Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Dalek

2009-10-17T21:34:25Z

VIUlanov:

A '''Dalek''' is a member of race of [[cyborgs]] which hail from the planet Skaro. They are featured in the internationally-popular [[BBC]] TV show [[Doctor Who]]. Externally they are pepperpot-shaped metallic machines, with a single eye-stalk, a gun, and a utility arm, but internally they are controlled by an amorphous Kaled mutant. The Dalek race is fiercely resistant to malign outside influence, and the purity of their race is of the utmost concern to them. The liberal [[BBC]] paint these characteristics in a most negative manner since the Daleks are essentially a conservative race. Indeed when Terry Nation first came up with the concept he modelled them after a right of centre political entity. In the new series of Doctor Who the Daleks are shown to be religious, instructing the Doctor and his companions not to blaspheme. However, they seem to follow some sort of heathen emperor worship cult rather than a genuine religion. his is strangely reminiscent of the Conservative americans who choe Fox news instead of an even larger version of themselves. However, with the average american now being obese there is usually no living human larger, which may account for this.

==Concept==
The Dalek's are largely based off the [[Nazi|Nazis]] in [[WWII]] for their quest for universal conquest and unrelenting nature. They are often contrasted by the [[Cybermen]] on the show who represent [[communism]].

The Daleks can also be seen as a satire of US foreig policy with the 70s movies being an allegory for the vietnam war where the tecnically superior and morally blinkered invaders are defeated by a cunning guerilla movement who learn to hide behind things and don't get shot.

==See Also==
* [[Nazism]]

[[Category:Fictional characters]]
[[Category:Science fiction]]

World War II

2009-10-17T21:31:30Z

VIUlanov:

[[Image:Caen_sniper.jpg|right|thumb|300px|An allied soldier in the ruins of Caen, 9 July 1944]]
'''World War II''' was a global set of conflicts, beginning in 1931 in Asia, 1935 in Africa, and 1939 in Europe, all lasting until 1945, in which the [[Allies|Allied powers]] (led after 1941 by the [[United States]] and including the [[British Commonwealth]], the [[Soviet Union]], the [[Republic of China]], and many other nations), totally defeated the [[Axis Powers]] (led by [[Third Reich|Nazi Germany]], and including [[Italy]], and [[Japan]]). Although Japan's war against China began in 1937, the main conflict started in September 1939 when Germany invaded [[Poland]] (with support from the Soviets); [[Britain]] and [[French Third Republic|France]] then declared war on Germany.

The conflict was the deadliest in human history with estimated deaths ranging from 50 million to over 70 million soldiers and civilians.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second</ref> It ended with the Soviet Union dominant in Eastern Europe, and the U.S. and its allies dominant in Western Europe, setting the stage for the [[Cold War]].

It is predicted by leading strategists that were neo-conservatives to get into power in the USA we would see the commencing of a third world war on a much greater scale than the second. Laying waste to any non-caucasian, non-christian being with an IQ of above 20 in a manner similar to retarded daleks.

==Causes==
see [[Causes of World War II]]

==War Begins in Europe==
[[Image:Communazi Peace Pact.jpg|thumb|300px|right|By terms of a secret protocol to the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], Poland was partitioned with Germany and the USSR each occupying 200,000 square kilometers.]]
:''See also: [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]]''

In the immediate run up to WWII, there were frequent reports of trespassing Polish troops. On August 31, 1939 German covert operatives staged a fake attack by Polish troops on a German radio station. WWII started on September 1, 1939, when German troops invaded Poland. Hitler justified this as a defensive act, pointing to the frequent border incidents, and said famously that from this moment on Germany would strike back.

The major tactical innovation of the war was the use of combined arms warfare, typified by the German doctrine of [[blitzkrieg]]. In this style of warfare armor, infantry, artillery and air power (see [[Luftwaffe]]) all coordinate to achieve overwhelming superiority at point on the enemy lines. Armor and fast-moving infantry units then exploit the gap and penetrate deep behind enemy lines. The objective is to cause a widespread collapse of the enemy's ability to fight. It was particularly effective during the early stages of the war, before the Allies developed effective countermeasures.
[[Image:Communazipact1.JPG|thumb|300px|left|Partition of Poland. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, NY; Time magazine [http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/fdr-diplo-images.html].]]
On September 17, 1939, Poland was invaded from the east by Hitler’s ally, Josef Stalin.

In 1939-1940, eastern Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Bessarabia were invaded and annexed into the Soviet Union proper. The Soviets lowered the local standard of living and disrupted and destroyed the prevailing socioeconomic structure. Local currencies were still legal tender but so was the Russian ruble. The occupying Russian soldiers were paid in rubles and the established exchange rate inflated the ruble by as much as 2000 to 3000 per cent. Overvaluing made the average Russian soldier extremely rich. This huge influx of rubles started a wave of inflation that natives did not notice at first. Eventually shortages were caused by Soviet purchasing agents that fanned out through the newly occupied nations, buying up wholesale goods in warehouses and the production of local factories.

Goods produced locally were shipped to Russia instead of resupplying the local market. Russian propaganda stated the goal was to raise the ordinary working person's standard of living. Prices were frozen, and wages raised by as much as ten times. Merchants and factory owners declared bankruptcy and went out of business. Shortages of food and other necessities introduced growing inflation, a black market, and discontent among the population. These deliberate Soviet policies raised the cost of living but not the actual standard of living. Once annexation was complete, local stores and industries were nationalized, their former owners arrested, stripped of their possessions, including their accumulated rubles, and shipped to the [[gulag]]s of Siberia. Workers still employed were then paid in rubles. <ref>Vladimir Petrov, Money and Conquest: Allied Occupation Currencies in World War II, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967, pgs. 173 -175.</ref>
[[Image:2-463.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Soviet and German troops meet up in the town of Brześć on September 18, 1939.<ref>[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/23/211/September_17_1939__Soviet_aggression_on_Poland.html September 17, 1939 - Soviet aggression on Poland], The Institute of National Remembrance - Commission of the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation.</ref>]]
The French and British were initially reluctant to honor promises to the Polish government, avoiding serious consideration of an invasion of Germany. The British failed to send land forces in time to support the Poles (see [[Western betrayal]]). The French mobilized slowly and then launched a token offensive in the Saar. The Meanwhile, on September 8, the Germans reached Warsaw, having slashed through the Polish defenses. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East.

==War in the West==
Following the completion of the invasion of Poland, German forces regrouped and Allied forces remained defensive, leading US commentators to dub it the [[Sitskreig|Phoney War]]. May 10 1940 marked the end of any accusation of a phony war, with the invasion of France by Germany, via the [[Netherlands]], [[Luxembourg]] and [[Belgium]]. Resistance by the British armies and French armies proved weak and the occupation of France began. British and French troops were routed and evacuated mainland Europe at [[Dunkirk]]. France was divided into the northern [[Occupied France]] and the collaborationist [[Vichy regime]] in the south of France, including [[Corsica]].

The collapse and occupation of France, together with Germany's non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union,<ref>[http://nobsopus.blogspot.com/2007/01/celebrations-marking-60-years-since-end.html Celebrations Marking 60 Years Since the End of World War II], Pavel Vitek, ''Russkii vopros - Studies'', No. 1 2005. Translation from Russian.</ref>, their alliances with fascist Italy, and an expansionist Japan, benevolent neutrality of fascist Spain, with little of Europe outside of Axis hands led many to assume that Britain had been defeated. Indeed it would appear that the, seemingly foolish, decision of the relatively weak Britain to continue the war took the Axis powers off guard. This decision ensured the remaining British Empire was still involved in the war, with Japan threatening many British possessions in Asia.

