The Hazards of Belief

Húrin

robindch wrote: »

Anybody think it's worth stickying a cautionary thread? This sad story just in today:

http://today.reuters.com/news/ArticleNews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-06-05T133715Z_01_L05642927_RTRUKOC_0_US-UKRAINE-LION.xml

Looks like a case of putting God to the test, which he asked us not to do.

Matthew 4

5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

ZorbaTehZ

I guess he was busy.

OK-Cancel-Apply

Damn religion

Dades

With the shrieks coming from the crowd you'd swear Beelzebub himself had run in and pushed the thing over!

Guy in the blue suit - FAIL!

Galvasean

I like how someone is taking flash photography in the background

robindch

A rather sad one this -- Gene Robinson, the gentle American gay bishop who's indirectly responsible for the partial schism within Anglicanism, was heckled by some homophobic cretin in a church in London today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7504472.stm

With touching irony, though, any good the heckler feels he may have done himself in upholding 1 Corinthians 6:9, will probably have been undone on account of his ungodly hairstyle, contra 1 Corinthians 11:14. Oh well.

.

Galvasean

Sounds like Mr. Bigot had a few friends with him.

Obni

In a slow morning at work, I was just musing....

I wonder why the LHC has prompted so many religious nutjobs to panic?
OK, yet again godless scientists are up to no good. Taking a break from their main occupation of extracting stem cells from aborted foetuses to grow weird missing-link abominations in their labs, to plant in remote quarries as fake proof of evolution, they are now playing with the very fabric of the universe. Their motivation must be the ultimate destruction of god's creation; and after all as atheists they have no value for any life incuding their own.

Then it struck me!:eek:

Certain of god's existence and in full knowledge of the awesome power of prayer, (beside which potent force science's creations are mere toys), the catholic church has just done something far more reckless than turning on the LHC.
By gathering approximately 200,000 fervent young catholics at the World Youth Day mass in Sydney, they created an intense source of worship with enough power to punch a hole through the space-time continuum, a real weapon of 'mass' destruction. A concentrated singularity of religious devotion from which nothing, not even enlightened thought, can escape.

In recognition of the power of prayer, surely such gatherings as the Hajj and Kumbha Mela should be regulated by the UN. Let's get Hans Blick back out there.

Dades

In breaking news: "Sales of rosary beads hit record levels".

In other news: "200,000 fervent young catholics get sucked into a spontaneously created hole in the space continuum".

Dades

This guy sounded like your average A&A Boards.ie reader. :pac:

Until...

Galvasean

Its always the way. "He was a very nice guy." "Not a bad bone in him" etc. etc. Until he goes and shoots everyone!

5uspect

The plot thickens
Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

Galvasean

Wow, they usually find a copy of Grand Theft Auto and say be done with it.

Doctor DooM

Galvasean wrote: »

Wow, they usually find a copy of Grand Theft Auto and say be done with it.

don't worry, I'm sure he listened to Mariyln Manson at some point in his life!

MrPudding

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4452904.ece

Not a good day to be a pilgrim.

MrP

Galvasean

MrPudding wrote: »

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4452904.ece

Not a good day to be a pilgrim.

MrP

Sadly, such stampeding at pilgrimages is not all that uncommon.

pH

Toddler starved to death because he would not say 'amen'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4511910.ece

Zillah

pH wrote: »

Toddler starved to death because he would not say 'amen'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4511910.ece

"His remains were left in a suitcase for over a year."

Dades

Soul Winner wrote: »

Can’t believe you guys made this a sticky though???

Why not? It was always being added to. People who didn't add to it invariably started new threads with random articles, while interesting to glance over, were rarely worth a whole thread. Meh!

