Posts Tagged ‘Christianity’

Queensland gets some well deserved mockery

August 2nd, 2010

Queensland has a bit of a reputation as Australia’s backward state – somewhat similar to that of the US Bible belt. We’re getting a little well-deserved mockery on this front at the moment after a News.com.au report about Creationists being invited in to state government schools under the guise of religious education. Having some from the heathen south and not having any children, I wasn’t aware that our state schools had religious education classes let alone that they were subverted from religious literacy (a good idea) towards indoctrination.

A parent of a Year 5 student on the Sunshine Coast said his daughter was ostracised to the library after arguing with her scripture teacher about DNA.

“The scripture teacher told the class that all people were descended from Adam and Eve,” he said.

“My daughter rightly pointed out, as I had been teaching her about DNA and science, that ‘wouldn’t they all be inbred’?

“But the teacher replied that DNA wasn’t invented then.”

After the parent complained, the girl spent the rest of the year’s classes in the library.

Hmmm… DNA hadn’t been invented? I wonder what that particular moron thinks happened when Adam and Eve made the two-backed beast to create Cain and Abel. It’s pretty obvious that he was out-thought by an 11-year-old and lied to try to hide it. It would be interesting to see the paperwork generated by that one.

The way they should do this religious education is to imagine some other religion they aren’t familiar with, say the Yoruba religion of Africa, imagine what sort of description of that religion they would be happy with if it was taught to their kids and then they teach about Christianity in the same voice.

I was interested to read:

About 80 per cent of children at state primary schools attend one half-hour instruction a week, open to any interested lay person to conduct.

Perhaps I should volunteer. I think I would be a little more moderate in that setting, but I fear that even just bringing the non-canonical gospels to kids’ attention would see me getting complaints from some parents. By the time I got to Terror Management Theory I think I would get stoned.

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The long stroke of hypocrisy

May 8th, 2010

George Alan Rekers, one of the founders of the Family Research Council and a board member of the US  “pray the gay away” National Association for Research and Therapy (NARTH), recently had a lovely holiday in Europe. As Rekers has some health issues, he hired a young male travelling companion to lift his luggage.

Interestingly, Rekers found his travelling companion on the gay prostitute website rentboy.com. Rekers has subsequently claimed that, like Jesus, he likes to spend time with sinners in order to try to help them recover, and says he and his rent-boy spent lots of time talking about Jesus.

The rent-boy, however, has admitted that Rekers likes full body massages, including a focus on the butt crack and genitalia. Rekers apparently calls this the “long stroke”. A second gay prostiute has come forward with similar claims.

One wonders how many other NARTH members are in the closet.

From www.jesusandmo.net

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Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image

April 17th, 2010

Bob Katter, the Queensland senator, has previously suggested blighting the natural landscape with a large crucifix on top of Mt Bartle Frere, Queensland’s highest peak. The Cairns Post carried the story on 3 April (2 days late), and quoted Katter:

Some people are saying a big cross on top, others, including me, are saying a life-size monument, a crucifix, nativity scene or Jesus down from the cross in his mother’s arms

Here we have one of the most beautiful places on Earth, with potential for a pilgrimage trail and whether you’re Christian, pantheist, humanist or into tourism promotion, you’d have to be positive about it.

Today’s Cairns Post includes a letter from a Bryan Newell apparently supportive of the idea, but suggesting a location closer to Cairns – Walsh’s Pyramid near Gordonvale. The writer seems not to realise that this wouldn’t serve Katter’s true purpose. The symbolism of a Crucifix on Queensland’s highest peak is what he really wants. It’s his way of claiming Queensland as a Christian state. But there is a sizeable and growing non-Christian minority in Queensland, and most of those who identify as Christian only do so out of family tradition. Christianity is irrelevant to most people.

Katter’s talk of the tourism drawing capacity is just cover for his religious motives. He’s a religious nut and wants to try to push his religion on others. I can guess how he would react to a move to build a symbol for some other religion – say a large Buddha statue.

Let him erect his Crucifix, subject to usual council planning laws, in his backyard instead. Leave Bartle Frere and the Pyramid in their natural state, or, if you believe in such childish nonsense, as God designed them.

