Belief in god(s) doesn't harm anyone

"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities." --Voltaire

One of my favorite quotes, or at least a paraphrase of his quote.
 
This is no different than the family about 20 years ago that believed their daughter was "possessed," because she wore makeup, and had her exorcised. She died as a result of being denied food and water for something like a week, IIRC.
 
Brought to you by the same fun loving gang:

Hundreds of people have been injured in an annual stone throwing festival at a remote mountain village in northern India

Residents of Dhami near Shimla divided themselves into two groups and pelted stones at each other

The group having the least number of wounded were declared winners reports Asian News International.

It is reported participants were extremely enthusiastic about the stone throwing ritual, which continued for more than an hour in spite of injuries sustained

Local administrators and police set up several makeshift medical camps to treat the bleeding victims.

Those severely wounded were taken to hospitals at Shimla for treatment

The 100-year-old event called Sati Pradha Mela marks the death of a local queen by Sati, an ancient Hindu custom whereby a woman immolates herself on the funeral pyre of her husband.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1179330.html?menu=
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Which brings us to the custom of Sati...

Sati (Su-thi , a.k.a. suttee) is the traditional Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre.

"Sati" means a virtuous woman. A woman who dies burning herself on her husbands funeral fire was considered most virtuous, and was believed to directly go to heaven, redeeming all the forefathers rotting in hell, by this "meritorious" act. The woman who committed Sati was worshipped as a Goddess, and temples were built in her memory.
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/hindu/sati.htm
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The Central Scrutinizer said:
Children Buried Alive in India

Sure. You betchya.
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I wonder if the CS is aware that alot of people won't bother to read the linked page.

Here is a quote from the CNN article. I'm not saying that the practice is harmless, but I am saying the opening post is misleading.

The ceremony, in which children -- some less than a year old -- are buried alive briefly and then dug up, happened on Monday in southern Tamil Nadu state, The Asian Age reported on Thursday.
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Searching for crusades I found this. (I dont know if it's an accurate quote).

blow.jpg


;)
O.
 
Wow. One wonders why no one here thought to hold an annual stone-throwing festival here (although the Highland Games comes pretty close!).
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
Children Buried Alive in India

Sure. You betchya.
Click to expand...

Precisely why I have come to despise non-rational belief systems and religion - all of them - in particular. It amazes me that people "of faith" are inclined to feel themselves superior to those of us who have an actual interest in the truth. Believing is good, not believing is evil. They have it exactly assbackward. Not to mention it is extremely lazy and cowardly to simply choose to believe a comforting superstition for no reason other than the fact that it makes you feel better about yourself.
 
Re: Re: Belief in god(s) doesn't harm anyone

FireGarden said:
I wonder if the CS is aware that alot of people won't bother to read the linked page.

Here is a quote from the CNN article. I'm not saying that the practice is harmless, but I am saying the opening post is misleading.
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Yes, I read the article. So you are saying it is OK to bury the kids for, oh, let's say...1 minute?
 
Re: Re: Belief in god(s) doesn't harm anyone

billydkid said:
Precisely why I have come to despise non-rational belief systems and religion - all of them - in particular. It amazes me that people "of faith" are inclined to feel themselves superior to those of us who have an actual interest in the truth. Believing is good, not believing is evil. They have it exactly assbackward. Not to mention it is extremely lazy and cowardly to simply choose to believe a comforting superstition for no reason other than the fact that it makes you feel better about yourself.
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And yet you defend loony toon Michael Badnarik.

Strange.
 
Re: Re: Re: Belief in god(s) doesn't harm anyone

The Central Scrutinizer said:
Yes, I read the article. So you are saying it is OK to bury the kids for, oh, let's say...1 minute?
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No. I repeat:
I'm not saying that the practice is harmless, but I am saying the opening post is misleading.

You don't think that the headline is at all sensational?
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Belief in god(s) doesn't harm anyone

FireGarden said:
No. I repeat:
I'm not saying that the practice is harmless, but I am saying the opening post is misleading.

You don't think that the headline is at all sensational?
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The headline accurately states what is happening, doesn't it?
 
Accurately,yes. And the first mate was entirely truthful when he wrote in the logbook: The skipper was not drunk today.
 
Re: Re: Re: Belief in god(s) doesn't harm anyone

The Central Scrutinizer said:
And yet you defend loony toon Michael Badnarik.

Strange.
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I figured this was coming. Actually, I never did defend Badnarik, per se. I did say I supported him because he was the candidate of the Libertarian Party. And I did say that it was not legitimate to dismiss him on the basis of nuclear weapon ownship thing, which I will not go into here. You may look at the same "data" as a libertarian and arrive at a different conclusion and find libertarians not credible for that reason, however, it has been my experience that when an effort is made to discuss the actual data and the possible conclusions to be derived from it the anti-libertarians are generally the first to depart from rational discourse and resort to sophistry and ad hominem attacks. The gun control issue is an example - the response to the data is invariably and essentially I know guns are bad and nothing you can say will change my mind. That is typical of the response to a libertarian argument. When any argument begins to threaten comfortable assumptions, the immediate response is to attack and discredit by any means possible.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
The headline accurately states what is happening, doesn't it?
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Accuracy isn't the point. It only gives the gut-wrenching part of the story. Doesn't the headline "Parents charged with involving children in banned ritual" give a more complete picture?

All I can say is,
When I read the headline I was expecting one heck of an atrocity. So much so that I was actually relieved when I read the article. Which makes me uncomfortable, because I can imagine that the experience would have been frightening for the children. Especially the younger ones - some less than a year old. But all I could think of was "at least they didn't kill them"

If you had a less murderous image in mind when you read the headline, then fine. I jumped to conclusions. My apologies.
 
FireGarden said:
Accuracy isn't the point. It only gives the gut-wrenching part of the story. Doesn't the headline "Parents charged with involving children in banned ritual" give a more complete picture?
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Not really. That sounds like the parents were letting them pray to a forbidden rain god, or dance on the wrong Tuesday, or something innocuous like that.
 
It's still better than the original. But how about:
"Parents charged with ignoring ban regarding festival of pits"

or even simply "The distressing festival of pits"

Either version is less sensational, and would probably lose a ratings war.
 
The CNN headline reads, Children 'buried alive' in India. Note the quotes. TCS, you omitted the quotes, making it sound more ominous. It's still a bizarre, unnecessary ritual, and there is no guarantee that it is harmless, but the further into the article one reads, it sounds less and less insidious than one is lead to believe from the headline or the first few sentences. At the very end of the article, we learn, "The children are drugged to make them unconscious and placed in shallow "graves" in temple courtyards.
The pits are covered with leaves and dirt and the children are pulled out after Hindu priests chant a brief prayer -- lasting up to a minute."
It doesn't sound any different than full immersion baptism, yet there are no articles about baptism with the headline, Children 'drowned' in America.
 
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