Study; Link Between Brain Damage and Religious Fundamentalism

Even a casual reader of this blog will soon understand that I hold religious fundamentalists of all stripes in exceedingly low regard.  Indeed, I see them as a threat to a progressive society and inclined towards abuse of others and violence, if need be, to oppose anything that threatens their house of cards religious beliefs which are ultimately based on myths and legends that are increasingly at odds with modern knowledge and science.  Here in America, Christofascists are always describing gays as "damaged" and in need of "change" yet ironically, a new study suggests that it is they who are the damaged ones.  Brain damaged, in fact. Yes, it is delicious, if you will, and could go some lengths in explaining what to many looks like a form of insanity.  The Raw Story has a piece on the study findings.  Here are excerpts:

A new study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness.
 Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group.

Fundamentalist groups generally oppose anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. For this reason, they are often aggressive towards anyone who does not share their specific set of supernatural beliefs, and towards science, as these things are seen as existential threats to their entire worldview.

Since religious beliefs play a massive role in driving and influencing human behavior throughout the world, it is important to understand the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism from a psychological and neurological perspective.

To investigate the cognitive and neural systems involved in religious fundamentalism, a team of researchers—led by Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University—conducted a study that utilized data from Vietnam War Veterans that had been gathered previously. The vets were specifically chosen because a large number of them had damage to brain areas suspected of playing a critical role in functions related to religious fundamentalism. 

Based on previous research, the experimenters predicted that the prefrontal cortex would play a role in religious fundamentalism, since this region is known to be associated with something called ‘cognitive flexibility’. This term refers to the brain’s ability to easily switch from thinking about one concept to another, and to think about multiple things simultaneously. . . . . It is a crucial mental characteristic for adapting to new environments because it allows individuals to make more accurate predictions about the world under new and changing conditions.

Brain imaging research has shown that a major neural region associated with cognitive flexibility is the prefrontal cortex . . . . 

[I]n the present study, researchers looked at patients with lesions in both the vmPFC and the dlPFC, and searched for correlations between damage in these areas and responses to religious fundamentalism questionnaires. . . .  cognitive flexibility and open mindedness present a challenge for fundamentalists. As such, they predicted that participants with lesions to either the vmPFC or the dlPFC would score low on measures of cognitive flexibility and trait openness and high on measures of religious fundamentalism.

The results showed that, as expected, damage to the vmPFC and dlPFC was associated with religious fundamentalism. Further tests revealed that this increase in religious fundamentalism was caused by a reduction in cognitive flexibility and openness resulting from the prefrontal cortex impairment. 

The data suggests that damage to the vmPFC indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by suppressing both cognitive flexibility and openness.

These findings are important because they suggest that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex—whether from brain trauma, a psychological disorder, a drug or alcohol addiction, or simply a particular genetic profile—can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination harms the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness.

By investigating the cognitive and neural underpinnings of religious fundamentalism, we can better understand how the phenomenon is represented in the connectivity of the brain, which could allow us to someday inoculate against rigid or radical belief systems through various kinds of mental and cognitive exercises.

Very interesting to say the least.  It certainly helps to explain the irrationality of  many of the "godly folk" who we now know are likely mentally impaired.    

Orlando Club Shooter Identified; Texas Lt. Gov. Tweets Gays Had it Coming to Them

Mass murderer Omar Mateen

CBS News and ABC News are both reporting that the shooter in the terror attack on Club Pulse in Orando has been identified as Omar Mateen, reportedly from an Afghani immigrant family.  Also noted is that Mateen had been on the radar of federal authorities for some time.  Disturbingly, he was a licensed gun owner who seemingly got his murder weapons legally.  Sadly, in addition, one updated report suggest the death toll may now be 50, with 52 rather than the initial 42 injured.  This from ABC News:

Omar Mateen, a U.S.-born citizen, has been identified as the suspect in Sunday's mass shooting that left at least 20 dead and 42 wounded at Pulse Nightclub, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Mateen's parents were born in Afghanistan, and he was "on the radar" of U.S. officials for some time, but was not the target of a specific investigation, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

CBS is carrying similar information:

Sources have confirmed to CBS News that authorities are investigating whether the suspect, who has been named as Omar Mateen, had ties to Islamic terrorism. Mateen, of Port. St. Lucie, Florida, is a U.S. citizen with no apparent criminal history, according to sources.

