It’s been common lately for creationists, largely rallying around Ben Stein’s “Expelled”, to argue that evolutionary theory in particular and science in general led to the Holocaust. I can see how someone could come to that view, if they were completely unversed in science, philosophy, history, theology, and basic logic, and sadly, most Americans are.

A few of the more common remarks I’ve seen and a few comments;

Hitler was a disciple of Darwin

Interesting, then, that Darwin is never mentioned in Mein Kamph or any major speech or public doctrine of Hitler that I’m aware of. Hitler does repeatedly invoke Christianity, nationalism, and cultural supremacy, all big favorites with the right wing crowd that most pretty much all American creationists belong to.

Hitler merely tried to enact the Darwinist maxim “survival of the fittest”.

Not true. First of all, Darwin’s expression refers explicitly to the way species observably act in a natural setting. This is not a moral imperative, nor did Darwin ever say it should be. While Darwin’s views on race were not exactly enlightened by our standards (though they were significantly advanced for his own times), he never makes any sort of reference to human “races” being gradable. This was, however, a favorite view of many Christians, who used the bible to justify, among other things, the violent dispossession of the American Indians and the transatlantic slave trade.

At any rate, Darwin believed in natural selection as an observable part of nature, nothing more. Saying he believed that it should be applied to human society is like saying that Newton wanted people forcible held to the ground because he believed in gravity. At any rate, what Hitler did is not natural selection, but artificial selection, its opposite. Breeding dogs or horses is an example of a more widespread version of this, controlling traits through selective breeding, much like eugenics.

Without the moral absolute of religion, one has no basis not to murder

Let’s stay away from the very, very obvious fact that Hitler was a proudly avowed Christian, if only for a moment. In my eyes, a strong, unyielding, unexplored “moral absolute” is exactly what caused the Shoah. Deciding to exterminate a race because they are ‘a disease’ is not an act of relativism, it’s an act of very powerful belief. The holocaust didn’t happen because Germans were bored and chose and amoral way to blow off steam, the holocaust was an expression of a very ingrained set of morals.

It seems peculiar to me as well that creationists seem unaware that when Europe was almost entirely Christian, with no evolutionary theory to speak of, there was still plenty of killing to go around. Jews were randomly brutalized and slaughtered regularly, and hatred of Jews was encoded in the books of many prominent Christian theologians. Hitler was not working in a vacuum, but rather followed in the footsteps of men like Martin Luther, who in turn followed in the footsteps of many church policy makers. The inquisition and crusades also took place in the name of Christianity. Look, I’ll throw you righties a bone you’ll eat up. Do you think Muslim terrorists do what they do because their beliefs aren’t strong enough?

By the way, I’m not an atheist so don’t bother with mentioning Stalin, especially because he’s not the point of this, and you know it.

ID should be presented alongside/instead of evolutionary theory in schools to keep children in reverence of life.

Point the first, there’s no evidence that this works and in fact history seems to speak against any idea that creationist thought leads naturally to a respect for life (though I’m sure there are many creationists who are compassionate people). Having the same people urge a respect for life AND the invasion of the middle east is a bit off, but one thing at a time.

Second, ID is not and never will be science. Period, end of story. There’s no more reason to give kids a chance to “figure it out for themselves” in a classroom setting than there is to study phrenology side by side with neurology or flat earth theory with geography.

Science leads you to kill people

Yeah, those scientists who invented the smallpox vaccine sure were heartless bastards. Seriously, not even going to bother with this one.

Faith in the highest and scientific progress are compatible; willful ignorance and scientific knowledge are not.

Thanks for your visit, but just let me say; me being an ex-Muslim does not suddenly make me your buddy.

Hey party people

I am headed to work in a few hours and then after a 16 hour shift plan to grab my rucksack, tent, a bottle of good beer, a couple cans of food, a map and a compass, and head out into nature for a couple days. I don’t think there’s much in the way of wireless out there, so I probably won’t be posting anything Sunday through Tuesday. Catch you all soon and take care.

One Love

Dave

I gotta say, I admire Yahya’s ability to look like a creepy, out of touch disco lecher in versace while attacking Buddhists and Westerners (which, umm, isn’t a weird comparison at all) for being “materialistic”;

So anyway, Harun, if that is your name…Oh wait, it’s not, you’re actually Adnan Oktar…but anyway, why even bother denying that you’re an antisemite when you write books with titles like “Freemasonry and Judaism”, alleging a joint conspiracy, or “The Holocaust Lie”?

