IHEU called for recognition that it is believers, not beliefs, that are entitled to protection against hatred.
Author: Ophelia Benson
-
Ariane Sherine on Atheism as Snobbery
Atheists just want to sneer at the working class, said Andrew Brown pleasantly.
-
Launch of Independent World Report
Reader subscriptions support our effort in highlighting the forgotten and untold stories of the world to an international audience. Subscribe!
-
The Protestants do it more!
The Catholic church is so brilliant at PR!
The Vatican has lashed out at criticism over its handling of its paedophilia crisis by saying the Catholic church was “busy cleaning its own house” and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger. In a defiant and provocative statement, issued following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males.
Great! Brilliant! We’re busy, don’t bother us. Everybody else does it even more than we do, don’t bother us. It’s mostly queers who do it, don’t bother us.
That’s good enough for me! I take it all back about the Catholic church.
The statement, read out by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, defended its record by claiming that “available research” showed that only 1.5%-5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse. He also quoted statistics from the Christian Scientist Monitor newspaper to show that most US churches being hit by child sex abuse allegations were Protestant and that sexual abuse within Jewish communities was common.
Aha! Okay then! Only a small fraction of Catholic clergy abuse children, so it’s not a problem then. Most churches that are accused of abusing children are Protestant so child abuse by Catholic clerics is not a problem then. Sex abuse ‘within Jewish communities’ is common so child abuse by Catholic clerics is not a problem then. That’s some impeccable logic! I’m convinced; who wouldn’t be?
He added that sexual abuse was far more likely to be committed by family members, babysitters, friends, relatives or neighbours, and male children were quite often guilty of sexual molestation of other children.
So what’re you picking on us for?! They do it too! They do it more than we do! Little boys do it, so why are you yelling at us for doing it too?! If little boys do it we can do it! That’s fair isn’t it! Shut up, leave us alone, go away, you’re excommunicated, god is going to hit you, shut up!
Representatives from other religions were dismayed by the Holy See’s attempts to distance itself from controversy by pointing the finger at other faiths…The Ryan Report, published last May, revealed that beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common at institutions that held up to 30,000 children. A nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls, while government inspectors failed to stop the abuse.
Well…but…uh…well…other people beat and humiliate children too! Lots of them do it! Bullies do it – sadists do it – rapists do it – lots of people! So what are you shouting at us for?!
All together now: Compassion is at the heart of every great religion. Amen.
-
Women? What? What are they?
I’ve been wondering about something, and thinking I was the only one who was wondering, and then just now I did a bit of googling and found that I was not the only one who was wondering. Our friend Parrhesia wondered about it last July and then our other friend Salty Current also wondered and went on wondering (scroll down if you’re interested). Wondering what?
Why there are so many men on the speakers’ list at the Atheist Alliance International and so few women.
Yes quite: why is that? Seventeen men and four women – why is that?
Because there are no atheist women, of course.
No, perhaps it’s not that. Because……uhhhhhhh…they forgot?
Who knows. But it’s irritating. And it’s especially irritating to me, this time, because there are several people there that I’m friendly with and would like to meet. But I wasn’t invited. I don’t, offhand, looking at the entire list, see why not. And this business of just…..uhhhhhhh…forgetting, is doubly or triply annoying, because it makes it seem as if it just doesn’t make any difference what you do, you’re always going to be forgotten and ignored and sidelined and overlooked and passed over merely because things have always been run by men so they keep inviting men to things because it seems natural and they just can’t quite manage to remember that oh hey gee what do you know we could have asked some women.
But at least I’m not the only one wondering about it. Some people on that thread even suggested me among the women who might have been asked. Oi, Atheist Boys’ Alliance: wake up! Ask some women next time! Duh.
-
Who is the pope to lecture the rest of us?
The pope is humbly issuing everyone instructions again.
Pope Benedict XVI said yesterday that all of Europe – and not only this former communist country – must acknowledge its Christian heritage as it copes with rising immigration from other cultures and religions.
