http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mary_mac_070918__22help_what_have_i_do.htm ]]>
Watch it online:
]]>If atheism is a religion, then bald is a hair color.
-YouTube commentator
Religion ends and philosophy begins, just as alchemy ends and chemistry begins and astrology ends, and astronomy begins.
-Christopher Hitchens
]]>America is one signature away from ending the Iraq War
-Barack Obama
Recently due to my line of work , locations I have to be and personal reasons, I have not been able to blog as often as I would want and my web development activities have been at a virtual standstill for the past few months. I thought these quotes were worth the blogging though when i read and heard them.
If atheism is a religion, then bald is a hair color.
-YouTube commentator
Religion ends and philosophy begins, just as alchemy ends and chemistry begins and astrology ends, and astronomy begins.
-Christopher Hitchens
America is one signature away from ending the Iraq War
-Barack Obama
Priest jailed for exorcism death
A Romanian priest has been jailed for 14 years for conducting an exorcism that led to the death of a nun who he believed was possessed by devils.
Irina Cornici, 23, died after being starved and chained to a cross at a secluded convent in the north-east.
The ritual in 2005 was led by Daniel Petru Corogeanu, 31, the priest at the Holy Trinity convent in Tanacu village.
He and four nuns were convicted of manslaughter. The nuns got jail terms ranging from five to eight years.
Nicoleta Arcalianu got eight years, while Adina Cepraga, Elena Otel and Simona Bardana were given five-year sentences.
All the defendants plan to appeal against the verdict in a case which has shocked Romania.
The Orthodox Church, which described the Tanacu incident as "abominable", has promised reforms, including psychological tests for those seeking to enter monasteries.
It banned Corogeanu from the priesthood and excommunicated the four nuns.
In 1999, when the Vatican issued its first new guidelines since 1614 for driving out "devils", it urged priests to take modern psychiatry into account in deciding who should be exorcised.
After hearing the sentence, Corogeanu said: "We will appeal and hope that it will succeed. We didn't expect this sentence, but this is the judge's decision. We will pray to God for help."
Dozens of Corogeanu's supporters packed the courtroom and several burst into tears when the verdict was announced, AP news agency reported.
A Romanian priest has been jailed for 14 years for conducting an exorcism that led to the death of a nun who he believed was possessed by devils.
Irina Cornici, 23, died after being starved and chained to a cross at a secluded convent in the north-east.
The ritual in 2005 was led by Daniel Petru Corogeanu, 31, the priest at the Holy Trinity convent in Tanacu village.
He and four nuns were convicted of manslaughter. The nuns got jail terms ranging from five to eight years.
Nicoleta Arcalianu got eight years, while Adina Cepraga, Elena Otel and Simona Bardana were given five-year sentences.
All the defendants plan to appeal against the verdict in a case which has shocked Romania.
The Orthodox Church, which described the Tanacu incident as "abominable", has promised reforms, including psychological tests for those seeking to enter monasteries.
It banned Corogeanu from the priesthood and excommunicated the four nuns.
In 1999, when the Vatican issued its first new guidelines since 1614 for driving out "devils", it urged priests to take modern psychiatry into account in deciding who should be exorcised.
After hearing the sentence, Corogeanu said: "We will appeal and hope that it will succeed. We didn't expect this sentence, but this is the judge's decision. We will pray to God for help."
Dozens of Corogeanu's supporters packed the courtroom and several burst into tears when the verdict was announced, AP news agency reported.
God was not available for comment but did release this statement through a spokesperson:
OooOOooooOoo I am god...OooooOoo ooooOoo...I am god.....OoooOooooOoo. Waffles suck!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6376211.stm ]]>
Priest jailed for exorcism death
A Romanian priest has been jailed for 14 years for conducting an exorcism that led to the death of a nun who he believed was possessed by devils.
Irina Cornici, 23, died after being starved and chained to a cross at a secluded convent in the north-east.
The ritual in 2005 was led by Daniel Petru Corogeanu, 31, the priest at the Holy Trinity convent in Tanacu village.
He and four nuns were convicted of manslaughter. The nuns got jail terms ranging from five to eight years.
Nicoleta Arcalianu got eight years, while Adina Cepraga, Elena Otel and Simona Bardana were given five-year sentences.
