User talk:GodlessWolf

History of Persecution Against Heathens

I am a History major, so I thought I could be very helpful with this page, but this is just a draft - it is far from complete, it is just getting the ball rolling. I will not publish this unless the Administrators gives the green flag, which they are allowed to do at any time and make any changes they wish. I am not even sure how they want this properly titled, and I am assuming that this is a paper of all religious affiliations persecuting non-believers.

Christianity

• Persecution of the Native Americans: (I wrote a whole article about this on RationalWiki [1]) The European settlers who arrived on the New World soil very often persecuted Native Americans on religious grounds, labelled the most hateful things imaginable (pagans, cannibals, and devil-worshippers - even the famous John smith said that these strange folk worshiped the Devil). Rowlandson, a female prisoner amongst the local Natives who remained captive for several weeks claims her faith got her through the struggle until she was ransomed. She reported the following in her book Soveraignty and Goodness of God (1682), “I may say, that as none knows what it is to fight and pursue such an enemy as this, but they that have fought and pursued them: so none can imagine what it is to be captivated, and enslaved to such atheisticall, proud, wild, cruel, barbarous, brutish (in one word) diabolical creatures as these, the worst of the heathen.”

For years, Christians stole land from the Native Americans, because they believed that the earth was created by God, it was God's garden and God appointed Christians as its gardeners. Many Native Americans were murdered, raped or turned to slavery.

• Thanksgiving: The widely held common belief of the holiday Thanksgiving is that of a cheerful gathering between pilgrims and Native Americans, feasting together. Unfortunately, the reality of Thanksgiving is much darker.

• Witch hunts: Currently, witch burnings and executions continue on in Africa. A story was published, revealing a mother chained and locked her own daughter in a closet for nine years because she believed her daughter was a witch. The mother's local pastor agreed and encouraged the acts.[2] Even recently, Pope Benedict XVI warns Africans against witchcraft [3].

• Holocaust: Starting in 1939, the Nazi party led by Adolf Hitler mobilized the Third Reich. Throughout their territory, they passed laws and stripped the rights of Jews. The gathered and forcefully escorted Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped, Jehovah's Witnesses, and more to death camps.

• Christianity in India: Christian terrorist organizations in North-East India, called “National Liberation Front of Tripura” (NLFT). They have murdered hundreds of Hindus, even while they were practicing their rituals. They have converted many Hindus and tribals forcibly at gunpoint, and are involved in rapes, and assassinations. They continue to receive arms as well as moral and financial support from Western Christian organizations and Missionaries.

Islam

• Jihad: In the Qur’an jihad, meaning “struggle,” has two meanings. The meaning adopted by most Muslims refers to an internal spiritual struggle to conform to the teachings of Muhammad. A second meaning refers to a military-type struggle of Islam against infidels. The latter is the meaning adopted by Wahhabins.

• Wahhabinism: Wahhabinism was only a minor Islamic sect under the Ottomans. However, it became a major global political force after oil-rich Saudi Arabia adopted its religious rigors in 1933.

By the 1700s the once-powerful Islamic Ottoman Empire was in serious disarray. Western Europe was in its ascendancy intellectually, scientifically, commercially, and militarily, and the Islamic empire struggled unsuccessfully to keep up. In the Arabian peninsula, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792) broke away from Istanbul and created a state of his own. His response to the increase secularization of the empire was to return to a more puritanical form of Islam with a strict moral code based on a literal interpretation of the Qur’an. He issued a religious persecution of innocent people.

Wahhabinism enforces a restrictive dress code, restricts the freedoms of women, cuts off the hands of thieves, and practices many other restrictive practices. Wahhabinism forms the basis for the beliefs of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Its philosophical anti-secular, anti-modernity, anti-infidel underpinnings are largely responsible for the hatred towards Western culture seen in modern Islamic terrorism.

Atheist Books

I saw someone suggest on Brian's talk page that we include a article listing Atheist books. They were thinking of providing just links to Amazon, but Amazon may block all links as spam. So I recommend listing the books by name and author. My own personal library has nearly 2 shelves of all atheism and rational material, as well as philosophical books and the occasional religious text (Bible, Quran, Vedas, Satanic Bible, and Torah). Here is my personal book wishlist, which could be added to the "Atheist Books" article that may (or may not) come.

• "The End of Christianity" by John Loftus
• "Why I Became an Atheist" by John W. Loftus
• "The End of Biblical Studies" by Hector Avalos - I actually met Prof. Avalos, brilliant man.
• "Who Wrote the Gospels?" Gary Greenberg
• "The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning" by Victor J. Stenger
• "Forged" by Bart D. Ehrman
• "Why I Am Not a Christian" by Richard Carrier
• "The Case Against The Case For Christ" by Robert M Price
• "Doubting Jesus' Resurrection" by Kris D Komarnitsky
• "The Human Faces of God" by Thom Stark
• "Incredible Shrinking Son of Man" by Robert M. Price
• "The Bible Against Itself" by Randel McCraw Helm
• "Atheism: A Philosophical Justification" by Michael Martin
• "The Rejection of Pascal's Wager" by Paul Tobin
• "The Bible Unearthed" by Finkelstein and Silberman
• "The Case Against Christ: Why Believing Is No Longer Reasonable" by Matt McCormick
• "Flim Flam" by James Randi
• "The Moral Landscape" by Sam Harris
• "Fighting Words: Origins of Religious Violence" by Hector Avalos
• "Creationisms Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design" by Barbara Forest
• "The Skeptics Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience" by Michael Shermer
• "Unintelligent Design" by Mark Perakh
• "The Atheists are Revolting" by Nick Gisburne
• "The Atheists Introduction to the New Testament" by Mike Davis
• "Jesus is Dead" by Robert M. Price
• "Inerrant the Wind" by Robert M. Price
• "UFOs, Ghosts, and a Rising God" by Christ Hallquist
• "The Faith Healers" by James Randi
• "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural" by James Randi
• "How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition" by Robert M. Price
• "Pseudoscience/Paranormal 2nd Edition" by Terence Hines