Part of the problem seems to stem from Religions, being inherently “faith” based (surely by definition) superstition cults, trying to bring themselves into the modern, post-Renaissance era of logic and reasoned thought.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anyway, on to today’s black humour. The ever pleasant Westboro Baptist Church has a website titled “God Hates Fags<\/a>” which is littered with offensive, intolerant remarks far from the standard Christian doctrine of love thy neighbour. When I first followed the links to this site, I assumed it was pure parody and had been written as a send up of various Baptist Churches. Sadly, checking the wonderful Wiki<\/a> showed this not to be the case. It is a legit Church, although not affiliated to any other Baptist church (yeah, that makes it better…).<\/p>\n This alone would be disturbing and somewhat upsetting for people who live in the area (I hope), but a scan of their website produces a page with this as the title: (read original<\/a>)<\/p>\n August 20, 1995 – The Night America Bombed Westboro Baptist Church With An IED (Improvised Explosive Device) In A Cowardly Move To Stop WBC’s Anti-Gay Gospel Preaching – Thereby Bringing Down The Unmitigated And Irreversible Wrath Of God Upon This Evil Nation, Manifesting Itself In The Daily Bloody IED-Deaths Of American Soldiers In Iraq And Other Places. (See Documentation<\/a> below).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Don’t you just love long, rambling, ranting, titles like this. You can imagine the person typing it never pausing for breath as they vomit hell fire and damnation on all sinners. It’s like a pantomime<\/a> all year round.<\/p>\n They continue:<\/p>\n Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) had been faithfully preaching for four years when a local whore stepped forward to run for District Attorney on a platform that she would shut down our ministry. She was elected and immediately began filing criminal charges against our members until the number of charges filed by local authorities exceeded five hundred. By August 20 we had just completed four weeks of back-to-back trials in Emporia, Kansas, where venue had been changed to. The local authorities in Topeka \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from the police to the prosecutors, to the elected and non-elected officials in every branch and every level of city, county and state government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c were encouraging crimes and malicious prosecutions against members of WBC.<\/p>\n They were working hand-in-hand to establish a zeitgeist so that every piece of filthy scum was encouraged to come to the pickets and attack us physically and verbally, being assured of three things:<\/p>\n Crimes against WBC members were a regular (almost daily) occurrence. The local newspaper was printing daily stories, editorials, and letters to the editor to demonize, vilify and marginalize WBC and her little flock of slaughter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Right enough of offensive, idiotic, evil, petty minded idiots hiding behind the banner of Christianity, we have our first Islamic entry!<\/p>\n On a website called MuslimMarkets<\/a> there is a blog post (oddly using the Christian calendar) which explains the true religion of God<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, before I address some of the main inconsistencies with this post, I need to look at the first one. This whole document assumes the existence of God and looks at the differences between paths to worshipping that deity. It is strange in that it also looks at Buddism, Confucianism (etc) who certainly do not provide a path to worshipping the “One true God.” Now with this in mind look at some of the extracts from that document:<\/p>\n Like every other religion or philosophy, Islam also claims to be the one and only true way to God. In this respect it is no different from other systems. This booklet intends to provide some evidence for the validity of that claim. However, it must always be kept in mind that one can only determine the true path by putting aside emotions and prejudices, which often blind us to reality. Then, and only then, will we be able to use our God-given intelligence and make a rational and correct decision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"Farleigh](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-photos\/ReligiousIntolerance_142EC\/farliegh_hungerford_clr_bg_thumb.jpg?resize=200%2C150\" "\\"Farleigh")
<\/a>Now, I am not trying to say that in today’s world, everyone needs logical reasoned thought to carry out their actions – the evidence of each day proves this to be false – but that for some reason, certain religious organisations \/ individuals feel the need to try and rationalise their beliefs and prove they are following the “One True Faith” while all others are heretics and unbelievers who are going to hell. Obviously this is a good reason why the big three religions are never<\/strong> going to tolerate a fully open and equal society (In the UK Catholic opposition to recent legislation is a good example).<\/p>\n![\"Old](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-photos\/ReligiousIntolerance_142EC\/old_wardour_clr_lg_thumb1.jpg?resize=200%2C150\" "\\"Old")
<\/a> This is a Christian church (affiliated or not) which has come up with some weird interpretation of the New Testament that allows them to morally justify their amazingly objectionable behaviour. The Wiki site has a list of their prejudices, the titles of which are entertaining enough. Fortunately not only do WBC hate Black people, Gays, Jews and Muslims but they hold Catholics and Mormons in equally low regard. You could almost say it was balanced…<\/p>\n\n
![\"Belsay](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-photos\/ReligiousIntolerance_142EC\/BelsayCastleandGardens10May06039_thumb1.jpg?resize=200%2C150\" "\\"Belsay")
<\/a> The whole page continues in this vein. Ranting, offensive insults in the name of God. It is hilarious but I am amazed that they have not been sued to within an inch of their lives (although part of me suspects that would just martyr them and generate “support” in the manner of Kent Hovind<\/a>)<\/p>\n
![\"Belsay](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-photos\/ReligiousIntolerance_142EC\/BelsayCastleandGardens07May06056_thumb1.jpg?resize=200%2C150\" "\\"Belsay")
<\/a> Can you see this first assumption is vital to the whole argument. Taking it at face value, this “booklet” can actually only serve to convert other believers of the “one true God” (Christians and Jews). Being a good “Islamic” document it attributes most of it’s content to the workings of God and assumes that the reader is using their “God given” intelligence to assess the information provided. If you dont feel your intelligence was given to you by God a lot of what follows in the “booklet” is empty.<\/p>\n