It appears Muslim fundamentalists just assassinated Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. It is not entirely clear they were responsible however. Not only was there a bombing (usual trademark of fundamentalist attacks), but Bhutto was also shot. So, it could be some other forces in Pakistan who were opposed to the former Prime Minister, including the government of Pervez Musharraf (after the assassination, Bhutto supporters were chanting, "Dog, Musharraf, Dog.").
If it was religious fundamentalists, it wouldn't be the first time. It would be about the one billionth time religious folks have resorted to violence to settle disputes. And they usually kill people trying to bring peace or empower others. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was killed by a Muslim fundamentalist for making peace with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was killed by a Jewish fundamentalist for trying to make peace with the Palestinians. While Christian fundamentalists are busy trying to create the next Armageddon so we can all die. What a pleasant lot.
Why do they do this? Because they're supposed to. Read the Bible, the Torah and the Koran. They are all full of violent, bloody fantasies that teach you over and over to kill your enemies. Christians love to think they are the exception to this rule. They'll say the Old Testament doesn't really apply anymore because the New Testament overruled all the gory, masochists violence of the earlier book. So, then I guess Genesis isn't true either since that's in the Old Testament? Oops.
Then, you'll get the excuse that Jesus was the Prince of Peace. Yeah, I know, that's why in Matthew 10:34 he says, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Sounds down right Christian of him.
But even if you can make up pathetic excuses for this obvious blood-lust and call to violence, it doesn't matter. Because in the end Jesus murders almost all of us anyway. Jesus doesn't just kill the "liars" and the "sexually immoral" and the eight other categories of people who get thrown in "fiery lake of burning sulfur." He kills all of the "unbelieving" folks as well. If you don't believe in Jesus, you get the lake of fire! What a swell guy.
In most interpretations of Islam, Jesus is the prophet that returns at the end of time to kill everyone, too. The fundamentalist Jews also believe in a Messiah that comes to kill everyone and start the world over again. So, pretty much every major religion agrees -- God is a murdering tyrant.
If you don't kiss God's ass enough, he will kill you. And then for good measure, he will roast you over an open fire for the rest of time. You know who does torture? God does. If you don't believe in him and grovel at his feet for eternity he will torture you forever. That's what your religion teaches you and you want me to respect that?
You know what I say to that -- Hell no!
If Jesus really comes back to kill everyone (except his sycophants who sucked up to him enough to earn his pitiful mercy), then I'll fight him. He is a ruthless, bloody, senseless killer. The worst tyrant the world has ever seen. All of the religions believe in this absurd, sick fantasy. Then they wonder why their followers wind up starting wars and killing people who disagree with them.
Plenty has been written about how Christianity was made up in the Council of Nicaea by a bunch of bishops who cherry-picked inconsistent accounts to serve their political purposes (that is a slightly over-simplistic account, but everyone acknowledges that the Bible was written decades after Jesus died and was assembled by others who never knew Jesus or heard what he actually said).
How can anyone know this, and still believe in this nonsense? For the sake of sanity, I will assume that people who still believe in organized religion are ignorant of its history (and believe me, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism have equally ridiculous histories -- to people who aren't brainwashed by these cults, the most amusing thing is to watch one cultist claim that all the other religions are wrong but his is right).
But you can't claim you don't know the ending. Everyone knows what happens at Armageddon. Almost all of us get killed by God. Knowing this, you expect us to respect that guy? Why should I? He plans to murder me.
This is the point when believers will tell you that you have a choice and you can avoid Jesus killing you if you just promise your unending loyalty to him (and presumably watch him kill the rest of humanity in front of your eyes). I think Saddam Hussein used to say something similar. So did Stalin and Mao and every other dictator in the world. If you promise me your loyalty, then I won't murder you.
No thanks. I don't have to respect that. In fact, we are doing the world a great injustice by still respecting this lunacy.
The funny thing is how touchy religious people are. They will get offended at the drop of a hat. Christians reading this now are so mad they can hardly contain themselves. Just calm down, your God promises to torture me forever anyway. What can you do to me that he can't?
Meanwhile, Muslims are sharpening their swords as we speak. They get to shoot people in the neck and watch them bleed to death, as they likely did to Bhutto today, but we can't publish a frikin' cartoon of their prophet? Muslims who don't understand the irony of saying, "I will kill you if you say my religion is violent" are the dumbest people on earth.
