As with every hurricane that approaches the Florida coast, Robertson has to blame the tragedy on gays, or abortion, or atheists:
What is it? Is it satanic? Is it some spiritual thing, people who are atheists, they hate God, they hate the expression of God? And they are angry with the world, angry with themselves, angry with society and they take it out on innocent people who are worshiping God.
This was not the first shooting in a place of worship. Just three years ago a doctor was shot in cold blood in a Kansas church. That shooter, in case you're wondering, wasn't an atheist.
Now, why accuse Wade Page of being an atheist? There is plenty of evidence that he was a neo-Nazi, Jew-baiting, Obama-hating racist, so why not blame the Wotanists or the Folkish Asatru?
Robertson may not realize it, but atheists have much in common with him. Just like Robertson, they don't believe that Vishnu and Xenu and Odin and Zeus exist. They don't believe that Mohammed is God's one true prophet. They don't believe the angel Moroni give Joe Smith the Golden Plates. Many atheists are perfectly willing to accept that Christ actually lived, was crucified, got stabbed in the side on the cross, and got up again after lying in a coma for three days in a tomb. They may even find Christ's teachings admirable, and wish that more self-styled Christians actually followed them.
Mathematically speaking, the difference between Robertson and an atheist is the number one: Robertson disbelieves in n gods, while atheists disbelieve in (n+1).
So no, atheists don't hate God, or even the expression of God. They may hate how people like Robertson take money from old ladies to build their fancy buildings and run their big TV networks. They may hate how Osama bin Laden and the Taliban used religious fervor to recruit people to murder Americans as well as their own countrymen. They may hate how millions of people were burned at the stake for disagreements over subtle points of doctrine like the Trinity and transubstantiation. They may hate how church hierarchies have shielded child molesters and rapists for centuries. They may hate how organized religion so often allies itself with autocratic regimes. They may hate lies that make people do evil things. But hating God is like hating the tooth fairy.
People of belief seem to think atheists are amoral, nihilistic hedonists who live only for the moment. But the essence of atheism is rationality, discarding myths and illusions in search of the truth. If you're an atheist you realize that this is the only life you have, that your children, your works and other people's memories of you are the only forms of immortality that exist. There are no do-over reincarnations, no 72 virgins, and no sitting at God's feet bored out of your skull for the rest of eternity. Once you mess up this life, it's game over.
So if you're an avowed atheist, would you cap yourself after pulling such a catastrophically stupid boner like shooting up the temple of a religion that the vast majority of Americans have never even heard of?
If Wade Michael Page was an atheist, it had about as much to do with the commission of this crime as his preference for boxers or briefs. From what we know so far he was just another pathetic, drunken, failed, frustrated racist whack-job with a gun who wanted to achieve immortality in the most ignominious way possible. He won't get his wish, though: in the end he'll be forgotten by everyone except other racist whack-jobs. And bloggers who know how to use Google.
Now, why accuse Wade Page of being an atheist? There is plenty of evidence that he was a neo-Nazi, Jew-baiting, Obama-hating racist, so why not blame the Wotanists or the Folkish Asatru?
Robertson may not realize it, but atheists have much in common with him. Just like Robertson, they don't believe that Vishnu and Xenu and Odin and Zeus exist. They don't believe that Mohammed is God's one true prophet. They don't believe the angel Moroni give Joe Smith the Golden Plates. Many atheists are perfectly willing to accept that Christ actually lived, was crucified, got stabbed in the side on the cross, and got up again after lying in a coma for three days in a tomb. They may even find Christ's teachings admirable, and wish that more self-styled Christians actually followed them.
Mathematically speaking, the difference between Robertson and an atheist is the number one: Robertson disbelieves in n gods, while atheists disbelieve in (n+1).
So no, atheists don't hate God, or even the expression of God. They may hate how people like Robertson take money from old ladies to build their fancy buildings and run their big TV networks. They may hate how Osama bin Laden and the Taliban used religious fervor to recruit people to murder Americans as well as their own countrymen. They may hate how millions of people were burned at the stake for disagreements over subtle points of doctrine like the Trinity and transubstantiation. They may hate how church hierarchies have shielded child molesters and rapists for centuries. They may hate how organized religion so often allies itself with autocratic regimes. They may hate lies that make people do evil things. But hating God is like hating the tooth fairy.
People of belief seem to think atheists are amoral, nihilistic hedonists who live only for the moment. But the essence of atheism is rationality, discarding myths and illusions in search of the truth. If you're an atheist you realize that this is the only life you have, that your children, your works and other people's memories of you are the only forms of immortality that exist. There are no do-over reincarnations, no 72 virgins, and no sitting at God's feet bored out of your skull for the rest of eternity. Once you mess up this life, it's game over.
So if you're an avowed atheist, would you cap yourself after pulling such a catastrophically stupid boner like shooting up the temple of a religion that the vast majority of Americans have never even heard of?
If Wade Michael Page was an atheist, it had about as much to do with the commission of this crime as his preference for boxers or briefs. From what we know so far he was just another pathetic, drunken, failed, frustrated racist whack-job with a gun who wanted to achieve immortality in the most ignominious way possible. He won't get his wish, though: in the end he'll be forgotten by everyone except other racist whack-jobs. And bloggers who know how to use Google.
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