There’s really no other way to describe this. I won’t make much of an effort to describe the massacre at a Pittsburgh gym, as I’m sure it’s been done to death, and that’s not what this post is about. For the sake of completeness, I will post a summary of the tragic events (Source):
George Sodini, who worked in a law firm’s finance department, was anti-social, according to neighbors, and his Web page showcased a resume setting forth his credentials as an unhappy loner. It listed his date of death — Aug. 4, 2009 — and his status of “Never married.”
On the Web site, the 48-year-old Sodini complained of not having a girlfriend since 1984, not having a date since May 2008 and not having sex for 19 years…
On Tuesday, Sodini scoped out the gym twice and then returned at night wearing workout gear and a headband and bringing with him four guns, police said. He entered a “Latin impact” dance aerobics class, placed a duffel bag on the ground, rooted around in the bag for a moment, turned off the lights and started shooting, police and witnesses said.
Three women were killed and nine women were wounded before he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. In all, he fired 36 rounds from three of the guns.
I’m not quite sure what’s wrong with people these days; I can certainly speculate, but that’s not why this post is being authored either.
I follow a wide variety of blogs – some I agree with, and some… well… not so much. One blog in particular named Pharyngula, and run by liberal atheist University of Minnesota Morris Professor, PZ Myers. Myers could be described as a ‘militant’ atheist, or ‘new atheist’, and his blog does have a substantial following. He exhibits no tolerance for religion in any form, and his blog entries are peppered with disdainful comments about religion, and sometimes about religious people. I can’t think of a single position, I’ve ever agreed with Myers on, but I continue to read his blog nonetheless.
In general, I find things written there, foolish, naive, quite often silly, and as mentioned generally tend to disagree with Myers. I don’t generally find things there that are blatantly dishonest, or overtly manipulative. That could be because I don’t generally deeply investigate the things Myers writes, or it could be that they’re generally absent. I read something there tonight that really bothered me.
Myers never misses an opportunity to point out when some ‘religious’ person does something inconsistent, hypocritical, violent, foolish, etc., and given his militant atheist status, one might expect this. As I mentioned I don’t generally notice too much manipulation or out of context material; it may generally be absent, but is front and center currently – or was recently anyway.
Myers posted a blog entry entitled Another Mass Murder, concerning the Pittsburgh gym massacre. The entry is short enough, that it can be posted in it’s entirety below:
As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, a deranged gunman went on a shooting spree in a fitness club in LA, killing 3 women and injuring 10 before blowing his own scabrous, rotting brains out. The guy was just plain nuts (in a fairly common sort of way, unfortunately), but he also left behind an online diary.
Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid. People judge but that does not matter. I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them.
Say, that logic looks rather familiar, doesn’t it?
I thought nothing of this when I first saw it. I simply thought that PZ was taking another crackpot, someone who may have had a religious background, and using this person to demonstrate how dangerous religion is. I really didn’t think too much about it again, until I read the full text of the murderer’s blog. And while the quote Myers cites is accurate, it’s clear from Sodini’s block that he had a mocking disdain for religion, was not a religious person, and was not motivated by religion in anyway.
Firstly, anyone with a scintilla of background in Christian thought immediately recognizes the fallacy in Sodini’s statement. God doesn’t forgive the unrepentant, and it’s clear that Sodini, was unrepentant. By definition, a person who as his last act murders the innocent, and commits suicide is unrepentant. Myer’s certainly is aware of this, or at least one would thinks so; a person with his mocking disdain for religion should possess a modicum of knowledge about that topic.
Maybe not though.
In any case, it’s clear from Sodini’s blog he was not a Christian or even religious:
Tetelestai Church in Pittsburgh, PA – “Be Ye Holy, even as I have been Ye holy! Thus saith the lord thy God!”, as pastor Rick Knapp would proclaim. Holy shit, religion is a waste. But this guy teaches (and convinced me) you can commit mass murder then still go to heaven. Ask him. (Phone number removed by Editors)If no answer there, he should still live at (Address removed by Editors). In any case, guilt and fear kept me there 13 long years until Nov 2006. I think his crap did the most damage.
“[R]eligion is a waste… guilt and fear kept me there 13 long years until Nov 2006. I think his crap did the most damage.” Sounds like a real man of faith.
Not only was Sodini not religious, he expresses disdain for religion.
I have been in barrooms and church groups. The worst people by far are the religious types. Especially a right-wing, stiff-faced fundie like Andy. A condescending, demeaning, passive-aggresive person. Frigid, rigid, linear and totally inflexible. Being a very serious person, he cannot hide his frown-lined face. He better not try to smile; lest his face might crack. I knew children of parents who grew up in strict religious homes. Religion has a certain stink to it of guilt, shame, fear, and that moral standard that always contradicts the natural tendencies and desires of a person. Therin lies the conflict. Young person cannot experiment with things to decide on their own and establish their own parameters. So they tend to cut loose and really rebel much worse than the average young person. Ma and Pa never know what goes on. They easily BS their parents because they want to believe their little one is an angel. Andy has a young daughter Bethany Pulkowski away at college, High Point University. I saw her picture on his desk. She’s your basic, attractive, young girl. Please reread my entry made on Nov 5th. That’s only one thing she can do. You Andy types out there need to further strengthen your strict resolve and do more of the same thing! Because those girls were great when I recall my college years! She is someone’s (or many guy’s) little hoe now, I am sure.Another point about andy. How can someone be cold, vicious, sarcastic and generally nasty ALL THE TIME and then make the claim about their church life and how good they are? Total hypocritical idiots.
Sodini is clearly not religious; not only that, but he seems to express a disdain for religion, religious people, and even right-wingers. Myers essentially quotemined Sodini, searching for something he could use to mock religion, and religious people, something he could use to demonstrate the religions are actually dangerous and unhealthy things.
He has accomplished none of this. Myers has demonstrated himself to be an intellectually dishonest fraud, a fraud willing to exploit a horrible, tragic, and extremely painful situation to facilitate his own petty, juvenile, self-serving, and egomaniacal perspective on the world.
Atheists already don’t reproduce themselves… perhaps if we wait it out long enough, they’ll self-destruct too.
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