Deep Thoughts: Atheist holds hostages at Discovery Channel HQ

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Atheist holds hostages at Discovery Channel HQ

According to his MySpace page, James Lee is an Atheist. He’s holding an undetermined number of hostages at the Discovery Channels Headquarters.

According to press reports, he’s a fucking loon:

FOX News - A man known for protesting the Discovery Channel stormed the network's Maryland headquarters carrying a handgun on Wednesday, taking a "small number" of hostages while appearing to have a bomb strapped to his chest, police said.

UKPA - The gunman had what Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger described as a "small number of hostages" but he did not say how many. He also did not say what the man wanted or whether anyone was hurt.

Reuters - A U.S. law enforcement official said he believed the hostage-taker was named James Lee. A man called James Lee of San Diego was arrested in February 2008 after throwing money into the air in a protest outside the Discovery building, the Montgomery County Gazette reported that year.

Pharyngula has a list of demands.

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:

1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" …

It a good day for atheism. Our opponents will use this for years to come.

Update:

James Lee was shot. The device may have detonated. The hostages were rescued. The police are not commenting on the status of James Lee. They will not say if he is alive or dead.

Technorati Tags: Atheism

Comments (10)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

0 Vote up Vote down

Alan · 765 weeks ago

Wow. An atheist suicide bomber terrorist.
Looks like you guys missed the lowest common denominator in your "religion is the root of all evil' theory.

Here's a hint: It's not religion. It's the uncontrollable urge to *force other people* to live and think like you do. And that's not religion, that would be POLITICS.

Report

3 replies · active 765 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

Baconsbud 96p · 765 weeks ago

You must not understand some of the religious leaders in the USA. They want to enact laws making their religion the only one here and they also want to bring back the laws in the OT, even though they claim the OT laws don't count anymore. Most terrorist are religious but not all are. Both politics and religion lead people into terrorist type acts.

Report

+1 Vote up Vote down

Mojoey 107p · 765 weeks ago

I would say the two, religion and politics, go hand in hand. It becomes political when the religious want to make the non-religious or other religions, act in a certain way. Use see this in the politics surrounding gay rights and abortion rights. The religious use a biblical justification for political action. Some religious people take it too far and move from political action to terrorism.

Report

+1 Vote up Vote down

Mojoey 107p · 765 weeks ago

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

jen · 765 weeks ago

Do we know this guy's actually an atheist? He disparages religion, sure, but the only clear message I got was that he's anti-human and pro-earth. He might very well have believed in some sort of earth deity...

Report

1 reply · active 765 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

Mojoey 107p · 765 weeks ago

Under religion on his myspace page is says Atheist.

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

rationalrevolution · 765 weeks ago

Well, we already have Stalin in our camp, and of course even though they are wrong, most religionists believe Hitler as well. Ahh well.

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

F.M. · 765 weeks ago

@Alan...Well I guess the same could be said about Christian TImothy McVeigh....There are nut-jobs in the world, regardless of believe or not. Although, I will say your camp is in the lead.

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

Alan · 765 weeks ago

I guess you guys just haven't noticed that in America, you can look around virtually any place and find a dozen or more religions, denominations in the room... or lack thereof.

I hope you've noticed that the Presbyterians aren't pipe bombing the Lutherans, and their churches are all on the same block. You guys have missed the point in thinking that religion inherently causes violent acts, especially in America.

It is political to the core, and religion is only ever used as a front to gain support. Look at all the Medieval wars. Do you really think that all those nations really went to war over how to spell God's name? Or do you think they were maybe - possibly - about the land, money and power? That is the lowest common denominator.

Report

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

Baconsbud 96p · 765 weeks ago

So they aren't killing each other here. Wait weren't those christians killing other christians a few months back. I agree that there is little christian violence on christian unless you start counting all those christians that go to jail for murder, rape and other crimes. I would say it is only the fact that any denomination that started attacking another would find themselves in jail or worse because of the secular government.

You also might want to look into the history of this nation and you will probably find enough evidence that religion has been there for much of the violence committed against minority groups.

Report