Thought of the Night
Joe Ratzigner, who goes by the name 'Pope Benedict XVI', should not apologize for his remarks on Islam. When you say something that offends people it only requires an apology if you didn't mean it. I think he meant what he said.
The demand for an apology for everything that offends anyone today in politics and religion bothers me. When people say things, I presume they mean it. What good does an apology do? Take George Allen's 'macaca' remarks. He clearly meant it as a racist slander and didn't seem to think it was inappropriate. So what weight does it carry when he apologizes only after a fury erupts? It's just a calculated political move of a racist. He's not sorry at all.
You will notice that atheists are not protesting or burning little pope effigies in the streets, even though the majority of his speech focused on assaulting secularism and freethinkers with jabs like "being afraid of God...is ultimately at the root of modern atheism." Apparently we just don't get too worked up over the comments of a 79-year-old man who wears a four foot tall hat.
The demand for an apology for everything that offends anyone today in politics and religion bothers me. When people say things, I presume they mean it. What good does an apology do? Take George Allen's 'macaca' remarks. He clearly meant it as a racist slander and didn't seem to think it was inappropriate. So what weight does it carry when he apologizes only after a fury erupts? It's just a calculated political move of a racist. He's not sorry at all.
You will notice that atheists are not protesting or burning little pope effigies in the streets, even though the majority of his speech focused on assaulting secularism and freethinkers with jabs like "being afraid of God...is ultimately at the root of modern atheism." Apparently we just don't get too worked up over the comments of a 79-year-old man who wears a four foot tall hat.
posted by Matt Bors at
9:28 PM
1 Comments:
>>>>>>You will notice that atheists are not protesting or burning little pope effigies in the streets, even though the majority of his speech focused on assaulting secularism and freethinkers with jabs like "being afraid of God...is ultimately at the root of modern atheism."
Prezactly.
Matt Cherry, executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies and president of the United Nations NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief (and an atheist) said the same thing to a Canadian radio talk show host last week.
We rebroadcasted the segment on this month's HNN podcast.
http://ihs.libsyn.com
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