Hello.....I have a little problem

[The Grand Nudger]

As far as appealing to hypocrisy, that's a valid criticism. I would never claim the moral high ground, and I think I've made comments before about being the first guy to pick up a sword. What can I say, I'm a human being. That's me, I own it. Do I believe that god commanded those who flew his banner to do the things that they did? No, I do not. I do however point out that those who believe that there is such a thing as a cosmic mandate to this or that, or that any group of people is superior by cosmic decree are at the very least enabling such events. I also stress that even if there were such a thing, a decent human being wouldn't comply with the commands in the first place. In my experience when someone says that god disapproves of you, what they mean is that they disapprove of you. It is not only possible that these people would slit your throat given the chance, but highly likely. That some people do these terrible things out of faith is not because the text is ambiguous. They did not misinterpret. There are very clear justifications to murder within the bible (for example). So I, personally, will not sit there quietly while people brush off large portions of those human beings alive (or those that have died) as deserving this or that based upon some unsubstantiated rumor that a supposed god said it was okay. I also don't feel that allowing people to engage in such sadistic fantasies unopposed and uncriticized is a very good idea if we want to spend another couple hundred thousand years on this rock. We've seen what theocracies put forward as justice and morality both in the past and the present. Those that wish for the end of the world will someday grow tired of waiting.

One of my favorite definitions of reality is "the state of things as they actually exist" which is independent of my own desires (and in many cases contradictory to them). It is precisely because I understand human experience and knowledge to be fallible that I refer to what can be substantiated as "reality". Am I willing to bend and postulate, absolutely. Am I willing to bend to those who would state their opinions as facts, and then use those "facts" to control others? No.

At any point I'm about two hairs away from declaring absolute fucking war on the people that would rather see this world burn than admit they were wrong about their little heavenly psychodramas.