Goodness me, our former premier, Kristina raises the spectre of god's revival... I'm stunned.... Well, not really stunned ... Just dismayed that the god delusion is permeating most of those who want to control politics. In America, one cannot expect anything less, but in this country of the free jumping kangaroo spirit, it hurts... I have been dismayed about this subject, though, for a long time here... Many of my Aussie mates when I came to this country in 1971 were communists (disillusioned with Russia of course) atheists and committed socialists. Labor was to the right of politics though Gough was quite progressive in many ways. But back to the now... Kristina is not loved universally, even by many of her fellow catholic politicians... Politicians are funny (weird) nasty beasts sometimes... For example Kristina is loathed by those catholic pollies whom she displaced the preferred candidate of. There are, in the catholic political scene some powerful jealousies and hypocritical unforgiving vendettas — and massive branch stacking — all contrary to their own church's teaching, of course, but there.... Tony Abbott, on the opposite side of the political spectrum — at ultra-rite wing inc, — is part of that strong duplicitous crowd (though he does not have to branch-stack much in his electorate of super-rich ritewingnuts)  in which a belief in god drives the nuts fanatically nuttier than ever before. The same applies to the Anglican pollies from which our Kevin07 comes from. Same with the methodists to which Rattus was aligned with, when he was not duplicitously pragmatic to suit a sad populist political outcome....

One wonders about the religious commitment of pollies — when they often choose to contradict their beliefs in the name of the political game thus, really, we CANNOT trust them at anytime. Take Abbott for example, a committed catholic yet now becomes very compromising about "abortion" — a pure no-no in his beliefs. Is it a con? will he renege on this commitment? Who knows? I even don't think he himself knows until he is able to push a stick up our bum... Thus this change of core value is only an expedient way to become top-dog in a game of one-up-personship rather than perfected morality. It's hypocritical to the hilt. The same applies with global warming... Pragmatism? Bollocks, just a way for Abbott to inflate himself into the glory of being top-shit.

Amongst all this, our Julia is an atheist.

Unfazed. A rare breed at the helm of any country... Not even officially committed, unlike me, to reduce the influence of religion on politics and life in general — but willing to increase the knowledge of (proper) sciences in populations (political "science" is not a science but is an art form — presently a stylistic way to manipulate acceptance of being whipped by Liberal [conservative] democracy). No, Julia goes on, very even handed, and we should accept that as an extraordinary stand. We should accept that in this day and age, she is a leading light into the battle against ignorance and against religious bigotry by maintaining diversity of views, even if we do not agree with the colour of her hair, her butt line or her studied ocker accent. Julia is not pragmatic even for her own survival, but she knows what is best for the planet and, of all things, this is BIG. Real big. Her task is giganormous, because of all the sup-plots, the sub-text and the complexity of steering a minority government cleverly and efficently.

She is doing far better than one is prepared to give her credit for. At least she's keeping the little shit at bay.

Meanwhile amongst all this flowering dynamic, the media plays a role which is akin to smelly dunny-men emptying cans from outdoor crappers and selling the produce as political fertilizer... We're in for a treat.

So The god delusion in politics takes many a form, and spreads around, from the little green men of scientology who spy on a TV cartoon's creators to too many forceful evangelical nuts with an arcane lie to sell...


--------------------------------

So let's see or hear what these preachers have to flog:


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1754654/posts

----------------------------------------

The Gospel in Genesis by Chuck Missler

Meanings Of The Names In Genesis 5
We frequently use the familiar term, gospel, or good news. Where is the first place it appears in the Bible? The answer may surprise you.

An Integrated Message

The great discovery is that the Bible is a message system: it's not simply 66 books penned by 40 authors over thousands of years, the Bible is an integrated whole which bears evidence of supernatural engineering in every detail.

The Jewish rabbis have a quaint way of expressing this very idea: they say that they will not understand the Scriptures until the Messiah comes. But when He comes, He will not only interpret each of the passages for us, He will interpret the very words; He will even interpret the very letters themselves; in fact, He will even interpret the spaces between the letters!

When I first heard this, I simply dismissed this as a colorful exaggeration. Until I reread Matthew 5:17 and 18:

"Think not that I have come to destroy the Torah and the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."


------------------------
Amazing already! And so on, till it gets deductively quite mad beyond the silly and twisted... where doubled double hidden meanings are extracted like teeth pulled from chicken beaks...

