The "Tolerance Files" thread.

[hadespussercats]

"Why Atheists Should Defend All-American Muslim"

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comm ... can_muslim

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Knowledge is the biggest enemy of religion.

[Svartalf]

Paganism is not a religion though is it? It's a catch all term for various local faiths, coined I believe as a pejorative term.

Shut up peasant and convert to the faith of your betters, yeah.

[Hermit]

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science posted some blurb on its site a week ago that amounted to an announcement of next year's activities and an appeal for money. The site claims to get a million hits a month. In the week since it has been posted, the article attracted a princely total of 25 Comments. Twelve of them have been "Removed by Moderator". Nice to see tolerance at work, isn't it?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Borrowed from JREF:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... egree.html

'I've got a surprise for you': Husband blindfolds his wife.... and then chops off her fingers to stop her studying for a degree.

"Rafiqul Islam, 30, blindfolded his wife Hawa Akhter, 21, and taped her mouth, telling her he was going to give her a surprise present.

Instead he made her hold out her hand and cut off all five fingers. One of his relatives then threw Ms Akhter's fingers in the dustbin to ensure doctors could not reattach them."

Well, they had a really good reason, it is called education.

The world need some retroactive birth control!

[Svartalf]

If that guy is going to prison, let's at least tell the inmates he was there for kiddy fiddling.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Borrowed from JREF:

I have been persecuted for being an atheist more than once in my youth.

One of those times is when I was sentenced to a year in the state of Kansas juvenile hall in 1976.
Even though it was a state funded facility it was run as a church-like cult.

All of the "house parents" were of the same church. They all operated under the assumption that beating god into the heads of the children would solve all the children's problems.

I was young and stupid and knew nothing about going along to get along. I hated the staff and they hated me.
I refused to bow my head in prayer. I refused to attend any of the services that were held on the church they had built on state owned land.
2 or 3 of the adult men would fight me every time until they got a good hold on me and would drag me to the church.

After about 3 months I ran away. I was able to stay with a friend but after a month or so the cops came and took me back even though I begged them not to.
Those good god fearin' christian folk caned me all across my back and back of my legs. They then shoved me in a dark closet and locked me in there for 3 days.

The director of the facility was a real tough guy when it came to 13 year old boys.
He told me to pray to god for it to end and it would end. I told him I would never do that no matter what. He spent another week or so trying to break me.

After that he had me pack my stuff and stood me in front of all the other kids.
He ranted and raved about me being taken over by a demon from hell and planted there by satan to destroy all the good godly vibrations in juvie hall. LOL!
He then just opened the door and let me leave.

I went back there 10 years later to "talk" with the man. Man to man instead of man to boy like before.
He was nothing like I remembered. Sickly looking broken man with hate and shame all over his face.
My own anger just vaporized away. All that crap I carried with me all that time just gone. He was really afraid to see me. I knew then that all this time I had thought he had all the power. But it was me. He couldn't break me.

I now consider myself lucky him and his state funded cult didn't take me out in the woods and "shoot me while trying to escape".

[redunderthebed]

Borrowed from JREF:

I have been persecuted for being an atheist more than once in my youth.

One of those times is when I was sentenced to a year in the state of Kansas juvenile hall in 1976.
Even though it was a state funded facility it was run as a church-like cult.

All of the "house parents" were of the same church. They all operated under the assumption that beating god into the heads of the children would solve all the children's problems.

I was young and stupid and knew nothing about going along to get along. I hated the staff and they hated me.
I refused to bow my head in prayer. I refused to attend any of the services that were held on the church they had built on state owned land.
2 or 3 of the adult men would fight me every time until they got a good hold on me and would drag me to the church.

After about 3 months I ran away. I was able to stay with a friend but after a month or so the cops came and took me back even though I begged them not to.
Those good god fearin' christian folk caned me all across my back and back of my legs. They then shoved me in a dark closet and locked me in there for 3 days.

The director of the facility was a real tough guy when it came to 13 year old boys.
He told me to pray to god for it to end and it would end. I told him I would never do that no matter what. He spent another week or so trying to break me.

After that he had me pack my stuff and stood me in front of all the other kids.
He ranted and raved about me being taken over by a demon from hell and planted there by satan to destroy all the good godly vibrations in juvie hall. LOL!
He then just opened the door and let me leave.

I went back there 10 years later to "talk" with the man. Man to man instead of man to boy like before.
He was nothing like I remembered. Sickly looking broken man with hate and shame all over his face.
My own anger just vaporized away. All that crap I carried with me all that time just gone. He was really afraid to see me. I knew then that all this time I had thought he had all the power. But it was me. He couldn't break me.

I now consider myself lucky him and his state funded cult didn't take me out in the woods and "shoot me while trying to escape".

Wow just wow.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Gay marriage a threat to humanity's future - Pope
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said Monday that gay marriage was one of several threats to the traditional family that undermined "the future of humanity itself."

The pope made some of his strongest comments against gay marriage in a new year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican in which he touched on some economic and social issues facing the world today.

He told diplomats from nearly 180 countries that the education of children needed proper "settings" and that "pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman."

"This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself," he said.

The Vatican and Catholic officials around the world have protested against moves to legalise gay marriage in Europe and other developed parts of the world.

