Where do we get our morals from?

I will get to that soon. But this first.

It is a true joy to know that as a father I will be able to ensure my child can grow up unencumbered by dogma. I didn't find religion until my early teens so I went through those precious early years minus the brainwashing. Perhaps this is the reason I was prepared to question what I was being told, particularly at the Christian camp I attended twice a year. Mill Valley Ranch (which still runs today) was devastatingly successful at turning heathens into good Christian soldiers. It was very appealing to an impressionable and confused kid with divorced parents and steps entering the scene. And while the experience was only positive for me at the time it never quite satisfied me. I have always been inquisitive (a trait that so many secularists seem to share) and would ask myself and others a lot of questions that rarely got answered. And even from a young age I could tell when an answer was well rehearsed. 

And so I moved on to other areas of spirituality. But that's for another day.

Instead I will close this anti-sermon with a counter punch. Traditions such as family time, community celebrations and games, breaking bread, joining together to help someone less fortunate, working together towards a common goal. All these wonderful facets to humanity were here long before religion and will be with us as long as we survive as a species. They are inherent traits built in us all. They do not have to be nurtured each generation because they are already written into the true book of life, our DNA. So the next time someone asks you where do you get your morals from, tell them the answer is within. Wink wink. 

What a disturbing species we can be.

No this is not a photo of a drowning child being saved by passers by.

This disturbing photo is of a boy (wrongly captioned as Russian Orthodox, how can a child possibly choose a religion?) being plunged into freezing waters in celebration of the Epiphany holiday in St. Petersburg. It is difficult looking at this poor child's face. His parents might understand the tradition but to this child it would be a traumatic and frightening assault.

I find it difficult to comprehend how this child's parents can view this as a positive action. It is one of the many deplorable ways that religion enslaves minds, even surpassing out natural instincts of protecting our children from harm.

Indoctrinating children makes it proof positive that religion is a man made tradition that is mostly maintained by coercion and fear. Fear of hell and fear of being shunned by family and the community if they dare to think for themselves.

Epiphany is a Christian feast day which celebrates the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus by dumping stupid people in cold water.

MPs on the meaning of Christmas

From the House of Reps Hansard for December 4, 2008:

Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister): As we approach the Christmas season, there are often debates about Christmas being a Christian festival or a non-Christian festival in various parts of the world. I think the truth is this: whether we are of faith or not of faith, this is an important season for us all. For those of us who are of faith, it celebrates the birth of the Christ child. For those beyond faith it is a celebration for all families, and all therefore enjoy this season which lies ahead.

Beyond faith? As in, grown out of it, or as in a lost cause?

Malcolm Turnbull (Leader of the Oposition): This is, of course, the season of Christmas and we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, the birth of the man—the son of God—who established a faith that is as inspiring as it is mysterious, a faith that is based on love. This is truly, then, the season of love, and that is why families come together. It is why we come together to eat, for Christmas feasts, for lunches and dinners. We remember, too, that there is nothing more human than families coming together to share a meal. Indeed, the Eucharist is at the centre of our own faith, of our own liturgy—that sacred meal.

We should also remember that not all of the members of this House are members of the Christian faith. Indeed, I think it is important today to remember that a number of our colleagues around this time of year--around the Christmas season, if you like—-will be celebrating the feast of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival. That is a festival of lights and it celebrates the indomitable nature of the Jewish people.

Christianity, Judaism...yep, I think that's all of 'em.

Warren Truss (Leader of the Nationals): Christmas is a special time of the year. It is a time when families can gather together and enjoy one another’s company. From a parliamentary perspective, it is a time when we are able to have a break and perhaps live slightly more normal lives. But Christmas is more than just decorations, gifts and parties—although a special part of my Christmas is always decorating the family home with Christmas lights so that I can demonstrate what a special time Christmas is for me in my neighbourhood. The celebrations and symbols of Christmas highlight the joyous reason for our festivities—namely, the birth of Jesus Christ, who brought salvation and the message of peace and goodwill to all. Those who seek to take Christmas out of the holidays or Christ out of the Christmas certainly lose the central reason for our celebrations and their meaning and purpose.

Mmmmmmmm.

Religion hates women - second example, some Muslims

Following on from yesterdays post lets not be Christian-centric here. There are plenty of Muslim men who also do their part to ensure Gods love of female suffering is satiated.

