Atheism Corner

Humanity in Progress

Shaking Regression in Turkey

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Turkey has been on (some) headlines for some time now, it does look like this great country is on a down slope, the only question is how and when will it stop. It starts with an ambitious prime minister who is close to Islam, who is a devote Muslim and who seems to have fantasies of time long gone, of the Ottoman empire.

Turkey’s prime minister Erdogan has been leading his country since 2003 helped the Turkish economy overcome monstrous problems and in the last few years has been focusing on strengthening ties with Iran and Syria, in what looks like an effort to become a significant leader of that region, maybe even the pan-Arabic leader.

Erdogan has lead a no tolerance policy in everything to do with the Kurdish people (who Turkey bombs and kills whenever diplomatically possible), the Armenian genocide (carried out by Turks from 1912 to probably 1923, murdering a million and a half Armenians within the territory of the Ottoman empire) and the Jewish people state of Israel.

While he instructs his ministers to not respond to any questions about Armenians and Kurds, he is more than happy to give his opinion on Israel. This country has been a close ally of Turkey for the last 25 years and had cooperated with it militarily and economically, however Israel has suddenly become an obsession for prime minister Ardogan, mainly the Gaza blockade and the treatment of Palestinians.

This could all be true and real, however it is very difficult to believe that Turkey is so shocked by an occupation of a territory, because Turkey is unlawfully occupying a part of Cyprus for the past 36 years. Treatment of terrorists who are in a autonomous region is something that the Turkish government regards as a free zone for bombing and deporting locals from, like it currently does with the Kurdish population, and talking about massacres and slaughters (which Israel is not, by any way, doing to the Arabs in or out of its country) is something the Turks know all too well from the Armenian episode. So why in the world would Ardogan make war like threats upon Israel on issues which he and his country has been ankle deep involved in for a much longer time than Israel?

Maybe because they are Jews, and the Palestinian topic is of everlasting interest on the Arab street and Erdogan thinks he could gain points on this. Maybe because the Turkish economy is losing altitude in an alarming rate and is about to lose major credit points on the global economical arena, or maybe as a Muslim the Turkish prime minister simply can not stand the Jews, could be.

Turkey is now said to be looking to partner up with the fastest fundamentalist around – Egypt, in what seems like the non stop dance for political points Erdogan is doing in the Arab world (failed miserably with Bashar Assad, the Iranians too).

So now we are on the doorstep of a physical confrontation between Turkey and Israel, while Turkey’s army just had four of its top general resign because of what they regard as a dangerous Islamisation of the country, which was transformed to secular by the spectacular Ataturk who revived the Turkish people. The prime minister has replaces those generals with his own people, who see things like him, and we are now about to find out if the major investments of the U.S. and Israel in Turkey will not come back to fight in the name of Islam and personal glorification.

Turkey prime minister Erdogan and wife

The Egypt Israel Issue

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In the recent weeks there has been mounting tension between Arabs and Israelis, as well as Muslim and Jews, in the south of Israel, along the Israeli-Egypt boarder as well as with the boarder with Gaza (which, in contrast to what many think, is a boarder, meaning no Israelis occupy Gaza and there is a clear physical barrier between Israel and Gaza). The main reason for the tension are terror attacks carried from within the Egyptian territory as well as the continuous bombardment of Israeli cities along its Gaza boarders by a wide range of “opposition organizations” who pretty much do whatever they want in that piece of land called Gaza.

Today (Friday) the Egyptians are planning a million man march against Israel. Egypt was the first to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and got a lot from this act, it got huge American support throughout the years, the second or third strong army in the middle east (based all on US funds) and steady flow of funds from the American congress. Israel gave Egypt the land they lost in wars that they initiated (not to save the Palestinians as they were of no concern before the 1980’s) and Israel kept its boarder clear and clean. Egypt had a couple of fall outs on the boarder, once a boarder guard got “crazy” and shot 7 kids on a bus, another time a solider decided he wanted to kill Jews and attacked a few Israeli cars.

The mounting tension is much more a result in the change of the Egyptian people’s internal politics and the fact that none of the candidates for presidency will defend the peace with Israel, due to religious reasons and nothing else, the Jews are the last thing anyone wants to accept in Egypt today. So a million men march will mostly mark the growing danger to the peace agreement on the Egyptian side of the boarder, and Israel can not do anything about it, not unless they all go to the embrace of Islam, which I doubt will happen anytime soon.

 

Salvation via Twitter

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The Pope has his own Twitter account now, its all over the news. Now millions of believers around the world can tune up to the person replacing Jesus, and get to know his mind on real time. So I guess lots of Africans will wait to see if they can finally use condoms instead of giving or getting HIV, if maybe for a small little moment the pope has them on his mind, and he feels compelled to set them free and avoid all the suffering and death that the Church fight against those small rubber tubes had (and still is ) cost the black continent.

