8 posts tagged “religion”
Nothing ignites the passion more than a discussion of...yes, religion.
Today a senior pastor in church confirmed that the reports on 2 pastors whom the church had invited for sermons earlier have been "exposed". One was Pastor Michael Guglielmucci in Australia and the other was Todd Bentley in Florida. Check out here and here. Apparently Michael Guglielmucci faked his terminal cancer story to help spur sales of his hit song "Healed". Some people may be more forgiving saying at least he confessed but I think he had no choice! How can a terminal cancer patient live on indefinitely? Unless of course some "miracle" happens lah...And of course I think Todd's "faith healing" is fake. None of his numerous " faith healing" could be independently verified, according to the ABC report.
I'm not judging them as we are all only humans. We all have sinned, we all have made mistakes. Any of us could be seduced by the devil. We are not god. But it just reminds us that sometimes we must take the preaching of these "preachers" with a pinch of salt. Not wholesale...they are only humans after all. And the notion that millions of people just cannot be fooled has just been busted.
I'm also a little troubled by how freely some people use the name of God. For example, "God says we must do this and that...". "This is the Lord's way of doing this and that..." "This is what the Lord wants...". " The Lord never said we cannot do this and that..." "This is a test from God..." etc etc.
I'm not well versed with the Bible but I just wonder are these what the Lord really said or is it your interpretation of what the Lord said or is this what you say? How would I know unless I'm a Bible scholar? I would much appreciate it if they can take the original quote from the Bible and let me interpret what the Lord said as well. Not just using the name of God to back what they said! And of course when someone says "God says..." that is the end of any fruitful discussion as the next sentence would invariably be "You must have faith...".
Dang...can never win this also.
Anyway just wanna share the most wonderful song here which never fails to soothe my darkest days. Feeling a little down these few days..
Today my pastor in Church was showing the Florida revival where supposedly miracles have flowed. There were videos of supposedly "miracles" being performed by this Todd Bentley on God TV. We were shown some videos of a man supposedly cured of his lung cancer, a man on wheelchair able to walk, a deaf ear suddenly can hear, a brain tumour was cured...etc
The first thing which struck me was all these conditions were not visible to the naked eye! The wheelchair man didn't come with his wheelchair either. Unless we have x-ray vision like Superman, I doubt we can verify the supposed disease or it's cure.
So I googled and found the God TV site here. The first thing they ask you to do is to donate some money!!! Looks like a commercial site which is more interested in your money. And yes, you can send cheques too!
Since God TV isn't going to show their videos free of charge, I went to youtube to look for them. Wanted to look for some videos showing some "miracles". Found a video of supposedly a child's broken elbow was healed miraculously with x-ray proof! Check out here.
After looking at the video, I observed that the said fracture happened 2 weeks ago and the X-ray showed a partial minute hairline fracture which was undisplaced and not involving the elbow joint, without even a cast. Then a recent x-ray (2 weeks later) showed it has healed. Come on man...a minute hairline fracture in a child can heal spontaneously in 2 weeks! And why on earth someone would want to perform a "miracle" for a condition which will heal spontaneously!!! And why would anyone need that kind of miracle! Try a motor neuron disease for instance...try on Prof Stephen Hawkings! That'll be interesting to watch.
Why isn't a physician present in any of the videos confirming cure has taken place? The kidney disease, brain tumour, lung cancer etc etc. All I see is the "patient" falling down after being "annointed" and saying they were cured. Where is the proof?? And as if knowing the "patient" will fall, someone behind will always be there to catch them. Looks like this isn't something spontaneous at all!
Yeah, I say this is b******t and I'm not buying it one bit. And what makes this Todd Bentley so special that he has been "annointed" this "gift" by god?
Still unable to sleep from jet lag, I came across some recent news. Our ex-Prime Minister for 22 years resigned from his party??? Whoa...this is news. I'm not sure this is good news, bad news or neither.
Certainly our country could do with less corruption, more efficiency and accountability. Like the French underground metro trains system - it's old, creaking in every joint, not particularly clean but DAMN EFFICIENT (as far as I experienced it). Does its job first class - transporting a person from point A to B ASAP. Compared to our Putra LRT ( I think it's now called rapidKL ), it is (was) new, looked high tech but the system does its job rather poorly - it does not transport a person from point A to B very efficiently. Why rapidKL doesn't add more carriages? Or perhaps increase the number of trains so that they move with higher frequency? Or expand the number of stops? Or increase the ticketing counters and machines? AAAH...the "tidak apa" attitude...consumer convenience is not on their top priority list.
We are more preoccupied with race and religion.
I managed to check out the Speaker's corner in Hyde Park in London on a Sunday afternoon. True enough, almost all the speakers there spoke about race or religion. Except one guy whose topic was "Why didn't this guy get laid in 9 months?". Everybody is preoccupied with race and religion. There was this physicist who was having a rather intellectual debate with a "man of god" on the existence of god. I gather he was an atheist "with an open mind". Some of their arguments were beyond my comprehension. Pascal's theory was slotted somewhere in between. Another debate going on was whether Islam is a religion which encourages violence or not. If this were in Malaysia, everybody there would probably be jailed without trial.
Can't we look beyond race and religion for a moment? For the worldly benefit of everyone on earth?
I'm feeling tired now. Wanna sleep. Better stop this nonsensical writing hehe
Recently there was a proposal by the religious "authorities" to prosecute non Muslims for close proximity with a fellow Muslim. Check out here. I supposed it appears unfair that the Muslim partner is prosecuted while the non-Muslim one goes scot free BUT then again the nation has accepted two sets of different laws based on whether one is a Muslim or not. Why complain it's unfair now ????!!!! I mean we (Malaysians) have accepted the Syariah law, which is based on a religious belief/practice of a particular community but that shouldn't be imposed on non-believers of that faith. Why complain it's unfair if the other party does not subscribe to that faith ??? It is certainly not a crime to be in close proximity for non Muslims. It's does not imply a crime or a potential crime will be committed.
