Colorado Daily – July 12, 2007:
Last weekend more than a dozen envelopes bearing the image of skull and crossbones and containing letters threatening the lives of CU-Boulder evolutionary biology professors were slipped under the doors of CU-Boulder buildings.
According to a reprint of the letter posted online, the threat reads: “every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society.”
“EBIO (evolutionary biology) professors are terrorists against America and Š intellectual and spiritual child abusers of their young and impressionable students Š the EBIO department not only blasphemes God, who is invisible, but it blasphemes His Only Begotten Son and our Messiah, Jesus Christ, which is more unforgivable Š for all these reason all God-fearing and Truth-loving persons must say, They must go!”
CU officials won’t name a suspect, but numerous sources close to the case say the letters – as well as a barrage of threatening e-mails – were signed “Michael Korn.”
Menacher “Michael” Korn is a 49-year-old Israeli national and former Messianic Jew who says he was baptized into Christianity in the Sea of Galilee seven years ago and is now on a mission to convert Jews and Muslims. His blog, JesusOverIsrael. blogspot.com, references CU-Boulder specifically and says he lives in Denver, although he has a North Carolina area code.
Of course the US press is burying this story. It’s nearly a week old and this is the only report of it I could find on Google News!
#18, Mr. Christian
Kind of makes you think doesn’t it?
Nope.
Well, no more then Aesop’s Fables, Hans Christian Anderson, Greek Mythology, the Brothers Grimm, or any other good story.
#1 That’s scary! That’s should be child abuse at its worst.
#29 Thats also scary Mr Christian as what you believe in is still just a believe based on hearsay. Just words written by a Church long after the fact which will never be known is all it is. Of course the common “out” is “true believers” know the truth. Based on that all “true Muslim believers” know the truth. Uh-oh – “Houston we got a problem”! It’s the crusades all over again! Kill the unbelievers / infidels!
Jesus / God? The Bible doesn’t even get that right. Therefore I trust as a ‘true beleiver’ you have read the Bible in its most original form in Aramaic instead of any English, Latin or Greek versions as you know how translations get screwed up like Chinese to English. Ha!
Damn, so better pray to Joe Pesci like I do! hahaha
JimR – so who really care what they believe. We live in a tolerant society, right…………………
Osama bin Laden or Becky Fischer, Wahabbist or Pentacostal, these dangerous, poisonous creatures are the worst enemies of human progress and civilization that ever lived.
And as long as we sit by and permit impressionable, ignorant and naîve children to be subjected to brainwashing with such idiotic tripe, we will always have such evil people, self-righteously dragging us all back toward the Stone Age.
You can sit by and watch human progress be chipped away and blown to bits by superstitious morons who can never grow up, or you could help find some kind of solution. Your choice – until these loonies take control, then see how much choice you have.
.
I’m saying that Christians are no different than anyone else, no matter how deeply they believe in fairy tales and hocus pocus. Like everyone else, Christians are animals, bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens in the family Hominidae (the great apes). That’s why christians can’t help but behave the same (or possibly worse) than non christians.
#38 Quite right.
An interesting fact I picked up about Islam was when I was living in Indonesia (world’s largest Muslim country) is Muslims must respect other people’s beliefs outside of Islam and if someone who is under the ‘protection’ of their belief a good Muslim must protect them as well. To kill, hurt or otherwise do harm to someone who is outside of Islam who is active in their belief BUT does not attempt to ‘convert’, subvert or harm Muslims is an abomination in the site of Allah (God).
To this end I saw Indonesians enjoying Christmas as a happy time of the year with Christmas day even being a national holiday. They don’t seem to be bothered at all with wishing someone Merry Christmas and singing Christmas carols.
That is something to think about.
Sorry to see that small numbers of radicals in all religions can spoil everything for everyone.
Perhaps on thing China is correct on is not allowing religions getting too organized with special attention given to those ‘missionary’ religions such as Mormons, Baptists who must ‘save’ as many people as possible as their purpose in life.
