Category : Religion, Activism
A friend and ex-classmate of mine, Liam "Kroaky" McGuire (Youtube channel here), recently descended on London (along with a few thousand other people) to protest the Pope's state visit for the aptly named "Protest the Pope Rally". Whilst there are lots of video's circling the Internet, making their rounds in the blogosphere, they often don't show the scale of the protests very well which I feel is a shame. Luckily for us, however, Good old Kroaky brought his video camera along and shot some great footage from within the very heart of the march.
Enjoy!
Sunday 19 September 2010
Friday 17 September 2010
The Story of the Forgetful Pope
Category : Religion, Stupidity
So as you may, or may not, know The UK is currently paying a deluded man, in a hat the size of his torso, £12,000,000 pounds to wander aimlessly around England and Scotland spreading his delightfully insane and often hateful message to any who will listen. You may of heard of this individual, to people like me he goes by the name "Joey the Rat", but he more commonly goes by the name "The Pope".
Today I will be ignoring most of the plethora of ironic holes that Mr Rat digs for himself on an hourly basis...such as Telling people to put their fate in the hands of God whilst standing behind bullet-proof glass, Preaching tolerance whilst labeling homosexuals as inherently evil and Claiming the Moral high ground whilst being at the heart of a world wide, decades long Child Rape cover-up...Instead I will be focusing on one in particular.
You see, Mr Rat is clearly not happy with the level of controversy that he's involved in. He may be responsible for the deaths of tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of deaths in Africa by stopping the distribution of Condoms to places with incredibly high rates of HIV/AIDS, He may be an Enabler of Pedophile priests, But today he showed that this is not enough by recanting a version of both history and the present day that managed to break my bullshit-o-meter.
Seems like Mr Rat needs to brush up on his history! Which is certainly very Odd considering he wasn't just alive and in Germany during the Nazi regime, but was actually a part of the Hitler youth.
He should know that the Catholic Church quite liked Hitler, had good relations with Nazi Germany, That Hitler was actually catholic for a good deal of his life (though he later adopted things from eastern religions, he kept his Catholic/Christian roots) and that none of the Catholic higher-ups in the Nazi party were ever excommunicated for their actions...except for Goebbels who's unforgivable sin was marrying a protestant. So first and foremost, he's somewhat overlooking the Catholic church's lurid involvement with the Nazi's. He's also definitely forgetting Catholicisms long and illustrious history of antisemitism.
But the main point of contention is Hitlers supposed "Atheism". If he really was an atheist, then these seemingly endless quotes by him beg to differ
If he really was an Atheist, then he wanted to be the only one! Seeing as he outlawed all Atheist and Freethinking groups in 1933. He even Beheaded one of the Chairmen of the German freethinkers league.
I'm sure there is plenty of other evidence that not only rebuts any claims of Hitlers Atheism and confirms his solid belief in God and having quite a bit of love for Christianity...But I think that simply pointing out Hitlers own words and actions Is good enough for a quickly written blog post.
Swing and a miss Mr Rat.
Swing and a miss.
So as you may, or may not, know The UK is currently paying a deluded man, in a hat the size of his torso, £12,000,000 pounds to wander aimlessly around England and Scotland spreading his delightfully insane and often hateful message to any who will listen. You may of heard of this individual, to people like me he goes by the name "Joey the Rat", but he more commonly goes by the name "The Pope".
Today I will be ignoring most of the plethora of ironic holes that Mr Rat digs for himself on an hourly basis...such as Telling people to put their fate in the hands of God whilst standing behind bullet-proof glass, Preaching tolerance whilst labeling homosexuals as inherently evil and Claiming the Moral high ground whilst being at the heart of a world wide, decades long Child Rape cover-up...Instead I will be focusing on one in particular.
You see, Mr Rat is clearly not happy with the level of controversy that he's involved in. He may be responsible for the deaths of tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of deaths in Africa by stopping the distribution of Condoms to places with incredibly high rates of HIV/AIDS, He may be an Enabler of Pedophile priests, But today he showed that this is not enough by recanting a version of both history and the present day that managed to break my bullshit-o-meter.
"Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny”"
Seems like Mr Rat needs to brush up on his history! Which is certainly very Odd considering he wasn't just alive and in Germany during the Nazi regime, but was actually a part of the Hitler youth.
He should know that the Catholic Church quite liked Hitler, had good relations with Nazi Germany, That Hitler was actually catholic for a good deal of his life (though he later adopted things from eastern religions, he kept his Catholic/Christian roots) and that none of the Catholic higher-ups in the Nazi party were ever excommunicated for their actions...except for Goebbels who's unforgivable sin was marrying a protestant. So first and foremost, he's somewhat overlooking the Catholic church's lurid involvement with the Nazi's. He's also definitely forgetting Catholicisms long and illustrious history of antisemitism.
