Table of Contents

The Atheist News.................................................................................................................................................1

If McCain wins, should we all move to Scandinavia?......................................................................................2

Feedback for Post "If McCain wins, should we all move to Scandinavia?"............................................5

Afghan journalism student sentenced to 20 years for blashemy....................................................................6

The List: The Catholic Church's Biggest Reversals.......................................................................................8

This is Your Brain on Morality.......................................................................................................................10

Faith-Based Politics: Kinship Between National Socialism & Roman Catholicism...................................12

Iran's Death Row Children..............................................................................................................................14

Creationists declare war over the brain..........................................................................................................16

Somalia: Girl stoned was a child of 13............................................................................................................18

Sundown on Colorado fundamentalists..........................................................................................................21

US student held in notorious Iran torture prison..........................................................................................23

The Internet is a Rabid Dog!............................................................................................................................25

The Cult Test.....................................................................................................................................................27

Humanist Network News in PodcastAwards..................................................................................................29

Pat Condell: Godless and free..........................................................................................................................31

Iran bans weekly critical of Ahmadinejad......................................................................................................34

Scrutiny for Sarah Palin's Religion: Conservative Christians' Crocodile Tears........................................36

Religious Right Down but Not Out..................................................................................................................38

Feedback for Post "Religious Right Down but Not Out"......................................................................40

Report identifies UK terrorist enclaves..........................................................................................................41

Warning of new bin Laden attack..................................................................................................................43

Esha has been released!....................................................................................................................................45

Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within Europe's Muslim Communities...............................47

i
 Table of Contents
Religion: Bound to believe?..............................................................................................................................49
Feedback for Post "Religion: Bound to believe?".................................................................................52

Jerusalem voters elect a secular mayor..........................................................................................................53

Monks brawl at Christian holy site in Jerusalem..........................................................................................55

Feedback for Post "Monks brawl at Christian holy site in Jerusalem"..................................................57

Attackers spray acid at Afghan school girls...................................................................................................58

Garden gnomes banned from church cemetery because they are 'unnatural creatures'.........................60
Feedback for Post " Garden gnomes banned from church cemetery because they are 'unnatural
creatures'"..............................................................................................................................................63

Muslim cab driver refused to carry blind man and his guide dog...............................................................64
Feedback for Post "Muslim cab driver refused to carry blind man and his guide dog"........................66

Iran: Journalist sentenced to five years in jail...............................................................................................67

The Saudis' dubious interfaith agenda at the UN..........................................................................................69

Islamist rebels whip 32 dancers in Somalia....................................................................................................71

Seeing Is Believing, Unless It Isn’t..................................................................................................................73

Amazon pulls Irish Scientology book..............................................................................................................76

Iranian-American Student Can Leave Iran-Judiciary..................................................................................79

Saint Exportable................................................................................................................................................81

Facts, Values and a Place for the Profound....................................................................................................84

Feedback for Post "Facts, Values and a Place for the Profound"..........................................................86

Secularist internet websites are not welcome in Arab states........................................................................87

Iran: Fears for the Safety of Women’s Rights Defender Esha Momeni.....................................................89

Is Obama the Antichrist?................................................................................................................................91

Iran blocks access to over five million websites: report................................................................................94

SoCal's atheist billboard taken down..............................................................................................................97

Can Love Conquer Caste?...............................................................................................................................99

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 Table of Contents
Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'...............................................................................101
Feedback for Post "Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'".....................................104

Why We Believe..............................................................................................................................................105

Japan Christians marking martyrs..............................................................................................................108

Feedback for Post " Japan Christians marking martyrs "....................................................................111

In Mourning for Iranian Press......................................................................................................................112

Feedback for Post "In Mourning for Iranian Press".............................................................................114

Arrests after Afghan acid attack...................................................................................................................115

Sorrow and grief in Mumbai.........................................................................................................................117

When Intelligent and Natural Design Collide..............................................................................................120

Nigerian city tense after riots.........................................................................................................................122

Freedom From Speech...................................................................................................................................124

“Multi-faithism” is bad news for women.....................................................................................................126

Rumour sparks Hebron settler riot...............................................................................................................129

Feedback for Post "Rumour sparks Hebron settler riot ".....................................................................131

Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson Debate.....................................................................................132

The Pope's Christmas Gift: A Tough Line on Church Doctrine................................................................134

Iran is promoting hatred against Sunnis......................................................................................................137

Patriarch Alexiy II, head of Russian Orthodox Church, dies.....................................................................139

Iran blasts France’s human rights record...................................................................................................142

Romania removes theory of evolution from school curriculum................................................................144

Religious 'shun nanotechnology'...................................................................................................................146

UFO-experiences and ufology as a religious phenomena...........................................................................149

Campaign against Sharia law in Britain to be launched at the House of Lords.......................................152

God Trumps....................................................................................................................................................155

iii
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Meryl Streep: mother superior......................................................................................................................158

Teachers 'beat and abuse' Muslim children in British Koran classes.......................................................161

Yazidis targeted in Iraq attack......................................................................................................................164

Religion in schools to go God-free.................................................................................................................167

Will a New Vatican Document Affect Science and Reproductive Health?................................................170

Feedback for Post "Will a New Vatican Document Affect Science and Reproductive Health?".......173

Yemenite Cleric Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani Presents 'Scientific' Proof that Women Cannot Talk
and Remember Simultaneously....................................................................................................................174

'Christmas is the pathway to hell'.................................................................................................................176

The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom.......................................................................................178

Iran's power rooted in Shi'ite ties..................................................................................................................180

God Or Science? A Belief In One Weakens Positive Feelings For The Other.........................................183
Feedback for Post " God Or Science? A Belief In One Weakens Positive Feelings For The
Other"..................................................................................................................................................185

Mother told to take down her Christmas lights... in case they offend her non-Christian neighbours....186

Nun spurns Mother Teresa's rule to become an author..............................................................................188

Iran closes human rights centre....................................................................................................................190

Iran: BBC reporters in Tehran are spies......................................................................................................192

Pope denounces 'gender theory'....................................................................................................................194

Feedback for Post "Pope denounces 'gender theory' ".........................................................................196

Ahmadinejad show 'causes offence'..............................................................................................................197

Feedback for Post "Ahmadinejad show 'causes offence'"...................................................................200

New Pat Condell on YouTube: The Water of Life.......................................................................................201

Feedback for Post "New Pat Condell on YouTube: The Water of Life".............................................203

'World Orgasm Day' orgy for peace canceled due to threats.....................................................................204

Feedback for Post "'World Orgasm Day' orgy for peace canceled due to threats"..............................207

Heaven for the Godless?.................................................................................................................................208

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For Kurdish Girls, a Painful Ancient Ritual................................................................................................210
Feedback for Post "For Kurdish Girls, a Painful Ancient Ritual".......................................................213

Ben Stein: "science leads you to killing people"..........................................................................................214

Feedback for Post "Ben Stein: "science leads you to killing people""................................................217

Saudi girl, eight, married off to 58-year-old is denied divorce...................................................................218

Feedback for Post "Saudi girl, eight, married off to 58-year-old is denied divorce"..........................221

Author's friends..............................................................................................................................................222

About the author.............................................................................................................................................223

Pageviews.........................................................................................................................................................224

v
The Atheist News
If McCain wins, should we all move to
Scandinavia?
It is always a bit exiting to start a whole new venture, and this is the very first blogging in my newest blog
called "The Atheist News". This blog will be an avenue to publish all the interesting rational and sometimes
irritatingly irrational things I encounter in my travels in wide world of the computer internet.

I have published over time a lot of links in Facebook, but as you know Facebook is a perishable commodity. I
think many of these links hare a more longstanding value than for a few hours things stay afloat in the
ever-flowing world of Facebook and so I created this blog where they will stay available for years to come.

I have on already another English blog at http://beinghuman.blogs.fi, but I have long ago decided to keep it as
place where I publish my longer and more deeper ponderings, that is to say the essay-class stuff.

That has left me with no avenue for short musings on daily news on the bizarre world of religious beliefs and
rational thought. So, here we at the beginning of the beginning and it is time for the first link in this blog:

It is a book review by Louis Bayard and it was published in the quite respectable Salon.com -netmagazine. In
this piece he reviews book called "Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About
Contentment" by sociologist Phil Zuckerman.

If McCain wins, should we all move to Skandinavia

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/10/22/zuckerman/index.html?source=rss&aim=/books/review

Here is a taster of the review:

"Oct. 22, 2008 | Imagine the unimaginable: Todd Palin picking out curtain patterns for the vice-presidential
mansion. In such an eventuality, whither shall we flee?

Four years ago, Democrats made a lot of noise about Canada, but as political statements go, there's not much
sting to "I'm so mad at America I'm going to move a few degrees of latitude northward." Tina Fey has
suggested we leave Earth altogether, but at the risk of reviving a discredited rubric, I'd like to propose a "third
way." Actually, I'll let sociologist Phil Zuckerman propose it. In "Society Without God: What the Least
Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment," he tells of a magical land where life expectancy is high
and infant mortality low, where wealth is spread and genders live in equity, where happy, fish-fed citizens
score high in every quality-of-life index: economic competitiveness, healthcare, environmental protection,
lack of corruption, educational investment, technological literacy ... well, you get the idea."

ADDED 8.11.
Also Slate magazine has found Zuckermans fine book:
http://www.slate.com/id/2203614/?GT1=38001

by jaskaw @ 30.10.2008 - 22:30:56

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/10/30/if-mccain-wins-should-we-all-move-toscandinavia-4958256/
Feedback for Post "If McCain wins, should we all move to
Scandinavia?"

Richard Collins [Visitor]

02.11.2008 @ 00:32
Congratulations on your new blog, Jaakko.

I picked up on Zuckerman's book and have it on my books to order list. I frequently pose the argument to my
opponents on Amazon.com's parenting forum, that they don't have to consign children to religion in order for
them to develop a moral conscience. This is a myth promoted by God's henchmen to keep parents herding
their kids into church. The argument they come back with is that you need god so you have an ultimate arbiter
of what is right and what is wrong. Otherwise they say everyone is free to decide for themselves what is right
and wrong. Exactly! As a practical matter this is indeed what people have to do.

You can be good without god. I always end by pointing to the secular countries of Europe, Japan, Australia
and New Zealand. Plus of course the Scandinavians. They consistently rank at the top of the list in quality of
life measurements. That generally ends the discussion, but from time to time someone will always point to the
high suicide rate. I've tried to find a satisfactory theory that explains this outlier in the stats, but to no avail.
According to what I find in the research, the long hours of darkness during the winter are not a cause.

Do you know of any definite answers to this puzzle?

jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
02.11.2008 @ 02:20
To my knowledge nobody really knows what causes suicide rates to be quite different in different countries.
I personally suspect that it could also be the force of tradition. It might be the case that if you yourself know
earlier examples of this behavior in your own community or family, you might just be a bit more used to the
idea of solving one's promlems in this the most stupid way there is.
But that does not solve the question of what originally caused the rates to go up in a given country and I have
no real answers for it.
In Finland there is always the question of the huge quantity of firearms present in homes as hunting is one he
biggest pastimes here.
I think it can make the quick solution a more easy thing to do, who knows.
It think however that this issue has nothing to do with the religion.
Afghan journalism student sentenced to 20 years
for blashemy
Afghan journalism student sentenced to 20 years for blashemy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_afghan_journalist_trial

So we have to feel relief when a man is not hanged for speaking out on behalf on the women of his home
country. 20 years in prison feels still somewhat a harsh punisment for airing a political opinion. But as always
the religous liberals will say it will it is not the religions fault the judges are so eagerly defending.

RAWA of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan was commented the case rather
bitterly:

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2008/10/21/parwez-kambakhsh-sentenced-to-20-years.html

Here is the beginning of the original newsflash:

"KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence Tuesday for a journalism
student accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women's rights under Islam. But the judges
still sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
The case against 24-year-old Parwez Kambakhsh, whose brother has angered Afghan warlords with his own
writings, has come to symbolize Afghanistan's slide toward an ultraconservative view on religious and
individual freedoms."

by jaskaw @ 30.10.2008 - 22:57:12

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/10/30/afghan-journalism-student-sentenced-to-20-years-for-blashemy-4958401/
The List: The Catholic Church's Biggest Reversals
A delightful little reminder of how nothing is eternal; especially in the religous world:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4524

Here is a taster of the piece:

The List: The Catholic Church's Biggest Reversals

By Joshua Keating

Posted November 2008

"In "Think Again: Catholic Church," John L. Allen Jr. writes, "Catholics who have been around the block
know that whenever someone in authority begins a sentence with, 'As the church has always taught …,' some
long-standing idea or practice is about to be turned on its head." Herewith, five of the biggest such reversals of
doctrine in the church's history."

by jaskaw @ 30.10.2008 - 23:35:44

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/10/30/the-list-thecatholic-churchs-biggestreversals-4958638/
This is Your Brain on Morality
Scientist and writer Sam Harris is the prime cause for its very existance of this blog as the wonderful
performances of Sam were the prime reason why my for so long dormant atheism flamed into activism only
two years ago.

Now Sam is in his prime at the "Beyond Belief: Candles in the Dark" -conference, that was a follow up for
two earlier wonderful intellectual voyages under the same Beyond Belief -title.

Here is Sam in Science Network:

http://thesciencenetwork.org/programs/beyond-belief-candles-in-the-dark/sam-harris-1

or in YouTube

Sam Harris is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the
Future of Reason which won the 2005 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, and Letter to a
Christian Nation. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The Times
(London), The Boston Globe, The Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere. He is currently researching the neural
basis of religious belief while completing a doctorate in neuroscience. He is also a Co-Founder and Chairman
of The Reason Project.
by jaskaw @ 31.10.2008 - 20:29:31

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/10/31/this-is-your-brain-on-morality-4962726/
Faith-Based Politics: Kinship Between National
Socialism & Roman Catholicism
Austin Cline of About.com is our man on the field and he finds very often interesting new insights in the field
of rational thought ja beliefs. This time he writes about a very sensitive issue, namely the relationship between
the Nazis and the Catholic Church. He has named his piece as:

Faith-Based Politics: Kinship Between National Socialism & Roman Catholicism

http://atheism.about.com/od/politicalliberation/a/NaziCatholic.htm?nl=1

Here is a fragment of the story:

"It's common for Christians to assume that Christian churches resisted Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. The
truth is that not only did few even go so far as to voice criticism, much less overtly and publicly resist, but
some actually made serious arguments for the idea that Christianity and Nazi ideology were totally
compatible. Arguments for compatibility could either focus on the ideologies' specific teachings, on their
general approaches to life and society, or both."

According to the introduction in About.com Austin Cline has been actively involved in educating people
about atheism, agnosticism, and secular humanism on the Internet for over 10 years.

Austin Cline is a Regional Director for the Council for Secular Humanism and a former Publicity Coordinator
for the Campus Freethought Alliance. Austin has also lectured on religion, religious violence, science, and
skepticism.

Austin Cline holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Arts from
Princeton University. He also studied for one year each at the University of Zurich and the
Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich, Germany. In America, Germany, and Switzerland, Austin has
studied both religion and philosophy.

by jaskaw @ 31.10.2008 - 21:14:34

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/10/31/faith-based-politics-kinship-between-national-socialism-amp-roman-catholicism
Iran's Death Row Children
Iran's Death Row Children

Iran's adoptation of the Islamic sharia law has created a situation where its criminal system is not in any way
anymore compatible with the judiciary systems in the developed countries of the world.

Iran blatantly violates the human rights of its citizens because the country has adopted an extremely outdated
medieval system of justice for religious reasons.

Iran's reality is analysed in depth in this piece published in Canada.com. Here is a taster of the full article you
can find in the link below:

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=e14334d8-dd76-41ab-a3a8-0c6314acacb8&tr=y&auid=4181

"Daphne Bramham
Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2008

VANCOUVER - Ahmad Nourzehi is on death row in an Iranian jail. He was 12 when he was sentenced to
death for carrying and supplying heroin.

Soghra Najafpour spent 17 years on death row, having been convicted at 13 of murdering an eight-year-old
boy - the son of the family who she had been working for as a maid since she was nine. Najafpour denied the
charges, but was only released from prison a year ago after her family managed to raise $66,000 US to
compensate the boy's family for its loss. Five days after her release, she was ordered to return to jail and face
execution. She disappeared and human rights activists are concerned for her safety."

PS. If you are in Facebook, you can join my "Stop the medieval cruelty in Iran" -cause at
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/111694

by jaskaw @ 01.11.2008 - 17:44:24

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/01/iran-s-death-row-children-4966546/
Creationists declare war over the brain
This has been coming for a while, but now it is in the open. Creationists are opening a new front on
neuroscience. Their main vehicle is a claim of conscience being completetely separate from the brain. They
have on their side some very, very shaky science and a few token scientist who see fostering their
belief-system as the most important thing in their lives:

Creationists declare war over the brain

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg20026793.000-creationists-declare-war-over-the-brain.html?feedId=o

Here is a taster of the full article by Amanda Gefter:

"YOU cannot overestimate," thundered psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz, "how threatened the scientific
establishment is by the fact that it now looks like the materialist paradigm is genuinely breaking down. You're
gonna hear a lot in the next calendar year about... how Darwin's explanation of how human intelligence arose
is the only scientific way of doing it... I'm asking us as a world community to go out there and tell the
scientific establishment, enough is enough! Materialism needs to start fading away and non-materialist
causation needs to be understood as part of natural reality."

His enthusiasm was met with much applause from the audience gathered at the UN's east Manhattan
conference hall on 11 September for an international symposium called Beyond the Mind-Body Problem:
New Paradigms in the Science of Consciousness. Earlier Mario Beauregard, a researcher in neuroscience at
the University of Montreal, Canada, and co-author of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the
existence of the soul, told the audience that the "battle" between "maverick" scientists like himself and those
who "believe the mind is what the brain does" is a "cultural war".

by jaskaw @ 02.11.2008 - 14:42:40

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/02/creationists-declare-war-over-the-brain-4970039/
Somalia: Girl stoned was a child of 13
There is a vocal group of people also here in Finland who say that we can't meddle in even very violent and
ugly things happening in different cultures than ours.
These cultural relativists say that because we don't understand their culture we have no right to even try to
tell them what they can do and what not, but enough is always enough.
When a gang of men attacks and kills needlessly other people saying that it is a thing their culture and
religion demands, we must have a right to say aloud that they should change the demands of their culture to
prevent such things happening again.

Somalia: Girl stoned was a child of 13

http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/somalia-girl-stoned-was-child-13-20081031

Here is beginning of the original Amnesty International report:

"Contrary to earlier news reports, the girl stoned to death in Somalia this week was 13, not 23, Amnesty
International can reveal.

Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was killed on Monday, 27 October, by a group of 50 men who stoned her to death in
a stadium in the southern port of Kismayu, in front of around 1,000 spectators.

Some of the Somali journalists who had reported she was 23 have told Amnesty International that this age
was based upon a judgement of her age from her physical appearance.

She was accused of adultery in breach of Islamic law but, her father and other sources told Amnesty
International that she had in fact been raped by three men, and had attempted to report this rape to the
al-Shabab militia who control Kismayo, and it was this act that resulted in her being accused of adultery and
detained. None of men she accused of rape were arrested.

“This was not justice, nor was it an execution. This child suffered a horrendous death at the behest of the
armed opposition groups who currently control Kismayo,” said David Copeman, Amnesty International's
Somalia Campaigner.

“This killing is yet another human rights abuse committed by the combatants to the conflict in Somalia, and
again demonstrates the importance of international action to investigate and document such abuses, through
an International Commission of Inquiry.”

If you are in Facebook you can join a group called "Shall we allow adulterers to be stoned to death?" fighting
the stonings. It is at
http://www.facebook.com/groups.php#/group.php?gid=31883722579

by jaskaw @ 02.11.2008 - 18:53:17

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/02/somalia-girl-stoned-was-a-child-of-4971214/
Sundown on Colorado fundamentalists
The heyday of religius right in United States might soon be over as the era of Bush administration draws to a
close. Mike Madden from Salon.com has been looking at the source and seen things that give hope.

Sundown on Colorado fundamentalists

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/11/03/newlifechurch/index.html?source=rss&aim=/news/feature

Here are the opening lines of the piece:

"A Sunday visit to the megachurch that praised George W. Bush suggests that its political end of days is near.

By Mike Madden

Nov. 3, 2008 | COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The only real sign that this wasn't just any other Sunday at
New Life Church was the pickup truck perched just off church property, on the shoulder of the road between
the highway and the parking lot. Enormous pictures of smiling babies covered the truck and the extra-large
camper attached to its bed. "Let me live!" the photos implored. The truck -- and a group of demonstrators
waving and greeting worshipers as they arrived at the corner -- was part of a get-out-the-vote effort for
Colorado's Amendment 48, a ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution to say that life begins at
conception."

by jaskaw @ 03.11.2008 - 23:53:10

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/03/sundown-on-colorado-fundamentalists-4978741/
US student held in notorious Iran torture prison
The detoriating human rights situation in Iran has been growing problem for a long time, even it has not been
given the same attention as some other countries with human rights problems.

US student held in notorious Iran torture prison

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5062891.ece?tr=y&auid=4192971

Here are the opening lines of the piece:

Marie Colvin and Kayvon Biouki in Tehran

"Esha Momeni, an American student visiting Iran, has been arrested and held in solitary confinement in the
notorious section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison for daring to campaign for women’s rights.

Friends, who have had no contact with her since she was arrested more than a fortnight ago, fear that she will
be tortured. Her computer and film footage were seized by intelligence officials and she has not been allowed
any visits by her family or her lawyer.

