Religious guy doing survey of "spirituality"

In my headline, I put the word "spirituality" in quotes because there's no such thing. The only thing that exists in this world is reality. Nonetheless, University of Connecticut Professor Bradley Wright is asking people questions:

"Did you pray in the last 24 hours? To what extent are you feeling nurtured or angry with God? Do you feel a sense of purpose right now?" 

Important stuff, obviously (LOL).

So who is this guy? Why, he's the fellow who wrote the 2010 book "Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites... and Other Lies You've Been Told." You don't have to guess which side of the spiritual street he lives on. (BTW, Christians constantly proclaim their hatred of gays as a "spiritual value". Just read any story about pious bakers turning down gay couples who want to purchase a wedding cake. It's wall-to-wall Christian hate. So much for this guy's book.)

But you really have to laugh at the nonsensical subject of this survey.

Wright is hoping the effort will shed light on a wide range of issues: Do people feel closer to God or more distant after they're on Facebook? How did attending church service affect them? Does spirituality help with social isolation? Does amount of sleep affect spiritual awareness?

As I say, important stuff. I love the last question. I guess if you don't get enough sleep, it's harder to talk to yourself in your head while believing you're in contact with a super-being. Cuppa coffee might help.

I love the quotes in the story. Here's one:

Kyndria Brown, a 50-year-old bookkeeper from Madison, Conn., who participated in the study, said she learned that she thought more about God when she was alone and feeling sad. "But when I was with other people I tended to not think in a spiritual way," she said.

I guess it's hard to talk to yourself while you're with other actual, you know, people. That would be multi-tasking, something I'm not sure Christians can do. (Never mind, I'm sure they can't.)

Here's a final note about the author of the survey:

Wright himself was raised Catholic, then became involved in a charismatic church and now calls himself a Catholic-liturgical-charismatic evangelical.

I call him a twit. It's shorter. I guess we'll just have to wait with bated breath for the results of this earthshaking scientific study. Gee, I wonder what conclusions he'll draw (and how much money he'll make by selling the results in a book). 

There are real issues in this world that we must focus on if the human race is to survive. To cite just one of these issues, scientists say we have only 15 years to turn climate change around -- and we're not doing a thing.

But at least we'll have this survey. Hooray!

Seriously, what is wrong with these people?

Don't you love it when Christians scream about how they're oppressed? I mean, it's just the funniest thing. Like a Christian has ever been oppressed in the Christian-mad United States. Yet they wail endlessly. Here's one from today:

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — The Anti-Defamation League wants an Illinois bishop to apologize for a homily that compared President Barack Obama's health care policies to actions by Adolf Hitler, but a diocese spokeswoman says the comments were intended as historical context.

Peoria Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky said Sunday that Obama is following previous governments that "tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches." He pointed to Hitler in Germany and Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union.

ADL Regional Director Lonnie Nasatir said Thursday that Jenky needs a history lesson on the "religious intolerance and anti-Semitism fostered in society" by Hitler and Stalin.

Diocesan Chancellor Patricia Gibson, however, says Jenky offered the comparisons to "prevent a repetition of historical attacks upon the Catholic Church and other religions." 

Indeed. What planet do these people inhabit? They are trying to install a Christian theocracy in this country and they're oppressed? But hey, reality has nothing to do with it. These folks haven't even met reality. 

Dog forbid these people ever get their hands on real power because they'll bring about the end of modern civilization. They're that mad.

Piggish Timmy Dolan tries to control others, again

Tut, tut. Let me control you!

Today on NY1, I found this story:

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan is blasting the Obama administration's decision that requires many church-affiliated institutions to cover free birth control for their employees.

(Snip)

Dolan, who heads up the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the government has never forced individuals and organizations to buy something that violates their conscience.

See, here's the thing, Timmy. You're the employer, not the person wanting to use a contraceptive. And you're not "buying" it, you're reimbursing the person for a medical expense. It doesn't matter whether your conscience is "violated" because you're not the person who uses the contraceptive. See how that works: you/them. Different, see?

It is the decision of the employee whether he or she wishes to use contraceptives. It's the employee's choice, not yours. So your conscience doesn't enter into this in any way.

I hope I've managed to clarify this matter for you. Your tendency to want to control others (women, gays, etc.) is piggish, immoral and authoritarian. See? Don't worry. You can thank me later. Oh, and you're going to love Xmas Carol. I wish I could watch your facial expressions as you read it. Try to record video of yourself as you enjoy the book, and then put it on YouTube. Okay? Thanks, Timmy!

In the news today

Intro lines from real AP stories today:

Pope Benedict XVI had a direct line to the heavens Saturday, with NASA's help. Speaking from the Vatican, the pontiff bestowed a historic blessing upon the 12 astronauts circling Earth during the first-ever papal call to space.

