The Hazards of Belief

bnt

So, here's the sequence of events:

• Man goes to an Applebees restaurant;
• Man orders and receives a plate of sizzling hot Fajitas;
• Man tries to pray over his food before eating it;
• Man suffers burns to the face, due to the aforementioned Fajitas being "sizzling hot";
• Man tries to sue the restaurant for damages;
• Man disappointed when judge says "go away";
• Man doubly disappointed after appeals court says "seriously, go away".

Shrap

Ha! That made me laugh more than it should.

*NB. must not laugh so much at stupidity*

Pherekydes

His faith should have protected him!

robindch

Pherekydes wrote: »

His faith should have protected him!

Would love to do a follow-up on this guy in five years' time - is he still praying over his food, but this time from a safe distance? Has he justified his "accident" by saying he just wasn't faithful enough and that he should double-down and pray some more? Or has he realized that his deity is powerless against stupidity? Something else?

kylith

How the hell was he praying if he burned his face. Last I checked the grace before meals didn't require you to stick your face in your meal


Look at all these devout people!

RikuoAmero

robindch wrote: »

Would love to do a follow-up on this guy in five years' time - is he still praying over his food, but this time from a safe distance? Has he justified his "accident" by saying he just wasn't faithful enough and that he should double-down and pray some more? Or has he realized that his deity is powerless against stupidity? Something else?

Westboro Baptist Church said that the second coming of Jesus would take place during Fred Phelps's lifetime. *Looks around*. Nope, no Jesus and Freddie is dead.

robindch

Some of the Vatican Bank's more interesting financial exercises:

http://www.businessinsider.in/The-craziest-financial-schemes-that-the-Vatican-Bank-tried-to-cover-up/articleshow/46401921.cms

jank

More dirty cover-ups of sex abuse up North by Irish 'Republicans'.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/how-i-was-raped-by-an-ira-man-and-faced-a-kangaroo-court-31053883.html

recedite

That's terrible; the IRA accused of illegal activity and not co-operating with police. Who'd have thought it.

robindch

jank wrote: »

More dirty cover-ups of sex abuse up North by Irish 'Republicans'.

Not really relevant to us here in A+A.

Apropos of the IRA though, next week's New Yorker magazine has a piece on Gerry Adams who was entirely unconnected with the IRA. Haven't read the article, but it's likely to fall some way short of being fully complimentary about him.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/16/where-the-bodies-are-buried

jank

Well if we are talking about 'Beliefs' as in this thread, then surely Irish Republicanism in the vein of modern Sinn Fein/IRA falls under that umbrella as well. It is why I quoted republicanism. After all one can have a political or ideological belief that can be just or even more hazardous than a religious belief. 'Its all for the cause'

Sinn Fein were very critical of the RCC handling of abuse yet when it comes to its own issues of lying to the authorities, moving perpetrators around and being silent on the issue Sinn Fein and their supporters surely have much in common with the RCC.

I'm surprised at you jank.

obplayer

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm surprised at you jank.

Could you explain why?

Turtwig

He brought us all pizza and biscuits?

Dades

jank wrote: »

Sinn Fein were very critical of the RCC handling of abuse yet when it comes to its own issues of lying to the authorities, moving perpetrators around and being silent on the issue Sinn Fein and their supporters surely have much in common with the RCC.

Truth be told I at least prefer the options given victims by the IRA.

jank

Dades wrote: »

Truth be told I at least prefer the options given victims by the IRA.

A little bit Old Testament no? Eye for an eye and all that.

Dades

jank wrote: »

A little bit Old Testament no? Eye for an eye and all that.

Oh, indeed. But better than a forced silence and the rapist relocated to some boys home in a different county.

PopePalpatine

jank wrote: »

A little bit Old Testament no? Eye for an eye and all that.

Speaking of "eye for an eye", Iran has forcibly blinded a man convicted of blinding another in an acid attack. The sentence has been handed down before, but this is the first time it hasn't been commuted.

pauldla

Russel Brand refutes Stephen Fry on the Existence of God. Or, rather, thinks he does.

Be warned: you won't get the ten minutes back.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danthropology/2015/03/russell-brand-tries-to-defend-the-existence-of-god-with-terrible-arguments/

Dades

pauldla wrote: »

Be warned: you won't get the ten minutes back.

