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Religion - Paul's blog

Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

PostHeaderIcon Woodburn, Indiana … where intolerance is the norm

Amy Sorrell, a 30 year old High School teacher (English and Journalism), was placed on paid leave, will be transferred to another school and is still facing being fired.

Her ‘crime’?

Failing to report to the principal a controversial article in the students’ own newspaper for which Mrs. Sorrell served as an adviser.

What was so ‘controversial’?

Student Megan Chase wrote an editorial calling for tolerance of gays.

Yes, you read that right: not only did Woodlan High School censor the students’ own newspaper, it also deemed a plee for tolerance ‘controversial’!

Such an outrageous display of homophobia by an institution that we entrust our children to for education is as maddening as it is scary.

“The school administration has said in no uncertain terms that she’s not going to be given a journalism position”

Ah, right, yes, God forbid that she teaches the kids at the other school such dangerous notions as freedom of speech and press!

Mrs. Sorrell said that she is proud of the student who wrote the article, but that she has no money to fight the decision.

Sounds like a perfect case for the ACLU: not only are certain elements of the school’s administration clearly overstepping the boundaries of their power to promote and push their own narrow-minded views, they are also brutally abusing the rights to free expression of both the students and Mrs. Sorrell.

They should be stopped! This is outrageous.

(Even so outrageous that one has to wonder if there’s not more behind the story than meets the eye)

Link to article: link

(and yes, I know, that picture is sickening too. Comes from that deranged lunatic Fred Phelps, America’s Ueber-homophobe!)

PostHeaderIcon You’re a WHAT?

I just watched this:

A kid announces his atheism. Dad seems to grab a beer and sits down at the dinner table to discuss this clearly unexpected revelation.
But mom explodes and starts the typical threatening, cursing (f-word!) and yelling (way to go mom!!).
(Dad wisely stays out of it from now on).
Curiously, mom appears to think that Christmas is all about getting presents.
But what really got me (laughing) is the way how, probably, a sister or brother, sneakily video-taped the outburst and sneaks away when things get TOO hot…

Still .. a very sad display of bad parenting…

Link to video

PostHeaderIcon Coming out

Pete Stark CSAApparently, last weekend Congressman Pete Stark (D-California), has come out as someone who does not believe in a supreme being. This makes him the first congressperson ever to admit such a thing.
He made this statement:

When the Secular Coalition asked me to complete a survey on my religious beliefs, I indicated I am a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being

To be perfectly clear:

ALL HE DID WAS INDICATING ON A POLL THAT HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING.

That’s all. Nothing more. He didn’t confess that on ‘the floor’, he didn’t request special treatment and he certainly didn’t bash other people’s beliefs. He was just being honest (while he was the first one to ADMIT this, I’m sure there are more people in congress who share his disbelief).

And LOOK at the reactions!

For a long time I have believed that a very important basic ingredient for people’s tendency to be religious is fear. (To be a God-fearing person is considered a positive Christian trait, and you’d better fear hell too!).

I have seen the fear component manifest itself often and at various levels of consciousness, but seldom have I seen it so clearly as in this outburst from The Christian Seniors Association (CSA). See link.

Allow me a few quotes from that article and my comment on it:

… they want to establish a right for liberals to bash Christians and berate God around the clock …

ALL HE DID WAS INDICATING ON A POLL THAT HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING.

It is time for religious members of Congress to push back.  A simple declaration of a belief in God by members of Congress on the House floor will be greatly informative for the American people…

To “push back”? Note: Pete Stark did NOT announce his disbelief on the House floor.

ALL HE DID WAS INDICATING ON A POLL THAT HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING.

We have long recognized that all of this hot air about ‘separation of church and state’ has been a veiled effort to intimidate and silence religious voices in public policy matters …

Isn’t it a bit ‘un-American’ to call your own country’s Bill Of Rights ‘hot air‘? And no, it was not to intimidate, and no it was most certainly not veiled. It is a very CLEAR meassure to, indeed, keep ‘religious voices out of public policy matters’. That’s why it’s called ‘separation of church and state’. But in any case, it’s not something that Mr. Stark even so much as mentioned.