Must it? Why? That way communalism lies – my religion is bigger than your religion so ha! A secular public square is a much better way to ‘cope with’ immigration from other cultures and religions. (What else would immigration be from? Identical cultures and religions?)
“History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices and actions,’’ Benedict said.
Well, history has also demonstrated the savage cruelty to which human beings can descend when they think they are doing god’s will – like Ben’s own church in Ireland, imprisoning women and selling their children, and imprisoning and torturing other children for the crime of being poor, or orphaned, or neglected.
We want no lessons from you, Ben. Go home and think about condoms and AIDS, and repent.
-
Oliver Kamm on Voltaire’s Children
‘For cultures born of the Enlightenment, private religious belief is not so much an enemy as an irrelevance.’
-
Nick Cohen on the Return of Deference
Class warriors use the law of libel and a privacy law they have virtually invented to protect the wealthy from scrutiny.
-
Oliver Kamm Rebukes Yale Over the Motoons
‘Yale sententiously describes itself as “an institution deeply committed to free expression”. That is nonsense.’
-
Berlusconi Insults Both Obamas at G20
They’re both tanned, hahaha, look at that dress vavavoom, the president can read autocues hahaha.
-
Pope Orders Europe to ‘Acknowledge’ Xian Heritage
‘History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God,’ cleric said.
-
Beware that extreme minority over there
It goes on, the relentless othering of atheism.
“The anti-evolutionist fearmongers have to link Darwin to every perceived evil from mankind,” says Kevin Padian, professor of paleontology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “The two kinds people who believe that religion and evolution can not coexist are extreme atheists and extreme religious fundamentalists. Everyone else doesn’t really have a problem. [A majority] of Americans believe that a belief in god is compatible with evolution.”
Got that? Atheists who think religion is not epistemically compatible with science (which of course is the view that Padian strawmanned by substituting ‘who believe that religion and evolution can not coexist,’ which no one thinks) are extreme, and furthermore, they are not part of the majority of Americans. They must be very bad people indeed. It must be a good idea to hate them very hard. It must be necessary to say bad things about them at every opportunity so that everybody will hate them very hard. There is of course no need for the bad things said about them to be accurate. Good heavens no; there is no need for pedantic accuracy when there is a war on.
-
Seyran Ates: Human Rights Before Religion
In Germany’s recent past, many people have forgotten that human rights must come before religious practices.
-
Australia: Churches May Discriminate
Victoria’s tweaked equal opportunity laws will still let churches exclude gays and single parents.
-
Blaming Darwin for Hitler
‘Here is a book that leaves the reader wondering time and time again if the author is serious.’
-
Steve Fuller Responds
‘Simon Underdown indulges in the pop-science fantasy that a clear line can be drawn between science and politics.’
-
Humanists to Hold an Anti-witchcraft Conference in Uyo
In October (21-22) humanists will be meeting in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, for yet another conference on witch hunt and child abuse This is the second antiwitchcraft program to be organized by the Nigerian Humanist Movement (NHM) this year. In July, NHM cosponsored with Steppingstones Nigeria a public symposium in Calabar on Witchcraft and Child Rights. The October meeting, sponsored by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, will be held at the University of Uyo Commmunity Centre. The Governor of Akwa Ibom state, Chief Godswill Akpabio is expected to declare it open.
The theme of the conference is Witch hunt, Christian Fundamentalism and Child Abuse. In the past 10 years, there has been an upsurge in witchcraft accusation, persecution and killing of children in Akwa Ibom State and in other states across Nigeria. Witchcraft is an age-old traditional belief and predates the advent of Christianity and Islam to Nigeria. People accused of witchcraft, in most cases women and the aged, are persecuted or suffer displacement or extrajudicial killing in communities across Nigeria.