People who were sexually abused by priests have gathered in Rome to denounce the Vatican's latest effort to show it is cracking down on clerical abuse.

Some shut themselves inside to pray for mercy as they waited for the world's end. Others met for tearful last lunches with their children, and prepared to leave behind homes and pets as they were swept up to heaven.

Sigh.

Don't forget: the world ends today, 6 PM sharp.

A good day for blasphemy!

From one of the dolts who believes he will be raptured today:

"We know the end will begin in New Zealand and will follow the sun and roll on from there," said Garcia, a 39-year-old father of six. "That's why God raised up all the technology and the satellites so everyone can see it happen at the same time."

I cannot imagine what it will be like for these gullible fools when the world doesn't end at 6 PM today. And to think they're following the predictions of a guy who's already been colossally wrong about this sort of thing once before! He ruined countless lives back then and is repeating his act today. Talk about an evil man.

Meanwhile, back in the real world:

A landslide buried 20 children and four adults at a Malaysian orphanage Saturday where scores of rescuers were digging by their hands in soil softened by the rains to find the missing, police said.

If today really was the rapture, I wouldn't mind if it meant I could stand before god and slap him across his face as hard as I could and claw his eyes out for creating a world with so much pain for so many innocent creatures. It might be worth the end of the world if I could do that.

But the world won't end today so I guess I'll just watch baseball tonight (you know, when the earthquakes are supposed to start rolling in). Go Mets!

The popey guy's empty words

The popey guy did an Easter-themed Q&A on TV yesterday and the subject was, by and large, human suffering. Here's an excerpt from an article on MSNBC, recounting the exchange he had with a 7-year-old girl:

The first question posed came from Elena, a Japanese girl who told the pope many children her age were killed and asked why children have to be so sad.

"I also have the same questions: why is it this way? Why do you have to suffer so much while others live in ease?" Benedict said. "And we do not have the answers but we know that Jesus suffered as you do, an innocent." Trying for words of comfort, the pope told her that "even if we are still sad, God is by your side."

He said the girl should tell herself: "One day, I will understand that this suffering was not empty, it wasn't in vain, but behind it was a good plan, a plan of love."

Christians have been trotting out this inane "argument" for as long as they've been around. Apparently this is why, after a massive earthquake, children are buried alive and then eaten by rats as they suffer their last moments on this Earth -- because "behind it [is] a good plan, a plan of love."

These people are monsters. What kind of scum do you have to be to make an argument like this -- and in public, no less, and when speaking to children? Anyone who hears this and thinks it makes sense is intrinsically disordered -- just like the popey guy.

A bitter truth from the tragedy in Newburgh

This should be on billboards everywhere.

You've probably heard about the woman who killed herself and three of her four young children in Newburgh, New York. Only a ten-year-old son survived after fighting his way out of the car window after his deranged mother drove the vehicle into the river. I want to point out something the news stories fail to mention.

First, I don't blame this woman in any way for what she did. Obviously she was overwhelmed by depression and unable to make a sensible choice in her last moments. It's particularly sad that she arrived at this state of mind because psychological intervention might have saved the day. But she didn't get any help and so she took this drastic step. On so many levels, it never should have happened. However, there's an ominous subtext to this story.

From what I've been able to gather from print articles and TV news, it's a safe bet that the woman was christian. Since they're still performing inane christian ceremonies down by the dock where she murdered her children, this seems very likely. Plus, there was a big image of jesus on her front door the day after the tragedy. Hard to say if it was there before she murdered these innocent children, but the signs all seem to indicate that the woman was a "good christian".

So I ask a simple question: How much easier was it for this woman to murder her young children directly because of her ludicrous belief in jeebus? After all, the children would only be uncomfortable for a minute or two -- and then they'd be safe for all eternity in jeebus' arms. Hallelujah!

Do you think that without this inane belief in the christian afterlife, she would have taken the lives of her children? Jeebus makes it really easy to kill kids, and that's a fact. Easy as pie, in fact -- because the only thing that really matters is the children's nonexistent, make-believe, never-gonna-happen afterlife with jeebus.

Christianity is disgusting in so many ways. This is one of them.

UPDATE: From NY Daily News, April 17, 2011.

McWilliams said Armstrong and her children were regulars at his Spring Valley, N.Y., church and that the deaths stunned him.

"I believe she believed strongly in her faith," McWilliams said. "Not only was she here, she always brought her children.

Popey guy beyond irony

This, from the head of the organization that brought the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition to the world:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI . . . insists that violent uprisings must never be carried out in God's name in a new book being released Thursday amid great fanfare at the start of Lent. 

 And later:

"The cruel consequences of religiously motivated violence are only too evident to us all," he noted in the book.

Truly beyond irony.