Thursday, September 30, 2010

Personal Religion



I saw this image, and I was just reminded on Christian extremes.

Before I get into it, let me say: YES, you will hear about religion from both sides of the argument on this site. But we're also hoping to build a bridge between the two.

Now back to this image.

Some extremes to Christianity (and to religion itself) is the people who take it as a personal crusade, to renounce anything that is sinful, going so far as to place all their faith in churches and to damn anyone to hell for any reason.

The other extreme is hardly called Christian or religious. Okay, sure, if asked, they'll say yes, they believe in god. No, they don't go to church, or pray to god, or even realize they are sinning. They just figure that God is good and will forgive them nonetheless and he doesn't NEED people to pray to him.

But then I see this image (from a webcomic called Max vs Max), and I have to realize a few things about how I have to practice my religion.

Maybe I'll start praying to God more. I mean, how annoying would that be? He creates the world, He creates people to populate the world, He creates things for us to amuse ourselves with and improve on... and we don't even give Him a hello. It's like a parent giving a child everything, and the child just leaves the house as soon as his wallet is full, and never talks to the parent again.

So... yeah. Praying is gonna be on the schedule.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Bishop Long's crusade bites him in the ass.

Yup. If you pay attention to cnn news (either online or on the tv), you'd notice a bit of it just devoted to Bishop Eddie Long and an accusation made by several young men, claiming that he took sexual advantage of them as teenagers.

Now, for a priest who is known for his crusade against homosexuals to be accused of having sexual relations with young *men*... Better yet, he's a celebrity Bishop in a megachurch...

Does this sound familiar to you? Anyone? At all?

Now, if you look up "Bishop Eddie Long" in google, you'll find quite a few sites, mostly news rooms, and you might find more proof that this happened. Now, I really don't care if he did do it or not. I hope he didn't. All I'm angry at is why is it that anyone who takes a stand against homosexuals, why is it that they are always mixed up with a gay scandal?

Okay, it's not like I'm saying he's in the right with his "righteous" crusade against gays. I mean, I'm bisexual myself.

(But Katie! You're "The Christian"! You can't be gay!)

But I am. I'm attracted to both men and women (as I found when I was 16 and I fell in love with my best friend, Sara). Even before then, I knew it was wrong for people to be prejudiced against anyone different, whether they are gays, blacks, or Muslim. (Or a gay black Muslim). I was raised with the mindset to love your neighbor and to love God, and to a five year old, neighbors meant EVERYONE, even those I didn't meet. I would lament as I realized there were people I didn't know, and thus, didn't love!

But now I realize that my neighbor doesn't mean just anyone. It means someone who will sacrifice time and energy, and even themselves, for me. And this man, this Bishop Long, who I have never met, and who will damn me to hell as soon as he learns of how I want to fuck girls, he's not my neighbor. And for that... He deserves all the trouble he gets.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

That's Cold, Man

I saw this over at Friendly Atheist and I couldn't resist posting it here - this is exactly the kind of gap Katie and I are trying to bridge. Considering how anti-religious I am, I count myself incredibly lucky to have such an understanding partner.

Hat-tip to David Hayward for coming up with such a simple, succinct way to illustrate the 'divide', and to Hemant for posting it where my own feeble wanderings let me see it.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Big Steaming Piles Of Wrong

Well, Ratzi the Nazi's keynote speech was today.  It exceeded expectations, if you expected moderate amounts of outrageous bullshit and maybe one or two exhortations for Catholics to be bastards toward other people.

Seriously, this goes beyond veiled bigotry. It's an incitement to extremism and flouting of the law, and stops just before becoming legally classifiable as religious hate speech. Let's have a look at the more in-depth crap, one quote at a time, to see just how many big piles of moral Wrong we can spot.

"I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalisation of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance."

A shaky start. This isn't morally wrong, it's just a fading old despot's regret that the populace in general is becoming increasingly immune to his bullshit one generation at a time. C'mon, Benny, you can do better.

"There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere. There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are those who argue – paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination – that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience."

Ahhh, now we get down to it. First of all, there ARE those who would advocate purely private religion - but there are those who would advocate that people avoid eating any animal product ever, too, and they're hardly a fucking threat to the hamburger industry. Like the followup about no one celebrating Christmas in case people get offended, the avoidance of people praying together is just a fringe view espoused by people who don't know much about how people work.

It's that last sentence that contains the big Wrong, though. 'Acting against their conscience' in the name of eliminating discrimination means that acting with their conscience involves discriminating against someone. It's not an unreasonable logical conclusion that Ratzi is referring here to equality laws, particularly involving women and gay people. But if treating people fairly involves acting against your conscience, you're a FUCKING BIGOT.

Let's blockquote the next bit from the Guardian's report, as they cover it nicely already:

Pope Benedict praised Britain as a "pluralist democracy which places great value on freedom of speech, freedom of political affiliation and respect for the rule of law, with a strong sense of the individual's rights and duties, and of the equality of all citizens before the law".
In a passage that will doubtless have come as a surprise to some in his audience, the pope added: "While couched in different language, Catholic social teaching has much in common with this approach, in its overriding concern to safeguard the unique dignity of every human person, created in the image and likeness of God, and in its emphasis on the duty of civil authority to foster the common good."

