The Hazards of Belief

SebBerkovich

The article says that these nutjobs are doing this because they believe it to be

a guise for American spying activity

Is there a religious element to this as well?

robindch

SebBerkovich wrote: »

Is there a religious element to this as well?

Yes, in Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, where various militant mullahs claim that vaccinations are an evil western plot to sterilize kids.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/26/268358.html (Nigeria)
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/20/16039942-rumors-of-plot-to-sterilize-muslims-with-polio-vaccine-spark-killings-in-pakistan (Pakistan)
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1540477,00.html (India)

Not to be outdone, LifeSiteNews -- a western, expensively-produced paranoid conspiracy websource -- is doing its bit to help spread the fear and ignorance too:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive//ldn/2004/mar/04031101

Brian Shanahan

SebBerkovich wrote: »

The article says that these nutjobs are doing this because they believe it to be


Is there a religious element to this as well?

Well, the militants are somehow of the oppression that the US is out to eradicate Islam.

The fact that the US is prosecuting a world-wide war on "terror" of which the only true victims are innocent Muslims probably helps foster this reasoning.

wp_rathead

Maldives girl to get 100 lashes for pre-marital sex

BBC NEws wrote:

A 15-year-old rape victim has been sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex, court officials said.

The charges against the girl were brought against her last year after police investigated accusations that her stepfather had raped her and killed their baby. He is still to face trial.

Prosecutors said her conviction did not relate to the rape case.

Amnesty International condemned the punishment as "cruel, degrading and inhumane".

The government said it did not agree with the punishment and that it would look into changing the law.

The legal system of the Maldives, an Islamic archipelago with a population of some 400,000, has elements of Islamic law (Sharia) as well as English common law.

Ahmed Faiz, a researcher with Amnesty International, said flogging was "cruel, degrading and inhumane" and urged the authorities to abolish it.

"We are very surprised that the government is not doing anything to stop this punishment - to remove it altogether from the statute books."

"This is not the only case. It is happening frequently - only last month there was another girl who was sexually abused and sentenced to lashes."

He said he did not know when the punishment was last carried out as people were not willing to discuss it openly

The mind boggles

SebBerkovich

The same cuprate shows up when any sort of cruel insanity becomes standard practice. It could only be Religion.

sbsquarepants

recedite wrote: »

I'd say its a similar situation to the xenophobic Burmese buddhists.
When religion becomes intertwined with ethnicity and nationalism, it can be used by certain individuals to rally others to a fascist cause.
There is something about religious people in general, that seems to make them suckers for that sort of thing.

I think it's called gullibility!
I mean, some even refer to themselves as a flock of sheep! Forever seeking a wise shepherd so that they won't even have to think for themselves. It's a crazy mindset and crazy thoughts have a tendency to beget crazy actions.

Geomy

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I think it's called gullibility!
I mean, some even refer to themselves as a flock of sheep! Forever seeking a wise shepherd so that they won't even have to think for themselves. It's a crazy mindset and crazy thoughts have a tendency to beget crazy actions.

Not really gullibility
Aren't the people who think great thing's
about Dawkins and his like quite gullible too...

Bannasidhe

Geomy wrote: »

Not really gullibility
Aren't the people who think great thing's
about Dawkins and his like quite gullible too...

Hmmm...can't recall anyone claiming Dawkins is the creator of the universe and everything in it. Or that he wrote a book which is a set of instructions on how to achieve everlasting life...

Sarky

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Or that he wrote a book which is a set of instructions on how to achieve everlasting life...

Whoever ends up writing the scientific paper that outlines how to stop or reverse the aging process is going to get an awful lot of flak...

Hotblack Desiato

Geomy wrote: »

Aren't the people who think great thing's
about Dawkins and his like quite gullible too...

Gullible means to believe without evidence. The definition of religion (they call gullibility 'faith')
If you have any evidence that people who admire 'Dawkins and his like' are gullible, I'd like to hear it, because I'm not gullible!
Who are 'his like' anyway? Scientists in general, or just evolutionary biologists?

Brian Shanahan

Geomy wrote: »

Not really gullibility
Aren't the people who think great thing's
about Dawkins and his like quite gullible too...

