Thursday, April 26, 2012
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Susan Boyle - Simply Amazing
Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent 2009
26,401,443 views and 135,405 text comments on YouTube says it all!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Åke Green Sentencing
According to DN, a major Swedish morning paper, the Swedish Supreme Court has given November 28, 2005 as the preliminary date for the sentence in the Åke Green case.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
A quiz - for you too?
Hardhat
You are an atheist, a rationalist, a believer in the triumph of science and of reason over libido. You can’t stand mumbo jumbo, ritual, spiritual nonsense of any kind, and you refuse to allow for these longings in others.
Astrologers, Scientologists and new–age crystal ball creeps are no different in your view from priests, rabbis and imams. They’re all just weak–minded pilgrims on the road to easy answers. Nature as revealed by science is awesome enough for you, but it’s a nature that needs curbing and taming by us on our evolutionary journey to perfection.
Your heros are Einstein, Darwin, Marx and — these days — Gould, Blakemore, Watson, Crick and Rosalind Franklin. Could you be hiding a little behind those absolutist views, worried that, if you let in a few doubts and contradictory ideas, the whole edifice might crumble? Loosen up a bit and try to enjoy the amazing variety of human belief systems. Don’t worry — it’s unlikely you’ll end up chanting your days away in some distant mountain cult.
What kind of humanist are you? Click here to find out.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Åke Green Sermon
I made a comment over in Feministe related to Sweden, gays and the tsunami. Read the original post here to understand what I am talking about, because sensible people would not and should not see the connection. My comment is here.
Looking at the complete nonsense and delirious ramblings at the godhatessweden.com site made me interested in reading the actual sermon of Åke Green; the sermon which seems to have triggered that site.
The short unbiased information on the case from BBC News give you the background.
Having found the sermon and read all 12 pages of it, I can really see the problems the Supreme Court of Sweden is facing.
On the one hand, it is a severe attack in homosexuality based on Åke Green’s reading of the bible and it falls well within the framework of the Swedish hate crime legislation.
On the other hand, the freedom of speech and of religion could as easily be said to prevent a conviction under the hate crime legislation.
The District Court convicted Green, but the Court of Appeals reversed that decision.
What I noted in the sermon was the tedious, repetitious and complicated (at least to a non-christian) references to the bible. To Åke Green the bible contains the word of the Lord and cannot be disputed. The sermon does not seem to fit very well with the kind of language one would expect to see in a speech contrary to the hate crime legislation.
Neither does his closing statement in his sermon:” We must never think that some people, because of their sinful lives, would end up outside of grace. Paul says about himself that he was the foremost of all sinners, but he encountered an abundance of grace and mercy….. It is by showing all people grace and mercy that we can win them for Christ. We never win anyone by giving them the cold shoulder.”
Nothing about killing all gays at all; only a disgusting expression of assumed moral superiority over sinners (I am sure that I am among the sinners, even if I am not gay. I may have “entertained evil thoughts” when a nice blonde passed by).
If you read the sermon thoroughly (not recommended unless you want to fall to sleep) you would note that Green makes reference a number of times to his work on a hot-line for people with personal problems (“as a volunteer telephone counsellor”), where people told him about their urges to rape animals(?). Do they not screen people like that – I mean the counsellors. Imaging being in anguish over e g how your parents have reacted when you told that you were gay and get Green on the line telling that “you could be cleansed from these abnormalities”.
I await the decision by the Supreme Court with great interest. The date for hearing is set for November 9.
Looking at the complete nonsense and delirious ramblings at the godhatessweden.com site made me interested in reading the actual sermon of Åke Green; the sermon which seems to have triggered that site.
The short unbiased information on the case from BBC News give you the background.
Having found the sermon and read all 12 pages of it, I can really see the problems the Supreme Court of Sweden is facing.
On the one hand, it is a severe attack in homosexuality based on Åke Green’s reading of the bible and it falls well within the framework of the Swedish hate crime legislation.
On the other hand, the freedom of speech and of religion could as easily be said to prevent a conviction under the hate crime legislation.
The District Court convicted Green, but the Court of Appeals reversed that decision.
What I noted in the sermon was the tedious, repetitious and complicated (at least to a non-christian) references to the bible. To Åke Green the bible contains the word of the Lord and cannot be disputed. The sermon does not seem to fit very well with the kind of language one would expect to see in a speech contrary to the hate crime legislation.
Neither does his closing statement in his sermon:” We must never think that some people, because of their sinful lives, would end up outside of grace. Paul says about himself that he was the foremost of all sinners, but he encountered an abundance of grace and mercy….. It is by showing all people grace and mercy that we can win them for Christ. We never win anyone by giving them the cold shoulder.”
Nothing about killing all gays at all; only a disgusting expression of assumed moral superiority over sinners (I am sure that I am among the sinners, even if I am not gay. I may have “entertained evil thoughts” when a nice blonde passed by).
If you read the sermon thoroughly (not recommended unless you want to fall to sleep) you would note that Green makes reference a number of times to his work on a hot-line for people with personal problems (“as a volunteer telephone counsellor”), where people told him about their urges to rape animals(?). Do they not screen people like that – I mean the counsellors. Imaging being in anguish over e g how your parents have reacted when you told that you were gay and get Green on the line telling that “you could be cleansed from these abnormalities”.
I await the decision by the Supreme Court with great interest. The date for hearing is set for November 9.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Skeptic's Circle
Don’t miss the 18th Skeptic’s Circle at WolverineTom.
My favourite piece is Chris Hallquist’s post about Deepak Chopra here.
My favourite piece is Chris Hallquist’s post about Deepak Chopra here.
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