All the defendants plan to appeal against the verdict in a case which has shocked Romania.
The Orthodox Church, which described the Tanacu incident as "abominable", has promised reforms, including psychological tests for those seeking to enter monasteries.
It banned Corogeanu from the priesthood and excommunicated the four nuns.
In 1999, when the Vatican issued its first new guidelines since 1614 for driving out "devils", it urged priests to take modern psychiatry into account in deciding who should be exorcised.
After hearing the sentence, Corogeanu said: "We will appeal and hope that it will succeed. We didn't expect this sentence, but this is the judge's decision. We will pray to God for help."
Dozens of Corogeanu's supporters packed the courtroom and several burst into tears when the verdict was announced, AP news agency reported.
God was not available for comment but did release this statement through a spokesperson:
OooOOooooOoo I am god...OooooOoo ooooOoo...I am god.....OoooOooooOoo. Waffles suck!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6376211.stm
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
The Guardian
Creationists defeated in Kansas school vote on science teaching
School authorities in the American heartland state of Kansas have delivered a rebuff to subscribers to the notion of intelligent design by voting to banish language challenging evolution from new science guidelines.
In a 6-4 vote on Tuesday night, the Kansas state board of education deleted language from teaching guidelines that challenged the validity of evolutionary theory, and approved new phrasing in line with mainstream science.
It was seen as a victory for a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats, science educators and parents who had fought for two years to overturn the earlier guidelines.
Article continues
The decision is the latest in a string of defeats for proponents of creationism, and its modern variant, intelligent design. It reverses the decision taken by the same authorities two years ago to include language undermining Darwinism - on the insistence of conservative parents and activists in the intelligent design movement.
In redrafting guidelines for science teaching, the board removed language suggesting that key concepts such as a common origin for all life on Earth and for species change were seen as controversial by the scientific community.
The board also rewrote the definition of science, limiting it to the search for rational explanations of what occurs in the universe. The move, though limited in its scope, was seen as significant because it rejected a key argument of subscribers to intelligent design: that providing children with arguments for and against evolution merely amounts to fair play.
But Kansas remains a conservative state and many people harbour misgivings about teaching evolution to school children. The school board received a petition with nearly 4,000 signatures opposing Tuesday's decisions.
Overcoming such misgivings will be difficult, said Jack Krebs, a former maths teacher who is president of Kansas Citizens for Science.
"The bigger issue is the cultural divide. The intelligent design people and the anti-evolution people truly believe that science as it is practised is atheistic, and excludes God, and this is really the heart of the cultural battle," Mr Krebs said.
Despite this latest setback proponents of intelligent design remain active across the US. In the last five years, anti-evolution legislation has been introduced in 24 state legislatures and similar policies were under consideration in at least 20 states, according to the National Centre for Science Education in California.
Given the deep passions surrounding the teaching of evolution in Kansas, it is widely expected that proponents of intelligent design will not let up in their campaign over science teaching.
"They have really been on a rollercoaster for the last 10 years in Kansas," said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Centre for Science Education. "This isn't really good for the state of science education in Kansas for the treatment of evolution to be in such flux. It probably does have the effect of encouraging creationism in the local classroom."
Backstory
Teaching creationism in American public schools has been outlawed since 1987 when the supreme court ruled that the inclusion of religious material in science classes was unconstitutional. In recent years, however, opponents of the theory of evolution - first developed by Charles Darwin, above - have regrouped, challenging science education with the doctrine of "intelligent design", which has been carefully stripped of all references to God and religion. Unlike traditional creationism, which claims that God created the earth in six days, proponents of intelligent design say the workings of this planet are too complex to be ascribed to evolution. There must have been a designer working to a plan - that is, a creator.
]]>
The Guardian
Creationists defeated in Kansas school vote on science teaching
School authorities in the American heartland state of Kansas have delivered a rebuff to subscribers to the notion of intelligent design by voting to banish language challenging evolution from new science guidelines.
In a 6-4 vote on Tuesday night, the Kansas state board of education deleted language from teaching guidelines that challenged the validity of evolutionary theory, and approved new phrasing in line with mainstream science.
It was seen as a victory for a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats, science educators and parents who had fought for two years to overturn the earlier guidelines.