In 1940 [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]] were invaded by German forces, to preempt a British occupation of Norway and acquire Norway's coastline and ports for the German Navy. Norway also contained a source of [[Heavy water]], potentially crucial in the construction of an atomic weapon. The operation was successful, but losses were heavy, especially to the [[Kriegsmarine]]. This was soon followed by the British troops invited by [[Iceland]] and American occupation of [[Greenland]]. (The need to prevent any increase in the range of German air activity, brought about the occupation of these lands - and of the Azores at the request of the Portuguese Government.)

With Britain the sole opposing European nation, the [[Battle of Britain]] commenced. The [[Luftwaffe]] attempted to achieve aerial dominance over the south of Britain, in order to allow a sea based invasion of Britain to proceed. From 10th July to the end of October the [[Royal Air Force]] and Luftwaffe fought for dominance, with the resilience of the RAF, with British, Canadian and London Polish exile pilots, and the use of [[radar]] and its associated early warning system had forced a rethink of German tactics. It was the first significant setback for the Germans in the War. They now concentrated on the great population centers, especially London, hoping that huge civilian casualties would weaken morale and lead to a lessening of the war effort by the populace. The period that followed, popularly known as [[the Blitz]], lasted into May 1941. Around 40,000 civilians and civil defense workers died; but it failed in its objective and Hitler began concentrating on the impending invasion of Russia

With the pressure off their airbases the RAF was now able to increase its nightly raids on industrial sites in Germany and occupied lands. Because of the inability to correctly target these sites, the raids soon turned into “area bombing”, and German civilian casualties rose. These raids were to reach further into Germany as the war progressed and were greatly increased when American bombers began their sorties.

==Finnish Wars==

The Soviet Union invaded [[Finland]], a neutral, on November 30 1939. This conflict came to be known as the "Winter War". Despite the overwhelming numbers of the Red Army, the Finnish resistance was strong and the battle was hard fought before the Soviet army took control. Outside powers (including the U.S.) considered intervention to help Finland; only a little aid trickled in and Finland was forced to sue for peace. The peace treaty signed in March 1940 favored the Soviets, but they paid heavily for their victory with 200,000 dead. Finland lost 25,000 dead, and had to absorb 400,000 refugees from areas turned over to the Soviets. In 1941 Finland joined Germany in attacking the Soviets, in the "Continuation War" (1941-44), but lost again. An armistice in Sept. 1944 stabilized the border, using March 1940 lines; in addition Finland had to pay heavy reparations and had to remain neutral in the [[Cold War]].<ref> Roger R. Reese, "Lessons of the Winter War: a Study in the Military Effectiveness of the Red Army, 1939-1940," ''Journal of Military History'' 2008 72(3): 825-852 </ref>

==Soviet-German War==
1941 marked the major turning point in the war in Europe, when the Germans undertook [[Operation Barbarossa]] - the invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin was repeatedly informed by his own spies and anti-German countries that Germany was about to attack; he rejected the accurate reports and paid dearly for the blunder.

In June--behind schedule because of diversions in the Balkans--the Germans launched their massive war against the Soviet Union (known as the "Great Patriotic War" in Russia). It was by far the largest, bloodiest, and most decisive phase of World War II. Outside observers in the first few months figured that Germany would win easily. But the Nazi armies were split three ways, logistics became worse and worse as distances grew, and none met their objective by the time the extreme Russian winter of 1941-42 set in. Blitzkrieg had failed against the Soviets, and the Germans lacked the resources to fight a long war against a country with such vast areas and so many more people. The Luftwaffe, which promised to overcome the slowness of ground travel, failed to provide adequate support and was soon matched and outnumbered by the Soviet air force.<ref> The best studies of this theater are by [http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=30&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=&as_auth=glantz+david&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= David Glantz]</ref>

==United States enters the War==

American naval escort of British convoys carrying [[Lend-Lease]] aid lead to a shooting war with Germany. On October 17, 1941, the U.S. destroyer Kearney was torpedoed; two weeks later, the destroyer Reuben James was blown to pieces with the loss of 115 lives.<ref>Oxford Guide to World War II, ed. by I.C.B. Dear, Oxford University Press, 1995</ref> On November 10, an American escort of 11 vessels picked up a convoy of six vessels including America's three largest ocean liners with 20,000 British troops and guarded them from Halifax to India and Singapore. Many of the activities of the American Navy in the summer of 1941 were not known at all to the American public. In September, Roosevelt sought to repeal the [[Neutrality Act]] forbidding the arming of merchant vessels which was done on October 17. Two weeks later, all the essential points
of the Neutrality Act were repealed. <ref>Carroll Quigley, ''Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time'', Collier-Macmillan, 1966, pg. 720. ISBN 0-945001-10-X</ref>

The [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|attack on Pearl Harbor]] officially brought the United States into World War Two. Admiral [[Isoroku Yamamoto]] of the Japanese Imperial Navy was against engaging with the United States, due to fear of "waking a sleeping giant". The United States recovered from the shell shock of the initial attack and plunged into the war with the slogan "Remember Pearl Harbor!".

==Eastern Europe 1944-45==
By the spring of 1944, Soviet forces had reclaimed their own country almost wholly and were pushing into the Balkans and Poland. After two and one-half years of siege, Leningrad was relieved in January, 1944. A series of probes against the German forces in the Dnieper bend, south and southeast of Kiev, beginning in December 1943 and continuing into February, 1944, showed the Germans were weakening--they had lost most of their air support and were short on supplies and reinforcements. In early March 1944 Marshal Zhukov's First Ukrainian Front (army group) attacked along a front of 60 miles in order to sever the Odessa-Lvov railway, Germany's critical lifeline for supplies. In the first two days they advanced 50 miles and captured the a key railhead at Volochisk on the main line, then kept moving. Marshal Ivan S. Konev's Second Ukrainian Front, to the south of Zhukov, launched a general offensive at the same time, and captured the great German logistics base at Uman. The German front was now untenable, and the Germans fled in panic, despite Hitler's orders to never retreat. By March 15 Konev was within 30 miles of the Dniester River and the Romanian border.<ref> See David M. Glantz, ''When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst;jsessionid=LjLQtM5yvBTN3SfvN4kpNXzb1gpNh17lTPtH7ljVqh3QYhQbmptY!875247955?a=o&d=111924465 online edition]</ref>

Next, Zhukov turned south and advanced on Chernovtsy, aiming to cut the last rail line between the German armies based in Poland and the forces still remaining in Ukraine. By late March he had crossed the Dniester and occupied the city. By that time, Konev's right flank had crossed the Bug River and moved up to the Prut; German resistance had ended, and the remaining Germans south and west of Kiev were trying to escape to the south.

Zhukov and Konev had moved generally on a southwest axis. In so doing, they had isolated the German forces remaining in Ukraine. By April the liberation of Ukraine was complete. At the same time the Crimea was recaptured. North of Leningrad the Soviets attacked the Finns along the Karelian Isthmus, broke through the Mannerheim Line, and on June 20 captured Vyborg. Finland knew it was hopeless, and sued for peace a second time. The victories in Crimea and Finland freed up armies for the main attack against the Germans.

Coordinating with the Allied landing in Normandy in June, the Soviets launched a broad-scale offensive with 100 divisions attacking the Germans at the same time, thus preventing reinforcements from moving to France. The Soviets recaptured the Baltics, western Ukraine and central Poland.

To the south, Soviet encircling maneuvers in August, 1944, forced Romania to quit the war. A coup d'étatd'etat by King Michael unseated the dictator General Ion Antonescu; the king pledged support to the Allies. On August 26 Bulgaria announced its withdrawal from the war; German forces began to evacuate Greece. Having already seized the Romanian oilfields, in September Soviet forces occupied Sofia and prepared to mount a campaign up the Danube River for the purposes of conquering Hungary and Austria. The loss of Romanian oil was the final blow to the Luftwaffe, which was running out of aviation gasoline. The Germans no longer had an air force of importance, so they moved their airmen into infantry units. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of fresh, energetic ex-airman proved a tonic for the dispirited Wehrmacht. The eastern front was static after September, with the Soviets near the German border. The Soviets needed time to recoup their heavy losses and reorganize in time for a final thrust in January 1945 toward Berlin. The winter was brutal but Moscow realized the Germans were weak in manpower, and lacking any reserves in transport, armor, aviation, or fuel. Crippled by Hitler's no-retreat policy, the Germans were unable to maneuver. They fought to the death.

