1. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #150136 by FXR on March 26, 2008 at 1:36 pm

Dear Richard
Thanks for saying something that had to be said. Thanks for making a stand that had to be made. Thanks for having the courage when courage was never more needed.

And thanks blowing the whistle the Emperor's new clothes.....

2. Darwin Day (Feb 12th) E-Cards

Comment #114620 by FXR on January 22, 2008 at 1:29 pm

Or man evolving along an incline while the number of gods decline to where there is barely one left.

3. Darwin Day (Feb 12th) E-Cards

Comment #114598 by FXR on January 22, 2008 at 12:54 pm

How about a line of graphics
of man evolving and along the way at the neandertal stage he's using a church spire as a club and when he finally stands upright he's just thrown off the weight of the cross that was weighing him down and preventing him reachin his full height?

4. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106802 by FXR on January 3, 2008 at 1:33 pm

Excellent! They are borrowing ideas from gay people thus recognising the fact the gay people can be as original as anyone else.

5. Russia prohibits denial of Santa

Comment #105596 by FXR on January 1, 2008 at 7:06 am

ALLanW:
It's never occured to me before but it might be far better to not fill children with the Santa stories. Things like the tooth fairy, santa, and fairies are proably just things that came from an age when children were not as well devoloped.

A five year old in the twenty first century can hardly be compared to a five year old in the tenth. A back-firing meme might be a better description than a mis-firing one!

6. A War On Science

Comment #105591 by FXR on January 1, 2008 at 5:59 am

I think the terms need to be changed.
Creation should be referred to as the Theory of Creation by an Invisible Something as opposed to the Evidence of Evolution.
After Puff the Majic Manufacturer made the spinning ball and then made up the man and the rib woman and then drove them out of paradice for eating an apple how did they multiply?

It seems a lot of incest would have to be involved. Is that why "brother and sister" are such popular terms with preachers?

7. Russia prohibits denial of Santa

Comment #105438 by FXR on December 31, 2007 at 2:50 pm

Is it possible that Santa belief prepares the mental ground for a later belief in a god thing? Santa probably means a lot more to a child than god. At least Santa has toys and such, which children can conceive of, as opposed to the less tangible benefits attributed to the god thing. Then Santa goes just about when children are old enough to figure out where toys and material goods come from. Then the god thing comes to the fore as an invisible provider of the intangible just when children are old enough to grasp more complicated concepts. Of course the problem is no one actually tells them there is no such thing as a god thing. Anyone who claims such is condemned as a heretic.

8. Hitler Was an Atheist Who Killed Millions in the Name of Atheism, Secularism?

Comment #105302 by FXR on December 31, 2007 at 8:02 am

Zip History: The Catholic Church and Hitler's Final Solution

The Roman Empire 3rd Century:
The Edict of Caracalla in the year 212 CE grants the Jews full citizenship. The Jews had overcome initial hostility to become full members of society.

A century later Constantine becomes a Christian (a hotch potch of previous Pagan/Jewish myths with some new dogmatic embellishments) and persecution of the Jews begins.
They are excluded from all civil and military posts, forbidden to employ Christians, or to give to them or receive from them medical aid. Jewish/Christian intermarriage is deemed adultery and a capital offence. In a lawsuit between Christians and Jews, only Christian witnesses are acceptable. Ambrose in the West and Chrysostom in the East justify all this by giving it a theological basis.

Based on the absurd idea that one set of living people should be blamed for a supposed crime allegedly committed by some distant ancestors the Jews suffer centuries of discrimination at the hands of the Catholic Church.

On 17 July 1555 Pope Paul IV publishes the Bull Cum nimis absurdum which is to prove a landmark in anti-Semitism. The Bull stresses that by nature the Jews are slaves and should be treated as such. For the first time they are to be confined to an area know as a 'ghetto'. Each 'ghetto' has only one entrance. Jews were obliged to sell all their property at knock down prices to Christians. They are restricted in commerce to rag trading. 95% of the Synagogues in Rome are destroyed. They are already without books since Paul IV had burned them all, including the Talmud, when he was a Cardinal. They are obliged to wear a yellow hat in public. These and countless other oppressive restrictions are imposed on Jews for a mythical crime they could not have been responsible for.

These oppressive measures are to be a blueprint for those adopted by another Christian army led by baptised Catholic Adolf Hitler in the twentieth century.

In 1581 Gregory XIII states that the guilt of the Jews in rejecting and crucifying the 'christ' character only grows deeper with successive generations entailing perpetual slavery.

A succession of Popes (anti-humans) reinforce these ancient prejudices against Jews. Pius VII followed by Leo XII, Pius VIII, Gregory XVI, Pius IX – all good pupils of Paul IV.

Leo XII (1823-9) decided Christians were getting lax. He again locks Jews inside ghettos. He also forbade them vaccination against smallpox during an epidemic because it was 'against the natural law'.

