10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
9 - You feel insulted and “dehumanized” when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.
7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the “atrocities” attributed to Allah, but you don’t even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in “Exodus” and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in “Joshua” including women, children, and trees!
6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.
5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.
4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs — though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most “tolerant” and “loving.”
3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in “tongues” may be all the evidence you need to “prove” Christianity.
2 - You define 0.01% as a “high success rate” when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.
• Gays and lesbians convicted of having gay sex would be sentenced, at minimum, to life in prison
• People who test positive for HIV may be executed
• Homosexuals who have sex with a minor, or engage in homosexual sex more than once, may also receive the death penalty
• The bill forbids the “promotion of homosexuality,” which in effect bans organizations working in HIV and AIDS prevention
• Anyone who knows of homosexual activity taking place but does not report it would risk up to three years in prison
Wow. Yep, just kill them off those evil doers, that will stop it! But it doesn’t end there unfortunately.
It applies even to Ugandans participating in same-sex acts in countries where such behavior is legal.
“They are supposed to be brought back to Uganda and convicted here. The government is putting homosexuality on the level of treason,” Mugisha said.
Lawmakers have indicated that they will pass the bill before year’s end.
And how do those religious leaders react? You know, those people who are parts of religions that preach love and tolerance? Predictably.
It has the blessing of many religious leaders — Muslim and Christian — in a country where a July poll found 95 percent opposed to legalizing homosexuality.
The Rev. Esau Omara, a senior church leader, said over the weekend that any lawmaker opposing the bill will pay for it during the next election, according to local newspaper reports.
And a leading Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje, has called for gays to be rounded up and banished to an island until they die.
In a particular neighborhood, Israeli citizens, courts and cops decide that it’s okay to go into the homes of Palestinians and thrown all of their shit out onto the lawn, and then throw the home owners out and take the home by force. Apparently this is because God said that this land belongs to the Israelis. Nice system you have going there. This is why the separation of church and state is so important. We would all be better off if all politicans were agnostics.
Mohamed Omar Ismael stole $90 from a saving account, local reports said.
Mohamed was sentenced to the amputation of his right-hand, and the punishment was carried out in public in the city center where a large crowd of people watched on as Islamists carried out the sentence.
Al Shabab, a Muslim group in Somalia has instituted the religious law to be carried out in this region.
Under strict Sharia law, theft is sentenced by severing their hand. The death penalty is meted out for murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking.
Apostasy?! Apostasy is the rejection of one’s own religion. So under this Muslim, faith based law, the punishment for renouncing your faith is DEATH.
This seems to be a good reason to keep church and state seperate, in ALL cases.
No one should be harmed, incarcerated, denied health care or necessary services, or otherwise deprived of liberty or basic needs because they have stupid ideas. No one should be presumed to have stupid ideas because of the colour of their skin.
The UN thinks differently. It believes the value of ideas shouldn’t be judged, that religion “makes a valuable contribution to modern society”, and that “defamation” of religion “could lead to social disharmony and violations of human rights” (unlike the practice of religion which hardly ever lops people’s heads off).
Defamation: “false or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another”.
Resolved 12/19/06, UN Resolution 62/154: Combating Defamations of Religions is the subject of much conversation in this, the week of its annual renewal. The focus of the resolution is the protection of religions, particularly and specifically Islam, from defamation, criticism or offence. You know, blasphemy.
In the same weeks that this resolution comes up for its annual renewal at the United Nations, its chief sponsor-government (Pakistan) makes an agreement with the local Taliban to close girls’ schools in the Swat Valley region (a mere 100 miles or so from the capital in Islamabad) and subject the inhabitants to Sharia law. This capitulation comes in direct response to a campaign of horrific violence and intimidation, including public beheadings. Yet the religion of those who carry out this campaign is not to be mentioned, lest it “associate” the faith with human rights violations or terrorism.
