When Atheists Attack

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  • Posted By: Robert L. Brockett @ 09/22/2008 4:03:31 PM

    Look, people, Sam is right. Now more than ever we need our best & our brightest. No gross amateurs, no backwoods snake-oil peddlers. Raised in a Pentecostal church, I can hardly begin to tell you what a dangerous situation McCain has put us in. This is not your regular run-of-the-mill Little House on the Prairie-type Christianity. These people are raw, ignorant fundamentalists, and rabidly vicious to anyone who violates their superstitions.

    • Posted By: CoffeePlease @ 09/22/2008 5:43:24 PM

      Thank you for your comment. It is disheartening to read some of the ridiculous statements on here - from both sides. All I know is, I want my President to be one of the smartest guys /gals in the room. You could say that about Bill Clinton, even though he had HUGE personal failings. George Bush makes a joke about being a "C" student. McCain makes the same joke about barely graduating from the Naval Academy. Obama graduated with honors from Harvard. I don't need to drink a beer with any of them. And Palin's fundamentalist religious beliefs are very scarey.

  • Posted By: BIGEE @ 09/22/2008 5:42:55 PM

    I suppose that you are suggesting that Obama is the best for the job. I don't see a standout on either side, at least with McCain and Palin you know what your getting, I can't say that about the Democrats. I have been hearing rumors that Clinton may still be the Democratic Vise Presidential nominee?

  • Posted By: anjaescura @ 09/22/2008 5:07:21 PM

    There is no god! Deal with it! god = the wizard of oz Just a fake guy in a suit. The truth is you couldn't prove that he exists if your life depended on it. I'm soooo tired of dumb anus americans who think that there is a magic man who will heal all their problems when they die. How sophomoric, moronic, and childish. Religion is slowing the forward progress of our country!

    • Posted By: thinking about consequences @ 09/22/2008 5:42:41 PM

      So I am impeding forward progress by believing in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How good of you to inform me of my ignorance. By the way, what is the goal I am impeding progress toward? The goal of every man doing what he thinks is right in his own eyes (a practice that the writer of the book of Judges found somewhat wanting)? How many times does human history have to teach that even the intelligent people are capable of unspeakable evil? It's not just the morons that ruin the world...

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 09/21/2008 10:00:24 PM

    Neither hero worship nor the worship of motherhood is an adequate way to pick a president.

    • Posted By: tpowers63 @ 09/21/2008 10:06:12 PM

      McCain is no "hero," anyway. Being shot down and held captive has to have been horrendous, but it does not a "hero" make.

      The priorities of wingnuts are frightening.

      • Posted By: RetiredMarine @ 09/21/2008 10:34:53 PM

        have you ever been held captive? Have you ever been in a position where it was a possibility? I doubt it very much. You have the luxury of talking trash and never having had to do your part for the country, while criticizing the very people who have.

        • Posted By: chris s. @ 09/22/2008 5:40:37 PM

          Enter Your Comment
          No, but my husband has and I and my parents were actually bombed in a war zone. So, please stop painting everyone with such a broad brush. You sound way too macho. My husband doesn't believe for one minute that his service or McCain's would qualify him to be president. Actually, I believe McCain was shot down a few times before being captured, consequently, he wasn't very good at it was he?

      • Posted By: lisaooo @ 09/21/2008 10:27:29 PM

        I know! Not to be a jerk but why does he get extra credit for being shot down and then not dying or committing suicide once captured. I mean it was horrendous and I feel for him and thank him for serving and risking his life and enduring what he did, but I dunno about it being heroic. We all would have tried to live if we were captured. Now had he devised some scheme to save all of his fellow POWs and helped them all escape, then that would be heroic. I know he was incapacitated, but it was admirable not heroic. Either way, unrelated to the Presidency.

    • Posted By: sabretruth @ 09/21/2008 10:10:37 PM

      words of wisdom, my friend

    • Posted By: Dr Rick @ 09/21/2008 10:06:55 PM

      For some people, worship beats thinking everytime

  • Posted By: scotlarsen @ 09/22/2008 1:29:44 PM

    Wow where do I begin? Blasting Sarah Palin because she has strong religious beliefs? That she actually BELIEVES in something and acts accordingly? My God, string her up! How dare she actually hold a faith strong enough to let it guide her life.

