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Technical Difficulties With Automated Blog Posts

[20100131] The blog is still refusing mail from gmail. I've stopped the forwarders. When the mail server stops trying to deliver mail (probably by the 5th). I'll try another strategy.
I'm trying to find the equilibrium between Google News Alerts, Gmail and Blogger to permit automated posting of Google News Alerts to the blog so I can have them for reference and work on other things. My goal is not to focus on one news topic, but to have the varied topics in the news feeds automatically posted in the blog daily or weekly because I can capture more unique data that way.

Suicide Bomb News Feed

The Jihad News Feed

Witch News Feed

Ritual Abuse and Killing News Feed

Faith Heal News Feed

Female Genital Mutilation News

Exorcism News Feed

Child Bride or Marriage News Feed

Church Abuse News Feed

Animal Sacrifice News Feed

Religious Exemption News Feed

Monday, November 30, 2009

Church Presses for Exemption To Exclude Homosexuals From Employee Benefits

Wall Street Journal
The city's Roman Catholic leaders, in particular, have pressed for a broader exemption to allow the church -- or any group or individual opposed to same-sex marriage -- not to provide benefits to same-sex partners of its employees.
...
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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Pastor Confesses: "There were no miracle babies, it was all a hoax"

Deya insider: There were no miracle babies, it was all a hoax
Bishop Gilbert Deya’s miracle babies were not miraculous after all but the fruits of “an intricate web of deceit”, according to a former cleric with the Deya Ministries.

The Rev Rose Atieno Kiserem, who was a senior pastor with the church headed by Bishop Deya, on Thursday confessed that the so-called miracle babies were a “hoax” intended to “hoodwink and dupe” the church’s followers.

In May 2007, Ms Kiserem was jailed alongside Bishop Deya’s wife, Mary, and Ms Miriam Nyeko for two years for stealing a baby. She was released from prison in September last year.
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In New Jersey, Trio accused of subjecting 7-year-old girl to animal sacrifice ritual

NewJersey.com,The Record
Three people were indicted on child cruelty charges for allegedly cutting a 7-year-old girl—the daughter of one woman involved—and performing animal sacrifices in the child’s presence during a religious ritual, authorities said today.
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Saturday, November 28, 2009

Christian Faith-Healer Joe Daugherty Dies of Cancer

Examiner.com
Christian faith-healer Joe Daugherty died of cancer on November 22, 2009... Mr. Daugherty was 57 years old.
...
In October Mr. Daugherty was admitted to the hospital for a viral infection of his throat. However, tests showed he was suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Why he sought medical help and did not rely on the Christian teachings which he promoted regarding faith-healing is not clear.
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Riyadh: Man to be Decapitated for Witchcraft

Asianews.it
Ali Sibat, a Lebanese psychic who made predictions on a satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut, was arrested by religious police in the holy city of Madinah during a pilgrimage in May 2008 and then sentenced to death by decapitation on 9 November this year.
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Muslims Prepare for Animal Sacrifice During the Festival of Eid-ul-Azha


Why does God need a blood sacrifice? Can't God see how much they love him without it? I thought "knowing peoples hearts" was one of Gods distinguishing characteristics.

Eid al-Adha (aka Eid-ul-Azha) from Wikipedia

Eid-UL-Azha from Flixya

Sheep, goats get pricey as Kashmiris shop for Eid
Muslims throughout the world offer animal sacrifice on Eid-ul-Azha to commemorate a centuries-old tradition.

The legend goes that Prophet Abrahim had offered to sacrifice his son Ismail to please Allah. As Abrahim started running the knife on his son’s throat, a ram from heaven replaced Ismail as Allah was pleased with the absolute obeisance of Prophet Abrahim.
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Friday, November 27, 2009

Wisconsins Faith Based Criminal Defense Proposal

Emily's Post: On a wing and a prayer, Emily Mills, Monday 11/23/2009
Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) is their current champion in the Legislature, having introduced a bill that would create a “new religious exemption in state law by inserting nine faith-based ‘affirmative defenses’ into the state's criminal code. These defenses would have to be considered if a parent or guardian of a child withheld medical treatment for the child in favor of spiritual healing or prayer.”

