Peace, love and understanding

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7894721.stm?lss

The founder of a US Muslim TV network has been charged over the beheading of his wife, media reports say. Muzzammil Hassan, 44, is accused of second degree murder of Aasiya Hassan, whose body was found last week at the TV station in New York state. Both Mr Hassan and his wife worked at Bridges TV, a station aimed at countering stereotypes of Muslims……. yeah, epic fail on that front I’m afraid.

”Wah, stop oppressing us!”

”Your mind is like a parachute. It won’t work if it’s closed.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/05/atheist-bus-christian-response

When I first heard about this campaign, I must admit I was slightly pissed off. The whole point of the original atheist bus billboards was to provide, for a mere 2 weeks, an alternative to the wide spread and over-bearing religious advertising on buses and the underground. We discussed how it should be worded, we banded together and raised the funds and we were successful. It wasn’t negative or spiteful or insulting, and yet it still received complaints. And now this happens. More over-bearing (and technically incorrect, but we’ll get to that later) religious advertising in response to an advert that tried to give a differing view point to over bearing religious advertising.

 Like I said, I was annoyed, but then I did some research and discovered this particular ad is paid for by our good friends the Christian Party. After a brief hospital visit to have my sides stitched back up, I realised that there was no need for me to take any action against this ad, or to get flustered in any way because The Christian Party are the douchiest of douche bags. They actually give the pope a run for his money in giving Christianity a bad name and as such, I throw my full support behind these billboards! I urge you not to complain to the Advertising Standards Agency (even though you would have a valid case because in using the word definitely in their campaign they are making statements that can’t be backed up with evidence and have stumbled into the area of false advertising…..I mean really, didn’t you retards sit down and at least think this over?) So sit back and enjoy. Point and laugh if you must. But don’t be like them. Don’t fall into the trap of complaining against something that expresses a differing view point. Marvel at a minority Christian group that yet again manages to confirm the stereotype that Christians are mental, intolerant bigots that pretty much all of decent society holds.

Oh, and since the Christian Party are such a minor movement, here’s a little background. It was founded by the rev. George Hargreaves under the name Operation Christian Vote in 2004 as an attempt to fill a void for the Christian Right in the U.K. After some pretty disastrous results in local elections, they seem to be concentrating their powers on the Scottish Christian Party and the Welsh Christian Party. Their manifesto during the Scottish election of 2007 (which can be viewed here) contained such gems as banning abortion, greater observance of a weekly day of rest , promotion in school of chastity before marriage (because as we all know, having sex outside of marriage makes Universe-creating super beings furious), the re-instatement of an archaic law that bans the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality, opposition of the practice of altering birth certificates to reflect gender confirmation surgery, and finally, my favourite, a science curriculum which should “reflect the evidence of creation/design” in the universe (which is non existent, if you’re interested). Part of their manifesto in a recent Welsh election was to have the Dragon removed from the national flag because it is “nothing less than the sign of Satan” apparently according to Mr. Hargreaves. (don’t laugh, it is red after all!)

One last piece of information of George Hargreaves is so awesomely delicious that I just had to save it for last. Back in the mid 80s, he was involved in the music business as a DJ and songwriter, and was behind the nation wide club smash ‘So Macho’ by Sinitta. Now, it just so happens that this particular song was massive in the gay community and it’s success made George quite wealthy, wealth which then helped him set up a political party. And isn’t it wonderful that his shitty little party only exists thanks to money obtained from a section of society that he holds such vile, bigoted and childish views against.

And I’ll get the obligatory ‘’oh, but he’s not a TRUE Christian, like me’’ out of the way here before anyone tries that shit in my notes. I mean, you do have a point, he isn’t a true Christian, say like the Roman Catholics, or the Eastern Orthodox Church, or the Oriental Orthodox Church, or the Protestants like the Lutherans, or the Presbyterians, or the Methodists, or the Baptists, or the Pentecostalists, or the Quakers, or the Anglicans, or the Unitarianists, or the Mormons etc, etc, etc.

With God, nothing shall be impossible

And the award for theistic moron of the week goes to ~~Believing God~~  

 ”Have you considered how unlikely was the crash of USAir flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15—not just the rescue but the crash itself? Picture this: The Airbus A320 is taking off at an angle—maybe 30 degrees. It’s not flying horizontal with the earth. Not only that, it is flying fast—not full speed yet, but perhaps four times as fast as your car would go at top highway speeds.

The geese are flying horizontally with the ground, more or less. They are not flying in a cloud like a swarm of bees. They fly level with the ground, often shaped like a V. In view of all that, what are the odds that, travelling at this speed and at this angle, this airplane would intersect with the flight of those geese at that very millisecond which would put a bird not just in one of those engines, but both of them?

Two laser-guided missiles would not have been as amazingly effective as were those geese. It is incredible, statistically speaking. If God governs nature down to the fall (and the flight) of every bird, as Jesus says (Matthew 10:29), then the crash of flight 1549 was designed by God.

