D. James Kennedy Dead

[Brown]

From Yahoo and AP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070905/ap_on_re_us/obit_kennedy;_ylt=Au8qJ2BnaQbddjb1QbB.1Yys0NUE):Th e Rev. D. James Kennedy, a pioneering megachurch pastor who became one of the nation's most prominent Christian broadcasters and a key figure in the rise of the religious right, died Wednesday, a church spokesman said. He was 76.Kennedy was notable in that he was one of the moving forces behind the Alabama Ten Commandments debacle. Further, he held the dubious distinction of being able to utter in a single sermon more absurdities, idiocies, bigotries and non sequiturs than any other televangelist. If you had to take a sip of beer every time he said something stupid, you'd pass out before reaching the end of the sermon.

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

Megachurch. Sounds like something you'd buy at Wal-Mart.

[Miss Anthrope]

Another person has ceased to exist.

[ImaginalDisc]

Good riddance.

[Walk The Line]

First Falwell, now Kennedy. Is Robertson next?

[Ducky]

One more liar for jesus dead. Nothing exciting about that, there are always more.

[JoeEllison]

Well, that's one less enemy of freedom... I'm not glad he's dead, exactly, but I'm glad that he can't do any more damage to America. And, yes, I know that there are more than a few people ready to take his place.

[fuelair]

Isn't this the dip that DOK keeps quoting as a history expert and infallible researcher of stuff proving stuff that is actually known to be wrong? Well, now he's with dog (or just decaying/dusting).

[Brown]

Although I am disinclined to speak ill of the dead, this man spoke ill of me during his life. Not personally, but he tried to denigrate many of the most important moral principles I hold dear.

All in the name of the Almighty.

He seemed to take it as given that his audience was a collection of idiots. His messages assumed that his listeners had no critical thinking skills whatsoever, and he often proffered "teachings" that urged his flock to take out their brains and flush them down the crapper.

Especially nauseating were his views on evolution. Evolution was basically a great big conspiracy, a massive fruadulent plot to keep people from God. Scientists KNEW evolution wasn't true, he said; they ADMITTED that they had just made it all up. Talk about stupidity on parade.

So D. James Kennedy is dead, and it's sad to say, but it's more likely true than not: the world is better off without him.

[Mojo]

He seemed to take it as given that his audience was a collection of idiots. His messages assumed that his listeners had no critical thinking skills whatsoever, and he often proffered "teachings" that urged his flock to take out their brains and flush them down the crapper.


http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=74960

[fuelair]

Although I am disinclined to speak ill of the dead, this man spoke ill of me during his life. Not personally, but he tried to denigrate many of the most important moral principles I hold dear.

All in the name of the Almighty.

He seemed to take it as given that his audience was a collection of idiots. His messages assumed that his listeners had no critical thinking skills whatsoever, and he often proffered "teachings" that urged his flock to take out their brains and flush them down the crapper.

Especially nauseating were his views on evolution. Evolution was basically a great big conspiracy, a massive fruadulent plot to keep people from God. Scientists KNEW evolution wasn't true, he said; they ADMITTED that they had just made it all up. Talk about stupidity on parade.

So D. James Kennedy is dead, and it's sad to say, but it's more likely true than not: the world is better off without him.and DUC will miss him and his.............misstatements.

[quixotecoyote]

I just watched the Coral Hour. I had no idea the true limitless power I wield as a atheist! TREMBLE CHRISTIANS, I AM COMING FOR YOUR CHILDREN AS I CAME FOR JAMES KENNEDY. Or not, but if he could still record episodes, he'd probably say it.

[Wheezebucket]

I don't mind speaking ill of the dead - they're dead, that's the time to do it, as far as I'm concerned. He was a sack. So long, sack!

[TragicMonkey]

Megachurch. Sounds like something you'd buy at Wal-Mart.

It sounds like what the regular churches combine to form in battle, if they have their Power Swords. "He's too strong for us! We must defeat Rexxlor...form MEGACHURCH!"

[Roadtoad]

When I worked in Christian radio, it was considered a real coup to get Kennedy's program on your station. The man was profitable. He embodied that time honored declaration that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of his audience.

So, now he's gone. True enough, there will be plenty to take his place, but take heart in the knowledge that there are some of us who recognized the greater evil that Kennedy represented, and with that recognition, we left. Ultimately, it comes down to individuals deciding for themselves that they will not hate.

