The Hazards of Belief

The Black Oil

Cabaal wrote: »

This just shows how much disrespect people from a religion of peace and love have for other faiths

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/04/28/palin-to-the-gallery/

In a speech at an NRA (National Rifle Association) event yesterday, one-time vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (not Tina Fey) said with regard to America’s enemies:

Ordinary Christians aren't too happy with her muppetry.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/30/thousands-of-christians-organize-against-sarah-palin-after-waterboarding-joke-mocks-baptism/

“This is what we’ve come to in America: A former candidate for vice-president can equate torture and Holy Baptism, and one of the nation’s most powerful political lobbies erupts into cheers and applause,” Faithful America noted. “As usual, Palin’s remarks are already making international headlines, once again portraying Christianity as a religion of hatred and violence.”

~

“For Christians, torture is not a joke or a political punchline, but a ghastly reminder of the suffering of Jesus upon the cross. By equating it with Holy Baptism — the act by which we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection — Sarah Palin is blasphemously twisting our faith into a weapon of hatred and violence. No media outlet should cover her remarks without reporting on how sincere Christians of all theological and political persuasions are appalled.”

Penn

Another of Shirley Phelps-Roper's children has fled from the WBC

A fourth Phelps-Roper sibling has left the Westboro Baptist Church.

After 20 years of hate-filled preaching and picketing, 23-year-old Zach Phelps-Roper moved out of the WBC compound on Feb. 20. In the past nearly three months, he has developed a whole new message.

Empathy and unconditional love, he said, are the keys to solving the world’s problems — a lesson he has learned contrasting his time inside the WBC compound and the past nearly 11 weeks outside it.

“I feel like I have unconditional love for every person around the world,” Phelps-Roper said Friday. “The Westboro Baptist Church sees things differently than I do now.”

Full article: http://cjonline.com/news/2014-05-05/fourth-phelps-roper-sibling-leaves-westboro-baptist-church

Hotblack Desiato

robindch wrote: »

An Irish engineer dates a US fundamentalist. Things do not go very well.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=90194828

From the same thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=90199485&postcount=121

the most bizarre story involving a gideon's bible ever.

SebBerkovich

ninja900 wrote: »

From the same thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=90199485&postcount=121

the most bizarre story involving a gideon's bible ever.

Maddness - almost as bizarre as the stuff IN the gideon's bible.

recedite

Might be worth having its own thread here; "The Most Entertaining Things To Do With A Gideon Bible"?

SebBerkovich

recedite wrote: »

Might be worth having its own thread here; "The Most Entertaining Things To Do With A Gideon Bible"?

Believing the stuff written in it would be up there.

Nodin

Penn wrote: »

Another of Shirley Phelps-Roper's children has fled from the WBC



Full article: http://cjonline.com/news/2014-05-05/fourth-phelps-roper-sibling-leaves-westboro-baptist-church

That good e is some shit.

Bellatori

Penn wrote: »

Another of Shirley Phelps-Roper's children has fled from the WBC...

The sad thing is that he has gone from being tied in with one set of beliefs to being tied in to an equally constraining set of beliefs. That these are more charitable to the rest of the world is good news from one perspective but will he ever come to realise that it is the whole religion belief system that is really at fault.

Anyway I should not begrudge him his initial epiphany. He has escaped from what I could only think of as a cult in its most pejorative sense.

AngusB

The Black Oil wrote: »

Ordinary Christians aren't too happy with her muppetry.

In order to be christian, you have to believe the most extraordinary things. Surely all christians are extraordinary?

robindch

Decline of religious belief means we need more exorcists, say Catholics

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/10817788/Decline-of-religious-belief-means-we-need-more-exorcists-say-Catholics.html

Daily Telegraph wrote:

The decline of religious belief in the West and the growth of secularism has “opened the window” to black magic, Satanism and belief in the occult, the organisers of a conference on exorcism have said. The six-day meeting in Rome aims to train about 200 Roman Catholic priests from more than 30 countries in how to cast out evil from people who believe themselves to be in thrall to the Devil.

