My God!

         To day around the world there are glaringly obvious, brutally glaringly obvious, examples of why we should never allow religious groups to hold power. In Afghanistan we have the Taliban who enforce savage punishment on all and sundry from removing a persons hand to forbidding women to be educated. In Iran we have the Mullahs who preside of a regime that can accept young women being beaten to death for not covering their hair in the Mullah's desired fashion and kills and executes those who dare to oppose this insanity of religious dogma. Then there is Israel, with this insane belief that about 2,000 years or so ago, God gave them all the land that was Palestine and they have that god given right to take it all back no matter how much suffering or how many deaths this takes. In this country, the UK, the state still pays homage to the religious dictators that hold sway over millions of ordinary people trying to channel the public's thoughts along the strict dictate of their chosen God. All religions claim to be followers of a loving God of peace, but all religions have blood soak history they all have killed and will again, they'll kill those who dare to oppose them. The world is soaked in blood from religious wars, and it still divides the people of the world. Freedom, peace and justice cannot coexists with religion.
          The UK state hands 26 seats in the House of Lords to bishops of the Church of England. These planted members can and do vote on legislation, make interventions, but also they lead prayers at the beginning of each day's sessions. This puts UK on a par with the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the only two states on the planet that give clerics of the established religion automatic seats in the legislatures, where they can vote and shape legislation.

         Some of the religious conflicts that have soaked our planet in blood, taken from Andrew Holt, Ph.D.'s article, "Religion and the 100 Worst Atrocities in History"

"Taiping Rebellion- 20,000,000 Deaths (Rank- 6th)
Thirty Years War- 7,500,000 Deaths (Rank 17th)
Madhi Revolt- 5,500,000 (Rank 21st)
Crusades (in the East)- 3,000,000 Deaths (Rank- 30th)
French Wars of Religion- 3,000,000 Deaths (Rank 30th)
War in the Sudan- 2,600,000 (Rank 35th)
Albigensian Crusade- 1,000,000 Deaths (Rank- 46th)
Panthay Rebellion- 1,000,000 Deaths (Rank 46th)
Hui Rebellion- 640,000 Deaths (Rank 66th)
Partition of India- 500,000 (Rank 70th)
Cromwell’s Invasion of Ireland- 400,000 Deaths (Rank 81st)"

         So it should be obvious that this is a very toxic mix, capitalism, state and religion, none of these entities offer freedom of thought or action, all of them are authoritarian and will always stand against the free expression of thoughts and deeds. To hold onto their power they need obedience from the "flock". Do we wish to be a "flock", do we need a shepherd. If we desire freedom and justice for all we have to smash these authoritarian establishments, whose foundations are power, privilege and a subservient population, and their aim is to hold on to those, privileges and that power and enhance their wealth.

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Holy Violence.

       Most of my adult life I have always resented the fact that those organisations which believe in magic and men going up into the sky on a horse and a man having died coming back down from the sky to speak to some of his friends, get more privileges and protection from the establishment than ordinary rational based organisations. Likewise I have always believed that we will never be free until every Rabbi, priest, minister, mullah and any other variety of magical visionaries have been banished to the solitude of their own backsides. I have also longed for the day when every church, chapel, synagogue mosque and any other symbol of the magic brigade is turned into a sports centre, community autonomous space, dancehall, or some other such useful establishment for the locals, free from the idiotic ramblings of that group of insane known as the religious.
      All religions are steeped in blood they persecute those who don't swallow their magic balderdash, they slaughter each other trying to prove that their loving god is more loving than the others. Their history is on catalogue of killing for power and converts.
      So you can imaging that I shed no tears after reading of the burning of churches and I understand the anger, but I shed tears for the savage brutality brought down on the children caught up in their maniacal drive for converts to their hocus-pocus magic rituals.

The following extract from Act For Freedom Now: 

 

       Two new churches were burned down on Saturday 26 June on native territories in western Canada, bringing the total number of churches burned to four, since the discovery of a thousand unmarked graves near former residential schools run by the Catholic Church in British Columbia.
       In the early hours of Saturday, St. Ann’s Church and Chopaka Church, both located on strips of aboriginal land in British Columbia, were burned within an hour of each other, federal police said. “Both churches were destroyed,” said Sgt. Jason Bayda of the Canadian Mounted Police in a statement. 

       

           The fires occurred two days after news broke of the discovery of more than 750 unmarked graves on the site of a former Catholic Church-run residential school in Marieval. Last month, the identification of the remains of 215 children near another such school had already shocked and outraged the country, illustrating the ordeal suffered for decades by indigenous children in schools run by the Catholic Church. 

Continue reading HERE: 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk    

In Fear Of A Loving God.

        Every time the ISIL religious nutters, rampaging through the Middle East, carry out one of their many sadistic be-headings, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, splashes the details across front pages and on TV screens, condemnation rages against such a barbaric act, as it should. However, I couldn't find much coverage of the case of a man sentenced to be be-headed for tearing a Koran. The reason being, that particular case, was taking place in one of our “friendly” nations, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is allowed to carry out be-headings, public floggings, and stoning to death, with impunity, simply because it is a “friendly” nation.
      Just the other day, in another “friendly” nation, a young man and his wife were dragged from their bicycle rickshaw and brutally assaulted by a group with machetes. The young man died on the way to hospital, his wife is seriously injured and has lost a finger. His crime, he was an atheist blogger in Bangladesh, another “friendly” nation. I'm waiting to see just how much coverage our babbling brook of bullshit will give this barbaric crime, committed by the faithful of one of the world's largest religions.