I'm going to keep those ten minutes, thanks. I've seen enough arguments based on ignorance or fluffy spirituality to last me a lifetime.

robindch

Jozef Tiso was a new one to me, but very much in line with Fr Ludwig Kaas, a Bavarian catholic priest who traded political support (by the Center Party of which he was leader) for Hitler's assumption of dictatorial powers for a range of religious concessions.

http://listverse.com/2015/03/10/10-secrets-the-catholic-church-hopes-youve-forgotten/

recedite

That's an incredible statistic there; 16 out of 63 MPs were priests.
(in the 1939 govt of the pro-Nazi German occupied Slovak Republic, which then set about drafting the anti jewish laws)

robindch

recedite wrote: »

That's an incredible statistic there; 16 out of 63 MPs were priests.

Yes, almost as incredible as it is unexpected.

Along with the Taiping Rebellion, Ludwig Kaas and Jozef Tiso - I'm wondering how many more historical events have had significant christian input, but which appear to have been almost totally forgotten about?

robindch

Measles-skeptic gets pwnd in a german court:

Germany court orders measles sceptic to pay 100,000 euros

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31864218

BBC wrote:

A German biologist who offered €100,000 (£71,350; $106,300) to anyone who could prove that measles is a virus has been ordered by a court to pay up. Stefan Lanka, who believes the illness is psychosomatic, made the pledge four years ago on his website. The reward was later claimed by German doctor David Barden, who gathered evidence from various medical studies. Mr Lanka dismissed the findings.

But the court in the town of Ravensburg ruled that the proof was sufficient. Reacting to the verdict by the court in the southern town, Mr Lanka said he would appeal. "It is a psychosomatic illness," he told regional paper Suedkurier. "People become ill after traumatic separations." A recent outbreak of measles in Germany has sparked a debate about whether vaccinations against the disease should be compulsory.

An 18-month-old boy in Berlin died last month of the disease. The World Health Organization said it was "taken aback" by the 22,000 cases reported across Europe since 2014, urging to step up vaccinations. Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease characterised by a high fever, a rash and generally feeling unwell. The most severe cases can be fatal.

Shrap

"People become ill after traumatic separations."

- I suppose he had the incidences of babies catching measles down to the traumatic cutting of the umbilical cord then? Psychosomatic my ar5e.

silverharp

It makes you wonder how people can be separated from their hard earned so easily....


http://www.hollywoodtake.com/creflo-dollar-plane-project-shocking-high-net-worth-wont-pay-gulfstream-650-private-jet-he-75990

CREFLO DOLLAR PLANE PROJECT SHOCKING? HIGH NET WORTH WON'T PAY FOR GULFSTREAM 650 PRIVATE JET - HE WANTS FOLLOWERS TO FUND $65 MILLION!

Creflo Dollar’s crowdfunding request for a new plane has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. The televangelist, whose net worth is over $20 million, is asking his followers to raise $65 million so he can buy himself a new jet. He has named this venture Project G650.

In a new video, Creflo Dollar reveals that his current plane has been involved in two near-disasters, so he no longer feels safe riding it. So now he hopes 200,000 people will donate $300 each so he can pay for a $65 million Gulfstream 650.

“We are asking members, partners, and supporters of this ministry to assist in acquiring in acquiring a Gulfstream G650 airplane so that Pastors Creflo and [wife] Taffi and World Changers Church International can continue to blanket the globe with the Gospel of grace,” the Project G650 website says in part.

robindch

Hollywood Take wrote:

Creflo Dollar reveals that his current plane has been involved in two near-disasters

God sending a fairly clear message there I think.

robindch

Together with his wife, Justin Harris, a Tea Party Republican in the Arkansas House of Representatives, adopted three kids from a troubled background. Harris is a fundamentalist christian and runs his own preschool named "Growing God’s Kingdom" which, amongst other peculiar things, appears to carry out exorcism rituals for unruly kids.

Anyhow, the three adopted kids remained troublesome and Harris diagnosed "possession by demons". Then things got weird. Then they got unpleasant.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/03/12/why-did-rep-justin-harris-abandon-the-little-girls-hed-adopted-easy-they-were-possessed-by-demons/
http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/casting-out-demons-why-justin-harris-got-rid-of-kids-he-applied-pressure-to-adopt/Content?oid=3725371
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/arkansas-republican-gave-adopted-girls-to-rapist-because-they-were-possessed-by-demons-report/

PopePalpatine

I wouldn't be surprised if neither of the Harrises served jail time.

RikuoAmero

silverharp wrote: »

It makes you wonder how people can be separated from their hard earned so easily....


http://www.hollywoodtake.com/creflo-dollar-plane-project-shocking-high-net-worth-wont-pay-gulfstream-650-private-jet-he-75990

What does God need with a gulf stream?