The Hazards of Belief

robindch

koth wrote: »

but the weird part was she wasn't disputing the evidence, she was annoyed she was made aware of it.

CiaranMT

koth wrote: »

Not sure where to post this.

Saint Padre Pio's stigmata 'exposed' by new book



Currently listening to a woman on 2FM giving out about science providing evidence that makes it difficult for people to continue believing what they do.

I will return to this post when study becomes too much for me and I need to be shown how lucky I am to have a brain.

johnmacward

koth wrote: »

but the weird part was she wasn't disputing the evidence, she was annoyed she was made aware of it.

It's funny, if it was anything else in this world they would just have to like it or lump it but because it's based in faith and nobody really knows enough about things that don't actually exist to prove either way, you can continue believing the quackery with an audience of millions to nurture your delusions.

Even when I think about my own mother at home who will believe till her dying day, it's all down to that fear of disbelief and alleged disrespect that you're putting on the God fella. He knows, remember what you're thinking at every waking and sleeping second and if he so much as detects the slightest rocking of faith then you may have to see the purgatory committee. At the very least there will be questions at the gate.

I suppose the way she see's it, if he does in fact exist "well, I've done all the right things to join the party", and if he doesn't "well, I've only wasted a couple of thousand hours on a couple of thousand Sundays...".

robindch

Another child killed, this time in South Africa:

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Priest-held-after-girls-exorcism-death-20111117

CiaranMT

Missed this at the end of last month, from the Daily Fail:

A Catholic Church child safety co-ordinator who was in charge of investigating sexual abuse allegations was jailed for 12 months today for internet peadophile offences.
Christopher Jarvis, 49, a married father-of-four, investigated historic claims of child abuse, interviewing the victims when they were adults.
He was responsible for child protection at 120 churches and parish community groups for nine years.

Spelling error the Fail's.

Delirium

Article written by an anonymous teacher in the Irish Times.

I write as one of a large group of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people who works as a primary teacher in a Catholic school in this country. Given my sexual orientation (about which I am open) I am subjected to the following on a daily basis.

I must participate in and teach a religion I don’t believe in. I must uphold the Catholic ethos of the school by not discussing my sexuality beyond close friends on the staff.

As the teachers’ representative on the board of management I must partake in prayers at the start of each meeting, which goes against my own belief system.

A few years back when my school principal became aware of my sexuality I was given a lecture about not publicly promoting my sexuality. I have not been successful in applying for any promotion since. I should be first in line because I am the most senior teacher in the school and I hold a Masters of Education degree. I have regular visits from the local priest to keep an eye on how I am teaching religion. No other teacher in the school gets these “visits”.

Most of my fellow teachers are not regular mass-goers. Their lives do not all fall into the norms of Catholicism when it comes to marriage. Yet they are not singled out like I am. The INTO have been sympathetic, but I was told that the school is not breaking any rules by enforcing religious practise on me or curtailing my freedom to discuss my life in the staffroom. They advised that I do not rock the boat.

I believe I am an excellent teacher. I want to live in Ireland and teach generations of our children. However, the only schools within a 50-mile radius of my home are Catholic. Even if I left this part of the country I would still have to find a position within a very limited pool of non-Catholic schools – less than 10 per cent nationwide. I have to accept daily prejudice to pay my mortgage and other life expenses.

I believe, as in most countries, the Government should run the schools with religion as an optional after-school extra at the discretion of each faith. This would be fairer for everyone, not just for teachers like me whose sexual orientation is at odds with the ethos of the school. It would be fairer for children from families of other religions and none, fairer for Catholic families who believe in a more inclusive Ireland and fairer for the many teachers who are obliged to teach a subject they are not comfortable with. I don’t believe such a system would discriminate against Catholics. They would be free to practise their faith in an organised way after school and at weekends. My only hope is that the Minister for Education now follows through with his plan to have more schools handed over to non-religious boards of management.