As horrible and disgusting as all of this is, likewise frightening is the reaction of Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick posted this message to the LGBT community:

Make no mistake.   Religion and its fundamentalist followers are perhaps the greatest evil in the world.  Religion's gift to mankind is a trail of death, destruction and ruined lives over the centuries with the perpetrators of evil typically claiming to be doing "God's" or "Allah's" work.  Let burn every Bible and every Koran and obliterate every reference to them from humanity.

Is It Child Abuse to Make a LGBT Child ‘Change’?

The suicide of Leelah Alcorn has set off a much needed debate on whether efforts to change LGBT children - especially those transgender - is a form of child abuse.  I've made it clear that my answer to that question is a resounding yes.   The New York Times has a debate going amongst writers that looks at the issue and so far, the opinions side with seeing such change attempts as abuse and seek to limit parental control over children.  Here are highlights from one of the opinions:

L.G.B.T. youth need support from their families -- not derision. If you tell a child or teenager they’re not good enough, that they’re worthless, that who they are is broken or wrong, that’s abuse. So-called conversion therapy -- ideologically based counseling that teaches L.G.B.T people they can be “fixed” to be straight or cisgender -- is no different. I don't know the details of Leelah Alcorn's therapy or what her home life was like beyond what her online notes describe -- but forcing L.G.B.T children to attend counseling that tells them that who they are is shameful or "sick" is child abuse.

This kind of counseling -- which has been derided by the World Health Organization, the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association -- is illegal in multiple states for a reason: it’s wrong, it’s harmful and it actively puts young lives at risk. 

Trans youth -- who suffer from high suicide and suicide attempt rates -- are even more likely to make attempts on their lives when they have unsupportive or abusive families. This is not a matter of rhetoric or legalese, it’s an urgent issue of life and death.

Leelah Alcorn did not have to die. There are support structures already in place for young L.G.B.T people -- like PFLAG and the Trevor Project -- to get help with their families or on their own. Now we need more legal options, including easier emancipation for minors, to ensure that young L.G.B.T people facing abuse at home have access to the help they want and need.

Another opinion notes the following which ought to make "Christian counseling" illegal:

Those who received counseling from a religious adviser were actually more likely to have a later suicide attempt than those who sought no help at all.

It is far past time that children cease being treated as chattel property of their parents and that fundamentalist parents who reject their children be charged with abuse and have their parental rights terminated.  No child should have their life ruined or feel driven to suicide merely because their parents are ignorance embracing religious fanatics.

Quote of the Day: Bob Felton Sums Up the Treat of Religious Fundamentalism

The events in Paris have prompted many to wonder what could make anyone commit the gristly murders of 12 people in Paris, including a wounded policeman who was shoot as if he were an animal.  The answer, of course, is fundamentalism and an attack on modernity and logic and reason themselves.  Bob Felton to me sums up the treat that religious fundamentalist - both Christian and Islamic - pose to the world:

Whatever animates fundamentalists — domestic or foreign — they pose an existential threat to civilization itself, and they must be defeated. No deference, then — ever. No polite pretense of a respect they haven’t earned. No polite pretense that they have access to especial ethical insights. No polite pretense that they are part of the great and ancient continuum of human effort and human intelligence and human goodwill that delivered men from primordial terrors when that is, in fact, the destination and dead-end of their Bronze Age ideology.

He's 100% right on the error of giving any deference to the adherents of fundamentalist religious belief.  They deserve none and need to become worldwide pariahs. 

Is ISIS a Faith-Based Terrorist Group?

A piece at Columbia Journalism Review looks at a question that can elicit very different answers, namely, whether or not ISIS is a faith-based terrorist group.  Personally, I find myself falling on the side of those who would answer the question in the affirmative.  The rape murder and attempted genocide against those who don't hold to the extreme fundamentalist Islamic beliefs of ISIS is one strong indicator that such is the case.  And, just like far right Christians in America, the followers of ISIS claim to have god on their side even as they commit the most horrific acts.  Far right religious belief seems to always hold that those who believe differently should be stripped of their rights or, worse yet, exterminated.  Sadly, journalist remain too reluctant to call out the evils wrought by religion both in the case of ISIS and home grown Christofascists.  Like the Bible, the Koran has passages that can be used to justify any number of horrors.  The real burden rests on non-extremists of both faiths to stand up to extremists.  Unfortunately, too often they stand by quietly like the "good Germans" who allowed Hitler's rise to power.  Here are highlights from the article:

The idea that the press has not done a good job of explaining the role of religion in Islamic extremism is not by itself controversial. Murtaza Hussain, a writer at The Intercept, spoke for journalists and scholars of otherwise radically divergent worldviews when he told me, “The media doesn’t know how to cover this issue.” But ask those same journalists and scholars why, and in what ways, the media have failed to explain the role that Islamic faith plays in motivating the terrorism committed in its name, and you will get irreconcilable answers.

