Monthly Archive for January, 2010

The New World Order Conspiracy: An American Tradition

Published

on January 31, 2010

From time to time, you may hear certain far right elected officials (Michelle Bachmann, for instance) warn about the coming "New World Order". It's been a common conspiracy theory amongst conservative Christians since the 1990s, and it's become an essential component of the popular end times theology that many Christians draw from a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations. In short, NWO conspiracy theorists fear that the UN is working with a secret society of elites to bring about a single, global government that will subjugate every human on Earth. Within fundamentalist circles, they believe the Antichrist will lead this "New World Order", and he will rule over the planet for the "seven years of tribulation" mentioned in Revelations. Of course, this includes fears that this "One World Government" will execute all Christians and "American Patriots" (I assume those would be the "real" Americans Sarah Palin usually refers to) while forcing everyone to follow a single religion and become completely subservient to the state.

Anyway, I stumbled across a blog filled to the brim with NWO conspiracy theories and unending paranoia about the coming days of martial law called AMERICAN HOLOCAUST AND THE COMING NEW WORLD ORDER. Yeah, in all caps. The author, Pamela Schuffert, claims to be "performing in-depth investigative journalism". However, her idea of journalism is to provide unsourced information from people she meets who are just as paranoid as she is. When Schuffert does provide links, they're always to equally unhinged sites that rely on hearsay and rumor for their information. Here's a small sample of the crazy:

Staff Sergeant/ARMY RANGER/Spec Ops man from Fort Lewis Washington that I just met WHILE TRAVELING FROM MONTANA TO NORTH CAROLINA REVEALS: "THE GUILLOTINES ARE REAL AND I WAS GOING TO TRAIN MY MEN IN MY PLATOON TO USE THEM NEXT WEEK IN HIGHLY CLASSIFIED OPERATIONS AT FORT LEWIS...UNTIL YOU TOLD ME "THEY WILL BE USED ON YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS UNDER COMING MARTIAL LAW!''

I have previously reported MUCH information about the covert military BLACK OPS in place in YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNP), and reported about military admissions (which I have gathered from reliable sources, including 911 truthteller retired USAF FIELD MCCONNELL, and at least one Pentagon source) of huge amounts of powerful military explosives being covertly planted around the YELLOWSTONE SUPERCALDERA, for what many of us researchers believe will prove to be part of the CREATED CHAOS leading to MARTIAL LAW declaration in the USA for the NEW WORLD ORDER agenda.

For many years , I along with many Americans had been hearing reports about the AMTRAK REPAIR FACILITY of BEECH GROVE, IN, being refurbished/renovated in some areas to be used someday as a FUTURE TERMINATION FACILITY for America under martial law. While it remains true that part of this facility is actively being used to repair AMTRAK trains, it is also true that various parts of this facility have also been renovated to include newly installed gas lines, airtight windows (etc) with huge exhaust fans installed on top of certain buildings, prisoner turnstile entrances installed, etc.

You get the idea. These are the people forming "militia" groups in rural areas, building well stocked survival shelters, and causing ammunition sales to go through the roof. The obvious question is, what would be the point of the whole thing? Why would a One World Government interested in power and order want to create so much chaos? How does that suit their ends? For instance, why would they want to make the Yellowstone caldera erupt? Doing so would render most of the US uninhabitable. What's the point in ruling a wasteland?

I think the answer comes from the fact the the NWO conspiracy is completely intertwined with the Right's "Christian Nation" myth. The central theme of the NWO theory revolves around communistic or non-Christian, foreign armies invading the US and killing its Christian inhabitants with the help of the US government. It contains all the fears of far-right Americans in one convenient package: fears of the religious diversification of America, fear of communism left over from the Cold War, and the toxic distrust of our own government, which the conservative movement has pushed relentlessly for the past 30 years. All of this is fueled by the fact that America is a nation undergoing huge demographic and cultural change. To many white, fundamental Christians, this seems like an all out assault on the America that they believe is the Zion promised in the Bible. However, change has been a constant throughout American history. It was never the Christian paradise so many fundamentalists imagine. In fact, fundamental Christians have been lamenting the moral decay of America and predicting its collapse since before the Revolution, and this idea has been a constant staple of American religious belief. It even extends into secular culture with the popularity of post-apocalyptic fiction. It's certainly one of my favorite genres. More than anything, the NWO conspiracy theory is simply a modern manifestation of an American tradition.