Previously there was another hoo haa over the sign "Sell no pork" which is displayed in restaurants owned by non-Muslims. The religious "authorities" again came to save some souls by saying "Sell no pork" does not equate to Halal. True enough. However aren't the consumers intelligent enough to figure that out by themselves !!!!
I'm truly against moral and religious policing. I mean how can you enforce such policing unless you have snoops going around people's private home. So if a snoop comes around in a middle of the night to a private home and the owner think it's a robber and shoots him, who's at fault? It's also against the rights to privacy. And yeah, in public we can have everything looking prim and proper but there are skyrocketing rates of HIV/AIDS, abortion, abandoned babies etc. How do you explain these? Just because people behave decently in public does not mean people don't have sex !!! Or that if you are covered from head to toe means you practise abstinence.
In fact I think moral policing will not achieve anything except making people go "underground". In fact it may be even deleterious. People may be afraid to voice out, for fear of being stigmatized and "snooped" upon, so they either remain ignorant or obtain the wrong information from the wrong sources.
I reiterate again I'm not against any religion or faith. Just leave people alone with their faith and religion unless they are breaking the law. This is between them and god.
Btw sex between 2 consenting adults is not a crime. Morally it may be wrong but it's not a crime.
Religious authorities fighting with families of a deceased for the body.
Check out here and here.
Nobody fights over you when you're sick. Nobody fights to take care of you. Nobody fights to provide for you. But when you die, people will fight over how and where to bury you. It's more important to them how and where you are buried than how you lived when you're alive.
I've got plenty of old, neglected patients with horrendous bed sores. Nobody seems to fight to take care of them.
But people fight over dead bodies. My gosh! What screwed up logic is this?
Why the religious authorities are so concerned on how and where a person is buried and what was his previous faith only AFTER the person passed away?
I want a cremation.
Looks like we'll have a man in space soon. Thanks to Russia after our government purchase some Russian made fighter jets. I must say I'm rather envious of our space flight participant for being able to go to space ;) Checkout the NASA site.
However I can't help but be amused at how fast the Malaysia's Department of Islamic Department came up with a 20 page guideline on how to practise the religion in space!! Check out here. I've nothing against any religion but are we sending out any more spaceflight participants anytime soon till we need a 20 page guideline asap?? Isn't it suffice just to tell our two participants verbally?
Ayoyo, I think it is unnecessary to publish a 20 page guideline on how to pray in space lah. Some people so free ah ?
The fasting month has started. The hospital canteen is suddenly devoid of the many visitors. Something that I wanted to comment on for the last 2-3 years. I've noticed the canteen operator has taken the liberty of enforcing the fasting rule for muslims (Only in the last 3 years or so, not previously). There are signboards everywhere stating that muslims can only purchase food for take away but not for consumption in the canteen during the fasting month. Mind you, this is a HOSPITAL CANTEEN. ( I'll post the photo of the signboards later)
I overheard a customer who was arguing with the seller of the food when he was buying a plate of rice to eat in the canteen, saying that he is NOT A MUSLIM while the seller INSISTING he is! In the end, the seller insists on not selling the food to him and the customer pissed off, walked away without food. There are no other food sellers in the canteen. Total monopoly by the sole operator.
With all respect to my fellow muslim friends and collegues, but isn't the role of the canteen operator is just to sell food rather than enforcing the fast?? I mean who gave the canteen operator the authority to question the religion of the buyer?? Or questioning whether a person should fast or not??
Does the chicken seller in the market makes sure his customers are not vegetarians before selling the chicken to them??? Or does the beef seller makes sure he doesn't sell beef to hindus?? Ridiculous isn't it? The onus is on the buyer not the seller!!!!
This is what happens when MONOPOLY occurs. Expensive items, poor variety, poor quality. And in this case a DELUDED AUTHORITY to enforce the fast. What if the person is sick and is not fasting? Or a diabetic with hypoglycaemic symptoms who needs a quick meal fast? Why should they explain anything to the canteen operator?
Do doctors deny treatment if a patient is an illegal immigrant? or a prisoner? or a criminal? or of a different religion? We treat all patients regardless. We are not the police, immigration officer or a judge. So is the canteen operator.
I'm inclined to totally boycott the canteen and hope he goes bankrupt but the nearest food shop needs to be driven to. And time is short. So I limit my visits to the canteen to the bare minimum.
MONOPOLY SUCKS !
What's this? Who's this Reverend?
Let me clarify what the flier says below each picture;
Left top : Unable to walk because of bacterial meningitis affecting brain and spine
Below that : Rhodachale, aged 46, was healed of a malaria and typhoid ( I would prefer quinine and ceftriaxone anytime)
Next diagonally : Arose from the wheelchair and pushed the evangelist
Middle : Lucas Chamamila, aged 31 was healed of a protruding head tumour
Right to that : Performing an operation by removing the deformity ( This I must see )
Next : abdominal tumour which instantly disappeared ( maybe it was just a reducible umbilical hernia )
Right bottom: Blind in left eyewith a large cataract for fifty years
While the flier did not explicitly attribute how they were cured but it certainly implied a miracle had happened without modern intervention. This is dangerous as well as irresponsible for some of the conditions had effective cure which is proven beyond doubt ( typhoid / malaria ). This may cause catastrophic delay of life threatening conditions where effective treatment is known to exist.
With so many miracles going around, why do we need doctors anyway?
Many people seemed to think questioning religion is synonymous with blasphemy and you need to have faith for miracles to happen. ( What a convenient explanation just in case it doesn't turn out as hoped! )
