Jing-reed's Musings from Thailand

How Stupidity Became a Virtue in America

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

"The Culture Wars Are Over and the Idiots Have Won.

A veteran journalist's acidically funny, righteously angry lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States.

In the midst of a career-long quest to separate the smart from the pap, Charles Pierce had a defining moment at the Creation Museum in Kentucky, where he observed a dinosaur. Wearing a saddle... But worse than this was when the proprietor exclaimed to a cheering crowd, “We are taking the dinosaurs back from the evolutionists!” He knew then and there it was time to try and salvage the Land of the Enlightened, buried somewhere in this new Home of the Uninformed.

With his razor-sharp wit and erudite reasoning, Pierce delivers a gut-wrenching, side-splitting lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States, and how a country founded on intellectual curiosity has somehow deteriorated into a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate.

With Idiot America, Pierce's thunderous denunciation is also a secret call to action, as he hopes that somehow, being intelligent will stop being a stigma, and that pinheads will once again be pitied, not celebrated."


Question:
You visited the Creation Museum while writing Idiot America. Describe your experience there. What was your first thought when you saw a dinosaur with a saddle on its back?

Charles P. Pierce:
My first thought was that it was hilarious. My second thought was that I was the only person in the place who thought it was, which made me both angry and a little melancholy. Outside of the fact that its “science” is a god-awful parodic stew of paleontology, geology, and epistemology, all of them wholly detached from the actual intellectual method of each of them. The most disappointing thing is that the completed museum is so dreadfully grim and earnest and boring. It even makes dragon myths servant to its fringe biblical interpretations. Who wants to live in a world where dragons are boring?


It has become increasingly evident that evangelical, fundamentalist Christianity has become a major factor in the dumbing down of the USA.  The most powerful nation on the planet has also become the most stupid. and that is unbelieveably sad .  , , , , , ,

Idiot America How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Audio Book

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Hypatia and the Library of Alexandria

Hypatia  [ca. AD 350–370] was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, who was a teacher of mathematics with the Museum of Alexandria in Egypt.  A center of Greek intellectual and cultural life, the Museum included many independent schools and the great library of Alexandria.

Hypatia studied with her father, and with many others including Plutarch the Younger. She herself taught at the Neoplatonist school of philosophy. She became the salaried director of this school in 400. She probably wrote on mathematics, astronomy and philosophy, including about the motions of the planets, about number theory and about conic sections.

Hypatia corresponded with and hosted scholars from others cities. Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, was one of her correspondents and he visited her frequently. Hypatia was a popular lecturer, drawing students from many parts of the empire.

From the little historical information about Hypatia that survives, it appears that she invented the plane astrolabe, the graduated brass hydrometer and the hydroscope, with Synesius of Greece, who was her student and later colleague.

Hypatia dressed in the clothing of a scholar or teacher, rather than in women's clothing. She moved about freely, driving her own chariot, contrary to the norm for women's public behavior. She exerted considerable political influence in the city.

Orestes, the governor of Alexandria, like Hypatia, was a pagan (non-Christian). Orestes was an adversary of the new Christian bishop, Cyril, a future saint. Orestes, according to the contemporary accounts, objected to Cyril expelling the Jews from the city, and was murdered by Christian monks for his opposition.

Cyril probably objected to Hypatia on a number of counts: She represented heretical teachings, including experimental science and pagan religion. She was an associate of Orestes. And she was a woman who didn't know her place. Cyril's preaching against Hypatia is said to have been what incited a mob led by fanatical Christian monks in 415 to attack Hypatia as she drove her chariot through Alexandria. They dragged her from her chariot and, according to accounts from that time, stripped her, killed her, stripped her flesh from her bones, scattered her body parts through the streets, and burned some remaining parts of her body in the library of Caesareum.



Hypatia's students fled to Athens, where the study of mathematics flourished after that. The Neoplatonic school she headed continued in Alexandria until the Arabs invaded in 642.

When the library of Alexandria was burned by the Arab conquerors, used as fuel for baths, the works of Hypatia were destroyed. We know her writings today through the works of others who quoted her -- even if unfavorably -- and a few letters written to her by contemporaries.

Hypatia and Alexandria 1/5

Hypatia and Alexandria 2/5

Hypatia and Alexandria 3/5

Hypatia and Alexandria 4/5

Hypatia and Alexandria 5/5

"Book of Mormon Book of Lies"

Book of Mormon Book of Lies   [Amazon]

"The Book of Mormon is one of the boldest hoaxes of all time. And millions of people have fallen for it.
Joseph Smith Jr. claimed that an angel gifted him—an uneducated farm boy—with ancient golden plates and the ability to translate their hieroglyphics. From that improbable premise sprang The Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, with its millions of followers, known as Mormons. In Book of Mormon, Book of Lies, authors Meredith Ray Sheets and Kendal M. Sheets expose The Book of Mormon and the story surrounding its creation as one of the greatest deceptions in the history of America, if not the entire world.