Anyway, when you’re done practicing to be a James Bond villain, harassing university teachers, bullying judges to get WordPress banned in Turkey, or conflating Pagans, Maoists, Nazis,Buddhist Monks and Scientists, come by so I can thank you for giving me the slightest touch of patriotism. See, I’m not much one for flag waving and I despise our leadership, but knowing that schmucks like you have no real power here (yet) and I can post this up just fine makes me appreciate living here just a bit more.

And by the way, Bono called, he wants his shades back.

I am ambivalent about Gandhi; like the Dalai Lama, I think of him as a good man with some good points who has been semi-deified by much of the west, which lets us overlook some very real flaws in their actions. However, much of what he said and did was remarkable, and I stumbled across this quote, which I particularly like.

Scriptures cannot transcend reason and truth. They are intended to purify reason and illuminate truth. Every formula of every religion has, in this age of reason, to submit to the test of reason and universal justice if it is to ask for universal assent. Error can claim no exemption even if it can be supported by the scriptures of the world.

This was a man who devoted his life to what he saw as the principles of the Bhagavad Gita and told the Christians and Muslims of India that their own holy books were also divine in nature; here we see not an attack on faith, but a demand for reason and doubt and temperance. So, uh, go Gandhi!

Seriously, did every third Muslim blogger get together and agree that this group deserved their support? I may not be a Muslim anymore but I would like to see those who are get a fair shake in American society. It becomes harder to do that when Muslims decide to do weird things like, say, throw in behind a child-abusing rape cult. Those people were sick and taking their children was absolutely the right thing to do under the circumstances. If you want your non-Muslim neighbors to think that you’re a) not insane and b) capable of living in the modern world (and I believe both propositions are mostly true), then please show some sense on this. Hell, show half as much outrage over the systematic enslavement of women and children, abandonment of adolescent boys, and ruthless suppression of natural rights as you are over, oh, I dunno, a Muslim woman whose khimar got taken by the police.

What bothers me is that I’m not sure where this sentiment came from. If it’s because Muslims can relate to being a religious minority with practices that seem strange to Americans…Okay, still bugs me, but I can understand it. But I’m wondering how many Muslims (strangely, including women) might just have a crush on the cult’s lifestyle, where old men with beards and holy books basically run everything now and forever through a top-down system. I remember very well the way a lot of Muslims, even the good guys, have a severe misogynist streak. Even a lot of guys who personally treat their (singular) wife and their kids well, sometimes would praise one-sided, polygamous patriarchal systems that the Robert Spencers of the world couldn’t dream up to discredit Islam. I really hope that wasn’t the motivator here.

I’m sorry if I’m being unfair, and I know some Muslims were on the side of the angels here; I was just amazed at how many Muslim bloggers reflexively defended these sick perverts.

+++

In unrelated news, I realized recently a lot of my natural compassion and patience just sort of dried up without me noticing. I want to blame so many different factors–my insane job, the idiocy around me, being separated from Shan, etc., but the truth is it’s just me. I don’t want this to happen. So I’m going to be intensively working on this. Anyone been through this before? Any tips?

Okay, real writing goes up even later than I promised. Yeah, I know, I’m a slacker. Hey, I’m finishing the last of my senior work AND doing a 56 hour work week, you try that sometime.

I miss Shan so much tonight that I’m sitting here at 2 a.m. listening to bad 80s pop love songs, and eating a bag of doritos. Anyone who wants to tell me to butch up right now can go to hell.

New polemic tomorrow.

” Well, a fake Jamaican took every last dime with a scam
It was worth it just to learn some sleight-of-hand”

-Modest Mouse

I’m amazed at how many people I’ve known over the years who got ripped off in some pyramid scheme or another. Being frank, they invariably were being willfully stupid about it, at least then and there. I or someone else would try to explain that this was, you know, a pyramid scheme, and they’d say something like ‘No, dude, it’s guaranteed money over time if I get in on the ground floor, but I have to bring other people into it to keep the money moving’. One of my uncles, at one point, admitted that what he was about to buy into was a pyramid scheme, but insisted that it was a good one because he was going to be near the top from the get go and would make money quickly.

