Examiner.com
It isn't easy to be a humanist in Nigeria these days. In July, when Leo Igwe, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, held a symposium on witchcraft and children's rights, not only was it disrupted by 150 followers of Helen Ukpabio's Liberty Gospel Church, but he was attacked, had his glasses destroyed and his bag, camera and mobile phone taken from him.
And now Helen Ukpabio is suing him. For religious discrimination.
The religious belief Igwe is accused of discriminating against is her church's assertion that many of Nigeria's children are witches.
Email this article
ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2009) — Scientists from the University of Zurich have discovered the physiological mechanisms in the brain that underlie broken promises. Patterns of brain activity even enable predicting whether someone will break a promise.
Email this article
(CNN) -- As many as 10,000 albinos are in hiding in east Africa over fears that they will be dismembered and their body parts sold to witchdoctors, the Red Cross said in a recent report.
The killings of albinos in Burundi and Tanzania, who are targeted because their body parts are believed to have special powers, have sparked fears among the population in the two countries, the report said.
Email this article
letstalkmore.co.uk
Of course, who could forget Glenn Hoddle’s granny, the faith healer, Eileen Drewery? She was employed by disabled bashing Hoddle to exorcise the demons within the England team leading up to the 1998 World Cup. Most of the players took this incredibly seriously including ex-Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour who when touched on the shoulders by the faith healing loony asked for a ’short back and sides, please!’
...
Former England footballer, turned illiterate pundit eye candy, Jamie Redknapp, was once ironically instructed by an osteopath to have his wisdom teeth removed in order to cure… you guessed it (or not) a knee injury?! Redknapp was forced to retire from football, aged 32.
Email this article
St. Pauls Disease from
© German Epilepsymuseum Kork - Museum for epilepsy and the history of epilepsy.
In old Ireland, epilepsy was known as 'Saint Paul's
disease'. The name points to the centuries-old assumption that the
apostle suffered from epilepsy.
To support this view, people usually point to Saint Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, reported in the Acts of the Apostles
in the New Testament (Acts 9, 3-9), in which Paul, or Saul as he was
known before his conversion to Christianity, is reported to have a fit
similar to an epileptic seizure: '...suddenly a light from the sky
flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to
him: ''Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?''...Saul got up from the
ground and opened his eyes, but he could not see a thing... For three
days he was not able to see, and during that time he did not eat or
drink anything.'
Click "Read more >>" for access.
Email this article
Kunstgalleri, The epilepsy motif in religious art
"Introduction:
In all epochs of the history of the human race, poverty, misfortune, illness and suffering are frequently connected with higher powers, divine entities, personal deities or 'spirits'. This also applies, last but not least, to epilepsy, for whose frequently dramatic symptoms mankind has been just as unable to find a natural explanation as it has been unable to find its cause over hundreds and thousands of years.
The various names alone which have been given to this illness in medical terminology and in the vernacular in the various historical epochs are an indication of this supposed relationship between epilepsy and the supernatural: hiëra nosos (Greek) or morbus sacer (Latin): the holy illness; morbus divinus the divine, morbus deificus that created by God, morbus coelestis the heavenly illness; or morbus astralis the star and morbus lunaticus the moon illness."
Email this article
Psychology Today or listen to
NPR broadcast
Only 3 percent of Icelanders lay claim to personal encounters, but 8 percent believe in them outright and 54 percent won't deny their existence, reveals a poll conducted in 2007 by Terry Gunnell, head of folkloristics at the University of Iceland. "Rather than believe," he explains, "they don't disbelieve."
Fearing curses, even skeptics go to great lengths to protect the hidden people. Patches of grass suspected to house invisible residents are left unmowed. To avoid removal of inhabited "elf stones," the general public can petition to divert roads and halt construction of buildings. "The Icelandic government wants to make sure that people with different beliefs are taken care of," says filmmaker Nisha Inalsingh, who explores the phenomenon in her documentary Huldufólk 102.
Email this article
Associated Press
"The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life
recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity.
Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been
accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around
1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian
children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set
on fire."
Email this article
Click "Read more >>" for access.
On the Nov. 29, 2009 episode of "Meet The Press" he says the following.
