Monday, April 20, 2009

Wacky religions - this one takes the cake


I was struck by a recent comment left by www.spamlds.org in defence of the Book of Mormon as follows: Isn't it amazing that this very book inspired thousands of people to suffer persecution at the hands of their neighbors, enduring tarring and feathering, lynchings, false arrest and legal harassment, etc. yet they still believe enough to persist in their faith?

If you follow this line of reasoning, we should all enlist in the now (supposedly) defunct Christian sect of Skoptsy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoptsy

You have to be impressed by the force of the Skoptsians' convictions. I will keep this sect in mind the next time someone points to Christian martyrs as somehow proving the truth of the delusional beliefs for which they offered up their lives.

This all leads to my question of the day: is Christian martyrdom any more defensible than a Skoptsy castration?
Posted by The Atheist Missionary at 9:06 PM
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6 comments:

  1. Look at the Heaven's Gaters or Jim Jones' followers: they were all willing to die for their beliefs, does that make those beliefs true? What about Muslim suicide bombers, they die for their beliefs, should we all start praying to the east 5 times a day?

    What a silly argument.
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  2. So, all the freethinkers and atheists who have been murdered or persecuted by religious people...does that count as evidence for no gods? Oh, of course not. Silly me. Double standard wielding hypocrites.

    Doesn't this spamalds person realize they are essentially saying, "Drink this kool-aid if you really believe." Seriously. "Die with us to show how real your faith is and how true." Cult, cult, cult. All of it. We just honor some cults with the word religion.
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  3. First, it depends on who is getting castrated. Second, whether someone is willing to die or sacrifice has no bearing on the validity of that person's faith or beliefs; the only thing it proves is that the person is a few tacks short of a full bulletin board. Third, welcome back from your Mission south of the border. God has betrayed the Habs, and I suspect it is your fault.
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  4. If I recall my church history correctly, self-castration was a serious enough problem in certain fringe movements in the early church that eventually the ecumenical councils banned the practice by saying you couldn't be ordained after castration, unless it had come at the hands of barbarians.

    Obviously a willingness to suffer great pain isn't really evidence of anything save a person's devotion to their beliefs.

    Like I say, my memory is a little weak, but I think it was the Nicene Council we have to thank for that particular regulation. The same one that brought us the Nicene Creed, and settled other phenomenally important issues, like the correct method of calculating the date of Easter.
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  5. The funny thing is that the groups you all have pointed to all collapsed from their own internal contradictions and didn't last more than a generation.

    The LDS Church has survived five or six generations and continues to expand, despite every stratagem by sectarian priests and secular cynics to destroy it.

    You can keep on "kicking against the pricks" as Paul called it. It just makes us stronger and moves the work forward.

    What I'd really like to see is a rational explanation why sectarians and secularists can't just ignore the LDS Church. It's irrational that they can't leave it alone. It's classic obsessive-compulsive behavior.
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  6. Noooooo Christians don't have that view!!! i am Catholic! Who cares about politics?!? they r boring anyways!!! (=

    God & Jesus Christ r your answers!!! Pray 2 them 4 forgiveness & great things will happen 2 u...now does this mean that u will win 2morrow's lottery?!? Probably not...(but it could happen!) maybe after this life...in heaven! & i have noticed that i used 2 b like God...well i would kinda like 2 have this...do u think u could get it 4 me? maybe? if ya feel like it? NOOOO that's not how 2 pray!! Be super specific! & then if God wants it 2 happen...it will happen!! i noticed that as soon as i started praying 4 specific things...God was giving them to me!! Now if u want something like...courage...or...love...or...kindness... God is probably NOT going 2 give it 2 u... he's going 2 give u the opportunity to be courageous, or love someone so they love u back, or to be kind to others so they r kind 2 u!!! So all i have 2 say now is.....

    GOD BLESS EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!! I AM GOING 2 PRAY 4 YOU GUYS NOW ALWAYS!!!!! & 2MORROW @ MAS... I AM GOING 2 OFFER MY MASS UP FOR U ALL!!! (=

    (=0 <-----(angel with a halo!)
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