FTR: I—qua Minnesotan--want to separate myself from the rest of the Minnesota Rabble that allowed Islamists in the persons of Somalians to rob us blind. This is my defense for such separation.
Minnesota Rabble means those who think that being afraid of their own shadow is a compliment.
BiO Spiritualism - Body, Mind and Spirit: Man’s Means, Nature’s Ends.
Body: The Industrial Revolution—a lever for man’s muscles. (1740 to 1970)
Mind: The Information Age – a lever for man’s mind. (1970 to 2023)
Spirit: The Age of Selfishness – a lever for man’s spirit. (2023 to infinity)
Since I do not have an FTR icon—a For The Record one—nor an ITUS one—a I Told You So one—I have to write this article under my broader Age Of Selfishness Icon:
FTR: I—qua Minnesotan my whole life (except for a couple of years late in the 1950’s in Southern California where I attended Oak Crest Junior High School in Encinitas and returned to Minnesota with one new word added to my vocabulary: bitchen) and about a decade later spent two years in Pennsylvania when I was fresh out of MIT—Minnesota Institute of Technology--Working for the General Electric Aerospace Division in King of Prussia and where with car trips hither and yon on the East Coast learned that I loved the smell of Refineries refining, returning home to Minnesota just in time to watch the Neil Armstrong Moon landing on TV), I--want to separate myself from the rest of the Minnesota Rabble that allowed the Islamo-Muslim Political Philosophy of “Integration of Religion and State” to overshadow our United States Constitution’s Separation of Church and State fundamental—that is, one of its fundamentals.
For proof I tried to warn Minnesotans see following letter-to-editor I sent to the Minneapolis Star Tribune 15 years ago: Notice the 6/29/2010 date –15 years ago:
But wait, before we get to my counterpoint article consider these facts.
If I had a religion, which I don’t, but if I did it would be called, Selfishness. Selfishness is a virtue. Notice how it is that many many many people call me immoral or even evil because of my creed. I hold to the premise that selfishness is truly a virtue as Ayn Rand, et al. have demonstrated and not a vice as too many others believe and claim and some even say a wicked vice and practically all religions would--if pressed--call Selfishness evil.
So it would appear that it is ok for others to label my creed immoral or evil but it is not ok for me to so label T.H.E.I.R’s when diametrically opposed to mine.
This, to speak bluntly, is bullstuff (well, semi-bluntly).
So, I repeat:
COUNTERPOINT:
Subject: If Christianity is bad but not yet evil (again) can the reverse be said for Islam.
Consider a recent Commentary Article that my local newspaper (the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota) chose to print. That article was subtitled, “What reason do Minnesotans have to fear the emergence of Muslims in their state? None.” (Stephen B. Young: Islamic and Western philosophy aren’t so far apart, Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 28, 2010).
I read that article and I (as an a-theist--one who is without a belief in any kind of diety--Westerner) have to write: “What does this ex-Christian turned a-theist Minnesotan have to fear from Muslims and Lutherans? Everything.”
Everything because truth be told the real battle is between Faith and Reason: reason (validating knowledge based on the presense of evidence) is good and faith (validating knowledge based on the absense of evidence) leads to evil. The reason Christianity is just bad and not yet evil (again like it was during the Spanish Inquisition Century) is because it continues-to-this day to grant some quarter of mercy to reason whereas Islam grants none, nada, zero zip. (Faith without reason is dangerous, Reason without faith is redundant.)
Islam is as close to pure faith as you can get and since modern philosophy has demonstrated that faith and force go hand-in-hand, Islamists ultimately or I suppose I should say, more rapidly and more unimpededly resort to initiated physical force as the preferred means to getting their way.
And by preferred here I mean, only. Initiated physical force is the only way remaining to you to get others to accept your view of things once you abandon reason and its use of persuasion as the only way to get others to see things your way. (Individually, developmentally, Islamists more rapidly and more unimpededly abandon the reasoning process when the going gets tough. In Islam, when the going gets tough the tough beat up their neighbors. Contrast this with Christianity, here when that same going gets tough the tough beat up their self.)