Article continues
The decision is the latest in a string of defeats for proponents of creationism, and its modern variant, intelligent design. It reverses the decision taken by the same authorities two years ago to include language undermining Darwinism - on the insistence of conservative parents and activists in the intelligent design movement.
In redrafting guidelines for science teaching, the board removed language suggesting that key concepts such as a common origin for all life on Earth and for species change were seen as controversial by the scientific community.
The board also rewrote the definition of science, limiting it to the search for rational explanations of what occurs in the universe. The move, though limited in its scope, was seen as significant because it rejected a key argument of subscribers to intelligent design: that providing children with arguments for and against evolution merely amounts to fair play.
But Kansas remains a conservative state and many people harbour misgivings about teaching evolution to school children. The school board received a petition with nearly 4,000 signatures opposing Tuesday's decisions.
Overcoming such misgivings will be difficult, said Jack Krebs, a former maths teacher who is president of Kansas Citizens for Science.
"The bigger issue is the cultural divide. The intelligent design people and the anti-evolution people truly believe that science as it is practised is atheistic, and excludes God, and this is really the heart of the cultural battle," Mr Krebs said.
Despite this latest setback proponents of intelligent design remain active across the US. In the last five years, anti-evolution legislation has been introduced in 24 state legislatures and similar policies were under consideration in at least 20 states, according to the National Centre for Science Education in California.
Given the deep passions surrounding the teaching of evolution in Kansas, it is widely expected that proponents of intelligent design will not let up in their campaign over science teaching.
"They have really been on a rollercoaster for the last 10 years in Kansas," said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Centre for Science Education. "This isn't really good for the state of science education in Kansas for the treatment of evolution to be in such flux. It probably does have the effect of encouraging creationism in the local classroom."
Backstory
Teaching creationism in American public schools has been outlawed since 1987 when the supreme court ruled that the inclusion of religious material in science classes was unconstitutional. In recent years, however, opponents of the theory of evolution - first developed by Charles Darwin, above - have regrouped, challenging science education with the doctrine of "intelligent design", which has been carefully stripped of all references to God and religion. Unlike traditional creationism, which claims that God created the earth in six days, proponents of intelligent design say the workings of this planet are too complex to be ascribed to evolution. There must have been a designer working to a plan - that is, a creator.
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
The Guardian
Creationists defeated in Kansas school vote on science teaching
School authorities in the American heartland state of Kansas have delivered a rebuff to subscribers to the notion of intelligent design by voting to banish language challenging evolution from new science guidelines.
In a 6-4 vote on Tuesday night, the Kansas state board of education deleted language from teaching guidelines that challenged the validity of evolutionary theory, and approved new phrasing in line with mainstream science.
It was seen as a victory for a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats, science educators and parents who had fought for two years to overturn the earlier guidelines.
Article continues
The decision is the latest in a string of defeats for proponents of creationism, and its modern variant, intelligent design. It reverses the decision taken by the same authorities two years ago to include language undermining Darwinism - on the insistence of conservative parents and activists in the intelligent design movement.
In redrafting guidelines for science teaching, the board removed language suggesting that key concepts such as a common origin for all life on Earth and for species change were seen as controversial by the scientific community.
The board also rewrote the definition of science, limiting it to the search for rational explanations of what occurs in the universe. The move, though limited in its scope, was seen as significant because it rejected a key argument of subscribers to intelligent design: that providing children with arguments for and against evolution merely amounts to fair play.
But Kansas remains a conservative state and many people harbour misgivings about teaching evolution to school children. The school board received a petition with nearly 4,000 signatures opposing Tuesday's decisions.
Overcoming such misgivings will be difficult, said Jack Krebs, a former maths teacher who is president of Kansas Citizens for Science.
"The bigger issue is the cultural divide. The intelligent design people and the anti-evolution people truly believe that science as it is practised is atheistic, and excludes God, and this is really the heart of the cultural battle," Mr Krebs said.
Despite this latest setback proponents of intelligent design remain active across the US. In the last five years, anti-evolution legislation has been introduced in 24 state legislatures and similar policies were under consideration in at least 20 states, according to the National Centre for Science Education in California.
Given the deep passions surrounding the teaching of evolution in Kansas, it is widely expected that proponents of intelligent design will not let up in their campaign over science teaching.