No, because Dawkins takes great pains to produce valid and substantive evidence which backs up his point of view, and when better evidence arises which contradicts his point of view, is quick to abandon it, as is right and proper.

Geomy

Ye all have valid answers,ill choose my favorite one and click a thanks

Nodin

25 minutes long, but worth a goo

In remote parts of India, illness, poor harvest and bad luck can sometimes mean only one thing: a curse in the family.
Villagers will often consult an ohja, or witch doctor, who has the power to undo evil spells and identify people who placed the curse.

Sixteen years ago, Chhutney Mohato was stripped naked, beaten and nearly killed after she was accused of being a witch in her village in eastern Jharkhand State. She was forced to leave her home and all of her property.
Today, Mohato runs a small organisation in eastern India that helps women who have been lucky enough to survive a similar fate. Many women who are accused of witchcraft are killed by mobs of villagers.
This film unveils a volatile world of land conflicts and abuse of power where women and their families fall prey to false accusations and are driven off their land.
We meet women who tell first-hand how their lives have turned for the worse after being accused of being a witch and meet the people levelling the accusations against their neighbours.
As India modernises and gender roles change, some of these persecuted women are fighting back. But can they change traditional beliefs or will they succumb to the collective ignorance and abuse of power around them?

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2013/01/2013121101834161718.html

Nodin

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, forced to resign by the pope last week, has admitted to sexual misconduct and issued a sweeping apology to individuals he has "offended" as well as to the Catholic church and Scottish people.

He stated: "In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them. However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.
"To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic church and people of Scotland, I also apologise. I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic church in Scotland."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/03/cardinal-keith-obrien-admits-sexual-misconduct

He seems to have omitted "Bishop" for some reason. He doesn't seem to have bothered to cover his hypocrisy vis a vis gay marriage etc either....

Turtwig

Nodin wrote: »

He seems to have omitted "Bishop" for some reason. He doesn't seem to have bothered to cover his hypocrisy vis a vis gay marriage etc either....

A Cardinal is a bishop with the power to elect the next Pope. Other than that they're more or less identical.

robindch

A priest studies human trafficking for ten years. Reaches conclusion. Nods head, then announces that it's "founded upon contraception.". Fr Nix, take it away:

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/priest-says-modern-slave-trade-rooted-in-abortion-contraception

Turtwig

robindch wrote: »

A priest studies human trafficking for ten years. Reaches conclusion. Nods head, then announces that it's "founded upon contraception.". Fr Nix, take it away:

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/priest-says-modern-slave-trade-rooted-in-abortion-contraception

Well without contraception there would always be another solution.

recedite

robindch wrote: »

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/priest-says-modern-slave-trade-rooted-in-abortion-contraception

“porn is the demand” he said, “children are the supply, even if you’re looking at adults.”
While not everyone who looks at pornography will be lead to the child sex trade, Fr. Nix says the industry is so interconnected that no aspect of it is isolated from the other. If a consumer supports one part, he or she is contributing to the entire issue at large.

“Every time you look at pornography,” Fr. Nix stated, “you’re making sure children stay in slavery.”
...........“the shame of a girl who has been raped tens of thousands of times by the time she is 15 years-old" .......”

After 10 years studying child pornography, you'd think his "research" would have yielded something more......well, just more.

Hotblack Desiato

Telling people that looking at porn killed kittens wasn't working.

Bannasidhe

ninja900 wrote: »

Telling people that looking at porn killed kittens wasn't working.

**** kills pussies? :eek:

Who knew!

Hotblack Desiato

Only when taken to excess, B.

In other news...

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/nobel-peace-prize-winner-lech-walesa-accused-of-homophobia-after-saying-gay-people-should-take-a-backseat-29107919.html

Walesa, a former shipyard worker from the socially conservative port town of Gdansk, claimed in a television interview that gay people had no right to a prominent role in politics.

The 69-year-old said they did not deserve to be the front benches in parliament, and should instead be relegated to the back or “behind a wall”.

“They have to know that they are a minority and must adjust to smaller things. And not rise to the greatest heights ... spoiling things for the others and taking from the majority,” he told the private Polish broadcaster TVN. “I don’t agree to this and I will never agree to it. A minority should not impose itself on the majority.”