Reason (our internal Requirer of evidence and logic) relies on persuasion as the means of convincing self and others of the rightness of reason’s ways. Faith (that inner I-could-care-less-about-logic-and-evidence voice) relies on fear of initiated physical force being used against the self as means of convincing the self. For example, Jehovah--one of the names for the Christian God--threatens me with eternal damnation if I don’t take his existence as real and his authority on everything to be the truth. And if I say, no I don’t accept being in hell forever, rather I choose of my own-free-will to go somewhere else (eg, Hawaii say) “god” says, No!, I the all powerfull will keep you against-your-will, that is, by force, in hell, forever.
I mean come on folks, give me a ....
So it appears people learn how to use force (from the masters) as the means to getting their “messages” accepted.
Faith is about internal relationships and essentially relies on the self doing a number on the self before that self moves on to “others”.
Faith relies on actual initiated physical force as the means of convincing others. “Once you have them by the b...s their hearts and minds will follow” could be the true sentiment of a full fledged thug except for the fact it is an out of context comment that fails to differentiate between initiated physical force and retaliatory physical force. Initiated physical force is evil, retaliatory is good and moral and right because it is self-defensive and defending the self against initiators of physical force is the only justifiable, that is, moral use of physical force in human relationships.
This is why faith is bad: because initiated physical force against another is evil and faith and (initiated) force go hand-in-hand. (Faith leads to initiated force as every intellectually honest and/or adequately self-aware Christian knows through first hand experience with such “action impulses”--impulses they as human individuals are still capable of containing BECAUSE of that quarter of mercy they still grant to reason.)
Today, because of Islam’s suicide-murderer bombers (I still have not heard of any Muslims blowing themselves up in the name of their religion standing alone in the middle of nowhere with no one else around) it is easier to see--for those who now reject self-made blindness, it is easier to see--how faith and force do go hand-in-hand.
Faith is a mental process--specifically, a psychoepistemological process. Force is a physical process--specifically, a beating up of one human being by another human being by physical means that results in the actual death of the person being physically attacked or that results in a credible threat to the life of the one being attacked. (I am not saying that all initiated physical force comes from faith-based minds, but what I am saying is because of the link between faith and force all faith-based minds are dangerous and I think that Islam’s suicide-murderer-bombers demonstrate the point. And if we add in Jim Jones’ Guyana we have an in-spades demonstrated point.)
Religion then as a faith-as-process event is a mental choice, a mental choice to make ones mind act in a certain way when it comes time to validate ones own answers to fundamental questions of a religious nature or theme. Is there a god? Yes. Based on what evidence? I don’t need evidence, I only need faith. Was Jesus crucified by being nailed to a large wooden cross where he died and then was buried and then latter rose from the dead and came back to life? Well he has the nail holes in his risen-from-the-dead-now-alive-body’s hands and feet to “prove” it. Can I see them? Oh, yee of little ....
Religion, thank god, is not Politics.
Politics is the systematic, organized answers by the dominant groups within cultures to the theoretical question, How should we help others and/or ourselves get elected or otherwise be appointed to public office? (The more fundamental-identified-by-the-Objectivists Political Science question: How should individuals act in a social context? is usually only something Statesmen consider. Day-to-day Politicians for the most part are not capable or simply don’t have the time and/or resources and/or talents to deal with such a fundamental, philosophical question. But since We the People do have the time--in fact we can’t afford not to deal with fundamentals--we do do so with every election cycle and usually vote--with a for better or for worse sentiment--our conscience into office).
In America, Politics is all of us acting (out) in our own way to get our “people” into public office.
Human beings don’t act unless they think they are right. (If you doubt this, then the next time you are going to go to your local store for some milk and bread convince yourself that if you do you will get in a car accident or be run over and killed and then see how “motivated” you are to go get your daily bread.)
Christianity--to its credit and my safety--has separated Religion from Politics. When I was a young, growing and developing Christian we were encouraged to see ourselves as above politics and no self-respecting religionist would dirty his hands so-to-speak dealing with political issues.
Hence, separation of Church and State--render unto ... and so on.
But then enter those approximately 1 in 5 or 1.2 billion Islamists the world over (including the 160,000 actual radical Islamic killer terrorists I had estimated in an earlier work) who have extremely large numbers among their billions who think mental processes and physical action should not be separated when it comes to dealing with individuals in societal groups but rather should be integrated--the actual Theocracies of the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Iran etc.
Islam--to its discredit and my rational fear for my safety--has integrated religion and politics. And notice I didn’t say combined but integrated. Integrated means inseparable.
