A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider God-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, wrongly believing that he has the Gods on his side.
–Aristotle, Politica bk v (ca. 340 BCE)
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An elaborate spoof on Intelligent Design, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is neither too elaborate nor too spoofy to succeed in nailing the fallacies of ID. It's even wackier than Jonathan Swift's suggestion that the Irish eat their children as a way to keep them from being a burden, and it may offend just as many people, but Henderson, described elsewhere as a 25-year-old "out-of-work physics major," puts satire to the same serious use that Swift did. Oh, yes, it is very funny. -- Scientific American
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@ Les
You said what it took Heinlien a whole book to say… The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, great read!
@Les - “Aristotle’s quote actually echos Lucretius who wrote…”
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Maybe I am making the wrong interpretation, since this is not my native language, but does that mean that Aristotle is an echo of Lucretius? I am asking because I want to know how that verb functions. Aristotle predates Lucretius by about 300 years.
Wench Cyka,
Really? I need to give Heinlein another go. The first time I started it I got bogged down in the economic discussions–it really is a dismal science. As for religion and tyrants, Christopher Hitchens makes the same point in his “god is not Great” book. (An excellent read BTW) Religion always seems to favor authority. Was it Thomas Jefferson who said “the priest is no friend to liberty”? Its no accident the most of the “thou shalt not”s are directed at protecting the vested interests e.g. “thou shalt not covet”, thou shalt not steal” Even “thou shalt not kill” has the happy effect of dampening resistance. Les
@Old Grouch
No–Monty Python did it first. It’s called the Philosopher Song. The only release I know of that has it is Live at the Hollywood Bowl (video & album).
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St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Making Love In A Canoe
@Old Grouch–I think it’s just a time zone thing. No worries about the whole Alice-through-the-looking-glass feeling.
@St. John–I just your signature. How the hell does one make love in a canoe without falling in the water?
@ rmw, the minutes tend to disagree as well though, the FSM runs on its own time.
@storm petrel–thanks for pointing that out. No doubt the FSM just likes fucking with us. Or maybe somebody has a time machine. I remember a discussion about a time machine on another thread.
@rmw
Making love in a canoe is a line from the same sketch as the Philosopher Song. It’s a reference to American Beer. You’ll find the whole sketch here:
http://newscoma.wordpress.com/category/monty-python/
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St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Non-Australians Who Can Actually Do The Australian Accent Convincingly
I see a lot of reference to Bush. True, he became a born again at the same time re-election came round. Now correct me if I’m wrong; but usually when someone talks to god, aren’t they locked up in an asylum? So why isn’t Bush in one?
And what the fuck would they talk about anyway! Other then getting Bush to commit the atrocities that religious based leaders have often committed (notice it’s always the ones who say they talk to the almighty that do the most damage) in the past, it must be pretty fucking boring!
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Hitler? Interesting, anther arse whole who claimed to be doing gods will. What gets me is that Christians claim he was an atheist. Weird that they would try to paint us with the same brush but ignore the hundreds of religious based tyrants. True he remarked about how easy religion makes controlling people, but he was setting himself up to be worshiped as an Idol! A messenger of god fulfilling his will! These sound more like a biblical figure then an atheist. His practice of uniting people by hate and some feeling of national pride is the same as the Evangelist, screaming his/gods hatred of gays and non-believers at huddled masses who are to week to seek guidance else where and are trying to secure their entrance to a mystical fairy land of mike and honey. They take up the hatred of there preachers to get to the almighty. This warps their view of the world. They would see to guys fucking as a danger to the nation? And would see a nation of founded on secular ideals as “gods’ nation”. We’ve seen this with Mosses and his followers; the atrocities they committed are well documented, and even praised in the bible making a genocidel mania a role model! No wonder they have such fucked up ideas.
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Now some quotes to nail the point? Ok (yes some of these I’ve used before, but that makes them no less valid):
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“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” – Seneca the Younger 4 b.c.- 65 a.d.