Her arrest comes as the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched a crackdown
on the One Million Signatures campaign, which fights for equal rights in a country where women are treated
as second-class citizens."

If you are in Facebook you can take a stand and join a group fighting for Esha at
http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=88653140525

by jaskaw @ 04.11.2008 - 00:09:35

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/03/us-student-held-in-notorious-iran-torture-prison-4978826/
The Internet is a Rabid Dog!
The theocracy of Iran is getting more and more worried about free flow of information allowed by the
Internet. Free ideas and free minds are always in the end the biggest threats to any dictatorship.

http://www.roozonline.com/english/archives/2008/11/the_internet_is_a_rabid_dog.html?tr=y&auid=4192976

Here is a taster of the full article:

The Internet is a Rabid Dog!

by Shahram Raffizadeh

"In its latest comments about cyber media, at a meeting of the extremist Ansar-e ‎Hezbollah group Jalal
Yahyazadeh, a member of the ideologue faction of the eight ‎‎(current) Majlis equated the Internet with a
rabid dog.‎

Declaring the current cultural and social curbs in Iran to be inadequate, Yahyazadeh, a ‎member of the
majority faction in Iran’s parliament the Majlis said during the weekly ‎meeting with the Hezbollah said, “If
a newspaper writes an unsuitable comment then one ‎can file a complain with it, but it has been observed that
some web blogs write material ‎that is insulting to the foundations of the regime and Islam.” He added that
“some had to ‎stop the Internet and someone must act as its caretaker. ‎

As reported by ISNA news agency Yahyazadeh also protested the “easy access to the ‎Internet” and said,
“There is an opinion in this regard that the Internet is like a rabid dog ‎that has been let loose but now we are
trying to control it.” ‎

In his talk, this member of Iran’s parliament also accused the NGOs of being a “gang”, ‎claiming, “We saw
that factions and groups were sometimes formed in the NGOs and ‎other non government groups to pursue
the policies of certain foreign governments”‎

by jaskaw @ 04.11.2008 - 20:03:31

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/04/the-internet-is-a-rabid-dog-4983929/
The Cult Test
The mainstream religions do get most of attention also in media, even if the most harmful and even disastrous
things connected to religions happen in different kinds of cults. It is often however difficult to pinpoint what
really is a cult. Here comes help in form of a thorough and deeply studied website called:

The Cult Test

http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult_q0.html

Here are the first ten symptoms of a cult according the "The Cult Test":

"1. The Guru is always right.

2. You are always wrong.
3. No Exit.
4. No Graduates.
5. Cult-speak.
6. Group-think, Suppression of Dissent, and Enforced Conformity in Thinking
7. Irrationality.
8. Suspension of disbelief.
9. Denigration of competing sects, cults, religions...
10. Personal attacks on critics. "

by jaskaw @ 04.11.2008 - 20:29:38

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/04/the-cult-test-4984048/
Humanist Network News in PodcastAwards
Podcasting is a growingly important tool for humanists and rationalists as to produce a podcast you need
basically nothing else but a bit of enthusiasm, a computer and a microphone.
One of the best rationalist podcast at the moment is the "The Humanist Network News" or HNN which is
published on a regular basis. Now you can vote the HNN for a position of the best podcast in the
PodcastAwards and its "Religion Inspiration" -category and leave all the dozens of podcasts trumpeting
christianity in the dust. Voting takes place at:

http://podcastawards.com/

You must scroll the page a lot to get to the the "Religion Inspiration" -class. You must give your name and
email to vote and you will get a verification email to to the address you have given that certifies your vote.
Better be fast, as voting stops at 6:th of November in the midnight.

You can see for yoursaelf what the HNN is all about at
http://humaniststudies.org/podcast/

According to the IHS-website "The Humanist Network News (HNN) Audio Podcast is a monthly one-hour
talk show created by the Institute for Humanist Studies. HNN is the official podcast of the American
Humanist Association.
Every episode of the HNN Audio Podcast explores a different area of humanist thought, from politics to pop
culture. A typical episode of the HNN Audio Podcast features interviews, commentary, news, music, and
listener comments.
Notable guests have included Sir Salman Rushdie, Prof. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens,
E.O. Wilson, Alan Dershowitz, Holly Near, Dar Williams and Julia Sweeney."

You can find HNN also in iTunes when you type Humanist Network News or just HNN in the search box at the
iTunes -application.

by jaskaw @ 06.11.2008 - 18:43:47

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/06/humanist-network-news-in-podcastawards-4994885/
Pat Condell: Godless and free
YouTube has broken all old barriers in getting new exiting information published and also in getting people to
really also see it even if you have no money or important organizations backing you.

British comedian and atheist Pat Condell is a fine example of how a single man with a camera and a
YouTube-account can really make a difference.

Pat Condell is a staunch critic of all religions, but Islam is his favourite target. This creates also problems, as
his extremely sharp Islam-critique attracts also racists and bigots, which is a bit of problem as Pat Condell is
definitely nothing of a kind.

He is only opposing the strange ideas that infect peoples minds, not the people themselves carrying these
various mind-diseases, that can in the end so easily be also cured.

His latest videoblog is called:

Godless and free

His home page in YouTube is at

http://www.youtube.com/user/patcondell

Pat Condell has his homepage at http://www.patcondell.net/

He tells of himself in home page like this:

"My name is Patrick, and I’m a biped carbon-based life form.In my spare time I enjoy walking upright and
being warm-blooded, and I’m a Scorpio.
I live on planet Earth, a piece of rock orbiting a giant fireball in the middle of nowhere.
I feel I belong here.
There’s something about the atmosphere.
It suits me down to the ground.
The surface of the planet is about 70% water, which is nice because I’m about 70% water myself.
I share the remaining 30% with six billion others, each of whom has a 70% water body of their own.
Each of these bodies, like the planet, is composed of tiny particles which, on close examination, appear to
have no solidity, but rather are pure energy.
And since they comprise everything in our world and our universe, this means we’re not solid either, nor is
the planet.
What more can I tell you? I like beer and chillies, football and Bob Dylan.
And I don’t have much of a formal education – which is good, because it means I can actually read and write.
But it also means I don’t have a great deal of what you might call actual knowledge.
However, if you pressed me, I’d say the purpose of life is joy in the present moment, and anyone who tells
you different is a lying conniving asshole.
Cheerio."
by jaskaw @ 07.11.2008 - 10:13:40

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/07/pat-condell-godless-and-free-4997787/
Iran bans weekly critical of Ahmadinejad
The current theocracy in Iran is a fine example of a totalitarian ideology-based government remarkably
succesfully masquerading as a democratic regime.

There are many people also in the west that really buys these absurd claims of democracy in Iran. These
people duly brush away any doubts raised by the almost daily news from Iran telling about arrests of all kinds
of dissidents, suppression of any activity not expressly sanctioned by the government and regular direct
attacks on the freedom of the press and other media.

Latest installment in the long saga of Iran suppressing any media that is in anyway really critical of the
Islamic government is a story by run by AFP among others:

Iran bans weekly critical of Ahmadinejad

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5huvYz28axTnlkaOuVl_GabhxyNMQ?tr=y&auid=4206265

Highlights from the story by AFP:

“TEHRAN (AFP) — The Iranian press watchdog has banned popular moderate weekly, Shahrvand Emrouz,
which has been critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the magazine's lawyer told AFP on Thursday.
"Unfortunately Shahrvand has been banned although we have not been officially notified yet," lawyer
Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai said.
He said the closure had been ordered "under the pretext that the magazine is licensed as a cultural and social
publication so it cannot have political material."
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Wednesday criticised Iranian press saying "this careless
atmosphere of talking against the government is not to be easily forgiven by God."

by jaskaw @ 07.11.2008 - 20:47:58

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/07/iran-bans-weekly-critical-of-ahmadinejad-5000590/
Scrutiny for Sarah Palin's Religion: Conservative
Christians' Crocodile Tears
Sarah Palin is luckily a thing of the political past, but her brief visit on the political arena left some troubling
questions of how religious questions can and should be treated on the political arena. Your trustworthy guide
on the world of atheism, Austin Cline from About.com investigates the matter in a piece called:

Scrutiny for Sarah Palin's Religion:

Conservative Christians' Crocodile Tears

http://atheism.about.com/od/sarahpalinreligion/a/PalinQuestions.htm?nl=1

Here is a taster of the full piece:

"Should Sarah Palin's religious beliefs and practices be the subject of public discussion and critical scrutiny?
Should Sarah Palin answer questions about her beliefs and the practices at her churches? Many Christians and
Republicans are horrified at the idea, but these same conservatives are quick to use religion for their own
political benefit — and Sarah Palin is no exception in such hypocrisy. Anyone who uses religion politically
should be expected to answer questions about their religion.
Whether a politician uses religion to promote their own values or as a cudgel to attack the values of
opponents, it's illegitimate to expect to be able to use religion without facing hard questions about what one
really believes. Unfortunately, few in the media are willing to go so far as to ask even remotely probing
questions about religious beliefs and practices. At best we get softball questions about favorite books of the
Bible. Any more than that, though, and politicians start whining."

by jaskaw @ 08.11.2008 - 11:47:49

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/08/scrutiny-for-sarah-palin-s-religion-conservative-christians-crocodile-tears-50027
Religious Right Down but Not Out
The victory of Barack Obama was a major setback for the religious right in the United States. The religious
right has clearly associated itself very strongly with the leading right wing elements of the Republican party.
The voice of religious extremism has been generally been heard much more keenly in the Republican
leadership than in the general outlook almost secular Democratic party.

Barack Obama is by no means an atheist, as an atheist would never, ever be elected to be a president of the
United States, but there are very clear indications that the politics of his administration will be guided by
quite different sets of rules than the ones which the religious right would prefer.

The Inter Press Service or IPS has carried a piece pondering the future of the American religious right which
is called:

Religious Right Down but Not Out

The full piece is at http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44606

Here are higlights of the full story written by Bill Berkowitz:

"OAKLAND, California, Nov 6 (IPS) - The election of Sen. Barack Obama as the first African American
president of the United States will not mark the end of the religious right.
Although many in the mainstream media will write and talk about the movement's imminent demise, that
demise is not likely to occur in the near, or distant, future. More relevant questions are how the religious right
will behave during an Obama administration, and what steps the movement will take to revivify its
disappointed, dispirited and angry ground troops.
While Obama's victory was a major defeat, several religious right-backed state initiatives passed, including
ballot measures banning same sex-marriage in Florida, Arizona, and California -- which could nullify the
California Supreme Court's decision earlier this year allowing same-sex marriage.
However, several anti-abortion measures went down in defeat, including South Dakota's draconian ban, which
lost by more than 10 points; the effort to pass a parental notification of abortion for minors initiative in
California, which failed for the third time; and Colorado's controversial "Personhood Amendment", which
would have defined a person as "any human being from the moment of fertilisation" and was rejected by an
overwhelming margin."

by jaskaw @ 09.11.2008 - 19:19:23

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/09/religious-right-down-but-not-out-5008790/
Feedback for Post "Religious Right Down but Not Out"

John Shuey [Visitor]

http://www.360.yahoo.com/jshuey44
10.11.2008 @ 04:56
Not only is the "Religious Right" not out, but Obama played the religious card frequently...often referring to
his "personal relationship with Jesus Christ".

The good old USA is still stuck in a bronze-age past, with little sign of an imminent recovery.
Report identifies UK terrorist enclaves
Islamic terrorism is still with us and by recent reports it is not fading away in the future neither. The
preaching of hate continues unabated and new converts to religion-based violence are still coming forth. The
British online newspaper Telegraph.co.uk has published government documents on the subject with the
headline;

Report identifies UK terrorist enclaves

Full report is here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/3406107/Report-identifies-UK-terrorist-enclaves.html

Here are higlights from the full piece:

"Secret enclaves of al-Qaeda extremists based in London, Birmingham and Luton are planning mass-casualty
attacks in Britain, according to a leaked Government intelligence report.

By Sean Rayment, Security Correspondent

The document, which was drawn up by the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and Special
Branch, states that "some thousands" of extremists are active in the UK. They are predominantly UK-born and
aged between 18 and 30, and many are believed to have been trained in overseas terrorist camps.
Under the heading "International Terrorism", the report, which is marked "restricted" states: "For the
foreseeable future the UK will continue to be a high-priority target for international terrorists aligned with
al-Qaeda. It will face a threat from British nationals, including Muslim converts, and UK-based foreign
terrorists, as well as terrorists planning attacks from abroad."
The report states that the threat from the Islamist extremist community in the UK is "diverse and widely
distributed" but adds that the numbers of terrorist in Britain is "difficult to judge".
The document also reveals that many of the terror networks operating in the UK include extremists who have
been trained in terrorist camps overseas and have "some ability to construct improvised explosive devices,
incorporating home-made explosives".

by jaskaw @ 09.11.2008 - 22:08:12

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/09/report-identifies-uk-terrorist-enclaves-5009567/
Warning of new bin Laden attack
Sunni Islamic fanatic Osama Bin Laden and his not so merry fellowship of teetotaller Sunni Islamic fanatics
called al-Qaeda has been laying suspiciously low recently. It is no wonder that rumour-mill starts churning
out warnings of new attacks.
Nobody can say if this story carried by the Australian The Age has any credence to it. One must however be
prepared as long as these religious extremists continue their war against all those human beings that don't
want to be subdued by a religious dictatorship.

Warning of new bin Laden attack

http://www.theage.com.au/world/warning-of-new-bin-laden-attack-20081109-5kxu.html

Highlights from the article:

"OSAMA bin Laden is planning an attack against the United States that will "outdo by far" September 11, an
Arab newspaper in London has reported.
- bin Laden 'planning US attack'
- Goal to 'outdo' September 11
- al-Qaeda reinforces training camps
And according to a former senior Yemeni al-Qaeda operative, the terrorist organisation has entered a "positive
phase", reinforcing specific training camps around the world that will lead the next "wave of action" against
the West.
The warning, on the front page of an Arabic newspaper published in London, Al-Quds Al-Arabi - and widely
reported in the major Italian papers - quotes a person described as being "very close to al-Qaeda" in Yemen.
The ex-operative says he remains in contact with current chiefs of the organisation in Yemen and that only six
months ago bin Laden had sent a message to all jihad cells in the Arab world which asked them not to interact
with their governments or local political parties and to deny any request for mediation or formal talks.
The source also said that during the next few days the terrorist organisation may send a sign of its violent
intentions."

by jaskaw @ 10.11.2008 - 12:16:00

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/10/warning-of-new-bin-laden-attack-5011996/
Esha has been released!
It is so rare to get to be a bringer of the good news, but now I have this pleasure. In this blog there appeared
a few days ago a piece with headline 'US student held in notorious torture prison'.

It told about Esha Momeni who was American student visiting Iran. She had been arrested and held in
solitary confinement in the notorious section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison for daring to campaign for
women’s rights.

Happily I received just moments ago a message from Anayansi Prado who has been organizing a
Facebook-campaign to free Esha that tells the good news: Esha has been released and has been united with
his family!

Here is the full message from Anyansi Prado:

"Anayansi Prado
ESHA HAS BEEN RELEASED!!
To members of Free Esha

Hello Everyone!!
We got the news this morning. We have no other details but are happy that she's safe and back home with her
parents.
We would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for all the support, work and prayers. Every
bit of your efforts made this happen.

THANK YOU!!

Anayansi & Heddy"

by jaskaw @ 10.11.2008 - 19:18:22

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/10/esha-has-been-released-5013942/
Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within
Europe's Muslim Communities
The life of Muslim dissidents has been very difficult in many Islamic countries, but a very worrying thing is
that the Muslim critics of Islam are not safe in many of the democracies of the west neither.
A recent study by the Centre for Social Cohesion highlights the enormous problems faced by those who
renounce Islam in any way. The report is called:

Victims of Intimidation:
Freedom of Speech within Europe's Muslim Communities

A review of the report is to be found at:

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/17933

Here are higlights of the piece:

"Governments across Europe must do more to safeguard freedom of speech for Muslim reformers who face
threats from extremists, a think tank has warned.
The UK-based Centre for Social Cohesion highlighted the cases of 27 writers, including Sir Salman Rushdie,
activists, politicians and artists.
The centre said they had suffered violence and intimidation for criticising Islam or seeking reform.
It said governments had a duty to ensure free speech for all citizens.
The report - Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within Europe's Muslim Communities - said official
failure to offer victims the protection they needed had left "significant numbers" of Muslims unable to express
themselves.
The centre called for European governments to "promote greater religious and social harmony by
demonstrating that they see Muslims and those of Muslim background as complete citizens, neither restricted
in their freedoms nor unduly permitted to issue threats against others".
Douglas Murray, director of the Centre for Social Cohesion and co-author of the report, said Muslims found it
"increasingly difficult" to criticise elements of their faith or culture without fear of reprisal.
"In a free society, no belief or set of values should remain beyond open criticism," he said. "To grant a belief
system amnesty from discussion concedes that intimidation and violence can succeed. Unless Muslims are
allowed to discuss their religion without fear of attack there can be no chance of reform or genuine freedom of
conscience within Islam."

The whole report is available here in pdf-form:

http://www.socialcohesion.co.uk/pdf/VictimsofIntimidation.pdf?tr=y&auid=4214805

by jaskaw @ 11.11.2008 - 00:10:29

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/10/victims-of-intimidation-freedom-of-speech-within-europe-s-muslim-communitie
Religion: Bound to believe?
Pascal Boyer is one of the most prominent modern scientists researching the reasons why religions have
emerged in the past and why they have evolved to the position they now occupy in our societies.
In his latest essay he claims that atheism will be always a really hard sell, as the psyche of human beings is so
formed that it very easily accepts the locking claims made be religions. The essay is called:

Religion: Bound to believe?

The full piece is to found in pdf-form at

http://artsci.wustl.edu/~pboyer/PBoyerHomeSite/articles/2008BoyerReligionEssay.pdf

The essay starts:

"Atheism will always be a harder sell than religion, Pascal Boyer explains, because a slew of cognitive traits
predispose us to faith.
Is religion a product of our evolution? The very question makes many people, religious or otherwise, cringe,
although for different reasons. Some people of faith fear that an understanding of the processes underlying
belief could undermine it. Others worry that what is shown to be part of our evolutionary heritage will be
interpreted as good, true, necessary or inevitable. Still others, many scientists included, simply dismiss the
whole issue, seeing religion as childish, dangerous nonsense.

Such responses make it difficult to establish why and how religious thought is so pervasive in human societies
— an understanding that is especially relevant in the current climate of religious fundamentalism. In asking
whether religion is one of the many consequences of having the type of brains we come equipped with, we
can shed light on what kinds of religion 'come naturally' to human minds. We can probe the shared
assumptions that religions are built on, however disparate, and examine the connection between religion and
ethnic conflict. Lastly, we can hazard a guess at what the realistic prospects are for atheism."

The closing arguments:

"The findings emerging from this cognitive-evolutionary approach challenge two central tenets of most
established religions. First, the notion that their particular creed differs from all other (supposedly misguided)
faiths; second, that it is only because of extraordinary events or the actual presence of supernatural agents that
religious ideas have taken shape. On the contrary, we now know that all versions of religion are based on very
similar tacit assumptions, and that all it takes to imagine supernatural agents are normal human minds
processing information in the most natural way.

Knowing, even accepting these conclusions is unlikely to undermine religious commitment. Some form of
religious thinking seems to be the path of least resistance for our cognitive systems. By contrast, disbelief is
generally the result of deliberate, effortful work against our natural cognitive dispositions — hardly the easiest
ideology to propagate."

A review of Pascal Boyers main book on religions called "Religion Explained: The Human Instincts That
Fashion Gods, Spirits and Ancestors>" is at
http://beinghuman.blogs.fi/2008/06/02/why-do-religions-exist-4260373

by jaskaw @ 11.11.2008 - 22:30:44

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/11/religion-bound-to-believe-5020136/
Feedback for Post "Religion: Bound to believe?"

Dawson Gould [Visitor]

http://zefferus.blogspot.com/
14.11.2008 @ 22:45
Jaakko,

Thanks for posting this essay. It's oddly comforting to have a rational explanation for the source of seemingly
irrational thought and behavior. Also, it helps me understand why I spent the better part of my life traipsing
the halls of Holy Christendom.

| Show subcomments
jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
14.11.2008 @ 22:51
Glad to hear Dawson that I can be of at least some assistance, even if the honour really falls on Pascal Boyer
only. He has a very sober and scientific mind, but he also dares to take a stand when he sees a good scientific
reason for it.
Jerusalem voters elect a secular mayor
It must be freely admitted that this newsfeed tends to be composed of rather gloomy material, as the world of
bigotry and hatred based on religious beliefs is a rather gloomy place overall. Happily there is now and then
situations when religious-based hatred eventually subsidies after people have seen too much of it.
Such a happy occasion has been witnessed in the ultimately most religion-based country in the world, namely
Israel.
It is a rarely understood fact that the very emergence of Israel is based on a fact that a little but tough
religion born in the Middle East has survived when all the other religions and nations of the same era of the
original Jewish state have disappeared and mingled with other nations and religions of the area.
Nobody misses Akkadeans or Sumerians, but a simple fact is that these nations have disappeared because they
did not have religions that strictly denied its followers to socialize and marry anybody outside the Only True
religion.
This simple fact has kept the Jewish faith and as a sideline also a sense of nation based on that shared
religion alive when the Akkadian and Sumerian religions and nations of the same age-range that the original
Jewish nation have completely disappeared from the face of the world.
But let’s get finally on with the news-story of today. Los Angeles Times used this headline to tell the outcome
of the election of mayor of Jerusalem:

Jerusalem voters elect a secular mayor

The whole story is here:

http://pewforum.org/news/rss.php?NewsID=16915

Higlights of the story:

"Five years of ultra-Orthodox leadership ends as Nir Barkat defeats Rabbi Meir Porush.
By Richard Boudreaux
November 12, 2008
Reporting from Jerusalem -- Jerusalem's voters Tuesday ended five years of ultra-Orthodox rabbinical
leadership at City Hall, choosing as mayor a secular businessman who has promised to reverse the city's slide
into poverty and the exodus of its Jewish population.

Israel Radio said near-complete returns gave self-made millionaire Nir Barkat an unbeatable lead over Rabbi
Meir Porush and two other candidates. Porush conceded defeat after an unofficial count from 600 of the 707
polling stations gave him 38% of the vote, compared with Barkat's 51%."

by jaskaw @ 12.11.2008 - 22:09:08

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/12/jerusalem-voters-elect-a-secular-mayor-5025911/
Monks brawl at Christian holy site in Jerusalem
The most holy places of Christianity in Israel are real hotbeds of controversy. This religion has been broken
over centuries many times to extremely opposing groupings. However they still try to live side by side on these
places they all believe to be holy to them and this leads eventually to trouble.
These groups and sects can't in real life often agree on just about anything, even if they still profess to follow
the exactly the same teachings originated by one Jesus.

Monks brawl at Christian holy site in Jerusalem

The whole of this sorry story is here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27639792/?GT1=43001

Main entrance Church of the Holy Sepulchre. - Wikipedia

Here are higlights of the story:

"JERUSALEM - Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity's holiest churches Sunday and arrested two
clergymen after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus' tomb.

The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,
revered as the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

The brawling began during a procession of Armenian clergymen commemorating the 4th-century discovery of
the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus."

Here is the brawl at YouTube

by jaskaw @ 13.11.2008 - 22:15:43

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/13/monks-brawl-at-christian-holy-site-in-jerusalem-5031581/
Feedback for Post "Monks brawl at Christian holy site in
Jerusalem"

Elaina [Visitor]
http://www.craigslistpostingtools.info
27.02.2009 @ 11:59
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I
don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Elaina

http://www.craigslistpostingtools.info

| Show subcomments
jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
27.02.2009 @ 12:09
Thanks Elaine for your nice comments; came back soon!
Attackers spray acid at Afghan school girls
Under the rule of the ultra-orthodox Islamic Taleban-movement the country of Afghanistan was the most
backward modern nation in the world especially in all matters relating to the equality of the sexes.
Taleban government denied even the most basic rights from the women and one of those rights was a right for
education.
The religious zealots fighting to restore this terrifying Islamic theocracy of Taleban hate nothing more than
educated women.

Attackers spray acid at Afghan school girls

The full story is here:

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MjgyNDQwMTE=

Here are higlights from the story:

"KANDAHAR: Attackers used a water pistol to spray acid at schoolgirls in Afghanistan's southern city of
Kandahar yesterday, hurting 15 of them, three seriously, the education ministry said. Two teenage sisters were
badly injured in the attack, one of them told said at a hospital in the city, which has suffered a series of
assassinations and bombings by the radical Islamist Taleban movement.
We were on the way to school when two men on motorbikes stopped next to us. One of them threw acid on
my sister's face. I tried to help her and then they threw acid on me too," 16-year-old Atefa said. "We were
shouting and people came to see what was going on, then the two men escaped," she said.
Under Taleban rule between 1996 and 2001, girls were barred from going to school. Since they were ousted,
hundreds of schools have been attacked in Afghanistan and dozens of teachers and pupils killed in incidents
blamed on extremist insurgents. Atefa said she did not know why anyone would have attacked her and the
others. "I don't know why they did it," she said. "Kandahar is not safe. But we can't stay home, we want
education. We need help from th
e government." - AFP"

by jaskaw @ 13.11.2008 - 23:42:58

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/13/attackers-spray-acid-at-afghan-school-girls-5032016/
Garden gnomes banned from church cemetery
because they are 'unnatural creatures'
This news flow tends to be rather serious stuff, but now it is time to take a peek at the lighter side of the
religious life in the United Kingdom where the Queen is the titular head of the church also. It is time for a
story run by Telegraph.co.uk, which is called:

Garden gnomes banned from church cemetery because they are 'unnatural creatures'

The whole story is here;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3439588/Garden-gnomes-banned-from-church-cemetery-b

Here is some higlights from the story:

Story by Chris Irvine
"The gnomes, along with plastic flowers and other decorations such as teddy bears, have been called
"inappropriate" and tacky by the Diocese of Bath and Wells.
The church banned the garden figures from Wrington and Congresbury cemeteries in Somerset, and have said
they will remove any that they find as part of new guidelines issued by the Chancellor of the Diocese,
Worshipful Timothy Briden.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Bath and Wells said: "There is no such thing as a real gnome so why should
we have such unnatural creatures in churchyards?"
The spokesman added: "Things such as gnomes and plastic flowers are not permitted because they are
aesthetically unattractive and they make it harder to maintain the grounds.

The decision to ban the gnomes and statues has been met with criticism from the community however.
Hollie Richards, 24, who has lived in Congresbury all her life and has two grandparents, an uncle and an aunt
buried in St Andrew's churchyard in the cemetery, said: "People should be free to put what they want around
the gravestones as it is down to personal preference."

According to Wikipedia The first garden gnomes were made in Gräfenroda, a town known for its ceramics in
Thuringia, Germany in the mid-1800s. Jodee Jeffris made terracotta animals as decorations, and produced
gnomes based on local myths as a way for people to enjoy the stories of the gnomes' willingness to help in the
garden at night. The garden gnome quickly spread across Germany and into France and England, and
wherever gardening was a serious hobby.

by jaskaw @ 14.11.2008 - 14:44:29

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/14/garden-gnomes-banned-from-church-cemetery-because-they-are-unnatural-creat
Feedback for Post " Garden gnomes banned from church
cemetery because they are 'unnatural creatures'"

Charlres Austin [Visitor]

14.11.2008 @ 20:26
Well about all that I can say on this subject is that garden gnomes can't be any more ridiculous than
christianity is to begin with. I guess they would rather have more inspiring creatures like jesus, saints or
angels. What a fabulous waste of intelligence.
Muslim cab driver refused to carry blind man and
his guide dog
On our series of smaller but still extremely nasty religion-related incidents must by presented the recent case
of the blind boy in Nottingham (UK) who was refused a cab ride to home because the Muslim cab driver did
not want the guide dog in his cab because according to his religion dogs are unclean animals. What can one
really say on this?
The story is carried among others on the web-page of National Secular Society and it is naturally called:

Muslim cab driver refused to carry blind man and his guide dog

The full sorry story is here:

http://www.secularism.org.uk/103543.html

Excerpts:

"Ali Reza Roshanmoniri was working for Cable Cars when he was called to a school where Mr Christopher
Odell, who is blind and has an “assistance dog” had been working. But when he arrived at the school, Mr
Roshanmoniri refused to take Mr Odell and his dog. This broke the conditions of the licence he was granted
by Broxtowe Borough Council, who this week prosecuted Roshanmoniri for failing to carry a disabled person
with a dog, an offence under the Disability Discrimination Act.
John Cunliffe, representing the council, told Nottingham Magistrates Court: "Most of the operators are aware
that Mr Odell is blind and accompanied by his guide dog. On seeing Mr Odell’s guide dog he said it was
against his religion to carry dogs in his vehicle. It was explained to him that the dog was a working dog and
could not be refused carriage.”
Mr Roshanmoniri later obtained a letter from his GP saying he has an allergy to dogs, and hand-delivered it to
the licensing officer at Broxtowe Borough Council. The licence Roshanmoniri was previously granted said the
carrying of pets is normally at a driver's discretion, but drivers have to carry 'assistance dogs' such as those for
deaf or blind people. Drivers may apply to the council for an exemption on medical grounds, but
Roshanmoniri had not done this."

by jaskaw @ 14.11.2008 - 22:00:14

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/14/muslim-cab-driver-refused-to-carry-blind-man-and-his-guide-dog-5037039/
Feedback for Post "Muslim cab driver refused to carry blind
man and his guide dog"

That Guy [Visitor]

16.11.2008 @ 06:01
I hate to be 'that' guy, but if the parent company allows him to do it then whatever. It's a private company and
doesn't have to serve clientele if it doesn't want to

| Show subcomments
jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
16.11.2008 @ 11:30
The point is course not the fact that a private firm can serve whoever they want. The real point is that grip of
Islam is so strong in many people living in the West also that you can leave a blind boy in trouble just because
you think that your religion is more important than the wellbeing of your fellow humans.
Iran: Journalist sentenced to five years in jail
The Islamic theocracy of Iran is reserved for only those believing in the right version of the Only Truth,
namely the Shia-version of Islam. It it not very often understood that followers of other versions of Islam are
ofted persecuted with the same intensity as the Bahais or Christians in Iran. The fate of the Arab minority in
the south of Iran is a forgotten chapter of the sorry saga of Iran.

The strory of today is called:

Iran: Journalist sentenced to five years in jail

The full story is here:

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2704175262&tr=y&auid=4229677

Excerpts:

"Tehran, 13 Nov. (AKI) - An Iranian court has sentenced an Iranian journalist of Arab ethnicity to five years
in prison for allegedly inciting a 'revolt' among Arabs in southern Iran. Yousef Azizi-Banitaraf was arrested
three years ago and charged by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran with 'inciting revolt' among the Arab
population in the south of Iran.

In April 2005, a group of people protested in oil-rich Khuzestan over an alleged letter that was reportedly
attributed to Iran's presidential desk, saying that urgent action was needed to change the ethnic demographics
of the province.

Banitaraf was arrested and released a few weeks later after he criticised the repression of protesters in the
south of the country at a meeting at a Tehran human rights centre.

"The objective of this sentence is to silence the critical voices, and reduce freedom of expression to a
minimum," said Banitaraf's lawyer, Saleh Nikbath."

by jaskaw @ 15.11.2008 - 16:04:59

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/15/iran-journalist-sentenced-to-five-years-in-jail-5039691/
The Saudis' dubious interfaith agenda at the UN
One of the most ominous developments in recent times has been the attempt of the Islamic countries to create
a universal blasphemy law with the help of United Nations. Saudi Arabia has been leading this serious attack
on free speech, that would radically curtail the possibilities to in any way critisize any religion and Islam in
particular.

Saudi Arabia itself is a wahhabitic Islamic dictatorship where all other religions are in practice outlawed. In
matters like these you can find yourself with odd bedfellows, as the article cited here has appeared in
Christian Science Monitor. The harsh treatment of Christians in Saudi Arabia is a concern for them. The story
is called:

The Saudis' dubious interfaith agenda at the UN

Below is the link for the full story and I really recommend reading it, as contains a very revealing description
of the workings of the Islamic dictatorship ruling Saudi Arabia at the moment:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1113/p09s02-coop.html

Higlights from the full story:

"By Donald H. Argue and Leonard A. Leo

Washington - World leaders gathering at the United Nations this week for a special session of the General
Assembly to advance interfaith dialogue should have no illusions that their efforts will miraculously promote
mutual respect between religious communities or end abuses of religious freedom.
Saudi King Abdullah, who initiated this week's special session, is quietly enlisting the leaders' support for a
global law to punish blasphemy – a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic
Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties.
If the campaign succeeds, states that presume to speak in the name of religion will be able to crush religious
freedom not only in their own country, but abroad.
The UN session is designed to endorse a meeting of religious leaders in Spain last summer that was the
brainchild of King Abdullah and organized by the Muslim World League. That meeting resulted in a final
statement counseling promotion of "respect for religions, their places of worship, and their symbols ...
therefore preventing the derision of what people consider sacred."
The lofty-sounding principle is, in fact, a cleverly coded way of granting religious leaders the right to
criminalize speech and activities that they deem to insult religion. Instead of promoting harmony, however,
this effort will exacerbate divisions and intensify religious repression.
Such prohibitions have already been used in some countries to restrict discussion of individuals' freedom
vis-à-vis the state, to prevent criticism of political figures or parties, to curb dissent from prevailing views and
beliefs, and even to incite and to justify violence.
They undermine the standards codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the keystone of the
United Nations, by granting greater rights to religions than to individuals, including those who choose to hold
no faith – or who would seek to convert. "

by jaskaw @ 16.11.2008 - 11:55:10

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/16/the-saudis-dubious-interfaith-agenda-at-the-un-5044002/
Islamist rebels whip 32 dancers in Somalia
Multiculturalists in the West demand that we must understand and quietly accept the nasty things done in the
name of different religions, because we have no right to judge people who have different basic values than us.
The funny thing is that these religious bigots don't have any such inhibitions and are often ready to even
physically attack all those who have different cultural ideas than they.
Suppression of local cultures has been always been a inevitable part of the advent of Islam. A recent incident
in Somalia illustrates the point extremely clearly, even if the perpetrators were this time not state authorities,
but members of Islamist movement. The story is called:

Islamist rebels whip 32 dancers in Somalia

The full story is here:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20081115/tpl-uk-somalia-whipping-81f3b62.html

Excerpts:

"Islamist insurgents whipped 32 people in Somalia Saturday after arresting them for taking part in a
traditional dance in rebel-held territory south of the capital Mogadishu.
Fighters enforcing a strict form of sharia law have been slowly advancing on the city, raising the stakes in
their two-year rebellion and undermining fragile U.N.-brokered peace talks to end 17 years of chaos in the
Horn of Africa nation.

Last month, they stoned to death a young woman accused of adultery in the rebel-controlled southern port of
Kismayu.
Islamist spokesman Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow said those arrested had been warned several times against
dancing.

"We arrested 25 women and seven men who were dancing near Balad (town). We released them after
whipping them. We warned them many times, but they wouldn't listen," he told Reuters.
"The dancing of men and women together is illegal and totally against Islam. We neither killed them nor
injured them, but only whipped them according to the Islamic law," Adow said."

by jaskaw @ 16.11.2008 - 17:36:31

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/16/islamist-rebels-whip-32-dancers-in-somalia-5046253/
Seeing Is Believing, Unless It Isn’t
We humans have a inbuilt tendency to see patterns where there is none and we try to gain control of our
environment also even if such control is in reality unavailable. This tendency is a very strong explanatory
force behind the success of religions.
Recent studies by Adam Galinsky and Jennifer Whitson show that this need to gain control by any means is
much intensified when people are losing real control of things happening around them or to them. These
studies have been reported among others in Kellogg Insight –web magazine where the story is called:

Seeing Is Believing, Unless It Isn’t

Loss of control makes the mind misperceive

The full story is here:

http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/index.php/Kellogg/article/seeing_is_believing_unless_it_isnt

The results of the research are commented also here with a atheist perspective:

http://www.rationalistinternational.net/archive/en/rationalist_2008/20081115.html#3

Here are some highlights from the full story:

Adam Galinsky (Management and Organizations) and former Kellogg doctoral student Jennifer Whitson
(University of Texas, Austin) report in the journal Science how even the most normal among us strive,
intensely but unconsciously, to find and impose order in our unruly world. This quest for structure can
sometimes be so all consuming that we trick ourselves into seeing and believing things that simply do not
exist.

"We were interested in people who see the Virgin Mary in water stains, or believe conspiracy theories about
the Kennedy assassination. phenomena on the surface, but they share underlying aspects, all finding
meaningful and coherent relations among unrelated stimuli. They’re all reducible to the same process." said
Galinsky, the Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management, who is also a
member of the Social Enterprise at Kellogg (SEEK) Program.

"While some misperceptions can be bad, can lead you astray, they’re extremely common, so they most likely
satisfy a deep and enduring psychological need.", said Galinsky.

That psychological need, as revealed by decades of research, is for control. Our survival depends on the
ability to minimize uncertainty and predict and execute beneficial courses of action.
The more control we exercise and the less uncertainty we face, the more likely our choices will lead to safe
and rewarding outcomes. But we sometimes fall victim to our finely-tuned circuitry—evolved over
millennia—to seek and exploit patterns and stability by perceiving relationships and regularity that do not
actually exist.
"If the belief makes them feel better, more confident, then it serves a purpose, it’s not irrational. For example,
there’s data showing that religious people tend to heal more quickly. So whether or not God exists, believing
might help you live five years longer."

"The less control people have over their lives, the more likely they are to try and regain control through
mental gymnastics," said Galinsky, summarizing their numerous discoveries. "Aaron Kay at the University of
Waterloo has a similar idea—that people believe in a controlling, interventionist God as a form of
compensatory control. That makes me confident in our theory and captures the beauty of science, with two
groups coming to very similar conclusions from two unique approaches."

by jaskaw @ 17.11.2008 - 11:40:58

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/17/seeing-is-believing-unless-it-isn-t-5050310/
Amazon pulls Irish Scientology book
The Church of Scientology is for me a classical example of a hoax that has been so intensely crafted that some
of the perpetrators themselves have come to believe in their own hoax.
Church of Scientology has lots of money as its hoax has been really successful and money buys power in the
form of lawyers.
This church has mastered the art of silencing its opponents with all kinds of lawsuits that are mostly based on
the mastery of laws concerning the intellectual property.
The truth about the Scientology is out there, but you can’t buy many of the books telling it in the book stores.
The latest lawsuit put even mighty Amazon on its knees.

PS. I must admit that I was actively thinking about the possibility of these few terse sentences landing me in
the court…

Amazon pulls Irish Scientology book

The full story is here:

http://www.tribune.ie/article/2008/nov/16/amazon-pulls-irish-scientology-book/

Here are the juiciest bits:

Amazon.co.uk has pulled an Irish book on the Church of Scientology after receiving a legal letter from the
organisation.

Customers who ordered a copy of The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of
Scientology have received correspondence from the UK-based website informing them the book is no longer
available and they will be not be charged.
The move has not come as a surprise to industry insiders as the Scientology movement is renowned for being
litigious. Sources say a legal letter was distributed to a number of vendors including the British chain WH
Smith, who don't even stock the book, and Waterstones warning them not to sell the product as it is libellous
towards one of its members.
Merlin's Chenile Keogh said: "We are standing by the book and the author. The book is on sale in Ireland and
there is no problem with us publishing in Ireland..."
In his memoir, John Duignan "looks back on the 22 years he served in the church's secret army and describes
the hours of sleep deprivation, brain washing and intense auditing or 'religious counselling' he endured as he
was moulded into a 'soldier of Scientology'."

More information on Scientology is available at:

http://www.xenu.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu
by jaskaw @ 17.11.2008 - 22:56:14

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/17/amazon-pulls-irish-scientology-book-5054261/
Iranian-American Student Can Leave Iran-Judiciary
The readers of the Atheist News have been following closely the fate of American student Esha Momeni, who
was arrested in Iran in Mid-October when she was in Tehran interviewing the women activists there.
She was thrown in the to infamous Tehran high-security prison of Evin, where nearly all the political
prisoners of Iran are detained. She was released a from the infamous prison a few days ago, but only now it is
becoming clear that she can leave the country also.

The story in Javno-webmagazine is called:

Iranian-American Student Can Leave Iran-Judiciary

The full story is here:

http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=204878

Highlights from the story:

"Iran's judiciary sees no obstacles to an Iranian-American student who was detained on security-related
charges leaving the country after she was freed on bail last week, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Esha Momeni was detained in mid-October during a visit to Iran from the United States to see family and
carry out research on the women's movement in the Islamic Republic. She was freed on Nov. 10 after
spending almost four weeks in a Tehran prison.
"She is freed on bail. I believe there are no obstacles if she wants to leave her country," judiciary spokesman
Alireza Jamshidi told a news conference.
But he added she must return when she is due to appear in court in the case. Asked about a report that the
court still held her passport, Jamshidi said: "She would most probably be able to go and get it."
There was no immediate comment from Momeni or her family.
The judiciary has said Momeni was accused of acting against national security and of making propaganda
against the Islamic Republic's system of government, a common charge against Iranian dissidents. Momeni
holds dual Iranian and U.S. citizenship."

by jaskaw @ 19.11.2008 - 00:17:17

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/18/iranian-american-student-can-leave-iran-judiciary-5060384/
Saint Exportable
One of the most peculiar traditions in Catholic Church is the way of promoting some active members of this
faith to a status of saint, who are no ordinary people any more, but gain new unearthly qualities in the
process of canonisation.
Oddest part of this process is that good services rendered to the Only True Faith are not the only basis for
selecting new saints, but there is also a requirement for miracles to be performed by the person who is about
to be canonised.
This is generally however no real problem, as miraculous healing of mostly minor ailments start generally
very soon after even a faint possibility of a persons coming sainthood is even whispered around in future
saints neighbourhood. The story of today is called:

Saint Exportable

The full story is here in Outlook India.com:

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081113&fname=alphonsa&sid=1

Excerpts from the full story by Sanal Edamaruku:

"Sixty-two years after her death, an unknown village girl has suddenly become the center of the world's
attention. Was it just a political move on the part of the Vatican to satisfy the Syrian Malabar Church? Or was
it also aimed to stem the tide of the world wide dramatic decline in the numbers of nuns?

Even in her wildest dreams, Annakutty from Bharananganam village near Kottayam in Kerala may not have
imagined that one fine day more than hundred thousand people would throng her tiny village to honour her.
Sixty-two years after her death, this unknown village girl has suddenly become the center of the world's
attention – at least of the Roman Catholic part of it.

