Former pope burns in Hell

Silly Catholics have no clue.

Convent closed after nuns in fist-fight

"A CONVENT in southern Italy is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows.

Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista, reportedly upset about their mother superior's authoritarian ways, scratched her in the face and threw her to the ground at Santa Clara convent near Bari in an incident in July that was kept quiet until now.

Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri tried to reconcile the nuns but finally decided in late August that they had "clearly lost their religious vocation'' and asked the Vatican for permission to close the convent.

Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista moved to another convent, but Sister Liliana barricaded herself inside, refusing to leave, the reports said.

She suspected Bishop Battista Pichierri of planning to cede the convent to another community.

Liliana had been at the convent since its founding in 1963."

News.com.au, October 01, 2007

Saudi divorces wife for watching male TV host: report

"A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday.

The man, whom the paper did not identify, ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law enforced in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the paper said.

Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts."

Yahoo/AFP, September 29 2007

Kenya: Christian Group Moves to Court to Challenge Death of Jesus

"A group of Kenyans have grabbed media attention here after they filed a suit at the High Court challenging the arrest and sentencing of Jesus Christ about 2000 years ago.

The Friends of Jesus, through Judiciary spokesman Dola Indidis, told the court this week that they want to set the record straight that Jesus was innocent. They alleged that the arrest, torture and punishment of Jesus was unlawful and amounted to violation of his human rights."

allafrica.com, 31 August 2007

From what I read in a Norwegian Christian paper, they now also want to sue Italy, Israel, Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate and King Herod. We're pleased to hear that Judas is left off the hook for now. (There are actually some fishy things regarding his "suicide".... or shall we say he very conveniently fell headlong and bursting asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.)

Well, I hope they examine the biblical evidence thoroughly. They'll probably find that the gospels don't give a correct picture of what happened and that there's a lot of contradictions among the witnesses. Then again, it's a case based on hearsay, so it should not be brought to a trial.

Anyway, if there's a good trial where all the evidence from higher biblical criticism is heard, then I doubt many of them will still be believers when they're finished.

Teacher: I was fired, said Bible isn't literal

"A community college instructor in Red Oak claims he was fired after he told his students that the biblical story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted.
Steve Bitterman, 60, said officials at Southwestern Community College sided with a handful of students who threatened legal action over his remarks in a western civilization class Tuesday. He said he was fired Thursday.
"I'm just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master's degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job," Bitterman said.

[...]

"You don't fire professors for giving you a scientific answer."
Bitterman said Linda Wild, vice president of academic affairs at Southwest, fired him over the telephone."

Des Moines Register, September 22, 2007

Appalling.

The sheer evil of the Catholic Church

"Evil is a religious concept and the Catholic Church loves to bandy it about when commenting on the behaviour of other people. Well, now I want to tell the Catholic Church that the activities of its Archbishop Francisco Chimoio of Maputo, Mozambique are incredibly evil.
This stupid man is putting about the idea that condoms manufactured in Europe are pre-infected with HIV.

[...]

Scientists desperately try to reassure people that the virus cannot live outside the body, and there is no way condoms could have this effect. But clerics hold great sway among the deprived and illiterate people of rural Africa. Their words are heeded, unfortunately."

National Secular Society, 27. September 2007

See also The Guardian: HIV-infected condoms sent to kill Africans, claims archbishop

Vandals egg house of local atheist

"The home of a local outspoken atheist was vandalized overnight Friday, police said -- with eggs tossed at the house and cars, and crosses and religious words scrawled in chalk on the driveway.
A church bulletin also was stuck on the front door.
The incident comes days after Rob Sherman's daughter, Dawn, led a successful effort to have the song "God Bless America" yanked from Buffalo Grove High School's homecoming celebration. Dawn Sherman is a freshman on the student council.
The vandalism likely was the retaliatory work of youngsters, police Sgt. Mike Millett said -- since it came on the heels of the school incident and because one of the chalked words, "Jesus," was misspelled. "

Daily Herald 9/23/2007

See also comment at Atheist revolution:

"The police are convinced that angry teens are the culprits rather than some local Christian terrorist organization. Their evidence? The vandalism closely followed the incident at Sherman's daughter's school, and "Jesus" was misspelled. They may have a point about the proximity of the vandalism to the school incident, but the misspelling sounds like they are assuming Christian adults must have some modicum of intelligence. I'm not sure this is a safe assumption.
Had racist slurs and symbols been used to deface the home of an African American student, I wonder if the police would have the same response that this was simply an innocent prank by teens. Well, maybe in Jena they would."

Suicide leap woman 'told she was possessed'

"A British woman threw herself to her death in Paris after two French "mediums" convinced her that she was possessed by evil spirits, a court has heard.
Miss Hateley, who also claimed in her final hours to be plagued by hallucinations and that she was the victim of a sect that had fleeced her of her savings, committed suicide on Aug 26, 2000.
The circumstances surrounding her death have only now come to the attention of the French courts alongside related investigations into the alleged activities of the mediums. The two men, Grégory Selo and Laurent Sousa, have appeared in court to face the charge of "non-assistance of a person in danger", which they deny.

[...]

She saw an advert for a medium in a newspaper and made contact with Selo, aged 25 at the time and a convicted drug dealer who called himself "Angel of Gods".
"He gave her advice over the phone, told her to lie down to energise herself and she kept giving money," said Mrs Hawary.
"Little by little she became more fragile. He was aware of this, and exploited her weakness to take money. She borrowed from everyone - her friends, family, from work."
She spent 10,000 euros (£6,800) - including all her savings - over a six-month period, trying to rid herself of her bedevilment."

Telegraph.co.uk, 15/09/2007

No driver's licence needed for religious missions

"She's never had a driver's license and doesn't need one, West said as she represented herself Friday in Douglas County District Court.

"I was not operating a vehicle; I was exercising my right to travel," West, 21, told Judge Robert Fairchild. "I was in a private vessel on a religious mission."

[...]

According to Godsent and information he presented to reporters outside court, the couple belong to a group that claims the U.S. is not a country but a foreign corporation that has invaded America. They are concerned about implanted identification chips and say sovereign Americans are being forced to choose between God's law and man's law."

LJworld.com, September 1, 2007

Muslim GP faces disciplinary hearing for attack on gays

"The president of the Islamic Medical Association is to face a disciplinary hearing after making a ferocious attack on gay people in Pulse, the magazine for GPs.

In the letter, Dr Muhammad Siddiq says that gays need “the stick of the law to put them on the right path" and that they deserve neither help nor pity.

"There is punishment and fine if you throw rubbish or filth in the streets. The gays are worse than the ordinary careless citizen,” wrote the GP, who is employed by the Walsall Primary Care Trust in the West Midlands, “They are causing the spread of disease with their irresponsible behaviour. They are the root of many sexually transmitted diseases." The letter went on to say that a depressed transsexual awaiting gender reassignment was "twisted."

Dr Siddiq denies that he authored the letter and claims his son was playing a "cynical spoof" on him by forcing him to sign the letter and sending it to Pulse, a magazine for GPs. When the magazine checked with Dr Siddiq, he made no effort to deny that these were his views. Allegedly, he has privately told his colleagues that he had actually written the letter." [more]

National Secular Society, 27.07.2007

Lame views, but the excuse is possibly the lamest.
I guess his opinions won't be changed after reading this:

"Gay Artist Burns Rare $60,000.00 Koran"

I think that's shameless though. Think of all the money!

Stanley Fish Deconstructs Atheism

"Science today can no more explain ethics or human happiness than it could a thousand years ago."

Townhall.com, July 16, 2007

Dinesh D'Souza making a summary of something Stanley Fish has said.

I think this extremly ignorant statement by someone who should know better proves that religion truly is hampering progress. Here are four articles that I have postead earlier at the Daily Atheist that these two fellows must have missed:

Brain gets a thrill from charity

If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural

Revealing The Origins Of Morality -- Good And Evil, Liberal And Conservative

Is doing the right thing hard-wired?

Now let's hear if Augustin, Anselm or Aquinas ever came up with anything like this. I suggest Messrs D'Souza & Fish throw their Christian junk science out of the window and start reading a broad selection of newspapers and a couple of science blogs.

AN UNPLEASANT INCIDENT involving atheistic bumper stickers on my car

"We like to believe that we live in an America where reasoned, nonviolent ideas can be freely aired without fear of retribution. That isn't always true.
An unpleasant incident involving atheistic bumper stickers on my car harshly reminded me of the ability of religion to incite violent actions. An agitated individual approached me in a mall parking lot declaring his intention to "straighten out my views."
Only his love of God, he said, prevented him from "bashing my face in.""

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jul. 05, 2007

I Want the Devil Dead

"I am exhausted with the devil today. I am sooooo tired of his relentless effort to destroy what's sublime, degrade what's worthy, weaken what's strong, mar what's beautiful. I'm angry at his willful stubbornness, his grossly misplaced pride, his shameless machinations, his fostering of irrationality, his waste of the precious, his victimization of the susceptible. I'm sick to death of his constant, venal corruption.

