There is a school of thought among anti-theists like myself that rejects the smiling, hat-in-hand, ‘moderate’ version of theist belief that seems to dominate the newspaper opinion columns and academic debate halls (and yet seems to correspond not at all to the front page headlines) as profoundly dishonest. If you believe that the Bible or the Qur’an or the Torah are literally true, or even true as metaphor, then you cannot escape a few simple conclusions, the first and most obvious of which is that the guy running the show is a petty and vengeful dictator who will torture you eternally out of ‘love’ (one of many words that seems to have a completely different meaning when describing the deity than it does when used to describe anything else).
This particular group of anti-theists don’t have a whole lot of patience for those who say that the different religions are just ‘different ways at arriving at the same answer’ or that religions are all ‘fundamentally about peace’. “Bullshit!” they (we) say, “you can only claim that if you just flat-out ignore half of the shit in your book. If you’re going to ignore parts of it, we invite you to join us and ignore the whole fucking thing.” Anti-theists are potty-mouths.
And in that sense, the only times that anti-theists and religious fundamentalists agree (when it comes to questions of theology) usually involve at least one dead body:
In an apparent attempt at damage control just two days after a cousin’s sexual molestation charges went public, Zimmerman broke his silence in an exclusive interview with Fox News conservative talk show host Sean Hannity. His lawyer, Mark O’Mara, sat beside him as Zimmerman recounted the Sunday night that he encountered a hoodie-clad black teenager who walked too leisurely in the rain.
Asked if he regretted getting out of the car that night or owning a gun, Zimmerman said no. Asked if he would do anything differently, Zimmerman said no a third time, and added that Trayvon’s death was “God’s plan.”
You see that, folks? The death of a 17 year-old kid who had broken no laws or done anything more threatening than walking home from the store was the will of the Almighty. The resulting inflammation of long-standing racial enmity, the reflexive resurgence of victim-blaming and open demonization of black men that happens every time a story like this hits the papers? That was YahwAlladdha’s will too! While it’s tempting to see this as the story of an unhinged wannabe-vigilante stalking, harassing, and ultimately executing a teenager and then walking away uncharged, that’s a laughably prosaic view. No no no, this was the direct intervention of a supernatural entity whose thirst for the blood of the innocent will never be quenched.
By the way, this:
“I am not a racist,” Zimmerman told Hannity. “I am not a murderer.”
Is the reason that I deplore the use of the phrase “a racist”. It’s a term to describe a condition that can never be satisfied – nobody thinks they’re racist (except avowed racial supremacists, who are thankfully rare), and therefore saying “I’m not a racist” is a complete waste of perfectly good consonants. Of course Zimmerman doesn’t think he’s “a racist” – he’s found the perfect explanation for his decision to identify a teenager walking home in the rain as ‘suspicious’ and ‘aggressive’, follow him, accost him, and eventually shoot him: it was part of Yahweh’s ineffable plan! Are you saying GOD is a racist? Hunh? Are you? Didn’t think so…
The truly scary part of this story is that George Zimmerman’s mind has completely removed all sense of responsibility for the shooting. His words of remorse are belied by the fact that he said he would not have changed anything about that night:
“I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that wouldn’t have put me in the position where I had to take his life,” Zimmerman said.
But in George’s mind, the only person who could possibly take the blame for what happened is YahwAlladdha, and our lives are his to toy with anyway so there’s not a whole lot we can say or do.
Of course, from the beginning this has never been about blaming George Zimmerman for me. There are just so many things wrong with the whole story, from beginning to end. The idea of anyone roaming around the neighbourhood with a loaded gun terrifies me. Zimmerman says that he always has a gun when he leaves the house. That’s sick and disturbing. The idea that a law exists that says anyone, regardless of training or licensing, can just pull out and execute whoever they want so long as they fear their life is in danger – while it raises some interesting possibilities it is nonetheless terrifying and indicative of something being seriously wrong with Floridians.
This latest god-dodge is only the latest in the string of disgusting and morally bankrupt events that characterize this case. George Zimmerman isn’t the only problem here – he’s just the one with his finger on the trigger.
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His attorney must be going for a jury nullification (or a hung jury by the one hyper-religious nut they’ll get seated in the jury). This type of public piety (and distraction from further evidence that George Zimmerman is massively self centered with extreme disregard for other people) and making statements in public is not consistent with winning on the law nor the facts of events. It’s too easy to wind up impeaching yourself or coming off as fraud.
*BUZZER*
WRONG. In response to the question, “Is there anything you would have done differently?”, the CORRECT answer is “I would not have followed Trayvon Martin after being told not to do so. I also would not have engaged in an altercation with him. And finally, I would not have discharged my weapon.”
I also would have accepted, “I never would have bought a gun in the first place.”
It’s amazing how conveniently God’s will matches up with the will of the perpetrators of despicable acts. It speaks to a profound lack of courage in owning anything that you do, good or bad. Your achievements could not have been accomplished without God. Your troubles are all part of God’s plan, even the ones you caused yourself. Take some fucking responsibility.
This trial is going to be a cluster. I can see it now. There’s going to be so many different psychological and social things flying around that it’s going to be difficult for a jury to make sense of it. It’s going to be UGLY.
I think what annoys me the most is that people don’t realize that it’s statements like Zimmerman’s that makes me a strong anti-theist, and as such have zero interest in speaking out against him. His statement, for the most part will only be of interest to us…religious leaders will let it slide, and really, the just slur themselves by doing so.
Have to say, love the gif. That actually is my favorite movie, I think.
Agreed – both the gif and the movie are awesome.
The problem is that I collect these .gifs like a hoarder, often without any intended purpose. I have a whole file that are there as a “just in case”, so they get thrown in periodically even under the flimsiest of pretenses.
I’m glad my ancestors didn’t make the cross across the pond. This story is just barbaric and wrong. lets hope for another enlightenment in the US in the near future.
Some pretty barbaric stuff, if I remember correctly, has happened on the other side of the ‘pond’ too.
Zimmerman’s lawyer had him well coached; he can’t express regret or say that he would have done anything differently because to do so would be to accept some responsibility for a young man’s death. That’s something Zimmerman refuses to do. And blaming it on his victim makes him look heartless, so what’s left?
It’s either “the Devil made me do it” and plead insanity, or “Jebus made me do it” in which case we’re apparently supposed to just shrug our shoulders and say it’s all OK…
And here’s an interesting question…Did Sean Hannity Offer to Pay for George Zimmerman’s Defense?
I get the feeling that this trial will be decided in jury selection. Zimmerman’s people will be doing their damnedest to stack the jury with closet racists…and now with religious types who buy the “Gawd’s plan” schtick.
It’s another appearance of the logic behind the “twinkie defense”: provide an excuse, any excuse, for the jury to let their biases against the victim affect the verdict.
Crommunist spake thusly –
You know that we’re onto your game, right? http://xkcd.com/512/
What I find amazing about that quote is that Zimmerman terms it as “…I had to take his life”.
Excuse me, what? If anything has become abundantly clear since that day, it was that, whatever Zimmerman was thinking at that moment, Trayvon was no threat and he did not have to be shot to protect Zimmerman or the neighbourhood. This is just another example of Zimmerman placing the blame for Trayvon’s murder somewhere other than on his own decision to pull the gun and shoot the boy.
Well to hear Zimmerman tell it, Trayvon assaulted him physically. If there was indeed a fight, I’m sure Zimmerman felt entirely justified in using lethal force. In his mind, he was ‘forced’ to shoot.
If you are one of those people who says everything that happens is part of god’s plan, then you cant really disagree with him
I don’t think we’re giving Zimmerman enough credit for being evil. This “it’s all part of god’s plan” crap is a trick designed to work two ways. Either the jury will be christian and racist, and they will nod their heads solemnly when he says it and let him off with manslaughter (or less). Or they won’t be christian and/or racist and they will assume that he’s crazy, thus he will be found not guilty due to insanity.
@Crommunist
I just don’t understand a law that takes the shooter’s word for it if the other party is dead. All we have is Zimmerman’s side, and I trust him as much as I trusted my dog to keep his head out of the garbage (which is to say, not at all).
@Crommunist: That point is, ironically, actually in Zimmerman’s disfavor thanks to Stand Your Ground. After being stalked by a guy who then got out and approached him with a gun, Trayvon Martin had every right to stand his ground and defend himself, according to the (incredibly stupid) law. That’s an entirely reasonable situation in which to fear for one’s life – the reasonableness is (unfortunately) borne out in the fact that Zimmerman did indeed kill Martin. (I don’t think you’re arguing otherwise; I’m just highlighting the ridiculousness of Zimmerman raising the point.)
If it’s true that Trayvon attacked Zimmerman first (a perfectly reasonable response to a perceived threat as pointed out by the cartoon in the OP), why was it not God’s plan for Zimmerman to get his ass kicked?
Not so minor quibble: your use of YahwAlladdha implies that you are placing the Buddha as a god. He is not. At best, some denominations of Mahayana Buddhism say that the Buddha is an incarnation of the Dharma, the natural order of the universe, but that is still distant from most conceptions of “god” and most Buddhists reject that teaching.
Many schools of Buddhism revere various buddhas (the Buddha and others believed to have entered Nirvana) but only insofar as they are seen as honored teachers. Some schools, particularly the Vajrana, continue to practice pre-Buddhist theism along side their Buddhism and have largely merged the two, but that is a different critter entirely.
My point in using that particular nomenclature is to escape the habit, as best I can, of focusing on simply Abrahamic religions. Theism of any stripe, including Buddhist theism, is problematic for the same reasons – strong belief in the absence of evidence.
What is that .gif FROM? (It’s oddly mesmerizing!)
“I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that wouldn’t have put me in the position where I had to take his life,” Zimmerman said.
You ridiculous piece of shit, if you didn’t want to be “put in the position” of shooting an unarmed teenager, you could have stayed home and jerked off. Ever try that?
@WMDKitty
It’s from Hot Fuzz, an action comedy spoof by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the minds behind Shaun of the Dead.
I knew it looked familiar!
I mean, he offered it to me. It’s a cultural thing with Them. It would have been impolite in the extreme for me not to have done so.
The truly terrible bit is that I then collect some of what teh Crommunist posts. I am also a selective hoarder of things, and digital things take up so little space. It’s so goddamned enabling.
I wonder what else god has planned for Zimmerman.
Do not Question™ teh gawd. My gawd is an arbitrary gawd.
That statement always makes me think of this comic
For people like Zimmerman, playing Rambo is jerking off.
Yeah I saw the booking photo. That is not a guy who had recently had his nose broken and head repeatedly slammed into a wall.
God’s plan. Maybe … let’s go through this one time and see what roll God played.
Zimmerman intimidated Trayvon by following him in a vehicle. For a person walking alone at night having a vehicles keeping pace with you is is very intimidating. You are literally in a spotlight, exposed, and unable to tell who is doing it. It could have been police, this was one method some police used to intimidate people. Trayvon probably thought it might be police, or skinheads with bats looking to beat a little black boy to death. Thing is you can’t see past the headlights or windshield, and not knowing Trayvon’s mind likely went wild with speculation.
But then, the truck stops, the lights might have gone off and his attacker reveals himself to be … a short, over-wide, brown guy, with a big mouth, no respect, but absolutely no authority. It is like the scene in Wizard of Oz when when Oz is shown to be the man behind the curtain. Dorothy went from feeling small and intimidated to pissed off.
Trayvon likely felt the same. He was mad, mad as hell, probably said some things. Zimmerman might have said some things back. Trayvon was in his right to be there and while he might take some harassment from police and security guards he wasn’t going to take it from Zimmerman. So he busted him in the nose.
It bloodied his nose, caused his eyes to tear up, and caused him, overly round and out of shape, to fall backward where he hit his head. Trayvon had won the day against a bully and either wanted to get a few licks in before walking off, or he wanted to stand over Zimmerman and let him feel what it is like to feel fear and not know what is going to happen.
From Zimmerman’s perspective this is clearly not going how he had pictured it going down. He was going to play the hero and scare off the bad guy. But the bad guy didn’t run away. And now he’s on his back, bleeding, with a hoodie coming at him.
The hoodie is a slightly built boy with every right to walk down the street without being harassed. He was a kid, not thug, and certainly not a killer.
Zimmerman was hurt, embarrassed, and wanting for this whole thing to go away. And then he remembered the gun…
Funny … I don’t see any divine plan. I don’t see God playing any part at all. God seems to be doing what he/she usually does … nothing. It’s almost like God isn’t there at all.
Yeah, plenty of tensions between different ethnic groups. Also some Europeans think they’re less racist but aren’t. (ahh the irony)
I hope that its “god’s will” that Zimmerman goes to prison.
I think that anyone who patrols their neighborhood with a gun on some level is hoping that they get a chance to use it. Zimmerman had probably played through all sorts of fantasies where he got to shoot somebody and be a hero.
Except Zimmerman stopped following Martin after the police told him not to (you can hear his breathing and the sound of wind stop on the 911 call) and Martin would had to have doubled back to attack Zimmerman. Zimmerman’s head was bloodied from the attack and his clothes grass stained. Several witnesses report a tall black male standing over a white male or a hoodied mand standing over a jacketed man. There is no evidence that Zimmerman initiated the altercation, there is one witness who claims to have heard Martin initiate it. Why would Zimmerman initiate an altercation when he was knew the police were arriving any minute?
It’s a textbook case of self defense and if Zimmerman is convicted it will be due to political pressure, racial hatred, and people refusing to investigate the facts before spewing their opinions all over the internet.
Seriously, Patrik, don’t go there…
If you want to argue that racial/ethnic tensions in Europe tend to be of a different stripe and hue than the US, then I’ll be right there with you.
But arguing that the US is more (or less) racist than Europe kinda ignores all of history.
First of all, none of the ‘facts’ you offer here are things that are in evidence. You are just accepting Zimmerman’s testimony wholesale.
Second, none of this is relevant to the subject matter in the post, which makes me suspect that (since this is the first time you’ve commented here) you are nothing but a troll who has come here to spew his opinions all over the internet.