In mid-January, 1945. all four Soviet army groups attacked. In two weeks 15 German divisions were trapped in East Prussia; they held out until April. Desperate German civilians fled west on rail and on foot, as the Russians robbed, raped and killed any they caught. In Poland, Zhukov outflanked Warsaw to the southwest, and with their rear threatened the Germans abandoned the city on January 15, while Zhukov's forces swept forward to Lodz. To the south Konev's group, after overcoming a strong initial resistance around Kielce, moved rapidly on Kraków and on January 20 crossed into Germany north and south of Breslau, established bridgeheads across the Oder River. By February 15 Konev had taken Bunslau, 125 miles southeast of Berlin. By mid-March Zhukov's artillery could be heard in Berlin. Hitler ordered new armies to rush to defend Berlin, but the armies did not exist and there was no help. By the end of March the German position on the Danube River had collapsed, and Soviet forces had crossed into Austria. By mid-April Vienna was in Red hands.

The Germans--massively outnumbered--fought to the death for Berlin; Hitler committed suicide. On May 2 1945, Soviet forces finally took full control of the doomed capital. On May 7, 1945, General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional German nation surrender document at Rheims, France.<ref> See Antony Beevor, ''The Fall of Berlin 1945'' (2002)</ref>

==Far East==

After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese juggernaut seemed unstoppable. In the south, they conquered the [[Philippines]], the oil-rich Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and extended their reach as far as the Solomon Islands. In the west, they seized [[Burma]] and the vital port at [[Rangoon]], and even attacked British forces at [[Ceylon]]. The Japanese empire now reached as far as [[Wake Island]] in the east and the [[Aleutian Islands]] to the north. Attacks on Japanese targets, including the Doolittle raid, boasted American morale, but did little material damage. In May 1942, Japanese forces were finally halted at the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]], which cost the Americans a precious [[aircraft carrier]], but saved southern [[New Guinea]]. At the [[Battle of Midway]] a month later, the Japanese lost four of their best carriers, suffering a blow to their sea power from which they never recovered.

The Americans took the offensive in August with a landing on the island of [[Guadalcanal]]. The overall American offensive strategy was two-pronged. Forces in the south advanced up the Solomon island chain and New Guinea, while in the central Pacific, Marines took island after island, including [[Battle of Tarawa|Tarawa]], Eniwetok, [[Saipan]], and [[Guam]]. The two lines of attack came together at the Philippines.

Integral to the strategy was the policy of island hopping. Many Japanese strongholds were bypassed, allowing the American forces to concentrate on more strategically significant islands. For example, [[Truk]] and Rabaul were home to major Japanese air and naval bases, but once the bases were neutralized, there was no reason to take on the troops there. This policy not only saved thousands of American (and Japanese) lives, it shortened the war by at least several months.

The American invasion of the Philippines took place in late October of 1944 when Marines landed on Leyte Island. A few days later, the US Navy shattered what was left of Japanese naval power in the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]]. The Japanese fought hard, however, and Leyte took two months to secure. When the Americans landed on the other islands, they found the troops there equally unwilling to retreat, but with American superiority in almost every area, the outcome was never really in doubt. [[Manila]] was captured by March, and the American position had become solid enough that leaders could start preparing for the final stage: [[Operation Downfall|the invasion of Japan]]. The first step was taken when the island of [[Okinawa]] was captured in June after two months of heavy fighting. Operation Olympic, the invasion of [[Kyushu]], was scheduled for November 1945, followed by Operation Coronet, the invasion of [[Honshu]], in March of 1946.

The Japanese, soldiers and civilians alike, were expected to put up a fierce defense. Army Chief of Staff [[George C. Marshall]] believed that Japan would fight to the last man, and insisted on preparing for a land invasion of Japan with an army of 2,000,000 men anticipating a tremendous number of casualties. Some analysts estimated the number of projected casualties from Operation Olympic alone at 250,000 dead and wounded.<ref>Historical Atlas of the U.S. Navy, by Craig L. Symonds, the Naval Institute, 1995</ref> For this reason, Washington begged the Soviet to invade Japanese possessions on the mainland.

[[Image:Ww2-asia usma.edu pic.gif|thumb|300px|left|Time Line of Pacific War]]

==Japanese capitulation==
On August 6, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay piloted by Paul Tibbet, dropped an atomic bomb (now called a nuclear weapon) on [[Hiroshima]]. Japan did not respons, so on August 9, Bocks Car, a B-29 piloted by Frederick C. Bock dropped the second atomic bomb.

The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, in reponse to urgent American requests. It invaded Manchuria and Korea; the Japanese army disintegrated. It was no longer possible for the Imprial Army to defend the Emperor. On August 20 the Japanese government told Washington it was ready to accept the proposed terms, with the understanding the Emperor would remain on the throne and would not be hung as a war criminal. Washington agreed, saying the authority of the emperor would be "subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." On September 2, 1945, the Japanese Emperor formally surrendered all Japanese forces to the Allies in a famous ceremony aboard the battleship ''Missouri'' in Tokyo Bay. This was the ending of World War II, after six years almost to the day.

==Effects of war on empires==

*[[Iron Curtain]]
:The Red army conquered practically everything east of the "Iron Curtain," destroying independent national governments and making them all subservient to Moscow. The US grudging;y tolerated this imperialism until 1947, when it was Greece's turn. Then the US drew the line and adopted a policy of [[containment]]. Because of the geography of war, [[Yugoslavia]] and [[Albania]] escaped the Red Army. They fell under the control of independent Communists--Yugoslavia received American support, and Albania turned to Red China for help against the Soviets.

*[[British Empire]]
:The war effectively bankrupted Britain, which soon gave up India (as well as Pakistan, Ceylon and neighboring states).

* French Empire
:France saluted its overseas Empire as the savior of France, and wanted control back. That led to nasty large scale civil wars in Algeria and Vietnam, which France lost.

*the Netherlands and Indonesia
:The Dutch returned to the [[Dutch East Indies]] to face an insurrection they could not handle. Dutch acknowledged in 1949 the sovereignty of [[Indonesia]], a non-Communist state.

*Supremacy of the USA in the Western World
:The war left the U.S. with a vastly stronger economy than anyone else. To save on budget deficits the military was demobilized, but the long-term strategy was in confusion after Roosevelt's death.

