Thou Shalt Not Kill……

The act of murder is rampant in the Bible. In much of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, there are laws that command that people be killed for absurd reasons such as working on the Sabbath, being gay, cursing your parents, or not being a virgin on your wedding night. In addition to these crazy and immoral laws, there are plenty of examples of God’s irrationality by his direct killing of many people for reasons that defy any rational explanation such as killing children who make fun of bald people, and the killing of a man who tried to keep the ark of God from falling during transport. There are also countless examples of mass murders commanded by God, including the murder of women, infants, and children.

The following passages are a very small percentage of the total passages approving of murder in the Bible. They are divided here into three parts: 1) Capital Punishment Crimes, 2) God’s Murders for Stupid Reasons, 3) Murdering Children, and 4) Miscellaneous Murders. This list is long, but it barely scratches the surface of all the murders approved of in the Bible.

1) Capital Punishment Crimes:

Kill People Who Don’t Listen to Priests

Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

Kill Witches

You should not let a sorceress live. (Exodus 22:17 NAB)

Kill Homosexuals
“If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.” (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)

Kill Fortunetellers

A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death. (Leviticus 20:27 NAB)

Death for Hitting Dad

Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)

Death for Cursing Parents

1) If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness.(Proverbs 20:20 NAB)

2) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)

Death for Adultery

If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)

Death for Fornication

A priest’s daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death. (Leviticus 21:9 NAB)

Death to Followers of Other Religions

Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)

Kill Nonbelievers

They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)

Kill False Prophets

If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, “You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord.” When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through. (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)

Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God

Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. “The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)

Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night

But if this charge is true (that she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)

Kill Followers of Other Religions.

1) If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)

2) Suppose a man or woman among you, in one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, has done evil in the sight of the LORD your God and has violated the covenant by serving other gods or by worshiping the sun, the moon, or any of the forces of heaven, which I have strictly forbidden. When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then that man or woman must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5 NLT)

Death for Blasphemy

One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the LORD’s name. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother’s name was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They put the man in custody until the LORD’s will in the matter should become clear. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard him to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death. Say to the people of Israel: Those who blaspheme God will suffer the consequences of their guilt and be punished. Anyone who blasphemes the LORD’s name must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the LORD’s name will surely die. (Leviticus 24:10-16 NLT)

Kill False Prophets

1) Suppose there are prophets among you, or those who have dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles take place. If the prophets then say, ‘Come, let us worship the gods of foreign nations,’ do not listen to them. The LORD your God is testing you to see if you love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the LORD your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. The false prophets or dreamers who try to lead you astray must be put to death, for they encourage rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of slavery in the land of Egypt. Since they try to keep you from following the LORD your God, you must execute them to remove the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NLT)

2) But any prophet who claims to give a message from another god or who falsely claims to speak for me must die.’ You may wonder, ‘How will we know whether the prophecy is from the LORD or not?’ If the prophet predicts something in the LORD’s name and it does not happen, the LORD did not give the message. That prophet has spoken on his own and need not be feared. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NLT)

Infidels and Gays Should Die

So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved. When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving. They are fully aware of God’s death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (Romans 1:24-32 NLT)

Kill Anyone who Approaches the Tabernacle

For the LORD had said to Moses, ‘Exempt the tribe of Levi from the census; do not include them when you count the rest of the Israelites. You must put the Levites in charge of the Tabernacle of the Covenant, along with its furnishings and equipment. They must carry the Tabernacle and its equipment as you travel, and they must care for it and camp around it. Whenever the Tabernacle is moved, the Levites will take it down and set it up again. Anyone else who goes too near the Tabernacle will be executed.’ (Numbers 1:48-51 NLT)

Kill People for Working on the Sabbath

The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses: ‘Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.’ (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT)

2) God’s Murders for Stupid Reasons:

Kill Brats

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. While he was on his way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him. “Go up baldhead,” they shouted, “go up baldhead!” The prophet turned and saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two shebears came out of the woods and tore forty two of the children to pieces. (2 Kings 2:23-24 NAB)

God Kills the Curious

And he smote of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Jehovah, he smote of the people seventy men, `and’ fifty thousand men; and the people mourned, because Jehovah had smitten the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God? and to whom shall he go up from us? (1Samuel 6:19-20 ASV)

Killed by a Lion

Meanwhile, the LORD instructed one of the group of prophets to say to another man, “Strike me!” But the man refused to strike the prophet. Then the prophet told him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, a lion will kill you as soon as you leave me.” And sure enough, when he had gone, a lion attacked and killed him. (1 Kings 20:35-36 NLT)

Killing the Good Samaritan

The ark of God was placed on a new cart and taken away from the house of Abinadab on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab guided the cart, with Ahio walking before it, while David and all the Israelites made merry before the Lord with all their strength, with singing and with citharas, harps, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.

