It looks like mankind still has a long way to go.

What a Nutcase, send him to a mental asylum…..

You’re always gonna get the odd nutcake. Here we have Ronan Mullen.

Maybe if he drops to his knees in front of his attackers and begs for mercy while chanting gods name he will be safe……

Similar to the R C in the western world

RC church

Just like religion.

Good auld atheists. Can make any subject about them.

@Charlie

Hardly. Religion gives justification to people to say and do disgusting and shameful and inhumane things. Much like this religious man saying the above statement.

Atheists are hardly selfish and makes things about them. I think you’ll find that it’s the other way round.

Ahh the old chestnut… When some one from a religious background does or says something horrible all religion gets blamed but atheists always wash their hands of secular regimes which carry out horrible crimes. Neither approach is correct. You can’t accuse all religions of being evil based on these comments any more than you can blame atheists for chinas attack on Buddhism. Atheists are obsessed with attacking all and every type of religious belief with a zealotry which puts most religious people to shame. Just try following Ricky Gervais on twitter. Discuss the topic at hand and leave the atheists rants for another day. Each to their own.

Religious people and people who say they are atheists can both be decent people. The issue with that chap is that he is a straight up bad minded individual, if he is religious or atheist it doesn’t change that.

I’m not against any religion but very against bad minded individuals like this chap.

I wouldn’t call it an obsession Charlie, just that atheists are very frustrated at adults for believing in made up stories that are used to control vast swathes of the Earth’s population, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, these same stories are then used as an excuse to treat other human beings that don’t agree with them like animals, or if you’re really lucky, you might get blown up by one of them. A part of me wants to think it’s safe and okay for people to believe in religion, but even if it’s a personally held belief, it’s still an extension of more radical elements, and the equivalent of condoning the actions of those who claim to represent that religion. When we all start to form our views based on what we know, and not ancient texts, we’ll all be better off, sadly, in 2013, that scenario is still generations away.

Your comments are absolute nonsense. You suggest holding private religious views is condoning terrorism. That statement is typical of atheists zealotry. Once more aethist ideologies have killed millions of people but that in no way means aethist Condon that behaviour. I am not arguing for religious belief I am just arguing for people’s right to have religious beliefs without being attacked for them. Critique people’s behaviour and don’t lump all religions, religious people and metaphysics into one pot and then label it all evil.

Speaking of old chestnuts, the claim that atheists are responsible for similar crimes to those carried out by other religions is a moot point, there was no atheist movement in China under Mao (raised a Buddhist) or Stalin in Russia (a seminarian in the Georgian Orthodox Church) or Hitler in Germany (raised a Roman Catholic), these movements were as the result of social and political ideologies, communism and fascism, and not motivated by religious belief or lack thereof. You call atheists zealots, but you don’t see atheists strapping explosives to their bodies to reach paradise, or treating women like second-class citizens for centuries, or obsessing over the private sex lives of people, I could go on, but I’ll leave it at that.

Thanks Gaius, I was lost for words for a moment there, due to some of the comments. Given the global exposure through the media about the details of this case most would think the poor girl wasn’t given the opportunity to kneel and pray to god. This is not a religious issue at hand, but one of extreme HUMAN crime.

@Gaius. This also applies to you @Charlie

While I agree you with almost entirely, I do have to correct on your point about Hitler not being motivated by religion.

Anti-Semitism was an official doctrine of the Catholic Church until the 60s. So according to the Catholic Church, the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.

In the first chapter of Hitlers book, Mein Kemph, Hitler claims that he is ‘doing Gods work’. And the First treaty he signed when he was in power was with the Catholic Church.

To add to that, all soldiers in his military had ‘Gott mit uns’ – ‘God with us’ written on their uniform belts.

Sorry to clarify, I don’t agree with @Charlie, just @Gaius, I just meant for Charlie to read what I wrote.

This is pointless. Using this mad statement by one so called religious figure to attack anyone with any form of religious belief whatsoever is just nonsense. Keeping discussing how aethists will save the world amongst yourselves and the rest if us will get on with our lives.

And of course ALL people with any belief in any form if metaphysics are bombers and rapists? I would have some respect for your argument if it had even a small but of balance which of course it doesn’t.

@Charlie

If anybody is saving the world it is atheists. Science and scientists on a whole is made up of atheists.

And, as a result, all major breakthroughs that have helped mankind develop, prolong life etc can be attributed to them…

Charlie you’re the one that brought up atheism in response to @howya who made no mention of it, and I never mentioned rape, nor did any of the other follow-up comments, if you don’t want to discuss certain topics, just don’t bring them up in the first place. I also never said all people who were religious were bombers, you may need to re-read my point.

Unfortunately, he is exactly what a guru is: some one on a religious pedestal who leads others regardless of his (and it’s almost always a man) levels of compassion, humanity, decency or sanity. Some are better than others and this fool is only about half way to the bottom of the barrel.

Is that why you’re typing your response rather than speaking it?

This from an individual from that country. The vast majority in India are outraged by the rape and murder, just as they are by this so-called guru’s ignorant statement.

To clarify my comment was aimed at the Indian government not the people, the vast majority who are rightly outraged at these comments. My use of the word ‘country’ was a bit inaccurate.

In fairness they had every right to speak up after what happened here-it would say more about their attitudes towards women if they hadn’t.
But yes, I’m glad India is finally waking up to a MAJOR issue that hasn’t attracted a lot of publicity until now. I hope this is a watershed moment and that this culture they appear to have when it comes to women/rape changes drastically and soon.

What happened there to Jyoti Singh Pandei and here to Savita Halupannavar is part of the same seamless cloak of delusion and oppression generated by religious institutions imposing their doctrines on their followers, on states, on people who do not share their belief systems.

Can anyone recall the rape case down the country in Ireland a few years back ….the man was accused and found guilty …the local men went up and shook his hand after the trial showing there support and the young woman was shunned and ignored in the town … we are not so far away from India…

Yeah Bridget. That was in 2009 in Tralee where a Listowel bouncer called Foley raped a customer he carried unconscious behind a skip. The local priest vouched for him as a nice guy on the stand and dozens of old bastards queued to shake his hand in front of the victim when he’d been sentenced (the judge could’ve stopped that).
It was one of the moments that most filled me with despair about our country. The women got some awful shit from residents of listowel.

Yep we are a country of shame and those people go to mass on sunday to pray.

Don’t judge over a billion people by the utterance of one fool. I would not like Ireland to be judged by yours.

But Brian its not just that ‘old fool’s comment, from other remarks made by more educated people it seems to be the general consensus that it was somehow her own fault.

I agree it is a divisive issue in India sadly but “The 71-year-old’s remarks – the latest in a series of gaffes by public figures blaming women for the country’s rape epidemic – drew a chorus of condemnation” – from the report above.

We sure have rip each other to pieces here figuratively and literally over issues which have divided us.

We live in a glass house is all I am saying so leave the stones down.

* ripped

all middle east is backwords. i am half iranian and i can tell you this now hindu muslim arab jew whatever. women are treated like dirt, men walk around in light trousers and a t shirt and women have to dress up in head scarf and a coat in 40 degree or more . they just dont notice that women have feelings to . its more ur my wife now raise my kids cook our food clean this house and so on while he provides with money