WeHaveAVoice.net

New word to describe ‘christian society’ required

admin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:44:58 +0000

I find it bloody annoying how some Australians - church leaders and politicians mainly - describe this country as a ‘christian’ nation or a ‘christian’ society. Australia isn’t actually.

Our society, like most civilised Western democracies, is a secular society that tolerates religious belief.

I believe the word ’secular’ doesn’t describe our society well enough though - so I have come up with an alternative that I’ll run by you.

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Our society is a ‘DEWS’ society. Sorry, it’s best acronym I could come up with at short notice!
D = Democracy (self-explanatory really)
E = English (which only conveys the language used by the majority of society members)
W = Western (as distinct from Eastern. Not a geographical term, more more of a philosophical one)
S = Secular (again, self-explanatory)

What do you think?

“Why should I care what the society is called?” I hear you ask.
I’ll tell you - because like the USA there are religious groups / cults / churches in this country that want very much to emulate the Americans. To add something like ‘In god we Trust’ to our aussie currency and similar insanities so that they can steer us all down the same perilous path that the yanks are heading down.

Honestly, the time for complacency and tolerance of religious mania is well and truly over. Many Americans are beginning to realise that their country is becoming the laughing stock of the rest of the other western civilisations. We all know that politicians (usually republicans) are fond of proclaiming the USA as ‘one country under god’ or that ‘god prefers America’ or some other such inane drivel because they have to tell the majority of voters what they want to hear. In reality I believe the majority of US senators (well maybe excluding George W) are educated, intelligent men and women who just ‘play the game’ and spout this nonsense but are just paying lip-service to the extremist elements of their constituencies. But the danger in this is that it becomes ingrained into society and it will be bloody hard to extricate.

I was listening to the ABC local radio yesterday and caught the end of a caller who was proclaiming that ‘god told me he didn’t cure my mouth abscess because he wanted to rid me of the poison in me’ or some such nonsense. I don’t know what the beginning part of the conversation was about (and don’t really care) but I was amazed by the complete non-reaction to the statement by the ABC program host. Sure, silence really spoke volumes - but I believe that the time for tolerance of this kind of childish crap during interviews and similar stuff that is made public is over. The host needn’t come out with what we were all thinking, ie: ‘oh come on, you really are a w**ker aren’t you?’, but could have said something along the lines of ‘well, I don’t personally believe that your god told you anything and I’d thank you not to bring that kind of stuff here’ (or words to that effect!)

Too harsh? No, I don’t think so.

Some people believe that our morals and our altruistic behaviour is attributable to the ‘word of god’ or scripture but they are wrong. Like most mammals, humans are by their nature altruistic. Not only does this behaviour reap benefits for the family groups and society they inhabit but because we all (well most, the appalling ‘I don’t want to get involved’ type of behaviour that some members of the species exhibit can be explained but that’s the subject of another posting) but it is also ‘hard-wired’ into our brains. It makes us feel good to do something to help others.

If you were to ask the countless selfless people who have sustained terrible injury while protecting or saving a complete stranger whether they would do it again if they knew the consequences of their actions - most (if not all) would likely say that they would do it again in a heartbeat. These people didn’t need to be told this kind of behaviour from an ancient fairy story, they instinctively knew it was the right thing to do.

So, in closing this - longer than expected - posting, let me say this: I take exception to being told or described as living in a ‘christian society’. Again, I don’t and we don’t and in reality there is no such thing, anymore than there is a ‘christian child’.

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Interview with a top scientologist that got out

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:48:07 +0000

Came across this today. Great interview - if you can spare the hour or two to watch all 8 parts of it. Here’s the final part and for what it’s worth, I believe the most damning criticism of this dangerous cult yet.
Jason Beghe was in for 13 years and in his words ‘I got into it because I wanted to help‘, now he’s doing this interview for the same reason. Good on him, it takes guts to do what he’s doing.

The full interview is here.

