It discussed the leaders in this movement, which is becoming increasingly popular, because of people's outrage and what the religious right has done in the name of God - pre-emptive oil wars, torture, tax-cuts for the rich, etc. WWJD?
In promoting these people, and their iconoclastic books, The Nation falls right into the frame that Bill O'Reilly set up years ago - that all Progressives are Godless. He even has an acronym for us - "SP's" = "Secular Progressives," and now he can cite further evidence in pointing to this love-fest between The Nation and The New Atheists. I am an S.P., but not a Secular Progressive. I am proud to say that I am a Spiritual Progressive.
I understand why people are outraged by what is being done in the name of religion, but I don’t understand why atheists are so obsessed with God Himself, since He has nothing to do it with it. God is the author of religion, not the freaks that oppress, plunder and kill in His Name.
Similarly, if a group of people bombed and burned some churches and mosques, and it was blamed on the “new atheists” movement, I could understand the outrage, but it wouldn’t be fair to accuse them of being solely responsible for everything done in the name of this popular new movement of secular jingoism.
The authors of the “must read” books that Ronald Aronson is so excited about have one problem – lack of credibility. None of these authors have any interest in serving God, which happens to be one of the pre-requisites for knowing Him, because He has the prerogative of hiding Himself from such people with His curtain of maya (illusion). If they don’t know who He is, then how are they qualified to write books about Him? How absurd is it to base your career and write volumes of books on something that doesn’t exist? These cool “new atheists” are fools who deserve pity, not buzz.
Christopher Hitchens is just a stinking drunk, who likes go on talk shows to rip Mother Theresa a new one so he can get attention and sell books. His book is entitled "God is not Great." How would HE know? Has he ever served God with love and devotion for one second is his life, which is the only way God would even think of revealing Himself to him? No. Hitchens wouldn't know God if walked up to him and shook his hand, and and if He did, he would be the first to crucify Him.
It is the same hateful mentality and behavior as Anne Coulter, who called John Edwards a faggot and that the 9/11 widows were glad their husbands were dead. I don't see very much difference between them, except one is on the "conservative team," and the other is on the "liberal team." Anyone, progressive or conservative, who thinks these people are heroes, or pays attention to their rhetoric, buys their books, or in any way helps their hateful cause, should be ashamed of themselves.
They’re all just a pack of noisy bloviating iconoclastic idiots, “strutting and fretting their hour on the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
We should not listen to these types of media whores if we want a serious discussion on spirituality and how it guides our moral principles. Progressives, conservatives, atheists, and agnostics should not listen to Machiavellian politics of division, but should sit down together and work for a common cause.
His Divine Grace, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, talked about this idea of a common cause in his introduction to the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
"We must know the present need of human society. And what is that need? Human society is no longer bounded by geographical limits to particular countries or communities. Human society is broader than in the Middle Ages, and the world tendency is toward one state or one human society. The ideals of spiritual communism, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam, are based more or less on the oneness of the entire human society, nay, of the entire energy of living beings. The need is felt by great thinkers to make this a successful ideology. Srimad-Bhagavatam will fill this need in human society. It begins, therefore, with the aphorism of Vedanta philosophy janmady asya yatah to establish the ideal of a common cause.
Human society, at the present moment, is not in the darkness of oblivion. It has made rapid progress in the field of material comforts, education and economic development throughout the entire world. But there is a pinprick somewhere in the social body at large, and therefore there are large-scale quarrels, even over less important issues. There is need of a clue as to how humanity can become one in peace, friendship and prosperity with a common cause. Srimad-Bhagavatam will fill this need, for it is a cultural presentation for the respiritualization of the entire human society...
Disparity in human society is due to lack of principles in a godless civilization. There is God, or the Almighty One, from whom everything emanates, by whom everything is maintained and in whom everything is merged to rest. Material science has tried to find the ultimate source of creation very insufficiently, but it is a fact that there is one ultimate source of everything that be. This ultimate source is explained rationally and authoritatively in the beautiful Bhagavatam, or Srimad-Bhagavatam."
No comments:
Post a Comment