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Mike Ovey, of Oak Hill Theological College, set forth one of religion’s favorite fallacies — “absence of belief is a religion” — and added one I’ve never experienced — “faith is objective because it can be taught.”
Full article: Judge: Christian beliefs have no legal standing. Evangelicals call it persecution | Paliban Daily.
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To begin with, there's no such thing as completely 'free' speech.
Actually, let me row back on that a little: you are free to say absolutely anything you want, as long as you have a tongue in your head and breath in your lungs. But of course there may be consequences arising from that speech. (Continued)
Carol Coleman, bless her, tried to squeeze the Muhammad Vs. South Park debate into about ten minutes of The Wide Angle on NewsTalk today . While inviting a brash comedian to debate a Dublin Muslim leader might have seemed like a good idea at the time, it would have been perhaps more illuminating to invite someone who had actually seen the episode under discussion.
As it was, we were treated to a breakneck rendition of Abie Philbin Bowman's talking points, with no reference to the issue at hand, and the opportunity to banter with a very accommodating moderate Muslim on the other end of the phone was lost. Neither party addressed the South Park depictions and no new information or critique was offered.
The moderate Muslim mentioned that it was important to consider the intentions of the cartoonists, of which he admitted ignorance. Carol seemed bewildered by this, spluttering 'It's only a cartoon!'
It now appears she has never seen a single episode of South Park. (Continued)
As apparitions go, this is a pretty good one. Congrats Jesus. Much better than that silly toasted cheese sandwich.
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Yes, it's science folks! The dynamic and colourful report, complete with stock photos of hands clasped in prayer, begins by linking religiosity and general health, breathlessly informing us that this connection
…is increasingly being reported by the media. For example, the cover story of the Time magazine issue of February 23, 2009 was entitled, ‘How faith can heal’.
Well, they've also featured well-known quack Andrew Weil on their cover on two occasions, a man who thinks that so-called 'evidence-based' medicine is merely one possible reality. Not that this report is based solely on glossy propaganda sheets like Time, but are we to immediately drop reality-based medicine on the say-so of this hysterically biased magazine? Of course not.
But I need only quote from the introduction to give you the real tenor of this pamphlet:
…if religious practice has strong personal benefits, then it obviously has societal benefits as well. If religion is practiced by a large number of people across a population, then its benefits will accrue to society as a whole.
Egregious false logic aside ('obviously'? How scientific!), try telling this to the former inmates of Catholic institutions in this country. Or the subjugated women of Muslim countries, buried alive or stoned to death for the sin of having being raped. (Continued)
Om du är fascinerad av lokala traditioner i Sverige, då den traditionella kön part kallas Bjäggenswämmker kommer utan tvivel att vara av stort intresse för dig. Det är praxis att täcka någon i honung innan du bjuder in dem för kommunala bad. Det innebär vanligtvis samlag med flera medlemmar av det motsatta könet.
- Svenska Rekord av Tillfälliga Möten (Dec 2009)
This will come as somewhat of a disappointment to anyone who received this hospitality, thinking he was the only one!
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