Flamed Diving

• 
  August 13, 2008

Come rain and floods to drown out Obama, pray Christians




(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)



Christians are praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama when he accepts the presidential nomination

A Christian fundamentalist group is praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in two weeks' time.
Focus on the Family is asking for "abundant, torrential" downpours to flood Denver and silence Senator Obama when he accepts the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on August 28.
"Would it be wrong to ask people to pray for rain of Biblical proportins," asks an umbrella wielding Stuard Shepard in a video put out by the ultra conservative evangelical group. He asks for the rain to start "two minutes before the acceptance speech begins."
Tickets to Mr Obama's speech, in a vast Denver stadium that seats 75,000 people, have all been snapped up.
On the video, Mr Shepard says "I'm still pro-life, and I'm still in favour of marriage as being between one man and one woman." Apparently referring to the Republican presidential candidate John McCain, he adds, "I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."
Focus for the Family pulled its video clip 24 hours after it was posted, but it can still be seen on the internet. In a statement Mr Shepard said that the video was intended to be "mildly humorous."
The organisation has attacked Mr Obama in the past. Its leader, James Dobson, recently accused the Illinois senator of distorting the Bible's message.
"He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter," he said.

Craft25

this is a reply to the original post of the man testing his faith in the lions den.. sorry if its been said but i aint got time to go throuhg whole thread.. by the way i consider agnosticism describes me closest, although i consider even that, with its inherent "if" and atheism both themselves involve a leap of faith, and i see this as a paradox..

so anyway.. the lion den guy wasnt a true believer because he disobeyed the christian order not to test gods will.. another christian can therefore argue that god took him away to prove.."i mean what i say", and in turn that the thread should be called the perils of not fully obeying gods will

if the situation was another seemingly hopeless one like being stranded in a desert the man with faith in an omnipotent god as opposed to the A or A may have a survival advantage to help him to keep going, whilst an A & A could descend into hopelessness..

i also feel there is a converse to this where a suvival situation requires more logic, in which case the A or A man would hold the advantage..

thus IMO the person with the least developed religion has the survival advantage in a simpler setting, ie tribal/shaman based has advantage over christian in jungle because he's not hesitant to kill an enemy

on to christianity and the social contract becomes more complicated, you cant realease your drive to sh*g as easily as you are a threat to direct neighbours, power games are more complicated and therefore needs more rigorous ordering, while still creating an imaginary alpha male "God" so challenges to leaders are less common..

on to post enlightenment based belief systems, existentialism etc. where freed from blind faith our logic becomes more complicated,.. the education required for your child has moved on in steps from, hunting skills, to agriculture, today to science, maths thus requiring primary educators (parents) to possess deeper logic

thus the complexity of a religion is a mirror image of the complexity of the brain which is in turn a reflection of the complexity of the society

CerebralCortex

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7587319.stm

Pompey Magnus

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Come rain and floods to drown out Obama, pray Christians

Christians are praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama when he accepts the presidential nomination

A Christian fundamentalist group is praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in two weeks' time.
Focus on the Family is asking for "abundant, torrential" downpours to flood Denver and silence Senator Obama when he accepts the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on August 28.
"Would it be wrong to ask people to pray for rain of Biblical proportins," asks an umbrella wielding Stuard Shepard in a video put out by the ultra conservative evangelical group. He asks for the rain to start "two minutes before the acceptance speech begins."
Tickets to Mr Obama's speech, in a vast Denver stadium that seats 75,000 people, have all been snapped up.
On the video, Mr Shepard says "I'm still pro-life, and I'm still in favour of marriage as being between one man and one woman." Apparently referring to the Republican presidential candidate John McCain, he adds, "I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."
Focus for the Family pulled its video clip 24 hours after it was posted, but it can still be seen on the internet. In a statement Mr Shepard said that the video was intended to be "mildly humorous."
The organisation has attacked Mr Obama in the past. Its leader, James Dobson, recently accused the Illinois senator of distorting the Bible's message.
"He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter," he said.

Hurricane Gustav hits Republican Plans

I think God is voting Obama. Christians ask him to wash out the Democratic Convention, instead he sends a Category Three Hurricane for the Republican Convention. Maybe God does have a sense of humour after all.

