GodAnon

Narrated Abu Qilaba: "Anas said, "Some people of 'Ukl or 'Uraina tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch)  camels and to drink their milk and urine  (as a medicine) ... (Sahih Bukhari, Ablutions (Wudu'), Volume 1, Book 4, Number 234)" Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“It is natural that people should differ most, and most violently, about the unknowable.  ... There is all the room in the world for divergence of opinion about something that, so far as we can realistically perceive, does not exist.” Haldeman-Julius, "The Unknowable," The Militant Atheist Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

I never realized I didn't have a tail until someone pointed it out.  - lao tuan Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“Your church is a baby-house made of blocks.” —Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" (1849) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes in White and Latino Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Young Adults OBJECTIVE. We examined specific family rejecting reactions to sexual orientation and gender expression during adolescence as predictors of current health problems in a sample of lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults. METHODS. On the basis of previously collected in-depth interviews, we developed quantitative scales to assess retrospectively in young adults the frequency of parental and caregiver reactions to a lesbian, gay, or bisexual sexual orientation during adolescence. Our survey instrument also included measures of 9 negative health indicators, including mental health, substance abuse, and sexual risk. The survey was administered to a sample of 224 white and Latino self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults, aged 21 to 25, recruited through diverse venues and organizations. Participants completed self-report questionnaires by using either

“The kind of fraud which consists in daring to proclaim the truth while mixing it with a large share of lies that falsify it, is more widespread than is generally thought.” — Proust, "Remembrance of Things Past" (1913-26) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

Commandments Thou shall have no other gods before Me. Punishment: KILL THEM (Deut 13:6-10, Num 25:1-9). Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. Punishment: KILL THEM (Lev 24:14). Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Punishment: KILL THEM (Ex 31:15). Thou shalt not make idols. Punishment: KILL THEM (Isaiah 19). Honor your father and your mother. Punishment: KILL THEM (Ex 21:17, Mk 7:10). Thou shalt not commit adultery. Punishment: KILL THEM (Lev 20:10). Other commandments: Kill gays (Lev 20:13, Rom 1:26-32), Kill witches (Ex 22:18), Kill any bride discovered not a virgin (Deut 22:21). AND: Thou shalt not kill. ...despite all these commandments to KILL, KILL, KILL. Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“We have our hands, we have our brains, we have the challenge all around us, and we have within (from whatever source) the will to strive. That is enough; there is no need to assert 'belief' in that which we do not, as yet, know.” - Robert A. Heinlein, personal correspondence in 1956 with Warren Allen Smith, cited in "Who's Who in Hell" Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“[Our church] bristles at see-through blouses, but not at slums in which half-naked children starve, and not, above all, at the conditions that keep three-quarters of mankind in misery. It condemns desperate girls who abort a foetus, but it consecrates war, which aborts millions. … It preserves misery and injustice, having first tolerated and then approved the class power that causes them.” -  Ernst Bloch , "Man on His Own: Essays in the Philosophy of Religion" (1959) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“Whoever dares to say: 'Outside the Church is no salvation,' ought to be driven from the State. But I am mistaken in speaking of a Christian republic; the terms are mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favorable to tyranny that it always profits by such a regime. True Christians are made to be slaves, and they know it and do not much mind: this short life counts for too little in their eyes.” — Rousseau, "The Social Contract" (1762) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“Those around him knew that ... Rodgers was an atheist. At the age of twelve, Mary Rodgers Guettel [his daughter] asked her father whether he believed in God and he answered that he believed in people. ‘If somebody is really sick, I don't pray to God, I look for the best doctor in town.’ ” —Biographer Meryle Secrest, "Somewhere For Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers" (2001) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

"Today they are lifting the bells into the tower. It would be nice if they weren’t calling people to bamboozling." Janáček commenting on an archbishop's consecration of new church bells in July 1926. "The riddle of life: The letters of Leoš Janáček to Kamila Stösslová" (1990) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

For Moses said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' New International Version  Mark 7:10 Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication.  - Thomas Paine Age Of Reason Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering