Saturday, July 19, 2008 . 7/19/2008
How to cure anorexia with exorcisms
Exorcisms to cure mental illness and drug addiction, locking vulnerable people away from friends and family, prayer as a solution to all problems – sounds like psych ward from last century. But actually it’s just the ‘Mercy Way’.
The once mighty ‘Mercy Ministries’, a secretive outfit that purports to treat young women with mental illness, is now in serious trouble.
Bankrolled by controversial Pentecostal group the ‘Hillsong Church’ and Hillsong-aligned Gloria Jean’s coffees the group has been the subject of a number of complaints to authorities. They’ve already closed one of their two facilities.
Women who’ve been through its programs say the main ‘treatment’ they were prescribed were exorcisms and prayer study, supervised by bible studies students. That’s whether they were dealing with anorexia, anxiety disorders or substance abuse.
And all the time being kept virtually as prisoners - cut off from the outside world with no TV or newspapers, with severely restricted access to friends and family and made to even ask permission to go to the toilet.
Nowhere was the promised phalanx of mental health professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and dieticians. Just bible studies students whose answer to all questions was more prayer.
Three former residents told LIVENEWS.com.au they were left in a worse state after going to stay at Mercy Ministries – which still operates in a house in Sydney’s Glenhaven.
Meg Smith (not her real name) says she went to Mercy because of the group’s promise of free treatment for her anxiety disorder and panic attacks.
But she quickly became disheartened after “free” meant signing over her Centrelink payments to the group and “treatment” didn’t include proper access to doctors, psychologists and social workers.
“The 'counsellor' I had was not qualified to treat mental illness... nobody there was. She was in the middle of a mercy 'in-house program' to teach her how to prayer counsel,” says Smith.
“I spent months there and the only 'therapy' I had was prayer readings and an exorcism.”
She paints a disturbing picture - where a group of vulnerable girls isolated in a suburban home and forbidden to leave or form friendships on pain of being expelled – followed a punishing daily routine.
The once mighty ‘Mercy Ministries’, a secretive outfit that purports to treat young women with mental illness, is now in serious trouble.
Bankrolled by controversial Pentecostal group the ‘Hillsong Church’ and Hillsong-aligned Gloria Jean’s coffees the group has been the subject of a number of complaints to authorities. They’ve already closed one of their two facilities.
Women who’ve been through its programs say the main ‘treatment’ they were prescribed were exorcisms and prayer study, supervised by bible studies students. That’s whether they were dealing with anorexia, anxiety disorders or substance abuse.
And all the time being kept virtually as prisoners - cut off from the outside world with no TV or newspapers, with severely restricted access to friends and family and made to even ask permission to go to the toilet.
Nowhere was the promised phalanx of mental health professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and dieticians. Just bible studies students whose answer to all questions was more prayer.
Three former residents told LIVENEWS.com.au they were left in a worse state after going to stay at Mercy Ministries – which still operates in a house in Sydney’s Glenhaven.
Meg Smith (not her real name) says she went to Mercy because of the group’s promise of free treatment for her anxiety disorder and panic attacks.
But she quickly became disheartened after “free” meant signing over her Centrelink payments to the group and “treatment” didn’t include proper access to doctors, psychologists and social workers.
“The 'counsellor' I had was not qualified to treat mental illness... nobody there was. She was in the middle of a mercy 'in-house program' to teach her how to prayer counsel,” says Smith.
“I spent months there and the only 'therapy' I had was prayer readings and an exorcism.”
She paints a disturbing picture - where a group of vulnerable girls isolated in a suburban home and forbidden to leave or form friendships on pain of being expelled – followed a punishing daily routine.
All I can say is wow. The article just speaks for itself. 2 Comments - Post/view comments
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 . 5/13/2008
Einstein letter calls Bible ‘pretty childish’
LONDON - Albert Einstein: arch rationalist or scientist with a spiritual core?
A letter being auctioned in London this week adds more fuel to the long-simmering debate about the Nobel Prize-winning physicist's religious views. In the note, written the year before his death, Einstein dismissed the idea of God as the product of human weakness and the Bible as "pretty childish."
The letter, handwritten in German, is being sold by Bloomsbury Auctions on Thursday and is expected to fetch between $12,000 and $16,000.
Einstein, who helped unravel the mysteries of the universe with his theory of relativity, expressed complex and arguably contradictory views on faith, perceiving a universe suffused with spirituality while rejecting organized religion.