Link

robindch

More from the IT today, including some details on how Martijn Leenheer, his wife and children were treated by the good catholics of Leitrim.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2011/1122/1224307942515.html

The Irish Times wrote:

With 97 per cent of primary schools under religious patronage, education is a big issue for those who want a religion-free system.

WALK INTO any church on a Sunday morning and the chances are people aged from about 15-30 will be conspicuous by their absence. Increasingly, young people in Ireland drift away from organised religion as they become independent of their parents only for some to trickle back when they become parents themselves. The arrival of a baby tends to bring matters of faith back into focus. Whether it is family and friends’ expectations of a baptism or pragmatic planning for choice of schools, a reawakening of spirituality after one of life’s great events or a desire to give a child a religious grounding, the chances are discussion of religious adherence, or none, will be on the agenda.

Many do the minimum they feel is required of them in what is still a predominantly Catholic country. But what about parents who want to tread a God-free path with their children? Are they under pressure to stand up for their rights and to justify their non-religious beliefs? And what do they tell their children? The results of the 2011 census are expected to show a marked increase in the percentage of the population with “no religion”. Five years previously, 4.2 per cent ticked the “no religion” box, making it the second-largest census grouping after Roman Catholic. Despite the emergence of this significant minority, atheist Sinéad Benn still feels it is “a little bit taboo” to say you are “no religion” and is reluctant to discuss it with other parents. “I’m careful; I don’t want anybody to view my children differently because of it.”

She thinks people respect different religions, but “when you don’t have a belief that revolves around a deity there is a bit more wariness about you. I think there is a sense that maybe you’re not quite as moral as somebody who has religion.” Raised in a traditional Irish Catholic household where the family went to Mass every week, it was in her mid-20s, when she was doing a course that involved a lot of self-analysis, that she forced herself to be honest about what she believed. “I realised I was holding on to a lot of beliefs that were just part of my cultural tradition, that I didn’t actually believe in,” explains Benn, who is the mother of two children, aged three and one, with a third on the way.

Although she and her husband had a humanist ceremony to mark their marriage, family and friends were still surprised when they did not have their eldest child baptised. “We did not come up against opposition but just surprise and a little concern as regards education and the child being left out.” There was an attitude of “maybe you should do it, as it would not do any harm”. Schools are the big issue in Ireland for children who are not affiliated to any church. With 97 per cent of primary schools under religious patronage, parents are forced, says Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland, “to make a choice between a religious education for their children or no education at all”.

Last week’s interim report from the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in primary schools indicates that promised change to the current set-up will be slow. Although the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, said last June that about 50 per cent of the 3,000 Catholic schools could be transferred to other forms of patronage before long, in fact the feasibility of divesting just 258 schools, in 18 dioceses across 47 areas, will be examined initially. Benn lives in the catchment area for a large Catholic national school in north Dublin, but she has also put her eldest son down for the local Church of Ireland school, “because they don’t do First Holy Communion and we could maybe postpone some of the bigger questions”. She believes it would be better for them as parents dealing with their children “feeling a bit left out when they are 12, rather than when they are eight”.

However, they are way down the list of enrolment criteria for that school and think it unlikely he will get a place. So if her children do go to the Catholic school, she knows they will be sitting through religious classes, as no alternative supervision is offered, and she can’t see herself or her husband going down to take them out of school at those times. But they would not let them participate in religious ceremonies. Lapsed Catholics Jennifer Purcell and her husband Gerard Crawley, now an agnostic/humanist and atheist respectively, were “kind of stumped” when they started investigating schools for their children, Ethan (4) and Lorna (3). They had put Ethan down for a multi-denominational school in Dundalk, Co Louth, when he was three months old and only later realised it has a Presbyterian ethos and holds morning prayers.

