A Brooklyn College professor had to withdraw his name from consideration as chairman of the sociology department at his school after the president of the college got wind of his take on religious fanatics. What Timothy Shortell, an associate professor in the sociology department at the CUNY senior college wrote was this, "On a personal level, religiosity is merely annoying - like bad taste," he wrote. "This immaturity represents a significant social problem, however, because religious adherents fail to recognize their limitations. So, in the name of their faith, these moral retards are running around pointing fingers and doing real harm to others. One only has to read the newspaper to see the results of their handiwork. They discriminate, exclude, and belittle. They make a virtue of closed-mindedness and virulent ignorance. They are an ugly, violent lot."
Some of you might remember a few months ago now when the professor from the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill blamed the events on 9-11 on American foreign policy, and more specifically, denied the Americans that perished in that tragedy the status of "innocents" because of our apathy and ignorance regarding the policies and actions of our own American government in the Middle east made us all guilty and therefore deserving of come comeuppance.
That opinion had him fighting for his job.
Both are rather unpopular opinions, particularly with a specific segment of the population. In my opinion, both statements are accurate from a certain perspective, as long as we can agree on certain terms.
Like for example, what does Timothy Shortell consider religious?
Is he talking about just anyone that says a prayer over his dinner?
Is he talking about the guy that stands up just before a game winning field goal and does that cross thingy that Catholics do across their chests?
Or is it the guy who goes to Church 6 days a week, seems genuinely pissed off that he has to deal with “worldly people”, wakes up every morning disappointed that he isn’t in the middle of the Rapture and sees the devil’s influence in everything?
See that is the issue here.
Surely not everyone that goes to Church services is religious on the same level of a Jesus freak or a Super Christian.
Not everyone that believes in God is dangerous.
But the people that think that harassing people is constitutional protected right are dangerous.
People who are shooting doctors that perform surgeries or experiments that they deem immoral are dangerous.
People that fly airplanes into buildings in downtown New York City are dangerous.
The reality is that from the perspective of doing the world some good, religious freaks are moral retards.
And calling them moral retards is probably being too kind.
I say that because religious people more about being obnoxious than persuading anyone of anything.
And despite what they want to believe, they are not obnoxious because they are so religious, they are obnoxious because they think that by tossing what they believe on to us makes them more right.
Like they think that they love God more than the next guy because they are willing to stand out in front of a college dormitory for 4 hours every morning and chastise everyone coming out of the front door.
They love God even more than the next guy because they are more than willing to be even more intolerant than most.
They love God more than the next guy because they build the bigger church, sacrifice the better goats or offer prettier daughters to the volcano Gods.
When you are interested in persuading someone you learn how to reach them.
You learn how to get your point across in such a way that the person you are trying to reach is receptive to your message.
If you are not willing to find out how to reach someone, you are just talking to hear yourself talk.
Anyone standing outside of a building on a college campus on a soapbox with a bible in his hand calling people he doesn’t even know sinners.
That is the retarded part.
That is why Tennessee Williams called the western God a senile delinquent because if he can’t see that this guy is out here screaming at people to hear himself speak then God is an idiot.
I don’t believe that God is an idiot.
I believe they are the idiots.
I believe that they are the morally retarded and that do they do discriminate, exclude and belittle.
When is the last time you called someone at derogatory name and that was what pushed someone over the top and brought them over to your way of seeing things?
So chalk up another person in academia who is now in trouble for speaking his opinion, and in today's political atmosphere, where no one even bothers to debate or engage you on your opinion and possibly persuade you to think otherwise.
It is just so much easier nowadays to just dismiss.