This rubbish appears in many posts on the net... in various guises... and all coming from the same Dr Chuck Missler who according to Wikipedia — is a prominent Christian Zionist[3] with ties to the far right Patriot movement although he is described as neither racist nor anti-Semitic.[4][5] Chuck has had numerous programs aired on the Christian television station GOD TV, namely the DVD versions of his biblical studies "Learn the Bible in 24 Hours", "The Book of Revelation", "The Book of Genesis", and "The Book of Daniel". A Los Angeles Times article reported that Missler and co-author Hal Lindsey had plagiarized a portion of Miami University Professor Edwin Yamauchi's 1982 book Foes From the Northern Frontier in their own 1992 book The Magog Factor.[6] A YouTube video in which Chuck attempts to disprove evolution with a jar of peanut butter as being inconsistent with the first law of thermodynamics attracted media attention in 2007-2008...
---------------------
Now, why would I pay attention to Chuck and his other half, Nancy? Well, they are people at the bible pushing front lines, with undue influence, yet the timeline of their lives is a bit elastic:
---------------------
Returning to California, Chuck found himself consulting, organizing corporate development deals, serving on the board of directors at several firms, and specializing in the rescuing of financially troubled technology companies. He brought several companies out of Chapter 11 and into profitable operation. Chuck thrived on this type of work.

As Chuck notes, his day of reckoning came several years ago when -- as the result of a merger -- he found himself the chairman and a major shareholder of a small, publicly owned development company known as Phoenix Group International. The firm established an $8 billion joint venture with the Soviet Union to supply personal computers to their 143,000 schools. Due to several unforeseen circumstances, the venture failed. The Misslers lost everything, including their home, automobiles and insurance.

It was during this difficult time that Chuck turned to God and the Bible. As a child he developed an intense interest in the Bible; studying it became a favorite pastime. In the 1970s, while still in the corporate world, Chuck began leading weekly Bible studies at the 30,000-member Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, in California. He and Nancy established Koinonia House in 1973.

------------------------------

There you have it. So, when did the personal computer started?  When did the failed venture happened? When did the "difficult" time led to Chuck turning to god and the bible? The chronology is quite muddled.

My first question is irrelevant and can be found in the book of Nerds.

My second question's answer is the failed venture happened in 1990.

----------------------------

Head of Phoenix Group Explains Venture Failure : Trade: Chairman Charles W. Missler says sale of computers to Soviet Union fell apart because of lack of capital and problems with the firm's Soviet partners.
December 07, 1990|DEAN TAKAHASHI | TIMES STAFF WRITER
IRVINE — Charles W. Missler, chairman of the beleaguered Phoenix Group International, said Thursday that his venture to sell millions of computers to the Soviet Union fell apart because of a lack of capital and problems dealing with its Soviet partners.

Missler, in his first interview since the Phoenix Group filed for federal bankruptcy protection Tuesday, said the computer sale collapsed earlier this year when the company's Soviet partners failed to make promised cash payments for an initial sale of 770 computers. He said the Soviet partners also failed to abide by agreements to barter Soviet products as payment for additional computer shipments.

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-12-07/business/fi-6131_1_soviet-union

-----------------------------------


Correct answer! Blame the Ruskies for your failure. Good one... I would have done a better job, no worries! But dealing with Russia at the time was like talking to a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. Boris had taken over from Gorbachev and suddenly the national Russian wealth was falling in the hand of a few people (Oligarch, Russian Mafia, et all — including the CIA and MI6)... In 2000, Vladimir Putin got into power with the support from the said people, then Putin put them in prison where they should have been all along... Small businesses in Russia were thus allowed to flourish. Big business such as resources was "re-nationalized"..

The Misslers had already "turned to god" way before that fiasco of 1990, since their Koinonia House was established in 1973...

Koinonia is a good wholesome Greek word with great meaning of "sharing the common experience of joys, fears, tears, and divine glory"... No problem here, except for the divine glory which is the illusion of safety in a dark alley-way... even for the Greeks.

Meanwhile, as explained by DR Missler, the hidden meaning is there for all to be seen:

---------------------------

Now let's put it all together:
 
 Hebrew      English
Adam    Man
Seth    Appointed
Enosh    Mortal
Kenan    Sorrow
Mahalalel    The Blessed God
Jared    Shall Come Down
Enoch    Teaching
Methuselah    His Death Shall Bring
Lamech    The Desparing
Noah    Rest, or Comfort
 
That's rather remarkable:
Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.