The conference, “Exorcism and Prayers of Liberation”, has also attracted psychiatrists, sociologists, doctors and criminologists in what the Church called a “multi-disciplinary” approach to exorcisms. Giuseppe Ferrari, from GRIS, a Catholic research group that organised the conference, said there was an ever growing need for priests to be trained to perform exorcisms because of the increasing number of lay people tempted to dabble in black magic, paganism and the occult.

“We live in a disenchanted society, a secularised world that thought it was being emancipated, but where religion is being thrown out, the window is being opened to superstition and irrationality,” said Mr Ferrari. The abandonment of religion “inevitably leads people to ask questions about the existence of evil and its origins”, he told Adnkronos, an Italian news agency.

About 250 priests were trained as exorcists in Italy, but many more were needed, the conference organisers claimed. “Just in the dioceses of Rome, around a third of calls that are received are requests for the services of an exorcist,” said Fr Cesar Truqui, a priest and exorcist from Switzerland and a member of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative Catholic order.

In the popular imagination, exorcisms evoke images of black-clad priests holding aloft silver crucifixes while trying to rid frothing, wild-eyed victims of Satanic possession. The Church tries to play down the more lurid associations but at the same time insists that the Devil exists and must be fought on a daily basis.

“Exploring the theme of demonic possession does not mean causing general paranoia, but creating awareness of the existence of the Devil and of the possibility of possession,” Fr Truqui told Vatican Radio. “It happens rarely but you can fight it with God, with prayer, with Marian devotion.” Demonic possession manifests itself in people babbling in foreign languages, shaking uncontrollably and vomiting nails, pieces of metal and shards of glass, according to those who believe in the phenomenon. Those thought to be possessed are supposed to undergo the official Catholic rite of exorcism, which involves a consecrated priest invoking the name of God, as well as various saints, to cast out their demons.

Pope Francis has frequently alluded to the Devil in his homilies and addresses since being elected to succeed Benedict XVI last March. In a homily this week, he said that the Devil was behind the persecution of early Christian martyrs, who were murdered for their faith. The “struggle between God and the Devil” was constant and ongoing, he said.

* DAILY TELEGRAPH WARNING *

AngusB

robindch wrote: »

Decline of religious belief means we need more exorcists, say Catholics


* DAILY TELEGRAPH WARNING *

These are, presumably, the same catholics whose leaders conspired to avoid justice and whose actions led to thousands of children being abused, tortured and raped due to their conspiracy to cover up crimes?

Why would any thinking person care a jot what such an institution says or thinks?

Why do you think one newspaper needs a warning? Surely all newspapers need warnings?

robindch

AngusB wrote: »

Why do you think one newspaper needs a warning?

Because some media outlets - The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail are two common ones - are noticeably deceitful.

AngusB

robindch wrote: »

Because some media outlets - The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail are two common ones - are noticeably deceitful.

When you say "noticeably deceitful", to whom are they notably deceitful?

Are the Times and the Guardian "noticeably deceitful" to others? Do the terms "noticeably deceitful" depend on ones own political views?

If you really believe that all newspapers are bastions of truth and balance, and only the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail are "noticeably deceitful" , then I suggest you are more likely showing your political bias.

All newspapers should be read with a degree of scepticism while bearing in mind their editorial and political position.

Turtwig

The Daily Mail is quite literally the worst British publication I've ever read.

I'm no fan of the Guardian or the Finanical Times but they seem to have bit more substance to some of their reports.

And no, this has very little to do with political slants of papers. It's all down to the quality of their journalism. Daily Mail is the equivalent of Cliff Clavin's science.

robindch

AngusB wrote: »

When you say "noticeably deceitful", to whom are they notably deceitful?

Anybody who trusts them.

recedite

robindch wrote: »

Decline of religious belief means we need more exorcists, say Catholics

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/10817788/Decline-of-religious-belief-means-we-need-more-exorcists-say-Catholics.html

...but where religion is being thrown out, the window is being opened to superstition and irrationality,” said Mr Ferrari.

