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Religious Violence Answers and Questions Separation of Church & State
Separation of Church & State
Obama's creeping Jesus approach to Christian Church members has resulted in the offer of a bribe for their votes. He has said that religious groups will be able to boost their charitable work using faith-based grants from the White House if he becomes President. This is a breach of the separation wall and should be opposed. Write letters, send emails and use other methods to stop this nonsense before it starts, but oppose Obama's breach of the Constitution and the wall.
Religious Violence
Obama's speech today was a brilliantly structured piece. But many of its examples were inappropriate and did not dovetail as he would have liked them to. The most important issue, however, was again religion and beliefs - religious faith is again used an excuse for a call to violence by his pastor, Wright, in anti-American, anti-government, and anti-secular verbiage.
The continuous allusion to individual beliefs and religion show a hypocritical alignment with action in this presidential race. Jeremiah Wright's words are an example of the poison spread by the religious using the freedom of their pulpits. The law is clear about what Wright did. Because Wright's church is not taxed, he may not use it to attempt to spread political alignment with any political doctrine. He has broken the law. Either his church must be taxed, or he must be fined, or both.
Obama's speech indicates that he has accepted Wright's vicious criticism of America and its government as a part of an historical process forced on Blacks by Whites. His religious views (defined as Christian) are supposed to embrace a dogma which opposes the promotion of hate - but he has not done this. To treat Wright's words as separate from form the man's world view is nonsense - he is what his words make him: a traitor. For a presidential candidate to embrace this tainted pastor (he cannot simply reject his words), is to encourage a view which could undermine America from within.
As in the past religion has spawned hate, has given birth to an 8000-member organization that could be both dangerous and insidious to America. In the name of religion and faith Obama has embraced a belief, preached from the pulpit of Wright's church, that includes the right to include hatred as a part of its dogma.
While Obama's speech was brilliantly structured its content comes from a foundation built, in part, by Wright whose words, including the damning of America, the alignment of terrorism with government intent, the inclusion of AIDS as an insidious government plot to undermine the black community; and all from a man of god, in god's house, under the auspices of Christian biblical reference, and under the aegis of the larger church to which Wright belongs. Freedom to hate is a right in the U.S., and under the freedom to practice any religion, is also a freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The abuse of such freedoms is done when such hatred can lead to violence, and violence is what Wright is preaching. Obama's continued alliance with Wright taints him and his political aspirations and we should stop him now.
A video of Marines killing a puppy by throwing it down a hill in Iraq has emerged. In one of the military newspapers it is stated that, "this is nothing - you should see them killing babies." So this is what our Marines do? They kill innocent things for their amusement. The callous behavior of the Marines killing the puppy is awful - the fact that they are amused by their act and laugh at it makes the whole thing worse. So this is what our "Christian Soldiers" do when they are relaxing from killing our enemies - they amuse themselves by killing innocents. As the puppy is thrown by its neck, it rolls in the air trying to right itself, and it cries all the way down. Disgusting, but this is the kind of violence we should expect from our Christian fighters. We must wonder what sort of training they get and where their superior officers were when this puppy killing occurred.
While this violence by Christian is understandable (Christians are violent and have been involved in violence for 2000 years). The violation of innocents by Marines is not. Marines, while part of a killing machine, are supposed to be honorable. Their recruitment is based on the history of the corps that has never retreated in battle. But now those young men and women who wish to join up must also consider whether they want to join to kill puppies and babies, too. Until this puppy incident is corrected by the punishing of the marines who did it is acceptable to the public, and the public can be reassured that this type of thing is an abberation and not a thing done by marines for their continued amusement, the Marines must be considered persona non grata, and recruitment should stop.
However, because the majority of the Marines are Christians there is little hope that the Corps will be able to stop this violence. Christians support violence and the individual torture of non-Christians, and so it is unlikely that the Marine Corps will stop these acts of awful and horrible murder. After all Christians enjoy suffering and they enjoy it even more if they can cause it.
Good News Follows: because of the concerted and very vocal opposition to this, the Marines have fired the puppy killer and put a letter of criticism in the file of another Marine who participated in the killing and who is also seen in the cell-phone video. Good job to the many people who demanded justice including Atheists, Freethinkers, animal rights activists and others.
• The Pope’s, the Curia’s and the Holy Office’s (was the “Inquisition”) intervention, regulation, and encyclicals supporting violence: e.g., “The bulk of cases involving religious violence are, however, motivated by religious doctrine, and sacred fury.” (From: “Sacred Fury - Understanding Religious Violence” by Charles Selengut.)
“Francisco Ferrer developed forty non-religious schools in Barcelona starting in 1902. They adhered to the scientific outlook and championed women’s rights. “The all-powerful Catholic hierarchy deemed Ferrer and his ‘godless schools’ to be agents of satan....[in 1909] A military tribunal accused Ferrer and three other men of fomenting the riot [....women demonstrated against conscription - the riots followed...a prominent clergyman declaired: ‘The partisans of the godless schools must be suppressed if peace is to be reestablished and Spain returned to God.’] Their trial was a travesty of hearsay and innuendo with defense witnesses excluded. Ferrer was shot in a military fortress on October 13, 1909. His execution caused shock and anger around Europe. When parliament reconvened, Liberal members denounced the Conservative administration so furiously that Pemier Antonio Maura was forced to resign.”
However, Pope Pius X sent a gold-handled sword engraved with his felicitations to the military prosecutor who had obtained Ferrar’s death.” (From: “2000 Years of Disbelief - Famous People With the Courage to Doubt” by James A. Haught).
“As John Paul leaves the stage, the extraordinary achievements that ensure his role as one of our greatest popes must be weighed against the human suffering wrought by internal corruption on his watch.” (From: “Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II.” by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner.)
• The support of wars and internecene violence by providing military chaplains for armies, preached support from the pulpits of Catholic churches for soldiers in battle, and even the support of one side against the other in civil wars: The doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church vis-a-vis violence and particularly war insisted on today is essentially based on the concept of “a just war.” Until the fourth century when Ambrose began the discussion of the just war, Christianity seemed to oppose war and violence for the most part. Augustine then expanded the concept which was finalized in the sixteenth century. The current war between America and Iraq was rejected by most Catholic clergy, but not because all war and violence is indefensible, but because the Iraq war is not considered a “just war” by the clergy according to the Catholic doctrine now in place.
The “just war” doctrine gave credence to direct religious involvement in the Crusades, the battles against South American Indians - justified once again by Pope Benedict XVI and various wars in Ireland and Eastern Europe today (See: “When Religion Becomes Evil”, by Charles Kimball, Chapter 6 - ‘Declaring Holy War.’)
Answers and Questions
For the time being this blog will not allow comments. Although we know this means that it is not a true blog, we have had to do this because a bunch of fools have used it for their own amusement and have spammed it instead of discussing posts, commenting on current ideas, and following the trends offered in this blog. Perhaps they have achieved their goal of cutting out comments on the blog, but, perhaps they will accept that they cannot post comments and will leave us alone. They put 328 comments on this blog.
If you dig around on the Web you will find a whole spew of religious web sites and blogs all discussing their ignorance and stupidity. Atheists and other non-believers should join these groups and start posting anti-religious stuff on them. Some of them cut the comments and articles when they are moderated, but some of them think that their followers should get the opportunity to see what these hell-bent nasties are saying about their faith and they leave the things on their sites for their members to ridicule. If you can get an argument to start, then follow-up and give it to them. Its the only way some of them will find opposition to religion in any form. The best stuff to put on their sites is criticisms of their holy texts, references to well known Atheists and what they have said - especially the first Presidents of the U.S. - and the contradictions of their leaders statements and lives (and often living conditions: e.g., start a discussion about some of the evangelical leaders and their huge incomes, expensive clothing, big homes and their Rolls Royces and how this is a contradiction of what their gods have said,) the television evangelists and their continuous demand for funding by telling their followers that they can buy a prayer, how the Catholics Churches send millions of dollars to the Pope when our poor need it here, what the Islamic extremists preach in some of the U.S. Mosques. Just do it to stick needles in their bums and to get them riled up enough to respond - and if you give them your email address and they respond to you, happiness and glee is hardly the description your will feel as you keep them on your hook!
Compassion, CRAP! The two Democrat presidential candidates, Obama and Clinton, agreed to appear on a show put together by CNN at the Messiah College last night (Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 8:00pm). What a travesty! McCain, the Republican candidate refused to attend - the first thing he’s done in this campaign that I agree with.