==See also==
===Land war===
[[Image:Bradley.jpg|thumb|290px|''Time'' Dec. 4, 1944]]
* [[Battle of the Bulge]], Dec. 1944
* [[Battle of Okinawa]], spring 1945
* [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], 1937-45
* [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], US general
* [[Omar Bradley]], US general
* [[George S. Patton, Jr.]], US general
===Air war===
* [[Luftwaffe]], German air force
* [[World War II in the Air]]
* [[Bombing of Japan]]
* [[Bombing of Germany]]
===Naval===
* [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]], Dec. 1941
* [[Battle of Midway]], June 1942
* [[Chester W. Nimitz]], US Admiral

===Homefronts===
* [[Holocaust]], killing the Jews

===leaders===
* [[Charles de Gaulle]], France
* [[Adolph Hitler]], Germany
* [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], US
* [[Winston Churchill]], Britain
* [[Joseph Stalin]], Russia
* [[Chiang Kai-shek]], China
* [[Benito Mussolini]], Italy
* [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]], Canada
* [[John Curtin]], Australia

==Further reading==
for more detailed guide see [[Bibliography of World War II]]

* Dear, I. C. B. and M. R. D. Foot, eds. ''Oxford Companion to World War II'' (in Britain titled ''Oxford Companion to the Second World War'' (2005; 2nd ed. 2009). the best reference book; [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Companion-World-War-II/dp/019280670X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236549909&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Times Atlas of the Second World War'' (1995)
* Weinberg, Gerhard L. ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'', (1994) the best overall view of the war.
==References==
{{reflist|2}}

== External Links ==
* United States Department of the Navy/Navy Historical Center's [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq36-4.htm Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_wwii.html/ World War II]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
*[http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~epf/1997/padilla.html Kursk: The Turning Point on the Eastern Front in World War II], by Roberto R. Padilla II
* [http://encyc.org/WorldWarII World War II - Encyc]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
[[Category:World War II| ]]
[[Category:Wars]]

Communism

2009-10-17T21:29:15Z

VIUlanov:

[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|180px|right|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
'''Communism''' is a materialistic and militantly atheistic ideology created to justify the overthrow of "[[Capitalism]]", replacing [[free market]] economics and [[democracy]] with a "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". Under Communism, the [[political]] system replaces the [[private property|private ownership]] of the [[means of production]] with "[[collective ownership]]" (actually [[nationalization]]).

Twentieth century Communism was based on [[Karl Marx]]'s manifesto which proposed to establishment of a "[[classless society]]." However, all Communist societies have had a [[class structure]], notably the [[USSR]], which has been dominated by a self appointed ''[[Nomenklatura]]''.

In the belief that "people cannot change", governments under the banner of communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40 million to 260 million human lives.<ref>[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref><ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]</ref><ref>[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]</ref><ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term [[democide]] (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref>

President [[Ronald Reagan]] in an address before the British [[House of Commons]] said,
{{Cquote|What I am describing now is a plan and hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave [[Marxism-Leninism]] on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.<ref>President Ronald Reagan [http://www.iri.org/history_ReaganSpeech.asp Speech to the British Parliament], June 8, 1982. Retrieved from International Republican Institute 05/24/07. </ref>}}

Today, communism continues to rule over at least one-fifth of the world's people.<ref>[http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation], Documenting Communism's Crimes Against Humanity.</ref>

Fortunately for these 1/5, leadership doing too much and starting stalin-esque cults of personality around leaders is slightly better for the country than letting a republican into the whitehouse.

__TOC__
 

==Communist Theory==

[[Image:HammerAndSickle.png|thumb|left|200px|The [[hammer and sickle]] is considered throught much of the world to be offensive in the same manner as the [[swastika]] is.]]
Communism is based upon [[Marxism]], a philosophy which uses [[materialism]] to explain all physical and social phenomena. The theory of [[evolution]] influenced the thinking of the Communists, including Marx, [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], [[Vladimir Lenin]], and [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref> Marx wrote, "[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural science for the class struggle in history." Marx offered to dedicate the second German edition of his polemic "Das Kapital" to [[Charles Darwin]], but Darwin declined the "honour." <ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref> <ref>Karl Marx's Social and Political Thought, Bob Jessop, ISBN 0415193265 (pg 476)</ref>

Economically, communism advocates a [[socialist]] economy in which the public owns the [[means of production]]. In countries where communism has been imposed, the government has taken ownership of farms, factories, stores and so on in the name of the people; see "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". This drives all [[free market|market-based]] economic activity underground and leads to inefficiencies and shortages.{{fact}} In both the Soviet Union and Red China, the number of people who starved to death when the government confiscated their farm products (animals and grain) is estimated in the tens of millions.{{fact}}

Members of the ruling party (see [[Nomenklatura]]) have special stores in which ordinary people are barred, stores which are immune to the shortages which the lower class must endure (see [[queuing]]).{{fact}}

Various communist doctrines have evolved or been adapted to the time and place they have been implemented. Marxism, developed by [[Karl Marx]], and its modifications under [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin| Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Mao Zedong]], advocates the overthrow of the existing order by a revolution of the proletariat, the social group which does not control the means of production. The goal of Marxism is supposedly to create a classless society which would result in no longer the need for any [[government]] (Communism).

The most famous government to label itself "communist" is the former [[USSR]] or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the Communist Party controlled its government from 1922 to 1991. This government was officially [[atheist]] and attempted to suppress all religion. Like many authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion. Left-wing critics of the USSR charged that it was communist in name only, and had betrayed the revolution which founded it. George Orwell expressed this viewpoint eloquently in his 1945 fable ''[[Animal Farm]]''.

Marxist theory is intended to appeal to its adherents with the phrase, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", which essentially states point blank a worker does not get paid according to his abilities, and there is no [[incentive]] within the economic theory. Another quote by Marx was, "The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property," or as some have phrased it, legalized theft.

== Communism and militant atheism ==

[[Karl Marx]] established atheism as a key part of communism. He famously said, "Religion ... is the opium of the masses."<ref>Marx, K. [http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31765.html Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right] (Classic Quotations) (Standard translation from the original German).</ref> He believed it was part of the "superstructure," a false culture built to maintain the status quo. Thus he denigrated Christianity as a fictional religion. Instead, Marx was an avowed atheist, as he wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with [[atheism]]; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."<ref>Marx, Karl, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm Private Property and Communism], 1944.</ref>

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on ''in practice'' and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, ''Proletary'', No. 45, May 13 (26), 1909, translated by Andrew Rothstein and Bernard Issacs, quote from [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm].</ref>

In 1955, [[China|Chinese]] communist leader Chou En-lai declared, "We Communists are atheists".<ref>Noebel, David, The Battle for Truth, Harvest House, 2001.</ref>

The [[atheism]] in communist regimes has been and continues to be [[militant atheism]] and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.<ref>http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2000/March_2000_4.html</ref><ref>http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx</ref><ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref><ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref><ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref><ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

Marxists justification for its persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church was based upon the claim that the Church was a "willing tool of Tsarism."<ref>http://www.marxist.com/religion-soviet-union170406-6.htm</ref>

The clergy openly stated its support for the counter-revolution (White Revolution). Lenin proclaimed that a communist regime must show itself to be merciless toward the question of religion. There was no place for the church in Lenin's regime. This led to anti-religious decrees and propaganda. All church property was expropriated by the new Soviet government. <ref>http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42047/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics#277888.hook</ref>

During the late 1930's and later 1940's the restrictions on church activity were loosened as Stalin needed all the support he could get for the war. This doctrine of co-operation between the church and state continued through out the existence of the Soviet republics and the other Warszawa pact nations. Though never going as far as a leader of the Soviet Union asking [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_barrow/2007/03/hiding_behind_god.html god to bless the country] the clause in the Soviet Unions constitution addressing the separation of church and state was rendered useless.

