Respecting the beliefs of others

How much do you want to bet that this guy is in the closet...

Uganda preacher who demanded anti-gay law may be charged under anti-gay law

Pastor Martin Ssempa is notorious for screening gay porn in church and claiming it is common for gay men to ‘eat the poo-poo’.

But now, after the pastor promoted and held a huge 10,000 rally to celebrate the Anti-Homosexuality Act after it was signed into law, is being accused of promoting homosexuality.

Robert Gagnon At FRC: Bible Says Gay Sex Worse Than Incest

Gagnon insists that examination of Old and New Testament texts makes it clear that only sex in the context of a lifelong marriage between a man and a woman is acceptable to God. It all goes back to the creation of Eve from part of Adam, resulting in male and female images of God that are sexually incomplete without the other.

Yeah and go back 50 years and interracial marriages are also against God. Go back another 100 and slavery is endorsed by the Bible.

Welcome to reality where your God is nothing but a fantasy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yis7GzlXNM&list=PLQ-7WiWmOuK9kZYOD9Z8MhZK-0Fv6T3c5

Government bans all existing and future Academies and Free Schools from teaching creationism as science

(U.K.)

The Government has changed the rules to preclude all Academies and Free Schools, both those that already exist and those that will open in the future, from teaching pseudoscientific ideas such as creationism as scientifically valid. The changes have been made through extending an explicit ban to all future Academies and Free Schools, but also by clarifying that it believes the requirement to teach a broad and balanced curriculum means no existing Academies and Free Schools can teach pseudoscience either. The British Humanist Association (BHA) has welcomed the news as representing a significant step towards achieving one of its longstanding policy goals.

Here is a new series on Investigation Discovery, I watched a couple the other night and it was interesting to me:

Sinister Ministers

Even Buddhists can be genocidal:

anti-Muslim violence in Burma

The stories are true. Traveling across Burma recently, I encountered some of these monks who are drumming up hate and jingoistic fervor. They don’t want to talk about peace and have succeeded in sowing mistrust across much of the country. Under their influence, taxi drivers and shopkeepers from Rangoon to remote towns talk about their fear of a Muslim takeover and “the Buddha’s teaching” that sometimes violence is needed to protect the nation.

Sound familiar? Sounds like a Republican rant to me.

What wonderful powers can be given by warping fairy tales.

Pope Francis doesn't seem to be truly sorry, as he does not admit that the Catholic Church didn't commit a sin of omission; it actively participated in hiding guilty priests:

Catholic bishops will be held accountable for not protecting youths, Pope says

Yeah, I'll believe it when you turn over at least one guilty priest before the courts come after said priest.

I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of Church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves...

I hope the Puerto Rico Police Dept learns a lesson.
http://www.theolympian.com/2013/03/08/2453192/atheist-puerto-rico-cop-files.html

This complaint is finally moving forward.

http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/puerto-rico/prdce/3:2013cv01203/101379/74/0.pdf

A true crime: faith healers

To paraphrase: "people are often berated for not having enough faith when they are not healed"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bouAp1pGBwk

PASTOR WANTS 'DEMONIC' BOOKS REMOVED FROM PUBLIC LIBRARY

"This is dark. There's a sexual element. You have creatures that aren't human. I think it's dangerous for our kids,"

Yes, that description describes the Bible to a T. Lets start by removing that first.

And this deserves a definite "eff you and your God dammed religion" to the Muslim woman who had this taken down:

Advertisement removed after resident expresses offense

WINOOSKI, Vt. —A sign on a lamp post at the bottom of the Winooski Circle displayed the words "Yield Sneakers Bacon" until Friday morning. The bistro owners took it down.

A city program put it in place to keep its flower beds beautiful. If businesses do some gardening they can post an advertisement where they do it, but the word "bacon" on the Sneakers Bistro sign started a discussion about diversity on the Winooski Front Porch Forum.