Which leads to the landing in the Hudson River—which is just as unlikely. The airbus now has no thrust in either engine. The flight attendants said it was as quiet as a library in the plane without the sound of engines. The plane is now a 77-ton glider with its belly full of fuel. Captain Sullenberger decides to land in the river. Anywhere else would mean one big fireball.

He banks and misses the George Washington Bridge by 900 feet and glides the plane into a perfect belly landing. A few degrees tilt to the front or back or the right or left and the plane would have done cartwheels down the river and broken up. On the water, the flight attendant does not let passengers open the rear door. That would have flooded the cabin too fast. The emergency doors and front doors provide exits for everyone and the plane floats long enough for all of them to climb out. Ferry boats are there almost instantly. The captain walks the aisle twice to make sure everyone is off. Then he leaves. Later the plane sinks.

If God guides geese so precisely, he also guides the captain’s hands. God knew that when he took the plane down, he would also give a spectacular deliverance. So why would he do that? If he means for all to live, why not just skip the crash?

Because he meant to give our nation a parable of his power and mercy the week before a new President takes office. God can take down a plane any time he pleases—and if he does, he wrongs no one. Apart from Christ, none of us deserves anything from God but judgment. We have belittled him so consistently that he would be perfectly just to take any of us any time in any way he chooses.
I am writing these thoughts on the evening after the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States. I cried twice today. There were two points when I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all. Once was when I prayed with some brothers after Obama’s speech and was overcome with the sinfulness of my own racist background. The other was in trying to express my emotion to an African-American brother about what this must mean for him.

As much as I reject Obama’s stance on abortion, I am thankful to the bottom of my soul that an African-American can be President of United States. The enormousness of it all is unspeakable. This is God’s doing. The geese were God’s doing. The landing of Flight 1549 was God’s doing. And the Obama presidency is God’s doing. “He removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21).  And I pray that President Obama has eyes to see. The “miracle on the Hudson” and the “miracle in the White House” are not unrelated. God has been merciful to us as a nation. Our racial sins deserved judgment a thousand times over. God does not owe America anything. We owe him everything. And instead of destruction, he has given us another soft landing. We are not dead at the bottom of the Hudson.”

 

Ever since I heard about this crash on the news, I’ve held my tongue over the constant repetition of the world miracle. Unfortunately I snapped when I read this bullshit.  And since it’s the day of love, I thought I’d share in that love.

Miracle? Miracle!?? The pilot was doing his fucking job! If, as all this was going down, he had fallen to his knees and began wailing to some imaginary friend in the same vein that you most likely do every time something terrible happens, things would have been a lot worse. No, he remained calm and pulled on the reserves of countless hours of training for just such an event.

Take a step back for one moment from the sickeningly sycophantic fellatio you lavish on your imaginary sky bully and give credit where credit is rightfully due. But I guess that would be asking to much as you seem to have as much difficulty with critical thinking as brain damaged chimp. Hell, you seem to have difficulty grasping concepts like aviation so I shouldn’t be surprised. Planes are kept in the by special Jesus magnets, right? Except when God decides to fuck you over and send geese flying into your engines. But how exactly does He go about doing that? Does He psychically control them with His universe creating, super being/goose-like mind? Is God a giant goose? Or at least some kind of bird, you know, like one of those foul looking vultures that wallow around in rotten meat and shit. That sounds more like the God of the Bible.  

How can you not cringe when you post things like the above on your diary? Are you not in the least bit embarrassed? A grown woman not engaging her brain and parroting whatever patriotic, asinine, bullshit appears in her inbox. Just once, for one, fleeting moment in your life, take off those rose-tinted god glasses and take a look around at the this world. Just once, I implore you as a fellow human being, THINK FOR YOURSELF. Because this isn’t righteous. This isn’t faithful dedication to something beautiful. This just makes me terribly depressed.

And anyway, as the crash in New York state this week clearly proves, God only saves planes if there are geese involved. Take that, fuckers.

 

Watch this. It makes everything better.

I do more than just make fancy paper hats

‘Fear is your only God’ (Oil on canvas board, bloody huge)

 

 

So this is my finished piece for our 4 week ‘body’ project. The brief was pretty open ended in regards that we just had to produce a piece of art in response to the body. The whys, whats and hows were left up to us. I decided to tackle Religion and it’s view on the human body., more specifically the image of Christ. What I wanted to show with this painting is that while Religion has the potential to be life affirming, beautiful, inspiring and transcendentally sublime, it more often than not gets used to justify people being bigoted assholes to each other. The purest of the pure being raped and desecrated because ignorant morons bring it down to their level as an excuse for intolerance.

So while personally this is quite a critical image of religion, I like the ambiguity of it as it can be viewed as a validation of what Christ ultimately sacrificed for us all…….if you are 5 or believe in fairy tales.

(p.s. ignore the top right hand corner because it’s so rubbish and appalling and I need to fix it so it doesn’t look so rubbish and appalling.)

EVIL-ution!

 

Happy Darwin Day, you fiends. Raise your glasses in honour of Chuck D.