“They will try to cater for your needs, but they can’t promise that your child won’t hear about whatever they’re learning,” says Purcell. They investigated other options and found that of the 30 primary schools in and around Dundalk, every one was religious, mostly Catholic. Then they heard about Educate Together, the patron body for 60 multi- denominational national schools around the State, and ever since they have been campaigning to have one set up in Dundalk. Educate Together operates schools that provide equality of access and esteem to children “irrespective of social, cultural or religious background”. Children learn about all religious belief systems as part of a broad moral and ethical curriculum, but “no articles of belief are taught”, explains a spokesman.

Purcell believes there is still negativity towards people like her who profess to no religion. “In the words of my brother, it would be easier to be part of some club rather than no club. “I find people feel a little bit sorry for us – ‘You haven’t got God in your life, what have you got?’ kind of thing. I find that a bit patronising. “I don’t want to upset anybody,” she stresses, “but just because we don’t believe in God does not mean we can’t raise our children to be good people.” Death is a challenging concept to deal with and Purcell, who lost a brother three years ago, says, “I would like to believe there is still heaven”. It is the one aspect of religion that she finds comfort in.

“I said to my husband, ‘If ever I die when we have young children, please don’t tell them there is no heaven’.” She adds: “We have goldfish who have gone to heaven and they are with their uncle. If it makes it a bit easier for them, I don’t care.” Benn also had a dead goldfish to discuss with her son, but she does not think his three-year-old mind quite grasped the concept. For a while he expected the goldfish to come back; then he wondered was his pet lonely now he wasn’t with the other fish. “Death,” she adds, “is one of the harder questions to answer from a naturalistic world view because it’s quite harsh.”

‘Very stressed’ by what is going to come after primary school

Religion was a big part of Marina Fleeton’s early life and, even as a teenager, she went voluntarily every Sunday to her Church of Ireland parish church in south Dublin. But when she was 16 she heard her rector say that if you aren’t a Christian, you can’t go to heaven. “I just remember being really shocked by that, thinking ‘that can’t be right’.” From that moment she started to question religion. Studying natural sciences to become a microbiologist and “seeing evolution in practice, literally in front of you on the bench, made me think a bit more. Then I really realised that I didn’t believe in God at all.” Having met and married Roland Doyle, a non-practising Catholic, they are now raising their three children, Sam (7), Sophie (5) and three-year-old Faith (that name is “kind of ironic”, she concedes) without any religious faith.

The two oldest attend Monkstown Educate Together and she is quite happy to leave education about other people’s religions to the “utterly fantastic” school. She does not discuss religion with them, because “I am probably not as tolerant as I should be [or as] I want my children to be”. She is “very stressed” by what is going to come after primary school. “I would love if there was an Educate Together secondary school, but to be honest I would be okay sending my children to a non-Roman Catholic secondary school.” She also worries her children’s education might be lacking if they do not know enough about Bible stories. She recalls being in a Spanish art gallery with an atheist friend and being shocked, when viewing a painting of John the Baptist’s head on a platter, that her friend “had no clue as to the background of that picture and the story behind it”.

Fleeton’s other fear is that her stance will drive them to religion. “I am quite seriously contemplating getting my child baptised and taking him to church a few times because I am genuinely scared that he will rebel.” Like other parents interviewed, she finds explaining death a little difficult. “Children go through a stage when they get a bit panicked and say, ‘I don’t want you to die mum’, and I have never been able to say, ‘Oh, I will be looking down on you’. I have totally resisted that.” She misses the community side of the church. “Because I was brought up C of I and in a minority it does feel a little bit disloyal to deny the C of I aspect because there are so few of us around,” and, as she catches herself saying “us”, she adds, “You see, I still kind of include myself in that”.

UNPREPARED FOR A BACKLASH WITHIN THE COMMUNITY IN DISPUTE WITH A NATIONAL SCHOOL OVER RELIGIOUS ‘INDOCTRINATION’

When Martijn Leenheer went public at the beginning of this year about his dispute with a national school over religious “indoctrination” of his son, he was unprepared for a backlash within the community. “I didn’t expect it with people I knew. I was really surprised by the reaction and the anger they felt,” he says. At that stage, he had already withdrawn Finn, now aged six, from Drumlease National School in Dromahair, Co Leitrim, and moved him to an Educate Together school in Sligo 20km away. But he was still pursuing the school for answers to his grievance.

