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 The journey gives disabled pilgrims a rare opportunity to take a religious vacation.
August 14th, 2013
09:12 AM ET
Riding the 'white train' in search of a miraclePhotographers Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni rode with 600 pilgrims and volunteers as they took the “white train” from Reggio Calabria in southern Italy to the French town of Lourdes. Disabled believers make the journey annually in hopes of a miracle.
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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I will just say it. Atheists live in a fantasy universe. The world will never be what you want it to be. Just fight for what is right. It has always been that way. When something is important, we fight. You don't have to win.
oh the irony!!! ROTFL
Hmm. So now it's atheists who believe in an invisible, all knowing god that can simultaneously read the thoughts and see the actions of 7 billion people?
Somebody is missing the point (not me).
How Depression Stole and then Returned my Life
By God
A true book of pretend realities about not recovering from the depression that never left.
If his ministry was all about healing the physically ill, he was quite a failure. Raising someone up with sins forgiven is recognition the person who confessed is heaven-bound
no one's going to heaven, no one's going to hell. that's silly.
be good to your brothers and sisters, you don't need religion for that.
Well, you or I don't, but apparently some people do.
ah yes, the magical land at the end of the rainbow where we all go after we die ...
heaven is an imaginary blankie for little children. grow up!
@hharri-have to laugh. How many times do atheists tell us how much they know about the Bible and how little Christians know? And you think Christ's ministry was "all about" healing the physically ill?!?!?! Where did you get that drivel?
stament
Is that English you were attempting to write, Newt?
New tEstament
Newt E.
Some Christians actually claim that God is "perfect" and "unchanging". Apparently you aren't one of them.
and...
We are imperfect and changing. And need a perfect and unchanging God.
Newt E.
"We are imperfect and changing. And need a perfect and unchanging God."
So does God still support Leviticus, slavery, and discrimination against gays and women?
None of those things are permissible if one follows the 10 Commandments.
Newt E.
"None of those things are permissible if one follows the 10 Commandments.'
The 10 Commandments come from the Old Testament and "We have a better understanding, more has been revealed. Apparently, the Hebrews were wrong on many occasions."
Slavery and discrimination against women and gays is supported in the New Testament.
So what was your point?
If they are breaking a commandment it is not ok with God.
Newt E.
"If they are breaking a commandment it is not ok with God."
So if Christians pick on gays or pro-choice supporters, they are sinning by disobeying the Golden Rule, right? If so, please tell all the Christian sinners.
Yes, I don't think God wants us to pick on other people.
Again, the critics to Mother Teresa : "she made mouroirs but not hospitals."
And as Mandela said :
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nelson-mandela-admits-thoughts-prayers-of-millions,32853
“The capacity of gentle souls to unite their voices in a message of peace and strength is certainly the greatest gift of mankind—I’m not denying any of that. But when you’re a 94-year-old man with a horrible lung infection, you need trained medical professionals. That’s really most important. All that prayer stuff is, frankly, pretty useless.”
So.. why making (and advertising and embellishing) "the trip" when one better spend more of his time/energy/money/... on himself.
That is an argument from authority and worthless, just like she was.
A man once achieved notoriety when he plastered the walls, ceiling and floor of an entire room with memorabilia from his life. The most sacred of all life’s moments were represented. Birth, marriage, death.
When he sold the house a few weeks later, he was asked why.
The man said, “Because I want to see how the new owners will choose to decorate the room.” He snapped a photograph of the house and walked away.
cool. 🙂
"Don't fall for the convention that we're all too polite to talk about religion. Religion is not off the table. Religion is not off limits. Religion makes specific claims about the universe which need to be substantiated and need to be challenged and, if necessary, need to be ridiculed with contempt."
And this is also why religious people should not feel the need to be "too polite" with atheists. Don't let them pull the "oh, typical christian behavior" crap. Don't let them try to slam you down with tenets of your own faith that they have offered no consideration for in their speech.
Oh hey Lydia, you're back.
Did you happen to remember to bring some proof of you imaginary friend with you this time?
We have been asking, politely, like forever.....
God hides from the pride and arrogant. It is not Lycidas' fault YOU don't know God. (Mocking others is not the way to find God, by the way)
Whom have I mocked?
I am simply asking for proof of what you claim is a fact.
If you can't provide it, then to me your claim of a god is false.
