Basilica de Sto. Nino, Cebu City. Do we light the candles because of faith? Or fear of exclusion? @igersmanila #9pmhabit #theshift #bicolorsnaps #igersmanila #candles #cebu Dominant colors: Red and black #travel #religion (Taken with instagram)
pensieve by jehsee
"I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling,
that I simply have too many thoughts and memories
crammed into my mind...
At these times... I use the Pensieve.
One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind,
pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure."
-- Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
I’m not religious, I’m an atheist, and a militant atheist when religion starts impacting on legislation.
Daniel Radcliffe, film and stage actor
How easy it is for people to start having opinions against a ‘blasphemous’ work of art when every fucking minute of our lives, we do acts that go against the teachings of religion. Oh the hypocrisy of humanity!
Exactly my point! My life has been easier when I started to embrace the fact that religion is not for me. So liberating! Also, ironically, I started to be kinder when I began to focus more on humanity and environment than on divinity and afterlife. Hatred is such a disease. Glad I don’t have religion to justify hate towards others.
(via wallflowerparty)
Christian extremists plot Hilton assassination
Atty. Jo Imbong and members of the Saint Thomas More Society stalk Paris Hilton outside Malacañang PalaceParis Hilton’s arrival in Manila has caused an avalanche of reaction — but few are as violent as the reactions from Atty. Jo Imbong, Executive Director of the Saint Thomas More Society.
At 10 a.m. today, Imbong posted a message on the social networking site Twitter, calling Paris Hilton “the devil”, and asking her followers to gather near Malacañang Palace, where Hilton was meeting President Noynoy Aquino.
By 11 a.m., the entire membership of the Society had amassed at Mendiola — all ten of them, bearing wooden stakes and crucifixes, and calling for Hilton’s head.
“Paris Hilton is a temple of sin!” said Imbong as she addressed the gathering. ”Her catchphrase ‘That’s hot,’ sends innocents into the fires of hell!”
The breach
By 12 noon, the Society had breached the gates of Malacañang by threatening Palace guards with excommunication. The guards were discovered hours later, cowering in fear.
Several members of the Society then built a pyre on the front lawn of the Palace, as the rest of the group pledged allegiance to their patron, Saint Thomas More, a 15th Century lawyer known for torturing heretics and burning them at the stake.
At half past 12, Imbong took a megaphone and started chanting at the direction of the Palace. “Domine, serva nos a vaginae Paris Hilton est,” she said. “Pati nolite hirundo filios nostros. Et placet, dona nobis catulus.” (“Lord, protect us from Paris Hilton’s vagina. Do not let it swallow our children. And please, give us a puppy.”)
Palace reaction
Inside the Palace, the situation was tense. President Aquino, fearing the safety of his new acquaintance, asked Hilton to stay the night. Hilton responded, “No.”
Meanwhile, Communications Secretary Edwin Lacierda invited Atty. Imbong to a “dialogue,” but Imbong declined, stating that Lacierda had already been “touched by the devil,” and that any contact with him would “only spread the ‘devil-ness’.”
As of press time, a standoff still ensues. With the Saint Thomas More society unwilling to budge, operations inside Malacañang have come to a halt. Aquino refuses to leave Hilton’s side, and is now two hours late for the re-opening of the Burdeos National High School in Quezon, which had been destroyed by a massive flood.
Students of Burdeos are still waiting for the President’s arrival. — Mosquito Press
I think it’s pretty clear that I do not personally like Michele Bachmann and would never vote for her to become the president of the United States. I understand the need to criticize the statements and actions of those in the political community, but this image above along with the comments from other bloggers is truly appalling. I find this picture to be quite offensive and objectifying, as here the viewer is supposed to be looking at Bachmann as a sexual object. Reducing Bachmann to her sexuality is a cheap shot at her as a politician, as well as a completely misogynistic action that reveals a lot about how female politicians are treated and represented today. I doubt we would ever see a similar picture of a male politician we did not like, where their body was reduced to a commodity for the purposes of making a mockery out of them.
This more than sexist, it is misogynist. They fact that the picture EXISTS is a manifestation of misogyny, like the above poster said. It is a deliberate attempt to demonise her, not for eating pork products thus violating biblical law, but presenting her as a “whore” - because it looks remarkably like she is sucking a dick. If that escaped you then you are hella sheltered.
