Sim-O

This is exactly why law should not be made from religious beliefs.
Lord Justice Law (do you reckon he changed his name just to be that cool?)…

In the eye of everyone save the believer religious faith is necessarily subjective, being incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence. It may of course be true; but the ascertainment of such a truth lies beyond the means by which laws are made in a reasonable society. Therefore it lies only in the heart of the believer, who is alone bound by it. No one else is or can be so bound, unless by his own free choice he accepts its claims.

read the whole post from Heresy Corner.

debate
noun

1. a formal discussion in a public meeting or legislature, in which opposing arguments are presented.
2. an argument.

source

Nick Griffin…

Tonight I will debate the issue of Christianity in modern Britain with Revd. George Hargreaves, Leader of the Christian Party UK.

WTF? That’s gonna be some debate.

I intend to press home the increasing Islamification of the UK, the decline and censorship of Christian values, history, traditions and culture in politically correct Britain, and the absurd spectacle of the modern upper echelons of the clergy teaming up with leftist political radicals to dismantle traditional Christian Britain.

To have a debate their needs to be an opposing argument otherwise there’s just a lot of nodding in agreement to what ever anyone says. What do the Christian Party offer? Well, during the European election campaign their line was…

Britain is a Christian country, vote to keep it that way

The pope has written a letter in response to all this business about child abuse by Irish Catholic churchmen.

It starts off by waffling on about how Irish Catholics have had a hard time over the centuries but there have been some outstanding chaps in that period too.

He continuous with bits aimed at the people who were abused themselves, their parents, bishops, Catholics in general and the vicars, or whatever they’re called, who did the abusing. All pretty obvious stuff with suitable a apology/condemnation/words of support in the right places.

Then, Gods elected right hand man says…

I now wish to propose to you some concrete initiatives to address the situation.

So what does he suggest? Shopping his pervy colleagues? Changes in the procedures to be followed when a priest is accused of or found to be fucking with the kids in their care?

At the conclusion of my meeting with the Irish bishops, I asked that Lent this year be set aside as a time to pray for an outpouring of God’s mercy and the Holy Spirit’s gifts of holiness and strength upon the Church in your country. I now invite all of you to devote your Friday penances, for a period of one year, between now and Easter 2011, to this intention. I ask you to offer up your fasting, your prayer, your reading of Scripture and your works of mercy in order to obtain the grace of healing and renewal for the Church in Ireland. I encourage you to discover anew the sacrament of Reconciliation and to avail yourselves more frequently of the transforming power of its grace.

Particular attention should also be given to Eucharistic adoration, and in every diocese there should be churches or chapels specifically devoted to this purpose. I ask parishes, seminaries, religious houses and monasteries to organize periods of Eucharistic adoration, so that all have an opportunity to take part. Through intense prayer before the real presence of the Lord, you can make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm, at the same time imploring the grace of renewed strength and a deeper sense of mission on the part of all bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful.

I am confident that this programme will lead to a rebirth of the Church in Ireland in the fullness of God’s own truth, for it is the truth that sets us free (cf. Jn 8:32).

No. More fucking prayer. More places and opportunities for prayer and worship. Whoopie-fucking-do. More of the same.

Oh, and more talking…

I also propose that a nationwide Mission be held for all bishops, priests and religious. It is my hope that, by drawing on the expertise of experienced preachers and retreat-givers from Ireland and from elsewhere, and by exploring anew the conciliar documents, the liturgical rites of ordination and profession, and recent pontifical teaching, you will come to a more profound appreciation of your respective vocations, so as to rediscover the roots of your faith in Jesus Christ and to drink deeply from the springs of living water that he offers you through his Church.

That’ll do the fucking job, won’t it? Give your priests a “more profound appreciation of [their] respective vocations” because that is exactly what the cunts that abused, not only, their position in the Catholic church was missing. If only those priests truly knew what sort responsibility they held and where it came from then they wouldn’t have fucked up so many lives.

BBC…

The Church of England’s ruling body will close its meeting with a call for more recognition of the compatibility of religious belief with science.

The motion will urge it to fight back in what is the latest move in a public battle between atheists and believers.

The compatibility of science and religion only goes so far.
The scientist that is also a believer may, for instance, recognise evolution and all the current scientific thoeries as true and look deeper in to how the world works, but ultimately, will come to the conclusion that it all started with god.

An athiest scientist will keep looking.

The motion at the General Synod in London is proposed by Dr Peter Capon.

Many religious people feel they are being gradually pushed out of the public sphere by opponents who are using science as a weapon.

