Reason 142 i despise hardcore, far right religion...

(from here):

'The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas is planning to protest the funeral of Heath Ledger. The church has caused quite a stir while picketing the funerals of soldiers that have died in Iraq. It is Westboro church's belief that Heath Ledger died and is burning in hell for playing the role of a gay cowboy in the critically acclaimed movie "Brokeback Mountain." The church believes that while Heath Ledger was not gay, he still played a homosexual and promoted the gay lifestyle.'

Ugh. To picket someones funeral is foul, but of course they must undoubtably know that they're doing god's work so it's ok. See, it even says so in the bible 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind' (leviticus 18:22) so of course that gives them permission to pester a grieving family. These people are deluded and dangerous halfwits.

Make no mistake, i'm not bashing all religious views here. Just religious fundamentalsim and in particular this moronic entity known appallingly as a 'church'. These people are too much for even the deeply christian nation that is America, and are considered a hate group by the U.S government (bit of an understatement in my opinion).

This also raises the issue of free speech. As appalling as their speech is, they have a right to air it. To deny anyone there opinion is not a free society. But on the other hand, you can't let such vocal viciousness get out of hand, what about the rights of Ledger's family to a peaceful memorial service? Surely their must be a statute in American law prohibiting hate speech?

The Black/White nature of Fundamental religious morality does nothing but complicate an already complex issue; There is a fine line to balance, with many shades of grey to negotiate. Dogmatic beliefs are fast becoming obsolete in our rapidly changing world, and to a degree holding back progress (The farcical debate over Stem Cell research springs to mind)

There is nothing grey, however, about my opinion of the Westboro baptist church (I.e sub-human, ignorant trolls) I would link to their website, but that would only add to their exposure, Google them yourself to get a flavour of their beliefs.
Or even better, go out and buy a copy of Brokeback Mountain (or any other film with Heath Ledger in) and just pause and remember a talented actor whose life was cut tragically short.

We Are Here 2

Here's 'Reflections on a mote of dust' as read by the great man himself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M

We Are Here

A thought provoking photo and text:

Reflections on a Mote of Dust

'We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.' - Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

from http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/pbd.html