Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Far From Perfect Barack Obama's Actions Contradict The Atheists Claims on Him

George Carlin was a second rate stand up comic who tried a number of lackluster personas before settling onto the dead unfunny role as a loudmouth atheist scold who mined an audience who liked to believe they were superior to the majority of the population because they were atheists.   Bill Maher is an even less talented comic who pretty much didn't bother with the trial period before he copied Carlin's atheist scold to attract some of the audience that Carlin won.   Maher has a cable show “Real Time With Bill Maher,” which, from the little I've seen of it, could be modeled on the little I've seen of Pat Robertson's not all that dissimilar show.   It's a bunch of guests who gab with Maher but the topics are always an opportunity for Maher to promote his themes, that atheists rule and faith-heads drool.   It's really not much more sophisticated than that, at bottom.

Through RMJ's post yesterday I found out about his recent publicity round on other chat shows, specifically his appearance on Jon Stewart's show.   He made some rather absurd statements about atheists being the largest minority group in the country and that Barack Obama is a covert atheist pretending to be religious, a Christian.  RMJ disposes rather well of his claims about the number of atheists in the population so you should read his post on that.  I've written a number of times on the problem atheists face in winning elections due to their own insults of the vast majority of the population.  

Since Maher's shtick consists of those insults, based on claiming the intellectual superiority of atheists over the stupidity of religious people,  it would be rather difficult for Maher to face the simple fact that people don't tend to vote for people who insult them or who are associated with a group whose major, public activity is insulting them.   But  Maher doesn't get that, he rather stupidly doesn't really get what democracy kind of involves, getting the most votes from the most people and people seldom vote for those associated with insults to them.  A rather astonishing number of self-appointed geniuses among atheists don't seem to get that.  I looked around at some of the atheist online places about this and noticed that point being rather uniformly missed.  So much for the brilliance of atheists. 

I don't know the heart of hearts of Barack Obama, unlike Maher and what would seem to be most of his fellow atheists, I don't claim to be able to read his mind.*   Apparently in claiming him as one of their own, they rather miss the point that they hold him up as a politician who pretends to be a Christian for political purposes and so is a rather massive liar.  Why they would want to claim that the most powerful atheist in the world is a liar might be incomprehensible if they believed it was a sin to tell a lie but atheists don't believe in sin, so, perhaps, they're OK with having the most powerful atheist in the world having that position on the basis of a big lie.  I would point out that I've come to the conclusion that one of the most powerful criminals in history, Hitler, was, on the basis of his actions, telling exactly the lie they attribute to Barack Obama.   Hitler's every action in office betrayed his disbelief in the teachings of Jesus, The Law and the prophets, his actions spoke ever so much more reliably than any mealy mouthed lines he issued about his religious belief.   

The fact is,  Barack Obama has been nothing like the atheists with power who openly declared their atheism,  Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Enver Hoxha,.... and he has been nothing like Hitler who I am rather certain was an atheist, a belief which his second in command, Martin Bormann, just by holding that position but also by what he said, would definitely support.   The evidence from history of how openly self-declared atheists govern would indicate that they tend to try to amass power to themselves quite radically, when that is possible.   They are viciously and indiscriminately violent to anyone who might oppose them, they use hatred as a tool to enhance and keep their own power.   

Barack Obama has done none of those things, if anything he has imposed unnecessary restrictions on himself and his political position, reaching out, over and over again to his implacable opponents even over the objections and interests of his supporters.  While I think he is wrong, politically, one explanation of it could be the kind of charity to opponents that is noticeably not a feature of any atheism I'm familiar with.   

Perhaps, in the future, Barack Obama will say that he lied to everyone and he was an atheist all along, an atheist who lied about being a Christian in order to gain political office and the presidency.   If that's true his behavior in office will figure in the calculus of what atheists who hold power can be expected to be like.  Or he might be seen as an outlier as well as an outright liar.   Why atheists would want to claim someone who told a massive lie to gain political office is best known to them or it might indicate what I've said, that not believing that it is a sin to tell a lie accounts for why atheists play fast and loose with the facts.   It's a far smaller leap of logic to conclude that not believing it's a sin to lie will lead to lying than to understand how someone who believed it was could tell quite serious lies.   

Unless Barack Obama comes out as a lying, covert atheist with a thirst for power (the kind of power he has chosen not to exercise in office) I take him at his word that he is religious, that he is a Christian, which is a matter of facing the fact that we are all sinners, that we are all weak and imperfect, a confession that is as desirable in a leader even more than the most powerless of us.   Barack Obama has the right to be believed and I would rather believe that he is telling us the truth even as I acknowledge that, as every Christian who has ever held power, he falls far short of his professed faith.   Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world and it is doubtful that we, his mere followers, could expect to create one here more successfully than he didn't. 

*  I'm sure that most of those atheists who are Maher fans would mock any alleged psychic who made far more modest claims about their ability to read minds.   Another example of their habitual inconsistency and presumptions of their superior ability.  

2 comments:

  1. I find the effort to claim Obama as an atheist a rather sad one. Clearly identity with that group matters so much to Maher that he must cast the circle wider, in order to feel better about it himself. There's also the atheist definition of Christian, championed by Sam Harris: "liberal" Christians are "squishes" who are neither hot nor cold, and like all true Scotsmen, all "true" Christians are fundamentalist and superstitious (it is a demon-haunted world) and KNOW the earth is only 6000 years old, that the Scriptures are the inerrant word of God, and that only a literal interpretation of them is the correct one.

    I've encountered more on-line atheists whose objection to religion seems to be the uncertainty involved. They seem to think "science" and "reason" are all about absolute knowledge. That seems to be Maher's thinking: if Obama is not a Bible-thumper, then he "absolutely" must be an atheist; there can't be any middle ground.

    Of course, don't point out he's aligning himself with the same reasoning that says Obama is a "secret" Muslim.....

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  2. If he thought it would get him what he wants, I have a strong suspicion that Maher would be touting any line. If it's in his professional or economic interest I suspect he will turn into a neo-conservative, or whatever they'll be calling them, then. I've seen it over and over again among atheists on the left, perhaps less often with those who are religious. I might use this opportunity to finish a post I began and gave up on due to business. I'm just going to ignore Simels unless I've got time to waste.

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