Crime effects by power seekers in religion

[The Bear's Key]

It begins when the prison system no longer releases "victimless crimes" inmates back into society more hardened than previously (due to the religious fetish of extra punishment for the *wicked* that magnifies into a breeding cesspool of dehumanization to infect society with)

The quote above is my response (partly) of when life begins.

 

Yet I think it's relevant to the vid below....which plays so unreal in your mind it almost looks staged. The police keep beating on the guy who tumbled out the flipping vehicle -- unconsious, it seems.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp=30850639

 

 

The criminal element in society is often treated the way religion heads liked doing it, before our Constitutional protections ended their fun. Yet still today, anyone breaking the law is viewed as sub-human in the eyes of certain religious "authorities".

 

There's a connection to religion, the way it's been twisted by the power seekers of its establishment. From personal experience, observations, and supported by a vast number of records/clues -- including at least one news item that church goers are more likely to support torture, I believe the hijacking of organized faith (and its use to then hijack relevant government policies) is the main culprit of the tendency for extreme punishments...

 

....And the degenerate/hostile atmosphere of prisons (rape, murders, beatings...all these practically seem encouraged by the relevant higher-ups), which filters out to infect society upon their release.

 

 

Let's compare to Norway, where you might break the law and live by a beach -- a vacation-like place for rapists, murderers, and drug traffickers.

 

Such complete and utterly opposite policies make our heads spin if those are firmly entrenched in a worldview tainted by "religious" propoganda/standards.

 

 

CNN also made a reference to the place

(on camera): Is this the sort of view you get at home?

 

RONNY MELSTAVEIT, CONVICTED MURDERER: No not as nice as this.

 

ANDERSON (voice-over): Just wait until you see the cells.

 

(on camera): So, this is home.

 

MELSTAVEIT: This is home. Home sweet home.

 

ANDERSON (voice-over): Ronny Melstaveit spent two years in a traditional cellblock in a high security prison before coming to the Bastoy.

........

ANDERSON (voice-over): The guards are watching, the emphasis at Bastoy is on trust. In the carpentry shop, prisoners work with chainsaws and axes, so far there's just been one act of violence in Bastoy's nine-year history.

 

BJOERN HARDERSON, PRISON GUARD: You have to trust people to have responsibility so they can grow, you know, and they feel they have been trust.

 

 

Here's what Thomas Paine said on the issue of government using punishment as scare tactics against copying or repeating the offense...

 

http://truthinjustice.org/dpissues.htm

"Teach governments humanity.* It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind. In England, the punishment in certain cases is, by hanging, drawing and quartering. . . . In France . . . the punishments were not less barbarous. . . . The effect of these cruel spectacles exhibited to the populace, is to destroy tenderness or excite revenge; and by the base and false idea of governing men by terror instead of reason, they become precedents. It is over the lowest class of mankind that government by terror is intended to operate, and it is on them that it operates to the worst effect. They . . . inflict in their turn the examples of terror they have been instructed to practice."

--Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

 

 

Now, faith is a healthy component for portions of society, or at least the free practice of faith is, but not in government or by force. There is a reason why our nation's forefathers made the separation of religion from government.

 

Disclaimer: I am a strong believer, yet not in this garbage (or many things) peddled by the abusers of organized faith.

 

 

*(my edit -- took the brackets off the word "[T]each" at the beginning of that sentence)

Edited May 21, 2009 by The Bear's Key

[iNow]

Here's what Thomas Paine said on the issue of government using punishment as scare tactics against copying or repeating the offense...

 

http://truthinjustice.org/dpissues.htm

"Teach governments humanity.* It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind. In England, the punishment in certain cases is, by hanging, drawing and quartering. . . . In France . . . the punishments were not less barbarous. . . . The effect of these cruel spectacles exhibited to the populace, is to destroy tenderness or excite revenge; and by the base and false idea of governing men by terror instead of reason, they become precedents. It is over the lowest class of mankind that government by terror is intended to operate, and it is on them that it operates to the worst effect. They . . . inflict in their turn the examples of terror they have been instructed to practice."

--Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

Wow. What an excellent quote. It simulateously shows an understanding of human nature as well as social protocols, and speaks strongly against some of the worst practices we are seeing from our people today.

 

 

"The effect of these cruel spectacles exhibited to the populace, is to destroy tenderness or excite revenge; and by the base and false idea of governing men by terror instead of reason, they become precedents. It is over the lowest class of mankind that government by terror is intended to operate."

 

Outstanding.

 

 

You may enjoy some of this material which supports your conjecture:

 

 

http://atheism.about.com/od/bookreviews/fr/FightingWords.htm

This is what Hector Avalos does in Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence. He reviews the history of explanations of violence, going all the way back to antiquity, and finds that the best predictor of violence tends to be scarcity.

