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Sham, 1 year old
Roszke/Horgos. In the very front, just alongside the border between Serbia and Hungary by the 4-meter-high iron gate, Sham is laying in his mother’s arms. Just a few decimeters behind them is the Europe they so desperately are trying to reach. Only one day before, the last refugees were allowed through and taken by train to Austria. But Sham and his mother arrived too late, along with thousands of other refugees who now wait outside the closed Hungarian border. Image from: http://darbarnensover.aftonbladet.se/chapter/english-version
After the attacks in Paris, the Governors of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Texas, and the Premier of Saskatchewan, are opposed to receiving Syrian refugees.
I haven’t been able to find out if the Premier of Saskatchewan is a man of any particular faith, but it’s reasonable to assume all those American Governors do profess to be Christian. To them I say:
31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Even if there are terrorists mingled among the refugees, what kind of country do we want to be? One that turns away thousands of innocents to be sure that not one terrorist gets in (at least, not through that particular process); or one willing to take the risk, to save literally thousands of lives? I know my answer. I stumbled across this tweet that sums it up perfectly:
I hate this idea that taking in Syrian refugees involves no danger. It does. But compassion demands boldness in the face of terror.
— Ferrett Steinmetz (@ferretthimself) November 16, 2015
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It has come to the attention of credible journalists and serious Christian scholars, that Starbucks – owned by a JEW!!! – hates Baby Jesus, Christians, and Christmas, and has been trying to subvert and destroy Christian America(TM)’s sacred Christmas traditions, by gradually removing Christian imagery from its Holiday CHRISTmas red cups! Clearly the End Times are upon us, as persecution of Christians everywhere ramps up to levels unheard of in modern times!
I have undertaken to document Starbucks’ dastardly deed over the last 11 years, so that evidence of their perfidious treachery will be preserved – the Internet is forever!!! Below the cut: my trenchant analysis of the anti-Christian trend of Starbucks’ Holiday CHRISTmas cup imagery! Read the rest of this entry »
How could a set of rules, ostensibly designed to threaten people with eternal and damnation ever cause them to be less empathic and more judgemental toward others? I just don’t see that happening – commonsense tells me that people with religious dogma pounded into their skulls, if anything, should be more caring and compassionate toward the damned others.
“Academics from seven universities across the world studied Christian, Muslim and non-religious children to test the relationship between religion and morality.
They found that religious belief is a negative influence on children’s altruism.
“Overall, our findings … contradict the commonsense and popular assumption that children from religious households are more altruistic and kind towards others,” said the authors of The Negative Association Between Religiousness and Children’s Altruism Across the World, published this week in Current Biology.
“More generally, they call into question whether religion is vital for moral development, supporting the idea that secularisation of moral discourse will not reduce human kindness – in fact, it will do just the opposite.”
Well knock me over with a full pallet of pickled asparagus. Atheists like myself have committed untold legions of electrons into thoughtful rhetoric decrying the trauma ‘religious moral teachings’ inflicts on children and adults. And now this:
“The findings “robustly demonstrate that children from households identifying as either of the two major world religions (Christianity and Islam) were less altruistic than children from non-religious households”.
Older children, usually those with a longer exposure to religion, “exhibit[ed] the greatest negative relations”.
The study also found that “religiosity affects children’s punitive tendencies”. Children from religious households “frequently appear to be more judgmental of others’ actions”, it said.”
Let this study be the sweet grape jelly of victory I smear over my body while running through the streets extolling the masses to witness the glory and the power of atheist prognostications that are (becoming more) empirically sound.
*thinks while raiding the larder for said righteous grape-jelly…*
On sombre reflection, perhaps I should temper my glorious revellings; take a more grandisonant, more contemplative, stance. *ahem*… I am most pleasantly pleased that scurrilous religious evocations on morality and moral behaviour are, in-fact, antithetical to moral behaviour and actions.
Or: You pious motherfuckers have just had your shit rolled up – what now Jebus and friends, what now?!?!?!?
“The report was “a welcome antidote to the presumption that religion is a prerequisite of morality”, said Keith Porteus Wood of the UK National Secular Society.
“It would be interesting to see further research in this area, but we hope this goes some way to undoing the idea that religious ethics are innately superior to the secular outlook. We suspect that people of all faiths and none share similar ethical principles in their day to day lives, albeit may express them differently depending on their worldview.”
Amen to that Keith.
“My special magic is true and yours isn’t.” This is shall be the running theme of our look at the recent hullabaloo at Bremerton High School, in Washington state.
The story breaks down as this. Football Coach guy leads a christian prayer on the 50 yard line after each football game. He’s been doing it since 2008.
