Religious insanity should be ridiculed as strenuously and as frequently as one can. Here I am talking about the recent demand by the Pastafarians that since their religion forbids the eating of pasta without meatballs, all vegetarian pasta dishes be banned. It offends the Pastafarians that people can even contemplate the eating of pasta without the required half a dozen meatballs.
It is quite reasonable for Pastafarians to follow their religious dictates. It is not entirely clear why non-Pastafarians have to follow the Pastafarian religious prohibitions. Could it be that the Pastafarians consider their beliefs to be so high and mighty that they would impose their preferences universally? Why do Pastafarians care what others eat?
On a related note, the Guardian.co.uk reported that (as of Feb 17th), “180,000 demands to remove images of the Prophet” from the Wiki page on Muhammad have been made. I assume that these were followers of Islam who made that demand. Islam forbids the depiction of Muhammad because it could lead to idolatry — that is worshiping of Muhammad — and Islam calls for the death of all idolaters.
Yes, the followers of Islam if they so choose should not depict Mohammed or any other living creature. But demanding that non-Muslims follow the dictates of Islam is patently idiotic, and ridicule and derision should be heaped on attempts at controlling others.
Here’s a clue to those clueless retards that want to control others. You are not required by law — human or physical — to go check out any material that is not consistent with your ridiculous belief system. If you don’t like to read something or watch something because it offends you, then don’t do it. Just read or watch or listen to what you don’t find offensive. Don’t like a novel? Don’t read it. Write your own which suits your taste and follows your religion’s dictates.
Let me remind you. I find your belief system offensive and inhuman. (Don’t thank me. I am merely returning the compliment. Check out what your “holy” books say about my belief system.) But I would not presume to tell you not to practice it in the privacy of your own home. I don’t call for the ban of your “holy” writings that the majority of humanity finds offensive. Yes, however millions of Pastafarians exist, there are more non-Pastafarians. And that goes for the followers of every other religion — including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Let me also remind you that the world is a pretty big place. It is much much bigger than could be conceived by the writers of the “holy” books who lived and died their whole miserable lives in a desert in the Middle East a couple of thousand years ago. They thought that what they could see from the top of their camels is all that the universe was. Nope, the world is much bigger. Other people have other ways of living and thinking. Believing that the entire world was just a huge freakin’ desert where everyone must do everything exactly the same way is retarded and unimaginative.
It is stupid and dangerous insanity to want to dictate to others how they should live under your religion’s prohibitions. Let me give you an example. To most Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and Buddhists, killing cows and eating them is offensive and against their religion. Would you support a worldwide ban on the slaughter of cattle? If not, why not? What makes your ban any more reasonable than the ban on something that most Indians find offensive?
Grow up. It is way past the 7th century and we are no longer in the Arab peninsula, Toto.
The Wikipedia team told the wackos who want to control what is published on the web to shove it but did it very politely.
Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with the goal of representing all topics from a neutral point of view, Wikipedia is not censored for the benefit of any particular group.
So long as they are relevant to the article and do not violate any of Wikipedia’s existing policies, nor the law of the US state of Florida where Wikipedia’s servers are hosted, no content or images will be removed because people find them objectionable or offensive.
See, there is a place outside of the desert and it is called Florida and there is a time called the 21st century that is not the 7th century. Sweetie, if you are offended by something that you have no reason to be able to control, then it is your problem, isn’t it? Can’t you get it into your pointy little head that YOU are the one who is taking offense — others have better things to do than go around offending you.
Live and let live, my preciouses.
This ends my little rant. But wait, there is more. Here’s Christopher Hitchens on YouTube. It is part of a debate on free speech in Canada in November 2006.
Hitchens (the author of “God is not great: How religion poisons everything”) is great. An Englishman who became an American citizen a few months ago. What is with these Englishmen? You have Hitchens, and Dawkins, and Pat Condell. Condell’s rants on religion are amazingly lucid and hard-hitting. Here are two for your watching pleasure. As Condell says, “Peace.”
NOTE NOTE
Follow up to this post is here.
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 
Merely ridiculing beliefs is unlikely to work. These are not educated people that are being dealt with, but a mob living in the 7th century(there is a probability that they were more liberal before you-know-who arrived on the scene). Successive generations of appeasement and a pretense of morality on part of the non islamic world(especially the “secular Indian governments”) has convinced them that others are weak and can be subjugated.
This is going affect only the Hindus. The christians will have no hesitation in doing the needful once the situation gets out of hand, the Chinese with their sagacious leaders nipped the problem in the bud, but there is almost nothing Hindus can do to save their way of life.
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I fully agree with your article.
However I find it very strange that you fail to find it offensive when the same thing happens in your own country esp. by the goons of your favourite party:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=7d8c5175-e085-44cf-8ee6-059ef5ce4192&&Headline=BJP+warns+of+protests+on+DU+textbook+issue
India is a Hindu majority country and our future will be mostly detrmined by how Hindus behave (or mis-behave). Your concern against intellectual vandalism is laudable. The only thing is that it fails to carry any conviction because of your insistence that intellectual vandalism is harmful only when it comes from specific sources.