All throughout her short and eventless life Annakutty, who later became Sister Alphonsa, looked a picture of
misery. After disabling herself at the age of 13 to escape forced marriage, she suffered from extreme
weakness and various severe illnesses as well as from the cruelty of the sisters of the Franciscan Clarist
convent in which she silently vegetated till her death at the age of 36. There were only 12 participants at her
funeral, most of them ex-officio. This shows that she was not very popular then.
---
Her official "ticket" to canonization was the alleged healing of a boy's club-foot in 1999. But there is a history
to this story. Shortly after her silent demise in 1946 spread a rumour that Sister Alphonsa, who had once
crippled her own feet in a pit of burning chaff, had posthumously healed a child's deformed foot upon prayer
at her tomb.
---
Alphonsa is being presented as a role model to young girls. During the celebrations, thousands of little school
girls are dressing up as nuns and play Alphonsa. She has become the patron saint of many schools. Her life is
dramatized in books and on CDs, in documentary films plays and a weekly TV serial. What is highlighted is
always Alphonsa, the teacher, the darling of all little children, though she was all throughout her convent life
so bedridden that her attempt to work as a teacher was limited to less than one year.

The glorification focuses on her special character that makes her a suitable new idol for young nuns: an
example in humility, obedience and forbearance, desiring to be unknown and hidden and to suffer all pain and
ill-treatment that was in store for her without any complaint. "Humiliate me until I am almost nothing; until I
become a spark in the fire of the love burning in Thy Divine Heart," is one of the most talked about words
attributed to Saint Alphonsa. If the Vatican's plan works out, the psychopathy of a helpless, tortured individual
could become epidemic."

by jaskaw @ 19.11.2008 - 15:08:47

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/19/saint-exportable-5062822/
Facts, Values and a Place for the Profound
Sam Harris is the perfect poster boy for the new atheistic movement; he is deeply learned,he is a wonderful
talker and most of all he has a profound knowledge of the existing religions and has a personal experience of
the mystical and sacred experiences and so has a personal understanding for the need for those things.
In a recent interview conducted by Roger Bingham of The Science Network he talks frankly and candidly
about his own religious background, his experiences as a bodyguard for Dalai Lama and many other things.
This exiting interview is called:

Facts, Values and a Place for the Profound

It is to be found here:

http://thesciencenetwork.org/programs/the-science-studio/facts-values-and-a-place-for-the-profound

In the Science Network Sam Harris is presented like this: Sam Harris is the author of The New York Times
bestsellers, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason which won the 2005 PEN/Martha
Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, and Letter to a Christian Nation. His writing has appeared in Newsweek,
Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Annals of Neurology, and
elsewhere. He is currently researching the neural basis of religious belief while completing a doctorate in
neuroscience. He is also a Co-Founder and Chairman of The Reason Project.

by jaskaw @ 19.11.2008 - 23:36:54

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/19/facts-values-and-a-place-for-the-profound-5065209/
Feedback for Post "Facts, Values and a Place for the
Profound"

deleted user [Visitor]

20.11.2008 @ 00:18
Uh.. this man converted from Buddhist Atheism to atheism proper? He was a Dzogchen Buddhist and an
advaitist. To my view that does not qualify to much... at least on a field of "personal experience of the
mystical and sacred experiences".

He says that he never has been a Buddhist, but I think that it is common buddhist word-play. To say the
opposite, that actually is. They think it's funny... a "koan" type of crazy-wisdom. That he was a a bodyguard
for Dalai Lama tells other story..

Now he has changed buddhist word-plays, to pseudo-scientific jargon.. Doesnt convince me. He is talking
about religion, but has never understood what religion is.

But I agree, religion should be taked openly and critically.

Secularist internet websites are not welcome in
Arab states
The Islamic nations are pushing through an international law in the UN that would make criticizing religions
unlawful anywhere in the world. They are however not content with these menacing initiatives, but many are
of them are alraedy actively blocking any information that does not confirm with the teachings of their dear
The Only True Faith.

The secularist Arabic websites are now under heavy attack, tells the website of ANHRI or The Arabic Network
for Human Rights Information, whose English website at http://www.anhri.net/en/ is worth a look if a rare
insider view into the Islamic world interest you, even if the site is a bit depressing with all these signs of
religious repression filling the pages.

The ANHRI story is called:

Secularist internet websites are not welcome in Arab states

The full story is here:

http://www.anhri.net/en/reports/2008/pr1115.shtml

"The Arabic Network for Human Rights said today that the website of Arab Secularists’
http://www.3almani.org is facing a campaign that it should be blocked in several Arab states. There are
already five states which have blocked this website, making it the most blocked website, surpassing even the
Alhewar website http://www.ahewar.org which has been blocked in four Arab countries.

Four Arab states have blocked both the websites (Saudi, the Emirates, Tunisia and Bahrain) and now the
Syrian authorities have joined the four states and blocked the Arab Secularists’ website, which makes it the
most banned website.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said: "It is not surprising that these websites have been
blocked by these states, but it is strange that the most blocked websites have a secularist trend, which reveals
the stance of these states against the secularist and democratic values called for by these websites. Strangest of
all is the fact that the Emirates have joined the list of countries that have this animosity to the internet."

by jaskaw @ 20.11.2008 - 20:57:39

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/20/secularist-internet-websites-are-not-welcome-in-arab-states-5070903/
Iran: Fears for the Safety of Women’s Rights
Defender Esha Momeni
The Atheist News has been closely following the sad story of Esha Momeni who was arrested in Iran because
she had been studying the womens movement in that theocratic state. She was detained in a notorious prison
for political prisoners, but has been since released.
There was widespread belief that the ordeal was over for her with her release from prison, but things don't
look so rosy anymore as she is possibly facing severe criminal charges of 'progaganda agains the system'.
You can sign a new Amnesty petition in defence of her at the bottom of the Amnesty page in the link below.

The story is called:

Iran: Fears for the Safety of Women’s Rights Defender Esha Momeni

The full story is here:

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=504

Highlights from the story:

"Esha Momeni is a graduate student in the USA and a member of a branch of the Campaign for Equality in
California. She had been in Iran to visit her family and to conduct research for her Master's degree thesis on
the Iranian women’s movement.
She was detained by officials who identified themselves as traffic police whilst driving in Tehran. She was
then taken to Evin Prison.
---
Esha Momeni was released from Tehran's Evin Prison on 10 November. Her bail of 2000 million rials
(approximately US$ 200,000) was met by the deeds to her family’s apartment.
According to the website www.mardomak.org her father said that she was expected to appear in court on 11
November to face charges of 'acting against state security' and 'propaganda against the system'. He also said
that she is not permitted to leave Iran, but hoped that she would be able to return soon to Los Angeles.
Esha Momeni is reported to have lost about 7 kilograms in weight since her detention on 15 October, but
otherwise is said to be in good health."

by jaskaw @ 20.11.2008 - 23:31:32

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/20/iran-fears-for-the-safety-of-women-s-rights-defender-esha-momeni-5071875/
Is Obama the Antichrist?
What should one think when one of the worlds leading sources of current news tells its readers that the next
President of the United States just might be the Antichrist?
This is however what just happened in Newsweek, which told its readers about such concerns raised by a
group of fringe lunatics, but presented the story as a real world news item.
Happy thing is though that most people are able to see utter bullshit when they see one. Besides hearing of the
lunatic views of extreme religious right can really be a sobering experience for many, as many don’t really
know what these fanatics are doing in their spare time and some even for work.

The story is aptly called:

Is Obama the Antichrist?

You can read the whole hog here:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/169192

Highlights from the story:

BELIEF WATCH, Lisa Miller, from the Newsweek- magazine issue dated Nov 24, 2008

"The winning lottery number in Illinois was 666, which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the Beast.

On Nov. 5, Todd Strandberg was at his desk, fielding E-mails from around the world. As the editor and
founder of RaptureReady.com, his job is to track current events and link them to biblical prophecy in hopes of
maintaining his status as "the eBay of prophecy," the best source online for predictions and calculations
concerning the end of the world.
Already Barack Obama had drawn the attention of apocalypse watchers after an anonymous e-mail circulated
among conservative Christians in October implying that he was the Antichrist. Former "Saturday Night Live"
ingénue Victoria Jackson fueled the fire when, according to news reports, she wrote on her Web site that
Obama "bears traits that resemble the anti-Christ."
Now Strandberg was receiving up-to-the-minute news from his constituents in Illinois. One of the winning
lottery numbers in the president-elect's home state was 666— which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the
Beast (also known as the Antichrist). "It is very eerie, and I take it for a sign as to who he really is," wrote one
of Strandberg's correspondents.

---

Before Christ comes again, those who are saved will ascend to heaven, according to this end-times theology,
in a huge, upward whoosh called the Rapture. Strandberg is so certain that the Rapture is coming, he's bought
a number of Internet addresses in addition to RaptureReady: AntiAntichrist, Tribulationus and RaptureMe.
In the event that RaptureReady crashes during the apocalypse, anyone who needs an update will, with a
simple Google search, be able to get one. Strandberg says Obama probably isn't the Antichrist, but he's
watching the president-elect carefully.
On his Web site, he has something called the Rapture Index, a calculation based on signs and prophecy of the
proximity of the end. According to Strandberg, any number over 160 means "fasten your seat belts." Obama's
win pushed the index to 161."

by jaskaw @ 21.11.2008 - 12:42:49

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/21/is-obama-the-antichrist-5074316/
Iran blocks access to over five million websites:
report
The Atheist News told yesterday about the willingness of the muslim Arab nations to prevent access to the
even the faintly secularist web sites, but their dedication is nothing compared with that of Islamists of Iran.
Iranian bureaucrats have labored beyond all imagination and have found an astounding five million web
pages that are not suitable for viewing by the pious Iranians, and as things stand all Iranians are pious
muslims or else...

The story in question is naturally called:

Iran blocks access to over five million websites: report

The full story is here:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hEYmN_i3-5Tz9mE5qAcKM58N-aLg?tr=y&auid=4253665

Highlights of the full story:

“TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has blocked access to more than five million Internet sites, whose content is mostly
perceived as immoral and anti-social, a judiciary official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
"The enemies seek to assault our religious identity by exploiting the Internet," Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi, an
advisor to Iran's prosecutor general, was quoted by Kargozaran newspaper as saying.
The Internet "inflicts social, political, economic and moral damage, which is worrying," he said, adding that
"social vice caused by the Internet is more than that by the satellite network," Mehr news agency reported.
With about 21 million users, the Internet is widely popular in Iran, which information ministry officials say
ranks among the top 20 user countries.
In recent years, Internet service providers have been told to block access to political, human rights and
women's sites and weblogs expressing dissent or deemed to be pornographic and anti-Islamic.
The ban has also targeted such popular social networking sites as Facebook and YouTube, as well as news
sites.”

by jaskaw @ 21.11.2008 - 20:03:07

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/21/iran-blocks-access-to-over-five-million-websites-report-5076399/
SoCal's atheist billboard taken down
Freedom of the speech is one of the unbreakable ground rules of the United States, but principles get you just
so far, when religious sensibilities come to play. Even the basically rather un-offensive “Imagine No
Religion” campaign of the Freedom From Religion Foundation was too much for many in the little town of
Rancho Cucamonga, who seem to think that too much imagination can be dangerous.
The story published in the Examiner.com is called:

SoCal's atheist billboard taken down

The full story is here:

http://www.examiner.com/a-1703796~SoCal_s_atheist_billboard_taken_down.html

Excerts:

"RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (Map, News) - Complaints have led to removal of an atheist group's
"Imagine No Religion" billboard in Rancho Cucamonga.
The General Outdoor sign company took down the Freedom From Religion Foundation billboard on Thursday
after the city asked if there was a way to get it removed. Redevelopment director Linda Daniels says they got
90 complaints.
The 12,000-member Madison, Wis.-based foundation, which advocates separation of church and state, has
billboards in eight states that include such messages as "Reasons Greetings" and "Beware of Dogma."
Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor says the city shouldn't be censoring speech."

As a bonus a little religious mishap from YouTube:

by jaskaw @ 22.11.2008 - 17:19:41

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/22/freedom-from-religion-foundation-imagine-no-religion-billboard-freedom-of-spe
Can Love Conquer Caste?
According to some multiculturalists the ancient caste system of India is part of the multicultural heritage of
South Asia, and outsiders have no right to tamper with the cultural heritage created in a feudal agricultural
society thousands of years ago.
On the other hand a even fast growing number of Indians think that this system of segregating people by the
family they happen to be born in, is a disgusting remnant of a deeply and fundamentally unjust society.
Many think that caste system is a much worse thing than any discrimination based on political or religious
views, as one can change his or hers opinions quite easily to advance in such discriminating society, but one
can never change his or hers parents and caste is in this purified form of social apartheid.
The story is called:

Can Love Conquer Caste?

The full story is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/21/AR2008112103971.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Excerpts from the story:

---
"They fell in love in Iraq nearly 18 years ago while campaigning for peace before the Persian Gulf War. Their
romance bloomed, and within three months they were engaged.
But their marriage a year later ushered in another war: In tying the knot, they openly defied India's deeply
entrenched taboos against inter-caste marriage. Anita Pharti, now 42, came from the Dalit caste, still known as
untouchables, the lowest in India's social order. Her husband, Rajeev Singh, 45, is a Rajput, traditionally a
landholding caste that had for centuries ruled over Pharti's peasant community.
---
Even though India legalized inter-caste marriage more than 50 years ago, newlyweds are still threatened by
violence, most often from their families. In the past month, seven so-called honor killings have targeted
inter-caste couples.
---
For most Indians, opportunities in education, employment and marriage are still determined by the ancient
social hierarchy of caste.
---
Some interpretations of Hindu scripture appear to support the caste system, which dovetails with the idea of
karma, in which one's birth is either high or low as a reward or punishment for behavior in a previous life.
---
"To me, caste is Hindu terrorism," said Singh, looking over at the couple's two young sons playing nearby.
"We just wish for a better future for India. And that can't include such obvious discrimination."

by jaskaw @ 22.11.2008 - 22:05:42

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/22/can-love-conquer-caste-5088345/
Societies worse off 'when they have God on their
side'
Ruth Gledhill, who is the Religion Correspondent for venerable TimesOnline mainstream news-media
surprises by reviewing in glowing terms the recent study by scientist Gregory Paul on effects of different
belief systems on the general wellbeing of social systems.

Even though as an atheist I naturally applaud Gregory Paul for his determination and for an American rather
bold conclusions, I must confess that I fear that his conclusions are sometimes a bit too straightforward.
I fear that many of the social ills that he attributes to solely to the religious differences might by a result of
much more complex development. The most crucial thing is that when comparing United States with the other
developed nations, you must always keep in mind the absence of the mainstream political movements
defending the interests of labor in the US of A.

The democratic social democratic movements have however made a huge difference in Scandinavia and
Western Europe in general in dividing the wealth generated by the expanding economy and creating a more
just and effective society, even if their impact has been strongly diminishing during the last few years.

The story is called:

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

The full story is here

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article571206.ece

A more detailed description of the study itself can be found here:

http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html

Highligts:

"RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual
promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.
According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may
actually contribute to social problems.
The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical
foundations of a healthy society.
It compares the social peformance of relatively secular countries, such as Britain, with the US, where the
majority believes in a creator rather than the theory of evolution. Many conservative evangelicals in the US
consider Darwinism to be a social evil, believing that it inspires atheism and amorality.
Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey
Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions.
---
“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile
and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.
The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes
spectacularly so.”

by jaskaw @ 23.11.2008 - 19:25:44

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/23/societies-worse-off-when-they-have-god-on-their-side-5092262/
Feedback for Post "Societies worse off 'when they have
God on their side'"

George [Visitor]

24.11.2008 @ 06:43
The lack of a strong labor movement and other progressive reforms in the US is not unrelated to the influence
of religion. Just look up "Religious Right."

| Show subcomments
jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
24.11.2008 @ 09:47
I am not saying that the religious right has had a effect on all levels of society in America, but still I claim that
the rather complete lack of a real political left-wing alternative in the United States has had a profound effect
in that society.
The original initiative for building the welfare states in the Western Europe was given by the moderate
social-democratic leftist mainstream political parties, even if the basic concepts of a welfare state have a long
time been accepted also on the political right in most European nations.
I am saying that lack of a clear-cut mainstream leftist political party in the US of A has hampered the building
the groundwork for a welfare state in USA compared to the West-European developed nations.
Why We Believe
The brain is a rather mysterious organ, as the end results of its workings cannot be explained by simple
scientific formulas, even if the basic mechanism of the brain are well known. Even the very simple mechanism
why we accept things without good evidence is a complex thing that still needs explaining. Sharon Begley of
Newsweek tries this in a story called:

Why We Believe

http://www.newsweek.com/id/165678

Here are selected points from a rather longish story:

"By Sharon Begley | NEWSWEEK

According to periodic surveys by Gallup and other pollsters, fully 90 percent of Americans say they have
experienced such things or believe they exist.

If you take the word "normal" as characteristic of the norm or majority, then it is the superstitious and those
who believe in ESP, ghosts and psychic phenomena who are normal. Most scientists and skeptics roll their
eyes at such sleight of word, asserting that belief in anything for which there is no empirical evidence is a sign
of mental pathology and not normalcy. But a growing number of researchers, in fields such as evolutionary
psychology and neurobiology, are taking such beliefs seriously in one important sense: as a window into the
workings of the human mind.
The studies are an outgrowth of research on religious faith, a (nearly) human universal, and are turning out to
be useful for explaining fringe beliefs, too. The emerging consensus is that belief in the supernatural seems to
arise from the same mental processes that underlie everyday reasoning and perception. But while the belief in
ghosts, past lives, the ability of the mind to move matter
and the like originate in normal mental processes, those processes become hijacked and exaggerated.
---
As scientists began studying belief in the paranormal, it quickly became clear that belief requires an open
mind—one not bound by the evidence of the senses, but in which emotions such as hope and despair can trump
that evidence.
---
The idea that the brain constructs reality from the bottom up, starting with perceptions, is woefully wrong,
new research shows. The reason the grieving mother did not "see" the claimant as others did is that the brain's
sensory regions, including vision, are at the mercy of higher-order systems, such as those that run attention
and emotions. If attention is not engaged, images that land on the retina and zip back to the visual cortex never
make it to the next stop in the brain, where they would be processed and identified and examined critically.
---
The pervasiveness of belief in the supernatural and paranormal may seem odd in an age of science. But ours is
also an age of anxiety, a time of economic distress and social anomie, as denizens of a mobile society are
repeatedly uprooted from family and friends. Historically, such times have been marked by a surge in belief in
astrology, ESP and other paranormal phenomena, spurred in part by a desperate yearning to feel a sense of
control in a world spinning out of control. A study reported a few weeks ago in the journal Science found that
people asked to recall a time when they felt a loss of control saw more patterns in random noise, perceived
more conspiracies in stories they read and imagined illusory correlations in financial markets than people who
were not reminded that events are sometimes beyond their control. "In the absence of perceived control,
people become susceptible to detecting patterns in an effort to regain some sense of organization," says
psychology researcher Bruce Hood of the University of Bristol, whose upcoming book "Supersense: Why We
Believe in the Unbelievable" explores the mental processes behind belief in the paranormal.
---
As science replaces the supernatural with the natural, explaining everything from thunder and lightning to the
formation of planets, many people seek another source of mystery and wonder in the world. People can get
that from belief in several paranormal phenomena, but none more so than thinking they were abducted by
aliens.
---
A more common experience is to see patterns in coincidences, something that also represents a hijacking of
normal and useful brain function. You think about the girl at the party last Saturday and—bam!—she calls you.
You think about the girl who chatted you up in class—and never hear from her. Guess which experience you
remember? Thanks to the psychological glitch called confirmatory bias, the mind better recalls events and
experiences that validate what we believe than those that refute those beliefs.
---
But why? Why do we remember the times we thought of someone just before she texted us and forget all the
times we had no such premonition? When the mind was evolving, failing to make an association (snakes with
rattles are to be avoided) could get you killed, while making a false association (dancing will make it rain)
mostly just wasted time, Michael Shermer points out. "We are left with a legacy of false positives," he says.
"Hallucinations become ghosts or aliens; knocking noises in an empty house indicate spirits and poltergeists;
shadows and lights in a tree become the Virgin Mary."
---
Skeptics, no less than believers, think it would be wonderful if we could speak to dead loved ones, or if we
ourselves never died. But skeptics instead "seek immortality through our … lasting achievements," Shermer
explains. "We, too, hope that our wishes for eternity might be fulfilled." Too bad that as they fight the good
fight for rationality, their most powerful opponent is nothing less than the human brain.

The belief that minds are not bound to bodies, and therefore that ghosts and other spirits exist here in the
physical world, reflects a deep dualism in the human psyche. No matter how many times neuroscientists assert
that the mind has no existence independent of the brain, "we still think of our essence as mental, and of our
mind as being independent of body," says Fordham's Guthrie."

by jaskaw @ 24.11.2008 - 10:19:23

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/24/why-we-believe-5096187/
Japan Christians marking martyrs
The Roman Catholic Church has decided to commemorate and honor people who died 400 years age in
Japan, when the emerging Christian faith was practically stamped out that county in a brutal pogrom.
It was a naturally a very sad and detestable affair, but we in Atheist News want to wait and see if similar
courtesy is someday offered by the Papal office for example for the Cathars or Albigenses of France if this
policy of commemorating long forgotten past misdeeds made in the name of religions is followed through.
In the years 1209-1229 tens of thousands of French catholics deemed heretics by the pope were brutally
slaughtered in a Holy War ordered by the Pope Innocent III personally.
In Beziers alone it is estimated that up to 20 000 people were slaughtered on a single day when this city fell to
the Pope’s army.