The result of twenty-five years of research, Book of Mormon, Book of Lies will alter the course of global religion, finance, and politics. Book of Lies proves that Smith’s manuscript, which he published in 1830, is nothing more than cleverly disguised plagiarism of The Travels of Marco Polo, the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World as recorded by his son, histories of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and travel journals . . . all readily available to Smith. In Book of Lies, Meredith Sheets, a retired petroleum executive, and Kendal M. Sheets, an experienced intellectual property attorney, compare content from historic books with the content of The Book of Mormon. The results are astonishing. For the first time ever, the authors show exactly how the American-born religion of Mormonism and its religious scriptures were created by man and not by God."


Historical facts , linguistics, and archaeology all indicate that the Mormon religion is based on a fabrication of lies and deception, but will that convince someone who believes in the LDS faith?   Sort of doubt it.


Mormon Doctrine Has Been Plagiarized
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The Lost Book of Abraham

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DNA vs. The Book of Mormon

The 'GREAT ATHEIST SCHISM' of 2012

Is American atheism heading for a schism?

"A new movement, Atheism+, has prompted non-believers to spit venom at one another rather than at true believers

In the passionate world of American atheism, the venom usually directed at believers has now been turned against the wrong kind of atheists.

The cause of this freethinking furore? A new movement called Atheism+. According to its website, "Atheism+ is a safe space for people to discuss how religion affects everyone and to apply skepticism and critical thinking to everything, including social issues like sexism, racism, GLBT issues, politics, poverty, and crime."

A+ was born when Freethought blogger Jen McCreight (the mind behind Boobquake) made a passionate call for a "third wave" of atheism, one that extends atheist activism into progressive politics and calls for a part of the movement to be one where women can exist free from the harassment that has plagued women publicly involved in the atheist movement.

The founders of Atheism+ say clearly that "divisiveness" is not their aim, but looking through the blogs and voluminous comments in the two weeks since A+ was mooted, trenches have been dug, beliefs stated, positions staked out and abuse thrown. A dissenting tweeter is "full of shit", while, according to one supporter, daring to disagree with Atheism+'s definition of progressive issues and not picking their side makes you an "asshole and a douchebag".  "


Too funny for words, but perhaps inevitable. 
Personally I don't know how any 'American' can claim to be an atheist, since everytime an American uses any of their currency, from $ bills to coins, it boldly proclaims "In God We Trust".

And speaking of schisms....

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Wackadoodle Prayer Warrior

CBN News wonders if prayer moved Isaac away from Tampa to guard Republican delegates. so Rev. Justin Peters of the 'Pray Tampa Bay Team' explains all.  Are these idiots at all aware of the nonsense they are spouting?

Pertinent comment:
"So, they prayed to save themselves and for their God to send the storm on to hit some other city instead? Seems like a very Christian thing to do."

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Taylor Climenti, Two Years Later

After Gay Son’s Suicide, Mother Finds Blame in Herself and in Her Church

"When Tyler Clementi told his parents he was gay, two days before he left for Rutgers University in the fall of 2010, he said he had known since middle school.

 “So he did have a side that he didn’t open up to us, obviously,” his mother, Jane Clementi, said, sitting in her kitchen here nearly two years later. “That was one of the things that hurt me the most, that he was hiding something so much. Because I thought we had a pretty open relationship.”

In her surprise, she had peppered him with questions: “How do you know? Who are you going to talk to? Who are you going to tell?” Tyler told a friend that the conversation had not gone well. His father had been “very accepting,” he wrote in a text message. “Mom has basically completely rejected me.”

Three weeks later, he jumped off the George Washington Bridge after discovering that his roommate had used a webcam to spy on him having sex and that he had sent out Twitter messages encouraging others to watch.

An international spotlight turned the episode into a cautionary coming-out story, of a young man struggling with his sexuality and the damage inflicted by bullying. . . . . "


It is unfortunate that the Climenti's were not aware of the 2009 TV film, "Prayers For Bobby".   The true story of Mary Griffith, gay rights crusader, whose teenage son committed suicide due to her religious intolerance.  Perhaps it might have made a difference . . .  .

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The 'Lost/Found/Lost/Found' Book of Abraham

Joseph Smith and his 'Lost Book of Abraham'

"The Book of Abraham is a 1835 work produced by Joseph Smith that he said was based on Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records ... purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". Smith's translation of the papyri describes a story of Abraham's early life, including a vision of the cosmos.