Hostility towards his family went so far that children would be taken off the street when he arrived home, says Dutch-born Leenheer. His Scottish wife, Amanda, “had people shouting at her in the streets in front of my two-year-old daughter. It got quite bad.” So they moved to Sligo town last July. “My wife lost a lot of friends in the village.” Changing schools was not upsetting for Finn, says Leenheer, but having other children being made to walk away from him was. “It took a good while before he was over that. I think it was unfair because they were punishing my son for what I did. It was an issue between me and the school and it was nothing to do with them, yet still they saw fit to attack my family in a certain way.”

The Leenheers had chosen the local Catholic school because their son’s friends were going there and it says it welcomes children of other faiths and none. They were told there was no problem Finn opting out of religious classes, but that he would have to remain in the classroom during them, and they accepted that. Leenheer thought all was fine until, nearly three months later, when his son came home and told him he was reciting prayers. He says he went to the school and asked his teacher to tell his son he did not have to participate in the prayers at the beginning and end of the day, thinking that would sort the matter.

However, he was taken aback when the teacher said she would not discourage the boy from saying prayers. For him, this was the kernel of the dispute – that a teacher was not upholding school policy, as confirmed by the school in a statement afterwards, that “pupils who don’t partake in the religion programme are not required to participate in these prayers”. Leenheer says a complaint he made to the Ombudsman for Children has been dealt with but both sides are asked not to disclose the outcome.

Drumlease National School was probably unfortunate in becoming the focus of what is a national problem – a conflict between the rights of parents seeking education free of religious teaching for their children and the rights of churches to uphold their “ethos” in schools they are running and, crucially, the current lack of an alternative ie schools without religious patronage. Leenheer is critical of the fact that schools, funded by the State, are not required to spell out what their ethos entails. “What a lot of parents in Dromahair said to me is, ‘Why don’t you just put up with it?’, and that is what everybody is doing.” When it is time for Finn and their younger child, Fenna, to start secondary school, the family plans to move to Dublin.

“I love Ireland,” he stresses. “People often say to me, if you have such a problem with this why don’t you go back , but it’s only one thing. And there are solutions to this problem.”

Mark Hamill

The Irish Times wrote:

She also worries her children’s education might be lacking if they do not know enough about Bible stories. She recalls being in a Spanish art gallery with an atheist friend and being shocked, when viewing a painting of John the Baptist’s head on a platter, that her friend “had no clue as to the background of that picture and the story behind it”.

What an odd thing to be worried about. I'm sure that she wouldn't know what is going in a whole range of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism, Ancient Greek or Roman etc. etc. art.

mikhail

Mark Hamill wrote: »

What an odd thing to be worried about. I'm sure that she wouldn't know what is going in a whole range of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism, Ancient Greek or Roman etc. etc. art.

Well, yes and no. The bible is a source of a great deal of imagery in western society. I'd consider it a fairly important element of a broad cultural education, up there with Shakespeare and the Greek and Roman myths. The others you mention haven't had a fraction of the same influence.

I exchanged a couple of posts with a guy on the film forum once. He'd seen Cloverfield, and a couple of images in it reminded him of a line from a Johnny Cash song. "And I looked and behold: a pale horse. And his name, that sat on him, was Death. And Hell followed with him." I told him where the image was from.

To pick another song, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is pretty widely played and covered. It's full of biblical imagery. I'm not exactly sure what his religion is (he's sort of a Buddhist Jew as far as I can tell), but while he's not Christian, he knows how potent those images are.

People reference bible stories all of the time, from the parable of the good Samaritan to the prodigal son.

Then there's all sorts of phrases in common use, from "the blind leading the blind", to "how the mighty have fallen" to "rise and shine".