"They have really been on a rollercoaster for the last 10 years in Kansas," said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Centre for Science Education. "This isn't really good for the state of science education in Kansas for the treatment of evolution to be in such flux. It probably does have the effect of encouraging creationism in the local classroom."
Backstory
Teaching creationism in American public schools has been outlawed since 1987 when the supreme court ruled that the inclusion of religious material in science classes was unconstitutional. In recent years, however, opponents of the theory of evolution - first developed by Charles Darwin, above - have regrouped, challenging science education with the doctrine of "intelligent design", which has been carefully stripped of all references to God and religion. Unlike traditional creationism, which claims that God created the earth in six days, proponents of intelligent design say the workings of this planet are too complex to be ascribed to evolution. There must have been a designer working to a plan - that is, a creator.
Due to their popularity and greed, Boomspeed started a paid premium service that gave users 250MB of web space and premium support. They kept their free service for the existing members so they wouldn't lose their audience.
I signed up the free service some 4 or 5 years ago and liked the fact that you could access your files using FTP and the web interface we quite user friendly.
At one point or another...Boomspeed turned greedier than it has previously turned.
This morning Wendy informed me that one of the files hosted on my old Boomspeed account wasn't showing up on her blog.
luckily I had a backup of it hosted on 0xtc.com and it was fixed quickly, but it made me wonder what happened to the old one on Boomspeed so I went to check it out.
403
Access Denied! All the files in my old Boomspeed account's directory are being blocked. Unshared. Captive. My once free account had suddenly been renamed to a "trail" account that has now been taken hostage by Boomspeed and may only be reactivated once until I pay them a ransom sum of $25.
Thank you for using Boomspeed.
Free trials from the years 2001-2006 ended on January 1st, 2007.
...it reads.
Free trials from 2001 to 2006? A 5 year "trial"?! Are you shitting me?
Screw you!
Oh, and Greg Deeter is an asshole. ]]>
There once was this minimalistic, free file hosting service called "boomspeed" that had the potential of become the Google of quick and simple file hosting services.
Due to their popularity and greed, Boomspeed started a paid premium service that gave users 250MB of web space and premium support. They kept their free service for the existing members so they wouldn't lose their audience.
I signed up the free service some 4 or 5 years ago and liked the fact that you could access your files using FTP and the web interface we quite user friendly.
At one point or another...Boomspeed turned greedier than it has previously turned.
This morning Wendy informed me that one of the files hosted on my old Boomspeed account wasn't showing up on her blog.
luckily I had a backup of it hosted on 0xtc.com and it was fixed quickly, but it made me wonder what happened to the old one on Boomspeed so I went to check it out.
403
Access Denied! All the files in my old Boomspeed account's directory are being blocked. Unshared. Captive. My once free account had suddenly been renamed to a "trail" account that has now been taken hostage by Boomspeed and may only be reactivated once until I pay them a ransom sum of $25.
...it reads.
Free trials from 2001 to 2006? A 5 year "trial"?! Are you shitting me?
Screw you!
Oh, and Greg Deeter is an asshole.
Due to their popularity and greed, Boomspeed started a paid premium service that gave users 250MB of web space and premium support. They kept their free service for the existing members so they wouldn't lose their audience.
I signed up the free service some 4 or 5 years ago and liked the fact that you could access your files using FTP and the web interface we quite user friendly.
At one point or another...Boomspeed turned greedier than it has previously turned.
This morning Wendy informed me that one of the files hosted on my old Boomspeed account wasn't showing up on her blog.
luckily I had a backup of it hosted on 0xtc.com and it was fixed quickly, but it made me wonder what happened to the old one on Boomspeed so I went to check it out.
403
Access Denied! All the files in my old Boomspeed account's directory are being blocked. Unshared. Captive. My once free account had suddenly been renamed to a "trail" account that has now been taken hostage by Boomspeed and may only be reactivated once until I pay them a ransom sum of $25.
Thank you for using Boomspeed.
Free trials from the years 2001-2006 ended on January 1st, 2007.
...it reads.
Free trials from 2001 to 2006? A 5 year "trial"?! Are you shitting me?
Screw you!
Oh, and Greg Deeter is an asshole.
The story goes that Abraham's all-knowing God demanded the head of his son as a sacrifice to find out if he really believed in him. This had a number of reasons. One being that his god was a real attention whore with insecurities about his ego. Another was that his god was a homicidal psychopath.