That's a cracker, Mr.Ferrari!

PopePalpatine

robindch wrote: »

Because some media outlets - The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail are two common ones - are noticeably deceitful.

Throw in the Sun too.

Penn

Turtwig wrote: »

The Daily Mail is quite literally the worst British publication I've ever read.

Nonsense! How else is the public supposed to know that Alyson Hannigan went to the park with her children and it looked like they had fun? Or that Rose McGowan wore a tracksuit to the gym? THE PUBLIC HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW THESE THINGS!

PopePalpatine

Penn wrote: »

Nonsense! How else is the public supposed to know that Alyson Hannigan went to the park with her children and it looked like they had fun? Or that Rose McGowan wore a tracksuit to the gym? THE PUBLIC HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW THESE THINGS!

Oh, and that some celebrity who's recently turned 18 is "all grown up now", so you don't feel guilty about having a ****. :pac:

However, it gets downright disturbing when they describe 10-15 year old (daughters of) celebrities as sexy...

Penn

Yeah. The girl who played Hit Girl in Kick Ass and the girl from Modern Family are constantly being described as "all grown up" when they wear something that isn't Barbie pyjamas.

Also:

Cabaal

Some joke when the Dailymail says porn is corroding childhoods yet most of their own website is half naked women which they comment about in relation to how they dress, look, weigh etc.

You know what undermines kids these days more then porn? When it comes to women its body image and the likes of the rag of the daily mail undermine all women everyday when it comes to body image issues.

Nodin

Penn wrote: »

Nonsense! How else is the public supposed to know that Alyson Hannigan went to the park with her children and it looked like they had fun? Or that Rose McGowan wore a tracksuit to the gym? THE PUBLIC HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW THESE THINGS!

If a woman danced 'provocatively' in the woods, would the daily mail see it?

Obliq

Nodin wrote: »

If a woman danced 'provocatively' in the woods, would the daily mail see it?

No need to see anything.

"HAVE SEX-STARVED FEMINISTS CAUSED THE END OF THE REALITY MATRIX?

Now women are being encouraged to flout the laws of morality and the land. Gangs of feminists have been pleasuring themselves on the alters of the fabric of reality. Rumours have emerged that as a result of the unseen provocative gyrating and dancing, men could become impotent.

The terror level was raised to beige today after MI5 said that they certainly had vague yet specific intelligence about a probable certain threat that might or might not occur or not occur under certain circumstances on British soil or abroad perhaps unless another thing that might be a threat if it were to happen which it might or might not but it definitely might.

Let’s kick out the sickos and reclaim our traditional British heritage."






(With much help from the Daily Mail story generator http://charlieharvey.org.uk/daily_mail/)

Bellatori

Penn wrote: »

Yeah. The girl who played Hit Girl in Kick Ass and the girl from Modern Family are constantly being described as "all grown up" when they wear something that isn't Barbie pyjamas.

Am I allowed to go completely off topic and say that I think that the 5th photo down of Coco is less appealing than the only other Coco I know and that is Coco the Clown. She reminds me more of an inflatable doll than a real human being... :mad:

I can remember many years ago as a teen being disappointed when a policeman walked along a Spanish beach and insisted that all the topless women put something on or be arrested. For a 'horny' teenager this was a real let down. However in Coco's case I feel it would be a public service. :mad:

Wow am I getting old!?

Obliq

Scary, isn't it? :mad: Female "beauty" has always been exaggerated in the way it's been represented, whether in art or media, according to trend. Unfortunately, we now have the medical science to emulate these extremes. I find it tragic. My eldest has a thing for anime/manga at the moment, which is a fine example of stylised and homogenised attractiveness in "art". Terrifyingly, many of his female friends pose in "selfies" and actually alter their photos to try and look like these cartoon girls. I'm fairly sure there are some poor misfortunates that have surgically altered their appearance to conform to the latest ideal/trend....