    No, we need Joe Biden, a "professing" Catholic who rejects even the most fundamental teachings of his church. The RCC has declared, without compromise, that abortion is an abomination, And yet Senator Biden supports abortion rights (as does Obama). How can ANYONE, who supposedly believes that abortion is taking the life of an innocent and helpless child, believe that preserving a "woman's right to choose" is more important???

    I'm sorry, but that level of hypocrisy immediately disqualifies you from any leadership role, in my book.

    • Posted By: swdemocratforchange @ 09/22/2008 2:22:42 PM

      Yeah, you're right......better to parade a 17 year old female in front of the nation as a paragon of virtue, just because she's getting married!!!!!! You must be a total fool or not have children or just be ignorant......In any case, no one is marginalizing religious beliefs, but there is something in the Constitution called "separation of church from state" and it exists for a reason! We can't have religious zealots making laws and shoving them down everyone's throat! Thanks!
      Obama/Biden 08

      • Posted By: scotlarsen @ 09/22/2008 5:40:22 PM

        Nice, thoughtful, intelligent reply.

        This has nothing to do with "separation of church and state." It is an ethical issue. Like it or not, MOST ethnical values spring from faith. For instance, that is wrong to kill someone else, even when it benefits you or even benefits a lot of people. The RCC believes the rights of the unborn child supercede the rights of the mother or father. Just because an child is "inconvienent" or may be born into a challenging life is absolutely not a cause to end the life of that child.

        The truth is abortion exists because the vast majority of mothers either 1) feel a child will compromise their future, 2) believe the child is better off not being born (poverty, birth defect, etc), 3) some other ethically challenged reason.

        The fact that Biden, especially as a member of the RRC, doesn't see this and the necessity to protect the most innocent portion of our population is frightening and I will never vote for anyone like this.

        The fact that Obama voted AGAINST making infanticide illegal in the case of a botched partial birth abortion is just down right evil.

    • Posted By: nickie lynn @ 09/22/2008 2:45:33 PM

      There is supposed to be separation of Church and State. Good for Joe Biden that he can recognize the difference. Unfortunately, too many people will vote because of this one issue and not for the good of the country as a whole.

      • Posted By: star3 @ 09/22/2008 4:57:59 PM


        nickie, read the Constitution, it doesn't say anything about seperation of church and state, it only says that the government will not establish a church, per sae, but that each person will choose for themselves how they want to worship or not worship, as the case may be. If reilgion and government are suppose to be seperate, then why do we have "In God we trust" on our money, why does practically every patriotic song have God in the lyrics, and why does our Pledge of Allegiance have "One nation under God", and I have heard that a plac of the Ten Commanments are on the walls of many government bulidings, plus, when we take an oath in court, or when the President takes the oath of office, we take it on the Bible. That my, darling, is not seperation of government and church, that is having God involved in every part of America's system, just as He should be, and if we were to ever remove Him from our country, we may find He would remove His blessings from us, not because He would want to, but because we kicked Him out, and honey, just try operating a country without God involved inm it, and you would soon find out just how much He is needed and how important He is in the continued freedom we enjoy. All you need to do for examples of countries who have or or trying to operate without Him, is to look at Russia and Iraq just to mention a couple. The change Obama wants to make is to change America, which has worked just fine for over 200 years; sure we've had some problems, but nothing we haven't been able to handle, and McCain wants to change Washington. America isn't broken, Washington is, so my vote will go to the one who wants to fix what is actually broken--not to someone who want to "change" what is already working fine. A vote for Obama will be a vote to agree to turnning our country into a socialist nation, which soon leads to communisum, so everyone had better be sure which they want---continued freedom or communisum. Shocking revelations to some, but to others, facts we have seen coming for awhile, the Democrat party is NOT the same good old party it once was, and people had beeter be aware of that or face destruction when its too late. Democrats, if there are still any old party members out there, TAKE YOUR PARTY BACK!! By, the way, I use to be Democrat---until I saw what was happening.

  • Posted By: McBlinky luvs Mooseburger @ 09/22/2008 5:39:14 PM

    Hmm..sending troops to Iraq is a plan from GOD...It's GOD's will...sounds like another extremist.. Bin Laden..Taliban.... It's Allah's will, It's in the name of Allah...I wonder if the people in the Iraq think we are the terrorist when we are the ones bombing them..

  • Posted By: Panamalive @ 09/22/2008 5:36:09 PM

    Comment: "The Old Man and The 'c' ..." McCain's new campaign slogan!

