 |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- "Why Did Some People in the Bible Live So Long?" - I've updated section 4. "Sociological Data on Life Expectancy Versus Religion", given it a new scattergraph with data from 2009/2011 to replace the 2002 data, and the associated text is rewritten. Over those 7 years, the trends have remained the same.
- What is the Best Country in the World?: An Index of Morality, Conscience and Good Life - I have added a section on Gay Rights and Equality. The Netherlands, Belgium and Canada are the most equal and accepting countries. This has changed the rankings, with Switzerland and Germany just dropping out of the top 10 best countries in the world.
- Errors in Thinking: Cognitive Errors, Wishful Thinking and Sacred Truths - I've added section 3.1 "Story Telling and Second-Hand Information", and, added some notes from psychologists Jonah Lehrer's and Daniel Kahneman to sections "Pareidolia: Seeing Patterns in Random, Complex or Ambiguous Data", and 6.1 "The Prevention of Errors: Skeptical Thinking".
- Christian Moral Theory and Morality in Action: Biblical Morals and Social Disaster - Added a few things to this page. (2.5) A description of the horrible morals of the story of Lot and the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 and 19, (3.1) The rise of Pauline Christianity and its eradication of earlier forms of Christianity, (3.2) Christianity and the slave trade.
Tags: christianity, gay marriage, gay rights, lgbt, longevity
Current Location: London, UK
Listening To: "Trust You" by Mesh
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A new page: "Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN): In Southwark, London, UK"The contents menu is: Headed by T.B. Joshua, this chain of Christian evangelical churches has its headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, and claims that healing touches can cure HIV and AIDS amidst other diseases, even over prayer lines. They are affiliated with Emmanuel Global Network (UK) Limited (UK registered charity) and run their own TV channel, Emmanuel TV. They have been responsible for at least 6 deaths from patients who were told to stop taking their medication, and, advise people as that their faith healing as a 100% success rate, HIV infected patients can after treatment by the church (through prayer lines and healing hands), go on to start families. Such incredibly irresponsible and ignorant beliefs cause the spread of HIV/AIDS and other serious infections. Shockingly, their UK branch is a registered charity, based in Southwark, London. Tags: aids, christianity, evangelists, faith healing, hiv, london, scoan, t.b. joshua
Current Location: Bath, UK
Current Mood:  anxious
Listening To: "Tanz Mit Dem Feuer" by Unheilig
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A new page! "Don't Panic: The World is Not About to End and Western Culture is Safe"The contents menu is: The long introduction reads... Popular culture is worse than it ever has been. The education system is following it into disordered inadequacy. Unemployment is undermining society and perhaps as a result, crime rates are getting scary. Immigration is out of control. It is going to be like the fall of the Roman Empire, with weak government no longer in touch with the lives of the citizenry. The European Union is on the verge of collapse, and, the Internet era is eroding our ability to form friendships. Computers games and TV are increasingly violent and graphic, films are now nearly all shallow and simple. Did I mention that crime rates are rising? Global warming and the global economy have created insurmountable problems. All of us, in our lives, are going to face chaos and witness the mass failure of morality and decency. The young no longer respect the old. Jobs and marriages are no longer for life. Did I mention the crime rates? This, with a few variant details, is what they will think in the 2020s, beause they also thought it in the 2010s and 2000s. The 1980s was a decade obsessed with the rising power of computers - they'd turn against us soon, for sure. And recessions were seemingly endless - the anarchists were winning. But perhaps they were right in the 1960s where they warned that mass immorality and liberality would destroy civilisation - if we survived nuclear war, that is. Still further back, those same feelings were echoed in the Industrial revolution, at the end of the era of Empires and at the foundation of global shipping which heralded unheard-of immigration and globalisation (hundreds of years ago). As mankind moved into cities, or into towns, the outcry against the changes in morality and customs was as loud as it was paranoid. However do we survive? Luckily for us, it seems that the more people predict chaos, uncertainty, cataclysms and the end of the world as we know it, the less likely it is to actually happen. Crime rates are falling, large scale wars have apparently ceased to occur, worldwide poverty is decreasing, literacy has been on an unstoppable rise for hundreds of years, and technology and medical science are making astounding strides in preventing diseases (many of which are now gone for good). Jobs and marriages may not be for life, but we are living twice as long. Absolutely nothing is as bad as people say. The press thrive on bad news. Our egos trick us into thinking we are living in the most important times during our own lives. We're not. Those times are yet to come. The end is yet to come. Just remember to take a leaf from the British: Keep Calm, and Drink Tea. Tags: crisis, end of the world, futurism, hope, humanity, neophobia, science, technology, the future
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
These were 4 separate cases, I've written them up on "Legislation and Faith: Religious Rights and Religious Wrongs" by Vexen Crabtree (2013). - Lillan Ladele refused to deal with same-sex couples in her public sector job.
