Tuesday 20 August 2013
Sunday 18 August 2013
HIV patients told by Pentecostal pastors 'to rely on God' ....
N.B
All opinions expressed are personal and are not designed to cause offense.
Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23729684 to
read the story that has inspired this slightly enraged post.
I understand
that there is only a minority of Pentecostal Pastors encouraging this, in my
opinion, reckless behavior however, I find it very disturbing. Possibly even
more alarming is that I fail to see that anyone is going to do something about
it or, even that anybody is able to take action.
What I fail to understand is how these
ideas are able to develop and take hold in the first place. HIV is a
devastating illness which can only be effectively controlled with medication which
is researched and then prescribed after a process of careful deliberation and
studying by a variety of highly qualified professionals. The people responsible
for spreading these are dealing in a very delicate balance between life and
death based on minority interpretations of events or writings.
Having and
sharing faith is one thing, but when a person's faith is exploited so as to
make them act, dress, think etc. in a certain way it is not right and I am
afraid that this current story clearly shows this ‘dark side’ of religion and
other ideologies that I think needs to be urgently addressed. Among other
reasons, this is one of the reasons why I am an atheist.
Don't get me
wrong, I can see the benefits of religion for some people and I also understand
why some people would turn to religion, I just feel that when one person begins
to tell you that God, or other religious figures can do better than
professionals that is pushing the power of their position too far. Granted,
doctors and other professionals don't always get it right, however, they do
have a better record of success than religions and when dealing with life or
death all the facts need to be looked at, and interpretations
need to be challenged and verified.
In my opinion
the Pentecostal Pastors who are spreading this 'rely on God' message need to
be, at least, watched very closely if not completely removed from their
position of, scarily, huge amounts of power. It is an extremely dangerous
message and it needs to be promptly brought under control.
On a completely separate note; Follow me on bloglovin. <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10368525/?claim=33cbe4ah4sn">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
On a completely separate note; Follow me on bloglovin. <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10368525/?claim=33cbe4ah4sn">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
Thursday 11 July 2013
Let's catch up ....
I haven't posted anything in a very long time and I wanted to take this opportunity to apologise and explain as well as thank all of you who have read and continued to read my blog even when I have neglected it for so long.
It really means a lot that people actually read my ramblings, which are usually pessimistic and the fact that there is such a global audience is astounding. There are readers from The UK Russia, America, France, Germany, Australia, Georgia and Croatia which I find really incredible. It really does prove the power of the internet, doesn't it? When I first started the blog I really wasn't expecting this kind of response and although I really do appreciate it, it really is a shock I wasn't expecting anything like this.
I really want to continue with the blog and as I appreciate your readership so very much I feel I owe you an explanation for my overly long absence. To start with I always expected there to be a break during the exam period, I just didn't have the time or the energy to revise and blog at the same time. However, what I didn't expect for my lack of blogging energy and in some sense enthusiasm to continue for as long as it has. For this I apologise.
There has been a lot going on emotionally at the moment - trying to decide on my future after school, and coming to terms with the fact that I may/may not get good enough results from my exams, as well as trying to come to terms with the fact that my comfort zone won't be a suitable living environment in the future and that I need to face my fears and realise that I can expand my comfort zone. All of this hasn't really left me with any energy to continue with my 'societal observations' (more like ramblings). The energy will return as will the slightly more frequent blog posts.
On a slightly different note, and this might be a complete disaster especially after what I just told you about having difficulty writing posts for this one, I have started a new blog. This one has more of a central focus; books. I plan to write reviews of good books, and some bad books, that I have read. I enjoy reading, writing and sharing information about books so I thought this would be a good way of combining all three. It is only in the very early stages but if you would like to take a look this is the link: http://a-book-review-blog.blogspot.co.uk/.
Once again, thank you for your continued support and readership.
It really means a lot that people actually read my ramblings, which are usually pessimistic and the fact that there is such a global audience is astounding. There are readers from The UK Russia, America, France, Germany, Australia, Georgia and Croatia which I find really incredible. It really does prove the power of the internet, doesn't it? When I first started the blog I really wasn't expecting this kind of response and although I really do appreciate it, it really is a shock I wasn't expecting anything like this.
I really want to continue with the blog and as I appreciate your readership so very much I feel I owe you an explanation for my overly long absence. To start with I always expected there to be a break during the exam period, I just didn't have the time or the energy to revise and blog at the same time. However, what I didn't expect for my lack of blogging energy and in some sense enthusiasm to continue for as long as it has. For this I apologise.
There has been a lot going on emotionally at the moment - trying to decide on my future after school, and coming to terms with the fact that I may/may not get good enough results from my exams, as well as trying to come to terms with the fact that my comfort zone won't be a suitable living environment in the future and that I need to face my fears and realise that I can expand my comfort zone. All of this hasn't really left me with any energy to continue with my 'societal observations' (more like ramblings). The energy will return as will the slightly more frequent blog posts.
On a slightly different note, and this might be a complete disaster especially after what I just told you about having difficulty writing posts for this one, I have started a new blog. This one has more of a central focus; books. I plan to write reviews of good books, and some bad books, that I have read. I enjoy reading, writing and sharing information about books so I thought this would be a good way of combining all three. It is only in the very early stages but if you would like to take a look this is the link: http://a-book-review-blog.blogspot.co.uk/.
Once again, thank you for your continued support and readership.
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