Reciprocating Bill
Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006
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BarryA is proving himself a defiantly sick man:
| Quote | Darwin at Columbine Redux
Barry Arrington
Editor’s note: I post frequently on the ethical implications of materialism. There is a reason for that. I have dealt personally with the deadly consequences of the materialist worldview taken to its logical end . Below is a post that first appeared on these pages on November 9, 2007:
In a recent post Denyse O’Leary linked to a news story coverning Pekka Eric Auvinen, the Finnish student who killed eight in a shooting spree at his school. Apparently Auvinen was an ardent Darwinist who considered himself to be an instrument of natural selection. He wrote: “I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgaces of human race and failures of natural selection."...
I am not suggesting that Auvinen’s and Harris’ actions are the inevitable consequences of believing in Darwinism. It is, however, clear that at least some of Darwin’s followers understand “survival of the fittest” and the attendant amorality at the bottom of Darwinism as a license to kill those whom they consider “inferior.” Nothing could be more obvious. |
Since Barry is going down memory lane, so will I. This was my response to his original post:
Barry:
You are an attorney. Let's follow the implications of your argument.
Because Eric Harris was obsessed with and cited concepts drawn from evolutionary theory as justification for his actions at Columbine, it follows that belief in evolutionary theory ("Darwinism") contributed to his horrible, violent acts.
Ergo, more generally, when disturbed people do disturbed things, such as shooting and murdering schoolmates, we should accept at face value their own account of the motivations for and causes of their behavior.
It follows that belief in Christian concepts such as God, heaven, hell, and eternal damnation results in mothers drowning their children.
Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub. Although she knew that what she was doing was illegal, she nevertheless thought it was the right thing to do to save her children from eternal damnation.
You might protest that this was an aberation. But a thorough psychiatric evaluation conducted by one of the country's leading forensic psychiatrists (Philip Resnick, whom I have met) showed that she was obsessed with religious concepts and the implications thereof for her children. There cannot be the slightest doubt that Yates was a worshiper of Christ and saw herself as acting on Christian principles.
I am not suggesting that Yates' actions are the inevitable consequences of believing in Christianty. It is, however, clear that at least some of Jesus' followers understand "heaven, hell and eternal damnation" and the attendant moral structure of Christianity as a license to kill those whom they fear are at risk of eternal damnation - even their own small children. Nothing could be more obvious.
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Barry, I hope the above illustrates for you how mistaken and, frankly, ridiculous your reasoning is. As disturbed people do disturbed things, they often incorporate elements from their environments into delusional, idiosyncratic systems of thought that they believe motivate or justify their actions. However, in the 21st century we understand that disturbed people often have poor insight into the actual basis of their own motivations and behaviors, and are often unable to discern the distortions that may be introduced into their thinking by their disturbed mental state. Nevertheless, it is the mental disturbance that accounts for the behavior that follows, not the ideas that were recruited into a disturbed or distorted system of thought by a mental illness into which the individual has no insight.
Shame on you, Barry. Shame on you.
Get some help.
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Myth: Something that never was true, and always will be.
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
- David Foster Wallace
"Here’s a clue. Snarky banalities are not a substitute for saying something intelligent. Write that down."
- Barry Arrington
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