Dr. Jim’s Thinking Shop: Deluxe Windbaggery Our Speciality!

Got a comment a couple days ago from a certain Mr/Mrs/Ms. “Anonymous” to a post I made on April 19 telling me I’m a windbag. Good to see Anon. is a regular reader!

It was actually a damn good little post. Too bad it took 8 months for anyone to actually read it!  Basically the post was about a lengthy exchange I was having with some  Christians in the local newspaper. At one point I was called a “militant” atheist. So my post was reporting on my just-published reply. Here is that with one of theattention grabbing, crusading pictures I found so I can wallow in my militant glory.

Andrew Joosse calls me “militant” for criticizing religion. Militant people carry guns and throw bombs. I wrote to my local newspaper. Luckily, I didn’t use upper-case letters for emphasis or Lethbridge might get a reputation as a terrorist haven.

A gun shop, perhaps the one from where the noted militant, Dr. Jim,
bought his deadly lap-top that has been striking common sense into the
sleepy town of Lethbridge .

My views are said to confirm Augustine’s claim that Christians do not base belief on reason but rather believe in order to understand. OK, so Augustine was happy with a circular argument and a bit of special pleading that seemingly protects his views from criticism and self-doubt. I’m glad Mr. Joosse and I had the opportunity to clear that up.

I do not question many Christians’ charitable nature or work for world peace but the same can be said of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Wiccans, agnostics, and atheists. My real point is that religions get undeserved preferential treatment. For example, organized religions enjoy special laws allowing them to issue tax receipts for donations, regardless of whether the money is put to any real humanitarian end. This is unfairly denied to other groups.

To illustrate the Christian sense of “true religion”, Mr. Joosse employs a verse from the biblical prophet Micah that advocates doing justice and humbly walking with one’s god. We get a different perspective on it if we flip ahead several pages in the Bible to the prophet Malachi, who accuses poverty stricken Judeans of stealing from God by skimping on their tithes, offerings and sacrifices to the temple.  Some biblical passages are simply timeless.

After this, I tore into another letter (by Brock Schuler) to the same editor that cried a few crocodile tears for the atheists who don’t know what they are missing and declaring that religion is inherently valuable. Oh yeah, he added that atheists are just bitter.

I find it unfortunate when people refer to faith in derogatory ways when it has so much to offer. Faith provides foundations for morals and gives hope.

…I feel sorry for the naturalist / secularlist / scientist that has nothing to believe in. I find belief in God essential for my personal and spiritual development, even my intellectual development.

So I challenged him on a few points. Anyway, here is what Mr/Mrs/Ms. “Anonymous” has to say 8 months later in the comments:

You are a windbag. You’re an arrogant fool who likes attention and the idea that he is somehow a crusader for truth and liberty. I’m not a christian and to me you look ridiculous. Stop embarassing yourself.

Stolen from http://lauren-and-justin.blogspot.com

Well, I suppose one way to not embarrass myself is to post insults anonymously, but what would that achieve? Of course, Anon is keeping his/her name out of circulation simply out of modesty. We must not assume that this is just a surf-by insult. No, Anon is too dignified to stoop to that.

OK, so some uber-modest self-professed non-Christian jackass (I’ll bet he is a Christian, though, and is lying through his freakin’ teeth) thinks I’m embarrassing myself by stating my opinion. Well la-de-da.  Why the fuck is it any concern or hers? At least in my original post I was attacking ideas, not just hurling insults. If our nameless dipwit can’t see the point of satire on the internet perhaps there is a rock he can find that needs crawling under.

And now, back to regular programming, militant crusading.