Norway Terrorist was NOT a Christian, and don't say he was

The bullets in the tragic massacre in Norway had barely stopped flying before the words "Christian terrorist" started spreading in news reports and the blogosphere.

• USA Today: Norway suspect sought 'Christian war' against Islam
• Huffington Post: The Face of Christian Terrorism?
• The Palestine Telegraph: Christian terrorist behind attacks in Norway
• Religion Dispatch: Is Norway's Suspected Murderer ... a Christian Terrorist?
• Deutsche Welle: Norway terror suspect believed to be a Christian fundamentalist

And the Christians were equally quick to disown the murderer:

Never Forget: bin Laden was a Product of Religion

I rarely celebrate anyone's death, but today I'll make an exception. Osama bin Laden was a terrible person. He was the ultimate vandal, destroying everything around him purely for his own ego gratification and the joy of destruction. I don't believe for a moment that bin Laden believed his own propaganda about jihad and Islam. He was nothing more than a sick, murderous sociopath, and religion was nothing more than an excuse.

So today I'll make an exception and join America and the world in celebrating the death of this evil man. Congratulations to the Navy Seals who did an incredible job carrying out their mission. Congratulations to our intelligence professionals who found bin Laden and made the mission possible. And congratulations to the President and his generals, who showed restraint and wisdom. Their leadership ensured that the appropriate amount of force was used and that no civilians were killed.

But as we dance in the streets and celebrate, let's not lose sight of the real problem: religion-fueled terrorism. Osama bin Laden may be dead, but

Gingrich: Fears Secular Atheist Country ... Dominated by Islamic Fundamentalists???

Is this for real? Newt Gingrich, who is working up to announcing his presidential candidacy, actually said this:

I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time [my grandchildren are] my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists..."

Wait a second, Mr. Gingrich. Radical Islamic secular atheists? Did I hear that right?

Mr. Gingrich, maybe someone forgot to explain to you that Muslims believe in Allah. That means they're not atheists. Get it?

By the way, Gingrich made these remarks at the Cornerstone Church, a prominent evangelical congregation that's led by the pastor John Hage ... the same guy who said Hitler was fulfilling God's will when he murdered seven million Jews, because it hastened their return to Israel. Good move, Mr. Gingrich.

Africa's Vicious CHRISTIAN Terrorist Army

Americans like to vilify radical Islam, to blame Islam for all of the war, terrorism and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. How often have you heard about how much better Christians are than Muslims? How many times have listened to Muslims defending Islam as a religion of peace after Christians called it a terrorist front?

But did you know that one of the most evil organizations in Africa is a Christian terrorist army? The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), founded on the Ten Commandments and Christian principles, is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, for conscripting thousands of underage girls as prostitutes for their soldiers, for abducting thousands of young boys and forcing them to fight, and for the massacre of thousands of civilians in a series of senseless attacks on villages, usually by hacking them to death with machetes.

Any Christian who knows the history of the LRA will immediately jump up and say, "They're not real Christians!"

Are Americans Any Better Than Terrorists?

The ultimate test of a civilized people is not how they act when things go well. It's easy to be kind, fair, charitable and forgiving when there's no war, the economy is strong, and the weather is great.

No, the real test of a civilized people is how they behave when the chips are down. Do they turn mean when attacked? Do they forget about forgiveness when someone they love is hurt? Are Constitutional rights forgotten when vengeance is needed?

The other day I saw this posted on a Facebook page. WARNING: This is graphic and shows a man dying.



The video itself is shocking enough. I don't care who it is, watching a man die should never be funny. Even our enemies are human beings, and at the least we should mourn the tragedy that made this man want to kill us.

But what's really disturbing are the comments, both on the YouTube page and on the Facebook page where I saw it. People think this video is funny. There are comments like, "Hahahaha" or "LOL!" or "He deserves it the f---er!".

Did Sex Create the Christmas Bomber?

Did Islam's unnatural and unhealthy teachings about sex turn a normal young Nigerian into a murderer and terrorist? Did a healthy young man's lust get twisted into self revulsion and hate?

NPR is doing a fascinating three-day in-depth biography of Farouk Abdulmutallab, the "Christmas Bomber" who hid bomb ingredients in his underwear and tried to blow up an airplane. And once again, I was struck by how truly perverse some religious beliefs are, especially regarding sex.

"I think this loneliness leads me to other problems. As I get lonely, the natural sex drive awakens and I struggle to control it – sometimes leading to minor sinful activities, like not lowering the gaze [around unveiled women]. ... This problem makes me want to get married to avoid getting aroused. The Prophet advised young men to fast if they can't get married, but it has not been helping me much..." – Farouk Abdulmutallab

American Home Grown Terrorists - Islamic Roots

Among atheist bloggers, I'm a misfit: I don't believe religion is the root of all war. Atheists tend to blame religion for most of the world's evils, especially war, but not me. I believe wars are really about power and money, not religion, and that religion is merely used cynically by military leaders and dictators to achieve their ends. It's a tool, not a cause.