‘Science’ itself isn’t the weapon, rational arguement is. And seeing as religion is not a rational ‘thing’*, then religion is on a loser. Science will one day have all the answers. Although it may take a bit of time.

(*I can’t find the link to which religious person said it recently, so drop a link in the comments if you do)

Dr Capon, himself a former lecturer in computer science, says atheists are misleading the public when they claim science and religion are incompatible.

Athiests are misleading the public? Atheists are using evidence and rational thought. It is the religious folk that are misleading the public with stories and assertions and rules that have supposedly come form god but only come from someone or people with a knack for manipulating people and telling a good story.

Think of it this way. Two scientists, one an atheist and one a believer, after rigorous experimentation and testing and research, after following all the evidence they find about the beginning of life, the universe and everything, they end up ringing the doorbell on the Pearly Gates. God answers.
The religious scientist turns to the atheist and says ‘See. I said it was him that did it. Our quest for the ultimate answer has finished.’
The Atheist scientist looks at God and asks ‘So. How did you do it, then?’

After the pope has attacked the Equality Bill ahead of his coming visit there then comes this…

Harriet Harman has backed away from a confrontation with religious leaders over who they can employ, making clear that she will not force contentious amendments to the Equality Bill through Parliament.

Those contentious issues are the re-wording, an amendment, of the Equality Bill to make it clear that exemptions from the bill applied only to religious posts within an organisation. Which is fair enough. It would be like appointing an interpreter that couldn’t speak the lingo.

But this exemption is not enough for the God Squad.

What gives them the right to discriminate? What is the difference between discriminating on the grounds of religious belief and discriminating against someone on racial grounds?

Nothing at all. They’re both beliefs, both are grounded in fantasy. It’s just that one is more acceptable than the other… apparently.

h/t chrisplol

God. Where to start, eh?

God does judge the nations — all of them — and God will judge the nations.

Nations are made up of individuals. Even during the Nuremburg trials, individuals were prosecuted, not the German nation. What that statement above says is that God is into collective punishment. But we already knew that anyway.

Look at the original sin. Man is born a sinner now because of the decision of an individual, Adam, to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

What the Vatican says about the original sin is…

It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called “sin” only in an analogical sense: it is a sin “contracted” and not “committed” – a state and not an act.

Original sin is not something someone’s done, it is inherited. Even a baby that is just born, that has no chance to develop a character, never mind any knowledge, opinion or attitude about anything, is doomed.

Unless of course it renounces a life without god in a ceremony usually taking place before it has any concept of consent never mind the deeper logical and theological concepts involved in a baptism.

Hmm. Isn’t it also usually considered bad form to do stuff to/make someone do stuff that they have no understanding of?

Haaretz…

Dozens of rabbis and Kabbalah mystics armed with ceremonial trumpets took to the skies over Israel on Monday to battle the swine flu virus, according to local media reports

Nice one. Creep up behind the virus and blow your trumpet. That’ll scare the shit out of it and it’ll run away.

“The aim of the flight was to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it,” Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in the mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

“We are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us,” added Batzri.

If the dangers already behind you, why did you bother? And doesn’t that also mean that intervention from you ghostly master was not needed?

If it was any other delusion as strong as this, that wasn’t classified as religion or sprituality, they would be removed by the men in white coats ‘for their own protection’.

via normblog

RTE News…

Hundreds of people have been gathering to pay their respects to what they believe is an image of the Virgin Mary in a tree stump in Co Limerick

It happens all the time. Jesus in potates and stuff so why not in a tree stump, eh?

How the hell can a man of the cloth say this with a straight face is beyond me…

…we would also wish to avoid anything which might lead to superstition,’ said Fr Paul Finnerty.

It wouldn’t do to believe in silly stuff like that would it? Fer Christs sake, if you’re gonna believe that a man can rise from the dead, and that’s gotta be quite a hard thing to do, surely a picture of his mum in a tree is piss easy. Infact it probably explains why the preists are so nonchalant about it.

Picture the scene…

Rathkeale Community Council Graveyard Committee chairman Noel White said workmen sprucing up the church land saw the image when they cut the tree.

The sound of a chainsaw, the tree falls over and then…

‘One of the lads said look, our Blessed Lady in the tree,’ Mr White said. ‘One of the other lads looked over and actually knelt down and blessed himself, he got such a shock.’

Cue heraldic fanfare and shafts of devine light. The work men slack jawed in awe and reverence.
Enter stage right, Father Willie Russell with the words to bring everyone back to thier senses…

It’s only a tree.

Via

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