Vexen Crabtree's Blog: Human Advancement

2024-01-03

Religion in Pakistan

New page: "Religion in Pakistan" by Vexen Crabtree. A place that is extremely intolerant of religious beliefs that aren't Sunni Islam, with women, LGBT folk and minorities facing long-term violent and inhumane persecution.

The contents menu is:

2024-01-01

Moving Onwards to 2024

In 2024, I'll continue to use this profile to post religion-related content associated with my websites and the Human Truth Foundation. For my main profiles, check out:

And finally, used occasionally for content that has an associated image:

www.flickr.com/photos/vexen_crabtree/ for informational content and more personal (but still public) photos.
www.instagram.com/ for informational content.

2023-12-31

Blasphemy in Pakistan

A new page! Pakistan's blasphemy laws are infamously strict and unjust, tied to the country's overall culture of intolerance and prejudice, and result in a constant stream of murders, violent attacks and mob violence against anyone accused of saying the wrong religious things. Knowing that the consequences can be life-destroying even when the claims are false, accusations are often made against competitors during feuds or to resolve grudges. Such is the temper in a country that is being dragged backwards into a barbarous theocracy by religionists, amidst a wave of fear. The concept of blasphemy is their primary weapon.

"Blasphemy in Pakistan" by Vexen Crabtree

The contents menu is:

2023-10-10

A list of denominations of Satanism

A new page! Satanic churches, divisions and sects. "A List of Denominations of Satanism"

The contents menu is:

2023-09-30

An introduction to the biblical book of Jonah

An introduction to the biblical book of Jonah.

God punishes Jonah with a storm and has a monstrous fish eat him, until he relents and preaches to the city of Nineveh that it will be destroyed. He didn't want to, because he didn't think it would be destroyed, and he didn't want to be a false prophet. After being bullied into it, God changes his mind, and doesn't destroy Nineveh.

The teachings in the Book of Jonah are that God punishes those who are disobedient and rewards those who are obedient, and if you murder someone at sea then all is well as long as you fear God. Also, if you are in an unequal relationship, it is best to simply do as you are told, else, things will only end up harder for you. It's not the Bible's finest moment.

Historically, the book lacks legitimacy. Nineveh was the capital of the great Assyrian empire and at no point did the events of Jonah 3:5-10 actually occur - not a single trader, traveller, statesman or historian note that the entire population suddenly gave up its old ways and embraced a new religion.

http://www.humanreligions.info/jonah.html.

2023-09-24

Religious Days and Festivals in October

A list of religious days and festivals in October - days for the seasons, various saints and gurus, celebrations and finally, samhain / halloween, on www.humanreligions.info/october.html.

2023-09-20

The Food Chain and God: The Natural Evil of the World

A new page! "The Food Chain and God".

A good god could, if it wanted to, have designed all life so that it is directly sustained by manna from heaven, with no need for consumption of biological matter. But almost every form of life must by its very nature capture, kill and eat other living beings in order to survive. Without this murderous torment, life is impossible. If not by direct consumption, then, organisms must still acquire biological matter at the expense of others: the competition for food is also a case of living beings being required to outdo each other merely to survive. There is no way to live life along a principal of do no harm.

If life was created, and not simply the result of undirected unconscious evolution, this is surely the worst possible way to have created life. A god could not have created a more vicious cycle if it tried: tying the very existence of life with the necessary killing of other life is the work of an evil genius, not of an all-powerful and all-loving god. Either no god ever instigated life or guided it, or, such a god is monstrously evil.

The contents menu is:

2023-09-15

What is Fundamentalism?

Fundamentalism is the approach to religion that sees believers embrace an early form of their religion, to consider it beyond criticism and worthy enough to be enforced without having to accommodate modern evidence or logical arguments against it. Fundamentalists of text-based traditions treat a core holy text as infallible and inerrant. Because beliefs are given absolute importance, fundamentalism is often sectarian and intolerant: every doctrinal interpretation results in schism and division.

http://www.humanreligions.info/what_is_fundamentalism.html.

2023-08-21

Prayer: Shouldn't Theists Trust the Plan?

I've updated the introduction paragraph to Prayer is Ungodly:

Of all the many courses of action or inaction, a perfect God always picks the best one. This appears to makes prayers ineffectual. If one prays for a friend to miraculously recover from an inoperable brain disease, what will happen? The prayer cannot make a difference, because, God has already picked the best course of action. If the prayer is successful, it's because God was already going to move that way. If it was unsuccessful, then, God has a better plan. To pray for God to act is to doubt that God already knows best.

There's a more dramatic 2nd paragraph.

2023-08-15

The Book of Job

I've shortened the introduction to the Book of Job and added a section on dating & authorship. The contents menu of The Book of Job is now:

2023-08-01

The Maldives

Over 1000 atolls (islands made from raised coral reefs); cultural and civic life has been ruined by strict Islam. A comparison of international statistics, concentrating on Social and Moral issues. The contents of "The Maldives (Republic of Maldives)" by Vexen Crabtree (2013) is:

2023-07-22

Human Rights and Freedom in Taiwan

A new page! "Human Rights and Freedom in Taiwan". Taiwan performs very well in ensuring human rights and freedom compared to most other countries. It does the best in the world at supporting freethought and better than average on supporting personal, civil & economic freedoms, supporting press freedom (one of the best in Asia) and in LGBT equality. In 2019, Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage.