Pope on Twitter

For anyone who wants to follow the Pope, here is the link to the Twitter page. Its always nice to see anyone say we should be better people, and that we should abandon violence, but I kind of figured it out before I saw the Pope’s twit. Imagine how would the official Church Twitter would look like 600 or 800 years ago… “The Earth is the Center of the Universe! Burn anyone who tells you differently”, or “Protestants are evil, must be killed, burned or tortured whenever found, at whatever age”, oh well, that was back then, right?

Another amusing this, here is a funny pastor blessing cars before they go on a race, just to show you how liberated faith has become, as well as to prove once again, that we need to thank god for everything, because (according to this pastor at least) he is responsible for all these wonders, as well as for the death of 22,000 children just yesterday (same number today, and tomorrow)(stats taken from UNICEF.

Got It Wrong

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OK. Sorry. You’re right, I got it wrong. The Oslo murderer was not, or maybe we can say probably is not, Muslim or associated in any way with Islamic terror, he is actually from the direct opposite side. Surprising? sure, in a country (Norway) in which there is almost no far right movement, let alone violent demonstrations or violent acts performed by this political side, its almost as if a Mormon would commit such an act in Baghdad, no sense at all.

There are a lot of questions still in the air, and we can probably suspect they will not be answered, it looks like this story is nearing its final edition and many are pleased with that. Let’s just think of a few of the very problematic issues at hand.

1. This mad murderer was a far right supporter, very much against immigration, however he choose to target his own national people and not go after immigrants.

2. The killer had liberal opinions as to gay rights, Israel and other subjects, however he did not see any problem in targeting innocent teenagers – seems a little nuts.

3. The documentation of his last days shows much preparation, but with all that time and with all that planning he resorted to go and murder kids on a vacation island resort, not something that really calls for training.

Many of the conspiracy sites had people in them shouting “Zionist plot!” in regard to this attach, the idea was that Israel somehow planned and executed this terrible act in order to influence public opinion in Norway against Muslims or immigrants, however it is surprising that the murderer was pro-Israel (at least for some time, the newspapers claim) non Jewish and did not do this act in the name of the injustice inflicted upon Israel but rather the self destruction of his beloved culture and nation.

One thing that is clear right now is that to be associated with the far right in Europe today is not a good thing, and that with this murderous act local governments are going to take power to hammer down nationalists of all types and colors, and this might not be a good thing at all.

In Oslo the crying continues, who could have imagined this kind of things only a few days ago, the heart breaks at the scenes of torn families and lives that have been crashed by this monster.

God Loves Blood & Pain or How Holland Scored 2 Goals in One Week

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The news coming from Holland (or the Netherlands – if you prefer the long version) is joyous indeed, this country has been on the headlines in this blog, mainly for letting one of their own parliament members Geert Wilders walk free of the clearly harassing accusations against him and now they are moving forward, in a very positive way.

Here are the news – the dutch parliament is going to pass a law that will require animals to be shocked before they are slaughtered, here is how it was explained in one news site (link here)

Shock or Be Shocked

Now it is of no surprise that orthodox Jews and Muslims are upset, these people want to keep things are they were hundreds of years ago, and by saying this I do mean that once upon a time animals were killed without being shocked, the slaughter houses did not have electricity – as in fact no one had it, so it was not an option. Add to this the fact that way before Judaism or Islam those who worshiped gods sacrificed animals (and some times humans as well) to satisfy those angry gods because they really thought that gods need this blood to calm them down.

And so it got to the Jewish religion that killing animals sustained some ritual like practices, and this, in turn, moved to Islam. Both these religions ask that the animal be conscience when killed, and one would do well to note that this is not about the rest of the killing (with all kinds of crazy stuff going on when they actually kill the animal) but of the mere fact that these people really insist that the animal is to suffer as much as possible and not be stunned while being killed.

Holland is moving forward, and for this it seems they need to pay a price, the Jewish person responding to this in the article above is talking about how this brings back memories of the second world war in which the Nazis banned Kosher slaughter as fast as they invaded Holland, and Muslims talk about this being a part of a plan to kick them out (they even say its Geert Wilders idea), and this is not only absurd but insulting as well.

Lets hope that other countries start to move forward as well, and tell these people that its alright to practice the religion they like in their homes (without forcing it on anyone, or hurting anyone in its name) but the minute any idea is out of the house its out to public debate and will be changed if the actual modern life is not compatible with it, just like the idea of sitting in the dark every evening came to an end when the light bulb was invented.