Ok. It didn't seem you were honestly seeking God, but just picking a fight.
god hides from facts and reason.
God hides from the pride of.......lions? God hides from the arrogant.......gerbils?
Is Lycidias' name Lydia? Or were you trying to insult?
I never left.
I have no imaginary friend.
I know and you are all so weird for asking since I never said there was one. You know what Ol Al's definition of insanity is right? "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"
another "poor christians" cry-job. lol, like christians have ever had a problem shoving their silly views down other people's throats.
How's that reading comprehension going for you? I'm saying that religious people shouldn't let the opposition use the religious people's own tenets against them in debate.
When a religious person treats atheists the way that atheist does others, the atheist (not the religious person) is the one whining about behavior.
Dog,
The crippled are not allowed to worship, dont you know that?
Leviticus 21:18-21
18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged test icles. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God.
You know what they are going to say, that is just allegory and not to be taken as literal.
And if it is in the Old Testic le, then it is not to be followed, even thou their boy jeebus said one must follow the Ol' Testy in addition to the bull in the New Testy.
Yet Jesus was "moved with compassion" whenever he encountered people with disabilities.
Newt E.
Yes, Jesus seemed much more compassionate, kind, and liberal than his father according to the Bible.
We have a better understanding, more has been revealed. Apparently, the Hebrews were wrong on many occasions.
That is why they strung him up.
And will do so again if he did come back.
Can't have some long haired brown skinned hippy telling them to give their goodies to help the poor.
Not in capitalist societies anyway.....
Newt E.
"We have a better understanding, more has been revealed. Apparently, the Hebrews were wrong on many occasions.'
Translation: apparently, the Bible was wrong on many occasions.
Not really. It tells what is was like and what happened. I don't think God wants us to go back to the Leviticus living, but it is wise to know about them.
I wonder where Troll Spotter is? He would have a hay day with you.
“Go out, find the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame and bring them in.”
".....and take every last penny they got!"
Jesus disobeyed "Leviticus" and obeyed God when he healed a crippled man on the sabbath.
Jesus broke the 7th commandment against kiIIing too, if you go by the Way of the Master B S.
yeah, god hates midges, hunchbacks and anyone with crushed testicles. i thought everyone knew that...
"Religion is for the ignorant, the gullible, the cowardly, and the stupid, and for those who would profit from them."
Also for my Dad who is a genius. He is not ignorant or stupid. But he is a believer. You are wrong, again.
a gullible genius
you can be a genius in one area and ignorant in another. in fact, we are all ignorant of most available knowledge. i'm an english major with a minor in computer programming - but i'm completely ignorant of geology, a subject i've never studied.
ignorant and stupid are not the same thing, not even close. ignorance is just a lack of knowledge, though it can be thrown out insultingly.
it sounds like you're father was very smart, but if he believed in an invisible sky fairy, i would have to say he's embracing ignorance instead of logic and fact, at least on this one subject. but it goes deeper than that.
all religions are cults, just as all cults are religions. when your cult is accepted by society, it becomes a religion. otherwise, there is no difference between a religion and a cult. some religons/cults are more harmful/dangerous than others, but they all believe in magic instead of fact. christianity is a cult, too. cult programming can be very, very strong. your father may have been intelligent, but he was still a brainwashed cult member. sorry if that sounds harsh, but religions/cults teach you to believe without evidence, and to disbelieve facts. if your father thought a great flood covered the earth and a guy named noah took 2 animals of every type aboard a ship with his family, that is ignorance. if your father thought an invisible sky fairy snapped his fingers and made the universe through magic, that is ignorance.
there are many examples of religious people that are very intelligent, they aren't mutually exclusive. religious brainwashing is that powerful. you have more of a chance to break the mental shackles if you are intelligent, but it's not necessarily so. stupid people are very unlikely to even test the shackles, let alone break them. so intelligence factors in, but it's not an absolute.
"all religions are cults, just as all cults are religions"
Let's have a moment of honesty shall we?
Which term carries the negative connotation in society? Religion or Cult?
If "cult", why use it then if not to just offend people?
Lycadis
Depending on which members of society you speak with, both words carry negative connotations. I have seen many "religious freaks" on street corners, they make religous a negative. Even most believers will shy away from them.
Booty, it's your, not you're. And you claim to be an English major?