H/T to Ed Brayton

The New World Order Conspiracy: An American Tradition

Published

Justin

on January 31, 2010

Staff Sergeant/ARMY RANGER/Spec Ops man from Fort Lewis Washington that I just met WHILE TRAVELING FROM MONTANA TO NORTH CAROLINA REVEALS: "THE GUILLOTINES ARE REAL AND I WAS GOING TO TRAIN MY MEN IN MY PLATOON TO USE THEM NEXT WEEK IN HIGHLY CLASSIFIED OPERATIONS AT FORT LEWIS...UNTIL YOU TOLD ME "THEY WILL BE USED ON YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS UNDER COMING MARTIAL LAW!''

I have previously reported MUCH information about the covert military BLACK OPS in place in YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNP), and reported about military admissions (which I have gathered from reliable sources, including 911 truthteller retired USAF FIELD MCCONNELL, and at least one Pentagon source) of huge amounts of powerful military explosives being covertly planted around the YELLOWSTONE SUPERCALDERA, for what many of us researchers believe will prove to be part of the CREATED CHAOS leading to MARTIAL LAW declaration in the USA for the NEW WORLD ORDER agenda.

For many years , I along with many Americans had been hearing reports about the AMTRAK REPAIR FACILITY of BEECH GROVE, IN, being refurbished/renovated in some areas to be used someday as a FUTURE TERMINATION FACILITY for America under martial law. While it remains true that part of this facility is actively being used to repair AMTRAK trains, it is also true that various parts of this facility have also been renovated to include newly installed gas lines, airtight windows (etc) with huge exhaust fans installed on top of certain buildings, prisoner turnstile entrances installed, etc.

Are We Seriously Still Saying the Pledge?

Published

splendidelles

on January 31, 2010

I’ve come to be used to the daily morning announcements at my school that say “if you would like to stand for the pledge, please do so now…” and most mornings I don’t notice as I’m in the hallway walking to the piano rooms while they’re doing it, but yesterday it was brought to my attention yet again as they said it at a Diversity Conference I attended.

“If you so choose to we will now say the pledge” they went and I immediately thought “seriously?”

First of all, nationalism doesn’t really have much to do with diversity. Sure, I can buy the argument that it shows that there’s diversity within the nation, but since they never really state that was the intention you can’t expect that to be the message that comes across from saying it.

As we all know, the controversial bit of the pledge comes with the “One nation under God” part which indicates worship of a monotheistic deity. This would seemingly exclude all those who don’t worship a monotheisitic deity. Well, OMG, excluding diverse religions or irreligion would seem to actually hurt the whole diversity idea!

Admittedly, done more out of anger than reason, at the end of that sentence I was compelled to let out a blasphemous “boo” which prompted a circle of heads to turn in my direction with glares, an also-seated Wiccan kid to grab my mouth and prevent me from speaking, and a Hispanic girl in front of me to turn ’round and say “I respect your rights, but that was highly disrespectful, you’re at a diversity conference, you need to respect other people’s religion” to which I said “as an under-represented minority due to unbelief I find the Pledge highly disrespectful”.

So it came across more as an insult to Christianity than anything else and it wasn’t effective communication, etc. I admit all this but submit to you that if I were to express my discontent with their choice to exclude me it was going to be limited to sound-byte form.

Whatever. I’m making the point of my three-letter protest clear now since I didn’t have the luxury of a non-sound-byte response then. It’s the height of hypocrisy to say the pledge and claim diversity, even if you don’t make other people say it, because that line still affirms that it is one nation under a monotheistic deity. In fact, I think it’s worse to preface it with “if you wish to say the pledge” because you have acknowledged there are people that clause excludes and have chosen to say it anyway.

And for my own sake and credit, couldn’t they have paused to think for a second what I really meant by my protest rather than to have jumped to the conclusion I was intentionally trying to offend worshippers of the Abrahamic religions? I suppose stirring thought with a heat-of-the-moment sound-byte is just the best you can hope for.

Pat Condell – Thank God for Andy Choudary

Published

PsychoAtheist

on January 30, 2010

Pat Condell's latest on the Islamic fuckwit that is Anjem Choudary.

