India has trouble with it's religiously insane too

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LC10Df01.html


Politicians in bed with India's 'pimp gurus'


His silk robes, ornate turbans and high-end imported sedans belie his status as "god-man", a Hindu ascetic who guides people in their spiritual quest. In fact, the personalized carriage that chugs around a specially laid railway track in his ashram, as well as his sprawling farms, dairies, factories, bakeries, schools and floating, revolving restaurant, all point to a life of luxury.

Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim is the head of Dera Sacha Sauda, a religious sect in Sirsa (a city in the west of Haryana state, about 255 kilometers from New Delhi) that has millions of disciples. He is a prime example of why notoriety follows India's self-proclaimed "god-men".

When the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's central investigative agency, recently charged him in connection with the murder of Faqir Chand, a former associate in the Dera Sacha Sauda, his followers went on a rampage, bringing life to a standstill in parts of Punjab and Haryana states.

After passenger trains and the Punjab finance minister's bus were set alight, additional police forces had to be drafted in with fire extinguishers as rumors spread that the Baba's devotees planned to self-immolate.

It is not the first time that the police's attempts to detain Baba Gurmeet have led to riots. Last year, his private guards were accused of shooting a Sikh dead in Mumbai, leading to mass unrest. Disciples also protested in 2008 when the CBI implicated him in two murders and the rape of a sadhvi (female disciple).

-snip-

"Politicians still patronize him for votes. That is why his supporters can indulge in arson and rioting and the police stay away from him," said Anshul Chhatrapati, the son of Ramchander Chhatrapati.

-snip-

Besides Gurmeet, other religious gurus have recently been implicated in unsavory episodes that purportedly involved police and politicians.

Swami Nithyananda, a god-man who has a large following in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was last week filmed cavorting with an unidentified Tamil actress in a television sting operation - he is now on the run. His ashram has said the video footage, run by a television channel, is "fake".

-snip-

"Most of them are not . They're charlatans. I don't know why people fall for them," Dipankar Gupta, a former sociology professor at Jawarhalal Nehru University in New Delhi told Agence France Presse over the Karnataka sex scandal.

-snip-

Not all are dismayed at the recent scandals. Sanal Edamaruku, head of the Indian Rationalist Association, who has campaigned for years to expose false gurus, told the Straits Times that they are part of new awareness developing in India over the god-men. "I am very, very happy about it," he said.
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sounds just like our problems with the religiously insane barons and their duped followers

[renie408]

1. I think religious insanity is a problem wherever you find it...or maybe just insanity

in general?

[Taverner]

2. Dawkins thinks it stems from adults refusing to give up their imaginary friends

And just renaming them from "Davey the Invisible Unicorn" to your god or god-man of choice

[renie408]

8. LOL...

I think religion served an evolutionary purpose and now it doesn't. Unfortunately, a WHOLE lot of us still have the wiring and sometimes that wiring gets a short in it. And that's where fundamentalists come from.

[Initech]

7. I think religious insanity is a disease.

People are so blinded by it and it creates a lot of problems for people. It isn't just related to Christianity and Islam - all religions are affected by it.

[renie408]

9. Or is a more garden variety insanity the disease and religion is the outlet?

I could get behind that theory, too.

[ensho]

11. I knew a man who, when he went off meds, became religiously insane

it was amazing.

[Initech]

12. Interesting theory. Either way I think insanity is a by-product of religion and vice-versa.

[piratefish08]

3. War and murder will continue until one God is proven beyond a doubt to have the bigger dick.

There can only be One.

[Warpy]

4. Charismatic psychopaths love religion

because it supplies them with a never ending stream of suckers who are willing to trust all the bullying and manipulation will lead to something better than what they have.

It's hard not to feel sorry for people who have been sucked into this stuff. The worse they behave, the sorrier I feel for them.

The psychopaths, of course, should be locked up.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

6. BINGO

[Initech]

13. Yup. Does that include famous dictators like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Pinochet, and so on

[HowHasItComeToThis]

5. THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE A LIVING

[renie408]

10. L. Ron....is that you?? n/t