by cameron | Aug 23, 2008 | Christianity
I got into a bit of a debate on Twitter tonight about Christianity (just for a change). My comments here. When I pointed out the long list of genocides committed under Christianity, they asked me where in the New Testament Jesus had preached genocide. So I told them – Matthew 13:50.
13:49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
13:50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Included in “the wicked” are people who don’t believe that Jesus is the Lord. That’s from John 3:18:
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Now – if the Second Coming was tomorrow, the group of “the wicked” would be about 4 BILLION people.
Christians believe that the mass genocide of 4 billion people is entirely okay. Ninety7 said it’s okay because he’s not the one judging them. Apparently it’s okay to support mass genocide as long as you aren’t the one actually pulling the trigger.
That is why I say Christianity is a violent and intolerant philosophy.
How did these folks on Twitter respond?
Well Skydaddy told Ninety7 that I’m “off the deep end“. Then he went offline.
When I asked Ninety7 how he justified his belief that mass genocide was acceptable, he just shut down and stopped responding.
is there a Christian out there anywhere who can stand up to a rigorous debate about their religion?
by cameron | Aug 22, 2008 | Atheism, Christianity, religion
In the comments on my post about the Australian pastor who conned thousands of Christians into believing he had cancer, Matt wrote:
I would highly suggest for you, and any one else interested to read the book The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions by self-professed secular Jew and mathematics/philosophies teacher David Berlinski.
This tells the story of a Jew who was forced to dig his own grave prior to being shot by a German soldier. Prior to being shot, the old Jewish man advised the German that “God is watching what you are doing”. The Jewish gentleman pointed what i think is the real problem with atheism. If you have the time please check the book out.
Matt, I just read the review you linked to but obviously not the book yet. For the benefits of others, the end of that story about the Nazi and the Jew is:
“If there is no God to watch what you are doing, then why should you be circumspect in your behavior? Certainly the Germans at Auschwitz, who gassed Samuel Goldfein, did not believe that God was watching them. As Berlinski points out, that is the real problem with atheism.”
I’m going to point out a couple of flaws in that quote.
First of all – the Nazi regime was Christian! Adolf Hitler was a Christian. In Mein Kampf he wrote:
“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”
In a speech in 1922, he said:
“My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.”
Hitler could not have come into power without the support of the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany at the time. So, for a start, the reviewer of the book is ignorant.
Read more about Hitler and his Christianity here.
Now, let’s address the other suggestion from the reviewer which, I assume comes from the book.
Personally, I find the concept that humans who don’t believe in imaginary beings will become murderers to be completely asinine and offensive to the extreme.
Perhaps religious people believe that they personally would become murderers without their imaginary god keeping them in check. Many of us, however, are quite comfortable trying hard to be decent human beings without having to imagine some kind of sky bully keeping an eye on us. We try to do good things because being good is a end in itself. It doesn’t require some kind of supernatural pay-off. Now, I’m certainly not perfect. I’m made lots of mistakes in my life and hurt people, but never intentionally. I’ve been an atheist since I was 8 years old and I have no desire to kill or rape or steal.
I will also point out that in the history of the human race over the last 2000 years, Christians have been responsible for way more violence than atheists. I wrote a post about this some time ago.
So this sky bully concept doesn’t seem to keep Christians from committing regular atrocities. I’ll point out that the USA seems to consider itself a Christian nation (at least that’s what I hear from time to time) and they are the most violent country on the planet at the moment, actively invading other countries and waging economic warfare on many others.
I would go so far as to say that, not only does religion not curb violence, it BREEDS violence. The core tenant of all religious belief is “those that don’t believe what we believe deserve eternity in hell”. That is the most intolerant and violent philosophy I can imagine.
Atheism, on the other hand, doesn’t have a code that preaches violence.
So… what say you to that?
by cameron | Aug 22, 2008 | Christianity, Hillsong, Mercy Ministries
An Australian evangelical pastor, Michael Guglielmucci, has apparently confessed to lying about having terminal cancer for the last couple of years.
The Australian Christian Churches told The Advertiser yesterday that it was auditing Mr Guglielmucci’s bank accounts, which included money donated from people touched by his hit song Healer.
Mr Guglielmucci confessed his two-year fraudulent cancer battle at a national executive meeting of the ACC on Saturday, and was stripped of his credentials.
The problem with this story, though, is it pretends that Guglielmucci is alone in being a fraud, when the entire Christian religion is based on lies, deception and fraud. As I’ve said many times before – there is ZERO evidence that Jesus even existed, let alone said or did the things that are attributed to him. There isn’t a single contemporary eyewitness account, Christian or non-Christian. He’s a myth, pure and simple.
