God is Too Nice: Conservatives Rewriting the Bible

It's so absurd the entire blogosphere is laughing about it: The people behind conservapedia.com (the right-wing "encyclopedia") want to rewrite the Bible, because it's too liberal!

According to their ten-point list of goals:

• God is emasculated. Gotta fix that. All that genocide and war was pretty wimpy. Frying Sodom and Gomorra was child's play. Gotta toughen Him up! Show what a mean dude He is!
• It's dumbed down. Yeah, some translations are written for seventh grade readers! Gotta stop that, you can't have just any dummy reading this stuff.
• Keep up with the latest conservative terms. 'Cause you sure don't want anyone to think the Bible is for just anyone. No liberals allowed!
• Emphasize the existence of Hell. Goes along with that emasculation, something you must stop. If God's going to be the tough guy, He's gotta be willing torture us!
• Show how God approves of the Republican Party's economic principles. 'Cause everyone knows that God is a free-market economist. (Forget about all that socialistic sharing stuff Jesus said.)
• Remove recent insertions, like the adultress story. Maybe they should even take Jesus out, since that whole pesky New Testament was inserted later too.

... and a bunch more misguided and misinformed conservative drivel.

Even the mainstream media (the NY Daily News and US News & World Report) are writing tongue-in-cheek articles that can barely contain their laughter.

And it would be laughable except that these people are both serious, and ignorant about their own precious Bible's history. These guys should study that history more before they announce these lofty, misguided projects. It's sort of embarrassing that a guy like me seems to know more about the Bible's history than they do.

LOL - Conservapedia on Atheism

Don't ask why ('cause I don't know...), but I took a look at the Conservapedia "encyclopedia" entry on Atheism, and was genuinely disappointed by what a joke it is. It's hysterical, but sort of sad, just how many ways the article is blatently biased, inflammatory, or just plain wrong. It would be funnier, but for the fact that this is a high-traffic web site with millions of readers who take it seriously.

(I usually provide links, but refuse in this case – I'm sure you can find it yourself – because I don't want to lend what little search-engine karma my blog has gained to the drivel on Conservapedia.)

I'm of the same philosophy as Arlo Guthrie:

I'd rather have friends who care than friends who agree with me.

So I was hoping that Conservapedia would have a well-crafted, thoughtful article on Atheism. What a disappointment! It is a total hack job, written by people mostly interested in slapping each other on the back at how clever they are.

Just a few of the more outrageous parts of the article...

They start off on the wrong foot by defining Atheism "is the denial of the existence of God." Most Atheists I know make no such claim, rather, we simply see no evidence for the truly extraordinary claim that there's a magical god in the sky. Alas, Conservapedia goes on to confuse things by calling the denial-of-existence camp "strong atheism," and calling the more common theists-bear-the-proof-burden by the dismissive title of "weak atheists."

So let me get this right: Atheists deny the existence of God ... but "weak atheists" don't. Hmmm, I guess I never swallowed the Anti-Rationalism Meme, otherwise this apparent contradiction wouldn't trouble me. Doesn't anybody check this stuff?

Things really heat up a few sections down. Just take a look at these headings:

• Atheism and Communism
• Atheism and Mass Murder
• Atheism and American Charity (links to: Atheism and Uncharitableness)
• Atheism and Immoral Views
• Atheism and Suicide
• Atheism and Deception
• Decline of Atheism as an Intellectual Position

Does this sound like an "encyclopedia" to you? What a joke. You can just imagine the contents of each of these sections, don't bother reading it.

And how about this one:

Moral depravity: The history of the atheist community and various studies regarding the atheist community point to moral depravity being a causal factor for atheism.

It's so absurd I can't even be insulted.

It's too bad some serious intellectuals can't take control of Conservapedia and offer something challenging. I was hoping for a good argument, but not today. Just a good laugh.

Tags: atheism atheist religion conservapedia