Check out Pat's YouTube Channel for more of his eloquent offerings.

What is in a name?

Published

Bjorn

on January 29, 2010

Atheist, humanist, secular humanist, Bright, freethinker, secularist, naturalist, these are all words I've heard people use to describe themselves. I recall the diversity of identifiers used at the Atheist Coming Out Day last year. I was reminded of this diversity when an issue came up with the newsletter for a secular organization. Should "humanism" be capitalized?

I began doing some research to see what the organizations used, the American Humanist Association and the International Humanist and Ethical Union. The IHEU uses Humanism and encourages member organizations to do so. The AHA also encourages the use of Humanism versus humanism. One of the reasons given is that Pope Paul VI referred to himself as a humanist.

The consensus among the people who were working on the newsletter was that atheist should be lowercase and many also thought that humanism should be treated in the same way. One of the reasons given to treat humanism in the same way as atheism was that both are not religions and religions are capitalized. However, there is a feeling that capitalizing a word adds to its respect, as determined by the author. Certain authors do not feel that religions deserve any respect over atheism or humanism, so should also be written as islam and christianity.

The core issue is the challenge we all face. We lack branding and a unified label. While researching the humanism issue, I ran across articles touting the efforts of humanist organizations to simplify the use of humanism by removing labels like "secular" from the front and expanding the use of the "Happy Humanist" logo. This logo lets humanists from all over the world recognize each other and other organizations.

Atheists have attempted to do the same thing by choosing a logo at an Atheist Alliance International and rallying around the red "A" of the Out Campaign from the Richard Dawkins Foundation. However, atheist groups aren't as unified as humanist groups are with branding.

I think that the diversity of labels in our community is a strength and a weakness, but an unavoidable weakness. I have met members of Minnesota Atheists who are frustrated with others who don't use the label "atheist" and have tried to encourage others to push aside words like agnostic, non religious, Bright, even humanist in favor of the label "atheist." This has encouraged some to adopt the label of "atheist," but has also made others feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. By browbeating others into calling themselves what we would like to be called in an attempt to unify the cause we may be alienating others who would be just as enthusiastic about supporting the separation of church and state and raising awareness in the community of our issues.

I used to be enthusiastic about encouraging people to use the word atheist to describe their worldview. I used to get really irritated when someone would be uncomfortable with the word atheist and I would want to do what I could to rid them of this fear. What I realized is that personal labels, no matter what they are, are something each of us need to come to ourselves and not be pushed into. We should not be shamed into choosing one label over an other, whether that is atheist, humanist, secular, non religious, Bright, or any other future iteration of identification we will invent to describe what we think.

What is in a name?

Published

Bjorn

on January 29, 2010

Quote of the Week

Published

Justin

on January 28, 2010

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance."

- James Madison

Quote of the Week

Published

Justin

on January 28, 2010

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance."

- James Madison

America’s Professor Dies.

Published

What do I think?

on January 28, 2010

Howard Zinn has passed away. The author of A people's History will be missed. I first heard of Zinn when I was a conservative military man. I thought many of the things he was saying about American history were treasonous at worst and inaccurate at best. You must remember that before I became who I am now, I voted for Bush, twice. Please forgive me allah. But, upon returning to school I learned that what he said was the unadulterated truth. His gift was to put history into the context of the regular American who had to pay the price for the greed, war, and hate put forward by the ruling elite. He told the story as described by the people who payed the price. He pointed out that Christopher Columbus and the colonizing powers behind him were guilty of genocide. He pointed out that the soldiers that fought in Washington's army were abused, poor, and taken advantage of by the wealthy land owners who beat them into submission.

This is not the America described in the Declaration of Independence. It is the America created by the founding fathers (male, rich, land owners, slave owners, much to lose). The constitution, as much as i love it and need it, was created to ensure the continued power of the wealthy few. It was not built on freedom as much as control of the lower classes. Don't mistake facts for disrespect. I love America and have fought for her. But she is no untainted virgin. If the power truly rested with the people, America would be much better off. Gut it does not. Powerful groups pit ordinary Americans against each other for their own benefit. They play to peoples most base emotions of hate and xenophobia to get them to vote and work against their own self interest. Yes, Howard Zinn and the educational system that he was such a fundamental part opened my eyes. I will miss him, and may the gods help us if we don't heed his warnings.

