Miscellanea Agnostica

One of the things I dislike about entities that commission independent investigations into their own affairs, is that all such probes can never be truly “independent.” No one ever can be sure the results of any such investigation won’t be subverted by the people who paid for it.

For example, here in Connecticut, this past summer we were treated to precisely this sort of debacle when state House Speaker Chris Donovan, then running in the Democratic primary for Congress in the 5th District, hired lawyer Stanley Twardy to “investigate” allegations that his campaign staff took campaign donations (otherwise known as “bribes”) in exchange for Donovan manipulating the legislative process on behalf of those donors. Not surprisingly, Twardy quite happily declared Donovan innocent of all wrongdoing. Quite laughably, he and Donovan expected the people of the Nutmeg State would swallow their steaming load of bullshit — but they didn’t, he lost the primary, and is now out of office.

Last year, the Roman Catholic Church in Germany commissioned just such a report into their own affairs. They pledged to allow their records to be culled to see how deep the clerical child-abuse scandal ran, in that country. But as Der Spiegel reports, they abruptly pulled the plug on this investigation (locally-cached version):

It was a major promise after a major disaster: In summer 2011, the Catholic Church in Germany pledged full transparency. One year earlier, an abuse scandal had shaken the country’s faithful, as an increasing number of cases surfaced in which priests had sexually abused children and then hidden behind a wall of silence.

The Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute (KFN) was given the job of investigating the cases in 2011. The personnel files from churches in all 27 dioceses were to be examined for cases of abuse in an attempt to win back some of the Church’s depleted credibility.

But now the Church has called off the study, citing a breakdown in trust. “The relationship of mutual trust between the bishops and the head of the institute has been destroyed,” said the Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, on Wednesday morning.

The director of the KFN, Christian Pfeiffer, told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the Church had refused to cooperate. At the end of last year, he contacted the dioceses twice in writing. He reminded them of their promised transparency and cooperation. He also asked them whether there was any indication that in some dioceses files had been actively destroyed.

The Bishops’ Conference, the country’s official body of the Church, was apparently unable to agree on any form of cooperation with the KFN.

Yes, you read that right: The bishops refused to comply with terms they dictated for how the investigation was to be conducted. They refused to communicate with, and cooperate with, a team they themselves hired for this task.

One can’t help but assume Prof Pfeiffer wasn’t turning out to be the obedient puppet they’d expected him to be, so after wasting his and everyone else’s time for a while — long enough time for them to destroy a lot of relevant documents, I’m sure — the bishops finally shut the “investigation” down entirely. Their pledge of transparency ultimately proved non-existent.

What person with half a brain is really surprised? I wasn’t, I hope you weren’t either.

Photo credit: dapd, via Der Spiegel.

Hat tip: Peter at Skeptics & Heretics Forum on Delphi Forums.

Tags: catholic child abuse scandal, catholic church, catholic clerical abuse scandal, child abuse, child abuse scandal, christian, christian pfeiffer, Christianity, christians, germany, inquiry, investigation, KFN, lower saxony criminological research institute, priestly pedophilia, prof christian pfeiffer, roman catholic, roman catholic church

It seems Agnosticism has hit the big time. How do I know that? The Pope launched an attack on it, that’s how I know! As Reuters reports, he declared war on agnosticism, of all things, during his Epiphany address (WebCite cached article):

Pope Benedict said on Sunday that Roman Catholic leaders must have the courage to stand up to attacks by “intolerant agnosticism” prevalent in many countries.

The pope and the Church have come under increased attack because of their opposition to homosexual marriage and women priests. The pope has repeatedly denounced what he says are attempts to push religion out of public debate.

As usual, he misinterprets what’s really going on. He confuses an effort to make sure religion is not forced on anyone, with an effort to destroy religion entirely. The two are not the same thing, no matter how fervently he thinks otherwise.

“Today’s regnant agnosticism has its own dogmas and is extremely intolerant regarding anything that would question it and the criteria it employs,” the pope said.

“Therefore the courage to contradict the prevailing mindset is particularly urgent for a bishop today. He must be courageous,” he said.

