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.
Put on by BBC World, the Question was “Is the Catholic church a force for good in the world?” The majority of the people at this debate decided that NO, it was not a force for good, and those people that were on the fence at the start (a poll was taken at the beginning and end of the debate) were swayed to the NO side.
Speaking for the motion, Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdecombe MP. Speaking against the motion, Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry.
An interesting idea has cropped up in California in response to the passing of Proposition 8, which banned Same-Sex Marriage in California by saying that marriage could only be between a male and female.
John Marcotte of Sacramento California has proposed an initiative that would protect “traditional” marriage by banning divorce.
John is hoping that the people that voted to protect traditional marriage by passing Prop 8 will continue to protect it by supporting his initiative to ban divorce, just the way Jesus would want it.
I am trying to extend the good work done with Proposition 8 last year. It could really happen. The United States has not always had divorce as an institution the way we do now. As a ballot initiative it bypasses the legislature and the governor. It’s the will of the people made law.
People who supported Prop 8 weren’t trying to take rights away from gays, they just wanted to protect traditional marriage. That’s why I’m confident that they will support this initiative, even though this time it will be their rights that are diminished. To not support it would be hypocritical.
The secular progressives, gays and MSNBC hosts — but we beat them once with Prop 8 and we’ll beat them again. If people are thinking about getting a divorce, just remember “Hell is eternal, just like your marriage was supposed to be.” Jesus still loves you if you get divorced, just not as much as before.
A new add from the folks over at the National Organization for Marriage shows confused kids that apparently weren’t taught by their parents about the different kids of folks in the world; you know, those people that happen to be attracted to the same-sex and want to consecrate their relationship in marriage like any other couple might.
Prepare to gag.
One of the kids say “God created Adam and Eve? That’s so old-fashioned.” Thank you little girl, for speaking the truth.
In North America, we have advanced from the days of demonizing gay people, to where they can live their lives how they choose without the threat of violence. Unfortunately there are still people out there that want to force gay people to adhere to their religious beliefs, we still have growing to do.
What is wrong with the Pope? Doesn’t he realize the influence he has over people?
In an idiotic statement made at the Vatican yesterday, el Inquistor Grande said that “saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.”
Reverend Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, called the comments “totally irresponsible and unacceptable.”
“When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement, then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way because they feel that they are doing God’s work in ridding the world of these people,” she said.
No kidding. As we reported earlier this month, the Papacy refused to back a UN resolution to end the death penalty for homosexuality worldwide. Yes, Catholics are against killing people—you know, good ole’ Deuteronomy 5:17, the 6th commandment, for Pete’s sake, Thou shalt not kill—but it’s more important to prevent gay marriage. Pope Benedict picked “it’s still ok to kill gay people”.
Gay groups are pissed. And they should be. He basically equated being gay with being a scourge on the earth equal to deforestation.
Irresponsible hardly describes it. As if the church’s position isn’t going to be used to justify homophobia and discrimination. And why? Because the Bible predates science.
When Leviticus 20:13 was penned in the ancient desert, knowledge of human gestation was pretty spotty. Psalm 130 guesses that Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and that’s about all the Bible authors had on where babies came from. They certainly weren’t clear on the actions of androgen, the hormone that controls masculine characteristics in primates, too much of which science now implicates in the prenatal development of homosexuals.
Persecuting people for their very nature (sexuality, skin colour, you name it) is absurdly, hopelessly archaic. A world leader with influence over a billion people should be repudiated for canonizing hate and ignorance.
Jesus, Jesus mind you, said in Matthew 22:39 You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
And damnit, I know the editorial illustration for this post is childish, but I just wanted there to be something out there to find when people google “Benedict gay penises”.
Playboy Mexico—a licensee of the American version, who are totally not responsible for this—offended the crap out of Catholic Mexico with this month’s cover of a suggestively almost-semi-nude Virgin Mary. Avert your eyes if the side of a dirty, dirty boob offends your religious sensibilities, for there she is in all her glory. “We love you, Maria” proclaims the cover proudly—porn kitten Maria Florencia Onori, that is.
Tucking his wiener between his, legs, publisher Raul Sayrols plead wide-eyed ignorance of the resemblance to God’s mom. “The image is not and never was intended to portray the Virgin of Guadalupe or any other religious figure. The intent was to reflect a Renaissance-like mood on the cover.”
Right about now Mexicans are gearing up for a pilgrimmage to Mexico City in celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, in one of the world’s largest religious events, so they’re extra sensitive to stuff relating to naked virgins.
It’s sad that people can’t admit that taboo is so darn sexually exciting (and religious people are the only ones on whom taboos work anymore), and while we here at Topic Agnostic applaud Playboy Mexico for trying to make money on that, we’re sorry they bowed to religious outrage and pretended they weren’t selling sex with the Virgie. Cause they were.
A student put together an art exhibit that showed pictures of gay students at Brigham Young University, along side one of their supporters. Which is the homosexual is not identified. BYU, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) decided that this display should be shut down, and that’s what happened.
Now, this isn’t a surprise. The dogma of the LDS Church is that homosexuality is a grave sexual sin, and sexual sin is next only to murder (yes, worse than child abuse, fraud, theft, and any number of other ethical violations) and that it should be rejected outright. The church has a history of repressing their members that have expressed privately and/or publicly their same-sex attraction, and in fact BYU used to try “aversion” therapy on homosexuals that included shock thearapy and heterosexual pornography.
So, it is not much of a surprise that even a particularly benign display such as this would be censored by the school.
As of today, the display is back up, after a claim by the school of a “misunderstanding”. This is the way that the BYU and the Church work; they will do whatever they want and expect you to keep quiet.
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!
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