All together now: WRONG.

Let's ignore the flattery and focus on how this effectively pans out: he's calling the Catholic church pluralist (which would be true if women and gay people didn't exist, and if it didn't have a history of setting fire to people who asked awkward questions, or were from the wrong country, or were just handy scapegoats), that it prioritises the dignity of every human in the world (which would be true if every human in the world were a priest) and that it puts the good of the people in the hands of civil authority (which would be true if he didn't keep protesting against the civil authorities doing their jobs when children get raped by his employees). So far, so sickening. Any more?

"The inadequacy of pragmatic, short-term solutions to complex social and ethical problems has been illustrated all too clearly by the recent global financial crisis. There is widespread agreement that the lack of a solid ethical foundation for economic activity has contributed to the grave difficulties now being experienced by millions throughout the world."

I wonder if Benny medically cannot see gold. It's the only reason I can think of for his larynx not climbing up his neck and punching his brain to death rather than have to say that sentence. That old fart is in charge of the single most grasping, greedy, selfish, covetous and unbelievably fucking RICH organisation on the face of this planet. And he wants to scold other people for a lack of ethics in their financial dealings. It's odd that the one thing I can admire about this staggeringly worthless human being is his ability to come up with this shit and not die of shame.


More blockquotes, 'cause it's easier to get this to make sense:

Earlier the pope travelled from Lambeth Palace in the popemobile. At the ecumenical service at Lambeth, he and the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams acknowledged there was unlikely to be unity between their churches, saying "challenges" were thwarting this goal. Both conceded that issues such as gay and women clergy were too great to resolve.

Yeah, it's damn difficult acting like a reasonable fucking human being sometimes.

However, he did sound a warning to those Christians more inclined to be liberal and said that equality should never trump fidelity to the faith. "We recognise that the church is called to be inclusive, yet never at the expense of Christian truth."

Equality should never trump fidelity to the faith, meaning Catholic rules should not come second to actual laws concerning human rights. Another big fucking heap of Wrong here, guys. In fact it's the same Wrong as earlier with that shit about Christians being forced to act against their consciences in the name of eliminating discrimination (damn those evil gays and those women who don't know when to shut up and stay in a groove between kitchen and bedroom, with their wider definition of love and their breasts and their impertinent demand to be treated like human beings). This time, Ratzi's tracked his Wrong in from the garden and deposited a lump of it on the carpet, like a dog who shits in just the right spot to make you wonder whether he knows what he's doing and just hates the rug.

Come to think of it, taking a priest to a vet and getting the bugger's balls taken off upon ordination might help the church's PR image slightly. It's hard to see what could make it worse.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

If You Can't Find The Words...

...quote a magnificent person. Or in this case, hook up a link to an amazing speech made by one.






I think he says it all.

Apparently the five 'plotters' arrested on suspicion of papal potshot planning were actually arrested because they made a joke in the canteen at work about shooting the Pope. What?

That's not big enough.

WHAT?

Which nation is it that I live in again? When did a bad joke become grounds for an arrest? I'm pretty sure now that this whole thing's because someone in the police felt the need to either find or invent an assassination attempt to foil heroically, so they'd look shit-hot on security. More on this as it develops.

Friday, September 17, 2010

More Papal Bull Shit*

Nothing new on this front as yet, other than the BBC's sickening sycophancy toward the mouldering old shithead and a group of guys who *might* be Algerian (so what?) being arrested on suspicion of plotting an assassination attempt on him while he's her. Can't wait to see how that little fucking gem pans out.


PZ Myers has a list of Hitler quotes relevant to yesterday's post that accused atheists of essentially causing the Holocaust. It's worth a look.

*Hat tip goes to Hugh Kramer for the title pun. Wish I'd thought of it.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

It's Always Disturbing When The Spoof Articles Are Accurate...

Well, the Chief Inquisitor mad old shite is in Britain. So far, no one's taken a shot at him that I've heard about. I'd never condone killing the fucker, but given what he's done I can understand the feelings of people who'd want to. I'm going to blog the whole thing one day at a time, because the more fuss people make about Britain being accommodating to rich old dickheads who believe being gay is worse than raping children, the better.

Ironically, the one article I've read that's absolutely upfront about Ratzi's history of utter fuckery is this one here from The Daily Mash, whose URL gives a good hint at what it's about.

The first speech this bastard made in Britain compared atheists to nazis and said the Third Reich was trying to remove God from German culture. That's rich, coming from a Catholic who was in the Hitler Youth - and it flies completely in the face of what's actually true, since Hitler believed he was doing God's work and was Christian himself.

First day's nearly over. Let's see how far this country is willing to bend over to make way for this appalling, bigoted, self-righteous cunt.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Why is anyone with children even Catholic any more after this?

They always say it's a minority of priests who abuse children. That the majority can't be blamed for it.