Statistics covered:

2023-07-20

Religion in India

India is 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim, 3% Christian. Hinduism has a wildly varied mix of beliefs and practices which date to prehistory. Buddhism and Sikhism both also started in India and in the 1960s, Western spiritualists took home some interpretations of Hindu beliefs: the result was a range of movements which became called the New Age.

But religion in India is no longer peaceful. Intolerant right-wing Hinduism-first parties have instigated a bloody series of mob conflicts with Christian and Muslim communities; causing hundreds of churches and mosques to be destroyed, and a great number killed and displaced.

Incompatibility between Hinduism and Islam lead to the breakoff of Pakistan amidst fighting that saw over a million people lose their lives, and, three subsequent wars and a nuclear arms race, with the disputed territory of Kashmir as the flashpoint. During this cultural and religious conflict, Hindu extremism has become "an impediment to... human rights".

http://www.humanreligions.info/india_religion.html

2023-07-18

India

Added to Section #6 tables on India's education statistics compared to the rest of the world: The BJP, a conservative Hindu-first party made popular by its campaigns of hate against minorities, have pursued a policy of establishing astrological departments at universities, despite academia's longstanding aversion due to the overwhelming evidence that astrology is not founded on any kind of reality. In an unequal nation of 1.4 billion people, the funding could have provided for a large number of teachers, covering sorely-needed topics of maths, the sciences and engineering. http://www.humantruth.info/india.html: 6. India's Modernity and Learning. #india #BJPGovernment #BJP

2023-07-17

Violent Extremism in Hinduism

Hindu violent extremism is a serious problem, especially in north India; there are thousands of attacks against religious minorities every year. It has become "an impediment to... human rights". Reactions by victims stimulates Hindu mobs to enact further attacks. For example, when the Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu activists in 1992, thousands of protesting Muslims lost their lives in a very one-sided series of mob fights. And over Christmas 2007 in one state, a hundred churches were damaged and 700 Christian homes destroyed. Complicit are political parties that use race and religion to divide people and stoke hatred; especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Shiv Sena. Section #3 lists some of the worst cases of mob violence. Link: http://www.humanreligions.info/hindu_extremism.html.

2023-06-26

Prayer as Meditation - or as Insult

I've rewritten this page on prayer, removing half of the content and expanding the section on meditation.

What is prayer for? It doesn't change outcomes, because God's plan is perfect and prayer can't change which is the best action for God to take. Prayer doesn't work against individual ailments, nor does it change national outlooks (even on health). So what's the point?

Prayer still has positive uses. It gives us a quiet-time to think slowly, and let ideas and resolutions come to us. It can also create social togetherness and consolidarity, as can all shared rituals. With these advantages, although theists call it "prayer" - others, more accurately, call it meditation, which actually does have some positive results on one's own health.

The contents menu for "Prayer is Pointless, Except as Meditation" by Vexen Crabtree (2023) is now:

Prayer Across the World (Who Prays the Most?)

A new page! "Prayer in World Religion".

Daily prayer is most common in Central America (77%), Africa (75%) and The Caribbean (74%). The least prayerful countries are China (01%), UK (06%), Austria (08%), Switzerland (08%) and Czechia (09%). Does prayer work? All of the larger studies on prayer, and the well-controlled ones, show that prayer has no effect on the world.

The contents menu is:

2023-06-25

The average immigration rate in Europe is 14%. Of the countries with over 1m population, the highest immigrationrate is Switzerland (29.6%), Austria (19%) and Sweden (17.6%). Ireland is 8th in the list, the UK is 15th. For a full list, see: www.humantruth.info/europe_migration.html by Vexen Crabtree of the Human Truth Foundation.

2023-06-21

Buddhism, Confucianism, Humanism, Jainism, Taoism, Raelism, Scientology and other movements are all religious but don't have a belief in god(s). This confuses westerners in particular, who often equate religion with god-belief to such an extent that they can't imagine being religious without it. "Atheist Religions"

The contents menu is:

2023-06-18

www.humantruth.info/the_values_of_liberalism.html divides liberal values into three categories (social, political & economic), which together stem from the 17th century Enlightenment. But note that someone who holds liberal ideas in one domain doesn't have to be liberal in another - an individual may be socially liberal but not economically; others may be liberal overall, but not when it comes to politics.

2023-06-15

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The Freedom of Expression

A new page! Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants us the ability to speak freely as long as we don't infringe on other rights. Political extremists and traditional religions have been effective and stalwarts opposition to free speech, enforcing censorship, victimisation and blasphemy laws against those whose opinions they don't want to hear. "Freedom of Expression"

The contents menu is:

2023-06-12

Got something to say?

Do you want to contribute an article, or well-referenced opinion piece to the HTF websites on http://www.humantruth.info ? We are looking for content on world events, party politics, democracy, political extremism and violence, and other disruptive events effecting our world. See: http://www.humantruth.info/contribute.html.

2023-06-09

Human Rights and Freedom in Ethiopia

The first round of international treaties on human rights began in the 1940s after the founding of the United Nations. For the following few decades, Ethiopia regularly signed and ratified almost all such treaties, except a few. However since 1989, it has signed only two, and, ratified only one.

For full details and statistics, see: Human Rights and Freedom in Ethiopia by Vexen Crabtree.

