The Hazards of Belief

What the fcuk

:eek::mad:

FouxDaFaFa

Awesome news. Boko Haram are embracing equality and are now recruiting women to be psychotic assholes "intelligence gatherers" with them. Don't all rush at once, guys.

Delirium

Teacher Says Gays Have No Purpose In Life, Wants LGBT Kids Banned From Prom

A teacher of special needs children in Indiana is speaking out with other Christian parents and students by demanding LGBT kids be banned from a Sullivan High School prom. When asked, teacher Diana Medley responded to a reporter that she believes gay people have no purpose in life, and agrees that anti-gay parents and students should create a separate, “traditional” prom that would ban gay students from attending. Sullivan High School itself is allowing all students to the official prom, but these militant anti-gay Christians are trying to get students to attend their prom instead of the school’s official prom.

I can't imagine how upsetting it must be for any gay students attending the school hear a teacher say they have no purpose in life :mad:

SebBerkovich

koth wrote: »

Teacher Says Gays Have No Purpose In Life, Wants LGBT Kids Banned From Prom



I can't imagine how upsetting it must be for any gay students attending the school hear a teacher say they have no purpose in life :mad:

They're such hideous people.
Surly someone with such a warped view cannot be allowed near children, let alone attempt to teach them.

Banbh

Israeli police arrest women for wearing male-style prayer shawls

http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=302844

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby confirmed that the women were detained for wearing tallitot, especially what police refer to as "male style" tallitot. Police allow women to wear the colorful tallitot around the shoulders which police refer to as "female tallitot" as opposed to the "male tallitot" which are blue and white or black and white and worn folded across he shoulders. “The moment they put on the other [male] tallit, it’s problematic," Ben-Ruby said

It appears that the women are being detained for questioning.

AngelLight

There are religious zealots everywhere and some of them teach our kids which is more disturbing. For example on of my kids was told by their religion teacher that if they leave their school bags on their desks they'll go to hell!! Same said person had a run in with me but when I stated I don't have a religion but a faith I could've sworn they went a shade paler and if there was rosary beads to hand they would've been reciting hail mary's for all they were worth. I won't name the school in question, but I will not be bullied by any Catholics who have no consideration for other people's Faith's.

Brian Shanahan

Banbh wrote: »

Israeli police arrest women for wearing male-style prayer shawls

http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=302844



It appears that the women are being detained for questioning.

And yet we constantly hear that Israel is a secular democracy, instead of the theocracy that it is.

Banbh

Sssshhh! You could be up before the rabbinical court for blasphemy.

SebBerkovich

Banbh wrote: »

Sssshhh! You could be up before the rabbinical court for blasphemy.

We're just so lucky we don't have insane blasphemy laws in Ireland.. oh.. wait.. :rolleyes:

Banbh

Bad as our blasphemy law is, nobody has ever been arrested, much less detained or questioned by the Gardaí.

SebBerkovich

Banbh wrote: »

Bad as our blasphemy law is, nobody has ever been arrested, much less detained or questioned by the Gardaí.

I completely agree, not at all as bad as places where blasphemy laws are actually enforced, It just irks me that its on the books of a modern democracy at all.

Banbh

I just searched and discover that it's four years since we had a discussion on the blasphemy law. Wasn't it going to be repealed by the present Government? Or is that in the same drawer as the other promises.

Doctor Strange

Banbh wrote: »

I just searched and discover that it's four years since we had a discussion on the blasphemy law. Wasn't it going to be repealed by the present Government? Or is that in the same drawer as the other promises.

Yup. Filed under same sh!t, different shovel.

SebBerkovich

Unforgettable _ Fire wrote: »

Yup. Filed under same sh!t, different shovel.

I think they're gonna need a bigger filing cabinet.

iguana

A Kentucky woman on another board I read had a missed miscarriage recently. That means the foetus died but for some reason her body didn't expel it. Her doctor wrote her a prescription for medication which would get her body to start the process. When she went to the pharmacy they didn't have the tablet and the pharmacist kept loudly telling her what she'd have to do to get her ABORTION drug.

What an asshole thing to do to a woman who is already upset by the loss of her pregnancy.

FouxDaFaFa

Re:above

Some people are so heartless. I came across an article about the US recently. Abortion clinics often double as general reproductive clinics and in some states, they have to announce the days when they will be carrying out procedures. So, the protestors know when to come.

