Michelle Duggar caused quite a stir in the news media when she gave birth to her 17th child not that long ago. I posted about it in this story: “Quiverfull as God allows.”

Michelle Duggar continues to be “quiverfull” for the Lord”

Happy Mother’s Day: Woman pregnant with 18th child

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - It’s a happy Mother’s Day for an Arkansas woman — she’s pregnant with her 18th child.

Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year’s Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

“We’ve had three in January, three in December. Those two months are a busy time for us,” she said, laughing.

The Duggars’ oldest child, Josh, is 20, and the youngest, Jennifer, is nine months old.

The fast-growing family lives in Tontitown in northwest Arkansas in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children — whose names start with the letter J — are home-schooled.

Duggar has been been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life, and the family is in the process of filming another series for Discovery Health.

The new show looks at life inside the Duggar home, where chores — or “jurisdictions” — are assigned to each child. One episode of the new show involves a “jurisdiction swap,” where the boys do chores traditionally assigned to the girls, and vice versa, Duggar said.

“The girls swapped jurisdictions, changing tires, working in the garages, mowing the grass,” she said. “The boys got to cook supper from start to finish, clean the bathrooms,” among other chores.

Duggar said she’s six weeks along and the pregnancy is going well. She and her husband, Jim Bob Duggar, said they’ll keep having children as long as God wills it.

“The success in a family is first off, a love for God, and secondly, treating each other like you want to be treated,” Jim Bob Duggar said. “Our goal is for each one of our children to be best friends, and everybody working together to serve each other makes that happen.”

The other Duggar children, in between Joshua and Jennifer, are Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 16; Jessa, 15; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 10; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 7; James, 6; Justin, 5; Jackson, 3; and Johannah, 2.

They just keep plopping out babies because they believe it’s the Lawd’s will, but what about this “free will” and personal choices that Xians say they have? To me, this is highly irresponsible, and selfish. Why not adopt some of those children out there who need homes if you have so much desire to have children? Why does not their God call them to take in the needy and homeless children of our country instead of mindlessly plopping out more and more of their own?

Maybe it’s not so mindless. Maybe they are doing it for money and publicity? This comment might explain it all:

Duggar has been been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life, and the family is in the process of filming another series for Discovery Health.

I wonder how much they get paid for that?

There are many good reasons why religion belongs in the home and churches, and not in the academic setting. One of them being that it violates the law of separation of church and state. Another reason is when public schools get into the business of encouraging or sponsoring prayer, Bible reading and other religious activities, it is usurping a role reserved for churches and religious institutions. But most of all, public schools should stay out of the religion business because it is divisive and counterproductive to a school’s core mission of education.

Things get complicated since this is a diverse nation of many religious beliefs (and many with no religious beliefs or affiliations). When attention is given to one particular belief over another, then resentment ensues and division. How can we teach tolerance for one another’s beliefs while giving special attention to some and not others? And if schools try to balance religious education and to give each religion equal time, academics gets lost. Leave religion to the churches, temples and synagogues, and keep it out of our public school systems.

Discord Among Ohio Students Shows Need For School Neutrality On Religion

Now lines are being drawn at the school. Students are attacking one another on the basis of religion.

Link to full article by Rob Boston

Video update on Ohio teacher who violated 1st Amendment

Jeez, all this hostility on this blog. Why are atheists so angry?…

McCain’s Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam

The leader of a 12,000-member congregation, Parsley has written several books outlining his fundamentalist religious outlook, including the 2005 Silent No More. In this work, Parsley decries the “spiritual desperation” of the United States, and he blasts away at the usual suspects: activist judges, civil libertarians who advocate the separation of church and state, the homosexual “culture” (”homosexuals are anything but happy and carefree”), the “abortion industry,” and the crass and profane entertainment industry. And Parsley targets another profound threat to the United States: the religion of Islam. In a chapter titled “Islam: The Deception of Allah,” Parsley warns there is a “war between Islam and Christian civilization.” He continues: I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.[…] Parsley claims that Islam is an “anti-Christ religion” predicated on “deception.” The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, “received revelations from demons and not from the true God.” And he emphasizes this point: “Allah was a demon spirit.” […] At the end of his chapter on Islam, Parsley asks, “Are we a Christian nation? I say yes.” Without specifying what actions should be taken to eradicate the religion, he essentially calls for a new crusade. Parsley, who refers to himself as a “Christocrat,” is no stranger to controversy. In 2007, the grassroots organization he founded, the Center for Moral Clarity, called for prosecuting people who commit adultery. In January, he compared Planned Parenthood to Nazis. In the past Parsley’s church has been accused of engaging in pro-Republican partisan activities in violation of its tax-exempt status.