Cheers
38—You are right, but only as far as you go. We all start life as Homo, but then “culture” grabs ahold of all that potential and has its way. Thats good and bad, for what is done can be undone. Ultimately, we can all only hope the truth will win out.
As for using the cross as a Christian symbol, if I remember my history right it was one of the early kings of what is now France (King Charlemagne, ruled in the late 8th century — despite his being French I have it on good authority that he wasn’t a commie, a pinko, or tree hugging liberal) who had a vision that told him put paint the sign of the cross on his soldier’s shield before going into battle. He tried it, it worked, and as he was one of the most powerful monarchs on earth, the symbol caught on.
So for the electric chair to be used as a symbol for Christianity we’d first need a messai to be put in an electric chair, then we’d have to wait 800 years or so, then we’d have to find someone powerful (George Bush maybe) or maybe a monarch (HRH Queen Elizabeth II) who’d had a vision THEN if could become a unifying symbol.
As for everything else, religion is not a set a rules nor is it a doctrine or a dogma… it is a relationship with something greater than yourself and a way of trying to understand things that are beyond our capacity to reason. Books, like the Bible, go a long way to helping understand how other people have matured in their relationship with this ‘thing’. So do mythologies, so do the writings of mystics, so does prayer and meditation. Some books and stories are probably more accurate than others, but how you tell which is which is anyone’s guess. If you try to understand any mystical writings, whether inspired by a god or not, as you would a law code you will be lead astray. The stories need to be read and interpreted with humility (in a way that the most vocal of preachers often seem to lack). If you look around and ask around you will see there are other people out there, Christians and Muslims or whatever, that aren’t nutters and that don’t think you are going to burn in hell for not believing in a creed or having a cheeky wank (CS Lewis’ books on Christianity are a good place to start). If you think all religion is shit (and no reasonable person would blame you if you did) its worth seeking out some of these people just to see what the other side has to say.
#38 …. very good point…. and its exactly for that reason that many Christians turn to Christianity for help…. they want to be better, kinder more loving people but can’t help being greedy and self-fish at times. Jesus never said that people would become perfect simply by believe in him….
Im from India, born in a Hindu family and trust me that hindus believe in more mythology and gods then anything ever can (though its different thing that Hinduism defines only universal oneness as God, Brahma, and other gods are actually ideals, devtas). Im a long time atheist and can freely go around proclaiming so here, generating so much as a debate but certainly no lynching.
I cant seem to understand what’s happening in US suddenly with all these charlatans suddenly attacking everything they think is non-christian. Whatever happened to religion being personal choice ? religion as a way of life instead of my god vs your god ? I used to think that as more and more ppl get educated they will get the better of these man-made gods and so called religious books written by primitive humans thousands of years back. But seeing the sudden spurt (is it ??) of affinity to religion is as if we have reached the crest of evolution and the mind cannot really distinguis btwn faith and truth.
#44 – Abhishek,
I believe you are correct about the negative correlation between good education and religion. The point you may be missing is that, at least in the U.S. our education, and particularly our science education, has dwindled in quality so badly that I frequently meet people that can’t tell the difference between science and pseudoscience.
Intelligent Design, as the prime current example, fails to even be a scientific hypothesis, let alone a theory. Apologists use statistics, wildly calculated probabilities, and legal defense style arguments as proof of religion. And, people just can’t tell the difference between that and science.
As for your statement of correlation though, it is quite interesting and Dawkins points it out well in the God Delusion. In the bulk of the population, most people believe in god. For those with advanced degrees the number drops slightly. For those with scientific degrees and professions, the number of believers drops dramatically. By the time you get to the top scientists, those that make it to the National Academy of Sciences, the number of atheists is 93%.
44,
I LIKe you…
Iv seen a few different beliefs, and MOSt of them say 1 thing, MORe then any….”BE NICE TO EACH OTHER”
And all I see are people TRYING to take Their Beliefs and SHOVE them down my throat.
In MY understanding…Being understanding, and Nice to others, will lead a person to Betterment…
To bad the ASS HOLES of the world beat me down…I moved and have found a better place.. Others like what I do for them for no more then they can afford.(mostly NOTHING)…But i Like spending my time with them.