  • Posted By: Panamalive @ 09/22/2008 5:34:23 PM

    "The Old Man and The 'c' ..." McCain's new campaign slogan!

  • Posted By: usnational @ 09/22/2008 5:34:03 PM

    Rev. Wright may have been more correct than metaphorical when he exclaimed that America be "damned." If the ignorance of the American electorate wins this one and puts McCain / Palin in control of the Free World, that may just come to pass. McCain / Palin is equivalent to Christian Taliban. "We can't blink," she said to Charles Gibson. She would unblinkingly condemn us straight into Holy WWIII!

  • Posted By: razormemphis @ 09/22/2008 4:10:45 PM

    Lack of experience is certainly a legitimate issue. But to raise the issue of Gov. Palin's church's eschatology and how it might affect policy without simultaneously paying any attention or doing any research regarding Obama's church's view of the same exposes you as a partisan hack. Where's the intellectual honesty anymore? I feel like I read one Op-Ed piece a month that has any balance whatsoever.

    • Posted By: Robert L. Brockett @ 09/22/2008 4:37:21 PM

      When Obama's pastor went off the deep end, Obama first distanced himself from the remarks, and finally fully denounced the man and his statements and left the church. Palin has neither distanced nor denounced anything. I've lived a long time among these people and they are among the most radical idealogues among us. There's your balance.

      • Posted By: patton434 @ 09/22/2008 5:30:47 PM

        Obama clearly stated that he could no longer disown Rev. Wright, than disown the black community!! That was Obama's initial reaction!! Then, and ONLY then when he started taking a hit in the polls, did he throw him under the bus. This proves once again that BARAK IS A PHONY!! He only had a problem with what was said when it made him look bad. For the past 20 years before that, he not only didn't have a problem with that hate-speak, but he actively supported it by donating more money to Rev. Wright than to cancer research, AIDS research, and homeless charities combined!! Barak Hussein Obama is a liar, and you are obviously very gullible!!

  • Posted By: djohnson666 @ 09/22/2008 5:22:42 PM

    The article???s comment "I was relieved to discover, as many were, that Palin's luster can be much diminished by the absence of a teleprompter" is exactly the issue with Senator Obama. Without a teleprompter he borders on juvenile communication with his excessive use of "UM's" and "UH's". He is a very good teleprompter speaker with no gravitas or executive experience for the job of President. Before you Obama supporters react angrily to my opinion, seriously listen to a representative sampling of his speaking without a prepared speech on the teleprompter. If you support him because you too are Liberal, that is fine. But the image that Senator Obama is some great communicator and super intelligent leader is a myth. You can find many on www.youtube.com.

  • Posted By: Issac Bickerstaff @ 09/22/2008 5:22:07 PM

    Palin and Obama are both generously descirbed as lightly qualified. Obama is a liberal; Palin is a conservative. One is running for Veep, the other for the top job. Let your ideology be your guide.

    The real suprise is that an evangalistic atheist is a also liberal. And that this qualifies him to get 4 pages in Newsweek commenting about politics. I can't wait read a complementary article about how Obama's attachment to Black Liberation Theology disqualifies him for national office. Actually I'm sure I will have to wait a long long time.

  • Posted By: Jesse in Maryland @ 09/22/2008 5:21:54 PM

    One should point out that had Palin told Mr. Gibson that she had doubts about her accepting the position, or an even momentary lack of confidence or resolve, this editorial would be castigating her for being indecisive or weak-willed. It was a question with no right answer. Mr. Harris also demonstrates his characteristic lack of nuance or basic understanding of Christian belief in practice. Such fear-mongering about "Christian theocracy" only serves to underscore the profound disconnect between Mr. Harris' ideology and that of the majority of Americans. I would prefer elite pilots to fly my planes; I would also prefer elite thinkers to examine common beliefs and sentiments. I suppose I will simply have to look elsewhere.

  • Posted By: Jesse in Maryland @ 09/22/2008 5:21:16 PM

    One should point out that had Palin told Mr. Gibson that she had doubts about her accepting the position, or an even momentary lack of confidence or resolve, this editorial would be castigating her for being indecisive or weak-willed. It was a question with no right answer. Mr. Harris also demonstrates his characteristic lack of nuance or basic understanding of Christian belief in practice. Such fear-mongering about "Christian theocracy" only serves to underscore the profound disconnect between Mr. Harris' ideology and that of the majority of Americans. I would prefer elite pilots to fly my planes; I would also prefer elite thinkers to examine common beliefs and sentiments. I suppose I will simply have to look elsewhere.

