Date:
Friday, February 29, 2008
Dateline: Brussels, Belgium
Back in Morocco (See Gris-Gris Blog, 2006 ) my two colleagues are still working on
Evgeny Podkletnov's anti-gravity light beam but learning that you can't clone wings
on camels and expect them to fly. In Texas, citizens are seeing UFOs and since many
of them have mobile phones with cameras and video recorders, you too can see on your
computers that there's something unusual up there. But no contact, not ever, except
in movies and on televison. And there they are, a lot of them, mostly ugly, the film
industry's contribution to our understanding of the cosmos. For sky watchers a clear
night can be fascinating, especially if you're viewing from a telescope connected to
the edge of your hot tub.
Curiously I think right-wing Christians, particularly evangelical fundamentalist
types who have always had their heads screwed on wrong, think that UFOs are just
smoke and mirrors, like their religious convictions, incidentally. They might even
have dumber religious views than members of the Church of Scientology, all the
Catholics and Mormons too. Their ignorance of Worldly matters certainly proves
Darwin's observations on evolution. So why do they delude themselves with false
scriptures when they can't pay the mortgage on their homes? Compared to major
dominations, evangelical and fundamentalist sects must be among the most primitive
people on the planet.
Ever wonder about how many religions there are? Scanning a list of major
denominations on the Internet were many I'd either forgotten or never heard of
before and I studied religions for a year at university. Since religion was created
by man to create order and make some money my guess, including tribes, with over
four billion people on the planet is, too many. You do the maths. In the U.S. at
least 95% of the population is religious, God fearing Christians and assorted
minorities In Holland, supposedly one of the freer countries in the world, 60% per
cent are believers but recently one of their TV networks bought a nature series from
the British BBC narrated by David Attenborough. Evolutionary material about the age
of Earth was deleted. The Dutch have had a right-wing government for eight years,
the economy is strong, following the U.S. model, human rights have deteriorated. A
few years ago the prime of minister of Holland, Jon Peter Balkenende and Russian
President Valdimir Putin were lunching at the Yacht Club in Amsterdam and nothing
happened.
Which brings me to atheism. There aren't many nonbelievers out there licking their
chops, pondering chaos, wondering about charming nature and I doubt if most of them
believe in UFOs. On that one I remain skeptical because researching the subject
convinced me that something is flying about in our atmosphere. Too many sightings.
Remember, all the building blocks for life are in space. And while our planet is a
long, long, way from home, there are at last 10 billion stars and half a trillion
planets on the way to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Incidently, the first
planet was identified in 1996. So the lights in Texas? Local stuff. No aliens in
their right minds would want to visit the Lone Star State. Go pester the Air Force.
Not believing in a God, a Supreme Being or Biblical bull shit, has its advantages.
You don't, for instance, have to tell anyone to go to hell. Believers who attack you
with conversion on their
minds can be beaten up with words. You don't try to convert them, that's their turf,
you just destroy the charade of religion and racism at the same time with a forceful
tirade. Ever since conservative religious zealots obtained political power, they've
created wars, and destroyed the environment to create empires. Religions don't
create peace, neither does the military, and now in the corporate and political
world, we're still at it. For Centuries we've been trying to conquer nature instead
of harmonizing with it. Forests are treated like our wood pile without being
replaced, mountains are stripped for minerals, oceans are polluted and over fished,
coral is destroyed. Dams are built, marshlands disappear, birds die. We are nearing
the edge of a world wide catastrophe and it is not because of a vengeful God. It's
us and it's past time to show nature some respect.
Heard this one? The U.S. National Park Service 'pressured' by fundamentalist stooges
in the Bush administration has forbidden park rangers from revealing the age of the
Grand Canyon to visitors. That's because there is a creation book in the park's book
stores and the author claims the canyon was created during the time of Noah's
Deluge. However, there is no evidence of a universal flood and the Gand Canyon has
an Earth history of one billion years, long before humans arrived on the scene. And,
according to a recent BBC documentary, 99% of all creatures created on Earth are now
extinct without ever coming into contact with humans.
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Three books on atheism, well received by critics, have recently been published,
The End of Faith by Sam Harris,
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins,
and
god Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. One at a time, Harris was born
in 1967 and reportedly claims he was raised by a Jewish mother and Quaker father.