@Ly
exactly my point. cult is a religion that is not accepted. religion is a cult that is. there is no difference, aside from the societal view.
good eye, Dip. that's a pet pieve of mine. i just woke up, typing fast.
Pieve?
From my perspective, the "your/you're" mistake is an easy one for even distinguished veterans of formal English. Recently I made the same mistake and felt little embarrassment when I read back through the post. sh!t happens
Dawkins sounds like a jerk.
To you he probably does. But not to someone who can think.
Exactly...and I think he is a jerk.
Zing!
"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?"
Perhaps, put it saved his life.
You have proof that your dad would have died if not for his faith? Or is that just more unsubstantiated opinion you seem to be so good at?
Personally I could give a shit. But for the Anal Retentive among us. He was homeless and an aging alcoholic. He met a Christian who converted him. He got a prestigious teaching position and he quit drinking. Would he be dead? I don't know, who cares. He's not.
sounds like something he could have gotten help with without joining a cult.
But Bootyfunk, he DIDN"T. This is what happened. And it was fine.
where's the magic amputee train? weird how god never heals amputees. perhaps it's because you can fake being disabled, but you can't fake missing an arm. you can fake being blind, but can't fake not having eyes. why can't god heal people with missing limbs? why restrict "divine healing" to people with ailments that can be faked? i think you know the answer...
I would love to see a few thousand amputees book trips on this train and just all sit there praying out loud for a new limb... see how many of the other faithful on the trip would be giving them that look like "Um, really? I'm here looking for healing but you are here to make fun of us...".
haha, exactly.
"come on, you're missing a leg. god's not going to heal that..."
why not?
A fundie I work with told me that yes, in fact, amputees and the blind et al do get healed, but that the liberal media does not report on it so people will turn away from god.
I of course asked for some kind of proof, like I do for his god, and he said that the absence of proof WAS the proof of the conspiracy to not report those events.
A mind is a terrible thing to lose, to religion............
lol. odd how they never have proof... and in a day and age where every phone is a video recorder....
how come they get faith healing of the blind and lame on video but never of an amputee growing an arm back?
strange....
God heals, even amputees. Amen!
Can you provide some proof of that statement, Newt E Gingrich?
God provides healing to amputees who are condemned by people like you that claim they are inferior.
Newt – sooooo... that's a "no"?
I have never condemned anyone, even believers.
But you believers condemn people all the time.
I have been told many times by "jesus loving Christians" that I am going to burn in hell.
All I am asking you is to provide proof of the statements of fact that you are making.
But I know, anytime anyone questions you, it is "Christian bashing!"
Do you want to hear testimony about people who have lost their limbs in war and thank God for their healing?
No Newt, I want before and after pictures.
If you can post some of those, then maybe we will have to reconsider your imaginary friend's existence.
Awesome! That should be easy to prove. Can you provide example of limbs that your god has grown back?
Show me that one, and I'll burn my atheism membership card.
Healing. Not growing limbs back. The limb is missing for a reason.
@ Newt
And what would that reason be?
The reason is that they were amputated, surgically or otherwise. The healing happens if the patient is properly cared for.
If you believe there was some deity from outer space controlling either one of those things, that's your right. But you'll never convince any of us that this superhero had anything to do with either event, unless you show us the regrown limb. Sorry.
Anything short of that is just unsubstantiated storytelling.
Doobs, they are missing because god is not capable of making them regrow.
I was moving from Paris to Barcelona by car and it just happened to be on my route about where I needed to get some gas.
So after filling up, I was like, "Well, I'm here, let's check it out."
Lourdes is the epitome of the scam known as religion.
The place is like a cross between Disney, Great Flags and Reno.
Everything is set up to separate the fools who go there from their money, just like the 3 places above.
The fools arrive on these big tours, stay at these overpriced hotels, ride this golf cart train to see the grotto, and get some kind of blessing from some scammer to "cure" them.
It is all well run, and EVERYTHING has a price one must pay.
On the road to the grotto there are the usual trinket shops, but based on religion, not cartoon characters.
You can buy pebbles and small stones that supposedly come from the grotto that have magical properties
Doesn't matter what religion you are, the scammer take in all, and even take credit cards.
Boat loads of suffering people from all over desperate to find something to cure them from their various ailments, and all they get is fleeced of their money and one more day closer to death.