I don’t know about all you non-believers. You’re all way too hostile, and you just don’t understand the right path.

Many of our problems on this planet are human fault. Gotta have our big cars, gotta have all our electricity, our garbage piles high. We don’t think about it because we won’t be here…let the next generations worry about it. People killing other people. Greed. War. Violence. All caused by humans and only humans can change all this. No god is going to clean up the mess.

Nature is at “fault” of most natural disaster. It’s just the way things are. NO god causes these things, no god prevents them. They just happen and no help comes from any god to clean up the mess. No messes get cleaned up unless humans intervene and take action. No god waves a magic wand and makes things all better. No god cures the cancers and disease in little children and adults, no god feeds those who are starving to death in third world countries and no god prevents the exploitation of the poor and impoverished. No god keeps a president and leaders of nations from starting wars and killing innocent people who have no say in the matter. No god prevents perverts from molesting and murdering children. No god stops the gangs from murdering, stealing and killing each other. No god comes. Humans struggle to find cures for disease. Humans attempt to fix what other humans destroy. Humans strive to sort out the messes other humans make. But no god causes it, no god cleans up the messes. . . and . . .

only humans can save humanity.

Natural disaster could become catalyst to blow away injustice

Even at the best of times, the Irrawaddy delta is one of the least accessible areas of one of South-East Asia’s most closed and impenetrable countries. […] It is too soon to know the extent of the destruction, but there is no longer any doubt that a massive humanitarian catastrophe has struck Burma. Cyclone Nargis, with its 120mph winds, coincided with a 12ft-high storm surge. Even last night there was little hard information about the extent of the damage but it seems clear that fields, houses, roads, ditches, houses and entire communities have been blown and washed away. […] The numbers of injured, it can be assumed, are several multiples of the dead. The numbers of homeless are unknown — the best that Richard Horsey, a United Nations official in Thailand, could guess was several hundred thousand “but how many hundred thousand we just don’t know”. A World Food Programme official said that 90 per cent of houses in the worst-affected zone were destroyed. No one in Burma has seen a natural disaster like this in living memory. But this is a catastrophe whose consequences do not end with the dead and injured. Its ripples will be felt across the region and it has the potential, at least, to reshape the entire country. Apart from the loss of life, the injuries and the destruction of tens of thousands of homes, the disaster may have far-reaching secondary effects. The flooding and destruction of sanitation systems increase the risk of epidemics, including malaria and typhoid; the loss of livelihoods is crippling in communities where many people subsist on less than $1 a day.

Oh, yes, let’s kill the most knocked-down, oppressed, and downtrodden — and, further, let’s kill them in highly remote areas.

How unbelievably loving…

Further reading, for anyone interested…

Here is another example of how religion is dangerous when it goes from mild to full-blown whackadoo delusion.

Agent: S.C. teen accused in school plot wanted to kill Jesus

FLORENCE, S.C. - A teen accused of plotting to blow up his high school told police that he wanted to die, go to heaven and kill Jesus, federal authorities said Tuesday.

[Someone should tell him that the way to “kill Jeebus” is to stop believing in this bullshit]

Prosecutors argued in a federal courtroom that the statements are an indication that 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger needs a psychological evaluation. The straight-A Chesterfield High School senior was arrested April 19 and faces several state and federal charges, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. That charge carries a possible life sentence if he is convicted.

“His conduct is bizarre,” prosecutor Buddy Bethea told Judge Thomas Rogers III, who did not immediately issue a ruling. “I think it screams out in his conduct that he be evaluated.”