5uspect

rofl

Zillah

Clearly God has chosen to humble them.

Because God exists. So there has to be an explanation.

Zillah

Russian Satanists Stab Victims 666 times and then Eat Them

After police arrested eight suspected members of the ring, one boasted how they had previously dug up the grave of a newly-dead girl and eaten her heart. Another said he did not expect to be punished, saying: “Satan will help me to avoid responsibility. I made lots of sacrifices to him."And a third said he had got fed up with God for not making him rich and that “things improved” after he started praying to the Devil. The discovery in Yaroslavl, 300 miles from Moscow, sent a shudder across Russia — where Satanists are feared to have committed a string of mutilations and killings. " -- The rest of the cult were described by ex-teachers as having been of low intelligence and moody at school.

Dave!

Jayzus..... that's pretty f*cked up.

A mate of mine has long since believed that there are 'satanists' in the Hellfire Club (Dublin) who do crazy sh*t like that. I would have assumed that the closest thing is knackers drinking cans around a fire, and that the satanist talk is just rumours and stories.

Anyone know if there's any such wierdos up there?

Zillah

I'd just like to point out that the most common form of Satanism is La Vey Satanism and its a secular philosophy. They don't believe in God or the Devil in a literal sense, and expressly forbid absurdities such as the above.

Their commandments are pretty awesome too. In fact, I think I might start its very own thread soon.

Dave!

Yeah I'm familiar with that, you should see how p*ssed off they get when you suggest that they might actually have something to do with Satan :rolleyes:

Now where would I get that idea...............

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Dave! wrote: »

Jayzus..... that's pretty f*cked up.

A mate of mine has long since believed that there are 'satanists' in the Hellfire Club (Dublin) who do crazy sh*t like that. I would have assumed that the closest thing is knackers drinking cans around a fire, and that the satanist talk is just rumours and stories.

Anyone know if there's any such wierdos up there?

I used to live just down the road from the "Hellfire Club" it was such a freaky house. There were stories when we were growing up of that house being the devils, and how he shared it with jesus and all that. If you run around it backwards three time saying the hail Mary you will see the devil... bla bla bla.

The closest thing to witches, warlocks and satanic rituals is the summer raves that used to happen up there. Drugs, beer and music... That was back 15 years or that.

Zillah

Soccer player drowns while being cleansed of evil spirits by swimming in crocodile infested river.

condra

..about 16 players from second division side Midland Portland Cement were told to swim in the Zambezi river in the resort town of Victoria Falls ahead of a soccer match on Sunday.

LOL

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7718587.stm

Israeli police have had to restore order at one of Christianity's holiest sites after a brawl broke out between monks in Jerusalem's Old City.

Fighting erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Christ's crucifixion.

Two monks from each side were detained as dozens of worshippers traded kicks and punches at the shrine, said police.

Not sure whether this is the best spot for this.

robindch

Deleted User wrote: »

Two monks from each side were detained as dozens of worshippers traded kicks and punches at the shrine, said police.

Not sure whether this is the best spot for this.

Hmmm... Sky Sports?

This scrapping seems to happen quite regularly. Which is why, if memory serves, the keys to the Holy Sepulchre are held by a Muslim -- the christians couldn't agree amongst themselves on who should hold it. Allah must have cracked up when that happened.

CerebralCortex

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7722701.stm

condra

oh man. :mad: that's so saddening and infuriating.

Dades

"They are holding this region with the barrel of the gun, and it has nothing to do with Islam," the Hiiran political activist said.

This probably a lot of truth in this statement.

Galvasean

Spotted this in AH, seriously messed up...

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/dispatches/saving+africas+witch+children/2780062

midlandsmissus

You shouldn't ever test God

robindch

midlandsmissus wrote: »

You shouldn't ever test God

Nope. We're testing what people say about god.

midlandsmissus

robindch wrote: »

Nope. We're testing what people say about god.