Dr. [[Martin Luther King]] said, "for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything - force, violence, murder, lying - is a justifiable means." <ref>''Stride Toward Freedom : The Montgomery Story'', Martin Luther King, Jr., Harper and Rowe, New York, 1958, p. 92.</ref>

== Atrocities and Repression ==
[[File:Montana de cadaveres en un gulag sovietico.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Victims of communism in a Soviet gulag.<ref>[http://www.cubaencuentro.com/es/cultura/articulos/la-condena-del-silencio-y-el-olvido-iii-38610 La condena del silencio y el olvido (III)]
La reacción visceral que inspiran los campos de concentración nazis no es unánime cuando se trata de enjuiciar y condenar el horror totalitario del gulag. Carlos Espinosa Domínguez, cubaencuentro.com, 09/07/2007.</ref> Apologists maintain communism has never really been tried. ]]
Communist regimes have engaged in mass killings on a scale of millions of individuals.<ref>http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/comfaq.htm#part3</ref> A work entitled ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' published by the [[Harvard]] Press focuses on the crimes, terror, and repression of modern communist regimes over a 70 year period.<ref>http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html</ref> This book is fairly controversial partly due to the various estimates regarding the millions of people who died under communist regimes.<ref>http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html</ref><ref>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm</ref><ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm</ref>
<ref>http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365</ref><ref>http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526</ref>

Similarly, a influential book which concerns itself with Russian communist torture, repression and atrocities is [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' which won Solzhenitsyn a [[Nobel Prize]].<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-gulag.html</ref> In 1983, Alexander Solzhenitsyn in which he gave his explanation of the cause of why millions of people died under Russian communism:

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref>
</blockquote>

In communist [[North Korea]], abuse and killing in prison camps is occurring today.<ref>http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5596</ref><ref>http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/nkdefec3.htm</ref> In addition, the North Korean government practices brutal repression and atrocities against North Korean Christians.<ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref>

In 1999, the publication [[Christian Century]] reported that "China has persecuted religious believers by means of "harassment, prolonged detention, and incarceration in prison or `reform-through-labor' camps and police closure of places of worship."<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref> In 2003, owners of Bibles in China were sent to prison camps and 125 Chinese churches were closed.<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref> China continues to practice religious oppression today.<ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

==Communists cite scripture==

Some Communist ideology has made its way into the Church as a [[Social Gospel]], interpreting the Gospel as less redemptive of sin and more of a public works campaign and activism. They often cite Jesus feeding the masses and warnings to the wealthy who believed self-seeking is all this world has to offer. Communists often cite the Acts of the Apostles, as early Christians practicing some form of sharing for the common good:

:And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)

:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

:And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

:And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

:Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)

But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points,

:The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the Father and Creator of man, but also his Savior, Who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>

==Cuban communism==
[[Cuba]] remains a communist state controlled by the Castro brothers since 1960 and under U.S economic sanctions.

==Asian communism==
The [[CCP]] in China retains an autocratic regime controlled by the Communist party, which allows no democracy or dissent. However it does allow capitalism, and has experienced a very rapid growth of the private sector and the middle class. Observers expect that the regime's efforts to control public opinion and forestall the will of the people will be more and more difficult.

[[North Korea]] remains a brutal dictatorship controlled by the same family. [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]] are also run by the old Communist cliques.

==Collapse of the Soviet bloc==

Between 1989 and 1991, many communist governments fell. The [[Berlin Wall]] in [[Germany]], which had become a symbol for the division between the West and communist states, was torn down largely in response to Ronald Reagan in 1989, and there was also a large revolution against Romanian dictator [[Nicolaie Ceausescu]]. In 1991, the USSR broke up into several countries - each which reformed to capitalism. Some of these remained under autocratic governments, but some have embraced democracy. With the collapse the remnants of Communist parties have dropped their old names and ideologies, but still operate on the left of the political spectrum.

==American communism==
:''Main article : [[Committees of Correspondence]]''
With the collapse of Soviet communism and the conversion of Chinese communism to "state run capitalism," the spiritual and ideological center of world of communism and the [[Marxist-Leninist]] tradition shifted to the [[United States]]. Several prominent American communists, rudderless without [[Moscow]] direction, formed a new organization in 1992 called the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democratic Socialism]].

The initial organizational conference was held in [[Berkeley]], [[California]], July 17-19, 1992. Charlene Mitchell, a former leader of the California Communist Party, speaking at the conference said, "the collapse of [[socialism]] in [[Eastern Europe]] left the [[United States]] in a near unchallenged position of world leadership." Mitchell continued,
{{Cquote|What began as a moment to take stock and ponder where to go from there has now become a very different entity. People from the Communist Party, from CrossRoads, from the [[Democratic Socialists of America]], from NCIPA [National Committee for Independent Political Action], from Solidarity, from the Socialist Organizing Network and many others, including independent leftists and independent socialists, have come together here in Berkeley.}}
Criticizing U.S. actions in the [[First Gulf War]], Mitchell stated,
{{Cquote|[[progressive]] forces were nearly powerless in the face of an onslaught of demagogic, [[patriotic]] [[jingoism]] and yellow ribbons. This war, fought for no legitimate reason, was the crowning height of [[George H.W. Bush|President [George H.W.] Bush]]'s [[New World Order]]. Previously, the Soviet Union helped to provide a certain balance to rein in the crazies in this country. Now, that balance is no longer there. It is now up to us, the American people, to rein in our own crazies. The [[left]] must take a major responsibility in organizing this task.}}

==Notorious communists==

Well known communists include:
*[[William Ayers]]
*[[Fidel Castro]]
*[[Hugo Chavez]]
*[[Carl Davidson]]
*[[Frank Marshall Davis]]
*[[Bernardine Dohrn]]
*[[Friedrich Engels]]
*[[Che Guevara]]
*[[Van Jones]]
*[[Lazar Kaganovich]]
*[[Vladimir Lenin]]
*[[Mao Zedong]]
*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Paul Robeson]]
*[[Joseph Stalin]]
*[[Yakov Sverdlov]]
*[[Leon Trotsky]]
*[[Genrikh Yagoda]]
*[[Yakov Yurovsky]]

==Further reading==
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative historian
** Pipes, Richard. ''History of Communism: A Brief History'' (2002)
* Priestland, David. ''The Red Flag: A History of Communism'' (2009)
*[http://www.archive.org/stream/100thingsyoushou1949unit#page/n3/mode/2up 100 Things You Should Know About Communism'']

==See also==
*[[Communist Party of the United States of America]]
*[[Cold War]]
*[[Capitalism]]
*[[Iron Curtain]]
*[[Progressives for Obama]]
*[[Socialism]]
*[[Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] for the connection of the shootdown by the Soviets of KAL 007, with 269 people aboard, on Sept. 1, 1983 with the heightened U.S./Soviet confrontations of 1983-4.

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.memorialsighet.ro/en/colectie.asp?id=3 Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/communism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Communism], [[Accuracy In Media]]

[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Forms of Government]]

Suppression of alternatives to evolution

2009-10-17T21:27:33Z

VIUlanov:

There exists widespread suppression of [[creation science]] and [[intelligent design]], ideas which offer alternative explanations of origins than do the various [[theories of evolution]].

== History ==

Until [[Charles Darwin]] popularised<ref>Darwin didn't invent the idea. Similar ideas had been around for a long time, and even Charles Darwin's uncle Erasmus was an evolutionist.</ref> the idea of [[Theory of evolution|evolution]] in the middle of the 19th century, most people including the vast majority of scientists were creationists.
Over the next 50 to 100 years, however, evolution came to be the ruling paradigm in the biological sciences in particular, and science in general.

In the early 1960s, creationism began a resurgence, followed a few decades later by intelligent design.
Once these ideas had started to gain a degree of popularity, however, many people, committed to evolutionary thought, began to oppose these competing views of the history of life.
(These people generally consider Intelligent design to be creationism in disguise, although there are significant differences between the two ideas.)

However, this opposition has not been merely academic debate of the merits of the competing ideas, but a concerted effort to suppress creationism and intelligent design.
This opposition has included keeping the ideas out of the education system and marginalising or ridiculing the ideas in the mass media.

{{QuoteBox|It appears from various reports reaching this office, that a trend is developing in the halls of Academe … that Liberalism’s great contribution to American education, namely “Academic Freedom” has become a victim of incest, having been raped by its own sires … . [A] former Louisiana State Senator … said instances [of] … pro-creationism professors and teachers … being dismissed have begun to proliferate in the past ten years … highly-qualified educators denied tenure or otherwise discriminated against simply because they hold views or engage in activities which oppose the tenets of … [evolutionism].<ref>Haney, K., Academic freedom’s double standard, ''Christian Times'', p. 4, 28 June 1985, quoted by Bergman, 1995.</ref>}}

The movie ''[[Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed]]'' with [[Ben Stein]] released in April 2008 exposes the suppression of alternatives to evolution.