One leading opponent of gay marriage in the United States is New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, whom the pope will elevate to cardinal next month.

Dolan fought against gay marriage before it became legal in New York state last June, and in September he sent a letter to President Barack Obama criticising his administration's decision not to support a federal ban on gay marriage.

In that letter Dolan, who holds the powerful post of president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, said such a policy could "precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions."

The Roman Catholic Church, which has some 1.3 billion members worldwide, teaches that while homosexual tendencies are not sinful, homosexual acts are, and that children should grow up in a traditional family with a mother and a father.

"The family unit is fundamental for the educational process and for the development both of individuals and states; hence there is a need for policies which promote the family and aid social cohesion and dialogue," Benedict told the diplomats.

Gay marriage is legal in a number of European countries, including Spain and the Netherlands.

Some Churches that have allowed gay marriage, women priests, gay clergy and gay bishops have been losing members to Catholicism, and the Vatican has taken steps to facilitate their conversion.

In 2009, Benedict decreed that Anglicans who leave their Church, many because they feel it has become too liberal, can find a home in Catholicism in a parallel hierarchy that allows them to keep some of their traditions.

The Vatican has since set up "ordinariates," structures similar to dioceses, in Britain and the United States to oversee ex-Anglicans who have converted and be a point of contact for those wishing to do so.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; editing by Tim Pearce)

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Lord Carey backs Christian psychotherapist in 'gay conversion' row
Leading church figures including the former Archbishop of Canterbury have sparked controversy by championing a psychotherapist who believes gay men can be 'cured' of their homosexuality.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Afghan woman is killed 'for giving birth to a girl'

A woman in north-eastern Afghanistan has been arrested for allegedly strangling her daughter-in-law for giving birth to a third daughter.

The murdered woman's husband, a member of a local militia, is also suspected of involvement but he has since fled.

The murder took place two days ago in Kunduz province. The baby girl, who is now two months old, was not hurt.

The birth of a boy is usually a cause for celebration in Afghanistan but girls are generally seen as a burden.

Some women in Afghanistan are abused if they fail to give birth to boys. And this is just the latest in a series of high-profile crimes against women in the country.

Late last year a horrifying video emerged of the injuries suffered by a 15-year-old child bride who was locked up and tortured by her husband.

Continues...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... /#comments

There’s an adage I expect will be repeated by other ministers responding to this question. It goes, “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Meaning, when bombs burst, everyone hedges their bets and prays, “God, save me!” There’s a joke about one combat vet who prayed “Lord, if you’re there, I’ll serve you and attend church every Sunday; just get me through.” The Air Force immediately comes and blasts everything, answering the man’s prayer. He then looks up to heaven and says “never mind….”

I know that religious people have security that atheists don’t. If you believe in life after life, you fight harder, risk more, and serve better than a guy who thinks, “this is it!” If you believe you’re nothing but worm-food at death, you aren’t going to jump on a grenade to save the platoon, or charge a machine-gun nest expecting to meet Jesus. You’re going to be reserved, second-guessing, and probably be a big fat chicken.

Look, you just read the stats: “Researchers have found that spiritual people have decreased odds of attempting suicide, and that spiritual fitness has a positive impact on quality of life, on coping and on mental health.” Atheists be damned. They will be. So I really don’t care what they think regarding these tests. I’m tired of having their constant nagging, their constant opposition against God — their evil. They contribute nothing positive in the long run. Their very name, “a” theist, means they are “against,” with a big “no” regarding America’s “creator” and “Nature’s God” (the one mentioned in our Declaration of Independence). I’m frankly sick of them. Why they are here on the In Theory cast is beyond me. It’s like saying, “I have no spiritual input because I don’t believe in the spirit. So here’s my ignorance….”

I wonder what the military puts on gravestones of atheists, a thumbs-down? Listen, all religions are protected by our laws, but atheists don’t countenance America’s documents that mention God. They don’t actually deserve rights that even bizarre religionists have. If it could be shown that people who deny God create military weakness, however small, what should commanders do when choosing a winning military? I agree with you.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Completely inoffensive atheist ad offends a bus company
by whyevolutionistrue

From Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist, we find that the following ad, proposed for use on buses in Pennslvania, was considered offensive and hence rejected by the bus company.

The company rejected it on the grounds that it could be "deemed controversial or otherwise spark public debate."

That, despite, the report on Justin Vacula's website that the same bus company ran an ad for a website pushing white supremicist and Holocaust-denialist views.

Are we becoming like Muslims in the sense that something this tame is considered deeply offensive? How less strident can an ad be?

"otherwise spark public debate"?????????
Well, we dodged a bullet there, didn't we?

[Seth]

Completely inoffensive atheist ad offends a bus company
by whyevolutionistrue

From Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist, we find that the following ad, proposed for use on buses in Pennslvania, was considered offensive and hence rejected by the bus company.

The company rejected it on the grounds that it could be "deemed controversial or otherwise spark public debate."

That, despite, the report on Justin Vacula's website that the same bus company ran an ad for a website pushing white supremicist and Holocaust-denialist views.

Are we becoming like Muslims in the sense that something this tame is considered deeply offensive? How less strident can an ad be?

"otherwise spark public debate"?????????
Well, we dodged a bullet there, didn't we?

Live by the troll, die by the troll. Quit whining.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

*checks another box*