Philippine Atheists

Richard Dawkins statement in the Root of Evil “…there would be murderers all around the world who want to kill you and me and themselves because they are motivated by what they think is the highest ideal ….. the suicide bomber believes that in killing for his god he will be fast tracked to special martyrs’ heaven.”

This chilling exaggerated scenario is probably designed to frighten the religious towards atheism but when considered closely is revealed as being very shallow. It has little to offer in the pursuit of enlightenment and rational scientific thinking.

R.D. does make a passing comment to politics but the main thrust of his discourse is that the Moslem religion is the overwhelming motivating factor for the terrorists.

As a fellow atheist I find R.D’s views on Religion in general very inspiring but in relation to the worlds’ present conflicts and their relationship with religion they are tragically over simplified.

R.D. could do well to consider the statements of the Islamist extremist which are hardly given any prominence by Western Worlds corporate media? They are a little hard to find but It would be advantageous for R.D.to spend sometime looking for the statements of:-

Ø The 9/11 hijackers.
Ø The statements of Ben Laden.
Ø The views of Hamas
Ø The statements of the suicide bombers.

They have made statements, not to be found in the mass media, that are quite explicit in relation to the bombing of the New York World Trade Center Towers, the bombings of the London Underground and the bombing of the train in Spain which they say were acts of revenge to bring home to the citizens of the U.S. the U.K. and Spain that innocent people are being killed in Moslem countries in their name.

The bombing by the British and the Americans of their fellow Moslems in Iraq and Afghanistan and the U.S. supplied helicopter gunships firing on Palestinians obviously was the main motivation for these acts. (These extremist Islamists, really believe in a heaven, most Christian theists only pay lip service to the afterlife but work as hard as they can to avoid their Paradise.) This is the truth no matter how much Blair and Bush insist these acts are just evil acts committed by evil people for evils sake nothing to do with their foreign policies and no matter how much R.D insists religion is what it is mainly about with little to do with politics.

Might I suggest R.D. and I would have no interest for Islamic terrorists in Britain if our armed forces were not terrorizing Moslems over in their countries and trying to gain control of their resources including oil? Oil, what Oil?

R.D. should explain what are the motivational factors that drive our fellow country men to climb into bombers and deliver death and destruction from a high altitude on countries far away from our shores? We may think that we are innocent bystanders but R.D .and I, as British subjects, are seen by many people as being responsible for the policies and actions of our government and therefore consider us as legitimate targets.

Mr. Dawkins where can these people go to have their justified grievances heard? Bush and Blair will not talk to them because they are “Terrorists.” Not the United Nations Bush and Blair have violated or ignored all the deliberations on the question in that body so please do tell what are they, the “terrorists,” to do? The U.K. and the U.S. can bomb Iraq and Afghanistan from a great height, how can the victims of that bombing reply?

The Palestinians have had a large part of their country taken away by Europeans with the backing of the mighty U.S. How should they react?

Ø Accept their dispossession and abject poverty with alacrity?
Ø Accept that every compromise solution in the United Nations has been vetoed by the U.S.?
Ø Stand by while other parts of their country are being taken away
Ø Or fight with everything they have including their deep religious faith for justice?

However I can see that some people face life daily that is not worth living and therefore are willing to take their chances with a perceived perfect afterlife and by so doing believe they are helping with the aim of providing a better life for those they leave behind.

Others like those that hijacked the planes at 9/11 were manly well educated middle class people with bright futures but who had a strong sense of the grave injustices that were being carried out against their people and were prepared to make the supreme sacrifice for their perceive cause, their religion was probably a help in this but not the main factor to my way of thinking.

As an atheist I value my life because I believe it is the only one I will have, I do not condone the killing of anyone period. Life is too precious. I agree with Bertram Russell who said “I would not die for my beliefs because I might be wrong!” I commend that view to all including those thinking of becoming terrorists or suicide bombers or those even who are considering joining the military forces of their nations to fight in foreign lands.

I firmly believe when most of the Moslems have adequate shelter, regular incomes, food on their tables and a modicum of the pleasures of life and are left to run their own countries without interference from some Super Power, the extremists among them he will lose interest in laying down their life justified by cherry picking parts of the Koran that justify armed Jihads. They will instead cherry-pick the parts that emphasize the Jihad as a fight within themselves as an easier passport to paradise enabling them to relax and enjoy the good life in the meantime.

The economically advanced industrialist countries are losing their religiosity because of having obtained high standards of living. Third World countries like Africa have growing interest in religion, the only country going against this trend, inexplicably, is the United States where interest in religion is growing.

It would seem that the more people prosper the more they discard religion. Prosperity would seem to lead to atheism much quicker than atheist forums, meetings and publications.

There are of course Christian fundamentalists in the U.S. who are urging their government to use Nuclear weapons as soon as possible to hasten Armageddon and a world exclusively of Christians ruled by Jesus from Jerusalem. They do have the ear of the born again President Bush (and probably the devout Christian Prime Minister Blair) but I must admit I cannot understand their motivation since most of them have very luxurious materialistic lifestyles. I cannot explain this American phenomenon, I will have to study the matter further, is there anyone out there that can help me in this quest?

Regards Doug Adam.

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