Atheism Corner

Humanity in Progress

Lessons From the Boston Bombing

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Terror in Boston 2013
Terror in Boston 2013

Two weeks after the bombs that shattered the concept of security for most Bostonians and many other US citizens it is time to start reflecting on the lessons learned and the people involved. This is not a research in the personal history of the bombers and their passage from country to country, the pathology of a soul that looks for a place to call home and that eventually finds itself murdering the people who not only embraced it, but the same people who had hopes to make their spirit grow and soar.

Most of the attention is focused on the living suspect of the bombing, the successful student, honorary sportsman and a hard working young man who had allegedly participated in the planning and execution of the bombing, as well as the later terror attack. Shockingly this is not a surprise, nor is this anything that anyone can say can not happen. And that is entirely the fault of the Western civilization, with its years long “correctness” towards religion and different cultures.

The hatred that many religious people (of many different religions, by the way, but most dangerously of all of Muslims) harbor against the west can and could have been diminished if only we had some more pride in the development of the Western civilization, if we would not shy away from declaring that this society is better, more advanced and more free because it has evolved away from religion.

Instead of accepting any type of “belief system” out there we should emphasis the long road that democracy has made from ancient Greece to today, the development of free people in Europe (French revolution) and the American declaration of independence which is practically the manual for any true liberal out there.

You want to practice your pagan religion? good, do it at home, and do not harm any one in the process. You want to slaughter a lamb in your bathroom because you think God likes you better if you do it? well, you better eat the whole thing and send your kids to a school where they will explain about the un necessary pain and suffering inflicted on animals in the name of god and its followers. Do not expect us to giggle as you tell us about your traditions, rather expect us to be enraged that you do not embrace the civilization that accepted you – and we do expect you to show appreciation of this culture and civilization by respecting its most basic values.

So next time someone tells you they are off to Koran lessons, or they say that they decided to drop their plans for academic studies because “only god matters”, try and give a shit attention and tell them that you hope that they also spend some time learning about what led to the American revolution, to current suffering of most women in the Arab world, the Church denying Africa condoms and much more – you might just prevent the next hobby bomber.

He Is a Nazi but He Does Not Know That

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Giorgos Katidis ignorant Nazi
Does A Nazi Salute But Does Not know What It Means, The Greek Paradox

Greek player Giorgos Katidis just got himself banned for life from the Greek national team after he celebrated a goal with a Nazi salute, he claims he does not know what it means but if he really does not know what this means, why the hell did he do this?

Unfortunately this whole thing is a micro example of what is happening with Greece. The whole thing starts with the impossible, incredible financial situation, one that clearly means that at least one generation of adults in Greece today will not know financial safety – or even mild stability, for their entire lives. Maybe this is the fault of the whole Greek culture/society in the last 20-30 years, but this means very little to those 20-30 year olds that have to watch as their future is wiped out, forged in chains to the too-big-to-ever-end debt to Germany. This young generation did not enjoy the party, but will pay with years of work for it.

So with things going worst the fascists are never too far behind, blaming the Jews, Muslims, Africans and anyone that they can find who is not just like them in the situation, enter Golden Dawn, the Nazi party, and enter symbols that come with the ideas. So some people know they want to have their financial future in their hands (which they are more than entitled to) they know that the golden dawn takes care of Greek – but they do not know that in the end of all this there is one simple idea of humanity getting rid of “lesser humans”.

Back to our soccer player, look at the guy on his side, he is from the same team – he looks stunned, the funny thing is that the guy on the left is only slightly darker skinned to the one doing the salute, the one doing the salute will never pass as a Nazi in the “old country”, his blood is far from being pure.

Here is Greece 2013, about to do a gesture (or worst – acts) that will leave a large part of its own population stunned, and might get it to be banned from all kind of things. Ignorance is dangerous, especially when it serves as a bridge to simple solutions. If Europe continues to turn its back to the young Greeks and leave their future in the dark this will only get worst.

Old Fascism in Europe – the Latvia Edition

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Latvia March for Waffen SS
Latvia March for Waffen SS

This is not a new story, many countries that were unfortunate enough to be located between the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany suffer from the inability to celebrate World War II events properly, in some of the cases because their blunt cooperation with the Nazi regime was as close as you can get to being partners in crimes against humanity and in other cases because of the confusing battle against fascists on the one side and communists on the other.

This is somewhat the situation in Latvia, where war veterans seek the description that would make them as brave as they can possibly be and less tied into the old Fascist ways of Europe. The equation is simple, in the beginning they had to fight the soviets from taking over, after that the Nazis and in the end the many years of Soviet oppression, it is no surprise that most of all these people want to be less associated with the soviets than any other nation or political party, which draws them closer to the default… which is the Waffen SS.

Young Latvians were forced into recruiting into the Nazi armed forces, maybe a part went willingly but it is sure that most did not want to fight a war that had nothing to do with this country, or its ideology. However once in the ranks they did fight and die for the Nazi war monster, and some continued to fight the soviets after the war was over. Now these people have a day to commemorate their actions, on March 17th they march in memory of serving in other people’s armies and dying for other nation causes – as demented as they could be.

This causes some reaction on the Russian side, because no one wants to see people who made battle against your country march and glorify that event, the few Russians available in Latvia protest against this march. What does actually leave us with? That in todays world it is more important to be a veteran than a war hero, what you fought for (or why you did that) counts much less and is of less concern to anyone, the only thing that matters is that nations are happy to sacrifice the facts and honesty for the glory and fake impression of old battles.

After all, if you have been to the game and suffered the injuries, why not tell everyone you played fair and won?

Mother Teresa Revisited

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Far From Saint - LIke the Church that created her
Far From Saint – LIke the Church that created her

Researchers from the Canadian university of Montreal have complied a thorough study of Mother Teresa’s life and the conclusions are, well, not the nicest music the saint loving religious types like to hear. In what seems like the biggest “Bravo” ever echoed for Christopher Hitchens work on Mother Teresa these unbiased researchers found it difficult to believe that a person with such cynical cruelty towards the people she was thought to have been “saving” could be made a saint.

Nothing is new here, all is easily archived and you can reach it within 2-3 clicks of your computer mouse, Hitchens has done all the work – years ago.

So we learn again that this woman was nothing more than a radical tool for the church to use, and that a fanatical interpretation of the all might god will has led her to do things to the same people she was supposed to help, things that no one can be proud of. This is not a unique individual that somehow strayed away from the path of good deeds, rather the opposite, this is an obedient follower who was molded into the grotesque figure of the body that created her, and so the desperately ill and those who were passing their last moments of life in one of Mother Teresa’s establishments were given no chance but to fulfill the purpose of these places – to die there.

And the final word belongs to the great man himself, Hitchens –

This returns us to the medieval corruption of the church, which sold indulgences to the rich while preaching hellfire and continence to the poor. MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction