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Atheists! Who Are These People? If you are expecting me to launch into a diatribe about people who do not believe in God or religion, forget it. I don’t much care what anyone believes so long as they are not trying to convert or kill me for what I believe. Unfortunately, history and our present times are a testament to the way religion has proven to be the justification for slaughters of every description. "Atheists" is a groundbreaking study conducted by Bruce E. Hunsberger and Bob Altemeyer, recently published by Prometheus Books ($20.00) and a slim, paperback volume best read by people such as psychologists, sociologists, and those interested in religious studies. Hunsberger was a professor of psychology until his death in 2003 as is his collaborator, Altemeyer, who teaches at the University of Manitoba. They had previously collaborated on "Amazing Conversion: Why Some Turn to Faith and Others Abandon Religion." To my surprise, virtually no studies have been conducted to determine why people become atheists. Most of us are aware of atheists only when one of them institutes a lawsuit involving the separation of church and state. The notion that children cannot pray in school, as do lawsuits to remove "One Nation Under God" from our coinage or to remove a religious symbol from display tends to annoy a lot of people. Religion in American life became a hot political issue when the Supreme Court permitted abortions under the penumbra of "privacy" rights. It flared up again as a right to die issue, but again the courts ruled this was a private matter to be determined by individuals, family and the advice of physicians. It drives the debate about same-sex marriage. Despite the passion of the Religious Right, these issues, for good or ill, appear to have been settled in the minds of most people. While America’s Founding Fathers all believed that religion served a useful purpose for the maintenance of a civil, secular society, they all knew well of the evils that ensue from too much church involvement in the affairs of state. They took care to protect freedom of religion, but also to create a form of government in which religious values might inform legislation, but not be "established" as a requirement of citizenship. For the Founding Fathers, you could be a good American even if you did not believe in God. This is a good idea considering that two out of three American adults do not go to church every week. At 32%, those Americans who do attend church still outnumber the 20% in Canada and the 14% in England. By most definitions, America remains a nation in which religion plays a role in people’s lives, even if they are not active in either church or synagogue. As the West either loses or ignores religious faith, the Middle East, the cradle of three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is a cauldron of religious fervor, pursuing an Islamic Jihad throughout its own region and exporting it in the form of terrorist attacks worldwide. Westerners are baffled and angered by a "religion" for which war and murder is a duty. We have far less to concern ourselves when it comes to atheists. Indeed, one trait they tend to share in common is a saintly tolerance for all lifestyles including homosexuality, though "the rise in apostasy in the United states has occurred primarily among persons with weak ties to organized religion who have been driven from their faith by the behavior of the ‘religious right’" according to the study. Atheists are people for whom the teachings of religion simply do not make any sense. Burning bushes, resurrection, the trinity, life after death, heaven and hell, are illogical by atheist standards. Science, however, is based on the logic of reproducible results and, not surprisingly, atheists have a great fondness for science, noting among other things that there are many more galaxies than the one in which we inhabit a tiny planet. Almost always arriving at their rejection of religion on their own, atheists tend to keep their views to themselves. The study found that atheists are more self-aware and more resistant to conformity than others. They also tend to excel at critical thinking. "Religion’s big enemy in losing the battle for these minds proved not to be Satan, but its own scriptures, its various teachings, and its history." As best as can be determined, only 3% of Americans are atheists. What matters most to them is their personal integrity. They are, almost by definition, the least authoritarian of groups you can find and the least likely to attempt to convert someone to their views. The common perception is that Christian "fundamentalists" are growing by leaps and bounds, but those in America who identify themselves in this fashion peaked in 1987 and their numbers has since dropped to 30% of all Christians by 2004. Of any religious group, fundamentalists are those least liked by atheists. Interestingly, American atheists are more likely to object to abuses of power by government than most people. A "Born Again" President such as George W. Bush is viewed as a danger to our constitutional system by atheists, as are members of Congress for whom religion is a determining factor in law making. Conservative and Libertarian political values, smaller and less intrusive government, fiscal prudence, laissez faire capitalism, and individualism would seem to suit most, but not all, atheists better than some form of socialism or one-world government philosophy. Whether we want to or not, all Americans and other Westerners find themselves locked in a life and death struggle with the newest religion on the world scene, Islam, barely 1,400 years old and a strange conglomeration of things borrowed from both Judaism and Christianity, but mostly reflecting the warring society of Arab tribes in the seventh century AD. It, too, has devolved into many sects, all convinced they possess the "true" Islam as cobbled together by the self-proclaimed "last" prophet, Muhammad. One can only imagine what atheists make of this insanity, but whether for God or nation, both or neither, we shall be fighting for our lives for decades to come. Have you purchased your autographed copy of my new book, "Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy"? Click here to do so or you can purchase it from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com. The Ted Bundy of the Middle East