First off I got to say what a different blog site this is instead of a PC tech blog I assumed it would be! Its Great!
#43
If Religion was software I would be un-installing it as it would take more than a service pack to fix it.
MS GodPoint Server? Make sure its Genuine and not pirated! 😉
To believe in Jesus is just that, a belief . Jesus, who was heir to the Jewish throne (vs the Roman puppet king Herod) would be aghast at the blasphemy of him having being worshiped.
Rome hijacked and created the Christian religion we have now. Move over Sol Invictus for Jesus who by the way is now divine. The Sabbath moved from Saturday to SUNday (Sol Invictus holy day) and Jesus’s birthday now is in December which was the re-birth day of the SUN – days getting longer etc. The Catholic church has a long history of ‘editing’ dogma to suit it means. This is LONG before ‘Da Vinci’ code and other books on the subject which brought it into the popular arena.
It seems that many outspoken Christians have never studied theology and history. Do they argue from points of views they have been brought up on or brainwashed on? That’s kind of weak.
The Bible cannot be taken as a historical factual document. Even something as simple of Jesus’s last words on the cross are contradicted in the gospels. One must ask about the many other gospels which abound? Why must they be forgotten just because the Catholics said there are only four which are correct – and even they don’t get things right.
It is also interesting that Christians are quick to quote everything but what Jesus actually ‘taught’.
The only conclusion is that Christianity as we know it is truly a man-made ‘fast-food’ religious concept. Don’t think as we will do that for you.
Even prayer is a selfish concept when you think about it. Imagine, you are trying to lobby God in doing something that you think God ought to do. WOW! Talk about feeling self important huh?
Respect all religions as beliefs and be at peace with others.
Cheers.
#47 – lol just wait, it gets better – lol this log is teh best
My theory is that all of this violence and threat of violence in the name of Christianity is a sign that Christianity is itself a dying faith. What is going on now in history is sort of a rebirth of the reformation era, with science playing the role of Martin Luther.
The reformation was born with the printing press, that allowed everyone to actually read the Bible and see that the catholic church at that time was incompatible with bible teachings, hence the birth of protestantism.
What we are seeing today is born in the availablility of knowledge, being accelerated with the internet. It is allowing everyone to see that the Bible is incompatible with reality. Secularists are the new protestants, and protestants are the old dogmatic catholic church.
Christianity has been hijacked. If Jesus were alive today, he’d drink beer and eat meat while driving his leather upholstered Hummer on the freeway.
#51 – iGW, and many others.
Why do we bother to ask what a fictional character would do if alive today? The man probably never even existed. Historians of the time did not write about him. No mention is made of any controversial crucifixion at the time. No one wrote a word about him until around 90 years after his death, at a time when allegorical writings in the style of the new testament were common. Why not ask what Bilbo Baggins would do if alive today? Or ask what Shrek would do? Or ask about the great pumpkin?
http://tinyurl.com/34amgh
It’s time for an age of reason but we keep going backward toward the dark ages. Can’t we get past our stupid mythologies and get on with rational lives based on human innate morality? Even though morality is clearly lacking in some individuals, we could form laws based on real morals and enforce them. We could use the minds that evolution has given us. Instead of letting mythology twist the morals of otherwise decent humans into bombing the crap out of each other, let’s try to become the rational species most of us already think we are.
#50 – BryanP
“Because the last time I checked we (worldwide) haven’t a surfeit of Christian terrorists strapping on semtex jammies and doing the boom-boom boogie.”
No, our homegrown types are more dangerous. The others scare a lot of people and make a lot of noise, but they rarely if ever get the political changes they want. But their so-called “Christian” brethren here, as exemplified by Becky Fischer and her ilk, don’t have to infiltrate our society in order to carry out their program of subverting the Constitution and the principles of a free, secular society – they’re already in place, and busily going about their activities, which in the long run are far more destructive than any high explosives.