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“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet” - Napoleon Bonaparte
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“Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities” – Voltaire
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“Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people.” - Mary Alice McKinney
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And as the bastard has been mentioned several time already, Lets remind ourselves why he is a cunt!
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“I fully understand those who say you can’t win this thing militarily. That’s exactly what the United States military says, that you can’t win this military.” –George W. Bush, on the need for political progress in Iraq, Washington, D.C., Oct. 17, 2007
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“My job is a decision-making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions.” –George W. Bush, Oct. 3, 2007
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“I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn’t here.” -at the President’s Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002
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“Tribal sovereignty means that; it’s sovereign. I mean, you’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty, and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity.
And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.” –Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004
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“You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.” –interview with CBS News’ Katie Couric, Sept. 6, 2006
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“The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th.” –Washington, D.C., July 12, 2007
Err… so that would be Americas then George?
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“Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties.” –discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson in 2003, as quoted by Robertson
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I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me.” –talking to key Republicans about Iraq, as quoted by Bob Woodward
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“I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.” –Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000
Bull shit! I put food on people all the time, no matter how many times they ask me not to!
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Do you have blacks, too?” –to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001
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“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” –on “Good Morning America,” Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina
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“I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.” –Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000
?
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“I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake.” –on his best moment in office, interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, May 7, 2006
Oh! That’s what he ment by coexist!
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“For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings.
And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It’s just unacceptable. And we’re going to do something about it.” –Philadelphia, Penn., May 14, 2001
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“Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.” –LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
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“I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right.” –Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001
Spoken like a true Christian
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“People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in’s house and say I love you.” –Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002
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“I wish you’d have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn’t yet…I don’t want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.” –after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004
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“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” –State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false
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These two are pricless!
“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” –Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001
But next year…
“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” –Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002
Right!
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“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories … And we’ll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong, we found them.” –Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003
Next year
“Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!” –joking about his administration’s failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents’ Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004
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“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on –shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” –Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
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And lastly (sorry it was soooo long. I realy do think he is an abomination!)
“I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.” –to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004.
Ever think he’s going to be remembered more for Bushisms than anything else he did? Although, the stupidity of the ‘war on terror’ (read as ‘protect our oil supplies’) will stand out.
hahahahahaha
It’s Holidays folks…did you see our Supreme Deity with his costume?
Sorry Pluto, I know it’s a bit cruel to pick out the non-fundie typos, but I just couldn’t resist - “a mystical fairy land of mike and honey” made me giggle. Just picturing from your message some poor bewildered guy thrown, slightly stickily, to the evangelists. Oh, and on the Bushisms - can anyone clarify who he means by Barney supporting him, because at the moment I have an image of the president of America taking advice from a guy in a dinosaur suit. Quite apart from the contradiction of a creationist paying attention to dinosaurs, just think of the potential for sabotage if someone else got hold of a costume and started wispering in his ear…
Barney is their dog.
Shame. That’s not quite so funny to visualise. But still rather a worrying concept.
@Jennyanydots–Barney is Bush’s dog. I think I’d rather have the dog running things.
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@Pluto–I loved your reference to the “fairy land of mike and honey.” Makes me think of male strippers and heaven. :-)
Bush is the most stupid person in the world. =9
After him…my neighbor.
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@rmw - Male strippers and heaven! Oh yeeees…
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@Pluto - I promise I won’t touch…=)
@Pluto - Wonderful collection of Bushisms, Thanks for posting them.
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I always got a kick out of the Tonight Show - at least when it wasn’t all re-runs from before the writers’ strike - where Jay Leno used to show us how he actually speaks better Spanish than he does English most of the time. He really should have run for El Supremisimo down in one of the Banana Republics United Fruit Company used to more or less own and operate. He surely couldn’t have done worse there than here.
@Jennyanydots
“Just picturing from your message some poor bewildered guy thrown, slightly stickily, to the evangelists.”
Well if it was Ted Haggard, I’m sure he would smoke some meth in a crack pipe and tuck in!