Atheism Corner

Humanity in Progress

Rabbi Fails to Deliever Miracle & Gets Killed

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Israel is a strange country, it’s one of the most difficult puzzles to anyone who is a non-believer or atheist, this is the country of the Jewish people, if you’re Jewish you will be accepted there (however criminals and people with issues are not automatically let in).

One of the things they say about Israel (I think it was Sam Harris that said it once) is that the problem is that its not a country that is dedicated to a religion but rather a religion that has been forced to confine itself in one country that would not systematically abuse an ethnic or religious group, in simple words the state of Israel was created so Jews could have one place that does not repeatedly murder and abuse them.

So we all know that Israel is the land of the Jews, but do not expect to see a lot of Rabbi’s dressed in black when you’re in the airport, Israel is a secular democracy with a majority of non religious Jews. Many of the secular Jews call themselves “traditional” because the keep the main holidays, and that is all they do. Many others have little or nothing to do with the religion and you will find life in the big cities of Israel to be very much like any other western city, even on the Sabbath.

The news out of Israel in the last week told of a great Rabbi that had been murdered by a visitors, a man who met with the Rabbi to ask him to help out in some martial problems had waited a couple of months for the miracle to work, when it did not he decided that he will pay a visit to the old Rabbi and kill him for his false promises (even though its almost certain that nothing had been ever promised).

This is one of the things that makes it very difficult for an atheist to overlook, people who are not “really” religious visit a very religious individual, many times with some sort of offering, like a donation or even direct payment for the time and services, in hope that the “holy” person will proceed to pray and work miracles for them and their needs. How profane can that be, on both sides, to have one even suggest that he can perform miracles, and for the other to shortcut his way into a better position, leveraging the good ranking the Rabbi has with the almighty.

And when you act like humans did thousands of years ago, visiting a shaman or a sage to have a better life, offering them compensation in return and expecting miracles to happen, it also makes perfect sense to punish the shaman if he does not deliver, not only what he might promise or suggest, but also if he fails to deliver what was expected subjectively of him. So a punishment of stabbing someone to death as punishment for not fulfilling his duty makes perfect sense if you try and think 2,500 years back.

One final word about this Rabbi, he was a grandson of one of the better known Kabalist Rabbis of Israel, and continued to do the same as his grandfather did, which is mostly helping the community and learning the bible, these people are not the rich preachers of the U.S. and most of them live in very modest homes and humble lifestyles. This man really did try to help out people, he spent a lot of time seeing and meeting people with problems, it is only a shame that instead of dropping god and the ancient books or yore he did not turn to the light and learned psychology or medicine to really help people progress.

Rabbi Abuhatzeira funeral last week

 

Sharia Run Countries Got No Case

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Ever since the Oslo attack there has been a lot of talk about “Sharia” law in the West, mainly because the psychotic killer used these kind of words in his deranged manifesto. However now it looks like the conversation is joined by the ones who want to initiate sharia into western countries, and they make their case heard, advocating sharia rule of the land.

They mention how sharia can help eliminate problems of alcohol (by forbidding any use of any alcohol), reducing prostitution (Muslim females who are prostitutes can be killed, non Muslim prostitutes are the same as anything non Muslim and can be used in any which way a Muslim wants) and also reducing drug abuse, which is a little unclear because so much of the global drug industry is based in Arabia, and many Muslim countries have issues with traditional drug use.

I thought it could be nice to look at live examples of sharia run countries and see how well they fare, how has sharia benefited those countries and their contribution to the world in terms of technology, art, medicine and literature.

Here are some countires that use striket shaira law, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Mauritania, Oman, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia.

Just to check with the stats of infant mortality rate (per 1,000 lives) here is the rating of those 8 countries, Afghanistan leads the global list for infant mortality in the last 3 years with 144 lives lost (and those who talk about the war, 10 years ago the number was 155 so the numbers are actually down), Bahrain is at #49 with under 10 infants, Iran #115 with 32, Mauritania #163 with 73, Oman #72 with 16, Pakistan #163 with 76, Yemen #165 with 65 and Saudi Arabia at 85 with 20 deaths. So it seems that Oman and Saudi Arabia are the best of those countries, I wonder if money has anything to do with it, since they can but western physicians help in keeping hospitals and babies safe (meaning that the work of lowering death rates is done by non sharia personal).

On the GDP rating, Saudi Arabia does come in at number 23 and Oman at 79, not bad spots, however bare in mind that those countries are rich in oil, and they do not need much more than the pumps to get the black gold out of the soil to get paid.