Btw. a classical incident is recorded on that day of religious slaughter when Arnaud, the Cistercian
abbot-commander, is supposed to have been asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics in the fallen city. His
alleged reply, recalled by a fellow Cistercian, was "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius." — "Kill
them all, the Lord will recognise His own."

The story in BBC world service is called:

Japan Christians marking martyrs

The whole story is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7745307.stm

Excerpts:

"Christians in Japan are honouring 187 people who were killed for their faith in the 17th Century.
The event in Nagasaki was organised by the Roman Catholic church and a cardinal sent by the Pope is
attending.
It commemorates some of many thousands of people who lost their lives when the ruling shoguns were
attempting to wipe out Christianity in Japan.
Today, fewer than 1% of Japanese people identify themselves as Christian; most follow Buddhist or Shinto
faith.
They estimate that tens of thousands of Japanese Christians were put to death, many after being tortured.
Christianity was regarded as a malevolent influence on Japanese affairs and a concerted campaign was made
to eradicate the faith, our correspondent says."

by jaskaw @ 24.11.2008 - 22:30:03

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/24/japan-christians-marking-martyrs-5100448/
Feedback for Post " Japan Christians marking martyrs "

FedupwithR [Visitor]

25.11.2008 @ 16:29
"Tens of thousands of Japanese Christians"! Where did they get the figures from? How do they compare with
the slaughter and torture of the Cathars/Huguenots/Protestants/"Witches"/Nonbelievers anda whole lot more?.
In Mourning for Iranian Press
The state of freedom on press is deplorable at its best in ht Islamic state of Iran at the moment. The theocratic
elite that holds the reins in Iran at the moment hate nothing more that freedom of information. They sincerely
believe they are the already themselves giving all the information any person shall ever need to fully fill his
role in the world they have designed all by themselves.
The similarities to the old soviet system of systematic oppression are becoming cleared day by day in Iran. A
system with no channel of feedback from the ruled is however always doomed to fail, as the information
reaching the top echelons of the ruling class is less and less in sync with reality. The story in Rooz-online is
aptly called:

In Mourning for Iranian Press

The full story is here:

http://www.roozonline.com/english/archives/2008/11/in_mourning_for_iranian_press.html?tr=y&auid=4264419

Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari for Rooz-online

Snippets from the whole story:

"Currently the road for free travel of information and ‎publication of ideas is fully closed by organs such as
the Ministry of Culture. Not even the ‎situation in the 1980s and during the Iran-Iraq war rivaled today's. ‎

If in the past, and especially during the Khatami administration, publications were shut don by ‎the judiciary,
or journalists were arrested, or a book was suspended or censored, there would ‎have been widespread and
somewhat effective protests by society and in the press and Majlis and ‎administration, and at least the
autocrats were forced to pay a price. ‎

Presently, however, the administration's illegal actions are not provable (for instance, critical ‎publications
are not given publication permits so that they do not have to be shut down later), ‎complaints are not
processed, there is no capacity for widespread protest, and no one among the ‎public and especially in the
world really knows what is going on in Iran. ‎

The bitter truth is that the writers, journalists and artists of this land are slowly and silently ‎silenced and
destroyed. Very recently, a weekly like "Shahrvan-e Emrooz," which was ‎published through the
determination of the remainder of the generation of reformists journalists, ‎and was an honorable
phenomenon in Iran's press family, was banned in an illegal manner.

The ‎government's level of intolerance in face of criticism is so high that another wave of ‎confrontation
(with the handful of remaining publications) seems inevitable. The difference is ‎that, this time, not even
conservative publications that criticize the administration from time to ‎time will be spared the purge. ‎"

by jaskaw @ 25.11.2008 - 21:52:38

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/25/in-mourning-for-iranian-press-5107026/
Feedback for Post "In Mourning for Iranian Press"

Freidenker [Visitor]
http://obsessedwithreality.com
26.11.2008 @ 16:52
The Ministry of Culture? Couldn't they just replace "Culture" with "Truth" and be done with it? What an
entire administration of rabid cowards. I take confidence in the fact that repressed nations, like repressed
people, tend to explode in the ghastliest ways, and only when the desire for freedom is given its due, can
nations survive for long.

I can only imagine that living in countries like Iran is as close as people can get to living in hell.
Arrests after Afghan acid attack
The Atheist News told a few days ago about an attack in Afghanistan where attackers did spray extremely
dangerous acid substance on a group of schoolgirls. The attackers were immediately identified as members of
Islamic Taleban movement which vehemently opposes on religious basis the rights of women and especially
their right to have education. Now the Afghan authorities think they have the attackers nailed. The story from
the venerable BBC online news service is called:

Arrests after Afghan acid attack

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7747621.stm

Snippets from the original story:

"Police in southern Afghanistan have arrested 10 men in connection with an acid attack on schoolgirls earlier
this month, officials say. The men are all Taleban insurgents and some have confessed to taking part in the
attack, the authorities say.
Several girls received severe burns when acid was thrown in their faces on 12 November in Kandahar city.
The Taleban denied involvement in the attack, which brought condemnation from around the world.
President Hamid Karzai has called for those involved to be arrested and publicly executed.Deputy Interior
Minister Gen Mohammad Daud said the men had been arrested in recent days.
"The attack was the work of the Taleban and we have not finalised our investigation," Gen Daud told
reporters in Kandahar.
The former Taleban government, which was ousted in 2001, banned girls from attending school. Hundreds of
schools - and students - have been attacked by insurgents in recent years."

by jaskaw @ 26.11.2008 - 19:44:14

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/26/arrests-after-afghan-acid-attack-5113146/
Sorrow and grief in Mumbai
Tonight’s story in the Atheist News does not really need any atheist perspective, as everybody can clearly see
that the today’s attacks in Mumbai were based on religious ideology and had clear-cut religious motives. The
Muslim minority in India has been making noises for a while as a series of bombings has killed over 200
people in India in recent months.
While things were unfolding in Mumbai, I did know nothing of them, as I was writing in my other blog or the
Being Human blog at http://beinghuman.blogs.fi
I did however write a few sentences that could be applied straight to this case.
I wrote this: “Irrational beliefs have in fact throughout history driven countless people to do evil things that
they would otherwise not have even dreamed of doing. Good husbands and fathers have been too often been
turned into merciless killers in the defense of the Only True Faith. That is the reason why giving up such
irrational beliefs can make the world a bit safer place for us all.”

One of the countless stories telling about the sorrow and grief in India is:

Forces fight through siege hotels

It is at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7752173.stm

The story:

"India - and Mumbai - are no stranger to terrorism but the attacks on multiple targets in the city mark a
significant step change.
Previous attacks involved the leaving of explosives in public places like markets or on trains. These could be
devastating in terms of the loss of life, with nearly 200 killed in 2006.
But the latest attacks are different in terms of both method and scale, with teams of well-armed men involved
in synchronised attacks - the gunmen were also clearly prepared to die in their attacks.
Attacks over recent years have seen a variety of different groups named, particularly the Indian Mujahideen
who had apparently threatened to attack Mumbai in September, claiming that Muslims had been harassed.
The authorities have often pointed the finger at the Students' Islamic Movement of India, believing that other
groups like the Indian Mujahideen are a front for this banned organisation. "
by jaskaw @ 27.11.2008 - 21:45:24

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/27/sorrow-and-grief-in-mumbai-5121455/
When Intelligent and Natural Design Collide
A basic argument for the creationist "Intelligent Design" fallacy has always been that the tremendous
complexity we see around us could not have been born by itself without a guiding hand.
It is a very easy trap to fall in, as it is a very difficult thing the grasp the immense duration of time it has been
taken to bring about the things we see around us.
It is difficult also to remember that all things are build around strict guidelines given by the basic laws of
nature or in other words by the inherent properties embedded in all the building blocks of the Universe.
These guidelines of the universe were not invented by men, but men have only gradually found out their
existence. A enlightening story in Wired magazine on this subject is called:

When Intelligent and Natural Design Collide

The full original story in Wired magazine is here:

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/spotting-aliens.html

Excerpts from the story by Brandon Keim

"Several years ago, Shostak rebutted charges that scientists were perfectly willing to embrace ID principles
when looking for evidence of aliens, but not for evidence of God.
The key is comparison. Against a low-information background, one looks for life in complication; and against
a complex background, one searches for simplicity. In either case, it's the degree of unexpected variation that
matters. That's where Intelligent Design falls short.
"ID advocates say the cell is too complex to be built up by random mutation and selection," he said. "But
complexity doesn't necessarily mean design. The point is whether there is a natural mechanism that could
increase complexity. There obviously is. We find fairly complex compounds in space. They require some
chemistry to make, but nobody says that God is needed to make polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons."

by jaskaw @ 29.11.2008 - 19:45:33

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/29/when-intelligent-and-natural-design-collide-5133249/
Nigerian city tense after riots
It often very difficult to draw the line between religious, ethnic and political rivalries and tensions. A very
typical case are the recent troubles in Nigeria where there is a fear of hundreds of people being killed as a
result of clashes between Christians and Muslims around the city of Jos in central Nigeria.

It is a sad fact of life that even if the original causes for these tragedies lie in the old ethnic rivalries, the
religions have a bad habit of making original problems much worse and more difficult to solve.

A strongly held religious belief so easily intensifies the hurt feelings to a quite new level and also gives a new
level of moral basis to the conflict. The BBC-Online story is called:

Nigerian city tense after riots

The whole story is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7757398.stm

Snippets from the whole story:

"Sporadic gunfire has been heard in the central Nigerian city of Jos, where hundreds are feared dead following
two days of religious and ethnic clashes.
An eyewitness told the BBC that 10 more killings had taken place but a Red Cross spokesman said the
situation was much calmer as troops kept order.
Muslims have begun burying their dead while the Christian community is still counting its casualties.
Violence flared up on Friday after the mostly Christian-backed governing party, the People's Democratic
Party, was declared to have won the state elections in Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital city.
The result was contested by the opposition All Nigeria People's Party, which is perceived in the state as a
predominantly Muslim party.
Groups of men from both the Muslim Hausa community and the other, mainly Christian ethnic groups took to
the streets armed with machetes during the riots.
Houses, mosques and churches were burned and the Muslim dead were brought into the central mosque from
the streets where they were killed."

by jaskaw @ 30.11.2008 - 17:55:01

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/30/nigerian-city-tense-after-riots-5138277/
Freedom From Speech
One of the most worrying developments in the world at the moment is the initiative by the Islamic countries of
making "defamation of religion" a universal crime in the future.
This is one of the scariest things going on at the moment as passing of this resolution could lead to a world
where atheists are routinely silenced and even jailed, as critisizing any religion would be a universal crime.
All thinking people around the world should now raise their voices against this dangerous new development
and make their own governments aware of the inherent dangers in making one form of ideology immune to
any criticism.
The jewish daily Forward is one of the many publications that have aired strong concerns about this issue
recently.

Freedom From Speech

The whole story is here:

http://www.forward.com/articles/14624

Highligts from the story:

"The United Nations saw another shred of its tattered dignity stripped away November 24, when a committee
of the General Assembly approved what amounts to a direct assault on Western liberal democracy. In an
85-50 vote, with 42 abstaining, the so-called Third Committee adopted a resolution, submitted by a caucus of
Islamic nations, to criminalize expressions deemed to be “defamation of religion,” with special concern for
Islam.
What makes this year’s resolution different, and more dangerous, is that it is supposed to move on from the
General Assembly to another forum, where it might acquire real teeth: the second World Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, scheduled to convene next April in
Geneva.
Many legal scholars believe that the decisions of international conferences of this sort can be incorporated into
international law, putting them under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Individual nations
could not be forced to amend their laws, but they might find Interpol knocking at their doors, serving them
extradition requests to hand over their cartoonists and novelists. Stand-up comics and philosophers might find
they’re unable to cross international borders for fear of being arrested and remanded for trial in Jordan or
Malaysia."

by jaskaw @ 30.11.2008 - 19:38:23

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/11/30/freedom-from-speech-5138889/
“Multi-faithism” is bad news for women
There is a growing tendency in the Western Europe to treat any religious minority as a single mass, that has a
single mind and and a single purpose.
The fact of life however is that these people are not anymore living in their own culture, but have chosen to
live in a different culture where they always will be a minority and where they eventually need to learn to live
in harmony with the mainstream culture.
People in different minorities adjust to the new societies in different ways and with different velocities and this
fact alone creates strong divisions among them.
If they are treated as a single lot where the only decisive fact is the inherited religion alone and with no
individual differences allowed, there is a real fear that the ability of individual members to adjust to their new
adopted culture could be radically slowed or even stalled altogether.

The story in "Concordat Watch" is called:

“Multi-faithism” is bad news for women

The whole piece is here:

http://www.concordatwatch.eu/showtopic.php?org_id=1551&kb_header_id=27061

Excerpts:

“The increasing emphasis on religion and religious identities has led to the transformation of multiculturalism
into multi-faithism’’ — and the ones who suffer the most are South Asian women. This is the conclusion of
Pragna Patel’s important new study, Faith in the state? Asian women’s struggles for human rights in the
U.K.

Patel has long experience working with these women in a London-based resource and advocacy centre, the
Southall Black Sisters. She points out that the multicultural approach, has done little to protect women,
because it focusses on relations between groups, rather than within them. Yet, it is inside the family group that
women “are most vulnerable to abuse, violence and unequal treatment”. Also problematic is the space which
multiculturalism provides for unelected community spokesmen to represent the whole group. A third problem
is that multiculturalism is often applied indiscriminately, with no distinction between cultural demands which
are valid and human rights, which must remain non-negotiable.

But there’s worse to come, since we are now seeing a shift from multiculturalism to multi-faithism. Patel
ascribes this in part to the attempts by the British Government to sponsor “faith leaders” who will condemn
jihad. She also notes that Government encouragement of “faith-based” schools and other social services
“happens also to fit neatly into a wider neo-conservative agenda” to privatise public services."

The whole study is here:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/v4628j187w862347/fulltext.pdf

by jaskaw @ 01.12.2008 - 23:58:52

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/01/multi-faithism-is-bad-news-for-women-5148136/
Rumour sparks Hebron settler riot
One of the biggest threats to world peace are those mostly religiously inspired Jewish settlers who have
deliberately installed themselves in the middle of age-old Palestinian settlements in West Bank of Jordan.
The big and very real problem is that it is impossible to reason with them, as they think that they have a divine
right for their actions. The situation would be much less difficult if they would be motivated be political or
even nationalistic ambitions, as politics is basically art of making compromises and even nationalistic fervor
can cool down eventually. A sad fact of life has been that religious fanatics just too often don’t do reasonable
things if they are not forced to.

The story by good old BBC is called:

Rumour sparks Hebron settler riot

The whole story is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7760073.stm

Snippets from the story

“Jewish settlers continued to riot in the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday, clashing with Israeli troops
who normally protect them.
Violence broke out overnight as rumours spread that troops were about to evict settlers from a disputed
building in the mainly Palestinian city.
Hundreds of settlers and supporters converged on the building, throwing stones at Palestinians and the police.
Several hundred hard-line religious settlers live in the centre of Hebron under heavy military guard amid some
150,000 Palestinians.
The settlers say that they bought the house in question in a legal transaction from its Palestinian owner for
nearly $1m (£660,000), but he says he pulled out of the deal.
Israel's supreme court ordered the eviction in November but settlers have refused to leave.”

by jaskaw @ 02.12.2008 - 21:43:39

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/02/rumour-sparks-hebron-settler-riot-5152965/
Feedback for Post "Rumour sparks Hebron settler riot "

Freidenker [Visitor]
http://obsessedwithreality.com
04.12.2008 @ 16:50
As an Israeli NOT living in the occupied territories, I can further affirm that the Kiryat Arba kooks are batshit
insane. I wish, I really, really wish they'd leave. I don't think they're the biggest threat to world peace, though.
It's not like Israel's got huge ambitions like some ultra-islamofascist groups. The Jewish fanatics just want
Canaan, the Islamoloons (and I'm not saying that all Muslims are crazy, just the extremists) want to take over
the world, and that includes purging "not-devout-enough" Muslims.
Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson Debate
Christopher Hitchens is the most sharp-witted and eloquent of the four horsemen of New Atheism that is
composed besides him of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett. He can take his audience by
sheer force of intellect even in a theological seminary as is the case in today’s video that was taped recently
in Westminster Theological seminary.
Christopher Hitchens attains such heights in his logic and poetic reasoning that one feels sorry for his poor
opponent Douglas Wilson, who really has no new weaponry on his sleeve to counter the magnificent attacks
by pure reason carried out by Christopher Hitchens.

The video is called:

Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson Debate

It is available here at the web page of Westminster Theological Seminary, even if must be said, that if I would
be on their side, I would take it off the web right away, so badly their side fares in the debate.

http://www.wts.edu/flash/media_popup/media_player.php?id=462&paramType=video

My own earlier takes on Christopher Hitchens are available here:

http://beinghuman.blogs.fi/2008/04/19/the-basic-curriculum-of-atheism-4067611
http://beinghuman.blogs.fi/2008/01/19/on_christopher_hitchens~3602798
http://beinghuman.blogs.fi/2008/01/19/best_christopher_hitchens_videos_part~3602618

by jaskaw @ 03.12.2008 - 22:36:52

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/03/christopher-hitchens-and-douglas-wilson-debate-5158359/
The Pope's Christmas Gift: A Tough Line on
Church Doctrine
One of the toughest issues facing the Roman Catholic Church today is the extremely intolerant and
unforgiving line this church has maintained towards on homosexuals (or in fact towards all matters sexual).
The liberation that gay people have enjoyed in western societies during the latest years has left the Roman
Catholic Church more and more out of sync with the western societies at large in these matters.
The response of the authorities of this ultra-conservative and ultra-authoritarian organization has been to
tighten the lines and adopt even more and more conservative stance in these matters.
It may please the most conservative parts of societies filling the ranks of the dwindling lines of hard-line
believers, but it can very easily lead to a fast growing isolation of Catholic Church in the most advanced
western nations. Remembering this I’m slightly tempted to say; “Go Panzercardinal, Go, show them your
true colors!”
The original story in venerable Time-magazine is called:

The Pope's Christmas Gift: A Tough Line on Church Doctrine

The full story is here:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1863465,00.html?xid=rss-world
(For some unfathomable reason this blog-system I'm using sometimes prevents a web-address with a comma
from working as a link and so the address above is not a link, but you need to copy and paste it to your
browsers address-line.)

Snippets from the whole story:

"By Jeff Israely

Those nicknames from the past — God's Rottweiler, the Panzercardinal — don't seem to stick anymore. After
acquiring a reputation as an aggressive, doctrine-enforcing Cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI has surprised many
with his gentle manner and his writings on Christian love. But with the Christmas season upon us, there is
growing proof that the 82-year-old Pope is also quite willing to play the part of Scrooge to defend his often
rigid view of Church doctrine.
Benedict's envoy to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, has announced that the Vatican will
oppose a proposed U.N. declaration calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals. At first blush,
no one should be surprised to find the Catholic Church hierarchy butting heads with gay rights activists. But
this particular French-sponsored proposal, which has the backing of all 27 European Union countries, calls for
an end to the practice of criminalizing and punishing people for their sexual orientation. Most dramatically, in
some countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, homosexuality can be punished by death."

by jaskaw @ 04.12.2008 - 20:50:28

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/04/the-pope-s-christmas-gift-a-tough-line-on-church-doctrine-5163921/
Iran is promoting hatred against Sunnis
The Iranian Shia Islam dominated government is still sliding into a more and more extremist position even in
its relationships with the its own Sunni Islam minority and its predominantly Sunni neighbours.
As all critical voices are now being systematically silenced in Iran, the political system moves deeper and
deeper in the dictatorship of the extremist Shiia factions.
Iran is experiencing the same development that is known to happen in all dictatorships based on strong
ideologies. To advance in a system like this, you must show to be more extreme than your competitors. This
development fuels a spiral that leads to situation when a system ultimately simply falls on the weight of its
own absurdity.

The full story in Global Politician is called:

Iran is promoting hatred against Sunnis

The story is here:

http://globalpolitician.com/25293-iran?tr=y&auid=4296201

Highlights from the story:

"Reza Hossein Borr - 12/3/2008

The Islamic Republic of Iran systematically is generating far-reaching hatred against Sunnis in a way that has
no precedence in history. While the Safavid Kings used their swords for the massacre of thousands of Sunnis,
the Iranian Shia regime is using a new strategy for generating a wide and deep resentment in the unconscious
mind of the general public, especially the young generations who have been born after the revolution. This
strategy is about presenting Islam in a way that only legitimizes the Shias and illegitimize the Sunni Moslems
and portrays them as the infidels who have been destroying Islamic principles even when the prophet was
alive.

The Islamic regime is presenting a new distorted and invented version of Islam which has no any similarities
with the Islam which has been practiced by millions of people and retained in thousands of books. The public
has no access to the historical sources of Islam. They are bombarded daily with such propaganda. Even the
historical sources of Islam have been completely distorted by the Islamic regime to represent their version of
Islam as the original Islam.