When they came to the threshing floor of Nodan, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God to steady it, for the oxen were making it tip. But the Lord was angry with Uzzah; God struck him on that spot, and he died there before God. (2 Samuel 6:3-7 NAB)

3) Murdering Children

Kill Sons of Sinners

Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their fathers; Lest they rise and posses the earth, and fill the breadth of the world with tyrants. (Isaiah 14:21 NAB)

God Will Kill Children

The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will die at birth or perish in the womb or never even be conceived. Even if your children do survive to grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. I have watched Israel become as beautiful and pleasant as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children to be slaughtered.” O LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth and breasts that give no milk. The LORD says, “All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. The people of Israel are stricken. Their roots are dried up; they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children.” (Hosea 9:11-16 NLT)

Kill Men, Women, and Children

“Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, “Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin your task right here at the Temple.” So they began by killing the seventy leaders. “Defile the Temple!” the LORD commanded. “Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill! Go!” So they went throughout the city and did as they were told.” (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)

God Kills all the First Born of Egypt

And at midnight the LORD killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn son of the captive in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died. (Exodus 12:29-30 NLT)

Kill Old Men and Young Women

“You are my battle-ax and sword,” says the LORD. “With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms. With you I will shatter armies, destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer. With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and maidens. With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and rulers. “As you watch, I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem,” says the LORD. “Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy,” says the LORD. “I will raise my fist against you, to roll you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of rubble. You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out,” says the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:20-26)

(Note that after God promises the Israelites a victory against Babylon, the Israelites actually get their butts kicked by them in the next chapter. So much for an all-knowing and all-powerful God.)

God Will Kill the Children of Sinners

If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey, I will inflict you with seven more disasters for your sins. I will release wild animals that will kill your children and destroy your cattle, so your numbers will dwindle and your roads will be deserted. (Leviticus 26:21-22 NLT)

More Rape and Baby Killing

Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT)

4) Miscellaneous Murders

More of Samson’s Murders

(The Lord saves Sampson from standing trial for 30 murders and arson by allowing him to kill 1000 more men.) When he reached Lehi, and the Philistines came shouting to meet him, the spirit of the Lord came upon him: the ropes around his arms become as flax that is consumed by fire and the bonds melted away from his hands. Near him was the fresh jawbone of an ass; he reached out, grasped it, and with it killed a thousand men. (Judges 15:14-15 NAB)

Peter Kills Two People

There was also a man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, but he claimed it was the full amount. His wife had agreed to this deception. Then Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God.” As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men wrapped him in a sheet and took him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?” “Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.” And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of doing a thing like this – conspiring together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Just outside that door are the young men who buried your husband, and they will carry you out, too.” Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and all others who heard what had happened. (Acts 5:1-11 NLT)

Mass Murder

This is what the Lord of hosts has to say: ‘I will punish what Amalek did to Israel when he barred his way as he was coming up from Egypt. Go, now, attack Amalek, and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.’ (1 Samuel 15:2-3 NAB)

You Have to Kill

Cursed be he who does the Lords work remissly, cursed he who holds back his sword from blood. (Jeremiah 48:10 NAB)

The Danites Kill the Next Town

But the territory of the Danites was too small for them; so the Danites marched up and attacked Leshem, which they captured and put to the sword. Once they had taken possession of Lesham, they renamed the settlement after their ancestor Dan. (Joshua 19:47 NAB)

God Kills Some More

Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn’t help them. Away with them! Get them out of my sight! And if they say to you, ‘But where can we go?’ tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: Those who are destined for death, to death; those who are destined for war, to war; those who are destined for famine, to famine; those who are destined for captivity, to captivity.’ “I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” says the LORD. “I will send the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the vultures to devour, and the wild animals to finish up what is left. Because of the wicked things Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will make my people an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.” (Jeremiah 15:1-4 NLT)

God Promises More Killing

I will make Mount Seir utterly desolate, killing off all who try to escape and any who return. I will fill your mountains with the dead. Your hills, your valleys, and your streams will be filled with people slaughtered by the sword. I will make you desolate forever. Your cities will never be rebuilt. Then you will know that I am the LORD.(Ezekiel 35:7-9 NLT)

The Angel of Death

My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites; and I will wipe them out. (Exodus 23:23 NAB)

Destruction of Ai

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take the entire army and attack Ai, for I have given to you the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the captured goods and the cattle for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.” So Joshua and the army of Israel set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand fighting men and sent them out at night with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the city and be ready for action. When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them. We will let them chase us until they have all left the city. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ Then you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the LORD your God will give it to you. Set the city on fire, as the LORD has commanded. You have your orders.” So they left that night and lay in ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night.

Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the leaders of Israel. They camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the city. That night Joshua sent five thousand men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. So they stationed the main army north of the city and the ambush west of the city. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley. When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurriedly went out early the next morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the city. Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten, and all the men in the city were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the city. There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the city was left wide open.

