Aurora Shooting Shows How We’ve Lost Touch With Reality
July 21, 2012 14 Comments
It’s been a day since the horrific attack at a movie theater in Colorado. According to the police 12 are dead while 58 others are injured. The killer, James Holmes, seems to have been planning this attack for several weeks if not months. He purchased guns, magazines and ammunition over the past few weeks and months. He booby trapped his home and dyed his hair red. He apparently suggested on some creepy porn web site that he would be in prison soon. In short, Holmes was playing the Joker, one of the bad guys in the Batman series.
It’s very easy to dismiss Holmes as nuts. We Americans love to blame evil on mental problems or political motivations. For over a decade we have refused to call Islam evil, despite hundreds of suicide bombers attacking our troops and allies in the Middle East. Even after the 9-11 attacks, we were only willing to call the hijackers evil rather than the root of their evil: Islam. Likewise whenever there is a mass shooting the media first attacks guns as though they’re somehow responsible for evil and then they start talking about mental disorders. By blaming the Holmes attack on a mental disorder, we’re simply dismissing the fact he is evil. In fact, the media turns Holmes into a victim. After all, who doesn’t feel sorry for people with a mental disorder?
But the fact is that there is evil in the world. There are wicked people who want to do harm to others. Some may be demon possessed, in other cases common grace has been withheld and man is seen at his ultimate worst. The truth is every last one of us is capable of doing exactly what James Holmes did yesterday. We are all totally depraved and but for the grace of God we are restrained from doing such things. But there is evil in the world, great evil such as what Holmes did. When we immediate jump to psychological explanations, we’re dismissing the role of evil and burying our heads in the sand at the same time.
On another note I am absolutely shocked by the number of children present in the theater for a midnight showing of a nearly three hour PG-13 movie. A six year old was shot and killed, what was she doing there? A 3 month old was grazed by a bullet. What kind of parent takes a 3 month old to a movie, much less a midnight showing? There are reports of numerous 12-14 year olds at this movie. Again, what are such young children doing at a midnight film? We happen to know about these kids because a tragedy occurred but you have to figure this theater in Colorado was relatively representative of other theaters across the country. How many hundreds of six year olds were at a midnight showing of Batman on Thursday? How many babies were taken? How many 12-14 year old children were at such a showing? It must be an enormous number.
We have lost touch with reality when we’re taking children to midnight showings of any movie, much less a PG-13 film that is nearly three hours long. This ties in with our refusal to call evil what it is. As a society we seem to have lost touch with reality. We make excuses for evil or dismiss it with psychological evaluations. Meanwhile parents are taking their kids to the movies at the most absurd time of day. This isn’t a problem for government to solve, it’s a problem that society is going to have to figure out on its own. By the grace of God we will, soon.
About Steven
Maybe we need the Catholic Church to find evil people and exorcise the evil out of them? How can you tell if someone is evil? Is there a wart on the nose? A blotch of discolored skin? Exactly what is the source of evil? Did Plato believe that evil was one of the elementary forces like water and fire?
Can we ask the evil people who have committed crimes to repent and ask Jesus for forgiveness and if they do-just set them free because they are no longer evil? Just how do we build a justice system without the muck of modern science but rather, on the reality of the existence of evil?
How can one know that it is the evil force force and not the good force of God that is his or her motivation? After all, we know that there are many, many evil people who have done great harm believing that they were doing the work of God.They all had faith in their beliefs and look what happened? Yikes! e.g. Jonestown, Charles Mansion etc.
And as Mark Twain said:
Faith is for those who know they ain’t right.
I’ll ignore the nonsense and respond to the suggestion that we release repentant criminals. God stands for justice and there is no justice when His law is not upheld by the courts. As such, criminal penalties must be enforced whether there is a repentance or not. In the case of James Holmes, he should be executed.
So, should you, Mr. Birn, personally, be allowed to determine the level of evilness in John Holmes, which I guess you have-and then just take him out and shoot him-because our court system does not do justice? But I was talking about evil not justice? You said I was speaking nonsense. Do you think Plato was an idiot too? Socrates?
So I guess you don’t believe in insanity. You believe in some supernatural force called evil. You don;t believe that there is such a thing as a retarded human being with a mental capacity of a four-year old. All are evil and must be executed because it is the force of the devil’s evil that has caused them to break the law. Why is it that some people are susceptible to evil and others are not? Is there an evil gene perhaps? Is there a devil gene? A God gene?
Why did God create evil? Did God create evil? Why didn’t God just start off the world in a paradise and leave it that way-without evil-and leave it that way rather than putting us through the hell of having people like Holmes around to shoot up God’s innocents. Well, though, maybe they weren’t so innocent? After all, as you pointed out in your blog, the the audience members who attended the midnight movie with babies had lost contact with reality.Maybe it was the evil of the parents bringing their babies to the midnight show that brought the evil of Holmes down on them-so in a way I guess the victims were responsible for their own harm.