The letter up for sale, written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January 1954, suggests his views on religion did not mellow with age.
In it, Einstein said that "the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."
"For me," he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions."
Addressing the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people, Einstein wrote that "the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."
Bloomsbury spokesman Richard Caton said the auction house was "100 percent certain" of the letter's authenticity. It is being offered at auction for the first time, by a private vendor.
Quirky beliefs
John Brooke, emeritus professor of science and religion at Oxford University, said the letter lends weight to the notion that "Einstein was not a conventional theist" — although he was not an atheist, either.
"Like many great scientists of the past, he is rather quirky about religion, and not always consistent from one period to another," Brooke said.
Born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1879, Einstein said he went through a devout phase as a child before beginning to question conventional religion at the age of 12.
In later life, he expressed a sense of wonder at the universe and its mysteries — what he called a "cosmic religious feeling" — and famously said: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
[Source: MSNBC]
Whether the letter is authentic or not remains to be seen I suppose, but if it's real, then awesome. 2 Comments - Post/view comments
Sunday, April 13, 2008 . 4/13/2008
This is scary. If you can get through the whole article without getting really, really pissed off, I applaud you. The whole thing is like a train-wreck.Religion does not belong in public schools. AT ALL. School is not a place to push your pathetic little agenda, that is what church is for. Actually, I'm going to go as far as to say religion doesn't belong in any school whatsoever. Children do not know any better, and by the time they reach college they won't learn much if it's religious in nature. It won't prepare you for anything except a career in fucking up everything.
Labels: Denialism, Evolution, Religion, Stupid
0 Comments - Post/view commentsWednesday, March 26, 2008 . 3/26/2008
Okay, I was angry the other day and I think I might have gone a little too far with that rant.I don't like religion in general. Religion in general is stupid, just like people in general seem to be stupid. Individuals though are a different story; I realize there are plenty of religious people who accept evolution, are ok with abortion etc. Really, I would have no problem with religion at all if it didn't try to butt into places it doesn't belong.
That's all. Move along, nothing to see here.
Labels: Religion
0 Comments - Post/view commentsMonday, March 24, 2008 . 3/24/2008
Well, I went to the eye doctor today. When I walked in I noticed this really annoying infomercial-style thing on this screen that played the same thing over and over about how the retina works and what this new machine does, etc. So that pissed me off real quick. I only lasted until after they took measurements and stuff of my eyes and then I started to cry. I don't know why, but I did. All I wanted to do was go home and go to bed. Needless to say, I had the appointment rescheduled. I don't know what went wrong.. I just felt overstimulated and irritated and it was terrible. And it got me thinking - how the hell am I ever going to make it in the real world? My mom was with me today to get her eyes tested as well and I can only imagine what it would have been like if I went by myself. I feel so fucking helpless.-------------------
Brown criticized over embryo bill
Cardinal Keith O'Brien will use his Easter Sunday sermon to launch an attack on the government's proposals.
He will also call on Gordon Brown to allow Labour MPs a free vote on the issue at Westminster.
Downing Street did not respond directly to the cardinal's attack, saying Mr Brown had already made his views clear.
The prime minister has said the bill would improve research into many illnesses.
Hybrid embryos
Supporters of the bill believe hybrid embryos could lead to cures for diseases including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.
Leading scientists accused the Roman Catholic Church of "scaremongering" over research which had the potential to save many lives.
Cardinal O'Brien, who is the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, also wants Catholic ministers serving in the Cabinet to stand down rather than support the bill.
In his sermon, which was released on Friday, the cardinal claims that the bill would lead to the endorsement of experiments of "Frankenstein proportions".
Cardinal Keith O'Brien will use his Easter Sunday sermon to launch an attack on the government's proposals.
He will also call on Gordon Brown to allow Labour MPs a free vote on the issue at Westminster.
Downing Street did not respond directly to the cardinal's attack, saying Mr Brown had already made his views clear.
The prime minister has said the bill would improve research into many illnesses.
Hybrid embryos
Supporters of the bill believe hybrid embryos could lead to cures for diseases including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.
Leading scientists accused the Roman Catholic Church of "scaremongering" over research which had the potential to save many lives.
Cardinal O'Brien, who is the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, also wants Catholic ministers serving in the Cabinet to stand down rather than support the bill.
In his sermon, which was released on Friday, the cardinal claims that the bill would lead to the endorsement of experiments of "Frankenstein proportions".