Some, like Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, say that a fear of being perceived as anti-Muslim inhibits journalists from linking extremism to the faith. “I believe that since 9/11 the journalism community in the West has been walking on eggshells figuring out how to cover Islam,” she says. But now, due to the heavily covered ascent of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), she thinks that “people are having to confront this 5,000-pound elephant that’s been sitting in the room—an interpretation of Islam that believes in beheadings, an Islamic state, and an end-times victory of Muslims over the world.”

Others, like Hatem Bazian, a senior lecturer in near Eastern and ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, contend that the media predominantly view “terrorist actions and criminal activities committed by Muslims” through the lens of the terrorists’ religious faith.

Their analysis may well be correct, but it also seems like an attempt to counter an idea that they never explicitly address: that most ISIS fighters join because they are religious zealots. The governor of an Iraqi province now mostly occupied by ISIS is quoted as saying of the Baathist officers, “All of these guys got religious after 2003.” The piece’s final line, a quote from an Iraqi researcher, states, “There is no one in Baghdadi’s state who is not a believer,” implying that adherence to the ideology of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is mainly a survival strategy.

[T]here are journalists and scholars who present compelling cases that ISIS’s actions are at least partly grounded in the teachings of Islam. In a September 1 story in The New Republic, Graeme Wood traced al-Baghdadi’s appointment of himself as caliph, as well as the group’s “taste for beheadings, stonings, crucifixions, slavery, and dhimmitude, the practice of taxing those who refuse to convert to Islam,” to its “almost pedantic adherence to its own interpretation of Islamic law.” In an interview, Wood said that while he considers the political factors behind the group’s ascent “at least as important,” it is clear that “their beliefs are central to their self-conception” and are therefore vital to grasping the differences between ISIS and other jihadist groups. He observed that journalists who do not understand the way ISIS thinks “are missing a part of the story.”

David Cook, an associate professor at Rice University who studies Islam, is more emphatic: “To say that ISIS doesn’t have anything to do with Islam is just the statement of an ignoramus or an apologist. There is support for the things that ISIS does inside the Koran. There’s support for things like beheading and different exemplary punishments that you can easily find.”

ISIS’s eagerness to advertise its scriptural credentials suggests one possible explanation for the infrequency with which journalists mention the connection: a reluctance to be seen as legitimizing terrorist propaganda. As Quartz’s Ghosh argues, “When terrorists cite the Koran or the hadith, they do so selectively, choosing only those passages that can be interpreted to suit their perverse view of the world.

The real problem is that nobody can precisely calculate the aggregation of factors that have produced the modern phenomenon of Islamic extremism. And so the claims of people who cite religious causes cannot be dismissed any more than the claims of people who cite political ones.

In judging ISIS, we also need to keep in mind that a number of :godly Christians" believe the Bible justifies murdering abortion providers - and gays.   Again, when are moderates going to stand up and stop the extremists of their own faith?

ISIS - The Newest Face of Religion's Evil

In addressing the nation following the brutal video taped murder of American journalist James Foley, Barack Obama tried to separate the Islamic State from religion and Islam.  Yes, ISIS has a political agenda, but behind many of its atrocities lies its extreme form of Islam which in the minds of its followers justifies the murder of all who hold different religious beliefs.  It seeks to impose a religious purity - sick as it may be - much as the Inquisition once sought to do through trials and the burning of those labeled heretics.  One needs to look beyond church soup kitchens and charitable function to realize that over the course of the centuries, religion in its many forms has most often resulted in wars and murders.  What we are seeing in ISIS is just the latest variant.   The evil needs to be fought, but without being honest about the religious under pining of the atrocities, efforts may not succeed.  A op-ed piece in the Washington Post makes the case for defeating ISIS, but like Obama tries to avoid condemning religion as the root of the evil.  Here are excerpts:

The propagandists of the Islamic State must have imagined that their brutal video of the beheading of journalist James Foley would intimidate and terrorize the world. But people aren’t built that way, not in Muslim countries or anywhere else. When they see sadistic, uncivilized behavior, they are disgusted — and angry. 

President Obama spoke Wednesday with special precision and moral clarity in reacting to the video’s release. The Islamic State, he said, “speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day.”

“People like this ultimately fail,” Obama explained. “They fail, because the future is won by those who build and not destroy.” He spoke, as a president must, about the consequences of killing U.S. civilians: “We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done.” 

