Does Bush Think Terrorists are all Atheists?
Recently, as part of Chanukah celebrations at the White House, President George W. Bush reportedly described Muslim terrorists as atheists:
Bush said that despite declarations of piety from Muslim radicals now fighting the United States, he doubted that they believed in God. “ ‘Terrorists’ can’t be God-believing people,’ ” Richard Joel, president of Yeshiva University, quoted Bush as saying.
Source: JTA
Granted, this is a second-hand quote and not a direct quote from Bush himself, but it is a report made immediately after the events and thus far I haven't found any statements from the White House contradicting Joel's account. This view is, as I note above, not very uncommon and would be keeping in character for someone who has convinced themselves that religion and theism are the only real paths to truth or peace.
Assuming this quote is true, then, what are we to make of it? Well, it suggests that George W. Bush might conceive of his "War on Terrorism" as also being a War on Atheism: an effort to root out and destroy all those how don't believe in gods and thus have no good reason to be moral, upstanding citizens.
The fact that all this violence is a direct product of religion and theism isn't just ignored, it's denied outright. Atheists aren't flying planes into buildings in the name of Darwin, it's theists acting in the name of their god. Bush's complete reversal of reality isn't just consistent with his usual refusal to deal with reality, but it's actually a way to ensure that the violence continues: unless religious theists are willing to acknowledge the aspects of their traditions which encourage violent behavior, they will never be able to keep it from constantly reappearing in new guises.
This is one reason why atheists shouldn't succumb to the fallacious arguments that "tolerance" of religion means not criticizing religion. The absence of strong, pointed critiques will only encourage people in their beliefs that religion and theism are inherently good. People aren't going to stop thinking ill of atheists because if we stop criticizing religions, they will just find it easier to think that we're to blame for all the problems religious believers are causing.
Comments
The terrorists can’t be atheists since there are no real atheists. We’re all just theists in denial and really do believe in gawd.
Bush has made similar statements before. In an October 2006 interview with Bill O’Reilly he described the struggle with middle eastern terrorism as follows:
“See, this is not a struggle of religion, in my judgment. This isn’t Christianity versus Islam. People in the Muslim world need to look at the United States. We welcome Muslim-Americans. They’re free to worship the way they so choose.
This is a struggle between people who have subverted a great religion to meet their own ambitions and kill. [b]I don’t believe religious people kill innocent people. I don’t believe that.[/b]
I believe these are totalitarians who want to impose their vision on others. And they use murder as a weapon to achieve it. And the fundamental question facing all civilized world and facing nations in the Middle East is can we have systems in place that end up marginalizing radicals and extremists. It’s really the call of this generation, Bill.”
Transcript.
Logically then, Bush must believe that the “radicals and extremists” who flew planes into buildings on 9/11 were not religious and thus were atheists. Perhaps he got the idea from Ben Stein.
Sorry. I screwed up the HTML in the last post.
Bush has made similar statements before. In an October 2006 interview with Bill O’Reilly he described the struggle with middle eastern terrorism as follows:
“See, this is not a struggle of religion, in my judgment. This isn’t Christianity versus Islam. People in the Muslim world need to look at the United States. We welcome Muslim-Americans. They’re free to worship the way they so choose.
This is a struggle between people who have subverted a great religion to meet their own ambitions and kill. I don’t believe religious people kill innocent people. I don’t believe that.
I believe these are totalitarians who want to impose their vision on others. And they use murder as a weapon to achieve it. And the fundamental question facing all civilized world and facing nations in the Middle East is can we have systems in place that end up marginalizing radicals and extremists. It’s really the call of this generation, Bill.”
Transcript.
Logically then, Bush must believe that the “radicals and extremists” who flew planes into buildings on 9/11 were not religious and thus were atheists. Perhaps he got the idea from Ben Stein.
If only atheists kill “innocent” people, is Dubya an atheist? How many deaths of innocent people is he responsible for in the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq?
Oh, wait. “God” told Dubya to kill all those people. Like “god” tells women to kill their children. I guess you don’t have to be an atheist, after all.