₦airaland Forum

fadosky607: Which means u agree dat at least SOME of the bible prophecies were true...

However, u are totally wrong and ur claims are absolutely baseless! Claims dat d world historians as well as encyclopedias can't say.

Listen up genius, a prophesy is not a prophesy if it is written after the event happens. Then its just news.

I hereby prophesy that the axis powers will lose world war 1.

Aha! My prophesy came true. That proves without a shadow of a doubt that my posts are divinely inspired, that u are totally wrong and ur claims are absolutely baseless!

tete7000: Have you ever read any church official document on these issues. Sometimes I am taken aback with the way many people just come out to attack catholic church when they have never even enter the church once in their life or when they haven't read even the catechism of the church talkless of other encyclical and other church documents. I am sure if many people here will take time to read full church documents on these social issues, many will keep their mouth shut. It is wrong to argue from an uninformed point of view. Catholic church is not a wishy-washy, anyhow church and every doctrine of the church has official documents detailing why's and whynots. Let those who want to be informed search for the truth. You might end up getting converted.

Here's a link the vatican's official site where it states clearly that all forms of contraception except the rhythm method (in certain circumstances) are banned.

You are so full of shït. Like Chris Hitchens said, if we gave you an enema, you'd fit into a matchbox.

fadosky607: Have u actually carefully studied bible prophesies? If u honestly did, u'd come to d realisation dat u totally mistaking! For instance, consider d prophecy God gave Isaiah about Babylon's destruction.(Isaiah 13:19; 14:22,23). Details were given to show just how dis would happen. Invading armies would dry up Babylon's river and march into d city without a battle. That was not all. Isaiah named the king dat was gonna do dis-Cyrus.-Isaiah 44:27-45:2.

It was fulfilled only after 200yrs later dat dat prophecy got fulfilled just accurately as it was prophesied... A Persian king named Cyrus conquered Babylon!

I've read the bible cover to cover twice. Have you?

And BTW, most of the bible prophesies were written after the fact.

I bet you never thought about that explanation.

dallyemmy: . WHAT IF SHE DIES IN THE PROCESS?

The only reason people die from abortions in Nigeria is because it is illegal, therefore properly trained doctors don't do it and women have to resort to using quacks.

When properly performed by competent physicians in a safe environment, abortion is extremely safe. Last year in the UK, there were 185,122 reported abortions and 0 (zero!) deaths. Add the fact that criminalizing it does nothing to prevent desperate young women from getting them and its obvious why anybody who is not a religious fanatic should support legalization regardless of how you feel about the procedure itself.

Chibuebem: lol. Then why am I living these myths and fables? I ask again, why are these things powerfully fulfilled in my life? No valid answer I suppose. Dont worry, you'll soon be like me.

A simple stroll through the lunatics asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
- Freidrich Nietzche

Abortion is a far more complex issue than you religious simpletons make it seem. The new law in Imo legalizes it only in cases of råpe, ïncêst and when the mother's health is at risk.

Religious hypocrites like to preach fire and brimstone against abortion, but if it was your wife, sister, or daughter that got råped, you'd all be singing a different tune.

Let us please remember that the 1999 constitution says Nigeria is a secular country so whatever your bible or koran or guru maraji book says is irrelevant. We are not subject to biblical law any more than we are subject to sharia. If you have a problem with the law, then you are free to not have an abortion whenever you are unfortunate enough to get råped.

That or you can move to Saudi Arabia.

Pastor ayojide: God gave you a head so he can rest. use it now.

But don't use it too much, otherwise you might turn into an atheist.

fadosky607: So far I haven't got a reason why atheists don't bliv in d existence of a creator o...

I don't believe because there is not a shred of credible evidence of any type of god.

1. The Bible and Koran are full of historical inaccuracies and scientific absurdities. The bible is full of useless and harmful health advice but doesn't even tell people to boil water before drinking it.
2. All the miracles we see these days are obvious and blatant fakes from fraudsters like pastor Chris, TB Joshua and co.
3. The developed world functions under the assumption that there is no god. You don't see the (sensible) oyimbos trying to solve economic, health or social problems via prayer of sacrifice. In fact the west only started developing once they stripped the priests and pastors of their political power. Before that: the dark ages.
4. Science ell us that no god is needed for the world as we know it to exist. Science contradicts all the major religions in ways that cannot be reconciled. And science works, therefore science must be right. When christian scholars manage to use biblical principles to build a functioning car, or toilet, or biro; then maybe I'll take them more seriously.

italo: Well, my religion has nothing against evolution theory. It is only against the atheistic interpretation of it.

