An important disclaimer: If I had to wrap my positive feelings about Christian Voice to place under the Christmas tree then I would end up being visited by three ghosts, who would proclaim me a scrooge. They would take me to the past, present and future of Christian Voice before apologising for wasting my time, shaking my hand and heading off to pick on its director, Stephen Green.
Christian Voice (CV) are a diminutive, pointless, homophobic group given a ridiculous amount of undue exposure in the media, due to an honourable but badly applied understanding of what balance requires.
I do not believe they represent the views of the average Christian – but at the same time I wish moderate Christians were a lot more vocal in distancing themselves from them.
So hopefully no one can mistake this article to be in anyway supportive of CV. They’re dicks.
I say this because I’ve noticed something interesting on twitter this evening. My timeline (a typically skeptical and rational group) has become inundated with people congratulating Co-op on their treatment of CV. In short, Co-op refused CV banking and asked them to leave due to CV’s homophobia.
The CV’s version of events can be read here
If I ran a bank, the last people I would want opening an account are the CV. Obviously. But the support for the actions of the Co-op that I saw on twitter seems easily given and without due consideration.
Especially considering the story is from 2005 and is currently bubbling up again as old stories are want to do.
It was only the other side of xmas that the same feed was outraged that VISA, Mastercard, Amazon and Paypal decided to cancel Wikileaks ability to bank and receive donations.
It would be easy to become distracted now about the reasons behind the cancellation of services provided to Wikileaks and crucially to anyone who wanted to donate to them. Whether it was due to Government pressure; and/or the fear of cables related to banks*; or even claimed ToS violations**
The cognitive dissonance between these two view points should be apparent. As rational thinkers it should be obvious that we can not simultaneously support and condone banks for restricting financial operations to organisations based purely on whether we like that organisation.
Should British Gas also request Christian Voice get another energy provider?
No matter the reason for the retraction of service it doesn’t justify the actions that were taken. In either case.
There is currently a battle to preserve and promote Net Neutrality and deal with the idiocies of the Digital Economy Bill. In which people were, rightly, horrified about the idea that people might lose their internet access on accusations of copy right infringement.
This is an important issue because it is nearly impossible to function without an internet connection. You lose your voice, your access to knowledge and the ability to function in society.
The same is true with banking facilities. Without access to money your ability to function becomes impossible. An issue which becomes ever more significant with the move away from physical to digital money.
The counter argument is that as an ethical bank, Co-op was merely sticking to it’s principles.
However, ethical banking means that the banks commits to investing your money in organisations and actions which are consider ethical.
To ensure that it does not use your money to profit from actions you consider unethical.
It does not, and should not, mean that you have to pass a morality test to join; because that places the bank (and not consumer) as the arbiter of what is ethical.
If we find it acceptable for the Co-op to refuse to allow homophobes the right to bank then it is only fair that we consider it acceptable for a non-ethical bank to refuse homosexuals the right to bank.
Regardless of your position towards Christian Voice or Wikileaks it is crucial that organisations are allowed to function and can not be neutered and censored by corporations acting outside the law.
Democracy stands by the assertion that you don’t censor people who are wrong, but you debate them into obscurity. Celebrating the closure of CVs banking facilities is celebrating censorship and not debate.
Because money talks, and without it you can’t.
Another disclaimer: I’ve been stuck on a 3G connection for weeks now so have not been able to follow up references and such to levels I would like. So I am happy (as always) to accept corrections and the like.
* A fear which appears to have lead to pre-emptive registering of critical url addresses of various bankers
** Which it would seem the KKK do not violate
Co-op VS Christian Voice, Good: Visa VS Wikileaks, Bad - keeping cognitive dissonance in check
Being an atheist has nothing to do with my protest of the pope today.
Trying to write more - so here's a quick missive before I head out the door to todays protest. Whilst ill as a very ill thing.
I find it fascinating that it appears assumed that most people protesting the pope will be atheists. Is it true?
Either way that assumption allows Joseph Ratzinger to diminish all criticism as being the work of 'aggressive atheists' hating God.
This morning as 'thousands' head towards Hyde Park Corner to protest the easiest way that our comments can be ignored is by people being able to diminish the protest as purely atheist in nature.