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Point your spear toward Ai, for I will give you the city.” Joshua did as he was commanded. As soon as Joshua gave the signal, the men in ambush jumped up and poured into the city. They quickly captured it and set it on fire. When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the city was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers. When Joshua and the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the city, they turned and attacked the men of Ai. Then the Israelites who were inside the city came out and started killing the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in a trap, and all of them died. Not a single person survived or escaped. Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

When the Israelite army finished killing all the men outside the city, they went back and finished off everyone inside. So the entire population of Ai was wiped out that day – twelve thousand in all. For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed. Only the cattle and the treasures of the city were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua. So Ai became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day. Joshua hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down the body and threw it in front of the city gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today. (Joshua 8:1-29 NLT)

Killing at Jericho

When the people heard the sound of the horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the city from every side and captured it. They completely destroyed everything in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, donkeys – everything. (Joshua 6:20-21 NLT)

God Kills an Extended Family

“You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made other gods and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you have turned your back on me, I will bring disaster on your dynasty and kill all your sons, slave or free alike. I will burn up your royal dynasty as one burns up trash until it is all gone. I, the LORD, vow that the members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by vultures.’” Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Go on home, and when you enter the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is the only good thing that the LORD, the God of Israel, sees in the entire family of Jeroboam. And the LORD will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. This will happen today, even now! Then the LORD will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land that he gave their ancestors and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the LORD by worshiping Asherah poles. He will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and made all of Israel sin along with him.” (1 Kings 14:9-16 NLT)

Mass Murder

The men of Israel withdrew through the territory of the Benjaminites, putting to the sword the inhabitants of the city, the livestock, and all they chanced upon. Moreover they destroyed by fire all the cities they came upon. (Judges 20:48 NAB)

The Angel of Death

That night the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there they were, all the corpuses of the dead. (2 Kings 19:35 NAB)

Kill Your Neighbors

(Moses) stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, “All of you who are on the LORD’s side, come over here and join me.” And all the Levites came. He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.” The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three thousand people died that day. Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because of this, he will now give you a great blessing.” (Exodus 32:26-29 NLT)

Kill the Family of Sinners

And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to him; and tell me now what thou hast done, hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.” [Note that the sin is not looting, but failing to give the loot to the treasury of the Lord.] “So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, and brought them to Joshua, and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD. And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones to this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger: wherefore the name of that place was called the valley of Achor to this day. (Joshua 7:19-26 Webster’s Bible)

Kill Followers of Other Religions

While the Israelites were camped at Acacia, some of the men defiled themselves by sleeping with the local Moabite women. These women invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, and soon the Israelites were feasting with them and worshiping the gods of Moab. Before long Israel was joining in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing the LORD’s anger to blaze against his people. The LORD issued the following command to Moses: “Seize all the ringleaders and execute them before the LORD in broad daylight, so his fierce anger will turn away from the people of Israel.” So Moses ordered Israel’s judges to execute everyone who had joined in worshiping Baal of Peor. Just then one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into the camp, right before the eyes of Moses and all the people, as they were weeping at the entrance of the Tabernacle. When Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and left the assembly. Then he took a spear and rushed after the man into his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man’s body and into the woman’s stomach. So the plague against the Israelites was stopped, but not before 24,000 people had died. (Numbers 25:1-9 NLT)

Murder

At the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” Immediately the fire of the LORD flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the ditch! And when the people saw it, they fell on their faces and cried out, “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!” Then Elijah commanded, “Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don’t let a single one escape!” So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there. (1 Kings 18:36-40 NLT)

Kill All of Babylon

“Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim and against the people of Pekod. Yes, march against Babylon, the land of rebels, a land that I will judge! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them, as I have commanded you,” says the LORD. “Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction”. (Jeremiah 50:21-22 NLT)

Micah Kills a Whole Town

Then, with Micah’s idols and his priest, the men of Dan came to the town of Laish, whose people were peaceful and secure. They attacked and killed all the people and burned the town to the ground. There was no one to rescue the residents of the town, for they lived a great distance from Sidon and had no allies nearby. This happened in the valley near Beth-rehob.Then the people of the tribe of Dan rebuilt the town and lived there. They renamed the town Dan after their ancestor, Israel’s son, but it had originally been called Laish. (Judges 18:27-29 NLT) (Note that God approves of this slaughter in verse 6.)

With thanks to EvilBible.com – Check it out……

Bring Out Your Dead & Your Cheque Book

Proprium Corpus [Latin – Own the Body]

For legal purposes a dead body doesn’t belong to anyone & why should it. After all in life the right to self determination and autonomy are enshrined in multiple articles of international Human Rights Law and only under very rare circumstances can you be forced to do something against your will. So why does the ownership of a dead body matter? When your loved ones get the bill from the funeral directors & they want £5,000, (minus the headstone; another £1,000 at least) – that’s when……

So, why do we spend unbelievable amounts of money disposing of the dead? Tradition; predominantly as result of anachronous Christian doctrine, which the majority of intelligent people accept is nonsense but blindly follow anyway. A dead body is dead body; the transient shell of a conscious, thinking person. I’m not suggesting that the loss of a loved one should not be honoured & their life celebrated, but there is nothing to stop that happening without having to adhere to the usual inordinately expensive cost of a ‘traditional’ funeral. So, whose responsibility is it to pay the bill?