As long as religion is given a level of undeserved respectability, suffering like this will always thrive.


Local Muslim clerics accused
Barney Zwartz
November 21, 2008
The Age Online

SOME Muslim religious leaders in Victoria are condoning rape within marriage, domestic violence, polygamy, welfare fraud and exploitation of women, according to an explosive report on the training of imams.
The report says some imams apply Sharia (Islamic law) when it benefits men but not when it benefits women, and that they hinder police from pursuing domestic violence charges.
Women seeking divorces have also been told by imams that they must leave "with only the clothes on their back" and not seek support or a share of property because they can get welfare payments.
And the report says some imams knowingly perform polygamous marriages, also knowing that the second wife, a de facto under Australian law, can claim Centrelink payments.
The report is based on a study commissioned and funded by the former Howard government and conducted by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria.
It was presented yesterday at a National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies conference at Melbourne University.
It is the result of extensive community consultation, interviews with police, lawyers, court workers and academics, and meetings with and questions to the Victorian Board of Imams.
The board's role is to provide an Islamic view and religious guidance to the community and represent it to the media. The report claims that the 24-man board ignored or did not directly answer many of the questions.
It says women, community and legal workers and police involved in the consultation were particularly concerned about domestic violence, and suggested that imams aimed to preserve the family at the cost of women.
When cases came to court they were often dropped after family and community elders pressured women to withdraw charges.
The report says some women who were legally separated but not religiously divorced had their husbands enter their houses, demand sexual intercourse and take it by force.
"Workers who have assisted women in this situation said that the advice women received from the imams was that it was "halal" — permitted — because there was a valid "nikah" — marriage," it says.
The report also cites sexual assault allegations connected with under-age marriages.
It says polygamy is steadily increasing and gaining acceptance among Melbourne Muslims, and Shepparton police report many "de facto" relationships that are really polygamous marriages.
"Community workers who have provided support to women whose husbands took another wife religiously said that women blame the availability of Centrelink benefits … since one or the other wife will be claiming it, relieving the husband of the responsibility of supporting two families," the report says.
Community members quoted in the report believe that imams' narrow religious training in an increasingly complex world, lack of life experience, poor English and lack of understanding of Australia create problems for the community. For example, ill-informed comment by imams drew a wedge between the mainstream and Muslim communities.
The report suggests the Muslim community believes many imams are ill-equipped for the role, which involves much higher expectations in Australia than in predominantly Muslim countries, including marriage counselling, pastoral and spiritual care, marriages and divorces.
"They come from their own little village and culture and say this is what Islam is," one woman is quoted saying. "They come from a village where there is no running water and electricity, and they bring their dark ideas into this country."
The secretary of the Board of Imams, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, said he could not understand how the council could write such a report and denied the complaints "absolutely".
"They must have heard stories here and there and are writing about them as though they are fact," he said.
Sheikh Fehmi, who is also Mufti of Australia, said no authorised imam would conduct a polygamous marriage, and it was absolutely wrong that women's rights were ignored in marriage or divorce, or that imams ignored domestic violence.
"I haven't heard of any case where the board disregarded a woman or did not try to help her," he said.
Islamic women's council chairwoman Tasneem Chopra said: "We are hoping we can negotiate with the appropriate authorities a better outcome for women, whether through law reform or education.
"This is a crucial, necessary beginning but it is part of a much larger picture."
----------

Dan
'Be good for goods sake, not for gods sake'

Australian Christian Lobby and womens rights? You have to be kidding.

Taken from News.com.au

'Australian Christian Lobby says Sex Party 'supports exploitation of women'

The nation's newest political party has come under fire from Christian groups even before its official launch.
The Australian Sex Party supports the exploitation and degradation of women through pornography and prostitution, the groups say.

The Australian Christian Lobby wants all other political parties to preference the party last on how-to-vote cards to prevent it taking seats in state and federal parliaments

"Pauline Hanson was rightly put last on how-to-vote cards because of her inappropriate views on race," lobby director Jim Wallace said.

The Australian Sex Party should be treated in the same way for its inappropriate views about women.''

The party will launch itself at the national Sexpo event in Melbourne today.

