Here is yet another example of people relying of God, instead doing the right thing. People are buying into the idea that a god exists and will interact with their life to protect them. I know that they are not the norm, but they are basing their decisions on this faulty religious belief system.
If this were me, I would be sentenced to the harshest possible punishment that the law allows, because I would not be doing this out of religious conviction (of course, I wouldn't be this heartless to my children in the first place). This women, Estelle Walker, could potentially get 40 years if convicted on all counts. We will see as this trial progresses if she gets a pass like the parents of Madeline Neumann because her decisions were based on her religious beliefs.
This country has a double standard when it comes to religion. It needs to learn that, yes, we have freedom of religion and expression of that religion, but if our actions cause harm religious belief cannot be accepted as mitigating factor. If you abuse your child, I don't really care what your reasoning is. If you did it knowingly and willingly, then you should have the book thrown at you.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Gay Hating Christians Help Spread the Love in Africa
A bill currently under consideration in Uganda would make a life sentence the minimum punishment for anyone convicted of having gay sex. Any "serial offenders" or anyone HIV positive would be given the death penalty. Of course, these evangelic groups are doing everything they can to stop condom use, so HIV is more of a problem than it should be. If this sounds like something that the Religious Right in the US would like, you're not far off. If there antics aren't bad enough in the US, the "compassionate" Fungelicals are spreading their love to Africa. Key speakers at a March 2009 conference in Uganda were - you guessed it - US evangelists.
When are these people going to wake up? We have far more pressing issues in this world (e.g., poverty, terrorism, education) than finding out who is fucking whom and what kama sutra position they are using. If you want to do something useful, something meaningful and constructive - GET OUT OF OTHER PEOPLES BEDROOMS!
When are these people going to wake up? We have far more pressing issues in this world (e.g., poverty, terrorism, education) than finding out who is fucking whom and what kama sutra position they are using. If you want to do something useful, something meaningful and constructive - GET OUT OF OTHER PEOPLES BEDROOMS!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Manhattan Declaration - Preamble
The Christian community recently released the Manhattan Declaration to inspire the masses to do better, or in other words, make sure Christian principles are intertwined with the law of the land or refuse to follow them.
Let's examine the Preamble to that document. I will comment on the remainder at a later date.
Preamble
Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God's word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.
A 2,000-year tradition of seeking justice? Were the various witch trials justice? What about the Crusades or the Inquisition? Maybe. Afterall, your God demonstrates a rather warped sense of justice all throughout the Bible.
While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire's sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.
They wish to claim the heritage of the good Christians. Sorry, you have to take the bad with good. Like it or not your "hertiage" is not that of the purity that you would like to pretend. While it's great that they acknowledge that they haven't acted perfectly, I would hardly call "imperfections and shortcomings" any substansive acknowledgement of the crimes committed in the name of God, or out of the greed of the Church, or to bring us infidels down a peg or two.
After the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the 16th and 17th centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce's leadership also formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers chained to machines.
I am not an expert on European history, so maybe it was Christians who combated slavery in Europe. However, in America, the Christians were divided on the issue with plenty of clergy defending slavery based on Biblical writings. This declaration likes to project the image that only Christians were involved or that they were at the forefront, but prominent leaders in the abolishionist and women's sufferage movements were Freethinkers. People like Frederick Douglass, Lucy Colman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Susan B. Anthony (although Anthony's religious views were not as radical as the others, she continued to move away from religion her entire life).
In Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class.
As noted, above, the vanguard of the women's suffrage movement were Freethinkers.
This same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to work to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and assist in a myriad of other human rights causes - from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.
Bringing compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa? Have they heard of Pope Ratzinger? He continues to condemn condom use to fight AIDS and even claims that they have a negative impact. He is not alone. There are Protestant groups that are also against contraception.
Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.
They are only interested in protecting the dignity of those who believe like them. Gays and atheists need not apply.
Let's examine the Preamble to that document. I will comment on the remainder at a later date.
Preamble
Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God's word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.
A 2,000-year tradition of seeking justice? Were the various witch trials justice? What about the Crusades or the Inquisition? Maybe. Afterall, your God demonstrates a rather warped sense of justice all throughout the Bible.