Yup. Getting old here too :mad:

extra gravy

Was watching a movie and heard the letterbox rattling at 3am and found this:



Maybe they're too embarrassed to hand them out in broad daylight. I googled Michael Dimond and apparently he's the leader of the Most Holy Family Monastery which is a sedevacantist and radical traditional Catholic organisation. They seemed to be based in New York. Has anybody come across them in Ireland before?

Hotblack Desiato

^
I'm sure something like that was mentioned in here a few months ago

Found it: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057176360

Obliq wrote: »

"HAVE SEX-STARVED FEMINISTS CAUSED THE END OF THE REALITY MATRIX?

Good, but fails to mention immigrants, islam, or islamic immigrants

recedite

"Most Holy Family Monastery"
Is it related to the Tridentine Mass people? A lot of older people hark back to the Latin mass as being the original and the best, and would like to see it restored. Nobody felt they had to listen to the words, it was just a nice relaxing sound droning away in the background.

marienbad

recedite wrote: »

"Most Holy Family Monastery"
Is it related to the Tridentine Mass people? A lot of older people hark back to the Latin mass as being the original and the best, and would like to see it restored. Nobody felt they had to listen to the words, it was just a nice relaxing sound droning away in the background.

Au contraire , mon frère ,some us do speak Latin

recedite

That's French.

Bellatori

recedite wrote: »

That's French.

I was too polite to mention it but yes...

Nodin

I present here a story of one mans battle against evil, that sends a message of hope for us all.

"During the conference, the Rev. Cesar Truqui, an exorcist based in Switzerland, recounted one experience he had aboard a Swissair flight. “Two lesbians,” he said, had sat behind him on the plane. Soon afterward, he said, he felt Satan’s presence. As he silently sought to repel the evil spirit through prayer, one of the women, he said, began growling demonically and threw chocolates at his head."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andrew-marr-tells-david-cameron-to-shut-up-live-on-tv-9355655.html

I had a similar experience on the 15A once but lacked the spiritual tools to fight them off.

robindch

Nodin wrote: »

“Two lesbians,” he said, had sat behind him on the plane. Soon afterward, he said, he felt Satan’s presence. As he silently sought to repel the evil spirit through prayer, one of the women, he said, began growling demonically and threw chocolates at his head."

Perhaps they'd been served toast with an image of Jesus on it?

Still, there must be worse hells than those filled with lesbians throwing chocolates.

Nodin

robindch wrote: »

Perhaps they'd been served toast with an image of Jesus on it?

Still, there are worse ways to spend eternity than in a hell filled with lesbians throwing chocolates.

What if they throw them really really hard?

What if they're marzipan?

What then????

SebBerkovich

Nodin wrote: »

I present here a story of one mans battle against evil, that sends a message of hope for us all.

"During the conference, the Rev. Cesar Truqui, an exorcist based in Switzerland, recounted one experience he had aboard a Swissair flight. “Two lesbians,” he said, had sat behind him on the plane. Soon afterward, he said, he felt Satan’s presence. As he silently sought to repel the evil spirit through prayer, one of the women, he said, began growling demonically and threw chocolates at his head."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andrew-marr-tells-david-cameron-to-shut-up-live-on-tv-9355655.html

I had a similar experience on the 15A once but lacked the spiritual tools to fight them off.

I'm sure he thinks back to the good-ol days when STRAIGHT women threw stuff at him.

Bannasidhe

SebBerkovich wrote: »

I'm sure he thinks back to the good-ol days when STRAIGHT women threw stuff at him.

Like a lesbian would waste chocolates :rolleyes:

endacl

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Like a lesbian would waste chocolates :rolleyes:

Bannasidhe

endacl wrote: »

Nutella used to be popular too until we heard about the palm oil.

robindch

Strawberry Haagen-Dazs has a certain resonance for me.

