A daily record of the violence and folly directly attributable to religion
President Romney’s would have had an extra pocket, of course, for the nuclear launch codes
Only 48% of you voted for the candidate wearing Sacred Underpants!
And who believes in an exclusively male priesthood, Native Americans descended from Jews, and the Planet Kolob.
http://listverse.com/2008/02/04/top-10-bizarre-mormon-beliefs/
Then call it an ‘classic oral epic’ and a ‘highly complex and powerful narrative structure’.
Parallels between Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) and the Book of Mormon have not gone entirely unnoticed. As early as 1831, Eber Howe, in his anti-Mormon book Mormonism Unvailed, noted the use of names — “Desolation” and “Bountiful” from Pilgrim’s Progress reappear in the Book of Mormon — but most observations have been similarly limited in scope or suffered from lack of a systematic methodology. Bunyan wrote upwards of 60 books, tracts, and pamphlets, including Grace Abounding, A Few Sighs from Hell, Holy War and The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, and these texts provide extensive narrative parallels to the Book of Mormon, often containing unique characteristics shared only by Bunyan and Smith.
It’s International Believe Weird Shit Day!
…today, we pledge to agree with what everyone else believes and says, just for one day. We are not allowed to dissent, ‘offend’ or question. Also, to be fair, we ask everyone else to agree with everything that we believe and say. So let’s see how that works out.
Just for today, I agree with the following twenty five beliefs:
I agree with the Greek poet Hesiod that the world began when Gaia emerged out of Chaos, and gave birth to Uranus, who made her pregnant to give birth to the Titans, after which Gaia convinced her son Conus to castrate his father and become King of the Titans.
I agree with the Bible that the creator of the universe came to planet Earth, circling one of a hundred billion stars in one of a hundred billion galaxies, so that he could impregnate a virgin in order to give birth to himself, then be tortured and die and dictate a book about it…..
The cat died soon afterwards.
Because they’re Mormons, apparently.
A live cat was found recently half-buried in concrete, and the man who rescued the kitten believes it was a message from a pro-polygamy religious group.
The cat was discovered encased in concrete at the home of Isaac Wyler, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FDLS), at his home in Colorado City, Arizona.
The FDLS is one of the largest fundamentalist Mormon denominations and split from the Church of the Latter Day Saints over their suspension of the practice of polygamy and its decision to excommunicate its members who would continue the practice.
…is a confident woman
This post is extensively linked. It’s tragic that there are so many examples of misogyny, but it’s great to see them all exposed in one place.
Girls, these things happen because there are men with power who fear you and want to control you. I know that I have equated relatively benign baseball games with deadly, honor killings but, whereas one is a type of daily, seemingly harmless micro-aggression and the other is a lethal macro-aggression they share the same roots. The basis of both, and escalating actions in between, is the same: To teach you, and all girls subject to these men and their authority, a lesson: “Know your place.” I also know that there are places where girls are marginalized and hurt that are not religious. But all over the world these hypocritical, pious men, in their shamefully obvious wrongness, represent the sharp-edged tip of an iceberg, the visible surface of a deep and vast harm. They employ the full range of their earthly and divine influence to make sure, as early as possible, that you and the boys around you understand what they want your relative roles to be. Where there are patriarchal religions girls, in dramatically varying and extreme degrees, disproportionately suffer. Understand these men for what they are: bullies. Do not internalize what they would have you believe.
… I will pin down Iran and cut off its fringe!
Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential hopeful, was accused of being a playground bully yesterday (Thursday) after former school friends recalled that he had once pinned down a fellow schoolboy who was presumed to be homosexual and chopped off his fringe.
The reports that Mr Romney had led a “prep school posse” against a boy who was teased over his sexuality came as the issue of gay marriage has taken centre stage in the build up to the US election, with the Obama campaign attacking Mr Romney for being “backward” on the issue.
In response, New Delhi is expected to announce a new dress code for its citizens
…and Mitt Romney needs a Vice-Presidential running mate. Coincidence?
Helen Radkey, a former Mormon who has until now has focused on researching incidents of proxy baptisms being proposed for or performed on dead Jews, discovered the Gandhi records on February 16 in a genealogical database restricted to Mormons. She was prompted to search for his name after seeing a statement by a Nevada-based Hindu activist, Rajan Zed, who expressed concern the practice might be performed in the name of many Hindus.
A screen shot of the database page sent to HuffPost by Radkey shows a proxy baptism for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was completed in a Salt Lake City Temple on March 27, 1996. The record has since been removed and Radkey said a subsequent search came up with “Unknown Name.”
A request to a church spokesman for comment on the alleged baptism by proxy of Gandhi was not immediately returned.
And Moroni said: “Dude, on you they look great!”
Sure, why not?
But it’s worth saying something that often gets skipped past in the political handicapping. To be against Mitt Romney (or Jon Huntsman or Harry Reid or Orrin Hatch) because of his religion is just plain bigotry.
But to be against Mitt Romney because he actually believes an angel of the lord revealed gold plates containing the scriptures to a small-time New York conman in 1822 is just plain common sense. And to be against Mitt Romney if you think he only pretends to believe the same nonsense is an obvious reflection on a duplicitious character.
How is a man who believes (or pretends to believe) in fairy stories going to make sense of the real world of the 21st century?
It’s like asking three years ago whether America was “ready” for a black president. Or whether we’re “ready” for a Hispanic, female, Jewish, Asian, Muslim, atheist, gay, unmarried, overweight, etc President.
OK; is the US ready for a President who wears sacred underpants?
Not willing to be outdone by Pat Robertson, Glenn Beck recently weighed in on God’s communication by way of natural disasters, telling his listeners that this week’s East Coast earthquake and hurricane are a “blessing” and a message from God to “be prepared.”
“How many warnings do you think you’re going to get, and how many warnings do you deserve? This hurricane that is coming thorough the East Coast, for anyone who’s in the East Coast and has been listening to me say ‘Food storage!’ ‘Be prepared!’ ‘Be somebody that can help others,’ you’ve heard me say this for years. People have made fun of me. That’s fine, I don’t care. I’ve been telling you, ‘Don’t be in a panic situation.’ If you’ve waited, this hurricane is a blessing. It is a blessing. It is God reminding you — as was the earthquake last week — it’s God reminding you you’re not in control. Things can happen. Be prepared and be someone who can help others so when disaster strikes, God forbid, you’re not panicking.”
Get it? God sends us disasters so we can prepare…
…for when God sends us more disasters.
It’s a quiet day today, so to keep you interested while we wait for some more religious thuggery…
Today’s front-runner, Alexander the Great. Yes, that Alexander the Great.
Update 2012-08-03: The roster now includes Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Groucho Marx and CS Lewis. At least nobody can accuse the Mormons of playing favourites.
…no, sorry, I’m joking, of course.
The university, which is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has been dealing in recent months with a controversy over the teaching of evolution that has its Adventist benefactors threatening to withdraw its religious accreditation — and the $4 million per annum that comes with it. Now the university faces a scandal in which a trustee, a vice president, a dean, and an adjunct professor were asked to resign over a recording made, purportedly by accident, of the four men talking informally about the church and university leadership.
Lie down with dogs — get up with fleas.
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