ALL HE DID WAS INDICATING ON A POLL THAT HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING.

If the liberal House leadership refuses to recognize lawmakers who want to affirm their belief in God …

Wait a minute now, NOBODY was refusing anyone anything …

ALL HE DID WAS INDICATING ON A POLL THAT HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING.

But based on some of these remarks, I think it IS valid to state that it is the CSA who ‘refuses to recognize lawmakers who want to affirm their disbelief in a god‘.

Congressman Stark’s statement [ … ] could be the moment which defines the decline of our country …

You’ve GOT to be kidding me! This would define the decline of our country?

ALL HE DID WAS INDICATING ON A POLL THAT HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING.

… the day that religious Americans stood-up to the liberal bullies who are so determined to use the power of government to silence prayer and every other religious expression of free speech.

Okay, NOW someone is REALLY going overboard here. NOBODY wants to deny religious people their right to pray and believe whatever they want. All that the non-religious people ask is to not have those beliefs FORCED upon them and that their tax money isn’t spent on some specific religions.

However, congressman Stark didn’t even mention that request.

ALL HE DID WAS INDICATING ON A POLL THAT HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING.

While I agree there is some rather nasty bullying going on here, it is NOT Pete Stark who is the bully!

This is a fight which is destined to be fought in America and we think it should begin today.

This is a FIGHT?

ALL HE DID WAS INDICATING ON A POLL THAT HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING.

PostHeaderIcon Slippery slope

KhalidAnd suddenly we hear from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) again!

I must admit, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we never would have heard from him again (like a few other high profile terrorists who made the headlines when they were captured).

“I was responsible for the 9/11 Operation, from A to Z,” Mohammed … said …

Mohammed, … also said he was responsible for a 1993 attack on New York’s World Trade Center, the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia, and an attempt to down two American airplanes using shoe bombs.

Wow! He was the guy behind all that?

Does that mean we’re now going to release Ramzi Yousef, who we have in custody for masterminding the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center? (Granted, KSM IS his uncle). And Bali? I thought they picked up Abu Bakar Bashir for that. For that same bombing in Bali, the US has Riduan Isamuddin (known as Hambali) in custody (in an ‘undisclosed location’, which, as we now all know, means either Israel or somewhere in Europe, probably in one of the Balkan countries).

But, as it now turns out, is was KSM who masterminded it all and confessed to it all.

You know … somehow I can’t get the thought out of my mind that KSM was being … well … let me say … ‘given an incentive’ or ‘persuaded’ to admit all this. I also wouldn’t be surprised if some of the pressure that was put on him involved some levels of discomfort. Maybe even more than some ‘okay’ (Cheney!) ‘waterboarding’.

If I would have had the same audience as some of my bluddies, I could imagine the TONS of comments along the line of “I don’t give a rat’s ass: FRY the pig!”

And, you know, I totally understand that sentiment.

But is it right? Wouldn’t we be stooping down to what we so despise in our ennemies? Besides, from a practical point of view: if we (illegaly!) torture them so that they confess .. so that we can kill them legally .. what’s the point? Why not (illegaly) kill them right away? Saves a LOT of money, time and problems.

Anxious to receive some comments on this .. but I know, that’s slightly problematic with only two readers 😉

And yes, I also put this in the ‘religion’ category. Is KSM a serial killer, a beast, an animal? No, I think he’s primarily just a deeply religious being.

Link to article: link

Update:

Today [3/15/2007] it became known that KSM also admitted to having beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

In fact, I thougt that that was what he was picked up for in the first place, but anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear tomorrow that he masterminded Jimmy Hoffa’s disapearance as well, or had the hand in JFK’s assassination.

Link to article: link

PostHeaderIcon NCOTW: The hollow earth

Hollow EarthTime for another Nut Case Of The Week.

It’s always a tough choice to make, since there are so many of them, but today I selected Rodney M Cluff.

To make a long story short: Rodney has found the lost tribes of Israel! (For the longer, rambling, story, see Rodney’s website: link)

And where did Rodney find these folks? In our planet! Yes, that’s “in“, not “on“, because, you see, our planet (and most, if not all, other heavenly bodies as well) is hollow!