The Secret (yes, that one) strikes me as much the same thing, even if it lacks a couple of the usual identifying characteristics. You do have to buy certain things to get into it, though it’s a fairly short list, and while you’re supposed to spread the word to other people, it’s a pretty loose knit thing, more like TM or something than a cult or corporation. On the surface, The Secret looks like another new age self help bit, and that’s pretty much precisely what it is, albeit with savvier, updated marketing.

The basic premise is that if you wish hard enough for something, you’ll get it. I try to avoid being glib when describing the spiritual beliefs of others, but as with Scientology, there’s really just no way to make this sound anything but silly. It’s like the McDonald’s of spirituality, “ask and you shall receive” with none of the pesky “desire is the root of suffering”, “this life is but a sport and a pastime”, or “take up your cross and follow me” type baggage.

Talking to true believers in The Secret (and I’ve met plenty, I live in Northern Arizona), huge logical errors become apparent very quickly. What if you and someone else are using the “law of attraction” (the premise this is built upon) for mutually exclusive purposes? Can you use the law of attraction to bring yourself an abstract ideal, like happiness or “enlightenment”? By saying that everyone brings about their own life conditions through use of this rule, are you saying that if everyone in famine-stricken regions of Africa just started wishing for food hard enough, they’d be fed? Why did these people bother writing this and marketing? Can’t they get so obscenely rich using their secret that they wouldn’t need the money? Or, if money’s not the motive, couldn’t they have used this godlike level of power to make the secret available to everyone for free? You get the idea.

The bothersome part to me is that there’s the barest kernel of truth to the concept; you can, and will, influence what is in your life based somewhat on your orientation towards life. This makes the whole thing seem plausible, even though it has such basic logical and philosophical problems that it makes Evangelical Christianity look plausible in comparison.

My problem with The Secret though, more than anything, is that everyone I know who has gotten really into it is a confused, miserable bastard, I mean moreso than the rest of us. They simultaneously have to sing the Journey “don’t stop believing” refrain while wondering why wishing for shit ain’t doin’ the job for them. One day, I was talking with a guy I know, an older dude who teaches classes at the community college because he’s broke after horribly mismanaging his money in his younger years. He pointed to a flyer for a screening of The Secret, and asked if I was attending. Nah, I responded, it sounds like bullshit to me. He got visibly angry and said well, it’s not. I just shrugged. He smiled and said, trust me, I’ve been following the law of attraction for years. The next week or so, he saw a woman he was into, a dance instructor who has always been nice to him but never shown interest, with another man. He started going around telling people he was about ready to blow his brains out. Now, I’m sure there are people from all kinds of “spiritual” paths who might behave this way, but it seems like pretty much ALL the Secret people are in that boat to some degree.

None of this even touches the deeper root which is that even if this worked, it wouldn’t really make anything any better. If I gave the average miserable, confused bastard a million dollars and a hot boyfriend/girlfriend, and the power to crush his enemies…Well, all we’d have is a miserable, confused bastard with a million dollars, a hot SO, and the power to crush their enemies. If you’re a meth addict into the secret, presumably you can just wish for more meth. While I’m sure most of us wouldn’t mind having more money, or whatever, I don’t think that’s the root of our discontent and our problems. I’m not exactly sure what IS, but I’m pretty sure it’s not that. I can’t think of a more confused and potentially personally harmful philosophy than one that tells you that you should endlessly desire stuff, and then wish for it instead of working to bring it to yourself. That way madness lies, quite literally I think.

Don’t be a chump, avoid The Secret. If you want to join a club that feeds your basest instincts and makes you spout nonsense, there are plenty that at least look cooler.

This is from Beijing. It’s a Chinese Muslim Business with Chinese and Arabic on the sign, right next to modern western-style graffiti art, on a little tree lined boulevard. While globalization certainly has its downsides, I love the way the world is getting more international. People are getting exposed to more knowledge, new ways of doing things, and getting away from a narrow, provincial view of the world. And, in a lot of places, this is happening surprisingly peacefully. I don’t want to paint China as a an enlightened paradise but I was amazed by not only their ability to keep their Chinese identity while embracing things that come from Tibetans, Muslims, Americans, and Koreans, but the general level of harmony between different groups. The effortless way it all melds together in that pic is somewhat emblematic of the process for me.

Just a few thoughts. Talk to y’all soon.