Quote of the Week: Adolf Hitler

"I have followed [the Church] in giving our party program the character of unalterable finality, like the Creed. The Church has never allowed the Creed to be interfered with. It is fifteen hundred years since it was formulated, but every suggestion for its amendment, every logical criticism, or attack on it, has been rejected. The Church has realized that anything and everything can be built up on a document of that sort, no matter how contradictory or irreconcilable with it.

The faithful will swallow it whole, so long as logical reasoning is never allowed to be brought to bear on it."

                                        - Adolf Hitler, from Rauschning, The Voice of Destruction, pp. 239-40

'Kiss My Hand' - The Pope in Africa

The Pope visited Africa. How deeply saddened I am that this crazy institution, the Roman Catholic church, has felt the need to visit several countries to, basically, drum up business. A PR stunt that will work. It will have the desired effect of calling the masses to believe in a corrupt, evil, mega-rich institution with dodgy books being waved around as tenets the masses should live by. And the money rolls in. The poor who can least afford to give away money are told and believe that a god will help the poor who give to one of the richest institutions on this planet.
It would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic, if the consequences didn't last through generations.

They are criminals. They know what they do and they no more believe in a god than they do in fairies. These mind-control freaks are not to be bowed down to, nor should they have their hands kissed. I assume you wouldn't hold a member of the Cosa Nostra in high esteem, so how are these shysters any different?

Not many people know how the Popes are selected. I guess most people believe that a group of people receive a message from 'god' that Mr Blah-Blah should be the next Pope and then - voila- a name is revealed to the world and is then crowned in a blaze of publicity. Well, actually, it is slightly more complicated than that as there are power struggles behind the scene. People jostling to have their names picked out of the celestial ballot box. Arse-licky people sharpen their finest 'sucking up' tools and get to work on their goal of the top job, often years in advance.

'Oh, those atheists, such ungodly people, seem to be causing a bit of a stir amongst the people in the so-called developed countries. Proclaiming what we already know - that there is no god, but it just won't do. We cannot have them leading the flocks away from us. What can we do to ensure our institution is shored up for the next few centuries? Africa. Africa? Wait a minute...(deep in thought). Good thinking, Batman! Good thinking! When do we set off?'

I'm not taken in and I surely hope you aren't.

This Crazy Homophobic World

You may have read the story of the Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson having a civil union with his partner of 19 years.

Big deal, you might say. Two people conforming to so-called social norms. Where's the story in that?

Here's a link from Reuters which fills in the gaps: Gay Anglican U.S. bishop enters into civil union.

A number of issues arise from this for me:

"The event was kept private out of respect for next month's worldwide Anglican conference..."

"The 77 million-member Anglican Communion...has been in upheaval since 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated Robinson as the first bishop known to be in an openly homosexual relationship in more than four centuries of church history."

"Robinson has in the past received death threats and wore a bulletproof vest under his vestments at his consecration in 2003. Two uniformed police officers stood guard at Saturday's ceremony..."
[Emphasis: my own]

Let's put aside for a moment that Gene Robinson is a supernaturalist and promotes it - that's his job - but the above quotes should illustrate to everyone what a sick, sad world we live in.

This has all come about, this high-level homophobia, because of the very books that these Christians revere. They will quote chapter and verse and teach about the bible's inerrancy and yet deny basic human rights to two people who want to have the same legal rights which are afforded to heterosexuals. (Do bear in mind that these civil ceremonies stop short of providing full legal equality but for some members of the gay and lesbian community it is better than what existed before.)

I am appalled, horrified that because of what some psychotic person or persons, repressed, ignorant, confused and lacking foresight or real love of humanity, have written, edited and cobbled together centuries ago that we humans have to suffer today. Regardless of whether you are straight or gay, male, female or any other gender - we should ALL be horrified.

As a black woman, I see the same backward attitudes within the black community and it nearly all leads back to religion. I am atheist also and so have, in some people's opinions, three strikes against me right there!

Racism and homophobia come from the same root - and it is more than ignorance. If millions of people are being taught to fear and ridicule others and that these ideas are good and will lead you back to an imaginary god or gods, then no real progress will ever be made by humans. No real tangible progress, that is.

The Anglican church is in turmoil because so many African churches abhor homosexuality and have threatened to break off and form their own factions. How ironic! The very people who had the bible thrust onto them by brutal means, which entailed millions of people being forced to convert or be killed, shackled and chained and carried across oceans to far-off lands where even worse horrors awaited them and yet their descendants are now saying the Anglican church is too lenient and not godly enough.

Gene Robinson believes in the supernatural like many other people do and yet he has to wear a bulletproof vest to protect himself from possible assassination. My question to him would be: Would it be another Christian that you fear may be your assassin?

This madness needs to stop and we can all play a part in it by educating ourselves, throwing away ancient or modern texts which insist on separating us from each other for no logical reasons.
Recognise that if we boast about being civil rights activists or gay rights activists, for example, we are not actually helping if we don't explore some of the root causes of the problems in the first place.