Pius IX (1846-78) imprisons a Jew of good standing for employing an elderly Christian lady to take care of his linen.

1858 the case of Edgardo Mortara takes place. The child snatched from his Jewish parents on the basis that their illiterate Catholic babysitter had secretly baptised him.

In September 1870 Italian troops take Rome amid scenes of jubilation. Eleven days later on 2nd of October 1870 the Jews, by royal decree are granted the freedom which the Catholic Church has denied them for fifteen hundred years. The last ghetto in Europe is dismantled. The Jews rejoiced, little did they know their darkest hour was yet to come.


The Catholic Church tried to eliminate the Jews by forced conversion Hitler will try by forced extermination.

On July 20, 1933 the Reichskonkordat was signed by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli and Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President Paul von Hindenburg, respectively. In the Concordat, the German government, with the cooperation of Rome, achieved a complete proscription of all clerical interference in the political field (articles 16 and 32). It also ensured the bishops' loyalty to the state by an oath and required all priests to be Germans and subject to German superiors. Restrictions were also placed on all Catholic organisations. Hitler and the Pope had stifled all possible opposition by Catholics within Germany. (It is still valid today in Germany)

September 15 1935
The Nazis passed the Nuremberg Law: the similarities to the decrees of Innocent III and Paul VI are beyond dispute.
When the Nazis named Jewish areas of confinement 'ghettos' they were aiming expressly to give their policies continuity with those of the Popes and a species of respectability.

Paul XI who died in 1939 wrote an anti-fascist encyclical which went unpublished at his death. His successor, Eugenico Pacelli, Pius XII, was more cautious. He feared communism because of it's antipathy to organised religionism more than he did fascism with which the Church has found an accommodation in countries across the globe.

The Second World War began and a renewed persecution of the Jews leading to
Die Endlösung: the Final Solution.

Rome's reaction in the years that followed became know as The Great Silence. The Catholic Church, a veritable hyper machine for the manufacture of decrees and dictates on everything from where you go when you die to which way you can have sex never spoke out about the extermination of the Jews. Over 23 million Germans, twenty five percent of the SS and in total one third of the Nazi army were Catholics. None of them including Hitler were ever excommunicated save one: Joseph Goebbels for the crime of marrying a protestant.
Despite international condemnation the one man Hitler feared most, the Pope, never spoke a word. Winston Churchill called it 'probably the greatest and most horrible single crime ever committed in the whole history of the world.


The concentration camps were reached and the world learned the horror of genocide, the Catholic Church still did not.

Paul VI in a sermon preached on Passion Sunday 1965 still would not clear the Jews of killing the Christ character. In his sermonising he said "Jews were predestined to receive the Messiah and had been waiting for him for thousands of years. When Christ comes, the Jewish people not only do they not recognise him they oppose him, slander him and finally kill him".

ref: Vicars of Christ by Peter De Rosa

9. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #104965 by FXR on December 30, 2007 at 7:24 am

It's significant that Herr Ratzinger's lackey is poking his head into the debate. What a golden opportunity! If there is one organisation whose history can be used to show the harm of religionism it's the Catholic Church Limited. The smug arrogance with which Mr. Morris delivers outright lies is just waiting to be put in its place. The thing to remember is that he's not really debating Richard Dawkins he's talking to the flock.

10. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #104372 by FXR on December 28, 2007 at 11:44 am

Mr. Rowan William is no doubt a nice man and means well. He also seems to be a reasonable individual with a conscience. To any rational individual compared to Herr Ratzinger he is by far the more acceptable religious leader of the two. What does it say about the true believers that Ratzinger is gaining adherents and Mr. Williams is losing them?
It's also unfortunate that even his piece above carries some of the poisons of organised religionism. Firstly there's the overbearing arrogance of claiming someone is demonstrating the myths that religion claims even though that person is diametrically opposed to such beliefs.
Secondly there's the repeated myth that there is some positive message inherent in Christianity. The message of Christianity is anti-human. Its demotes the human race to being the pawns of an invisible super-nosey invisible alien and treats our only home, the Earth, as a mere waiting room for some imaginary theme park built around clouds, po-faced harpists and winged interplanetary effeminate hippies wearing garments made from curtains.

11. Islam's Silent Moderates

Comment #95381 by FXR on December 8, 2007 at 8:08 am

In terms of organised religionism the term "moderate" means being:
Trapped
Misled
Silenced
Cowering
Asleep
A Part time participant
Powerless
Gutless
Gutted
Sheepish
Neutralised
Cannon Fodder
Guilty by acquiescence
Guilty by association
The extremist's compost
The fanatic's shelter
The lunatic's cloak

Etc, etc.

Take your pick...

12. Bad Faith Awards: Vote for the winner now

Comment #95377 by FXR on December 8, 2007 at 7:43 am

Quote:
He (Herr Ratzinger) says it (atheism) is responsible for some of the "greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice" in history. He adds "man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope".