While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire's sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.
They wish to claim the heritage of the good Christians. Sorry, you have to take the bad with good. Like it or not your "hertiage" is not that of the purity that you would like to pretend. While it's great that they acknowledge that they haven't acted perfectly, I would hardly call "imperfections and shortcomings" any substansive acknowledgement of the crimes committed in the name of God, or out of the greed of the Church, or to bring us infidels down a peg or two.
After the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the 16th and 17th centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce's leadership also formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers chained to machines.
I am not an expert on European history, so maybe it was Christians who combated slavery in Europe. However, in America, the Christians were divided on the issue with plenty of clergy defending slavery based on Biblical writings. This declaration likes to project the image that only Christians were involved or that they were at the forefront, but prominent leaders in the abolishionist and women's sufferage movements were Freethinkers. People like Frederick Douglass, Lucy Colman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Susan B. Anthony (although Anthony's religious views were not as radical as the others, she continued to move away from religion her entire life).
In Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class.
As noted, above, the vanguard of the women's suffrage movement were Freethinkers.
This same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to work to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and assist in a myriad of other human rights causes - from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.
Bringing compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa? Have they heard of Pope Ratzinger? He continues to condemn condom use to fight AIDS and even claims that they have a negative impact. He is not alone. There are Protestant groups that are also against contraception.
Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.
They are only interested in protecting the dignity of those who believe like them. Gays and atheists need not apply.
Abolute Certainty
I recently had a discussion with an Evangelical Christian that I know about the possibility of being wrong in her belief. I asked, "My question is, despite your certainty, are you willing to admit that in the end, the possibility exists that you are wrong?". Her response, "Nope!!! Because I know Jesus is real so therefore I can't be wrong!!!".
To me this is the problem with some of the Fungelical Right. They will not even allow for the possibility that they could be mistaken - no possibility whatsoever. Couple that arrogant certainty about their perception with the negative aspects of their religion, throw in a little politics, and you have a recipe for disaster. They have the potential to become no different than those Christians that burned witches in the past or the Taliban today.
These Christians have a worldview. Fine. We all do. But when something arises that conflicts with my worldview, I examine it, question it, and gather more information to either confirm or reject it. If I get enough evidence, I abandon that part of my worldview. It matters to me if I am actually right or wrong; it is not enough to just think that I am right, I want proof. They do the opposite, apparently. If something disagrees with their preset worldview, they automatically reject it instead of examining both to see which is correct. They have absolute certainty that they are infallible. Hey, everyone's the Pope!
The only way they can be absolutely certain is to have absolute knowledge. Anything less than absolute knowledge would allow for some piece of information to exist that disproves their position. If no god exists, then as far as I know, no being has absolute knowledge, so therefore, anyone would be mistaken (delusional) to claim it. If a god does exist, then god would (by most definitions) have absolute knowledge, so that means that they each think that they must be god since they have this absolute knowledge and certainty. Sorry to disappoint them, but gods they aren't.
These types of people are not open-minded by any stretch of the imagination. If you are not open, then you are closed. A closed mind is a dead mind. Seriously, anyone who has absolute certainty that they cannot be wrong, that it is impossible for them to be wrong, has a serious god complex.
To me this is the problem with some of the Fungelical Right. They will not even allow for the possibility that they could be mistaken - no possibility whatsoever. Couple that arrogant certainty about their perception with the negative aspects of their religion, throw in a little politics, and you have a recipe for disaster. They have the potential to become no different than those Christians that burned witches in the past or the Taliban today.
These Christians have a worldview. Fine. We all do. But when something arises that conflicts with my worldview, I examine it, question it, and gather more information to either confirm or reject it. If I get enough evidence, I abandon that part of my worldview. It matters to me if I am actually right or wrong; it is not enough to just think that I am right, I want proof. They do the opposite, apparently. If something disagrees with their preset worldview, they automatically reject it instead of examining both to see which is correct. They have absolute certainty that they are infallible. Hey, everyone's the Pope!