He says: "This bill represents a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life.
"In some European countries one could be jailed for doing what we intend to make legal.
"I can say that the government has no mandate for these changes: they were not in any election manifesto, nor do they enjoy widespread public support."
The cardinal describes the practice as "grotesque" and "hideous".
Dr Stephen Minger, director of the stem cell biology laboratory at King's College London, said: "This is yet another example where it is clear that the Catholic Church is misrepresenting science because it doesn't understand the basic facts."
He added: "The church should carefully review the science they are commenting on, and ensure that their official comments are accurate, before seriously misinforming their congregations."
Read more...He says: "This bill represents a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life."
This research is to save lives you fucking idiot.
I thought religion like this was supposed to embrace the possibility of lives being saved. And since their non-existent god won't help us achieve this, we have science. These idiots have two choices: pray that all problems will go away, OR ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. And they aren't doing anything but whining as far as I can tell. This is how almost all religion is; go to church, preach to the choir, and whine about how science is so gosh darn evil. I am not going to lie or sugar-coat this any longer - I absolutely hate religion. It is a useless piece of shit that does nothing to help us advance further. If it isn't homosexual discrimination, it's racist. Or telling a woman whether or not she can have a zygote removed from her own body, even if she gets raped. Or letting AIDS run rampant in Africa because missionaries refuse to hand out condoms or do anything but preach abstinence. Or pushing ignorance such as creationism. Or bitching about how science is immoral and wrong.
I am fucking sick of it. And not only is protesting against stem-cell research and the like idiotic, it also shows how absolutely ignorant you are. They are cells. There are cells everywhere, really. They can't think and they can't feel. Did these people not pay attention in Biology class or did they just drop out of school in the 3rd grade? Or think of it this way: I'm willing to bet that these people have eggs for breakfast at least every once in a while. Eggs such as these are the biggest cells we can see without a microscope. Why aren't they protesting against eating eggs since they had the potential to contain life? And why don't women who protest against stem cell research just get pregnant all the time? Every time they get their period, an egg goes to waste!
And as a final note, let me just say that I think anyone who considers a bunch of non-sentient cells more valuable than an actual human life is immoral. Or an idiot, whichever.
Labels: Personal, Religion, Stupid
0 Comments - Post/view commentsThursday, February 21, 2008 . 2/21/2008
Iran: Four months in jail and 30 lashes for walking dog in streets
Tehran, 19 Feb.(AKI) - A 70-year-old man has been sentenced by an Iranian judge to four months in jail and 30 lashes for going out on the street with his dog.
The incident took place in Shahr Rey, a suburb of Tehran when the owner of the dog was caught by a police who quickly handcuffed the man. He was later charged by an Islamic judge for "disturbing the public order".
The sentence, seems to want to panic the owners of dogs that despite repeated warnings by the police, continue to defy the authorities by taking their dogs outside their homes.
President Ahmadinejad recently provoked debate in Iran about dog ownership when he took possession of four guard dogs, bought in Germany at a cost of 110,000 euros each.
The dogs are at the centre of a theological controversy because Islam considers dogs to be impure.
For this reason, the government has banned owners of domestic animals from taking them on the streets of the city, and owners risk fines or the 'detention' of their animals in a pound.
"The purchase of these dogs was authorized by a fatwa issued by several ayatollahs who approved the use of these animals if the only goal was to guarantee personal security and not infringe on any religious rule," said Iran's semi-official news agency Fars.
[Source]
Tehran, 19 Feb.(AKI) - A 70-year-old man has been sentenced by an Iranian judge to four months in jail and 30 lashes for going out on the street with his dog.
The incident took place in Shahr Rey, a suburb of Tehran when the owner of the dog was caught by a police who quickly handcuffed the man. He was later charged by an Islamic judge for "disturbing the public order".
The sentence, seems to want to panic the owners of dogs that despite repeated warnings by the police, continue to defy the authorities by taking their dogs outside their homes.
President Ahmadinejad recently provoked debate in Iran about dog ownership when he took possession of four guard dogs, bought in Germany at a cost of 110,000 euros each.
The dogs are at the centre of a theological controversy because Islam considers dogs to be impure.
For this reason, the government has banned owners of domestic animals from taking them on the streets of the city, and owners risk fines or the 'detention' of their animals in a pound.