That as an atheist I can't criticise the sexist treatment of women, or the luddite and murdering approach to contraception (especially with the regards to HIV and Africa), or the systematic and calculated cover up of the abuse of children because deep down I'm really complaining that these people believe in God.
I find this absurd. But, listening to the words of the ppe during this trip, in all his silly hats surrounded by pomp and parade, I've realised something. His comments against the 'secularising of UK society' and 'marginalising of faith' in this country is not a plee to become a Catholic. Although obviously he would like that. The reason for all these strong words is to fence off the secular and atheistic view point in the minds of the general public.
I think he wants to remind people that religion is magic, and thus so criticising it is dangerous, and even if you are apathetic towards it you need to respect it.
In addition, the unfair position that the Pope has been given due to his position as 'head of state' (of a citizen-less state no less) is a reason to protest today all by itself. If we gave state visits to the heads of every faith then this would be acceptable, but as it stands the Pope has been given a position above any other faith to come to the UK and criticise our way of life. Which we will pay for the pleasure for.
So, that being the case, a defence of our way of life is just.
It isn't due to my lack of a belief in God that I protest today – but because I do believe that, for all it's flaws, when it comes to equality, family planning and religion this country is progressive and civilised and as such closer to any God than the man that today will wear a silly hat inside a stupidly named car who preaches famine as contraception and that no women can ever equal a man.
Even though, in my opinion, no God exists. Obviously.
A mind blowing example of Poe's Law: It's like Brass Eye....ON ACID!
The Rational Wiki defines Poe's Law as follows:
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing.
Of course it works both ways, often I stumble over religious material so insane that I believe it to be parody, but which is, in fact, genuine. For example here are some church websites. I should warn you that they are both visual and noisy. But it still won't prepare you for what you are about to see. They are amazingly awesome.
- International Congress of Church and Ministers — A site for ensuring the tax free status of churches with the IRS.
- Evangel Cathedral — An evangelical Cathedral.
- KK Mime — Evangelical Ministers who minister via the medium of yes, you guessed it, mime.
- Truth Transformation Ministries.
- The 7th District AME Church in South Carolina
- St. John Missionary Baptist Church
After watching all these I'm so stoked I could fight a bear. I genuinely think they are amazing. They all seem to have been produced by SharperFX who specialise in making websites. Websites for insane churches.
If Chris Morris was to create a Brass Eye Episode about these churches, his parody would be interchangeable with the real thing and no one, on either side, could tell.
And that kinda makes me happy.
(via reddit)
Dutch news piece on Biblicaly Correct (B.C.) Tours
So a German Dutch speaking film crew went to film a B.C. Tour. The very first part is in German Dutch (or at least I think it is germa it is if you are ignorant) but afterwards we are good to go.
I last talked about this lot here. It's depressing to be reminded they still exist. I think it is significant to note that an organisation that promotes complex 'science' like this and gets worldwide attention has a web site that looks like this:
(This post was also a sneaky test of the site - hopefully, the images, embeds and text are now all hunky dory - please let me know if you are still having problems)
Professor Carmella's Psychic Studio
You might want to be sitting down for this as it is pretty exciting, a flyer just came through my door from Professor Carmella! Woohoo! What wonders await us dear readers!? Follow me into the exciting world of Professor Carmella...
First there is an awesome palm reading guide - FOR FREE!
And more importantly 100% RESULTS GUARANTEED!
I've hidden the phone numbers out of a sense of decency. But what should I do readers? On one hand I think it's harmless. On the other hand I'm pretty worried that someone in my neighbourhood helps people troubled by witchcraft and claims to cure illness. I'm very tempted to them ring up...
Obama vs McCain: Faith off!
Which is of course massively factually inaccurate, not least because most of the founding fathers were deists and "In God We Trust" not being the motto of the USA till the 50's.
And here's Barak Obama giving a speech in 2006:
I dislike heavily edited things so here is the full 40min talk by Obama (I couldn't find a longer clip of McCain).
I think everyone who makes their way to this site (regardless of their faith) are going to be a lot more impressed with the latter talk - hell after the last 8 years it's almost astonishing. It will be interesting to see if Obama sticks to his guns on the topic, the fact that talk was given in a church is a good sign after all. Heres hoping.