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What a helpful gimboid…

March 20th, 2010

The possibly pseudonymous Jake from Yahoo Chat Abuse has been very helpful in my attempt to find out why my email/chat account was killed. “How did I break the Terms of Service?” I asked. The informative answer:

As mentioned in previous correspondence to you, your account was disabled pursuant to the Yahoo! Terms of Service (TOS). You agreed to abide by the TOS when you created your account with Yahoo!.

I can see a great career ahead for Jake offering ornithology help (Q: What type of bird is that? A: It’s a bird), IT advice (Q: My computer is not working. What’s wrong? A: It’s broken), and other similarly helpful services.

I did notice one person in a chat room was a bit offended by an open discussion about Bishop (Ret’d) John Shelby Spong’s contention that Paul, the author of some parts of the New Testament, was a repressed, self-loathing homosexual. Perhaps that was it.

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Dawkins on Haiti and the hypocrisy of Christian theology

January 26th, 2010

The Washington Post follows up a brief comment on theodicy by Dan Dennett (whose Breaking the Spell is my current reading material) with a stinging attack by Richard Dawkins on Pat Robertson and the Christian response to Robertson’s comments about Haiti. An excerpt:

You nice, middle-of-the-road theologians and clergymen, be-frocked and bleating in your pulpits, you disclaim Pat Robertson’s suggestion that the Haitians are paying for a pact with the devil. But you worship a god-man who – as you tell your congregations even if you don’t believe it yourself – ‘cast out devils’. You even believe (or you don’t disabuse your flock when they believe) that Jesus cured a madman by causing the ‘devils’ in him to fly into a herd of pigs and stampede them over a cliff. Charming story, well calculated to uplift and inspire the Sunday School and the Infant Bible Class. Pat Robertson may spout evil nonsense, but he is a mere amateur at that game. Just read your own Bible. Pat Robertson is true to it. But you?

Educated apologist, how dare you weep Christian tears, when your entire theology is one long celebration of suffering: suffering as payback for ‘sin’ – or suffering as ‘atonement’ for it? You may weep for Haiti where Pat Robertson does not, but at least, in his hick, sub-Palinesque ignorance, he holds up an honest mirror to the ugliness of Christian theology. You are nothing but a whited sepulchre.

Ouch!

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Getting non-canonical

August 18th, 2009

In a couple of recent encounters with fundamentalist Christians online I have tried to bring up the subject of non-canonical early Christian scripture, and been a little surprised by their complete lack of curiosity. Perhaps it’s because some of the texts include some stories that give a different view of Jesus…

From the Infancy Gospel of Thomas:

After that He was again passing through the village; and a boy ran up against Him, and struck His shoulder. And Jesus was angry, and said to him: Thou shalt not go back the way thou camest. And immediately he fell down dead. And some who saw what had taken place, said: Whence was this child begotten, that every word of his is certainly accomplished? And the parents of the dead boy went away to Joseph, and blamed him, saying: Since thou hast such a child, it is impossible for thee to live with us in the village; or else teach him to bless, and not to curse: for he is killing our children.

This pales into insignificance next to the reports of another text, the Greater Questions of Mary. Of this lost text Epiphanius of Salamis (sainted by the Catholic Church) writes:

For in the… Greater Questions of Mary… they posit that [Christ] gave a revelation to her: he took her to the mountain, prayed, and removed from his side a woman; he began to mingle [bodily fluids] with her; and thus, of course, partaking of his own emissions [semen], he indicated that we must act thus, so that we might live and when Mary was disturbed and fell to the ground, he raised her up and said to her, “O person of little faith, why did you doubt?

Curiosity is getting the better of me, and I’ll soon be delving into the Nag Hammadi gnostic gospels as well as some other books about early Christian scripture by Bart Ehrman and others.

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Let the Crusades continue!

May 5th, 2009

I’ve generally held people who abuse their charity work to proselytise in great contempt. Here are some people worthy of even greater contempt:

These people should be handed dishonourable discharges and be sent packing.

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When does one cease to be a Christian?

November 13th, 2008

In a number of online discussions with people who self-identify as Christian, I have, of course, noted a very wide range of beliefs – from the literal to the liberal. It leads me to question what a Christian actually is, and it’s something that seems hard to define – especially at the liberal end. When does one cease to be a Christian? » Read more: When does one cease to be a Christian?

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