Why is the UN kowtowing to religious pressure? Perhaps they realize that the 80% or so of the world that claims to profess a belief in various unsubstatiated phenomena isn’t going to smarten up any time soon, and that we better tolerate each other’s fantasties or there will be blood. Fair enough; that 80% are by various degrees a fanatic bunch and we atheists don’t want any trouble.
10. Emphasizes that everyone has the right to hold opinions without
interference and the right to freedom of expression, and that the exercise of these
rights carries with it special duties and responsibilities and may therefore besubject
to limitations as are provided for by law and are necessary for respect of the rights
or reputations of others, protection of national security or of public order, public
health or morals and respect for religions and beliefs;
Freedom of expression is apparently a lesser human right than that of believing in primitive sky gods. The UN insists that the world “respect” belief in nonsense, to the point that your ability to question or criticize religion “may be subject to limitations”.
That’s terrifying. Contact the UN if you’re concerned about this precedent.
Happy Yule to all!Baghdad is celebrating its first ‘official’ Christmas this year, replete with a giant, tasteful, culturally sensitive hot air balloon carrying a banner of Jesus over the city. Santa waves to the crowds, draped in an Iraqi flag, while snipers watch from atop buildings to quell any anti-Jesus sentiment that may surface to mar the festivities.
Sponsored by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, the public display is in aid of “strengthening community ties” amongst the various religions and ethnicities inhabiting Baghdad. “All Iraqis are Christian today!” trumpets nterior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf.
I hope they’re not feeling a little colonized over there. It’s great ithe Major-General feels confident that all the terrorists have been cleaned up, but, um, isn’t this the kind of imperialist crap that makes more of them?
People sometimes take a don’t ask-don’t tell policy with religion, and wonder why atheists have to get in other people’s business about it. It doesn’t really affect you if I believe in God, does it? Unfortunately it does, if my religious agenda spills over into the foreign and domestic policies of the major world players.
Larry Beinhart writes over at AlterNet that we’re experiencing a bit of a renaissance in crusader mentality, with trillions of dollars flowing into the grandaddy of all faith-based initiatives, the Iraq war.
He posits that we might want to invest in a bit of sociological investigation into religious fanaticism if we want to understand the people “we’re” up against. Suicide bombers are not your usual cup of mentally sound tea.
God, religion, faith, spirituality — whichever face of the prism we are looking at — runs like a vertical pillar through all the levels of our lives. Our international policies are fixed largely around this war on terror. Our most volatile domestic political issues — regulating our sex lives, abortion, birth control, homosexuality, separation of church and state — are rooted in our religious views. Our social circles, our family structures, our individual lives, our world views, how we live and die, our health and happiness — are organized around our spiritual views, or lack thereof.
So, who are these faithful Easterners God instructed George Bush to liberate? What do they think of, say, man’s descent? Salman Hameed, a professor of astronomy & religious studies (nice combo!) spoke with New Scientist about Muslim belief in evolution. It ain’t pretty, and it ain’t particularly reasonable.
In Turkey, one of your more secular Islamic nations, belief in evolution is down around 25% (the US boasts a shameful 40%). The Koran doesn’t offer much in the way of creationist stories, so why the rejection of science over there?
Hameed thinks evolution, which hasn’t really been on the radar in the middle east, is equated with atheism.
Evolution becomes a symbol for Western dominance and a sign of modernity. Evolution can act as a lighting rod, as a symbol of the West and everything that is bad about the West - usually translated as material culture or materialism.
Muslims respect science and think of Islam as a scientific religion, so as long as atheism isn’t brought in to the debate, there’s an opportunity for understanding to spread.
So, in the way these Muslims interpret their religious laws, if you are raped, you are therefore guilty of adultery and the punishment for that is death.
How can I put this; that is fucking sick.
Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators.
I wonder what happened to the men that raped her? Based on past accounts, probably nothing. They may even been in the crowd of men stoning her.
So not only was she murdered, but 1000 people turned out to join in the fun! She had attempted to report her rape to the al-Shabab militia who control Kismayo, the area in which she lived. The al-Shabab are an Islamist insurgency group in Somalia and have been deemed a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State.