It’s a common practice. If you hate a woman, find “unsavoury” pictures of her, to justify and reify your hatred. Look at Casey Antony, you would think that the incident itself would be enough for the presses, but they had to find sexually explicit pictures of her as if to say “you see!!filthy dirty worthless woman.” I could continue for fucking decades on who else this has happened to, it’s a lot more common than we would like to believe.
Any woman who has done something “bad” is sexually demonised/dehumanised. It’s socially perpetuating the link between bad woman and sexual woman.
It’s basically a modern manifestation of the virgin/whore dichotomy.
The very eager-eyed man in the far left corner does not help the ‘WAT!?, this wasn’t sexual at all’ claim either.
I wouldn’t vote for her, I wouldn’t shame her or frame her this way either.
For fuck’s sake people.
The point is she’s eating pork and points to the bible to justify her hatred of homosexuals, denial of science, and other ignorant bullshit. I could give a fuck what it “looks like” she’s doing, that’s not the reason I posted it.
This woman is a vile, disguising, excuse for a human being, the very fact she exists offends me, and I am further offended by the fact that someone like this is able to even be considered to be a presidential candidate.
I appreciate the commentary on misogyny, but please, don’t tell me what my motivations for posting this were, because if I wanted to post it in that light, it would be pretty fucking easy to find pictures with such a caption and post them up on my blog.
ALL HAIL BACHMANN!!!
Filipinos cry sacrilege over art with Christ, phallic symbols
Non-profit organization Pro-Life Philippines has threatened to file charges against the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) for permitting to show “Kulo (A Gathering of Artists of the UST),” a “sacrilegious and blasphemous” art exhibit which features the unconventional use of religious images. The group sent letters both to the CCP and the artists demanding the display’s removal. “By Thursday afternoon, we will file a case if they do not stop the exhibit and if they do not also make amends because stopping is not enough. The damage has been done,” said Pro-Life president Eric Manalang.
Mideo Cruz, the artist responsible for the installation — intended to be a commentary on icon worship — has been branded a “demon” and bombarded with death threats and hate mail since his work featured in an exhibit in Manila that began June 17.
Cruz, a 37-year-old visual and performance artist who has exhibited in such international art centres as New York, Paris and Tokyo, said he had wanted to provoke a reaction but was surprised by the violence of the response.
“You can’t force people. But I just hope that when we look at something, the process doesn’t stop at the surface.” Cruz said his installation, “Poleteismo” or “Polytheism,” is about the worship of relics and how idolatry evolves through history and modern culture.
These “pro-life” “Catholic” hypocrites, who bombard this artist with death threats and hate mail, are actually the true blasphemous abomination to their god, not the artist. Imbeciles. Stop worshiping icons.
“Pastafarian wins right to wear pasta strainer head gear in drivers license”
Austrian driver’s religious headgear strains credulity
An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as “religious headgear”.
Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.
Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.
The Austrian authorities required him to obtain a doctor’s certificate that he was “psychologically fit” to drive.
The idea came into Mr Alm’s noodle three years ago as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point.
A self-confessed atheist, Mr Alm says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted faith whose members call themselves pastafarians.
The group’s website states that “the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma”.
In response to pressure for American schools to teach the Christian theory known as intelligent design, as an alternative to natural selection, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wrote to the Kansas School Board asking for the pastafarian version of intelligent design to be taught to schoolchildren, as an alternative to the Christian theory.
Mental fitness check
In the same spirit, Mr Alm’s pastafarian-style application for a driving licence was a response to the Austrian recognition of confessional headgear in official photographs.
The licence took three years to come through and, according to Mr Alm, he was asked to submit to a medical interview to check on his mental fitness to drive but - straining credulity - his efforts have finally paid off.
It is the police who issue driving licences in Austria, and they have duly issued a laminated card showing Mr Alm in his unorthodox item of religious headgear.
The next step, Mr Alm told the Austrian news agency APA, is to apply to the Austrian authorities for pastafarianism to become an officially recognised faith.
So brilliant.
This guy is a genius! I wanna join the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster too! Pastafarians FTW!
Added: I just found out the founder of the Church of the FSM, Bobby, is currently living in Boracay Island! As in here in the Philippines! As per his website’s About page: http://www.venganza.org/about/
And to think that I just came from Boracay last month. I have to go back for conversion to their religion.
And I’m serious.
(via faqueers)
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
William Ralph Inge, Anglican priest
