Religious News/Quotes of the Day

[Dardedar]

Quite a collection:

Clergy Gone Wild

[Dardedar]

Phil over at Skeptic Money had this article:

Man Shunned By JW Family For 40 Years Then Kills Himself

This inspired me to write the following little rant about Jehovah's Witnesses.

***
Let me tell you a little about JW's. I grew up with this bunch and would have been a 5th generation one (which is far back as they go). And my family was hardcore. I stood up and said it was time to put an end to this idiocy.

Practicing JW's are mental zombies. They are an astonishingly totalitarian cult right in our midst. People have no idea. Read a Watchtower magazine sometime. It's brainwashing and programing written by idiots and intellectual cowards for the consumption of morons.

Practicing JW's are stupid. They are the lowest educated of all major religions with something like 4% holding advanced degrees. Education above high school is strongly discouraged because people tend to not go back and after all, why bother, "the end" is "just around the corner." Reading the Watchtower is not compatible with reading adult literature. If you read adult material you may come to the realization, correctly, that Witness material is childish and stupid.

How stupid are JW's? It's almost hard to grasp. If you were to enter a room filled with them it is a safe bet that you are the smartest person in the room. If you are a bit of a bright bulb, you may be smarter than all of them combined. Reading their material makes them even more stupid. They read a lot of it. To use a house analogy, these people are the mobile home of religions. And I am not talking about some fancy new double wide, I am talking an old stinking, leaning over, holes in the rotten floor, flea infested wobbly box. It is a religion for bottom feeders, intellectually.

As one famous religious writer put it:

"Anti-intellectualism among millenarians and Bible Literalists is a recurrent phenomenon, but no other religious movement in America ever has been as programmatically set against its intellect as are Jehovah's Witnesses. The Fundamentalist majority wing of the Southern Baptist Convention are devotees of pure reason compared to Jehovah's Witnesses."
-Harold Bloom, The American Religion, pg. 162

And:

"Though there are a number of rather savage apocalyptic scenarios current among American Fundamentalists, I am aware of none quite so inhumane as the Jehovah's Witnesses' accounts of the End of our Time. There is something peculiarly childish in these Watchtower yearnings: they remind me of why very small children cannot be left alone with wounded and suffering household pets." --Harold Bloom, The American Religion, pg. 169-170.

Also:

"A long acquaintance with the literature of the Witnesses leads one to the conclusion that they live in the intellectual `twilight zone'.... Whenever their literature strays onto the fields of philosophy, academic theology, science or any severe mental discipline their ideas at best mirror popular misconceptions, at worst they are completely nonsensical."
[Alan Rogerson, _Millions Now Living Will Never Die: A Study of Jehovah's Witnesses_, 1969, p. 116]

I say "practicing JW's" because most have left. They have a high turn over and thus there are far more ex-JW's or non-practicing JW's in the US than there are practicing ones. It's really hard to believe such horse manure. If you don't partake of the regular feast of mind numbingly stupid programming you tend to "fall away." They have to proselytize constantly to keep new idiots coming in. Plus, they learned this psychological trick early on: there is no better programming than self programing. Repeating the nonsense over and over has the profound effect of convincing the person doing the talking.

Those that get caught breaking a rule, something stupid like sending a birthday card, smoking a cigarette or celebrating a holiday, get disfellowshipped (shunned). An announcement is made and your social world is gone. This is distressful because they live in such a closed cultic society. This often leads to suicides and mental break down although it's not clear if the JW's in question were fucked in the head before hand or if trying to practice their idiotic religion made them fucked in the head. Note:

"Studies in the US suggest that Jehovah's Witnesses are more likely to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals than the general population. According to an article in the "British Journal of Psychiatry", they are three times more likely to be diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and four times more likely to be paranoid schizophrenics. As a writer in the American journal "Free Inquiry" puts it: "Either the Jehovah's Witness sect tends to attract an excess of pre-psychotic individuals who may then break down, or else being a Jehovah's Witness is itself a stress that may precipitate psychosis. Possibly both of these factors operate together."

And then to top it off, they think they are God's gift to the universe. Remember, Jehovah made this all for them. That's why he gave them his name, "Jehovah," in their title. They are his "Witnesses." You are all going to be destroyed in Armageddon and be thrown out with the garbage. They are the one true religion, everyone else works for Satan, they are precious, you are garbage (unless you get on their boat before it's too late). So as you would expect, along with all of the ignorance you will find a strong wiff of arrogance with these people. They are God's chosen ones after all.

Oh, and after their God kills you, they are going to get your stuff.

D.
----------------------
Here's a bonus story (there is no end of them):

"I was involved with the watchtower organization from age 7 to about 30. I had a "crisis of conscience" that started after I encouraged my wife to follow Watchtower policy and reject an organ transplant that doctors said would be required to save her life. With the transplant doctors gave her a 50% chance of recovery. Without the operation they gave her a 0% chance. The Watchtower forbade organ transplants in 1967.

My wife, Delores L. Busselman died on January 12, 1971at 26 years of age without a chance to recover.” --Gary Busselman (The ban on organ transplants was lifted in 1980)

Jehovah's Witness Recovery

Good JW roast:

http://www.jwfacts.com
http://www.freeminds.org
http://www.freedomofmind.com

[Dardedar]

Finally, the Vatican in glorious high definition and zoomable 3D. Pretty neat really.

LINK

[Doug]

[Dardedar]

Three minute video:

The real story of Jesus, from Questionable History.

[Dardedar]

How to respond to religious mail:

The Chive, angry emails

And:

"Politics only works when we're realigned with our Savior."
-- Senator Jim DeMint, LINK

[Dardedar]

Five minute video clip:

Atheist Comedy - Everyone's a Sinner

[Dardedar]

Saw it on Robert's facebook:

[Dardedar]

Science and religion aren't friends -USA Today

"The religious approach to understanding inevitably results in different faiths holding incompatible “truths” about the world. Many Christians believe that if you don’t accept Jesus as savior, you’ll burn in hell for eternity. Muslims hold the exact opposite: Those who see Jesus as God’s son are the ones who will roast. Jews see Jesus as a prophet, but not the messiah. Which belief, if any, is right? Because there’s no way to decide, religions have duked it out for centuries, spawning humanity’s miserable history of religious warfare and persecution.

In contrast, scientists don’t kill each other over matters such as continental drift. We have better ways to settle our differences. There is no Catholic science, no Hindu science, no Muslim science — just science, a multicultural search for truth. The difference between science and faith, then, can be summed up simply: In religion faith is a virtue; in science it’s a vice."

Science and religion aren't friends -USA Today

Saw it on: http://www.skepticmoney.com/

bonus:

[Dardedar]

Chilean miners: Rival churches claim credit for the miracle

Evangelical, Adventist and Catholic clerics are vying to stamp their own faith on the expected rescue of the trapped men

It is the race within the race: while rescuers inch towards the trapped miners rival churches tussle over the miracle in the making. Evangelical, Adventist and Catholic clerics are vying to stamp their own particular faith on a surge in religious fervour as the drama nears a climax in Chile's Atacama desert.

The three Christian denominations have each claimed credit for what they say is divine intervention in the survival – and expected imminent rescue – of the 33 men who have spent 67 days beneath the earth.

"God has spoken to me clearly and guided my hand each step of the rescue," said Carlos Parra Diaz, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor at the San Jose mine. "He wanted the miners to be rescued and I am His instrument."

The rest here

[Dardedar]

Tony Blair to debate with Hitchens

Tony Blair has agreed to share a platform with the British-born journalist, Christopher Hitchens, to argue over whether religion is a good thing generally, or not.

He and Mr Hitchens will go head-to- head in Toronto, where Mr Blair has fewer enemies, and the Iraq war is less of an issue.

[Dardedar]

Another reminder of why our freethinker work is never done (it's good to support the ACLU):

"In the early 1990s, after hearing my 5 year old daughter crying at night because she had a nightmare about Satan, I had to appeal to the ACLU to stop the “Bible Ladies” from spending at least an hour each week in her Arkansas public school classroom. I first called the principal, who said he could put my child in the library during their visits – I said it was unconstitutional, and I was not going to have my child ostracized while the school did something illegal. He said I was spineless if I didn’t give him my name, and he also said that because I wouldn’t give him my name, it was as if the phone call never happened. I immediately called the ACLU, and within a few days, the school sent a letter to the ACLU: the Bible Ladies were no longer allowed to disrupt classes."

--as seen in this thread on Skeptic Money

Also: Hitchens Brothers Debate If Civilization Can Survive Without God --Clip

Didn't know Hitchens had a religious brother. The guy admits that he couldn't be moral if there was no God, and that "there are lots of things he would do if he didn't think there was a God looking." Childish morality.

[Dardedar]

"Religion: Treat it like your penis. Don't show it off in public, and don't shove it down your children's throats."

[Dardedar]

Passed along from Paul:

***
This I always liked From "Jubal Harshaw" in "Stranger in a Strange Land", 1961:

"Religion is a solace to many people and it is even conceivable that some religion, somewhere, really is Ultimate Truth. But in many cases, being religious is merely a form of conceit. The Bible Belt faith in which I was brought up encouraged me to think that I was better than the rest of the world; I was 'saved' and they were 'damned' — we were in a state of grace and the rest of the world were 'heathens' and by 'heathen' they meant such people as our brother Mahmoud.

It meant that an ignorant, stupid lout who seldom bathed and planted his corn by the phase of the Moon could claim to know the final answers of the Universe. That entitled him to look down his nose at everybody else. Our hymn book was loaded with such arrogance — mindless, conceited, self-congratulation on how cozy we were with the Almighty and what a high opinion he had of us and us alone, and what hell everybody else was going to catch come Judgment Day."

[Dardedar]

Christians, Muslims and Jews urged to unite in a war against atheists

ITALIAN rationalists are demanding the resignation of the country’s Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini over incendiary remarks he made in an article he wrote for the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano.

Frattini, according to atheist Marc Alan di Martino’s blog, labelled atheists as “perverse” and a “threat to society”. Frattini called on Christians, Muslims and Jews to unite against secular “extremists” whom, he claimed, posed a grave threat to society.

This so “pissed off” di Martino that a wrote to President Giorgio Napolitano, complaining about Frattini. And he said this on his blog:

So it’s war he wants, and he’s rallying his homophobic, misogynistic friends at the Vatican against his fellow citizens in a holy alliance which is supposed to include their worst historical enemies, Jews and Muslims. I’m beginning to think we’ve entered a new phase of religious warfare on Earth: it’s no longer going to be Muslims vs Christians or skirmishes over minor doctrinal differences, but the faithful against the secular. The only thing they can agree on is that non-believers are the enemy (at least they can finally agree on something) of their unfounded truths.

He added:

I should point out Frattini’s howler in his call for a new humanism. Is he really unaware of the fact that almost all atheists are humanists? And that faith in the supernatural is by definition not humanism, because it relies on a power outside humanity to solve humanity’s problems? That’s why we call ourselves humanists.

The Freethinker UK

[Dardedar]

[Doug]

Chris Pinto, founder of Christian film company Adullam Films, rejects the notion of a Christian nation. In the recently released film, The Hidden Faith of the Founding Fathers, Pinto uses history to show the founding fathers were religious skeptics and often critical of the Bible.

Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, called the book of Revelations “the ravings of a maniac.” “Rights of Man” author Thomas Paine was also prone to penning anti-Christian writings. Scientist and early politician Benjamin Franklin was a member of English occult group The Hell Fire Club, notable for performing satanic rituals.

“They were not Christians according to the Bible,” Pinto insists.

He maintains that the founding fathers intended to create a secular government not meant to be idolized or espoused as Christian.

See here.

[Doug]

See here.

There are only a handful of priests in the country trained as exorcists, but they say they are overwhelmed with requests from people who fear they are possessed by the Devil.

Now, American bishops are holding a conference on Friday and Saturday to prepare more priests and bishops to respond to the demand. The purpose is not necessarily to revive the practice, the organizers say, but to help Catholic clergy members learn how to distinguish who really needs an exorcism from who really needs a psychiatrist, or perhaps some pastoral care.

“Not everyone who thinks they need an exorcism actually does need one,” said Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., who organized the conference. “It’s only used in those cases where the Devil is involved in an extraordinary sort of way in terms of actually being in possession of the person.

[Doug]

Pope: Male Prostitutes Can Use Condoms


"I like that purple one..."

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that condoms can be justified for male prostitutes seeking to stop the spread of HIV, a stunning comment for a church criticized for its opposition to condoms and for a pontiff who has blamed them for making the AIDS crisis worse.

The pope made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times," which is being released Tuesday. The Vatican newspaper ran excerpts on Saturday.

Church teaching has long opposed condoms because they are a form of artificial contraception, although it has never released an explicit policy about condoms and HIV. The Vatican has been harshly criticized for its opposition.

Benedict said that condoms are not a moral solution. But he said in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, they could be justified "in the intention of reducing the risk of infection."

See here.

[Doug]

See here for spin where the Vatican is already trying to walk back the Pope's comments on condoms.

One comment:
"The Vatican's ban on contraception remains, but Alberto Melloni, an Italian church historian, said Benedict "opened without a doubt a crack that cannot help but have consequences."

Many people are concerned that the Pope has opened this crack and suggested condom use.