It started with a post from one woman who wrote that the sign was insensitive to those who do not consume pork. She said as a Muslim she is personally offended by it.

The owners of Sneakers spoke to WPTZ. They say they've reached out to the individual who made the post and proactively took the sign down. They also say they regret any harm caused by the sign, and that their goal was never to cause stress or bad feelings.

"It's nice that they were respectful enough to take it down," said Caleb Wiley an area resident, "but I also think they shouldn't have, or had to at any right."

Other Winooski residents joined the conversation, and online too. One post reads the word "bacon" is not offensive. It's something that describes food.

Winooski's city manager spoke on behalf of the city. She said:

"The cool part of living in a diverse community is that it's not always comfortable. It's a fascinating place with lots of opportunities for conversation. The City has to pay attention to a lot of factors while acting within what we can regulate," said Katherine "Deac" Decarreau.

Others recognize it's a complicated issue, too.

"I respect her religion and her right to believe what she wants but I'm pretty sure the first amendment extends to bacon and the selling of it."

Sneakers' owners say their goal is to provide a joyful place for the entire community.

The Winooski Islamic Community Center was not available for comment.

“Despite my wrong motives, I had an encounter with Jesus Christ, I heard his call. And like all who respond to that call, I left my pile of worthless things, and I followed him,” he continued. “There are more pitfalls set before young people today than I have time to describe. The fact is we live in a dark world, and a depraved culture.”

Yes, and you are the depraved individual who used God to get close to children to abuse them.

Florida youth pastor busted after his computer is detected ‘sharing’ child porn

This is the biggest problem I have with organized religion; that it is used by sick men (and I say that because most religions don't allow women to hold power) to have power over other people, and that is not uncommon.

Religion, in general, is the haven for depraved individuals and conspiracies.

Here you go Rotorhead. You started this thread.

Respecting the beliefs of others is a hot topic these days. The Muslim world seems to think that we must all respect their prophet and be careful what we say about him. They are going so far as to propose new rules in the United Nations that would limit free speech rights when it comes to religion. Should blasphemy be a crime?

Is this right? Should we be required to respect the beliefs of others or should we only be required to respect their right to have those beliefs? In my opinion people should be able to believe anything that they wish, however a belief is nothing more than an opinion and an opinion is something that is subject to questioning.

As an example. If you were to talk to an aboriginal person about their beliefs and they told you that they believe that the earth is a flat disc balanced on the back of a giant turtle, am I required to respect this opinion? This view of the world was widely held among native peoples. If I show them a picture of the earth from space am I engaging in hate speech?

What if they insist that the "Giant Turtle Theory" be taught in our public schools? If over half of the people in the country believe in the giant turtle, and they did at one point, are we all required to learn and respect the giant turtle theory?

How is this different from the "Biblical Creation Theory", the theory that the universe was created 6500 years ago in 6 days? Are we required to respect this theory and allow it to be taught in our public schools? How about the ancient alien theory, you see this theory being described on TV every week?

What level of proof or evidence should be required before an idea is accepted as something that should be respected? Are we required to respect all mythologies? Do the number of believers of a particular mythology determine the validity of a belief or is evidence required?

How do you bring about a change of "belief". When the Roman Empire switched from paganism to Christianity it was ushered in by force. The emperor declared that Christianity was the only true state religion and if you didn't like it well then off with your head! Religious/mythological beliefs have traditionally been spread by force. Look at Latin America. All good Catholics. But not until they were conquered by Spain and Portugal. Look at the Muslim world. All of North Africa conquered by the Muslims and forcefully converted to Islam.

Today we change peoples beliefs not by force but by logic. And not being able to examine beliefs and discuss them is a way of slowing down progress.

Blasphemy is a victimless crime!

Silly superstitious ideas deserve NO respect!

How long did it take you to type this?

How long did it take you to type this?

10 seconds.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Billions of people attend millions of churches around the world to worship God.
Yet the God they worship is completely imaginary. Their belief represents a delusion.