Scientology: 8/8 Jason Beghe Interview from Mark Bunker on Vimeo.

Respect your religion? Well, no actually

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:07:37 +0000

I was watching the Sunday morning program on Channel Seven last week at the conclusion of WYD and one of the presenters (who shall remain nameless, I don’t want him to get into hot water!) could hardly contain himself and spent the entire time trying so hard to be respectful of the catholics and their faith - but failing miserably. I loved it. It was so obvious what he thought of the whole nonsense but he somehow managed to walk the fine line between being totally disrespectful and reporting the facts.

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God moves money in mysterious ways

admin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:22:02 +0000

I’ve written before about the charlatan Benny Hinn. Seems his ability to fool the gullible is as strong as ever.

Excerpt from an article on the Freethinker

“EXPERTS in South Arica are claiming that a genuine miracle took place at a massive evangelical rally staged by American “prosperity” preacher Benny Hinn, who is touring the country with his “Miracle Crusade”.

The genuine, verifiable event – attributed to “the power of the Almighty” – occurred when thousands of pounds miraculously left the bank accounts of around 1,000 of devout Christians, and within minutes inexplicably surfaced in Hinn’s sizeable off-shore bank accounts.

It happened when Todd Koontz, a guest speaker at the “Miracle Crusade” told the 18,000 believers at the Coca Cola Dome near Johannesburg that God had created a “two minute” window of opportunity, during which time the Almighty would make hundreds into millionaires, or even billionaires.”

Sigh… there’s an idiot born every minute. Read the rest of the story here.

Of course, Benny the Hair has made some outrageous claims in the past too - the following transcript details Hinn’s exact words on the October 19, 1999, Praise the Lord show :

“Here’s what I see for TBN. You’re going to have people raised from the dead watching this network. You’re going to have people raised from the dead watching TBN … I’m telling you, I see this in the Spirit. It’s going to be so awesome-Jesus I give you praise for this-that people around the world-maybe not so much in America-people around the world who will lose loved ones, will say to undertakers, “Not yet. I want to take my dead loved one and place him in front of that TV set for 24 hours.” …

I’m telling you, I can feel the anointing talking here. People are going to be canceling funeral services and bringing their dead in their caskets, placing them-my God! I feel the anointing here-placing them before a television set, waiting for God’s power to come through and touch them. And it’s going to happen time and time-so much it’s going to spread. You’re going to hear it from Kenya to Mexico to Europe to South America, where people will be raised from the dead. So much so that the word will spread that if some dead person be put in front of this TV screen, they will be raised from the dead and they will be by the thousands …

I see rows of caskets lining up in front of this TV set and I see them bringing them closer to the TV set and as people are coming closer I see loved ones picking up the hands of the dead and letting them touch the screen and people are getting raised as their hands are touching that screen.”

Ok, I rest my case, he’s certifiable…

WYD : Sad, sad, sad

admin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:39:03 +0000

I didn’t intend to write anymore about the WYD (well, it should really be named WCYD - add the word ‘christian’ in there), but all the media coverage just got up my nose.

I mean, look, as was reported by the Seven network - 25% of Australians classify themselves as ‘christian’ and presumably this would include hundreds of thousands who just put that down on the census because they can’t be bothered putting ‘other’ or ‘none’ down, from some deep sense instilled into us all that we must be christian (or some other faith) to be ‘good citizens’. Oddly though, catholic church sites reckon that 25% of AUSTRALIANS are catholic… ok, so something is odd there. By my maths, I make it around 6% of the population may have been indoctrinated into the catholic religion - but I bet that far less are actually ‘practicing’.

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Thou shalt not annoy on Youth Day

admin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:04:41 +0000

from the Sydney Morning Herald 1st July - link to full article.
Edited July 9th.
Seems like Sydney-siders aren’t happy about being told what to do (or not do..) - this article on msn.com.au has the story. My favourite t-shirt slogan so far is “$5,500, a small price to pay for annoying Catholics“.
Love it.