Firstly I am going to grant Herr Ratzinger this. He has a calculating intelligence and is completely knowledgeable in terms of the history of the catholic church.

If that be true then the man is a monumental liar.

After much reading on the subject I have come to the conclusion that the catholic church limited is by far and away the most anti-human organisation in the history of mankind.

And when Herr Ratzinger makes statements like the one above he is fully aware of that as he is also fully aware of the depth of ignorance of that history that his organisation inculcates in what he claims to be his "flock". That's why organised religionism will never let go of schools

Then we have Stalin and Hitler.
(For a Zip history of Jewish persecution follow the link below)
http://www.atheist.ie/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=638

Jewish persecution was invented by christianity. One pope after the other made it law and on their breath it was carried to Hitler.(see link above)

Stalin was a pope. All his actions, methods, and modus operandi were originated and invented by a long series of popes and continue right up to the present one. A pope is a dictator.

A great tactical mistake that the rational have made is not putting to bed the absurd idea that Hitler and Stalin are on one side of the equation and organised religionism is on the other. They are both one and the same. Same animal, same predator, same hatred of humanity.

Which brings me to another of the rationalist's great tactical mistakes: the rationalist should not be fighting this ghost called "god". A "god" is not the problem. The problem is not anyone who thinks they are talking to some ghost when they are really talking to themselves. Lots of children have imaginary friends.

The problem is organised religionism:
A set of irrational dogmatic beliefs based on little or no factual evidence, perpetuated by coercion, lies and brainwashing from childhood, rigidly enforced and centrally controlled in order to maintain power.

All the popes, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Hitler and Stalin fall into the same category.

But none of these single one life length power mongers can match for sheer scale the lies, the unfathomable harm of innocents, the persecutions, the murders, the campaigns of torture, the irrational pronouncements, the monumental hypocrisy, the anti human hatred or the retardation of scientific and social progress that which has and continues to be thrust on humanity by the catholic church limited.

The extent to which we have been retarded by the popes can never be matched. The papacy and the exercise of its inordinate power formed the blueprint for the Hitlers and Stalins that followed. It has'nt stopped.

Read The Vicars of Christ by Peter De Rosa (if they still sell it). Read Eunchs for the Kingdom of Heaven by Ute Ranke Heineman. Read the newspapers...

13. Fox News Discussion on 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #86931 by FXR on November 10, 2007 at 1:05 pm

I can explain "free will". It was invented by the catholic church to explain away anyone who did'nt fit into the "god made us in his image" bullshit. Its part of the three card trick that organised religionism relies on.

Its curious to say the least to see the dog collar smarming away with a building in the backround that is a monument to lies and hypocrisy.

"Religion has made so many people happy": would that include the millions burned and tortured mentally and physically over centuries and those dying today because some twisted little sexually repressed elderly virgin does'nt like other people putting rubber on when they're enjoying themselves in the most natural way humanley possible?

I just got off a TGV from Avignon two hours ago where in the 14th century the catholic popes and their entourage turned the town into the biggest brothel in Europe of the time. Should one assume they include the people made happy by religion that mr. dog collar is referring to?

14. Sir David Attenborough on God

Comment #86912 by FXR on November 10, 2007 at 12:27 pm

I've just finished watching the Planet Earth Diaries. It's a magnificently made series which had it been filmed a few dozen decades ago would have been an uplifting spectacle to watch.

But now it's depressing to see the destruction caused to a beautiful planet because one species became marshalled into a preoccupation with the imaginary and became blindsided to the reality around them.

Its clear that the dominance of those organisations which depend for power on the irrational belief that humanity should tread water worrying about some imaginary destination has played an intrinsic role in something as totally irrational as destroying the only home we have.

One thing that stuck out and pissed me off more than a little was David Attenborough describing an ancient 5000 year old tree as being three thousand years old when "christ" was born. In view of the video above that remark seems even more curious now.

15. War in Heaven: Hitchens Meets D'Souza on Home Turf

Comment #81153 by FXR on October 24, 2007 at 9:30 am

Stuff morality. A moralist is a rigourist who can justify anything.

No such rise to the challenge of asking is a person who can't see your imaginary friend bad as a result.

A better measure of the systems that channell human activity is whether they are pro-human or anti-human. Any reading of the history of the catholic church and it's offshoots would conclude that it is the most anti-human organisation in history and includes Hitler and Stalin etc.

16. War in Heaven: Hitchens Meets D'Souza on Home Turf

Comment #81148 by FXR on October 24, 2007 at 9:15 am

As I've said befor the point of attack from the atheist point of view is wrong in many debates. The question is not whether a god exists or not. Who cares!
The problem besetting the human race is organised religionism.