Here's the Gospel hidden within a genealogy in Genesis!

(You will never convince me that a group of Jewish rabbis conspired to hide the Christian Gospel right here in a genealogy within their venerated Torah!)

Evidence of Design

The implications of this discovery are more wide spread than is evident at first glance.
It demonstrates that in the earliest chapters of the Book of Genesis, God had already laid out His plan of redemption for the predicament of mankind. It is a love story, written in blood on a wooden cross which was erected in Judea almost 2,000 years ago.

The Bible is an integrated message system, the product of supernatural engineering. Every number, every place name, every detail every jot and tittle is there for our learning, our discovery, and our amazement. Truly, our God is an awesome God.




-----------------------------------


Yep... the convoluted idiotic conclusion is as clear as a the dark side of the moon on a cloudy stormy night...

It doesn't make any sense at all, by candlelight or otherwise, when considering the origin of human angst — an arcane corner of crazed fear-of-the-dark that led to voodoo spells, self-flagellation and genital mutilation, including foreskin snipping — a hole in our clump of idiotic grey matter that evolution forgot to close on day 2,237,561 after we fell from our tree. The Jews are still waiting for the Messiah while the Christians have embraced it 2,000 years ago and now all are waiting for Armageddon any minute.

Take this other crackpot, preacher Mr Camping, who, I guess for all intent and purposes, wants to witness the end of the world before he carks it... So he keeps announcing it for tomorrow, everyday... Who would deny this old man his last wish, but an inexistent god of all universal jokes? Nature?

To paraphrase Missler, you will never convince me that a god could conspired to hide his luminous pebbles in a translation that may not work in Chinese, German, Papuan or Klingon for example. 

No wonder I get irately choleric when people try to sell such crafted pseudo-spiritual meaning-of-life rubbish, like itinerant snake-oil merchants... They use smooth cunning, dodgy, foxy, guileful, knavish, slick, sly, tricksy, tricky, wily, artful techniques that hook on our animalistic fear of not knowing everything — or they use a forceful brainwashing stick that combines the fear of physical punishment (and the execution of which) such as in sharia law... All submission to this garbage, becoming ingrained in our reactive brain, making a mockery rag of our 'freedom"...

Calm down, now... calm down, Gus...

Or they tell you that "so and so" is watching you from heaven... This one takes the cake! Amazing! Like Santa Claus counts our misdemeanor versus our good deeds in order to size up the present we get by year's end...

Nobody is watching over us. NOBODY!... Only our self (and the police). Our only "guardian angel" is our own ability to see and be aware. Our only "archangel" is our ability to relate well with other people and to grasp the natural loving relationships in a stylistic fashion. Our only "demon" is our ability not to be nice, to steal and to kill for profit...
We're in charge here, of the beauty we see and of the mess we create. Our evolution in nature gives us these ability like it giveth to other species too. We have magnified and modified this characteristic, in hypocrisy.

Many times over, when one part of their good books says don't kill, preachers and politicians will use the other "interpreted" verses to justify war. Actually in some verses of their faith-books, the infidels have to be killed, pure and simple. Or is it the "idols" that have to be destroyed, because let's face it, the gods of others are always the wrong ones and never as good as ours?

The only reasons most people — like this self appointed minister of religion, Chuck Missler — use our gullible readiness to believe anything exotic in the illusionary sky, is three fold: First they make cash out of it — in whatever form from oil to gold bars — second they are somewhat power-crazy about control of as many people as they can and third it gives then reason to live their own meaningless life with a position of importance. The god-belief here becomes irrelevant, except in the repeat of the mantra into self-brainwashing...

If there was no cents in the promulgation of faith, if there was no psychological and decreed power over of people, do you seriously believe that most of these preachers, rabbis and mullahs would do what they do?

Say, like, for them to live true to the humility, poverty and meekness promoted in many parts of the message they peddle? No... I don't think so...

Most of these ministry belief-pedlars would say "bugger to that poverty crap"... Some of them might argue that "they have to live" to which I would say they don't have to be like ostentatious gaziillionaires. They can survive very well — like the monks who go and collect rice and food from others. These monk live for themselves and their prayers for others, not to build an edifice for glorified insanity of insane proportion with an insane crowd clapping in it.