Now, I knew that there are people who, usually on religious grounds, to this day, still believe, and often think they can prove, that the sun revolves around the earth, that the earth is flat, that the earth is stationary and 6000 years young, that Noah’s flood created the Grand Canyon, and that Noah had dinosaurs aboard.

I also knew that the idea of a hollow earth has long been very popular, but I had no idea that there are still people who actually think this, or rather, are absolutely convinced of it. To the point that they’re actually organizing an expedition to the entrance of our hollow planet, somewhere near the north pole. If you’re interested: you can sign up for the expedition here: link.

Ofcourse, I applaud the fact that they are willing to test their hypothesis and actually setup an expedition! But I can hardly wait to hear their ‘excuses’ for not finding that entrance.

If there is going to be an expedition.

It wouldn’t be the first thing they made up!

And probably not the last thing either.

PostHeaderIcon What’s the difference between a cult and a religion?

image of godI just read about a pastor here in Florida, who has “666” tattooed on his arm and claims to be God: link.

He knows he’s God, because he has had a dream in which angels told him that.

I don’t quite understand why God needs to be told by angels that he is God, but then, there’s so much that I don’t understand.

More interesting however is that his “claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake“.

And they know this how exactly?

Didn’t the religious leaders in (the ‘real’) Jesus’  time say exactly the same thing about Jesus?

(Oh, and by the way, the usual answer to the question raised in this post’s title is: “about one hundred years”)

PostHeaderIcon Pat is hearing voices … again

PatAs usual, Pat Robertson has made a prediction for the new year.

And no, I’m not going to make him NCOTW for that .. that would be too easy.

Anyway, Pat predicted that there will be a terrorist(s) induced mass killing somewhere after September 2007.

Actually, I shouldn’t say ‘prediction’, because Pat obtained this information, first hand, from God Himself.

God wasn’t very specific about the actual number of victims, the method or the place (which somehow takes away a bit from the usefulness of this revelation, but okay, apparently God likes to keep some ‘outs’), but Pat ‘believes’ millions of people will die in this disaster, which is ‘probably’ nuclear in nature and involves major cities.

Last year, God told Pat that storms and possibly a tsunami would crash into America’s coastline. The tsunami never happened (why did God say ‘possibly’ .. wasn’t he sure?), but, granted, it rained in New England in 2006.

He used this to emphasize his good track record: said Pat:

“I have a relatively good track record,” he said. “Sometimes I miss.”

What is all this I business? Isn’t it God who would have that track record? Isn’t Pat just the messenger? The channeler?

Even more curious is this “sometimes I miss“. Okay, so it’s obvious that God, being omnipotent and all that, doesn’t miss anything. But what does Pat “miss“? Isn’t he listening when God speaks to him? That’s pretty rude! Or does God speak a language that Pat doesn’t fully know (and if so, why doesn’t God speak English, just like the rest of the world)? Or does God mumble, speak too fast or too soft? How can Patmiss” things? Very odd, these “misses”.

I’ll let you in on a secret here: I can’t prove it of course, but somehow I have the distinct feeling that Mr. Robertson wasn’t told anything by the Lord, but that he just made it all up, so that in the event there is a horrible terrorist attack with millions of victims in a major city (uhm, duh, you can’t get millions of victims by bombing Bandera, Texas), he can then proclaim to be the new Moses with a direct, and proven!, line to God and that everybody has to listen to Pat “Moses” Robertson “from now on”. That’s what I think!

I could be wrong of course.

But I don’t think I am.

Here’s a question for my readers:

If you can talk to dead people, you’re called a psychic (well.. actually, talking to dead people is easy: the trick is to get them to talk back to you, and this is what most psychics claim happens).

Now, if God talks to you … are you a psychic?

Link to article

PostHeaderIcon When being politically correct is wrong

canyon(rant warning) 

I have thoroughly had it with all this political correctness business. It’s about time we again say it as it is.

If people are offended by the truth and the facts, then that’s their problem.