[Hardenbergh]

I caught a few minutes of the Coral Ridge Hour this morning. I have very rarely listened to this program as he wasn't one of my favorite speakers but there was an interesting program about atheism titled, The Consequences of Atheism. The link to today's broadcast is on the homepage. I also saw his book advertised, "Skeptics Answered." Has anyone read it?

http://www.coralridge.org

Here's the link to his book (also on CD and audio cassette):

http://www.coralridge.org/CRMResCtrsearch.asp?sc=ProductDescription&search=skeptics+answered

[UnrepentantSinner]

I haven't read any of his stuff but if it reads like his sermons/presentations I imagine my brain would hurt from the stupid.

[Kopji]

It's a sign that the end is near. :rolleyes:

[bruto]

I guess God didn't answer answered old Kennedy's prayers, and punished took him home. God is so consistently reliable, it's amazing.

[Hardenbergh]

I haven't read any of his stuff but if it reads like his sermons/presentations I imagine my brain would hurt from the stupid.

Did anyone in the forums view "The Consequences of Atheism?" The link is still there. You'll hear from other church leaders as well.

http://www.coralridge.org/

Go ahead. Make my day.

[Garrette]

Did anyone in the forums view "The Consequences of Atheism?" The link is still there. You'll hear from other church leaders as well.

http://www.coralridge.org/

Go ahead. Make my day.
Okay, Hardenbergh, I sat through that sophomoric eyewash. Following are the claims I drew out of it. Wording is my paraphrasing except where I put it in quotation marks. I tried to get every claim I could.


“Militant atheism” leads to a society without morals.Note the adjective “militant.” This tactic of defining a group based on the actions of a fringe element will come up again. Simultaneously, the video denies that Christians can be categorized based on the actions of the fringe. More on this later.

Where is the evidence for this claim? Answer: There is none. Later, they will point to Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot as exemplars, but that argument falls apart internally. I’ll demonstrate how when we get to it.


Atheists have a poor understanding of the Christian faith.Is that your experience here, Hardenbergh? Or is it that the atheists you have conversed with here actually know the Christian faith and its founding document very well? So well, indeed, that few Christians equal them. Is that arrogant? Maybe. It’s true, though.


Humanism is a weak philosophy because it doesn’t presume intrinsic meaning to human life.The flaw is right there out in the open. Christianity presumes meaning. It doesn’t demonstrate meaning or value or purpose. It presumes it. Without that presumption, the entire edifice comes crashing down. And yet there is no evidence to support the premise; there is only a presumption.


Humanism borrows the idea of the value of human life from Christianity.Talk about hubris. Unmitigated and fallacious gall. Did the Greeks value human life? The Celts? Native American tribes? African tribal societies?

Do you honestly think that until Christianity came along no culture on earth valued human life? Get real.


Atheism taken to its logical conclusion leads to a rejection of moral absolutes of any kind.Hah. I won’t even bother to discuss the specific claim, but I will address its implication, that being that Christianity comprises some moral absolutes. Christians like to think this, but they are deluding themselves. Tell me, Hardenbergh, what the moral absolutes of Christianity are. Is there an absolute against killing? No. Against slavery? No. Against wrath directed toward fruit-bearing trees that do not bear out of season? No.

And before you decide to bring the Ten Commandments in to this, make sure you decide which version you’re going to use and that you use the entire text. And realize that by bringing in those Commandments you open the door for all the law in Leviticus. And realize that even those Commandments are not absolutely held by Christians.


Atheists think there are no morals.Poppycock. Ignoring the fact that atheists are hardly homogeneous, atheists are among those who most readily understand the societal origin of morals. Add to that the old truism about atheists being underrepresented in the prison population and you have no argument.


“Atheists are moral parasites, riding on the moral mainstream laid down by Christianity.”Don’t make me laugh. I base my personal ethics and moral beliefs more on Solon than I do on Christianity. And again, the Christians have no absolutes themselves. Please define this moral mainstream for me. Lay it out precisely and demonstrate how the Greeks and a dozen other cultures separate from Christianity did not follow similar paths.


The Declaration of Independence references “God-given moral absolutes.”Perhaps. How are they Christian? The only ones given are political (a rebelling portion of a polity needs to outline the reasons for the rebellion) and deistic (“All men are created equal;” “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”)

I really get tired and sometimes very angry at the constant repetition of lies about our founding documents and the constant misrepresentation of the content.


