Category: Religion
Ben Carson: Pyramids Were Grain Stores
I am now terrified for the future of mankind and the United States.
I am afraid that once he becomes president, he might declare that the Grand Canyon was created by God to be a landfill for our trash, and start dumping. And God intended global warming to cause a new flood so the wicked in the lowlands get drowned out. There are probably other plans for the wicked in the highlands.
I used to think neurosurgeons were smart. We say, hey, it’s not brain surgery. But my opinion of neurosurgeons has turned upside down in the last few months. He is single-handedly obliterating the stereotype. After Carson, we’ll be saying: “That’s nuts. He must be a neurosurgeon!”
This is my statement:
Please, God, give me some candidates to vote for that are not crackpots! Please!
Presidential Candidates on Climate Change
More detail in this Mother Jones article.
I Am Sending Good Wishes His Way
And if there are among you any who do not believe or cannot pray, I ask you to please send good wishes my way.
I thought that was a powerful statement. I have been critical of the Pope in these posts and pages from time to time, but in the last few days in America, he has earned my respect.
He will have a deep and positive impact on the course of our world for some years to come.
He is someone I would be proud to know.
He is a man of — grace.
Denying Others Their Rights Because of Our Religion
Kim Davis, the Kentucky Clerk who has refused marriage licenses to gay couples, because she believes in literal interpretation of the bible, received a lot of media attention in the last few days. She was arrested and jailed today for contempt of court.
She appears to be very interested and concerned with what other people do in their own bedrooms and how they conduct their own lives. But then, I wonder how she reconciles her own activities. She’s been married four times. She also had two children out of wedlock by her third husband. I’d say it’s complicated:
According to the AP, Davis married a man named Dwain Wallace when she was 18 and divorced him in 1994. She married Joe Davis two years later and they divorced after 10 years. When she was 40 years old, she married Thomas McIntyre in a marriage that lasted less than a year. The twins were fathered by her third husband and later adopted by Joe, who she remarried in 2009.
Apparently she likes marriage, because she does it often.
I wonder what she would say if some other religious clerk denied her the license to marry after she has already been married once, since the scripture says:
And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.
— Matthew 9:19
Maybe her first husband was sexually immoral, and her second one too, and then her third one. But no, that can’t be, because she married her second husband again after her third. Honest, I couldn’t find a bible verse for this situation, so it must be ok.
I decided I am going to start a religion. My religion will only have one rule, and that rule must always be stated on a napkin. If anyone in my religion breaks that rule, they are condemned to eternal damnation. Here is the rule, properly published on a napkin:
Nobody can touch me. My religion forbids me to pay taxes. It says so right here on this napkin. Why should the government have the right to interfere with my religious convictions?
Oh, yes, in the past, I was a bad boy and I paid taxes. But then I didn’t know what was right from wrong. But now, I have seen the light.
And all of you are sinners!
il Papa: We entrust each of them to the mercy of God
Seventy-one refugees were found dead in a refrigerated truck in Austria. More than eighty refugees, many of them children, washed up dead on a beach in Libya. And the Pope offers “a special prayer” according to the front page of the USA Today of 8/31/15.
A Special Prayer?
Thousands, no – millions, of people are driven from their own countries in the Middle East, mostly by sectarian violence and associated power grabs of the religious leaders and monarchs. They flee from religious oppression of one type, and they die, only to be waved away by religious ridicule of another type:
We entrust each of them to the mercy of God.
It is pretty sad if the “spiritual head” of a billion or so Catholics had nothing better to say or do. Does he really think that these desperate millions, some of which wash up dead on the beaches of the Mediterranean, derive any good from his ridiculous excuses? The only thing he is doing it make the rest of us feel ok for what has happened. The mercy of God is upon the victims, so it’s ok.
It’s religion of one type, and then on another type, that killed them in the first place. And it’s religious excuses that have made us all think it’s ok for a few thousand years now.
When will we ever stop listening to the blathering nonsense that comes out of the mouths of il Papa and his illustrious predecessors?
When will we finally admit that it’s religion in the first place that’s the root of the problems we’re dealing with?
Women in Burqa – Oppression in the Open
This short video is disturbing in many ways. Don’t even think about looking at the comments in YouTube below. Incidentally, what is it with YouTube comments? Why are they always puerile, offensive, disgusting or idiotic?
It starts with the title: Arab Woman in Burqa Eating Spaghetti – Hilarious!!
I don’t think this is hilarious at all. It illustrates like a caricature the systematic and humiliating oppression of women in Islam as it is supported by governments and monarchies all over the world.
We will never know how these women really feel. But I cannot imagine they are enjoying themselves in this role of non-personhood.
And we, the United States, stand behind a number of such oppressive, sick governments with our money and our soldiers.
American soldiers went to war on behalf of Kuwait. KUWAIT! One of the most repressive societies in the world. G.H.W. Bush sent 425,000 American soldiers to liberate Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991 and 383 Americans did not come back. The U.S. Department of Defense has estimated the cost of the Gulf War at $61 billion, of which Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states covered $36 billion and Germany and Japan covered $16 billion. More than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed. While the U.S., for a change, didn’t pay the majority of the cost, we sent 425,000 of the 670,000 troops from 28 countries. That means we brought in two thirds of all the soldiers.
And what did we get from Kuwait in return?
What did the wives, parents and relatives of the 383 American soldiers who died there get for giving their lives for KUWAIT?
Our friends, the Saudis, are the other most oppressive regime on the planet.
What compels us to keep courting Middle Eastern countries? What do we get in return?
Cheap oil? – Not.
Money? – Not.
Thanks? – Are you kidding!
On this issue I am – and I hate to say it here – with Donald Trump. Our leaders don’t know what they are doing. Our so-called allies are laughing all the way to the bank while the American public is told our soldiers are dying for our freedom.
It’s a disgrace.
All that from watching a poor woman try to eat spaghetti.
David Horowitz: You Don’t Get to Make a Speech
Radical Islam is alive and well right here in our neighborhood. This video is about five years old, but the story has not changed. David Horowitz is a Jewish writer and professor.
Religious Freedom in Indiana
Indiana just instated the Religions Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) which allows businesses to refuse service to anyone if they feel their religious rights are impeded by that service. Example: Not serving gays in a restaurant.
Sign found in Indiana.
It is aberrations like the Indiana law that make me realize again why religion has no business in politics and public life. Religion belongs behind closed doors. We should never allow religious preferences of some groups affect innocent citizens adversely.
The Question of Islam
We will not allow these people to claim they are religious leaders. They have nothing to do with Islam.
— President Obama speaking about ISIS
I differ with President Obama. ‘ISIS’ stands for “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” does it not?
It does not matter what we call it. Let me repeat: It does not matter what WE call it. They call themselves Islamic. That’s what matters. We’re just giving it labels that are convenient to us, and Obama is not just receiving criticism by me but by the majority of the American people.
ISIS is Islamic fundamentalism in the radical extreme. These people are killers, thieves, bigots and rapists, and they are justifying their deeds by telling themselves and their victims that they are on a mission from God.
They are hijacking the Muslim religion, I grant you that, but it is nonetheless Islam that they are using, and that makes it hard for other Muslims to deal with, I must admit.
It is religion in general that often has a message that makes its subscribers think they are better than everyone else. Christians had their turn for a couple of thousand years now, and until just a few hundred years ago Christians murdered, imprisoned, tortured, raped and plundered in the name of their God. The Salem Witch Trials ended in 1692, only when the Governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even the Nazis professed they were Christians, and that’s not very long ago at all.
What baffles me is that the Islamic message is so strong that it gets teenage girls in North America and Europe to sneak onto airplanes to Syria so they can participate in deeds like beheading innocent victims, mass slaughter of members of other religions, shutting down of schools, destruction of art, and the raping and pillaging of conquered villages. What value systems do these teenage girls have to start with that rape and murder sounds desirable and honorable?
I say it here: Islam is a very dangerous and destructive religion, and we are watching its results on YouTube and TV worldwide.
Saudi Women Are Not Allowed to Drive…
…because they might get raped by the roadside in the event their cars break down. At least that’s what this Saudi historian says to justify oppression of their females. He goes on to say that women in other countries, like the United States, drive because they don’t care about getting raped.
I wonder if he ever drove in the United States. Man, it’s Deliverance Country, alright. Yesterday, on my way home from work on I-15 South I saw three cars that broke down on the right side of the freeway, and male drivers just couldn’t help themselves. They pulled over and lined up all in sexual rage waiting for their turn to rape. Oh, the debauchery!
This makes me wonder who the Saudis think does the raping? It’s all the men that have to escort their wives, sisters and daughters, driving them around. When they don’t have females to chauffeur, they must be driving around themselves trying to find women by roadside that they might rape.
Religion makes people say and do the darndest things. I have never been to Saudi Arabia, and I don’t think I want to go. I don’t think I could handle all the raping.
Biblical Atrocities: Lot’s Sheltering of the Angels
Here is an interesting segment from Genesis:
GENESIS 19
The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”
— Crossway Bibles (2011-02-09). The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (with Cross-References) (Kindle Locations 1918-1938). Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.
“Know them” in the bible means having sex. This is one of the passages where the term “sodomy” comes from. Of course, the raping of men, and particularly the systematic and institutional rape of young boys permeated humanity’s history, reaching from biblical times (see Genesis above), to ancient Egypt, where rich men kept harems of boys for their physical pleasure, into the Middle East of Marco Polo’s age (1200 AD) – and undoubtedly into modern times.
So Lot seems to have been a good guy by sheltering the angels from the men of Sodom who wanted to gang rape them. So far, so good.
But then Genesis continues:
Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
–Crossway Bibles (2011-02-09). The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (with Cross-References) (Kindle Locations 1939-1943). Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.
So let’s get this straight: When the men of Sodom were about to break down Lot’s door, he held them off by telling them that he had two virgin daughters, and they were welcome to gang rape them instead. The daughters were worth less than the two guests under his roof.
The story meanders on, and eventually God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah by killing everyone.
The Atrocities of Religions
Barack Obama compared Christianity with Islam yesterday in a speech. He stated that Christianity, hundreds of years ago, committed terrible atrocities in the name of God. He probably didn’t mean it that way, but it came across as if he was rationalizing that radial Islam today is really not any different from Christianity 800 years ago.
Perhaps Obama is even correct. To the best of my understanding, what the Christians did in the name of God 800 years ago sounds a lot like what ISIS does today.
However, that was 800 years ago. We want to think that we have grown up as humanity since, and we measure ourselves against different standards. It also sounded like Obama tried to make it sound like ISIS is not so unusual after all.
There seems to be this fear of calling Islam what it is – a brutal, discriminating, violent and aggressive religion.
Let’s just compare two religions, Islam and Christianity in the last 10 years.
Islam:
- Many members openly confess and announce that they want to kill as many infidels as they can.
- Public beheadings and burnings of infidels – dozens.
- Suicide bombers – hundreds.
Christianity:
- Members opening announcing they want to kill infidels? None that I can think of. We have had a few nuts who killed abortion physicians in the name of God, but that’s about it.
- Public beheadings and burnings – none.
- Suicide bombers – none.
I am not a Christian, but I must say, in 2015, Christians are much less dangerous than Muslims, just judging from their actions and the results.
Muslims will argue that the West, lead by the U.S., has killed thousands of people in the middle east, and they will be right. The U.S. has killed far more Iraqis and Afghans than Iraqis and Afghans killed Americans, by an order of magnitude. However, the U.S. did this not because they are Christians, but because they believe they need to defend themselves against radical Islam.
Moderate and mainstream Muslims will argue that ISIS are not Muslims and they want nothing to do with them. Too bad, however, that ISIS does not agree with that. They think they are the true Muslims, and all the other ones are cowards.
So my conclusion:
Islam is obviously a lethal and dangerous religion that drives some of its members to do insane and brutal deeds, to the point of killing themselves. Islam is not good for life, health and the pursuit of happiness.
Punishment by ISIS and Saudi Arabia
A few days ago I objected to our government leaders fawning over King Abdullah after his death. I said that the King was a tyrant. Today I found this chart, that outlines crimes and their punishments. I must admit that I cannot find the source, and I could not firmly corroborate accuracy. I don’t read Arabic. If a reader wants to correct anything in this chart, please let me know. As it stands, it seems obvious that ISIS simply copied its commandments and their respective punishments from Saudi Arabia.
We hate ISIS for what it does to its people and those it subjugates, but Saudi Arabia is our friend?