Yes, the bible-bashers are powerful merchants of illusions, using tried old commercial techniques to sell the same old package, now out of copyright, of course, full of many idiotic, fanciful, nasty and bizarre stories presented and "interpreted" as the word of god. It's a package that, like the Santa Claus fantasy, is wired into our brain from the day we're first fed. The difference here being that the Santa Claus tale is soon explained as a gentle fraud on gullible kids, while the other message of faith-illusion is continually reinforced by clever rituals and ingrained into weird silly social dictums to hold onto gullible adults...

The selling of faith is thus very cunning... A lot of is done under the guise of "donations", a term that panders to our free-will, our free will to be screwed...

The religious mobs of whatever creed freely bullshit about the supernatural engineering of the universe.

I firmly dispute their view.

But I do not make money out of my atheist soap box, nor do I try to control people. All I offer people is their own freedom from this gloriously enticing crap. Third I could not care less about my spiritual importance in this world — for which "my" reincarnation" as argued tongue-in-cheek with my buddhist friends would be no more than a pebble on a beach, to which they enlightenedly argue that one is never reincarnated as an inanimate object, only animate... to which I say bollocks! ...

But I do care about what I can do to relatively protect this planet from myself, and specially protect it from these self-anointed doomsday promoters for which this nasty faith-testing earth is to be raped as being only a stopover before purgatory...

I've had enough, though I don't care about people with faith, unless they try to control our politics, from Tony Abbott in this country to a rat bag of republicans presidential hopefuls in the US, via a gamut of islamic countries where the archaic laws are swimming in religious extremism — all designed to control people into a sad ragged lot and to siphon the dosh, all enforced in a hypocritical manner.

I've had enough...

I don't pretend knowing everything either.

Neither can I accept the concept of the human "soul" or spirit. Should humans have a "soul", then dogs, birds and my cockroaches have one too (see the buddhists). I am totally non-spiritual ... Unfortunately (fortunately), without this inflated subterfuge of my own importance, I am not a leader of groups of men prepared to be driven by the spiritual nose or kicked up the proverbial butt into beatitude....

I can inspire though. But I won't do it for money, not like those temple philistine pastors who grab the grubby bux in so-called "ministries of whatever" that are no more than elevated frenzied sing-along tax-dodging cosy operations with false beliefs attached... Nothing wrong here, but, hell, get out of the politics and the science, you religious morons. Get out of controlling morality for all, when, more often than not, you can't control your own penis and place it where you should not.

The animal in us good. The evolutionary stylistic modal-graft on it is good... Some birds mate for life... We've got to manage these evolutionary traits in the best possible way without fear of living and dying as a finite individual of species... But some of us "don't want to die in vain", so they invent being the vanity of god's creation... They often are worried that they never were good enough (they never were, since they indulged in all the sins under the sun — from envy to greed) and worried they'll end up in the clutches of satan... On this illusion, I could not care less.
We've got to understand our evolution away from these stifling old books that have no other purpose than to channel and cement ignorance on a biblical scale...

We have to grow up. We have to stop wanting to remain in infantility (mostly brats below the age of reason) living in the aprons of a deity as important as Santa Claus.
Humanity's history, born from this planet's own evolution, is longer than that of the fanciful Abrahamic religious beliefs by at least a couple of million years. Many of these years may not have been the brightest for our species but we came through — being one of the least adapted species to the wild to being one of the smartest. The earth's history is more than 4.5 billion years old. And we, humans, have had to deal with other cousins such as the Neanderthals and whoever else we don't yet know about. Evolution is a fantastic iffy accidental mistress and the end-of-the-world won't happen for another few billion years when the sun runs out of fuel...  Sure we might try to kill this planet before that — and kill ourselves with it in a godly-inspired suicide — with our beliefs driving our carelessness, but I don't think we'll succeed.

We modify the earth daily though... If we don't accept this concept, we're idiots. And of all modifications, global warming is our crying baby. Global warming is not the end-of-the-world. Global warming has happened before, but presently, it is human-activity induced and it's a strong threat to our comforts — and that, including survival, of other species — to which we owe nothing much but an altruistic big thank you for giving us our daily proteins.

We have to open our eyes away from these glazed simplistic religious beliefs that have taken over our brain like dancing girls visions — or like a cancerous tumor.

WE need to grow up and fast. The changes we're making to the planet won't be waiting for us to adapt.