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

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

2013-11-16

A load of updates on religion and Satanism

I've done quite a few updates, here are some of them:

Prayer to God in Christianity and Islam: It is Useless and Satanic!: I've added a quote from Voltaire (1764) to the section "2. Praying is Against God's Will" and massively expanded section "3. Praying is Magic" with commentary of Justin Barret's investigations into people's choices of prayer in emergency situations. And to section "5. How to Pray in Islam, According to the Qur'an" I've added notes on several more Qur'anic verses, such as Qur'an 3:191, 5:6 and 17:107,110.
Is God All-Powerful? Can God or Anything Truly Be Omnipotent?: I've added a 6th (important!) item to the list of things that an all-powerful god cannot do: omnipotency is incompatible with benevolence. Responsible for making every aspect of evil and suffering possible and for creating the long chain of cause and effect that results in disasters and influences people to choose wrongly, god is so absolutely responsible for all evil and pain that it renders it an amoral being at best, and at worst, an immoral one. And on that note, I've added Section 2 on The Problem of Evil. On a sociological bent, I've added section "5. The Ineffectiveness of God to Answer Prayers", which is about the way choices of prayers give away the fact that people are saying them more as magic words rather than saying them with the confidence that God itself can change the laws of physics (i.e., a link to the text mentioned in the first update mentioned in this entry!).

And three updates to my Satanism website:

Misanthropy, Nihilism and Self-Worth: People are Shit, Boring and Stupid: Added two new paragraphs, including: "People attain varying shades of greatness. Some become great and lead humankind forward, successfully encouraging others to shake off their shackles and dogmas, and face the wondrous world with imagination and open-mindedness. Some become great through beauty, acting, entertainment, or other temporal endeavours, and find their egos drag them onwards. Both the humanistic greats and the egotistical greats are prone to thinking themselves better than others, and both can often be found bemoaning the state of the masses. Are you with me, or are you part of the deluded herd? Because of the two types of greatness I mention above, one is formed of breakable china, and the other is formed from rock, upon which we build humankind's greatest scientific, technological and moral victories. When looks and talent fade, who has left the enduring legacy on which others can build? They are the greats, and they are ones who have permission to announce their disgrace at the state of humankind! Follow them, copy them, be inspired by them and read their books!"
Moojan Momen's 8 Pathways to Religious Experience: Categorizing Satanism: I've added this paragraph to section "1.7. Gnosticism". Momen's use of the word "gnosticism" is a little problematic, as, nearly all gnostic documents discvovered archeologically have been largely Christian affairs, having as a saviour a Christ figure who comes and reveals the necessary secret knowledge, and, being heavily centered on the ways in which the Old Testament god is defeated by the Good News. Momen's category mostly describes what are called mystery religions, rather than gnosticism. For this reason, although in 2007 when I first published this text I stated that there was a 4 out of 5 match between this category and Satanism, I am not revising that to 3 out of 5, due to the poor choice of category title by Moojan Momen. I follow this with a good description of actual Gnosticism.
Righteous Satan Theologies: When Satan is Good: I've added section "2.3. Classical Gnosticism". Just added a few paragraphs on the Gnostics who were caught occasionally identifying with bad-guys such as Cain, Kresh and Judas. Because it turns out that if the God of this world is actually evil, then, those who oppose that god are in fact the good guys.

Scroll around these updated pages and look for the little "New" graphics as always, which Ziggy will leave in place for ~ 6 months for any new paragraph, quote, or section.

2013-10-04

A few updates to some of my pages on religion

A few of these updates I done a few weeks ago, but I've been busy with University work so I'm only just around to posting this.

Traditional Religions and Abolition of the Slave Trade - I've added a paragraph to section 1. The Early Slave Trade, War and Rejection of Slave Ownership : "Slavery was part of the culture of the entire Mesopotamian area (from which Judaism and Christianity arose) but in Babylon in the era of 1800 BCE, injury to slaves was a punishable offence, although the punishment was only a fine2, slaves were better off than in the surrounding areas. Organized Judaism arose from Babylon, and the God that they described in their holy writings happened to reveal to them laws and guidelines regarding slaves that were eerily similar to those found in the wider Babylonian community. Some use this fact to argue that all the verses regarding slaves are merely cultural artefacts, and not God's word."
And I have also added half a dozen more verses to the text on the Old Testament and New Testament.
Islam and the West: Pluralism, Immigration and Danger - Made a few minor updates and added section "4. Violent Fanaticism and Terrorism, Starting With Intolerance" with an example of the way a pro-evolution and pro-women's-choice cleric was forced out of his teaching role in the UK by anti-evolution and anti-women Muslims. The potential scope of what I could put on this page is staggering, so much so that I've chickened out and only made a few minor updates at the moment, due to time constraints.
Institutionalized Religions Have Their Numbers Inflated by National Polls - Added some stats to section "5.1. Hidden Secularisation" on American atheists; 4 in 20 of them still call themselves Christian or Jewish, and only 1/4 of them actually call themselves atheist.

And finally,

Is the Christian God Evil? Evidence from Scripture and Nature - I've added a new section to the bits on the New Testament - "2.3. Jesus and the Crucifixion - A Trick". The whole scheme of the life of Jesus does not add up, and it is very hard to reconcile it with the plans of an all-knowing, good God. The crucifixion makes no sense, except if the God of the Bible is evil. Then the magic tricks are the successful attempts of an evil god to impress us simple mortals.

