The Hazards of Belief

FouxDaFaFa · 24-09-2012 10:16PM

^^

That boils my blood.

It's fascinating (and horrifying) to think that this is happening in such a highly-populated place. You could understand if it was an area in the middle of nowhere with little education and no-one else to believe but the priest, but this is London.

24-09-2012 11:03PM

News came late last week that Iran, apparently frightened over its female citizens’ growing independence, will begin restricting women’s access to a wide range of educational opportunities. Although Iran was one of the first nations in the Middle East to permit women to study at universities, the BBC reports that over 30 universities have agreed to ban women from about 80 different degrees such as engineering, business, nuclear physics, and computer science (you know, the ones that can potentially steer women toward power and financial freedom). While the government has not released any official reason for this change, Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi told the BBC that the restrictions have to do with the government’s aim to “restrict women’s access to education, to stop them being active in society, and to return them to the home.”

Link to the article on Slate.

A pity. Iran has a hell of a lot wrong with it, but I was always impressed — well, as impressed as one could be by an Islamist state — by its education standards, and the love the country's youth seems to have for education and learning, especially in metropolitan areas. What little good the State had in that regard is now seemingly going to change.

PopePalpatine · 25-09-2012 08:11AM

Mahmoud Armoured-dinner-jacket states that "homosexuality is for capitalists".

seamus · 25-09-2012 08:21AM

I've suspected for a long time that Mackmood is in the closet himself. It's often the case with those who insist homosexuality is a choice, because they believe they "chose" to not be homosexual.

kylith · 25-09-2012 02:17PM

gvn wrote: »

Link to the article on Slate.

A pity. Iran has a hell of a lot wrong with it, but I was always impressed — well, as impressed as one could be by an Islamist state — by its education standards, and the love the country's youth seems to have for education and learning, especially in metropolitan areas. What little good the State had in that regard is now seemingly going to change.

C'mon Iranian women! Don't take this lying down!

FouxDaFaFa · 25-09-2012 02:58PM

gvn wrote: »

Link to the article on Slate.

A pity. Iran has a hell of a lot wrong with it, but I was always impressed — well, as impressed as one could be by an Islamist state — by its education standards, and the love the country's youth seems to have for education and learning, especially in metropolitan areas. What little good the State had in that regard is now seemingly going to change.

This is very telling. Educated women leads to a rise in feminism and equal rights and a general modernisation of society. They're obviously terrified the status quo is about to be rocked. I hope the women of Iran protest against this.

robindch · 26-09-2012 01:54PM

27-year-old Greek guy arrested for insulting a monk. The charge was "blasphemy" and was apparently initiated by the extreme-right Golden Dawn outfit.

http://www.businessinsider.com/geron-pastitsios-2012-9

Business Insider wrote:

Evidently in Greece, blaspheming a monk on Facebook is an arrestable offense. Via @lolgreece and Peter Dimitrakos, here's the Google Translated version of the arrest announcement for a 27-year old who blasphemed a famous Greek monk (Elder Paisios) using the mocking name Geron Pastitsios. Pastitsios is a Greek pasta dish (hence the picture from the Facebook page showing the monk with a big plate of pasta)

Unconfirmed, but according to twittererers, his arrest was agitated by Golden Dawn nationalist types, and the government apparently complied. The hashtag #FreeGeronPastitsios is going bananas in the Greek twittersphere. [...]

FouxDaFaFa · 26-09-2012 03:24PM

Golden Dawn are genuinely terrifying.

Fortyniner · 26-09-2012 09:47PM

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/priest-bans-yoga-from-church-hall-because-its-not-compatible-with-catholic-faith-8179826.html

pauldla · 27-09-2012 03:15AM

^^^

In a further statement the diocese said: "The Catholic Church cannot permit activities which have their origins in non-Christian religions to take place on Church premises.

So that's Christmas and Easter out the window too, then?

kiffer · 27-09-2012 07:27AM

pauldla wrote: »

^^^

In a further statement the diocese said: "The Catholic Church cannot permit activities which have their origins in non-Christian religions to take place on Church premises.

So that's Christmas and Easter out the window too, then?

That would be an ecumenical matter.

Mark Hamill · 27-09-2012 07:58AM

pauldla wrote: »

^^^

In a further statement the diocese said: "The Catholic Church cannot permit activities which have their origins in non-Christian religions to take place on Church premises.

So that's Christmas and Easter out the window too, then?

Sure christianity itself originated from Judaism, so thats banned too

kylith · 27-09-2012 09:01AM

pauldla wrote: »

^^^

So that's Christmas and Easter out the window too, then?

I wouldn't count on it. Sure aren't Christmas trees expressly banned by the bible itself, but it sure doesn't stop the churches from sticking them up.

pauldla · 27-09-2012 09:08AM

kylith wrote: »

I wouldn't count on it. Sure aren't Christmas trees expressly banned by the bible itself, but it sure doesn't stop the churches from sticking them up.

“Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” (Jeremiah 10:2-4, KJV)

Gotta love that Bible!

Actually, looking at it again, isn't this an injunction against fixed Christmas trees? Portable ones may not be accursed in the eyes of the LORD.