That makes no sense. While many educated Christians (and apparently catholic clergymen) like to play politics and deceive themselves, the fact is that evolution and Christianity are completely incompatible.

Evolution shows us that there was never a first man or woman. No Adam and Eve means no garden of Eden story, no original sin and no fall. No fall means no need for a Jesus to die for anybody. Evolution destroys the very foundation of christian theology, that's why fundamentalists hate it so much.

Then there is the fact that evolution ties in so neatly with cosmology, geology, paleontology and archaeology; all of which show clearly that there is no need for a god of any kind for the world as we know it to exist and no evidence of one anywhere.

There is no atheistic interpretation of evolution, there is a religious misunderstanding of it.

Its funny that in 5 days, not a single Christian has posted a comment defending the bible.

Very odd considering how vocal they usually are in attacking anything that questions their faith.

Have you guys all admitted defeat or what?

mazaje: Both atheist and theist that believe in evolution have provided evidence for them. . . I just find them unconvincing. . .Theist have never brought any evidence for creationism. . .Stop derailing the thread, if you want a debate evolution you can create a new topic. . .

What exactly about the theory do you find unconvincing? If you don't believe in evolution, and you don't believe in god, what's your hypothesis for where all the diversity of life on earth comes from? Living things are going extinct every day. Do you think any new species will ever appear? If so, where do they come from?

I have no problem with your skepticism BTW, I'm just curious.

mazaje: I don't know how life started and will not subscribe to any hypothesis or speculation that has no concerete evidence to back it up. . .Evolution, creationism etc are all human speculations about how life came about, some are more plausible than others though. . .

Evolution has nothing to do with how life started. It only deals with what happened afterwards.

The reason why most atheists believe in evolution is because the theory is so obvious and has so much evidence supporting it that they basically have no choice. Unless you are desperately clinging on to an ancient creation myth then you will naturally gravitate towards the explanation that makes the most sense.

Sadly, the biggest religions brainwash people to ignore their common sense and the evidence before their eyes.

nlMediator: The level of ignorance around these quarters is shockingly nauseating. Copeland is not opposed to medicine, and with his wife even have a personal physician, Dr. Colbert. The opposition to vaccines because of concern with autism is not a general opposition to vaccination nor is it a "christian" opposition. Google it and find more about it. Science seems to debunk it, but that's not a reason to link it to Christianity. People are entitled to a healthy skepticism, until convinced otherwise. Even science encourages that.

Abeg, please! There is no link between vaccines and autism. The Copelands continue to lie to their congregation that such a link exists despite mountains of irrefutable proof that the two have no connection (and that the doctor who started the rumour was a giant fraud).

Perhaps if they knew how to think with their brains and evaluate evidence objectively like atheists have been trying to teach them for so long, they wouldn't have believed and perpetuated such an easily disprovable lie.

The fact is that the dumb sheep that attend their churches didn't vaccinate their children simply because their pastors told them not to. Therefore if any of those kids dies or is permanently disabled the blood will be on their heads.

MØrØns!!!

Logicboy03: lol....seems their prayers against illnesses failed

Worse, their senseless teachings have endangered their kids and those of the wider community by exposing them to a deadly disease. Every single child that isn't vaccinated is a danger to others around him. For a church to be advocating a return to the days when children were dying of preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough is unforgivable.

Measles is no Joke. It kills people's children.

This is another example of religion denying gays a natural outlet for their urges and driving them to abuse kids and other vulnerable people. The churches are full of repressed, self-loathing gays who rather than live openly, resort to sneaking around getting their fix from whoever they think is least likely to expose them.

I've said it before, whenever society tries to stop people from slěeping with who they want, the children always end up taking it the ãsş

It's called "being mysterious".

https://www.joeydevilla.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/god-man_and_human-man.jpg

@OP

Morpheus put it best:
https://www.solongmediocrity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/morpheus-you-have-to-understand-most-people-are-not-ready-to-be-unplugged-and-many-of-them-are-so-inured-so-hopelessly-dependent-on-the-system-that-they-will-fight-to-protect-it.jpg

Like many others have said, you should keep your beliefs to yourself until you are financially independent. Nigeria is a very hostile place for people like us.

