| atheism.davidrand.ca: Living Without Religion | |
|---|---|
| > Table of Contents | |
| > > News Archive | en français |
| Previous page | Next page |
| |
Globe and Mail — Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2001-03-29
...Written with input from senior members of several international religious orders, the 1998 document details numerous examples of the rape and sexual abuse of nuns by bishops and priests. Despite the assertion of Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Pope's Opus Dei public relations chief, that the problem is confined to a small geographical area, the report gives examples of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in 23 countries on five continents. By far the majority of cases have occurred in Africa...
...the rigid hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church accords overweening power to the clergy without any mechanisms for accountability. Secondly, church influence in education results in the inculcation of sexism and deference to male authority from an early age. Then there is a whole slew of problems associated with mandatory celibacy, which is compounded by the immature sexual and emotional development of many priests...
Globe and Mail — Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2001-03
We know, because we read history, that governments based on a particular religion -- regardless of the intrinsic
merits of the religion in question -- are invariably corrupt, oppressive, and worst of all, incompetent...
We have therefore wisely built into our system safeguards to keep shamans from hijacking the
mechanisms of secular power, and we respond with alarm to any erosion of this protection. All of us, except
some Republicans in America, know there is no such thing as a democratic theocracy.
Ever since brave Afghan freedom fighters threw off the yoke of Soviet oppression and won the
right to self-determination -- remember? -- we've unceasingly criticized what they chose to do with it...
All I want to know is why no similar fuss was raised when, the day before the latest Taliban story broke,
an equally wrong-headed Roman Catholic bishop in Calgary publicly berated the Honorable Joe Clark for
being pro-choice?
Globe and Mail — Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2001-03-21
The Vatican yesterday acknowledged a damning report that some Roman Catholic priests and missionaries force nuns to have sex with them, and in some cases commit rape and coerce the victims to have abortions...
The Vatican said the issue was restricted to a certain geographical area, but the report cited cases in 23 countries, including the United States, Brazil, the Philippines, India, Ireland and Italy.
Rationalist International, 2001-03-07
Who are these Taliban who do not mind to destroy priceless treasures of human culture as if
they are just stones and who do not care the outcry of the world against their vandalism?...
The Taliban are fundamentalists and started with enormous religious zeal to implement Sharia
(Islamic law) in the country as soon as they came to power. They aimed at establishing absolute
rule of Islam and pushed Afghanistan into an age of darkness...
There have been Taliban throughout history, terrorizing, torturing and murdering their fellow
humans in the name of religion and destroying monuments and symbols of other religions,
sometimes great treasures of culture and art. They were acting in the name of different
religions and ideologies. They were Christians, when they burnt the religious images of
the Byzantine Empire in the 8th century. They were Spanish Catholics, when they destroyed
the ancient Muslim mosque of Cordoba and when they reduced the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan
to rubble. They were Croatian Catholics, when they burnt Orthodox churches in Ustasha Croatia
and massacred thousands of Orthodox Serbs. They were German Nazis when they burnt books and
synagogues. They were Hindus, when they dragged down the ancient Muslim mosque of Ayodhya.
All of them had the same aim: to create God's Own Country...
The established political forces many a times do not hesitate to co-operate and collaborate
with fundamentalists to attain short-term goals jeopardizing what they stand for. It is a
tragic mistake to use fundamentalists and extremists for political expediency. It creates
monsters. The left movement world-wide supported Islamic zealots in Iran to see that the Shah
was ousted and forced the people of Iran and the whole world to pay a huge price. The USA
supported fundamentalists to see that the Soviets lose control in Afghanistan. They created
the Taliban. It is too late now to cry for the Buddhas.
Rationalist International, 2001-03-07
Pierre Pican, Roman Catholic bishop of Bayeux, is the first clergyman in France who has to stand trial for keeping the secrecy of the confessional. His supposed holy duty of secrecy came into conflict with the law when he failed to turn in a priest after allegedly discovering in the confessional that he was sexually abusing children.
Rationalist International, 2001-03-07
Pope John Paul II...has carefully created the intended community of his heirs by personally
appointing more than 90 per cent of all cardinals currently in office...Cardinals from around
the world are called for a strategy meeting in Vatican in May, in which the Pope wants to spell
out his policy lines for the next millennium, putting a lasting stamp on the future of the
Catholic Church...
The next pope may come from the developing world, possibly from Asia,
which the Vatican has identified as its main harvesting ground for christianization.
New York Times, 2001-03-16
The five-year hunt for the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair is over, a forensics expert hired by the government said today, confirming that bones dug up at a remote ranch were those of Ms. O'Hair and two of her family members.
Ms. O'Hair, 76, who played an important role in one of two 1960's United States Supreme Court decisions banning mandatory prayer in public schools, disappeared in 1995...
Yahoo! News, 2001-03-15
Remains unearthed from a Texas ranch were those of atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her two adult children, officials said on Thursday in an announcement that ended a six-year-old mystery... Three men, including alleged ringleader David Waters, were suspected of kidnapping the family, forcing them to turn over $600,000, then killing them and burying them on a ranch 125 miles west of San Antonio.
Webmaster's comment:
Note: O'Hair and her two children disappeared from their Austin home in 1995.
Los Angeles Times, 2001-03-06
In a major reversal of previous policy, psychiatrists in this country of 1.3 billion people have decided to stop classifying homosexuality as a mental disease. New guidelines to be issued next month by the Chinese Psychiatric Assn. will drop all references to homosexuality as a pathological condition...
CBC —
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2001-03-04
Interview with Natalie Angier, journalist with the New York Times Magazine and author of the article Confessions of a Lonely Atheist. (See January, 2001)
Prominent science journalist Natalie Angier -- an atheist herself -- ponders the difficulty of holding to her convictions in George Bush's "faith-based" America.
| XHTML CSS |