And, of course, when Christians do stupid things, the best way to handle it is to blame Atheism.
MOSCOW (Nov. 15) – At least 30 members of a Russian doomsday cult have barricaded themselves in a remote cave to await the end of the world and are threatening to commit suicide if police intervene, officials and media said Thursday. Gennady Marchenko, Reuters Policemen stand guard on the hillside where 30 Russian cult members are hidden inside a snow-covered cave in the Penza region of central Russia Thursday. The members are said to be awaiting the end of the world. “They have covered the entrance and refuse to come out and are threatening to blow themselves up,” an official in the local prosecutor’s office told Reuters by telephone. “They threaten to detonate a gas tank and blow themselves up.”The cult members, who include 29 adults and four children, are hidden inside a snow-covered hillside in the Penza region of central Russia. A Penza police spokeswoman said they had moved into the dug-out on November 7.”No one wants to take on the responsibility of provoking them … because our information is that there are children among them,” said the official.They are thought to have taken food and fuel supplies in with them and Russian television pictures from the scene showed smoke or steam coming out of a hole in the snow-covered ravine where it was built.A police patrol was guarding the area to prevent anyone provoking them.”They are simple Christians,” a local priest, Father Georgy, told NTV television station. “They say: ‘The church is doing a bad job, the end of the world is coming soon and we are all saving ourselves’.”Media reports said the cult members believed the world would end sometime in May next year. Police expected them to emerge when their supplies ran out.After decades of state-enforced atheism under Soviet rule, many Russians and other ex-Soviet nationals have come under the influence of homegrown and foreign sects. (SEE? IT’S OUR FAULT)Many Russians have refused new passports and taxpayers’ personal identification numbers, saying the figures contained “satanic” combinations of numbers.Izvestia newspaper said the leader of the cult, Pyotr Kuznetsov, had been detained by police. It said he was a 43-year-old who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that in the last few months he had been sleeping in a coffin.Police took Kuznetsov to the cave to persuade his followers to come out but without success, said the newspaper.Reporting by Tatyana Ustinova; writing by Dmitry Solovyov; editing by Philippa Fletcher
Yeah, they’re simple all right. What a bunch of morons.
And if the adults want to blow themselves up, have at it. But why do they have to drag innocent children along? Truly pathetic.
No, you totally misundersand the mindset of that part of the world. The atheism tied to Soviet domination was and still is a real issue in the ex-Soviet states as well, and it has led to a lot of religious resurgence in recent decades. It’s a complex issue and you don’t do it justice with your snarky comment here. I’d love to see a serious discussion of this topic.
@writerdd
You make a valid point. Enforced atheism is just as repugnant to me as enforced theism.
Sorry, I stand by my snarky comment. People who are willing to commit suicide and kill their own children over an imaginary being aren’t going to get any respect from me. The religious mindset is no different there than anywhere else.
I’m with you, Tarma.
Writerdd, I would respectfully suggest that perhaps you misunderstand. When we’re talking religion and mindset it undoubtedly has far less to do with previous Soviet domination than the normal idiocy of misguided individuals who need to believe in a magic being who will protect and look out for them.
If you are correct, then to what to you attribute the mushrooming of fundies in this country where atheism was never state enforced?
Tarma, I’m with you too. It wouldn’t upset me if that practice became more widespread.
Tarma, I was referring to Dave’s snarky comment in his post. Not your comment.
Sorry, I misunderstood. But I have no problem with Dave’s snarky comment either.
hahah russia didn’t have “enforced atheism”, it was communism. It was a secular movement, but there is nothing about “atheism” that was enforced.
The story illustrates one of the problems with allowing the christian to raise children. We will have a difficult time trying to keep the adult christian from harming its self. However, we should NOT allow the christian to harm innocent children. As it is impossible to know when the christian will get its end of world delusion, it really is necessary to bring its children into protective custody at birth.
Hey, good thinking guys. The great beasts of the Apocalypse are never going to find you in that cave.
They just crawling back under their rock.
Must be a pretty big cave to store enough supplies for 30 people over a Russian winter. Gonna get pretty, um, smelly in there too. They’ll have lots of Mr. Hankys to wish them Merry Christmas.
It’s terribly sad about the children though. I wish something could be done to rescue them.
The kids deserve better to be sure as I’m sure this was not their idea. Another example of xtians forcing their beliefs on the unsuspecting that are unable to do anything to change their situation. I’m not surprised, it’s the xtian way.
Addition: Mushinronjya is correct. While I spent months living in Iron curtain countries (Yugoslavia and Bulgaria on three month visas during the early sixties) fools attended HUGE church buildings openly. Those buildings were there pre-Stalin etc., and are still there even in Russia.
If atheism were something that were being “enforced”, those building would have been torn down tout-de-suite!
All of you atheists SUCK!
dear above,
Maybe, but at least we can make our own decisions about who and/or what we want to suck.
So they barricaded themselves in a building…Who cares? They’re not bothering anyone, as far as I can tell, they’re not doing anything illegal.
I’m aware that the USSR was openly Atheistic and critical of religion, but my knowledge of the history of that region is lacking.
Were there any cases of the government denying people their religions? If there were, how widespread was it?
I am, regretfully, ignorant on this topic.
I do take price in my oral sex ability, thanks for noticing.
Yes dear I do suck and I do it very well, thank you. Just ask my ex boyfriend.
