Freak Of The Week: Leonard

This Freak of the Week needs to be given some "props" for his chutzpah.  Leonard, I believe, is a morally good person (based completely on what I read in his posts).  I also believe that Leonard should be forgiven his deceit only because he has gone to great lengths to first deceive himself.

Leonard, in his October 21, 2007 blog post, attempts to equip Christians with the intellectual artillery they will need to effectively argue against Atheists.

In this blog post, I will talk about several of Leonard's posts to justify his position as the Freak of the Week.

Leonard starts off with a quote from an Christian apologetics book:

When they get sweaty and tell you that the Bible breeds intolerance, refresh their memory with the fact that only those societies influenced by biblical teachings (in North and South America, Europe, and Australia) today guarantee freedom of speech and religion. Period.

That's an argument?!  That's no more of an argument that there aren't any Atheists living on the moon, therefore Atheism is wrong.  What about Asia and the Middle East?  Haven't those societies been influenced (at least to a degree) by Biblical teachings?  Perhaps the author means to say that in those areas where other religions were criminalized and those who would not convert were slaughtered - in those areas there is now freedom of speech.  Lets not forget the other ways in which Christianity was enforced:

• As soon as Christianity was legal (315), more and more pagan temples were destroyed by Christian mob. Pagan priests were killed.
• The Salem Witch Trials
• First Crusade 1095 on command of pope Urban II.

...and countless other examples of positive Christian influences.

And, what's with the "and when they get sweaty" for anyway?  I sweat when I get hot - because I'm human.  I don't sweat when confronted by a Creationist.

Next I turn to Leonard's short description of himself on his blog.  Here's what it says:

A Socially Conservative Don Quixote from Moncton. 

For those who are unaware, Don Quixote is a character from a novel first published in 1605.  Here is the plot summary, borrowed from Wikipedia:  The protagonist of the book is Alonso Quixano (or Quijano), a retired country gentleman nearing 50 years of age, who lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Quixano eventually appears to other people to have lost his mind due to lack of sleep and food from dedicating all of his time to reading.

During Quixote's adventures, he meets people and in his delusional mind, turns their personal troubles into fodder for his imaginary chivalrous quests.  He even attacks (and gets whooped) by a windmill he mistakes to be a terrible monster.  Anyone who would identify themselves as being similar to Don Quixote qualifies as a freak.  If Leonard believes he is like Don Quixote then he knows he is fighting for something that is imaginary. More likely, Leonard doesn't know anything about the book and just thought it sounded cool.

Some of Leonard's posts show great lucidity and thought, but overall he still qualifies for Freak of the Week.