Projection - Ben Carson Style

Twenty years ago Ben Carson wrote a book containing a lot of stories about his early life.

This last week the reporters have been checking up on those stories and discovered that they cannot be verified. Some reporters have even called Ben Carson a liar.

But look how Carson tries to dismiss the problem when he says: 

There’s got to be a scandal. There’s got to be some nurse he’s had an affair with. There’s got to be something. They have gotten desperate ... Next week, it will be my kindergarten teacher who said I peed in my pants. It’s ridiculous.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ben-carson

He tries to make it sound like the reporters have been making up false stories about him when, in fact, the reporters are actually accusing him of that very thing - fabricating stories about himself! Carson completely ignores what the reporters are saying and seems to be projecting his own behaviour onto the reporters.

I wonder if Republicans have noticed how deftly he side-stepped the issue? I wonder if they are now thinking that he is the victim of defamatory stories invented by reporters?

Different Strokes For Different Folks

Google News results for "atheist"

Google News results for "youth pastor"

Winning The Debate

Politicians and Christian apologists often try to avoid embarrassing questions by changing the subject as quickly as possible. When asked about a particular subject they will often begin their reply with something like, "I think what you're trying to say is (blah blah blah)..." and off they go on a completely different subject. In this National Review article, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry took the art form to a new level:

The Errors of the Militant Atheist 

by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry November 6, 2015 4:00 AM 

The thought that most frequently pops into my head when I read diatribes by militant atheists is “Why won’t you read a book?”
[...]
Take the theoretical physicist and public speaker Lawrence Krauss ... Krauss recently received the 2015 Humanist of the Year award and delivered himself of a speech attacking religion; before that, he wrote a piece for The New Yorker that went viral, calling on scientists to attack religion.

So how did Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry answer this attack on religion?

There is no such thing as “religion.” Some words are fine to use in everyday discourse, but become completely useless if one is trying to be conceptually precise. “Religion” is one of them.
[...]
Any generalization that begins with the word “religion” is ipso facto meaningless.

How easy was that?

Source:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426668/atheism-science-religion

The God Haters

When I came across this photo of a book cover I thought it was a Poe, but

then I discovered that Don Boys is a real person and "The God Haters" is a

real book. You can see a 30 page preview here:

http://thegodhaters.com/firstlook/TheGodHaters_Excerpt.pdf

I liked this bit on the 'Contents' page.

Introduction ....................................................................................... 1

God Haters: Shallow, Silly, Sarcastic | New Atheists Are Tyrants

Preface ................................................................................................ 5
Childish Name-Callers | God Haters Put Up Straw Men

In the Introduction the author engages in some childish name-calling when

he refers to atheists as haters, shallow, silly, sarcastic, tyrants.

Then, in the Preface, he accuses the atheists of being "childish name-callers".

Probably the best example of projection I have seen this year.

Ben Carson: US Presidential Candidate

BuzzFeedNews has just reminded everyone of a video uploaded to You Tube in 2012. It contains the 1998 commencement address give by Dr Ben Carson at the (Seventh Day Adventist) Andrews University in Michigan. These bits made me feel quite weak:

About the pyramids he said:

My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids in order to store grain. Now all the archaeologists think they were made for the pharaoh's graves but...Various scientists have said, 'Well, y'know, there were alien beings that came down and they had special knowledge and that's how they were - you know - it doesn't require an alien being when god is with you.

He carefully failed to name the scientists who say that. I wonder why?

About scientists he said:

I have many arguments - I guess you could call them discussions - with so-called scientists who think that I should not believe in god.

So-called !?

About abiogenesis he said:

There were about 8 or 9 panellists - they were all Nobel Prize winners - and the question came up, how did life originate? And after all their machinations they finally came to the conclusion that life emanated as a result of a bunch of promiscuous biochemicals getting together. That was the best they could come up with.

I think that was Carson's conclusion, not the conclusion of the Nobel Prize winners.

He asked a "well known physicist" about the Big Bang theory:

Would you reconcile these two things for me - the Big Bang and entropy? Well, of course, he had no answer. You know they never have an answer...

Carson is a fibber! Physicists do have answers.