"The purchase of these dogs was authorized by a fatwa issued by several ayatollahs who approved the use of these animals if the only goal was to guarantee personal security and not infringe on any religious rule," said Iran's semi-official news agency Fars.
[Source]
Okay, what the hell? I mean honestly. Even assuming that their god was real, it still doesn't make any sense. Why would he create dogs in the first place if they're unclean? But more importantly, when will countries like Iran ever come into the 21st century?
Labels: News, Pets, Religion, Stupid
0 Comments - Post/view commentsTuesday, February 12, 2008 . 2/12/2008
I'm going to start and try to be more polite and understanding when it comes to religious peoples' views. A lot of religious people think that most, if not all atheists are rude and arrogant pricks and acting that way, such as in forums or even in this blog does nothing but reinforce that point of view, no matter how good the argument may seem. If you want someone to listen to you, being rude and hostile isn't a very good way to go about it I don't think (even if it can be hard holding back due to frustration). It'll just want to make the person resist your arguments even more. For rude fundamentalists however.. that might be a different story. For some people, being rude is the only way to get through to someone but I will only do that as a last resort. 2 Comments - Post/view commentsSunday, December 30, 2007 . 12/30/2007
You know what's frustrating? Being told that I'm a bully by my own mom.We were watching Jesus Camp, right. And my parents (at least my mom) thought that it was indeed a horrible thing; however something about creationism popped up and my parents thought that it should be taught in school along with evolution. I tried to calmly explain that creationism has absolutely no basis in fact and is not science at all. My dad said that science isn't all based on fact and that "a lot of it is still just theory". By this point I got pretty irritated since I always knew my dad to know science. I'll admit that I did raise my voice a little at this point, trying to explain that a theory in science was as close to fact as you can get. But then my parents played the "oh it's just your opinion" card and my mom accused me of being a bully.
Fucking hell.
Labels: Rants, Religion, science
0 Comments - Post/view commentsWednesday, November 28, 2007 . 11/28/2007
I went swimming with my mom and cousin yesterday. Last time there was no one in there, but this time there were quite a few.. only two kids were swimming but there was a girl around my age looking after them and three or four guys in the hot tub. At first my cousin and I were a little weirded out, especially because those guys were there, but eventually we went in and swam. After that I didn't really care other people were there; in fact, I noticed the guys were looking at me, and I actually found this empowering. It is such a great feeling when the anxiety is gone and replaced with confidence. Those days when you just want everyone to know you exist and to notice you, to look at you, look at how well you are doing for yourself. I wish every day could be like that.Anyway, my cousin has been talking about how almost every girl in her school and church talks about her behind her back, and that she is sick of going to that school and sick of going to church. My mom mentioned that they were supposed to be Christians (which in reality doesn't keep most from acting in a bigoted way). I think that because of this my cousin has a chance from being free of her religious chains and brainwashed upbringing, and while I hate the fact that she is being talked about behind her back, it also makes me happy that perhaps someday she'll come to realize that religion is all a lie. 0 Comments - Post/view comments
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 . 8/29/2007
I just came up with an idea. Hey, the mind tends to wander when it's nearly 1 AM.What if a sort of "religious troupe" were to be held where the participants pretend that Harry Potter is the one true god and J.K Rowling is his prophet? These people could roam the streets, telling people of Harry Potter's Great Feats. Most likely the response will be, "No, Jesus is the one true god", but then that could be refuted with a simple, "Prove it". They won't be able to. The participants could say that J.K Rowling was divinely inspired by the spirit of Harry Potter, and that the books are his Holy Word.
Perhaps that will get people to realize how silly religion really is. But then again, I wouldn't count on it.
Labels: Religion
0 Comments - Post/view commentsSaturday, August 11, 2007 . 8/11/2007
This article is already quite a few months old, but I thought I'd post about it anyway.This creationist "museum" is but one of the many ways that religion has gone too far. In this day and age, it is absolutely pathetic that such a view still even exists. We have (real) science, evidence, knowledge of at least some of the Bible's origins, and yet some still remain willfully ignorant.
Grand Canyon park guides will tell you that the canyon took more than a million years to form and cuts through rocks that span more than a billion years.
Not so, say "Young Earth" creationists. All those rocks were deposited by flood waters at the time of Noah.
Now, the Noah's Flood myth was most likely taken from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Furthermore, the idea that Noah built an ark to fit every kind of animal in the world is absurd. There are many problems, including the size of the thing.