Its funny though when I read your blog title I thought the “the lost touch with reality” was going to be about the shooter Holmes, but no, according to you only the audience members with babies had lost touch with reality. Holmes’ actions on the other hand are just a pure manifestation of the devil’s evil at work. Plain and simple. Nothing to do with his mental incapacitation, chemical imbalance, organic brain disease or any other imagined medical disorder that the liberal pseudo medical profession has falsely created under the guidance of the devil. I am with you Steven! Now, were can I find an evil witch to burn at the steak???
I wonder Mr. Birns. as a lawyer, do you believe that John Holmes is entitled to a trial and a real defense with the assistance of counsel? Or is that antiquated socialist evil?
Concerning the existence of evil, I am of the opinion that evil is present in this world. In fact, I am quite certain of that. Some of it is spiritual in nature, but it can also manifest itself in human form.
I would point you to the example of Timothy McVeigh, who decided it was just revenge for the Waco tragedy to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Never mind that no one there had a thing to do with Waco, or that children were present in the building. I have no doubt he was evil.
What about Jeffrey Dahmer? He was guilty of killing 17 men and boys. He claims he had no memory of some of the murders, but how could he be anything less than evil?
These are not the only examples I could cite.
Evil masquerades as many forms. I realize there are many people with chemical imbalances in their brains. These imbalances may make them do evil things, but that makes them no less evil.
As someone who believes in total depravity it amazes me when people suggest there isn’t any evil or question how we can discover who is and who is not evil. The fact is that we’re all evil who constantly sin against God in thought, word and deed. Sure, most of us aren’t going to engage in acts of extreme violence such as Holmes. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t evil. Evil can manifest itself in any number of ways, whether it be lying, not loving thy neighbor, lusting, gluttony etc. We have a tendency in American culture to minimize so-called small acts of evil, we make excuses for things such as “white lies” for example. But these supposedly smaller sins separate us from God just as much as mass murder. We lie to ourselves pretending like we couldn’t possibly commit greater acts of evil. But the truth is, what Holmes did is within all of us no matter how much we try to pretend like we’re better, more pious or incapable.
Much is still coming out about John Holmes. I think it is a good thing the police are keeping speculation to a bare minimum until they learn more about his motives. Although the victims were random, having been in the wrong place at the wrong time, this was clearly no random act of violence. The shooting shows a significant amount of planning and money spent to do said planning. It was certainly premeditated.
Concerning the young children at the movie, that’s something I can’t understand either. It makes no sense for a parent to bring their young children to a movie that is loaded with violence.
So we are all evil. We all have the capacity to do the things that even Adolf Hitler did. And it is all because we are all have the same degree of evilness as the worse villains who ever lived did. Some people are capable of resisting that overflowing cauldron of evil boiling inside each of us and some are not.
I don’t know Steve. I really have never had the urge to commit a mass murder. I never had to fight that particular evil. In fact, I can tell you that I have never had the urge to cause any other human being great harm. There is no fight with evil within me. Did Holmes have a different kind of evil in him? Where does “evil” ( what ever that is made of) come from? Does something become evil because it comes in contact with a substance that is an evil substance? Where does evil park itself in our bodies? I think only a very seriously mentally ill person could even imagine doing what Holmes did. I suppose under the right circumstances even a very caring person could become insane enough to do a mass shooting. Do I think normal, rational people like myself and LD are capable of doing that kind of horrendous act. No I do not. I do not believe that some such “great evil” exists in every human being to do such evil deeds.
Religiously speaking, do we need to suffer endlessly because of Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden? Do you not think that it is immoral for the sins of the father to be passed on to his children.Why should we suffer? We are innocent. A baby is born without sin. Why should an innocent baby be born burdened with the sin and evilness of unknown ancestors? Why should a baby be born to a loving mother’s arms when in fact, because that baby, like every baby, according to you Steve, has the evil equivalent of a Timothy McVeigh, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Holmes or Adolf Hitler lurking inside? Steve, when you look at your children is that what you see?
People lie Steve. Just like you. You lie to yourself all the time. It is the only way that you can possibly pretend that there is a scintilla of truth to your world view. You absolutely refuse to ever admit you are wrong, You absolutely refuse to ever expose yourself to any fact that is contrary to your beliefs. You refuse to go outside of your little hermetically sealed far-right world for a contrary view. You can even call a college student ugly in a public forum and feel no regret for having done so. Is that because you are evil?
Why are you two turning the issue away from the use of automatic weapons in the hands of a deranged killer to castigate the parents who brought babies to the theater?