America’s Professor Dies.

Published

What do I think?

on January 28, 2010

One Nation Painting

Published

S.A.

on January 28, 2010

If you’d like a really deep belly laugh, I can do no better than suggest you visit some of the following links.

The first one here will take you to an interactive painting by an extremely confused artist that understands little about the religious views of the American founding fathers. This site, in and of itself, is hilarious.

If you can stand it, a “patriotic” video about the painting can be found here.

Finally, here is wonderful “parody” of the site – though I hesitate to call it that. The “parody” is far more in accord with reality than the original work.

The Dead Ends During a Recent Discussion With a Christian

Published

Justin

on January 27, 2010

So apparently one of my coworkers has made it his personal goal to convert me to Christianity. Now to give you an idea, this Christian's entire life revolves around his faith, and he's very much what you'd think of when you picture the home-schooled Christian whose only social interaction comes with those at his church. However, he's a very nice man, and always extremely respectful, so it really didn't bother me at all. Plus, I love sharing my thoughts, especially when it's an opportunity to challenge my assumptions.

So far, most of our discussions have revolved around the historical veracity of the resurrection of Jesus, since believing in the event is one of the foundational creeds of Christianity. The Christian bases most of his knowledge off the work of apologist Lee Strobel. Most of what I know about biblical scholarship comes from Bart Ehrman and my knowledge of Greek and Roman history, which was the focus of my studies in college. Our discussions were all over the place, but what follows were our major sticking points where the Christian diverged so completely from the actual evidence that it was impossible to continue the particular line of argument.

Now, anyone who's done more than a little reading on Biblical scholarship knows that most of the books within the New Testament were not actually written by the authors whose names are attached to them. However, this became the major sticking point because the Christian I spoke with insisted that the authors of the Gospels were in fact Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, and that virtually no biblical scholar would disagree. I'm sure that would be news to the large body of scholars who feel otherwise. Nevertheless, most of the following discussions revolved around the accounts in the Gospels, and how they verify each other, which is a severely flawed argument in my eyes since we really don't know the authors, and we know that scribes have made changes to the manuscript over the years (for example, Mark 16:9-20 is an obvious addition to the original manuscript). Plus, there are no non-Christian primary sources from the time that we could use to satisfactorily corroborate the tales in the Gospels. The only outside mention of Jesus comes from nearly a century after his death. That's no where near sufficient evidence to verify the resurrection.

Then I pointed out that the Gospels were passed on orally for at least 30 years, which makes it incredibly likely that the legend grew with the telling before it was ever put to paper. The Christian's answer for that was that the Christian communities throughout the Mediterranean were always double-checking what they were told with the original apostles, ensuring they always had the proper story. However, I find this claim extremely dubious because the slow spread of information in those days meant it was virtually impossible for the apostles or their immediate successors to be everywhere. Besides, would Paul really need to warn against false teachings in his letter to the Corinthians if there wasn't other views being spread about? The early history of Christianity is filled with wildly differing beliefs, much of which were suppressed as Christianity's eventual orthodoxy took shape over later centuries. The idea that early Christians were able to perform rigorous fact-checking seems like wishful thinking to me. Plus, we don't have any evidence of what the various Christian communities believed, so there's no evidence that fact-checking was common practice.

Finally, there's the problem of worldview. I'm very much of the naturalistic view, and the Christian has no problem with supernatural explanations so long as it applies to Christians. The supernatural claims of Greek mythology, for example, were always dismissed. Clearly, there's an exception being made here, but it makes it impossible to argue when then least likely explanation is immediately grasped by one side. I tried to argue using other examples of religions arising, including Islam and Mormonism. However, those were always dismissed because of their own problems. Again, the problems with Christianity were always met with hand-waving or clever explanations for which there is no evidence.

Needless to say, I haven't been convinced to join the other side. However, I did enjoy the discussions, even though I know I won't change any opinions. More than anything, it gives me a very good idea of how apologists work in action, always moving the goalposts depending on where the evidence is lacking.