They can't say that now. In case you can't get to that link, it's a report that shows EVERY Catholic congregation in Belgium has a horror story about a priest raping a minor in its past. EVERY. SINGLE. CHURCH. IN BELGIUM.

This goes beyond a minority. This means every single Catholic person in Belgium has been at risk from these sons of bitches. The report goes on to quote 124 anonymous victims, one of whom was sexually assaulted aged 17 and was told by a bishop to IGNORE THE PRIEST when she complained. It lists thirteen suicides and another six attempted suicides based solely on children suffering under abusive clergy. Most of it apparently started at age twelve but there are reports of it starting for some people as young as two. Most of the testimony's from people who came forward after a priest was defrocked for abusing his nephew - and who is apparently still receiving a £2,300 pension every month (getting on for $3,000) from the church.

Why is there still a fucking debate about this? How can EVERY SINGLE CHURCH in an entire country carry an example of this shit in its past, and no one find out until the police pull a surprise raid - and then the church says it's not covering it up?  They are REWARDING CHILD RAPE by stopping priests from working, but giving them money to live well on.

More importantly, why is no one going to just arrest Chief Inquisitor Pope Ratzi the Nazi when he comes to Britain this year? Answers should be put in the comments - the best suggestion will be taken to pieces and its components salvaged for use on a huge billboard greeting Ratzi at the airport...I wish.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Bending over for Transgenders

Transgendered Woman Sues City

A woman, Michael Maier, undergoing hormonal shots after a gender changing surgery was refused the hormones while she was in prison for 5 days. Now she is trying to sue the state to prevent something like this to happen to other transgenders.

Now, she was asked if she had any medication... well, here's a quote from the article:

In the city's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, it said Maier answered no to the following questions: "Do you have a medical problem that requires immediate medical attention?" "Are you now under treatment or taking medications?" And, "Do you suffer from any other medical condition for which a physician is seeing you?"


You can see why this is problematic. She should have answered yes to the last two questions. It is either that she didn't recall being a transgender, that she is ashamed that she has to take medication to continue to be a woman, or she did tell them and they didn't believe her. The reason why she said "no" was never explained.

Now, she also seems to think that people should bend over backwards for transgenders. How about no? We shouldn't treat transgenders better, no more than whites should be treated better than blacks. Instead, equality is needed.

I don't know if a hormonal withdrawal is painful, but it sounded like it by how much of a fuss she was getting into, and for that reason, yes, they should have given her the hormones, AFTER consulting it with her doctor to confirm the prescription.

Now, as to the suing? I have no opinion about that. It should just be talked about in court.

The only real objection I have to the article is the comments. If someone isn't being totally inappropriate, it's someone saying "you go girl!" and then being told that this woman deserved what she got.

The only thing that made me smile was the totally random comment: "Obama the halfbreed is the third anti Christ."

You mean there were two other antichrists? Who knew! 9w9

Monday, September 6, 2010

The Phantom Dickhead Strikes Again

Sometimes I get the feeling that those people who react most violently to the idea of contraception are the ones whose parents should have used it better.

Okay. A family planning clinic in California gets firebombed, very close to an area where a mosque gets vandalised and its attendees find themselves targeted by graffiti scrawled all over it. I think that kind of hints as to what kind of person the perps are.


"I believe it's extremists who are, want to make a statement." - Planned Parenthood public affairs director Pasty Montgomery, who wins the WTF Name award for this week.

No shit it's extremists. From the amateurish flurry of attacks that draw more attention to them, to the  Neanderthal throw-shit-and-sometimes-work-out-how-to-light-a-fire approach that's worked so well for these fucks since the Bronze Age they're so desperately trying to go back to...isn't it obvious?

The report also says Ruth Gadebusch (a close second on the name) is upset at the lack of tolerance among those with different beliefs: "It's a terrible message. If you have a message to send there are better ways to do it. There are peaceful ways and in this nation we need to learn to respect views that differ from ours."

Well, strictly speaking, we don't. No one's entitled to respect without earning it for a start - and when, like these shitheads, an integral part of your views include a zero-tolerance, molotov approach to anything your parents and pastor told you you don't like? Fuck that shit. They've been brought up to actively disrespect and push back against other people even being allowed to express their points of view, or this shit wouldn't be happening.

And while the clinic's earned respect as far as I'm concerned (and most sane people) by making people's lives better when they're not ready to have a baby? Even though the early-term abortions they've performed make up less than 1% of the services they're offering, Captain Christ-humper couldn't give two tugs of a dead dog's todger.  You're either with his Bible or he's against you, and he's probably got a whole lot more bricks.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Y HALO THAR LITTLE BOI...Again

Well, the bastards have been caught out AGAIN.

Sooner or later they must run out of credible priests. I mean this one's a cardinal, and the only thing above that is a Head Torturer Pope. It's odd that, while this shit gets pleas from the upper echelons that the victims not go public about it - so the sons of bitches involved can go free and be respected by the world at large - another priest elsewhere was defrocked for having sex with a woman over the age of consent.

Maybe it's only a sin to the Catholic church if whoever you have sex with actually enjoys it? It'd fit in with their love of guilt...