Sunday, December 09, 2007
Religion takes a Beating
After the liberal, globalistic spin is noted, the substance of the article by ABC News, " ’The Golden Compass’ Spurs Controversy" comes out. While they have opposing viewpoints, the pro-athiest/anti God people outnumber the believers three to one and they discredit and belittle our beliefs with no counter. The Catholic League is quoted as saying the film is blatantly anti-Catholic, and the characters of the film’s religious establishment are portrayed as evil.
A press release in defense of the author, notably includes the Archbishop of Canterbury who’s leftist leanings were portrayed last week by an interview in which he blasted westernism.
New Line Cinema, the film's distributor, stood by Pullman, noting in a statement to ABC News that the
film has been "praised by countless clergy and religious scholars, including the Archbishop of
Canterbury, for its deep spirituality and exploration of important theological issues."
In sensational fashion, Emily Friedman instead brushes large strokes across organized religion by quoting extensively three different authors or speakers who are athiests.
But the importance of seeing another viewpoint is exactly what the Catholic League fails to understand,
according to the Freedom from Religion Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "It's time we get
past superstition, embrace reason and put our energies in the real world and not in a fantastic after life
that nobody can prove," Gaylor said. "Why shouldn't our society be open to other views?"
"Harry Potter didn't make a bunch of atheists," said Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, a professor of religious
art and culture history at Georgetown University. "Discussion of religion has become so painted and so
questionable that I don't think we're sitting down and asking the fundamental questions. I think these
movies begin conversations," added Apostolos-Cappadona. "What is more harmful than shutting out
conversation and ideas?"
You’ve heard it before and it bears saying again: That which your enemy is guilty of is exactly what he’ll accuse you of doing. When they say shutting out conversation and ideas is harmful, that is what they'll accomplish by stacking the conversation with pro-athiests.
The following is a comment posted after the article. I’m researching the Chicago church story, but it sounds urban-legendish. Understand the repugnance he holds for the Catholic Church, and the intimation that the priests or fathers of that Chicago church desecrated it by burying their sins below the basement.
My 85 year old father told me a story a few years back of when he was a boy in Chicago. There was an old
Catholic church which had long since been abandoned and desolate. It was scheduled for demolition.
When the demolition team reached the basement, they discovered MANY skeletons of human infants.
How do you suppose infant skeletons got into the basement of a Catholic church? Why do you suppose
those tiny little innocent babies weren't given a proper burial - the Catholic services are quite
extraordinary, aren't they? Who do you suppose gave birth to or aborted those babies? I try very hard
not to let my mind go any farther than asking those questions because if I begin to answer them, I would
realize how horrible and hipocritical the largest, wealthiest and most powerful "religion" in the United
States is, and if the strongest religion is that frightening, then how frightening must the weaker religions
be....trying to climb the ladder of "success?" to be stronger/richer/larger? How DARE the catholic
religion speak against a children's movie pretending to care about children when they prove their
disrespect and insolence for children in so many horrendous and unspeakable ways! I am so grateful to
my God for showing me, as a child, that I don't need a "religion" nor a "structure" to love and honor
Higher Source. No, I have not seen this movie yet, but like another writer put it so eloquently, I'm
"upgrading this from a video rental to a theater worthy movie".
Posted by: reikithree 11:40 am
Free Thinking, Religiously Based
Religion was introduced to me when I was young. My parents are Lutheran, and they adhered to and passed on elevated ideals to my sisters and I. They also introduced us to another very important tool, critical thinking. As I got older, and met friends and their parents, there were some who were varied in where their parents went to church. I went to my friend Mack’s church with him and his family one time. I remember it clearly: I was mortified. I cried and cried when it was my time to be "saved". To this day church is tricky for me because in my heart I know I’m a believer and true to His tenets though I’ve never studied them. But when another person becomes involved in my faith… I can feel my throat closing now as I think about it. My emotions well up so high I start crying.
When we were in jr. high, my sister and I had a mutual friend who was devout in her beliefs, one of which was that the new "bar codes" on products were the mark of the devil and Proctor and Gamble was a satanic company.
My parents made me go to church when I was young, but as our family fell apart we went to church less and less. I think my mother had a strong religious upbringing and she continued to go. My father later refused to go,although he always encouraged us to keep going, (when we were young there wasn’t a choice not to go). I was probably twelve or thirteen when I stopped going.