The Dead Ends During a Recent Discussion With a Christian

Published

Justin

on January 27, 2010

Flowchart: openmindedness

Published

nullifidian

on January 27, 2010

endlesspsych over at …and your electron microscope! has a super-simple-smashing-great flowchart to explain openmindedness that even those who have trouble sitting the right way around on the toilet should be able to assimilate¹.

From here.

If you’ve not seen it, also check out the excellent Qualia-Soup video on openmindedness (also at the above).

Yes, I’m ever hopeful…

Pope John Paul II: saintly or unbalanced?

Published

Steve

on January 27, 2010

Self-flagellation may make the Pope a saint, but it's the clearest sign you could ask for of the gulf between faith and the real world.

Statements of Fact X

Published

The 101st Senator

on January 27, 2010

(video below transcript)

Patrician Atheist here with Statements of Fact X.

Rule 47 of the NHL Rule Book allows fighting.

A player in the NHL is penalized 5 minutes for fighting with another player. This is a five minute major.

The total penalty minutes for two NHL players who get in a fight is 10 minutes unless there are additional penalties.

A player in the NHL receives a two minute minor penalty for the following fouls: tripping, slashing, interference, goaltender interference, roughing, charging, holding, cross checking, hooking, delay of game, high-sticking, unsportsmanlike conduct, elbowing, and spearing, among other infractions.

Roman Catholic priests are required to remain celibate and are unable to marry.

Father Burt was the name of the priest at my family’s church when I was a young child.

Vatican City has structures with lightning rods on them – you know, just in case they get hit by lightning.

The Pope is driven around in a vehicle which protects him on all sides with bullet proof glass – commonly referred to as the Pope mobile.

The concept of papal infallibility was defined as the dogma it is known as today at the First Vatican Council (1869-70).

On January 19th, 2010 a majority of Massachusetts voters decided that Republican Scott Brown should finish out the term of the late Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy.

Senator Ted Kennedy earned the nickname “The Lion of the Senate” as a result of his long tenure and broad influence in that legislative body.

In his 1935 novel “It Can’t Happen Here” Sinclair Lewis states that, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”

The late comedian George Carlin once stated: “I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”

Apostasy is renunciation of ones religious faith.

In many regions of the world being an apostate is tantamount to a death sentence.

The band Muse released (full) its song “Uprising” in September 2009.

The band Franz Ferdinand released its song “No You Girls” in April 2009.

The band MGMT re-released its song “Time to Pretend” in the UK in March 2009.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

On Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

On the Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 broadcast of the 700 Club televangelist Pat Robertson said that the devastating earthquake in Haiti was the result of a pact with the Devil that the Haitians made prior to overthrowing the French and gaining their freedom from bondage in the Haitian Revolution.

The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 and ended in 1803 when France was under the rule of Napoleon I - not Napoleon III.

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was given the nickname “Uncle Joe” by American wartime propaganda in World War II.

In response to the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7th, 1941 the United States declared war on Japan on December 8th, 1941. Germany and Italy then declared war on the United States on December 11th, 1941, and the US returned the favor that same day. Japan never declared war on Russia to support its German ally. Russia declared war on Japan on August 8th, 1945 two days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and one day before another was dropped on Nagasaki.

Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, did not survive the war in the Pacific and was assassinated on April 18th, 1943 when American P-38s ambushed and shot down the plane he was traveling in.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12th, 1945 of a devastating cerebral hemorrhage. His death occurred before the war was finished in Europe or the Pacific.

Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on April 28th, 1945 after a failed attempt to escape from Northern Italy into Switzerland.

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin survived the war as a victor and established the Soviet Union as one of the world’s two superpowers. He died on March 5th, 1953 under less than clear circumstances and of an apparent brain hemorrhage.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill survived the war in Europe as a victor, but his party lost the 1945 general election and he was ousted as government leader just before the war in the Pacific ended. He would be prime minister once more (26 October 1951 – 7 April 1955) prior to death on January 24th, 1965 after suffering a major stroke fifteen days before.

At the end of the Pacific War Japanese Emperor Hirohito, was allowed to remain emperor and reigned essentially as a figurehead until his death on January 7th, 1989.

A person who tithes gives at least ten percent of their income to their church.

Tithing is tax deductible.

The greatest enemy of faith is reason.

Patrician Atheist,

Good Day.