” thing was demonstrably false. It was a lie, and this was a matter of empirical certainty. I think we have become a culture in which, to some extent, people are entitled to their own facts.
Sure would have been nice if Andy had closed his italics… let me try this
I fixed it. BAD ANDY!!!
Jeezis – that’s right up there with new atheist medieval witch-hunters baying for blood.
Yep. Isn’t it amazing (and really horrifying to contemplate) that educated people who are also atheists and presumably on “our side” have exactly the same opinions about “us” as genuine freaks like this editorialist? And that they have no compunctions whatsoever about putting it in writing?
Maybe we need to have another “Don’t be a Dick” speech?
To plagiarize and misquote a long-dead author:
A Hovind by any other name would smell just like shit.
As typical of religiotards he goes for the “It’s OK if I do it because I’m god’s favorite, but anyone else who annoys me will be accused of doing these evil things which I do (which are not evil when I do them) even though they don’t do it, because I know they really intend to do it even if they never have.”
Per capita, do athiests provide as much charity as members of traditional religions? Yes, atheists are at least as charitable as members of traditional religions 79%
No, atheists are less charitable than members of traditional religions 9%
I don’t know 4%
I don’t care 8%
Total Votes: 1279
I usually stop reading when I see the word “athiest(s)”. If people don’t know how to even SPELL the word, I don’t have much interest in their opinion.
Yes, I know, I’m a snob that way.
Fear not, PZ has it covered.
We’ve come across Laugesen a few times before.And he has made an appearance in the current thread.
“If you want to see a nauseating 24-minute “Holy Baby!” video, go here.” After seeing a nauseating 37-second “Holy Baby!” video? No thanks.
Eh. Laugesen is just nuts, and he really hasn’t got anything of substance to say. I am unperturbed, and only took a casual swipe at him because the poor baby needs validation.
Jerry,
You have to do something humorous about these claims . As if the bilateral symmetry didn’t already have that claim: “Flash: worms presage human form. Humans actually had precursors millions of years ago.”
Arrgh: the url was lost: http://news.discovery.com/animals/worm-human-brain.html
I was inclined to listen to mr Laugesen since he has such a lovely Danish name, but he’s much too strident and preachy. Just like that arrogant Dawkins fellow. He really should be more accommodating in his rhetoric.
/snark
I’ll brave the italic jungle to ask incredulously: was that, like, a baby NUN?
As in , like, bride o’ christ or something?
That’s pretty creepy.
It’s totally creepy. And she comes in doll form, too.
Ack! My Eyes! My Eyes! …and worse… before my retinas burned out I noticed that this abomination is named “Baby Scholastica”
From the DVD promo:
This fun show exposes babies and young children to the sounds of prayer and language when their minds are most able and eager to learn.
Now that’s cruel.
Ack! My Eyes! My Eyes! …and worse… before my retinas burned out I noticed that this abomination is named “Baby Scholastica”
From the DVD promo:
This fun show exposes babies and young children to the sounds of prayer and language when their minds are most able and eager to learn.
Now that’s cruel.
Sorry, post button stuttered and I can’t find a DELETE comment button. Please delete for me if possible. (Or let it remain and expose my wordpress ignorance for all to see 🙂
Is she reptilian or does she have crucifixes for pupils?