Usually, the family take care of the arrangements but they are under no obligation to do so. Lack of knowledge is what can make you unwittingly liable. Firstly, acting as the executor makes you automatically liable. Many people take on this role unknowingly. For example: your relative or friend dies. Liability is the last thing on your mind when you are in shock, devastated at your loss & in the surreal bubble that is the precursor to mourning. Even if there is a will naming you as the executor you are under no obligation to accept. But if you unwittingly handle any part of the process, such as registering the death, you become responsible. It is your right to simply say it has nothing to do with you and responsibility becomes a matter of public health. Responsibility becomes the duty of the state. They then make and pay for the arrangements; sometimes referred to as ‘a pauper’s funeral’. Although the term is an antiquated leftover from the 19th century, it does tend to put emotional pressure on people who are already in a delicate disposition……

Secondly, if you arrange the funeral you have entered into a legally binding contract with the funeral director, who can later sue for breach of contract if it turns out that the deceased assets do not cover the cost of the funeral. Not something that is made clear as you are whisked off into the room with the comfortable sofas and they begin the emotional manipulation by talking about your loved ones whilst writing down a long wish list, none of which is priced as you go. Only when you’ve made your choices does the calculator appear and, let’s face it, nobody’s going to start asking where they can skim off a few quid.

So, there you go. When I snuff it don’t have anything to do with me. Oh, and don’t do the sycophantic “What a fantastic bloke he was” bullshit. Tell it like it really was. In fact, don’t tell it at all……

Remember, just say NO…….

A Sad Day for Free Speach……

Today we have heard the sad news that fellow blogger, Avijit Roy, was murdered and his wife seriously injured by two deluded individuals.

The American born writer of Bangladeshi origin was killed in Dhaka.  His blog ‘Mucto-Mono’ (Free Mind) discussed the catastrophic repercussions of the effects of religion and other social inequalities in today’s world.

The couple were attacked by two men with machetes.

My deepest sympathy goes out to the family and friends of Avijit.  Rest assured that his great work will be carried on by the rest of us……

RIP Avijit……

Born Into the World of Terrorism……

‘The indoctrination of children into religion has never been such an important issue……’

In the 20th and 21st century science has given us overwhelming proof that ‘God’ was, and still is, the first and worst explanation for the existence of the Universe. In every area from traditional science to new techniques in analysing text, ‘holy’ books have been discredited. Unfortunately, this has failed to end religion which means the problem of indoctrinating children continues unabated. The very idea of indoctrinating a child is in my opinion abhorrent and is no different to a paedophile’s grooming. Children have the capacity to learn at an astonishing rate; it’s evolution’s answer to survival; hijacked by religion……

Since 9/11 a whole generation have been raised during the purported ‘war on terror’ and the sound of gunfire has become the lullaby they hear as they try to sleep. Their nightmares must be unimaginably horrific. The seemingly arbitrary nature of who is attacked simply adds to the problem. Let’s pretend that 9/11 happened according to the official narrative. A Saudi planned and paid for it; Saudis carried it out. But Afghans and Iraqis bore the brunt of Americas’ retaliation. The search for one man cost 750,000 innocent lives and displaced millions of others. Suddenly it is not so hard to see how radicalisation can happen……

Jessey Creesey

Religious education shouldn’t even be a lesson. We don’t teach Alchemy, Creationism or Voodoo so why are we teaching our children religious nonsense. It serves no useful purpose in seeking employment and perpetuates division. You can knock the cultural differences and inequality of Islam but bombing the fuck out of a selected few because of a fanatical minority is not productive, unless you happen to profit from the Military Industrial Complex. Saudis jail women for driving, beat them for being with a man they are not related to, stone people to death and behead people; the very behaviour condemned when ISIS/ISL/IS do it. The plight of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis is another example. So why aren’t the bombs falling on the Saudis and Israelis; the same reason, money……

This selective ‘war on terror’ will never stop until the radicalised Christian fundamentalists take a good look in the hypocritical mirror. But that’s the idea, ‘a war without end’ as the neo-cons call it and the radicalised Muslims are a convenient tool to perpetuate the scaremongering…..

I’m ashamed to be British. For that matter, I’m ashamed to be a Human Being……

Religious Education……

Religious Educating should not be ‘taught’ in our schools.  This is the 21st century, not the 19th.  Making statements of fact that are completely unsubstantiated, if not disproven by science.  We tell our kids there’s a Father Xmas and a Tooth Fairy but they’re little tricks parents play to say well done.  As soon as they develop some awareness and reasoning they forget Santa and Pester mum and Dad.

Religion is different.  It is a long term brainwashing strategy that’s worked quite adequately for a few thousand years.  Re-enforce the nice stories of Nohah then bring in the facts about God and what awaits children who don’t follow the doctrine.  Many kids like me went to Sunday School but that was the norm and it gave our parents a break.  A lot will question the validity of what they are being told and turn Atheist like me.  But some don’t.

RE has been given the title ‘Religious and Social’ education but that’s just smoke and mirrors.  When teaching other religions, questionable events in history become facts by way of veneration through time and a manuscript, of which there are hundreds of differing versions. Many of these ‘facts’ have been disproven by science, right from Genesis which God’s description of is impossible and it is only by evolving the interpretation the bible that it survived.

Stop wasting tax payers money indoctrinating children into a single minded process of thinking and replace it with physics or PE.  You wouldn’t make your kids Liberal Democrats and send them to Lib Dem schools so they leave as caring lefties with not much understanding of the Torys of Labour.  Let kids make up their own minds when they’ve been given all of the information……

Correspondance with the Government……

‘From time to time I like to hear the first hand account of our country’s standing in the world.  The only place from which to get the answers is the Government Ministers themselves.  It’s not a regular habit so I do not feel I am harrassing our Ministers an a daily basis, but for this particular issue I felt I needed to seek clarification’

By Email:

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

William Hague MP

Dear Mr. Hague

I am writing to express my concerns with the UKs foreign policy and for clarification with regard to its implementation.

