You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Religion’ category.
Christianity and its various sects harm women.
In the early 1960’s, in response to the call of many millions of Catholic women, especially in the US, who wanted to limit the size of their families through the use of contraception, a papal commission was set up to look at Catholic teaching on birth control in light of the current scientific knowledge. If found that there was no scriptural, theological, philosophical reason, or basis in natural law for the Church’s prohibition on birth control.
[…]
However, in 1968, Pope Paul VI responded instead with an encyclical Humanae Vitae. The encyclical reaffirmed the Church’s rejectionist stance: Contraceptives were evil and against God’s law. Ten years later, Pope John Paul declared that Humanae Vitae was ‘a matter of fundamental Catholic belief’.
In the West, many if not most Catholics ignored the ban. For them, however painful, the decision of whether to conceive or not was rarely a life-or-death issue. Unfortunately for women in the poorest parts of the world, it often is. There, the right to choose weather or not to conceive was vitally linked to a woman’s prospectsfor freeing herself and her family from poverty. It is in this context that the inherent and deeply rooted misogyny of the Church has taken its greatest toll on the lives of women. Pope John Paul II spent a considerable port of his pontificate propagandizing on behalf of a doctrine that tells poor and illiterate women that to use a condom is the moral equivalent of murder and that each time they use contraceptives they render Christ’s sacrifice on the cross ‘in vain’. He said:’No personal or social circumstances have ever been able, or will be able, to rectify the moral wrong of the contraceptive act.
Underlying this attitude is the assumption that when it comes to having a baby, a woman’s consent is not necessary and that once made pregnant, accidentally or not, her own will is rendered irrelevant. The moral implications of this are interesting when compared with those governing our attitudes to rape. All civilized societies accept that a woman’s consent is necessary in order to have intercourse with her. Not to seek that consent and to coerce her into intercourse is to commit rape, which is a serious crime. But yet according to the Church, in the vital matter of pregnancy, a woman’s consent is beside the point.
She can be made pregnant against her wishes, and without her consent. The inexorable law of God overrides her will and the fact that she is pregnant determines her fate. Her personal autonomy is denied to her.
To deny the need for her consent in this the most important aspect of a woman’s life is surely the moral equivalent of justifying rape. It reminds us once more of the profound contempt that has underpinned Catholic attitudes towards women and that has been responsible for so much suffering down through the centuries.
– Jack Holland. A Brief History of Misogyny: The World’s Oldest Prejudice. p. 241 – 243
Religion, centuries of practice keeping women in their place…
Helpful Advice. :)
Christianity has never been good for women.
Historically speaking though it takes a new invention coupled with the preexisting corrosive doctrine of religious misogyny to achieve that next tier of gynocidal malevolence.
“Accusations of witchcraft and demonic sex began to occur more frequently in the fifteenth century. They were a feature of the first wide-ranging witch-hunt in the Rhone Valley in southern France in 1428, during which between one and two hundred witches were burned. Less than sixty years later, a land mark text in the the history of misogyny appeared to explain why it was that more and more women were apparently leaving the Church and throwing themselves into the arms of Satan and his demons. It is not that Malleus Maleficarum, or ‘Hammer of the Witches'(1487), has anything original to say about misogyny – it has not; it merely repeats all the abuse heaped upon women in the Bible and the Classical authors. But what it does do for the first time is explicitly link the supposed weakness of women’s nature to their propensity to fall for the Devil, and thus become Witches. Its influence was hugely augmented by a new invention – the printing press. There is more than a little irony in the fact that the invention that would revolutionize people’s access to information should be so instrumental in spreading one of the most lethal forms of ignorance, fear and prejudice ever to manifest itself.”
-A Brief History of Misogyny:The World’s Oldest Prejudice by Jack Holland p.116-117
Just a brief snippet from the chapter titled: “From Queen of Heaven to Devil Woman”. Sadly, there is much, much more, to discuss when it comes for the Christian hatred of women.
If I didn’t see it happen, it did not happen. Dark Matter2525 takes on a argumentative tact adopted by some creationists in their crusade to bring civilization back the happy-fun times of the Middle Ages.
Creationist: *argle-bargle* – “Science said this!”, trots out gross caricature of scientific theory. “It is ‘just a theory!” – More *argle-bargle*.
Rational People: … *heavy sigh*
And then…the slapdown.
You are entitled to your opinion, but never entitled to the facts.
What the hell is this? Am I living in the US or something?
This story broke on on CBC radio June 27th, and listening to what happened I filled this news tid-bit safely under the “smart people doing stupid things” category. The tale of this doctor’s mixed up medical ethos stuck in my brain though and managed to annoy me enough inspire a blog post on the topic.
“A Calgary doctor is being criticized by patients for refusing to prescribe birth control at a walk-in clinic. When Dr. Chantal Barry is on shift a sign at the WestGlen Medical Centre informs patients that the doctor on duty does not prescribe birth control pills.”
Whut? Naw, lets append that to, “What the ever living frak is Dr. Chantal Barry thinking/smoking?”
“The Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons has a policy that states doctors are not required to provide care that violates their moral or religious beliefs. However, physicians are expected to refer patients for care in a timely manner.”
Okay, a stupid policy if I ever heard one, but at least it has the proviso that patients that you happen to neglect because of your particular voodoo should be referred to another doctor that is less reality challenged then yourself. In this situation though, being a clinic with only one doctor on duty per shift, that particular option doesn’t exist.
Pam Krause, head of the Calgary Sexual Health Centre, said she is shocked to hear about a doctor at a walk-in clinic refusing routine medical care.
“Easy access to birth control works,” she said. “It prevents pregnancy and it prevents other social problems down the road, and it should be easily accessible in a city like Calgary from a family physician.”
The solution, Dear Doctor Barry , is keep your ‘morality’ hung discreetly under that MD in evidence based fucking medicine and do your damn job.
Good morning. Today’s disservice, with many thanks to AntiCitizen-X, is on the short and sweet side as cracking this particular religious chestnut is neither particularly complex or time consuming. Necessary? Of course, but hey on the Canadian long weekend everyone gets a brain break. :)
Enjoy.
[Edit: Grr. – What I get for not previewing my post. This is the correct video, Dr.Oz is scheduled later in the week.]
[Edit #2: Adding the syllogism for sake of clarity.]
1. God is omnipotent (definition of God).
2. Omnipotence is the power to do all that is logically possible.
3. A logically possible feat is any coherent action one can speak out loud without contradiction (definition of logical possibility)
3a. Any feat that has ever been done before is logically possible.
4. It is logically possible to create a finite mass of rock that cannot be lifted by its own maker.
5. Therefore, an omnipotent being can create a finite mass of rock that cannot be lifted by its own maker.
6. Therefore, an omnipotent being can create a finite mass of rock that cannot be lifted by an omnipotent being (definition of “maker” by an omnipotent being).
7. For any finite mass of rock, it is logically possible to generate a force that will lift it against a uniform gravitational field. (Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion)
8. Therefore, an omnipotent being can lift any finite mass of rock. (from #2 and #7)
9. Premise #6 and premise #8 are contradictions.
10. Therefore, it is logically impossible to be omnipotent (from #3 and #8)
11. Therefore, God is logically impossible.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…