2008. This is the real story. Why did the local school board allow this dipshit to continue to practice his delusional-voodoo rituals for seven years before deciding that it is problematic at best?
“While the district appreciates Kennedy’s many positive contributions to the BHS football program … Kennedy’s conduct poses a genuine risk that the district will be liable for violating the federal and state constitutional rights of students or others,” the letter reads.”
Why act now? Well because once the Satanists show up, as they say, all hell breaks loose.
“About a dozen members of the Satanic Temple of Seattle, most dressed in hooded black robes and some masked, left Bremerton High School shortly after their arrival at a varsity-football game Thursday night. […]
Temple spokeswoman Lilith Starr said the group was invited to protest Kennedy’s ritual of kneeling on the 50-yard line after games and praying. “We want equality for everyone,” she said. “If one group is allowed to pray, everyone should be.”
Oh, well. Now there is a problem. Now the craven school board has to act, because a ‘bad’ religion wants the same access perform their magic at a football game.
Reasonably speaking, this should be case closed. However, one must never forget how deep the religious delusion runs in the United States.
“When contacted for comment, Kennedy referred questions to Berry, senior counsel at the Liberty Institute in Plano, Texas.
Berry said the institute, which says its mission is to defend and preserve religious liberty in America, is “prepared to take the necessary legal actions to defend coach Kennedy’s religious freedom.” Another Liberty lawyer said placing Kennedy on leave was a hostile-employment action and that the group would file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”
Did someone just cue the ‘Persecuted Majority Christian Complex’? I would have thought that we were so over that bulwark of stupidity. But nope, our heroic coach’s religious liberty is at stake and actions must be taken!!!!!!!!
This, of course, is hogwash (see thesis). But let’s look at a particularly disdainful statement from the coach.
“He said that he has welcomed students to pray with him but never encouraged it.”
Nimrod, when you are in a position of authority as coaches and teachers are, “encouragement” is doublespeak for coercion. Just put yourself in the shoes of the students on the team, and the stupid social dynamics that go on – do you really single yourself out and not participate in the christian magic that happens at midfield?
Religious liberty does not empower you to enforce your beliefs on others. Full stop. In a society that is not in desperate need of a secular intellectual revolution, this solution would be plain as day.
[Source: Seattle Times]
[Source:CNN]
I wouldn’t buy the house either. :>
Theramin Trees has put up another wonderfully well done video. I am once again in awe of his clarity and thoroughness. Truly, his is some of the highest quality content on youtube. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend watching his other videos after you’ve finished with this one.
Good Sunday Morning to my fair readership here at DWR. Yes, you heard me right, the loophole in my militant atheism has been exposed! If becoming religious came along with the Star Wars movie force like powers – I’d be in like Flynn.
Because honestly, who wouldn’t want to do this? 
It would be awesome. The prevention of cat-hi-jinks for afar would be completely worth having to listen to some grammatically challenged Muppet ramble on about how awesome the Force is.
Having force abilities as a religion sounds nice until one imagines someone who doesn’t like you having the same sort of powers available to them. Then the whole lightside/darkside dance begins, I suppose. It seems to me that the context in which the ‘Force’ as a religion is set in lacks much of the moral ambiguity that pervades much of the current human experience.
Our current crop of religious bally-hoo doesn’t do much better though. To justify being a dick in christianity there are just so many hoops to jump through – cherry picking and misinterpreting biblical verses to justify your dickishness, ostracizing heathens, spreading your credulous bullshit, all of this takes time and a goodly amount of effort. Also, depending on how big a dick you need to be (Witch-hunts, Inquisitions), one needs many people baffled on and doing the same bullshit you are to get the ball rolling.
Being a darksider or Sith just seems a heckuva lot more straightforward. Set sail on the good ship Narcissism and let the “Force” be the wind at your back. Zero organizing (don’t be in way of the good ship Narcissism), zero need for justification, zero need for a movement other than fomenting a “Fuck Ya!”X” sure is a Badass” cult of minions to be cannonfodder/housekeepers. Going Sith is no fuss, no muss.
The starwars canon has the current religious poop-bricks beat hands down when it comes to the afterlife though. Your reward for living the pious life? Living for eternity with the abominable prats that come and bother you early on Saturday and Sunday morning. My sanity would have the life expectancy of a potato chip wedged in a pro-wrestlers ass crack.
But with the force, you get to come back and all chrome-blue and shiny and give ambiguous advice to the unlucky sods you choose to haunt aaaaaand then wave away your tosser-like behaviour by dropping lines like, “Well what I said was true, from a certain point of view…“.
No contest really. :)
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