Atheism led to the execution of 30 million people in Russia and 60 million in China because of a lack of moral absolutes.Idiotic. Those people were killed because of the presence of an absolutes—the absolute belief that the powerful were entitled to remain in power regardless of the cost. And that absolute belief was the result of an unfortunate marriage of bastardized communism, socialism, and megalomania.

Not to mention that many of those dead in Russia and China must be included in the larger context of WWII, the direct result of the ambitions of one man with very religious moral absolutes and the ambitions of one nation tied to the absolute belief in its own superiority (I’m talking Japan with the nation thing).


There are several references to “The God Delusion”But no refutations of any of the things. Just quotations chosen because it is known that a Christian audience will a priori find them objectionable.


Whenever a country embraces a secular worldview there is no option other than to eventually result in a form of statism.??? No evidence. No discussion. Just an assertion without even the courtesy of a definition of “statism” in this context. Didn’t the Spanish exhibit a Christian statism? What about the Vatican? That is the ultimate form of religious statism.


Atheists have killed more in the 20th century than all religions combined have killed throughout history.And again they cite Russia and China, but they add Pol Pot.

As I already said, many of those killed in Russia and China are the result of WWII (though now that I think of it, you have to add the sad results of vicious civil war as a cause, too). Pol Pot’s actions were the actions of a despot solidifying his power, much as Stalin and Mao did.

But let’s ignore that. Let’s assume the numbers are correct and attributable to atheism. That puts the toll at just under 100 million. (And this is using the figures of the video. The toll in China is closer to 40 million than 60, and most of those are attributable to famine) What do the religious death tolls look like?


WWII: 55 million.

Annihilation of Native Americans: Up to 20 million.

Atlantic Slave Trade: Up to 18 million. (Estimates go up to 60 million, but I take a view toward the lower end)

Islamic Slave Trade: Up to 19 million.

Thirty Years War: 7 million.

French Wars of Religion: 3 million.

WWI: 15 million.

Seven Years War: 1.3 million

Napoleonic Wars: 3 million

US Civil War: 200,000 (rough estimate of actual dead)

Mongol Conquests: Up to 30 million

The Crusades: Estimates range from 1.5 million to 9 million

Deaths caused by the Christian Byzantine Empire: 1.3 million


I don’t think there’s a need to go on.


With atheists, killings are a “logical outworking.” With Christians, killings are an “illogical outworking.”Talk about a “No True Scotsman” fallacy.

Anybody remotely related to the idea of atheism or humanism who kills somebody did it because of the evils inherent in atheism. Any Christian who kills somebody isn’t really a Christian so we can blame mental illness or secret atheism.

Then they cite the “Black Book of Communism” which ties the purges of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot to atheism through communism. These people handed in their logic cards when they walked through the door of belief.

They quote James Russell Lowell:
I challenge any skeptic to find a ten square mile spot on this planet where they can live their lives in peace and safety and decency, where womanhood is honored, where infancy and old age are revered, where they can educate their children, where the Gospel of Jesus Christ has not gone first to prepare the way. If they find such a place, then I would encourage them to emigrate thither and there proclaim their unbelief.Christians honor womanhood? Don’t make me laugh. Until recently, Christians begrudged women every benefit and granted them equality only when vigorously confronted. Many today cling to the notions of inferior womanhood. You want examples of womanhood honored? Look at the native American cultures. Look at the matriarchal societies of early Europe. Look at pre-Christian Celtic societies. But don’t look in Christianity or the Bible because it isn’t there.

Reverence for children and the elderly? Do you honestly claim this as unique or original to Christianity? Get off your high horse of lies.

Education for children? Islam has worked to ensure that for centuries. Greece did okay, too.


Atheism leads to pursuit of personal power.As opposed to a President who seeks power beyond constitutional limits because God told him it is his destiny and it is the right thing to do.


The video is slick and well made. It carries an air of authority, sincerity, and veracity, but the air is a nosegay to cover the stink of the unwashed lies beneath it.

[UnrepentantSinner]

Did anyone in the forums view "The Consequences of Atheism?" The link is still there. You'll hear from other church leaders as well.

http://www.coralridge.org/

Go ahead. Make my day.

I watched about 10 or 15 minutes of last weekens (obviously) repeat before I tried to shove my remote into my brain. If it aired then I saw part of it and it was typically awful. If not, I have a few bandwidth issues and won't be able to comment.

I will just make this one statement - D. James Kennedy, when it comes to things like atheism, church/state and evolution has glommed onto so many lies, distortions and untruths that calling his assertions BS is being disrespectful to BS.