The recent issues with Russia, Ukraine and Crimea have led to sanctions being imposed against individuals, including the freezing of bank accounts and limiting travel. There may be other sanctions of which I am unaware but your Government have chosen, quite reasonably, to take some action. A similar state of affairs exists regarding the issues with Syria.

What concerns me is the apparent lack of action when Israel breaches international laws and ignores UN resolutions. The “mainstream” media is undoubtedly biased in the reporting of events in Israel and Palestine and appears to give the impression that Israel acts in a democratic manner, whereas the Palestinians are portrayed as the aggressor and, worse still, that they are some kind of “terrorist” organisation. To anybody with deeper knowledge of the Palestinians position and, based on international laws, it is Israel which is the aggressor, building settlements in occupied territories and applying inhumane and degrading treatment of Palestinians at the checkpoints that they are forced to use, treating them as second class citizens in what is their country.   In contrast, the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are connected by roadways built exclusively for the Israelis, connecting the illegal settlements, further dividing Palestinian land and protected by electrified fences.

When one hears of the horror a Palestinian lady in labour being made to wait at a checkpoint for many hours, only to have her ID papers thrown back into her face, leading to the death of her child which she gave birth to on the roadside. Israelis are simply waved through in their specially constructed roads and one cannot reach any conclusion other than a deliberate action by Israel to further de-humanise the Palestinian people who have already lost 78% of their historical homeland, within living memory of the older residents.

We hear little, if any, sanctions being put in place against Israel. Your Government is proactively involved in arms trading with Israel. It could be British bullets that kill innocent children on a frequent basis. No action is taken against Israel despite UN resolutions telling them they are in breach of international law, and Britain plays a positive roll in supporting the Israelis

One who is suspicious of diplomatic relations can be led to only one conclusion; there are no specific rules by which diplomacy is applied. It as a cabal of nations and you are either “in favour” or “a pariah”. As the eloquent George W. Bush put it, “You are either with us or you are against us”. The convenience of “al Qaeda”, the invisible, non geographical “terrorists” are wheeled out to place the blame upon whenever an incongruent enemy is needed. I do not condone the killing of innocent civilians under any circumstances and that includes the hundreds of thousands of civilian lives, or collateral damage caused by our involvement in the conflicts of the Middle East. “Mission accomplished” is how David Cameron described Afghanistan recently. I have two questions regarding “mission accomplished”; first what mission has been accomplished and was that mission objective we set out to achieve in the originally. By my recollection America began indiscriminately dropping bombs in the mountains to “smoke him [Osama bin Laden] out, followed by a ground invasion to destroy the “al Qaeda” training camps (if one considers some monkey bars and a sheet of camouflage to crawl under a “training camp”).

Put simply, can the Minister explain why some nations are allowed to ignore international laws without redress, whilst others, and there are many, seem to carry one regardless, often with our support. Who decides which regimes we are happy to do business with and which are left out “in the cold”.

If the Minister feels unable to reflect upon these issues and explain the incongruities, I respectfully request that he finds someone who can explain the Government’s logic, up to and including the Prime Minister who is the Commander in Chief of our armed forces.

Yours sincerely

Mr. Stephen P. Walker.

 

‘Ill keep you posted when I get a reply…….’

Christmas Message for 2013……

As we leave 2013 behind us we prepare to celebrate Christmas.  Out come the tinsel and the glitter balls, in comes the tree and we send cards, but only to those who sent one to us last year in the spirit of Christmas.  The shops are full of eager consumers, all vying to get the latest digital device and ticking off the long list of requirements from their nearest and dearest.  The works Christmas party leaves its employees with a hangover and some embarrassing photographs, posted on social media sites for all to see.  We stock up our cupboards with special treats, mince pies and the obligatory tin of Quality Streets from which the purple ones are first to go and the orange creams left for the late comers.  This is pretty much the modus operandi of almost everyone, but amidst the frivolities those of you who are paying attention will have noticed the absence one fairly important detail: the birth of the alleged son of our Lord and our saviour, the baby Jesus, for whom this whole celebration is centred around.  Unless you happen to be a gloating parent of a primary school child, the central raison d’être for Christmas will probably not have even entered your thoughts.  It is also worth noting that the classical ‘nativity play’ stops just short of the point where King Herrod ruthlessly massacred ever male infant born within his kingdom, but the indoctrination has to lull its victims into a false sense of security before revealing the ‘catch 22’.  The hell and damnation can be woven in at a later date, once we have allowed our children to believe in the complete omnipotent nature of ‘god’s’ existence……

Christmas, along with Easter, Valentines’ Day, Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, to name but a few, is nothing more than a commercial opportunity for the multi-nationals to generate sales.

Unless you are a devout Christian, in which case you need to get with the program, and then take advantage of the time you have been off work and get drunk, but have a re-think on some of your other actions.