- Gary McFarlane refused to treat gay couples equally in his job as a sex counsellor
- Shirley Chaplin was a nurse who refused to accept that a Christian cross was covered by the prohibition against wearing jewellery around patients.
- Nadia Eweida refused to accept that British Airway's uniform code meant that she was, as a Christian, also covered by the code
The first three cases were all kicked out because being a Christian is not enough to make yourself exempt from equality law or immune to spreading infectious diseases (a nurse should have known better, really). The judgement on the two anti-gay Christians (Ladele and McFarlane) was surely correct for many reasons. (1) It is immoral to discriminate against gays - even if you are Christian. (2) The government is impartial and treats people fairly. If you work for the government, it can of course fire you for not treating people respectfully and fairly. (3) If you receive public money, in a democratic country, you can't expect your biases to come before human rights. The third case, nurses and medical staff cannot wear jewellery because it is KNOWN to be a serious carrier of infectious disease. The Christian airline stewardess who wanted to wear her cross on the *outside* of her uniform was just being ridiculous and obnoxious - she was offered a job in BA where she didn't have to wear a uniform but turned it down. How she *won* this case was due to BA's short-sightedness in the years following their argument with her. Read the ECHR's press release here if you want the actual facts... I'm getting the impression most news reports are a little on the sensationalist side! http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/webservices/content/pdf/003-4221189-5014359None of these cases were anything to do with anti-Christian persecution and the sensationalist reports in the Daily Mail and Telegraph are just plain misinformed and misleading. The Telegraph's article by Cristina Odone</i> is beyond being misinformed - it is actually bigotted and irrational. Firstly, she calls the anti-gay defendants "conscientous objectors", betraying the fact that she knows very little about the world. These people *chose* to work with the public, unlike C.O.s who were *forced* to join the military. One of the Christians even lied to get the job by saying that he had no problems with the equality stance. Her summary of the judgements is that one Christian was allowed to wear her cross, and another wasn't. That's as far as she goes into the facts of the cases. I suspect she didn't need to read the case - her commentary was fixed by her own ignorance and prejudice, so it doesn't matter to her what the actual facts are. She hears it involves "aggressive secularism" and she reports it! Poor journalism.
- The Daily Mail's article just focused on the idiotic Eric Pickles' rant against immigrants. It starts with "traditional religious freedoms are under assault from the ‘intolerance of aggressive secularism’, a Cabinet minister will warn today", not mentioning that by "traditional" he actually means "freedom to be prejudiced against homosexuality while in government pay", and, "freedom to not have to obey dress codes if you're a Christian". Which is of course, not actually aggressive secularism at all, it is merely the lack of pro-Christian bias.
Anyway, both those articles are full of ludicrous, shallow and sensationalist comments from viewers, most of whom have clearly been misled by the articles. I suspect that they will not heed my warnings to go and actually read the ECHR case summary, because it is rather mundane and boring. Tags: christianity, cristina odone, eric pickles, homophobia, homosexuality, human rights, prejudice, religion, the daily mail, the telegraph
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
vexen
Previous
hopeful
busy