== Ideology ==
The motivation for suppressing views opposed to evolution includes anti-theistic ideologies.

Richard Lewontin:{{QuoteBox|We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our ''a priori'' adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.<ref>Lewontin, Richard, Billions and billions of demons, ''The New York Review'', p. 31, 9 January 1997, quoted in [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/703/ Amazing admission], ''Creation'' 20(3):24, June 1998.</ref>}}

== Vilification ==
Anti-creationists have often openly vilified creation and creationists:
* [[Isaac Asimov]] said that all "creationists are stupid, lying people who are not to be trusted in any way." and that all of their "points are equally stupid, except where the creationists are outrightly lying."<ref>Asimov, L., Is Big Brother watching? ''The Humanist'' 44(4):6–10, 1984, quoted by Bergman, 2005</ref>
* [[Richard Dawkins]] said that anyone rejecting evolution is "ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked—but I’d rather not consider that)"<ref>Barnes, 2007</ref>
* Tom Mason, Director of the [[Armagh]] planetarium, links the creationary view to [[Islam]]ic fundamentalism, the [[Inquisition]], and [[Jihad]], and refers to creationism as "ignorance", "irrationality", and "narrow-minded".<ref>Mason, Tom, Science and Fundamentalism, ''Earth Science Ireland'', issue 3, spring 2008 (available online at [http://www.habitas.org.uk/es2k/], then click on "Newletter" link).</ref>

Creationary [[scientist]]s frequently have their qualifications questioned, blatantly or subtly.
* On the web-site of the British Centre for Science Education, the article about Creation Ministries International lists CMI's senior staff, but for each scientist listed, puts quote marks around the word "scientist", implying that they are not really scientists.<ref>[http://bcseweb.org.uk/index.php/Main/CreationMinistriesInternational Creation Ministries International] on the BSCE web-site.</ref> Yet each of the scientists listed holds valid qualifications from reputable secular universities.

== Cases of suppression ==

=== Recognition affected ===

Individuals have been denied awards or qualifications, or attempts have been made to have them withdrawn.

==== David Bolhuis ====

David Bolhuis, a teacher from Hudsonville, [[Michigan]] was told that the Michigan Science Teachers' Association had unanimously selected him as the High School Teacher of the Year.
However, the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] protested, as Bolhuis had been "teaching about" both creation and evolution.
Subsequent media pressure resulted in the decision to not give Bolhuis the award.<ref>Bergman, 1984, pp.25 & 26.</ref>

=== Employment affected ===

In many cases, individuals have been fired, threatened with being fired, demoted, moved, or not employed.
This is not even confined to creationists and intelligent design advocates, but even affects evolutionists who don't toe the line in refusing to even consider alternatives.

==== Lloyd Dale ====

Lloyd Dale was an award-winning and highly-qualified high school teacher in South Dakota who was fired in 1980 for teaching about both evolution and creation.<ref>Bergman, 1986, p.61.</ref>

==== Forrest Mims ====

[[Forrest Mims]] III is a science writer who, by 1990, had seen more than 500 of his articles published in 62 [[newspaper]]s and [[magazine]]s.

Science magazine ''[[Scientific American]]'' invited him to submit some articles for their ''Amateur Scientist'' column, and the expectation was that these would lead on to a permanent job.

The articles were published in 1990, and the editor described Mims' work as "first rate", but when he discovered that Mims was a creationist, Mims was denied further work with the magazine.<ref>Anon., 1991.</ref><ref>Anon., 1997?</ref>

==== Richard Sternberg ====
{{main|Smithsonian-Sternberg affair}}

==== Guillermo Gonzalez ====
Guillermo Gonzalez was denied [[tenure]] and promotion to associate professor by [[Iowa State University]], despite apparently easily meeting their criteria.
The university's stated criteria for promotion to associate professor says that "For promotion to associate professor, excellence sufficient to lead to a national or international reputation is required and would ordinarily be shown by the publication of approximately fifteen papers of good quality in refereed journals".
Gonzalez exceeded this by 350%, with 68 such papers, including papers that had surprisingly high numbers of citations.

But Gonzales co-authored a book in 2004 which revealed his support for intelligent design, and two of his colleagues have admitted that his views on intelligent design were a factor in denying Gonzalez tenure.<ref>Grigg, 2007</ref><ref>Klinghoffer, 2007</ref>

==== Robert Gentry ====

Robert Gentry became the acknowledged expert on [[radiohalos]], and published papers in a number of leading scientific journals, including ''Science'', ''Nature'', and ''Journal of Geophysical Research''. However, when his creationist views became known, his contract with Oak Ridge National Laboratories was cancelled.<ref>Gentry, 186, p.191</ref><ref>Buckna</ref>

==== Roger Paull ====
Roger Paull was a substitute [[teacher]] in Arizona. One assignment saw him showing to his class a video left by the regular teacher.
The video disparaged [[Christianity]] and glorified [[naturalism]].
After the third video, on [[theory of evolution|evolution]], he briefly mentioned [[intelligent design]] to the class.
The next day he was suspended and has not been able to teach since, having been effectively "blackballed".
He says that he was viewed "almost the same way a potential pedophile would be".
<ref>Paull, 2007</ref>

==== Michael Reiss ====
Rev. Professor Michael Reiss, an evolutionist, called for schools to teach students ''about'' creationism,<ref>Simpson and Gray, 2008; Halloway, 2008(b)</ref> and this resulted in him being forced to resign from his part time job as Director of Education at the [[Royal Society]].<ref>Beckford, 2008; Halloway, 2008(b).</ref>

=== Accreditation affected ===
==== The ICR Graduate School ====
{{main|ICR Graduate School#Controversies{{!}}ICR Graduate School}}

The [[ICR Graduate School]] had for years been offering graduate degrees in [[California]]. Then in 1986 California abruptly changed its rules, and its new Superintendent of Public Instruction, [[William Honig]], determined to stop ICR at any cost. ICR had to sue the State in federal court to get his decisions reversed.

In 2006 ICR decided to move to [[Texas]] but then encountered the same difficulties. In April 2008 the Academic Excellence and Research Committee of the Texas Higher-Education Coordinating Board voted unanimously to deny the ICR Graduate School's application for accreditation. The Texas Commissioner of Higher Education said only, "Religious beliefs are not science." ICR might appeal the process administratively, submit a new proposal, or sue the State of Texas for injunctive relief.

=== Court challenges to education ===

In 1925 the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] challenged a [[Tennessee]] law that forbade teaching that man had evolved (it didn't otherwise forbid teaching evolution), in what became known as the [[Scopes Trial]].
The ACLU lawyer, [[Clarence Darrow]], argued that it was wrong to only teach one view of origins.<ref>[http://new.jesuscreated.org/index.html Jesus Created Ministries, Home page].</ref>

Yet now the ACLU and other supporters of evolution argue that only the evolutionary view of origins should be taught.

==== Dover County School Board ====

{{main|Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District}}

In 2004, the Dover County School Board in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., approved a curriculum which included that teachers should read to their class a statement pointing out that evolution is an explanation of observations, not a fact, that intelligent design is an alternative explanation, that the book ''Of Pandas and People'' is available if students want to know more about Intelligent design, and that the students are to keep an open mind.

But even this was too much for the committed evolutionists, and a court challenge, backed by the [[American Civil Liberties Union]], saw the requirement removed, on the grounds that the proponents of the requirement had religious motives.

