Comments on: Many In U.S. Drop Their Childhood Religion

Survey: Nearly Half Of U.S. Adults Left Faith They Grew Up With

[nothappyatall]

And know that no matter how many hateful words and psychotic rants you go on newster, that there''''s always hope to get out of your anger and resentment through the lard jesus phux.

Posted by stingingprick

Yeha, youd like to think that moron, aint gonna happen, *ever* and certainly not because of psychotic rants by a bibull thumper on a news site, in fact your rants have decided for me to build up my ANTI religion site and promote atheism once it gets into google and connected.

"Sometimes the need to justify ones actions leads one to justifications of brutality, cruelty, and violence in general
posted by newster1"

"Sounds like you just described Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler, and Saddam Hussein ;)"

Hitler was a christian as the historical documents, speeches and his connection with the church proves, in fact he blamed the JEWS for killing your gezus and that was what started the holocaust.
Of course the CHURCH and its doctrines of violence caused the deaths of untold innocents for nothing.

"I am truly sorry that noone ever showed you any love or affection growing up newster. I truly am."

Where do you get that idea from moron? I had a great childhood, unfortunately it had your christ and church in it till I WISED up once I started thinking for myself, not what people TOLD me, that gezus and Santa Claus along with the tooth fairy dont exist.

[nothappyatall]

-"Religion was never the answer. Only Christ is the answer."

One and the same, the same bullchit different day.

"this was already predicted to occur a couple thousand years ago written in the Holy Scriptures:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits"

-This was already predicted
Posted by stingingprick"

You think so, but any idiot could have predicted as much- cram too many people in a given area and like rats they overrun and destroy, then crash- so anytime in history someone could have ''predicted'' the earth would become so overpopulated theres mass starvation, disease and worse as a result.
Same thing with your bullchit bibull, people back then had many beliefs, many gods, and gods both came and went, as did beliefs, not hard at all to figure out eventually it would ALL go away, thats not a prediction its an OBSERVATION

[actornaught]

So, you''ve commited to get yourself there, especially since you always know who i''m referring to when i say "s''ick"
posted by actornaught

...ever since you''''ve posted on these boards...
Posted by singinrick at 07:38 AM : Feb 28, 2008

Just one of your many hyperboles/lies that have no bearing on the issue. You said you''d get therapy if i went first. I went. Now you can walk your talk.

Good luck with that.

btw, don''t forget that you plied me with pointless insults before i ever knew of your CS name. Now i know.

Get the point. Get therapy, you said you would.

[nothappyatall]

This helps demonstrate the level of threat which the Church made out of witches and witchcraft. Witches couldn''t be allowed to live no matter what -- not even if they were willing to admit all that they were accused of and fully repent. Their evil was too much of an existential threat to Christian society and they had to be completely excised, not unlike cancer which has to be cut out lest it kill the entire body. There was simply no tolerance or patience for the witches -- they had to be eliminated, whatever the cost.

Some have claimed that as many as nine million women were executed as witches, even though few could possibly have been truly guilty of witchcraft, and that because this represented a deliberate attempt to kill women generally it should be dubbed a "Women''s Holocaust." More recent research demonstrates that many accused witches were men, not just women, and that number of those executed is far lower. Estimates today range from 60,000 to 40,000. Even if we are especially pessimistic, we probably can''t go higher than 100,000 people killed across all Europe and over an extended period of time. That''s obviously very bad, but not quite a "Holocaust."

[nothappyatall]

Executing Witches and Eliminating Witchcraft: Killing Witches as the Best Way to Kill Witchcraft

Burning and hanging were the most popular forms of execution for accused witches in medieval Europe. Burning seems to have been most common in continental Europe while hanging was more common in Britain -- and thus also in the American colonies later as well. The death penalty was imposed on a wide variety of crimes in this era, but witchcraft in particular was punished by death on the basis of Exodus 22:18: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" and Leviticus 20:27: "A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones."

The heretics who were the earlier targets of the Inquisition were almost never executed at first. They typically had a chance to repent and submit to the Church; only after relapsing into heresy did they generally become subject to execution. Even then, they might still be given another chance to repent. Witches received almost the exact opposite treatment: execution was typically applied after the first accusation and only rarely were accused witches allowed to go free after repenting.

