Thursday 20 June, 2013
MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS around the world have begun taking part in ceremonies to mark Easter.
But the rituals vary enormously from place to place. In Spain the faithful donned hats and masks to process through Seville, while Christians in the Philippines went as far as a full-blown re-enactment of the Crucifixion.
We’ve collected some of the best images from ceremonies around the world (Warning: contains graphic images):
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The guy in pic 13 holds the hammer like a child. He’d be driving that nail all day. Get a grip at the END of the handle, Jose. If you’re going to go around nailing people to crosses, you should at least do it in a professional manner. I’m sure there are plenty of fellows around Ireland with some time on their hands capable of doing the job properly, right boys?
Why does everyone have to suffer in religion .Can they not just enjoy the day off and eat a chocolate egg. Religions are depressing.
Just waiting for an islamophobic comment to come from some of these athiests, if you made that comment about Jewish people you’d be kicked off this site for antisemitism and rightly so, but there doesn’t seem to be any problem targeting Catholics or Muslims around here.
I think its fair to say Adrians point wasn’t anti-Islam or anti-Christian, it was more anti-stupidity than anything else really. While it may be logically plausible to accept an Aristotelian “First Mover” argument and indeed many get solace out if Christian or Islamic thought, but to go so far as to hurt yourself or others in the name of religion is moronic and narcissistic to boot. They are trying to impress a deity that probably doesn’t exist at least in the Judeo-christian or Islamic conception of it, by saying “look at me God, Im really good because I hurt myself for you” Nonsensical in the truest form if the word.
I will always defend common sense over stupidity. I am not sure how you can claim it was xenophobic, there are Irish Muslims also. There is a major difference between being bigoted and having an opinion. In a democracy people have a right to practice their faith provided it doesn’t hurt others, but people are also allowed register their contempt of that faith on the same principles, stop trying to make it a race issue when it clearly isn’t. If a person wants to nail themselves to a cross for “God” thats ok, but its also ok for people to realise the inherent idiocy in that act. Freedom of speech works both ways
Not that crazy Nolan I called you out. Perhaps you ought to explain to everyone here why you think Muslims have the monopoly on extremism, or is it Catholics or is it all religious people you think are extremists? As for trolling a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic comments. What you posted is was all those which makes you the troll here. As I said had you said all Jews had the monopoly on extremism, you’d be kicked off for antisemitism, I still think you ought to be kicked off the site unless you apologise and withdraw that remark.
Never mind GPM, you answered my question for me. Your definition of a bigot is anyone who disagrees with what you perceive to be correct, a perception that in itself is bigoted but because you think its politically correct you have deputized yourself as some zero-tolerance enforcer of that worldview. Nobody said that Muslims or Christians or Jews are all extremists, that would be bigoted. What was implied was extremism in Islam, that is to say suicide bombings, forced sharia law etc. NOT the ordinary Muslims who goes to Mosque on a Friday, seems relatively prominent in recent history up until, that is, the pictures of Christians nailing themselves to crosses which is a form of extremism. (acting on their faith in such a way that it negatively impacts on others or themselves). Do you really believe GPM that kind of behavior is desirable in modern society or can benefit society in any way?
The people who mutilate themselves are deluded fanatics. People who let their children watch this disgusting spectacle are not fit to have children in their protection. If ever there was a good example of religious stupidity,vulgarity and brutality it is those idiots that let themselves get nailed to a piece of wood. Those who watch and support such actions need their head examined.
It never ceases to amaze me what is tolerated in the name of religion.
Could never understand why anyone would want to be crucified..
“Christianity – The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.”
If ever the stupidity of religion needed proving, these pictures do it nicely.
The Ironic thing is, the catholic church in the Philippines have distanced themselves from it & have discouraged people from doing it. Maybe people On Here should be getting more annoyed about the programme which is happening on Easter Sunday, a live autopsy on someone who has been crucified…. That to me is extreme! But then again, each to their own
Again I have no idea why you continue to answer on behalf of Adrian Nolan, whose bigoted comment above singled out Muslim people for accusations of extremism, there are 1.5 Billion Muslims in the world how many of these people are actually suicide bombers? Do you actually know anything about any of this or is your response always to accuse others of ignorance?
Suicide attacks are politically motivated, not religiously motivated, they have been used throughout history in warfare, India, China, Japan and more recently Sri Lanka. With regard to suicide bombers from Muslim nations there is no evidence that the majority of these attacks are anything other than politically motivated, in one academic study of Afghan suicide bombers’ remains pathologist Yusef Yadgari, found that the majority were suffering from serious illness cancer, leprosy so on their way out anyway, in another Harvard study Professor Alberto Abadie showed that the bulk of these attacks were carried out by educated middle class individuals for political purposes. Again no suggestions that religion led to their actions. As you know yourself I’m sure the IRA used proxy suicide bombers in attacks in 1990s, so suicide bombing were used as a guerrilla tactic, to maximize casulties.