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I.D Proponents Are Liars - Part 1

admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:54:27 +0000

Bit strong? Nope - they are and they actually know it, but presumably they are able to justify this on the grounds that it is for a ‘higher good’ or similar reason.

Let’s go over some of the commonly used ‘proofs’ they bring out to disprove evolution.

1. Evolution is a belief not a science and it was invented by atheists who hate God (their capitilisation not mine). Intelligent Design is a scientific theory.

First part of this statement. Wrong. To quote Wikipedia’s excellent summary: “Evolutionary biology documents the fact that evolution occurs, and also develops and tests theories that explain why it occurs. Studies of the fossil record and the diversity of living organisms had convinced most scientists by the mid-nineteenth century that species changed over time. However, the mechanism driving these changes remained unclear until the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, detailing the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin’s work soon led to overwhelming acceptance of evolution within the scientific community”

Firstly, there are thousands of scientists who work in the field of evolutionary science who profess to be religious - christians, muslims etc. Their work is to be respected even if many, including me, don’t respect their religious beliefs. I have no problem with these scientists but creationists (I.Ders) do. It can only be assumed that these christian scientists (for example) are regarded as really atheists by the I.Ders. I’m sure that they would strongly object to this - and quite rightly so. Here’s one who is.

What gives these people the right to label scientific study a ‘belief’? Well, because they believe in I.D presumably!
Again, I have no problem with what they believe - but don’t pretend that it is science. It isn’t and no amount of lying about it will make it so.

Any scientific theory has to go through the same rigorous study process to become classified as a ‘theory’.
Again, Wikipedia has a good summary of a scientific theory. Here’s an extract:
“In scientific usage, a theory does not mean an unsubstantiated guess or hunch, as it can in everyday speech. A theory is a logically self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of a related set of natural or social phenomena. It originates from or is supported by experimental evidence. In this sense, a theory is a systematic and formalized expression of all previous observations, and is predictive, logical, and testable. In principle, scientific theories are always tentative, and subject to corrections, inclusion in a yet wider theory, or succession.

A difference in usage of the word “fact” contributes to confusion in regard to the meaning of “theory.” An appreciation of the various meanings of “fact” and “knowledge” can help to clarify an understanding of the meanings of “theory.”

Ok - so please show us all the observations, testable evidence for the theory of Intelligent Design. We would love to see some - but there is just the usual stony silence from them after they have finished ‘disproving’ the theory of evolution. Fine, so you believe you have disproved and discredited it - so what alternative do you offer the scientific community and the world in general?

And thus endeth the lesson ID Chapter 1 Lie 1. More to come on this… stay tuned for the next post.

Update on site comments

admin — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:20:00 +0000

I seem to get few comments on this blog (but it gets it share of visitors - maybe they all agree with me!) and so have put a note that name, email & website entries are optional if you would like to leave a comment.

Also please note that comments are moderated, but not censored other than to remove bigoted and over the top abusive replies.

Seems odd to have to actually state this as you would have thought that christians and other religious believers would follow their churches teachings and treat people with respect even if you don’t agree with their beliefs (or lack of them).

For the record - I do respect your right to hold your beliefs but I don’t respect your beliefs.

Billy on Christian Rock etc

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:43:01 +0000

Found this new vid on YouTube. Made my day!

Unpleasant christians

admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:40:00 +0000

It just struck me today how many ‘churchies’ I come into contact with are more often than not, just plain bloody unpleasant and their so-called ’salvation’ sure doesn’t translate into any kindness to their fellowman (well, me anyway!).

I have a small business and do service calls for customers from all walks of life - pensioners, wealthy retired people and just your average ‘working men & women’. Nine times out of ten if I have an unpleasant experience eg: complaint about the bill, grumbling that I ‘didn’t fix it right last time’ (with the implication that they shouldn’t have to pay) and generally being pains-in-the-you-know-what - I discover later that they are christians.

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