If you want to have a good relationship with your religious family members then its better to keep a low profile and go with the flow. You don't have to deconvert people who are happy living in their fantasies. There's no point in arguing and straining your relationships with the people you care about unless they are about to do something extra dumb like selling the house and giving the money to Adeboye or trying to treat cancer with prayers alone. If all they're doing is praying in the morning and wasting a little money in church, then let them do it. Pick your battles.

Anyway, I hope it turns out well for you. Remember that you can always come here if you need support, advice or another atheist to talk to.

Cheers.

Mr Troll: Can you do same? I mean come up with a valid information of how you come to exist in this universe?

That's easy.

Godidit!

There are so many things wrong with this.

First of all, you don't get tapeworms form swallowing a tapeworm or even an egg. You get tapeworms from swallowing contaminated beef or pork from an animal that has swallowed the eggs. So her weight loss plan can never work.

Secondly, if she swallowed a pork tapeworm (Taenia solium), she's going to end up with a serious condition called cysticercosis where each egg hatches, finds its way into her muscles, organs or brain and forms a cyst. Since she swallowed a whole worm each of which contains millions of eggs, she could end up with millions of cysts. A single cyst in the brain could lead to epilepsy, blindness, paralysis or mental illness. Her doctor is right to be scared.

What this woman has done is completely senseless. She could at least have looked up the Wikipedia article on tapeworms or looked a diagram of the tapeworm life cycle before using herself as a guinea pig in this rếtặrdếd experiment.

She deserves a Darwin award.

cleanvessel: The Bible is not inspired by Satan like the quran. Reference ''The Bible Proves Muhammad As A False Prophet''.

Wow, that explains it! Thank you for solving this mystery for us. /s

I advice all Nairaland Pastafarians to refrain from reprisal attacks against Christians. It may be hard to believe but not all of them are violent extremists.

Remember that our creator the FSM (PBUH) demands that we be happy, cheerful and harmless. There must be no violence. We must be pirates, not ninjas.

Whenever you feel anger at this type of injustice, stop and think WWJDD (what would Johnny Depp do?)

https://blog.marketwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/johnny-depp-pirates.jpg

A peaceful procession by members of the Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster in Moscow, Russia was attacked and disrupted by Russian police. The church members were said to have been knocked to the ground, beaten and arrested. Eight members have since been charged with holding an unsanctioned rally and face up to 3 years in prison.

https://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130822-pastafarians-march.photoblog600.jpg

The police crackdown was incited by members of the radical Christian fundamentalist extremist group "God's Will" who pressured the police and later justified the attack claiming "Pastafarianism is a blasphemous smear against Christianity". The group has a history of multiple threats and attacks against Pastafarians, but their activities have all gone unpunished.

There is an increasingly close relationship between the Russian government and the orthodox church with the recent jailing of anti-church protesters and the passage of strict blasphemy and anti-homosexuality laws.

From nbcnews.com:

MOSCOW, Russia -- The march of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster had all signs of being a satirical stunt – some of its 100 participants were armed with colanders on their heads and pasta in their mouths.
But the reaction of Russian authorities to so-called Pastafarians has been anything but lighthearted. Police and members of a Russian Orthodox group set upon the group last Saturday, knocking some to the ground. Eight members of the church were detained and subsequently charged with organizing an unsanctioned rally. Although those detained have since been released, they are due back in court before the end of August.

Pastafarians are part of an international 'religious' movement founded in the U.S. in 2005 in opposition to the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools. It has become an international movement, generally recognized as satirical poke at organized religion. But its adherents insist that it’s a 'real religion' and the dogma they follow is the rejection of dogma. They claim to have 15,000 adherents in Russia.

