Scott Brown (R) handily beat Martha Coakley (D) in today’s Senate election in Democratic-stronghold Massachusetts. What do you think the fallout will be?
The NY Times reports that, with 93 percent of the vote counted, Brown had a 53 – 48% victory. Coakley has conceded the race.
Brown demonstrates his Family Values in 1982.
This has cost Democrats their filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate, and may mean the end of Obamacare.
What do you think will come of this? We see a few possibilities:
Democrats realize that a Dark Blue state voted in a Republican, and that means that all those polls saying American voters don’t want Obamacare really means that American voters don’t want Obamacare. They start listening to voters and hang on through the 2010 midterm elections.
Democrats bludgeon another Senator into siding with them on Obamacare, retaining 60 votes, and pass the health insurance company bailout bill. They tank in November, ushering in a Republican revolution.
Voters sick of both parties get behind a third party.
Other?
We have a poll, but we also want to hear your comments and ideas!
Only 26% of Americans overall view Wailin’ Palin favorably; while this is a slight increase over November of 2009 (then 23% favorable), those viewing her unfavorably increased as well . . . from 38% in November to 41% now. Seems exposure from her book tour didn’t help, but rather helped undecideds make up their minds.
Only 43% of Republicans hold favorable views, and self-described Conservatives hit the top at 46% favorable . . . but even 53% of these folks don’t want her to run for President.
Also included in the poll was the Tea Party movement. Per the poll results,
The Tea Party may still be too nascent a movement to have registered yet with most Americans; seven in ten have no opinion of it so far.
The results for those with an opinion? 18% viewed it favorably and 12% unfavorably.
A Pentagon-contracted rifle sight manufacturer adds references to New Testament Bible verses to its products, an ABC investigation has discovered. While they’re not “Secret Jesus Bible Codes”, they are a form of proselytization which should not be funded by the American taxpayer and which violates military code of conduct for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under General Order 1, no American soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan may in any way proselytize or promote any religion or faith.
As ABC News reports, rifle sight manufacturer Trijicon includes on its Advanced Combat Optical Guides references to particular Bible verses. They immediately follow the model number, and are in the same font — not distinguished in any way from the model number:
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Why does this matter?
First, taxpayer funds are being channeled to a contractor who knowingly violates military policy and the Constitution. A LOT of taxpayer funds:
According to a government contracting watchdog group, fedspending.org, Trijicon had more than $100 million in government contracts in fiscal year 2008. The Michigan company won a $33 million Pentagon contract in July, 2009 for a new machine gun optic, according to Defense Industry Daily. The company’s earnings from the U.S. military jumped significantly after 2005, when it won a $660 million long-term contract to supply the Marine Corps with sights.
Second, as pointed out by Michael Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the references do not go unnoticed . . . by Americans, some of whom are offended and one of whom has a commanding officer who refers to the weapons with Trijicon sights as “spiritually transformed firearms of Jesus Christ”, and also by the Taliban and mujahadeen, who can claim that the United States is waging a “Christian war against Islam”.
Major General William Nash (Retired), who commanded a battalion in Desert Storm, comments that many groups provide Bibles, Torahs, and the Koran to soldiers.
I have no problem with that. But I do have a problem with military equipment being labeled in such a way that it seems like it’s “our god against their god”.
Nash continued, saying that Trijicon should be required by the Pentagon to remove the inscriptions from the sights or be penalized for failure to do so.
Third, these sights are being used to train Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. Once again, this can be seen as an attempt to proselytize.
What about Trijicon?
Trijicon isn’t shy about promoting “Biblical values”. On its “About” page, Trijicon states (in part):
TRIJICON’S VISION Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom.
TRIJICON’S MISSION Guided by our values, we will continue to be a leader in the design and manufacture of high quality, innovative sighting systems for use by Law Enforcement, Military and Individual customers.
TRIJICON’S VALUES • Honesty/Integrity We will be honest, dependable, trustworthy and fair towards each other, our employees, our customers and our suppliers.
…
• Morality We believe that America is great when its people are good. This goodness has been based on biblical standards throughout our history and we will strive to follow those morals.
Apparently, “honesty” doesn’t extend to making it clear to their customers that they’re proselytizing . . . According to the ABC News report, representatives of the Army and Marines indicated that they had no knowledge of the inscriptions.
Trijicon’s response?
To ABC:
Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.”
The contractor that makes the equipment, Trijicon of Wixom, Mich., said the U.S. military has been a customer since 1995 and the company has never received any complaints about the Scripture citations.
“We don’t publicize this,” Tom Munson, Trijicon’s director of sales and marketing, said in an interview. “It’s not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, ‘Yes, it’s there.’”
ABC News did find multiple gun enthusiast websites where reviewers extolled Trijicon for being Christian and including the verses on all of their sights . . . so it’s apparently not unknown.
We are aware of the issue and are concerned with how this may be perceived. We will meet with the vendor to discuss future sight procurements.
Maj. John Redfield, spokesperson for CentCom (the U.S. military’s overall command in Iraq and Aghanistan), had a different perspective.
The perfect parallel that I see is between the statement that’s on the back of our dollar bills, which is ‘In God We Trust,’ and we haven’t moved away from that. Unless the equipment that’s being used that has these inscriptions proved to be less than effective for soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and military folks using it, I wouldn’t see why we would stop using that.
Video of this story is available HERE. Unfortunately, ABC’s videos do not allow for embedding; we apologize for the inconvenience.
Additional Information:
A quick review of Trijicon’s site allows us to spot another Scripture reference on the ACOG:
Preaching in his military uniform before a religious congregation in Oregon this June, General Boykin proclaimed, “we’re a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian. Did I say Judeo-Christian? Yes. Judeo-Christian.”
He continued, “The enemy that has come against our nation is a spiritual enemy. His name is Satan. And if you do not believe that Satan is real, you are ignoring the same Bible that tells you about God.”
To that same congregation, still in military uniform, General Boykin said of George W. Bush that, “He was appointed by God” to be leader of the United States.
To another religious group in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, General Boykin declared that the true enemy in George W. Bush’s wars “is the principalities of darkness. It is a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy.”
In a religious flyer, General Boykin is quoted as saying, “Bin Laden is not the enemy. No mortal is the enemy. It’s the enemy you can’t see. It’s a war against the forces of darkness.”
Comparing himself to a follower of Islam, General Boykin offers the taunt that “my God is bigger than his.”
According to a Charisma News Service report of June 4, 2002, Boykin told to the Community Prayer Breakfast in Fort Myers that in executing the wars of George W. Bush, “It is a spiritual enemy we have to contend with. Now is the time to fight.”
The churches videotaped and distributed Boykin’s speeches, and it wasn’t long before his personal testimony became public controversy. One story he told about chasing warlords in Somalia 10 years ago came across as belittling the Muslim faith.
This is what Boykin said about one Somali warlord who believed Allah would protect him from being captured by Americans: “I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.”
Boykin claims he was talking about how the warlord worshipped money and power instead of a deity.
Was he trying to make it seem like his God was against theirs?
“No, that’s not what I meant at all. Look, I’m a Christian. I make no apologies for that,” says Boykin. “But I’m also not foolish enough to deliberately offend or in any way ostracize any religion. … I’m not anti-Islam, I’m not anti-Allah.”
Does he believe Allah is a lesser God than the Christian God?
“I’m not going to go into that,” says Boykin. “I’m a Christian. That speaks for itself.”
But this message isn’t quite what he delivered to church groups.
In churches all across the country, Boykin told riveting stories of how God sustains Americans in battle. “Before we launched that first mission, we all prayed ‘God go with us. God keep your hands on us,’” said Boykin in one speech.
He tells the congregation that when he was a young captain, God actually spoke to him, telling him to join the Army’s elite Delta Force: “There are times when God speaks to you in an audible voice. He spoke to me that morning because I said, ‘Satan is gathering his forces.’ He said, ‘Yes, son, but so am I.’ And I knew I was to be there.”
Sounds like Boykin believes his imaginary friend is taking sides against the enemy’s imaginary friend . . . and the enemy just happens to always be non-Christian. Coincidence?
UPDATE: Trijicon announced today (January 21) that it will immediately stop adding Biblical references to products sold to the military and provide kits for the removal of the references on existing scopes.
There’s a little song we all know. It goes, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
If Jesus, as this Feelgooder tune claims, truly loves all the children of the world, why does He allow billions of them to be born with no chance of Salvation?
“What’s that?” you ask. “No, no, everyone has an equal chance at Salvation. The vast majority of people just choose Hell instead of Jesus.”
Let’s investigate that, shall we?
Two classes of little children are, according to the Bible, condemned to eternal torture in the Pit of Hell by virtue of being born: Those who do not choose Jesus, and those who are illegitimate. Loopholes exist for some who fail to choose Jesus, but never for a bastard.
We’re watching the news so you don’t have to. In this post, we’ll collect all the ongoing coverage we find of the Houston protest of the new Planned Parenthood headquarters. We’ll put the latest updates at the TOP.
If you find something we’ve missed, please let us know in the comments so we can add it!
In the largest anti-abortion protest held in Houston in years, several thousand people on Monday marched, prayed and kept silent.
The protesters scrawled the word “life” on red tape across their mouths to convey their opposition to what they called an “abortion super center” that Planned Parenthood will open in a six-story building on the Gulf Freeway in March.
After the protesters had walked silently through the Third Ward and encircled the sidewalks of the new six-acre facility, organizer Lou Engle used the Martin Luther King holiday to accuse Planned Parenthood of locating the new facility in a predominantly Hispanic and black area to target minorities for abortion services.
“Planned Parenthood is devaluing minorities. The organization sees them as more economically vulnerable to their community of death,” said Engle, adding that a disportionate number of minorities have abortions compared to whites.
Planned Parenthood, however, said the former Sterling Bank building was chosen as its new flagship and administrative headquarters because it is easily accessible and will double its space.
“There is an increasing need for affordable health care in Houston and Harris County because we have more uninsured residents than any other area in the nation,” said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla.
But anti-abortion speakers told a parking-lot full of protesters waving flags and signs before the march that the new clinic was the next civil rights battleground.
Rates among minorities
According to Planned Parenthood, last year slightly more than 8,000 abortions were performed in its Houston region, which includes two clinics in Louisiana. The agency reported 34 percent of the abortion clients were Anglo; 25 percent were black; and 34 percent Hispanic. The black and Hispanic abortion rates were slightly higher than their overall population percentages in Harris County.
“This is because minorities often have more unintended pregnancies. Perhaps because they do not have the same access to birth control,” Tafolla said.
She pointed to a 2008 nationwide report that showed a 29 percent increase in women below the poverty level having unintended pregnancies compared to a 20 percent decrease in women 200 percent above the poverty level.
Houston currently has Planned Parenthood clinics in Midtown (which will be replaced by the new one), Greenspoint and Bellaire, and there are also some in far outlying areas such as Lufkin, Huntsville and Bryan.
Protesters on Monday also questioned why Houston was selected for the Gulf Freeway clinic that they believe will be the largest abortion facility in the Western Hemisphere.
However, Tafolla disputes that point. While the new facility will be Planned Parenthood’s largest health care center in the U.S., only two floors will be dedicated for clinical space. The facility also will be the organization’s administrative headquarters for 35 counties in Southeast Texas and Louisiana and provide other services from birth control to screening for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.
…
The new facility can perform abortions up to the 24th week — which upsets opponents — but Tafolla said the new center won’t do any past the 19th week.
Engel and friend, in the majority-white crowd, continue to cynically claim that Planned Parenthood sited within a minority-dominated location not because the location was affordable and accessible, but because they are racist and trying to exterminate black and Hispanic people.
KHOU 11 provided no substantive updates, continuing to lead with a much smaller number than “several thousand”:
Hundreds of pro-life activists gathered in Houston Monday to protest a new Planned Parenthood clinic they’re calling an “abortion supercenter.”
The protesters, some of whom came from out of state, have been planning the rally for weeks. It was organized by The Call to Conscience, a pro-life group.
ABC 13 has an updated video and write-up. As noted below, ABC 13’s videos will not embed here (our site doesn’t recognize the coding). We apologize for the inconvenience.
The video closes with:
These protesters weren’t here just to protest the fact that abortions will be performed in this building. They also protested where this clinic is located, in the heart of two minority communities in Houston. [We'll get into that, and tell you a little about what these protesters said, tonight at 6.]
The promised additional coverage on the 6:00 PM newscast did not make it to the website, and the bracketed sentence was stricken from the printed transcript on the website.
Click2Houston.com still has no coverage.
MyFoxHouston.com did not update coverage.
foxnews.com’s latest includes a rebuttal from Planned Parenthood regarding the siting issue:
“Planned Parenthood chooses locations based on the greater community’s need for our services and there is great demand in the Houston area. More than 1 million residents in Harris County lack health insurance and half are of reproductive age. Clients come to our health centers from all over Harris County, not just the neighborhoods near our facility.
“Women need to have a voice in what happens to their own bodies, which is why abortion remains legal right now,” the statement reads.
You’ll note that Fox News estimates 3,000-4,000 protesters, as compared to the 5,000-10,000 projected by organizers.
Please follow the above link to view the video. Unfortunately, Fox News does not allow for embedding of their videos. We apologize for the inconvenience.
2:10 PM PST:
Local coverage appears to be turned from the press conference at the future Planned Parenthood facility due to a two-alarm fire presently destroying a car dealership. We hope no one was injured.
12:10 PM PST:
MyFoxHouston.com has coverage, but not on the front page, not even the “local” top stories. Their video coverage is sponsored by A-Better Bail Bonds . . . and hasn’t been updated since early this morning. It’s a fairly balanced coverage giving good background, and including a clip of an interview from Planned Parenthood pointing out that only 5-7% of Planned Parenthood’s business is abortion-related.
11:35 AM PST:
New video at KHOU:
A write-up covering the same information is available at theKHOU-11 website.
Protest organizers are reported as complaining that Planned Parenthood is siting this clinic within an 80%-racial-minority area, and tied this to accusations of racism. Planned Parenthood responded that the location was based on need for health services and the availability of real estate.
It is noted later in the report that the clinic is also located very near the University of Houston.
At 2:40, the anchorwoman (Melanie) asks a tough question of reporter Ted Oberg; he stumbles in trying to respond:
Melanie: “Ted, I’ve gotta ask you, you say they’re concerned about the building going up in a minority neighborhood. Do you know how many of the protestors are minorities?”
Ted: “Uh, I, I, I would say a good number, Melanie, but I, um, the, you know, it’s hard to tell, because all you can ever see is what’s in your immediate area, er, uh, I would say it’s m- predominately an Anglo crowd, but uh, there is a good number, er, there is a large representation from Latino and African-American communities.”
(Unfortunately, the embed link from ABC 13’s video does not work on this site. Please follow the link below to watch the video. Our apologies for the inconvenience.)
At present, KPRC 2 (click2houston.com) has no coverage.
9:30 AM PST:
So far, other than last night’s news, the most we’ve found is KHOU-11’s soundless helicopter video of the pre-march rally:
More to come, no doubt! Check this post regularly for more . . . and if you find something we’ve overlooked, please let us know in the comments so we can add it!
“Johnnyvoodoo” has placed a hand-made Pat Robertson voodoo doll up for auction on eBay. All proceeds from this eBay Giving Works auction go to the American Red Cross.
You heard it here first . . . Unless you already know, in which case, well, bully for you.
Finally! What you’ve all been asking for! A one of a kind, handmade PAT ROBERSTON VOODOO DOLL.
After an exclusive deal with devil, we are finally able to bring black magic into your very own home! The lucky winner of this auction will attain the soul of Televangelist PAT ROBERTSON in a handheld figurine comprised of the finest straw, cloth, and other organic natural materials!
Ever wanted to cause Pat Robertson a massive headache? give him back pain? jab him in the crotch? Of course you have! Well then BID NOW to own your very own pysical representation of the dark, dark soul of Pat Robertson. Accessories included with the doll are Pat’s very own “HOLY” BIBLE and BAG OF MONEY taken from real Americans! WOW!
BID NOW!!!!
My previous attempt to auction this item was canceled by eBay due to a policy violation, which I apologize for….
“The purpose of the eBay Web site is to enable members to buy and sell items from each other. Listings that do not offer an item for sale through the site, or that are designed for any other purpose, are not permitted. For example, listings for invisible or intangible items are not permitted. Buyers should be able to verify the existence of an item they bought when they receive it. “
I am sorry, I can not prove the soul’s existence. Therefore I am now relisting the doll with just this description…
This item is a PAT ROBERTSON VOODOO DOLL. All proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders. To learn more about Doctors Without Borders, visit…
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
As of this writing, there are 47 43 bidders, with a high bid of $500 710.00.
The auction closes January 26 at 11:00 PST January 29 at 16:21 PST.
Lest you worry that Johnnyvoodoo is trying to make a quick buck off a tragedy, the auction is officially an “eBay Giving Works” auction handled by “MissionFish“:
At eBay, we think it’s a whole lot easier to do good in the world when you have someone to help you out. MissionFish is an organization that powers the eBay Giving Works program. It screens all nonprofits wishing to become members and processes all donations that result from successful eBay Giving Works listings, as well as Donate Now and Give at Checkout donations.
MissionFish collects eBay members’ donations and makes sure that every donation gets to the intended nonprofit, so nonprofits can focus on their missions.
And because MissionFish is a nonprofit itself, 100% of your donation amount is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Would you like to raise funds for your favorite secular organization on eBay? Maybe you have a great idea for a unique auction, too.
On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, anti-abortion advocates will rally and march to protest a soon-to-open Planned Parenthood clinic, claiming that abortion is racist.
This weekend, evangelical Christian Lou Engle and his organization, Call to Conscience (or The Call, for short), is holding a prayer vigil for all anti-abortion Texans at Grace Community Church. The real fun comes Monday morning:
On January 18th, at 9:30am on Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday, we will gather by the thousands to launch a silent prayer march through the streets to the abortion “super center” for the nationwide press conference and prayer stand. As Martin Luther King Jr. would proclaim it – It is time to “subpoena the conscience” of the nation from the flashpoint of Houston, Texas. Maybe Houston could become the Birmingham of our day to let the unborn go free and spare the pregnant mother the agony of guilt.
God has a dream. He has a dream for America and He has a dream for every mother and every child and a six-story massive abortion facility has never been a part of that dream.
The 78,000 square foot building, currently undergoing renovations, will include a wing in which abortions will be performed. As at all other Planned Parenthood clinics, other services such as birth control, prenatal care, adoption services, HIV/STD testing, pregnancy planning, and general health care are to be offered.
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, is known for her commitment to Eugenics, the concept of selectively breeding humans to eliminate undesirable characteristics and promote those which are found useful. Even though Eugenics was well-supported in the early 20th century here in the United States, the system is invariably tied to the group which most vigorously promoted it . . . Germany’s Nazis, who went far beyond selective breeding and moved to selective execution.
Liberty Counsel provides a convenient summation of some of Ms. Sanger’s more tasteless comments from the first half of the 20th century, upon which anti-choice advocates focus:
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, said: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” (Sanger’s letter to Clarence J. Gamble, 1939, December). In Pivot of Civilization, Sanger referred to immigrants and Roman Catholics as reckless breeders: “[They’re] an unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.” (Sanger, p.187). In Women and the New Race, Sanger wrote, “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” (Sanger, p. 63). In her publication, Birth Control Review, Sanger advocated creating farms to segregate “unfit” people to “safeguard” citizens from “heredity taints.”
• The real hope of the world lies in putting as painstaking thought into the business of mating as we do into other big businesses.
• War, famine, poverty and oppression of the workers will continue while woman makes life cheap. They will cease only when she limits her reproductivity and human life is no longer a thing to be wasted.
• No despot ever flung forth his legions to die in foreign conquest, no privilege-ruled nation ever erupted across its borders, to lock in death embrace with another, but behind them loomed the driving power of a population too large for its boundaries and its natural resources.
A balanced article examining Sanger’s legacy, including her thoughts on “inferiors”, may be found at Women’s E-News. A sample for you:
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has been protective of Margaret Sanger’s reputation and defensive of allegations that she was a racist. They correctly point out that many of the attacks on Sanger come from anti-choice activists who have an interest in distorting both Sanger’s work and that of Planned Parenthood. While it is understandable that Planned Parenthood would be protective of their founder’s reputation, it cannot ignore the fact that Sanger edited the Birth Control Review from its inception until 1929. Under her leadership, the magazine featured articles that embraced the eugenicist position. If Sanger were as anti-eugenics as Planned Parenthood says she was, she would not have printed as many articles sympathetic to eugenics as she did.
The articles published in the Birth Control Review showed Sanger’s empathy with some eugenicist views. Margaret Sanger worked closely with W.E.B. Du Bois on his “Negro Project,” an effort to expose Southern black women to birth control. Mary McLeod Bethune and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. were also involved in the effort. Much later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accepted an award from Planned Parenthood and complimented the organization’s efforts. It is entirely possible that Sanger’s views evolved over time. Certainly, by the late 1940s, she spoke about ways to solve the “Negro problem” in the United States. This evolution, however commendable, does not eradicate the impact of her earlier statements.
What, then, is Sanger’s legacy?
You’ll have to read the article to find out.
Now you know why the protest is scheduled for MLK, Jr. Day. Even though the man himself received an award from Planned Parenthood and praised their efforts — no doubt with knowledge of Sanger’s statements made before his time — predominantly white anti-choice groups still cynically play the race card and claim that Planned Parenthood is founded on attempts to eradicate non-whites and must, therefore, be continuing in that vein.
Ebon Musings demonstrates that God must have created evil intentionally.
While doing a little homework on the Pearly Gates (at the entrance to “the New Jerusalem”, Revelation 21, not “Heaven”, the abode of Yahweh), I ran across the Ebon Musings site. The author puts forth an interesting paradox for those who follow any one of the Abrahamic religions:
The theist might answer that the free will in Heaven is some different kind of free will, superior to the kind we have on Earth. Perhaps the people there are gifted with perfect knowledge, or perfect empathy, or something of the sort, or perhaps we are transformed by being in the presence of God, or perhaps we receive new bodies immune to the temptations of sin (some Christians believe exactly this and call it “glorification”) – so that people in Heaven are either no longer able to commit sins or are able to avoid doing so, yet retain their free will in other things. But of course, this begs the question: Why didn’t God create us with this kind of free will in the first place and thus not have to create a Hell at all?
No Christian or other theist has ever been able to resolve this paradox. Assuming Heaven exists, there are only four options to choose from:
There is both sin and free will in Heaven.
There is sin but no free will in Heaven.
There is free will but no sin in Heaven.
There is neither free will nor sin in Heaven.
Together, these four options exhaust all possibilities, and therefore one of them must be true. The only remaining question, then, is which of the four is the correct one.
I have argued on theological grounds that option (1) is unacceptable to Heaven-believing theists, and I know of no theist who disputes that conclusion. (Option (2) is simply absurd and will not be considered.) I have additionally argued that (4) is likewise unsatisfactory because it would make Heaven an undesirable goal for many, and because it contradicts the free will theodicy, a key teaching of most religions, which states that God wants beings who freely choose to love him and not “robots” programmed to do so. Again, I know of no member of these religions who is challenging that. Therefore, the only conclusion is that the correct solution is (3).
But theists who accept this solution have stepped into a trap. Now consider this argument:
By (3) above, it is possible for God to create free-willed beings without the possibility of evil.
According to the free will theodicy, evil arises from the actions of free-willed beings.
By (I) and (II), God deliberately chose to create free-willed beings who would commit evil acts, even though he had the option of doing otherwise.
Conclusion: God wanted evil to exist.
And a being that would want evil to exist is itself evil.
Very nice. Much, much more at the site . . . Enjoy!
We’ve done some more digging, and added more historical facts to our article on Pat Robertson and the Haitian Pact with Santa . . . er, Satan. In our research, we found that leading Religious Right Wingnut publication WorldNetDaily has made an unexpected move, leading us to question the sincerity of their insanity . . . and found an equally shocking revelation via the Christian Post.
Heinl & Heinl's Haitian History
WorldNetDaily has even come out against Robertson, quoting the 2005 published articles of a Haitian minister — Jean R. Gelin, PhD — and historian who dispels several myths. We tracked down those papers and provided links and more information about the Satanic pact myth, including a very different version of Dutty Boukmann’s prayer than we’d first found.
Yes, WingNutDaily. AGAINST Pat Robertson. Really.
Also, the Christian Post reports that two prominent Southern Baptist leaders have harshly condemned Robertson’s remarks.
Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas called Robertson arrogant during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday.
“It is absolute arrogance to try to interpret any of God’s actions as a judgment against this person or that person,” the Southern Baptist minister said. “ Our duty as Christians is to try to help these people pray for these people and to help them.”
Some more meaty comments came from Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Mohler points out that Haiti does have an extensive history with voodoo, and that we know God will judge sinners. However,
. . . we have no right to claim that we know why a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti happened at just that place and at just that moment.
We can trace the effects of a drunk driver to a car accident, but we cannot trace the effects of voodoo to an earthquake – at least not so directly.
Why did no earthquake shake Nazi Germany? Why did no tsunami swallow up the killing fields of Cambodia? Why did Hurricane Katrina destroy far more evangelical churches than casinos? Why do so many murderous dictators live to old age while many missionaries die young?
We understand Bill Tam’s position. He’s a bigot who wants to launch a campaign in which he spends his time disparaging the “diseased and Satanic” relationships of others . . . but when he’s not in front of a camera crew, he wants everyone to just leave him alone.
That’s why we’ve produced this warning sticker, to be sure that anyone seeing Dr. Tam on the street knows that he only wants publicity if it comes with a prime-time news show host. If you’re not Barbara Walters, he’s not interested in talking to you. You scare him. Strangers are scary.
If you’re interested in the Proposition 8 trial underway in California, head on over to http://prop8trialtracker.com/ and read a daily liveblog of the trial.
From the site:
The Prop 8 Trial Tracker is a project of the Courage Campaign Institute, which is a part of the Courage Campaign’s online organizing network of more than 700,000 supporters in California and across the country.
Throughout the Perry v Schwarzenegger trial, the Prop 8 Trial Tracker will cover the trial live from the courthouse and document and respond to right-wing attacks on the process. The Prop 8 Trial Tracker has already attracted coverage from New Yorker, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Atlantic Online’s Andrew Sullivan, and various other media outlets and blogs. Check back throughout the Prop 8 trial for live coverage to the trial as it happens as well as rapid response to right-wing organizations like Yes on Prop 8, the National Organization for Marriage and Focus on the Family.
The primary contributors are Rick Jacobs, Chair of the Courage Campaign Institute, Robert Cruickshank, Public Policy Director, and Julia Rosen, Online Political Director. Paul Hogarth and Brian Leubitz are also contributing legal analysis and other content to the Prop 8 Trial Tracker. Eden James, the Courage Campaign Institute’s Managing Director, is providing logistical support and occasional content.
Please send tips our way at prop8trial@couragecampaign.org or follow us on Twitter @CourageCampaign .
Lunatic Pat Robertson is at it again, this time claiming that the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti had nothing to do with the shifting of tectonic plates, but is God’s revenge. For what, you wonder?
PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.” True story. And so, the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.”
And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now, we’re helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.
That’s right. God is angry because Haitians, former slaves brought to the one-time French colony, made a pact with Robertson’s imaginary nemesis to kick the French out of Haiti in 1791 (initial slave revolt, rejoining France in 1794) and again in 1804 (for good this time).
Boukman - Inviter of God's Wrath?
Robertson apparently bases this assessment on the “voodoo priest” status of Boukman, the early leader of the 1791 slave revolt:
Boukman (also Boukmann, Dutty Boukman or Zamba Boukman) was a leader of the rebellion in its initial stages, he is reputed to have led a vodou ceremony together with the mambo Cecile Fatiman at Bois Caïman on August 22, 1791 which signaled the start of the rebellion . . . Other participants at the Bois Caïman ceremony were Georges Biassou, Jeannot Bullet and Jean François Papillon, all of which were leaders of the early Haitian Revolution.
Boukman’s prayer, as reported, is clearly Satanic!
“The god who created the earth; who created the sun that gives us light.The god who holds up the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds; who watch us from where you are. You see all that the white has made us suffer. The white man’s god asks him to commit crimes. But the god within us wants to do good. Our god, who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It’s He who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It’s He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the white men’s god who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice for liberty that sings in all our hearts.”
Good Lord who hath made the sun that shines upon us, that riseth from the sea, who maketh the storm to roar; and governeth the thunders, The Lord is hidden in the heavens, and there He watcheth over us. The Lord seeth what the blancs have done. Their god commandeth crimes, ours giveth blessings upon us. The Good Lord hath ordained vengeance. He will give strength to our arms and courage to our hearts. He shall sustain us. Cast down the image of the god of the blancs, because he maketh the tears to flow from our eyes. Hearken unto Liberty that speaketh now in all your hearts.
If it’s not praising Robertson’s imaginary friend, it is praising Robertson’s imaginary friend’s imaginary nemesis . . . SATAN, the freer of slaves! SATAN, the Lord of Liberty! (Um, OK.)
God, of course, decided to wait two hundred and six years before wreaking his vengeance with the earthquake, until every one of the people who prayed to someone other than him — and got what they prayed for — was long dead. After all, as Robertson will tell you, the sins of the fathers are laid at the feet of the sons:
19 Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.
20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
Oh, wait. No, it doesn’t say that at all! It says that the sins of the father shall NOT be borne by the children! Could Robertson be wrong again?
And what of the Christian church group members who were “missioning” in Haiti, many of whom are also dead or missing? Did God smite them by accident? Does he have bad aim? Or were they all secretly there to join in the devil-worship?
Apparently, God’s not in favor of Catholic missionaries . . .
Two Americans with another church were rescued from the rubble of their mission house.
Jillian Thorp and Charles Dietsch of the Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, were pulled from the remains of the three-story house after a night of digging by four mission workers, Thorp’s father said.
Christian churches weren’t spared, either.
The pastoral staff at Free Chapel, a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Georgia, used Skype on Tuesday night to reach Bobby and Sherry Burnette, the couple who run the church’s permanent mission in Haiti, Executive Pastor Richie Hughes said.
“Our work there suffered different levels of damage,” Hughes said. “The housing areas are OK, minor damage, but one of the churches connected was destroyed.”
Robertson appears to have no explanation for the 200-year delay in God’s Wrath; however, we fully expect him to pay a visit to Haiti in the next few days. After all,
Psalm 58:10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Now, you can join Robertson in prayers praising God for punishing the evil devil-worshipping Haitians, and washing your feet in their blood, or you can do something real and useful.
Why not join us in donating to the Red Cross’s Haitian Relief Fund, or perhaps to Partners in Health? Or how about the Center for Inquiry’s “Skeptics & Humanists Aid and Relief Effort” (SHARE), which will forward 100% of donations to Doctors without Borders? Just click the image below!
UPDATE! Even WorldNetDaily is now coming out against Robertson’s bizarre remarks. They reviewed the work of Dr. Jean R. Gelin, a distinguished Haitian Christian minister and researcher. In a 2005 series of articles on the subject, Gelin wrote:
Obviously, the idea that Haiti was dedicated to Satan prior to its independence is a very serious and profound statement with potentially grave consequences for its people in terms of how they are perceived by others or how the whole nation is understood outside its borders. One would agree that such a strong affirmation should be based on solid historical and scriptural ground. But, although the satanic pact idea is by far the most popular explanation for Haiti’s birth as a free nation, especially among Christian missionaries and some Haitian church leaders, it is nothing more than a fantastic opinion that ultimately dissipates upon close examination.”
Gelin continued,
The worst part of the whole picture is that the story is believed by many sincere Christians in America and around the world; and not only do they believe it, they also spread it as fact.
We did a little hunting, and found Gelin’s articles, “God, Satan, and the Birth of Haiti” here: Part I, Part II, and Part III.
Perhaps Robertson believes the stories of the Iron Pig?
For quite some time now, several articles on the Internet have mentioned the existence of an iron pig statue in Port-au-Prince as a monument to commemorate Haiti’s so-called pact with the devil through Vodou. The statue would be in remembrance of a pig that was killed during the gathering by the African slaves. In an effort to know more about that rumor, I contacted several authors about the exact location of the pig statue that’s incidentally nowhere to be found in the country. Their answer was complete silence, a simple apology, or just the removal of the reference from their texts.
Gelin continues dispelling the myth in Part II.
The proponents of the supposed pact continuously refer to the Bois-Caïman gathering as the place where the satanic contract supposedly took place, even in the absence of solid historical evidence save their own prolific imagination. After extensive research on Haiti and several visits to the country, American writer Robert Heinl and his wife Nancy Heinl published in 1978 a volume on the Haitian revolution that deals with several aspects of Haiti’s painful history including the Bois-Caïman meeting. According to these authors, Bookman sought the help of the God of heaven in his prayer, and made no mention whatsoever of a spiritual agreement with Satan. Even though the text shows Bookman was talking to the creator and not the devil, some would still contend that he could not have been really talking to God because – the way they see it – Bookman did not know God as they think they know Him.
In addition to the complete absence of any reference to Satan or to a spiritual pact in Bookman’s prayer, there are two other problems associated with such an interpretation of the available records. First, those who hold that view say implicitly that God was in favor of slavery in Saint-Domingue whereas Satan himself was against it. How would they know? And how could that be?
The second difficulty of that position lies in the fact that God is above all as the God and creator of all. What do I mean? The Bible contains many instances where God was involved with or answered the sincere prayers of people who were not partakers of His existing covenant but nevertheless acknowledged His existence, power and character. The supremacy and sovereignty of God is a central and undeniable truth in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. To deny this fact would be to lean toward what I call tribal theology, usually conceived or expressed in terms like these: if you are not a registered member of our church and if you do not serve and worship God the way we do, God cannot and will not answer your prayers.
Whether you believe that gods and devils are real or not, there is no evidence other than the testimony of humiliated French soldiers to support the assertion that Haitians made a pact with anybody in 1791.
Sorry to interrupt your excited reading of stories about the antics of the religious right with this announcement . . . but you AND your friends can now follow us on Twitter AND Facebook!
Check for the buttons in the sidebar!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled fundamentalism-bashing.
In a move which broke Irony Meters nationwide, a leading anti-abortion advocate declared Nancy Pelosi “crazy” for questioning certain Catholic Church teachings.
Did Nancy doubt that when a man in a dress puts a cracker in an ornamental metal device called a “monstrance” and says magic words, it turns magically into the flesh of Jesus, the invisible Son of God, even though it still looks exactly like a cracker?
. . . the Roman Catholic Church teaches that once an ordained priest blesses the bread of the Lord’s Supper, it is transformed into the actual flesh of Christ (though it retains the appearance, odor, and taste of bread); and when he blesses the wine, it is transformed into the actual blood of Christ (though it retains the appearance, odor, and taste of wine).
Did she instead question the belief that a dead woman, who had multiple children yet remained a virgin (they were very small, slipped right past her hymen) was slurped before death into a magical wonderland about 2,000 years ago, where she spends all of eternity listening to people whine about their problems and occasionally putting in random Earthly appearances in tortillas, tree stumps, used condoms, or the middle of the sun?
Nah. Everybody knows THAT is true!
Did she consider it odd for people to cart pieces of dead people around the world so congregations can touch them for good luck?
Nah. Every good Catholic knows about relics!
So why is Nancy crazy? She seems to believe all the same bizarre, evidence-free things as Sedlak.
Oh, Nancy thinks that making abortion illegal restricts the “free will” of women.
Hmm, yes, I suppose it does. Sedlak rebuts:
Just because you have free will does not mean that you always make the right decision. I think she is very, very confused over what free will is and what free will would allow her to do and still be in good standing with the Catholic Church.
Free will, last time I checked, was the ability to decide for yourself what you wish to do. Free will, in the religious sense, means being able to choose to follow the dictates of one imaginary friend or another, or NOT follow those dictates, or pick a new imaginary friend.
Pelosi is spot on. Yes, making abortion illegal WOULD restrict the free will of young women. This is a fact. Whether their particular imaginary friends might like it or not does not change this fact.
I can certainly agree that Pelosi is a little whacked in the head. I think many of her ideas are completely off the wall . . . But she’s no more nuts than Sedlak, so far as I can tell!
A Malaysian court ruled that Christians could call God “Allah”. Now, Muslims are attacking Christian churches over the ruling.
According to the Shahada, or Islamic creed, “There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” However, even though Islam is a direct descendant of Judaism and claims to follow the same deity as the other Abrahamic religions, the Malaysian government had established a law forbidding non-Muslims from using the word “Allah” to refer to their imaginary friend.
The Roman Catholic Church of Malaysia publishes a newspaper, the Herald, in Malay, English, Mandarin, and Tamil. In the Malay edition, they translated “God” as “Allah”. However, the Malaysian Home Ministry declared it illegal for non-Muslims to use “Allah” and “God” interchangeably in literature, as this “could be misleading”. The Washington Times reports that a two-year court battle culminated in a December 31, 2009 ruling that this ban was unconstitutional, and that the Home Ministry was not authorized to institute this ban.
Today’s Herald focuses entirely on the fallout.
Top story: IGP Confirms Three Churches Hit; Police are urging for calm as they secure churches nationwide, after three were attacked with firebombs in separate pre-dawn incidents in the Klang Valley, which have been linked to protests against the recent “Allah” ruling.
Metro Tabernacle Assemblies of God church torched in Kuala Lumpur
But the increasingly-violent protests coming from the nation’s 60-percent Muslim majority are only part of the picture.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s office, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz commented on the case:
The Home Minister was definitely acting within his powers in exercising the ban, in view of public interest and sensitivities in order to avoid public unrest over the matter.
We have to take into consideration the culture and nature of Malaysia. What is considered normal in the United States and Europe is not necessarily normal here.
The Home Minister was doing the right thing, in making a decision to avoid public unrest and dissatisfaction among Muslims, who make up more than 60 per cent in this country.
Take the cow-head protests for example. If you look at it from a legal perspective, there seems to be nothing wrong with stepping on the head of a cow. But because a significant portion of this country’s citizens are Hindus, the government has taken action against the cow-head protestors.
In August of 2009, Malaysian Muslims grew angry because the Selangor state government relocated a Hindu temple to Section 23, a Muslim-dominated region. As a protest, carried and then stepped on/spit upon a severed cow head — an act offensive to Hindus, who consider cows sacred.
The Malaysian government claims it took action against the violent Muslim cow-stompers, just as they are now taking action to prevent more violent Muslim reactions. (Note: I can find no reference to the cow-head protestors facing any legal action.)
Nazri added:
If you do want to use the word God in Bahasa Malaysia, God is Tuhan. I don’t understand why you want to use Allah.
The Malay word for God is Tuhan. Of course Muslims are not satisfied. For 50 plus years after independence this issue has never cropped up before.
Nazri closed by stating that the Catholic insistence upon using “Allah” was irresponsible, and looking for trouble.
An article in today’s Malaysian Insider reflects this view. Akhramsyah Muammar Ubaidah bin Sanusi writes an opinion piece ominously titled: “Torched Churches: Reaping What is Sown”.
JAN 10 – Churches are now being torched, four at last count. I believe more churches will be torched, stoned, graffitied, sullied, picketed, etc, for as long as the use of the word “Allah” by the Catholic church issue is not resolved to the satisfaction of Muslims in this country.
…
Now, there has been calls for calm from the Malay “leadership”. Unfortunately, Malays may choose not to listen to the same leadership that has continuously failed to defend their rights or to correct past wrongs against them.
…
And for the Catholic Church to then venture down the silly path of robbing Malays of the exclusive use of the word Allah … Malays may be lobbing molotov cocktails at all churches indiscriminately, but this is only fair.
It is not just the Catholic church that is responsible for this Malay anger, but also the Protestant and Evangelical (that have no use for Allah, to them, a pagan moon-god) for not joining ranks with Malays against the Catholic stand.
Soon…
* Malays will figure out that it is not just the fault of the churches, or the Christian heirarchy for robbing us of Allah, but the fault of all Christian congregations for letting their religious leaders continue to insult us.
* Malays will figure out that now that they’re in for a penny, might as well go for the pound by attacking Hindu temples for their original insults towards Malay communities by claiming the ‘historical right’ to build anywhere.
* Malays will believe since many non-Malays were sitting idle by the side allowing Malays to be insulted, maybe they should be reminded to that they are condoning these insults.
* Malays in organised mobs will turn on our leaders for being so limp in their defence of our rights.
* By then it would be too late, as even intelligent Malays will figure out that as we’re being accused of being racists anyway by the ungrateful children of ‘Pendatang’ in this country, might as be racists… the worst kind of racists…
Am I advocating violence? No I am not. I am saying that Malay violence is inevitable, at least if the current trend of apologising for Malay anger rather than addressing it continues.
And in this case, Christian dogma does ring true, one reaps what is sown. The seeds of discord had been sown in this country for far too long in the guise of quest for ‘equality’. And so it comes to pass that the road to hell is lined with ‘good’ intentions, or rather, pretentious excuses.
This is the state of religious freedom and tolerance in Malaysia today.
RAWANG, Jan 10 – A stone was thrown against a church in Miri today, making it the seventh attack in three days that is linked to the “Allah” ruling which has provoked Muslim anger. Earlier reports of an arson attack proved to be unfounded.
This is the first reported attack in East Malaysia where a large part of the population are Christians who worship in Bahasa Malaysia and also the ruling Barisan Nasional’s “fixed deposit” of votes and parliamentary seats in Election 2008.
Perennially psychotic prophet Pat Robertson has once again had a conversation with God, and blessed us with the results on his “700 Club” television program. Surprise: Wrath!
Robertson claims that his imaginary friend told him that America’s failure to become a Christian theocracy has led to its now inevitable decline:
“You can’t have your courts turn against me,” Robertson said the Lord told him. “You can’t have legislation that is anti-God. You can’t foster in your midst things that I call an abomination. You can’t do that. And if you do, sooner or later judgment’s going to come.”
Robertson said God will not bless a nation where abortion is commonplace, homosexuality is institutionalized and government-sanctioned prayer and Bible reading are banned in public schools.
“How can we pray for his blessing when we have that going on and when we have courts that have ruled repeatedly against him?” Robertson asked. “We have the Bible taken from the schools. We have prayer taken from the children, and now we have perversion that God calls an abomination — we have that legitimized and given a constitutional standing by the court.”
Robertson said he did receive a clear word about the economy.
“We are engaged in a slow time of financial ruin,” he said. “This country will be ultimately bankrupt. It’s just a question of how soon. We’re beginning that. That’s one thing that I can say for certain that is happening. It’s a dangerous thing. It’s going to hurt America very badly.”
Robertson, perhaps learning from his many pathetically incorrect prognostications, avoided specific predictions, moving instead into the fuzzy world of 900-number psychics everywhere. He also based this last prediction in the reality of human nature and the US government’s freewheeling deficit spending:
Robertson said it is a problem not so much of government policy but human greed.
“Can you imagine if you are getting Social Security that you would say I want my Social Security check to get cut?” he asked. “The problem is so many people right now are depending on the government for their support, and there’s nobody who wants to give up anything at all, and if anybody begins to suggest fiscal restraint, the people will rise up against them and vote them out of office. So you’ve got a situation where you can’t arrest this problem — the big financial problem — because the people don’t want it. Only a movement of God that brings in a spirit of self-sacrifice and a desire for the common good and some wisdom are we going to be spared this thing.”
Robertson claims he has a good record with his predictions . . . as he should, since he claims they’re coming directly from an omniscient, omnipotent Creator of the Universe. However, Robertson’s noted for many misses — near and far — over the decades.
As a past Paliban contributor reported one year ago, Robertson made a series of predictions for 2009. These included a rapid recovery of the economy (nope), $300/barrel oil (nope), hyperinflation (nope), weakening of Islam (nope), and gold at $1900/ounce (nope).
In November of 2008, that same contributor demonstrated clearly, with solid Biblical logic, that Pat Robertson must be a false prophet. Follow the link and giggle over a gaggle of Robertson’s Godly gaffes going back to 1980.
Pat Robertson’s predictions never fail to amuse. Sadly, they’re given far too much weight by his followers, broadcast on the 700 Club instead of being where they belong . . . alongside Bat Boy on the cover of the Weekly World News!
In 2009, Ireland made history with its great leap backward, imposing a 25,000-Euro fine on anyone convicted of the heinous charge of blasphemy . . . that is, offending the delicate sensibilities of someone else’s imaginary friend. The organization Atheist Ireland has posted 25 “blasphemous quotes” in a challenge to this ridiculous law.
As we reported in July, the Irish Constitution has always held a reference to the illegality of blasphemy. However, there was no punishment and no mechanism for enforcement specified. It was largely considered an anachronism . . . until 2009, when Ireland’s elected bodies decided to fix the problem not by sponsoring a referendum to remove the language, but by providing the opportunity for enforcement and punishment!
Atheist Ireland has provided a succinct history of the blasphemy law; reading this, written in May 2009, makes one wonder just how the law could ever have passed!
Blasphemy was a common law offence under Irish law when the 1937 Constitution explicitly made it an offence punishable by law. The Defamation of Act of 1961 also made it a statutory crime, but did not define what blasphemy was.
The 1996 Constitution Review Group called for the deletion of the crime of blasphemy from the Irish Constitution, along with other references to the Christian God, religion and religious oaths. Two other All-Party Committees have also called for the removal of religious references in the Constitution.
In 1999, the Supreme Court found the Irish law against blasphemy to be unenforceable. In 2008, the UK abolished its blasphemy law from which ours evolved. And the 2008 Irish All-Party Committee on the Constitution repeated the call to remove the blasphemy reference from our Constitution.
Just last year, Ireland voted at the UN against an attempt by Islamic states to make ‘defamation of religion’ a crime.
AI points out the dangers of this new law:
This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentivises religious outrage, and because Islamic States led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.
In October, Pat Condell commented on the blasphemy resolution put forth by Islamic states to the UN . . . one which, if accepted by member states, would trump the United States Constitution’s First Amendment!
On their new website, blasphemy.ie, Atheist Ireland has published its list of 25 blasphemous quotes. Ranging from luminaries known to exist like Mark Twain and Randy Newman to illustrious figures whose existence is a bit less certain like Jesus of Nazareth and Muhammed, there’s something to offend everyone who relies upon the purported reality of an all-powerful yet easily-offended imaginary friend.
A few of my personal favorites:
2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.
3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.”
11. Frank Zappa, 1989: “If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine – but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve been bad or good – and cares about any of it – to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.”
15. George Carlin, 1999: “Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!”
20. Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, 2006: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This statement has already led to both outrage and condemnation of the outrage. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world’s largest Muslim body, said it was a “character assassination of the prophet Muhammad”. The Malaysian Prime Minister said that “the Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created.” Pakistan’s foreign Ministry spokesperson said that “anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence”. The European Commission said that “reactions which are disproportionate and which are tantamount to rejecting freedom of speech are unacceptable.”
23. Ian O’Doherty, 2009: “(If defamation of religion was illegal) it would be a crime for me to say that the notion of transubstantiation is so ridiculous that even a small child should be able to see the insanity and utter physical impossibility of a piece of bread and some wine somehow taking on corporeal form. It would be a crime for me to say that Islam is a backward desert superstition that has no place in modern, enlightened Europe and it would be a crime to point out that Jewish settlers in Israel who believe they have a God given right to take the land are, frankly, mad. All the above assertions will, no doubt, offend someone or other.”
Please spread the word. Share your support of Atheist Ireland, and your condemnation of the ridiculous blasphemy law.
.
God, of course, decided to wait two hundred and six years before wreaking his vengeance with the earthquake, until every one of the people who prayed to someone other than him — and got what they prayed for — was long dead. After all, as Robertson will tell you, the sins of the fathers are laid at the feet of the sons:
Planet Atheism buttons
FAQ (includes joining info)
RSS feed
Email subscription