Anyway, as many a soon-to-be atheist has found out, there's fewer ways to start questioning Christianity than to read the bible.

Mark Hamill

mikhail wrote: »

Well, yes and no. The bible is a source of a great deal of imagery in western society. I'd consider it a fairly important element of a broad cultural education, up there with Shakespeare and the Greek and Roman myths. The others you mention haven't had a fraction of the same influence.

I exchanged a couple of posts with a guy on the film forum once. He'd seen Cloverfield, and a couple of images in it reminded him of a line from a Johnny Cash song. "And I looked and behold: a pale horse. And his name, that sat on him, was Death. And Hell followed with him." I told him where the image was from.

To pick another song, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is pretty widely played and covered. It's full of biblical imagery. I'm not exactly sure what his religion is (he's sort of a Buddhist Jew as far as I can tell), but while he's not Christian, he knows how potent those images are.

People reference bible stories all of the time, from the parable of the good Samaritan to the prodigal son.

Then there's all sorts of phrases in common use, from "the blind leading the blind", to "how the mighty have fallen" to "rise and shine".

Anyway, as many a soon-to-be atheist has found out, there's fewer ways to start questioning Christianity than to read the bible.

Children don't get cultural education in schools though, hence you needed to tell that guy where the Johnny Cash lyric came from, hence I didn't realise that "rise and shine" was a bible phrase (the others I would have guessed, but I was never told before) etc. It is very interesting to find out where the common phrases and images we use come from, but kids, particularly primary school kids, aren't taught these stories from that point of view. Its just an odd worry for someone to have, imo.

mikhail

Fair point. The only remnant of that sort of teaching nowadays is probably a little Shakespeare in second level. However, I think children are taught certain biblical stories I mentioned, like the prodigal son, in religion class. Perhaps my memory fails me, and I'm confusing church and school (a common problem in this country!).

amacachi

I'd prefer not to limit kids to only learning about the bible and so on. I regret the whole time now that I have no idea about other cultures when the only thing mentioned in school is Christian stuff. I can forgive people for thinking that Europe is and was the only place that ever mattered or was civilised. It was secondary school before I learned about how it was the Greeks who came up with geometry and all that, then I find out it was done ages before that by middle easterners and Persians and all that. Then ya find out about how loads of old maths is translated from Sanskrit stuff from around India millenia ago and that's before even considering China. :pac:

Religion is only a part of it, knowledge rather than just being aware of other cultures and histories is important to me.

ShooterSF

Sad to see someone having to move town because of their beliefs and sadder to get a teeny feeling that xenophobia was at play too.

robindch

Fundamentalist islam has been on the rise in the Caucasus since the fall of Communism and has been instrumental in the ongoing misery in Chechnya, Ingushetia. Here's a tough report from the BBC in Dagestan:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15824831

There's a TV version of the above on Newsnight this evening at 2230h.

dmw07

robindch wrote: »

Fundamentalist islam has been on the rise in the Caucasus since the fall of Communism and has been instrumental in the ongoing misery in Chechnya, Ingushetia. Here's a tough report from the BBC in Dagestan:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15824831

There's a TV version of the above on Newsnight this evening at 2230h.

In fairness, even Stalin could not get rid of the extremist Chechens. They are an absolute mental race according to Russian friends. The Islamic community has slowly integrated with the locals over a period of hundreds of years. Since communism fell, their shenanigans have been tolerated. A reason why i find it hard to tolerate any religion tbh.

Below is the video of Russians unveiling to the world, The new soon to be rebuilt Grozny. It was done because the country was in such a state. I can only imagine what it is like now.

robindch

dmw07 wrote: »

In fairness, even Stalin could not get rid of the extremist Chechens.

He did his best. In 1944, he had the entire nation deported to Siberia and the Steppes of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan at the cost of an unknown number of lives:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lentil_%28Caucasus%29

dmw07 wrote: »

They are an absolute mental race according to Russian friends.