That doesn't wash well when you see a photo of Harris. He looks exactly like a Jew
and none too handsome either. Sorry about that. Sam studied at Standard University,
says he read over a 100 books on religion and according to Wikipedia on the Internet
(consulted here for biographical material on these writers) is currently pursuing a
doctorate in neuroscience. As a science oriented very intelligent geek he thinks
'religion is an impediment to progress.' Who would disagree? Certainly not Richard
Dawkins. Born to an affluent upper-middle class family in Kenya in 1941, he moved to
England when he was eight and as a popular science writer and evolutionary
biologist, turned out pretty well. He is probably one of the most intelligent men on
the planet but he does have critics concerning his theories on gene evolution. He
also raised Cain when he compared religious education of children to 'mental child
abuse'. For him, I think, being an atheist is just common sense. An interest or
background in science would be helpful for readers of Harris and Dawkins. Anyway,
escaping the clutches of the church always seemed reasonable to me.
Reading Christopher Hitchens doesn't require a background in anything, he's a
journalist. Born in England in 1949 he became a U.S. citizen in 2007. Like Harris
and Dawkins his book received favorable reviews but talk about a flip-flopper. He
started out as a Trotskyist, held some left-wing views and was critical of the
Reagan and Clinton administrations. Also on his hit list was Mother Teresa, and
Henry Kissinger and he apparently believes 'Islam has a Fascist face.' Asked if he
had come up with the phrase Islamofacism he attributed it to Scottish religious
writer and historian Malise Ruthven. That's clever, Norman Podhoretz is dropped out
of the Jewish equation. When Hitchens flips or flops he usually has hypocrites on
his mind. For a fellow who thinks that all religious belief is sinister and
infantile, Hitchens is currently critical of the Bush administration for violations
against human liberties, warrant-less arrest, domestic spying, and religious views.
That's seems reasonable without quotes but then he flips around and says he's Jewish
and attracted to neocon ideas without actually being one. I think it was Hitchens's
brother who said, 'Yeah, we're thirty-second generation Jews.' Have you ever known a
Protestant or Jew named Christopher? I think he has a grudge against the Catholic
Church and so does the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, working the neocon circuit he
befriended Paul Wolfowitz, who should be behind bars. But other neocon Jews don't
trust him because he was too critical of Reagan polices. From the start he supported
the war in Iraq and Israel's right to exist but is critical about how the Israelis
are going about it. Charming.
In May of 2007 Hitchens appeared briefly on BBC TV for his reaction on the death of
the American televangelist the Rev Jerry Falwell. Well, Hitchens has a reputation
for heavy drinking and he certainly didn't disappoint on that score. Completely in
his cups he proceeded to trash the former Baptist as scum of the Earth while
Falwell's bloated body and dead brain was still in the morgue. Readers might recall
that in 1983 Falwell sued Larry Flynt the publisher of
Hustler magazine over
a cartoon that depicted Falwell having sex with his mother in an outhouse. Falwell
lost the lost the case on appeal in the Supreme Court in 1988. I suppose Hitchens
despises televangelist Pat Robertson too. Who knows? Falwell and Flynt eventually
became friends.
As for Hitchens, he has a razor sharp mind, even when he's drunk, but hasn't come to
terms with Americans wearing the jackboots of the World. Given the opportunity to
spue his venom, that might be interesting. And since the U.S. Government can't
deport an Englishman to England if he has a U.S. passport, his book should be
available in cow pasture country. Best of all, I don't think he'll write 'Oh My God'
on every page. If you see his book in an airport, I'd be surprised.
More news, just in, in the second of week of February, Bush signed a 'a massive
defense authorization bill.' Then, according to a Marie Cocco column he made some of
his 'signing statements' on the bill. I take it that he wasn't pleased with 'four
laws' attached to the bill by members of the Democratic party, so he disavowed them.
One law thrown out would have forbidden him from using federal funds to build
permanent military bases in Iraq He claims he can bypass Congress to use those
funds. Law two is that he can ignore protection for those who want to expose
corruption among government contractors and members of the administration's 16
intelligence agencies. Law number three would forbid intelligence agencies from
turning over reports to Congress and law number four is an objection to setting up
an independent commission to investigate contracting abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Most of this words is this paragraph are attributable to Marie Cocco. She gives us
all the Big Picture. All the administration needs is one incident, like a natural
disaster, or some rotten legislation to create a riot. Marital law could be declared
and Bush could assume dictatorial powers under directives NSPD-51 and HSPD-20. So,
if the banks foreclose on all those mortgages this summer and the disposed take to
the streets, look for martial law to be declared.
Also remember, according the to Bush Administration, unless they've backdown a bit,
if one of those 300 prisoners at Guantanamo had all his healthy teeth pulled with
rusty pliers--without an anesthetic--it wouldn't be torture unless he died. As they
say in some countries, 'Don't be a terrorist target, hit and run.'
