Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Mama Explores the "Roots of Leftist Anti-Semitism"

Whoo! Excellent post, this one. (Yoda speak.)

ASIDE: I'm ending here tonight. It's amazing how tiring being in a hospital can be. It's always surreal. It's always enervating. Before I launch, here's the update--Ellen is stable for now. The doctors are trying to wean her from oxygen and blood pressure medication. So far, it's not going great, but she's not crashing, either. Steve's cousin Brittney is doing better--coming out of the ether. Exploratory surgery yesterday revealed no internal bleeding. As she wakes, she's in horrible pain. No decision yet on the shattered legs. Amputation still a possibility.
Back to the nasty business of anti-semitism. Here is what Mama starts with:
Jeff (who sparked the original post) replies:
If there truly is a god, he’s a total asshole for letting billions of people suffer throughout history due to conflicting beliefs. All-knowing and all-powerful…but for the last 2,006 years he’s been stuck in a Verizon commercial, i.e., “Can you hear me now?” Waiting for his only cellphone (Jesus) to fall from Heaven so that He has someone to talk to who can send all non-Christians to an eternity in hell fire while whisking believers up to a magical fairyland hidden in the sky. Nothing could be more violent, BTW.
That's religious atheism in a nutshell. It's less a matter of a determined disbelief in God than a deep inability to envision a loving God who would allow people to behave badly. Beth had already responded quite logically to this argument in her post:
HUMANS are divisive, not religion. You know the line, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”–it’s the same thing, amplified. It’s not religion that causes wars or discord, it’s fallible humans that do it. The Soviet Union, to use them as just one example once again, was officially atheist and they certainly had no shortage of violence, discord, or war.
So much for the logic of religious atheism. Their problem is really that they don't accept the doctrine of original sin or free will; they want to blame God for our sorrows. It really comes down to that. If there is a God, they think God should force us all to behave correctly, and if God won't, then God must be evil, therefore they won't believe in God under the rubric of plausible deniability.
I'll share where she ends, but you must promise to go read the middle. I think this may be one of her best posts ever.
Leftists seem to want the outcomes of good behavior to appear miraculously without humans having to behave well, and that is not going to happen. The code of moral law contained in the Judaic tradition is the most direct threat to this fantasy, and so I think they find themselves constrained unwillingly and even unconsciously to anti-Semitism.
This is the most rational explanation for Leftist Anti-Semitism I've read yet. It is disturbing. More people are casting all religion in doubt. I think one of the biggest legacies of 9/11 will be the spiritual and religious abandonment by those who see religion and not men as the problem.

Multiculturalism simply will not allow a Leftist to hold an individual responsible, therefore, some institution is to blame. Blaming religion is just a substitution for blaming God. And why not? The only thing between most mis-behavior and happiness is God and his oppressive rules, except the result of breaking the rules isn't usually happiness--it's usually death, destruction and a whole lot of pain.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's why there is a huge difference between "religion" and "true spirituality". Religion is a man made institution and thus open for all sorts of short comings, critizism and failures. It displays a lack of understanding, which in turn can only bring destruction and death.

Spirituality has to do with authenticity, dedication, love and peace. It allows for insight and understanding on a different level. Most of all, it brings one to experientially know God. Thus, it brings an inward transformation. War and hate is not possible when true spirituality comes into play. War and hate will alwasy be with us as long as we look to "religion" and thus it gives one something and someone to blame. Sadly, many blame God. In truth, it has nothing whatsoever to do with God.

Melissa Clouthier said...

Spirituality is an inward pursuit and as a belief system cherry-picks dogma from Judeo-Christian doctrine and a bit of Buddhism for good measure.

The Christian religion, made of fallible humans, have made mistakes to be sure. They have also built hospitals, shelters, pregnancy centers and all sorts of ministries.

True religion is to feed the hungry and cloth the naked. Christ mandated that. True religion is also to protect the weak. Sometimes that means fighting. Sometimes that means war.

Without people who believed this way, we'd all be speaking German or Japanese right now.

Is nothing worth fighting for for a person guided by "spirituality"?

Anonymous said...

Of course, but on a different level first and foremost! Our truest heroes in life have shown that. It gives one clarity of purpose and true meaning.

Anonymous said...

Huston Smith has some really good thoughts on "religion". I'm reading one of his books right now.