MEANWHILE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SCALE:



Zanism is “act-ually” a religion formed in the early ‘90’s as an attempt to escape the tyranny of sanity without falling into the prison of insanity. We reject the sanity/insanity dichotomy and embrace “zanity” in its stead. Zanism is not a religion of beliefs. We believe in disbelief.

Zanism is influenced by some (not all) of the sayings of Buddha, Loa-Tzu, Jesus Christ, Niels Bohr, Warner Heisenberg, and Bokonon among others. To understand zanism, we examine why religion exists at all. Then, we capture that impulse--and squash it. You may think this is a joke, but we're as serious as Yorick’s skull.

After your conversion to zanism you're welcome to free yourself of it again and again unto infinity. In deference to Lao-Tzu, we like to think of Zanism as “the path that makes no sense.”

While zanism has no beliefs, it does have several tentative tenets.

1. On Belief: If you believe in zanism, you aren't a zanist.

2. On Earth: Treat the Earth as if you depend upon it.

3. On Salvation: Salvation isn't guaranteed.

4. On God: If there's a god, you're here to amuse her. And—she’s amused.

5. On Violence: We acknowledge that non-violence takes astonishing guts.

6. On Love: Just do it.

7. On Individuality: Dance dust dance!!

8. On Nonsense: Sense makes no sense and no sense makes sense.

9. On Hamlet: It’s a play on words.

10. On Hope: Refer to love.

---------------------------------------------

MAY BE I TRY TOO HARD... In relation to the church of Rhubarb:..

The memo, written on 16 April 2006, was published at the weekend by Marty Rathbun, a former high-ranking Scientology executive who defected five years ago and has since been running a blog critical of the Church. He claims it is part of a large "trove" of hitherto-secret documents detailing the Church's efforts to discredit the South Park creators, which recently found its way into his possession. He has promised to release others.

In interviews yesterday, Mr Rathbun alleged it is common practice for Scientologists to gather sensitive information about their critics. In addition to scouring public records, he claimed Church investigators occasionally examine the rubbish bins of targets.

Stone and Parker have for years used South Park to satirise almost every organised religion, sometimes with awkward consequences. The "Trapped in the Closet" episode, which featured an unflattering portrayal of Tom Cruise, was a case in point: it wasn't broadcast in the UK for several years, because of the strict libel laws. Controversy about the plot – in which Church elders decide South Park character Stan is the re-incarnation of L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology – resulted in it becoming one of the most-watched episodes in the show's history.

The Church of Scientology, which didn't return messages seeking comment yesterday, seems well acquainted with Stone and Parker's oeuvre. "They consider what they do is satire and they attack anyone or any group without any regard for who they are or what they are," notes the memo (accurately). "They love it when they get some reaction."

--------------------------------------

meanwhile:

"Jesus died for your sins. I commit them so his martyrdom isn't meaningless." from Mister Pervert's Book of Proverbial Stuff
...
I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.

                            Mark Twain

-------------------------

As if the scientologists were the only ones spying on us... Mind you they could not care less about my little ratty wood-pile but they would be carefully annoyed about South Park's popular satire... see toon above...

John Kampfner, the Chief Executive of Index on Censorship, one of the founding partners of the Libel Reform Campaign, said: “That a family man from Nuneaton can face a potentially ruinous libel action for a book review on Amazon shows how archaic and expensive our libel law is. We’re pushing the government to commit to a bill in the next Queen’s speech so that these chilling laws are reformed to protect freedom of expression.”

Mr McGrath’s book, which was initially published anonymously under the pseudonym “Scrooby”, first came to the attention of Mr Jones in September 2010 when multiple links to the book began appearing under reviews for “The Grand Design”, a popular science book by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow which argued that God is not necessary to explain the origins of the universe.

The links advertised Mr McGrath’s book as an alternative argument that could explain the existence of God. During September and October 2010 Mr Jones wrote a series of uncomplimentary reviews of “The Attempted Murder of God” and outed Mr McGrath as the author. 

The reviews prompted Mr McGrath to claim that his book was in fact a parody of the debate between scientists and theists over the existence of God rather than a scientific proof for God’s existence. The Richard Dawkins Foundation also published an article by Mr Jones on its website.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-faces-libel-allegations-over-amazon-book-review-6259431.html

What's weird is that a lot of reviews for this book took the work SERIOUSLY and lauded its attack on science from wow to go... ""god wins hands down"... Blimey, I better sharpen my dancing skills to walk on the hot coals of hell.