Organised Religionism = a set of dogmaic centrally enforced irrational beliefs based on little or no evidence.

Hitler, Stalin, and all the popes are examples of organised religionsim.

D'sousa also needs to be asked:
Name one statment made by anyone at any point in history that could not have been made by a mere mortal?

If a superhuman is supposed to be speaking to someone there would have to be evidence of knowledge that a human could not have known or invented.

17. Debate between Michael Shermer and Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #80530 by FXR on October 22, 2007 at 4:35 am

D'Souzas position is the equivalent of praising cancer for all the efforts made to overcome it.

No chirstianity=no science.

No cancer=No need for a cure!

FXR

18. Man to die over insult

Comment #47131 by FXR on June 3, 2007 at 4:35 am

If the Prophet Mohammed can't turn in court no one else can claim he feels insulted.

19. Diary of a Deserter

Comment #47123 by FXR on June 3, 2007 at 4:08 am

This guy is not a deserter.

He's just joined the human race.

Welcome back dude!

20. Hitchens and Prager Debate

Comment #46024 by FXR on May 30, 2007 at 3:19 am

If of all the religions and regimes which one would you like most to be overthrown?
(I think that was the question)

Easy answer: The Vatican regime.

21. Christopher Hitchens at Politics and Prose

Comment #45906 by FXR on May 29, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Sorry to go off topic but how do I get an article added to the list. Under the e mail address it say attachments will be deleted. Does that mean I can't put a link to a web page in the email?
Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

22. Italian TV urged to scrap BBC film accusing Pope of abuse cover-up

Comment #45522 by FXR on May 28, 2007 at 4:05 am

This is the documentary on the BBC site.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/5389684.stm

23. Italian TV urged to scrap BBC film accusing Pope of abuse cover-up

Comment #44870 by FXR on May 25, 2007 at 12:31 pm

The programme was available on Google but curiously seems to have been removed. It is no longer available on YouTube either.


I think the article above may be incorrect in saying this was a film by Colm OGorman. He took part in it ok but it was a BBC documentary. Colm OGorman is the head of the Irish organisation One In Four which is set up to represent victims of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

http://www.viralvideochart.com/google/sex_crimes_and_vatican_sottotitoli_ita?id=3237027119714361315

24. The Conversion of the Casual Evolutionist - You can't spell love without evolve

Comment #43963 by FXR on May 23, 2007 at 5:09 am

From Gerorge Washington to George Bush makes a monkey out of Darwin.

Gore Vidal

Not relevant but I thought it was funny.

25. Despite what the scholars say, God isn't dead yet

Comment #43937 by FXR on May 23, 2007 at 4:27 am

There is no arguing with the fact that terrorism is the arch example of religious zealotry at its most lethal, but what Dawkins failed to acknowledge in his encounter with Haggard is that the Nazi program of eugenics and extermination was not dictated by an unseen god.

If Germany in 1933 had been invaded by people in prayer singing "Praise Jesus" instead of Nazis in jackboots it would not have presided over the worst mass killing in history.

The Lord was being praised by the residents, no need for an invasion....

Hitler's anti-Semitism grew out of his Christian education. Austria and Germany were majorly Christian during his time and they held the belief that Jews were an inferior status to Aryan Christians. The Christians blamed the Jews for the killing of Jesus. Jewish hatred did not actually spring from Hitler, it came from the preaching of Catholic priests and Protestant ministers throughout Germany for hundreds of years. The Protestant leader, Martin Luther, himself, held a livid hatred for Jews and their Jewish religion. In his book, "On the Jews and their Lies," Luther set the standard for Jewish hatred in Protestant Germany up until World War
2. Hitler expressed a great admiration for Martin Luther constantly quoting his works and beliefs.

Hitler was the leader that raised Germany out of the depression and brought them back to a world recognized power. Due to his annulment of the financial woes of the Germanic people he became their redeemer and they anointed him as the leader of the German Reich Christian Church in 1933. This placed him in power of the German Christian Socialist movement which legislates their political and religious agendas. It united all denominations, mainly the Protestant/Catholic and Lutheran people to instill faith in a national Christianity.


Pope Paul VI preaching Passion Sunday in 1965 in his sermon said;
"Jews were predestined to receive the Messia and had been waiting for him for thousands of years. When Christ comes the Jews not only did not recognise him, they oppose him, slander him and finally kill him.

The Jews killed Jesus.

That was what the Popes preached all the way up to Hitler and after him. You can't extricate Christianity from Nazism.

26. Despite what the scholars say, God isn't dead yet

Comment #43930 by FXR on May 23, 2007 at 4:17 am

A woman who defends organised religionism has no basic understanding of it. The Stockholm Syndrome of history....