The party's platform includes opposition to the national internet filter, supporting gay marriage and adoption of a national sex education curriculum.
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Now here are some quotes about women from the word of God. The Bible is judged by the Christian Lobby as being our source of morality. So lets see what the Bible has to say about women -:

"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." (I Corinthians 11:3)

"For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." (I Corinthians 11:8-9)

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5:22-24)

"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (I Corinthians 14:34-35)

"Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up." (Hosea 13:16)

"Give me any plague, but the plague of the heart: and any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman." (Eccles. 25:13)

"Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die." (Eccles. 25:22)

"If she go not as thou wouldest have her, cut her off from thy flesh, and give her a bill of divorce, and let her go." (Eccles. 25: 26)

"The whoredom of a woman may be known in her haughty looks and eyelids. If thy daughter be shameless, keep her in straitly, lest she abuse herself through overmuch liberty." (Eccles. 26:9-10)

"A silent and loving woman is a gift of the Lord: and there is nothing so much worth as a mind well instructed. A shamefaced and faithful woman is a double grace, and her continent mind cannot be valued." (Eccles. 26:14-15)

"A shameless woman shall be counted as a dog; but she that is shamefaced will fear the Lord." (Eccles.26:25)

"For from garments cometh a moth, and from women wickedness. Better is the churlishness of a man than a courteous woman, a woman, I say, which bringeth shame and reproach." (Eccles. 42:13-14)


"Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean." (Leviticus 12:2)

"Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works." (Revelation 2:22-23)

"When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her." (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Whoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. He that sacrificeth unto any god, save to the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed." (Exodus 22:18-20)

"Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go." (Judges 19:24-25)

"Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (I Timothy 2:11-14)

"If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;" (Deuteronomy 22:22)

"Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you." (Deuteronomy 22:24)

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)

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My thanks to God for allowing me to quote him for this post.

For more information on where we get our morals from, i recommend this forum as a good starting point.

Why you should never support Christian Charities

This is just one example of why I will not be handing my money over to any charity that is Christian run. And before people start sending us nasty comments about what good the charities do, just remember that while they are not personally committing these acts, they are most definitely enabling them by their very air of supposed respectability.

Charity and religion should be just a separate as Church and state. If a Christian wants to do good then more power to them, but do it for goods sake not for Gods sake. "Here is your food and medicine, all we ask is you listen to us about how Jesus can save you". Leave religion out of it.

The article linked to below refers to Christian religious leaders in Nigeria making people pay a years worth of wages to perform exorcisms on their defenseless and terrified children. The alternative being they are kicked out of their community or hacked to death because these same Church leaders preach that child-witches walk amongst them.

If these people have Christ in their hearts i would hate to come across a Satanist!

Click here to read the UK Telegraph article by David Harrison.

Please go here to find a list of non-religious charities and help keep religion out of charity. Thanks to the techskeptic blog for providing this. My charity of choice is Doctors without borders.

The power of prayer? Please explain.

Members of the same religion and even the same church have just been praying for their respective candidate to win the US Election.

Now that Obama has won, could someone please explain in some detail how this works? Why has God apparently chosen Obama over McCain?

How do we explain the intracacies of who's prayer gets heard?

Howling at the moon - A rollicking ramadan rant

I got this email from a friend living in a certain country with majority of people of the Muslim faith. I found it so amusing that I had to share it.


Ok. I am in another planet. Definitely. Totally and completely...During RAMADAN no one can eat or drink in public from sunrise to sunset. If you do, the police can charge you, fine you and lock you up. My alternative was to eat chocolates in the toilets. The only trick was to transport the chocolate without it melting before we got to the toilet. The muslims normally sleep late and party all night. Shops, beauty saloons, coffee shops, everything opens until after mid night... A huge party all over. The most amusing thing is how they decide when RAMADAN will end. A group of wise muslim guys watch and study the moon and based on it's position, declares EID (end of RAMADAN and 3 days public holidays). Today at 8:30 pm they decided tomorrow is EID. No schools or business will open. They told someone, who told someone else, the text messages started going around, the telecommunications were overloaded, no phone calls were going through...It is hillarious. I was trying to call people to come for dinner tomorrow and just could not reach most of them because the phone lines are totally overloaded. Imagine if you want to take advantage of these holidays. Can I please have a flight going there on the first day of EID and coming back on the last? And I would like to book my accomodation for the third day of EID, whenever it is...Can i please have a car rental too? When?? Not sure, when is EID going to be again? Oh, of course, we don't know yet...heheI am sure I will get used to it. At some stage...