Bellatori

Oh that is just disgusting. How can a post describing resonancing with ice cream be allowed? There might be children watching.

robindch

Russian media claims that Russia is up in arms over the Eurovision the other night. The Russian orthodox church says that's Ms Wurst is "another link in the chain of cultural legitimization of vice". Lots of guys are shaving their beards. Elsewhere, a Russian parliamentarian calls for the country to abandon the Eurovision and start up its own "Voice of Eurasia".

oscarBravo

...and yet...

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

Russian media claims that Russia is up in arms over the Eurovision the other night. The Russian orthodox church says that's Ms Wurst is "another link in the chain of cultural legitimization of vice". Lots of guys are shaving their beards. Elsewhere, a Russian parliamentarian calls for the country to abandon the Eurovision and start up its own "Voice of Eurasia".

oscarBravo wrote: »

...and yet...

Russian media can eat their words

Turtwig

oscarBravo wrote: »

...and yet...

That's a lot of people for tax fraud. . .

robindch

oscarBravo wrote: »

...and yet...

No doubt a sneaky Yankee plot to embarrass Putin.

keane2097

extra gravy wrote: »

Was watching a movie and heard the letterbox rattling at 3am and found this:



Maybe they're too embarrassed to hand them out in broad daylight. I googled Michael Dimond and apparently he's the leader of the Most Holy Family Monastery which is a sedevacantist and radical traditional Catholic organisation. They seemed to be based in New York. Has anybody come across them in Ireland before?

Yeah we got a DVD in the post featuring the same guy a few weeks ago in Ranelagh.

We threw it on one night after running out of Nic Cage films to watch. It's pretty good craic if you're bored.

robindch

Pakistan - where a religious guy's feelings are hurt so 68 people face up to three years in jail each.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27391334

BBC wrote:

Pakistani police have charged 68 lawyers with blasphemy in what is thought to be the biggest ever case of its kind in the country.

The charges were brought in Punjab after lawyers protested when police detained one of their colleagues. During the protest the lawyers are accused of insulting a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Police say they acted after a local man complained. Critics say blasphemy laws are often misused to settle scores in Pakistan.

The case in Punjab's Jhang district was registered against eight named lawyers and 60 unidentified ones. The lawyers had been campaigning for the arrest of five policemen they accused of illegally detaining and manhandling a lawyer in the city of Jhang last week.

A complainant told the police his feelings had been hurt when some lawyers ridiculed a police officer who shares his name with the second Caliph, Omar. The most serious blasphemy charges can carry the death penalty in Pakistan. But in this case the defendants face at most three years in jail if the case comes to trial and they are convicted, the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad reports.

Many believe the case is an example of how easily the blasphemy laws can be misused, he says. They say the case is the result of a feud between police and the legal fraternity. No arrests have been made.

The investigating officer in the case, Inspector Ashiq Hussain, told the BBC that since the entire legal community of Jhang city had become involved, efforts were being made "to resolve the matter, and it may not lead to arrests". Even so, those named in the case, some of them Shia, may not now feel safe in the future in a country with a history of sectarian violence, our correspondent adds.

Allegations of blasphemy against Islam are taken very seriously in Pakistan. Correspondents say members of minority groups are often unfairly targeted. Last week a lawyer representing a man charged with blasphemy in Multan, in Punjab, was shot dead by gunmen.

Turtwig

Can you imagine an American type Crime Procedural where the local mob lord is arrested and then to get off all he does is blackmail his prosecutors with the threat of leaked rumours about blasphemy that they committed. So simple and so effective.

Brian Shanahan

robindch wrote: »

Pakistan - where a religious guy's feelings are hurt so 68 people face up to three years in jail each.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27391334

I bet you the name on the complaint sheet is the Punjabi equivalent of that well known personality Fict I. Cious.

Most likely they were detained on the serious crime of "pointing out the government is doing illegal stuff", and the religious "offense" is just a handy cover.

kylith

Not even actual blasphemy, but ridiculing someone with the same name as one of Mohammad's pals. Imagine being done for blasphemy because you said someone named Peter was a tosser!