Lets look at the Nobel laureates by country rating, and check these countries. Afghanistan and Bahrain are not on the list, Iran has 2 winners, Mauritania is not on the list and so are Pakistan & Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, meaning the for all these nations only 2 Nobel laureates in total, ever.

So based on this quick look at sharia run countries, who does it help and how to have sharia as a law system, as a way for a nation to conduct itself, its no good for babies, not good economically unless you got land that is rich in oil (but that will also run out one day) and it is surely not helping out global progress. Maybe the only ones who actually profit from sharia are the ones that enforce it.

Sharia in Iran - Hanging Gays for Being Born Gay

Reality of Life in Syria Since April 2011

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One of the things that are even more tragic is that they keep crying out that god is great, something that takes on a much more of a culture form in the Arab world in the past years, however it does not rule out that many of the people involved in this uprising are religious or even extreme religious who have been trying to get to power for many years now.

The violence in Syria is a continuing fact for over 3 months now, with the last episode starting just yesterday, in time to beat the start of Ramadan, a holy month in Islam, which is not rarely characterized by bloody violence by some groups. The only real question is when is the world going to do something about this, very brutal and aggressive crashing of human lives in the effort to stop people from protesting.

Mid-East God Still Calls the Shots

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The killing in Syria is not over yet, now it looks like that break that the Syrian leadership took from massacring their own people a could of weeks ago has only been used for perfecting a technique that is better for faster and deadlier approach. Now the army artillery and tanks divisions are spread over the whole of the country and is responding with overwhelming brutality to any show of opposition.

The term “revolution” does not seem to cover what is going on in Syria, because its already months in action, and because so many have already lost their lives in this struggle, it seems that the term popular uprising is more befitting this kind of clash between a dictatorial regime and its citizens.

And still the world can not care less, while the US (Nobel Peace winner) president forces himself to mutter a few words about “being very disturbed by the hundreds murdered in Syria” the Europeans are looking into some more restrictions upon Syria, like limiting the supply of French wine, which is not in huge demand in that part of the world. All this why? because big brother Iran is standing firm behind the butchers in power, and because the leaders of most western countries realize how bad their support for the Egyptian revolution turned (now looks like Egypt is going to be ultra religious for the next decades), and are naturally fearful that an Islamist Syria will be worst than a Dictatorial beaten up Syria. Maybe they are right, but nonetheless we should point out that many are killed every day, and that this silence is not adding up the credits in our favor when looking in the mirror.

What Would an Atheist Do?

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It looks like since the deranged attacks of Oslo took place that many in the media have been more than happy to blame everything that is not left-liberal or far left socialists for some responsibility for the actions of a crazy and clearly extremely violent man. And it so happens that some also point a finger at the so called “new” atheists for advocating their views on religions and especially the dangers of totalitarian Islam in the West in particular and in the world in general, this type of blacklisting is very easy and comfortable for them to do since the murderer wrote a manifesto of some 1,500 pages in which he had sufficient space to mention almost any other name in atheism or the anti Islamic movement, as well as the oppressors of multiculturalism in Europe and in the world.

It is a grave sign when journalists just run a search on a 1,500 pages document to find names that they want to slur and then use the twisted demented mind of a murderer as a weapon against thinkers and activists of peaceful and democratic movements, and because it seems that right now anything but a liberal multi-cultural minds are accepted in Europe it is only fair that we try and present the real atheist mind, and the idea behind it.

Just to get the obvious out of the way, Atheism has nothing to do with violence, it has nothing to do with social or cultural tolerance, it is simply the opposition to the idea of god or gods, out of this main idea there is the growing criticism of the way theocracies run themselves and how they destroy the lives of the people living in them, as well as the never ending task of reminding the world how religions acted when they were more powerful.

An Atheist should not have any problem with someone practicing faith in their homes, without forcing anyone to do so and without hurting anyone in the process of practicing. There is nothing wrong with anyone wanting to believe anything and doing so privately, however it does become a problem when the ideas of religion find their way out and are being forced or obsessiveness introduced to a non-believer population. So for someone to eat Kosher meat in their homes is perfectly normal to have a whole city with exclusively kosher butchers and kosher supermarket meat is not acceptable.

For anyone to pray five times a day at home on his or her own time is not a problem, but when the believers gather in the streets and block access to the road, create a public disturbance and terrorize other habitats is not acceptable. An atheist should not fight the individual right for worship but the totalitarianism of religion and the way it constantly tries to sneak up behind everyone else.

If you are an atheist try and focus on objecting to the idea of a god, or gods, it is no small task, unfortunate. It is not an objection to the person worshiping but the idea that the person needs to worship anything or anyone to begin with that is the real essence of atheism.