27. Hitchens on Falwell, Part 2

Comment #43643 by FXR on May 22, 2007 at 7:07 am

Steve99

The BBC is certainly in a different league to Fox. In fact they not even in the same stratosphere.
But to say the BBC can not and has never showed any bias about anything is not exactly true.
When it gets closer to home the BBC has, on occasion, demonstrated it's own share of bias however subtle.

I saw them do it more than once when reporting on Northern Ireland.

There's no such thing as a perfect human.

28. Freethinking Ruins All Things

Comment #43457 by FXR on May 21, 2007 at 2:05 pm

What I'm saying is that it does not follow that because someone is religious from that flows great art or music.

That someone is of great natural talent and works in a time when a particular system of patronage is dominated by a particular organisation the beliefs or ethos of that organisation can't cover itself with the natural talents of the artist.

If being religious was the inspiration for great art then the more religious an artist the greater the artist would be. That clearly is not the case.

Anyone claiming that great music and art come from religion to the artist is putting the cart before the horse. It's the other way around.

I'm not saying this is true in every case but it's certainly can't be claimed to the extent the religious apologist do.

29. Cult leader sparks Sikh riots with 'guru' stunt

Comment #43371 by FXR on May 21, 2007 at 7:38 am

You can't carry a knife unless it's a religious knife. But if anyone gets killed by that religious knife someone will come along and say the cause is not religion?

30. Would the World Be Safer Without Religion?

Comment #43367 by FXR on May 21, 2007 at 7:26 am

Ignorant ill informed claptrap:

To say that the conflict in the North had nothing to do with religion is complete and utter twaddle.

Religion has everything to do with it.

James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, is quoted as stating on April 24, 1934 at Stormont, "I have always said that I am an Orangeman first and a politician and a member of this Parliament afterwards — they still boast of Southern Ireland being a Catholic State. All I boast of is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State."

In April 2005 the now defunct Daily Ireland newspaper revealed in an article by journalist Ciaran Barnes that Orange Order chaplain Rev Stephen Dickinson had mocked the ailing Pope John Paul II at a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) fundraising event in a Church Hall outside Lisburn. Rev Dickinson was widely criticised for making impressions of the pontiff. Members of the audience included Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson.

When you go through Belfast there are "peace" walls 25ft high with Catholics on one side and Protestants on the other. People of the opposite religion have been hounded out of each others areas.

They were not hounded out based on who they voted for ie: DUP or Sinn Fein or whether they were rich or poor but because of their religious identification.

Recently Ian Paisley had an historic meeting with Bertie Ahearn at the site of the Battle of the Boyne. This is the battle celebrated every year by Protestants including this one to commemorate the victory of the Protestant King William of Orange over the Catholic King James. That includes rich Protestants and unemployed Protestants.



It is also emblematic of the roots of the conflict in Northern Ireland since it is the basis of the Orange Orders. The Orange Order is the biggest civil organisation in Northern Ireland and members are required to be Protestant. Even if a Catholic was a DUP voter he/she still could not join the Orange Order.
Economics have bugger all to do with member applications.


Religion is why today 97% of our schools and hospitals in the South are run by Herr Ratzinger.
The North exists because the Protestant people feared a Republic which would mean Rome rule. As things turned out their fears were well grounded.

Religion is central to the history of this entire island:
Henry II was awarded ownership of Ireland by the Papal Bull, Laudibiliter issued by Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Breakspeare the only english pope). When he and his heirs were recognised as the lawful Kings of Ireland (1171 CE) at Cashel, it was only with the Pope's (Alexander III) approval. The Vatican in return demanded and got one penny per household per year and Henry's sword to bring the freewheeling Irish Catholics back under central Vatican control.

In the Middle Ages the Pope was the most powerful office in Europe. The Pope was more powerful than Kings and Princes. Even Henry II could not have invaded without the Pope's approval and instructions. The split caused by the Reformation put the Irish in the Pope's camp (more fool us).
Since the Pope could and had demonstrated he could order Catholics to overthrow and kill a King the seeds of the conflict were sown by religion. The Irish were never trusted by the colonists as long as they followed Rome.

Without religion there might have been the usual conflicts caused by greed and competition but so what! The wars that might have happened are not in the same league and do not justify the wars that have.

Go from there and despite valiant attempts to overcome the religious divide (United Irishmen) religion has always been the exasperating factor and chief division between people on this island.

31. Freethinking Ruins All Things

Comment #43308 by FXR on May 21, 2007 at 5:05 am

"The atheists and freethinkers say they want open mindedness, but their minds are plainly shut off to the fountains of wisdom of thousands of years because the wisdom contained in scriptures and hymns--from which virtually all great Western art and literature derive…"

The idea that many great artists produced works of art on certain subjects simply because they were inspired by "their" religious beliefs is historical propaganda by churchmen.

They were hired for their talent and not their religious beliefs. In fact no matter how unchristian or irreligious they were if their talent warranted it their unchristian crimes were covered up.

The fact that a talented artist produces great work is not a testament to religion only to the fact that proponents of religion were economically dominant.

