Religion vs Death

Anyone who still thinks religion has been a benign force in this world need to read the compilation that James Haught made in a 1990 edition of the Skeptical Review.  Below is a segment to whet your appetite:

“– The Thirty Years’ War produced the largest religious death toll of all time. It began in 1618 when Protestant leaders threw two Catholic emissaries out of a Prague window into a dung heap. War flared between Catholic and Protestant princedoms, drawing in supportive religious armies from Germany, Spain, England, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, France and Italy. Sweden’s Protestant soldiers sang Martin Luther’s “Ein ‘Feste Burg” in battle. Three decades of combat turned central Europe into a wasteland of misery. One estimate states that Germany’s population dropped from 18 million to 4 million. In the end nothing was settled, and too few people remained to rebuild cities, plant fields, or conduct education.”

I’ve had people tell me that it is men doing these dastardly deeds and not God or the religion.  I have to disagree with this interpretation.  There are passages in the Bible and Koran that are constantly interpreted / misinterpreted and used as an excuse to maim and kill those who believe differently.  The Catholics and Protestants still barely talk to each other, and the Muslims still kill anybody that disagrees with them.  The Muslims kill the Hindus and the Hindus kill the Muslims

“It’s fashionable among thinking people to say that religion isn’t the real cause of today’s strife in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, India and Iran — that sects merely provide labels for combatants. Not so. Religion keeps the groups in hostile camps. Without it, divisions would blur with passing generations; children would adapt to new times, mingle, intermarry, forget ancient wounds. But religion keeps them alien to one another.

Anything that divides people breeds inhumanity. Religion serves that ugly purpose.”

Remember this was written before  9-11

A passing thought as I go to close this post.  The Republican Religious Right wing wants to return a measure of religious control to America

Germany’s Catholic Church Systematically Covered Up Cases of Sexual Abuse…Again

How long, I wonder, is this going to last?  Over time, more and more evidence shows up that the Catholic Church is evil incarnate and yet it still it stands and tries to throw the wool over your eyes and pretend it has the infallible word of God on its side. They say they are the only true religion of Christ, the only way to Heaven…I don’t think I would want to go to their Heaven, and I don’t believe they have the ear of God or Christ or anybody.

12-03-2010 “Germany’s Catholic Church systematically covered up cases of sexual abuse within its own ranks for several decades, according to an expert study commissioned by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

The lawyer heading up the investigation, Marion Westpfahl, said at a press conference on Friday that the available records pointed to huge gaps in the documentation between 1945 and 2009. She added this hinted strongly at a “systematic system of cover-up,” in which few abuse cases were criminally prosecuted.

“Only 26 priests were convicted for sexual offences,” Westpfahl explained to reporters, saying she found 365 files containing evidence that “acts of abuse had taken place in an almost commonplace manner.”

“We have to assume that there is a large unknown number [of abuse cases],” she said. “We are dealing with the extensive destruction of files.”

The incriminating evidence Westpfahl found among 13,200 available files implicated 159 priests, 15 deacons, 96 religion teachers and six pastoral employees, with rural areas particularly affected.

The victims’ suffering often remained a mystery, she said, as the reports usually discussed abuse in coy euphemisms.”   My emphasis

Systematically covered up cases of sexual abuse it says, just one a few hundred more notches on the body of evidence that the Catholic Church is a criminal enterprise…and has been one for a very very long time.  How long are parishioners of this evil organization going to believe in it and accept that the Church has any kind of moral authority over them?
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Muslims…Learn “Christian Values” or Get Out of Germany

Immigrants without Christian values have no place in Germany,” says Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Multikulti”, the concept that we are now living side by side and are happy about it, does not work.”

She said that the attempt to create a multi-cultural society has failed completely and she called for the countries immigrants to learn the German language and adopt Christian values.

“We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don’t accept them don’t have a place here,” said the chancellor.

“Subsidizing immigrants isn’t sufficient, and Germany has the right to make demands on them,” she added, “such as mastering the German language and abandoning practices such as forced marriages.”

Integrating Muslims has been a hot button issue since this past August when Thilo Sarrazin a member of Germany’s central bank touched off outrage by saying the country was being made “more stupid” by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants with headscarves.

In a recent study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation nearly 60 percent of the over 2400 people polled, thought that the four million Muslims in Germany should have their religious practices “significantly curbed.”

I couldn’t agree more. If the Muslim immigrants to America can’t integrate into our culture then they need to go back to their original home.  Islamic values as relates to women and how to treat them is totally unacceptable in our society.  That little Islamic practice of allowing the religious leaders to declare Jihad and encourage Muslims to go out and kill and bomb and totally disrupt order is not acceptable here.  The law of the land applies to Everyone, without exception.

I think that most Muslims here in America are here because they wanted to escape the oppressive theocratic regimes of the country they came from, and that is great…now you have to integrate and leave that religious inbreeding crap behind you.  You can practice your religion…in a modified form.  You have to realize, and accept, that some of your religious and cultural practices have to stop.

There are no freebie’s or excuses.
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Is God The Basis For Our Morality

A correspondent writes the following to me”

“In regards to atheism, if you show me how something can come out of nothing I will convert to!”

Sure I can show you something that came out of nothing…the myth about gods…any god.  There was never any proof for any god…still isn’t, and yet some people swear that a god somehow controls who they are and what they do…what happened to free-will?
He then continues:

“Moreover my question in regards to killing was not why you wouldnt do it, its more of what instills that ideology or law in your persona. Why are we born with this mentality, who instilled it in us at birth?” <sic>

When early man was roaming the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago the evidence seems to show that humans hunted and killed each other with abandon. This went on for a looong time and probably reached its climax in early Biblical times and up until the Catholic Church was usurped as a political power over humans.  Nowadays there are so many of us and we have the ability to choose who rules over us (mostly), and it’s politically incorrect to kill citizens with abandon. Humans have the innate desire for self preservation and the smart ones realize that they must act with compassion towards others if they expect the same back to them.

Of course there are some religions that continue to kill with seemingly no consequences.  They do this by targeting enemies and citizens alike…scaring everyone to death.  Christianity’s last big fling at this process was Hitler’s time; who along with the explicit help of the Catholic Church (which was violently against Jews at the time) and eventually the Lutheran’s and such…contrived to wipe Jews off the face of the earth.  Of course we know they also went after the mentally deficient, the homosexuals, the Jehovah’s witnesses, some other small sects, and of course anybody who disagreed with them.

Muslims are pretty much stuck in the 7^th Century, where they will probably stay as long as the religion is allowed to continue.  In the Middle East and some other parts of the third world they (Muslim’s) continue to kill with impunity, and of course the leaders are fanatically trying to bring this practice to America.  The Muslim Allah is supposed to be the same as the Christian and Jewish God…is He (God/Allah/Yahweh) also instilling the same innate reverence for life and morality in the Muslim’s as Christianity is supposed to have.

I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that the argument that God/Allah/Yahweh provides humans with their basis for morals or reverence for life stands up.  It’s only the last few years that these things and the concurrent arguments have started to appear and that more or less seems to be simultaneous with higher civilization.

Early Christianity may have spouted morality, but the record shows that it is responsible for millions of deaths, what with all the many religious wars, which, by the way, continue today in many places in the world.

Also for your consideration is the Catholic/Spanish Inquisitions and the witch hunts of the Dark Ages in which as many as three million innocent people were put to death by “Christianity.”

We should also remember that the Spanish Christian’s of the 15^th and 16^th Century and the later European Christians killed or enslaved as many as 100,000,000 indigenous people of the North, Central, and South America, and all the Caribbean Islands.

I wonder where their God given morals and reverence for life was.

Don’t forget that the early Hebrews were killing men, women, and children, whole tribes and all their animals.  And their “God” was telling them to do this…

Religion/God/Allah/Yahweh has never been a sound basis for morality, and it’s certainly not instilled in us from birth by some non-existent spirit floating in the sky.

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Seizing Power

Quote of the day

“The (Republicans and Democrats) Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”  llewrO egroeG

How weird, I keep having these dreams about Lipton’s Tea.

If you accidentally unintentionally disrespect Mohammad in any way  the Muslims will want to kill you…be careful.

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Let’s All Die of Starvation

Quote of the Day

“And talking of male chauvinism — for centuries the church has kept women in bondage: women are unclean when they have babies, they have to go and be ‘churched’ afterwards so that they are fit for human consumption again. They don’t have rights; the church has kept women in total subjugation. So I, male chauvinist pig that I am, I want to grant them emancipation, because I think they can’t compete. The church wants to keep them down, because they think a source of ill-paid labour for the males of this world is useful to have.”

“I could go on and on about the church and its relations to sexual attitudes, but I won’t. I’ll merely say that those idiots, like the Archbishop of Canterbury and this fool who calls himself a Pope and sits in the Vatican, who say you can’t have birth-control — let’s all die of starvation — are doing far more harm than Genghis Khan, Attila, and Adolph Hitler all rolled into one. People like Attila and Hitler were benevolent despots compared to these idiots who utter and pontificate and say: this is the word of God, this you shall do, this you shall not do. When a war starts, the priests of England start praying for victory over the Germans, and the priests of Germany start praying for victory over the English.”  From an interview with Edmund Cooper (UK Sci-Fi writer) By James Goddard here: http://www.bondle.co.uk/edmund_cooper/misc_files/interview.pdf accessed 4-21-2010

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Apologist for Evil Pat Condell

The Catholic Church is Evil

The news on the Catholic Church just keeps getting worse and worse.  Now the previous Pope, John Paul II, is getting some media exposure of the worst kind.

From NPR News:
“As the Roman Catholic Church tries to defend Pope Benedict XVI from criticism over his handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal, the record of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, is also getting attention. New questions are being raised about whether the most popular pope of the last century played a role in covering up cases of sex abuse.

When John Paul died five years ago, millions of faithful poured into Rome for his funeral, chanting, “Santo subito” or “Make him a saint now.” Just two months later, Benedict XVI waived the usual five-year waiting period and put the Polish-born pope on the fast track to sainthood.

But in recent weeks, allegations have surfaced that the late pope — or at least members of his inner circle — obstructed an investigation into Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Mexican founder of the Legion of Christ who had both molested young boys and fathered several children with different women.”  Full story Here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125788687

So now we have two Popes being criticized for covering up priestly sexual abuse.  I wonder how many Popes down through history have done the same thing; I’ll bet it’s more than 1 or 2.

The damaging stories just keep coming, there seems to be no end.  Ever since the first stories started breaking about priestly sexual abuse of young boy’s in the US, I have been saying that the problem will be found to be world-wide, and no doubt existed down throughout the long history of the Church—although a look into deep past history of abuse has not been followed yet.

I think the Catholic Church has lost all authority as a religion and a moral guide for humanity.  They still resist airing out the dirty laundry they have accumulated over 1700+- years.  They cannot be trusted with our children, they cannot be trusted as moral guides, and they cannot be trusted to do the right thing.  The Church is dirty and in the corruptive clutches of evil men.

Added @ 12:25 4-10-10

“According to some interpretations of St. Malachi’s vision, the Pope who succeeds Benedict XVI will be “Petrus Romanus” (Peter the Roman) the final Pope who will oversee the destruction of the Catholic Church.”

“In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman), who will feed his flock amid many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.”

Shut Down The Catholics

They have no compassion for the victims, and the pedophile cover-up goes all the way to the top.  You can be pretty sure it covers the whole church all around the world

This whole German pedophile priests thing is getting pretty darn close to the present Pope. He really did keep a pedophile priest in a position where said priest could continue raping young boys.  This is criminal behavior on the Popes part, and criminal behavior by the church.

Story here:
“Hundreds of victims have come forward in recent months in Germany with accounts of sexual and other physical abuse from decades past. But no case has captured public attention like that of Father Hullermann, not only because of the involvement of the future pope but also because the child molester was allowed to continue to work with altar boys and girls for decades after his conviction.

Pope Benedict not only served as the archbishop of the diocese where the priest worked, but also later as the cardinal in charge of reviewing sex-abuse cases for the Vatican. Yet until the archdiocese of Munich and Freising said that Father Hullermann had been suspended, he continued to serve in a series of Bavarian parishes.

In 1980 the future pope reviewed the case of Father Hullermann, who was accused of abusing boys in the diocese of Essen, including forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex. Archbishop Ratzinger transferred him to Munich.”
My underlining emphasis.

See whole story Here.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/priest-suspended-over-sex-abuse-20100316-qcmv.html

Ratzinger transferred Hullerman to Munich…where he continued to molest young children.

Is the Catholic Church not required to follow secular laws?  I’ve always thought NO ONE was above secular law.  The Church is acting like a criminal enterprise, and Ratzinger’s action seem to be criminal as well.

“Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion –- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven.”
–Mark Twain

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Should Catholic Church Be Shutdown??

Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland…these are the countries that are now embroiled in priestly sexual, physical, and verbal abuse cases, and more are expected in the months to come.

Physical, verbal and sexual abuse seems to go hand in hand with anything that involves children and the Catholic Church. I have said for years that it was endemic in the church and it was world-wide.

It never would have been as bad if only the church had handled it properly in the beginning.  But no, they had to try to protect their image by moving the priest around to a new diocese, thereby leaving them free to start over with a new group of kids, and stay in denial to the outsiders.  This of course proved disastrous to the poor children, which the church never really seems to care about…it’s all about their image.

With all we now know about the Catholic Church do you think we should allow it to continue to exist.  Should we make them sell all their assets and make reparations to the victims of their evil abuses?  Remember not just the last few years, but down through time this has undoubtedly gone on in diocese after diocese in country after country…always kept secret, but always going on. How many children do you suppose have been raped and battered by these evil people since the beginning of their cult?

Go HERE for full story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100313/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_church_abuse

“We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell.”
–Karl Popper

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More Catholic clergy sticking it where it don’t belong.

The German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported that the number of suspected sexual abuse cases in Germany by Roman Catholic clergy and laymen is much higher than was previously thought.

A poll sponsored by Spiegel that was answered by 27 Catholic dioceses found that more than 94 clerics and laymen were suspected of sexual abuses since 1995.  Due to statute of limitations only 30 have been prosecuted.

There are 10 employees of the Catholic Church who currently stand accused of sexual misconduct or abuse in Germany.

Germany has been shocked by recent revelations of sex abuse by Catholic priests in Berlin’s very prestigious Canisius-Kolleg run by Jesuit teachers. There have also been reports from other cities across Germany where the priests taught.

These cases started to unfold in 2004 and 2005 when two former students of the school told the headmaster that they had been abused by two of their former teachers. In late 2009 others came forward with allegations against the same teachers.

Boy those Catholic priests and bishops and laymen helpers in the Church are sure Holy and have your best interests at heart…Huh.

Genesis 7:11, 7:17, 7:24 and 8:3 specify different intervals for the flood duration which have no apparent resolution. 

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