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It is unnerving and exasperating at the same time, to watch instances and glimpses of such behavior that is entrenched in religious insanity (like the astronomy video you had written about, a few days back). Publicly ridiculing such fundamentalist ideas by drawing parallels to ridiculous anecdotes is a good start, but so far it has also worked in the favor of fundamentalist leaders. These despotic religious heads are successful in commandeering a number of insipid followers through instigating anecdotal examples.
Thank you for bringing our attention to Christopher Hitchens’ book. I’m really looking forward to reading it.
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Alpana, it is called division of labor. You take on the responsibility of reporting on “the goons of my favorite party” (as you put it) and I will keep reporting on what the goons of your favorite party (religion) are doing.
Deal?
Did it ever occur to you that you should really be thankful that India is indeed a Hindu majority country? Have you ever considered what it would have been like for the minorities if the majority were not Hindus?
Take your “favorite countries” — Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, etc — what does Islam have to say about the non-Muslims and what do the people of your favorite countries do? Here’s a clue: they wipe out the minorities.
I really should not be so impolite to a visitor to this blog but this has to be said. I think that your attempt at equating Islamic global terrorism with the idiocy of bunch of hooligans is stupid and lacks a sense of proportion and decency.
I don’t know what motivates the self-loathing in you that compels you to come to the defense of Islamic terrorism by reducing it to a minor inconvenience. I can understand an illiterate Muslim from Saudi Arabia doing so. I can imagine the a Pakistani when told that Islam destroys temples whenever and whenever it can, responding that “But didn’t Hindus destroy the Babri Masjid?” That one act of insanity committed by a bunch of thugs is now used as cover for hundreds of years of destruction of thousands of temples.
Shame on you and your fellow travelers. India would not see so many dead from Islamic terrorism but for the cover that the likes of you provide. You are the “moderate” face that encourages the “tiny minority of extremists” to terrorize the world by trivializing their terrorism.
In this comment I name you and the message is specifically to you. But in general, there is a significant section of India which actually displays the same behavior and due to the same reason — ignorance and illogic. This message is for them as well. India has paid a heavy price (and I don’t mean just the jiziya) and will continue to pay for the generalized stupidity.
It is all karma. We suffer the consequence of our actions that arise out of ignorance. That is the law.
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Excellent post and excellent reply, Atanu. Your blog should be required reading for all JNU types and the semi-literate souls masquerading as journalists in the ELM in India.
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Thanks Atanu for your response.
If you cared to look at the link I provided you would have noticed that it is not about “one mosque demolished” but the vandalism the day before in Delhi University campus over paper on 300 Ramayanas. Funny, you think what happens in your own background is not of any importance rather what happens in Bangladesh or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia is.
In fighting against our enemies we become more and more like them. If you have any doubt, just browse through your blog dispassionately. Soon enough you will be able to see the face of some German intellectual who, blinded by their hatred of Jews thought that what was happening his own backyard was unimportant. Or may be some Pakistani think tank who thought that mullah-ism in their country was fine since it was directed against the other.
My only hope is that as long as such intellectuals remain restricted to personal blogging etc., they will not be in a position to do any serious damage to India. Given a free hand they can bring only civil wars, which they have done successfully in so many other countries.
No offence intended.
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Atanu – excellent reply to Alpana’s bleeding heart liberal points. Alpana, the same bleeding heart may bleed you to death because many fundamentalists have mastered their tact in dealing with such liberals. I have nothing against liberalism provided issues are properly thought out. Remember liberalism encompasses a broad outlook and in order to do justice one has to be excessively informed, intelligent and tactful to apply liberalism to solve problems. However if one is endowed with limited capacity or grasp of issues, liberalism can be subject to massive exploitation to the ultimate ruin of civil society.
Now coming to Alpana’s specific issue about the Delhi University Ramayan textbook controversy I have read reports that Professor Saiyid Jafri, head of History Department at DU refused to cooperate with ABVP activists when the activists tried to set up a meeting with the authorities to discuss issues in a civil manner. While the ransacking of the campus by ABVP is deplorable but does it not beg the question as to why Prof. Jafri did not play an active role in diffusing tension and confrontation?
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Alpana:
I will respond to your comment in a separate post later today.
Prashant2:
I agree that well intentioned but poorly thought out positions cause harm to society.
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Please click on over to the follow up post to this post.
Thanks for your support.
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Regarding One Mosque Demolished….
Nirad babu summed it up quitewell
“…That what happened in
Ayodhya should not have happened is another matter. But I say that the Muslims
do not have the slightest right to complain about the desecration of one
mosque. From 1000 A.D. every Hindu temple from Kathiawar to Bihar, from the
Himalayas to the Vindhyas has been sacked and ruined. Not one temple was left
standing all over northern India”
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And dont forget Nalanda!, Qutubminar(a Jain Temple Complex), dozens of “animist” hill shrines.
didnt escape the damage either
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The current congress party led by a lady under wraps has a lot of firsts to its credit including how to teach hindus the neo-hinduism. The lady in wraps also imports the Joshua planners in numbers unbelievable. Merchants of wholesale Christ trade, sold even at deep discounts and with goodies. Dhoti clad, turban clad croonies of madam fall and trip over each other to keep their dhotis and turbans out of the mafia clutch.Not surprisingly, the daughterof such a stooge writes new stories about Lord Ram (obviously rewarded in pillows of green backs.). Hindus protest the defecation and seculars cry hoarse! For once I am proud to be a Hindu. Even if it means…following the path of Aurangazeb!
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