      Across the globe we can put our finger on brutal and vicious killings, savage wars and community conflict, and at the same time, you will be putting your finger on the god loving killing the god loving. Day and daily, you will find the god loving killing those who have no god, all in the name of their particular “loving” god. Religion, insanity, and the curse of the masses.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

It Is Still A Bitter Damaging Love.

      After putting up my recent post on religion, "A Bitter Damaging Love." I received this comment on Facebook.

Hi,    Loathe to go over the same old ground John but I find this kind of post at best very unhelpful and at worst extremely hurtful. I don't deny that for many people religion is a very bad experience but for many it is a positive thing. I'm not expecting you to agree. I just find it difficult to ignore this kind of post when it goes so much against my own experiences x

My response is as follows: 

Hi,

     nobody can deny the personal experience that you get from religion and nobody can deny you your opinion, likewise me. My opinion is based on historical evidence that stretches back through the centuries and across the planet. Through the ages religion has a track record of persecuting those who dare to be different, even today religion is fighting a rearguard battle against gays, lesbians, birth control, and abortion, we have the “morality police” in Iran arresting and beating those whose dress code and behaviour doesn't fit their norm, and in that land of the free America, some family planning clinics have to have armed guards to protect their clients from violence and abuse from the faithful.

     As you run your finger across a map of the world lingering at points of extreme violence, you invariably find there is a religious split and no religion is exempt from the bloodshed. Even those nice, respect for all life, Buddhists, at this moment in time are marauding through Burma killing Muslims and burning their property. Not so long ago in the Balkans, the Catholic Croatians brutally “cleansed” their new country of Muslims and the Orthodox Christians did likewise in Serbia and so it goes on. All of them quite prepared to kill in the name of their peace loving god.

     Let's not forget what the Jews are doing today, to the Muslim Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank.

      The scandals of physical and sexual abuse of children in the care of the Catholic Church, is not an new phenomenon it has been part and parcel of that institution for as far back as you wish to go. According to Sarah Ruden in her book, Paul Among the People: in the first chapter of Paul's Letter to the Romans, the Apostle severely criticized pedophiles as well as homosexuals for their unnatural, cruel, and rebellious acts against God and humanity. The date and name slip my mind at the moment but I believe it was in the 17 century the Pope of that day called for all those priests who sexually abuse young children, to be driven from the Church. In 1871, in Australia, a young nun, Mary Mackillop, witnessed a pedophile priest molesting a boy. When she reported it to the Catholic hierarchy, they threw her out of the convent and excommunicated her.

     All the good deeds that are done on this planet can be done by ordinary people without the need of all powerful Gods, who invariably cause divisions. Hierarchy and tradition stifle freedom of thought and action. Over the years I have written quite a few articles on on religion, all of them critical, and at the age of 79 I have in no way changed my opinion, I still see religion as one of the main causes of division and violence on this planet. Yes there are other institutions that have savaged humanity, that in no way mitigates the damage done by religion, it merely lumps them together.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

MURDER ACCEPTABLE, IN THE NAME OF GOD??

       Two interesting quotes, though I don't agree with the entire articles, but for sure, religion and superstition have brought nothing but havoc, misery, and violence to the world, from the days of sacrifices, to witch burning, to stoning to death, from blasphemy laws, to the right to brain wash our children, to censorship of expression. These religious rituals are and have been seen as, for the good of man and are considered the right of the religious, the so called devout. Preach love and indulge in violence and murder and that is alright as long as you say, it is god's name.

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Muslim Rage & The Last Gasp of Islamic Hate “For a homicidal few in the Muslim world, life itself has less value than religious icons, such as the prophet or the Quran. These few are indifferent to the particular motives or arguments behind any perceived insult to their faith. They do not care about an individual’s political alignment, gender, religion, or occupation. They do not care whether the provocation comes from serious literature or a stupid movie. All that matters is the intolerable nature of the insult.”

Sam Harris: On the Freedom to Offend an Imaginary God
“The freedom to think out loud on certain topics, without fear of being hounded into hiding or killed, has already been lost. And the only forces on earth that can recover it are strong, secular governments that will face down charges of blasphemy with scorn. No apologies necessary.”

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FREEDOM OF SPEECH V RELIGIOUS CENSORSHIP.

       Not my favourite guy, but I do share his view on censorship and religion. As we enter a more authoritarian society and surveillance is everywhere, we have a greater need to speak out and a greater need to defend what little freedom of speech we still have. There are those around who would have all you say vetted, censored and the speaker punished, if the don't like what they hear. They seem to think that violence against words is acceptable, if they don't like those words.

      If you are not allowed to voice an opinion that differs from the accepted then nothing will ever change. That may suit the religious nut-cases, but not a civilised society.

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