[nothappyatall]

Not until June 16, 1456, did Pope Callistus III declare Joan of Arc to be innocent on the charges of heresy and witchcraft. It can be difficult for powerful institutions to admit error of any sort, but especially when the errors involve grave injustices that cause the suffering and death of innocent people. Everyone likes to think of themselves are pure of heart and doing good work, even when they are hurting others. Sometimes the need to justify one''s actions leads one to justifications of brutality, cruelty, and violence in general -- and thus a betrayal of whatever moral principles they thought they held to begin with.

[nothappyatall]

Joan of Arc, Witch and Heretic: Powerful Women Had to Fear the Accusation of Witchcraft

Although accusations of witchcraft seem to have been most commonly made against older women who lived on the margins of society and who may have become socially troublesome, there is also evidence that women who were too powerful could become targets as well. Joan of Arc is one famous example of a woman who achieved a great deal but was then burned as a witch for her trouble.

Joan of Arc, who has become the patron saint of France, was a peasant girl who experienced mystical visions of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret during the Hundred Years War which convinced her that she was destined by (The big cheese) to lead the French to victory over the English invaders.

In 1429 she convinced the dauphin Charles VII to let her demonstrate that she had the ability to match her ambitions and she led French forces to liberate the city of Orleans from an English siege. She was eventually taken prisoner by the Burgundians, allies of England, and turned over to the English who burned her at the stake as a witch on the argument that her claims of direct communication with (The big cheese) were heretical and an act of disobedience to the Church.

[nothappyatall]

When people are tortured, and especially when the torture involves sevual abuse, it doesn''t take long for the victim''s world to become reduced to nothing but the pain and a desire for the pain to end. When the only important thing is the cessation of pain, the victim will tell the torturer whatever they want to hear. It may not be the truth, but if the pain ends that''s all that matters.

nquisitors were also quick to search for the purported "witches'' ****," blemishes which were supposed to be extra nipples used by witches to suckle demons. If the men interrogating the witches were to become aroused, it was assumed that the desire originated not in them, but instead was a projection from the women. Women were supposed to be highly sevually-charged beings, while the celibate Inquisitors were supposed to be beyond such matters. Of course, the women were expected to admit that they were causing the interrogators to become sevually aroused, leading to a new round of questions and possible torture.

[nothappyatall]

Voluntary testimony from someone as young as two could be admitted despite it not being treated as valid in other cases. This was a sign of just how serious the threat of witches was perceived to be. Witches and witchcraft, both of which were in the service of Satan, threatened the very existence of christian society, the christian church, and christians themselves. Normal standards of justice, evidence, and trials were abandoned because no one wanted to take the chance that respecting traditional rights and standards would allow the guilty to escape punishment.

Torture & Sevual Repression: How the Torture of Witches Revealed the Sevual Repression of Inquisitors

Interrogations of witches followed many standard Inquisition procedures, but with some added bonuses. Accused witches were all stripped naked, had all of their body hair shaved of, and then "pricked." The sexually neurotic Malleus Maleficarum had become the standard text on how to deal with witches, and this book stated authoritatively that all witches bore a numb "devil''s mark" which could be detected by sharp prodding.

Red-hot tongs were applied to womens'' breasts and genitalia. Researcher Nancy van Vuuren has written that "The women''s sev organs provided special attraction for the male torturer." It should not be surprising that just about every torture victim eventually confessed.

[nothappyatall]

Heres what your god and religion brought rickyboy;

Confessing Witches: Under Torture, Accused Witches Would Confess to Almost Anything

Confessions of witchcraft, extracted under torture or threat of torture, commonly came attached to denouncements of other possible witches, keeping the Inquisitors in business. In Spain, church records tell the story of Maria of Ituren admitting under torture that she and sister witches turned themselves into horses and galloped through the sky. In a district of France, 600 women admitted to copulating with demons. Some entire villages in Europe were may have been exterminated.

Although the children of heretics and Jews had never experienced much in the way of mercy from Inquisitors, the children of convicted witches suffered even more horribly. These kids were themselves prosecuted for witchcraft -- girls after the age of nine and a half, boys after the age of ten and a half. Even younger children could be tortured to elicit testimony against parents.

A French judge is reported to have regretted being so lenient when he sentenced young kids to be flogged while they watched their parents burn instead of sentencing them to burn as well. Children may not be easily culpable for heresy or their parents'' heresy, but they could certainly be influenced by or even possessed by Satan. The only hope of saving their souls was to torture their bodies to drive out the satanic influences.