I mean, what kind of human is capable of doing this, regardless of what they believe?

Pro-choice marchers recalled a particularly painful event last month when a woman whose baby had died en utero was coming to the clinic to have it removed. In an awful coincidence, that was the day, Watters said, when the pro-life demonstrators collected a children’s choir on the sidewalk to sing “Happy Birthday Dead Baby” to anyone driving in.
“Will had to physically restrain the father,” Watters said, nodding to one of the men marching in a pro-choice jacket. “And by the time she walked through them, she was an emotional wreck.”

Doctor Strange

pro-life demonstrators collected a children’s choir on the sidewalk to sing “Happy Birthday Dead Baby” to anyone driving in.

In a sentence, why I hate the "pro-life" movement.

Turtwig

That pro-life sh*t is f**king disgusting!:mad:

Cork boy 55

This video supposedly shows alcohol being destroyed in Deir Ez Zor, Syria, at the order of the local Sharia council in a area freed from regime control
Destruction of perfectly good alcohol products and failure to recycle the glass and cardboard, Revolution FAIL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5AB3Zh_Hi8

The Black Oil

Send Des Bishop over to them.

Nodin

The Black Oil wrote: »

Send Des Bishop over to them.

God love them, they've suffered enough as it is.

Nodin

A new hardline Sinhalese Buddhist group in Sri Lanka has called for the abolition of the Muslim halal system of certifying foods and other goods.
The Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Strength Force, also said foreign propagators of religions should leave the country within a month.
Thousands of supporters of the group attended a rally in a suburb of the capital, Colombo.
The calls come at a time of mounting religious tension in the country.
There have been several attacks on both mosques and Muslim-owned businesses as well as on Christian churches and the clergy, the BBC's Charles Haviland reports from Colombo.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=83193834

As somebody pointed out, now the Tamils are defunct as a force, there's a need for a new bogeyman.

kylith

Jebus, militant Buddhists. You don't see that every day.

SebBerkovich

kylith wrote: »

Jebus, militant Buddhists. You don't see that every day.

When Buddhists are sick of your shít then you've really gotta start questioning where you went wrong.

Bannasidhe

kylith wrote: »

Jebus, militant Buddhists. You don't see that every day.

You obviously haven't been to Castletownbere when the shops run out of organic food.

Nodin

SebBerkovich wrote: »

When Buddhists are sick of your shít then you've really gotta start questioning where you went wrong.

I'm sure that was a great question on the minds of the previous bete noire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riots_and_pogroms_in_Sri_Lanka

recedite

I'd say its a similar situation to the xenophobic Burmese buddhists.
When religion becomes intertwined with ethnicity and nationalism, it can be used by certain individuals to rally others to a fascist cause.
There is something about religious people in general, that seems to make them suckers for that sort of thing.

The Black Oil

Two podcasts I was listening to today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00xvb70

Atheists In Black America.
Pretty disheartening to listen to this...seems to be very hard to speak up as an atheist if you're an African American.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0104jfr

Israel’s New Front Line.
Again a bit scary. There seems to be a certain section of the Jewish faith that are very rigid and controlling, not exclusive to this faith, of course.

robindch

In a small study of prisoners, turns out that religion seems to be an incidental contributory factor in crime and not a deterrent. Strangely, or perhaps predictably, the study's author says that the religion is fine, it's just people aren't interpreting it correctly.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/study%20raises%20questions%20about%20religion%20deterrent%20against/7981683/story.html

Vancouver Sun wrote:

A provocative new study is challenging assumptions about the deterrent effect of religion on criminal behaviour. The U.S. study found that through “purposeful distortion or genuine ignorance,” hardcore criminals often co-opt religious doctrine to justify or further their crimes.

The findings could have important implications, the researchers say, for how faith-based services are administered within the corrections system. Prison ministries shouldn’t just be about presenting religious doctrine because some inmates might take religious teachings to excuse their behaviour, lead author Volkan Topalli, a criminal justice professor at Georgia State University, said in an interview Monday.

“People have to understand that presenting religious doctrine to people isn’t enough to change their behaviour,” he said. “(Faith-based services) have to be systematic and about behaviour change — religion has to be a vehicle, rather than the goal.” The research of Topalli and his colleagues was published this month in the journal Theoretical Criminology in an article titled With God on My Side: The Paradoxical Relationship Between Religious Belief and Criminality Among Hardcore Street Offenders. They interviewed 48 people who were actively involved in serious and violent street-level crimes, including drug dealing, robbery, car jacking and burglary.

