Quote Of The Day

This week, I have really had to work to remind myself of the wisdom behind this quote..... I agree with it on one level, but on the other, I do not. I can definitely see how religion can be used to steer politics, just not in a civil liberty type of sense. Brought to us by Napoleon Bonaparte, here it is;

"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet”

Question For All of You

I have a question because I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this concept- abstinence. Why would the Bush administration pump so much cash into what is clearly a bad idea? What is it a smokescreen for? Why would people encourage their kids to do this? I know that it is probably obvious, but I really do not get why people would so willingly "impair" the natural growth of their kids sexuality? Any feedback is appreciated.

Cry Me A River

Love this

You can teach your child your own values at home. Public schools teach everyone about respecting diversity and valuing everyone.

Canadian Christianity is reporting, through a "leaked document" that the parents of children in Hamilton are not allowed to be omitted from a multicultural teaching that involves sensitivity to minorities. Most importantly, this includes teaching understanding toward the gay population. So, now these "poor Christian children" are going to be forced to hear that the hate of their freakshow homophobic parents is not acceptable to the larger society.

In addition, they stress that if you want to teach hate and anger to your kids, that is your right to do so in the privacy of your own home. However, you cannot not while you are feeding from the publicly funded trough that we all contribute too. I know that I certainly do not give my taxes away to create a curriculum that supports denying anyone their basic civil liberties and rights. And, if these parents are so mad, why do they not pool their money and start their own private school that can specialize in crafting all forms of prejudice and bigotry. Noone would have anything to say if they paid for it themselves. But, that would make too much sense. Nope, of course, they expect everyone else to pay and support their backwards ideology.

Another reason why being a Canadian is the best thing there is. Here it is;

http://www.christianity.ca/frame.asp?http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10021508.html

Clearly, This Abstinence Thing Is Not Working

Here it is, barely a month old. What I had assumed was a bad idea, clearly is. While these crazy parents encourage their kids to save themselves for marriage, teenage pregnancy rates grow. And, this is blamed on the Abstinence propaganda of the Bush administration. So sad.

http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2010/01/26/index.html

Abstinence

From what I understand, Christians are metaphorically speaking, putting chastity belts on their kids by guiding them into taking abstinence pledges until they are married. Why the hell would ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND want to marry a virgin? What if you are not compatible with the one person that you have chosen to copulate with? Wow, smells like a pretty sick joke to me.

Anyways, The American Academy of Pediatrics released this study confirming that this is pretty ineffective; It is good for a read. Thoughts, anyone?

http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/1/29

Reason #1- Christianity is Nothing More Than Recycled Mythology

Christianity borrowed its central myths and ceremonies from other ancient religions.

Again, this comes from Chaz Bufe. "The ancient world was rife with tales of virgin births, miracle-working saviors, tripartite gods, gods taking human form, gods arising from the dead, heavens and hells, and days of judgment. In addition to the myths, many of the ceremonies of ancient religions also match those of that syncretic latecomer, Christianity. To cite but one example (there are many others), consider Mithraism, a Persian religion predating Christianity by centuries. Mithra, the savior of the Mithraic religion and a god who took human form, was born of a virgin; he belonged to the holy trinity and was a link between heaven and Earth; and he ascended into heaven after his death. His followers believed in heaven and hell, looked forward to a day of judgment, and referred to Mithra as "the Light of the World." They also practiced baptism (for purification purposes) and ritual cannibalism—the eating of bread and the drinking of wine to symbolize the eating and drinking of the god’s body and blood. Given all this, Mithra’s birthday should come as no surprise: December 25th; this event was, of course, celebrated by Mithra’s followers at midnight.

Mithraism is but the most striking example of the appearance of these myths and ceremonies prior to the advent of Christianity. They appear—in more scattered form—in many other pre-Christian religions."

"The Pagan Christ" by Tom Harpur really eloquently draws the similarities between Christianity and Egyptian religion. But, if anyone needs anymore convincing, just pick up an art history textbook and follow the images. It really does not take a leap of "faith" to draw this conclusion.

Quote of The Day

Here is a great little quote that I happened to find the other day. This was written to John Adams. It goes as follows;

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

Thomas Jefferson