Justifying Genocide

What kind of a thought process does it take to justify the systematic killing of an entire group of peoples? Ask William Lane Craig. Him and other Judao-Christian creationists believe that the genocides listed in the Bible are ok, since God ordered them. And, if they Israelites had not killed the Canaanites, they would have lived a sinful life, raising their children into it. This irrational train of thought really shows how low an unblinking acceptance of religious literature can drive a person, accepting everything in it as good no matter what it may contain. Once a pattern of thought such as this is adopted, a living group can certainly be deemed unholy, and a modern day Holocaust could occur.
From Craig’s website, Reasonable Faith :

The command to kill all the Canaanite peoples is jarring precisely because it seems so at odds with the portrait of Yahweh, Israel’s God, which is painted in the Hebrew Scriptures.
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So then what is Yahweh doing in commanding Israel’s armies to exterminate the Canaanite peoples?  …  How can He command soldiers to slaughter children?
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So whom does God wrong in commanding the destruction of the Canaanites?  Not the Canaanite adults, for they were corrupt and deserving of judgement.  Not the children, for they inherit eternal life.  So who is wronged?  Ironically, I think the most difficult part of this whole debate is the apparent wrong done to the Israeli soldiers themselves.  Can you imagine what it would be like to have to break into some house and kill a terrified woman and her children?  The brutalizing effect on these Israeli soldiers is disturbing.
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The problem with Islam, then, is not that it has got the wrong moral theory; it’s that it has got the wrong God.

Hector Avalos wrote a great article that available online responding to this atrocious reasoning. Check it out.
Creationists for genocide

Why Don’t Catholic’s Speak Up?

Why don’t more Catholics speak up about the atrocious cases of child rape and the Pope refusal to act? Because they know full and well that they would be ostracized for anything other than strict party adherence.

A conservative Catholic group has called on a Massachusetts priest to apologize for suggesting that Pope Benedict XVI should resign if he does not take stronger action to confront the church’s sexual abuse scandal.

Adding its voice to the uproar over the Rev. James J. Scahill’s remarks last weekend (April 3-4), the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts said the priest had effectively accused the pope of lying during four sermons at St. Michael’s Catholic Church.

Blind allegiance to the church is perhaps the biggest problem that the Catholic Church faces. Scahill’s remarks are totally reasonable, yet he’s being viewed as sinful and needing to apologize for  making them. Why? Well, in totalitarian systems, even as much as questioning the supreme authority of the leader is seen as treasonous. And in Catholicism, this treason is a sin, since the office of pope carries with it the ridiculous title of “Vicar of Christ”.

Well, in this case, the Pope is not being asked to act as an agent of a god-man, as a prophet, or even as a mystic. He merely being asked to act like a human being … perhaps we are asking too much from this depraved asshole.

Is it even possible for the Catholic Church to turn itself around? I don’t think so. This degree of depravity is nothing new to the organization: from the slaughter of pagan priests in the 5th century, the crusades, the torturing of “heretics” (which can only be defined as anyone that disagrees with them) during the Inquisition, endless anti-Semitic persecution, and the mass murder of the Cathar Gnostic Christians, the Catholic Church has been a den of depravity from it’s very inception. Why would anyone choose to stay with the Catholic Church, let alone defend it?

Tea Party Jesus

Check out Tea Party Jesus, a web page that puts the words of Christians into the mouth of Jesus. When you click on the picture it will bring you to the conservative Christian being quoted.

Ye Old Child Abuse Scandal

there’s an excellent article at the Huff Pro called The Catholic Church: A Safe Haven For Criminals? It has a few good summations of the recent scandal, including this one:

… those who themselves are engaged in a criminal conspiracy are in no position to blame their accusers of a conspiracy.

No truer words have been said. I for one am hoping Pope-gate gets all the way up to Joseph Ratzinger, not because I particularly want to see the church hurt, but because I do not see any hope of action on his part. I see excuses and evasion at every turn at the expense of children. People below the Pope have made steps to do the right thing, suggesting those involved to not be hesitant to involve the authorities (it’s a shame they even have to do that), but Ratzinger himself seems to have a history burying scandals at the victim’s expense.

Pope Wakes Up … Almost

Pope Joseph Ratzinger had finally taken a deep swallow and accepted the fact that the Catholic Church can not hide child rapists inside it’s midsts:

Pope Benedict XVI told priests who have abused children to submit to the “demands of justice,” according to a letter released Saturday.

The pontiff said a misplaced concern for the church’s reputation and inadequate methods of choosing priests had contributed to decades of sexual abuse by members of the clergy. He ordered a Vatican investigation into elements of the Irish church to tackle the problem.

Well, he has correctly identified some issues. But, unfortunately, he’s only half willing to deal with them. The priests (or the holders of other, higher, offices) that have committed acts of child rape do need to be turned in. They suffer from an affliction which necessitates that they are never allowed to be alone with a child. Ever.

However, the outright criminals in this case, the men that, even though they had their full faculties about them, still thought out and executed a crime by hiding pedophiles and, in fact, enabling them to strike again and again, need to be brought to justice! These men are not sick. They do not suffer from pedophilic addictions. They acted out of purely selfish and criminal desires. I have a feeling the Pope will not call for these men to turn themselves in, though, since he is one of them.

Very much more serious is the role of Joseph Ratzinger, before the church decided to make him supreme leader, in obstructing justice on a global scale. After his promotion to cardinal, he was put in charge of the so-called “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” (formerly known as the Inquisition). In 2001, Pope John Paul II placed this department in charge of the investigation of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. In May of that year, Ratzinger issued a confidential letter to every bishop. In it, he reminded them of the extreme gravity of a certain crime. But that crime was the reporting of the rape and torture. The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church’s own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated “in the most secretive way … restrained by a perpetual silence … and everyone … is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office … under the penalty of excommunication.”