Benedict calls agnosticism “regnant,” meaning “ruling,” “governing,” “controlling,” or “dominating.” In fact, it doesn’t govern anything. The majority of people in the world are assuredly religious. In most countries, agnostics and other non-believers are vastly outnumbered, and have virtually no say. This is true even in the 21st century US, where politicians are almost uniformly religious, and there are no non-believers in national office or in any position with national influence. There are absolutely no rational grounds for the Pope to assert that agnosticism is “regnant.” Because — unfortunately — it’s not.

But even if it were, I must ask the obvious question: So the hell what? Once upon a time, religion ruled humanity with an iron fist. Benedict’s own Catholic Church once towered over Europe, politically and socially. What did that get us? Not a lot, unless you think things like the Inquisitions, the Crusades, wars fought against pagans, heretics, and other kinds of ecclesiastical controversies were good for humanity. If agnosticism dominated, could things be any worse?

The age in which a Pope could summon an army and send it off to smite the Forces of Darkness are long gone … thankfully … but it appears Benedict wants that same power back. The fact that occidental society won’t let him have it, appears to gnaw at him. So he ends up making ridiculous accusations, such as that agnosticism is “regnant” and that efforts to keep religion and state separate are the same as efforts to destroy religion entirely. His claim that agnostics are “intolerant” is stupid and childish. Failing to believe what someone else tells one to believe is not “intolerance.” Not wanting to be forced to live according to someone else’s metaphysics, is also not “intolerance.” Both of those are “choices,”, and they’re choices that people in free countries are entitled to make — whether the Pope likes it or not.

Lastly, I’ve said it before and will say it again: Pope Benedict has no viable grounds for propounding morals at anyone. The Church he governs is guilty of having orchestrated institutional abuse of children in its care; of having conspired to cover up that abuse; of having bullied states and societies into letting it get away with it; and of thwarting justice once those states and societies decided they weren’t going to knuckle under to the Church’s bullying any more. Benedict could regain the “moral high ground” he thinks he stands on, by accepting responsibility for all of this, ordering all abusive and obstructionist clergy to immediately turn themselves in for prosecution and accept whatever punishment they merit, and fundamentally altering the Church’s structure and operations so that it can never again do any such thing.

But we all know, he won’t do any of that. No way. Until he does … he can just go fuck himself.

Does my saying that make me “intolerant”? I guess so. I don’t “tolerate” evil, and neither should you.

Photo credit: John G. Walter, via Flickr.

Hat tip: Apathetic Agnostic Church.

Tags: agnostic, agnosticism, agnostics, benedict xvi, catholic church, epiphany, holy father, holy see, intolerance, intolerant, intolerant agnosticism, pope benedict, pope benedict xvi, regnant agnosticism, roman catholic, roman catholic church, tolerance, tolerant

Pennsylvania courts made history a few months ago when an official of the Philadelphia archdiocese was convicted for his involvement in covering up abuses of children committed by other clergy in his administration. About six months after the sentencing, the Philedelphia Inquirer reports, the trial of a couple accused abusers in R.C. Church service is underway (locally-cached version):

It’s been almost two years since a Philadelphia grand jury probe of Catholic clergy sex abuse of children resulted in charges against four priests and a teacher.

On Monday — after last year’s landmark, three-month trial ended in the first criminal conviction of a church administrator for covering up the crimes of deviate priests — the last two defendants, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and former parochial schoolteacher Bernard Shero, are to go to trial.

Prosecutors, defense lawyers, and Common Pleas Court Judge Ellen Ceisler will begin winnowing a large group of candidates down to a jury of 12 plus several alternates.

The article lays out the case against the two priests:

The case against Engelhardt and Shero involves one of the first trial’s most salacious episodes: the serial sexual assault of a 10-year-old altar boy from Northeast Philadelphia in the late 1990s.

Identified in the grand jury report as “Billy Doe,” the boy was a fifth-grader at St. Jerome’s parish.

According to the grand jury, Billy was first abused by Engelhardt after serving at an early-morning weekday Mass at St. Jerome’s.