Your kids don’t need anymore mind-numbing computer games and why buy so much food that you’ll still be finding out of date Christmas fodder in your cupboards in July 2014……

The Alternative……

By all means buy your closest friends a token gift; hand made with thought speaks volumes.  Most people would appreciate a bottle of £5 plonk and the ridiculous game of only buying for the people who bought for you last year is hardly in the spirit of Christmas.  I can’t think of anything more satisfying than receiving a card explaining how you’ve donated the money that would have paid for your gift to a charity that cares for the hundreds of thousands of orphaned, displaced and starving people who are only in that position because of US and UK foreign policy.  Four million, that’s 4,000,000,000 Syrians are currently in dire need of assistance for food, shelter and medical supplies.  870 million people are classed as malnourished.  The displaced Palestinians are in need of help as they eek out an existence whilst the occupying Israeli forces continue to encroach on what little territory they have left despite dozens of UN resolutions against Israel who are in contravention of international law but continue to receive military assistance and hardware from the US and UK.

The majority of suffering in the ‘third world’ is as a direct result of the actions of the UK, US and the Netherlands’ historical desire to build empires.  In the 19th century we killed the food supply for fun and now the only animals left can just about support safaries for the wealthy.  Think of the difference your Christmas spending, which is meaningless to all but the devout practicing Christians, could make to the people of the world.  I doubt whether the Prime Minister or his contemporaries will give the true meaning of Christmas even a passing thought as they rip into their presents on Christmas day.  How long he can afford to keep his central heating on will not feature, nor will his electricity consumption, water bill, council tax and the endless other considerations that his minions are hard pressed to pay after the celebration of the birth of Christ.  I doubt he will give a passing thought to the British troops who lost their lives needlessly in ‘the war on terror’, or to the devastated families they left behind.  No, Christmas at the PMs will be all Champagne and laughter, as it will at Nick Cleggs’ and the others who are responsible for our suffering.  What more could a detached upper-class Etonian under the control of the global elite wish for at Christmas……

May we all one day live in an equal secular society that makes no categorical judgement other than ‘member of the human race’, that takes only what is needed to live in a warm, sheltered, loving environment……

Make someone’s Christmas by sending your excessive, indulgent spending so they can sleep in shelter and drink clean water……

Happy Equinox for the 21st……

Terrorism, Planes and Bureaucracy……

‘You may have been under the impression that since 9/11 flying has never been safer and you’d have been right, but not as a result of terrorism……’ 

Just How Safe is Flying……?

The chance of being involved in an air incident, terrorist or otherwise, is astonishingly small.  It is approximately 11 million to 1 or, by way of comparison, you are far more likely to die in a fatal road accident travelling to the airport or, die from natural causes in the time elapsed since booking your ticket and surprisingly, if you were involved in an accident your chances of survival are still around 50/50.  Nevertheless, you might imagine that the airlines have installed all of the latest technologies designed to detect a terrorist attempting to board and combined all of the worldwide intelligence available to disrupt an attempt; on either count you’d be wrong……

Technology……

Technology is always improving and has now reached the point at which a full body scanner is available that allows security staff to effectively ‘see through’ clothing; this sits alongside the traditional doorway metal detector.  Its introduction has caused controversy due to privacy concerns, although if you see the system in action the image the operator sees is akin to a 3D shop-front dummy.  Doubtless there are individuals who might ‘get off’ on seeing a computerised 3D image of fat middle aged business men but I’m sceptical they’d attempt to work their way up through the airport security business simply to get themselves into a position where they could become an imagine operator when all they’d need to do is log on, enter a few choice search terms, and voila, Google will provide them with all the material needed to satisfy their sick and twisted desires [other internet search engines are available, for now at least].

Baggage scanning has been around for years although was not routinely used on all checked in baggage until after 9/11.  Swabbing an individual’s hand luggage has also been around for many years but, like all security, relies on the instinct and training of handlers.  I have a friend who was caught out by this system when traces of Cocaine were found on his toothbrush by US immigration officials.  His explanation of the ten dollar call girl having used it the morning after got him out of that scrape; I’m not so sure how he explained it to his wife however!

Not all Airports are Equal……

The majority of the major hub airports have the security measures described above but smaller ones don’t and just how difficult would it be to hire a sightseeing trip whilst on ‘holiday’ with which to make mischief?

Information is Power……

Since 9/11 the airlines have cooperated by supplying lists of passengers to their allies.  The problem with lists is who goes on them and why.  The US has four such lists, the first of which is ‘persons of interest’ and numbers 600,000 names.  Bearing in mind the way in which Muslims name their children, there’s an awful lot of Mohamed, Abdul, Osama’s and combinations thereof.  Plus, as any victim of Microsoft will tell you, the software is only as good as the person who wrote it.  Taken into account that there are 1,423,500,000 people taking flights each year and you soon end up with information overload and one hell of a cross referencing task.  The list of misdemeanours that can get you onto the database is wide ranging and can be something as simple having been arrested at a student demonstration years ago.  There is also the problem of radicalised terrorists who have never had so much as a parking ticket and are unlikely to be flagged up by an automated system……