The history of great art and architecture is a damming indictment of organised religionism.

The great art and architecture were paid for with the screams of countless millions burned alive at the stake and the enforcement of ignorance. The history of the Popes is the story of one hundred Joseph Stalins.

Among these "Christian" Popes were heretics, murderers, sodomites, sadists, atheists and lovers of incest. One had sex with his mother and two of his sisters. I wonder if Raphael had commemorated that in a painting would dipstick above be pointing to it as evidence of how great Christianity is for the world.

The fact that the church was the richest customer of people like, for example, Caravaggio is not evidence that Christianity in any way inspired him to be a great artist. The mega wealthy church merely dictated the subject matter.

Caravaggio was a murderer, lover of the brothels and a brawler. Contained in his paintings are the people of the slums and the ghettoes.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/caravbr-2.htm

When you marvel at the Beheading of John the Baptist keep in mind it was the payment to the Christian Knights of St. John on the island of Malta which by admitting him to the order meant giving him immunity from his crimes. That's not quite the kind of laudable motivation Christians would like to brag about when they drag up this rotten red herring abut "Christian inspired" art?

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/10/62behead.html

If Caravaggio's paymasters had been atheist astronomers he would have produced great works showing the cosmos or whatever he was commissioned to do.




Bernini, the great sculptor, had his mistresses face slashed with a razor because she was unfaithful with his brother. He then tried to murder his brother. He was protected by Urban VIII because of his talent not his beliefs. Remember that if you should be marvelling at the Ecstasy of St. Teresa which viewed realistically is no more religious than a girl having an orgasm (that's not something you need organised religion for). The same effect can (I'm reliably informed) be had using a device called a vibrator making Christianity, in this case, redundant by a dildo.


http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/bernini/teresa.jg.html

Michelangelo was possibly a homosexual and Leonardo De Vinci was bisexual both conditions expressly forbidden by Christianity. Practices which to this day are still condemned by that f*%k head the pope.

Michelangelo was not inspired by his belief in a god he was paid to produce work of which the subject matter was dictated by people who has a vested interest in promoting a belief in a God.


The work of great artists is a testament to their talent and sense of inspiration not Buddhism or Christianity or some sect of Medieval Tele Tubbies.

Many of the great works the naive think are inspired by an artists Christian beliefs are the very opposite. Many great works contain damming comments on Christianity.

But you have to be free to think to see that….

32. Bible drawn into Hong Kong sex publication row

Comment #42717 by FXR on May 19, 2007 at 6:46 am

What about "God does Dallas"
Or
The God, the Virgin, The Son and the Two Planks!

You could make it in Ireland with a grant from the government but then you'd have to call it:

Sodom and Begorragh!

33. Christopher Hitchens to God: Drop Dead

Comment #42710 by FXR on May 19, 2007 at 6:05 am

Over 97 percent of U.S. Catholics reject the Vatican's ban on contraception. And let's face it: how many Jews support "metzitzah b'peh," a disgusting act committed by very few ritual circumcisers that involves sucking off the foreskin with the mouth!

So her argument against Hitchens book against religion is to list all the people involved in religion who don't agree with the affects of that religion.

So religion is right no matter how wrong it is.

Anyone for a game of mental somersaults.

34. Antarctic 'treasure trove' found

Comment #42707 by FXR on May 19, 2007 at 5:51 am

These discoverys were mentioned in the bible:

Ezekeel 7:11
"And the lord sayet: I maketh this day the birds of the air and lots of other strange gear that thou you not knoweth now but thouest wilt knoweth wheneth we cometh back after the break. Stay tuneth!

35. Dobson, Armageddon, and Foreign Policy

Comment #42602 by FXR on May 18, 2007 at 3:11 pm

With all due respect to the I'm sure many millions of Americans who are not mad HOW THE F*CK DID THESE LUANITICS GET TO BE SO NUMEROUS AND SO INFLUENTIAL.

What went wrong, I though everybody was supposed to be pursuing happiness!

36. Pope Warns of Globalization, Marxism

Comment #41708 by FXR on May 16, 2007 at 4:11 pm

But the turnout fell far short of the 400,000 to 500,000 worshippers local organizers hoped would show up for Benedict's last big public event of the papal tour, his longest since becoming pope two years ago.

Best thing I read all day...

I see it crimson, I see it red...

37. Brazil's Indians Offended by Pope Comments

Comment #41702 by FXR on May 16, 2007 at 3:56 pm

In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean bishops at the end of a visit to Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

THE MUSKETS DID IT......THE MUSKETS DID IT......

38. Thought vs. feeling in religion

Comment #41700 by FXR on May 16, 2007 at 3:52 pm

When it comes to emotional religion, the cerebral Benedict is the skeptic-in-chief, with a long history of warnings against the flight from rationality.