Robindch. Are you testing what christians from birth are saying about God? What about people like me, who didnt believe in God for most of my life, questioned and tested everything people said, and now am happy being a Christian. I have already questioned everything and tested what people said myself. I find the fact that you are event hinking about christianity, shows you might be on your way yourself!

robindch

midlandsmissus wrote: »

Are you testing what christians from birth are saying about God?

No, we're testing what any christians say about their belief system -- what they say about god, the future, the past, biology, physics and all the rest of it. The whole shootin' match.

Much of it is untestable. A lot of the unaviodably testable that remains, has been tested and has been found to be wrong. And most of the stories, and almost all of the philosophy, existed in other religions in other places, before christianity showed up to claim them.

In short, it's unoriginal where it's not demonstrably false. Frequently strikingly so.

Eightball

Faith is a very personal thing and what is a leap of faith for some, sounds quite coincidental to the rest of us. For that person at that time there were no guarantees and little logical except for a strong belief that, that is the way to go.
As to the man who got killed, did Jesus not say when tempted by the Devil not to test the Lord your God.

condra

Eightball wrote: »

As to the man who got killed, did Jesus not say when tempted by the Devil not to test the Lord your God.

I suggest you take your theological ponderings to a new thread.

What is written in your ancient holy book is irrelevant to this thread. This thread is about how superstitious beliefs, such as religion, can be detrimental to human life.

No atheist would ever swim in rapids, play with lions, refuse a blood transfusion, stone a young girl to death, or bomb a hotel.

OK-Cancel-Apply

womoma wrote: »

No atheist would ever swim in rapids, play with lions, refuse a blood transfusion, stone a young girl to death, or bomb a hotel.

I don't know about that!

Eightball

So this is a thread for all those who do not want their disbelief of a higher being to be challenged. Where everyone can feel secure in their disbelief. That's nice! And I had thought the original message was about a misguided man who got himself killed through a misinterpretation of faith. I had only tried to show where he had gone wrong in his reasoning. Instead I should have been laughing at this like I'm expected to!!!

Dades

Eightball wrote: »

And I had thought the original message was about a misguided man who got himself killed through a misinterpretation of faith. I had only tried to show where he had gone wrong in his reasoning. Instead I should have been laughing at this like I'm expected to!!!

We all know where he went wrong, despite the fact that post was over 2 years ago.

Eightball wrote: »

So this is a thread for all those who do not want their disbelief of a higher being to be challenged.

This is a thread about the daft and dangerous things people do in the name of religion. A sort of Darwin Awards for the theistically challenged, as it were.

If you wish to challenge disbelief there's a "New Thread" button on the main page of this forum! You will have no shortage of respondents.

pH

Gifted pupil killed himself 'after his school sidelined Christianity for alternative religions'

A gifted teenager killed himself with an overdose of painkillers after his comprehensive school sidelined Christianity in favour of 'alternative religions', an inquest heard today.

Tragic Harry Tucker, 15, read the Bible at home because he believed his religious studies teachers focused on the teaching of Islam and Sikhism.

more

(yes I know it probably should be in a thread called "The pathetic side of Journalism", but we don't have one of those)

Mena

pH wrote: »

Gifted pupil killed himself 'after his school sidelined Christianity for alternative religions'

A gifted teenager killed himself with an overdose of painkillers after his comprehensive school sidelined Christianity in favour of 'alternative religions', an inquest heard today.

Tragic Harry Tucker, 15, read the Bible at home because he believed his religious studies teachers focused on the teaching of Islam and Sikhism.

more

(yes I know it probably should be in a thread called "The pathetic side of Journalism", but we don't have one of those)

Not "that" gifted then quite frankly..,

Dades

Sadly ironic to kill himself for being deprived of Christianity, given that he was probably gay.

That story (and reporting) is tragic in general.