Over the next couple of weeks, Engelhardt abused “Billy” a couple more times. “Billy” was then abused some months later by another priest, the Rev. Edward Avery, who was charged with the others but pled guilty to the rape. And the boy was again assaulted, later still, by his then-teacher Shero.

It’s clear from the case of “Billy Doe” that abusers within the Philadelphia archdiocese — including non-diocesan religious clergy like Engelhardt and lay teachers like Shero — must have been passing information around amongst themselves over who the more desirable or pliant victims were. It’s not a coincidence that the same boy was assaulted multiple times by multiple abusers. Words like “sickening,” “putrid,” “vile” and “disgusting” leap to mind, but they hardly do the situation justice.

Again, I have to wonder when American Catholics intend to get up off their cowardly little asses and actually do something about the organization to which they belong. How much more of this do you need to hear, before you’ll accept there’s a problem lurking somewhere in your Church? A problem that needs to be solved, but won’t be, until you take action to solve it? What are you waiting for? How many more lives need to be destroyed before you’ll take responsibility for your own Church?

Photo credit: Bruce Anderson, via Wikimedia Commons.

Update: Justice has been done, both defendants have been convicted (cached).

Tags: abuse, archdiocese of philadelphia, bernard shero, billy doe, catholic church, catholic clerical abuse scandal, charles engelhardt, child abuse, christian, Christianity, christians, philadelphia, philadelphia PA, priestly pedophilia, rev charles engelhardt, roman catholic, roman catholic abuse scandal, roman catholic child abuse scandal, roman catholic church, scandal

A little over a couple months ago I wrote my blog page about Bible passages that most Christians love to ignore. Since then I’ve gotten a lot of very nice comments — and even more personal correspondence sent to me directly rather than tacked on as comments — which I appreciate. I honestly do, so I thank you all for your kind words.

If you’re a Christian who likes what I wrote in that article, though, I’d prefer that you show it to your fellow Christians. Show them what Jesus Christ supposedly taught. Show them they’re not doing it right. Tell them to change their ways, so their words and deeds are more in line with what Christianity’s holy scripture actually says, rather than what they’d like it to have said. Tell them to be more like the Jesus Christ they claim to follow, rather than creatively reinterpreting his words and actions so as to justify whatever it is they feel like doing. Tell them their mortal souls are in peril unless they do.

And while you’re at it, you might also want to ask them why a cold-hearted, cynical, godless agnostic heathen knows their own holy book better than they do. (For the record, there’s a reason for that: I was raised Catholic, but became a Protestant fundamentalist before eventually becoming the Agnostic I am now.)

So if you like what I wrote, and feel as though you might want to do something nice for me in return, then please show it to your fellow Christians, and use it educate them. They may not thank your for it, but I do.

Photo credit: Cross Duck, via Flickr.

Tags: bible, bible passages, bible verse, bible verses, Christianity, comments, holy bible, scripture, scriptures

Update: It’s now the morning of December 22 where I live, the day after I wrote this post, and clearly the Maya Apocalypse never occurred. I’m waiting to hear the apologies of those who were proclaiming a devastating doom for our planet … but my guess is, there won’t be any. Cranks and frauds never admit error … ever. I’ve changed the title of this post accordingly.

As I type this, it’s December 21, 2012, around noon where I am (Eastern Standard Time). I don’t see any sign of an apocalypse. Granted, the day isn’t over yet, but it’s about 6:00 am on December 22, 2012 in New Zealand, meaning that part of the planet has already moved on to the day after doomsday with nothing to show for it.

NBC News’ Cosmic Log has an entry about the apocalypse that isn’t materializing (WebCite cached article):

After years of claptrap about the Maya apocalypse on 12/21/12, the Big Day has dawned in many parts of the world. It’s daytime in China, one of the world’s hot spots for doomsday angst. So far, no solar flares have fried the earth, and no mountains have fallen into the sea. The sun will soon rise on Mexico’s ancient Maya monuments, where thousands are gathering to greet a new era.

Then what?

“I don’t think there’s going to be a herd of jaguars descending from the heavens,” said John Henderson, an anthropologist at Cornell University who specializes in the Maya world.

