This illustrates, rather neatly, how religious ideas and practices can change over time.

"An interesting New Religious Movement, in France, of the late 18thC was that founded by the person known only as 'Le Frere de Aix' who was a member of a religious order suppressed during the Terror and who had come from a monastery in Aix en Provence.
His movement which was at first quite orthodox, changed after his death (something of a feature of NRMs) and when investigated by Rome,in 1860,had changed sufficiently to cause some concern. Although not condemned,its members were cautioned about some of their beliefs and practices.
By 1900 the movement had spread throughout France.In the 1930s they adopted the name 'Les Freres de la Compagnie de Aix en Provence'(The Brothers of the Company of ---).This name was found to be a bit top-heavy and was shortened to 'Les Freres de Cie.Aix'(Cie. being the abbreviation of Compagnie and 'en Provence' was dropped as superfluous. The recording of this name changing, though tedious, has an important bearing on the outcome.
Trouble was brewing on another front and after lengthy discussions with the Vatican over concerns about Gnostic teachings that some members were propounding, a number of such members, who refused to conform, were expelled. These moved, as a group, to French North Africa in 1938 and little was heard of them till after the war(other non-religious events had been more in the news).
In 1946 they had strayed far from the original teachings and had become somewhat sexually orientated in both teachings and religious practice; this led to another name change and this group became known as the Afro de Cie Aix

I'd like to see superstition consigned to the history books.
There should be a superstition tax & a fine everytime someone mentions religion.
This is 2014 not the dark ages if I'm not mistaken although we do seem to be approaching new dark ages in mentality.

Quite right too Individual !

Is Mise, I wouldn't call that 'movement' a progression at all.
Regression springs to mind first.

It reminded me of Scientology actually.
Although believing that beings from outer space populated the earth is no more crazy than the teachings of other religions I guess.

'I'd like to see superstition consigned to the history books.
There should be a superstition tax & a fine everytime someone mentions religion. '

yep good old stalinist philosophy Individual. No amount of denial by god deniers can hide the obvious. Murder will be murder, adultery adultry, fornication fornication. Frothing at the mouth, covering ones eyes and waving puny fists at God is idiotic at best.

Is Mise,
Why copy the lot from http://svc203.wic019v.server-web.com/ethics_forum/printer_friendly_posts.asp?TID=3389? Why not just give the link for those interested? It would have probably saved you the predictable reactions.

runner,
Up to about your usual standard.

You always overlook that the Christian religion brought us the Dark and nearly dark Middle Ages starting with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria and the brutal murder of Hypatia simply because she believed in the power of philosophy (clear thinking).

You also are capable of turning a blind eye to the execution of whole societies that didn't toe the religious crap line of whatever nut cases were leading the various "churches" in each era.

You claim Christianity leads to decent morals. Where were those right to life morals when three young men lost there lives being bled out in an effort to save the life of pope Innocent VIII, reputedly the father of 16 illegitimate children and one of the more evil men of all time.

Is Mise I do not understand any religion, they all have faults to extreme faults. The quicker these institutions are no longer funded with public money the better. One religion in particular has caused big problems for decades.
I say the world would be a better place without any of them.

'Where were those right to life morals when three young men lost there lives being bled out in an effort to save the life of pope Innocent VIII, reputedly the father of 16 illegitimate children and one of the more evil men of all time. '

I suspect like the secularist who kill the unborn daily Foyle, that these men acted as if they were never going to held to account by God. People naive enough to believe they aren't being held to account by God act like Stalin and kill or those who oppose their views. Yep false religion mand no religion is very similar in outcome.

George,

All that I got from that link was

"Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a000d'

Type mismatch: 'CLng'

/ethics_forum/printer_friendly_posts.asp, line 93"

??

Two leaders of the Afro de Cie Aix in this century are one Crocin and Melanotan II (I have no information on a Melanotan I, the name may have been plain Melanotan).
Both are reputed to be good workers in their cause although Crocin is said to a bit of a rat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanotan_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocin

Interesting point.
I read somewhere recently that there over 100,000 registered not-for-profit churches in Australia.
Yes 100,000
Makes you wonder doesn't it?

chrisgaff1000,
100,000 non for profit Church organisations in Australia.So what it that supposed to mean to the subject. Find out what they do to support community; otherwise your attitude demonstrates ignorance. If you have no answer to provide alternative services not publicly funded to what they provide then it demonstrates a small mind.

579,

Religions have done a lot of good in the world and although the Catholic Church rejects Afro de Cie Aix, and all of them were certainly not good, there have been a considerable number that lived up to high, if not the highest, standards and Melanotan II is said to be a good representative of this particular group.

"Religions have done a lot of good in the world."
Name one.

Catholicism, they took over all the leprosariums that the athiests could no longer manage.

Plus, "The Roman Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of health care services in the world.[1] Its involvement in the field is born of Catholic social teaching. From ancient times, Christian emphasis on practical charity gave rise to the development of systematic nursing and hospitals and the Church remains heavily engaged in the field."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_health_care

'"Religions have done a lot of good in the world."
Name one.

TheAtheist

showed up how morally bankrupt athiesm is.

Josephus,
That's about 90,000 false pretenders sucking cash for their lifestyle out of the pockets of poor lost souls just because they can and there is no one to oversee their con.

