Sometimes with everything that’s going on in the world, it’s nice to be reminded of the simple miracles that God can do. My mother sent me this picture she took in New Mexico last week.
“If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.”
– G. K. Chesterton
Tags: Quote of the Day, God, atheisism, Faith
Imagine living in a country where you cannot choose what god you want to worship or how you wish to worship or even if you wish to worship. Imagine living in a country where making that very choice could mean life or death. Imagine a country where owning a Bible or a Koran or a Torah could be a crime in itself. Imagine living in a country where you are considered a traitor or mentally ill if you convert to another system of belief.
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 20, 2006 — Despite the overthrow of the fundamentalist Taliban government and the presence of 22,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a man who converted to Christianity is being prosecuted in Kabul, and a judge said Sunday that if convicted, he faces the death penalty.
Abdul Rahman, who is in his 40s, says he converted to Christianity 16 years ago while working as an aid worker helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
Relatives denounced him as a convert during a custody battle over his children, and he was arrested last month. The prosecutor says Rahman was found with a Bible.
[…]
Presiding judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah tells ABC News a medical team was checking the defendant, since the team suspects insanity caused Rahman to reject Islam.
“We want to know that the doctors have given him a green light on his mental state, because he is not normal when he talks,” says the judge.
The post-Taliban constitution recognizes Islam as Afghanistan’s religion, and decrees that Islam’s Sharia law applies when a case is not covered by specific legislation. The prosecutor says under Sharia law, Abdul Rahman must die.
The judge, however, holds hopes for a solution.
“We will ask him if he has changed his mind about being a Christian,” Mawlazezadah says. “If he has, we will forgive him, because Islam is a religion of tolerance.”[“Afghan Faces Death Penalty For Converting To Christianity” (ABC News)]
When I look at my bookshelf with it’s dusty copies of a a variety of Bibles, including the Morman version, a book on Wiccan philosophies, several books of Eastern philosophers recommended by my late step-grandmother, and a growing interest in spiritualism, I wonder how I’d be preceived if I lived in such a country. After all, I certainly have questions about the church, about all churches, really.
I’m grateful I live in a country where I’m still free to explore my spirituality and hope it stays that way despite the religious-right’s recent attempts to take over.
However, I’m saddened that all these years after liberating Afghanistan, they really aren’t all that free. We’ve just changed the names of the people in charge.
Tags: Faith, God, Christian Zealots, Islam, Afghanistan
I believe there is a God, a benevolent Creator even.
And, yes, I believe in the Big Bang Theory and evolution too.
I believe in an afterlife too, but I start to have trouble when I think about the concepts of Heaven and Hell.
I just find it hard to believe that a benevolent God would sentence anyone to an eternity of pain for some infraction committed in such a short lifespan.
Tags: Hell, religion, Christianity, God, Heaven, Faith
I appologize for seemingly abandoning this blog. The truth is that I’ve been distracted by more than a few things in my life:
Tags: Faith, God, Spirituality, migraine, wedding, England, paranoia, Samuel Alito, discombobulated, fibromyalgia
The Naked Truth
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Discombobulated Thoughts
of a displaced Southerner in New England -- from just daily annoyances to conspiracy theories to political views.
The Dark Side of Christian History by Helen Ellerbe
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
Marley and Me by John Grogan
The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby
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