2013-07-26

A few little updates to religion pages

Monotheism and Free Will: God, Determinism and Fate - added a note on the contradiction between Omnipotence and Free Will (section #2), added a few more verses from Qur'an to the list of determinist verses, and re-ordered the page a little bit.
Added section Atheism and Secularism #2. Lower-case or Upper-case Atheism? and commentary on the confused opinions of sociologist William Sims Bainbridge.
The God of the Christian Bible is Evil: Evidence from Scripture and Nature - Added section "4. Sowing Seeds of Confusion - Not the Antics of a Good God" about Biblical statements on dreams, prophecies and the like and how they should be trusted, against the real-life situation that many conflicting religions and beliefs result from such visions. Also, the story of the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11 has God create all the conflicting languages of mankind, because otherwise "nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them".

And finally,

Biblical Christianity Denies Free Will: I've added Matthew 5:45 to the section on predeterminism; although it isn't about salvation, it is at least about justice. The verses say that the sun and the rain afflict both the good and the evil amongst us. Also added a quote to section "4.5. The Church of England" from John William Draper (1881).

And in other news, I'm loving the summer heat even though it makes it harder to do my marathon training - mostly means I'm having to go running a bit later in the day than normal.

2013-06-03

A few of these updates I done a month ago! A few are from the last few days:

I've split my page on zombie films into two pages; Classic Zombie Films: the Slow Undead and Aggressive Zombie Films Where the Undead are Angry and Fast. And I've added reviews of Romero's latest films to the classic page, and a review of Osombie (where Osama Bin Laden comes back from the dead in Afghanistan!).
Democracy: Its Foundations and Modern Challenges - relaunched this page and moved it to a new domain. I've added several sections, including results of the Press Freedom Index, showing which are the best 25 and worst 25 countries, and added a large section on the Mass Media, largely concentrated on the negative effects on democracy.
Modern Mass Media: The Bane of Human Cultural Evolution - I've gone through all my notes from "Media Studies: The Basics" by Julian McDougall (2012). Although it was only a relatively light book, it still contained a few paragraphs I've quoted, and other factoids that I've added to this page, and, took the chance to clear up a few bits and make a few minor edits.

And finally:

Marriage: Its Diversity and Character - Added a quote to section "1. The Diversity of Marriage" - "Pythagoreans taught that marriage is unfavorable to high intellectual development [and] the Pharisees taught that it is sinful for a man to live unmarried beyond his twentieth year" (Stanton 1898). And I've added a chart to section "5.2. The Decline of Religious Marriages".

2013-02-14

UK Religion and What Country is the Best in the World?

I've added a few more charts and bits of historical data to "Religion in the United Kingdom: Diversity, Trends and Decline" by Vexen Crabtree (2012). In particular:

And I've at last been updating "What is the Best Country in the World?: An Index of Morality, Conscience and Good Life" by Vexen Crabtree (2013)... I reset all countries' points and have added a new set of data sets. Some of the latest ones I've added are:

Three more data sets: (1) the Global Peace Index (2012) which measures militarisation, arms deals and domestic and neighbourly conflicts. (2) The Press Freedom Index which measures media independence of authority, transparency, and criminilsation of opposing view (including imprisonment and murder of journalists). (3) Freedom on the Net index, which measures government intrusion on normal user rights.

2012-09-13

Updated a load of pages with notes from Qur'an

I've slowly been getting through my notes on the Qur'an. I've added some stuff to these pages:

vexen.co.uk/religion/scriptural_debating.html - Scriptural Debating Style: Christians and Muslims Must be Patient and Courteous section 2. Islam: With Courteous Manners and Wisdom; verses like Qur'an 4:140, 4:148, 16:25 and 29:46 in general agree with verses from the Christian Bible on the same subject, although you wouldn't believe it from the behaviour of many of the hot-headed Christians and Muslims!
vexen.co.uk/religion/christianity_historical.html - Types of Christianity in History: Who Were the First Christians? section 4.2. The Evolution of Religion: The Bad Boys Survive at the Expense of the Nice Ones; the conflict between various forms of Christianity became so legendary that even other religious books try to explain it - Qur'an 5:14-15 asserts that emnity and hatred between Christians is a punishment from God for their "abandoning parts of God's message".
vexen.co.uk/religion/antisemitism.html - Anti-Semitism: 2000 Years of Christian Love section 11. Islam; I've added the right-hand box that summarizes Qur'an 5:12-13, which says that most Jews are liars.
humanreligions.info/twelve.html - The Divine Number 12: 12 Gods, 12 Disciples, 12 Tribes and the Zodiac section 3. The 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Disciples of God; added a new paragraph on Qur'an 2:60, 5:12 and 7:160, which records some strange details about the 12 tribes of Israel each having their own river, all stemming from one source.
vexen.co.uk/religion/christianity_astronomy.html - Christianity v. Astronomy: The Earth Orbits the Sun! section 7. Islam and the Qur'an; Qur'an 13:2-3 contains some of the same errors about basic science as does the Bible, assuming a flat Earth.

A lot of these notes have been appended to other pages because I haven't written enough to 'break out' the sections into their own pages. Everything is still growing!