Russian behavior in the region, propelled by the usual paranoid concerns about the encroachment of Iranian and Turkish islam at the expense of Russian orthodox christianity, has been doing nothing to help the situation for at least 250 years.

I recall one report from the early part of the 19th century in which a Russian officer, who had just blown the leg off a Chechen fighter advancing upon his position, reported with fascinated horror that the dying man picked up the severed limb, hopped towards the officer's position and pitched it at him in a dying gesture of defiance.

BTW, Grozny (in cyrillic 'Грозный') means "terrible" or "appalling" in Russian. As in Иван Грозный, Ivan the Terrible. Less kak-handed management of local sensitivities might go a long way towards helping things.

Asne Seierstad's book Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya is worth reading in order to understand the horror of the place today. The current Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, is a violent islamic fundamentalist in the pay of the Russian government.

dmw07

robindch wrote: »

He did his best. In 1944, he had the entire nation deported to Siberia and the Steppes of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan at the cost of an unknown number of lives:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lentil_%28Caucasus%29

Russian behavior in the region, propelled by the usual paranoid concerns about the encroachment of Iranian and Turkish islam at the expense of Russian orthodox christianity, has been doing nothing to help the situation for at least 250 years.

I recall one report from the early part of the 19th century in which a Russian officer, who had just blown the leg off a Chechen fighter advancing upon his position, reported with fascinated horror that the dying man picked up the severed limb, hopped towards the officer's position and pitched it at him in a dying gesture of defiance.

BTW, Grozny (in cyrillic 'Грозный') means "terrible" or "appalling" in Russian. As in Иван Грозный, Ivan the Terrible. Less kak-handed management of local sensitivities might go a long way towards helping things.

Asne Seierstad's book Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya is worth reading in order to understand the horror of the place today. The current Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, is a violent islamic fundamentalist in the pay of the Russian government.

I'm impressed with your knowledge! Cool. There is a long and checkered history in Chechnya as you know, in regards to ethnic cleansing. It's the turn of the Islamic people now. Part of the problem, and a small reason the Islamic community can do what they are doing is because the country people have been raping, murdering and generally violating other humans for a very long time. Stalin has a part to play in starting the ball rolling, in the recent trouble i feel as he set the breeding ground for people to fight amongst themselves.

This link shows some of the horror. Eye witness accounts of the treatment dished out in Checnya during 1991-1995*.
http://royconrad.com/english/genocide/genocide_1.htm

It's hard to hold back the tears reading through all of those personal notes, and i'm a bloke.

Check out http://royconrad.com for more from Roy.

A conflict that occurred as a result of Stalin's "relocation" operation.
You'll need google translator turned on;
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A7%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC_1951_%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0_%D0%B2_%D0%92%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BC_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%85%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5

Just to highlight when the in fighting possibly became the norm.

And some more recent conflicts told by the soldiers involved;
http://artofwar.ru/s/shtinow_s_b/text_0020.shtml
index for English speaking people
http://artofwar.ru/e/english/

But it's safe to say that without the help of a certain Russian, how shall i put this, eh disciple, the Islamic faith are following hot on the heals of others and are committing horrific crimes in the name of religion.

From your original post, comments like this stupefy me.
"If a man only gets secular education he will be heartless"
Pllllllllllleeease.

Cheers for the book link btw.

CiaranMT

What an arsehole:

wrote:

President Obama did not include any reference to God during his weekly address titled, “On Thanksgiving, Grateful for the Men and Women Who Defend Our Country.”
His remarks were void of any religious references although Thanksgiving is a holiday traditionally steeped in giving thanks and praise to God.
The president said his family was “reflecting on how truly lucky we truly are.”
For many Americans, though, Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on how blessed and thankful they are.

Fox 'News'

Dades

CiaranMT wrote: »

What an arsehole:

Who's the arsehole, the Fox guy? I thought the article was fairly tempered, for what I actually think is Very Big Deal (in a positive way).

dmw07

Dades wrote: »

Who's the arsehole, the Fox guy? I thought the article was fairly tempered, for what I actually think is Very Big Deal (in a positive way).