The only way they can be absolutely certain is to have absolute knowledge. Anything less than absolute knowledge would allow for some piece of information to exist that disproves their position. If no god exists, then as far as I know, no being has absolute knowledge, so therefore, anyone would be mistaken (delusional) to claim it. If a god does exist, then god would (by most definitions) have absolute knowledge, so that means that they each think that they must be god since they have this absolute knowledge and certainty. Sorry to disappoint them, but gods they aren't.
These types of people are not open-minded by any stretch of the imagination. If you are not open, then you are closed. A closed mind is a dead mind. Seriously, anyone who has absolute certainty that they cannot be wrong, that it is impossible for them to be wrong, has a serious god complex.
Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul. - Robert G. Ingersoll
Monday, November 23, 2009
Free Speech in Opposition To Religion - As Long As It's Not Mine.
The ACLJ (The Angry Christians League of Justice) is all fired up about the UN “Defamation of Religion” Resolution and so am I. I agree with them that this would be a bad idea. It limits free speech which is the cornerstone of our Constitution. They want to remain free to attack Islam as much as they want – and they should be able to. Heck, I’ll even join them in that fight.
But this same group also supported the PERA Act ("Public Expression of Religion Act") which essentially would have silenced advocates of Church - State separation. PERA would have made it prohibitively expensive to bring a lawsuit for violations of Church – State separation due to the requirement to eliminate reimbursement for court costs when the plaintiff actually won the case! It would have denied people the ability to bring lawsuits when their rights were violated because they would have to pay for court costs even if they proved that their rights had been violated. It, in effect, would have removed their ability to speak freely about certain religious issues. Fortunately, this bill never became law.
I would find it laughable, if it wasn’t such a serious subject. Essentially, the ACLJ is fine with limited disagreement with Christianity, but oh boy don’t you dare keep us from bashing Islam. It’s hypocrisy at its finest.
Show Yourself
God, if he exists, has the knowledge to determine exactly what it would take to convince me of his existence. He has the power to make it happen, whatever it may be. And yet, curiously, he refuses to do so. Some Christians would insist that he has already done this and I have just ignored it. I doubt it. I don’t think I could miss the kind of evidence that I would require. The whole planet would know if God demonstrated his existence in a manner that I would accept as proof.
Others would say that it would violate my free will if he interfered and that I must come to him on my own. Bull. Providing real evidence of his existence WOULD make me a believer, I agree; but only a believer in the sense that god exists. It WOULD NOT make me a follower; I would still have my free will to reject his message- and believe me I would. His message is one of cruelty and injustice, nothing even close to what a “God” should be. I am more moral than the god of the Bible and so is almost everyone on the planet (maybe there are a few as bad as him, maybe).
So what is he so afraid of? He can’t violate my free will and I already reject his message, so that can’t be it. Why doesn’t he prove he exists if he really loves me and wants me to join him in heaven? Because, he doesn’t exist.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Outraged!
Over the past few years, several cases of children dying because their parents prayed instead of seeking medical help have come to the public's attention (e.g., Madeline Neumann, Kent Schaible, Ava Worthington, and Neil Beagley). If this wasn't bad enough, now the court is showing it's favoritism to religion by handing down slaps on the wrist instead throwing the book at these monsters. Instead of giving them the 25-year prison sentence that they could have (should have) received, the court handed down a sentence of six months in jail (to be served one month a year) and 10 years' probation.
This is absolutely ridiculous and gets my blood boiling. If this were anybody else they would have put them away for as long as possible, but put religion in the mix and suddenly they back off. Why? Why does this country continue to show deference to religious systems that allow such cruelty? Religion has not even proven itself to be real and yet we have to tiptoe lightly when the subject comes up and respect the beliefs of others. Well I don't. I don't respect any belief system that would allow such stupidity and suffering.
For once I find myself wishing that Hell were real because these parents and the judge that sentenced them belong there.
This is absolutely ridiculous and gets my blood boiling. If this were anybody else they would have put them away for as long as possible, but put religion in the mix and suddenly they back off. Why? Why does this country continue to show deference to religious systems that allow such cruelty? Religion has not even proven itself to be real and yet we have to tiptoe lightly when the subject comes up and respect the beliefs of others. Well I don't. I don't respect any belief system that would allow such stupidity and suffering.
For once I find myself wishing that Hell were real because these parents and the judge that sentenced them belong there.
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