On a world scale we might look at just one Catholic organizatidn

"The Society [of St. Vincent De Paul] numbers about 700,000 members in some 148 countries worldwide, whose members operate through "conferences". A conference may be based out of a church, community center, school, hospital, etc., and is composed of Catholic volunteers who dedicate their time and resources to help those in need in their community. Non-Catholics may join with the understanding that the society is a Catholic organization. Following the changes in the new Code of Canon Law of 1983, the Society is one of many private lay associations under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for the Laity."

The well known local Australian St V de P also do rather a bit.
Their current financial statement may be found at

http://www.vinnies.org.au/icms_docs/169622_Annual_Report_2011-_2012.pdf

on the last page.

Is Mise,
Well, it somehow disappeared from http://svc203.wic019v.server-web.com, but the text can also be found in http://www.milsurpafterhours.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9723.

Otherwise I agree with you, only I think there is not much point arguing with people who do not allow facts to interfere with their prejudices, whatever personal experience might explain them.

George,

Thanks, an interesting link, 'Aughnanure' and I have a lot in common, everything in fact.
The Milsurpians are quick and I've been in the corner a few times.

To be fair, in amongst the group of all of the people that I have ever come across, from the religious castes by far and away have I encountered the most giving, the most empathic, the most sensitive and those most capable of great acts of outreach.

However, when they become political and the partners of politicians, then clearly there remain some most foul and repressive elements.

Now, to dish it up raw and hypothetically, if an individual or group where to come in on Sunday to Mass with attack dogs, and set them upon the congregation in a frenzy of blood and gore, no doubt there would be shock, horror, grief and outrage

AND

the animals would be destroyed and their owners severely punished.

Now, don't you think that by knowingly hiding and covering up what they knew, allegedly which was not merely the decisions of wayward bishops but rather an orchestrated affair which came down all the way from the head of those organisations to which it applies, and then transferred some of them into different parishes and did thereby set them upon the unsuspecting people in those areas,

THAT in principle that these 2 Acts have a lot in common?

I have for some time now being making inquiries with people who profess to be staunch right wing religious types about this. Thus far, they have all assured me with great conviction that at the root of all of this is homosexuals and homosexual behavior.

And then some time ago, we had a media report about a religious school here in Aust which openly and publicly states on its website that homosexuality is an abomination. And then, to add salt into the wound, we have our own tony abbott and christopher pyne telling us all about what is great with this school.

If they are willing to turn a blind eye to pedophilia then that lends credence to the claim that they also turn a blind eye to what some people call "poofter bashing" and this no doubt contributes to some young emerging gay kids falling into despair and mental illness, with even suicide being reported as a direct consequence of the persistent bullying etc which the staff at those places in which this occurs are either unwilling or unable to stop.

And here, wave after wave of these homophobes seek to suppress discussion of such matters, do not speak of such things themselves but seem rather bent on wanting to tell us all how bad gay marriage etc is.

All the while, we have successive ugly australian guvments locking up people and children without charge or trial in circumstances known to produce adverse medical outcomes, by simply making a rule that states that the normal rules don't apply to the people in question.

showed up how morally bankrupt athiesm is."

At least I can spell atheism.

Can you give an example. For every example you give I can give you two showing how corrupt religion is.

There are bad people on both sides of the fence.

Atheist,

I usually spell it correctly, however thank you for shewing me that I'd made an error, please feel free to correct at any time.

I am tempted to enter competition with you on a tit for tat basis but I think that that would be more appropriate in a serious thread because this one is a bit of a joke.

Is Mise.
Anybody can contact me directly at theatheist@iinet.net.au

The Atheist,

Why on Earth, or perhaps, why in Heaven's Name would I want to do that?

Let's keep the humour public.

Is not wise,

No one said you had to.

The offer is there though.

It is wise to keep the humour public; how else are those that are laughing going to keep seeing the joke?

Is not Wise,

Just keep posting it makes everybody laugh.

I'm glad that you find it humourous but to what do you refer as humourous?

Surely not the Afro De Cie Aix for they aren't humourous per se.

579. One religion in particular has caused problems for decades.

Recently the 'Charities and not for profit commission' was abolished. Despite large amounts of fraud and corruption allegations being presented to them, and 55 current cases. 100 employees making progress, revealing those abusing their position.
The Charities 'watchdog' was 'bitterly opposed by the Catholic charities'. Abbott surely not.

jodelie,

What has that got to do with the Afro De Cie Aix?

It cannot possibly apply to them.

In 1946 they had strayed far from the original teachings and had become somewhat sexually orientated in both teachings and religious practice.
So this is where the clergy gets their favouritism of alter boys.

The Atheist,

"So this is where the clergy gets their favouritism of alter [sic] boys."

Given your penchant for correct spelling can one assume that the above apparent misspelling is a play on words

Is wise.
You are right - it should read altar.

TheAtheist,

Do you use a Dvorak keyboard?

No

Time to bring this thread to a satisfactory conclusion and time to acknowledge the astuteness of the regular posters who got the joke and did not post:

Afro De Cie Aix -- Aphrodisiacs.

Melanotan II and Crocin were a giveaway clue but obviously prejudice overcame common sense.

However you're in good company because the OP had a similar, though more scholarly, effect when I posted it on Religious Studies at one of our prominent universities some years ago, but on a firearms enthusiasts' forum the joke was immediately picked up...says something! http://www.milsurpafterhours.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9723

Merda taurorum animas conturbit et parva leves capiunt animas.