2012-08-06

Synthetically grown meat

I've written a load more on synthetically grown meat; the introductory paragraph reads:

Meat in vats, grown in culture from a chemical source derived from animal genetics, will result in meat being grown more like plants than livestock. Such research aims to massively reduce the land and resources used by meat production, increase the safety and nutritional value of meat, stop animal suffering and prevent the further hunting of endangered species for food. It has even been researched by NASA in 2002, as part of an investigation into food production on long-haul space flights. The Economist newspaper in 2006 hailed it as a future industry. Animal farming as an industry is in distress in the modern world, and is criticized for its heavy use of water and inhumane nature. The potential benefits of growing synthetic meats in a sterile and controlled manner are huge.

2012-05-06

Voltaire - nothing is new in metaphysics!

I've added this quote to the beginning of "Nothing New: Religions Evolve From Previous Religions" by Vexen Crabtree (2007):

"In metaphysics, in moral philosophy, the ancients have said everything. We coincide with them, or we repeat them. All modern books of this kind are only repetitions."
- Voltaire (1764

2012-04-19

I am still alive!

2011-11-18

Some updates

Some recent updates:

I have added an image to "Public Transport is Good. The Advantages of Pooled Transport." (2007).
Added a section to "God Never Needs to Test Us" (2005): 4. God Testing People in the Christian Bible. "Sometimes, it is said in the Bible that God tests people. In Deuteronomy 8:1-2 God reveals that the 40-years in the wilderness was a test done by God to find out what was in people's hearts - whether they would still obey orders. In Deuteronomy 13:1-5 God sends some false prophets and wonder-workers as tests to see if people will follow other gods, and in 2 Chronicles 32:31 God is doing similar fact-finding tests. Yet an all-knowing God, creator of all time, knows exactly who will pass any tests, and knows exactly what is in everyone's heart. So either God is lying about his reasons, or, god is not actually all-knowing."
Added section 5 to: "The Importance of Current Events is Amplified by our Egos: 5. The Truth: Crime is Falling and War is Less Frequent" (2005). And in section 2 I've added a note on the Dao De Jing by Lao Zi, who thought that civilisation itself was a mistake.
Added section 1.4. to "Religious Clothing and Symbols in Secular Democracies: 1.4. 2011: The Banning of the Burqa and Niqab in France and Belgium".

2011-10-04

Cremations, Liquefaction, Burial: Pragmatism and Ritual Instincts!

I've rewritten an old page. The contents of "Approaching Death: Ways of Disposing of Bodies and Suicide" by Vexen Crabtree (2011) is now:

2011-09-13

Christianity: Times in the Bible When God Doesn't Know All, and Tests People to Find Things Out

I've added a new section to http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/omniscience.html#Christianity:

The Bible says God is perfect in knowledge, knows all thoughts, all secrets, sees all and no-one can hide from God. See: 1 Samuel 2:3, Job 28:24; 37:16; 42:2, Psalm 44:21; 139:4,7-8; 147:5, Proverbs 15:3, Jeremiah 16:17, 23:24, Acts 1:24, Hebrews 4:13, Matthew 10:30 and 1 John 3:19-20. Yet there are plenty of times when God doesn't know things, such as where people are. Check these verses:

Genesis 3:8-13 - Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, amongst the trees of the garden, and God had to go find them, and then asks them questions. Either Adam and Eve are so dumb that they can't grasp that God is all-knowing, or, God is genuinely asking because it doesn't know the answers.
Genesis 18:20-21 - "²⁰Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous ²¹that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”"
Genesis 32:22-30 - In this obscure story, Jacob wrestles with God in bodily form and sees God face-to-face. God asks Jacob what Jacob's name is; yet an all-knowing god would surely know!
Numbers 22:9 - Balaam and some Moabite officials spend a night waiting for God, who duly pops down for a visit, "And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee?" An all-knowing God would have known.
Job 1:7, 2:2 - "And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it."
Hosea 8:4 - Some princes of Israel were set up without God's knowledge.

Sometimes, it is said in the Bible that God tests people. In Deuteronomy 8:1-2 God reveals that the 40-years in the wilderness was a test done by God to find out what was in people's hearts - whether they would still obey orders. In Deuteronomy 13:1-5 God sends some false prophets and wonder-workers as tests to see if people will follow other gods, and in 2 Chronicles 32:31 God is doing similar fact-finding tests. Yet an all-knowing God, creator of all time, knows exactly who will pass any tests, and knows exactly what is in everyone's heart. So either God is lying about his reasons, or, god is not actually all-knowing. See: "God Never Needs to Test Us" by Vexen Crabtree (2005).

2011-08-29

Current stuff

In order of priority, I am:

* Looking after my little boy while I'm not at work. Finishes in about 16 years.

* Doing final course essay for Religious Education module going towards degree. Finish in early October.

* Penultimate RE essay (1000 words, easy). Finish in a week.

* Studying/revising for Com Sys Eng degree; including Microsoft and Cisco CCNA exams - during the week. Finishing them all in December.

And stuff I sqeeze it when taking a break:

* Programming Moggy, my music playing software.

* Light maintenance / editting of web domains and occasional programming/improving of Ziggy, my content-management software.

And stuff which has been completely abandoned for a number of years, mostly because although they were fun, they just take too long:

* Baphomet Method (music project)

* SquaddieWars (Facebook game, asp.net platform)

2011-08-11

Uni

I am mostly studying at the moment, and not doing website stuff. This year I'm doing a foundation degree in Communications System Engineering, for which I'm always revising for Cisco and Microsoft exams, and I'm doing another module towards my Open University degree in social sciences with religious studies.