Here is a sample review:

At last! A book that finally and decisively proves God exists and disproves Evolution. It's about time!, January 19, 2010
By Reviewer - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Attempted Murder of God: Hidden Science You Really Need to Know (Hardcover)
Wow! A critical book at a critical time, it reveals the secrets of science that comprehensively demolish the theory of Evolution once and for all, like no other book in history. For anyone who needs scientific proof for God and absolute proof against Evolution, there is now only one definitive book on the subject, and this is it. Scrooby redefines the debate to the point where debate is no longer an issue: the theory of Evolution is science's greatest mistake and God is most definitely real - a scientific certainty kept hidden from the world that in this critical time in history can now be revealed.

Written with humour and passion, it pulls no punches in systematically unveiling the secrets we are all surely entitled to know. Without doubt, it's the most convincing and exciting book on the subject to come out in decades.

It's a truly riveting book that sets the tone for decades to come in the debate that has bedeviled the world in the last two centuries: God versus Evolution. In this book, God wins hands down, clearly and decisively. But Scrooby has done so much more in showing us the most wonderful secrets that science has uncovered in physics, chemistry and mathematics, secrets that in isolation can seem insignificant, but when pulled together in the right way show us the fact of God as a scientific certainty.

Scrooby writes:

"This is a book of hidden science that reveals the fact of God. In so doing, it reveals why human Evolution over millions of years is not true. By demonstrating the transcendent wonder of Nature that can only be the work of God, it unpicks the thread of Evolution in its entirety. Darwin could scarcely have imagined how accurate he was in predicting 'light will be thrown on the origin of man.' What he had in mind, though, was illuminating the Evolution of man from common ancestors with apes, yet light itself shows us he was wrong. The last 300 years have been a proving ground for all of us, showing us in our true colours in the battle for reason and faith, but at this time, and with this book, there can be no more doubts. God is real."

And he is right.

Great, great book!

If there's one book you buy this year, do not miss this one!

http://www.amazon.com/Attempted-Murder-God-Hidden-Science/dp/0956471404

-------------------------

I can only wonder about reviewer's mind, should this book be a spoof on religion as indicated by the author... Unless it was reviewed here by the author himself in order to promote sales... Been done before...

From Damon Young at the Drum

...

In other words, supernaturalism involves a certain arrogance; the idea that an awesome universe must be invented or governed by mentality. For this is what the 'spiritual' ultimately involves: variations on the mind, with its seeming freedom from physical laws.

This often has a psychological origin, which is maintained by social traditions, but repeated in individuals as the ideas and values are passed on. Supernaturalists discover a division within themselves, and then smuggle it into the cosmos.

For example, they are weary of frail flesh, shocking death, embarrassing reflexes, or simply ugliness, so they split in two: mind, with its apparent purity and permanence, and the body, with its jumbled transience. Whatever is responsible for a sublime or beautiful universe, they conclude, must be something like consciousness; the enduring, emancipated part of themselves. My point is not that the mind actually is unalloyed and undying, only that it seems this way, in contrast with the tangled mess that is physicality.

In this light, supernaturalism at its best is reverence, only waylaid by conceit. It is a genuine astonishment at the cosmos, misdirected by a false schism, which accidentally introduces a very human division into an inhuman world. The faithful rob the natural to pay the supernatural – but the debts are human, all too human.

This is why I sometimes pity the faithful: they look into this wonderfully absurd universe, but see only their own familiar faces.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3654954.html

see article at top of this blog column...

The video of the singing boy was the latest in a string of viral anti-gay videos that have surfaced from independent churches.  Those videos have been resoundingly condemned by religious leaders, even by conservatives who believe homosexual sex is a sin.

The Apostolic Truth Tabernacle posted a statement on its website that says in part: "The Pastor and members of Apostolic Truth Tabernacle do not condone, teach, or practice hate of any person for any reason.”

The pastor's son, Josh Sangl, told CNN his father was away on vacation and that there was much more to the video than we were being told, though he wouldn’t elaborate.

The majority of the church members wouldn’t comment about the controversy or respond to questions about the parents of the young boy.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/04/we-dont-teach-hate-says-church-where-anti-homosexual-song-filmed/?hpt=hp_c1