The still, small voice
Sometimes I forget what its like to know people who so strongly believe in things they cannot see that they would kill to feed their convictions. Though I was once a faith-head I wasn't ever a very good one, I just never found belief in the unseen and unreasonable very easy. I was born with, as they say, stiff knees. However I lived in a very homogeneous community which prided itself upon a conservative understanding of the Bible and politics in general.
When you grow up 'knowing' certain things, like that the emperor of the Cosmos was born from a human virgin, or that the most educated biologists in the world could be debated under a table by a 10 year old armed only with the book of Genesis, nothing is out of bounds, nothing is too crazy, how could it be? The types of things you are supposed to believe strain credulity like a tightly pulled rubber band; it doesn't take much to snap.
I suppose that is what happened a couple days ago when a man walked into a Sunday church service, identified his target, George Tiller a doctor known for performing abortions, pulled out a gun and shot him point-blank in the face. Eye-witness accounts say that multiple people, including Dr. Tiller's wife pleaded with the killer before he shot but to no avail, his hatred and blind fervor was too strong.
The killer, whose name is inconsequential, is ideologically no different than the Muslim terrorists killing civilians and foreign contractors in Iraq, absolutely no different. Both feel that they are doing god's will and are beyond the persuasion of reason. Both hold fast to ideas that are incompatible with modern society and as a result both should be eliminated. Those who would say the death penalty is no different than murder should speak to Dr. Tiller's wife and see if their bullshit flies. The death penalty is what we exact upon individuals who cannot live in society without deliberately harming or killing those around them, it is a decision not taken lightly and not fueled by passion, it is a last resort that we employ against only the worst of humans.
A big problem remains though, the seed which caused this killing still exists: faith. In my mind nothing is more dangerous, faith is the reason I write this whole stupid blog: making fun of people who believe irrational ideas is an outlet. The mechanism of belief is a different matter though, and fortunately brain scientists have been isolating what makes some people more gullible, or willing to believe than others. In the meantime, we might as well make fun of the innocuous faithers and stand against the dangerous ones.
When you grow up 'knowing' certain things, like that the emperor of the Cosmos was born from a human virgin, or that the most educated biologists in the world could be debated under a table by a 10 year old armed only with the book of Genesis, nothing is out of bounds, nothing is too crazy, how could it be? The types of things you are supposed to believe strain credulity like a tightly pulled rubber band; it doesn't take much to snap.
I suppose that is what happened a couple days ago when a man walked into a Sunday church service, identified his target, George Tiller a doctor known for performing abortions, pulled out a gun and shot him point-blank in the face. Eye-witness accounts say that multiple people, including Dr. Tiller's wife pleaded with the killer before he shot but to no avail, his hatred and blind fervor was too strong.
The killer, whose name is inconsequential, is ideologically no different than the Muslim terrorists killing civilians and foreign contractors in Iraq, absolutely no different. Both feel that they are doing god's will and are beyond the persuasion of reason. Both hold fast to ideas that are incompatible with modern society and as a result both should be eliminated. Those who would say the death penalty is no different than murder should speak to Dr. Tiller's wife and see if their bullshit flies. The death penalty is what we exact upon individuals who cannot live in society without deliberately harming or killing those around them, it is a decision not taken lightly and not fueled by passion, it is a last resort that we employ against only the worst of humans.
A big problem remains though, the seed which caused this killing still exists: faith. In my mind nothing is more dangerous, faith is the reason I write this whole stupid blog: making fun of people who believe irrational ideas is an outlet. The mechanism of belief is a different matter though, and fortunately brain scientists have been isolating what makes some people more gullible, or willing to believe than others. In the meantime, we might as well make fun of the innocuous faithers and stand against the dangerous ones.
Labels: dangers of gullibility, faith, murder
posted by Joel at
2:24 PM
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