2011-07-22

What Causes Religion and Superstitions?

I've relaunched this page and added loads of new stuff. The contents of "What Causes Religion and Superstitions?" by Vexen Crabtree (2011) is now:

2011-07-16

The Gospels and the Crucifixion - Differences in style

I have updated "The Crucifixion Facade" by Vexen Crabtree (2002) with a few biggish quotes from Bart Ehrman on the gospels' accounts of the crucifixion. Whilst there are well-known contradictions between thses accounts (who'd have thought that various people could have thought Jesus' last words were so different?!!), Ehrman's quotes summarize the totality of the style of these differences, and is the best summary on this topic. Find the quotes in section 3 of that page.

2011-07-05

The Problem of Evil and Suffering: Can a Good God Exist?

I've redone "The Problem of Evil: Why Would a Good God Create Suffering?" by Vexen Crabtree (2011). It still opens with a list of all the main areas of the problem of evil (natural disasters, angels heaven, babies going to heaven). And a list of all the main theodocies used to try to explain why evil exists (free will, the absence of god, god testing us, etc). All these explanations do not answer the fundamental problem of evil, however.

The page contents:

2011-06-19

How to Pray in Islam, According to the Qur'an

I've added a whole load on Islam to "Prayer to God in Christianity and Islam: But Praying is Useless and Satanic" by Vexen Crabtree (2005), concentrating purely on the Qur'an (for now), and commenting on:
Qur'an 3:43: Women in Prayer: No Segregation
Qur'an 3:191-4: Praying Posture (standing, sitting or laying)
Qur'an 7:55: Pray With Humility and in Secret (same as Christian Bible)
Qur'an 52:48-49, 73:1-7: Prayer (Timings) at Night

These are pretty much all the Qur'anic says about prayer.

2011-06-02

The End of the World and Our Egos!

I've added a paragraph to "The Importance of Current Events is Amplified by our Egos" by Vexen Crabtree (2005):

End-of-the-world-mania is dependent upon certain properties of human ego. We want to witness important historical times, and we want to be at the fore and center of tumultuous and attention-grabbing events. There have been thousands of end-of-the-world predictions. They have been the products of many great minds, many devoted believers in various religions and cults, with a lot of time and effort put in to each and every theory, building up supporting evidence from religious texts, historical trends and numerology. What do all these predictions have in common about the end of the world? They have all been wrong. Those promoting these fears, and those subject to them, are all in the grips of their own ego!
This is based on my new page "The End of the World is Nigh! The Dangers of Apocalyptism and End-Times Beliefs" by Vexen Crabtree (2011), which includes stuff on the Harold Camping, the Mayan calendar, suicide cults and the Christian Bible.

2011-05-09

Updated Time to Move On page

I've added a few bits to "Time to Move On: Religion Has Cost Too Much" by Vexen Crabtree (2010):

Added a quote from Victor Stenger to section "1.2. Organized Religion Makes 'Beliefs' Dangerous"
Added summary section 3.3 The God of the Gaps
Added summary section 4.3. The Slave Trade

2011-04-26

Last Human on Earth

I just spent 30 minutes daydreaming about what I'd do if I was the last human on Earth. After some fansical ideas about spending the time learning, building a nest, taking up radio astronomy, I realized I would probably need to spend most my time on food-management and pre-emptive medicine-learning. Boring!

Assuming food-management was sorted, and I didn't go crazy... I'd have to be strict with myself. Up at 7am every day (or 8am, depending on day break), I'd always set an alarm. I'd give up most things computer-related (no point). I'd obviously learn where hardware stores are, supermarkets for most my food, but I'd need to start growing veg and fruit straight away.

Library. Surival books, gardening books, health books. Find pharmacy, rig up kit to generate electricity. Lots of Army bases in the SW have kit like that, that I've (seen) used before. But then what?

Library: Astronomy, research, physics... a last ditch attempt to find ETI? Broadcast my own radio station on AM and FM in case there is anyone else?

I'd not be much interested in travelling around or thrill-seeking. Resources matter, that's all. So I need fuel for electricity; when resources run out, I'll go somewhere else, in a truck full of stuff. Build lots of large signs and message telling people how to find me. Just try to keep busy, rather than lose my faculties!

2011-03-03

How many Muslims are there?

I've put this on to http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/islam.html :

44 countries are over 50% Muslim.
1.6 billion Muslims in 2010 (23.4% of the world): 2.2 billion by 2030 (26.4%)
6% of Europe was Muslim, in 2011. Will rise to 8% in 2030
2.7% of the population of England & Wales are Muslims (and rising)

Population growth in the world is highest amongst the poor and the uneducated. Muslims have a disproportionate share of such people, so their numbers are rising. Factors such as war and instability in the Middle East keep the reproduction rate higher.

The Muslim world is slowly aging. "In 1990 Islam's share of the world's youth was 20%; in 2010, 26%. In 2030 it will be 29% (of 15-29-year-olds)". But on average, Muslims are starting to age. "The media age in Muslim-majority countries was 19 in 1990. It is 24 now, and will be 30 by 2030. (For French, Germans and Japanese the figure is 40 or over.) This suggests Muslim numbers will ultimately stop climbing, but later than the rest of the population".