Almost all of them professed a belief in God and identified with the Christian faith. However, many of the criminals had an incomplete understanding of the rules and expectations of their faith, the study found. One 33-year-old criminal, identified in the study by the nickname “Triggerman,” refused to accept the suggestion that a consequence of murder was eternal damnation. “No, no, no, I don’t think that is right,” he told the researchers. “Anything can be forgiven. We live in Hell now and you can do anything in Hell. … God has to forgive everyone, even if they don’t believe in him.”

Another criminal, 47-year-old “Detroit,” told researchers that “there is a Heaven and there is a Hell, but I believe that it is Hell on earth, and we trying to fight to get (to Heaven). … We already in Hell, you know?” Other interview subjects tended to manipulate religious doctrine or were selective in which principles they adhered to, the study found. One 23-year-old criminal, nicknamed “Young Stunna,” said those who came from disadvantaged backgrounds were excused from committing crimes. “See, if I go and rob a [expletive], then I’m still going to Heaven because, umm, it’s like Jesus knows I ain’t have no choice, you know?” he told researchers. “He know I got a decent heart. He know I’m stuck in the ‘hood and just doing what I gotta do to survive.”

A 25-year-old criminal nicknamed “Cool” said he always does a “quick little prayer” before committing a crime in order to “stay cool with Jesus.” As long as you ask for forgiveness, Jesus has to give it to you, he said. He also suggested that if a crime is committed against another “bad person,” such as a dope dealer or child molester, “then it don’t count against me because it’s like I’m giving punishment to them for Jesus.”

The interviews show that criminals will often employ “elaborate and creative rationalizations” to reconcile their belief in God and their serial offending, the researchers concluded. They suggested that those who run faith-based programs in prisons could play a role in trying to correct some of the distortions or misunderstandings. However, that’s not to suggest that these programs should be all about “hellfire and brimstone” because that would just turn inmates off, Topalli said Monday.

Instead, religion should be a “subtle, background, authoritative force” for making change, he said, adding that faith-based programs work best in reducing recidivism when done in conjunction with educational, vocational and life-skills training. Representatives of the Interfaith Committee on Chaplaincy, whose members provide support to federal inmates across Canada, could not be reached for comment Monday.

A 2007 report posted on the Correctional Service of Canada website noted that about 15 to 20 per cent of federal inmates regularly attend religious worship services and expressed a “high level” of satisfaction with services offered. The study said while a key function of chaplains was to provide religious services, some were also providing more “holistic” services, including personal development and money management training, which complemented inmates’ overall correctional plans.

Brian Shanahan

Vancouver Sun wrote:

Almost all of them professed a belief in God and identified with the Christian faith. However, many of the criminals had an incomplete understanding of the rules and expectations of their faith, the study found. One 33-year-old criminal, identified in the study by the nickname “Triggerman,” refused to accept the suggestion that a consequence of murder was eternal damnation. “No, no, no, I don’t think that is right,” he told the researchers. “Anything can be forgiven. We live in Hell now and you can do anything in Hell. … God has to forgive everyone, even if they don’t believe in him.”

And "Triggerman" shows a better understanding of christian theology than whoever was responsible for the drivel of this paragraph. Because according to christian theology, nothing is unfogivable if you make a full and frank confession to god (the differing sects have differing definitions on how to make such a confession).

He is absolutely correct in what he says.

SebBerkovich

for some reason this artical had me imagine a senario at a tec support call center going something like.

"Hi, my Christianity doesn't seem to be working"
"Can you open up the Commandments for me? how many do you see?"
"Umm.. 5.. i think"
"Yeah, you appear to be doing Christianity wrong"
"Should i try turning it off and on again"
"OH GOD NO! if you turn it off it might never start back up!"

seamus

SebBerkovich wrote: »

for some reason this artical had me imagine a senario at a tec support call center going something like.

"Hi, my Christianity doesn't seem to be working"
"Can you open up the Commandments for me? how many do you see?"
"Umm.. 5.. i think"
"Yeah, you appear to be doing Christianity wrong"
"Should i try turning it off and on again"
"OH GOD NO! if you turn it off it might never start back up!"

