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rug

(82,333 posts)
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 05:52 AM Sep 2012

On atheist smugness and geopolitics

September 18, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Crommunist

If you’ve been following the news at all, you’ve heard about rampant anti-US protests happening across western Asia and North Africa in response to a video trailer for a movie that supposedly mocks Muhammad, the central religious figure in Islam:

Rioting demonstrators battled with police outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan and the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia Monday as violent protests over an anti-Islam film spread to Asia after a week of unrest in Muslim countries worldwide. In an appeal that could stoke more fury, the leader of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah called for sustained protests in a rare public appearance at a rally in Beirut.

The turmoil surrounding the low-budget movie that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad shows no sign of ebbing nearly a week after protesters first swarmed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya in the eastern city of Benghazi. At least 10 protesters have died in the riots, and the targeting of American missions has forced Washington to ramp up security in several countries.

Protests against the movie turned violent for the first time in Afghanistan on Monday as hundreds of people burned cars and threw rocks at a U.S. military base in the capital, Kabul. Many in the crowd shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to those people who have made a film and insulted our prophet.” They also spiraled out of control in Indonesia and Pakistan, while several in the Middle East were calm.


It took not long at all before my Twitter feed and Facebook newsfeed erupted with pustules of self-satisfied smugness from atheist after atheist, petulantly crowing about how foolish and deluded Muslims were and how religion bore the responsibility for these attacks. It has become a mainstay of the anti-theist crowd (among whom I count myself) to reflexively deride the self-imposed blindness of religious faith when it motivates people to commit atrocious acts. Further, these were acts committed specifically in the defence of an idea – the position of the protesters seemed to be that the very act of saying something unflattering about Islam justified widespread destruction of property. How ridiculous – ideas are not safeguarded from criticism, even the kind of poorly-crafted criticism the trailer apparently evinces. This is a sentiment that can be rattled off nearly automatically by any anti-theist worth his salt.

What is more challenging is to hold that idea in your head at the same time as you recognize that while the headlines and, in some cases even the protesters may have claimed that this rage was over hurt religious feelings, the real story is far more complex

http://freethoughtblogs.com/crommunist/2012/09/18/on-atheist-smugness-and-geopolitics/
18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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bowens43

(16,064 posts)
1. all religions are equally vile, all promote ignorance and hatred.
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 06:00 AM
Sep 2012

the fact is that if you believe in omnipotent invisible beings who poofed the universe into existence you are only moments away from lopping of the heads of unbelievers.

 

rug

(82,333 posts)
2. Oh brother.
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 06:15 AM
Sep 2012

Yes, I am sitting here at my keyboard fantasizing about beheading heretics and infidels.

Idiotic, uniformed, bigoted bullshit.

cbayer

(146,218 posts)
9. This is so hyperbolic that there is only one conceivable response
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 10:21 AM
Sep 2012


You clearly did not read the article and you clearly are exactly who he is talking about.

Jim__

(14,045 posts)
3. "If we wish to be credible arbiters of truth, then we need to stop reaching for easy answers ..."
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 07:33 AM
Sep 2012
Blaming this whole thing on Islam is foolish, short-sighted, and borders on criminally idiotic. If we wish to be credible arbiters of truth, then we need to stop reaching for easy answers whenever they suit our thesis.


Yes. The easy answers are often not the answers.

Fortinbras Armstrong

(4,473 posts)
4. H. L. Mencken put that best
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 08:01 AM
Sep 2012

"There is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong."

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
5. "I'm not perfect, just forgiven."
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 09:38 AM
Sep 2012

A common bumper sticker where I live, in my mind the very epitome of smugness.

It's not found on the bumpers of cars belonging to atheists however.

You're more likely to find something like this on an atheist bumper..

muriel_volestrangler

(101,155 posts)
6. I'm struggling on the 'e' and 's'
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 10:04 AM
Sep 2012

is the 'e' a juvenile/embryonic Alien (ie Ripley, Ridley Scott etc.)? And the lightning bolt 's' - Captain Marvel? Captain Scarlet?

muriel_volestrangler

(101,155 posts)
11. Ah - you can tell I don't keep up with the zeitgeist, can't you?
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 10:25 AM
Sep 2012

The books and now the films have finished, and I still haven't got harry Potter into my 'canon of sci-fi/fantasy'.

 

rug

(82,333 posts)
12. Sure, I'll stop writing these articles.
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 02:39 PM
Sep 2012

Clearly they're writing about something that couldn't possibly be true.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,155 posts)
14. I haven't the faintest idea what your post means
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 02:53 PM
Sep 2012

Mine was pointing out that Middle Eastern governments are saying this is about the insult to Mohammed, not about existing anti-American feeling, and their reactions are based on that.

 

rug

(82,333 posts)
15. I don't know what that has to do with the article.
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 03:27 PM
Sep 2012

"It took not long at all before my Twitter feed and Facebook newsfeed erupted with pustules of self-satisfied smugness from atheist after atheist, petulantly crowing about how foolish and deluded Muslims were and how religion bore the responsibility for these attacks."

muriel_volestrangler

(101,155 posts)
16. "how religion bore the responsibility for these attacks"
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 03:37 PM
Sep 2012

And the rest of the article puts forward the claim that the protests are more about "the United States’ persistent meddling in Yemen’s internal affairs", "decades of questionable foreign policy allows opportunistic political and religious leaders to provoke underemployed and disadvantaged young men to lash out at a foreign power rather than focus their energies on the dissatisfying way in which their own leaders govern", "history of covert and overt involvement in the Middle East; their growingly-rampantly anti-Islamic sentiment; their military intervention in sovereign territories; and the careful cultivation of power-hungry sheiks, imams, and other opportunistic religio-political leaders", and so on.

But I can see that, if ones obsession is a quick put-down of atheists, rather than the blog's discussion of whether religion or geopolitics are the base cause, then one would stop reading the moment one found a suitable quote, and concentrate what some unknown people said on Twitter, rather than reading enough to take part is a discussion of the meat of the blog post.

 

cpwm17

(3,829 posts)
18. I do agree with the OP
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 05:53 PM
Sep 2012

The world isn't black-and-white. Our rampages through the ME far exceed these stupid protests over Muhammad. Muhammad seems to be an excuse. It represents to them our total disrespect for their lives. I do wish they'd go about their protests differently.

This smugness and ignorance is far from being unique to atheists. Atheists tend to be liberal, and many understand the truth. This post came from a site for atheists that was engaging in some self criticism. That is a good thing.

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