RE: Stupid things religious people say
3 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 3 hours ago by Fake Messiah.)
Another one guided by the Holy Spirit.
Quote:N.Y. Doctor Sentenced in Japan for Vandalizing Ancient Religious Sites
Masahide Kanayama, 63, had been accused of smearing an oily liquid on wooden pillars at a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Tokyo and on an offerings box at a Shinto shrine founded in 643 B.C. Both incidents took place in 2015.
Dr. Kanayama, a practicing Christian, admitted during the trial that he had damaged the sites. “I poured the oil believing I was being guided by the Holy Spirit, but it was my own misconception,” he told the court.
In her ruling on Thursday, Judge Yoko Sugiyama of the district court in Chiba, a prefecture east of Tokyo, noted the historical and cultural value of the structures, and said “the act of prioritizing one’s own religious beliefs” to commit the crime “warrants severe condemnation.”
Dr. Kanayama, a Japanese citizen and legal permanent resident of the United States, has practiced medicine in Manhattan for nearly three decades. He is an expert in endometriosis, a gynecological condition that can be debilitating.
“I believe the Holy Spirit works through me by giving me an ability to perform my unique surgical technique,” Dr. Kanayama told The New York Times in November last year. “When guided by faith, medicine becomes a way to serve God by serving others. My goal is to let God’s love be reflected through my actions and services.”
Japanese authorities said Dr. Kanayama had left oil on pillars at the main entrance of the Naritasan Shinsho-ji Temple in the city of Narita. A temple official said the oil had left blackish stains. At the nearby Katori Jingu Shrine, in Katori, a shrine official said oily liquid had been left on wooden poles, stairs and a box for donations, leaving stains that had become almost invisible unless they were observed up close.
Japanese authorities also referred to YouTube videos from 2012 that showed a man who they said was Dr. Kanayama talking about anointing shrines with oil for religious purposes.
His lawyers have argued that Japan had targeted Dr. Kanayama in part because he was a Christian.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/world...tence.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