It is sickening really.
But hey, that is religion.
Don't go, it is a waste of time.
Shame on religion or organizers of the "white train"; pictures are extremely disturbing and makes me feel bad that these aged, disabled people are made into believing miracles.
Not a single contradiction
... but many.
As long is they are drunk and having fun, hey who am I to say. Different strokes...
A wicked generation seeks a sign.
Acts 2:22: Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him...
Fair's fair after all...
My mom went on a tour of religious sites in Italy sponsored by her RCC. The tour guide was Fr. Kenneth Roberts of Medjugorie fame, who was (a couple of decades) later charged with the molestation of three minors in civil court. Most of the others were friends from her widow's support group. They went to the Vatican, and a bunch of other places I don't remember, except San Paolo alle Tre Fontane, where Paul was supposedly beheaded. His head bounced three times, and three fountains of water sprang up.
Utter crap, and yes, she was a lifelong Catholic to the point of delusions like this. She had also been recently widowed and found out she had leukemia. It meant so much to her to see these places, and she had a wonderful time. I'm glad she went, even though it was all a bunch of hooey.
Bartender of drunken thieves and killers
Drinking blood cocktails and eating the olive eye balls with a stick
The screaming banshee is you. Shut up please
Cranking sausage like pasta like play doe in my kindergarten class where one little boy got to drink grape juice because he was allergic to milk
Special. That is what he was, spinning with crackling promise. A good meal, one less believer to waste paper and talk all about nothing not something which would be something, not nothing.
The screaming bartender is without remorse or empathy. He sees you and you are older.
time for your meds.
Dyslexic doG, just because you don't understand something does not immediately cast the blame elsewhere.
please explain
You seem to think my meds (and I take a generous portion of meds I can assure you) are the cause of my lament to elderly alcoholic Christians, but it was actually an infection.
get well soon 🙂
I really dig it, Kate Apple Bush.
All starless and bible black.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. - James 5:14-16
what a crock your religion is!!!
If you faith you will receive healing, why does that bother you?
all evidence to the contrary!
why does evidence bother you?!
'Evidence to the contrary'-Can you explain that?
God answers all prayers, some with a 'Yes', some with a 'No' and some with 'later on'
@David Jeremiah,
Some people with faith are not cured.
Some people without faith are cured.
This seems to contradict your statement.
Anthony, congrats on a perfect sarcastic delivery.
@ David,
He can't. If I were you I wouldn't waste my time with him.
Antony that is just another way of saying that prayer is useless.
prayer is useless
Dog,
The crippled are not allowed to worship, dont you know that?
Leviticus 21:18-21
18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God.
John 14:13-14 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it
guess all these people traveling to Lourdes haven't been praying right.
what abject foolishness!
found one
lmao
Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
guess all these people traveling to Lourdes haven't been asking or believing.
what a crock your religion is!!!
trollin trollin trollin
Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
guess all these people traveling to Lourdes haven't been asking.
what a crock your religion is!!!
Troll. Do you have any other objective than picking a fight?
not picking a fight, just quoting from a silly book.
do you have anything to add to the dialogue or are you amusing yourself trying to be witty?
" not picking a fight " what a crock!!!!! That is all you do all day long. I check on here about once every two weeks or so, and I ALWAYS see you trying to pick a fight. Troll Spotter nailed you right on.
amusing myself at your need to be heard. Your opinion is simple, not much to add. You just can't move on and it's hilarious. Go cry-bate
cry-bate?
think real hard my apprentice and you will learn the meaning of cry-bate
Matthew 7:7 ”Ask, and it will be given to you seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
guess all these people traveling to Lourdes haven't been praying.
what a crock your religion is!!!
TROLL. back for more trollin I see. Dd-"I don't believe in God, therefore, everyone that does is stupid and foolish and I must make sure they know my opinion because I matter so much." Weird how I just read your mind
ROTFLMAO
shut the he11 up Mellow, who asked you?!
person above has nothing witty to say so stealing my handle. I can live with it. glad you enjoyed the original troll spotter comments.
I am glad that at least we both believe that everyone who believes in god is stupid. thanks for your support.
appreciate the stolen handle. thanks for the compliment. I found it witty as well. can be confusing tho so you know the real troll spotter from the fake one cause the real one has no agenda. Could care less what people believe.
You are fooling no one moron.