But the main point of contention is Hitlers supposed "Atheism". If he really was an atheist, then these seemingly endless quotes by him beg to differ
If he really was an Atheist, then he wanted to be the only one! Seeing as he outlawed all Atheist and Freethinking groups in 1933. He even Beheaded one of the Chairmen of the German freethinkers league.
I'm sure there is plenty of other evidence that not only rebuts any claims of Hitlers Atheism and confirms his solid belief in God and having quite a bit of love for Christianity...But I think that simply pointing out Hitlers own words and actions Is good enough for a quickly written blog post.
Swing and a miss Mr Rat.
Swing and a miss.
Thursday 2 September 2010
An Atheist at a Funeral
Category : Personal, Religion
My Granddad died 2 weeks ago and today was his funeral.
This is only the second funeral I have ever been to and though I did not have a blog for the last one you can consider the content of this blog post to cover both, as every complaint and observation that I have today could be applied just as equally to the last one.
Now call me crazy, but when I go to a funeral I expect to hear about the person who has died. I'm going to go as far as even saying that I pretty much ONLY want to hear about the person who has died. I don't care about the weather, I don't care about the economy, I don't care about what's on TV; When I'm at a funeral, the guy in the casket should rightly be the center of attention, I was also under the impression that such a belief would be commonplace. So what the fuck happened Christianity? Since when did it become appropriate to hijack a funeral and since when did the average populous accept said hijacking as par for the course?
In order from "Most talked about" to "Least talked about", here is what was talked about during the 20 minute service
1. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
2. God's mercy, God's love, God's rippling body.
3. My Granddad
Without any hyperbole, without even the smallest exaggeration, My Granddad was the least talked about thing at the whole goddamn funeral. The only way you can bump my Granddad from the bottom of the list is by including the two short hymns that were sang; Both of which, you guessed it, centered entirely around praising God.
And I've really got to stress how often the vicar/preist/man-in-dress-and-collar went on about Gods mercy, It was like it was the word of the day. At first I thought I was just noticing the words that stood out because of the context, like at my nan's funeral the vicar kept going on about how we should fear and love God and I was seemingly the only person to find such a commandment to be eerily (and accurately) reminiscent of a Tyrannical rule when the peasants have had to convince themselves that fearing their Tyrant is a good thing. Imagine if your next Presidential/Prime ministerial candidate's main platform was "Fear me, Love me, I shall be your lord", how quickly would he get shut down as both an Ego-maniac and a psychopath...
BUT The more I listened, the more often he seemed to say it. I started counting about 10 minutes into the service (after a number of mentions of "Mercy") And by the end I had counted 14 mentions of "Mercy" or "Merciful". Now, Correct me if I'm wrong but you only describe someone as merciful, or as showing mercy, if in ordinary situations the consequences would be far worse and usually those worse consequences are resulting from an impersonal system.
Example - A thief is caught by a policeman, but because it was his first offense, even though the Law (a system which the policeman has no control over and did not create) says that he should be taken into custody, the cop decides to be merciful and let him off with a warning after confiscating the stolen goods. That is mercy.
However, God DOES have control over the systems he is displaying mercy over, and in fact put them in place, so he is only merciful through his own design. Putting a system in place where EVERYONE is bound to hell, regardless of crimes or lack thereof and then saying "Oh but i'm merciful, i'm loving, all you have to do is worship me and i'll spare you" is NOT mercy, it is manipulation, it is blackmail, it is extortion.
BUT God's mercy was only number 2 on the list, What we really heard about the most was Jesus. Jesus this, Sacrifice that, Resurrected this, Savior that.
EXCUSE ME, you deluded Christian assholes, but you have been going on non-stop about your favorite dead guy for the past 2000 years. Do you think that you can spare 20 fucking minutes, of time we've PAID you to spare, to talk about my granddad who died 2 weeks ago? Do you think you can manage that without turning it into a Jesus-ass-tonguing festival? Did the fact that we arrive on a Thursday, not a Sunday, and walking behind a coffin not tip you off to the fact we are NOT HERE TO LISTEN ABOUT JESUS? Do you think you could wipe Gods Cum off your face for just a little while?
Best part though? It turns out, and these paraphrased words came out of the vicars mouth during the service, that no one knew if My Granddad had any religious faith or beliefs of any kind. Nobody had a clue whether he even believed in God, let alone specifically in Yahweh, Let alone in Christianity. God and Religion had been so important in my granddads life that he never mentioned it to anyone, yet the majority of his funeral was taken up with kissing the Ass of a God my granddad almost certainly did not give a fuck about. I swear I could of took a dump in the font.
Christianity is a vile religion, even the completely benign version I encountered today, which has shown time and time again that it will exploit any circumstance, any grieving person, any pulpit to spread its propaganda.