The Islamic Republic is encouraging its security forces and its followers to promote Shiism as the original
Islam and Sunnism as the enemy of Islam. There are thousands of the Internet sites and blogs which promote
these ideas. These blogs are created by thousands of young and old supporters of the regime. Let's look at one
of them as an example, http://950395.blogfa.com/. The first page opens with the picture of a group of people
who intend to burn the entrance of an old house. This is supposed to be the house of Fatema, the daughter of
Prophet Mohammed which the blog claims that has been burnt by the Sunnis. As you further scroll down, the
writer states that Omar, the second Caliph, attacked Fatema and she died because of the injuries caused by the
attack."

by jaskaw @ 05.12.2008 - 11:47:33

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/05/iran-is-promoting-hatred-against-sunnis-5166524/
Patriarch Alexiy II, head of Russian Orthodox
Church, dies
The union of Russian Orthodox Church and the authoritarian Putin government is one of the most worrying
developments of the last years in Russia.
The Putin clearly government needs and already uses the Orthodox Church as an ideological excuse for the
restoration of the old long gone tsarist Russian empire.
The Orthodox Church is needed as a ideological glue after the demise of communism which was only thing
really holding the old Soviet Union together which in fact was the sole inheritor of the old Tsarist Russian
Empire.
The Russian Empire and Soviet Union after it were in reality vast colonial empires enslaving tens of different
nations with diverging cultures and long histories of their own under the direct rule of the Russian nation.
The thing that worries many observers at the moment is the fear that defending the Orthodox faith will soon
became a suitable excuse for the Putin government for interfering in the matters of its neighboring states
finally freed from enslavement carried on by the Soviet Union.
The story in Times Oneline is called:

Patriarch Alexiy II, head of Russian Orthodox Church, dies

The full story is here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5291723.ece

Highlights from the story:

"Bells rang out at 600 churches across Moscow on Friday after the death of Patriarch Alexiy, head of the
Russian Orthodox Church.
Alexiy II was elected head of the Orthodox Church in 1990 and oversaw its restoration to a dominant role in
Russian society thanks to open support from the Kremlin under Boris Yeltsin and in particular Vladimir Putin,
the former KGB officer.
Patriarch Alexiy's links with the Kremlin were clouded by allegations that he himself had been a long-serving
KGB agent codenamed "Drozdov" (the thrush), who had been awarded a "certificate of honour" for his
service by the Soviet authorities in 1988. He was accused of providing information on dissident priests, and
the KGB even sent him to England in 1969 on a mission with a church delegation.
Mr Putin called the Patriarch's death "a very tragic and sorrowful event", adding: "Not only was he a
prominent figure in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also a great statesman."
by jaskaw @ 06.12.2008 - 16:27:07

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/06/patriarch-alexiy-ii-head-of-russian-orthodox-church-dies-5172092/
Iran blasts France’s human rights record
One of the funnies and at the same time saddest news stories of late is the story about Iranian official Javad
Larijani denouncing the human rights record of the west and France in particular.
Any reader of this blog knows a lot of the human rights situation in Iran where woman activists, labor
activists, political activists, members of all non-Muslim religious communities and also the members of Sunni
Muslim minority in Iran are subjected to a systematic repression.
Iran has become a county where everybody not playing by the official party line can find themselves in deep
trouble and in the infamous prison of Evian. That prison is reserved for those trying to use the human rights
the Iranian government is so fond of defending… in France.
The whole situation is strikingly similar to that of Soviet era when the countries violating blatantly all basic
human rights of their own citizens tried to divert the attention to often invented crimes elsewhere.

The story in Religious Intelligence is called:

Iran blasts France’s human rights record

The full story is here;

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=3446

Excerpts:

"Iran has expressed concern over human rights in France and the wave of Islamophobia in Europe. By: Toby
Cohen."
"In the past, Mr Larijani has defended stoning with reference to human rights. He said: “We will never
surrender Islam in the face of human rights concerns … During the adoption of these (human rights) laws, the
world of Islam was in complete ignorance while liberals and secular parties formulated and imposed these
laws onto the entire world … We must elucidate punishment by stoning clearly to those who denounce it. We
had a revolution so that Islamic laws would be implemented … We will never give up Islam in the face of
these challenge.”
Criticizing the West's support for human rights, he stressed that such an attitude would lead to more problems.
The Iranian official further called on the international community to help solve human rights problems.”

Mohammad Javad Larijani is the son of Ayatollah Hashem Amoli and a brother of Ali Larijani, the secretary
of the High Council of National Security, and Sadegh Larijani, a cleric member of the Guardian Council.
Larijani is a cousin of Ahmad Tavakkoli, who is the current director of Majlis Research Center. He has been a
Majlis representative and the director of Majlis Research Center, and a Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

by jaskaw @ 07.12.2008 - 21:10:54

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/07/iran-blasts-france-s-human-rights-record-5177401/
Romania removes theory of evolution from school
curriculum
It usually comes from where you would least expect it. The countries of old communist bloc are silently sliding
to their old bad habits of living led by old superstitions. The country of Romania has not earned any real
reputation with its religiousness and it comes as a rather nasty surprise to many that Romania has silently
just dropped evolution from its school curriculum.
According to the census from year is 2002 86,7 percent of Romanians belong to the Romanian Orthodox
Church which is an autocephalous church within the Eastern Orthodox communion. Somehow the
ultraconservatism of the Orthodox Church has escaped attention when world has been focused on Roman
Catholics and Islam as bastions of conservatism in the world.
The state officials in Romania say that they still teach normal biology, that naturally includes implicitly also
the effects of evolution, but the name is not used. It is however to be feared that the game is lost, if even a
mention of the horrible name of evolution is banned in even the most basic schooling.
The story in Macedonia Online is called:

Romania removes theory of evolution from school curriculum

The full story is here:

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/4652/46/

Highlights from the story:

“Romania's withdrawal of the theory of evolution from the school curriculum could be evidence of a growing
conservative tendency in teaching. Evolution has been removed from the school curriculum in a move which,
pressure groups argue, distorts children's understanding of how the world came into being.
Meanwhile, religious studies classes continue to tell Romanian children that God made the world in seven
days.
The theory of the Origin of Species and the evolution of humans is no longer present in the compulsory
curriculum, through a nationwide decision made under the previous Government in 2006. Before the change,
Darwin's theory was taught to pupils aged 18 or 19 years old. This was also in the curriculum during the
Communist period of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Information on natural selection, how fish turned into lizards and, more or less, a summary of the first 4.5
billion years of the world until man walked the earth is now optional.
"We don't teach the theory of evolution anymore," said one 38 year-old Bucharest-based biology teacher."

by jaskaw @ 08.12.2008 - 20:19:10

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/08/romania-removes-theory-of-evolution-from-school-curriculum-5182720/
Religious 'shun nanotechnology'
The uneasy coexistence of science and religion causes continuous anxiety in the religious circles. On the other
hand the scientific community on the whole has largely chosen not to think at all about the relationship
between beliefs and knowledge as it would be too bothersome and maybe lead to conflicts with the
belief-systems born before there was any real knowledge of just about anything.
Occasionally there however surfaces a study that shows the neurotic relationship many religious people have
with science. This time it is a story by jolly old BBC called:

Religious 'shun nanotechnology'

The full story is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7767192.stm

Highlights from BBC:

"Attitudes to nanotechnology may be determined by religious and cultural beliefs, suggest researchers writing
in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
They say religious people tend to view nanotechnology in a negative light. The researchers compared attitudes
in Europe and the US and looked at religious and cultural backgrounds.
They say the findings have implications for scientists and politicians making policy decisions to regulate the
use of nanotechnology. The researchers compared attitudes to nanotechnology in 12 European countries and
the US.
They then rated each country on a scale of what they called "religosity" - a measure of how religious each
country was.
They found that countries where religious belief was strong, such as Ireland and Italy, tended to be the least
accepting of nanotechnology, whereas those where religion was less significant such as Belgium or the
Netherlands were more accepting of the technology.
The researchers say it is understandable that there would be a conflict between religious belief and
nanotechnology, especially when looking at what they call "nano-bio-info-cogno" (NBIC) technologies, the
potential to create life at a nano scale without divine intervention.
"It's not that they're concerned about not understanding the science, more that talking openly about
constructing life raises a whole host of moral issues," said Professor Scheufele. "

by jaskaw @ 08.12.2008 - 22:17:41

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/08/religious-shun-nanotechnology-5183386/
UFO-experiences and ufology as a religious
phenomena
A recent doctoral thesis by a Finnish scientist Jaakko Närvä shows that the main part of UFO-experiences
can be explained as a religious phenomena. Jaakko Närvä says that most UFO-cases he has studied can be
explained on this backround and by the accompanying group social factors, cultish traits and wishful thinking
so prevalent in religions also.
Jaakko Närvä has earlier concentrated on studies on religions and so is wonderfully equipped observe
ufology just from this perspective.
The thesis is called:

UFO-experiences and ufology as a religious phenomena

A press release published by University of Helsinki is available here:

https://oa.doria.fi/handle/10024/42741

An abstract of the recent doctoral theses by Jaakko Närvä:

“The main question of my doctoral thesis is whether ufology and UFO experiences are or can be explained as
religious phenomena.
The conclusions of my research are as follows. For the most part, ufology and UFO experiences belong to the
category of religion and only a fraction of these instances can be explained as something else, for example
psychiatric phenomena.
From the religious viewpoint I explain ufology and UFO experiences on four different but interlinked levels:
historical, comparative, sociological and psychological. Historically ufology and UFO experiences include
esoteristic, Christian and folk religious elements.
In addition UFO experiences have significant similarities with folk religious stories and shamanistic
experiences. From the perspective of the sociology, of religion ufology and UFO experiences can be analysed
as products of our scientific and technological Western culture. Social crisis and social psychological group
mechanisms affect the appearance of ufological ideas and UFO experiences. Psychologically, in the
background of religious UFO experiences there can be found several factors, such as wishful thinking.

Concerning UFO sightings these are misinterpretations of certain ordinary and some rare or exotic natural and
technical phenomena. Intense UFO experiences, such as UFO abductions, are stimulated for the most part by
hallucinations, sleep paralysis disorders, lively fantasies (in case of fantasy prone personalities) and false
memories. In group cases social pressure, small group delusion and the guilt of exposing the true nature of a
story come into play. A UFO experience can be traumatising because of certain inferential mechanisms and
cognitive dissonance involved in the process of conversion as a UFO experiencer.

UFO religiosity is a cross cultural, widespread and a significant field of phenomena, which can offer insight
about religious developments in the future. However, UFO religiosity has not been studied extensively. This
research is one effort to address this lack of documentation. The motivation behind my thesis was to make
ufology and UFO experiences more understandable.”

by jaskaw @ 09.12.2008 - 22:12:10

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/09/ufo-experiences-and-ufology-as-a-religious-phenomena-5192403/
Campaign against Sharia law in Britain to be
launched at the House of Lords
The danger of Islamic sharia law creeping in the juridical systems in even the Western Europe is imminent in
Britain, where several sharia courts have been formed and even used to solve smaller domestical disputes
according to the old Islamic customs.
The danger is however that when used even in these matters the use of sharia will diminish the rights and
freedom of Muslim women as sharia is strongly biased to favor the men and is in fact a clearly discriminatory
system against women. The other danger is that what the gates are open there will be demands to use sharia
in more serious matters, and it is difficult to believe that there are many people who want stonings in
Birmingham or cutting off the arms of small time thieves in Sheffield. The story in National Secular Society
web-page is called:

Campaign against Sharia law in Britain to be launched at the House of Lords

The full text is here:

http://www.secularism.org.uk/104288.html?tr=y&auid=4303981

No Sharia Campaign

Higlights:

"The One Law for All campaign — supported by the National Secular Society — is to be launched in the House
of Lords on International Human Rights Day, 10 December.
According to campaign organiser, Maryam Namazie, “Even in civil matters, Sharia law is discriminatory,
unfair and unjust, particularly against women and children. Moreover, its voluntary nature is a sham; many
women will be pressured into going to these courts and abiding by their decisions. These courts are a quick
and cheap route to injustice and do nothing to promote minority rights and social cohesion. Public interest,
particularly with regard to women and children, requires an end to Sharia and all other faith-based courts and
tribunals.”

The campaign has already received widespread support including from AC Grayling; Terry Sanderson, Keith
Porteous Wood, Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Bahram Soroush; Baroness (Caroline) Cox; Caspar Melville; Deeyah;
Fariborz Pooya; Gina Khan; Houzan Mahmoud; Homa Arjomand; Ibn Warraq; Joan Smith; Johann Hari;
Mina Ahadi; Naser Khader; Nick Cohen; Richard Dawkins; Shakeb Isaar; Sonja Eggerickx; Stephen Law;
Tarek Fatah; Tauriq Moosa; Taslima Nasrin and others. It has also received the support of organisations such
as the National Secular Society; Children First Now; Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain; Equal Rights Now –
Organisation against Women’s Discrimination in Iran; European Humanist Federation; International
Committee against Stoning; International Humanist and Ethical Union; Iranian Secular Society; Lawyers
Secular Society; and the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

The campaign calls on the UK government to recognise that Sharia law is arbitrary and discriminatory and for
an end to Sharia courts and all religious tribunals on the basis that they work against and not for equality and
human rights. The campaign also calls for the Arbitration Act 1996 to be amended so that all religious
tribunals are banned from operating within and outside of the legal system."

Today is the International Human Rigts Day as 60 years has passed today from the acceptance of Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in the UN. Music video "The Price of Silence" produced by Link TV and
Amnesty International. Directed by Joshua Atesh Litle with music by Andres Levin commemmorates this
day.
by jaskaw @ 10.12.2008 - 20:19:55

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/10/campaign-against-sharia-law-in-britain-to-be-launched-at-the-house-of-lords-519
God Trumps
The Atheist News has unfortunately been forced to concentrate on the darker side of the humanity as religions
so like to dwell on that side of things.
There is undoubtedly also a lot of humor and humorous things also in the world of religious beliefs and
dogmas. The wonderful New Humanist -magazine from the merry old England has always been a source for
also a bit lighter material on this field. Their team has now put together a funny cavalcade of religions called:

God Trumps

Thge whole hog is here:

http://newhumanist.org.uk/1915

The story begings:

"Struggling to choose the top religion? Can't decide between Bible-thumping evangelism or benign, gentle
Buddhism? Make the process fun and easy with God Trumps, our cut-out-and-keep metaphysical card game
for all the family. Devised by Christina Martin. Cartoons by Martin Rowson."
by jaskaw @ 11.12.2008 - 22:34:28

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/11/god-trumps-5205562/
Meryl Streep: mother superior
All over the western world the power of the religions is slowly eroding as more and more people realize that
they don’t have to submit their whole thinking to a rigid, ready-made formula offered by the religions to be
good humans, good parents or good citizens of the world.
There are also a lot of celebrities that have made public their disillusionment with the old-fashioned desert
religions that are still offered as valid answers to the problems for a remarkably different world. The latest
member of this group actress Meryl Streep who told of his views in a interview in the Telegraph in which she
speaks mainly about her new role as Sister Aloysius in the moral drama Doubt.
The piece is called:

Meryl Streep: mother superior

The interview is at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3563965/Meryl-Streep-mother-superior.html

Excerpts from the interview:

“Growing up in New Jersey, Meryl Streep attended a school where most of her friends were Catholic, and she
would often go to Mass 'because I loved it. It was in Latin. And I remember when they changed it to English
and everyone was appalled. And the parents were upset and guitars came into the service and they didn't
swing the censer any more.' She pauses. 'So I've always been really, deeply interested, because I think I can
understand the solace that's available in the whole construct of religion. But I really don't believe in the power
of prayer, or things would have been avoided that have happened, that are awful. So it's a horrible position as
an intelligent, emotional, yearning human being to sit outside of the available comfort there. But I just can't go
there.'
So where does she draw consolation in the face of ageing and death?
'Consolation? I'm not sure I have it. I have a belief, I guess, in the power of the aggregate human attempt – the
best of ourselves. In love and hope and optimism – you know, the magic things that seem inexplicable. Why
we are the way we are. I do have a sense of trying to make things better. Where does that come from?' She
laughs. 'And why do some people just seem to want to make other people miserable?'”

A growing list of celebrity atheists and agnostics is at:

http://www.celebatheists.com/?title=Main_Page

by jaskaw @ 13.12.2008 - 14:46:41

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/13/meryl-streep-mother-superior-5214542/
Teachers 'beat and abuse' Muslim children in
British Koran classes
The readers of the Atheist News are without doubt quite aware of the fact that in Islamic world many to us
westerners quite foreign medieval practices and customs are still honored and used as if world around us
would have not changed at all.
The basic problem with Islam is that it is locked in to a state of no further development. Big issue is also that
even very many old purely cultural customs and habits are deemed as divinely given.
So people adhering to Islam must submit themselves to also these old often very crude and unsophisticated
customs. This creates a situation where in many to us quite foreign practices live on in Muslim communities
even that choose to live in other cultures where these often violent and oppressive old customs and practices
are no longer in use and even outlawed.
A recent story in the onlinve version of good old The Times tells mountains of this clash of cultures. It is
called:

Teachers 'beat and abuse' Muslim children in British Koran classes

The whole story is here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5315021.ece?tr=y&auid=4320089

Excerpts:

"By Richard Kerbaj

Muslim children are being beaten and abused regularly by teachers at some British madrassas - Islamic
evening classes - an investigation by The Times has found.
Students have been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted, according to an unpublished report by an
imam based on interviews with victims in the north of England. One was “picked up by one leg and spun
around” while another said a madrassa teacher was “kicking in my head - like a football”, says the report
which was compiled by Irfan Chishti, a former government adviser on Islamic affairs.
Almost 1,600 madrassas operate in Britain, teaching Arabic and the Koran on weekday evenings to about
200,000 children aged from four to their mid-teens.
When Imam Chishti, a religious education teacher who also runs the Light of Islam Academy in Rochdale,
decided to carry out his own investigation into the problem he was shocked by how even the victims had
grown to accept the abuse. “They all joked about it,” he said. “There's a culture that accepts it.”
But the abuse discovered by The Times investigation goes far beyond what could be termed “reasonable
force”. One particularly brutal form of punishment practised in some madrassas is known as the Hen, in
which the victim is forced to hold his ears while squatting with his arms fed through his legs.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “We're crystal clear that all organisations, including
faith-based, must abide by children protection and safeguarding laws.
“Any actions that go beyond reasonable punishment are absolutely unacceptable and must be dealt with the
courts. We urge anyone who is aware of such incidents to report them to the police and relevant authorities.”

by jaskaw @ 14.12.2008 - 19:03:44

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/14/teachers-beat-and-abuse-muslim-children-in-british-koran-classes-5220777/
Yazidis targeted in Iraq attack
Very few things in this world are more dangerous than belonging to a ancient religious minority in a country
where religious fanatics of the local mainstream religion are armed and already on the war path.
This unfortunate situation is nowhere more striking than in Iraq where armed extremist religious groups have
been creating havoc among the local religious minorities for a long time. The latest sorry example of this is
told by the BBC at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7783278.stm

The story is called:

Yazidis targeted in Iraq attack

Higlights from the story:

"Seven members of a family belonging to the minority Yazidi community have been murdered in northern
Iraq, police say.
Officers said a mother and father and their four adult children were shot dead when gunmen burst into their
home in the town of Sinjar, west of Mosul.
The Yazidis are an ancient, religious sect and there have been a number of attacks on them in Iraq in the past.
In August 2007, some 400 people were killed in the Sinjar area in multiple bomb blasts targeting Yazidis.
Some Muslims have accused them of being devil-worshippers, since they revere an angel in the form of a blue
peacock. It is a charge the Yazidis reject.
A number of attacks against Yazidis in recent years have been blamed on al-Qaeda in Iraq which views them
as infidels."

The Yazidi (also Yezidi) a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-European roots. Yazidis are primarily Kurdish
speaking, and most live in the Mosul region of northern Iraq. Yazidis make up an important Iraqi minority
community. Estimates of the size of the Iraqi communities vary significantly, between 70,000 and 500,000.
The origins of Yazidism are ultimately shrouded in Middle Eastern prehistory. Although the Yazidis speak
Kurdish, their religion shows strong influence from archaic Levantine religion, Islam and Christianity.
The religion of the Yazidis is a highly syncretic one: Sufi influence and imagery can be seen in their religious
vocabulary, especially in the terminology of their esoteric literature, but much of the mythology is
non-Islamic. Their cosmogonies apparently have many points in common with those of ancient Persian
religions.
The origin of the Yazidi religion is now usually seen by scholars as a complex process of syncretism, whereby
the belief system and practices of a local faith had a profound influence on the religiosity of adherents of the
ˤAdawiyya Sufi order living in the Kurdish mountains.

More information on the extraordinarily little known and forgotten religious minority of Yazidis is in
Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi

by jaskaw @ 15.12.2008 - 17:25:38

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/15/yazidis-targeted-in-iraq-attack-5226398/
Religion in schools to go God-free
Even The Atheist News so easily slips in the trap haunting the whole western news media, that is into thinking
that only bad is good news. However now it is time to applaud the Victorian state government in Australia
which apparently is in its way to accept teaching of humanist values on the same plane than the religious
teachings.
Only fly in the ointment are the Christian fundamentalist that say that teaching humanism could will lead to
accepting Satanism as a religion to be taught in the schools…

The whole story is here:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/religion-in-schools-to-go-godfree-20081213-6xxs.html?page=-1

The story is called:

Religion in schools to go God-free

Higlights:
"VICTORIAN state primary school students will soon have an alternative — religious education lessons taught
by people who do not believe in God and say there is "no evidence of any supernatural power".
The Humanist Society of Victoria has developed a curriculum, which the State Government accreditation
body says it intends to approve, to deliver 30-minute lessons each week of "humanist applied ethics" to
primary pupils.
Accredited volunteers will be able to teach their philosophy in the class time designated for religious
instruction. As with lessons delivered by faith groups, parents will be able to request that their children do not
participate.
Victorian Humanist Society president Stephen Stuart said: "Atheistical parents will be pleased to hear that
humanistic courses of ethics will soon be available in some state schools."
The Humanist Society does not consider itself to be a religious organization and believes ethics have "no
necessary connection with religion". Humanists believe people are responsible for their own destiny and reject
the notion of a supernatural force or God.
Fundamentalist Christian group the Salt Shakers panned the idea of humanists being given religious education
class time.
Research director Jenny Stokes said: "If you go there, where do you stop? What about witchcraft or Satanism?
"If you accredit humanism, then those things would have an equal claim to be taught in schools."

by jaskaw @ 15.12.2008 - 23:15:52

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/15/religion-in-schools-to-go-god-free-5228123/
Will a New Vatican Document Affect Science and
Reproductive Health?
Trying to live by a moral code that was created thousands of years ago in a society that has in the meantime
been transformed beyond all regognition is a extremely difficult task. This is however just the goal that the
Catholic Church tries to achieve. It tries to impose the moral code born in long gone society of pastoral
herders on everybody it just can get hold of. The latest installment in the saga of Catholic Church rejecting
the realities of the modern world is its stubborn resistance in nearly all matters concerning human
reproduction.