How Useful have the Security Systems Been……

Thus far not a single terrorist incident has been discovered with the technology on offer.  In December 2009 Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to bring down Northwest Airlines flight 253 bound for Detroit on Christmas day.  His journey began in Ghana, changing planes at Schipol, Amsterdam, one of the worlds’ most sophisticated airports with all of the security systems discussed.  Having cleared security at both Ghana and Amsterdam he successfully boarded Northwest Airlines flight 253.  Throughout his journey he had a small package of an explosive called PETN in his underwear.  His plan was to inject a small amount TATP into the package theoretically resulting in a chemical reaction and explosion.  Thankfully, and solely down to luck, the bomb failed to go off and the flight landed without incident (discounting a pair of very scorched bollocks and DIY Brazilian).  The explosive, PETN, was the same explosive as Richard Reid, the failed shoe bomber, had tried to use in an earlier incident, leading to the extra security precaution of passing passengers’ shoes through the X-Ray device.  It also led to the restriction on the quantity of liquids allowed in hand luggage……

Failure to Act on Information……

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was not your stereotypical image of a suicide bomber.  He was the son of a successful banker, well educated, well spoken and not at first appearance a Muslim.  Following discussions with his father in which he expressed the view that his father’s work was ‘immoral’ and ‘un-Islamic’, his father became concerned that his son was becoming radicalised.  On November 19^th Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s father spoke with two CIA officers at the US Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria to express his concerns about his son.  The CIA added Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s name to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, the lowest threat category of the four lists used by US Intelligence Services.  No other action was taken and Abdulmutallab’s student visa was not revoked which enabled him to board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 without so much as a blinking computer icon……

A Lucky Escape……

Considering the intelligence available, the fact that Abdulmutallab evaded two airport security checks and a miscalculation of the amount of chemicals needed to explode the device, the December 2009 incident was indeed a lucky escape for the passengers of flight 253 which would have been destroyed on its final approach to Detroit.  But the fact remains; no amount of technology will make commercial air travel failsafe.  Intelligence is perhaps a glorified term for what is actually information and computer geeks have a term ‘GIGO’, which means garbage in, garbage out.  Probably the most effective security device in any airport is the human being at the gate.  They posses something that technology and computers don’t; instinct, and it is that which proves the most useful tool in the ‘war on terror’……

And One Final Thought……

Perhaps, if the ‘civilised’ countries of the West took a long hard look at what is going on in their own back yards and the effect that global consumerism is having on ‘the axis of evil’ there would be significantly less radicalised individuals and organisations hell bent on perpetrating headline grabbing acts of terrorism to highlight the inequality and hypocrisy under which we live.  Somehow, without the removal of Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Paulson and the rest of the Neo-Conservative zealots, along with the World Bank, Federal Reserve, IMF, Bank of England, Central European Bank that they effectively control, halting the development in most of Sub-Saharan Africa and most of Asia, the trouble will continue conveniently categorised as ‘religious extremism’ even though 99.999% of Muslims are peace loving people going about their daily business just like the rest of us.

The Al Qaeda myth has been allowed to grow under the influence of the western media.  They started off as a group in Afghanistan under the leadership of one Osama Bin Laden, whose family are close friends and business partners of the Bush family.  Blamed for the 9/11 ‘false flag’ attack on the US they have now spread all over the globe.  Any pissed off Muslim is automatically labelled ‘Al Qaeda’ whether they have anything to do with them or not.  They are nothing more than a replacement for the ‘reds under the bed’ after the fall of the Soviet Union; the perfect enemy.  They come in all colours, from all countries, are of all ages and sexes.  In the PNAC document, written by the Neo-Cons a year before 9/11, they talk of a ‘war without end’ against an ‘unseen enemy’ and even the need for a catalysing event like a ‘new Pearl Harbour’ to rapidly advance their plans.  And hey presto……

Search for PNAC PDF to read their sinister plan……

‘Guess that’s me on the no fly list……’

The Astonishing Arrogance of Humans……

Early philosophers surmised that the Earth was at the centre of the universe and not without good reasoning.  After all the ‘heavens’ appeared to rotate around us as if we were static.  There was an absence wind coming from one direction, which one might have expected had we been travelling on a constant course through space.  It was also thought that the lights coming from ‘heavens’ may have been placed at specific distances from the Earth on a set of concentric crystal spheres.  This anthropomorphic view also fitted in nicely with the main monotheistic religions which had established themselves as the absolute authority handed down by ‘god’ with mankind at the pinnacle of creation.

One often wonders if ancient philosophers hadn’t worked out some of the problems with this model far earlier than the evidence they left behind suggests, which would doubtless have been destroyed by the authority of the church, that is if they had been brave enough to have committed such reasoning to parchment for fear of reprisal and death.  We tend toward giving credit for the major steps forward in astronomy to the philosophers of the 14^th century although many great works were produced, particularly in the Far East, long before this.

