The recession in the UK (are we allowed to call it that) has motivated the powers that be to seriously consider finding god. Well not quite, what they are doing is starting to look upon religious groups as potential service providers. The most obvious example is of course education. Many non-believers are eager for their offspring to enroll within Church schools simply because they have better exam results, and perhaps also with the thought that they will be instilled with good moral guidance. I need not point out the reality, but what the heck, I’ll do so anyway:
religion
Catholicism and AIDS – Lying for Jesus
The manner in which the Catholic church handles the topic of AIDS is quite frankly bizarre, and illustrates the degree of their utter moral bankruptcy. It is highly ironic, not only because they claim to hold the high moral ground, but also because they claim to have an exclusive direct line to God. This of course is a complete delusion, but I need not ponder on that, it is blindly obvious to any critical thinker.
The latest news is that a Vatican cardinal, Cardinal Tarcisio Berton, opened an international conference on AIDS with a speech that strongly defended the church’s two-pronged strategy against the disease – education of consciences and mobilization of Catholic health resources for patients.
Sharia law: an eye for an eye
What exactly is Sharia? Ask a believer and you will be told that it is “God’s” law. Now, what makes this interesting is that if you attempt to drill down into the details, you make the fascinating discovery that there is no actual agreement on it. Modernists, traditionalists and fundamentalists all hold different views, as do adherents to different schools of Islamic thought and scholarship. Even when its the same school, if you look across different countries and cultures you find varying interpretations.
Apparently God can’t quite make up his mind.
A long term goal for many Muslims is to enforce Sharia, but without being able to nail it, you end up with a specific interpretation being the goal for those who pursue this.
Anyway, why am I babbling on about all this? Well, because of the latest news out from Iran. Here are the details …
Washington Post asked Richard Dawkins about the end of the world
It just had to happen I guess, but the Washington Post called up Richard Dawkins and asked him for his thoughts on it all. Now least you have missed it by burying your head in the sandpit, Family Radio evangelist Harold Camping believes that he has calculated the exact date of the rapture: May 21, 2011. (yes just a few days away) While many are laughing at the suggestion, Camping’s followers are taking him seriously, bringing his message of impending doom to billboards and public spaces around the country. Richards reply is great, here is what he said …
Why is a serious newspaper like the Washington Post giving space to a raving loon? I suppose the answer must be that, unlike the average loon, this one has managed to raise enough money to launch a radio station and pay for billboards. I don’t know where he gets the money, but it would be no surprise to discover that it is contributed by gullible followers – gullible enough, we may guess, to go along with him when he will inevitably explain, on May 22nd, that there must have been some error in the calculation, the rapture is postponed to . . . and please send more money to pay for updated billboards.
Archbishop’s ‘discomfort’ at Hitler suicide
Apparently its not just an Archbishop, but plain old run of the mill Bishops, that are now stepping into the public arena to suggest that taking out Osama, the utterly contemptible psychopath on a self-appointed mission to murder by devine appointment, was not a good idea.
You can read press stories on that here.
So how can one possibly respond to that? perhaps with satire like this …
Archbishop’s ‘discomfort’ at Hitler suicide
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has expressed ‘deep discomfort’ over the suicide of Adolf Hitler.
‘One cannot help but feel the man was driven to it,’ Dr Williams told a London press conference. ‘It can’t have been much fun to have all the armies of Europe and the Americans on your bunker doorstep shooting at you.’
Man kills stepdaughter for not honoring Muslim religion
Here is more evidence to illustrate how belief-systems can utterly screw-up and skew the human mind …
WARREN, MI (WDIV/CNN) – A Michigan man shot and killed his stepdaughter because he felt she was not honoring her Muslim religion, according to police.