Ain’t That Typical

Keith Ellison calls out Daniel Pipes and then vanishes when challenged to a debate. Doesn’t that just seem like an Islamist thug and/or Liberal Democrat? (Have you noticed how hard they are to tell apart some times?)

Update:

Andy McCarthy also seems to doubt that Ellison will accept the challenge.

Maybe Ellision, the great supporter of Israel and interfaith dialogue, can enlighten us about his activism on behalf of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam; his support for Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) to speak at his law school on the subject “Zionism: Imperialism, White Supremacy or Both?”; or, in more recent times, his support for Sami al-Arian, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader convicted for conspiring to support terrorism. Maybe Ellison, the great believer in peaceful resolution of conflict, can address his support for convicted cop-killers (including leading one courthouse demonstration with the chant of “We don’t get no justice, you don’t get no peace”), and for the “flying imams” who terrified the passengers and crew of a U.S.Airways flight in 2006. Maybe Ellison, the great believer in religious tolerance, can explain why he recently berated Dr. Zuhdi Jasser — an authentic Muslim moderate who opposes Islamist groups like CAIR who flock to Ellison — for being a traitor who licenses anti-Muslim bigotry.

Maybe . . . but I doubt it.

Can Atheists Be Good People?

This is an old trope of many religious people. To them, their religion or their deity is the source of morality, in which case those who reject gods and religion must be immoral.

New research shows that morality developed in humans independently of religion.

Considerable debate has surrounded the question of the origins and evolution of religion. One proposal views religion as an adaptation for cooperation, whereas an alternative proposal views religion as a by-product of evolved, non-religious, cognitive functions. We critically evaluate each approach, explore the link between religion and morality in particular, and argue that recent empirical work in moral psychology provides stronger support for the by-product approach. Specifically, despite differences in religious background, individuals show no difference in the pattern of their moral judgments for unfamiliar moral scenarios. These findings suggest that religion evolved from pre-existing cognitive functions, but that it may then have been subject to selection, creating an adaptively designed system for solving the problem of cooperation. (Emphasis added.)

Note that this sense of morality is found in children who have not yet had the possibility of religious indoctrination. There was a good episode of WNYC’s Radio Lab, Morality, dealing with this also.