Get Cynical

From Central Telegraph:

A CONTROVERSIAL church group has called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to fall on her knees in prayer in the midst of the looming cyclone crisis facing Queensland.

“It is very sad that this dark chapter in Australia’s history is led by an atheist Prime Minister in Julia Gillard and an openly homosexual Greens leader… both who have no regard for God nor prayer,” Catch the Fire Ministeries said in a statement today.

President Dr Daniel Nalliah said Julia Gillard was not elected by the majority of the Australian people, but rather the personal decision of two power hungry independent MPs who catapulted Ms Gillard to the top job.

“Are we Aussies all paying for that decision? It is very well known that throughout history, in a time of national crisis, kings, prime ministers and presidents of countries around the world have turned to God, irrespective of whether they were Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim and asked for help or at least called the nation to pray for protection and for the victims of the disaster,” Dr Nalliah said.

From The Montreal Gazette:

VANCOUVER — Water torture of babies is one way some members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day instil fear of authority, a former member testified Wednesday.

“It’s quite common,” Carolyn Blackmore Jessop told the constitutional reference case to determine whether Canada’s polygamy law is valid.

“They spank the baby and when it cries, they hold the baby face up under the tap with running water. When they stop crying, they spank it again and the cycle is repeated until they are exhausted.”

It’s typically done by fathers and it’s called “breaking in.”

Jessop, who is from Arizona, testified about the practice during her testimony in B.C. Supreme Court.

Outside the courthouse, Jessop said water torture is common enough that there doesn’t seem any shame attached to the practice.

From BBC News:

The teenager was accused of having an affair with a married man, police say, and the punishment was given under Islamic Sharia law.

Hena Begum’s family members said a village court consisting of elders and clerics passed the sentence.

She was alleged to have had the affair with her cousin and received 80 lashes.
Punishment received

The family members of the married man also allegedly beat the girl up a day before the village court passed the sentence in the district of Shariatpur.

“Her family members said she was admitted to a hospital after the incident and she died six days later. The village elders also asked the girl’s father to pay a fine of about 50,000 Taka (£430; $700),” district superintendent of police, AKM Shahidur Rahman, told the BBC.

From The Independent:

Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy for writing an allegedly blasphemous remark in an exam paper.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws can carry the death penalty. School authorities in Karachi lodged a complaint against the boy, identified as Sami Ullah, in January, said police officer Qudrat Shah Lodhi.

Mr Lodhi said he could not repeat what the boy, who is a Muslim, had written because he would be committing blasphemy if he did. He said the boy told police he wrote the blasphemous material out of frustration when he was not able to answer the exam question.

(via J-Walk)

From Yahoo! News:

ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani actress castigated for appearing to cuddle with an Indian actor on a reality show lashed out at a Muslim cleric who had criticized her during a widely watched television exchange this week.

The unusual outburst, punctuated by tears, came at a sensitive time in a country where Islamic fundamentalism is spreading and liberals are increasingly afraid to express their views.

“What is your problem with me? You tell me your problem!” an angry Veena Malik asked the Muslim scholar, who accused her of insulting Islam.

Earlier this month, a liberal Pakistani governor was shot dead for opposing the country’s harsh laws against blasphemy. In the aftermath, his killer was cheered as a hero among many in the public, shocking the country’s small liberal establishment.

Christ, what an asshole:

MONTGOMERY | Robert Bentley spent the first day of his administration deflecting criticism over controversial remarks he made Monday that some groups are calling offensive.

Bentley made the remarks during a speech at Dexter Street King Memorial Baptist Church, the Montgomery church once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., saying that non-Christians were “not my brother” and he hoped they would convert to Christianity.

During the speech at the church in recognition of the King holiday Monday, Bentley told a packed audience that he is color blind to race, and then talked about his religious beliefs.

“But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have, if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister,” he said.

“Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”

(via Joe My God)

From The Independent:

Former Independent journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about India’s temple prostitutes – Devadasi are young girls who are dedicated to a Hindu deity at a young age and support their families as sex workers…

…Some girls are dedicated to the goddess at age two or three. They won’t actually enter into sex work until they reach puberty at around twelve. The girls most at risk of being dedicated will have grown up in very matriarchal Devadasi communities. There aren’t any men. They don’t have fathers. So there probably is some understanding from a young age that they’re not from traditional families, they don’t have husbands.

The girls probably won’t have a real understanding of the sex work element until what they call their ‘first night’. This is when their virginity is sold to a local man, normally the highest bidder. He might be a local farmer, landowner or businessman. Some of them say, “I was dedicated to the goddess, but I didn’t know this was what was expected.”

When I first went to India I thought some of the women might consider it a kind of honour to be a Devadasi, because of it is an act of religious devotion. Sexuality and divinity are very closely entwined in the Hindu faith. Religion is closely linked to sexuality and beauty. But I think there’s very little religious link left now. Most of the women that we spoke to don’t even pay any heed to the traditional religious practises of the goddess. They see it as a business.

(via Arbroath)

I keep getting emails from people who send me links that are pro-mosque and anti-mosque and those who just want to know what my opinion is on the matter.

As an atheist, I find no cause for celebration in the construction of any religious building whether it’s a mosque, cathedral, or a new spaghetti place (granted, that last one might be the exception).

But as an American atheist whose understanding of the matter is that everything is being privately funded and they went through the correct channels, I don’t have much of a problem with it. There is no better example of American freedom than having a vilified religious minority able to build a place of worship despite the shrieking protests of a religious majority. And a majority of these protesters are the same ones who scream religious persecution when you tell them they can’t put their religious statues on public property.

From Yahoo! News:

A senior Iranian cleric has decreed dogs are “unclean” and should not be kept as pets — a move aimed at discouraging Western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Dogs are considered “unclean” under Islamic tradition but, while relatively rare in Iran, some people do keep them as pets.

By issuing a fatwa — a religious ruling — Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has sent a clear message that this trend must stop.

(via Joe My God)

Chapter 5 of the Qur’an. I’m starting to think that it’s more of an atheist book since every other verse deals with disbelievers.

5:5 Whoso denieth the faith, his work is vain and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter.

5:10 And they who disbelieve and deny Our revelations, such are rightful owners of hell.

5:36 As for those who disbelieve, lo! if all that is in the earth were theirs, and as much again therewith, to ransom them from the doom on the Day of Resurrection, it would not be accepted from them. Theirs will be a painful doom.

5:37 They will wish to come forth from the Fire, but they will not come forth from it. Theirs will be a lasting doom.

5:45 Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are wrong-doers.

5:57 O Ye who believe! Choose not for guardians such of those who received the Scripture before you, and of the disbelievers, as make a jest and sport of your religion. But keep your duty to Allah if ye are true believers.

5:73 They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the third of three; when there is no God save the One God. If they desist not from so saying a painful doom will fall on those of them who disbelieve.

5:80 Thou seest many of them making friends with those who disbelieve. Surely ill for them is that which they themselves send on before them: that Allah will be wroth with them and in the doom they will abide.

5:86 But those who disbelieve and deny Our revelations, they are owners of hell- fire.

5:94 O ye who believe! Allah will surely try you somewhat (in the matter) of the game which ye take with your hands and your spears, that Allah may know him who feareth Him in secret. Whoso transgresseth after this, for him there is a painful doom.

5:115 Allah said: Lo! I send it down for you. And whoso disbelieveth of you afterward, him surely will I punish with a punishment wherewith I have not punished any of (My) creatures.