But apparently Ben Carson does have the answer - all of the answers - to everything! He said:

That's the wonderful thing about having a relationship with god. You know God has already told us what happens so we don't have to come up with fanciful theories.

And there it is. One of religion's main attractions. You don't have to work; you don't have to study; you don't have to do anything too strenuous. You just hold the bible under your arm and the knowledge of the universe soaks in through your skin. You are right up there with god almighty himself. You know everything about everything. All you have to do is think about something and it is automatically true (because god wouldn't let you think it if it was untrue!).

Original video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrqShRhxJBM#t

Bonya Ahmed Expects No Justice

In the previous post I mentioned Dr Avijit Roy who was murdered on February 26, 2015. The attack occurred during broad daylight on a public street and he was not the only victim that day. His wife, Bonya Ahmed, was also slashed by the machete wielding Defenders of Islam. Here is how she describes the attack:

That is how audacious they've become these days. The don't need to hide in darkness anymore. They wield their cleavers in well-lit streets, in front of thousands of people, in front of the police. I myself stood in the street, with four cleaver-inflicted head wounds, my hand gushing blood from a lost finger, begging for help from hundreds of people. Did anyone in that crowded street come forward to help? Before Jiban, the journalist, came to help me and Avijit, other people surrounded us in a circle to watch the spectacle. There were policemen in that circle.

She now realises that there is no justice for non-Muslims in the Muslim world. The politicians are too greedy for votes and the ordinary citizens quite enjoy the idea that infidels can be killed at any time by any one who chooses to do so. Bonya writes:

We have no demands for this government. Our only request to them is please stop wasting your energy by constantly shouting "We are the secular party." You might as well stay silent until your aims are fulfilled

Stay silent and go on oiling the fundamentalist cleavers, otherwise you might lose a few votes. You know very well that it is your silence that is allowing them to hone their weapons. 

[The Defenders of Islam] are glorying in this mad festival of murder after murder. We are all of us helpless, stunned at this dance of destruction.

This oppressive machine of state has silenced us so successfully that we grow inert in fear. Like deer caught in headlights, we watch this bloodied nation and just stare. I've heard from many people that these days those who come forward trying to help are eventually harassed by the police. 

The murderers know they have nothing to fear. They know their refuge is spreading. They know they will be awarded with the garland of state of silence.

We have learned that in this country there is no justice in the courts.

You can read the full letter here:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/bonya-ahmed/ 

About 800 years ago in Europe a gang very similar to today's "Defenders of Islam" began to murder dissenters in the public square. They referred to themselves as "Defenders of the Faith". They were the Catholic priests and their cruel Inquisitions tortured and murdered millions of innocent victims for 600 years before they were finally stopped.

Let's hope the situation in Bangladesh doesn't last so long.

Islam Is the Religion Of Peace If You Don't Count The Murders Committed In The Name Of Allah

In 2014 the 'Defenders of Islam' gave the Bangladeshi government a list of 84 people (mostly atheists) and demanded that all of them be arrested and jailed for blasphemy. The government wasn't really interested and took no action.

"OK then," said the Defenders of Islam, "We'll kill the bastards."

• November 15, 2014, Shafiul Islam was stabbed to death by Muslims.
• February 26, 2015, Dr Avijit Roy was hacked to death by Muslims.
• March 30, 2015, Oyasiqur Rhaman, was killed by Muslims.
• May 12, 2015, Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death by Muslims.
• August 7, 2015, Niloy Neel, was killed by a gang of six Muslims
• October 31, 2015, Faisal Dipan was hacked to death by Muslims.

When the Bangladeshi government was asked to comment, the Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the attacks were "isolated incidents" and the situation in Bangladesh is no worse than it is in other parts of the world.

http://www.thedailystar.net/country/attacks

Millions upon millions of Muslims around the world will agree wholeheartedly with that pathetic explanation. The rest of the world knows the truth: 

These are not isolated incidents at all. The 'Defenders of Islam' drew up a hit list with 84 names on it, and told the government they intended to kill everyone on the list. The government realised it couldn't retain power without the votes of those who follow the 'Defenders of Islam' so the politicians decided to simply turn their back on the problem: Let the 'Defenders of Islam' kill the atheists and get the votes of their followers in return. Everybody's happy! Well maybe not the atheists but who cares about them?