I learned at school that Galileo was persecuted because he said the earth moved round the sun. Apparently, this is wrong . In 1632 the Jesuits condemned atomism as proposed by Epicurus, Lucretius and the ancient Greeks, as being incompatible with the second canon of the 13th session of the Council of Trent (I just …
In 1139 St. Malachy went from Ireland to Rome to give an account of the affairs of his diocese to the pope, Innocent II. While at Rome, he received a vision of the future that involved a long list of pontiffs who were to rule the Church “until the end of time”. Malachy is supposed …
The Catholic church asks us to submit to the powers that be in return for the life of the world to come. Isn’t that convenient? Everywhere you look and over many centuries, with some honorable exceptions, the Church has been on the side of the Establishment. It has shrugged when horrendous acts have been perpetrated …
Both Machiavelli and Thomas More concluded that you couldn’t have a just society unless there was a large element of fear, specifically the fear of Judgement Day and the after-life. I would give a lot to be able to interview (Saint) Thomas More (who himself single-handedly did sterling work instilling fear into the subjects of …
According to James Haught, editor of the Charleston Gazette, George Bush phoned French President Jacques Chirac in 2003 and, appealing to their “common faith’, asked for his support in invading Iraq to thwart Gog and Magog, the satanic agents of the Apolcalypse (he didn’t get it – rightly). Gog and Magog are at working the Middle …
Deuteronomy Chapter 17 verses 2 to 5: If there be found among you man or woman……who have gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded…..Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed …
I have a 89 year old relative whose chief occupation is watching Catholic TV, specifically at this moment the Pope in Australia. I told her my problem (or one problem) with the Pope is his opposition to family planning, something I personally find perverse. There are 9 billion people on Earth and there is insufficient …
The main objection I have to religion is not that otherwise sensible people believe in virgins giving birth, or holy spirits, or papal ‘infallibility’. If people want to believe in them let them get on with it. What I object to is that religion has become intrusive and political, and has been dictating part of …
Epicurus told us not to be afraid of the gods: they do not concern themselves with human problems; nor do they reward or punish you in this world or when you die. There is neither a Heaven nor a Hell, except in the minds, hearts and vivid imaginations of individuals. This is fighting talk, of …
Jewish and Arab religious leaders against Gay Pride Rabbis, Arab-Israeli sheiks object to holding Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem; ‘if gays will dare approach Temple Mount during parade – they will do so over our dead bodies,‘ Arab MK Sarsur says. Leading American Rabbi Yehuda Levin organized a Jerusalem conference attended by both Jewish and …
Rabbi Haim Kanyevsky told yeshiva administrators, “We are war with them [Arabs],” therefore “according to Jewish law it is prohibited to hire them,” according to Yom Chadash. Yeshiva administrators, after the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack, asked Kanyevsky whether they should fire their Arab employees. Kanyevsky, who expressed surprise that Arab workers were preferred to Jews, …
The spiritual leader of Israel’s ultra-orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has provoked outrage with a sermon calling for the annihilation of Arabs. “It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable,” he was quoted as saying in a sermon delivered to …
A soldier called Jeremy Hall has filed a lawsuit alleging that he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “I’m not in it for cash,” Hall said. “I want no one else to go what I went through.” Known as …
Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then …
Contributed by Jane Dean On the world news, I was listening to news about the fierce fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the Government forces in Sri Lanka. It was happening near a particular Catholic church in which there was a statue of the Virgin Mary, purported to be able to heal snake bites and …
