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Some news briefs (Use keywords on Google to search for more information) IT'S GOOD NEWS WEEK DOWN UNDER. Not only did we have a visit by the fabulous Pauley Perrette to Channel TEN's Good News Week (a visit marred I thought my some of the smut she had to listen to) but there was good news from an opinion survey. To quote a Sydney Morning Herald report: 'Australian Christians are turning their back on God in record numbers.' The paper's summary was based on a survey conducted by the Christian Research Association. It found that there has been 'a significant decline' in most measures of religion. The figure that really caught my eye was the fact that people claiming they had 'no religion' rose from 27 percent in 1993 to 43 percent in 2009. What great news! Sensible people are discovering that religion has no substance whatever, it is based upon lies and human self-deceit. One can only hope that governments now have more regard to our increasingly secularized society when they allow religious considerations to cloud consideration of such issues as voluntary euthanasia. With (according to this survey) only 16 percent of respondents having attended a religious service at least once a month (note month, not week!) Australia can no longer claim to be a 'Christian' country. [17 June 2010] MALAWI GODBOTHERERS ABUSE HUMAN RIGHTS. Malawi is one of many countries that treat the everyday act of anal intercourse as an 'unnatural act' and punish anyone who dares engage in such an activity with a cruel law. Clearly Malawi is still in the process of emerging from the dark ages. The country's rulers seem unaware of the scientifically-backed fact that neither anal intercourse nor sexual connections between those of the same sex are not at all unnatural but are just as much a part of nature as is 'normal' heterosexual activity. Two poor guys were recently jailed - for 14 years, no less! - for being caught out in a homosexual relationship. Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 33, and Steven Monjeza, 28, were convicted of the crime of 'sodomy'. But let's not laugh at this absurdity. Such a crime is still on the books of some US states and on a number of countries, e.g. Malaysia. Fortunately a worldwide outcry resulted in the men being freed. But the law remains in place. [12 June 2010] DEEP IN THE DARK HEART OF TEXAS. The Christian Right has staged an alarming coup in the state of Texas. Clearly the forces representing obscurantism and superstition have been working towards this critical juncture - the moment when control of information fed to young minds is in play. And what is more alarming, it is not just the kids of Texas who will be influenced by any decisions made but because of the logistical situation kids across the USA will suffer. The Texas Board of Education, controlled by people who believe the USA was 'chosen by GOD as a beacon to the world' has voted to purge textbooks of what they allege is 'liberal bias'. References to slavery, for example, has been re-written in euphemistic terms. One of the members of the board, Cynthia Dunbar, was elected when she argued in support of the teaching of creationism in science classes. Unfortunately for child enlightenment the huge print runs of textbooks for Texas effectively compel publishers to follow the Texas line. [23 May 2010] LIGHT DAWNS ON ROME - AFTER FOUR CENTURIES. Poor old Catholic Church, it has taken them an awfully long time to realize that the earth really isn't the centre of the universe. Mind you, Nicolaus Copernicus knew that back in the 16th century, but the Church, supposedly led by an infallible Pope - 'God on earth' as he is sometimes called - was so steeped in superstition that it couldn't grasp this simple fact. Now they are racing to put things right. The 'remains' (as they fondly describe old bones) of the great scientist, until now left in an unmarked grave, are being reburied after being blessed with 'holy water'. It is all part of the worldwide effort being made by Rome to shore up the tottering edifice. e.g. the Pope running around visiting sacred shrines. [23 May 2010] GAY PRIDE MEETS CATHOLIC PREJUDICE. I didn't know much about Lithuania; but now I do! It is evidently a country heavy on prejudice, light on democracy and freedom of expression. You'd think a country once under the heel of oppressors would be more zealous to maintain the rights of its citizens. Not so! When 300 gay rights advocates marched in support of their cause they were confronted by a mob of angry demonstrators, impelled by their Catholic hate of homosexuality. The good Christians of the capital, Vilnius, demonstrated their Christian charity by hurling bottles, stones and fireworks at the marchers. 'Down with homonazis' cried these fine examples of the disciples of Jesus Christ. The march nearly didn't take place. Lithuania has long resisted efforts to improve the lot of homosexuals within its border. The country has effectively defied human rights activists in persisting with discrimination against gays. Initially the march was banned but the country's top appeals court overturned the ban, citing European human rights law to support its move, which was also supported by the country's President, Dalia Grybauskaite. [10 May 2010] IRANIAN CLERIC SENDS BIG LAUGH AROUND THE WORLD. Not all is glumness and gloom in that bastion of the Islamic faith, Iran. A senior Islamic cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazim Sadeghi, recently decided to demonstrate the lighter side of Islam by making a big funny. 