Atheist Buffalo Hunter

A self proclaimed atheist from Australia has burned the bible and the Koran, and posted the event on you-tube.

Mr Stewart is a commercial contracts lawyer at Queensland University of Technology. This morning he refused to answer phone calls. The assistant organiser of Brisbane Atheists wrote on the group's website last night "do you think I am in trouble????"

He says people offended by the experiment are taking it "too seriously".

"It's just a f...ing book, who cares," Mr Stewart says.

I.D.I.O.T - just a bunch of letters. It's not like they mean anything. Except to some people it might convey a particular meaning, and express a particular idea.

Here's another idea. Mr Stewart is a buffalo hunter.

To this assistant organiser of the Brisbane Atheists club, showing disrespect merely to prove that, to him, "it's just a book" only proves that he is so self centred in his perspective he can't bother ascribing any value to another perspective.

I actually find his action worse than the Pastor who was planning to burn the Koran as a protest against the Islamic Cultural Centre planned for construction near Ground Zero. He thought he was countering an injustice. He thought the other side wasn't listening. This guy just wants to underscore the point that he isn't into symbolism, and he thinks others shouldn't be either. It doesn't worry me one way or the other, but I'd have been more impressed if he cashed up his belongings and burned all his money. They are just pieces of paper with ink.

I liken him to the lazy Buffalo Hunters that used to sit on the trains running across America. They hunted by leaning out the window, killing Buffalo for mere sport. 60 million buffalo reduced to an endangered species not by callous brutality, but by a self indulgent indifference.

The Indians watched in dismay as buffalo hunting took on an almost a carnival atmosphere when railroads began to advertise "hunting by rail.” This occurred when trains sometimes encountered large herds of buffalo crossing the tracks. Seeing a way to capitalize on the problem, the advertising flooded the newspapers and in no time, sporting men with rifles were shooting buffalo by the hundreds just for fun. Those animals shot from the train were simply left where they died.

Such action had it's consequences though, and not just for the buffalo.

As the slaughter continued, the Indians became increasingly angry and resentful as they watched their main source of sustenance dwindle at the hands of the white man. This led to more and more Indian attacks which resulted in U.S. Army retaliation at the height of the Indian Wars. It was also at this time that the U.S. Government desired to separate the Indians from the rest of "civilization” by placing them on reservations. In order to do this, the U.S. Army aggressively pursued a policy to eradicate the buffalo, intentionally extinguishing the Indians' sustenance, which would force then onto reservations.

It may have started as self indulgent indifference, but it didn't take long to get to callous brutality.

I stand by my comments on my earlier post about Freedom, but it doesn't stop me shaking my head at the idiots who abuse it.