PS: my friend has demanded she be named as the source - Inaie Ramalho from Bahrain.

Septuagint translators and the immoral perpetuation of the virgin birth.

There are likely few reading this who have not been connected with Christianity at some stage of their life. Probably not many could claim complete secularism, particularly if their parents considered themselves of the faith. Perhaps you were christened or it could be if you are a man that your johnson received some God endorsed plastic surgery. If nothing else it is likely your school had some form of religious studies. No matter what your history with this religion i wonder if you have heard of what i am about to discuss?

Personally I considered myself a Christian for about seven years during my teens. I used to go to this horse riding slash indoctrination facility called Mill Valley Ranch. If you ever attended one of these camps it was impossible not to be drawn in to the all encompassing salesmanship. It never stopped. Daily church attendances, smaller group discussions and every tee-pee we slept in contained a cool Christian councillor to ensure you had no place to escape. Suffice to say it worked a treat on me.

I soon got tired of the lack of non-spin-doctor answers to any of my questions and moved on. That and the fact that my cat died while i was away at some God awful (hee hee) weekend camp with the most aggressive bunch of sexually repressed teens in my life. I took it as a sign and never went back.

I am slightly off point here however i felt it necessary to paint a picture of where i am coming from when telling you about something i discovered while reading The Selfish Gene. It was merely an offside remark Dawkins makes to describe the replication of genes, however i took note of it and as usual went a googling.

The section i am referring to in the book is this - "I suppose the scholors of the Septuagint could at least be said to have started something big when they mistranslated the Hebrew word for 'young woman' into the Greek word for 'virgin', coming up with the prophecy: 'Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son ..'.

Huh? What was that again?

I couldn't believe my eyes. I went to the footnotes for further clarification as well as googling it. There are many links to various sites below however for the sake of completeness i will stick with Dawkins response to those who corresponded with him after reading his book. He explained that this is well known to biblical scholars and indeed not disputed. The Hebrew word in Isaiah is Almah which means 'young woman' of marriageable age, whether married or not, or a virgin or not; in a broad general sense exactly like girl or maid in English. If virgin were the word they were translating it would have been 'Bethulah'. What occurred is the pre-christian Greek translation known as Septuagint used 'Parthenos' which really means virgin. Many English translations also carry this error - 'Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son ..'.. The New English Bible correctly gives 'young woman' in Isaiah. Honestly translated, the verse reads: "Behold, the young woman has conceived-[is with child)-and beareth a son and calleth his name Immanuel."

So the story of the virgin birth is false, the Church know it is false and yet belief in the virgin birth is still maintained. This is outrageous and completely immoral to me. After all this is a huge part of the religion we are talking about. It is also a huge shock that i had never heard of this before. There are plenty of sites out there that will try and counter some of the facts however it is as usual with a profound lack of reasoning or credible evidence that they present their arguments.

If i had any respect straws left on my faith camel they are well and truly broken now. What will we find out next, that the second coming was also false? Perish the thought my heathen friends.

Indeed I once was blind, but now I see.

Want to read more? Here is a nice article - http://www.theskepticalreview.com/tsrmag/2virgi93.html

World Youth Day roundup - a poke at the Pope

For those of you who live somewhere other than Australia you may not realise that Sydney recently become the epicentre of all things Catholic. World Youth Day, whatever it actually is, kicked off with a concert of truly biblical proportions. It featured the best Christian talent the Catholics could afford such as Guy Sebastian, Damien Leith (representing the Irish protestants) and Shannon Noll (yeah, me neither).

It has come at a time of dwindling sales for the organisation. Church attendance is down and conversions are at an all time low. Some are even claiming that the fastest growing faith in Western countries is ‘None’. Those that fit in the 'None' category being Atheist, Agnostic, Jedi, Wizard or just none of the above.

What this all says is that Catholicism, as well as some other notable religions, are about as popular as Windows Vista right now. Even a recent MySpace poll (so you know its reputable) has shown a vast number of youth feel the Church is out of touch. I guess they haven’t made their way to godtube.com yet................... Cause its really cool, man.