Abraham being mentally challenged (in every sense of the term) had his parental preservation instinct still in tact and did the only thing applicable in his situation. He made more stuff up to get him out of the embarrassing situation he found himself in. With his sharpened knife still in hand and onlookers around him, he realized he couldn't do it after all and sacrificed something that was seen to have equal value as a child at that time: A sheep.
A: "umm...oh...really...uhuh...uhuh.."
B: "...what's going on?"
C: "...He's talking to his god...apparently there's been a change of plans..."
A: "..yeah, umm..God said that he's now convinced that I believe in him...And now he doesn't want me to kill my son but rather umm....a sheep, yeah...Here, let me help you untie your hands son...No hard feelings, right?"
B: "How do you know it's God?"
A: "..Because..his angel told me, yeah, that's right!.."
B: "..what angel?"
A: "..angel..ga..geb..Gabriel...called Gabriel"
B: "Gabriel? Isn't that your cousin's name?"
A: "YEAH! SO WHAT? IT'S COINCIDENCE, OK?! I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!!"
C: "...you've got issues...."
B: "Well, that was fun..."
C: "Yeah...we should do this every year..."
I: "I'M TELLING MOM!!"
Muslims celebrate this traumatizing act of child abuse (even in these times) by sacrificing (killing) a goat or sheep and eating its flesh with family and friends. The killing is done according to traditional Muslim rituals, meaning the animal is not sedated as is usually the case in many modern countries and is killed by cutting the animal's throat and allowing it to bleed to death. Blood is seen as "haraam" or "not kosher" by Muslims.
I can't see what moral lesson can be learned from Abraham's abuse story nor why the sight of this gory and creepy ritual has been passed on by Muslim parents to their children throughout the ages. How would they have passed it on if "Gabriel" had been caught up in traffic and was too late to bring the message that God had changed his mind about having a child-sacrifice that day?
The legality of the slaughter ritual in modern countries is an saddening situation. The Netherlands for example, has laws that forbid animal cruelty and has specific guidelines on how to slaughter animals in manners that minimize suffering. The laws though have exclusion clauses allowing slaughter with no sedation and with animal suffering -thus rendering the laws useless- should the killing be a religious sacrifice.
Laws in a perfectly modern country are adapted to accommodate rituals and practices that were premiered by primitive bronze-age people for the sake of tolerance towards those that have different world views. What's next? Murder laws with exclusion clauses for so-called honor killings to accommodate those that have different views on the value of lives?
Contrary to common propaganda, in real life not all people are equal nor are all people treated equally. We live on a planet that inhabits a multitude of races or kinds of humans amongst other animals and plants. Even if we would like to think we do, we don't view all people equally, we don't treat all people equally, we don't mourn all people equally, we don't value all people equally. We perhaps should, but we don't. Not all people are equally smart. Not all people have enjoyed the same education, same life experiences. Children grow up to become individuals, not hive members. Consider the value of an Iraqi killed by a soldier, be it a civilian, mercenary or otherwise compared to that of the life of a US or British soldier killed in Iraq.
Consider the attention given to the milestone that more U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq (3000) than all the people lost on 9/11 (2,973). The milestones that more people had died in the invasion or more Iraqis had died in Iraq during the first few days than on September 11, 2001 went by with no notable notice what so ever. It is the emphasis on US soldiers that brings forth this discrimination between the numbers of those worth mentioning and those not worth investigating.
Should we agree that not all people are the same in appearance, in political opinions, in culture, in value towards others than why bother amending laws and regulations to accommodate those that have ideologies that not only differ in the values and morals from one's self, but even contradict them?
Surely altruism is fantastic principle that is installed in the majority of beings on this planet, but when taken too far and taken into the context of human religious practices, the respect for other people's opinions and rituals simply for the sake of them being opinions and rituals of other people becomes absurd. ]]>
Eid ul-Adha is celebrated by practicing Muslims as a commemoration of a "Prophet" called Ibrahim (Abraham) who was allegedly willing to ritually sacrifice his son Ismael for the voice of a man he heard in his head whom he called "God".