According to the Bible, the Ark had dimensions of 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits tall (this converts to roughly 450 by 75 by 45 feet). This is over four times the size of any wooden ship built by any civilization that existed in the second millenium BC. Large wooden ships must withstand severe stresses on the open seas, and the technical methods to deal with these simply did not exist then. It was not until the year 1900, some 4,000 years after Noah and his Ark, that wooden ships were built that even remotely approached the Ark's purported size. These were nine-masted schooners 300 feet long (some 150 feet shorter than the Ark). They were so long that they visibly undulated with the waves, and required large diagonal steel braces to prevent them from breaking in half. Even with these reinforcements, the stresses caused gaps in the plankings, and they leaked continuously and had to be constantly bailed with a pump. They could only be used in coastal waters since they could not survive in the open sea. The unseaworthiness of such large wooden ships was the major reason why the world's navies turned to steel ships before the First World War. The Ark, remember, had to survive open seas during a catastrophic raging Flood [source].
Another problem is lack of evidence. For one thing, the supposed time the flood took place was around the time the pyramids of Ancient Egypt were being built. Also, there are no other historical records in any other place mentioning a great flood.
So, again, this myth was most likely based on Gilgamesh, which was most likely based on a small, local flood, where at the time the rest of the world was unknown.
.. Most geologists would say humans and dinosaurs were separated by more than 60 million years. And those dinosaurs have very sharp teeth!
"So do bears", says Ken, "but they eat nuts and berries! Remember, before the sin of Adam, the world was perfect. All creatures were vegetarian"..
At this point, it's pretty hard to believe that some people actually - well - believe things like this, or are merely seeking attention and ways to make some easy cash.
What I am most concerned about is children going to see this "museum". As we all know, children are very susceptible to believing anything they are told. I personally think that it should be illegal to open up such "museums", as they hold no scientific evidence and is about the same as teaching The Tortoise and the Hare as a true and literal account.
Labels: Religion
0 Comments - Post/view commentsTuesday, June 05, 2007 . 6/05/2007
I can't believe this. I really can't. What the hell does faith and religion have to do with politics? Oh, that's right, this is America. No one wants an atheistic leader.This is all complete bullshit, it really is. These people seem to go out of their way to say that they believe in Jesus and "have faith". Again, why should we give a flying rat's ass what their beliefs are? And what the fuck is up with this statement:
"Senator, you often speak of the 39 million Americans who wake up in poverty every day. Many of us in churches and faith-based organizations, for us this is a gospel issue, as you know. Changing this is a biblical priority, so we are wanting to make a specific commitment to cut poverty in half in the next 10 years as a beginning"?
Followed by this reply from Edwards:
"Well, let me first say thank you to you, Jim, and to Sojourners for its great leadership on this, what I think is a great moral issue facing this country today and I would add to that, this the is the cause of my life. It is the reason after the last election that I went back to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, started a poverty center. It is the reason I've traveled around the world doing humanitarian work."
A gospel issue? A moral issue "facing this country today"? You don't have to have faith to care that other people are dying of starvation, and in fact, if faith is the only thing that makes you a caring person, you have a real problem.
It's hard to read any further without getting nauseous; "Do you think that God takes sides in a war? For example, in the war on terror, is God on the side of U.S. troops, would you say?"
God taking sides, hmm, okay. If he did exist, this wouldn't be very nice now, would it? I thought God was supposed to love everyone no matter what. Taking sides is rather childish for a god, and I do not think he would be for such a petty war as this. And anyhow, asking this question is the equivilant of asking "Does Santa take sides, do you think? Does he deliver presents to the U.S troops?" Furthermore, do these people not realise that the people in Iraq have a faith and a god too, and are killing for it? So, which faith is right, yours or theirs?
I can't read anymore of the transcript. It's just too ridiculous and pathetic. I never realised just how heavily a role faith plays in America. It's fucking sad. As someone on the Infidels.org forums said, "You myswell ask them what their favorite Lord of the Rings character is".
When will people realise that this whole "faith" thing is nonsense? Especially grouping faith and religion with politics! Why should anyone care what someone's faith is as long as they are a good person? In this country, someone could be the nicest person in the world, giving money to charity and preventing child and/or animal abuse, but if they mention they are an atheist, it's all over. Something is seriously wrong here when belief in an invisible dude determines how good a person you are.
I just don't know what else to say. 0 Comments - Post/view comments