Despite our 'special relationship' I find it reassuring that whilst Presidential candidates in America talk like McCain here in the UK Tony Blair was worried that people might think him a "A Nutter" .
Overall I think that is a far healthier position to be in.
Amorth Watch: He's back because he's got himself a TV show to help separate possession from psychiatric problems
The last time Amorth got mentioned in Skeptobot was way back in August 2006, and then he fell off the radar. So to pop up again a year and a half later he's got to be up to something, and indeed he is. Obviously most news reports about him are in Italian but I've managed to find this report that states he's making 'a television and Internet report series'.
Oh goody! The San Francisco Sentinel apparently watched the first episode as they've got some quotes from it.
“Normally when a person experiences these conflicts and problems, the first thing he does is see a doctor and psychiatrist,” he said. “It is very difficult to distinguish the devil’s action from a psychological problem. The person goes to a psychiatrist and after years of therapy obtains no result.
“Then he begins to suspect that the problem is not a natural one and goes to a conjurer from whom he obtains even greater harm. This is what normally happens. At this point, it is possible that someone more experienced in these matters suggests an exorcist.”
The main crux of his show appears to be about getting respect for exorcism and urging Italy to separate possession from psychiatric problems. Call me old fashioned but tying a person with very real mental problems to a bed and telling him the devil has possessed him is probably not a very good thing to do.
He also claims “Mariology" is his field, and The Virgin Mary is Satan's great foe because she is very pure and Satan is filthy. I know I shouldn't find that funny, but I do.
I'm going to keep an eye on this, and see if I can dig up the shows, to work out what is going on. Hopefully he won't turn into the Gillian McKeith of Exorcism.
The Pope's Exorcist Amorth is back on the case of the literal devil
Skeptobot is a long time fan of Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's Chief Exorcist. Because he's insane. He thinks that Hitler was possessed by the Devil and that possessed people have superhuman strength and can levitate. So I guess he thinks Hitler can fly. But to be fair to Father Amorth, that's pretty awesome.
Anyhow Amorth has been quoted recently saying
"There is a greater openness towards the devil"and that that medicine and science can’t solve all illnesses, but some are resolved by exorcism, and his colleague Father Pedro Barrajon says:
“Satanism and the occult are in fashion.”
So much so that the article I'm getting this from says
Italy has an estimated 800 satanic cults, with more than 600,000 followersWho in their right mind believes that Italy has half a million devil worshippers? And more so, if Amorth and co believe that the devil is literal and runs around making people do bad things why doesn't he prove possession if it's so common? Why doesn't he film one of his levitating devil men? Or is faith less fun when you've proved you were right?
It boggles my mind that the Pope is a-ok with this.
Actually, no it doesn't.
Skeptobot will review yesterdays protests.... later.
I know I told a few people in confidence that there would be a post reviewing the protests today. But that won't be for a little while as I'm very busy. But the decrepit, disgusting den that is 4chan was impressive - in a positive way - for once. Who would have thought?
The full story involves having e-meter readings, interviews with both Scientolgists and "The Internet" and being tailed by "undercover" scientologists.far away from the actual protests.
Marcus Brigstocke on Religion
Here's a clip of Marcus Brigstocke moaning about religion on the BBC's 'The Now Show.' It's really rather splendid.
Currently I am stuck in the office 24-7, but thankfully the BBC's mighty iPlayer is keeping me sane, and finally made it possible for me to watch Brigstocke's 'The Late Edition', which in turn lead me to a wikipedia which started one of them damn web cascades - which produced this vid.
Catholic Archbishop claims condoms infected with HIV...
..., you know, intentionally, for larks, by Europe.
The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique, Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, claims European Condoms and even anti-retroviral drugs are infected with the HI virus "in order to finish quickly the African people."
This is a country where 16% of the population are HIV positive.
As such, he told the BBC that abstention was the best way to fight HIV/Aids.
I could argue for hours about how the catholic church's viewpoint on contraception has resulted in massive amounts of unnecessary human suffering - because I'm right - but at the end of the day you can believe whatever nonsense you want to.
But when your viewpoint is losing ground, to then spread lies about your opponent is fucking disgusting.
As Ben Goldacre said on his miniblog, if Hell exists this guys just bought himself a one way ticket.
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