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New York Post, 2001-09-28
Walter Cronkite has unleashed an unusually harsh attack on religious broadcasters Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. The retired anchorman calls Falwell's remarks about the Sept. 11 terror attacks as "the most abominable thing I've ever heard"...
The Advocate, 2001-09-15
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, in a phone call to CNN late Thursday, said he did not mean to blame gays or lesbians for bringing on the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., this week, referring to remarks he had made on the Christian news show The 700 Club earlier in the day. During the broadcast, when host Pat Robertson asked for Falwell's thoughts on the bombings, Falwell named gays and lesbians--along with feminists, pagans, and the ACLU--as being responsible for "[creating] an environment which possibly has caused God to lift the veil of protection which has allowed no one to attack America on our soil since 1812." Later in the day Falwell did some serious backpedaling, telling CNN, "I would never blame any human being except the terrorists, and if I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize."
The Guardian —
United Kingdom, 2001-09-15
Dawkins comments on an aspect of the September 11th suicidal terrorist attacks which nobody else wants to mention: the role of the belief in an afterlife.
If death is final, a rational agent can be expected to value his life highly and be reluctant to risk it. This makes the world a safer place, just as a plane is safer if its hijacker wants to survive. At the other extreme, if a significant number of people convince themselves, or are convinced by their priests, that a martyr's death is equivalent to pressing the hyperspace button and zooming through a wormhole to another universe, it can make the world a very dangerous place. Especially if they also believe that that other universe is a paradisiacal escape from the tribulations of the real world. Top it off with sincerely believed, if ludicrous and degrading to women, sexual promises, and is it any wonder that naive and frustrated young men are clamoring to be selected for suicide missions?
There is no doubt that the afterlife-obsessed suicidal brain really is a weapon of immense power and danger. It is comparable to a smart missile, and its guidance system is in many respects superior to the most sophisticated electronic brain that money can buy. Yet to a cynical government, organisation, or priesthood, it is very very cheap.
To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used.
See also:
Rationalist International, 2001-09-06
Pakistan's customs have blocked the distribution of the latest issue of Newsweek. The US magazine carries in its edition of 3 September an article by Zahid Hussain on the blasphemy case of Dr. Shaikh, who has been sentenced to death last month... This article, titled "Talking is dangerous", has to be removed before copies of the magazine can be circulated in Pakistan, Newsweek's local distributor Liberty Books was ordered by the press department of the customs authority.
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