Talking Points

From today’s TFN News Clips:

“I want the full portrait of evolution and the people who came up with the ideas to be presented. It’s a worldview and it’s godless. Atheism has been tried in various societies, and they’ve been pretty criminal domestically and internationally. The Soviet Union, Cuba, the Nazis, China today: they don’t respect human rights. As a general court we should be concerned with criminal ideas like this and how we are teaching it…. Columbine, remember that? They were believers in evolution. That’s evidence right there.”

— New Hampshire Republican state Rep. Jerry Bergevin, who has introduced one of two new anti-evolution bills in that state’s legislature.

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9 thoughts on “Talking Points

  1. It’s distressing that he doesn’t realize that the Nazis weren’t atheists and that the only thing the other nations he listed had in common was Communism.

    What’s even more distressing is how he believes Evolution=Columbine. First, who knows what the kids believed…second, they did what they did because they were troubled. It wasn’t an exercise in “survival of the fittest”. How can Bergevin look at himself in a mirror after saying such disgusting things?

  2. I want the full portrait of creationism and the people who came up with the ideas to be presented. It’s a wordview and it’s theistic. Theism has been tried in various societies, and they’ve been pretty criminal domestically and internationally. The Salem Witch Trials. The Inquisition. The Crusades. The Conquistadors, the Religious Right today: they don’t respect human rights. As a general court we should be concerned with criminal ideas like this and how we are teaching it. Oklahoma City Bombing…remember that? They were believers in creationism. That’s evidence right there.

  3. Auto body repair is pretty godless, too. Well, maybe not if you are an airbrush genius doing the Virgin of Guadelupe on a lowrider, but generally…..

    And the same goes for arithmetic. Very little concern for the human rights of 3rd graders.

  4. The pundits have been reminding us that New Hampshire doesn’t have as many “social conservatives” as Iowa. I guess they’re working harder to make up for their lack of numbers.

  5. It seems that as folks grow out of this kind of regressive thinking, the remaining body of nuts become even more shrill and totalitarian in their social judgment . The knot becomes tighter and tighter, more dense, more hardened against unraveling.
    How much more “bound up” can this community of koolaid drinkers get before it reaches critical mass and explodes into oblivion?

  6. Fruitcake alert for that guy.

    As some of you know, I make my own bumper stickers during election years. I have finally come up with my bumper stcker for this year. Here is what it says:

    “Romney: The White Obama!!!”

    After my usual observations, I have come to my own conclusion as to why Romney is so popular and gaining. It is because he is pretty much like Obama. As you know, all that conservative crap that comes out of his mouth is just putting on a fake show to sucker in rhubarbs like Jerry Bergevin.

    For example, as I was telling a black friend of mine at work today, the Obama health care plan is pretty much like the one Romney gave to Massachusetts and was pretty much its model for a lot of features. Health care reform was a high public priority when Obama was elected. People demanded that he do something about it—and he did. If Romney gave us another health plan, I would wager that it would be 90+ percent just like the one we have right now. So, why do so many people hate Obama? Well, basically, it is because he is black.

    Here is what people are saying at the common denominator level:

    1) The white citizen says, “I want a Tootsie Roll!!!!”

    2) Obama gives him a Tootsie Roll.

    3) The white citizen throws a tearful fit and says, “I don’t want that Tootsie Roll!!!!!!”

    4) I take the Tootsie Roll out of his hand and give it to Romney.

    5) Romney hands the exact same Tootsie Roll to the white citizen.

    6) The white citizen takes the Tootsie Roll with a smile, plops it into his mouth, bites down on it, and says, “M-m-m-m-m!!!! Mr. Romney, you hand out the very best Tootsie Rolls!!!”

    “Romney: The White Obama”

    When it comes right down to brass tacks, there is not a dimes worth of difference between Romney and Obama.

    This is for you Judge Pressler. I am a southern white liberal Christian who dislikes the Southern Baptist Convention with a passion and French kisses Barack Obama’s rear end at every opportunity. I plan to vote for Obama again, but i have to tell you honestly that I love the real Mr. Romney and could see myself voting for him just about as easily. Romney is one great dude!!!!!!!! Now y’all Christian fundamentalist boys gettin’ together at the ranch this Friday need to remember this here special message from me to you.

  7. While Communist countries are Atheist, the Sino-Soviet Marxist/Stalinist/Maoist varieties of Atheism are almost as radically different from the predominant strain of post-Enlightenment Pro-science Progressive Secular Humanist Atheism here in the west as it is from Randite Objectivist Capitalist Atheism. (Note, I’m merely using the labels because the words are conventionally associated, not because I consider them philosophically accurate.)

    Also, both Randite and Communist strains tend to have a bit more “cult of personality” involved, and a significantly higher authoritarian orientation. (The Nazis were theist authoritarians, and even Christian; though an odd offshoot with some new materials added to earlier cultural root stock; similar to how the Mormons are Christian.) It’s valid to note that Atheism doesn’t grant an immunity to authoritarianism, and that Communism was clearly an authoritarian movement. What’s dishonest is to try and paint the western variety with the same brush, as what limited sociological data there is indicates atheists express less tendency authoritarian follower disposition (Altemeyer’s RWA metric) than even Xmas-and-Easter Christians do.