The story goes that Abraham's all-knowing God demanded the head of his son as a sacrifice to find out if he really believed in him. This had a number of reasons. One being that his god was a real attention whore with insecurities about his ego. Another was that his god was a homicidal psychopath.
Abraham being mentally challenged (in every sense of the term) had his parental preservation instinct still in tact and did the only thing applicable in his situation. He made more stuff up to get him out of the embarrassing situation he found himself in. With his sharpened knife still in hand and onlookers around him, he realized he couldn't do it after all and sacrificed something that was seen to have equal value as a child at that time: A sheep.
A: "umm...oh...really...uhuh...uhuh.."
B: "...what's going on?"
C: "...He's talking to his god...apparently there's been a change of plans..."
A: "..yeah, umm..God said that he's now convinced that I believe in him...And now he doesn't want me to kill my son but rather umm....a sheep, yeah...Here, let me help you untie your hands son...No hard feelings, right?"
B: "How do you know it's God?"
A: "..Because..his angel told me, yeah, that's right!.."
B: "..what angel?"
A: "..angel..ga..geb..Gabriel...called Gabriel"
B: "Gabriel? Isn't that your cousin's name?"
A: "YEAH! SO WHAT? IT'S COINCIDENCE, OK?! I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!!"
C: "...you've got issues...."
B: "Well, that was fun..."
C: "Yeah...we should do this every year..."
I: "I'M TELLING MOM!!"
Muslims celebrate this traumatizing act of child abuse (even in these times) by sacrificing (killing) a goat or sheep and eating its flesh with family and friends. The killing is done according to traditional Muslim rituals, meaning the animal is not sedated as is usually the case in many modern countries and is killed by cutting the animal's throat and allowing it to bleed to death. Blood is seen as "haraam" or "not kosher" by Muslims.
I can't see what moral lesson can be learned from Abraham's abuse story nor why the sight of this gory and creepy ritual has been passed on by Muslim parents to their children throughout the ages. How would they have passed it on if "Gabriel" had been caught up in traffic and was too late to bring the message that God had changed his mind about having a child-sacrifice that day?
The legality of the slaughter ritual in modern countries is an saddening situation. The Netherlands for example, has laws that forbid animal cruelty and has specific guidelines on how to slaughter animals in manners that minimize suffering. The laws though have exclusion clauses allowing slaughter with no sedation and with animal suffering -thus rendering the laws useless- should the killing be a religious sacrifice.
Laws in a perfectly modern country are adapted to accommodate rituals and practices that were premiered by primitive bronze-age people for the sake of tolerance towards those that have different world views. What's next? Murder laws with exclusion clauses for so-called honor killings to accommodate those that have different views on the value of lives?
Contrary to common propaganda, in real life not all people are equal nor are all people treated equally. We live on a planet that inhabits a multitude of races or kinds of humans amongst other animals and plants. Even if we would like to think we do, we don't view all people equally, we don't treat all people equally, we don't mourn all people equally, we don't value all people equally. We perhaps should, but we don't. Not all people are equally smart. Not all people have enjoyed the same education, same life experiences. Children grow up to become individuals, not hive members. Consider the value of an Iraqi killed by a soldier, be it a civilian, mercenary or otherwise compared to that of the life of a US or British soldier killed in Iraq.
Consider the attention given to the milestone that more U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq (3000) than all the people lost on 9/11 (2,973). The milestones that more people had died in the invasion or more Iraqis had died in Iraq during the first few days than on September 11, 2001 went by with no notable notice what so ever. It is the emphasis on US soldiers that brings forth this discrimination between the numbers of those worth mentioning and those not worth investigating.
Should we agree that not all people are the same in appearance, in political opinions, in culture, in value towards others than why bother amending laws and regulations to accommodate those that have ideologies that not only differ in the values and morals from one's self, but even contradict them?
Surely altruism is fantastic principle that is installed in the majority of beings on this planet, but when taken too far and taken into the context of human religious practices, the respect for other people's opinions and rituals simply for the sake of them being opinions and rituals of other people becomes absurd.
The story goes that Abraham's all-knowing God demanded the head of his son as a sacrifice to find out if he really believed in him. This had a number of reasons. One being that his god was a real attention whore with insecurities about his ego. Another was that his god was a homicidal psychopath.
