"Sectarian" violence.

"Sectarian" is the mealy-mouthed way the press refers to "religious".  So, whenever you see "sectarian violence" you should substitute it in your head for "one religious group fighting another religious group based solely on their competing belief".  Therefore, whenever you see "sectarian" violence you can also substitute "stupid" or any other similarly condescending adverb you prefer.

This news story is talking about a terrorist organization known as Boko Haram who wants to establish Sharia law in Nigeria including (gasp) the Christian south.

The fact that the Nigerian government is considering starting peace talks with him is just an indicator that they might be willing to make this happen.

I am saddened that the Nigerian government is so wimpy.  In order to prevent the same thing from happening in the United States, we must never negotiate with terrorists and we must educate our youth so they don't grow up as stupid and superstitious as Boko Haram.

If Boko Haram were not religious, they would have no reason to murder their fellow Nigerians.

Religion needs to go.

Catholic Bull****

I'm not sure how high on the list Catholics place the Catholic News Service, but if even one Catholic is misinformed due to the following story, it is a tragedy.  Why?  Because it is just more evidence that Christianity expects others to be honest, but has no problem deluding itself and its fellow members.

This news story, by someone named Chaz Muth, lies about how wicked Atheism is, how it is a dividing force in the United States and probably misquotes the Pope saying the same thing.  However, I wouldn't put it past the Pope.  I doubt it only because the Pope is usually a very well educated man who should be educated enough to NOT say stupid things.

Some counter-points to this incorrect, self-deluding Catholic news article are the following:

• The writer says that 25% of all Americans are Atheists, based on a 2009 Pew study.  However, after some research, this study says only about 5% of Americans outright call themselves Atheist.  There were a larger number of Christians who said they did not believe in god (interesting).
• The article then states that "radical secularism", whatever that means, threatens the core values of American culture.  What the writer wants you to believe is that his personal values are the same as your personal values, and that his values are the values of nearly all Americans.  This is a misleading statement and drips with cowardice and manipulation.  It is true that secularism is different than religion and that some of the values are different, but if you've read any other part of this blog, you could easily see that religious values are self-serving and often very wicked.
• The author then quotes another author and says that secularism is a huge threat to humanity because it causes fragmentation.  This statement is misleading because the author, on purpose, fails to mention that religion is the true divider of people.  Catholics and Protestants have been killing each other for hundreds of years, even though they say they worship the same god, eat the same food and often speak the same language.  When was the last time you heard of two warring factions of Atheism fighting over which god they did NOT believe in?  Atheists fight... over which Ben and Jerry's flavor is the best, Target vs Wal-Mart, over who should be President... but it is not often we kill each other over it.
• One also does not often hear about an Atheist group slinging death threats against a religious group.  Instead, as demonstrated recently (check Fox news), self-proclaimed Christians have a field-day threatening the lives of Atheists.

I could go on, but I think you get the point.  The author provided a very one-sided argument, twisted the truth and probably invented other "truths" just to try to scare people.  Why would the author want to scare people?  To turn them against secularism.  So much for Christian values.

P.S.

One intersting point I'd like to bring up:  This study, again by Pew, find that Atheists know more about the Bible than even Catholics do.  Maybe that's why we're Atheist?