[All people who have imaginary friends should be “evaluated” so it won’t get to this point.]

And the mother really has her head up her ass . . .

Prosecutors also played a 911 tape of the teen’s mother calling police after he smashed his head into a wall two days before his arrest. On the tape, she says her son threatened to shoot police if they came.

“He’s not going to do it,” Laurie Sittler told the operator. “He’s just got a bad temper.”

Even though . . .

Schallenberger was arrested after his parents picked up at the post office a package addressed to the teen containing 20 pounds of ammonium nitrate. They got nervous and looked through his room where they found a cassette tape he wanted played after he died, which they took to the sheriff’s office, the agent testified. Authorities found his journal, which lauded the Columbine killers, after searching his room.

The 50-page journal contained notes on more than 10 types of explosives that Schallenberger experimented with and evaluated a year ago, the agent testified. It had a black cover and “Pisces” written on the front, and authorities have said it contained detailed plans to bomb Chesterfield High School.

And fucktard fundies will probably blame this on atheism somehow.

In the wild wacky world of religion, I come across these obscure oddities that make one squint the eyes, cross them, and then roll them to the ceiling.

Such a one is the Jerusalem Syndrome.

The Wiki entry says this:

The Jerusalem syndrome is the name given to a group of mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences, that are triggered by, or lead to, a visit to the city of Jerusalem. It is not endemic to one single religion or denomination, but has affected Jews and Christians of many different backgrounds.

(Do note the absence of Muslim, Hindu, or other denominations.)

There are three types listed:

Type I

Jerusalem syndrome imposed on a previous psychotic illness. This refers to individuals already diagnosed as having a psychotic illness before their visit to Jerusalem. They have typically gone to the city because of the influence of delusional religious ideas, often with a goal or mission in mind which they believe needs to be completed on arrival or during their stay. For example, an affected person may believe himself to be an important historical religious figure, or may be influenced by important religious ideas or concepts (such as causing the coming of the Messiah or the second coming of Christ).

Type II

Jerusalem syndrome superimposed on and complicated by idiosyncratic ideas. This does not necessarily take the form of mental illness, and may simply be a culturally anomalous obsession with the significance of Jerusalem, either as an individual, or as part of a small religious group with idiosyncratic spiritual beliefs.

Type III

Jerusalem syndrome as a discrete form, uncompounded by previous mental illness. This describes the best known type, whereby a previously mentally balanced person becomes psychotic after arriving in Jerusalem. The psychosis is characterized by an intense religious character and typically resolves to full recovery after a few weeks, or after being removed from the locality. It shares some features with the diagnostic category of a ‘brief psychotic episode’, although a distinct pattern of behaviours has been noted:

1. Anxiety, agitation, nervousness and tension, plus other unspecified reactions.
2. Declaration of the desire to split away from the group or the family and to tour Jerusalem alone. Tourist guides aware of the Jerusalem syndrome and of the significance of such declarations may at this point refer the tourist to an institution for psychiatric evaluation in an attempt to preempt the subsequent stages of the syndrome. If unattended, these stages are usually unavoidable.
3. A need to be clean and pure: obsession with taking baths and showers; compulsive fingernail and toenail cutting.
4. Preparation, often with the aid of hotel bed-linen, of a long, ankle-length, toga-like gown, which is always white.
5. The need to shout psalms or verses from the Bible, or to loudly sing religious hymns or spirituals. Manifestations of this type serve as a warning to hotel personnel and tourist guides, who should then attempt to have the tourist taken for professional treatment. Failing this, the two last stages will develop.
6. A procession or march to one of Jerusalem’s holy places.
7. Delivery of a ‘sermon’ in a holy place. The sermon is usually very confused and based on a plea to humankind to adopt a more wholesome, moral, simple way of life.

Bar-El et al. reported 42 such cases over a period of 13 years, but in no case were they able to actually confirm that the condition was temporary.