In the months before his death, [Osama] bin Laden knew he had failed.  Documents taken from his hideout show that, in his final days, bin Laden was haunted by the mistakes al-Qaeda had made. The organization’s wanton killing had appalled and alienated Muslims, to the point that bin Laden wondered whether the group should rebrand itself as a less toxic force. He even suggested 10 alternative names that might sound better to the world’s ears.

Bin Laden reflected in a draft letter about “miscalculations” and “unnecessary civilian casualties” that were hurting the jihadist cause.

This week’s macabre executioner, robed in black, traces his jihadist lineage to the very people bin Laden was condemning, the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Call their successor ISIL or ISIS or the Islamic State — the group has chosen to debase itself with the most extreme and bloodthirsty version of Muslim revolt. Its actions and boasts are a kind of jihadist fantasy, celebrating the pornographic violence of religious killing with beheadings and crucifixions and genocidal assaults on Shiite Muslims, Yazidis, Christians and dissenting Sunnis.

There's more, but it is striking that Obama states no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.  Has he not read the Old Testament where the Israelites rejoice in the annihilation of their enemies, be they men, women or children?  If humankind wants to advance and secure a just civilization across the globe, the first thing that needs to be eradicated is religion.  It is toxic and it promotes evil ranging from hate and discrimination such as we see here in America to brutal murders done by ISIS.

Conservative Christians: Living in a World Where Facts Can’t Exist.

Click image to enlarge

A new Gallup poll has revealed that far too many Americans live in a world where religious belief trumps science and objective facts.  On the political right one hears much moaning and carrying on about America's decline yet no one in that political realm is willing to look at what may be a root source of the problem, especially with globalization and increased scientific and research competition: too many American's embrace ignorance while our competition does not. And where is the embrace of ignorance strongest?  You guessed it, among the Christofascists and their political whore in the Republican Party.  Be it global warming, gay conversion, or a host of other issues, these people cling to myths that they need to satisfy their disturbed psyches and reject knowledge and science.  Eventually, the consequences are going to seriously catch up with us - if they haven't already.  A column in the New York Times looks at the frightening level of religious based ignorance that continues to predominate in America.  Here are highlights:

I am both shocked and fascinated by Americans’ religious literalism.  One Gallup report issued last week found that 42 percent of Americans believe “God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago.”

It’s not only that Americans are more religious — Christian, in particular — but that for many, their beliefs in their religious text — the Bible, in particular — are literal.

As Gallup pointed out in a report issued last Wednesday, nearly a third of Americans continue to believe that the Bible “is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.”

Furthermore, nearly half believe that it is “the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally.”

About a fifth of Americans said they believe the Bible is “an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man.”

Now, I don’t seek to deny anyone the right to believe as he or she chooses.

What worries me is that some Americans seem to live in a world where facts can’t exist.

Facts such as the idea that the world is ancient, and that all living things evolved and some — like dinosaurs — became extinct. Facts like the proven warming of the world. Facts like the very real possibility that such warming could cause a catastrophic sea-level rise.

How does America remain a world leader in an increasingly technological, science-based world, when so many of our citizens — and even our leaders, including Republicans who might run for president — deny basic science?

Americans, particularly political leaders, who choose religious piety must also create an intellectual framework in which things of faith that exist without proof can make space for truths for which there is proof.

Religious fundamentalism at the expense of basic scientific facts threatens to obscure America’s beacon of light with a bank of fog.

Fundamentalist religion - be it Christian or Muslim - is a blight on humanity.

Is Religious Experience All in One's Head?

I will be blunt: I increasingly view far right conservative Christians - and fundamentalist Muslims too - as suffering from some form of mental illness typified by fear of uncertainty, fear of change, fear of anything that rocks their artificial reality world construct.   A new book, “The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery” may lend credence to my somewhat cynical view of the deeply religious.  A piece in Salon looks at this book and the history of neuroscience it covers.   One possible finding?  The possible connection between religious experience and brain disturbances, especially epileptic seizures.  Here are some article highlights:

The answer may be epilepsy. At its most basic level epilepsy involves neurons firing when they shouldn’t and stirring up storms of electrical activity inside the brain. Neurons can misfire for many reasons. Some misfit neurons were born with misshapen membrane channels and can’t regulate the flow of ions in and out. Other times, when axons suffer damage, neurons start discharging spontaneously, like frayed electrical wires. Sometimes these disturbances remain local, and just one location in the brain goes on the fritz, a so-called partial seizure. In other cases, the seizure short-circuits the entire brain and leads to either a grand mal or a petit mal seizure. Grand mals (now called tonic-clonic seizures) start with muscular rigidity and end with the stereotypical thrashing and foaming; they’re what most of us think of when we think of epilepsy. Petit mals avoid the thrashing but usually cause “absences,” in which the victim freezes up and her mind goes blank for a spell.

[F]or some reason—perhaps because the nearby limbic structures get revved up—auras that originate in the temporal lobes feel emotionally richer and often supernaturally charged. Some victims even feel their “souls” uniting with the godhead. (No wonder ancient doctors called epilepsy the sacred disease.) 

Temporal lobe epilepsy has transformed other people’s lives in a similar way. All human beings seem to have mental circuits that recognize certain things as sacred and predispose us to feeling a little spiritual. It’s just a feature of our brains (Richard Dawkins excepted, perhaps). But temporal lobe seizures seem to hypercharge these circuits, and they often leave victims intensely religious, as if God has personally tapped them as witnesses. Even if victims don’t become religious, their personalities often change in predictable ways. They become preoccupied with morality, often losing their sense of humor entirely.

Based on these symptoms, especially the rectitude and sudden spiritual awakening, modern doctors have retrodiagnosed certain religious icons as epileptics, including Saint Paul (the blinding light, the stupor near Damascus), Muhammad (the trips to heaven), and Joan of Arc (the visions, the sense of destiny).

[W]hile epilepsy might well have induced their visions — the idea makes sense — it’s important to remember that Joan of Arc, Swedenborg, Saint Paul, and others also transcended their epilepsy. Probably no one but Joan would have rallied France, no one but Swedenborg would have imagined angels eating butter. As with any neurological tic, temporal lobe epilepsy doesn’t wipe someone’s mental slate clean. It simply molds and reshapes what’s already there.

What do readers think?  It certainly would explain the cause of sudden religious conversions that the Christofascists like to describe triumphantly. :-)

Neuroscientist: Religious Fundamentalism Could Be Treated As A Mental Illness

I have personally come to believe that there just isn't something mentally right about Christian fundamentalists who have a bizarre need to believe that the Bible is 100% inerrant and often react in a way that borders hysteria when confronted with anyone or anything which challenges their close minded belief system.  It is a mindset, of course which is loved by the Albert Mohlers and Tony Perkins of the world because (i) it makes their sheep like followers easier to control and (ii) it makes it far easier to fleece them for money so that Mohler and Perkins can live well.  Now, a British neuroscientist suggest that religious fundamentalism may well be a treatable form of mental illness.  The beliefs may vary - e.g., Christian extremism versus Islamic extremism - but the mental state that needs/allows the indoctrination and creates a willingness to blindly follow seems to be similar.  Here are highlights from Huffington Post:

An Oxford University researcher and author specializing in neuroscience has suggested that one day religious fundamentalism may be treated as a curable mental illness.

Kathleen Taylor, who describes herself as a "science writer affiliated to the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics," made the suggestion during a presentation on brain research at the Hay Literary Festival in Wales on Wednesday.

In response to a question about the future of neuroscience, Taylor said that "One of the surprises may be to see people with certain beliefs as people who can be treated," The Times of London notes.

“Someone who has for example become radicalised to a cult ideology -- we might stop seeing that as a personal choice that they have chosen as a result of pure free will and may start treating it as some kind of mental disturbance," Taylor said. “In many ways it could be a very positive thing because there are no doubt beliefs in our society that do a heck of a lot of damage."

This is not the first time Taylor has explored the mind processes of a radical. In 2006, she wrote a book about mind control called Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control, which explored the science behind the persuasive tactics of such groups as cults and al Qaeda.

"We all change our beliefs of course," Taylor said in a YouTube video about the book. "We all persuade each other to do things; we all watch advertising; we all get educated and experience [religions.] Brainwashing, if you like, is the extreme end of that; it's the coercive, forceful, psychological torture type."

Personally, I view raising children in Christian fundamentalist homes to be a form of child abuse since the damage done can affect individuals' lives for their entire lives. Raising children to be full of fear, hate and close mindedness is not a positive thing for society.

The Plight of Gays in Iran (and the Islamic World)

WARNING; Graphic photos.  Yesterday I received an e-mail from filmmaker Wajahat Ali Abbasiwho is seeking funding on Kickstarter for a movie that will highlight the plight of gays in Iran with focus on the government backed hanging of two gay teens in 2005.  While the movie's focus is on Iran, the problem is much larger and is occurring under the U.S. Puppet government in Baghdad.  Indeed the problem of government sponsored murder of gays exists across most of the Islamic world where fundamentalists cling to the seventh century ignorance and limited knowledge of the Koran - much like fundamentalist Christians who seek to govern the world based on the writings of ignorant herders from 3,000+ years ago in Israel.  Only by exposing the problem can sufficient international pressure be brought to bear to end these cruel and senseless deaths.  Here are some highlights of what the movie seeks to accomplish:

Filmmaker Wajahat Ali Abbasi is gearing up to make the feature film “Sin”, inspired by a true incident where two boys were hanged to death because they were in love. This brutal, public killing took place In July 2005 witnessed by thousands of people in Iran. Pictures and videos of this incident were uploaded on the internet by spectators, but the Iranian government and media denied its occurrence.

Wajahat, through the cinema screen, will bring the tragic tale of these boys to life, while addressing an important question why in some societies people are denied the right to life because of their sexual orientation.

While Iran is in total denial of the existence of homosexuality like many countries in the world, it will be interesting to see the world’s reaction to this controversial movie and how it will impact global public opinion on this issue.

‘Sin’ will be shot in English with a few words of Persian. Dubbed versions in Persian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Hindi and Arabic will also be made so that this story can reach out to larger audiences worldwide.

The imagines in this post are truly horrible - as is what is being done to gays daily in far too many countries, often in African nations with the aid and incitement of American Christianists.  Just as frightening is the fact that some Christian Dominionists in America support the execution of LGBT citizens.  Religious based bigotry and extremism that rejects modernity and modern knowledge and which dehumanizes others simply because they are different is a cancer on the world.  It needs to be eradicated just like any disease or plague. 

America's Ultimate Hate Crime

This post is a re-post of one of the earliest posts I wrote when I first dabbled with this blog over four years ago (it was another six months before I began to write regularly). In the wake of the recent gay teen suicides it deserves a revisit since so much of what harms LGBT teens comes not from outside bullies, but from within their own homes. A piece in the Washington Post that examined among other things a young woman's experience and the mistreatment by her own parents made me think of this column. I came across this column on a blog named "Proceed at Your Own Risk" which, although I did not grow up in a true fundamentalist home, the column aptly describes what growing up gay (and in the closet) was/still is like in conservative areas. Every religious denomination that refuses to give gays full inclusion, in my view, continues this type of mental and psychologiacal abuse, to this very day. I find it very hard to believe Christ would condone such brutality. Here's the column:

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Every so once in a while I allow myself to consider the nightmare existence of a queer child growing up with religious fundamentalist parents. The thought of it is so painful that I need to keep it mostly compartmentalized and in the back of my mental and emotional closet. It's an aspect of the world of homophobia and fundamentalist religion that we very much ignore. For many reasons, it's the forgotten stepchild of gay activism, child care services and the mental health profession.
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But the obvious fact is that there are thousands of these kids living in a hell on earth as they fight their way through childhood.
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I can think of few other situations that have the potential to engender such a relentless and pervasive environment of psychological and possibly even physical child abuse. Generally speaking we do not do a good job of handling child abuse in this nation but when it come to gay kids the picture is even bleaker. The ratio of gay kids to straight kids among runaways, child prostitutes and suicides, well documented by the CDC, makes this painfully clear.
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Long before a child develops self-awareness of his or her own sexual orientation, he is trained to believe that homosexuality is an abomination and a perversion that is a threat to the American way of life.
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In a fundamentalist religious environment, he is told that homosexuality threatens the American family and the sacred institution of marriage. He is told that homosexual activists and their agenda are leading the charge in a war against Christianity. The homosexuals are the enemy.
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This young and impressionable child learns that the Bible, the absolute word of god and truth, clearly states that homosexuals are an abomination and that their sin is punishable by death. And then, worst of all, he learns that homosexuality is a choice made by sick and evil people and that to make this choice is a very bad and wicked thing. But then nature takes its course and at some point the gay child realizes that he's "chosen" homosexuality. He doesn't remember being asked. He doesn't remember checking off that particular choice on any application. And he searches through the mail for the recruitment brochure, but it isn't to be found.

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Somehow, somewhere along the way, he has made this monumental, life-changing and life-shattering choice, against his will and against the will of god. No problem, he thinks, he'll just chose otherwise until he one day realizes that he can't. Try as he might, the gay just won't go away, along with the color of his skin and the texture of his hair.

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His intellectual and emotional energies become singularly focused on changing that choice but to no avail. He turns up the engines and works hard to hide his nature. Self-hatred begins to rip open his guts. Childhood innocence and joy are not part of his experience. He lives in a state of constant dread and anxiety, fearing exposure or worse.