By using a public appearance as leverage, CNN used the opportunity to put the candidates in front of a crowd of predominantly evangelical Christians at one of their so-called “colleges”. A few religious of other faiths were present, too, and were invited to ask questions to overcome the obvious thought that Christianity of the evangelical kind overwhelmingly controlled the evening and the questions. There were no Atheists or Freethinkers invited to participate.
The meeting ignored constitutional and non-profit laws (separation of church and state, excluding religion as a measure of aptitude for government jobs, no political involvement of churches or church persons which should lead to removal of their non-profit status and full taxation) and suggested that right-wing conservative believers and other faith-based groups have the social position to control.
The questions asked were often in the guise of something other than religion - the environment, aids, other health issues, support of the poor, and so on. But at the base of all questions was the assumed threat of religious intervention in the political process. The candidates discussed their beliefs (as if any of it should have any bearing on anything political) and their prayers, and their godliness, and their positions vis-à-vis religion and their decisions. Both candidates come from protestant backgrounds and follow protestant rules. What was most disquieting is the fact that this stuff does and will affect their political decisions. As an example of this, one of the questioners, apparently interested in Obama’s position on the relationship between religion and science, asked about this, but prefaced his question with a comment about the Messiah College saying that he was proud of their advanced record in the research of scientific creationism - the real rubbish of the evangelical church and based on what they call “their old testament discoveries.” Obama’s response to this pastor’s nonsense was to say that he looked forward to having a closer relationship with him. As far as I’m concerned this makes Obama a presidential hack.
The continuous breach of the Constitution by religious organizations and people (including the current President) is a national disgrace. The public seems unfazed by this process, not understanding the warnings of some of the Founders: James Madison, “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.” From an 1803 letter objecting to the use of government lands for churches. Jefferson in the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom, 1786, “....No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever...”
Finally, the Compassion Forum is an insult to the American people - because of the chosen name, the place chosen for its conference, the people invited, and the content of the forum, it suggests that compassion is, primarily, under the ownership of the evangelicals and other religious sects. It ignores the compassion that secular NGOs and individuals have and had long before religious groups considered becoming a part of the process of supporting your fellow human beings without destroying their culture by forcing Christianity (or other beliefs) on them. Last night one of the participants stated that they had been working to support aids sufferers in Africa for years - another lie. Christian evangelicals have only recently begun helping aids sufferers, considering that aids was a punishment from their god.
The Compassion Forum is a national disaster. CNN is undermining the voting and political process. Evangelicals are up to their old tricks sliming their way into things where our founders tried gallantly to exclude them and the religions they profess. For Atheists it was disgusting, horrible and sick, and it contradicts everything that America stands for.
Atheists are clear thinking, intelligent people. They are not prone to sentimentality, fear, suspicion, or superstition. Atheists feel compassion for religious believers and people of faith because of two things: they obviously lack reasoning ability, and they are manipulated by professional church people - the priests, pastors, evangelists, mullahs, Imams, monks and Rabbis. As Thomas Jefferson said: "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own..." Letter to Horatio Gates Spafford, March 17, 1814.
Atheists find themselves in an untenable position in the United States: if they "come out of the closet, they are prone to victimization and persecution, if they don't "come out of the closet" they cannot oppose the savagery and ignorance of the faithful. hoping to save them from themselves and their terrible dogmas.
There is a common misconception about Atheists. Believers say, "Oh, you are an Atheist? That means that you don't believe in God." No, this is not so. Belief never comes into the equation. An Atheist knows that gods are man-made myths - they know there are no real gods. Atheism is simple, it is highly moral, and its concomitant values are precise: To an Atheist there is no "afterlife". Like all animals, humans have no souls or spirits. This means that Atheists are not moved by the fear of "what is to come" or of the manipulation behind the description of a vindictive god. There is no hell with which to threaten Atheists. Thus, there is one life and we are in it. Because there is one life we must make the best we can of it; we must be positive, we must show compassion for others, we must live within the law, and we must help other living things - human and non-human - to live good and satisfied lives, too. Because there is no "afterlife" we have no right to shorten the only life that we all have, therefore we must oppose capital punishment, murder and war. We must live "good" lives as examples to our children and to others around us. We must try to leave our earth a little better than we found it. And then we can leave our life satisfied and restful, following the path that billions of living things have followed - to peace. There is one more choice that is ours - we can control our death if we do not die suddenly of natural causes.
The fear that drives believers is a terrible thing. The houses of prayer are places of threatened torture and vindictive judgements. The gods are all nasty, poisonous, small-minded things who seem to spend their time making threats to humans who are considered sinners from birth even to the point where sick, newborn babies will go to hell if they are not baptized before death. How hideous that a small, defenseless, new living thing is considered a threat to an omnipotent god's will and is punished for some nonsense called "original sin". Churches have created horrible futures for people - if you are not a seventh day adventist, then you are not "chosen" and you do not join god in heaven. If you are not a Roman Catholic, when you die you go into the depths of hell. If you are not an evangelical christian you will be welcomed into the afterlife with violence, torture and hatred. If you are not a Muslim, Allah will pour all the horrible things that Mohammad could think of on your head. If you are an Atheist you are damned without hope. But somehow these are the religions of "love".
As our sciences grow in their knowledge and understanding of our world and its place in the universe, so are religions slowly being exposed for what they really are: man made myths, controlling their adherents by fear using faith instead of reason, and providing answers about life and death that are as laughable as they are wrong. The last ditch attempts of religions to force themselves and their ignorance on the peoples of earth is fundamentalism: violence, murder, the abuse of women and children, mass killings, wars, threats, and the use of dire predictions of the end of a sinner's earth are a part of their box of tricks. Followers of these violent religious groups are ignorant, uneducated, unreasonable, hating individuals. The growth of hysterical, violent responses to the slow deterioration of religious doctrines are widespread in their attempts to maintain the status quo: the Pope travels everywhere excusing the Roman church's support of violence, past and present, where he once stayed cloistered in the vatican. Making promises of grace and a loving god's welcoming gestures into haven, evangelicals threaten hell as do the muslims. Other protestant churches demand allegiance using the carrot of love and the stick of a malevolent god. Religions are losing control and they have nowhere to go but down.
Atheists welcome growing numbers of sensible fellow freethinkers. It is so easy to reject the impossibly silly myths of religion and the threats of violence and fear that they embody, and to cleanse the mind of the poison of faith. Anyone can become an Atheist without the trappings of belief - there are no rituals, no promises to be made, no adherence to a creed, no obedience to an unseen and unseeable being, no church services to attend, no empty prayers to be said - there is simply a flood of understanding that there is no reason to fear a concocted spirit of superstition. There is relief that this life is wonderful, the only life, and that we have nothing to fear from a nonsensical heaven and hell, or from a vindictive god. Atheism is the release of individuality, the encouragement of critical and creative thinking, the lifting of religious suppression, and the freedom to make reasoned choices.
Become an Atheist; come out of the closet; enjoy real freedom of thought and action, and help others to do the same.
Atheists should be for peace. Catholics believe that there is such a thing as a "just" war. Evangelicals choose what to believe at any particular time and seem not to know whether the choice for life or death is a standard part of their beliefs. Atheist morality comes from their understanding that there is one life and that death is final - for every living thing. Therefore, for an Atheist to choose war is to choose an act of finality for all of those who are killed in that war; this contradicts their morality which which says that all of them recognize the value of life, here and now.
Peace is an elusive thing and something which is all too easy to breach with violence. Martin Luther promoted violence against Jews, Jesus promoted violence against non-believers, Muhammat promotes violence against all non-Muslims, especially if it forces them into Islam. Catholics are well-known for their thousands of years of continuous violence. All religions now promote peace to pander to their flocks, reinterpreting their dogma and the writings that control them. Atheists don't have to reinvent themselves. Their knowledge gives them a solid base from which to promote peace without contradiction or changes in the interpretation of ancient violent texts. If Revelations and the Old Testament drives people's beliefs and faith, violence is the only choice. Preaching peace is a contradiction of the Christian faith. Atheists know there are no gods, therefore to follow "god's teachings by supporting war suggests that such people are not Atheists, but followers of another dictum.
Isis }
Osiris }
Horus }
Amun }
Ra }
Mut } ALL MAN MADE
Demeter }
Ceres }
Yemaya }
Yaweh }
Christ }
Allah }
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