None of this, however, has stopped a bunch of people over on the “Still Praying For Ps Mike Guglielmucci’s Wall” on Facebook to say things like
whether it is healing from cancer or healing from a mental illness, God is still the healer and Mike is still claiming that God is his healer…
He is still a wonderful guy, and an amazing person and we should continue to pray for him for healing now, just as we would have if he had cancer. He still is ill and still can and will be healed by our most loving Heavenly father. we cannot and will not condemn him, we have no right cos God never will condemn him either.
Which just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what evidence they are presented with, many Christians are just determined to believe in their fairy tales no matter what.
By the way, “Australian Christian Churches“, the collection of Pentecostal evangelical churches, is lead by Brian Houston, the founder of Hillsong, that scary bunch who also are behind Gloria Jean’s Coffee and Mercy Ministries.
by cameron | Jul 25, 2008 | Christianity, Gloria Jeans, Hillsong, Mercy Ministries, Podcast
Today’s show is a continuation of the examination I’ve been doing around the relationship and practices of Gloria Jean’s Coffee, Hillsong Church and Mercy Ministries. Today’s guest is a former resident of Mercy Ministries in the United States. She spent 7 months inside Mercy about 8 years ago and is still today too frightened of them to use her real name, so she is using the alias “Vickie Lucas”. Vickie tells me about how she entered Mercy trying to find help for her bulimia nervosa condition but instead of psychological and clinical treatment, she was subjected to exorcisms, neglect and emotional abuse. She talks about how she was chastised in public by Mercy founder Nancy Alcorn, who claims to be a lifelong celibate, for getting her haircut – apparently according to Mercy that’s a clear sign she is possessed by demons making her into a lesbian.
The quotes contained in this show by Nancy Alcorn and Peter Irvine are taken from this video by The Cynic Sage.
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The G’Day World theme music:
Conquest
“Secrets of Life” (mp3)
from “End of Days”
(Dark Star Records)
More On This Album
by cameron | Jun 30, 2008 | Gloria Jeans, Hillsong, Melbourne, Mercy Ministries, Podcast
My guests tonight are a couple from Melbourne who we’ll call “Bazza” and “Shazza”. For the last five years they were franchisees with Gloria Jean’s Coffee. They’ve come on to discuss their experience.
As regular readers will know, I’ve been taking an interest in Gloria Jean’s over the last few years (read earlier posts here), especially in the relationship between Gloria Jean’s Coffee, Hillsong Church and Mercy Ministries.
As you might be aware, there have been allegations over the last six months that Mercy Ministries has been treating it’s clients (mostly “troubled” young women) with techniques including exorcisms and prayer readings.
Even Gloria Jean’s Global Marketing Manager has commented on the blog in an attempt to provide their side of the story.
So I was pleased when Bazza and Shazza agreed to come on to share an insider’s story.
The G’Day World theme music:
Conquest
“Secrets of Life” (mp3)
from “End of Days”
(Dark Star Records)
More On This Album
If you’re wondering what the opening quotes are from on today’s show, it’s the opening lines from Rimbaud’s “A Season In Hell”.
by cameron | Jun 25, 2008 | Gloria Jeans, Hillsong, Uncategorized
In the comments section to one of my earlier posts exposing Gloria Jeans, a guy claiming to be an ex-franchisee sez:
As an ex-franchisee (yes, if you will pardon the pun I “saw the light” and got out) it disturbed me that we were given Targets for our “voluntary contributions”. In fact, we were required to audit the donations from our Mercy “box” on the counter and explain why were not at our required target every month. Everything this franchise stood for was, in one word, MONEY; and they would do anything in an effort to make more. It’s easy to feel Christian when you can screw your franchisees over 6 days a week and then go to Hillsong on Sunday and get absolution. This franchise is the single most evil facade masquerading as a Christian “feel good” company we ever encountered. Stay away.
There’s nothing wrong with a business chasing revenue but if “Paul Barista” is correct, Gloria Jeans’ franchisee’s are pressured to increase their takings for the Mercy Mission, a very scary fundamentalist group preying on weak young women.
I urge everyone to stay well clear of Gloria Jeans. Buy your coffee somewhere else. The more I learn about the way Gloria Jeans works, the more they sound like a scary fundamentalist group. Every dollar you spend there helps them financially support the Hillsong sect and their equally-scary offshoots like Mercy Mission. If we’re not careful, Australia could end up like the US, with right-wing Christian fundamentalist groups playing an increasingly large role in politics.