The work was canonized in 1880 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as part of its "Pearl of Great Price".   Thus, it forms a doctrinal foundation for the LDS Church . . . . .  "   [Wikipedia]

Egyptologists and contemporary historical researchers are in agreement that Joseph Smith's 'translation of the papyri' was nothing more than a fantasy and fabrication.  And if his 'translation' of the 'Lost Book of Abraham' is a fake, what does that say about his transcription of the 'Golden Plates' which became the 'Booki of Mormon'.  The Book of Mormon insists that all native Amerindians [American Indians and Mesoamerican groups] are the 'lost tribes of Israel', the Lamanites and Nephites.  Contemporary scientific DNA testing has shown the Amerindians came from Siberia via the Bering Strait, NOT from Israel.  

Sorry, my Morman friends, but it would appear that your 'Prophet' was a fake.

The Lost Book of Abraham [Video]

"The Lost Book of Abraham is an award-winning documentary that investigates the remarkable claim that Mormon founder Joseph Smith translated a lost book of scripture from an Egyptian papyrus scroll he obtained in 1835. Hear the views of Mormon believers and World-class Egyptologists and decide for yourself."

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"I, Nephi" and Joseph Smith

The New Yorker has published a quite objective article, albeit rather lengthy, on the history of the Mormon church [of presidental hopeful Mitt Romney].  A rather bumpy ride for all concerned, especially when the LDS founder, Joseph Smith, was a consumate lier, cheat, more than questionable translator and well known confidence man.  But in his defense, he did have a very active imagination, as attested to by his invention of 'The Book Of Mormon'.


I, Nepthi

"Stereotypes and pigeonholes can, in a stable multiethnic society, act as sanctuaries as much as cells. In the heyday of urban ethnic immigration, even anti-Semites allowed that Jews were good at selling drygoods and producing movies, just as Irish Catholics were known to keep a good saloon and walk a decent beat. The ugliest of these pigeonholes suggests a comparative advantage, anyway: to be thought to tap-dance well implies that you can, at least, do that.

American Mormons, in this sense, seem to have been rather flatteringly typed. The Mormon executives and advisers around Howard Hughes were famous for their probity, their clean living, and their loyalty. As with the blond Scandinavian bodyguards who attended the Byzantine emperors, their uprightness was all the more starkly evidenced by the shiftiness of the guy they were protecting. The details of their religious views had nothing to do with the social role they played. The Osmond family was the Mormon family: too many kids and too many teeth, maybe, but always solid, always smiling, always temperate—no alcohol, no tobacco, not even caffeine. In an entertaining new autobiography, “The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith” (Free Press), Joanna Brooks recalls ecumenical birthday parties as a young Mormon in California, and the anxiety she felt about simply seeing a bottle of Coke; Mormon parties featured (non-caffeinated) root beer. Nor were the Osmonds an outsider’s image: to this growing girl’s self-conception, the Book of Marie—“Marie Osmond’s Guide to Beauty, Health & Style”—seemed far more important than the Book of Mormon. Be perfect even as Marie on television is perfect, and you will be happy. ......


Mark Twain read the Book of Mormon and, knowing what Smith would have read, not to mention knowing about frontier fakery, came to conclusions about both the sources of its prose and the sequence of its composition:

The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James’s translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel—half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern—which was about every sentence or two—he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as “exceeding sore,” “and it came to pass,” etc., and made things satisfactory again. “And it came to pass” was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet."

More at  OPENING  NEW  HORIZONS  IN MORMON HISTORY    - Joseph Smith:  Nineteenth Century Con Man?


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Xenu / Xemu

I have always been fascinated by some of the very questionable things that people believe, and more often than not it will include some of their religious beliefs. Scientologists are a grab bag of really weird shit.  Oftentimes they will denounce any questions about a belief in 'Xenu' as "preposterous" or "nonsense".  

Xenu

"Xenu also spelled Xemu, was, according to the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.

Within the Church of Scientology, the Xenu story is part of the church's secret "Advanced Technology", considered a sacred and esoteric teaching, which is normally only revealed to members who have contributed large amounts of money. The church avoids mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story's confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of copyright and trade secrecy. Officials of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story. Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public via court documents, copies of Hubbard's notes, and the Internet. In commentary on the impact of the Xenu text, academic scholars have discussed and analyzed the writings by Hubbard and their place within Scientology within the contexts of science fiction, UFO religions, gnosticism and creation myth. ....."

The History Of Xenu - As Explained By L. Ron Hubbard

 

$cientology and L. Ron Hubbard

"You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion."

-- science FICTION writer and creator of $cientology L.Ron Hubbard's response to a question from the audience during a meeting of the Eastern Science Fiction Association in Nov 1948


   BBC Panorama -  Scientology I

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BBC Panorama -  Scientology II

 

 

Free download of The Barefaced Messiah by Russell Miller in pdf form.  Well written and researched, it reads like the most outlandish fantasy.  Of course it can only be the story of L. Ron Hubbard, a pathological liar.  He wasn't even a good SF writer.