Archaeologists and astronomers have thoroughly debunked everything about the doomsday myth: The Maya never expected that the world would end when their Long Count calendar rolled over to the next 144,000-day cycle in 2012. Earth’s magnetic field is not going haywire. There’s no threat from the Large Hadron Collider, or the sun, or unseen planets, or the galactic plane.

That doesn’t mean promoters of, or believers in, the Maya Doomsday 2012 aren’t creatively reinterpreting their previous predictions of destruction and annihilation in the wake of the giant fizzle:

Not everything about the Big Day is doom and gloom: Tourists and New Age types have flocked to the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza to greet Friday’s dawn and the start of a new age with rituals old and new. “There is an explosion of consciousness through this,” a gray-haired Californian musician named Shambala Songstar told Reuters. “We are becoming billionaires of energy. Opening to receive more light and more joy.”

So, it seems a putative “prophecy” that a rogue planet would smash the earth to pieces … or a magnetic pole-shift would wipe out all life on the planet … or that a “galactic alignment” would cause the world to go magically insane … never came true, however, it’s still valid, because humanity has now become “billionaires of energy.”

Uh, right … whatever you say … I guess … somehow, some way, somewhere.

I suppose it would be asking too much of this assortment of nutballs, lunatics, cranks, frauds, wingnuts, ignoramuses, and con artists to apologize for having lied to people about this so-called “Armageddon.” My guess is, they will all do what so many other failed prophets have done in the past, which is to creatively re-engineer their failed predictions so as to make it appear they hadn’t failed, after all.

But in the end, their irrational games, twisted reasoning, and mangled semantics can’t change the fact that the whole “Maya prophecy” is 100% pure grade-A bullshit. A colossal steaming load heaved straight out of the back of the barn.

Photo credit: PsiCop original, quoting Friedrich Schiller.

Tags: 12/21, 12/21/2012, apocalypse 2012, catastrophe, dec 21, dec 21 2012, december 21, december 21 2012, doom, doomsday 2012, failed prophecy, galactic alignment, maya, maya apocalypse, maya apocalypse 2012, maya calendar, maya doomsday, maya doomsday 2012, maya prophecy, mayan, mayan prophecy, mayans, new age, new age movement, nibiru, pole shift, prophecy

It’s the morning of December 20, 2012 as I type this. That means the end of the world is tomorrow. Just 24 hours away! … If, that is, you believe the assortment of con artists, cranks, liars, “New Agey” buffoons, suicidal lunatics and other ignorant clowns who’ve been propagating the so-called “Maya Apocalypse” garbage for the past few years. As you should know by now, I don’t buy into it; the modern Maya don’t buy into it; and neither should you.

That doesn’t mean people aren’t getting alarmed about it. As the Los Angeles Times reports, the panic is really starting to set in (locally-cached article):

If there’s one government agency really looking forward to Dec. 22, it’s NASA.

The space agency said it has been flooded with calls and emails from people asking about the purported end of the world — which, as the doomsday myth goes, is apparently set to take place on Dec. 21, 2012.

The myth might have originated with the Mayan calendar, but in the age of the Internet and social media, it proliferated online, raising questions and concerns among hundreds of people around the world who have turned to NASA for answers.

Dwayne Brown, an agency spokesman, said NASA typically receives about 90 calls or emails per week containing questions from people. In recent weeks, he said, that number has skyrocketed — from 200 to 300 people are contacting NASA per day to ask about the end of the world.

Sadly, it seems NASA’s efforts to educate the public about the fraud that is the “Maya Doomsday 2012″ just aren’t working very well — even though they’ve been trying for quite some time now.

People are still under the impression that the Maya long-count calendar will “end” tomorrow, on December 21, 2012 … despite the fact that no calendar ever “ends.” All calendars are cyclical and perpetual. The Maya calendar cannot “end,” any more than our own can. Just as our own year 2012 will end this coming December 31 and 2013 will begin the next day on January 1, what will happen tomorrow is that the Maya 13th baktun will end, and the 14th will begin.

Moreover, the idea that the Maya “prophesied” the end of the world, is ludicrous on its face. They did no such thing. But even if they had, the accuracy and credibility of their predictions are in question, when one remembers that the classic Maya had not managed to foresee the decline of their own civilization and the upheavals that accompanied it.

