Month: August 2010

“People Like Me”

by Zoe Pollock

Peter Sagal, NPR host of Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me reflects after a very bad bicycle accident:

Anybody who goes through this ends up with a lot of thoughts to process; it’s quite literally a near-death experience (I’m pretty sure that without my helmet I’d either be dead or near it). Right now, though, instead of thinking about What I Should Be Doing With My Life Now That I’ve Got a Second Chance (chances are, I’ll waste it reading blogs, like I do now) I’m just… amazed at the system we have in place to take care of people like me when stuff like this happens. Bystanders called 911; the ambulance and police were there within moments. I was taken right to a hospital with trauma docs at the ready, who alleviated my pain and would have been ready if I had been more badly injured than I was. And of course, I’ve got a tremendous support system in my family and my colleagues and my employers and all of you…

The key phrase, though, is, “people like me.” Meaning, in this case, people with a good job and excellent health insurance. This ain’t the time to go political on anyone, but, man, I’d hate to have been lying there, on that pavement, shaking and in shock, wondering, “How am I going to pay for this?”

Religion Switching

Religion_switching

by Zoe Pollock

Secular News Daily compares religion switching in the US and the UK:

Some things are similar. Most notably, a lot of people have converted to ‘no religion’. Unlike the UK, however, some people move from ‘No religion’ into a religious group. That hardly ever happens in the UK, and perhaps reflects the social pressures on US individuals to be at least nominally religious.

Atheists Vs The Mosque, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

I think it needs to be said that many of us atheists part way with the louder atheists out there when it comes to Islam or other blanket condemnations of religious people.

Though I agree with 90% of what the "new athiests" say in regards to belief and doubt, the movement will never amount to anything, because they ostracize way too many like-minded individuals. Fair enough I suppose, because most atheists are happy not belonging to a group. But I have to ask myself what do Harris and Coyne wish to accomplish with their arguments? Even if they are 100% correct, what is the best case scenario from blaming moderate Muslims and for completely demonizing a people who, from my experiences in Turkey, are by and large peaceful people (or else we'd see jihadists everywhere).

There is no question that fundamentalist Islam is a problem, and addressing it pragmatically is the only solution.  Moderate Muslims are the only ones that will be effective in promoting a change, and trying to shame them seems completely impractical.

You can not fight unreason face-to-face with pure reason and expect to get the results you want. As an atheist in the South, I deal with this on a daily basis with Christianists, who, in my opinion, pose a much greater threat to our country than Islam. Inciting them has never been a practical solution to dealing with them.

The new atheists initial arguments were exciting to me, because I saw it encouraging closeted atheists to come out; however, it has devolved into a religion bashing group if the comments sections for the big websites are anything to go by.  Christianity got at least one thing right, "Though shalt love thy neighbor as thyself".  

Another reader:

Patrick Appel wrote:

It's amazing to watch staunch secularists and the far right read from the same playbook. Islam is not a nation.

My word would be "disappointing". But I would caution Mr. Appel to realize that Harris and Coyne do not speak for all of us atheists or staunch secularists (just as I'm sure Harry Reid doesn't speak for all Democrats). Frankly, I'm disgusted that a debate even continues over whether a Muslim community should be able to build a cultural center with a mosque led by an imam with a progressive interpretation of Islam. If these Muslims are not welcome in our society, then which Muslims are? I don't have to believe in their religion (or even admire it) to support, even applaud, their right to build a community center.

That it would be on the location of a condemned former Burlington Coat Factory two and a half blocks from the World Trade Center (and one block from the New York Dolls strip club) is irrelevant at worst. If Palin, Gingrich, Harris, Coyne and others wanted something else at that location, they should have purchased and developed the property themselves.

Now who is going to protest the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox church at the actual WTC site? After all, don't they realize that's the site that monotheists perpetrated the greatest terrorist attack on US soil? To paraphrase Sam Harris, the claim that the events of September 11, 2001, had “nothing to do with monotheism” is an abject and destabilizing lie.

“During The Oath, He Raised His Hand Higher Than Anyone Else”

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

Back in March, my husband went home to Nowshera, Pakistan to visit.  He took many photos, one of which you Image010the massive flooding in Pakistan, that view is still the same.  Our family was very lucky to have all survived the flooding.  Since they  live far enough from the river, their house was spared.  My brother-in-law lost his shop, another brother-in-law lost a vehicle, and one sister-in-law’s family lost their home, but they are staying with our family.  We feel so blessed and lucky right now!

My husband became a US citizen on July 23rd.  I couldn’t be more proud and thankful that he has chosen to be an American.  I just get the feeling that so much of the anti-Muslim sentiment in this country is due to lack of experience and engagement with Muslims.  Everywhere we have lived in this country, whether through chance meetings or through his business, my husband has left a positive impression of Muslims with our customers and new friends.  This level of engagement is vital to changing perceptions, including the perceptions of some of my own family members.  Of all our customers (he has a moving company), it is military men and women who are the most open, accepting, and excited to talk to a Pashtun American.

Endless Bummer

by Zoe Pollock

Rebecca Traister insists this might be the worst summer ever. Balk counters with a nugget of hope and nostalgia for an increasingly apocalyptic future:

I see an army of young people out there having a good time. They retain all the optimism of youth. Their prospects may be just as grim as everyone else's, but they don't let that affect them. They use their relative poverty to their advantage, creating fun through thrift. They are building the very memories that they will look back on a couple of decades from now and think, "Man, that was the greatest summer ever."

And it will absolutely be true. Two decades from now we will all be bog people living in warring tribes among the marshes of the New Jersey Meadowlands, skinning rats to provide pelts for warmth and eating their chemically-infested flesh for the tiny bits of protein we are able to provide to our bodies. As the kids of today huddle around the tire fires of tomorrow, they will tell stories to their undersized, two-headed children (assuming mankind remains fertile then) about those balmy summer days before the floods and fires when a six pack of beer and a bittorrented rip of the new Arcade Fire were very heaven. It will sound like paradise.

In Defense Of Libraries

by Zoe Pollock

At the Edinburgh international book festival, novelist Jeanette Winterson opined on the importance of libraries:

What worries me is that a load of shite has been talked about digitisation as being the new Gutenberg, but the fact is that Gutenberg led to books being put in shelves, and digitisation is taking books off shelves. If you start taking books off shelves then you are only going to find what you are looking for, which does not help those who do not know what they are looking for.

The Quiet Alternative

by Zoe Pollock

Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Freedom, is getting a lot of deserved buzz (I've read it – it's fantastic). He recently (and reluctantly) recorded an author video where he disparaged having to make an author video. He explained:

This might be a good place for me to register my profound discomfort at having to make videos like this. To me, the point of a novel is to take you to a still place. You can multitask with a lot of things, but you can't really multitask reading a book. You're either reading a book or you're not. To me, the world of books is the quiet alternative, an ever more desperately needed alternative.