they're in my skin and my bones

Why helping the poor will save the world, by my hero Hans Rosling.

The talk is called “Religions and Babies” and you are in for a surprise.

This man is such a genius.

(via embracethismoment-weareeternal)

stfuconservatives:

(trigger warning for rape, incest, molestation)

networkofwormholes:

[Source]

Declaring that “life must always be protected”, a senior Vatican cleric has defended the Catholic Church’s decision to excommunicate the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old rape victim who had a life-saving abortion in Brazil.

Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that although the girl fell pregnant after apparently being abused by her stepfather, her twins had, “the right to live, and could not be eliminated”.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, the cardinal added: “It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons. Life must always be protected.”

Police believe the girl was sexually assaulted for years by her stepfather, possibly since she was six. That she was four months pregnant with twins emerged only after she was taken to hospital complaining of severe stomach pains.

The controversy represents a PR nightmare for the Vatican. The unnamed girl’s mother and doctors were excommunicated for agreeing to Wednesday’s emergency abortion yet the Church has not taken formal steps against the stepfather, who is in custody. Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the conservative regional archbishop for Pernambuco where the girl was rushed to hospital, has said that the man would not be thrown out of the Church, because although he had allegedly committed “a heinous crime”, the Church took the view that “the abortion, the elimination of an innocent life, was more serious”.

The case has set off fierce debate in Brazil, where abortion is permitted only in cases of rape or a medical emergency. Brazil is one of the most populous Catholic countries, but conservative attitudes in rural areas are strongly at odds with the relatively progressive public view of abortion in major cities.

Even the President, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, has waded into the row. “As a Christian and a Catholic, I deeply regret that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a conservative attitude,” he said “The doctors did what had to be done: save the life of a girl of nine years old. In this case, the medical profession was more right than the Church.”

One of the doctors involved in the abortion, Rivaldo Albuquerque, has raised the prospect of public clashes at his local church, telling Globo, the nation’s main TV network, that he would keep going to mass there, regardless of the archbishop’s order. The young girl at the centre of the case escaped excommunication only because she is still a child in the eyes of Church authorities. The stepfather, who is 23, was arrested last week, apparently trying to escape to another region of the country. Police say he is also suspected of abusing the girl’s handicapped 14-year-old sister. He is in protective custody, and if convicted faces up to 15 years in prison.

[source]

Surprised they didn’t force the young girl to marry her rapist, but I suppose that’s only because he was already married to her mother.

The Vatican and everyone in it needs to burn.

I’ve blogged about this story before, but yeah. A stepfather molested his young stepdaughter, and she became pregnant with twins. At age 9. N-I-N-E. That’s basically the definition of “babies having babies.” Her mother found doctors willing to terminate the pregnancy, and they were all excommunicated. But not the stepfather. Because sexually abusing living, actual children is totally cool - the Catholic Church has proved that on multiple occasions - but preventing a nine-year-old from giving birth to her stepfather’s children conceived in rape is worthy of excommunication.

Awful.

-Jess

“It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons. Life must always be protected.”

Future life must be protected, but quality of life of the already living is irrelevant.

and then you ask for forgiveness.

(via howtovisualizeyourweakness)

(via developingwings)

shortformblog:

Praying for lower gas prices: Demonstrators take part in a pray vigil for lower gasoline prices in front of a service station in Washington, DC, on February 23, 2012. US President Barack Obama will try to head off Republican criticism over rising gasoline prices Thursday, setting out how the United States should address its voracious appetite for energy. Visiting the hard-hit election battleground of Florida, Obama will address concerns about rising gasoline prices, which have jumped 16 percent in a year in the Sunshine State, providing campaign fodder for his Republican foes. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

…

(via shortformblog)

friendlyatheist:

Religion is nothing more than human vanity writ large.

-FA

One of those rare moments where I have an opinion that doesn’t just go along with what I read: I actually don’t think it’s that people can’t imagine a world without them, I think it’s that they can’t imagine themselves without a world.

Which sounds like a purposeful play of words, but I think it’s true. When people think about death, it’s not themselves that goes away; they continue to live. It’s the world that disappears. An afterlife fills in the blank.

ihateallyourgods:

Occam’s Razor

I’m a fan of Occam’s razor.

(via therikeone)