Month: January 2009

First, let me state that Glenn Beck is a worthless blowhard that does not belong on any network. He makes flimsy arguments, and in true one-sided pundit fashion, he only ever has guests on to support his worldview to his sheep-like audience. On the off occasion that someone of a differing opinion joins him on screen, he treats them just like his network’s papa bear, Bill O’Reilly, and never lets them get a sentence out edgewise amid all of the interruptions, sour looks, and instant, fallacious refutations.

Glenn Beck is to logical discourse what the bubonic plague was to medieval longevity. He wouldn’t recognize a concrete argument if it sat on his face. I get douche chills in my spine just watching this short segment.

As with many examples of fundamentalist ideology that I present, this one is also replete with more flaws and fallacies than can reasonably be addressed given my limited time resources and the internet’s limited bandwidth resources. But as always, I’ll touch on a few of the more glaring cases.

“90% of us believe in God yet we seem to be pushed around by 10%”

This type of ignorance can only come from being deeply ethnocentric, as a fair amount of religious folks tend to be. When exactly have Christians been pushed around? It seems to me that when you send your children to a public, government-funded school, it doesn’t really matter what your opinion is on any matter, because in the end, the government will dictate the agenda for said school. Don’t like it? Send your kids to private school. Then they can pray all day long, have Bible study, do stations of the cross, play wholesome Christian sports, and learn to be a bigot in entirely new and creative ways.

“blah blah some people want to remove God from this country altogether. Right here. This nation under God.”

We have only officially been a “nation under God” since 1954, when that phrase was legislated into existence after pressuring from religious groups. To quote the Rev. George Macpherson Docherty:

“These words [‘under God’] will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.”

Riiiight. Or they will be used by religious fanatics to insist that this country has been officially blessed by an all-knowing God, thus making us his second group of chosen people.

“You can’t even use the word ‘prayer’ in school.”

Wrong. You are wrong. The decision of the judge in Illinois did not ban prayer from schools, or ban the use of the word ‘prayer’ in schools. Children can do whatever they like during moments of silence. If they want to pray, that should be something that they would have wanted to do with that time anyway. They should not need to be instructed on the various ways in which 30 seconds can be used. Leave them to their imaginations. I’m sure toddlers can figure it out on their own. If their depth of faith is so great that they want to submerge themselves in prayer, they will do so. If they want to color, they will do so.

“Are the children of atheists so fragile that the idea of prayer could actually warp their minds?”

No they are not. Children of atheists, for the most part, already have a good foundation in logic and critical thinking. However, all children are extremely impressionable, and were it not for their parents dictating to them what they must believe to go to Heaven after death (another concept they probably haven’t even fully come to terms with) they wouldn’t even espouse such beliefs.

That’s it. I’m spent. I’m only 1:17 into this video, and I can’t suffer any more. What is your favorite piece of ‘wisdom’ from Glenn or Jimmy Dobs in this video?