Amid the fallout from the interview yesterday, Walesa was accused of having “disgraced the Nobel Prize” by the leading Polish television journalist Monika Olejnik. Prosecutors launched an investigation following complaints that he had advocated hate crime.

Will Oslo be calling looking for their gong back?

PopePalpatine

ninja900 wrote: »

Will Oslo be calling looking for their gong back?

They haven't tried to take it off Mother Teresa yet. :rolleyes:

Penn

robindch wrote: »

A priest studies human trafficking for ten years. Reaches conclusion. Nods head, then announces that it's "founded upon contraception.". Fr Nix, take it away:

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/priest-says-modern-slave-trade-rooted-in-abortion-contraception

Wait.... what?

I honestly don't understand that. Is he saying that the reason girls are being trafficked for sex (and being made to take the morning after pill by their traffickers) is because they take the morning after pill?

Surely that's like saying the reason some guy was shot was because there was a bullet in him. Am I missing something? I'm genuinely confused.

robroy1234

Penn - you are obviously looking for some logical reasoning here, but this so-called research was done by a priest - hence, no logic, no reason....remember the church is full of people who believe anything - except science, facts and reality...

robindch

Penn wrote: »

Is he saying that the reason girls are being trafficked for sex (and being made to take the morning after pill by their traffickers) is because they take the morning after pill?

Nearly, but not quite. So far as I can understand the excellent reverend's logic, it seems that The Pill facilitates the underage prostitutes as it stops them from getting pregnant, hence keeping them working for longer, making them more profitable.

But my understanding falters at that point, since I don't see how he's planning to use that fact to do anything useful -- I wonder if he's considering setting fire to every contraceptive factory in the world or winding back the clock to 1959 or something like that.

Knasher

robindch wrote: »

Nearly, but not quite. So far as I can understand the excellent reverend's logic, it seems that The Pill facilitates the underage prostitutes as it stops them from getting pregnant, hence keeping them working for longer, making them more profitable.

But my understanding falters at that point, since I don't see how he's planning to use that fact to do anything useful -- I wonder if he's considering setting fire to every contraceptive factory in the world or winding back the clock to 1959 or something like that.

Afraid 1959 won't be far enough, after he is done with contraceptives he will be moving onto roads, which facilitate underage prostitution as they are often involved in both the trafficking of children and allowing easier movement of pedophiles towards their victims.

Nodin

robindch wrote: »

Nearly, but not quite. So far as I can understand the excellent reverend's logic, it seems that The Pill facilitates the underage prostitutes as it stops them from getting pregnant, hence keeping them working for longer, making them more profitable.

But my understanding falters at that point, since I don't see how he's planning to use that fact to do anything useful -- I wonder if he's considering setting fire to every contraceptive factory in the world or winding back the clock to 1959 or something like that.

Sure it's a well known undeniable fact there was no prostitution before contraception or the cure for syphillis.

joseph brand

You know you're crazy when you're reading sh1te like this! (large image)

"Mam, are you ok?" "What's with the crazy book mam?"

Nodin

joseph brand wrote: »

You know you're crazy when you're reading sh1te like this! (large image)

"Mam, are you ok?" "What's with the crazy book mam?"

Satan, You Can’t Have My Children provides clear, powerful spiritual tools that can be used to nurture and raise godly children. One chapter is filled with Scripture-based prayers that can be used by readers to pray for their children—young and old. This book is a tool for showing parents that, with God, the impossible is possible. To the parent struggling with a disobedient or rebellious child, this book provides calming encouragement and godly principles that can bring about a transformation in the home. It reinforces the promise that God’s power is greater than the power of the enemy over their children’s lives. It taps into the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to aid parents, and it advises readers: Never give up in the face of adversity. Prepare yourself to see the Word of God in action in the lives of your children, and believe that God will perform His Word.

http://www.amazon.com/Satan-You-Cant-Have-Children/dp/1616383690

Bannasidhe

Nodin wrote: »

http://www.amazon.com/Satan-You-Cant-Have-Children/dp/1616383690

Wow - the reason my son couldn't find the laundry hamper despite me drawing maps/putting little footprints leading to it/placing it outside his door so he fell over it was because I didn't pray....:eek: