The Hazards of Belief

Húrin

robindch wrote: »

Anybody think it's worth stickying a cautionary thread? This sad story just in today:

http://today.reuters.com/news/ArticleNews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-06-05T133715Z_01_L05642927_RTRUKOC_0_US-UKRAINE-LION.xml

Looks like a case of putting God to the test, which he asked us not to do.

Matthew 4

5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

ZorbaTehZ

I guess he was busy.

OK-Cancel-Apply

Damn religion

Dades

With the shrieks coming from the crowd you'd swear Beelzebub himself had run in and pushed the thing over!

Guy in the blue suit - FAIL!

Galvasean

I like how someone is taking flash photography in the background

robindch

A rather sad one this -- Gene Robinson, the gentle American gay bishop who's indirectly responsible for the partial schism within Anglicanism, was heckled by some homophobic cretin in a church in London today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7504472.stm

With touching irony, though, any good the heckler feels he may have done himself in upholding 1 Corinthians 6:9, will probably have been undone on account of his ungodly hairstyle, contra 1 Corinthians 11:14. Oh well.

.

Galvasean

Sounds like Mr. Bigot had a few friends with him.

Obni

In a slow morning at work, I was just musing....

I wonder why the LHC has prompted so many religious nutjobs to panic?
OK, yet again godless scientists are up to no good. Taking a break from their main occupation of extracting stem cells from aborted foetuses to grow weird missing-link abominations in their labs, to plant in remote quarries as fake proof of evolution, they are now playing with the very fabric of the universe. Their motivation must be the ultimate destruction of god's creation; and after all as atheists they have no value for any life incuding their own.

Then it struck me!:eek:

Certain of god's existence and in full knowledge of the awesome power of prayer, (beside which potent force science's creations are mere toys), the catholic church has just done something far more reckless than turning on the LHC.
By gathering approximately 200,000 fervent young catholics at the World Youth Day mass in Sydney, they created an intense source of worship with enough power to punch a hole through the space-time continuum, a real weapon of 'mass' destruction. A concentrated singularity of religious devotion from which nothing, not even enlightened thought, can escape.

In recognition of the power of prayer, surely such gatherings as the Hajj and Kumbha Mela should be regulated by the UN. Let's get Hans Blick back out there.

Dades

In breaking news: "Sales of rosary beads hit record levels".

In other news: "200,000 fervent young catholics get sucked into a spontaneously created hole in the space continuum".

Dades

This guy sounded like your average A&A Boards.ie reader. :pac:

Until...

Galvasean

Its always the way. "He was a very nice guy." "Not a bad bone in him" etc. etc. Until he goes and shoots everyone!

5uspect

The plot thickens
Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

Galvasean

Wow, they usually find a copy of Grand Theft Auto and say be done with it.

Doctor DooM

Galvasean wrote: »

Wow, they usually find a copy of Grand Theft Auto and say be done with it.

don't worry, I'm sure he listened to Mariyln Manson at some point in his life!

MrPudding

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4452904.ece

Not a good day to be a pilgrim.

MrP

Galvasean

MrPudding wrote: »

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4452904.ece

Not a good day to be a pilgrim.

MrP

Sadly, such stampeding at pilgrimages is not all that uncommon.

pH

Toddler starved to death because he would not say 'amen'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4511910.ece

Zillah

pH wrote: »

Toddler starved to death because he would not say 'amen'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4511910.ece

"His remains were left in a suitcase for over a year."

Dades

Soul Winner wrote: »

Can’t believe you guys made this a sticky though???

Why not? It was always being added to. People who didn't add to it invariably started new threads with random articles, while interesting to glance over, were rarely worth a whole thread. Meh!

Flamed Diving

• 
  August 13, 2008

Come rain and floods to drown out Obama, pray Christians




(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)



Christians are praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama when he accepts the presidential nomination

A Christian fundamentalist group is praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in two weeks' time.
Focus on the Family is asking for "abundant, torrential" downpours to flood Denver and silence Senator Obama when he accepts the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on August 28.
"Would it be wrong to ask people to pray for rain of Biblical proportins," asks an umbrella wielding Stuard Shepard in a video put out by the ultra conservative evangelical group. He asks for the rain to start "two minutes before the acceptance speech begins."
Tickets to Mr Obama's speech, in a vast Denver stadium that seats 75,000 people, have all been snapped up.
On the video, Mr Shepard says "I'm still pro-life, and I'm still in favour of marriage as being between one man and one woman." Apparently referring to the Republican presidential candidate John McCain, he adds, "I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."
Focus for the Family pulled its video clip 24 hours after it was posted, but it can still be seen on the internet. In a statement Mr Shepard said that the video was intended to be "mildly humorous."
The organisation has attacked Mr Obama in the past. Its leader, James Dobson, recently accused the Illinois senator of distorting the Bible's message.
"He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter," he said.