So, we have to live with these barbarians. But I don't have to respect them. They can say anything they like about us and even look forward to the day where we all die a fiery death at the hands of their Leader. But we can't offend them? Please.
If you are offended by the fact that your religion is made up, cruel, violent, barbaric and ridiculous, that's your problem, not mine. If I'm right, you're living your life based on a silly lie. If you're right, I'll be murdered by your prophet and then roasted in hell for eternity. I think it's fair to say I should be the one offended.
For the record, I'm not. Harry Potter is just as likely to come to life and kill me for not believing in him as Jesus Christ is. I'm not offended by your sad, little fantasies. But please spare me your righteous indignation about how I hurt your feelings.
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I Don't Respect Your Religion
Posted Dec 27th 2007 12:44PM by Cenk Uygur
Filed under: Young Turks, Religion, Islam, Christianity
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Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 49)
46. My condolences to the ladies family,friends & followers. Both sides are crazy people. Stuborn people, going through life wearing horse blinds. I like to think of myself as a christian. But I don't agree with most bible tote'n christians, nor do I agree with the athiests . I use to be an athiest, I thought the teachings of the bible were for weak,stupid people. Growing older, I came to understand that society needs a worthy base to grow upon. No matter what relgion, be it Buda,Christians,Muslums or just a bar of soap ! If you think about it, The jews have no right to the land they now live on.That land was given to them by men (recently), not by God. If the men wanted to give the jews land for what happened dureing WW2,it should have been Germany. Or the places they were liveing before WW2. But really, nobody wants them,do they? God (suppostly) wrote in the bible that the jews were'nt great people, just the best of what was available at the time! Anyway, Society needs a base of belief that respects life, teaches against torrments against ourselves & others, like the 10 comandments,or whatever the other relgions teach. OR if you've been brought up understanding these things ( which, by the way is basicly relgion)we all should do fine.Most countries basic laws are the same as the bibles 10 commandments!I have been approached by bible-thumpers telling me how much better they were than I was. How they could show me the way. I know they believe they're doing right. I've also had the otherside ( athiest) think that I Thought I was better than they were (NOT TRUE) . TO both sides, I'LL laugh & tell you to KISS MY .... ! ! ! Respect me, & I'll give the same in return. Good day
Mr. Eadie at 3:57PM on Dec 27th 2007
47. Dear Sir,
I am sorry you have been hurt and do not understand the Love of Jesus Christ. God Loves you and wants a relationship with you. You can twist it if you like into something evil, I forgive you and he will too. Please remember it is possible you may be wrong and someone else may be right. Search for the truth if you do that the Christian bible tells you, you will find it.
In Christ
Claude A. Crocker IV
Claude at 4:04PM on Dec 27th 2007
48. Excellent blog.....it's about time we start seeing that the major acts of violence in the past ten years are all due to religious fanaticism.
Bhutto's assasination, the invasion of Iraq (Bush thinks he's doing God's work), The World Trade Center on 9-11, and even the most recent church shootings......all because of religious fanaticism and narrow minded thinking. I agree that America is threatened by religious intolerance....but mainly from Christians within our own borders...after all....the "kingdom of God" is not a democratic republic.
Larry D. Davis at 4:16PM on Dec 27th 2007
49. Egypt originally was a prison before metal bars. Peoples skin darkened because they were without clothes. They became emanciated because they were without food. A grecian/phoenician/viking/philosopher had children with these slaves. We are all human now. The same way the first white ape went extinct, the same way the greeks went extinct, the same way the english went extinct, the same way the american pioneers went extinct. Jesus is just the passing down of what's left of the original genes. Education defeated intelligence.
If you can read the blatantly boring bible, it teaches you a different language- just like spanish or japanese. You will then be threatened using this language & no court will recognize the fear of god because its not english. All the people who believe religion is for a certain race are just Wells in a larger recipe. Religion breeds out undiciplined people & breeds women to rule as a master race. Men are paraded in front of a brick wall so they don't know that is happening to them. Tyranny. Time for America to be realized, it was written out of law 12-17-1791, and no one was wise enough to read the laws that did it. We live in Never, Never land.
Eric at 4:17PM on Dec 27th 2007
50. To Mr. Jim Coster, You would have thought that with a honors degree from Harvard they may have taught you how to spell.
Heath at 4:19PM on Dec 27th 2007
51. I won't even ask "you've got to be kidding, right?" because it's so obvious you believe all of what you've just said. You just Will Smith'd Jesus Christ. Taking comments out of context must be in fashion.