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It's an exhausting and soul-crushing childhood. While other children are looking to the future with hope, he lives in a world of despair, pain and fear. While other children are considering ballerina, doctor, astronaut or fire fighter, the gay child's energies are focused on hiding his or her true self. The boy dreads his first fake sexual encounter: will he be able to perform? The girl worries less, she will just turn away and cry and wait until it's over.

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Many ex-gays believe that the origins of homosexuality are to be found in an abusive childhood. Their logic is flawed but their childhoods were likely abusive. Many of them come out of strict Christian homes. Growing up gay in a strict fundamentalist Christian home most likely oftentimes means a battering patten of abuse, certainly verbal and sometimes physical. Many of these parents likely steam roll over the self-esteem and self-confidence of these children as they struggle to make "her" more feminine and "him" less of sissy.

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Protected by a very misguided notion of religious freedom, fundamentalists of all sorts are allowed by our society to engage in the ultimate hate crime, a pervasive and monstrous form of child abuse that will one day be seen by social historians and anthropologists as a very barbaric and grotesque aspect of the American civilization.
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Sexual orientation is not a choice, but our society's willingness to tolerate this terrible treatment of children is a choice and a choice that should make us all ashamed. We will be judged harshly by future generations as we are already judged by more evolved societies on the other side of the Atlantic.
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When slavery, the oppression of women and child labor were recognized for what they were, modern nations changed. When certain Biblical practices including the stoning to death of adulterers were recognized for what they were, modern nations changed. And when the abuse of homosexual children was recognized for what it was, modern nations changed--tragically we were not among them.

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Freedom of religion was designed to protect people from oppression and persecution. Instead, in 21st Century America, "freedom of religion" is used to do great harm to millions of Americans, including many of our children who are unable to defend themselves, their psyches and their hearts.
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"Freedom of religion" should not, in my opinion, be used to excuse behavior that violates sound practices and standards that are based on science, morality and ethics. Further, "freedom of religion" should not exempt people from laws governing discriminatory practices, mental health care, child care and child protection.
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If we allow religious beliefs to justify human degradation and oppression, we reduce our constitution to nothing but an old piece of paper. Homosexuality is common throughout hundreds of animal species and every scientific measure that has been used thus far has confirmed over and over again that this is about nature and not nurture. Of course, people who act exclusively on faith and belief rather than on fact and reason will never be convinced of this. The facts are that dinosaurs and unicorns did not miss the Ark and gay children did not chose to be who they were born to be.

But the question that seems to plague us at every turn these days is whether we are to be a nation of fact and reason or a nation of people packed and ready to jump on the Rapture bus? In the meantime, suffer the little children.

American Psychiatric Association Urges Hawaii Legislature to Keep Pushing for Civil Unions

The real battle underlying the issues of gay rights and the legal recognition of same sex unions in my view comes down to this: (1) a battle between modernity and ignorant embrace of a less than wonderful past, and related to that (2) a battle between often deliberately blind/wrong headed religious fundamentalism and the acceptance of new medical and scientific knowledge. Obviously the two overlap and as I have long maintained, the terror on the part of religious fundamentalists when it comes to homosexuality is the fact that if the Bible's alleged condemnation of homosexuality is not accurate, then the entire house of cards world view of the Bible beaters begins to collapse. Worse yet, these folks might have to think for themselves and analyze many of their extremely selective religious beliefs. This prospect scares the living crap out of them and, as a result, they exhibit knee jerk reactions both to gays and modern medical and mental health knowledge. By vetoing the Hawaii civil unions bill, Hawaii Governor Linda Lindle - twice divorced herself and obviously a hypocrite when it comes to living according to Biblical mandates - opted for the path of ignorance and bigotry. The American Psychiatric Association has acted promptly to condemn Lindle's action and to encourage the Hawaii Legislature to go back and enact another civil unions bill. A copy of the APA's news release is here. Here are some highlights:
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ARLINGTON, Va. (July 8, 2010) —The American Psychiatric Association strongly supports legislation recently approved by the Hawaii legislature that would have made Hawaii the 11th state, along with the District of Columbia, to recognize same-sex civil marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships.
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“We regret Gov. Lingle’s veto and pledge our ongoing support for enactment of same-sex civil marriage or civil union laws in Hawaii and throughout the United States,” said APA President Carol A. Bernstein, M.D.
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“As physicians who specialize in psychiatry, we recognize the positive influence of a stable, adult partnership on the health of all family members,” Dr. Bernstein said. “Marriage and family, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, are among the cornerstones of social relationships and other supports that help us face life’s challenges. All Americans should be able to enjoy these benefits.”
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“In the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health, the American Psychiatric Association supports the legal recognition of same-sex civil marriage with all rights, benefits, and responsibilities conferred by civil marriage, and opposes restrictions to those same rights, benefits, and responsibilities.”