It is easy to prove that God is imaginary. Start at the beginning with Proof #1.

http://godisimaginary.com/

Every piece of social data suggests that those who favor faith and superstition over fact-based evidence will become the minority in this country by or before the end of this century. In fact, the number of Americans who do not believe in a deity doubled in the last decade of the previous century according to both the census of 2004 and the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) of 2008, with religious non-belief in the U.S. rising from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 14.2 percent in 2001. In 2013, that number is now above 16 percent.

If current trends continue, the crossing point, whereby atheists, agnostics, and “nones” equals the number of Christians in this country, will be in the year 2062. If that gives you reason to celebrate, consider this: by the year 2130, the percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Christian will equal a little more than 1 percent. To put that into perspective, today roughly 1 percent of the population is Muslim.

The fastest growing religious faith in the United States is the group collectively labeled “Nones,” who spurn organized religion in favor of non-defined skepticism about faith. About two-thirds of Nones say they are former believers. This is hugely significant. The trend is very much that Americans raised in Christian households are shunning the religion of their parents for any number of reasons: the advancement of human understanding; greater access to information; the scandals of the Catholic Church; and the over-zealousness of the Christian Right.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/25/calling_the_christian_right_soon_you_will_be_outnumbered_partner/

Does respecting the belief of others imply that everyone's belief is respected equally? Or does it imply that your belief is respected as long as it coincides with mine?

I expressed my beliefs (opinion) a few posts earlier. That post is a copy of the very first post in this thread.

I believe that everyone is entitled to believe anything they like, no matter how crazy their beliefs are. But a belief is nothing more than an opinion and opinions deserve no inherent respect. Opinions are open for discussion. If your opinion is CRAZY, I have the right to express my belief that it is crazy. Crazy beliefs deserve no respect.

Examples of crazy beliefs.

1) The Native Americans are a lost tribe of Israel who came to America in 600 BCE. They were called Lamanites and Nephites. The Lamanites had dark skin and were evil but the Nephites had light skin and were good. The darker the skin, the more evil someone is. People who believe this did not allow blacks into their church until 1978. Although this can be easily disproved using simple DNA testing which shows that Native Americans are descended from Asia, over 15 million people hold this belief.

2) The Earth was originally populated by Xenu, the galactic overlord. He brought billions of his people to Earth 75 million years ago in a spacecraft which resembled a DC-8. He put them in volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. The spirits of these aliens, called thetans, adhere their spirits to humans. This is detrimental to humans, but through a process called auditing one can control the damage.

3) The Earth was created about 6000 years ago by GOD. He created it in 6 days but got so tired doing it that he had to rest on the seventh day. All of the millions and millions of species of animals, including humans were created during this 6 day period. GOD made man from mud and woman from man's rib. Everything was perfect. But through a series of "sins" which involved a talking snake and eating forbidden fruit, man fell out of grace with god. This eventually through an improbable set of circumstances lead to GOD wiping out everyone except Noah and his family using a worldwide flood to kill them. But Noah was able to save the millions of species of animals by loading them all onto a boat. Luckily every animal species lived within walking distance of the boat.

There are many more beliefs which are just as crazy as these. You can believe these things if you like. I have no respect for any of these beliefs.

I am willing to discuss silly beliefs but not respect them.

Faith is another one of those tricky words. Faith simply means believing that something is true without having any evidence to support the belief. Why is this a good thing? If you don't require evidence then you can believe any crazy thing. As demonstrated in the above examples.

You certainly have a great since of humor, I bet you are funny as heck at a party.

Tim says it better than I can, and he has a better sense of humor. Listen to Storm, you can hear his party dialogue. Of all of the inventions and wonders that man has ever discovered, not a single one involves magic. Of all of the miracles and magic mentioned in all of the holy books around the world, not a single one can be proved to have actually occurred.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U