Oh, and to add to the confusion, it’s entirely possible the presumed date of the turn of baktun may be wrong, and it might have already occurred! But that seems beside the point.

Photo credit: Jan Vrsinsky, via Flickr.

Tags: 12/21/2012, 12/21/2012 11:11, 13th baktun, 14th baktun, baktun, dec 21 2012, december 21 2012, long count calendar, maya, maya apocalypse, maya calendar, maya doomsday, maya prophecy, mayan, mayans, nasa, new age, prophecy

Despite the fact that it’s relatively common … and mostly done in a completely non-religious way in the occidental world … there are Christians out there who can’t get over yoga. They don’t understand that, while it did originate within Hindu religious tradition, yoga can be — and almost always is — non-religious. They object to it anyway, just because they think they can.

A couple years ago I blogged about evangelical theologian R. Albert Mohler going on a tear against it, but he’s hardly alone. As the (UK) Telegraph reports, some Christians in California are suing their local school district because it plans to have yoga as part of the phys-ed curriculum (WebCite cached article):

The Encinitas Union School District plans to offer yoga instruction at all of its nine schools from January, despite a protest by parents who say they believe it will indoctrinate their children in Eastern religion.

The growing popularity of yoga is forcing US public schools to address the question of whether it is a religious practice or simply exercise.

The parents have their reasons … which are incomprehensible:

Mary Eady, a parent who has pulled her child out of yoga classes, said the pupils were learning to worship the sun and it was “inappropriate in our public schools.”

I’m not sure how or why Ms Eady thinks yoga is “sun worship.” She might be referring — perhaps — to something like Surya Namaskara, which might be called a yoga practice … however, it is, at best, a subset of yoga, and is certainly not the entirety of yoga.

It’s actually not uncommon for fundamentalist Christians to dismiss or condemn things they dislike as “sun worship.” They similarly dismiss Islam as “moon worship.” I’m not sure why, but they do.

In any event, as I blogged previously, these Christians forget that a lot of the meditative practices which are part of yoga, also happen to be traditional within Christianity … particularly in the monastic and mendicant movements. In other words, they’re condemning something that can also be found within their own religion. The meditative practices of Christian monks, friars, nuns, etc. may not be something these fundamentalist Christians are personally familiar with, but they’re no less “Christian” than any of their own rites or practices. That they’re ignorant of their own religion’s traditions, is the real problem here.

Photo credit: RelaxingMusic, via Flickr.

Tags: christian, Christianity, christians, education, encinitas CA, encinitas union school district, meditation, phys ed, physed, physical education, public school, public schools, sun worship, surya namaskara, yoga, yogi, yogini

No sooner do I get done blogging about another in a long line of pricks for Jesus using the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to promote his fierce fundementalism, than I hear about a rather prominent Religious Rightist doing the exact same thing. This one is James Dobson, founder and former head of Focus on the Family. The Christian Post reports he thinks God allowed the shooting, because of atheists, abortions, and gay marriage (WebCite cached article):

James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, said Monday that he believes the Connecticut shooting is a result of God allowing judgment to fall on America because it has turned its back on Him.

“And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think He has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that’s what’s going on,” Dobson told listeners of his “Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk” program.

It’s the same tired litany: atheists, abortion and gays are to blame for anything bad, and the country isn’t Christian-fundamentalist enough. They’re the reason for earthquakes, droughts, crime, hurricanes, tornados, and … just about everything.

Well, too fucking bad, Dobbie. You don’t run the country. You aren’t getting your way any more. And the country is growing increasingly secular, so it’s not very likely you’ll be able to get your way any time soon. Wah wah wah, you fucking crybaby. Grow the hell up, fercryinoutloud.

Photo credit: Louisiana College, via the Christian Post.

Tags: christian, christianism, christianist, christianists, Christianity, christians, christofascism, christofascist, christofascists, dr james dobson, focus on the family, james dobson, judgement, newtown CT, newtown massacre, newtown shooting, Religion, religionism, religionist, religionists, sandy hook elementary school, sandy hook elementary school shooting, school shooting