Down here in Australia it proved impossible to find any television station not devoting (pun intended) half their news time to the goings on of these pimply purveyors of papal prophesying. Behind every flustered reporter in the streets of Sydney were 300 of the little dears singing ‘God said to Noah’ at the top of their lungs. I guess we were all warned there was going to be a floody floody of pilgrims arriving on our shores.

Something that struck me as quite strange when watching this footage was all the flag flying going on. I couldn't help pondering to myself why the Nationalism on top of the Catholicism? Is it more prevalent for the faithful to feel the need to fit themselves into tidy little categories? Everyone likes to feel like they belong but these lot seem to crave belongingness like it was heroin . It would be an interesting thing to poll who are the most nationalistic people. I would bet my soul that it would be the faith based. Perhaps I should contact MySpace with the idea.

But what is this festival actually teaching us about the religion? What is it trying to convey to us in real terms? I cant help but think that part of this is just clever marketing to aid indoctrinating the youth which, lets face it, find little practicality or commonality with the faith at the moment. But how do parades and parties give the non-believers some insight into why people show up to Church each Sunday to do everything but have parades and parties. Showing us how nice people can behave in a festival atmosphere is hardly a cause for celebrating the faith. Who isn't happy when they don't have to go to work? I have seen the same camaraderie at a football clubs end of season Bali trip.

Another thing I noticed a lot from pilgrims was their consistent use of meaningless church lingo like “we are so blessed”or “filled with the spirit of the Lord” and most notable “spontaneous joy”. Spontaneous joy? What does that actually mean?

I guess in the end most people will say that it was lovely to see the young’uns not getting drunk and violent or sexting each other on their mobiles (look it up). But this kind of logic belongs to older people who think that this kind of stereotype is right on the money. But it isn’t people, it really isn’t. So we should not base the success of this week on the grounds that nothing nasty happened, because normally it doesn’t anyway. All these supposed good qualities that religion sell’s itself on are also found outside the religion in equal measure. They don’t own the patent on goodness. It is innately within us all despite our faith or lack thereof.

We would have been better off having a praise Mother Earth Week than this. Because let’s face it. Like our own Mothers, its puts up with a lot of shit from us.

Nicafaith CQ (repost from the Pierian Puddle)

While we set up the subjects of interest blog, here's a repost from my other blog to give you something to read. Enjoy - Mark

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, made some comments recently about which elements of the Christmas story are important to believe in and which ones aren't. (I heard about this via Lee's post over on the 'Thinking Outside The Cage' blog.)

The Archbishop says he doesn't believe that a star literally guided three wise men to Bethlehem. This, apparently, is not an essential miracle to believe in. Furthermore, according to The Age, Dr Williams said that "while he believed in it himself, new Christians need not leap over the "hurdle" of belief in the virgin birth before they could join the church".

Interesting.

In marketing his very relaxed and moderate brand of religion, Dr Williams might hope that religion might capture a greater market share. It's a 'lite' version of faith, now 99% miracle free; a Diet Faith for those people who would like to take up religion but have previously found some elements hard to swallow.

I wonder, though, if moderate, diluted religion ends up playing quiet a different role? I wonder if it might serve as the religious equivalent of a nicotine patch; an intermediate step, not into religion (as Williams might hope), but out of it. Are Williams, and other moderates, creating a form of belief for those who are finding religiosity less and less compatible with the rest of their lives, but can't (for one reason or another) bare to go 'cold turkey'? And might this ultimately lose them more of the flock?

How much, I wonder, do either side of the believe divide know about how religious ideas play out in the minds of people in the long-term, and which are ultimately the best at capturing hearts and minds?

A religion worth killing for

I have spent some time in meditation over my spiritual future and after some careful googling i have found the perfect faith.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster (also known as the Spaghedeity) is the deity of a religion called The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its system of beliefs, "Pastafarianism". The religion was founded in 2005 by Bobby Henderson to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. Because intelligent design implies the existence of an intelligent, but not necessarily omnipotent or omniscient designer, some, like Henderson, argued that this designer could, in fact, be anything imaginable.

In an open letter sent to the education board, Henderson makes a mockery of the concept of an intelligent designer by professing belief in a supernatural creator called the Flying Spaghetti Monster which resembles spaghetti and meatballs.He furthermore calls for the "Pastafarian" theory of creation to be taught in science classrooms.