With regard to you dragging up Sharia law again overhyped based on US and British media ignorance of Sharia and the linking of Sharia to domestic abuse cases in order to vilify an entire groups of people. We had Brehon law in Ireland which were very progressive and secular in nature and not dissimilar to Sharia in many respects.
As for self-denial or voluntary suffering ( Ascetism) this has been around forever practiced in various ways by members of many religions, Lent for the Catholics, Islam during Ramadan and also in Sufism, and Shi’a Islam, Buddhism,, Hinduism. Various indigenous peoples and primitivists also incorporate voluntary pain, suffering, and self-denial as part of their spiritual traditions as vehicles to the divine and/or rites of passage or healing.
Extreme practices of mortification of the flesh were/are often used to obtain altered states of consciousness to achieve spiritual experiences or visions. In modern times, members of the Church of Body Modification believe that by manipulating and modifying their bodies (by painful processes) they can strengthen the bond between their bodies and spirits, and become more spiritually aware. This is an example of a secular non religious group that uses rites of passage from many traditions to seek their aims, including Hindu, Buddhist, shamanic, and Christian methods of seeking altered states of consciousness.
So believe what you want, think what you want to think, about Muslims or Catholics or any group of religious individuals, you may wish to label as crazy or extremist, but your opinions will continue to be based on your own ignorance, on your own intellectual laziness. Violence does not emerge from religion it comes from human beings often as a reaction to their environment and if religion vanished from the Earth tomorrow there would still be people, killing and bombing and doing other stuff for reasons not linked to a belief in the divine.
Do remember though, the same ignorance that people like Adrian Nolan displayed in his comment above is the same ignorance that led people to regard every Irish catholic in Britain in the eighties as a bomber or IRA supporter and made life very difficult for many Irish people living over there at the time.
I stand corrected. Extremism is not exclusive to just one religon, as you have shown. The whole bloody lot of em are barking mad. I should also point out that because I dont agree with what you think does not make me a bigot. Your repeated attempts at making this about bigotry, xenophobia and racism are far off the mark and goes to show how delusional you are.You continue to blacken my name while hiding behind a Ridiculous picture and user handle. You are a cowardly fcuker behind it. I have resisted so far from Engaging with you as I belive the only way to deal with morons of your ilk is by ignoring them. Which is what I will be doing from now on.
Cowardly, I’m not the individual requires a sidekick to defend me or perhaps you’re just incapable of reasoned discussion. You blackened your own name by making that bigoted remark, you were given a chance to withdraw and apologise you refused and now all you’re fit to do is hurl abuse, I think I’ve seen enough now. If you’re a sane atheist, long live religion!
Perhaps I was not clear above. I IGNORED YOU. Something I do when the person is incapable of reasoned thinking. I certainly didnt ask anyone to be my sidekick but if he chose to engage with you on the matter thats his own business, I agree with everything that he said. He is obviously more patient and reasoned then I am. You keep mentioning bigot too. If not agreeing with your belief makes me a bigot then so be it. Id rather be that then anything like you. Ill withdraw nothing from a pathetic coward like you either, do you believe in your own self importance so much that you expected me to bend to your deluded will? Who do you think you are?
What makes you think Im an atheist? Im a founding member of The Church Of Vegetables, Lettuce us pray that you find a cabbage patch in the sky Achooo
My point is a society based on secular principles of reason and rationality is ultimately more beneficial to society, is there a deficit of reason in secular society too? Absolutely, Can elements of religious culture benefit that society also? Absolutely But when people base their entire way of life on the principles of a “faith” it places them in an intolerant and irrational mindset.
By the very fact that you subscribe to religion you are stating all other people outside that religion are wrong which is intolerant even if it hides behind a condescending “tolerance”. It is also irrational to believe in a God, (which every religion has shaped to justify their own agenda) with out any evidence or the capability to know by pure reason alone.
If people only subject themselves only to this worldview then fair enough, but they do not. Firstly they inflict it on their children which in my opinion is totally wrong, but in a broader sense their mission is to make their worldview the norm, It happened in Ireland when the Catholic church quite successfully achieved that mission to the detriment of generations of Irish people.
You are right to point out that irrationality is not merely the preserve of the religious, I accept that point fully but I would argue that being of a religious disposition means that one is more open to irrationality and the extremism that follows from it.
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