"As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides."
Newsweek.com
Now Warren's on the defensive again, this time for his affiliation with Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan pastor who has endorsed proposed legislation in Uganda that makes certain homosexual acts punishable by life in prison or even, in some cases, death. Ssempa has made appearances at [Warrens Church] and has been embraced warmly by Warren and his wife, Kay.
Cooperation and Fairness are expressions of logical relationships based on self-interest that even monkeys can understand. Click on "Read more >>" for access.
Abstract: The concepts of the "
Soul" and "
Free Will" are tightly coupled and are misunderstandings of
emergent properties of
complex biological systems due to fallacious
causal oversimplifications and are, in effect, a phenomena analogous to a rainbow. In the case of a soul that is separate from the self it would be judged by God for actions it did not condone. In the case of the soul as the self, the soul is locked into the body every night during
REM sleep and is catastrophically impaired by malfunctions of the body it resides in. While religions are divided on whether animals have souls and/or spirits, with or without them, animals have some of the same types of
cognitive abilities as humans and they get along well within their biological limitations. The
philosophical soulless zombie as the
null hypothesis for souls fits with established knowledge better than the "soul" described in unauthenticated bronze age "divinely revealed" texts.
These are some youtube videos that have evidently been extracted from the longer BBC mini-series
"Phantoms in the Brain" (
Episode 1,
Episode 2) featuring
Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist. They demonstrate the correlation between the brains temporal lobes and religious experience. Click "Read more >>" to access them.
Professionals.epilepsy.com
Other changes highlighted in the literature include increased religious beliefs and a heightened concern for morality. Religious and moral themes tend to predominate when patients display hypergraphia, an increase in the volume of written material the person produces and a preoccupation with details within the content. The association of these behaviors to epilepsy, including TLE, is controversial.
Since the publication of such reports, a number of authors have questioned the linking of these personality changes with TLE. Indeed, various authors have indicated that such changes are not specific to patients with epilepsy but are also identified in other neurologic disorders. Furthermore, a recent review pointed out that patients with frontal lobe epilepsy are more likely to present these personality changes than those with temporal lobe epilepsy.
Email this article
A Grand mal seizure is the most familiar type of seizure. It causes a complete loss of motor control, uncontrollable shaking, loss of consciousness, etc during the seizure. Some seizures do not cause loss of motor control but only occur mentally. These types of seizures sometimes result in a "God Experience". This video features
Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist. Click "Read more >>" to access it.
Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist discusses split brain patient that has the hemispheres of their brain separated, creating two personalities, one a theist, the other an atheist. Click "Read more >>" to access it.
Email this article
Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist describes how a brain damaged person thinks that their left arm belongs to someone else, but then will grab it to do a task with it when asked to. Click "Read more >>" to access it.
Email this article
thesundayleader.lk
Now the question is whether this pastor is responsible for the deaths of the two women who came for the meeting. I was made to understand that these two women had died in hospital. However, divine healing is real and our Lord has told us to heal the sick in His name. However, I wish to point out that only those who come in faith are healed. The Holy Word of God says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him (God)…”
Email this article
This series is presented by
Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist. It shows the strange results of brain injury and interviews the patients.
Click on "Read more >>" to access them.
This series is presented by
Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist. It shows the strange results of brain injury and interviews the patients.
Click on "Read more >>" to access them.
BBC News
A proposal to bless South Africa's World Cup stadiums by slaughtering a cow in each one has caused concern among animal rights activists.
The Makhonya Royal Trust, which put forward the idea, described the cattle killing ritual as a "true African" way of blessing the 2010 tournament.
Government minister Sicelo Shiceka has promised to lobby football's governing body, Fifa, in support of the plan.
Email this article
ynetnews.com
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar said there was a whole "industry of false claims in female enlistment. We do not condemn religious girls, but the girls who seek exemptions and leading an un-religious life style.
Email this article
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.
...
Email this article
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.
Email this article
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.
Email this article
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.
Email this article
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.
Email this article
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.
Email this article
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
Email this article
'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.
Email this article
[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.
Email this article
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".
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.
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.
[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.
Email this article
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?".
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.
Email this article
Posts