That line is just priceless coming from a deluded little man who a few weeks ago claimed the fires of hell are real and then said "hey presto! Limbo just bit the dust".
Catholicism is a few galaxys away from rationality.

39. Hitchens' flat world

Comment #41689 by FXR on May 16, 2007 at 3:16 pm

As far as I'm concerned the problem is not religion per se but organised religionism. With that little shift things become a little clearer. Organised religionism relying on intangible claims of supernatural whoopee's has consistently allowed flawed, ignorant, conniving, deluded and even downright perverted men to gain positions of power. Organised religionism circumvents any sort of democratic process.
Of all the organised religions the Catholic Church can only be described as the longest case of psychological gangrene in history.
You will notice that "Father" De Souza" has used a strategy becoming more and more common when the foot soldiers of the Vatican sally forth to meet their accusers, he hides behind the word "Christianity". The Vatican has for some time drawn this word over itself like a cloak.

The Catholic Church represents no more than the prosperity of lies.
Sir William Robinson

Hitchens is mightily annoyed that religion seeks to restrain the sexual appetite -- why would God create human beings with their hands close to their genitals if he didn't intend for them vigorous onanistic exertions, of which all religions take a dim view?

I'm sure every night catholic priests all over the world are glad the god thing didn't put their hands anywhere else (if only they could keep them to themselves).


As to why are we all here?

Because we're not all there!

40. How dare you call me a fundamentalist

Comment #40594 by FXR on May 14, 2007 at 2:55 pm

There are lots of wee fleas out there...

When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him.
Jonathan Swift
Dublin

41. Why Christopher Hitchens is not Great

Comment #40589 by FXR on May 14, 2007 at 2:48 pm

Christians are happy, filled with joy, secure in their purpose and direction. They are "enthusiastic."

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw

Rather the long view of God shows that He created us, and in doing so gave us guidance on the absolute best way to go about life.

And he apparently gave this guidance in a book that contradicts itself 147 times. So a super being could not achieve the simple task of being unequivocal.

Never mind the fact that someone with Hitchens' intimidating intellect wasn't even honest enough in the construct of his argument to note that Christianity is in fact NOT a religion of rules.

Bye bye ten commandments....


Religion is to reason what rigor mortis is to dancing.
Sir William Robinson,
Dublin

42. Pope: God Will Punish Drug Dealers

Comment #40533 by FXR on May 14, 2007 at 12:16 pm

Benedict on Friday lamented "difficult times for the church" in Brazil amid "aggressive proselytizing" by born-again Protestant congregations.

Hilarious! The kettle calling the pot black.

43. True faith is greater than the ranters

Comment #40306 by FXR on May 14, 2007 at 5:26 am

Professor Dawkins's reply makes a significant concession to his critics. He does not claim to have answered the argument for belief in God at its best; indeed, he throws in a dismissive side-note about Aquinas and Duns Scotus. He concedes that there is a wide difference between what he terms "decent, understated religion" and Robertson, Falwell or Haggard, Osama bin Laden or the Ayatollah Khomeini. He maintains that "the melancholy truth is that decent, understated, religion is numerically negligible", but that the world needs to face the fundamentalists.

The average people who are not extreme fanatics, like Mogg for example, by validating the Quran and the Bible serve as the reference for claims made by the Falwell's and the Ossama Bin Ladens based on those books. As long as they do they maintain a bridge to extremism that the fanatic may drag his followers across in whatever generation he might arise.
When you debunk the holy books the bridge falls down.

Organised religionism maintained by ordinary people is the compost without which the fundamentalism cannot grow.

44. True faith is greater than the ranters

Comment #40294 by FXR on May 14, 2007 at 5:03 am

The Badge of Discipleship


Suffering, then is the badge of true discipleship. The disciples are not above their master. Following Christ means passio passiva, suffering because we have to suffer. That is why Luther reckoned suffering among the marks of the true church, and one of the memoranda drawn up in preparation for the Augsburg Confession similarly defines the church as the community of those "who are persecuted and martyred for the gospel's dake." If we refuse to take up our cross and submit to suffering and rejection at human hands, we forfeit our community with Christ and have ceased to follow him. But if we lose our lives in his service and carry our cross, we shall find our lives again in the community of the cross with Christ. The opposite of discipleship is to be ashamed of Christ and his cross and all the offense which the cross brings in its train.


- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -


Sounds like the "voluntary suffering is good" school of religion.

45. Atheism in America

Comment #40277 by FXR on May 14, 2007 at 4:32 am

That is such a sad story. Where were all the "good" christians when this girl was being hounded. Maybe they were off reading their "good" book.

46. Anderson Cooper interviews Christopher Hitchens

Comment #39892 by FXR on May 12, 2007 at 7:29 am

IQHQ

Ok. Send me a pm when your're ready to go.
I will be up in Belfast tomorrow but I don't think I'll be asking opinions on this particular subject.

