"The Quotable Athiest" and Other Stuff

I've been doing some reading. Nothing new, I guess. I always am. I am currently reading The Quotable Atheist by Jack Huberman. Huberman's previous works include The Bush-Hater's Handbook, Bushit! and 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America - probably not titles one would find on the average conservative's bookshelf.



I won't go into The Quotable Atheist in particular detail here. Maybe later. Suffice it to say, though, that it is a collection of generally short quotes from a plethora of people going back to ancient Greece up to these here times. Most are or professed to be atheists or via other terms, non-believers. Some entries are serious, some are funny, some seriously funny. Following are a couple of things which occured to me in reading some of them.

Muslim arrogance. As Chris Hitchens noted in his book God is Not Great, muslims demand supplication not only of its adherents, but of the entire world as witness the hoopla surrounding the cartoons depicting Mohammed a year or so ago. Recently, it was announced that Salman Rushdie is to become a British Knight. It wasn't enough that the man was forced to live under the very real threat of death after publication of his Satanic Verses, now the muslim world DEMANDS that his proposed knighthood be revoked. Who are these cocksuckers? What makes them think they are so fucking special? As Hitchens notes and I quoted in a prior post, "There is nothing - absoulutely nothing - in [islamic] teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption." Radical muslims are such gutless pricks. Cowardly, arrogant pricks! They recruit their children to kill indiscriminantly and die for the supposed glory of their god. They stroke their beards and praise allah and grin their shit eating grins, believing they are operating from the high ground. They hide in the shadows and use terror as their weapon. Fuck them! Had they any courage, they would step out in the light. They are not men. They are pathetic, deranged little boys playing deadly games - boys so intimidated by and fearful of women they can't bear to look at them.

Have I vented enough?

It is assumed by many that it is religion which brought about civilization. Not so. During periods of our history over which the church held dominion, millions of people were murdered, millions more tortured, left homeless, and on and on - all under the auspices of the church. It is largely owing to religious zealotry that hundreds of people continue to die every day.

It is the movement toward secularism which brought on true civilized society. The more we turn away from god and other-worldly concerns, the more we place our focus on earthly life. It is the secular which makes for a richer life free of the violence and intolerance brought about by religious dogma.

I finish with a quote from Huberman's book by former cyclist and cancer survivor, Lance Armstrong

" If there was a god, I'd still have both nuts."

That pretty much says it all.

TLS