religion

The Law and Religion

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I’ve two examples to talk about here … both are examples of intolerance, both have a religious theme, and both illustrate the problems you can get tangled up in when you let religious considerations interfere with the legal process. One is an attempt to legislate some support for an irrational belief, and the other is an attempt to legislate against an irrational belief, what they both have in common is that they are an attempt to dictate how individuals should behave.

You can probably guess, but they both involve Islam … gasp!! … what a surprise that is these days.

First up we have the story about driving in Saudi. As I’m sure many of you are aware, it is illegal for woman to drive in Saudi. Ah yes, a real example of how truly progressive Islam can be when granted a free reign. In fact, its not just a driving issue, this is Islamic Sharia law in full swing; woman cannot vote, cannot be elected, and can never be independent because it is mandated that they must have a male guardian … In essence, woman are most or less a subservient class of slaves with no rights, and its the law because the clerics say so. (and I’ve not even mentioned the mandatory dress code, or that in public men and woman are completely segregated).Make no mistake, “It’s the culture, not the religion,” is a Saudi saying, but that claim is complete bollocks, its the clerics who impose these rules.

To read more about the complete lack of rights for woman in Saudi, you can click here.

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Islamic Cleric – “When I want a sex slave, I just go to the market and choose the woman I like and purchase her.”

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Not too long ago I blogged about a crazy Egyptian Islamic Cleric, Shaykh Abi-Ishaq al-Huwayni, who suggested that Muslims who were short of cash should go on a raid and sell any prisoners taken in the market.

As you might imagine, it caused a bit of a stir (his comments made it into the Egyptian press), so he was interviewed over the phone by a TV station and asked to explain himself. At first he appeared to back off a bit and suggested that his words had been taken out of context, but then he proceeds to put it into a 7th Century setting. What is astonishing is that his explanation is even more outrageous and utterly offensive to any normal sane human.

Here we do indeed have an individual, who is not just out of time from another century, but has had his sense of morality so utterly fucked up by religion, that he appears to be from another millennium.

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Cliff Richard – Is he, or is he not?

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I recently came across an article about “Cliff Richard“. Looking at what had been written, I was rather surprised to find that the author wrote about how Cliff met a Catholic Priest and that they now lived together and were really good close friends. I thought to myself, “no, that simply can’t be right, I … Read more

New Zealand funds Homophobic religious wingnuts

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Occasionally you trip over some insanity that causes you to wonder what the heck folks were smoking when decisions were being made. The latest example of this is the news here in the New Zealand Herald that the goverment there is funding a homophobic cult to the tune of $860,000. These folks truly believe that … Read more

Being sober without a god

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There is a belief that the only means to truly help those faced with an addiction is through the intervention of a deity. An example of this would be Catholic priests such as Fr. Pete Watters (here). He has been sober for 50 years and claims that only through belief in a higher power has it been possible to overcome his addiction and remain sober.

One little flaw … the belief that only a deity can help is not true.

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Child Victims of a Faith healing Cult

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Belief in faith healing is fairly common, but for most mainstream believers, prayer is generally an addition to proper medical care, not an alternative. Sadly there are some to do indeed view faith healing as the only viable approach to illness and decline all medical care. One such example is a group who call themselves the “Followers of Christ” and are based in Oregon City.

A basic human right is freedom of thought. In essence, folks can believe whatever they wish, so best of luck to them in all such endeavors. Well OK, perhaps we can ourselves exercise another freedom, that of speech, and mock such silly beliefs, however beyond all this is a far deeper concern here – what about their kids?

They don’t get to choose, but instead have this nonsense inflicted upon them, sometimes with dire consequences.

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