Abraham being mentally challenged (in every sense of the term) had his parental preservation instinct still in tact and did the only thing applicable in his situation. He made more stuff up to get him out of the embarrassing situation he found himself in. With his sharpened knife still in hand and onlookers around him, he realized he couldn't do it after all and sacrificed something that was seen to have equal value as a child at that time: A sheep.
A: "umm...oh...really...uhuh...uhuh.."
B: "...what's going on?"
C: "...He's talking to his god...apparently there's been a change of plans..."
A: "..yeah, umm..God said that he's now convinced that I believe in him...And now he doesn't want me to kill my son but rather umm....a sheep, yeah...Here, let me help you untie your hands son...No hard feelings, right?"
B: "How do you know it's God?"
A: "..Because..his angel told me, yeah, that's right!.."
B: "..what angel?"
A: "..angel..ga..geb..Gabriel...called Gabriel"
B: "Gabriel? Isn't that your cousin's name?"
A: "YEAH! SO WHAT? IT'S COINCIDENCE, OK?! I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!!"
C: "...you've got issues...."
B: "Well, that was fun..."
C: "Yeah...we should do this every year..."
I: "I'M TELLING MOM!!"
Muslims celebrate this traumatizing act of child abuse (even in these times) by sacrificing (killing) a goat or sheep and eating its flesh with family and friends. The killing is done according to traditional Muslim rituals, meaning the animal is not sedated as is usually the case in many modern countries and is killed by cutting the animal's throat and allowing it to bleed to death. Blood is seen as "haraam" or "not kosher" by Muslims.
I can't see what moral lesson can be learned from Abraham's abuse story nor why the sight of this gory and creepy ritual has been passed on by Muslim parents to their children throughout the ages. How would they have passed it on if "Gabriel" had been caught up in traffic and was too late to bring the message that God had changed his mind about having a child-sacrifice that day?
The legality of the slaughter ritual in modern countries is an saddening situation. The Netherlands for example, has laws that forbid animal cruelty and has specific guidelines on how to slaughter animals in manners that minimize suffering. The laws though have exclusion clauses allowing slaughter with no sedation and with animal suffering -thus rendering the laws useless- should the killing be a religious sacrifice.
Laws in a perfectly modern country are adapted to accommodate rituals and practices that were premiered by primitive bronze-age people for the sake of tolerance towards those that have different world views. What's next? Murder laws with exclusion clauses for so-called honor killings to accommodate those that have different views on the value of lives?
Contrary to common propaganda, in real life not all people are equal nor are all people treated equally. We live on a planet that inhabits a multitude of races or kinds of humans amongst other animals and plants. Even if we would like to think we do, we don't view all people equally, we don't treat all people equally, we don't mourn all people equally, we don't value all people equally. We perhaps should, but we don't. Not all people are equally smart. Not all people have enjoyed the same education, same life experiences. Children grow up to become individuals, not hive members. Consider the value of an Iraqi killed by a soldier, be it a civilian, mercenary or otherwise compared to that of the life of a US or British soldier killed in Iraq.
Consider the attention given to the milestone that more U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq (3000) than all the people lost on 9/11 (2,973). The milestones that more people had died in the invasion or more Iraqis had died in Iraq during the first few days than on September 11, 2001 went by with no notable notice what so ever. It is the emphasis on US soldiers that brings forth this discrimination between the numbers of those worth mentioning and those not worth investigating.
Should we agree that not all people are the same in appearance, in political opinions, in culture, in value towards others than why bother amending laws and regulations to accommodate those that have ideologies that not only differ in the values and morals from one's self, but even contradict them?
Surely altruism is fantastic principle that is installed in the majority of beings on this planet, but when taken too far and taken into the context of human religious practices, the respect for other people's opinions and rituals simply for the sake of them being opinions and rituals of other people becomes absurd.
Enjoy.
http://webzone.k3.mah.se/kid04065/mp3/ ]]>
If you ever feel like designing your own fully functional Flash XML reading embedded MP3 player for your website, blog or because you're waiting on the bus and have nothing better to do at the time, my good friend Dino has just the right thing for you. The tutorial uses the very object oriented ActionScript 2 as its weapon of choice and has screenshots to help you along the way.
Enjoy.
http://webzone.k3.mah.se/kid04065/mp3/
Enjoy.
http://webzone.k3.mah.se/kid04065/mp3/