2011-02-24

Anti-Jewish Violence by Muslims, in Europe

I've added a new section to "Anti-Semitism: 2000 Years of Christian Love" by Vexen Crabtree (2004):

10. The Growing Violence of Muslim Antisemitism in Europe

The European Union Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia's report on the subject of growing and violent anti-Jew crimes in the EU found that that largest group of perpetrators were young Muslim males. Because of this, the EUMC withheld publication (until it was leaked). The report summarized country-by-country events, including large rallies against Jews by hundreds of Muslims chanting "kill the Jews", and no end of other incidents. Throughout the West, violent anti-semitism is correlated with Muslim immigration.

“Since 2000, anti-Semitism in France has been epidemic. Synagogues have been burned down, schools vandalized, shops attacked, rabbis beaten, children assaulted, school buses shot at, [...]. At Muslim demonstrations shouts of "Death to the Jews" have become common. [For example in 2004] an assailant shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Great") stabbed another seventeen-year-old Jewish boy in the chest in another suburb of Paris [as he left a Jewish school].”
--Bruce Bawer (2006)

2010-12-29

Some Satanism pages updates

Three updates:

I've added Asbjørn Dyrendal's description of Satanism as "humanism with horns" to http://www.dpjs.co.uk/humanism.html . Also added Jesper Aagaard Petersen (a serious academic of Satanism)'s comment that Satanism is "a functional equivalent to religion", and a quote from Asbjørn Dyrendal who says "There are many definitions of "religion" by which at least rationalist Satanism ought to be excluded".

I've also quoted Asbjørn Dyrendal agreeing with me that "Satanism is world-affirming" to "Satanism is a World-Affirming Religion, not a World-Renouncing One" by Vexen Crabtree (2007)

2010-10-04

DPJS redesign

I've redone 4 more pages on my DPJS website to the new design:

"The Nine Satanic Statements" by Vexen Crabtree (2002)
"Satanic Ritual and Satanic Magic" by Vexen Crabtree (2002), which actually includes all of the next page:
"Lesser Magic in Satanism" by Vexen Crabtree (2002)
And the main index page: is finally done, with some javascript fiddlery pokery: "The Description, Philosophies and Justification of Satanism" by Vexen Crabtree

2010-07-19

Aliens and Saviours!

I've added text to "Alien Life and Planet Earth" by Vexen Crabtree (1999). Contents:

And the added text centers around a quote from Paul Davies:

“The existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence would have a profound impact on religion, shattering completely the traditional perspective of God's special relationship with man. The difficulties are particularly acute for Christianity, which postulates that Jesus Christ was God incarnate whose mission was to provide salvation for man on Earth. The prospect of a host of 'alien Christs' systematically visiting every inhabited planet in the physical form of the local creatures has a rather absurd aspect. Yet how otherwise are the aliens to be saved?” -- "God And The New Physics" by Paul Davies (1984)

Did the God of the universe, who authored however-many intelligent species on however-many planets, really have a special covenant with a tribe of Humans? Will Heaven - the Heaven of all creatures from all planets - really descend upon Jerusalem on Earth? And do aliens who live billions of light years away, really need to have known Jesus, to have accepted Christian religion, to be saved? These questions have few answers that Christians can accept.

2010-06-19

1836: The first cheap newspaper

I've added a little bit of history - the 1830s - to "Modern Mass Media: The Bane of Human Cultural Evolution: 4. Politics and Democracy" by Vexen Crabtree (2009)

It was the year 1836 that saw the first cheap newspaper appear (La Presse) that depended upon a readership that was not an intellectual or class élite of some kind. Mass media had arrived. Politicians worried about the destabilizing effects of the misinformation and sensationalism that news papers frequently contained.

“The growth of such powerful engines of information or misinformation inevitably had large political implications. [...] Conservative fears that an irresponsible trouble-making press, given enough rope, might become a danger to political stability and public order, seemed fully justified. [...] Opposition papers were more often than not factious, irresponsible and sometimes dangerously violent.” -- "The Ascendancy of Europe 1815-1914" by M S Anderson (1985)

Close to two centuries later, and not much has changed: mass produced cheap newspapers remain an anathema to civility.

2010-03-15

The Problem of Evil and Free Will

If God is all-powerful and all-good, it would have created a universe in the same way it created heaven: with free will for all, no suffering and no evil. But evil and suffering exist. Therefore God does not exist, is not all-powerful or is not benevolent (good). [...] A theodicy is an attempt to explain why a good god would have created evil and suffering.

The most common theodicy is the free will theodicy. This is that God created evil so that we could then choose between good and evil, and make moral choices. If all choices result in good, there would be no moral choices. If love is acceptable, it must be chosen over hate and therefore evil and suffering result when we make morally poor choices. However this classical theodicy does not hold up, for many reasons. Prominent historical Christian theologians who have rejected the free will theodicy include St Augustine, Martin Luther and John Calvin1. The arguments on this page are thousands of years old, but, many continue to believe in the simplicity of the free will theodicy, so, it does no harm to state the arguments against it again.