Jayne at 4:21PM on Dec 27th 2007
52. Hi, I'd like to say that why turn the attention on Christians? I am not into any religion but hello IF I DISTORT ISLAM I'll have to pay with my neck...huh... and you are totally unfair...point five fingers to other people's religions and mention Muslim violence only one, as if it's a teenie-weenie thing..Oh yeah right, Muslims killed "bugs" not people right? so it's not worth mentioning. and oh yeah they were the only down trodden believers on Earth and the suffering of other people because of their own religion is not worth mentioning.tell me it means "peace" duh..hey other people in other religions, let's start a web page all about Muslims, they hate every other religion you can think of.and has a running track record of blowing each one up who says "i'm not Muslim"...
jode at 4:22PM on Dec 27th 2007
53. I always find it intriguing that christians are usually the most intolerant and hateful posters on these blogs. All the while they are screaming persecution which seems to me ridiculous since non-christians make up no more than 10% of the population in the US. Seems the opposite would be the more logical bet. Also, they claim that this article is brainwashing and dangerous. It seems as though that Christianity is a form of brainwashing since it is taught to children with no mention of other belief systems but to be honest I understand that this post only "preaches to the choir" to use a religious quote that doesn't come from a book written by a politically based council instead of someone that actually knew the person it was actually based on. Personally I think that if Jesus did come back (which is about as likely as mohammed coming back or your dead grandma) the Christians would be the first to want to condemn him for not conforming to their view of the world. Since he supposedly stood for love and understanding and the majority of Christians today IMO stand for oppression of other religions.
Heath at 4:31PM on Dec 27th 2007
54. As a movie once immortalized. "we better nuke the planet from orbit, just to be sure we don't infect the peaceful species out in space".
Eric at 4:38PM on Dec 27th 2007
55. Why so much anger aimed at other people's beliefs? It's really quite sad.
hlaredzz at 4:49PM on Dec 27th 2007
56. I agree that America is threatened by religious intolerance....but mainly from Christians within our own borders...after all....the "kingdom of God" is not a democratic republic.
>>>
You godless, America hating, liberal scum make me want to puke.
Thomas J Gassett at 4:43PM on Dec 27th 2007
57. Here's some final thoughts from Jim Coster:
1. "Cenk Uygur" deserves to made fun of in any way possible because his words brand him as an idiot.
2. Mr. uygur has the right to be an idiot.
3. While uygur has apparently touted himself as an agnostic, his article suggests he is just an angry atheist.
4. Every atheist I have ever met was dysfunctional.
5. I did 18 years in the Marines and brought home a Purple Heart from Iraq - I am PROUD to call myself a Born-Again Christian and I DON'T GIVE A SHIT WHO LIKES IT OR NOT.
6. I practice plaintiff's and criminal defense law aggressively in Pittsburgh and I DON'T GIVE A SHIT WHO LIKES THAT OR NOT.
7. Yea, I went to Harvard ... and I can't spell very well. But I can tell you with all honesty, 1 second after my death, I'd rather be a bad speller than an ATHEIST OR OTHER SUCH GOD-HATER.
8. Now... to all you pansy-assed Atheist's out there... is there anything I've said that you don't understand?
and have a nice day....
Jim Coster, Marine, Christian, Esquire
Pittsburgh, Pa
Jim Coster at 4:47PM on Dec 27th 2007
58. Thomas Gassett, I love America. But it's you God loving people who provide the stupid people that prevent democracy from emerging. Geez!
Eric at 4:47PM on Dec 27th 2007
59. Gee Cenk- You left out the Great Spaghetti Monster. Many of us are touched by his noodley appendage. My wife says the GSM is female but I think that if he were female he would have been some kind of fettucine instead.
It looks like you have pissed off all of the Christians. I haven't seen such name calling since the last time I watched Live Wrestling.
I do recommend to you a chapter in Joseph Heller's "Catch 22". In the passage Yosirian has a rant with God. There is a lot of name calling in it too.
And by the way, I graduated from Harvard Law as well. I think its "atheist chic". "Shek" is merely the mispelling of the name of an Arab leader.
Cenk, keep your sense of humor and have a good New Year.
Steve Seivers at 4:50PM on Dec 27th 2007
60. You godless, America hating, liberal scum make me want to puke.
xxx
Hey, swallow! Then you can be both oral AND anal retentive!
Clif Kuplen at 4:54PM on Dec 27th 2007