A enlightening story about the issue was in Scientific American at:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=vatican-ivf-science-stem-cells

The story is called:

Will a New Vatican Document Affect Science and Reproductive Health?

Excerpts:
”The Vatican released a striking bioethics document today that condemns not only embryonic stem cell
research, human-animal hybrids, and human cloning, but also the commonplace practice of in vitro
fertilization that many couples depend on to have children.
The document, titled "The Dignity of the Person," was released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, which is charged under Pope Benedict XVI to develop moral instructions for handling bioethical issues
of the day. Few expected the instructions, whose official title is in Latin, to be forward-looking, but their
striking position against in vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogate motherhood may take many by surprise.
These instructions stem from two fundamental theological principles: that life begins at conception and that
the origin of human life is the "fruit of marriage."

The first principle is well known for driving opposition to abortion and embryonic stem cell research. The
document now makes clear that the morning-after pill, RU-486, and intrauterine devices (IUDs), which either
intercept the embryo before implantation or eliminate it after implantation, "fall within the sin of abortion."
More difficult to grapple are the scientific and policy implications of that second principle, which links the
creation of life to marriage and calls into question the morality of IVF. To find out more, we talked to
Josephine Johnston, a lawyer and expert on reproductive ethics at The Hastings Center in Garrison, New
York.
The Vatican says that in vitro fertilization is wrong at its core because it involves conception outside of a
woman's body. Unblocking fallopian tubes, undoing a vasectomy, or giving fertility medicine that boosts egg
production so the woman is more likely to conceive through intercourse is okay.

There's an opposition to embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos, which
makes sense because they are opposed to the destruction of embryos for whatever reason. It's also not a
surprise to see opposition to a number of frozen embryos that are not going to be transferred to a woman's
body that will never become a child. We all know that the Catholic church considers life to begin at
conception.
The Church thinks it is right regardless of whether people do what it says, but it seems to be somewhat out of
step with the behavior of modern Catholics.”
by jaskaw @ 16.12.2008 - 11:09:05

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/16/will-a-new-vatican-document-affect-science-and-reproductive-health-5229711/
Feedback for Post "Will a New Vatican Document Affect
Science and Reproductive Health?"

Joy Breeze [Visitor]

16.12.2008 @ 12:58
It has always been a puzzle to me that a group of men, who have themselves DENIED Life, are convinced of
their right to tell others what to do. Frankly, it could be said that life starts at ejuculation. Sperms are alive
before they arrive at the ovaries. So the priesthood probably commits more murders than an average female. If
the Pope himself has managed to get through life without ever experiencing an emmission he cannot be
considered human.
Yemenite Cleric Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani Presents
'Scientific' Proof that Women Cannot Talk and
Remember Simultaneously
Some Islamists claim that their religion is fully compatible with science and all doctrines of Islam can be
proven scientifically. This however often needs some or even considerable bending of the rules of what
constitutes science.
The latest outrage in this vein did come in a interviews with a Muslim cleric on Memri.tv. This cleric may be a
maniac, but the sorry thing is that his line on thought is very common in the Islamic world.
The talk published in the Memri –website is headlined as:

Yemenite Cleric Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani Presents 'Scientific' Proof that Women Cannot Talk and
Remember Simultaneously

The transcript is here:

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD215008&tr=y&auid=4330092

"Following are excerpts from an interview with Yemenite cleric Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani. The interview
aired on Iqra TV on October 23, 2008.
"Women Are Subject to Menstruation, When Their Endurance and Mental Capacity for Concentration Are
Diminished"
Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani: "Allah said, with regard to women bearing witness: 'If two men are not available,
then a man and two women, such as you choose as witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind
her.' Some heretics - communists and other atheists - ridiculed [this verse], saying: How come a man's
testimony equals that of two women? They used this to mock [the Muslims].
"The Muslims used to respond that women are subject to menstruation, when their endurance and mental
capacity for concentration are diminished. When a woman witnesses a killing or an accident, she becomes
frightened, moves away, and sometimes even faints, and she cannot even watch the incident. [...]
"The American Time magazine, in its July 31, 1995 issue, published this picture from research about the brain
functioning of men and women. This is the ma... This is the female brain, and this is an image of the male
brain. What do we see? We find that in the case of women, this area... And there is another here...
"Two areas in a woman's brain are activated when she talks. As we can see, there are many centers of speech
in a woman's brain. There is a center in each lobe, while in the case of a man, there is only one center, here.
The opposite center does not operate during speech, because it is busy remembering."
"When a Woman Talks, She Might Use the Part of the Brain Containing the Memory for Talking - And That's
It, The Data is Lost"

by jaskaw @ 16.12.2008 - 21:43:26

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/16/yemenite-cleric-abd-al-majid-al-zindani-presents-scientific-proof-that-women-ca
'Christmas is the pathway to hell'
One must not judge a tree by one fruit alone, but when fruts start rotting all over, there must be something
fundamentally wrong with the tree also. Yesterday we told about the corky ideas of Yemeni cleric and today is
the turn for a corky lawyer form United Kingdom who thinks Christmas is simply a evil thing. The problem for
him is of course that Christmas is not compatible with his own version of a ancient desert religion.

The full story is here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1093414/Christmas-pathway-hell-Muslim-lawyers-extraordinary-rant-evil-cel

The story is called:

'Christmas is the pathway to hell': Muslim lawyer's extraordinary rant at 'evil' celebration

Excerpts:
"A Muslim lawyer has launched an extraordinary rant against Christmas, branding the celebration 'evil'.
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary claimed the festival was the 'pathway to hell' and urged his followers to
boycott it.
'In the world today many Muslims, especially those residing in Western countries, are exposed to the evil
celebration Christmas,' he raged in a sermon broadcast on the internet.
'Many take part in the festival celebrations by having Christmas turkey dinners.

'Decorating the house, purchasing Christmas trees or having Christmas turkey meals are completely
prohibited by Allah.
'Many still practise this corrupt celebration as a remembrance of the birth of Jesus.
'How can a Muslim possibly approve or participate in such a practice that bases itself on the notion Allah has
an offspring?

'The very concept of Christmas contradicts and conflicts with the foundation of Islam.
'Every Muslim has a responsibility to protect his family from the misguidance of Christmas, because its
observance will lead to hellfire.
'Protect your Paradise from being taken away - protect yourself and your family from Christmas.'

As a bonus a YouTube video on the horrible history of the Arabic slave trade:

by jaskaw @ 17.12.2008 - 12:32:18

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/17/christmas-is-the-pathway-to-hell-5235068/
The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom
No other single field of science has been subjected to a similar barrage of religious gunfire as the scientific
findings on the field of evolution. The reason is the simple fact that accepting evolution rips away big chunks
out of Bible or Koran as outdated and containing simply false information concerning the physical world.
This is naturally unacceptable to those who are unable to turn their religiosity to a search of inner peace and
harmony or to a model of maintaining good social conduct. These people still need their holy books to contain
a final and unmovable truth and to achieve this they are willing to throw away a big part of our accumulated
scientific knowledge.
There is naturally still hope that also these stubbornly old-fashioned people will choose the way the majority
of Christians in western world have done and just keep the good parts of their old religious beliefs and
discard those parts which have already been proved to be blatantly false beyond reasonable doubt.
The present situation is discussed in Scientific American in an article called:

The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom

The full story is here:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-latest-face-of-creationism

Excerpts from the article:

- Creationists continue to agitate against the teaching of evolution in public schools, adapting their tactics to
match the roadblocks they encounter.
- Past strategies have included portraying creationism as a credible alternative to
evolution and disguising it under the name “intelligent design.”
- Other tactics misrepresent evolution as scientifically controversial and pretend that advocates for teaching
creationism are defending academic freedom.

Professors routinely give advice to students but usually while their charges are still in school. Arthur Landy, a
distinguished professor of molecular and cell biology and biochemistry at Brown University, recently decided,
however, that he had to remind a former premed student of his that “without evolution, modern biology,
including medicine and biotechnology, wouldn’t make sense.”
The sentiment was not original with Landy, of course. Thirty-six years ago geneticist Theodosius
Dobzhansky, a major contributor to the foundations of modern evolutionary theory, famously told the readers
of The American Biology Teacher that “nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution.”

by jaskaw @ 18.12.2008 - 20:38:53

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/18/the-latest-face-of-creationism-in-the-classroom-5242471/
Iran's power rooted in Shi'ite ties
The Muslim world is not a monolith, but it has its ageold divisions created very early on in the development of
that desert faith. The division between Sunni and Shi’ite factions of Islam has always been the most important
of them.
So far the Shi’ite version of Islam has gained majority and also secular power only in Iran, but big Shi’ite
minorities elsewhere in the Middle East offer the theocratic and day by day more totalitarian regime of Iran a
tool of foreign policy as Shii’tes look up to Iran as a spiritual homeland. Trouble is breeding in many places
as Shii’te groups are awakening to resist the local Sunni rulers.
The situation is described in detail in Asian Times at.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JL19Ak01.html?tr=y&auid=4348393

The story is called:

Iran's power rooted in Shi'ite ties

Higlights from the story:

"By Gareth Porter
TEHRAN - As president-elect Barack Obama's national security team assesses the challenge of Iran's role in
the Middle East, it confronts a paradox: Iran is seen as having ambitions of regional hegemony, but it lacks
the military power normally associated with such a role.

That paradox is explained by the fact that Iran's position in the Middle East depends to a significant degree on
its cultural, spiritual and political ties with other Shi'ite populations and movements in the region. That
characteristic of Iranian foreign policy, which Iranian officials and think-tank specialists emphasized in
interviews with this writer, poses some unique problems for the United States in opposing Iranian influence in
the region.

The pivotal development in the new Iranian position in the region has been the emergence of Iraq's
Shi'ite-dominated regime.

A paper on the "Shi'ite Factor" in Iran's regional policy, published last month by the Center for Strategic
Research, a think-tank that serves Iran's Expediency Council, acknowledges that Iran is now cultivating Shi'ite
allies, especially in Iraq and Lebanon, in pursuit of its national security objectives in the region. The author,
Dr Kayhan Barzegar, an international relations specialist at Islamic Azad University in Tehran, argues that
Iran's close relations with the Shi'ites in the region are aimed at "building a strategic linkage for establishing
security

But Iran's Shi'ite diplomacy in the region also extends to Shi'ite movements that either hold quasi-state power,
like the Hezbollah in Lebanon, or that have remained shut out of political power completely, as is the case in
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

In those countries, a transnational network of Shi'ite political activists inspired by the Iranian revolution of
1979 and schooled in Shi'ite seminaries in Iraq and Iran has mobilized large-scale Shi'ite support for Shi'ite
empowerment.
Another case of Iranian "natural influence" through Shi'ite ties, which officials did not bring up, is Bahrain.
The Iranian revolution has also inspired activism in the Shi'ite community there, which represents two-thirds
of the population but has been denied political power by Sunni rulers.

One hundred thousand Shi'ites, as much as one-third of the entire Shi'ite population of the country, turned out
for a protest rally over the February 2006 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Iraq. Shi'ite demonstrators there have
displayed pictures of both Iranian and Hezbollah leaders, and the government of Bahrain cites the pro-Iranian
fervor of its Shi'ite population as evidence of Iranian subversion."

More information on Shi'ite Islam:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi%27ite

by jaskaw @ 19.12.2008 - 12:38:59

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/19/iran-s-power-rooted-in-shi-ite-ties-5245115/
God Or Science? A Belief In One Weakens Positive
Feelings For The Other
Science and religion live an uneasy coexistence as science has explained one by one the mysteries that have
really originally given birth to the religions. Religions originated as a form of giving explanations to things
that for a long time had no real explanations. Science has finally given those explanations and the need for
divine explanations has slowly vanished altogether.
There is still a movement to keep science and religion in different “magisteria “. This simply means that
religions gives up their ancient and woefully inadequate explanations of the physical world and concentrate
solely on tasks of forming moral guidelines and giving comfort on difficult phases of human life.
This means however giving up the claim that religions contain a final and all-explaining truth and admitting
that religions are simply refined forms of ideology. This is simply too much for many religious people even if
moving to this direction would greatly diminish the widening gap between the real world and the fantasy
world of religions.
A recent study on the subject is presented in ScienceDaily. The story is called:

God Or Science? A Belief In One Weakens Positive Feelings For The Other

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=106465675402&h=E1-8R&u=r01XD

Excerpts:

"ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2008) — A person's unconscious attitudes toward science and God may be
fundamentally opposed, researchers report, depending on how religion and science are used to answer
"ultimate" questions such as how the universe began or the origin of life.
What's more, those views can be manipulated, the researchers found. After using science or God to explain
such important questions, most people display a preference for one and a neutral or even negative attitude
toward the other. This effect appears to be independent of a person's religious background or views, says
University of Illinois psychology professor Jesse Preston, who led the research.
Preston and her colleague, Nicholas Epley, of the University of Chicago, wanted to explore how information
about science influences a belief in God, and how religious teaching can also cause people to doubt certain
scientific theories.
"As far as I know, no one has looked experimentally at an opposition between belief in science and religion,"
Preston said.
"It seemed to me that both science and religion as systems were very good at explaining a lot, accounting for a
lot of the information that we have in our environment," she said. "But if they are both ultimate explanations,
at some point they have to conflict with each another because they can't possibly both explain everything."
Those who were asked to use God as an ultimate explanation for various phenomena displayed a more
positive association with God and a much more negative association with science than those directed to list
other things that can explain God, the researchers found.
The most obvious implication of the research is that "to be compatible, science and religion need to stick to
their own territories, their own explanatory space," Preston said. "However, religion and science have never
been able to do that, so to me this suggests that the debate is going to go on. It's never going to be settled."

by jaskaw @ 20.12.2008 - 12:46:08

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/20/god-or-science-a-belief-in-one-weakens-positive-feelings-for-the-other-5249415
Feedback for Post " God Or Science? A Belief In One
Weakens Positive Feelings For The Other"

Craig James [Visitor]

http://religionvirus.blogspot.com
20.12.2008 @ 20:29
This article contains a deep flaw, which I blogged about last month when the news was first reported. The
researchers created inappropriate groupings of their research subjects, resulting in misleading conclusions.
Read more here:

http://religionvirus.blogspot.com/2008/11/look-whos-irrational-now-its-wall.html

| Show subcomments
jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
20.12.2008 @ 21:02
I still believe Graig that you are referring to a different study where the subject was not the relationship
between science and religion as in the study this piece refers to, but the relationship between belief in Gods
and the paranormal.
Mother told to take down her Christmas lights... in
case they offend her non-Christian neighbours
Multiculturalism is a catchword of today, but unfortunately you can end up giving up your own culture to
please those who like to claim that they are offended by the culture of others.
Real multiculturalism is however a situation where everybody is allowed to respect their own culture and
traditions, but only to a point where doing this does not affect other people or limit their liberties.
A recent case of overblown cultural sensitivities come from merry old England as reported by MailOnline in a
story called:

Mother told to take down her Christmas lights... in case they offend her non-Christian neighbours

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1094868/Mother-told-Christmas-lights--case-offend-non-Christian-neighbour

Excerpts:
"A woman has spoken of how she was told to remove her Christmas lights by a housing association worker -
in case they offended her non-Christian neighbours.
Dorothy Glenn decorates her home in South Shields with hundreds of festive lights every year, including a
giant tree and a 4ft Santa Claus.
But she was left stunned this year when a South Tyneside Homes worker called at her house to inform her that
the decorations she was displaying might be offending her neighbours.
The association last night apologised to Mrs Glenn and insisted that removing Christmas lights was not part of
their policy.
The 41-year-old mother-of-three said: 'I put the lights up in the first week of November and then recently a
uniformed housing worker was outside, and it looked like he was counting my decorations.
'When I went outside he said that the lights were "offensive to the community". If I was offending anyone I
could understand why he was telling me, but nobody has complained."

by jaskaw @ 20.12.2008 - 22:46:37

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/20/mother-told-to-take-down-her-christmas-lights-in-case-they-offend-her-non-chri
Nun spurns Mother Teresa's rule to become an
author
Mother Teresa is one of the real icons of the Catholic Church, but as always there is the other side and in this
case it really is a dark one. Christopher Hitchens has illustrated the self-promotion and cruelty of that little
women from Albania in his book 'The Missionary Position’ He has also later written about her rather unkind
words in http://www.slate.com/id/2090083/.
Now a nun working for Mother Teresa has come in the open and published a book about her experiences. She
told about her journey in recent article in Courier.com.au in a story called

Nun spurns Mother Teresa's rule to become an author

The full story is here:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24809240-23272,00.html

Excerpts:
"SHE looks nothing like the nuns who taught me at St Joachim's, those good sisters who would all but fall to
their knees at the approach of a priest.
Colette Livermore, however, spent 11 years within the physical and mental cloisters of religious life and
discovered therein the shadows and demons which still torment her.
“It was not long before she realised that there were two sides to the saintly persona of Mother Teresa which
the media had spun.

"Any organisation that demands you stick to a rigid timetable and do exactly what you're told is on the road to
inhumanity, and I think and that was the problem," she says.

"Mother Teresa asked you to give up your brain, your will, everything. She asked for total surrender of the
person.
From Manila, Livermore was sent to Calcutta and it was there she tried and failed to leave the order. "You're
always told that you're sinful and proud and all that sort of thing. It played with my mind. I realised things
weren't right but I couldn't get any external bearings.

"You're cut off. You can't listen to the radio or read the newspapers or talk to friends. You have very little
contact with your family. Your mind is only hearing one opinion. There's only one voice speaking. It's
difficult to leave when Mother Teresa is telling you that it's to do with the devil."

Livermore's disaffection with Mother Teresa peaked when she clashed with her superiors over a decision not
to treat sick children on a holy day.
Livermore's portrait of Mother Teresa is of a woman tortured by her own spirituality.

"It led her to some pretty dark places," she says. "She talked about her inner emptiness and misery. She said
'Empty yourself of all that's not God.' She just felt depleted and that's what happened to all of us too."

by jaskaw @ 22.12.2008 - 00:35:02

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/21/nun-spurns-mother-teresa-s-rule-to-become-an-author-5256981/
Iran closes human rights centre
The human rights situation has been worsening steadily in theocratic state of Iran under last years, but some
human rights activists have been allowed to monitor the situation.
The Islamic state is however now hitting hard on the these last defenders of human rights. Today even the
acclaimed human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi is facing the wrath of the righteous state.
The story is told be the BBC in a story called:

Iran closes human rights centre

The full story is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7794788.stm

Highlights from the story:

"Iranian police have raided and closed the office of a human rights group led by the Nobel laureate, Shirin
Ebadi.
Judiciary officials said the centre was acting as an illegal political party, and had contacts with local and
foreign organisations, local media reported.
The raid came shortly before the centre was to host a celebration for the 60th anniversary of Human Rights
Day.

Ms Ebadi, who has repeatedly criticised Iran's human rights record, said it would not stop her supporters'
work.
In a statement, the judiciary said it had ordered the closure of the Human Rights Defenders Centre in Tehran
because it did not have the required legal permits, the Mehr news agency reported.
It had also been "promoting illegal activities such as issuing statements on different occasions, sending letters
to domestic and foreign organisations, holding press conferences, meetings and conferences" which created an
atmosphere "of media publicity against the establishment in recent years", the statement added."

by jaskaw @ 22.12.2008 - 09:46:57

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/22/iran-closes-human-rights-centre-5258164/
Iran: BBC reporters in Tehran are spies
Paranoia is a well known side effect of all totalitarian system of government. This tendency can clearly by
seen also on theocracy of Iran, where the crackdown on human rights groups, journalists and women activists
is intensifying day by day.
The latest installment in this saga of growing paranoia is the accusations that the BBC reporters in Iran are
spying for the evil west. The story in Ynetnews is called:

Iran: BBC reporters in Tehran are spies

The full story is here:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3642399%2C00.html?tr=y&auid=4358199

Highlights:

"Top offical accuses British broadcasting giant of attempting to set up espionage network in Islamic Republic;
says probe ongoing, arrests made
A top Iranian official said Monday that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) operations in Iran were
nothing but a cover for the UK's espionage efforts in the Islamic Republic.

