Posts Tagged ‘Religion’

Faithful or Neglectful? Parents pray instead of treating child (now dead) with diabetes…

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Neglectful (but faithful) parents to an 11-year old girl in Wisconsin killed their child by praying for healing, rather than actually bringing it. Their child suffered from a fully treatable form of Diabetes.

There can simply be no other way to say it: They killed their child. They showed utter neglect. They should be prosecuted for child abuse. They are unfit to care for their other two children.

They sat by that little girl’s bed for about a month, praying. The girl, meanwhile, got sicker and sicker. Eventually, their child was dead.

So what did the parents say? Well of course they said they “did not have a strong enough faith.”

I have to ask: If you were giving your baby a bath and it slipped under the water, would you pull it out so it wouldn’t drown – or would you pray for God to lift it out and save it?

When I was 19 someone very important to me died and it was then that I knew God didn’t exist and though I didn’t really believe before that loss, when he ‘refused to help’ that’s when I knew for sure. These parents killed their child, they ‘drowned that baby’ with utter neglect that just drives me crazy.

Is a fear of God a requirement for good society?

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

Throughout history there has always been a fear of someone, something. The Romans were smart enough to assimilate local Gods into their society as they conquered foreign lands… The ancient Egyptians had 2000 years of unchallenged rule because the Kings were considered to be Gods on earth… Throughout history one of the major reasons for being good was for the returns you would receive in your life, and afterlife, from God.

As someone who isn’t religious, I can recognize the requirement for religion in uncivilized society. There can be no greater deterrent than a possible punishment from a power you, as a human, could not comprehend or avoid. I also recognize that in this day and age there are not many truly religious individuals in the western world, and the western world suffers from a youth culture that seems to think nothing about bullying, drug taking and even killings. Recent news in the UK is littered with young adults or children that seem to have a total lack of control and while I consider that with lack of religion these people lack fear of God, they also lack fear of their parents in most cases.

I know right from wrong, and I’m not religious. So what went right with me? Good parenting perhaps?

In the United States, where religion still holds strong – much stronger than the UK – I don’t see the type of youth problems I see in the UK. You can drive through any town there and see it, here – I am yet to see the ‘Yobbish Youth’.

Of course, America has it’s own issues such as Gangs, but I believe the causes here are poverty, where badly educated individuals feel that joining a gang is the way to become richer than those who do not, where they think they’ll be able to get what they want out of life or have power over those who are around them.

So, what do you think? Fear of Prison doesn’t seem to deter bad behavior anymore – are we missing God, or are we missing good parenting?

Obama’s Pastor

Monday, March 17th, 2008

I’m not going to write a huge long post about this.

I’ll just point out that pretty much anything that any religious figure says is controversial to me… For this Pastor to say (in my interpretation of the WHOLE sermon) that 9/11 was America’s punishment for doing what it does, is nothing more than a lot of people have said. Perhaps because he is black, or perhaps it’s because he is Obama’s pastor (and people like to think Obama is a Muslim), it’s more offensive?

Honestly people, crack yourselves over the head with something blunt and come to your senses, the sermon was nothing but political commentary. In my opinion the far bigger insult would have been all those who said they’d ‘pray for the victims’ – like praying for anything makes any bloody difference.

Islamophobia? Surely not! – For f*ck’s sake! It’s just a turban!

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

With pictures of Barack Obama being dressed in a turban circulating the media at the moment, I feel I have to mention something…

The turban is not Muslim wear. In fact that his father is from Kenya, the photo was taken in Kenya – and that the dress he was wearing – was tribal wear.

The turban is mostly worn by (I believe) Sikh males. America has quite a few people who are under-educated and who will see this as one of Obama’s ‘links’ to terrorism. I wonder why the renewed media frenzy is happening right now? Maybe we should ask Hillary.

So, now that I’ve said that, let’s not forget to mention that every world leader wears non-western dress when visiting non-western locations. Search Google for the name of anyone and the words “silly hat” – you’ll see some interesting images!

Just for the sake of levelling the playing field, here’s a photo of Hillary wearing something non-western – and *shock* – is Hillary a ‘commie’!?

hillarychinahat.jpg

How damaging Faith in the U.S. can be on how the world views it…

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

Thank the Heavens that Mitt Romney has decided to quit the Presidential race. Had he been elected we’d have had what I now feel I can call a Religious Freak in the running for the position that requires the most understanding and tolerance of any political position in the world.

Additionally, I’d like to drop any ounce of support I had for John McCain, based on the fact that his party can actively support a mor(m)on like Mitt Romney, who quite frankly, has no idea of how to conduct himself in this modern world of diversity and freedom.

Mitt, I have the freedom to not believe in ‘the creator’ just as much as my wife has the freedom to do otherwise. You have the freedom to believe in whatever you want, but as President of the United States you would be required to do what is best for your country (like you said you were going to, remember?) What is best for your country is for you to learn a little bit about the world. Those morals you say we have lost in Europe, those morals that you take from your book were written by a Human Being, they are not the word of God no matter how many religions like to say they are, and I think you’ll find that most of us have very good morals. It actually seems like our morals are far more heavenly than yours.

Now what really gets annoying about this story is that it is only the European-based news agencies that are reporting that Mitt Romney said any of these things. If you view the Yahoo! item or the AP item syndicated by FOX, you do not see the following…

“And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”

“…the France of the 21st century – a great country but not a world leader.”

“Europe is facing a demographic disaster. That’s the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life, and eroded morality.”

Yet, on the British Sky News Web site (owned by Rupert Murdoch – who also owns FOX), it is part of the headline of the story: “Millionaire Mitt Romney has dropped out of the race to win the Republican nomination for the White House, taking a swipe at Europe as he did so.”

Here is what I sent to the local FOX affiliate news station:

Subject: A Complaint: You are failing the American People

Message: Hello,

May I ask why no United States media seems to be covering the Mitt Romney story properly? Mitt was hoping to become the President of the United States, a position that requires absolute tolerance of the world and an understanding and education of all the nations that form it. Mitt Romney’s parting words were those of a man who did not deserve to be President of the United States and this is why, as a Brit, I have to point out that some other parts of the world think the USA is full of religious fanatics much like the USA think the Middle-east is. ALL European news sources are accurately quoting the following:

“And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”

“…the France of the 21st century – a great country but not a world leader.”

“Europe is facing a demographic disaster. That’s the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life, and eroded morality.”

Have a nice day,

Timothy Wheatley

Number of Weather-related disasters rising?

Saturday, November 24th, 2007

According to Oxfam, the number of weather-related disasters have risen greatly in the past 20-30 years, which I find interesting…

Isn’t it only maybe 150 years at most since we stopped thinking bad weather was the wrath of God?

We also have situations where people now live where they didn’t do hundreds of years ago, most of the south-east of England used to be marsh… If that area floods now, does that mean the world is going bad, or not? Because I don’t consider that to be any reaction to ‘global warming’ I see it to be water going where it can, where it used to be… I’d so like to see a study that actually looked at this type of thing, then discounted all the flooding caused by humans living where either the floodplain or former home of a waterway.

This is why people think every Muslim is crazy…

Saturday, September 15th, 2007

Of course, not every Muslim is crazy – but stereotypes are often true… If I am walking through the city of Chicago and see someone who looks like a bum ahead of me, I make a judgment based on how they look – and I’m very rarely wrong (that person will usually ask for money – while wearing clothing often a lot better than I can afford).

If I am hearing, reading, seeing story after story about ‘ordinary Muslims’ crowding the streets, burning effigies, burning flags, shouting and screaming, trashing buildings, attacking people and doing things like putting bounties on the head of cartoonists (sigh), I of course think something along the lines of: “They’re crazy.” Not every Muslim is the same – but it seems as though it was ‘ordinary Muslims’ out in the streets attacking, destroying, burning and baiting on those cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed!

Islam is not a bad religion, like Judaism and Christianity it follows a shared deity and each of the three religions is an extension of the same story. Although Christianity has been the bringer of awful things in the past and some of the Pope’s in history could be compared to Osama bin Laden – it has changed… Whenever people wanted to praise God in a different way, Christianity split to form a new Church and Christianity has evolved with the ages. The Bible is also written largely as a story, the reader is for the most part never given any commands, but the characters within the book are, so over the ages interpretation has allowed people to choose which character they wish society to follow, what virtues of good they wish to pull from the book and what acts they wish to replicate. From what little I have read of the Quran (I have a relative who is a Muslim), it seems to be written more as a list of commands on how to live your life. It is written by the writer, for the reader – totally different to the Bible. To take the most extreme example: This means that unless you choose to place the commands telling you not to kill above those telling you to kill, the Quran is telling you, the reader, to kill (in it’s most extreme).

I do remember being told by someone as a child that saying “God” was bad, but it didn’t stop me. If I hit my thumb with a hammer, damn-right I’m going to say something and I was sure that a strong, powerful God would deal with me however he sees fit when my life ends, hmm? Do the people of any faith really believe that God is so weak that he needs mere humans to defend him? I’m sure God can defend himself.

The cartoons were offensive to Muslims and indeed they should have been, but the culprit is not the cartoonist…

Al Qaeda are the ones who hi-jacked Islam and used it. They are the ones who look at the Quran and find passages to justify their way of being without showing you the passages that most ordinary Muslims see saying that what Al Qaeda do is wrong… They are the ones who associated your Phophet, your religion, your countries, your men, women and even your children with death and bombs… They drew that cartoon.

I am very rarely this angry…

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

I waited nearly two weeks before I emailed the makers of this religious card so I wouldn’t be as angry, but I just can’t help it. Read the card by holding your mouse over the image (or click: Front | Back).

“Thank God” for the Legal System

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

While the Pope is busy telling everyone that Roman Catholic’s are members of the only true church and religion, his “true church” based in Los Angeles is busy paying out $660M to people who were abused by Catholic Priests. That abuse was carried out under the watchful eye of God, no doubt.

Here are just a few of the recent large settlements:

2007 – Los Angeles, California. $660M (for over 500 claims).
2007 – Los Angeles (again), California. $114M (for 86 claims).
2007 – Spokane, Washington. $48M (for 150 claims).
2007 – Portland, Oregon. $52 (for a minimum 175 claims).
2006 – Covington, Kentucky. $84 (for 360 claims).
2004 – Orange County, California. $100M (for 90 claims).
2003 – Boston, Massachusetts. $84M (for 552 claims).

The following all tried to claim bankruptcy but miraculously (excuse the pun) some managed to “settle” for amounts they could afford and stopped bankruptcy proceedings afterwards.

Tucson, Arizona.
Spokane, Washington.
Portland, Oregon.
Davenport, Iowa.
San Diego, California

I think it’s utterly absurd for the Pope to be putting his name on documents like the one I mention in the start of this post, one church is just as insane as another, take this as an example of Islamic insanity and this as an example of insanity in an “untrue church” (as the Pope would say)…

Some Educational Reading…

Friday, July 6th, 2007

“Whoever kills an innocent soul.. it is as if he killed the whole of mankind, And whoever saves one, it is as if he saved the whole of mankind.” – The Holy Quran.

The group who took out newspaper adverts in the UK, condemning the attacks on the UK recently have setup a Web site. While I actually will admit holding a lot of anger and fear towards Islamic faith, I do understand them better when something like this is setup: Muslim’s United.