 

People are more likely to fight, and to fight more brutally, when some scarce resource is at stake. Usually the resource is genuine (food, water, land), but sometimes it’s not — and this is where religion comes into play.

 

According to Avalos, religions create scarce resources where no scarcity really exists, and this induces people to fight over them. A religion might preach peace, love, and harmony, but once it establishes a textual canon or sacred site which only some have privileged access to, it also establishes an illusory “scarcity” which eventually causes people to fight. Avalos doesn’t argue that this is the intent of religious leaders, but it’s an inevitable outgrowth of what they are doing — and one which they themselves probably aren’t quite aware of.

 

<...>

 

Religions create a scarcity out of salvation by teaching that being saved requires certain actions or beliefs which not everyone will end up accepting. Thus, unlike things such as air, salvation doesn’t extend to everyone equally. Unlike sacred places, though, rival groups don’t necessarily fight in order to acquire control of it. It’s true that rival groups within a religion fight over what will qualify as orthodoxy (and this may fit with Avalos’ theory), but what about religions that launch wars in order to convert people?

 

Scarcity incites people to fight in order to gain access to and/or control over a resource for their own benefit. Usually, this involves restricting or denying access to outsiders.

 

 

http://www.curledup.com/religion.htm

“Faith is what no one in their right mind would believe.” Dr. Kimball’s definition is less earthy than Archie’s but not that different. Faith is what can’t be explained logically. Since it reflects the believer’s culture, geography and history, there are innumerable variations and interpretations about the nature of man’s relationship with God. Although this diversity is natural, it can also be problematic in certain situations, given differing definitions of what is sacred and what is profane.

 

Like humanity itself, interpretations of what is “God’s will” can be flawed and lead to tragedies like the Crusades, the Nazis, Jim Jones, David Koresh, the on-going Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center. How can something that brings peace and comfort to so many people around the world turn into something so evil? Dr. Kimball discusses five warning signs of corruption in a religion: Absolute truth claims, blind obedience, establishing the "ideal" time, the end justifies any means, and declaring holy war. In reviewing these signs, Dr. Kimball gives examples from history and current affairs.

 

Absolute truth claims are comforting to some who feel that what’s right for them is by definition what’s right. There are radical Christians, in Dr. Kimball’s examples, who believe all other religions are false. This arrogance has led them to target Jews, Hindis and Muslims for missionary visits on important religious holidays. Kimball describes this practice of trying to convert Jews on the high holy days as being insulting and more of a spiritual attack than a true attempt to share the Christian message. However, Christians are not alone in having extremists who believe that their principles are superior. Most of the world’s major religions have subgroups exhibiting claims that they and they alone know the truth. The results have ranged from merely annoying to serious mistreatment of non-believing neighbors in the name of God.

 

Blind obedience is another danger signal. Checking your intelligence and common sense at the door can lead to situations like the Jim Jones tragedy, where nine hundred believers followed their charismatic leader to Guiana where they committed mass suicide at his command. Dr. Kimball warns against uncritical acceptance of any popular belief -- especially if it advocates violence.

 

Establishing the ideal time presumes that better times are coming. People are awaiting Armageddon, the Antichrist, the second coming of Christ, the end of the world, the end of time, etc. There are those who try to bring about an Islamic state or a Jewish state or even a Christian state by gaining control of the government so that religious precepts become the law of the land. Dr. Kimball cites the Taliban in Afghanistan as an example of this behavior. Based on narrow interpretations of the Quran, morality police punished people for small infractions of Islamic law with beatings, mutilations and death. Kimball also warns of right-wing Christian sects in the United States who wish to impose their radical sense of morality on the general population, and who have established a political agenda to achieve those goals.

 

 

 

And here's an interesting snippet:

 

ZiZcKomzHaU

[Pangloss]

ABC's Nightline ran a piece tonight about children in the Congo who are accused of witchcraft. I thought at first that this would be an example of exasperated parents not knowing how to deal with immaturity, but no -- these parents cast their children out into the street because they have been lead to believe that their children are the reason why the family is stricken with poverty! Egad! One woman in the story calmly explains to the reporter how her two beautiful (albeit horrendously malnourished) young boys have been stealing their sister's blood at night and flying around town. Then dear old daddy explains that this is why he cannot find work. No, really.

 

The solution? Take the kids to see the local christian (non-aligned) priest, who casts hot wax on their belly and rips out the evil spirits. Then the parents walk away leaving the children behind to make their own way on the street.

 

Apparently the actual Catholic church is trying to assist in education and child rescue, but the government is doing nothing. It's an awful, awful story, and should not be watched in the presence of very young children.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=7613395&page=1

[iNow]

Yet another...

 

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8063855.stm

Officials in Serbia are investigating a rehabilitation centre affiliated to the Orthodox Church where drug addicts have allegedly been filmed being beaten.

 

A video of one assault, published by Vreme magazine, shows a man appearing to assault a patient by hitting him with a shovel and punching his face.

 

One former resident said staff had offered to cure his addiction with "pleasant conversation" and beatings.

 

A priest running the centre, near Novi Pazar, said a "heavy hand" was needed.

 

<...>

 

A former patient said that sometimes they would be told to form a circle around a "bad one" and watch them being beaten by the priests and other staff.

 

"They would hit him with clubs, shovels, fists, bars, belts, whatever they got their hands on," he told Vreme.

 

Archpriest Peranovic, he said, "knows how to hit - his hands are often bloody".

 

"When he hits, using his arms and legs, his robe flies all over the place. He practises martial arts," the former patient added.

 

After the video's publication, doctors and psychologists warned that physical violence would not help rehabilitate or cure drug addicts.

 

I just don't understand why all of those doctors and psychologists using science hate the church so much to defame it like that.

 

 

Don't watch the video at the link if you're squeamish.

[JohnB]

Actually I watched the full video. Are you sure they weren't auditioning for the WWF?

 

Seriously, struck repeatedly with a shovel and the guy gets up without difficulty and adjusts his trousers?

 

Notice the camera angle for the "beating" doesn't allow you see if the "victim" was actually hit or not.

[iNow]

Yeah, it wasn't too bad. It does, however, speak a bit to the issue raised in the OP. As per the squeamish comment, let's just say that I've been practicing my marketing skills.

 

 

Here's another video that's not brutal, but somewhat sad:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8040057.stm

 

'Prayer camps' chain mentally ill

[JohnB]

That is sad, but with only 4 psychiatrists in the whole nation, there aren't a lot of options, are there?

 

As to the other vid, I think it's a fake.

[iNow]

I'm going to try to steer this back to the tone set by the well thought-out post The Bear's Key put forth in the OP.

 

 

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=3191

Reading violent scriptures increases aggressive behavior, especially among believers, a new study finds. The study by University of Michigan social psychologist Brad Bushman and colleagues helps to illuminate one of the ways that violence and behavior are linked.

 

"To justify their actions, violent people often claim that God has sanctioned their behavior," said Bushman, faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research and lead author of the article published in the March 2007 issue of Psychological Science. "Christian extremists, Jewish reactionaries and Islamic fundamentalists all can cite scriptures that seem to encourage or at least support aggression against unbelievers."

 

Bushman, who is also a U-M professor of psychology and communications studies, and colleagues at Brigham Young University and at Vrije University in the Netherlands, found the same relationship in two separate experiments detailed in the article.

 

The first study involved Brigham Young University students, 99 percent of whom believed in God and in the Bible. The second study involved Amsterdam students, 50 percent of whom believed in God and 27 percent of whom believed in the Bible.

 

<...>

 

The researchers found that both the religious and secular students were more aggressive, delivering louder blasts of noise to their ostensible partners, when told that the passage they read came from the Bible. Aggressive responses also increased when participants read that God directly sanctioned violence. The increased level of aggression was greater among believers than among secularists, however.

 

<...>

 

The work also supports the view that exposure to violent scriptures may induce extremists to engage in aggressive actions. "It's important to note that we obtained evidence supporting this hypothesis in samples of university students who were, in our estimation, not typical of the terrorists who blow up civilians," Bushman wrote. "Even among our participants who were not religiously devout, exposure to God-sanctioned violence increased subsequent aggression. That the effect was found in such a sample may attest to the insidious power of exposure to literary scriptural violence."

 

 

 

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/members/goToSynergy.cfm?issn=0956-7976&date=2007&article=01873

Violent people often claim that God sanctions their actions. In two studies, participants read a violent passage said to come from either the Bible or an ancient scroll. For half the participants, the passage said that God sanctioned the violence. Next, participants competed with an ostensible partner on a task in which the winner could blast the loser with loud noise through headphones (the aggression measure). Study 1 involved Brigham Young University students; 99% believed in God and in the Bible. Study 2 involved Vrije Universiteit–Amsterdam students; 50% believed in God, and 27% believed in the Bible. In Study 1, aggression increased when the passage was from the Bible or mentioned God. In Study 2, aggression increased when the passage mentioned God, especially among participants who believed in God and in the Bible. These results suggest that scriptural violence sanctioned by God can increase aggression, especially in believers.