The Fear Basis of Fundamentalist Religion

(Above: Victim of the attack on the gay youth center)

Readers of this blog know that I am no fan of Christian fundamentalists who in my opinion not only betray the Gospel message of Christ but also limit God to conform to the mindless, check off the box belief system that they and their fundamentalist forebears have constructed. Contemplating the recent attack on the LGBT teen center in Tel Aviv - which some are blaming on ultra-orthodox Jews and their message of hatred towards gays - and events in Iran what struck me is that all three religious fundamentalist groups, be they Christian, Muslim or Jewish, have the same basis: fear and hatred of those who are differen. Added to that is a contempt for modernity, and in the final analysis very weak faith on the part of the fundamentalists. I say they have weak faith because they cannot tolerate anything or anyone who challenges their fragile belief system construct. They fear people and things - like modern knowledge - that might raise questions in their minds or the minds of their children that just perhaps their fundamentalist beliefs are wrong. Combined with that is a fear/hate of those who live their lives openly as who they are and accepting a God/Allah that is not a limited vengeful being. Indeed, at times I think they want everyone else to be as miserable and unhappy as they are in their own lives so that they can more easily beat back the doubts that subconsciously creep into their minds.

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All three of these religious belief systems base their beliefs on writings that track back to centuries before modern knowledge of the scope and size of the universe, the complexities of the human body and mind, the germ theory of disease and a host of other matters. Yet all three religious groups resist acknowledging the limitations that are therefore inherent in their sacred texts and/or that a literal reading of the same is unwarranted. They are fearful - terrified in fact - that the beliefs they have clung to and in many cases have sacrificed their individual happiness for may not be true. Rather than admit doubt and the failings of the human authors of the sacred texts, they reject knowledge, denigrate others, disseminate blatant untruths, and even commit murder - as may well have been the case in Tel Aviv. And in this process, they become the antithesis of what their alleged religions are intended to represent.

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Fundamentalist Christians, Islamists and ultra-orthodox Jews all hold a similar contempt for freedom of religion for others and ultimately democracy. They all seek theocracies and the subjugation of other citizens to their house of cards religious belief system so that no one can call into question the veracity of their beliefs. Behind all of it is fear. And hatred of those who are different because they fuel the flames of doubt that the religious adherents so desperately seek to beat back. Fear and hatred become their true God/Allah.

Tortured and Killed in Iraq for Being Gay

We've done posts on this issue before, yet the murders of gays in Iraq continue and worse yet the USA which continues to bankroll the current Iraqi puppet government seems to be totally indifferent to the ongoing deaths. The so-called "Golden Rule" of he who has the money sets the rules obviously is not being applied by the Obama administration. Amnesty International and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs are on top of the issue, but the USA is missing in action - yet again - offering more proof that LGBT lives mean little to the current administration other than opportunities fro flowery rhetoric not backed by action. Here are some highlights from ABC News:

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Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, and police confirmed they found the bodies of four more men, all killed during a 10-day period after an unknown Shiite militia group urged a crackdown on homosexuals in the country.

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The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes as many as 30 people have been killed during the last three months because they were -- or were perceived to be -- gay. In a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the human rights group Amnesty International called for "urgent and concerted action" to end the violence against the gay community, the group reported on its Web site.

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Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous in recent years for gays and lesbians, as religious militias have become more powerful since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. . . . "Two young men were killed Thursday. They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honor," an Iraqi army member who did not want to give his name told ABC News.

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Two gay men were found elsewhere in Sadr City, alive but bearing the scars of severe torture. They were beaten, their chests showed signs of cigarette burns, and when police found them they were rushed to the hospital. They had been sodomized with iron bars, sources said. Other men said they had had their chests slashed and their nipples cut off.

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The irony is that such murders were much more rare under the overthrown regime of Saddam Hussein. Welcome to Iraqi democracy US style. Oh, and as for fundamentalist religion - both Islamic and Christian - it continues to be one of the greatest force for evil in the world. How many lives would not have been needlessly lost over the centuries but for religious based hate and evil?

Beginner's Bible Coloring Book

This page via raptureponies pretty much sums up the ignorance and insanity that progressives must defeat in this country. I continue to be dumbstruck as to how people can actually believe this lunacy.