At some point, I think I was in the military, I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and it changed me. I didn’t become a Buddhist, but their religion wasn’t so foreign to me anymore; I’d discovered a manual of how to experience the world to my best benefit. When I apply my most basic technique of "do unto others as you would have them do to you" people respond amazingly. I am very blessed to have the life I do though I’m not a shooting star success at anything I’ve attempted to do. I find happiness and joy every day in uninteresting things to most other people.
It has been said, as it was by reikithree in the comment above, that religion was created early on as man evolved. When the first cogent thinkers began to add up the vastness of the universe they could see, and the threat and evidence of death all around him, they invented a higher power. It calmed them and their fears as they peered out of the cave opening into the dark night. This was argued when evidence of organized religion was found in places untouched by religious or developed civilizations. They thought that there must be something more to this life than just to live and "do as thou wilt", then die and it’s over. Somehow the thought that living a good life, and serving your God led to a blissful afterlife transcended modes of communication: it was plucked out of the air again and again by mankind in his infancy. The message was the same, but the practices were different.
With the undeniable record of religions in the past, near and distant, it’s clear organized religion is flawed. Yet God says we are all flawed, yet are all worthy of forgiveness. We can all enter heaven when our time on earth is done, but we must seek His forgiveness and mean it, because He’ll know. So our lives are really a giant preparation for an afterlife in Heaven alongside Him, and his son Jesus and all the rest who’ve proclaimed themselves believers and followed His path of righteousness.
Athiests and people who criticize religion should look closely at what causes the flaws. It is always with organized churches or denominations, and some are megalithic. What is consistent is the element of man within them. There are people of weak character in all walks of life.
When news organizations like ABC give time to athiests like Christopher Hitchins, with his new book (the subject of the interview), "God is not Great", it gives a forum to someone who first of all doesn’t deserve the promotion he and his horrible book will get, but gives air under a line of reasoning which starts with a precept, and finishes with the same one.
Other comments said let children make their own choice. I must argue to make a choice about religion, you have to be taught about religion. With no true concept of God and what is behind it it’s easy to opt out and never let Him in, and that’s just fine with these secularists and athiests. But when His word is passed on to a child it makes all the difference. That child will make choices for life, justice and fairness, while the athiest will have long ago shed those precepts as unattainable.
-Katykarter ¶ 10:12 AM
After the liberal, globalistic spin is noted, the substance of the article by ABC News, " ’The Golden Compass’ Spurs Controversy" comes out. While they have opposing viewpoints, the pro-athiest/anti God people outnumber the believers three to one and they discredit and belittle our beliefs with no counter. The Catholic League is quoted as saying the film is blatantly anti-Catholic, and the characters of the film’s religious establishment are portrayed as evil.
A press release in defense of the author, notably includes the Archbishop of Canterbury who’s leftist leanings were portrayed last week by an interview in which he blasted westernism.
New Line Cinema, the film's distributor, stood by Pullman, noting in a statement to ABC News that the
film has been "praised by countless clergy and religious scholars, including the Archbishop of
Canterbury, for its deep spirituality and exploration of important theological issues."
In sensational fashion, Emily Friedman instead brushes large strokes across organized religion by quoting extensively three different authors or speakers who are athiests.
But the importance of seeing another viewpoint is exactly what the Catholic League fails to understand,
according to the Freedom from Religion Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "It's time we get
past superstition, embrace reason and put our energies in the real world and not in a fantastic after life
that nobody can prove," Gaylor said. "Why shouldn't our society be open to other views?"
"Harry Potter didn't make a bunch of atheists," said Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, a professor of religious
art and culture history at Georgetown University. "Discussion of religion has become so painted and so
questionable that I don't think we're sitting down and asking the fundamental questions. I think these
movies begin conversations," added Apostolos-Cappadona. "What is more harmful than shutting out
conversation and ideas?"
You’ve heard it before and it bears saying again: That which your enemy is guilty of is exactly what he’ll accuse you of doing. When they say shutting out conversation and ideas is harmful, that is what they'll accomplish by stacking the conversation with pro-athiests.
The following is a comment posted after the article. I’m researching the Chicago church story, but it sounds urban-legendish. Understand the repugnance he holds for the Catholic Church, and the intimation that the priests or fathers of that Chicago church desecrated it by burying their sins below the basement.
My 85 year old father told me a story a few years back of when he was a boy in Chicago. There was an old
Catholic church which had long since been abandoned and desolate. It was scheduled for demolition.
When the demolition team reached the basement, they discovered MANY skeletons of human infants.