It was Nicolaus Copernicus, working with data meticulously collected by others, that first dared to suggest that the planets revolved around the Sun, later backed up by Tyhco Brahe who observed a supernovae, proving that the ‘heavens’ were not static, and the works of Kepler and Galileo.  In a little under one hundred years the view of the Catholic Church had been overturned, although it cost its detractors dearly, some paying with their lives, others effectively ending their careers.  It is worth taking a moment to contemplate that a little over 100 years ago the Milky Way was thought to be everything there was; our Universe.  100 years before that just the planets in our locality with everything else ‘painted’ upon a set of concentric crystal spheres.  Philosophers throughout history had questioned what would later be called the ‘weak anthropic principle’; the notion that we just happened to be inhabitants of the planet that sits so neatly in the centre of everything, with every other observable body circling around us.  This is obviously; the view our species, being the most important in ‘creation’, would, being placed at the centre of everything, would observe:  “What would see if were sitting on another planet?”  I’m sure ancient philosophers secretly wondered.

Having moved on in our acceptance of the Universe and our total insignificance in it, the human race still maintains an astoundingly arrogant opinion of ourselves.  For example; as Voyager leaves the Heliosheath, the point at which the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas, it is the furthest man made object from us, yet in universal measurements it is barely a stones throw from us.  It has yet to pass any of 3 or 4 hundred billion other stars in the Milky Way or to reach any of the other 3 or 4 hundred billion galaxies or pass any of the hundreds billions stars within them.  The chances of ‘intelligent’ life intercepting the Voyager probe are miniscule, but if they did, I have a vision of the instant mashed potato aliens falling all over the flight deck with laughter; “Those pesky humans again, wah, wah, wah!”.  NASA even changed the disc on the second Voyager to show the man and woman wearing clothes, should we leave ourselves open to embarrassment, or worse, the beings that discover it.  It is that one detail particularly that sets the scene for mankind.

Take yourself back to the 70’s, you’ve completed your PhD (after all it’s hardly rocket science), landed a dream job working for the worlds most prestigious space outfit, NASA, and you are a part of the steering committee that decides what to include on the gold disk.  Now, presuming some of the MIT or Caltech education sunk in, you’ll already have worked out that the chances of another ‘intelligent’ life form finding your probe is vanishingly small.  The distances involved are immense, your probe has a limited life span and by the time it reached another ‘intelligent’ species the human race will be as ancient to them as the Jurassic Period is to us now.  However, assuming all goes to plan and your probe is intercepted in the distant future they’ll be able to hang in their space museum with a little tag that reads ‘Extinct race from the Milky Way who were easily embarrassed’.  I need go no further in demonstrating the stupidly arrogant belief in ourselves.

We are the product of an unimaginably large set of coincidences.  Life may, in fact almost certainly will, have developed somewhere out there in the vastness of space.  In all probability evolution V1.2 will have produced something completely unrecognisable from us.  Any contact between us is vanishingly small due to the distances and time involved and either one of us will doubtless be extinct by the time our paths collide.  The whole UFO phenomena is just another example of our need to coexist and conspiracy theories apart, I think we would know if we were being ‘buzzed’ by an advanced civilisation, and what use would they have for us?  Technology?  Food?  A comfortable new home?  Again we apply our arrogant opinions to the problem.

We are a freak of nature and one hell bent on destroying our planet and its inhabitants.  Take a step back, apply logic and accept that we are for all practical purposes alone in the space-time we occupy.  Now we can back to the business of destroying things in the name of globalisation, religion and progress……

Behold, it’s a Miracle……

With all of suffering in the world, the deaths of innocent women and children in conflicts, the displaced, the starving, the diseases that we can so easily cure and the abject poverty in which so many of God’s children live, it’s nice to unburden oneself from feelings of guilt and hear of some of the goodness that happens……

As the summer draws to close and the leaves fall from the trees, the trinket and postcard sellers of Lourdes, Eastern France, pack away their stalls until the next season of gullible pilgrims make the journey in search of that illusive miracle cure.

Not the Real Virgin Mary

The 2013 season has proven to be a good one for the Catholic Church and the people of Lourdes, not to mention Mrs. Daneli Castelli who was this year’s lucky recipient of miracle status.  Mrs. Castelli actually experienced the miracle on 4 May 1989 after visiting the E. Coli, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa and Faecal ridden baths that six million other hopefuls have bathed their puss filled wounds and drooled into that season.  And her miracle cure was the disappearance of a small fibrous legion (that doctors had operated on only a few months earlier)……

Its men that hate each other

Mrs. Castelli is officially the 69^th miracle to have happened at Lourdes since the Virgin revealed herself to an impressionable teenager in 1860.  Among the long list of miracles (which I won’t bore you with) there have lots of cures for which modern medicine works pretty well and nothing particularly exciting like the re-growing of an amputated limb.  Call me a sceptic but 69 rather minor miracles in 150 years does not seem very impressive to me, so let’s do the math.  I’ve missed out the boring calculations but your chances of being the recipient of a miracle is 13,043,478 to 1 or, about the same as scooping the jackpot on the National Lottery……

It’s just a suggestion but wouldn’t it be better if the six million visitors gave the not unsubstantial cost of a holiday in Lourdes to a charity?  That way there is much higher probability of science finding a cure than you drinking from a rat piss infested pool in France……

It has always struck me as a little strange that ‘the almighty’ omniscient, omnipresent creator, (and yes ‘omnipresent’ does

God

mean he’s watching over you ever time you shit or crack one off when Sharon Stone’s on TV), can only manage a miserly 69 miracles when he, presumably, has the power to end all human misery in one godly shake of his ‘God Rod’…….