Many of you have heard it before, but for those who mayn’t’ve, the differences in the particular faiths they act on behalf of are unimportant; what makes Fischer and bin Laden closer than brother and sister is the ideological zealotry that comes from the psychotic egocentric and egotistical delusion that they are correct, ONLY they are correct, they “KNOW” they’re correct, and therefore they believe with all their hearts that they have been given the right – the duty, even – to force their superstition on everyone else by any means they choose.
That mindset is the root of the problem. “Live and let live” is not in their lexicon.
“Be reasonable; do it my way” is mildly amusing on a desk plaque. But when people actually think that way, they must be stopped.
47: If religion was software, I’d make sure you checked out the open source version before you spend good money on the commercial stuff.
49: I hope you are right about mainstream religion dying, although I think what is happening is that
50: I seem the remember the terrorist attacks in Ireland had something to do with religion…..
51: I disagree, if Jesus was alive today he’d drive a Triumph motorcycle on the freeway and wouldn’t eat meat unless it was spit roasted….
52: Who says rational/scientific thought isn’t as a much a load of crap as any other mythology or religion or philosophy?
49: sorry, I got cut off somehow…. what I meant to say is that you are right about mainstream religion dying and that all of the fanatacism is a response to that, but I also reckon that religion will always be with us, just hopefully it will remain confined to the spiritualists and not the dogmatist….
#54 – Ben Waymark
“Who says rational/scientific thought isn’t as a much a load of crap as any other mythology or religion or philosophy?”
Is it a joke, or are you actually serious? If you are then you really missed out on an education.
The difference is stark and amazingly simple: science, unlike all else, is continually tested against reality.
“Instead of letting mythology twist the morals of otherwise decent humans into bombing the crap out of each other,”
I agree, but, even without religion, there are other good reasons to bomb the crap out of someone..
#50, Bryan,
I disagree.
If you bother to check, most of these “Muslim terrorists” come from unstable countries or countries with a sizable portion in disagreement with their government. The more unstable, the more “violent militants”.
Currently Afghanistan and Iraq are very unstable and consequently have a lot of “violent militants”. The same may be said for Palestine. Countries where large portions disagree with their government include the refugee camps in Lebanon, as well as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Given the same opportunity Christian countries could produce violent militants at the same rate and degree as unstable Muslim regimes. Ireland’s religious strife is a good example.
Be all that as it may, the problem with these radical evangelicals is THEY ARE HERE and the radical Muslims aren’t. They threaten my life as it is and the future more then the Muslim threat in Afghanistan does.
Just my two and ½ cents worth (inflation ya know)
#55 – just hopefully it will remain confined to the spiritualists and not the dogmatist….
Hopefully it will be confined to the loony bin.
#54 – Ben Waymark,
Who says rational/scientific thought isn’t as a much a load of crap as any other mythology or religion or philosophy?
Way to show off your superior education!! I’d suggest that you file a lawsuit against your high school. In fact, you could probably find millions of similarly educated people in the U.S. and make it a class action suit against each state for providing insufficient science education to even tell what science is.
#51 – I’ll give you that. Jesus would also be a biker. But he’d most likey eat the spit roasted meat while riding, just the same. 😉
26. oooops yea you were right, I greatly underestimated the length of this thread. lol
56 and 60:
I have to admit I was always in the special education (if my spelling hasn’t given that away already). It was a pretty crap education on the whole, but one thing I did learn that is that anyone who thinks that they have all the answers and that everyone else is wrong is probably a nut job and a fanatic. I am sure if I was better educated, maybe held a professorship at Oxford like the humble Dr. Dawkin’ does I’d realize the error of my errors that science, unlike ever other religion, doctrine, dogma, and philosophy that has passed our way over the last 50,000+ years or so is complete shit.
Damn damn my own stupid little head…. if I only I were smarter….
#62 – Just on principle, I’ll do my part to get us to 70. 😉
>>terrorists” come from …. countries with a sizable portion in disagreement with their government.
I guess that explains the holy rollers, the abortion-doctor shooters, and the rest of the kooks who are trying to subvert the Constitution, huh? 😉