Pat Robertson- Pushing the Limits of Stupidity

Pat Robertson, and American televangelist, has come out and said some pretty ignorant, hateful things in his time. For example (this one is so ignorant it's actually funny):

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." - 1992 (Wikiquotes).

The frightening part is that to remain on television, he must be earning money and hence some people actually follow this utter dribble he spouts forth, which doesn't bode well for [certain subsets of poorly educated, older, white, American] society.

In recent events, some random psychopath picked up a gun, went into a Sikh temple and shot a bunch of people. 

While most people would say (inside the USA) "That guy was possibly influenced by the Batman shootings, and is a random psychopath" (outside USA) "This is more evidence as to why there should be tighter gun control laws in the US", Pat Robertson has gone for the hate and blame game approach. See his dribble on the shooting incident here: http://www.examiner.com/video/pat-robertson-blames-atheists-for-sikh-temple-shooting

“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.”

In retort, one author put it so beautifully: "For the record, atheists neither love nor hate god, for the simple reason that god does not exist.".
(http://www.examiner.com/article/pat-robertson-blames-atheists-for-sikh-temple-massacre?cid=rss )

I think I love this guy (no, no- not Robertson- the other guy). Blunt, sees it like it is, and recognises a total arsehat when he sees one.

Robertson's diatribe against athiests is clearly ill-informed, and shbows more evidence in support of the theory that extreme conservatives have lower intelligence ( http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html).

It could be a matter of not having the educational opportunities, though, so we've been here before, but will say it again. Atheism is not a hatred of a God, deity or theology. It is an absence of belief. 

Let's provide some context, and compare it to something he may be able to comprehend:

Compare unicorns to ponies. A child may believe in and love unicorns, or believe in and love ponies. Chances are, though, they have seen, and possibly touched a pony, as it is not a figment of their imagination. When you grow up and learn the difference between real and imaginary, most rational people don't start to hate unicorns or resent anyone who ever led them to believe they might be real.

Atheists are all crazy!

Thousands of years ago there were some influential figures who claimed to be receiving or channelling messages from deities. These days, if you hear voices, you receive a prescription for anti-psychosis medication and a clinical management plan with a team of specialists.

I was reading through a psychology proposal which featured a measurement instrument, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 www.cd-risc.com , at work recently and noted the following item:

3. When there are no clear solutions to my problems, sometimes fate or God can help

People are asked to respond on a 5 point Scale from 0- not at all true to 4- true nearly all the time.

On face value you might think- sure, these seem like reasonable statements, and that any extreme answer could indicate a problem, e.g. "God/fate will always take care of things". 
How many times have we heard about people trusting their gut, too?

Now consider the inverse- the response of "I believe it is never true that God/ Fate will help with my problem". Hmm, what a negative response, you might think on face value. As an atheist, however, I find it amusing that people cannot cope with the fact I do not believe there is a God or in concepts like fate, and feel the need to suggest there is a problem with my sanity for it. 

I accept that many people are religious and have these beliefs, but I do not personally ascribe to them. To have included such an item in a tool designed to measure people's mental state of being potentially rejects the tenet that any atheist could ever be completely sane.

It takes an incredible arrogance to assume that your beliefs or a cultural norm are RIGHT and any other beliefs are WRONG or suggestive of poor mental health. Yet it is the default position adopted by so many.

Christmas with the Atheists

While this Christian festival has never had a religious meaning for me, that doesn't mean it is meaningless.

Aside from the chocolate, presents, turkey, salmon, chocolate, prawns, wine, chocolate, mince pies, pudding, chocolate, cherries, shortbread and chocolate, it's a time to think about family and friends, spending time to show that you care- mostly with chocolate.

I spent the morning at RSPCA sharing some love with some forgotten little souls, as the day would otherwise be a very lonely one for them- with no staff or visitors around to talk to them. Even more sad are those who are there because their family was going away and didn't want to pay for a boarding kennel, so dumped them instead.

On the way home I was dismayed, as always, with the way people were driving- maniacally swerving in and out of lanes, overtaking and speeding. If you are running 10 minutes late for lunch- so what? Do you really think that your presents will evaporate, lunch will be served without you or your family will kick you out because you arrived slightly after what you had planned?

As the original religiousity of this date has dwindled and petered out to near non-existence, and the capitalist spending flurry takes a rest between the present-shopping panic to the sales frenzy ahead, I thin a lot of people are missing the point. Think beyond not getting that CD you wanted, or how much you belly aches after gorging yourself too much, appreciate those around you and perhaps give a little love.