Let the Spanking Resume!

sweden, deer, atheism, atheist, atheophobia, religion, saints, christian, christianity, god,
This next bit from Atheist Stooges is virtually incomprehensible, but I've got time, and clearly, so do you. (You should definitely click on that link. You'll get to see "God's Hit List". Apparently, god has it in for mimes.)

The God-Haters
What have atheists in common with saints? A great deal, suggests top-rank Roman Catholic Philosopher Jacques Maritain, now teaching at Princeton

unless this moron wrote this prior to 1960, no Mr. Maritain is not "now" teaching at Princeton. He taught at Princeton until 1960, and died in 1973

, in the current issue of the quarterly Review of Politics. “The genuine, absolute atheist, with all his sincerity and devotion,” he concludes, “is but an abortive saint and, at the same time, a mistaken revolutionist.” that makes no sense, we get no context, and is unconnected to the next passage.

Does Jesus Wear Purple Pinstripes? seems kind of unlikely

Writing “On the Meaning of Contemporary Atheism,” written in 1949. i'm not sure it's "contemporary" 60 years later. Maritain sharply differentiates between the various manifestations of Godlessness. so, what would a devout catholic know about being an atheist, exactly? is it too much trouble to ask the athiests. (next week, i'll tell you all about how it feels to be a male Pakistani. it will be enlightening) There are the “practical atheists, who believe that they believe in God but who in reality deny His existence by each one of their deeds—they worship the world, and power, and money. i think we call those theists. this is a No True Scotsman argument. logic fail.

Then there are the pseudo-atheists, who believe that they do not believe in God but who in reality unconsciously believe in Him, because the god whose existence they deny is not God but something else. at best, this is sophistry. i'm not disbelieving in the exact right god, therefore I believe in god? hullo, i don't believe in any gods at all. therefore, i don't believe in any, including whatever one you had in mind. asshat.

Finally, there are absolute atheists, who actually deny the existence of the very God in whom the believers believe—God the Creator, Savior and Father yeah. we call those atheists. the first example was a theist, the second was sophistry, the third, well some believers believe in vishnu, some in odin. yhwh's not the only option. . . who stand committed to change their entire system of values and to destroy in themselves everything that suggests God’s name.” once more with feeling: i do not lie, steal, commit adultery or murder. my values are pretty much your values.

Faith in Reverse. The absolute atheists, says Maritain, are represented today chiefly by the academic high fashion of existentialism and the militant mission of Communism. see, now asshat should have known this was old. communism hasn't been a big deal for a while. in 1949, however, it was the END OF THE WORLD. For them, he says, the casting aside of God is “a basic act of moral choice.” It is, in other words, an act of faith in reverse which, in pretending to deny religion, “is a full-blown religious commitment.” sophistry again. stop it. i don't believe there are any gods. that's not a freakin' religion. But it is a tragic failure. Example: the Communist, whose atheism begins as a declaration of independence, plunges into a new slavery “to a worldly demiurge crazy for human minds to bend and bow and yield . . . the blind god of history.” communism and atheism are not the same thing. i'm an atheist, i am not a communist.

Absolute atheism, writes Maritain, “deprives God and mankind of some potential saints, what? is he seriously suggesting i would be a saint if i weren't an atheist? by that logic, anyone who becomes a banker is depriving the world of potential artists. it's silly. in making their attempts at heroic freedom a failure, and turning their effort to break with the world into a total and servile subservience to the world.” even assuming i could achieve such a goal (who does not want to be an evil overlord? just the dress code alone would make it worthwhile), i wouldn't. assuming facts not in evidence. Conversely, saints have been the greatest revolutionaries. yeah. uh huh.Maritain contends that for centuries the world’s temporal progress was fostered by the saints. like galileo? oh, wait. not a saint. ummm . . . einstein? no. Darwin! no, definitely not. logic fail. It was only during the last hundred-odd years, when the results of the industrial revolution were bringing mankind more & more to social thinking and social action, that the saints dropped from the lead and the atheists took over. let me repeat: darwin and galileo. more than 100 years ago.

The Decorative Faith. *private laugh* In this defection of leadership, Maritain sees “a kind of punishment of the Christian world, which for a long period had more or less betrayed Christianity in its practical endeavor the practical endeavor of what? controlling the world?, and despised the lessons of the saints, and forsaken the immense herd of the hopeless whom destitution and unlivable conditions of existence riveted to hell on earth.” what?

Want to avoid the world’s most atheistic country?
Bypass Sweden in your travels.
Sweden’s Population: 9,248,805
National Language: Swedish
% of Atheists/Non-believers: 46 - 85%

hey, who wants to join me in sweden? (i have an online friend from Sweden whom I refer to as "the Swede". Sweden sounds nice. They have tiny deer.)