It’s a tricky bit of business, especially considering that Taylor’s proposal would actually strip out the existing religious exemption -- the same one that the Neumann family invoked in defense of their decision not to seek medical treatment for their daughter who eventually died from diabetic complications. The Neumann’s were still convicted of second-degree reckless homicide.
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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Catholic Order Pays Out For Abuse


What is a good way to determine if someone is trustworthy? What is a good way to monitor the trustworthiness of someone or a group? Do actions speak louder than words? Should groups that have a high frequency of this type of thing be qualified for governmental religions exemptions?

Catholic order pays out for abuse
The abuse happened at institutions run by religious orders A Catholic religious order is to supply a 161m euros (£145m) package of measures as reparation for child abuse in Ireland.
... More than 2,000 people told the commission they had suffered physical and sexual abuse as children in the institutions, which included schools and orphanages.
It found that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions, and church leaders knew what was going on.

On Thursday a separate report will be published exposing child sex abuse by Catholic priests in the Dublin Archdiocese.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Hindus Flock to Nepal Animal Sacrifice Festival


What does a Goddess do with animal blood? 

Gadhimai Festival from Wikipedia.

Devotees flock to Nepal animal sacrifice festival
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees have converged on a town in Nepal for a festival which is considered the world's largest animal sacrifice. The Gadhimai festival, which happens once every five years, is taking place in Bariyapur in southern Nepal.

Over the next two days more than a quarter of a million animals are expected to be slaughtered for Gadhimai - a goddess of power
.
Sacrifice is seen as a way of thanking the deity for good luck, or asking her for fortune and prosperity.

"The goddess needs blood," says Chandan Dev Chaudhury, a priest at the Gadhimai temple in the centre of the festival site.

"If anyone has a problem, then I will cut the throat of an animal in the temple and that person's problem will be solved."
Meanwhile, three children of pilgrims who had come to observe Gadhimai festival died due to extreme cold. The deceased include a one-year-old, four-month-old and two-month-old infants. Their parents had come from India. nepalnews.com

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Help "Witch Children" in Africa

'Witch children' in Africa, Nov 23, 2009 04:55 PM
Children being branded as "witch children" and being abandoned or killed at birth is a problem in much of West Africa. Today we focus on Togo, one of a number of African countries where we tackle all root causes of abandonment. We explain background to the current problem and give a case study of a child we have helped.

We want to do more for so called witch children. Already the problem of "witch children" comes within our remit as the world's largest orphan and abandoned child charity, since it is a major cause of abandonment. But of course often it is far worse than this.
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Friday, November 20, 2009

Request for Comments on Christian Inter-denominational Criticisms

[Rev. 20091121] If you would like to contribute, please add links to Christians criticizing other Christian denominations in the comments section. I'd like to populate the sidebar on the right with them. I'm going to take a break from posting anything for a couple of days to hopefully collect more comments and to work on some more content. To see whats in the works, you always can click on the "Quirp articles in draft" in the sidebar.
Thanks in Advance.
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Faulty Analogy of Gods as Shepherds and "The Problem of Victimization"

Theists use a shepherd analogy to describe the relationship between Gods (i.e. Jesus and Krishna) and us. However, a simple seconds reflection or a trip to your local animal shelter should reveal the flaw in that analogy.  Theists who follow a loving, caring characteristically good god have spent thousands of years trying to resolve the Problem of Evil.  I say, why worry about the WHOLE problem of evil? Good problem solving techniques break complicated problems down into little pieces, so they should just pick a small piece and start there. Lets start with "The Problem Of Victimization".