This story out of Russia has Waco, TX written all over it. I just wish they could get the kids out and then let the adult crazies do whatever they wish-blow themselves up, starve to death, see reason and emerge peacefully, whatever. Just don’t hurt the kid’s because of your own madness.
mxracer,
I have a feeling that the biggest problem most people have are with the 4 children they reportedly have with them.
It is wrong to force a child to live in a cave in the cold. If adults want to, fine.
Hell, if the adults want to blow themselves up, I don’t care. They should have the right to commit suicide. But again, they have children who can’t properly make those kinds of decisions.
What’s your point? You feeling left out?
atheists SUCK,
Just let the kids go and we’ll stop dissing ya.
Looks like the xians have sent in one of their finest representatives… can’t even spell his own alias and it appears he may have this group confused with catholic pedophiles.
CNN has an article about the Flying Spaghetti Monster at:
http://tinyurl.com/2flf3y
alatham,
Why are the police even there in the first place? They are living in the woods waiting for the world to end. They weren’t bothering anyone, they weren’t doing anything illegal. They were not planning ritual suicide, and only reacted the way any reasonable person would when the police tell you that you can’t do something completely legal.
I don’t buy the argument that it’s wrong to have children in a non climate controlled dwelling, as the overwhelming majority of the world’s population doesn’t have that luxury.
Give the bigot troll a little credit, at least he/she/it didn’t say “aetheists suck”.
Who said the group is not doing anything illegal? If the cave is open to the public, then they are denying access to everyone else. They are endangering children. They are threatening to blow up property that they do not own (I assume they do not own it). The police are obviously there to protect those (especially the media) that could endanger themselves and others by trying to enter the area to film or interview the group. Not only are they insane, they are criminally insane.
False truth there, if such a thing exists.
It is true that people living in tropical countries (hot) don’t have climate controlled dwellings, but then again they seldom risk freezing to death. People living near the artic circle HAVE climate controlled dwellings. At the very least, usage of fire.
If people barricaded in a cave burn fuel to warm themselves, they risk suffocating by co2 poissoning before ever getting the chance to blow themselves up.
And I’m affraid the children will play the canari’s role.
What,
Thanks for the link to the FSM story! The true One will fly above the christian god-idea.
Athiests SUCK,
While there are those that will appreciate your comment, I am not amused by your use of the word “all”. I will have you know that I LICK.
This has to be as convincing as any other argument for theism, and deserves extra points for being so concise.
Athiests SUCK,
That was so awesome, you know, like, the way you totally linked your handle with that totally awesome dis. That was so sweet…and awesome.
P.S. You misspelled “athiests”.
I agree with rna2dna that I resent being lumped into all because it does not denote my skill. I’ll have to disagree with rna2dna though as he/she has not learned the finer points yet. After all, you didn’t think the “tongue tornado” only involved “licking,” did you? So, in sum, my licking skill is far greater than my sucking skill as the latter is used minimally.
And, I have to agree with “Athiests suck” in that the best woman I ever dated in the bj department was an Atheist; the xians can’t even be compared!
Yes, the kids WILL die from vapor poisoning well before the adults if adequate ventilation isn’t there. And suicide is legal but infanticide is illegal.
I thought the world already ended about 1000 times. It’s just like the Iraq war in a way. We’ve already won that one about 14 times, but we keep fighting for some reason.
rna2dna
After reading the CNN article about FSM I went to the FSM website to rummage around a bit. Later in the day I tried to access the site again. No luck! Lots of traffic? Denial of service attack? Server down? Hmm … Maybe the FSM smote the site with its noodly appendage.
mushin and 666 have it right. The USSR was a federation: The Union of Soviet Soci_list Republics. 15 different national republics were recognized.
Central government policies varied from suppression of seminaries and executions in some areas to state support in others. It was a sort of realpolitik.
Alatham, you can get a summary at the always controversial Wikipedia under the heading “Religion in the Soviet Union”.
The FSM article has a couple of funny points. First it refers to FSM as a “pseudo-deity”. I wonder what they define a real deity to be.
Then there is this revealing quote,
“You have to keep a sense of humor when you’re studying religion, especially in graduate school,” Van Horn said in a recent telephone interview. “Otherwise you’ll sink into depression pretty quickly.”
So true. The last line in the article is also very funny. I’m going to use that one.
I’m an atheist and I can suck a watermelon through a garden hose.
bernarda
Oh what noodly appendages we weave when first we practice to believe.
Ramen
What,
No access to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster website here yesterday either. Its working fine today. It is very obvious that the christian’s god idea is wrong. Praise be only to the noodles.
the police will try to pump in sleeping gas.hopefully it will work and the children can be saved.
Um, isn’t one of the 8 I rather you didn’ts to “…do not build a church…”? LAWL!!! You have committed sin and He is visiting noodley vengeance upon you! May you rot in hell with stale beer and ugly strippers you vile heathens!!!
Blessed be He who wields the noodley appendange and drinks the finest beer! RAmen.
I grew up in one of the soviet ruled countries and nobody ever talked about god or going to church. Actually, guys could get out of 2 years in Russian Army if they said they were religious, I don’t know anyone who had done it!
This lunatic in a cave is just messing w/ peoples minds, I don’t think it has anything to do with the mindset of Russians or forced atheism of 50 yrs. I dont think it was forced.. at least in any of the countries russia occupied.