Seems like Pastor Mike - in the guise of a previous blog of his- has now made the rounds on the Net and is creating bedlam with hundreds of non-believers now putting him on their radar. This follows a post of his (last year, I believe) recommending that atheists be placed on national registries.
Incredibly, he actually managed to garner the attention of one of the top national atheists, PZ Myers (who achieved infamy by destroying a consecrated host at one time).
His blog on Pastor Mike is at:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/08/28/pastor-mike-has-a-plan/
'Pastor Mike has a Plan'
Myers writes:
It is a familiar plan. It is the kind of plan that many totalitarian regimes would love to implement. Pastor Mike wants a list of all atheists.
Brothers and Sisters , I have been seriously considering forming a ( Christian ) grassroots type of organization to be named “The Christian National Registry of Atheists” or something similar . I mean , think about it . There are already National Registrys for convicted sex offenders , ex-convicts , terrorist cells , hate groups like the KKK , skinheads , radical Islamists , etc..
This type of “National Registry” would merely be for information purposes . To inform the public of KNOWN ( i.e., self-admitted) atheists . For example , let’s say you live in Colorado Springs , Colorado , you could simply scroll down ( from the I-Net site /Blog ) I would have , to the State of Colorado , and then when you see “Colorado Springs” , you will see the names of all the self-admitted atheist(s) who live there ( e.g., if an atheist’s name happened to be “Phil Small” ) . The individual’s physical address , and other known personal information would NOT be disclosed ( though , perhaps a photo could be ) .
Now , many (especially the atheists ) , may ask “Why do this , what’s the purpose ?” Duhhh , Mr. Atheist , for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net – to INFORM the public ! I mean , in the City of Miramar , Florida , where I live , the population is approx. 109,000 . My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists ! Perhaps we may actually know some . In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism . Or perhaps they are radical atheists , whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh’s , in that case , if they are business owners , we would encourage all our Christian friends , as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be “feeding” Satan .
Frankly , I don’t see why anyone would oppose this idea – including the atheists themselves ( unless of course , they’re actually ashamed of their atheist religion , and would prefer to stay in the ‘closet.’ ) .
Actually, there are good reasons to oppose it. It’s involuntary; many atheists promote the Out Campaign, and we think it would be great if more of us would step forward and of our own choice make our rejection of religion open. But many people also have good reasons to fear being outed, and the Pastor Mikes of the world are among them — he’s already threatening to harass atheists and organize boycotts. As you can see, he’s already comparing atheists to criminals, sex offenders, and the KKK…which is all rather ironic, given that his tactics are more like the oppressive and discriminatory actions of the Ku Klux Klan, who, by the way, would also probably love a list of known atheists in their neighborhoods.
I’m out. Pastor Mike can get to work compiling his own damn list, and he can put me right at the top of it. Would he also like me to get a tattoo, or maybe wear an armband with a big red A on it? We’re not ashamed, but many of us are rightly afraid of the cretinous thugs who follow Pastor Mike’s Jesus.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, heres a little eytmological information you might find entertaining.
CRETIN. ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from French crétin, from Swiss French crestin ‘Christian’ (from Latin Christianus), here used to mean ‘human being’, apparently as a reminder that, though deformed, cretins were human and not beasts.
People like Pastor Mike do force us to work harder to remember that Christians can be human beings, not beasts.
Some of the 183 responses- comments the blog attracted:
Pastor Mike restricts signups for his blog. He allows comments, but only from the fawning faithful.
---
Why not put is in work camps…at least it’s productive.
--
Let me guess.
Part II of Pastor Mike’s plan involves nights of terror followed by incarceration in concentration camps.
It’s all very xian though. Pastor Mike is your typical fundie xian death cult mass murderer wannabe.
In the bible, atheism is a death penalty offense, right up there with being a disobedient child or nonvirgin bride. And a few centuries ago, being an out atheist could get you killed.
Xians do have a 2,000 years of slaughtering people by the tens of millions. If it wasn’t for centuries of brave people putting them on a leash, they would still be doing it. One of the signs of a civilized society is not letting your religious kooks run around loose.
--
Honestly, if Bachmann were to be elected I would not be surprised at all if this actually happened.
--
if they are business owners , we would encourage all our Christian friends , as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them
Can’t you just feel the love?
--
I’m ashamed to share a planet with people like this.