"Right, I'm going to send you a patch with the 5 commandments that you're missing, we'll try fix it that way"
"Thanks. Oh wait, when I open it, it's warning me that these five commandments aren't compatible with my version of Christianity"
"That's just a warning, you can just click 'OK' to go ahead and install the patch"
"But I've got my Christianity just the way I like it, what if this breaks it?"
"Unfortunately sir customers are not authorised to modify Christianity. I can only help you if you install this patch to restore Christianity back to its factory settings"
"OK, I'll have to think about it and call you back, I'm not sure I want Christianity in its locked-down mode"

Genghiz Cohen

...that works amazingly well...

Dades

seamus wrote: »

"Right, I'm going to send you a patch with the 5 commandments that you're missing, we'll try fix it that way"
"Thanks. Oh wait, when I open it, it's warning me that these five commandments aren't compatible with my version of Christianity"
"That's just a warning, you can just click 'OK' to go ahead and install the patch"
"But I've got my Christianity just the way I like it, what if this breaks it?"
"Unfortunately sir customers are not authorised to modify Christianity. I can only help you if you install this patch to restore Christianity back to its factory settings"
"OK, I'll have to think about it and call you back, I'm not sure I want Christianity in its locked-down mode"

"Hold that thought - I've just got an email from Atheist 2.0. It says I need to install Real Player?"

Hotblack Desiato

Pah. They say the truth will set you free, but you'll never be Free without the source code.

Kivaro

Dades wrote: »

"Hold that thought - I've just got an email from Atheist 2.0. It says I need to install Real Prayer?"

Fixed that for ya boss.

Kivaro

seamus wrote: »

"Right, I'm going to send you a patch with the 5 commandments that you're missing, we'll try fix it that way"
"Thanks. Oh wait, when I open it, it's warning me that these five commandments aren't compatible with my version of Christianity"
"That's just a warning, you can just click 'OK' to go ahead and install the patch"
"But I've got my Christianity just the way I like it, what if this breaks it?"
"Unfortunately sir customers are not authorised to modify Christianity. I can only help you if you install this patch to restore Christianity back to its factory settings"
"OK, I'll have to think about it and call you back, I'm not sure I want Christianity in its locked-down mode"

I so want to double-thank this post. It's hilarious.
I could almost hear the Indian accent from the tech.

Cossax

Kivaro wrote: »

I so want to double-thank this post. It's hilarious.
I could almost hear the Indian accent from the tech.

I read this before reading the original quote and I then read the original quote in this guy's voice.

PopePalpatine

I'm thinking more like this guy:

robindch

Pakistani militants murder a policeman protecting a husband-and-wife polio vaccination team, bringing to 11 the number of vaccinators murdered since December.

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-police-officer-killed-in-attack-on-polio-vaccination-team-in-northwest-pakistan-20130226,0,1630036.story

LA Times wrote:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Gunmen shot and killed a police officer assigned to safeguard a polio vaccination team in the northwest city of Mardan on Tuesday, the latest in a pattern of attacks that have jeopardized efforts to rein in the disease in the South Asian nation.

The officer, Said Muhammad, was providing security for a husband-and-wife team carrying out vaccinations in Mardan’s Sheikh Maltoon neighborhood when two attackers on a motorcycle rode up and opened fire, local officials said. The vaccination workers were unhurt, but Muhammad died instantly. The attack occurred while the female vaccination worker was inside a house administering vaccination drops to children, and her husband was outside marking the exterior wall to indicate vaccinations were being completed there, said Muhammad Ayaz, a vaccination worker who rushed to the site after hearing shots fired.

In recent months, militants unleashed a wave of violence against polio vaccination workers across the country, denouncing the vaccination drives by U.N.-backed Pakistani healthcare workers as a guise for American spying activity. At least 11 polio vaccination workers have been killed in Pakistan since December. A land mine blast killed two polio vaccination workers in the tribal region of Kurram on Jan. 31. Assailants killed nine vaccination workers in Karachi and northwest Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in December.

The government's decision to assign police to accompany polio vaccination teams hasn’t deterred the militants. On Jan. 29, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a police officer guarding two female polio vaccination workers in the northwest city of Swabi, killing the officer. The vaccination workers escaped unhurt.

Pakistan is one of three countries where polio remains endemic -- the other two are Afghanistan and Nigeria. Polio vaccination workers have been targeted for death in both of those countries as well. Last year, the number of polio cases in Pakistan dropped, from 173 in 2011 to 56 in 2012.

Caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system, polio is highly communicable and can result in irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. Found more often in countries that lack proper sanitation and hygiene, it mostly affects children under the age of 5. The virus typically enters the body through the mouth and then is spread through fecal contamination of food or beverages.

SebBerkovich

The article says that these nutjobs are doing this because they believe it to be

a guise for American spying activity

Is there a religious element to this as well?

robindch

SebBerkovich wrote: »

Is there a religious element to this as well?

Yes, in Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, where various militant mullahs claim that vaccinations are an evil western plot to sterilize kids.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/26/268358.html (Nigeria)
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/20/16039942-rumors-of-plot-to-sterilize-muslims-with-polio-vaccine-spark-killings-in-pakistan (Pakistan)
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1540477,00.html (India)

Not to be outdone, LifeSiteNews -- a western, expensively-produced paranoid conspiracy websource -- is doing its bit to help spread the fear and ignorance too:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive//ldn/2004/mar/04031101

Brian Shanahan

SebBerkovich wrote: »

The article says that these nutjobs are doing this because they believe it to be


Is there a religious element to this as well?

Well, the militants are somehow of the oppression that the US is out to eradicate Islam.

The fact that the US is prosecuting a world-wide war on "terror" of which the only true victims are innocent Muslims probably helps foster this reasoning.

wp_rathead

Maldives girl to get 100 lashes for pre-marital sex

BBC NEws wrote:

A 15-year-old rape victim has been sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex, court officials said.

The charges against the girl were brought against her last year after police investigated accusations that her stepfather had raped her and killed their baby. He is still to face trial.

Prosecutors said her conviction did not relate to the rape case.

Amnesty International condemned the punishment as "cruel, degrading and inhumane".

The government said it did not agree with the punishment and that it would look into changing the law.

The legal system of the Maldives, an Islamic archipelago with a population of some 400,000, has elements of Islamic law (Sharia) as well as English common law.

Ahmed Faiz, a researcher with Amnesty International, said flogging was "cruel, degrading and inhumane" and urged the authorities to abolish it.

"We are very surprised that the government is not doing anything to stop this punishment - to remove it altogether from the statute books."

"This is not the only case. It is happening frequently - only last month there was another girl who was sexually abused and sentenced to lashes."

He said he did not know when the punishment was last carried out as people were not willing to discuss it openly

The mind boggles

SebBerkovich

The same cuprate shows up when any sort of cruel insanity becomes standard practice. It could only be Religion.

sbsquarepants

recedite wrote: »

I'd say its a similar situation to the xenophobic Burmese buddhists.
When religion becomes intertwined with ethnicity and nationalism, it can be used by certain individuals to rally others to a fascist cause.
There is something about religious people in general, that seems to make them suckers for that sort of thing.

I think it's called gullibility!
I mean, some even refer to themselves as a flock of sheep! Forever seeking a wise shepherd so that they won't even have to think for themselves. It's a crazy mindset and crazy thoughts have a tendency to beget crazy actions.

Geomy

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I think it's called gullibility!
I mean, some even refer to themselves as a flock of sheep! Forever seeking a wise shepherd so that they won't even have to think for themselves. It's a crazy mindset and crazy thoughts have a tendency to beget crazy actions.

Not really gullibility
Aren't the people who think great thing's
about Dawkins and his like quite gullible too...

Bannasidhe

Geomy wrote: »

Not really gullibility
Aren't the people who think great thing's
about Dawkins and his like quite gullible too...

Hmmm...can't recall anyone claiming Dawkins is the creator of the universe and everything in it. Or that he wrote a book which is a set of instructions on how to achieve everlasting life...

Sarky

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Or that he wrote a book which is a set of instructions on how to achieve everlasting life...

Whoever ends up writing the scientific paper that outlines how to stop or reverse the aging process is going to get an awful lot of flak...

Hotblack Desiato

Geomy wrote: »

Aren't the people who think great thing's
about Dawkins and his like quite gullible too...

Gullible means to believe without evidence. The definition of religion (they call gullibility 'faith')
If you have any evidence that people who admire 'Dawkins and his like' are gullible, I'd like to hear it, because I'm not gullible!
Who are 'his like' anyway? Scientists in general, or just evolutionary biologists?