Quote of the Week: Adolf Hitler

"I have followed [the Church] in giving our party program the character of unalterable finality, like the Creed. The Church has never allowed the Creed to be interfered with. It is fifteen hundred years since it was formulated, but every suggestion for its amendment, every logical criticism, or attack on it, has been rejected. The Church has realized that anything and everything can be built up on a document of that sort, no matter how contradictory or irreconcilable with it.

The faithful will swallow it whole, so long as logical reasoning is never allowed to be brought to bear on it."

                                        - Adolf Hitler, from Rauschning, The Voice of Destruction, pp. 239-40

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Is the Universe Fine Tuned for Life?

Although I write about religion and atheism and so on - sometimes I am bored by the idea of people believing in the supernatural. There's not much I can do nor want to do to change minds.

My previous post caused a bit of a stir as I stated my views about the hysteria surrounding climate change, but I chanced upon this video which I would like you to watch and let us all know what you think.

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Carl Sagan - 'Pale Blue Dot'

 If ever we need to put things into perspective...

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Panic, Panic: Global Warning

Image via Wikipedia

Am I the only one who views the hysteria about 'climate change' as nothing more than a cynical way for people in power to make money whilst scaring us either to death or to spend some money?
I don't buy it and I couldn't care less about the whole issue.
Humans think there is something special about us, don't we? 'We were created in God's image'....blah,blah,blah. The fact is Earth has been through tremendous climatic changes for millions of years and no doubt will continue to do so long after we cease to inhabit this planet. I am not worried about this overpopulated planet and I don't think you should be either - at least not to the extent that we are going to panic about the future. Who cares if in 20 years time sea levels are going to rise? Big deal.

Harsh, maybe, but I am not going to rush around buying carbon credits (what a classic con!) or switch to solar panels (tried that for 2 years and hated it, plus you need a bank of batteries which themselves are not 'eco-friendly') - so Al Gore won prizes for 'An Inconvenient Truth' which should be taken with a pound of salt - this man (and his ilk) makes money from scaring us into making choices which fatten the wallets of himself and his cronies.
Yes, our focus should be on creating new alternative sources of energy which are easy for people to use but until that time I will continue in the way I always have. This means I don't fear death and therefore whatever happens happens. It's called 'shit happens'.

You don't have to agree with me, but you could let me know what you think!

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Leap of Faith

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Child Abuse - (5)

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Quote of The Week: - 'Do Not Pass by My Epitaph, Traveller'

From an ancient Roman tombstone:

"Do not pass by my epitaph, traveller.
But having stopped, listen and learn, then go your way.
There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon,
no caretaker Aiakos, no dog Cerberus.
All we who are dead below
have become bones and ashes, but nothing else.
I have spoken to you honestly, go on, traveler,
lest even while dead I seem loquacious to you."

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Texas execution looms after jury consult Bible - Amnesty USA

If you want to know how some humans are completely unintelligent then read the story below.
Bear in mind the jurors are alleged to have consulted a book of fiction to determine the man's fate.
A book of fiction!
Please let me know what you think:

"A Texas man who faces execution after jurors at his trial consulted the Bible when deliberating his fate should have his death sentence commuted, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Khristian Oliver, 32, is set to be killed on 5 November after jurors used Biblical passages supporting the death penalty to help them decide whether he should live or die.

Amnesty International is calling on the Texas authorities to commute Khristian Oliver's death sentence. The organization considers that the jurors' use of the Bible during their sentencing deliberations raises serious questions about their impartiality.

A US federal appeals court acknowledged last year that the jurors' use of the Bible amounted to an "external influence" prohibited under the US Constitution, but nonetheless upheld the death sentence.

Khristian Oliver was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder committed during a burglary. According to accomplice testimony at the trial, 20-year-old Oliver shot the victim before striking him on the head with a rifle butt.

After the trial, evidence emerged that jurors had consulted the Bible during their sentencing deliberations. At a hearing in June 1999, four of the jurors recalled that several Bibles had been present and highlighted passages had been passed around.

One juror had read aloud from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors, including the passage, "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death".

The judge ruled that the jury had not acted improperly and this was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

In 2002, a Danish journalist interviewed a fifth juror. The latter said that "about 80 per cent" of the jurors had "brought scripture into the deliberation", and that the jurors had consulted the Bible "long before we ever reached a verdict".

He told the journalist he believed "the Bible is truth from page 1 to the last page", and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. He said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, "I would have left the courtroom". He described himself as a death penalty supporter, saying life imprisonment was a "burden" on the taxpayer.

In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the jurors had "crossed an important line" by consulting specific passages in the Bible that described the very facts at issue in the case. This amounted to an "external influence" on the jury prohibited under the US Constitution.

However, it concluded that under the "highly deferential standard" by which federal courts should review state court decisions, Oliver had failed to prove that he had been prejudiced by this unconstitutional juror conduct. In April 2009, the US Supreme Court refused to take the case, despite being urged to take it by nearly 50 former US federal and state prosecutors."

Amnesty USA.org

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Black Hair Documentary

Black women spend an unbelieveable amount of money on our hair and this documentary (thank you for bringing it to my attention Mama Asid), although focused on black hair and the African-American community, could be about Jamaica, England, Nigeria, Kenya or anywhere else. The principle point is that black women spend a lot of money on our hair and don't seem to care who has control of an industry making billions each week. Made me think.

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