Craft25

this is a reply to the original post of the man testing his faith in the lions den.. sorry if its been said but i aint got time to go throuhg whole thread.. by the way i consider agnosticism describes me closest, although i consider even that, with its inherent "if" and atheism both themselves involve a leap of faith, and i see this as a paradox..

so anyway.. the lion den guy wasnt a true believer because he disobeyed the christian order not to test gods will.. another christian can therefore argue that god took him away to prove.."i mean what i say", and in turn that the thread should be called the perils of not fully obeying gods will

if the situation was another seemingly hopeless one like being stranded in a desert the man with faith in an omnipotent god as opposed to the A or A may have a survival advantage to help him to keep going, whilst an A & A could descend into hopelessness..

i also feel there is a converse to this where a suvival situation requires more logic, in which case the A or A man would hold the advantage..

thus IMO the person with the least developed religion has the survival advantage in a simpler setting, ie tribal/shaman based has advantage over christian in jungle because he's not hesitant to kill an enemy

on to christianity and the social contract becomes more complicated, you cant realease your drive to sh*g as easily as you are a threat to direct neighbours, power games are more complicated and therefore needs more rigorous ordering, while still creating an imaginary alpha male "God" so challenges to leaders are less common..

on to post enlightenment based belief systems, existentialism etc. where freed from blind faith our logic becomes more complicated,.. the education required for your child has moved on in steps from, hunting skills, to agriculture, today to science, maths thus requiring primary educators (parents) to possess deeper logic

thus the complexity of a religion is a mirror image of the complexity of the brain which is in turn a reflection of the complexity of the society

CerebralCortex

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7587319.stm

Pompey Magnus

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Come rain and floods to drown out Obama, pray Christians

Christians are praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama when he accepts the presidential nomination

A Christian fundamentalist group is praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in two weeks' time.
Focus on the Family is asking for "abundant, torrential" downpours to flood Denver and silence Senator Obama when he accepts the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on August 28.
"Would it be wrong to ask people to pray for rain of Biblical proportins," asks an umbrella wielding Stuard Shepard in a video put out by the ultra conservative evangelical group. He asks for the rain to start "two minutes before the acceptance speech begins."
Tickets to Mr Obama's speech, in a vast Denver stadium that seats 75,000 people, have all been snapped up.
On the video, Mr Shepard says "I'm still pro-life, and I'm still in favour of marriage as being between one man and one woman." Apparently referring to the Republican presidential candidate John McCain, he adds, "I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."
Focus for the Family pulled its video clip 24 hours after it was posted, but it can still be seen on the internet. In a statement Mr Shepard said that the video was intended to be "mildly humorous."
The organisation has attacked Mr Obama in the past. Its leader, James Dobson, recently accused the Illinois senator of distorting the Bible's message.
"He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter," he said.

Hurricane Gustav hits Republican Plans

I think God is voting Obama. Christians ask him to wash out the Democratic Convention, instead he sends a Category Three Hurricane for the Republican Convention. Maybe God does have a sense of humour after all.

5uspect

rofl

Zillah

Clearly God has chosen to humble them.

Because God exists. So there has to be an explanation.

Zillah

Russian Satanists Stab Victims 666 times and then Eat Them

After police arrested eight suspected members of the ring, one boasted how they had previously dug up the grave of a newly-dead girl and eaten her heart. Another said he did not expect to be punished, saying: “Satan will help me to avoid responsibility. I made lots of sacrifices to him."And a third said he had got fed up with God for not making him rich and that “things improved” after he started praying to the Devil. The discovery in Yaroslavl, 300 miles from Moscow, sent a shudder across Russia — where Satanists are feared to have committed a string of mutilations and killings. " -- The rest of the cult were described by ex-teachers as having been of low intelligence and moody at school.

Dave!

Jayzus..... that's pretty f*cked up.

A mate of mine has long since believed that there are 'satanists' in the Hellfire Club (Dublin) who do crazy sh*t like that. I would have assumed that the closest thing is knackers drinking cans around a fire, and that the satanist talk is just rumours and stories.

Anyone know if there's any such wierdos up there?

Zillah

I'd just like to point out that the most common form of Satanism is La Vey Satanism and its a secular philosophy. They don't believe in God or the Devil in a literal sense, and expressly forbid absurdities such as the above.

Their commandments are pretty awesome too. In fact, I think I might start its very own thread soon.

Dave!

Yeah I'm familiar with that, you should see how p*ssed off they get when you suggest that they might actually have something to do with Satan :rolleyes:

Now where would I get that idea...............

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Dave! wrote: »

Jayzus..... that's pretty f*cked up.

A mate of mine has long since believed that there are 'satanists' in the Hellfire Club (Dublin) who do crazy sh*t like that. I would have assumed that the closest thing is knackers drinking cans around a fire, and that the satanist talk is just rumours and stories.

Anyone know if there's any such wierdos up there?

I used to live just down the road from the "Hellfire Club" it was such a freaky house. There were stories when we were growing up of that house being the devils, and how he shared it with jesus and all that. If you run around it backwards three time saying the hail Mary you will see the devil... bla bla bla.

The closest thing to witches, warlocks and satanic rituals is the summer raves that used to happen up there. Drugs, beer and music... That was back 15 years or that.