God’s Will Be Done

Man from Mound MN rapes 10 year old niece. But don’t worry, it’s god’s will:

Fall, now 58, saw nothing wrong with the fact that the bride was his niece or that she was 10 when they “married,” according to Mound police.

He told the girl that it was God’s will that they marry. He told police this justified their union, legally and morally.

Incest in the Bible?! Well, Abraham did marry his sister (Genesis 20:11-12), but only so he wouldn’t have to tell a lie later in life.

“I’ve talked to family members and more than one has said Jim Fall believes he’s a prophet of God, of Christ,” Wittke said. “They were afraid of him.”

A prophet of god? What has he done besides rape his niece? And he lives in Mound MN, not exactly a beneficial place to start a ministry.

But, there is no way to prove him wrong. In essence, there is absolutely no difference between what he claims is god’s will and what any other self chosen prophet claims is god’s will.

Ye Old Vatican Gay Sex Ring Scandal

Dawkins knows I am not one to pick on religious institutions, but …apparently there is a new prostitution scandal in the heart of the Vatican:

One of Pope Benedict’s ceremonial ushers and a member of an elite choir in St Peter’s Basilica have been implicated in a gay prostitution ring, in the latest sexual scandal to taint the Vatican.

Ghinedu Ehiem, a Nigerian, was dismissed by the Vatican on Wednesday from the Giulia Choir after his name appeared in transcripts of police wiretaps, published by an Italian newspaper, in an unrelated Italian investigation.

The wiretaps were carried out in connection with a probe into corruption in contracts to build public works, including the planned venue in Sardinia of last year’s G8 summit. The summit was eventually moved to the Abruzzo region as part of efforts to help it recover from an earthquake.

Among four people arrested last month in the corruption probe was Angelo Balducci, a engineer who is a board member of Italy’s public works department and a construction consultant to the Vatican. Balducci was arrested on corruption charges and the allegations of prostitution emerged only later.

Ok, you caught me. I love picking on religious institutions! Mostly because they claim to be privy to divine revelations unavailable to the rest of the world, therefore putting themselves into an unwarranted position of authority.

Anyhoo, the rest of the story is here.

Ok, it’s not like the Vatican, as a hole, was whoring out choir members as supplemental income, but … their gay-dar was definitely not working properly. You would expect more from an institution of “Gawd”.

Stunningly Sinful

A crackpot from Wisconsin just tazed a dance instructor because he believes it’s sinful to touch women.

From the article:

“A Baraboo man is accused of repeatedly shocking a male dance instructor with a stun gun, claiming the instructor was a “sinner” who “defiles married women.”

A Dane County prosecutor says 59-year-old Kevin Johnson of Baraboo hastily arranged a dance lesson at the instructor’s Madison home and showed up with a stun gun and sledgehammer last Friday.

A criminal complaint says Johnson told a detective that his church does not condone touching while dancing and that he was going to scare the instructor “and tell him to leave the women alone.” “

Yet another example of religious people believing that their little private rules get to be extended to everybody.

According to a Gallup poll, Wisconsin was one of the more secular states in the US, 9.2% of the population claiming no religious affiliation. But, it looks like there’s still plenty of crazies on the loose.

Physics Not Taught In Seminary

Apparently, very little of practically use in taught in seminary, since a priest accused of sex-abuse seemed to believe that a 20 foot fall would prove fatal.

Detectives investigating sex-abuse allegations against a Shorewood priest were on their way to interview him when he left a Joliet home where he was being monitored, went to a boarded-up church and apparently plunged from a 20-foot-high balcony.

Sure, 20 feet could be fatal, but it’s far from a sure thing. If you really want to kill yourself (which, of course he wasn’t, that would be a sin), he would have jumped from a much taller height.

I know, I know what you’re going to say. It worked for Damien Karras, you’re going to say. Well, he was already possessed by Pazuzu. And he was tired from exorcising all night. So, yeah – not a valid argument.

Bible Teacher Seduces Teenage Girls

Robert Louis Rosseau, a Bible teacher at Christian Academy in San Antonio has used the ol’, “Come Join My Secret Society That Helps Mankind, But First You Need To Sleep With Me So I Know I Can Trust You” routine on a couple of teenage girls. Oldest trick in the (Good) Book. Where do you think they Bible came from? Nerds needed to get girls somehow before guitars were invented.

A 37-year-old teacher accused of creating a “secret society” to lure teenage girls into having sex with him was arrested Monday evening after a girl he allegedly wanted to recruit into the group complained to police, authorities said.

Robert Louis Rosseau taught Bible classes — among other subjects — to eighth-graders at Christian Academy of San Antonio.

The affidavit states Rosseau would read Bible passages to the two girls “to legitimize his believed ability” to have sex with them.

Personally, I think he was going to way too much trouble. These girls sound pretty gullible, I think they would have slept with him for a hand full of gummy bears.

That teen told authorities that the two girls who were members of the society, which they referred to as an “order,” attempted to recruit her into the group on two weekends in September. To become a member, the two girls told the teen, she had to be “intimate” with Rosseau to establish trust, according to an arrest affidavit.

That teen told authorities she was persuaded into joining the order after being told it was “geared to help mankind,” the affidavit states.

I going to be a bit skeptical on this one and say that I don’t think he ever really intended to help mankind. Not one bit.