"The Iranian Intelligence has recently learned that the BBC was not in Iran to report the news, but to operate
an espionage ring sanctioned by the British Embassy," Muhammad Karim Abadi, of the Iranian Parliamentary
Committee for Foreign Policy, was quoted by several Iranian publications as saying.
According to Abadi, the Iranian Intelligence has been able to ascertain that employers of the BBC sent to
Tehran "were in fact cooperating with several intelligence agencies."
This espionage theory, he told Iranian media, was supported by evidence the likes of BBC journalists using
aliases to book hotel rooms. A quick investigation, he added, revealed that the broadcasting giant "intended to
launch a spy network in Iran… luckily, the Iranian Intelligence manages to arrest several teams and others are
being investigated."

by jaskaw @ 22.12.2008 - 23:03:55

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/22/iran-bbc-reporters-in-tehran-are-spies-5261593/
Pope denounces 'gender theory'
Human sexuality has always been a major stumbling block for the Catholic Church. From the start it has dug
itself deep in the trenches in nearly all matters concerning sexuality. The Pope and his followers still sincerely
believe that only the mainstream sexual behaviour should and could be allowed in any society and things like
homosexuality will simply go away if they are declared sinful.

The growing evidence of of homosexuality being an inevitable part of humanity that has been known to exist
in all known societies in all times does not interest these bigots at the least. Similarly they are not interested in
the fate of those who find themselves on the wrong side of the sexual barricades they are so busy building.

The positive side of this is naturally that this old-fashioned and out-dated institution finds itself more and
more out of sync with the societies at large in the developed world which leads inevitably to its
marginalization given enough time.
One of the sources telling about current popes (Also known as The Panzercardinal for a good reason before
his current stint at the papacy) latest ramblings is News.com.au at:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24836472-401,00.html

The story is called:

Pope denounces 'gender theory'

Higlights:

"POPE Benedict XVI has denounced gender theory, warning that it blurs the distinction between male and
female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.
When the Roman Catholic Church defends God's Creation, "it does not only defend the earth, water and the
air ... but (it) also protects man from his own destruction'', the Pope said in his end-of-year speech to the
Vatican hierarchy today.
Gender theory, which originated in the United States, explores sexual orientation, the roles assigned by
society to individuals according to their gender and how people perceive their biological identity.
The Catholic Church has repeatedly spoken out against gender theory, which gay and transgender advocacy
groups promote as a key to understanding and tolerance.
"If tropical forests deserve our protection, humankind ... deserves it no less,'' the 81-year-old pontiff said,
calling for "an ecology of the human being''.

by jaskaw @ 23.12.2008 - 09:57:03

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/23/pope-denounces-gender-theory-5262970/
Feedback for Post "Pope denounces 'gender theory' "

Cheesedoff17 [Visitor]

31.12.2008 @ 19:11
The Gay and Lesbian population is infinitesimal in comparison with the veritable armies of life denying
priests and monks that there are in the world. Given that the globe is over populated the Pope's statement is
nonsense. When is someone going to tell him to shut up?
Ahmadinejad show 'causes offence'
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has during his tenure made many appalling and cruel comments
about Israel, gays, the whole western way of life and unbelievers in general and his government has during
the last few days only intensified its long campaign to stamp out all dissident voices in Iran.
Iran has developed into a totalitarian state that puts the old communist regimes in shame in their
ineffectiveness in ironing out all opposition to the doctrinaire government which controls all aspects of human
life. On that background it comes as a rather nasty surprise that a TV-channel in a free and democratic
western nation has chosen just him to deliver an alternative Christmas message to its viewers as the British
Channel 4 just did.
The story in BBC is called:

Ahmadinejad show 'causes offence'

The full story is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7799652.stm

Highlights:

"Allowing Iran's president to deliver Channel 4's Alternative Christmas Message will cause "international
offence", the government says.
President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad will be shown telling British viewers "the general will of nations" is for a
return to "human values".
The decision angered some MPs, who branded him a "dangerous fanatic" with anti-semitic and anti-gay
views.
Labour MP Louise Ellman, chairwoman of the Labour Jewish Movement, said: "I condemn Channel 4's
decision to give an unchallenged platform to a dangerous fanatic who denies the holocaust while preparing for
another, and claims homosexuality does not exist while his regime hangs gay young men from cranes in the
street.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell joined the attack, and called on the broadcaster to "pull the plug on
this criminal despot, who ranks with Robert Mugabe, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and the Burmese military junta
as one of the world's most bloody tyrants".
by jaskaw @ 25.12.2008 - 18:22:22

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/25/ahmadinejad-show-causes-offence-5275879/
Feedback for Post "Ahmadinejad show 'causes offence'"

Ambrose ebuka [Visitor]

31.12.2008 @ 15:14
I think he is the next adolf hitler. He has also created a news channel called presstv where he pays foriegn
journalist to work for him and spread his anti_semitic and fanatical ideas where they portay israel as a human
rights abuser.while he hangs gays and oppress minor religious sects.i think the world should stand up to him.
New Pat Condell on YouTube: The Water of Life
British stand-up comedian Pat Condell is a famous figure in YouTube for a good reason, as he is saying aloud
the things many of us are thinking, but we are afraid to say aloud. Pat Condell may seem hard and
unforgiving in his concentrated attacks on the religious zealots, but he always has a valid point in his
ramblings.
Many moderate Christians think for a good reason that he is unfair, as his attacks are often based agenda
brought about by the fundamentalist religious fanatics. One quick peek in the stuff Internet is so full of
however reveals very easily that that moderate religious people are just a part of the whole spectrum. The
fundamentalists really are there and we need people like Pat Condell to remind us of their existence and of
the threat which is always present in all extremism.

The newest Pat Condell video is called:

The Water of Life

The video is at Youtube at the address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC69xFrQ-MM&sdig=1

or you can watch it right here:

by jaskaw @ 26.12.2008 - 21:01:58

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/26/new-pat-condell-on-youtube-the-water-of-life-5281458/
Feedback for Post "New Pat Condell on YouTube: The
Water of Life"

Cheesedoff17 [Visitor]

28.12.2008 @ 15:54
Great!. I loved it.
'World Orgasm Day' orgy for peace canceled due
to threats
The established desert religions originating from the Middle East are in any sense not the only contenders in
the religious playing fields in the free western societies where any religion can make their bid to attract
followers.

The last decades have seen the birth and establishemnt of many new religions like Scientology or Raelism.
Realism is a relative late newcomer in the religious world and has lived a obscure existence in the fringes of
society for a couple of decades. Raelism has been in the headlines mostly because of its to at least peculiar
views on human sexuality and in fact most of all other matters…

The latest leaf in the Raelian saga is told in Haaretz.com at:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050353.html

The story is called:

'World Orgasm Day' orgy for peace canceled due to threats

Higlights from the story:

"The alien-centered religion of the Raelians (named after leader Rael) had planned a special event to mark
World Orgasm Day - a mass orgy for peace in Tel Aviv.
However, the event, scheduled to coincide with the Winter Solstice on December 21, was canceled after
organizers received multiple threats.
Raelian spokesperson in Israel, Kobi Drori, said that the orgy would welcome all orientations, as long as
participants were over 18, popular culture blogger Perez Hilton reported Friday.
The orgy - intended to "try and bring world peace through mass orgasm, this by experiencing consensual sex
and natural, uninterrupted pleasure" - was to be the first of events to take place in Tel Aviv. In January, a
conference on sexuality and masturbation will feature experts and writers in the field.
Drori said the group will not be deterred by this setback. "We wanted to put into practice the saying 'make
love, not war'," he said, adding, "Several years ago an Iraqi boy whose limbs were amputated was shown on
TV and everybody treated this as if it was okay, but when Janet Jackson exposed her breast during the
Superbowl the American nation was appalled."
The Raelians are known for their liberal attitudes towards sexuality. They believe that mankind was created
by aliens who arrived here thousands of years ago in UFOs. Despite their opposition to Biblical attitudes
towards sex they see the Bible as a book that bears witness to ancient alien visitors, and place particular
emphasis on the Book of Ezekiel, which they see as an ancient account of a UFO visitation."

Wikipedia tells us that Raëlism, or The Raëlian movement, is a UFO religion founded by a former French
sports-car journalist and test driver named Claude Vorilhon. Raëlians believe that Vorilhon, who is known by
the movement as Raël, received special knowledge and instruction for mankind from the creators of life on
Earth, human-like extraterrestrials called Elohim whose technology enabled them to appear as "angels" or
"gods" in the eyes of ancient people. Raëlians believe that previous visitation from Elohim sparked the
founding of many major religions humanity knows today.
Raël founded the Raëlian Movement in Paris, France in 1974 after a large conference. The International
Raëlian Movement has been described as "the largest UFO religion in the world".
The Raëlian Church now has a quasi-clerical structure with a height of seven levels. At the top is Claude
Vorilhon, now known as Raël. Joining the movement involves a transmission ceremony as well as an official
apostasy from other religions in recognition of Elohim, as the creators of life from the heavens. About
one-third of Raëlians pay dues to the Raëlian Church. Members are asked to follow the Raëlian ideals that
speak against the use of recreational drugs, tobacco, coffee and limit alcohol to moderation, if at all.
Sensuality is an important part of the Raëlian doctrine, though Raëlians recommend a non-contractual
agreement between matured sexual partners. In spite of these liberal views of sexuality, the Raëlian Church
has attracted some of its priests and bishops from other religions.
These views are shared by women who make up a significant minority in Raëlian Church. Some of these
women are strong advocates of refinement and erotic sensualism and participate in groups within such as
Rael's Girls and the Order of Angels.
Raël founded Clonaid (originally Valiant Venture Ltd Corporation) in 1997, but then handed it over to a
Raëlian bishop, Brigitte Boisselier, in 2000.
The company claimed in 2002 that an American woman underwent a standard cloning procedure that led to
the birth of her new daughter Eve (b. December 26, 2002). Although few believe the claim, it nonetheless
attracted national authorities, mainstream media, and young adults to look further into the Raëlians' cult
status. The use of the swastika in its original logo halted Raëlian requests for territory in Israel, and later
Lebanon, for establishing a Third Temple, despite the creation of a new logo without the swastika. The
Raëlians have officially revived the logo with its original meaning as a symbol of peace.

More information on Raelism at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raelian

by jaskaw @ 27.12.2008 - 17:39:51

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/27/world-orgasm-day-orgy-for-peace-canceled-due-to-threats-5285184/
Feedback for Post "'World Orgasm Day' orgy for peace
canceled due to threats"

RaelianGirl [Visitor]
http://www.rael.org
23.05.2009 @ 15:51
Great website!

Keep up the good work!

With lots of love and beaming smiles,

Evelyne aka RaelianGirl

From Melbourne, Australia.
Heaven for the Godless?
A recent poll in United States shows that even majority of religious believers in that country do not in fact
believe that believing in their own religion is really needed to get to the heaven.
This is all very sweet and forgiving, but it has very ominous rumblings for the religions themselves. All
religions marketing eternal salvation are based on the claim that only they can offer the real deal and all
other religions are patently false and will not deliver the goods.
If even religious Americans are starting to think that you really need not believe in the religion of their
choice, but mere being a good person qualifies you to the ranks of heaven-goers, the basis for a very basic
marketing ploy of the salvation-religions is gone in a puff.

The op-ed column telling about the poll in New York Times is called:

Heaven for the Godless?

The whole hog is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/opinion/27blow.html?_r=2&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Higlights from the column by Charles M. Blow:

“In June, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published a controversial survey in which 70 percent of
Americans said that they believed religions other than theirs could lead to eternal life.
This threw evangelicals into a tizzy. After all, the Bible makes it clear that heaven is a velvet-roped V.I.P. area
reserved for Christians. Jesus said so: “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me.” But the survey suggested that Americans just weren’t buying that.
The evangelicals complained that people must not have understood the question. The respondents couldn’t
actually believe what they were saying, could they?
So in August, Pew asked the question again. (They released the results last week.) Sixty-five percent of
respondents said — again — that other religions could lead to eternal life. But this time, to clear up any
confusion, Pew asked them to specify which religions. The respondents essentially said all of them.
And they didn’t stop there. Nearly half also thought that atheists could go to heaven — dragged there kicking
and screaming, no doubt — and most thought that people with no religious faith also could go.
What on earth does this mean?
One very plausible explanation is that Americans just want good things to come to good people, regardless of
their faith.
Now, there remains the possibility that some of those polled may not have understood the implications of their
answers. As John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum, said, “The capacity of ignorance to influence
survey outcomes should never be underestimated.” But I don’t think that they are ignorant about this most
basic tenet of their faith. I think that they are choosing to ignore it ... for goodness sake.”

by jaskaw @ 28.12.2008 - 22:11:23

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/28/heaven-for-the-godless-5290106/
For Kurdish Girls, a Painful Ancient Ritual
Many supporters of Islam are quick to point out that the disgusting habit of female circumcision is not part of
the mainstream Islamic belief-system. In practice however this habit has in many undeveloped countries been
strongly associated with the local Islamic religious customs and local clerics have widely been presenting it
as a integral part of Muslim way of life.
A extremely central Islamic tradition says that no part of the religion and its customs can be questioned under
any circumstances. So Islam has in fact been a major contributor for the continuation this derogatory and
dangerous practice in many countries.
The Washington Post tells how this tradition lives in Kurdistan, which is quite surprising, as this ethnic
minority has gained reputation of being in many respects more advanced than its Arabic neighbours just in
questions relating to the status of women.

The full story is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122802005.html?wpisrc=newsletter

For Kurdish Girls, a Painful Ancient Ritual

Highlights from the story:

"Kurdistan is the only known part of Iraq --and one of the few places in the world--where female circumcision
is widespread. More than 60 percent of women in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq have been circumcised,
according to a study conducted this year. In at least one Kurdish territory, 95 percent of women have
undergone the practice, which human rights groups call female genital mutilation.

The practice, and the Kurdish parliament's refusal to outlaw it, highlight the plight of women in a region with
a reputation for having a more progressive society than the rest of Iraq. Advocates for women point to the
increasing frequency of honor killings against women and female self-immolations in Kurdistan this year as
further evidence that women in the area still face significant obstacles, despite efforts to raise public
awareness of circumcision and violence against women.

Supporters of female circumcision said the practice, which has been a ritual in their culture for countless
generations, is rooted in sayings they attribute to the prophet Muhammad, though the accuracy of those
sayings is disputed by other Muslim scholars. The circumcision is performed by women on women, and men
are usually not involved in the procedure. In the case of Sheelan, her mother informed her father that she was
going to have the circumcision performed, but otherwise, he played no role.

Supporters of female circumcision said the practice, which has been a ritual in their culture for countless
generations, is rooted in sayings they attribute to the prophet Muhammad, though the accuracy of those
sayings is disputed by other Muslim scholars. The circumcision is performed by women on women, and men
are usually not involved in the procedure. In the case of Sheelan, her mother informed her father that she was
going to have the circumcision performed, but otherwise, he played no role.

Women's rights groups in Kurdistan are working eagerly to change the perception that the procedure is
harmless and that it is required under Islam.

One of the religious leaders who have been less vocal in demanding female circumcisions is Hama Ameen
Abdul Kader Hussein, preacher at the Grand Mosque of Kalar and head of the clergymen's union in Germian.
Previously, he preached that female circumcision was required. Now he says it is optional, which Hussein
believes has caused the area's rate of female circumcision to drop from 100 percent to about 50 percent."

by jaskaw @ 29.12.2008 - 16:51:56

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/29/for-kurdish-girls-a-painful-ancient-ritual-5293740/
Feedback for Post "For Kurdish Girls, a Painful Ancient
Ritual"

learner [Visitor]
http://yahoo.com
31.12.2008 @ 18:07
Do you think it is possible the Muhammad found out God is a Woman and this was his way of retaliation?

| Show subcomments
jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
01.01.2009 @ 02:06
No.
Ben Stein: "science leads you to killing people"
Ben Stein was the the director of the infamous ”Expelled” –movie that tried to market Intelligent Design as a
‘alternative’ scientific theory. Now Ben Stein has been publicly uttering words one has a hard time believing
that any man in his full senses is capable of uttering. The Boingboing –service reports of his conversation in
Trinity Broadcasting System with the headline:

Ben Stein: "science leads you to killing people"

The full story is here:

http://boingboing.net/2008/05/01/ben-stein-science-le.html

Higlights:
"In an interview on the Trinity Broadcasting System, Expelledstar and game show host Ben Stein lets it all
out."
Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great
scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to
do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s
where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.
Crouch: That’s right.
Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to
killing people.
Crouch: Good word, good word.

Btw. You can vote for Ben Stein to a top spot in the The Daily Dish Malkin Award 2008 vote at address:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/malkinaward.html

According to the The Daily Dish The Malkin Award is named after blogger, Michelle Malkin - is for shrill,
hyperbolic, divisive and intemperate right-wing rhetoric. Ann Coulter is ineligible - to give others a chance.
By the way Ben Stein is in a clear lead now I the vote.

A quite different opinnion of sciences role in holocaust was aired by wise old Jacob Bronowski in in the
magnificent series "The Ascent of Man"

by jaskaw @ 30.12.2008 - 20:38:40

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/30/ben-stein-science-leads-you-to-killing-people-5299608/
Feedback for Post "Ben Stein: "science leads you to killing
people""

Erra [Visitor]

02.01.2009 @ 18:58
Do we forget the crusades, the inquisition, jihads, witch-burning, countless instances of religious wars and
persecution?

People have killed in the name of scientific research. More have killed, and hundreds of thousands more have
been killed, in the name of religion.
Saudi girl, eight, married off to 58-year-old is
denied divorce
The Wahhabist fundamentalist sect of Islam has Saudi-Arabia in its grip so heavily that the daily life and
customs in that rich country have been frozen to a state where they were in the start of medieval times in
Europe.
This fanatical religious sect has pushed development of society in Saudi-Arabia backwards to a level that
would be quite familiar to any person coming from the feudal medieval misery.
A recent story in The Guardian tells volumes of the state of affairs in Saudi-Arabia:

Saudi girl, eight, married off to 58-year-old is denied divorce

The full story is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/23/saudi-arabia-human-rights

Highlights:
"An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man has been told
she cannot divorce her husband until she reaches puberty.
Lawyer Abdu Jtili said the divorce petition was filed by the unnamed girl's divorced mother in August after
the marriage contract was signed by her father and the groom. "The judge has dismissed the plea because she
[the mother] does not have the right to file, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when
she reaches puberty," lawyer Abdullah Jtili told the AFP news agency.
The case was handled by a court in Qasim province, north of the Saudi capital Riyadh. The girl does not know
she is married, said Jtili, adding that he will appeal.
Bencomo dismissed the idea that the girl would be able to file for divorce once she reached puberty since
there was no standard definition of this. In addition, Saudi judges often insist that even adult women speak to
them through a male guardian or lawyer."

by jaskaw @ 31.12.2008 - 17:46:26

http://atheistnews.blogs.fi/2008/12/31/saudi-girl-eight-married-off-to-58-year-old-is-denied-divorce-5304193/
Feedback for Post "Saudi girl, eight, married off to
58-year-old is denied divorce"

Matti Virtanen [Visitor]

31.12.2008 @ 19:23
Is this really a sharia ruling, or just a whim of a deranged individual judge?

| Show subcomments
jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
01.01.2009 @ 01:55
Do you really believe sharia is a form of law as we in the Europe know it?

David [Visitor]

01.01.2009 @ 02:06
Why would any man in his right mind marry an eight year girl?I can see a 25 year old young woman,but an
innocent precocious little girl?These Muslim men are sick,mentally disturbed individuals.
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About the author
jaskaw (Jaakko Wallenius), male, 51 years old, Lohja, , speaks Finnish (FI)

(English version at bottom) Uusi ja yllättävä tieto on minulle ylivoimaisesti parasta viihdettä. Rakkaus
historiaan syttyi jo kansankouluaikana, mutta viime vuosina melkoisesti aikaa on vienyt myös
tietotekniikkaan syventyminen. Opiskelin aikoinaan historiaa, sosiologiaa ja valtio-oppia, mutta lyhyeksi
jäänyt poliittinen ura vei miehen pian mukanaan. Jo 17 vuotta sitten alkoi nykyinen taloustoimittajan ura.
Asun pienessä omakotitalossa pienessä kaupungissa vaimon, kahden koiran, kahden lapsen ja viime laskun
mukaan 14 kalan kanssa. Korjailen toimittajan päätyöni ohella sivutoimisena yrittäjänä hyvien
kaupunkilaisten tietokoneita. Olen myös kotitoimitukseni pääluottamusmies. New information is always the
best entertainment for me. My everlasting love of historý started at the elementary school at tender age of
nine, when I read The 600 pages of Pocket World History, admittedly skipping the dull parts about culture... I
have studied history, political history, political science and journalism in universities of Turku and Tampere,
but have never graduated from neither. A brief but tempestuous political career blew the man premately to to
wide world from the comforting womb of university. A more steady career in journalism followed and I have
been a professional writer and journalist for the past 20 years. At present I live in a small town in a small
house with a wife, two not so small teenagers, two middle-sized dogs and 14 fish of various sizes. By day I
work as a journalist writing about local economy in our local newspaper. Its a job i have held for the past 17
years. In the evenings and week-ends I repair the computers of the good citizens of our little town as a private
entrepreneur.

bittitohtori.blogs.fi
uskoitseesi.blogs.fi
hsvahti.blogs.fi Interests: computers, historia, history, pohdiskelu, thinking, tietokoneet,
Own
beinghuman.blogs.fi ateismi, atheism, computers, lohja, pohdiskelu, thinking,
blogs: User tags:
atheistnews.blogs.fi tietokoneet,
thelittlebook.blogs.fi

Zip:
Street:
Email: jaakko.wallenius@gmail.com
URL: http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
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