Aside from demonstrating how some Muscovites may not appreciate the Pastafarians’ sense of humor, the recent crackdown reveals just how close Russia’s Orthodox Church and state agencies have become in what was once an officially atheist nation.
Famously, members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot were given two-year sentences for their anti-Putin action in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 2012.
Alexei Romanov, a member of the Pastafarian Church, called the move and subsequent legal proceedings against it “absurd.”
“The country is gradually turning into an authoritarian state,” he said.
Romanov’s fellow Pastafarians are falling victim to a recently introduced law that bans insulting the religious feelings of believers.
This time members of an unregistered Orthodox Christian group who call themselves “God’s Will,” called the police when they found out about the procession, according to Romanov.
They accused the spaghetti worshipers of insulting the religious feelings of believers – an accusation that, if found to be true by a court of law, can have mean up to three years in jail.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, left, during a religious service in Kiev, Ukraine on July 27, 2013.

God's Will’s founder, Dmitry Enteo, posted on his Twitter feed that “Pastafarianism is a blasphemous smear against Christianity.”
The Moscow police could not comment on the detainment of the Pastafarians when approached by NBC News, saying that they can only comment on the day of detainment.
A lawyer of the detained Pastafarians, Ilnur Sharapov, said that the police response of detaining members after being alerted by the Orthodox Christian activists, was very suspicious, because the police had ignored the Pastafarian gathering until they were urged by the God's Will activists to arrest them.
He also said that God's Will’s activities were "increasingly criminal" and his organization, Agora, had looked into multiple cases of threats and attacks by members of the group. Despite this, God's Will's activities have gone unpunished.
This comes amid growing closeness between the Russian Orthodox Church and the government under President Vladimir Putin.
"We act as genuine partners and colleagues to solve the most pressing domestic and international tasks, to implement joint initiatives for the benefit of our country and people," Putin said at a rare meeting with top Orthodox clerics in July.
After having been suppressed for decades under communism, the church has become one of Russia’s most powerful institutions, imposing its social mores onto society.
Recently, the increasingly powerful head of the church, Patriarch Kirill, voiced dislike of the openly gay community in Russia.
“The legal acceptance of same-sex marriages is a ‘sign of the apocalypse,’” he said in July.
The Russian government has in turn introduced controversial new laws that ban “homosexual propaganda” to minors and foreign single-sex couples from adopting Russian children.
Against this background, the Pastafarians, who maintain that their goal is to promote “happiness, cheerfulness and harmlessness,” await a court hearing on charges of organizing an unsanctioned demonstration in the capital.

Using data from the Sceptics Annotated Bible, an American programmer has created a comprehensive, interactive map of 463 biblical contradictions.

https://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18xwihjyvh0xjpng/original.png

The site also contains data on bible historical inaccuracies, scientific absurdities, cruelty and violence, discrimination against women, discrimination against homosexuals and as well as some interesting poll data from the US.

The author's stated intention is not to criticize the bible, but to analyse it visually to find common threads between stories. The site is meant as a resource for both believers and sceptics to explore some of the more negative aspects of the scriptures.

Have a look at the site and post your thoughts in this thread.

http://www.bibviz.com/
Source: Gizmodo

I don;t know about others, but I'm not a closet atheist. My whole family knows I'm atheist including my extremely religious mom. Most of my friends know, and so do most of my co-workers.

I only lie about my lack of faith when I feel its likely to hurt my career e.g when a senior person who I don't trust to not behave like a bigot asks me. Even then, I'm pretty sure they suspect it since its common knowledge that I don't go to church, I hold controversial, non-biblical opinions on many issues and I never speak christianeze like everybody else.

F00028: @evilbrain you think a primitive negroid like you understand darwin more than his " highly developed civilized " disciple?

according to darwin's foremost german disciple, ernst haeckel, if you want to draw a sharp boundary between the human races and the apes, “you must draw it between the most highly developed civilized people on the one hand and the crudest primitive people on the other, and unite the latter with the apes.”

elsewhere haeckel identifies these cruder and primitive races as the australian aborigines and the south african bushmen, which he says, still live in herds, climb trees and eat fruit. according to haeckel, certain more primitive groups of "people" are more ape than human.

And Darwin is responsible for Haeckels unfounded beliefs because? You now want to start blaming Darwin for stuff other people said and did?

So if somebody reads one of your posts and partially agrees with it, then goes and starts abusing ibos in another thread, that would make you an anti-ibo tribalist?