But today what is going on in Akwa Ibom state and most parts of the country is a wave of witch hunts driven, aided and abetted by Christian fundamentalism. Pastors brand innocent children witches and wizards or force them to confess to be so. Children alleged to be witches are subjected to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment in the name of exorcism. Churches incite parents and family members to abuse, beat, kill or abandon innocent kids accused of witchcraft. Many children alleged to be witches have been chained, starved, beaten or lynched. Unfortunately the response of the government, including the police authorities, has been slow and inadequate. This is mainly because local officials and security agents believe in witchcraft and are afraid of witches and wizards.
This conference is organised to provide a humanist response to the problem of witch hunt and Christian fundamentalism in Akwa Ibom and in Nigeria at large. The organisers are putting in place adequate security arrangements for our guests and participants – particularly in the light of the attack in Calabar by Christian fanatics from the Liberty Gospel Church.
-
The attack in Calabar: Religious Extremism in Nigeria
Around 11:30 am on Wednesday July 29 2009, a mob of about 200 persons from the Liberty Gospel Church invaded the Cultural Center in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. The Cultural Center was the venue of a public symposium on witchcraft and child rights organised by the Nigerian Humanist Movement and Stepping Stones Nigeria.
Most of them arrived at the venue in buses wearing orange T-shirt while others donned plain clothes to hide their identity. As we were about to start, some of them stormed the conference hall stamping their feet on the ground and chanting slogans critical of the event and the organisers.
I tried calming them down without success as they were determined to disrupt the event and ensure that the program was not held. The representative of the Commissioner of Police in Cross River State, Anthony Placid, was there and he tried calling them to order but they rebuffed him.
At one point I walked up to one of the camera boys who was videoing the whole chaos and pandemonium and tried to inquire who authorized him to cover the event. I held the camera and around ten of them came and started dragging it with me. At some point they said the camera had broken and consequently all them pounced on me and started hitting me on the head and at my back. They snatched my bag containing my digital camera, conference papers and some cash. They destroyed my eyeglasses and made away with my mobile phone. The mob went away with some of our conference banners and some anti witchcraft T-shirts and caps which we gave to participants. Some friends who tried rescuing me from these idiots were also beaten.
The representative of the Commissioner of Police called and had some police officers sent to the scene who brought the situation under control. The police dispersed the thugs and arrested one of the pastors, Jeffrey Bassey. In his statement at the police station, Bassey told the police that they were instructed by Evangelist Helen Ukpabio to disrupt the event. He was detained and was later released on bail.
Incidentally the attack by the Liberty Gospel Church happened at a time the Nigerian police and the army were doing a battle with an Islamic sect called Boko Haram in Bornu State in Northen Nigeria. This fanatical group had declared a war against the state. They attacked and beheaded police officers and civilians in a violent campaign to foist their own version of Sharia law on the country.
It is unfortunate that Helen Ukpabio has turned her Liberty Gospel Church into a fundamentalist sect in Calabar. Helen has been heavily criticized for fueling witchcraft accusation and persecution through her ministry. She claims to be a former witch and to have powers to exorcize witchcraft. She organizes witch testing, witch screening and witch deliverance sessions. Helen has written books and articles, produced films, like the End of the Wicked and published newsletters detailing the characteristics of witches and how a witch can be delivered.
But Helen and her rag tag ministry called Liberty Gospel Church are not alone in this shameful scheme. Many pastors in Nigeria are in the business of witch exorcism for which they charge a lot of money. The activities of Helen, the Liberty Gospel Church and other unscrupulous Penticostal pastors are largely to be blamed for the tragic phenomenon of witch children. Witchcraft accusation of children has caused so many problems for families and communities across Nigeria. Today many states in Nigeria are grappling with the problem of street children. And many of the kids are those abandoned, driven to the streets or displaced due to witchcraft accusations. Some witch children have been tortured or killed by their own parents or family members, others by pastors during exorcism.
The Nigerian authorities should take note of this and take action against this moron and her terrorist group before it is too late.The Nigerian government needs to immediately arrest Helen Ukpabio and investigate the activities of the so called Liberty Gospel Church. Tomorrow may be too late.
Taken from a comment at Bartholomew’s Notes September 26 2009.