These are the menu headings on my page about the free will theodicy:

The contents of "Is Free Will the Reason God Allows Evil and Suffering?" by Vexen Crabtree (2003) is now:

2010-02-09

Time to Move On: Religion Has Cost Too Much

I have rewritten my main anti-religion page from 1999. The contents of "Time to Move On: Religion Has Cost Too Much" by Vexen Crabtree (2010) is now:

2009-11-06

How to fix newspapers

I have added a section to my critical page on the Mass Media, with regards to newspapers and cheap sensationalist journalism, and their negative effects on individuals and society. Here is a bit of the next text, view the rest by clicking on the title, above!

Stronger international laws against the public spreading of disinformation. Broadcasters should be placed under extra legal obligation to check facts. Many journalists avoid legal trouble by claiming that they don't know what stories are true or not. So, if it is scandalous and it will sell, then, they publish it without checking (or admitting) their sources. There needs to be an international body that specifically deals with mass-media outlets, proscribing to them a greater responsibility to check their facts, with the ability to suspend printing or publication once a certain amount of abuse has built up.
Journalists should be required to be a member of a journalist association, which they get kicked out of if they produce very low quality information. Many developed countries already have such associations. It should especially be the case in wire agencies, from which most other news outlets get their news.

Some methods of curbing the press's abuses are good-hearted, but occasionally dysfunctional:

"In 2008 the Slovak parliament introduced one to guarantee the subject of a story the right to reply, of the same length and prominence as the original" - this sounds good, because the idea is that the press will have to print criticisms of itself in its own papers with such frequency that they will be compelled only to publish accurate information. There is however a very unfortunate second part to that law - the right to reply stands even if the facts were correct. This would seem to me to lead to a barrage of responses from politicians and lawyers that abuse the right-to-reply principal, in effect, ending the ability of the press to be critical. In a healthy democracy, the press must free to be critical of governments and institutions.
In Poland, an old law gives sources the authority to withdraw or edit quotations right up until the point of publication41. So when a paper tries to quote someone out of context, as they are often eager to do, the subject can withdraw their quote. Unfortunately, it seems like it can again be abused by officials to ruin newspaper stories in order to hide truth.

In short, it appears to be very difficult to concoct laws that allow individuals to protect themselves against ridiculous press stories, but where instititons and democracies are still subject to critical journalism without fear of recriminations. What would be an ideal is a world where consumers, as pointed out above, avoid the more outlandish papers, and where editors and journalists only try to produce responsible pieces. Unfortunately, neither is likely to happen.

2009-06-27

The Creation of an International Military Force and the Fear of Progress

I've added some text to "Uniforce: An International Military Force" based on stuff I've written in "General Neophobia in Everyday Life: Humankind's Fear of Progress and Change" which traces a few historical battles between progress in defence (such as wearing camouflaged uniforms) and those who worried that changes in defence were too dangerous to contemplate. Experiments in pooled defence have so far proved successful and stabilizing, but, there are few attempts to explain this to the general public.

“Despite the advantages of pooled military defence, there is much public concern about things such as combined European defence, even though the advantages far outweigh the theoretical disadvantages. Because it is big, and new, there is much opposition to it even though the status-quos in international defence are widely acknowledged to be broken. [...]

Media coverage of the ESDP (common European defence policy) has been entirely negative, despite the commendation of senior military experts and diplomats in Europe. In the future, when a European or International military force exists, historians will look back and puzzle over what our problems were.
”
From "General Neophobia in Everyday Life: Humankind's Fear of Progress and Change" by Vexen Crabtree (2009)

There must be more effort to explain to the public the massive costs and disadvantages of having nearly every nation maintain world-faring military forces, to explain that some developed countries only have a defensive force (look at Switzerland) and have not been immediately invaded by their neighours, and that the African Union proves the principal of pooled defence. In practice, NATO and Europe are operating as if they had a unified worldwide force, and deploy it where is necessary. It makes sense to formalize this, so that it can be strengthened and made more dependable. But the public do not hear anything of these ideas or debates - they exist only in specialized military journals. While the mass media, which is inherently sensationalist and nationalist, is the main voice on international military issues, most people receive reactionary information that is biased against intra-national accords.

2009-05-28

Neophobia and the Irrational Fear of 'Radiation'

I've added some text to "General Neophobia in Everyday Life: Humankind's Fear of Progress and Change" by Vexen Crabtree (2009):

We saw that in zombie films and other hollwood products often used the idea of 'radiation', sometimes in a very simplistic manner, to sow the seeds of fear and horror. There exists as part of the fear of the invisible and the unknown, a fear of 'radiation'. This is despite the fact that the colours of the spectrum and radio signals are both forms of radiation, along with infra-red light (all are merely different frequencies on the electro-magnetic spectrum). This general fear of immaterial waves plays a part in the unfounded fears of mobile phones. Dr Frank Barnaby, a specialist on military technology and nuclear physics, points out that this fear is also a weapon in the hands of terrorists:

“
'The true impact of a dirty bomb would be the enormous social, psychological and economic disruption [...]. It would cause considerable fear, panic and social disruption, exactly the effects terrorists wish to achieve. The public fear of radiation is very great indeed, some say irrationally so.'

The effect is that, in the dirty bomb, terrorists have a particularly dangerous weapon only if the media continue to mislead people into believing it is particularly dangerous.”

From "Flat Earth News" by Nick Davies (2008)

Nick Davies, a journalist and media analyst, warns that as long as the media publish sensationalist articles and news that is not checked for scientific accuracy, such fears will continue to be spread in a self-perpetuating cycle.

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