And he hides, of course; always, he hides. He ducks, and covers, and stays in the shadows. He quickly throws up shiny, vibrant diversions; he changes shapes; he always moves left when you go right--and then comes stealthily circling in behind you, his piercing weapons drawn.

And heaven forbid that weakling should ever go after anyone with any strength. I do (believe me) understand what a dangerous assertion it is to make, but the fact is that the devil's grip on me personally isn't anything for him to be crowing to his loser minions about. I'm strong; I'm smart (enough); I'm happily married--mostly, of course, I've got religion. I know who I am--and I sure know who he is. And he knows I know who he is. So I'm of limited appeal to him. No one likes someone who laughs at what they want him to take seriously.

Besides, why bother with me, when there's two little boys next door being cared for by "foster parents" who are drunks? What fun am I, when there's a depressed teenage boy right across the street from me who's just started smoking pot? Why struggle with me, when there's a whole world of hurting, vulnerable people out there that he can work like a ball of putty in his slick, hot hands?

I'm so sick of it. I'm so tired of having to witness and suffer through the endless little pockets of hell created by the king of the sleazeballs for his own pathetic delight. I'm tired of the trash he makes, the stains he leaves, the holes he digs, the walls he builds. I'm tired of his craven opportunism. I'm tired of his glittery, superficial, caustic sexuality. I'm tired of his toxic insidiousness. I'm tired of his bottom-feeding frenzy.

Jesus, I know you do everything in your own time. Of course! And one of the great, engaging pleasures of we on earth is to contemplate the magnificence of your eternal reality, to reflect upon the humbling truth that a moment to us is an eternity to you. That's certainly true.

And of course we know you know this--but if you wouldn't mind us saying it again: When, in your holy benevolence, you are moved to come down here and once and for all stomp out the devil like the scampering, spitting, diseased cockroach that he is, trust that we'll be there with a can of insecticide and a hammer (or a shoe, or a shovel, or whatever else we can get our hands on) faster than you can say, "You wanna take a shot?""

John Shore, crosswalk.com, 2. Jul 2007

Terrible isn't it?
But Mr. Shore may be relieved to know that he only needs to take a leap away from faith - and the devil is no more.

UK Bishop says flood is God's judgment

"A bishop, no less, has confirmed that last week's flooding of biblical proportions was indeed an act of God. And it means the Almighty is not at all pleased, according to the Bishop of Carlisle.

Graham Dow says the heavy rain is a judgement on the West for decadence, the introduction of pro-gay laws, lack of respect for the planet and a woeful ignorance of the Bible.

"This is a strong and definite judgment because the world has been arrogant in going its own way," says the bishop. "We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation, as well as the environmental damage we have caused."

He was supported by James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool. "God is exposing us to the truth of what we have done." he said. "If we live in a profligate way then there are going to be consequences."

The Sunday Times, June 1, 2007

Falwell reincarnated?
I might as well throw inn this comment by Thomas Sutcliffe in the Independent:

"When is a bishop like a suicide bomber?
On the face of it, the Bishop of Carlisle and the young man who staggered blazing from that Jeep at Glasgow Airport on Saturday afternoon don't have a lot in common. The Right Reverend Graham Dow is a grey-haired man with a twinkling smile, rarely armed with anything more lethal than a crozier.
That wannabe martyr - his 72 expectant virgins currently tapping their fingers impatiently in Paradise - had a head wreathed in fire and a Molotov cocktail in his hand. The Bishop of Carlisle is a diocesan bishop in the Church of England, not a sect commonly associated with acts of terror, while the as-yet-unnamed jihadi is, one guesses, an adherent of Wahabi Islam, a sect which very much is. And yet, on a spiritual level, it seems that they do share one thing. They both believe in a vindictive God.

Independent, 3 July 2007

Jury Rules Bus Driver Not Guilty after Prayer

A Texas bus driver accused of manslaughter was acquitted by a local jury on Thursday after the members had stopped to pray to God for guidance.
Jerry Cook, former bus driver for Pasadena Independent School District, was brought up on the charges, initially for murder, after he had accidentally run over a 9-year-old girl, Ruth Young, just outside Houston.
"God led us to make the right decision," juror Cedric Kissam said after the verdict, according to the Houston Chronicle. "It was an accident. It wasn't reckless driving."

Christian Post, Tue, Jun. 12 2007

What will happen the day a jury hears from God that someone is guilty? When there are 12 angry christians?