2014-04-27

Another round of updates

  • The Peacock vs. the Ostrich - Religious Behaviour and Sexuality: Two additions. (1) In Section 1: Nearly all fundamentalist religious organisations reject human rights, and in particular, reject women's rights and are hostile to homosexuality, transvestitism and any other sexuality that is not traditional and patriarchal. They "typically exclude women from the senior ranks of religious leadership. All or almost all express concern about control of female sexuality". But in history, all these things were the mainstream positions of mainstream Christian churches.

    (2) And in Section "3.2. Scientology": Paul Haggis was a Hollywood screenwriter who left the Church of Scientology after 34 years, in 2008, when the Church's name appeared on a list of organizations supporting Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative to ban gay marriage.

  • Is the Christian God Evil? Evidence from Scripture and Nature: I have added comments from the story of Job. Section 1.1 "God Creates Evil Regardless of Human Free Will" notes that evil was done to Job regardless of his free will (i.e., he was described as holy and blameless in the Book of Job chapter 1), and, his children all died as a result of God's test of Job, which was also nothing to do with /their/ free will. In section "1.2. Satan and God are Interchangeable", I note that between Chapter 1 and Chapter 42 of Job, God and Satan's actions and culpability are completely intertwined.

  • NEW PAGE: Satan and The Devil in World Religions (The mythology of evil, suffering, death, pain and materialism.). This was actually done in February but I haven't mentioned it!

  • NEW PAGE: Wicca - The Rise of a Western Mystery Religion Based on Witchcraft: A Western mystery religion invented and founded by Gerald Gardner in the UK in the 1950s, followed shortly by the very similar Alexandrian Wicca in the 1960s, although the two strands are now very closely intertwined and Wicca is decentralized. Wiccan practices centre on ritual, nature veneration, natural cycles, and magical and spiritual learning. Much of it derived from pseudo-folklore. Its festivals are held on the eight yearly Sabbats. Divinity in Wicca is seen as both male and female (typically as the Horned God and Mother Goddess), as are the general forces of nature which emanate from a complementary male and female principal.

There's more, but I'll share those updates in a different journal rather than let this one have all of the attention!

2014-03-07

Five updates on pages on Christianity

  1. Iyyobh, in the Jewish Book of Truth - Known to Christians as the Book of Job: I've added a paragraph to the introduction on this page on the theological problems in the story of Job, and 2 sections to this page: (1) God Testing People in The Bible, and (2) God as the Author of Evil: Are Satan and God Interchangeable?

  2. Jesus Did Not Exist: I have added a long introductory paragraph, and added multiple quotes from Bart Ehrman and a bit from Karen Armstrong. This page needs a lot of work - there are several important books and authors on this topic that I ought to be mentioning (for example the dry Richard Carrier and the impassioned Acharya S). The parts on the birth of Jesus and on his death will be revamped too at some point.

  3. The Book of Revelation: Some notes on authorship and symbolism.

  4. The Birth of Jesus and the Christmas Story: Pagan and Unhistorical: I have revamped this page... given it an introduction before the menu, added notes from Prof. Bart Ehrman on historical proofs, and added a few other bits throughout the page.

  5. Incest in the Bible: Adam and Eve and Their Children, and Noah and His Family: I've added a note on Warren Steed Jeffs, the President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a spin-off from the Mormons).He got himself on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" on account of the scale of his sex crimes within his congregation, including sex with minors and incest. And I've added some paragraphs on the Parsis (Zoroastrians) in Hong Kong, where religious inhibitions against marrying outside causes severe problems with the 100-strong community. Zoroastrianism and its dogmas influenced Judaism, Chritsianity and Islam.

2014-01-13

A Few Updates

  • Humanism: Added two paragraphs to section "5. The Basis of Humanism's Morals and Charitable Work by Humanists".

  • Hinduism: Added some text on the Numbers of Hindus Around the World (section #1). There are 3 countries that are mostly Hindu, Nepal (81%), India (80%) and Mauritius (56%). On average, compared to the rest of the world, those 3 countries have average life expectancy (70yrs), a slower fertility rate (2.25), are much poorer than other countries, and are poor places for gender equality. However, they do well on LGBT rights where the world average is -7.3 but those 3 countries' average score is 0 (zero) (using values derived from my Social and Moral Development Index).

  • Faith Schools, Sectarian Education and Segregation: Divisive Religious Behavior: Added Section "5.3: Sneaky Selection Criteria Continues to be Widespread, Making Themselves Look Good at the Expense of the Poor". Religious schools have 10-61% fewer poorer students than other schools, artificially boosting their league table rankings. And added a datum to section "9. Experts are Against Faith Schools": Aside from experts, the British public themselves are highly suspicious of schools that divide children by their religion. In 2005 a poll found that 64% thought that the government should not be funding faith schools at all36, and, many thought that faith schools should be illegal. In 2013 it was reported again that polls reveal "a majority of people in Great Britain are against Government funding of faith schools". (References exist in the text on the page).

  • The Christian Institute: A UK Political Lobbying Organisation: Updated section 2.2 on Christian B&B Couple Peter and Hazelmary Bull, as the Christian Institute (UK) continued to fight the latest of their failed anti-gay-rights cases through successive courts. As expected, they lost the case yet again, for the same reasons that they have lost their others.

  • Christian Mythology: Adam and Eve, and the Serpent, in the Garden of Eden: I've rewritten the opening paragraph, putting the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden into the context of the multitude of similar Mesopotamian myths, moved a few sections around, and rewritten the section that was called "Reconciling Adam and Eve with Science" and renamed it "Evolution and the Origin of the Species".