How do you suppose infant skeletons got into the basement of a Catholic church? Why do you suppose
those tiny little innocent babies weren't given a proper burial - the Catholic services are quite
extraordinary, aren't they? Who do you suppose gave birth to or aborted those babies? I try very hard
not to let my mind go any farther than asking those questions because if I begin to answer them, I would
realize how horrible and hipocritical the largest, wealthiest and most powerful "religion" in the United
States is, and if the strongest religion is that frightening, then how frightening must the weaker religions
be....trying to climb the ladder of "success?" to be stronger/richer/larger? How DARE the catholic
religion speak against a children's movie pretending to care about children when they prove their
disrespect and insolence for children in so many horrendous and unspeakable ways! I am so grateful to
my God for showing me, as a child, that I don't need a "religion" nor a "structure" to love and honor
Higher Source. No, I have not seen this movie yet, but like another writer put it so eloquently, I'm
"upgrading this from a video rental to a theater worthy movie".
Posted by: reikithree 11:40 am
Free Thinking, Religiously Based
Religion was introduced to me when I was young. My parents are Lutheran, and they adhered to and passed on elevated ideals to my sisters and I. They also introduced us to another very important tool, critical thinking. As I got older, and met friends and their parents, there were some who were varied in where their parents went to church. I went to my friend Mack’s church with him and his family one time. I remember it clearly: I was mortified. I cried and cried when it was my time to be "saved". To this day church is tricky for me because in my heart I know I’m a believer and true to His tenets though I’ve never studied them. But when another person becomes involved in my faith… I can feel my throat closing now as I think about it. My emotions well up so high I start crying.
When we were in jr. high, my sister and I had a mutual friend who was devout in her beliefs, one of which was that the new "bar codes" on products were the mark of the devil and Proctor and Gamble was a satanic company.
My parents made me go to church when I was young, but as our family fell apart we went to church less and less. I think my mother had a strong religious upbringing and she continued to go. My father later refused to go,although he always encouraged us to keep going, (when we were young there wasn’t a choice not to go). I was probably twelve or thirteen when I stopped going.
At some point, I think I was in the military, I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and it changed me. I didn’t become a Buddhist, but their religion wasn’t so foreign to me anymore; I’d discovered a manual of how to experience the world to my best benefit. When I apply my most basic technique of "do unto others as you would have them do to you" people respond amazingly. I am very blessed to have the life I do though I’m not a shooting star success at anything I’ve attempted to do. I find happiness and joy every day in uninteresting things to most other people.
It has been said, as it was by reikithree in the comment above, that religion was created early on as man evolved. When the first cogent thinkers began to add up the vastness of the universe they could see, and the threat and evidence of death all around him, they invented a higher power. It calmed them and their fears as they peered out of the cave opening into the dark night. This was argued when evidence of organized religion was found in places untouched by religious or developed civilizations. They thought that there must be something more to this life than just to live and "do as thou wilt", then die and it’s over. Somehow the thought that living a good life, and serving your God led to a blissful afterlife transcended modes of communication: it was plucked out of the air again and again by mankind in his infancy. The message was the same, but the practices were different.
With the undeniable record of religions in the past, near and distant, it’s clear organized religion is flawed. Yet God says we are all flawed, yet are all worthy of forgiveness. We can all enter heaven when our time on earth is done, but we must seek His forgiveness and mean it, because He’ll know. So our lives are really a giant preparation for an afterlife in Heaven alongside Him, and his son Jesus and all the rest who’ve proclaimed themselves believers and followed His path of righteousness.
Athiests and people who criticize religion should look closely at what causes the flaws. It is always with organized churches or denominations, and some are megalithic. What is consistent is the element of man within them. There are people of weak character in all walks of life.
When news organizations like ABC give time to athiests like Christopher Hitchins, with his new book (the subject of the interview), "God is not Great", it gives a forum to someone who first of all doesn’t deserve the promotion he and his horrible book will get, but gives air under a line of reasoning which starts with a precept, and finishes with the same one.
Other comments said let children make their own choice. I must argue to make a choice about religion, you have to be taught about religion. With no true concept of God and what is behind it it’s easy to opt out and never let Him in, and that’s just fine with these secularists and athiests. But when His word is passed on to a child it makes all the difference. That child will make choices for life, justice and fairness, while the athiest will have long ago shed those precepts as unattainable.
-Katykarter ¶ 10:12 AM