But with the rise of a new brand of home-grown American terrorists, it's hard to see how religion, Islam in particular, can escape the blame.

These new terrorists are Americans who have taken up the radical Islamic calling, and hope to kill Americans using terrorist tactics. (I, along with the vast majority of Muslims, am very careful to distinguish between mainstream Islam and radicals, just as I don't lump all Christians in with the likes of McVeigh).

These are not desperate young men with no future who were recruited by the Taliban, nor are they well-educated middle-class Saudis fighting colonialism (i.e. the 9/11 terrorists). These new American terrorists are ordinary young men who have been seduced by religion into a life of crime and terrorism.

It's hard to see how religion can escape the blame for this new brand of home-grown terrorism. The holy texts of all three Abrahamic religions have so many conflicting, confusing, and ambiguous passages that anyone can interpret them to justify anything. Combine that with the idea that God is on your side, and it's easy to justify mass murder. Not right, but easy.

Without religion, these young men (and it's almost always men) would probably be radicals, malcontents, and other types of societal misfits, but they wouldn't be mass murders. It takes religion to turn a malcontent into a terrorist.

How to Make a Terrorist Talk

Americans have for centuries been willing to sacrifice our comforts and even our lives for our principles and morals. We believe that freedom, dignity, and human rights are important enough to fight for, and even to die for.

One of the greatest embarrassments of my lifetime is that my country used torture in the name of freedom and safety for Americans. The men (and a few women) who carried this out believed that possibly saving American lives was more important than saving America itself. For what is America, if we've forgotten our principles? Being an American means being willing to take risks and make sacrifices to protect our principles. These torturers are not true American patriots – they're nothing more than cowards who have turned tail at the first sign of danger. Only they're not running from battle, they're running from what it means to be an American.

That's why I was so moved by How to Make a Terrorist Talk in Time Magazine. Normally I write about topics related to religion, irrationality, atheism and related topics, but today I was so impressed by in Time magazine I had to share it.

It turns out that not only is torture un-American, it's also ineffective. Some of the strongest, and now most respected, critics of torture are the CIA and FBI's senior interrogators, the very men who have gotten real, useful information without resorting to torture. The Time article quotes Eric Maddox:

"There is nothing intelligent about torture. If you have to inflict pain, then you've lost control of the situation, the subject and yourself."

And Maddox should know: he is the Army staff sergeant whose interrogations led to the capture of Saddam Hussein himself.

According to the Time article, and many other articles I've read, torture has not led to one documented case of preventing a terrorist attack, whereas traditional interrogation, which employs psychology, not cruelty, has resulted in many, many critical pieces of intelligence that led to the capture of terrorists. It may be that torture worked in a few cases that are still classified; maybe we'll know some day.

But at what price? The use of torture has weakened America itself. We're reviled around the world, and we've lost the very principles that make us Americans. It will take a long time to get that back.

Scientologists: Psychiatrists caused 9/11 attacks!

I've heard some whacked stuff from Scientology, but this one takes the cake. The Scientologists have a weird hatred of psychiatry that goes beyond the normal anti-science you often find with fringe religions. But now it's over the top: Scientology claims that psychiatrists caused the 9/11 attacks! According to this video (which I don't recommend, it's a half hour of ranting and babble):

It was [doctor] al-Zawahiri, trained in Cairo, who convinced bin Laden to establish al Qaeda. ... [During an interview], al-Zawahiri claimed credit for the attacks [while] bin Laden sits beside the doctor, muttering to himself while caressing his beard. The exact methods utilized by al-Zawahiri to influence bin Laden are as yet unknown. But more than one source has reported that the doctor, is also a psychiatrist. ... bin Laden has been been know to take psychiatric drugs, or anti-anxiety pills. ... Freedom [Magazine] found the influence of psychiatrists, psychologists, and their methods in terrorist groups to be strong and pervasive.

The video goes on and on, digging deeper into their pile of imagined plots and conspiracies and other manure.

Techniques of drug-induced mind control were already being tested by North American Psychiatrists fifty years ago... [in] experiments conducted under the aegis of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies. One aspect of such experiments was to find the exact combination of drugs, hypnosis, and other forms of psychiatric and psychological methods, to produce individuals who could be programmed to commit acts of violence, including assassination.

By the end, they've condemned them all: The entire psychiatric profession seems to be to blame for all terrorism worldwide. If you believed this drivel, you'd be convinced that getting rid of terrorism would require nothing more than rounding up all of the psychiatrists and psychologists. Wars would stop, terrorists would recover from their drug-induced stupor and go back to being normal, productive citizens. They even drag Hitler and the Holocaust into the act, claiming that psychiatrists were behind the Nazi regime and the atrocities of WWII.

It would be funny if it weren't for the collateral damage the Scientologists' cause. Their anti-psychiatry conspiracy theories have prevented more than one person from getting adequate help, including some recent high-profile cases.

Tags: al-qaeda psychiatry scientology terrorism religion atheism