Mahmoud, though, possesses or is possessed by the same passion for death that Bundy had. Like Bundy, who choose to defend himself when tried for murder, he has a gift for telling people what they want to hear while, if you only knew his demons and duplicity, the same words would cry out, "Beware! He intends to kill you!" Mahmoud’s speech on September 19, 2006 to the General Assembly of the United Nations was his defense of Iran and an indictment of the United States and Israel. Like so many Muslims throughout the Middle East, Mahmoud feels he has lived under the boot of the West, defeated, oppressed, and humiliated. Mahmoud, along with Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the handful of ayatollahs who run Iran, plan to redress those ills. When you take your marching orders direct from Allah, there is no need to play by the international rules and Islam has a concept called "taqiya" that sanctions dissembling to achieve one’s goals. Thus, nothing that passes for diplomacy by Iran should be trusted. One suspects that only a handful of analysts at the State Department and CIA bothered to read Mahmoud’s speech. It is a tendentious collection of platitudes and lies, but it does reveal something of how the man sees the world. Permit me to spare you the details and just hit the highlights of his UN speech. It is essential to understand that Mahmoud believes himself to be God’s representative on Earth. His speech was filled with concern for the "oppressed" people of the world and their "longing for peace." Unfortunately for some of those people, Iran has been funding Hezbollah and other activities that, for example, started the most recent war with Israel. Iran is behind the brutal killings of Iraqis with the intention of initiating a Civil War that would allow them to step in and virtually annex Iraq. When it comes to nuclear weapons, Mahmoud asked, "are these weapons, in fact, instruments of coercion and threat against other peoples and governments?" Apparently the answer is yes because he and his cohorts have been laboring for over twenty years to acquire the technology to build their own. In February 2003, Iranian authorities opened their secret plants to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors. On September 24, 2004, the IAEA issued a report that was a litany of Iranian lies and declared Iran in breach of its signature to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement. According to Mahmoud, "All our nuclear activities are transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eyes of IAEA inspectors." Replicating the same tactics of the former president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, in early 2006 Iran turned IAEA inspectors away from its nuclear facilities in Natanz. In his UN speech, however, Mahmoud asked "are the inhabitants of these countries (with nuclear weapons) content with the waste of their wealth and resources for the production of such destructive arsenals?" If they are neighbors with Iran, apparently the answer is yes. Mahmoud then turned his attention to the "occupiers" of Iraq, i.e., the United States, but never named, and the territory identified as Palestine, i.e., the Israelis. Never mind that the U.S. invaded Iraq a second time to remove Saddam Hussein or that Israel withdrew from Gaza to facilitate recognition of an indigenous government there. As far as Mahmoud was concerned, Israelis—descendents of the prophets to whom Islam also lays claim—have no historic claim to their homeland, nor any right to have reestablished it following a Holocaust he denies ever occurred! Israel whose landmass constitutes less than one percent of the entire area of the Middle East, "has been a constant source of threat and insecurity in the Middle East region…" This is such a ludicrous statement it defies the reality of the constant attacks perpetrated against Israel since it declared independence more than a half century ago. Only this year, agents of Hezbollah and Hamas killed and kidnapped Israeli soldiers. As for the United States of America, "They consider themselves the masters and rulers of the entire world and other nations as only second class in the world order." Mahmoud turned his attention to the United Nations, decrying the actions of the Security Council, asking "Is it appropriate to expect this generation to submit to the decisions and arrangements established over half a century ago?" One suspects he thinks the answer is "no." Finally, this man who believes that the Twelfth Imam must return to Earth in order to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate, spoke of "the perfect human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet." To achieve this paradise on Earth, millions of infidels—unbelievers—will have to die. He ended by calling on "Almighty God" to bring forth this Islamic savior "and make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause." The Ted Bundy of the Middle East has some terrible things in mind for mankind. The National Anxiety Center needs your donation to help maintain our communications programs and welcomes any amount you might wish to send. If you prefer, you can send a check to The Caruba Organization, 28 West Third Street, Suite 1321, South Orange, NJ 07079. Thanks! |
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People are always fascinated by serial killers. How, they ask, could Ted Bundy have managed to convince so many women to trust him long enough for him to kill them? True, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, does not have the good looks of Bundy and he lacks the charm that enabled Bundy to murder dozens of victims.