I checked out the link to Marcus Tanners book and took this synopsis from the Amazon site:

Synopsis
In this analysis of the enduring conflict in Ireland and the people who sustain it, Marcus Tanner contends that the roots of "the troubles" are inescapably religious.

Through detailed research into the Irish past and a deep personal knowledge of Ireland today, Tanner shows that Ireland's persistent conflict can only be understood in the context of five centuries of failed attempts by the English to impose Protestantism on the Irish state.

I think yourself and Ace should read it.:)

47. Anderson Cooper interviews Christopher Hitchens

Comment #39863 by FXR on May 12, 2007 at 6:13 am

James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, is quoted as stating on April 24, 1934 at Stormont, "I have always said that I am an Orangeman first and a politician and a member of this Parliament afterwards — they still boast of Southern Ireland being a Catholic State. All I boast of is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State."

In April 2005 the now defunct Daily Ireland newspaper revealed in an article by journalist Ciaran Barnes that Orange Order chaplain Rev Stephen Dickinson had mocked the ailing Pope John Paul II at a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) fundraising event in a Church Hall outside Lisburn. Rev Dickinson was widely criticised for making impressions of the pontiff. Members of the audience included Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson.




IQHQ
With all due respect read what Ace Rimmer wrote;

AceRimmer The "troubles" originated primarily from politics and social inequality, it had very little to do with religion.

In my opinion that is a preposterous statement. When you go through Belfast there are "peace" walls 25ft high with Catholics on one side and Protestants on the other. People of the opposite religion have been hounded out of each others areas.

They were not hounded out based on who they voted for ie: DUP or Sinn Fein but because of their religious identification.

I added in the part about the Battle of the Boyne since it was ironically taking place probably as Ace was writing the comment. It is also emblematic of the roots of the conflict in Northern Ireland since it is the basis of the Orange Orders. The Orange Order is the biggest civil organisatin in Northern Ireland and members are required to be Protestant. Even if a Catholic was a DUP voter he/she still could not join the Orange Order.

I'm waffling a bit, but my point should be clear. Whilst religion may have come to be the most notable distinction between the two tribes, it was not always so. This serves to remind us that the root causes of Ireland's divisions were social (then later adopting the symbolism of religion to accetuate the division), exactly as Ace Rimmer has said.

You're putting the cart before the horse. Religion led to the social discrimination not the other way around.

Religion was the root cause of the fact that one group, Catholics, were discriminated against by another group, Protestants.

Start a thread on the forum if you will and we can thrash this out fully since I'm mystified as to where you should get such a view.

48. Lou Dobbs w/ Hitchens on Al Sharpton's Bigoted Remark

Comment #39627 by FXR on May 11, 2007 at 11:06 am

Whatever about Lou Dobbs personal beliefs he does'nt run the corporation. Someone very powerful has decided to give Hitchens and Dawkins a platform. Even the Bill O'Reilly interview seemed strange. The sun goes up sun goes down thing was almost deliberately simplistic.

49. Anderson Cooper interviews Christopher Hitchens

Comment #39620 by FXR on May 11, 2007 at 10:27 am

Ace Rimmer:
As much as I agree on what most of what Hitchin says, it really irritates me when American and English intellectuals make ill informed comments on Northern Ireland. The "troubles" originated primarily from politics and social inequality, it had very little to do with religion. It didn't help the issue but let's be fair.

Sorry but that comment is complete and utter nonsense.

You might as well describe the Crusades as a race riot where one side happend to have a few bibles.


People in Northern Ireland were discriminated against politically and socially based on their religion.

As someone else said the conflict in Ireland was based on 800 years of too much religion not just 25.

Schools are either Protestant or Catholic.

Housing estates are either Protestant or Catholic.

Pubs and clubs are either Protestant or Catholic.
Every member of the RUC (police force)the B Specials and the UDR was a protestant.

Catholics killed people because they were Protestants and vice versa.

Today ,11 May, the leader of the Republic has had an historic meeting with Ian Paisley at the site of the battle of the Boyne (1690). That was where the Protestant King William of Orange defeated the Catholic forces of King James.
When members of the Orange Order march through Catholic areas on the 12th of July they are celebrating this very same battle. They're reminding the croppies of the triumph of the Protestant King over the Popish traitors.




And by some mystifying process you think religion had little to do with the conflict in Northern Ireland.

50. World's most prominent atheist takes on the Biblical God (and other topics)

Comment #39582 by FXR on May 11, 2007 at 7:54 am

What was with the song: is the US trying to get into the Eurovision Song Contest?

"Were you there whennn they naileddd him to the treeeee..." Catchy stuff.


At least now it seems you can go to heaven for $24.95. Thats cheaper than Ryanair considering its a twillion drillion miles to the hole just left of Pluto. I wonder what the baggage allowace is?