Don’t you wonder if there might be a little better system in place for handing out and storing automatic weapons in this country? Since the shooter was wearing bullet proof protection not even a law abiding pistol packing audience member would have been able to stop him.
Have we brought this kind of evil upon ourselves because we have strayed from God’s ways? So in that sense then, John Holmes is not any more guilty than we are for the shootings since we have all caused this evil thing to happen.
Just like Falwell who preached that AIDS is a punishment on gays by God, perhaps Holmes’ acts were a punishment for all the sins the rest of us have committed. Holmes did not ask for evil to take up residency withing him. He had no choice. It was God’s plan. Its all God’s plan. Why does someone choose the evil urge and not reject it? Do we have free choice to reject evil? Not really. Science has shown that our decisions are already made by the time we become conscious of them. Our conscious rational thoughts are a tiny fraction of the mental calculations that cause us to do the things that we do. Read Jonathan Haidt, “The Righteous Mind” to learn about how the mind actually makes decisions.
Steve, I know you will not Mr. Haidt’s book. I know that you will have an excuse not to. I know that you will lie to yourself that there is nothing for you to learn from this book. You have already made up your mind about reading this book. You did not make a rational decision not to read it; although your conscious mind will rationalize an excuse for you, it was your subconscious mind that instantaneously told you that this book is not going to support your world view-so it is something to avoid. It is a danger to you.
Read the book Steven: If you do, it will change your entire world view. You may no longer believe in evil. You may get to understand the extreme amount of emotional energy you waste trying to protect the fantasy world that you have created. Its all in there Steve. Now, how many excuses can you come up with for not reading it?
Leaving the strawmen you attempt to tear down aside, what you want to debate is a massive worldview disagreement. This really isn’t the post to do that in. You aren’t going to change my worldview though, no matter what book you have me read. My faith shapes my worldview, not science.
No way this isn’t a troll. And even if it isn’t, it might as well be, given the author’s supposed attitude.
My favorite bit was about Islam being evil. Def, bro, can’t believe God didn’t finish them off during the crusades. I bet G-man really wished he would’ve just slain Hagar.
“My faith shapes my worldview, not science”. Hooray for confirmatory bias and proud ignorance!!! Good for you, Steve. Don’t let intellectual curiosity and exploration and evidence or reality make you change your mind or get in the way of believing what you want!!! We should all stick with believing what the religious book with which our parents indoctrinated tells us to believe about everything…as long as it was the Bible, of course. If it was another book the person needs to be intellectually curious and explore and consider the evidence in the Bible and then change her mind to be saved. Amirite or amirite?
Unfortunately for you, my parents aren’t Christians. I was not raised in the church and had to learn the basics of the faith as a young Christian. It’s always interesting to see how the left treats intellectual curiosity. Anything that requires Christians to challenge their faith is celebrated and anything that calls for faith in scripture is “indoctrination.” Intellectual curiosity can never include faith, it must only include science and other imagined challenges to faith.
Steve you really know nothing. You are like a lot of other very far-right conservative Jews who I have met. You are almost completely divorced from reality. For instance: Last week I discussed the bailout of the banks and the auto industry with a far-right Jewish friend. He and his family, hate Obama-just like you and your devotees. He thinks the bailout was a mistake. I asked him for the alternative. He said, “Let them all go bankrupt.” Maybe you think that is a rational answer. It isn’t.
Its not that intellectual curiosity specifically targets people of faith, ( I am sure Galileo did not have that in mind when exploring the universe) its just that faith cannot square with reality and that is what science is always trying to understand. Faith is not always indoctrination, I do not believe that I could find many fair minded people who would say that. Most people who have some kind of faith usually come to it on their own or share in their heritage. I do not know how you can possible say that less religious intellectuals believe that Intellectual curiosity can never include faith. There are a plethora of intellectuals writing about science, history and the human condition who firmly believe in the existence of God. They may not accept the idea of God that you have- but none-the-less they would not ridicule your God nor question the tenants of your faith.If you want to know who they are then just ask me. I will be glad to share those names with you.
So anyone who disagrees with you is irrational? At least I know what I’m dealing with now.
I have no idea how your response corresponds to anything I said.Lots of people disagree with me on many things. Are you irrational? Why should you be any different than 99% of the people who ever lived. It is nothing but our emotions that make us believe and have faith in the truth of our individual world view. The closest any human can ever reliably get to a truth about the world is through science. If you believe that putting science first is an affront to religion and therefore must be rejected, then I am afraid that most people in this millennium, including the religious, would find you to be very irrational.
I do not believe that being religious is an irrational state of mind. Believing in God is not irrational.
I do not know why, but your being a Jew by birth and having rejected your ancestor’s faith has destroyed your compassion for humanity. You need to ask yourself some very tough questions. You need the assistance of the Shekhinah.