Banksy does the Middle East

3 December 2007 · Comments 

The British “guerilla” graffiti artist that goes under the nom de guerre Banksy has recently been to the Middle East to offer the locals his particular brand of controversial graffiti.

This example is to be found in Bethlehem in the Palestinian West Bank:

As a statement, this image of a dove (presumably a “dove of peace” from the twig in its beak) wearing a flak jacket seems fairly thought-provoking yet relatively innocuous. However, I would also have liked to see something a little more provocative; something that shows the other side of the situation. Perhaps something like this:

You can see more of Banksy’s Middle Eastern street art over at the BBC.

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Termites and Caananites

8 October 2007 · Comments 

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Reality and Love Biblically-Justified Genocide.

Christian CADRE (Colligation of Apologetics Debate Research & Evangelism) (sic) show us that old fashioned good-time fire and brimstone love of their old testament god:

Knowing full well that some atheist will accuse me of justifying genocide… they accuse Christians of being the ones who are unable to see nuances in positions, a total disregard of the reasoning that the destruction of entire groupings of people may be morally acceptable when taking all factors into account shows a lack of careful thought that it is appalling.

I just love that [k]nowing full well that some atheist will accuse me of justifying genocide bit.

Well, yes one likely will, because you are. It’s exactly this sort of rationalisation that gives religious terrorists the impetus and perceived justification for them to do what they do (or attempt to do).

Here’s the meat (after a bunch of scripture and some making shit up to justify it all):

Thus, contrary to the assertion of skeptics, the destruction of the Caananites was not an evil. It was the Canaanites who were evil, and it was the judgment of God through the Israelites on the Caananites in those cities were led to their destruction. We can be confident that the people destroyed were irredeemably wicked and unrighteous. We can be confident that there were no righteous people among those destroyed.

Can’t you just feel the certainty, the absolutism that his chosen scripture is such a perfect record of history? There’s no doubt in this idiot’s mind that he might be wrong for taking that dreaded tome as a literal record, nor one shred of compassion, nary a jot of humanity for the victims of this genocide (whether it actually happened or not).

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I despise magical thinking.

/hattip to Steven Carr in his comment on Debunking Christianity.

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