See Them Driven Before You

Nothing irritates me more than religious persecution.  I can’t stand it when bible beaters try to press their ideologies onto others through a threat of eternal pain and suffering if one doesn’t repent and accept Jesus as the be all, end all.  Castigation isn’t really a good way of enlightening people to your cause, and ofttimes even a worse method of overall conversion.  If someone doesn’t have anything to answer for, no amount of threats or fear mongering will make them beg forgiveness.

It’s equally shitty for someone who doesn’t believe in whatever divine being happens to be around to get all pissy and smash the hopes of the faithful.  What right do you have to talk down to someone if they so much as mention a deity?  You don’t like it when they do it to you, so why do it to them?  You’re just going to create a conflict that no one can win because belief is a very powerful thing.  There are the classic arguments that don’t make any sense when you realize how ridiculous everything about them is.  Let me demonstrate.

There’s the creation paradox, short version, someone asks what created Earth and the heavens and whatever, and the religious whoever is supposed to answer “God”, and the other is supposed to ask “Then, what created God?” and, OOPS!  They don’t have an answer and the heathen is the victor.

Let me turn it around a bit, as this is the most basic one and I can’t really say anything about religious fundamentalists that hasn’t been said already.  They revel in a fantasy world, and this question is more based in the world of flesh and blood that we live in.

How do you make water?  Combining two Hydrogen to one Oxygen.

What are these elements?  Atoms, clearly, right?

What makes up an atom?  Leptons.

What are leptons?  Those are the most basic form of matter.  But how were they made?  They had to be created by something if God had to be created by something.  They couldn’t have just appeared out of thin air, there has to be something that made these building blocks of matter, but we don’t know what exactly happened.

If you put your entire faith in the sciences, you have to answer to the same basic rules that you put forth upon the other if you expect fairness.  It may have more basis in reality, but the Bible isn’t reality.  And not every religious person treats it as such.

Debasing an entire section of the population on the poor habits of a select few is such a terrible thing, anyway.  The least you could do is learn about what they think and, instead of hurling insults at each other, actually have a conversation.  Disregard the ones that are shitty to everybody else and just pay attention to the ones that have a willing ear.

Sweatmothers

So, I’ll post this now because I assume the PSN Crisis 2011-2012 is still going to be happening, and why not, it’s not like it’s a huge deal, right?  People are treating this like any other thing that can happen ever forever until the end of time and why the crap are these idiots freaking the Christ out?  You’d think Satan had burst from the crust of the earth emblazoned in Microsoft insignia and donning his green and white horror armor made from the bones and hides of dinosaurs, dragons and fearsome lizards past.  Thrusting a staff at his enemies, it’s tip adorned with the most lustrous emerald, smoothed to a sphere and crosshatched with an X.  A dread, eldritch figure.  He will nod slowly, the sea churning with each dip of his chin, waves rising higher and higher, clouds billowing, lightning embroiled winds billowing upon the Japanese homeland, the target: Sony headquarters, a crash, a mighty roar, a zot or two, and the tower crumbles, the servers cleansed of any entertainment, personal data printed upon every screen known to man, consternation comes to every person, the anger roiled until man can no longer bear its weight and it explodes into uncontrollable rage, fury burning every brow.  The demon, wearing his glistening dreadmail, shall smile at his created scene, painted with such a thin brush, with sumi-e precision, and he will finally gain our attention, the hordes screaming for their network, their social lives, their friends, their games, their entertainment that they feel they have a right to, their free network that has brought them happiness and friendship and hope.  They will ask him for their implement, their will, their lives, and he will reply:

“This is Living.”

Bandwagon Patriotism

Osama bin Laden is dead!

I guess.

Who cares?

Everyone, apparently.

I’m surprised that the face of an enemy was such a strong thing.  It’s surprising to me, anyway.  People assume that we didn’t just target this guy because he was the one who sent us the tape and told us some other stuff.  People keep thinking he’s the leader of an organization that has no leader.  And people are hopeful this means that the war against terror is over.  But we basically made a martyr of Osama bin Laden, doesn’t that mean we’ll reinvigorate those we’re fighting?

Now they have another reason to attack us, they have the wherewithal and the spirit to pull it off again.  Isn’t the fact that the idea of this man is now gone, (and at the risk of sounding like a tinfoil hat enthusiast, I can’t help but wonder if he was ever a true entity or just a random man that we gave a name and a story to), this catalyst of their vengeance plot, this voice of the people, this force behind their zealotry, that we could be facing something even more dangerous?

I don’t like fear mongering, but I also don’t think the populace as a whole have forethought this past those magic five words.

Five words uttered by those in power have rousted a downtrodden country.

Five words uttered by those in power has boosted the morale of a depressed constituency.

Five words uttered by those in power have blinded a nation to a potential future.

“Osama bin Laden is dead.”

The attack happened so many years ago and we’ve been fighting for our safety ever since, placing vengeance in the hearts of those who have the desire to act upon it is, in itself, worrisome territory.  We’ve gotten our reward, now, and, at the risk of sounding cliché, I do wonder the cost of such.  Can we really say it was worth it?  The lives of the fallen and the sadness of the ones with empty seats at their dinner tables, the children who will not see fathers or mothers.  I won’t say they didn’t die for a good cause, as the love of your home is always in your heart, regardless of the extreme you are willing to go to.

However, I personally don’t think we should be applauding Death, regardless of who it has befallen, as Death is always grinning.