---
Dear Pastor Mike,
Put me on your atheist list. I live in San Antonio, Texas. That’s right. THERE ARE ATHEISTS IN TEXAS!!!!!!11!!!!!!!
Oh, and fuck you and the two asses your god-man rode into Jerusalem on (at the same time. It was pretty funny).
--
Ah yes, in fact let’s also make one for xian fuckwitsbelievers! Sure, you may take offense, being publicly listed in the same manner as sex offenders, but it’s all for a good cause! We care about you, we want to show you rationality, we want to save you from the dangers of xian beliefs. Can’t you see that we only want what is best for you? Sure, we may use such a list to boycott mega churches, and businesses run by xian extremists, but that is not the primary aim. Such actions would only be undertaken to save them from falling victim to a self-destructive ideology. I frankly cannot see why even xians themselves would not opt to register on such a list, unless of course they are ashamed for their own creed. Surely this is not the case…RIGHT?
--
Pastor Mike hasn’t really thought it through, thought being beyond him.
The No Religions run around 22% of the population, 67 million people, while the fundie death cultists run around 20-30% of the population.
It’s going to be difficult rounding up getting the names of that many people.
And US xianity is dying at 1-2 million people leaving per year. It’s going to be even more difficult when xianity is reduced to small weird FLDS type cults, living in out of the way places, torturing their women and children, and being widely considered as…social problems.
PS Cue the xian crazies with “but Pastor Mike isn’t a real xian”. Fallacies are all that have left.
--
@Jason;
Only a planet? I’m ashamed to share a universe with them. Anyway, if they want my details on a register, that’s fine by me. I already have a bumper sticker, another sticker on my front door and have had several letters published by my local paper, (all in deepest, darkest Sussex, U.K.) all of which proclaim my atheism.
I know that there are many people for whom coming out as an atheist is just impossible right now and I object to them being forced out, but for those of us in my position, where there is no problem in coming out, then I think that we should (but there should never be any coercion to do so).
--
I think it’s a great idea. Once the list starts growing past 6,000, think of the panic that would settle in their little town of 109,000. Imagine the quiet little old ladies who would go sign up for the list in solidarity.
I honestly can’t think of anything that would create more solidarity and cohesion in the community of non-believers. I heartily encourage him to begin his endeavor.
--
Usually idiots like this just make me angry, but this is just too outrageous. I’m honestly a little shocked by this. I guess I thought more of humanity than this; I thought we were beyond such things. I guess I was wrong.
---
I oppose national registries anyway. Like, all of them. And Pastor Mike’s arguments provide the reasons I think we all should.
But no matter how you threaten and harass, atheism isn’t illegal. I know you’d like to have the police force as your own personal army to do whatever you want to other people, Pastor Mike. That’s because you’re a delusional authoritarian thug who hates freedom.
Go take your Jesus into a dark room and fuck it. Maybe you’ll get on a national registry!
---
I teach at a prestigious catholic university so coming out as an atheist isn’t currently an option for me. Even revealing this fact anonymously gives me some trepidation, given the mouth-foaming fear of religious fanatics like Pastor Mike who doubtless would target people like me first. I’ve always wondered how many others are in the same predicament.
---
If I can get onto his website, this is what I’ll leave as a comment:
I’m an atheist. Come at me bro. My girlfriend is also an atheist, as well. We are atheists because we there is no empirical evidence to suggest that the god exist, nor even any reason to suggest that god is a legitimate possibility. There’s also massive amount of empirical data that demonstrates the impossibility of the bible being true, so if there is a god, it sure is not the Christian one. I can’t speak for all atheists, but I can tell what would generally convince us and what won’t convince us that god and Jesus are real.
Let’s start out by what will NOT convince us. We do not believe that the bible is true, nor do we believe that heaven or hell are real, so telling us bible verses will do absolutely nothing to convince us to become Christians and threatening us with hell does not scare us, because we don’t believe in that crap. Using the bible and threats of hell are only convincing to those who already believe in that stuff, and practically no atheist believes that stuff.
What will convince us is actual evidence that the bible is true or that god exists, and my evidence, I mean data. Something that’s testable and verifiable. In general, atheists view faith as a bad thing, because what faith really boils down to is believing stuff without evidence to support it. Remember, burden of proof is on the one who says that something does exist, not the atheists who won’t believe due to a lack of evidence.
--
No comments:
Post a Comment