R.A.G.E. Media

Religion, these days, has gotten quite a bad rap. Inquisition, conquistadors, terrorism - it is now taught that violence is the fault of God, or at least those who believe in God.

A product of such teaching, P.Z. Myers, a biology teacher at a Midwest university, has formed a cult following now infamous for their hatred for religion. And while I do not agree with him, I am grateful to P.Z. Myers for several things:

In desecrating Eucharistic Hosts and the Quar’an because he believes them worthless,
He has proven that ‘Holy Wars,’ defiling of sacred grounds and objects, and persecution of people based on one’s religion are not based on belief in God.

In fostering a vehement following who make violent threats against those he denounces,
He has proven that religious terrorism does not require belief in God.

In the repetitive babbling and regurgitating of the same insults, phrases, and words by his followers,
He has shown that no belief in God is necessary to form a cult.

By their sheltering of Myers, despite the above,
the University of Minnesota Morris has proven that even secular, state-funded, progressive schools can be theocracies in open support of terrorism.

In conclusion, I am grateful to P.Z. Myers for being just the sort of person that proves that it is not God, or belief in God, that makes men violent, contemptible, ignorant bigots, but religious fanaticism. For even his science-based, secular message is a body of beliefs shared by his followers - a religion in and of itself.

In other words, P.Z. Myers has exonerated God, and those who profess belief in him, of the very charges he makes against them.

Atheism is, I suppose, the supreme example of a simple faith. The man says there is no God; if he really says it in his heart, he is a certain sort of man so designated in Scripture. But, anyhow, when he has said it, he has said it; and there seems to be no more to be said. The conversation seems likely to languish.

The truth is that the atmosphere of excitement, by which the atheist lived, was an atmosphere of thrilled and shuddering theism, and not of atheism at all; it was an atmosphere of defiance and not of denial. Irreverence is a very servile parasite of reverence; and has starved with its starving lord. After this first fuss about the merely aesthetic effect of blasphemy, the whole thing vanishes into its own void. If there were not God, there would be no atheists.

-G.K. Chesterton, Where All Roads Lead

In that case, I am truly grateful for the example of P.Z. Myers.

May God bless him.