Another writer who would rather engage in the sensational instead of facts, especially when it comes to the continued cultural warfare against Christianity.
Betrand Russell in “Why I am not a Christian” asserts that millions of witches were burned in Europe in the Middle Ages. (Bertrand Russell, Why I’m Not a Christian: and Other Essays On Religion and Related Subjects (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957), 20. OK, you tell me, why is that totally fallacious, and I have to surmise entirely written to be sensationalistic? … There simply weren’t that many people, and certainly not enough to put that many people to death. The most most extreme estimates is somewhere around 80,000 people were executed in Europe for witchcraft. For those who are challenged in their educational background in the areas of math and history, that is far below “millions” and simply, in fact, did not happen. That they were executed is obviously totally unacceptable. But to take a tragedy like this and for purposes of trying to generate hate against a particular group, Christians, for something that happened over 400 years ago, is obviously intended for bigotry and hatred, and the facts be damned. “Millions”, fantasy, vs 80,000 fact is a vast difference.
One wonders why someone like Russell would chose to submit fiction. I submit, he was a bigot, hater, and was probably trying to justify his own personal sins and hatred by trying to project that on to someone else. Cowards and bullies are notorious for such behavior. The number of people executed for witchcraft in Salem? Twenty. Again, not at all acceptable, but far below the nonsense often touted by uninformed sensationalists. By the way, despite what I see and hear regularly, none of them were burned, they were hung, the one exception was Gilles Corey who was pressed to death, a man. If you’re going to make accusations try and have some of your facts straight. But if you just want to be sensational, generate hate and bigotry against Christians, might as well tell whatever lies it takes to generate hate. But hey, lying haters, that’s what they do. By the way, Salem was the only place in North America where witches, to any extent, were executed. The whole rest of the continent none that anyone seems to be otherwise aware of. (now of course someone will pipe up with a handful of obscure, isolated situations that were related to nothing else.)
I know, those who simply want to achieve the sensationalistic and add to anti-Christian bigotry don’t usually get too concerned with the facts, afterall, they have a bigoted agenda to pursue. But we have to quit allowing this.
I assure you that Muslims, also for religious reasons, “convert or die” killed at least as many and I would submit more, and yet never called to account. Why? Christians are supposed to be meek and non-confrontational. They are then perfect targets of bullies, which is what the secular humanist is, and who then goes on prodding and bullying what they expect will be the cowering Christians. Muslims will not simply submit, they will push back and in ways that bullies don’t like.
Let’s talk about genuine horror. Secular humanism of the twentieth century, by far the bloodiest century in human history, in fact more than the total of all deaths by violence of all of history combined.) Hmmmm, who was conducting those crusades and assaults against humanity? Yea, the most vicious, vile secular humanists in the history of man. Why would they all of a sudden appear in such a short time? Is it that the only force capable of opposing such evil had been pushed away by all the “well-intentioned” persons of the 19th century who were so concerned with saving humanity from the “horrors” of Christianity. Well done! You subjected, quite literally, millions in Europe, particularly those areas captured by the Nazis. Russia, starting with the communist revolution from 1918 up to at least the late 1900’s. Of course throw in other fascists, Mussolini, Tojo, Franco, … The rest of the communist hit parade still going on today in China, starting with Mao in the 1940s. Let’s throw in Ho Chi Minn, Pol Pot, Che Guevera, Castro, secular humanist murders of, quite literally millions. Goes to show what ignorance, lack of critical thinking, basic intellectual dishonesty the “well intentioned”, inflict on others. Hitler was opposed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer a Christian, Lutheran minister. Soviet communists were opposed by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Christian, who was booed at a Harvard commencement. Bonhoeffer was hung by secular humanists.
The church has committed a lot of stupid over the centuries, but has committed far more good and continues to do so now, far outstripping the efforts of any government. When there are needs, there are so many Christian organizations that rush in to provide for the victims. FEMA actually counts on the support of organizations such as Catholic Charities, Lutheran World Relief, The Salvation Army, American Red Cross and many other Christian groups. They not only rush in to the catastrophic (interesting how I can’t think of one secular humanist organization that rushes in to help anyone. Hey maybe Planned Parenthood rushes in to give emergency abortions, … nah, I don’t think they would. Cowards who simply kill and take your money are simply not so motivated.) But those same Christian organizations are all over the world day in and day out providing for the needs of millions. Those are the millions who are often subject to their local petty tyrants, think of Somalia as an example. Yea, Mother Teresa helping the poor of India, where are the Hindus or secular humanists in India? Not helping their own people who do quite literally starve and die of disease in the streets, yet no world out cry? Except those who like to peddle ignorant prattle of the “millions” of witches, blah, blah,blah.
People have to think things out, ignore the nonsense and get the facts. Maybe we can make the 21st century a peaceful one, instead of trying to exterminate a group of people or their religious beliefs like the Nazis and Communists tried to do to the Jewish people in the 20th centuries. But hey, haters gonna hate.
My wetsuit got left in the car, and no one was going back for it at this point, but as it turned out, that might have been a good thing. The water temp was at about 78, it was a mildly hot day. The more I think about it, it seems that being in the wetsuit would have left me over heated for the rest of the race and while my swim time was, to put it mildly, horrible, I’m not sure, based on some other issues, that it really would have made any difference.
hey, I still maintained my “I haven’t finished last record”, and I did finish. Got the medal, got the t-shirt.
the bike
the run
and to the glory of God, did acceptably and had a great experience in a different environment, did my first race in a city setting, my first race on a Great Lake (Lake Erie) and certainly the first time I’ve done a “National championship” of anything. I’m going with I may have finished very near the bottom, but it was near the bottom of the best in the country. So I’m going with that and again, giving all glory to God and thanking Him for giving me such a tremendous experience. I do want to thank USA Triathlon too, they did a great job organizing this. They provided the atmosphere for a “championship event” that I was eligible to be a part of, albeit circumstantially. But I’ll take it.
Pastor Jim Driskell 