Of course, the religious among us will point to this as some sort of proof positive of the spiritual world, but in fact, this sort of item occurs in the case of the Stendhal Syndrome or the Paris Syndrome. Usually the latter tend to be spectacularly less…violent.

I have discussed elsewhere the fact that we as a species do indeed tend to have hallucinations - it seems to be in our blood (to beg a metaphor).

There’s a citation here, about one Michael Rohan (yes, you guessed a-right - he was Christian), who

was overwhelmed with a feeling of divine mission and was apparently intent on starting Word War III in order to bring about the coming of the Messiah. He set fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque and caused minor damage. This act precipitated citywide rioting and threats of holy war  (Jihad) that were broadcast on virtually every Arab language radio station in the Middle East.

X-Project magazine states:

Although the Jerusalem Syndrome affects many that have a history of psychiatric problems, many who experience the same delusions are sane, healthy and successful businessmen, teachers, and professionals. The Syndrome usually affects Protestant Christians, but it has also been reported in religious Jews and in rare cases, Catholics. Usually lasting about a week, most can be brought back to reality (with help) and have no memory of their short-lived Biblical persona.
The most obvious cause of the Jerusalem Syndrome is religious fanaticism. The fact that it only affects Christians and some Jews suggests that subjects are prone to feeling a desire to be “called of God” and may interpret impressions and feelings that they get from touring the city as an actual Godly summons.
One of the more controversial theories suggests that the Jerusalem Syndrome has been around before Christianity, and may have actually contributed to the founding of the religion. This theory suggest that historical Bible figures such as John the Baptist, the apostles, and even Jesus Christ were affected by the syndrome. This, however, does not provide an explanation as to the origins of such phenomenon.
The Jerusalem Syndrome is not entirely exclusive to Jerusalem. All over the world, many people forsake otherwise ordinary lives to live out a Bible-hero persona.

The Savvy Traveler states that this is a very real problem, and relates an interesting anecdote:

Bar-El talks about a memorable case which actually led to one of the first instances of collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli police. The Palestinians found a man without clothes, money or ID, and, after interrogation, they figured out he wasn’t a security risk. They had no idea what to do with him, so they contacted an Israeli officer. The Israeli asked only one question: “Is the guy really completely nude?” “No,” answered the Palestinian, “he’s wearing an animal skin.” “Oh,” said the Israeli, “you’ve got another John the Baptist.” It was the sixth John the Baptist the Israelis had run into. They usually did days of purification between Jerusalem and the Galilee before ending up at the Jordan River to baptize Jesus or the first Christians, and part of the trek was through Palestinian territory.

John The Baptist is the most popular Jerusalem syndrome choice for Christian men. Christian women prefer the Virgin Mary. For Jews of both sexes, the identification is generally with the Messiah.

My best guess is that it’s something in the water, air, or food, that triggers some form of a chemical imbalance.

Everything.com reports that:

A strange little condition in which tourists to the holy city of Jerusalem start to believe they are biblical characters, or of biblical importance. About 100 people a year get this disorder, with about 40 actually needing hospitalization. Currently, all patients go to Dr. Yair Bar-El at Jerusalem’s psychiatric hospital Kfar Shaul.

M. Kalian and E. Witztum report about 1/2 of that number, out of an average of 2 million tourists annually. In fact, the numbers appear to vary.

The thought of all these faux Johnny Baptists running about unfettered is more than a little unsettling. While the numbers seem less than alarming, recall Rohan, who set off riots by burning mosques.

Perhaps more investigation into this phenomenon would provide us with key insights as to the psychological anomalies that pertain to the religious.

And history tells us, that one person in the right place and the right time can set ablaze a countryside with a single spark of madness.

 Till the next post, then.

Sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft. Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

“You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We’ve had a number of attempted lynchings. … You see them covered in marks after being beaten,” Kinshasa’s police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

“I’m tempted to say it’s one huge joke,” Oleko said.

“But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it’s become tiny or that they’ve become impotent. To that I tell them, ‘How do you know if you haven’t gone home and tried it’,” he said.

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

“It’s real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny,” said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.

Is this really 2008? I am sure you all will have fun with this one, too!