  • Posted By: A Difference @ 09/22/2008 5:19:59 PM

    It's humorous to read liberals lament Sarah Palin's lack of credentials even as they prepare to try and elect a "community organizer" with no executive experience, no foreign policy experience, no legislative or reform accomplishments, and noted criminal ties to the American Presidency simply because he is a liberal..

  • Posted By: anjaescura @ 09/22/2008 5:04:14 PM

    There is no God deal with it! I'm sick and tired of religious people claiming that god exists. Make it happen! Show me some freaking evidence! The fact is that even Johnny Cochran (R.I.P.) could not prove in court that god exists. He is not real. Santa Claus, I mean god, is just a fake notion that people hold on to to feel better about their crappy lives.

    • Posted By: careerdaytrader @ 09/22/2008 5:19:27 PM

      Think of it this way IF God doesn't exist but you are a good person then you go to heaven.

      If God doesn't exist and you lived your life like he had YOU LOSE NOTHING other than the drugs, sex, and rock and roll you missed out on! LOL

    • Posted By: thehappyamerican @ 09/22/2008 5:13:30 PM

      In God we trust! One nation under God! Merry Christamas!
      ohhhhhh...poor anja. Americans Suck. Or are "crappy."
      Obama is not very inspirational , is he?

  • Posted By: rockslide @ 09/22/2008 3:37:22 PM

    Palin without a teleprompter is only slightly worse than Obama. Obama stammers and stumbles over the easiest of lines without his trusty written words scrolling in front of him. Palin and McCain do not claim to be great orators like Obama. But Obama's charm and appeal and his orator abilities are a slick facade that will crumble at some point like Kennedy's did when he went face-to-face with Kruschev. How one talks does not make or break their ability to lead. No one would accuse Truman of being a great speaker but he turned out to be a great leader.

    On a side note to clear up and put into context "you can see Russia from Alaskan land" was not said in the manner in which it is deadpanned on SNL. She was not saying that she had foreign policy mettle from that. She was saying that the fact that he state borders Canada and can see Russia drives home the point to her how import diplomacy and having allies is and that working to keep allies allies is vital to the success of the country. Everyone seems to take this out of context just as they took Obama's thinly veiled pig and lipstick comment.

    As for Palin being a hearbeat away from the Presidency....i am far less worriedabou ther lack of experience for the #2 job than I am worried about Obama BEING THAT HEARTBEAT and his obvious lack of experience in dealing with foreign and domestic issues and the economy. His best plan of action to "fix the economy" is to drastically raise taxes on business and he is saying now that he may suspend that in light of the economic situation. So his best case to fix the economy is the first thing he is willing to suspend....that is frightening.

    • Posted By: elenarella @ 09/22/2008 5:19:15 PM

      You need to surround yourself with the right people in order to effectively govern. I am confident that Obama has.

      McCain hasn't.

  • Posted By: Jesse in Maryland @ 09/22/2008 5:19:10 PM

    One should point out that had Palin told Mr. Gibson that she had doubts about her accepting the position, or an even momentary lack of confidence or resolve, this editorial would be castigating her for being indecisive or weak-willed. It was a question with no right answer. Mr. Harris also demonstrates his characteristic lack of nuance or basic understanding of Christian belief in practice. Such fear-mongering about "Christian theocracy" only serves to underscore the profound disconnect between Mr. Harris' ideology and that of the majority of Americans. I would prefer elite pilots to fly my planes; I would also prefer elite thinkers to examine common beliefs and sentiments. I suppose I will simply have to look elsewhere.

  • Posted By: riverrun @ 09/22/2008 5:16:36 PM

    Sir, would not those who believe as Ms. Palin welcome her as president? She would understand and act accordingly to forge every link in "the end of days" script. As she said: You can't blink. The rest of the world might wish for another story line, but true believers have unshakable faith in their truth. The ego of group identity e.g. those who will be saved, longs for a similar soul to lead. The transcendent "rightness" of the group will reside in the one who represents the group.

    You argue for rationality where it is not applicable.

  • Posted By: ba5500 @ 09/22/2008 5:13:00 PM

    to kbuckett: Die painfully moron

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