Friends, these two photographs show a couple of the religious dinosaurs who still exert a great deal of power over the lives of millions of human beings. There are, of course, many more!
The top photograph shows a senior Afghan Muslim cleric Mohseni who, as part of the resurgent Taliban, has been responsible for drafting strict laws which for example allow Shia husbands to demand sex from their wives every four days and make their wives ask for permission to leave the family home. Punishment for wives breaking these laws is swift and painful and can lead to death.
The lower photograph shows Pope Ben who has recently been visiting Africa advocating that condoms not be used even by those with aids and that abortion be prohibited. He was met everywhere by adoring crowds who wore their best clothes but nothing they wore could outdo the magnificence of the Papal attire or the wonder of the Pope-mobile.
Both these men claim to be religious. However, whether they or their contemporaries really believe what they preach is open to question.
Close examination of both their faces suggest to me a certain shrewdness. Out of long habit, their eyes are masked. Both of them, being male, know the full power of sexual instinct and have engaged in masturbation and perhaps much more. At least the Muslim cleric does not preach abstinence as a sexual practice!
Both of them are experts who know how to use the power of fear, how to exploit the inability of most humans to accept their mortality. Both of them love the power they wield, the status they have, the lurks and perks of their high office and will fight tooth and nail to preserve or increase it.
How is it possible that, in an age of space travel, stem cell research and mass education, that men like these still have credibility? How can what they say be taken seriously by so many when so much of it defies all logic and scientific evidence and commonsense? And why are men most often the predominant religious leaders? Is there a gender issue here, one that keeps women subservient?
It’s time we put all religious dinosaurs to rest. While they exist mankind and womenkind cannot progress further, cannot learn to deal with life’s true reality and make the best of it.
Dinosaurs belong in museums!
what I see in the photos:
The man on top has faced hardships and life has grizzled him,
the man on the bottom seems to have been afforded all the comforts of wealth and leisure, could those teeth really be the ones that came in over seventy years ago?
The Afghani mullah doesn’t seem to have much to smile about, while the pope grins amidst luxury and a scholarly pampered life of ease and routine.
I’ve written to His Excellancy the Pope many, many times begging him to speak out on behalf of the suffering of Palestinians, Christians & Muslim; never have I even received an acknowledgement of letters receipt.
I think it is shameful that a person with so much influence sits in silence, it is beyond contempt.
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David G Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
That his holiness or any of his minions doesn’t even bother to respond to your letters, Kate, is pathetic. Yet he speaks out so loudly when he wants to!
Your insightful observations about the differences in the faces are greatly appreciated.
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coco Reply:
April 17th, 2009 at 1:01 am
kate, it’s really funny, but before i scrolled down to the comments i was saying to myself regarding the pope ‘and he still has his own teeth’………………lol.
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Ah David, who could ever forget Max Gilles and his “Stop it you’ll go blind” routine? Of course the two pictures above represent what is truly wrong with the world.If people still believe the snake oil these two are selling, you can see how easy it is for the politicians to hoodwink the population into believing anything.I see in the case of the mullah and his new laws,Karzai is in a lather back peddling at a rate of knots, the fact some in the west are questioning what century the Afghans are living in.
And these two gentlemen share one thing in common don’t they, their main followers are the poor and uneducated.The pope of course has the added extra influence of making the Italians think it is they that are the chosen people and not the Jews, after all he lives in Rome.I have read the Catholics were mortified that an x member of the kinder Nazi Party got the job but hey! there ya go, the pope gets to talk to God so he can’t be all that bad.
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The more you beat and batter these individuals the more the believers will step up and offer sacraments. It all goes way beyond belief and ends up more in the category of,” Are you Shittin’ me”. Can’t understand it myself.
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Phil, sometimes I question which century I’m living in when I see the power that religion still wields in the world where so many people consider they are educated.
VR2, that makes two of us!
Cheers.
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This pope is like a Televangelist, would never reach the top if they believed their own garbage. Mutually exclusive. Meanest kind of politics to make this or be a general.
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What is as scary as the pope (who looks truely evil) is the huge numbers of people who blindly follow him. They ask no questions nor do they seem to be able to think for themselves.
How can we ever have a progressive humane society if people are willing to follow a leader without ever looking at him in a critical manner and then making a reasoned judgement on whether to follow him.
I see the same thing with all the people beleiving in Obama even though if they had looked at his past record as a senator they would have seen he was no different than an other government hack.
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Hello, “Is there a gender issue here, one that keeps women subservient?”
Women’s subservience is an aspect that certainly works in favor of the men who follow these sects.
First off, everybody is made to feel powerless. A great equalizer. Then, the Priests preach in the Catholic Church that women should submit to their man in all instances. He is representative of Christ in each family- so, see how great that is? Men have been reduced to sinful piles of eternal smut , but then are uplifted as Christ himself in comparison to the women and children in His charge.
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Religion was set up by men as a means of control and exploitation of the masses. Religion has always advantaged men and has always reduced women to a subservient, submissive role.
Religion is a crude, divisive method of social engineering, one that relies upon human ignorance and gullibility.
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