The latest “politically correct” idiocy I read this morning was about the Bush administration telling the Grand Canyon Park that their employees can no longer comment on the age of the Grand Canyon, so that they won’t offend creationists (probably based on the incorrect assumption that all creationists think the earth is only somewhere between 6,000 to 10,000 years old). (See link to article)

Folks, this is not politically correct. This is politically wrong!

It is wrong, it is cowardly stupid, it is frightning, it is dishonest, and above all, it’s unfair to our children when we are no longer allowed to teach them the facts of life, simply because a small group of people who are too delusional to accept some simple facts and too afraid to use their own God-given brain, could possibly be offended by the truth.

(the above sentence was designed to offend. Every time my right to free speech or free access to scientific knowledge is infringed upon or blocked in order to prevent some people from being offended, then I will have to protect my rights and access to knowledge by negating the effect of the political correctness by offending the very group that was being ‘protected’.)

So, since we’re now at a stage where, when you ask a park ranger how old the Grand Canyon is, he will put his fingers in his ears, close his eyes and starts humming loudly, we have to wonder how long it will take before he’s forced to explain that, well, there’s a distinct possibility that it’s 5,000 years old, created by Noah’s flood (or by a Scottish tourist who lost a dime). (Link to the Noah’s flood farce)

And why stop at the age of the Grand Canyon? There is a large group of people, who, based on biblical interpretation, are convinced that the Sun goes around the Earth (geocentrism), and not the other way around (heliocentrism). Shouldn’t we tell our college’s astronomy departments to refrain from telling our children that the planet Earth goes around the sun, so that we don’t offend these geocentrists? (see for instance this website -there are many like this, no kidding!-)

And Nasa should at once stop broadcasting images of the International Space Station circling the Earth, since this will, no doubt, deeply offend the good folks of the ‘Flat Earth Society’! (See their website -they’re serious! No, really!-).

Not to mention the majority of all politicians who should immediately refrain from making any sound, because anytime they open their mouths they deeply insult my intelligence.

None of that nonsense! You can’t make an omelet without breaking an egg. Grow up, get a life, work on getting a thick skin. Feeling offended is being insecure. It’s that simple.

I wish I had the power to start a strong ‘boycot-political-correctness’ movement.

Let’s tell and say it how it is. Simple, factual, truthfully and to the point.

PostHeaderIcon The Holy Land Experience

HolyLandRecently I have accompanied guests on quite a few visits to the various theme parks in and around Orlando.
Yesterday we visited Disney’s Animal Kingdom. While I love the park, I always seem to forget, and find out too late, that other people, especially kids, are allowed entrance into the park as well. This is very unfortunate, since most of these people don’t have a clue as to how to behave around me.
I will deal with that in another post.

Anyway, that night I had a remarkable dream about a visit to a theme park.
It didn’t appear to be a Disney Park though. It had more of a ‘Holy Land’ theme.

It was laid out according to various Biblical books. It was huge, but I don’t recall all the details, just a few.
In the Genesis section there was a big tent where brothers could play Cain-and-Abel: they were given a blunt foreign object, and he who killed his brother was crowned “Cain” and got to go in unto his mother in order to prevent the human race from dying out right there and then, or so they were told.
Next to the tent was an Egyptian village, where the Nile ran through. Here parents could buy wicker baskets for their babies and place the baskets with their baby in the fast streaming Nile. A popular attraction.
Some houses in the village had bloody stains over the doors. This is where parents could have their first-borns killed by a deceptively real looking Archangel. Parents were complaining about the long lines.
Next to the village was a dry and hot desert-like maze, parents were encouraged to send their kids into the maze to learn about the ten commandments. They could pick up their kids at the other side of the park … 40 years from now.
The center of the Park was the Deuteronomy Plaza, where its most popular attraction was a terrace where parents, so instructed by Biblical law, could stone their children to death for disobedience.
Beyond this point the park would become considerably less crowded: for instance, only a few parents took advantage of experiencing first hand the pedagogical effects of shoving their kids into a lion den, with a fake Daniel and real lions.
The quarter called ‘Numbers’ though was closed. According to a big sign it was being subjected to a ‘re-count’.
But the real highlight was the New Testament part of the park, where, twice daily, one could witness a real, Florida-style botched capital punishment, involving real blood, actual guts and a hydraulic cross, that was so gruesome, real and authentic that even Mel Gibson would have lost his lunch over it. At the end of each crossing, the few remaining bystanders were given little wooden crosses dipped in real blood, to wear around their necks to show the rest of the world their remarkable lack of taste and decency. Proud like kids they showed eachother their bloody miniature torture devices, while they were talking about this deep sense of Love they were experiencing.
I must assume that the brain can only go sofar with weirdness in dreams, that if things get too insane, it has to give up, because here I woke up abruptly. And BOY, was I glad it was only a dream …

Just a link
Commentary link 

PostHeaderIcon A case of nuts

NutsI recently introduced two NCOTW’s.

One was Donald E Wildmon, founder and head of the American Family Association, the other one was Dennis Prager, a radio talk show host.

These two people now seem to have found eachother!

Dennis got my NCOTW price for his column in which he rails against a Muslim congressman’s intention to swear his oath on the Koran when he takes office.

Donald’s American Family Association now chips in on the issue by publishing Dennis’ column and urging its three and half million members to take action.

See their webpage here (just ignore their spelling errors).

Donald urges his followers to: “Send an email asking your U.S. Representative and Senators to pass a law making the Bible the book used in the swearing-in ceremony of Representatives and Senators.”

Apart from the fact that such a law would be extremely unconstitutional (See article VI: “.. no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office ..”), it would also be extremely stupid.

Let me try to explain this:

“Senators and Representatives are bound by Oath or Affirmation…”, that is, they can choose between simply promising to uphold the constitution, or they can swear to do so.

Swearing is, by many, considered a stronger version of just promising, and done by invoking something that is sacred to the person swearing (a holy book, a beloved person) (see footnote 1).

The main point is, that they perceive swearing to be much stronger by invoking something that’s sacred to them! Presumably in the sense that if they break their oath, they would be betraying this something or someone sacred!

So, what makes the oath so strong is that something sacred to the person who swears is involved. That‘s the crux of the matter.

For instance, suppose I promise something, but you think it should be stronger than that and ask me to swear on the bible. Since I’m an atheist, the bible doesn’t mean a thing to me (well, at least not a positive thing), so if you really insist, sure, if that makes you happy I’ll do that. The point is that it shouldn’t make you happy, because it’s me who has to keep the promise and I don’t get any extra incentives for keeping my promise from puting my hand on your holy book, the Koran, or last month’s Playboy, to me it would still be a promise.

So .. it comes down to simply this: if you really want someone to swear, that is, promise something in a way that this person feels he can’t break it, then you want him to invoke something that is sacred to him! NOT YOU!

By forcing him to swear on something that’s only sacred to you and not to him you take away the meaning of this little ‘extra’ that an oath has over a promise.

If you want your senators and representatives to swear, you want to make sure that breaking their promise desecrates what they hold holy, not something you consider sacred. By forcing him to swear on your holy books, you actually give him an incentive to break his promise, especially if he finds your holy book offensive!

So, from a pure logical point of view it’s absolute insanity to even consider a law that requires people to swear on a specific holy book.

But then, logic usually involves some thinking, and thinking is exactly what the religious right seeks to ban from society, so I have little hope, that people like Dennis and Donald will ever understand the mindboggling stupidity of their misguided activism.

It’s precisely this fear of thinking and logic that makes people like Dennis come up with drivel like

“America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on”

and has Donald blindly repeat the idiocy on his website.

 

Note 1) In all practicallity, to me personally, there is no difference. If someone doesn’t think my promise is good enough, then I don’t see how my swearing on my late mother would make a difference. The only way it could make a difference is if my promise wasn’t fully “meant”, but that’s not how I personally ‘promise’! But apparently, for other people, swearing on, for example, what they perceive as a holy book, does make a difference (makes me wonder how I should rate such a person’s simple promise, but that’s a different discussion).


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