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Scope, Definition, Equivocation and Semantic Drift

When talking with the Theists, they often misuse the word heart. They say things like "Know in your heart". I recommend not tolerating that type of thing and point out to them that hearts pump blood and can't know anything. By tolerating a loose use of terms, it promotes "entropy" in the meaning of the word, allowing the meaning to shift, thereby permitting equivocation to take place, thereby permitting an illicit type of confirmation and commitment or acceptance of its appropriateness, thereby propagating inaccurate information.
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Ancient Penguin DNA Raises Doubts About Accuracy of Genetic Dating Techniques

This ScienceDaily article demonstrates the strengths of the Scientific Method compared to other ways of acquiring knowledge. Reasonable people agree that reassessing knowledge with new information is necessary and is a good thing.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Beyond Mesopotamia: A New View Of The Dawn Of Civilization

[Rev. 20091117] ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2007)
"For decades, school children have learned that human civilization emerged about 5000 years ago along the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, along the Nile, and along the Indus River. But archaeologists working in a broad arc from the Russian steppes through Iran and onto the Arabian Peninsula are finding evidence that a complex network of cities may have thrived across the region in roughly the same era, suggesting a dramatic new view of the emergence of human civilization."
This is significant because up to this point, Euro-centric, Biblical archeology and (to a small degree) Nazi propaganda have skewed the view of civilizations origins and minimized the contribution of non-near eastern and non-semitic speaking cultures.
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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Learn To Be Psychic In Ten Easy Lessons

From Skeptic Magazines website you can download the document for fun, games, sabotaging "psychic readings" and future reference.
Excerpt from the documents introduction follows below.
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Friday, November 13, 2009

How Do Theists Know That God Communicates With Them?

Recently I had a discussion with a religious friend and asked him what I consider to be a key defining question. I've tried to record the dialog here as accurately as I can, but obviously the following is not a transcript. During the course of the conversation the "relationship" topic came up.  Knowing that communication is an important part of a relationship I asked him "Does God talk to you?".
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Special Pleading

Special Pleading from Wikipedia

...Essentially, this involves someone attempting to cite something as an exemption to a generally accepted rule, principle, etc. without justifying the exemption.
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Theist Equivocation Of "Grace" Used in Combination With The Strategy of Minimization In Dialog.

Equivocate, from Dictionary.com
–verb (used without object), -cat⋅ed, -cat⋅ing.
to use ambiguous or unclear expressions, usually to avoid commitment or in order to mislead; prevaricate or hedge: When asked directly for his position on disarmament, the candidate only equivocated.
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Thomas Jefferson Performed Data Cleansing On The Gospels

In 1804 Thomas Jefferson, one of The United States "Founding Fathers" published "The Life And Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" (online text). Today it is commonly known as the "Jefferson Bible". It was his attempt to preserve the teachings and philosophy of Jesus without the supernatural aspects and the parts that he perceived as misunderstandings and mistakes of the Gospel authors. This is one example of Data Cleansing of scripture, and remarkably, it was carried out by one of the most esteemed men in History.  It seems that Thomas Jefferson would agree that "once you get the God out of Wisdom Literature, it can be enjoyed by everyone".
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Once You "Get The God Out", Wisdom Literature Can Be Enjoyed By Everyone.

Generally speaking, Wisdom Literature (<- that Wikipedia entry needs revision) are texts written intended to accumulate knowledge used to teach. Unfortunately Wisdom Literature is usually associated with local deities. The fact that it has been associated with a local deity, isolates it to a culture and makes it generally inaccessible to anyone not open to information associated with another culture or deity. Some examples of Wisdom Literature are easily found in the Scripture of most religions. To my disappointment, I've heard and seen people whom I respect very much, whom I consider to be intelligent, and who consider themselves "free thinkers", categorically discredit and disregard ideas contained in religious scripture as "Woo Woo" and irrelevant. An example of a religious concept that is relevant and adds value to civilization even without the God is Yoga and Meditation.   Once you get the God out of  Wisdom Literature, Wisdom can be enjoyed by everyone.
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Sunday, November 1, 2009

Brief Introduction To The Vedas

[Revised 20091103] This is the first article in a series of Brief Introductions to Hindu Scriptures. As with other ancient religious texts, these are generally considered to be divinely revealed. Divinely revealed information has all the problems identified by Information and Data Quality Dimensions, the most obvious are the Intrinsic dimensions of Accuracy, Believability, Objectivity and Reputation.  Hinduism is the oldest religion and the Vedas are its foundation.
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served since Nov. 13, 2009