F00028: The Descent of Man, Chapter 6, On the Affinities and Genealogy of Man, Darwin argues that he expected the civilized races of men to fully exterminate the savage races of men in just a few centuries. He also expected the anthropomorphous apes [Ed. note: those most like humans] (gorillas and chimpanzees) to become extinct. As a result, he believed that the gap between humans and animals would eventually be much greater than exists. Darwin postulated that this higher form of man would come from the current Caucasian race. In his book, Darwin states that the current gap between apes and humans is between the gorilla, on the ape side, and the Negro or Australian aborigine, on the human side:

The break will then be rendered wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as present between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.

Creationists are experts at editing people's statements and quoting them out of context to make them look bad. Here's what Darwin actually said:

The great break in the organic chain between man and his nearest allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct or living species, has often been advanced as a grave objection to the belief that man is descended from some lower form; but this objection will not appear of much weight to those who, from general reasons, believe in the general principle of evolution. Breaks often occur in all parts of the series, some being wide, sharp and defined, others less so in various degrees; as between the orang and its nearest allies—between the Tarsius and the other Lemuridae between the elephant, and in a more striking manner between the Ornithorhynchus or Echidna, and all other mammals. But these breaks depend merely on the number of related forms which have become extinct. At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world . At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked, will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.

He was simply explaining that apparent gaps between species where simply due to extinction and using humans and apes as an easy to understand example. This is not even remotely racist. You're just using the same tactic you people use to twist your bible (quoting tiny, cherry-picked snippets out of context) to misrepresent Darwin.

Oh and by the way, all the anthropoid apes are now considered endangered. Bonobos and Mountain Gorillas are critically endangered. Can you guess why? Because human beings (poachers and Bush meat lovers) have been exterminating them. But Darwin wasn't a prophet, he just combined existing knowledge and common sense to preduct the future. Science: It works bïtches!!!

@ Muskeeto

I'm also posting on my phone. I hope it doesn't mess up the formatting.