==== Philip Bishop ====

Associate professor of physiology, Dr. Philip Bishop, was taken to court by his employer, the [[University of Alabama]], to stop him briefly expressing his views favouring [[intelligent design]], on the grounds that they were religious.
Yet views ''opposing'' religion are routinely expressed in classes with no attempts made to stop them.<ref>Bergman, 2004</ref>

==== Cobb County School District ====

{{main|Selman v. Cobb County School District}}

Even pointing out that students should apply some critical thinking to evolution is unacceptable to the evolutionists.

In 2002 the Cobb County School District in [[Georgia]], U.S.A., placed stickers in the front of biology textbooks which simply read:
{{QuoteBox|This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.}}
Yet even this innocuous statement was challenged in court, with the ultimate result being that the stickers were removed from the textbooks.

=== Peer review publications ===

A frequent criticism of creationism and intelligent design is that they fail to pass [[peer review]], and cannot therefore be considered scientific.

Creationists and intelligent design proponents counter that they fail to pass peer review on the grounds of ideology, not scientific merit.

One columnist wrote:{{QuoteBox|Note the circularity: Critics of ID have long argued that the theory was unscientific because it had not been put forward in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Now that it has, they argue that it shouldn't have been because it's unscientific.<ref>Klinghoffer, 2005</ref>}}

==== ''Chemistry in Australia'' ====

The April 2007 issue of ''Chemistry in Australia'' included an article titled "creationist’s view of the intelligent design debate", written by John Ashton, chemist and Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), publishers of the journal.

The outcry against the article by evolutionists, which included effectively calling Ashton a liar, sweepings dismissals of creationism, but little if anything in the way of actual rebuttal, resulted in the RACI removing mention of the article from their web-site.<ref>Walker, 2007</ref>

==== ''Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington'' ====

In August 2004<ref>Meyer, 2004. The on-line archives of the magazine list it as June 2004 [http://apt.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-toc&issn=0006-324X&volume=117&issue=2], but this is not considered reliable, as the same source lists both of the following two issues as being December 2004.</ref> the ''Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington'' published a paper by [[Stephen Meyer]]<ref>Meyer, 2004</ref> which gave an overview of intelligent design arguments.

The ensuing outcry, including from people who had not even read the paper, resulted in the [[Biological Society of Washington]] undertaking to never again publish anything about intelligent design.

There were claims that the paper had bypassed the peer review process, but these were shown to be false.<ref>McVay, 2005</ref>
The refusal to ever publish on the topic again was not on the grounds of not passing peer review, but in line with the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]]'s position that intelligent design is not science.<ref>Sternberg; Walker, 2007; Klinghoffer, 1995a</ref><ref>[http://www.biolsocwash.org/id_statement.html Statement from the Council of the Biological Society of Washington]</ref>

==== ''Science'' letters to the editor ====

After failing to get a letter published in the journal ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'', [[Russell Humphreys]] wrote to the letters editor asking if the journal had a policy of suppressing creationist letters.
She replied that "It is true that we are not likely to publish letters supporting creationism".
This was despite the journal's policy of publishing letters to include "the presentation of minority or conflicting points of view".<ref>Gentry, 1986, p.199-194.</ref>
=== Public information ===

==== The Science Show, ABC Australia ====

In a March 2003 broadcast of ''The Science Show'' on Radio National, a radio station of the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]], presenter Robyn Williams and [[Eugenie Scott]], executive director of the American [[National Center for Science Education]], openly admitted, on the pretence that evolution is true, that creationists do not warrant equal time.
{{QuoteBox|'''Robyn Williams:''' And the old question of science having two sides - and this is a journalistic thing where some of us still, especially if you go to television, are supposed to display conflict, you know, one side and the other side as if there is this continuing argument. '''Eugenie Scott:''' Well Robyn, you put your finger exactly on the issue. When there is a controversy, responsible journalists will present both or all sides and give a fair opportunity for all sides to be heard. If you were doing a show on anthrax you would not feel compelled to put a Christian scientist<ref>This is according to the official transcript. The audio sounded more like this being a reference to Christian Science than Christian scientists. The [[Christian Science]] cult, unlike Christian scientists, denies the germ theory of disease.</ref> who denied the germ theory of disease on the show to balance the program, because the germ theory of disease in medicine is a done deal, we are not debating whether germs cause disease. Similarly, if you are discussing an issue like what topics should be taught in science education at the pre-college level, which is a continuing controversy in the United States, you don't debate whether to teach evolution, because evolution is state of the art science and it should be taught. You don't debate whether to teach evidence against evolution or some sort of creationism because scientists don't accept these arguments, there is no body of evidence against evolution. And this is what the theory of biological evolution is all about.<ref>Williams, 2003</ref>}}

==== Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre ====

When creationists proposed<ref>The Causeway Creation Committee, [http://www.causewaycreation.com/Objectives.html Objectives]</ref><ref>Heneghan, Tom, [http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2007/11/30/creationists-claim-the-giants-causeway/ Creationists claim the Giant’s Causeway], Reuters Blogs, 30th November, 2007.</ref> that a new visitor's centre at the [[Giant's Causeway]] geological formation in [[Northern Ireland]] should include the creationist explanation of its formation<ref>Walker, Tas., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/2016 A giant cause], ''Creation'' 27(2):28–34, March 2005.</ref> alongside the secular view, anti-creationists objected, wanting only their view to be made available to visitors.<ref>Zalasiewicz, Jan, and Bazley, Tony, [http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/page3473_en.html Giant's Causeway - myth and reality], ''Geoscientist'' 18.4, April 2008.</ref><ref>Walker, Tasman, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/5729 Call to censor public information at the Giant’s Causeway, UK] 3rd May, 2008 (Creation Ministries International).</ref>

=== Attempts to prevent creationists being heard ===

On numerous occasions, anti-creationists have attempted to prevent creationists being able to promote their point of view by attempting to have their venue bookings cancelled or by heckling the speakers during their talks.

==== Werner Gitt ====

In October 2008, protesters attempted to prevent German creationary scientist Dr. [[Werner Gitt]] from giving a talk titled ''Why I as a scientist believe the Bible'' at Leibniz University.
The protests followed unsuccessful attempts to pressure the university administration to cancel the talk.
As the talk was about to start, the protesters unfurled banners, one with the German for "Creationists, go to hell!" and another with a foul expression, then started chanting and blowing whistles to prevent the talk from going ahead.
Police were called by the organisers, but the two, then five, officers were ignored by the protesters, who were only removed after another 20 police officers arrived, allowing the talk to go ahead an hour late.<ref>Wieland, 2008</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* Anon., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1248/ Scientific American refuses to hire creationist], ''Creation'' 13(2):16–17, March 1991.
* Anon., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3470/ Revolutionary Atmospheric Invention by Victim of Anti-creationist Discrimination], 1997?  (Creation Ministries International).
* Barnes, Peter, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/5405/ The early chapters of Genesis and evolution], 13th November, 2007 (Creation Ministries International)
* Beckford, Martin, [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/2971456/Royal-Society-scientist-loses-post-in-row-over-creationism-in-schools.html Royal Society scientist loses post in row over creationism in schools] ''Telegraph'', 16th September, 2008.</ref>
* Bergman, Jerry, The Criterion, Onesimus, Richfield Minnesota, 1984, ISBN 0-932903-01-0.
* Bergman, Jerry, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1784/ Contemporary suppression of the theistic worldview], ''Journal of Creation'' 9(2):267–275, August 1995.
* Bergman, Jerry, [http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=97 A Story of Two Professors] ''Impact'' 372, 1st June, 2004.
* Buckna, David, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3486/ Do Creationists Publish in Notable Refereed Journals?] (Creation Ministries International).
* Gentry, Robert V., Creation's Tiny Mystery, Earth Science Associates, Knoxville Tennessee, 1986, ISBN 0-9616753-1-4.
* Grigg, Russell, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/5126/ Darwinian thought police strike again], 12th June 2007 (Creation Ministries International).
* Halloway, Andrew, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/5626 Expelled: New movie exposes persecution of anti-Darwinists], 15th February, 2008 (Creation Ministries International).
* Halloway, Andrew, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/6047/ Reiss resigns as Royal Society stifles debate on evolution], 23rd September, 2008 (Creation Ministries International).
* Klinghoffer, David, [http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006220 The Branding of a Heretic], ''Opinion Journal'', 28th January, 2005.
* Klinghoffer, David, [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/klinghoffer200508160826.asp Unintelligent Design] National Review Online, 16th August, 2005.
* Klinghoffer, David, [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/733rlosv.asp Tenure Trouble], The Weekly Standard, 6th August, 2007.
* McVay, James, [http://www.rsternberg.net/OSC_ltr.htm Office of Special Counsel "Pre-Closure Letter"], 5th August, 2005.
* Paull, Roger, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/5788 Censoring intelligent design], 27th May, 2008 (Creation Ministries International).
* Sheppard, Pam, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3593/ The Smithsonian/Sternberg controversy], 22nd August, 2005 (Creation Ministries International).
* Simpson, Aislinn, and Gray, Richard, [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/education/2798162/Creationism-should-be-taught-in-science-classes-says-expert.html Creationism should be taught in science classes, says expert] ''Telegraph'', 12th September, 2008.
* Sternberg, Richard, [http://www.rsternberg.net/ Richard Sternberg's home page]
* Walker, Tas., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/5053/ Chemists in stew about intelligent design], 24th April, 2007 (Creation Ministries International).
* Wieland, Carl, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/6182 ‘Go to hell, creationists!’], 30th December, 2008 (Creation Ministries International).
* Williams, Robyn, [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2003/798387.htm The Steve Project] The Science Show, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast 8th March, 2003.
*Unfortunately he's right so the above can be read as a "heads in the sand" list
== Notes ==
{{Reflist|2}}

