Dinesh D'Souza, a worthless piece of shit if ever there was one

[toddaa]

I'm spitting bile right now.

http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/18/where-is-atheism-when-bad-things-happen/

For those keeping score at home, atheists are beginning to close in on video games as the source of all society's ills. You lucky Muslims appear to be off the hook on this one. Enjoy your reprieve.

[Ian David]

1. Virginia Tech invited Richard Dawkins? What were they THINKING?

They should have invited Michael Shermer!

DOH!

Review: Michael Shermer. 2004. The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule. New York: Times Books. 350 pp.
http://www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewBook&id=901

"The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." Psalm 14's moral indictment against atheism is presented self-servingly, overbroadly, melodramatically, and without a single shred of logical or empirical support--in other words, exactly the way monotheists prefer to hear it.

But today, in stark and refreshing contrast, we have popular authors like Michael Shermer--psychologist, science historian, publisher of Skeptic magazine, and monthly columnist for Scientific American--who recognize that moral issues, like all others, must be subjected to rational scrutiny.

Drawing from history, anthropology, science, and common sense in the finest tradition of intellectual eclecticism, Shermer adeptly demonstrates that ethics originate from neither gods nor religion, but rather from the same source as humanity itself--evolution. Religion, in its time, was partially successful in identifying universal moral and immoral thoughts and behaviors, and it may have been the first social institution to canonize moral principles, but despite the allegations of monotheists, it was hardly responsible for their genesis.

We evolved as a social primate, according to Shermer, "with an ascending hierarchy of needs from self-survival of the individual (basic biological needs), to the extension of the individual through the family (the selfish gene), to a sense of bonding with the extended family (driven by kin selection helping those most related to us), to the reciprocal altruism of the community (direct and obvious payback for good behaviors), to indirect altruism of society (doing good without direct payback), to species altruism and bioaltruism as awareness of our membership in the species and biosphere continue to develop" (20).

More:
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/kenneth_krause/shermer.html

[Jim__]

2. Ignorance shouldn't make you angry.

All D'Souza is showing in that note is ignorance. It's pitiful actually.

[Justice]

3. you will love this article that slams Dinesh and his new book. Calls it liberal-bashing: a shtick.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/04/19/conservatives_sour_on_rebel_media?mode=PF

One view -

"I often wondered, when reading 'The Enemy at Home' and his extended aria of a response to conservative critics, whether D'Souza was the victim of intellectual Stockholm syndrome, his effort to understand the enemy nudging him toward sympathy for the enemy, or whether the whole production was just a brazen bid for notoriety," Roger Kimball, co-editor and publisher of New Criterion, wrote in an online symposium convened last month by the National Review.

[More Than A Feeling]

5. If Mr. Kimball was willing to be a little more self-reflective

he might realize that right-wingers have a great deal in common with Fundamentalist Islam when it comes to the critique of American culture. Specifically, they both believe in a static and pre-ordained moral order that keeps them permanently in power (aristocracy), and they both do that by denying that woman should be socially equal to men and disenfranchising and scapegoating minorities.

[toddaa]

6. Colbert made him admit as much when he interviewed him

It was both funny and disturbing at the same time.

[trotsky]

4. Hey, at least a bunch of the comments are good.

Taking his bigotry to task.

[Imperialism Inc.]

7. Where was God?

Oh that's right, he was too busy giving small children cancer and debilitating diseases, or perhaps planning the next tsunami.

[skepticscott]

8. What a brainless piece of crap

If you want to know what science has to offer, ask all of the people who were wounded but not killed. Did they get rushed by ambulance to a church or mosque or temple so that their religious fellows could pray over them and heal their wounds by hocus-pocus? Of course not! They went to the freaking HOSPITAL where they could be treated by MEDICINE...you know...SCIENCE. It's science that actually saved people's lives here...all religion did was give people the warm-and-fuzzies and look good on camera. Religion neither prevented this tragedy nor kept it from getting worse.

[Danger Mouse]

9. Fuck you, D'Souza.

Idiot.