This is what can happen when one group’s religious ideals are intermixed with civil law. Western countries have come to recognize that church needs to be separated, though we’ve seen in recent years how Christian morals have been forced onto other people through government. Someone might say that Christians aren’t stoning people to death… well they used to.
I suppose that mainstream Muslims might say that the al-Shabab don’t follow “true” Islam”. I would say that the al-Shabab has as much right to their interpretation and implementation of Islam as any other Muslims groups do; what makes them wrong in their use of Islamic law?
While I of course will agree that most Muslims don’t condone this type of behavior, the behavior itself is not the issue; people over the generations have use religion to oppress, terrorize and murder not only their own people but others not of their faith as well. It continues today all over the world, even in those countries where church and state are supposedly separated.
Until people see each other as humans first as not as a Muslim, Christian, etc., these sort of things will continue. Religion needs to be eradicated from all forms of government. People can choose for themselves how and what to worship, and that IS IT! WHEN RELIGION IS USED FOR GOVERNANCE PEOPLE DIE!
This is a continuation of the “lessons from the scriptures” series. This is to show how great the scriptures are as a moral guide and how it must be the place to get your morals from, whereas we hell-bound agnostics are a people without morals since we don’t hold this ancient book up as a moral compass. Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
O.K., incest.
Incest in the Bible? Oh yeah, even with the righteous people.
Let’s talk about Lot. Remember him, the man whose wife God turned into a pillar of salt for just turning her head? (Genesis 19:23) Well, Jesus considered him pretty righteous.
“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 2 Peter 2:7-8”
Lot was so righteous that he got drunk and impregnated his two virgin daughters.
Genesis 19:32-36
“Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. ”
Now that’s a party! This is of course not long after Lot offered his two daughters to be raped by a horny mob. (Genesis 19:5-8)
So Jesus called this man righteous, yet he (Lot) was willing to have his daughters raped, and ended up having sex with them himself. Yep that’s pretty righteous.
Now, some people may say “hey, he was drunk, he didn’t know what he was doing!” As many males can attest to, that is just a cover story that males will use to try and not take responsibility for their actions. It says that he didn’t know that he was having sex with them. Right.
Another excuse given is that the daughter thought that they had to “preserve the seed” of their father, and continue the human race after the destruction of Sodom, believing that they were the last tio survive. I’ve heard that before, “Hey baby, there’s a war coming, tonight might be our last night on Earth, and I don’t want to die a virgin”.
Moving on from Lot, the great Patriarch of the Christians, Muslims and Jews, Abraham, had his share of family fun.
Genesis 20:11-12 (New International Version)
11 Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife.
I’m so glad that the world has this wonderful book to help guide our actions and teach us the morals to live by.
It must be really, really boring on a Tuesday night in Saudi Arabia. Over the noise of stomachs rumbling this Ramadan, you’ll hear the schwing of the scimitar removing the heads of TV programmers if senior Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan has his way.
Arab satellite channels have been popping up all over the middle east, featuring horoscopes and call-in advice, or “sorcery”, as it’s known in the region.
“Sorcerers who appear on satellite channels who are proven to be sorcerers have committed a great crime … and the Muslim consensus is that the apostate’s punishment is death by the sword,” enthuses Fozan. His fellow Higher Council of Clerics member Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan said last week that owners of Arab TV shows should face trial and death over their less-than-must-see offerings.
Depravity, shamelessness, indecency and vulgarity are at issue; so is the fact that once the sun goes down many Muslims are (apparently) gorging themselves on snacks and Arab-language television instead of thinking about God. I would argue that in today’s multi-tasking infostream, you can focus on God and a nice plate of chicken machboos, but religious leaders tend to be kind of old-fashioned.
Clerics know the Turkish soap operas traveling on their airwaves (by sorcery) are a potent force of secularism, and they feel their power diminishing as the Saudi royal family attempts to manage their country’s image on the world stage.
It’s too bad, because I’m starting to find burqas kind of sexy.
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