I will be making sure that Any funeral I have will be void of such bullshit, disrespect and superstition.
My Granddad deserved better.
~~~~
On a lighter note, I now have twitter! You can follow me here @CleverCarbon. Don't expect me to make sense, because I don't plan on making any.
And, as ever, you can contact me directly at splittingoftheadam@hotmail.co.uk
My Granddad died 2 weeks ago and today was his funeral.
This is only the second funeral I have ever been to and though I did not have a blog for the last one you can consider the content of this blog post to cover both, as every complaint and observation that I have today could be applied just as equally to the last one.
Now call me crazy, but when I go to a funeral I expect to hear about the person who has died. I'm going to go as far as even saying that I pretty much ONLY want to hear about the person who has died. I don't care about the weather, I don't care about the economy, I don't care about what's on TV; When I'm at a funeral, the guy in the casket should rightly be the center of attention, I was also under the impression that such a belief would be commonplace. So what the fuck happened Christianity? Since when did it become appropriate to hijack a funeral and since when did the average populous accept said hijacking as par for the course?
In order from "Most talked about" to "Least talked about", here is what was talked about during the 20 minute service
1. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
2. God's mercy, God's love, God's rippling body.
3. My Granddad
Without any hyperbole, without even the smallest exaggeration, My Granddad was the least talked about thing at the whole goddamn funeral. The only way you can bump my Granddad from the bottom of the list is by including the two short hymns that were sang; Both of which, you guessed it, centered entirely around praising God.
And I've really got to stress how often the vicar/preist/man-in-dress-and-collar went on about Gods mercy, It was like it was the word of the day. At first I thought I was just noticing the words that stood out because of the context, like at my nan's funeral the vicar kept going on about how we should fear and love God and I was seemingly the only person to find such a commandment to be eerily (and accurately) reminiscent of a Tyrannical rule when the peasants have had to convince themselves that fearing their Tyrant is a good thing. Imagine if your next Presidential/Prime ministerial candidate's main platform was "Fear me, Love me, I shall be your lord", how quickly would he get shut down as both an Ego-maniac and a psychopath...
BUT The more I listened, the more often he seemed to say it. I started counting about 10 minutes into the service (after a number of mentions of "Mercy") And by the end I had counted 14 mentions of "Mercy" or "Merciful". Now, Correct me if I'm wrong but you only describe someone as merciful, or as showing mercy, if in ordinary situations the consequences would be far worse and usually those worse consequences are resulting from an impersonal system.
Example - A thief is caught by a policeman, but because it was his first offense, even though the Law (a system which the policeman has no control over and did not create) says that he should be taken into custody, the cop decides to be merciful and let him off with a warning after confiscating the stolen goods. That is mercy.
However, God DOES have control over the systems he is displaying mercy over, and in fact put them in place, so he is only merciful through his own design. Putting a system in place where EVERYONE is bound to hell, regardless of crimes or lack thereof and then saying "Oh but i'm merciful, i'm loving, all you have to do is worship me and i'll spare you" is NOT mercy, it is manipulation, it is blackmail, it is extortion.
BUT God's mercy was only number 2 on the list, What we really heard about the most was Jesus. Jesus this, Sacrifice that, Resurrected this, Savior that.
EXCUSE ME, you deluded Christian assholes, but you have been going on non-stop about your favorite dead guy for the past 2000 years. Do you think that you can spare 20 fucking minutes, of time we've PAID you to spare, to talk about my granddad who died 2 weeks ago? Do you think you can manage that without turning it into a Jesus-ass-tonguing festival? Did the fact that we arrive on a Thursday, not a Sunday, and walking behind a coffin not tip you off to the fact we are NOT HERE TO LISTEN ABOUT JESUS? Do you think you could wipe Gods Cum off your face for just a little while?
Best part though? It turns out, and these paraphrased words came out of the vicars mouth during the service, that no one knew if My Granddad had any religious faith or beliefs of any kind. Nobody had a clue whether he even believed in God, let alone specifically in Yahweh, Let alone in Christianity. God and Religion had been so important in my granddads life that he never mentioned it to anyone, yet the majority of his funeral was taken up with kissing the Ass of a God my granddad almost certainly did not give a fuck about. I swear I could of took a dump in the font.
Christianity is a vile religion, even the completely benign version I encountered today, which has shown time and time again that it will exploit any circumstance, any grieving person, any pulpit to spread its propaganda.
I will be making sure that Any funeral I have will be void of such bullshit, disrespect and superstition.
My Granddad deserved better.
~~~~
On a lighter note, I now have twitter! You can follow me here @CleverCarbon. Don't expect me to make sense, because I don't plan on making any.
And, as ever, you can contact me directly at splittingoftheadam@hotmail.co.uk
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