'When promiscuity spreads, earthquakes increase' was the message from the learned dispenser of wisdom. Women and girls who dress 'provocatively' cause those dratted earthquakes. Californian women, be warned! Your days in glamorous dresses are numbered. And as for swimsuits. Don't even think about wearing them. Time to buy some nice black chadors. They would be fun to wear under the Californian sun. And as an added benefit - excess body weight would be shed in no time flat. As the laughter echoed around the world one of my admired writers, Elizabeth Farrelly, observed a bit of a glitch in the theory. What were all the women of the Iranian city of Bam wearing when that 2003 earthquake killed thousands? They must have worn 'nothing but their pearls' for all those years. Liz, you would throw a spanner in the works and spoil the mirth. [07 May, 2010] CURSE GOD AND GO TO STRAIGHT TO JAIL. That hoary old - and highly erroneous - concept of blasphemy has raised its nasty head in Indonesia where the Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of maintaining a law that threatens jail for anyone who dares question religion, at least what is thought of as 'orthodox' religion. Effectively the law equates 'heresy' with 'blasphemy' - an insult to the deity. But in the usual muddled manner of thinking on religious issues the gods or prophets of several faiths are the object of the law - rival faiths and rival gods! Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism and Confucianism all get protection. Equal rights for gods,that's what I say! I guess at least there's an element of democracy in that. But isn't it high time the gods stuck up for themselves/ Throw down a few lighting bolts on blasphemers, strike them down with pox. Why do they have to use surrogates to execute their vengeance? [07 May, 2010] CHRISTIAN OBSESSIVES ATTACK WOMEN. The anti-abortion obsessives in America's Deep South have set out to make pregnant women miserable (and some of them are pretty miserable anyway, especially if their pregnancy is the result of, for example, rape) - if they dare start even thinking about having an abortion. A new law would allow doctors to withhold test result showing abnormal fetal defects - and compel women to answer intrusive questionnaires, posting the answers online! Women would also be required to listen to a detailed description of an embryo through ultrasound. Shades of The HANDMAID'S TALE (recommended reading for all who love liberty and hate religious nutters). What a great idea for Oklahoma - a conservative Christian police state where women are as subservient as are the women of many Islamic nations. 'Barefoot and pregnant' is the only way to keep women in their place - and pregnant many times (which seems to be a habit among some sections of the religious constituency). Bring forth babies no matter what a burden they will be on everyone, including the poor mothers. And the patron saint of these people? Doubtless that honour goes to Saint Sarah. [07 May, 2010] BUT TO WHICH GOD DO THEY PRAY? The USA has been engaging in a curious annual ritual known as the National Day of Prayer. But in an era when President Obama is reaching out to Muslims and when religions such as Hinduism, Mormonism, Judaism and the Jedi faith are all demanding a fair shake, to which god are the prayers being offered? Matters not, anyway, as prayer is a completely useless activity which was well demonstrated in the recent tragedy in West Virginia. I quote from an earlier issue of Piper Post: Reflections on a
disaster . . . www.piperpost.net
- 14.04.10.
I am always reluctant to intrude into people's grief to push my viewpoint. Time and again I have noted the failure of prayer but the context was such as to make me hesitant to comment. I did, however, years back express a viewpoint on an Australian tragedy - when, at a place called Thredbo, in the Australian Alps, a building collapsed down a hill onto another, trapping nineteen people under masses of heavy concrete. As the rescue workers dug into the ruins, from one end of the nation to another people prayed. Church leaders staged prayer vigils, the nation's leaders on all sides of politics called for prayer that the victims might be saved. In the event the score for prayer answered was, sadly, just one. Just one victim rescued alive. The score for prayer unanswered - eighteen. A score of 1 versus 18 is hardly a ringing endorsement for the power of prayer. Yet a minister of religion had the audacity to write to a major newspaper decrying the fact that God was not being thanked for the rescue of the one survivor! A letter I wrote to a newspaper at the time, pointing out the truth concerning unanswered prayer, remained unpublished. Thus do the lies of Christianity persist and thus are people blinded to the truth. Sad to say, in another major tragedy in West Virginia the score is even more damning - 33 to nil. But didn't the people pray? Yes, with all their might, thousands of them in many churches and in many homes, people directly connected to the miners and their families, and people far beyond. It is a terrible tragedy but when are people going to realize the utter useless nature of faith and of prayer? We stand alone in this cold and unforgiving universe and must make the best of it that we can for the few years we are here. Prayer is useless for there is nobody out there to hear and nobody out there to answer. [07 May, 2010] |