Atheism Corner

Humanity in Progress

Israel Got Issues With Free Speech

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Israel’s parliament has spent time and energy passing a law which is, amazingly enough, anti democratic and anti free speech, and all of this is because it seems that Israel’s prime minister and foreign minister are determined to show the world and their own voters that they will go to great lengths to protect the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories.

On this blog we frequently applause Israel, it is the only real democracy in its region, and even after this joke of “Arab spring” it will stay alone as a democratic country for a long time to be. Israel had been fighting terror as well as state funded terror which is the modern way Arab nations wage war, for as long as it has been in existence, and all that time has succeeded in keeping a viable democracy and a free speech policy, until now.

This is probably one of the lowest moments in Israeli history, when the parliament passes a law that forbids the public criticism of Israeli citizens actions, and in effect is a call to reduce the basic and alimentary human rights of anyone. This law is not only shameful but it also offers a glimpse into Israeli society, and it also shows that there is growing tensions between different political views, as well as the clear boycotting policy of a few of the Israeli-Jewish political left organizations.

There are, it seems, plenty of people who live within the boarders of Israel proper, who feel that the Jewish settlers are not helping the country, and that in fact they are doing their own thing for their own cause, costing a huge amount of funds to the Israeli taxpayer as well as calling for the protection of the army, mainly because these people live in an Arab Muslim area, which is hostile to them.

The attempt to silence criticism and to forbid public organizations to act against what they think and feel is wrong is barbaric and disgusting, the fact that the law passed casts a shadow over this proud country, and the only thing that is to give us some hope is that this law is already challenged by many in the Israeli society, some of whom are on the same political side as the settlers but who will not see the freedom of speech molested in this way.

And why all this on a Atheist blog? well, the reason these settlers are there is very much religious, they are religios fanatics who believe in the coming of the massayah and to bring forth his appearance believe that they should inhibit these parts of the country, on the other side you have the Muslims, who, clearly, have a very different idea of what the massayah will want, when and if he ever comes by.

Congrats South Sudan

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We have been following the troubles in Sudan in the last months, now a new nation is born, out of separation of north and south (is there no more favorite geographical separation of countries? south and north seem like the popular choice), the south is breaking away from the north in search of a better future and a better, more modern way that its people can express themselves.

The timing is perfect, a birth of a republic in Africa between the celebrations of two of the greatest republics on earth (The U.S. which looks less like a republic in the last few months, and France), and the idea is mainly to separate from the Islamic north, to break the cycle of violence that has been crippling this region for two decades and has left countless dead, injured, homeless and traumatized.

One can not imagine what would have been without this religious conflict, without the separation of one faith based group from another, even to dream of a new country forming altogether, based on agreement and modernity, a republic of Sudan for all its people, no matter what they believe in, but to think that will be a folie, since war has ravaged this country for so long. So the Christians will be in the south and Muslims in the north, and lets hope that the separation will help both sides realize that without religion they would have both had a better life.

Good luck – Republic of South Sudan, live long and prosper

South Sudan Flag

 

Can Anyone Find the Muslim Elton John?

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The Muslim world is old fashioned, the grip of its man-made god is suffocating most of its believers, and this religion has yet to awake to the reality that life is constructed of many different things, including different views and expressions of sexuality. The “traditional” view of Islam is that gays should be killed is not something new, and it is not an original of Islam, in fact there are many good Chrisitans and Jews that will happily subscribe to the view of homosexuality being some sort of disease and the ones carrying this disease better be sent to god for quick judgement, so Islam is not alone is this.

However Islam is the only religion that consistently calls out and actively still persecutes gays and if you happen to be a gay man in an Islamic country you better not share this little secret with your father or brother, for they will kill you for it.

And this is how Islam deprives itself of the many talents of people, people who just have a different sexual tendency, and again its not because they choose to be gays but that it is the way they were born and if anything should be said at all, it is about that perfect creator that keeps messing up and making faulty human beings. The opposition has those lame excuses, saying that gays are being tested by the almighty and that they need to show how much they are true to religion by turning away from their sexual orientation, well, that’s easy for them to say, and just to offer a contradictory view think of all them priests that were found abusing children in the last couple of years, they developed a very complicated sexual orientation following the strict order not to have any sex in their lives.

So Islam does without the females in its faith, they are only for reproduction purposes, no gays, no need for gifted musicians, no place for fashion designers, artists and scientists, teachers and philosophers and everything else that gays do, Islam can do without it, and there is no surprise when you visit an Islamic country to find a poor taste in almost everything, poor education and poor systems all over, this is how they think god wants it.

A Different View – Sky Burial

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Sky burial is what they used to have in Tibet before the Chinese took this part of the world by force and stopped it, this is a very different interpenetration of how human being need to be buried, or rather the way that the body of human beings need to pass from this world.

The most important thing about this story is that you must keep an open mind to it, and most of all, you should have a strong conviction that whatever people believe is legitimate. In this case there is no real harm done, only to dead bodies, which the Tibetan monks truly believe are empty bodies, without souls or any ability to feel anything or suffer any insult.

So what they do is take dead bodies and cut them up, they leave them for birds to eat and after that make sure that the bones are grind into powder and fed to other animals thus making the whole human body disappear into the hungry stomachs of birds and other animals, in the end there is literally nothing left.

There is nothing bad in this practice, and this post is not to stress how ignorant or barbaric Tibet’s customs are, but it is more as a sign to us in the west that think that there is only one way to dispose of a dead human body and that are very sensitive to any other form (and if you will look up photos of this sky burial I assure you that you will very quickly discover how difficult it is to watch without keeping thinking that this is indeed a dead body).

So if you do not like this remember that this is something these people believe, and understand how belief could be very different and why we should not always accept other belief systems.

"Seen any Buddhist Monks Around?"

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.