Newaglish · 27-09-2012 09:25AM

What about artificial trees? Oddly enough there's no mention of plastic in the Bible at all.

Dades · 27-09-2012 09:58AM

Or dinosaurs.

kylith · 27-09-2012 10:30AM

Newaglish wrote: »

What about artificial trees? Oddly enough there's no mention of plastic in the Bible at all.

Well, presumably the petroleum that is used to make the tree is also the "work of the hands of the workman", and therefore also sacred.

seamus · 27-09-2012 11:59AM

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/09/26/i-deserve-gods-punishment/

No reason really why we should be shocked by this nonsense. Isn't self-hate the founding pillar of most religion?

Though I love the irony of trying to claim no link to any sect or cult. Uh, except Christianity?

Nodin · 27-09-2012 03:17PM

Dades wrote: »

Or dinosaurs.

Or Chinese people.

27-09-2012 07:49PM

seamus wrote: »

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/09/26/i-deserve-gods-punishment/

No reason really why we should be shocked by this nonsense. Isn't self-hate the founding pillar of most religion?

Though I love the irony of trying to claim no link to any sect or cult. Uh, except Christianity?

:eek:
That's appalling

PopePalpatine · 27-09-2012 08:03PM

I had no idea Actor was an author!

Turtwig · 27-09-2012 08:08PM

PopePalpatine wrote: »

I had no idea Actor was an author!

Well he could be anything you wanted him to be. In fact, the reason he was obsessed by sodomy in the first place, was that he was trying to get into his role as a bisexual sex dominant. You know the way some actors need to live the lives of their characters?

Fortyniner · 27-09-2012 08:32PM

Hundreds of Nigerian muslim women on a pilgrimage to Mecca have been detained and deported because they did not have suitable male chaperones..

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/09/nigeria-saudi-arabia-muslim-women-pilgrims.html

Nodin · 27-09-2012 08:49PM

Fortyniner wrote: »

Hundreds of Nigerian muslim women on a pilgrimage to Mecca have been detained and deported because they did not have suitable male chaperones..

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/09/nigeria-saudi-arabia-muslim-women-pilgrims.html

Such a miserable shower.

fitz0 · 27-09-2012 09:48PM

seamus wrote: »

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/09/26/i-deserve-gods-punishment/

No reason really why we should be shocked by this nonsense. Isn't self-hate the founding pillar of most religion?

Though I love the irony of trying to claim no link to any sect or cult. Uh, except Christianity?

I read that quickly as Sauron rather than saviour.

FouxDaFaFa · 27-09-2012 10:05PM

I guess it's good to see justice done but it's depressing all the same. Poor girl was only 21 when her family killed her in a botched exorcism.

http://news.discovery.com/human/woman-murdered-exorcising-genie-120926.html

Mumtaz, who was six months pregnant, was found dead in July 2009; she had come to England a year earlier, moving from her native Pakistan as part of an arranged marriage. Mr. Mumtaz claimed that his wife's injuries were self-inflicted (i.e., she had strangled herself); the court rejected that defense, and sentenced other members of the family to between 13 and 15 years in prison.

Delirium · 29-09-2012 08:37AM

RCC in Germany now penalising Catholics who don't pay the Church tax.

Our take: It is common for church-goers to donate to their faith and for donors to enjoy privileges for those contributions. But the Catholic Church in Germany has the OK from the Vatican to penalize those who don't pay their membership tax.

WARSAW, Poland The German bishops' conference defended a controversial decree that said Catholics who stop paying a church membership tax cannot receive sacraments.

"There must be consequences for people who distance themselves from the church by a public act," said Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, conference president, in defending the Sept. 20 decree.

"Clearly, someone withdrawing from the church can no longer take advantage of the system like someone who remains a member," he said at a news conference Monday as the bishops began a four-day meeting in Fulda. "We are grateful Rome has given completely clear approval to our stance."

The archbishop said each departure was "painful for the church," adding that bishops feared many Catholics were unaware of the consequences and would be "open to other solutions."

Link

I guess 9% of your gross monthly wage isn't much to guarantee eternal salvation :rolleyes:

Banbh · 29-09-2012 09:34AM

Could the Irish Catholic Church or the Lutharans not offer salvation at 8.75%?
There should be free competition across borders and no one national church should have a monopoly on eternal life within the EU.

Hotblack Desiato · 29-09-2012 10:37AM

Would be great if the church tax was introduced here. The (much smaller) number of people willing to do more than just tick a belief in a census box would be instantly apparent. Then we could shift the whole cost of religious child abuse onto the believers, why should the rest of us pay for something we had no responsibility for? The RCC would have to kick us non-payers out officially, something we can't achieve now, and we'd be guaranteed a non-church funeral which is what most non-believers want but few get.

pauldla · 29-09-2012 01:35PM

Banbh wrote: »

Could the Irish Catholic Church or the Lutharans not offer salvation at 8.75%?
There should be free competition across borders and no one national church should have a monopoly on eternal life within the EU.

They could go further, they could introduce loyalty cards which offer you a reduction off time in purgatory. Or have they tried something like that before?

The Hazards of Belief

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