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POPSAtheists Need to Chill Michael Shermer makes a point that needs to be made. Atheists need to remember what they stand for , not merely what they are against . Ridicule and contempt have no place in science, and haters should not tarnish its reputation by association. In the words of the greatest consciousness raiser of the 20th century, Martin Luther King, Jr., in his epic "I Have a Dream" speech: "In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline." If atheists do not want theists to prejudge them in a negative light, then they must not do unto theists the same.
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POPSI am a transhumanist, thanks I say, fear not. If you have clearly transhumanist beliefs, like the notion that human enhancement is coming in the next few decades and will be a big deal, then don’t be afraid to call yourself one. As Dr. Wittgenstein, one of my favorite philosophers ever, used to argue, words are just labels we fill with our own content. To think that a word has any inherent meaning aside from its use in language is absurd.
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POPSAre You Washed In The Blood? "A campaign had emerged to promote the idea that the Bible was entirely without error, even in matters of history and science. Some feared that more liberal theological positions were being taught in the convention's seminaries. n August, he visited the White House. In "Our Endangered Values," Carter recalls Smith saying, at the close of their meeting, "We are praying, Mr. President, that you will abandon secular humanism as your religion." HMMMMM . . . where have I heard that before? I thinky maybe here on CM, yes I do. I think I have had that charge leveled on me that I MUST be a secular humanist. God FORBID that I promote peace, I MUST be a pacifist -(even though Jesus was the ultimate pacifist). God FORBID I must be a voice against violence, homophobia, patriarchy, sexism, and racism. I MUST be secular. God wouldn't want those values; the only values God wants are crotch based.
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POPS10 Reasons Why Liberals Hate Christians I ran out of Clippage. 10) Liberals are spiritually lost and blind to the truth of the gospel. I clipped this not at the source (I was kinda sceeert a goin' there), rather for an excellent Op/Ed over at <a href="http://hjhop.blogspot.com/2007/05/my-nipples-explode-with-delight.html">Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes</a> I love HJ. He can even make me smile at the close of a day like today. The scariest thing about these 10 items is I swaer I've heard them almost verbatim from another clipper. Ohhhh Willieeeeee.... Yoooo Hooooo.....
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POPSCongratulations California Good news for human rights. At least in California they've recognized that bigotry and hate are not compatible with freedom and liberty and human rights.
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POPSHuman Tragedy Granted, Myanmar has a terrible track record of human abuse. Their government is cuel and dictatorial. Yet for the US to offer a paultry $250,000 is an insult and shows a deep lack of humanity. The people of Myanmar are not the corrupt military dictatorship. Yet, it seems as though we are making them pay to score political points. Something is not right here.
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POPSThe Real Cultural War This poignant, optimistic conclusion from David Brin's essay (on how fundamentalist ideologies lead to the destruction of Enlightenment values) was so good, I had to clip. (Please to direct pithy, dismissive comments elsewhere. Thank you.)
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POPSMahfouz’s grave, Arab liberalism’s deathbed The Arab world's passage from progressive secularism to conservative religiosity in the last fifty years is illuminated by the work of Egypt’s greatest writer, says Tarek Osman. More at the source. Tarek Osman gives an interesting reading of culture and the text.
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POPSChristian Reconstructionists Are Trying to Take Dominion in America Er - not me, but the above quoted source says: The gathering, dubbed "Preparing This Generation to Capture the Future," was hosted by American Vision, a ministry that has been toiling away since 1978 to "help Christians build a truly Biblical worldview." In a conference handout, American Vision states that "By God's grace, we will work together to make America a truly Christian nation for our children's children." Based in Powder Springs, Ga., American Vision also produces reams of material that push Christian Reconstructionism, a form of fundamentalism that argues for a re-writing of American history, dismantling secular democracy and constructing an America governed by "biblical law." Reconstructionists seek to impose the criminal code of the Old Testament, applying the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible juvenile delinquents and those who spread false religions.
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POPSREGARDING A NEW HUMANISM "This convention is responsible—and has been denounced by Buddha and David Hume alike—for committing the fallacy of believing in the mind's existence when the only thing we can be certain of is the existence of mental acts."
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POPSLeft Wing Anti-Semitism I cannot but agree with the essential point that much criticism of Israel and Zionism from the Left is barely disguised distaste for Jewishness. Read the article, see what you think.
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POPSThe Question of Leni Riefenstahl In a sense, I think this is the perfect answer to the question. Even when her art was not employed as Nazi propaganda, I feel that Riefenstahl's films and photography lack insight or depth, probably because she lacked these qualities as a person. After all, a person who can accept Nazism is clearly lacking in a certain empathy and humanism that is essential to creating art. How can we find it compelling when at its core, it remains vacuous and empty, devoid of the human soul that must infuse any work of art, bringing the inanimate to life.
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POPSLiberals Co-opted
Liberals are not really Liberal anymore and Conservatives are not really Conservative ! Additional excerpt: "In a modified version of the Stoic conception of the earth as a living organism possessed of its own soul, neo-pantheist dialectical materialism declares that earth is “one entire organism…its organs the various races and nations of men.” Not only is the earth alive and evolving upward on evolution’s magical escalator, but so too are history and society, for they also are living entities in a continuous state of motion. And man? In a modified conception of Atomism’s extremely dehumanizing view of man, dialectical materialism states that man is nothing but “a colonial aggregation of cells,” and to “consider him an individual would be an error.” Man---the aggregate of cells--- is nothing but an extension of society, history, and earth. "(Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics, Chapter II: The Constitution of Man as a Political Organism) Ouyangwulong, If you see this, What happe
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POPSPersonal Failings and the Public Conscience
Arthur Miller was complex, contradictory, fallible, and imperfect, in other words, human to the highest degree. We shouldn't forget that somewhere in the byzantine labyrinth of the human psyche, there is the curious fact that our public conscience and whatever it is that guides our private actions seem to develop completely independently. There are those who scrupulously live their personal lives, but nevertheless are responsible for some of the worst oppression, brutality and crimes against humanity. On the other hand, we have what Morris Dickstein describes here as the "killers" artists and public figures who's keen outward humanism went unmatched in private life. That humans have the capacity for both is far more marvelous to me than if we were simply 1-dimensional distillations of our most obvious traits. I'd imagine a man of constant moral perfection would live a very lonely and tormented life. He would be unable to take part in human society.
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POPSKhaled Abou El Fadl: Jihad Gone Wrong Khaled Abou el Fadl is a professor at the School of Law at the University of California. He is a prominent Islamic scholar and intellectual. In this interview, El Fadl talks about suicide bombings, misinterpretations of 'jihad' and the humanist tradition of Islam. Deutsche Fassung: Interview Khaled Abou El Fadl - Der missverstandene Dschihad Der Begriff des Dschihad geistert seit Jahren durch die Presse. Dass seine wahre Bedeutung weder etwas mit Selbstmordattentaten noch mit "heiligem Krieg" zu tun hat, erklärt Khaled Abou El Fadl im Gespräch. Das, was Selbstmordattentäter als Dschihad verkaufen, ist nichts anderes als eine Strategie offensiver Bombenanschläge, die von der revolutionären Ideologie der 60er Jahre beeinflusst ist, meint Khaled Abou El Fadl. Prof. Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl ist Professor für islamisches Recht an der Universität von Los Angeles (UCLA)
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