Assassination of an Activist : Who Killed Dr Narendra Dabholkar?
Posted by subhash gatade
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a. miracle.”
- Albert Einstein
Words have an uncanny ability of impinging on the receiver with clinical detachment. It is upto the receiver to unpack them or try to derive meaning out of them. It is still difficult to get over the sense of grief and shock one experienced when one received the news of the assassination of renowned rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar on the streets of Pune on Tuesday 20 th August.
For Punekars – residents of Pune – Omkareshwar temple on the banks of rivers Mula-Mutha happened to be the place where the dead are taken for last rites. It was a strange coincidence that Dr Dabholkar, was on his morning walk near
Omkareshwar bridge when assailants riding on a motorcycle fired at him from close range, two of which hit him in the back of his head and he immediately fell on the ground. He was rushed to Sasoon hospital where doctors declared him
dead. Police found a photograph and a cheque in the name of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS-Committee for the Eradication of Superstition) from his wallet . Perhaps after his walk he was planning to go to the office of ‘Sadhana’ – a magazine he was editing for the last eighteen years – as has been the practice whenever he use to be in Pune.
Spontaneous demonstrations have been reported from different parts of Maharashtra. And in his hometown Satara thousands came out on the streets to pay tribute to this 70 year young man who was loved and respected for his
campaign against superstition and self-appointed godmen. A bandh call has been given by all political parties in Pune on Wednesday to protest the premediated murder of Dr Dabholkar.
It was only last night that he was on a channel (Sahyadri) discussing the role of the caste panchayats and the way they have made life miserable for many people. The panel discussion was taking place in the backdrop of a murder of a girl by her own father one Kumharkar in Nashik- on the instruction – of the caste panchayat as she had dared to marry outside the boundaries of caste. Intervening in the discussion Dr Dabholkar was telling how they had recently organised a conference to promote intercaste marriage and have released a manifesto on the same issue. Looking at the fact that couples who go for intercaste marriage face tremendous problems at the hands of the communities they belong he was suggesting that special measures be taken by the police to protect them. Little could anyone had premonition that it is
going to prove his last such panel discussion.
A multifaceted man – a medical doctor by training, writer-editor by aptitude and a campaigner by choice – he was a leading light of the rationalist movement and was engaged in fighting superstition and black magic through the
organisation he led ‘Andhashradha Nirmoolan Samity’ with a network of its 200 branches spread in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. Very few people would remember today that he was an accomplished Kabaddi player in his college days and won medals for the Indian team then. Although he started his social life by taking up medical practice he soon got attracted towards the ‘One Village, One Well’ campaign initiated by well known socialist leader Dr Baba Adhav. The work to eradicate superstition was more than two decades old.
In one of his writeups on the theme entitled ‘Rationality Mission for Success in Life’ wherein he ‘aims to encourage the participants to follow four action plans to begin with and thereby bring the desired change in the society’ he had said :
The age old superstitions consisting of traditions, rituals, mind boggling procedures require money, labour and time of the individual as well as society. The modern society can’t afford to waste these valuable resources. In fact the
superstitions ensure that the poor and downtrodden will remain in the same state forever and ever without giving any opportunity to come out of poor conditions. Let us take a pledge not to follow any of the superstitions and waste the resources. We will collectively oppose the authorities who spends tax payers money on the festivals and ceremonies like
Kumbh Mela, temples/mosques/church maintenance, local festivals etc and allocate the funds for infrastructures like water, power, communication, transport, health-care, primary education and other welfare and development activities.
Tributes have been paid to him by political leaders, social activists from all walks of life. No doubt, it was a preplanned murder, meticulously planned to the last detail.The police has formed eight teams to track down the actual murderers and one should expect that they would be able to make a breakthrough in the near future. The police said they would also scrutinise allegations that he had received threats from extremist groups such as Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. According to his family members he received threats often but refused to seek police protection. His son Hamid said “He thought this was a struggle to end ignorance, and he did not need weapons to fight it,”
Who might have killed Dr Dabholkar ?
Many possibilities exist. It is true that he did not have any personal enemies but his relentless work to fighting superstition, must have created a band of adversaries, who would have wanted to see him dead. Status quoist forces
within politics also did not feel comfortable with his work. A measure of the resistance offered by all such elements to the work he and his organisation had undertaken can be had from the fact that for years together a anti-superstition bill called ‘Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic’ put forward by them is pending before the Maharashtra assembly – the only one of its kind in India. There was a strong opposition from Hindu extremists’ organisations and Warkaris to the bill, but Dabholkar was determined to get the bill passed and he stated that he was not against anybody’s faith, but was against superstition. It was barely two weeks ago that Dabholkar had criticised chief minister Prithviraj Chavan at a press conference in Pune for not tabling the draft legislation in the recently-concluded monsoon session of the state assembly.
Without getting entrapped in the argument of defining faith and blind faith the proposed bill talks of tackling most common superstitions prevailing in Maharashtra. The list included, to perform Karni, Bhanamati, to perform magical rites in the name of supernatural power, to offer ash, talisman, charms etc. for the purpose of exorcism and to drive out evil spirits or ghosts, to claim possession of supernatural powers and to advertise this claim,to defame, disgrace the names of erstwhile Saints/ Gods, by claiming to be there reincarnation and thus cheating the gullible and God-fearing simple
folks, to perform so called black magic and spread fear in society. Such practices would be made an offence under this act and to serve as a deterrent it is proposed to provide for a stringent penalty and punishment, making such a practice a cognizable and non-bailable offence. The Bill also provides for the appointment of vigilance officers to detect and prevent such offences and collect evidence against the offenders. The idea is that it will help to prosecute the offenders effectively.
Now that the leading campaigner for this bill is dead, and looking at the dilly dallying going on for all these years, one does not know what will be the future of the bill.
In the end, it was late seventies when I had the opportunity of listening to him at a study camp of ‘Vishamata Nirmulan Samity’ – a loose coalition of organisations, individuals working for social change then, in Pune for the first time. One still remembers the passion with which he spoke then. Perhaps it was this passion for broader social transformation which never deserted him that he could sustain many odds which were an integral part of the work he had undertaken as a mission for life.
As has been rightly said his untimely death has been a severe blow to the rationalist movement in this country. This movement, which is facing tremendous challenges with the ascendance of rightwing forces in the society, has lost one of its commanders today. And it is a loss to everyone concerned with progressive change in India. It remains to be seen how all of us together are able to turn the tremendous grief which has come our way into new determination and resolve to fight the forces of ignorance, irrationality and reaction – a cause celibre for which Dr Narendra Dabholkar lived and died.

[url] kafila.org/2013/08/21/assassination-of-an-activist-who-killed-dr-narendra-dabholkar/[/url]

What would have happened if there was no god?

The same stuff that is happening now. Because there is no god.