Mark Steyn: O come, all ye faithless

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 12/17/05 | Mark Steyn

[orionblamblam]

> The Jews and their Christian offshoot invented the idea that every individual is important simply because he/she is a child of God.

Well, except for them durn Caananites...

[HOTTIEBOY]

‘the single worst idea in history’
"The idea of one true god. The idea that our life and ethical conduct on Earth determines how we will go into the next world."

I have to say I agree with him.

"Okay,’ wrote Engel, ‘let’s imagine that; let’s imagine six billion people who believe that flesh and blood is all there is; that once you shuffle off this mortal coil, poof, you’re history; that Hitler and Mother Teresa, for example, both met the same ultimate fate. Common sense suggests that such a world would produce a lot more Hitlers and a lot fewer Teresas, for the same reason that you get a lot more speeders/murderers/rapists/ embezzlers when you eliminate laws, police and punishment. Sceptics and atheists can say what they like about religion, but it’s hard to deny that the fear of an afterlife where one will be judged has likely kept hundreds of millions from committing acts of aggression, if not outright horror. Nothing clears the conscience quite like a belief in eternal nothingness.’ "


Wrong. I think he is confusing fear of what will happen with simple compassion for fellow man. I have no fear of what might or might not happen after I am gone, but that does not influence how I act why I am here. General compassion for my fellow man makes you live after death in the legacy you leave behind.

[r9etb]

An excellent clarification -- you thought it through much more thoroughly than I had. Thanks.

[GSlob]

"The single worst idea in human history? I vote...communism. "
Communism is not an idea [has never been], but a way of life. Some think that it is instinctive, like, for example, reflexive tendency to cover one's derriere when in trouble [be it Chernobyl, "Kursk" sub, Chinese chemical plant explosion, WJC's "I did not have sex with that woman" or whatever else].

[Choose Ye This Day]

You don't like "Imagine"? You probably won't like my updated, Democrap Underground version, either:



Imagine there's no rethugs,
No Bush to steal and lie,
No Red states between us,
The only goddess Gaia,
Imagine all the DUmmies
visualizing their own reality...

Imagine only leftist countries,
The U.N. tells what to do,
No oil to kill or die for,
No Jesus freaks or Jews,
Imagine all the Bushies
Fried in bacon grease...

Let’s take all their possesions,
Tax them up the can,
There’ll be no more AIDS or hunger,
And man can marry man,
Imagine DUmmies in power
Giving Osama a peace flower...

You--oo may say I’m an appeaser,
and I’m not a very sane one,
I hope some day you'll vote for us,
And the BFEE will be done.

[Viking2002]

It's like I've always said: let's suppose, for one moment, that I believe in God, but you don't. And 40 years from now, we both drop dead in our tracks simultaneously. If you're right, then I'm nothing more than a bug condo under two yards of dirt. Trouble with that is, you won't be here to rub my nose in it, and I won't be here to admit I was being silly. However, if I'm right and you're wrong, then you got some quick 'splaining to do to someone who's heard it all before.

Now, you really wanna keep walking around and acting like a horse's ass? Be my guest.

[Lurking in Kansas]

How does he do it?

The man

is

a

genius.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

He is brilliant with words. I love this column!

[r9etb]

Communism is not an idea [has never been], but a way of life.

Actually, you've got that exactly backwards. It is an idea that -- outside of very small groups, anyway -- cannot be translated into a way of life.

[TX Bluebonnet]

LOL. That's only slightly more offensive than the original.

[siunevada]

‘Du bist Deutschland!’ — ‘You are Germany!’ — which is meant somehow to pep up glum Hun couch potatoes.

Maybe that's what got them so depressed in the first place. Someone didn't think that campaign all the way through!

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

How does he do it?

Talent!

[FreedomPoster]

If you dig into the details (there a link to an enormous *.gif of a spreadsheet), you'll find he gives a low, best-guess median, and high number for each democide he studied. The high number for China is 102,671,000.

Ah! And even better, I'm glad you brought that to my attention. He should update that table. Here:
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE5.HTM
He has this:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Among all the democide estimates appearing on in this book, some have been revised upward. I have changed that for Mao's famine, 1958-1962, from zero to 38,000,000. And thus I have had to change the overall democide for the PRC (1928-1987) from 38,702,000 to 76,702,000. Details here.
http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/11/reevaluating-chinas-democide-to-be.html

[Restorer]

Well, except for them durn Caananites...

Still children of God. Doesn't mean you can't kill them, of course. :)

Some Canaanites switched sides and were accepted as Jews, even winding up in the ancestry of David and Jesus.

[Logophile]

Oh goody! I see he's bashing my least favorite song - "Imagine"

I hate that song too.

[MNJohnnie]

Just Wow. He just keeps getting better and better and better.

[Restorer]

You're welcome.

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of liberal hatred for Christianity and the West is that they give these institutions no credit at all for the good things that came from them, while denouncing them as evil because bad things were indeed done in their name.

[atomicpossum]

Yeah, that's the fella I'd read a few weeks ago. I thought the numbers were higher...

[RobFromGa]

When does this man sleep? Does anyone come close to his output? Franklin? Twain?

[HOTTIEBOY]

I agree with what you say but I hope that you don't think that all atheists are liberal and hate Christianity.