[[Category:Creationism]]
[[Category:Evolution]]

Feminist Bible

2009-10-17T21:24:31Z

VIUlanov:

The '''Feminist Bible''' refers to translations of the [[Bible]] that kow-tow to [[feminist]] ideology. These translations are contrary to the different roles of men and women set forth in the Bible, as in the [[Book of Genesis]] and the letters of [[Paul]]. These translations also distort the original text itself, not for purposes of clarity (as claimed) but for purposes of the non-Christian [[feminist]] agenda.

The most obvious feminist translations consist of inserting unisex, gender-neutral language to obscure differences between men and women. But there are additional significant feminist mistranslations that focus on:

*diluting recognition of the unborn child in the womb, in order to promote or defend abortion
*diluting passages, particularly by [[Paul]], concerning the wife's duties in marriage
*promoting equal, indistinguishable roles for men and women in Christian ministry <ref>Complementarians support the traditional complementary roles for men and women, and oppose the insistence on equal, indistinguishable roles.</ref>
*Not hating those dirty niggers.
(add more)

Revisions to the bestselling Bible, the [[NIV]], constitute a prominent example of this manipulation.<ref>[http://www.tbaptist.com/aab/nivfembible.htm The Feminist NIV]</ref> The new retranslation of the [[NIV]] lacks any self-described "complementarians" who support the differences between men and women, for example.<ref>"Moo declined to label any of the committee members as "complementarians' ...."[http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4357&Itemid=53 New NIV translation due out in 2011]</ref>

== Specific Examples ==

The term "womb" appears 80 times in the word-for-word translation of the [[ESV]], and eight of those references are in the first and second chapters of the [[Gospel of Luke]]. The [[NIV]] and [[TNIV]] resist translating that word literally, which has the effect of downplaying that the unborn child is a living human. For example, in Luke 1:15 the [[NIV]] version states, "... and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even '''from birth'''." Only in a footnote does it use the translation of the literal [[ESV]]: "... and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even '''from his mother's womb'''."

Grammatical errors creep into Feminist Bibles due to a reluctance to use the male pronoun, such that the plural, gender-neutral pronoun is used even when referring to only one person. For example, most English translations translate James 2:15-16: "If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to ''them'' ...."<ref>Surprisingly, virtually all English translations from the [[KJV]] to today have this grammatical error. The quoted translation is from the [[New American Bible]].</ref> The pronoun "them" is grammatically incorrect in this case but is intended to avoid using a gender-specific pronoun. The [[New Century Version]] translates that in a grammatically correct (but still awkward style) as "A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or food. If you say to ''that person'' ...."

Examples of translations that have feminist tendencies are the [[New King James Version]], the [[Today's New International Version]], the [[New American Bible]] and, to a lesser extent, the [[Holman Christian Standard Bible]] and the [[NIV]].

For example, in Mark 9:36 Jesus makes reference to a child and a pronoun is then appropriate for referring to the child. The [[New American Bible]] refers to the child as an "it" in order to appease feminism:<ref>Mark 9:36 (NAB) (emphasis added).</ref>

:Taking a child he placed ''it'' in their midst, and putting his arms around ''it'', he said to them ...."

Today's New International Version makes an awkward double reference to "child" to avoid using the masculine pronoun.

In addition to the above, words that are disfavored by feminists and are targets for censorship or distortion by a Feminist Bible:

*girl
*unborn
*manly
*"dear lady" (2 John 1:5 - the [[Holman Christian Standard Bible]] and [[New King James Version]] drop the "dear", and [[The Message]] drops "lady" too)
*virgin
*the use of the exclusively feminine pronoun to refer to nations, boats, hurricanes, etc.
*the use of the exclusively masculine pronoun to refer to a person of unknown gender
*Mark 5:3 ("no one" preferred by feminists to "no man," despite the obviously male context of the verse)
*submit (used in various forms 23 times in the Bible, most often in reference to a wife's role and, unlike Islam, almost never in reference to submission to God)

(add to list)

:Feminists don't like words which imply that there are innate differences between the sexes. This is odd, in light of Genesis 1:27 which says that men '''and''' women are made in the image of God. They are probably confused about human [[value]] and so have decided to slap the label ''equal'' on the sexes without making a distinction between "having just as much value" and "being exactly the same in character and ability".

:Likewise, feminists along with other liberals have a problem with the child-adult dichotomy: think Doonesbury comics, where the little girl in the daycare center celebrates a birth by saying, "It's a baby '''woman'''!" Children are just as valuable as adults, and to the parents who love them often more so. The real hope for ending the [[battle of the sexes]] is the cry heard on a sinking ship, "Women and children first!" Men will sacrifice their lives for those they love even more than their own selves. (As the Bible say, "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for ...")

:If we love our children, even in the womb, then they have the same value as regular, air-breathing out-of-the-womb people who have been born already. The demand for a "right of abortion", right up to the last possible legally-allowed moment betrays an utter lack of love. Who would say, "I'm thinking of having an abortion" one day and "I love this baby with all my heart" the next? It's a sheer impossibility. People are not pets or "specimens of living tissue". Forget about the 'rights' aspect; think rather about Who loves us.

:Thus, feminism is anti-family. At its core is simply "me first, by myself" (with apologies to [[Carly Simon]]). If I get pregnant, oops, we can take a morning-after pill or get an abortion. After all, it's not a [[human]] life, just alien tissue growth (a foreign body). The problem with this approach is it makes it hard to answer the question, "When do I start loving my baby?" If it's only a [[fetus]] and not a [[boy]] until some arbitrary (legal) moment, then what is the basis for developing a parental heart towards my son? Do you start loving the baby when it's born, or when the umbilical cord is cut? How can you love a lump of tissue which, while composed of human cells, is nonetheless non-human?

:It really comes down to love. And we can love other people because God loves us first.

== References ==

<references/>

== See also ==

*[[Feminist style]]

[[Category:Bible]]