Tongue in cheek sarcasm at Obama for not saying saying god several times during the speech i presume. Possible reaction of a religious person upon hearing the speech perhaps. Either way, i chuckled and thought, he is a bit of a ledge for doing this in fairness. The Fox news reaction pretty much confirms as much. You know it's a big deal when they try to spin something.

It is nice to hear for a change. Hopefully the first of many speeches that speaks to the masses. All the masses and not just a special selected group

Improbable

http://christwire.org/2011/11/urgent-sign-the-white-house-ban-on-the-dangerous-video-game-skyrim/

Not quite so hazardous as some of the other stuff we've seen in here, but it goes to show how stupid people can be. I wouldn't be surprised if something like this actually existed. Thank heavens it's only Christwire.

Sarky

Huh, I do say that uncaring friends who won't meet me for coffee because of Elder Scrolls 5 are Skyrimming...

Galvasean

Not getting to play all the cool new games IS a hazard!

robindch

Islamists get biblical about a young Afghanistani rape victim -- marry the rapist, or face 12 years in prison and apparently, the promise of attempted murder by her family when she's released.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-22/asia/world_asia_afghanistan-rape_1_gulnaz-rapist-jail?_s=PM%3AASIA
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/27/world/asia/afghanistan-rape-victim/index.html
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c04_1322177297

vibe666

Nigeria’s Millionaire Preachers

http://vimeo.com/31656466

looks like Christianity is doing a great trade in Nigeria.

Galvasean

Anyone see that thing on the news this week about that fringe Amish guy who was basically attacking other Amish people, cutting their hair and beards (considered a grave offense to the Amish), he even locked a guy in a chicken coop for several days. I can't find any online sources. Anyone got more info? I only heard about it in passing.

Delirium

Here ya go.

robindch

Lock up your children, Harry Potter is SATANIC!!

Yoga too.

Says a retired vatican insider with a name like one of Sauron's lesser lieutenants.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/vatican-exorcist-father-gabriele-amorth-yoga-harry-potter-satanic-tools-article-1.984048

NY Daily News wrote:

The Vatican’s former chief exorcist says yoga and Harry Potter are tools of the devil.

“Practicing yoga is Satanic, it leads to evil just like reading Harry Potter,” Father Gabriele Amorth said this week. Those seemingly “innocuous” Potter books convince kids to believe in black magic, he said. “In Harry Potter the Devil acts in a crafty and covert manner, under the guise of extraordinary powers, magic spells and curses,” said Amorth.

As for yoga, it leads to Hinduism and “all eastern religions are based on a false belief in reincarnation,” the 86-year-old priest said.

Amorth made the hellraising remarks at a film festival in the Italian city of Umbria, where he was invited to introduce a movie about exorcism called “The Rite,” which stars Anthony Hopkins, the Telegraph of London reported. “Satan is always hidden and what he most wants is for us not to believe in his existence,” he said. “He studies every one of us and our tendencies towards good and evil, and then he offers temptations.” Science can’t explain evil, added Amorth, who claims to have performed 50,000 exorcisms before retiring in 2000. He is both founder and honorary president for life of the International Association of Exorcists.

No surprise, Amorth’s favorite movie is “The Exorcist.”

While the Jesuit’s remarks might strike many as the ravings of a man possessed, Pope Benedict once warned of “subtle seductions” in the Potter books that “dissolve Christianity in the soul.” The Pope has also warned that yoga “can degenerate into a cult of the body.”

robroy1234

So Amorth's response to the clerical sex abuse will be to blame the children themselves if they have read Harry Potter....Little wonder that the Church is struggling and with this deranged fella going on about science and evil - he and the Darth Benedict wants to drag the world back into the medieval times. 50,000 exorcisms, doubt it very much and this fella would be opposed to medical science coming and verifying each case...

CiaranMT

Aren't these people supposed to be educated?