So until and unless an ever increasing majority of Muslims in Minnesota (and around the world) start preaching OUT LOUD for the separation of Mosque and State this is one Minnesotan who is not going to sleep at night with both eyes closed.
Pebble #1: See the National headlines today—December 9, 2025 some 15 yrs later:
... rather link these political cartoons, they say it all ... or almost all:
https://alphanews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/01-EmptyWalz-AN-1080.jpg
https://alphanews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/05-MN-Fraud-AN-1080.jpg
https://alphanews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/03-ProperTXS-AN-1080-1.jpg
https://alphanews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/04-TerMoney-AN-1080-1.jpg
Moving on.
Here is evidence number 2 for me not to be included with the other dummkopfs in Minnesota.
But first pause and consider the following, I wrote the following more than two decades ago. At the time no one considered it funny, at least no one in Minnesota. Maybe those who say calling people names is not a way to getting them to take action for saving themselves. To which I say, not calling them names doesn’t do it either:
Moving on.
The second lte to argue my case:
AUTHOR: Gary Deering AUTHOR EMAIL: gddeering8@gmail.com TITLE: Counterpoint: Islamic and Western philosophy ARE far apart. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: default ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: counterpoint
UNIQUE URL: https://garydeering.typepad.com/gary_deerings_blog/2010/06/counterpoint.html DATE: 06/21/2010 04:10:33 AM
BODY:
(Submitted 5/6/10 to Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, not published.)
COUNTERPOINT:
I disagree with Stephen B. Young (“Islamic and Western philosophy aren’t so far apart”, April 28, 2010) where he argued that we Minnesotans have no reason to fear the emergence of Muslims in our state.
The reason we Minnesotans have to fear the emergence of Muslims in our State is because Muslims believe in Islam and Islam believes that Mosque (Church) and State must be integrated.
Minnesotans believe that Church (Mosque) and State must be separate.
The Constitution of the United States of America that is endorsed by the many individual States is testament to this strong belief system in all Americans including Minnesotans.
Minnesotans believe this so strongly that they will not compromise on it.
But.
Guess what.
Muslims believe their Mosque and State inseparability so strongly that they will not compromise on it either.
The many Islamic Theocracies in the Middle East are a testament to this strong belief system of Islam.
Hence, the source of our rational fear. As Islam’s Muslims grow and become stronger and stronger they could overpower Minnesotans and demand that Church and State be fused into a Theocracy. Then if the remaining Minnesotans refused to roll over and just do it there could be armed conflict in our streets and byways.
There could even be a civil war over it.
So until and unless the Muslims in Minnesota form a new faction for themselves apart from Main Stream Islam all Minnesotans logically should fear their emergence here in this State.
However, when the Minnesota Muslims do form their new faction and let the rest of us know about it this will be our signal that we can breathe a sigh of relief and let our guard down a bit. At least enough to give them a chance to form their new group into a full fledged Separation of Church and State American religion.
I absolutely do not mean to be flippant here but if the Minnesotan Muslims need a temporary name until a leader among them emerges to carry out such a reformation they can call themselves Luthlams after that great religious reformer Martin Luther for whom many Minnesotans here today named their religion after.
A religion let me hasten to add that believes absolutely in the separation of church and state in spite of the fact that its practitioners sometimes imply or subtly communicate that they don’t.
Minnesota Muslims should not be fooled by this sometimes wimpy manner of Minnesotans as it is an unfortunate byproduct of what has come to be known as Minnesota Nice.
Make no mistake about it, Minnesotans—in 100% agreement with all Americans--believe in the Separation of Church and State and will not tolerate anyone or any group trying to force them into its opposite.
Pebble #2:
Today, 15 years later I have neither seen nor heard of one single, solitary, Luthlam.
The Defense Rests.
Pebble # Final
Since I (still) Love Predicting: (Sometimes it means, I Predict Love, but not this time):
I predict that Minnesotans—qua predominantly Christians—will find a way to turn another “Mountain into a molehill” which if they weren’t able to do this, they wouldn’t be Christians.
As to how long it will take or how it will happen, I have no clue.
Maybe, all that this means is that I should have released this Article under my PE (PsycHHology Engineering) icon:
Let’s wait a bit and see what happens—both locally and nationally on this Gigantic-Mountainous-Minnesota Fraud Scandal.
© December 9, 2025, Gary Dean Deering
Minnesota, USA