Good luck girls

Irina Fyet and her partner will try to become Russia's first lesbian married couple on Tuesday May 12.

Given Russia's deep rooted homophobia, I doubt they'll succeed. They have a back up plan, which is to get married in Canada, or Norway, where you don't have to be a citizen to get married, and then return to Russia and try and get the marriage recognised.

Three years ago, Russian Police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo fascists violently broke up the first gay rights march in Moscow. (I'd love to see a Venn diagram depiction of those 3 groups, I suspect they all overlap 100%)

Next week will also see Russia's gay pride marchwhich willpurposely coincide with Moscow's hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest and competitors will be asked to back homosexual rights on stage.

The Russian Orthodox Church, resurgent since the fall of the Soviet Union, has helped turn public sentiment against gay pride events, which the then head of the church, Patriarch Alexey II, has called "propaganda for homosexuality."

Obama shits in Jesus' manger

Do what?
In Catalonia (Spain) it is traditional to make little nativity scenes with figurines.

And you can buy the figurines of shepherds, sheep, Mary, Joseph et al at Christmas markets there.

And to add to these, little figurines of famous people having a crap.

At this link there is a slide show of the kind of stuff they do, including Obama, Merkel, Sarkozy and Brown all with their pants down

Catholic Church uses drug money

Mexico drug gangs building churches: bishop
Reuters

Violent drug gangs in Mexico, which kill thousands of people a year, fund the building of churches in impoverished villages to try to win over locals, a senior Catholic bishop said.

"They are very generous," Bishop Carlos Aguiar told a press conference, Reforma newspaper reported on Saturday.

Aguiar did not say if the drug gangs directly gave money to the Church to use for building places of worship or if they supported the construction works in other ways. Church officials could not be reached for comment on Aguiar's statements, made on Friday and published in several newspapers

"I'm not justifying it, I'm just saying how it is," he said.

Well that's alright then

And the proof for a real exorcism would be . . . ?

Priest 'made £3m from fake exorcisms'

So this priest in Italy is being investigated for fraud because he has amassed a personal fortune as a result of the healings and exorcisms conducted in front of audiences of 400.

Father Francesco Saverio Bazzoffi's defence is that because his organisation - the House of the Sainted Archangels - is not a business, it does not have a bank account, so he opened one in his own name. The money is destined for charities in India and the Philippines.

Here are the things that surprised me from the article.
1. The Catholic Church only permits licensed exorcists to practice. ie: The church issues exorcist licenses.
2. Other rites, such as laying on of hands are also proscribed by the church.

and (most importantly)

3. The church is not under investigation for fraud for its exorcisms and related money gathering

For how do the investigators differentiate between the bogus exorcisms of Bazzoffi, and the bogus exorcisms of a licensed Catholic exorcist. Or is it just paperwork, to quote Johnny Knoxville.

The Seduction of Science

Following on from yesterday's post on the Pope's comments on Science and morality. He said: "In an age when scientific developments attract and seduce with the possibilities they offer, it's more important than ever to educate our contemporaries' consciences so that science does not become the criteria for goodness."
I've been thinking about this all day and more things have occured to me.
First, while I don't think "seductive" is the right word for it, I definitely think science is cool. Whenever I read news reports on the latest technologies I always go "wow! cool!" For example: The latest stuff on artificial limbs, like this, this and this. How about the story this week about the girl whose body changed blood group after a liver transplant?
And that's just medicine technology. Googled in 2 minutes. It is very, VERY cool. But seductive? No. I just can't get horny over science, the lab coats and goggles just don't do it for me! (Yes I know that's not what the Pope meant)
It's not the science that does the seducing. Science doesn't give a monkey's butt. Science is amoral. I don't think scientists leap about rubbing their hands in glee at each brakthrough, celebrating yet another pull on societies moral compass.
It's marketing that does the seducing. the technology that has driven the miniturisation of circuits and the whole mp3 thing, touch sensitive screens and stuff is not seductive, but the iPhone is.

From Filibuster Cartoons
He also said "no science can say who man is, where he comes from or where he is going" And that has been bugging me too, because science does say those things. Abiogenesis, The Big Bang, Evolution. All theories that propose sensible solutions for who, why and where and how.
If the Pope is bitching because science doesn't address moral or spiritual issues then he has a serious misunderstanding of what sciense is and what it does.
If he is worried about the misapplication of scientific discoveries: Nuclear weapons, chemical contraception, Zylon-B etc well, that's a different debate.

Science not the criteria for goodness

He really does have some balls doesn't he? Joseph Ratzinger aka Pope Benedict.
He said in a speech today "In an age when scientific developments attract and seduce with the possibilities they offer, it's more important than ever to educate our contemporaries' consciences so that science does not become the criteria for goodness."
Science is "seductive". Seductive means something that lures you towards sin.
"Educate our contemporaries consciences". This from the leader of the cathoolic church.
"Science does not become the criteria for goodness." And he is offering what, as the criteria for goodness?
He also said "no science can say who man is, where he comes from or where he is going". Great. So, because science doesn't have the answers to the meaning of life, therefore the church does?
"Man is not the fruit of chance or a bundle of convergences, determinisms or physical and chemical reactions" He should team up with Ray Comfort. He uses bigger words than Ray does but it's the same misunderstanding of human origin and the same misrepresentations of scinetific theories.
This is a m an who is apposed to stem cell research, abortion, and thinks that magic words will be more magic if they are said in Latin.

Italians support silenced Pope.

Bligbi blogged on the 18th the story of the Pope cancelling his visit to a Rome university following protests by secular professors and students.
Today "Tens of thousands of students, politicians and ordinary Romans thronged the Vatican on Sunday in a major show of sympathy for Pope Benedict after protests led him to cancel a speech at Rome's top university this week."
"Some waved banners denouncing the "censorship" imposed by members of La Sapienza university."
"Since his election in 2005, the conservative Pontiff has fought what he sees as efforts to restrict the voice of the Church in the public sphere, particularly in Europe. But his stand on issues like abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia has led critics in Italy to accuse him of meddling in politics."
"The protesters at La Sapienza criticized his views on science, saying a speech in 1990 showed he would have favored the Church's 17th century heresy trial against Galileo."
"Fabrizio Cicchitto, a senior member of conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, called the rally a "testimony against the barbarians" who silenced the Pope."
"But leftist member of parliament Franco Grillini, a gay rights activist, said "politicians kissing the shoes of the Pontiff" showed "a painful lack of political autonomy"."
Source: Reuters