religion
mikethemadbiologist | October 17, 2006Howard Friedman has a nice roundup of the Boston Globe series of articles, "Exporting Faith", which is all about how the intrusion of sectarian dogma is screwing up our foreign spending. It's a good read.
razib | October 16, 2006Josh Rosenau has a review of The God Delusion which is, I think, a little bit harder on Richard Dawkins than I. The comments are hopping, so you should check it out!
Let me reiterate my general position re: Dawkins & The God Delusion:
My own personal assessment of the universe as it is resembles that of Dawkins
My own assessment of the nature of religious belief is similar to that of Dawkins, insofar as I believe it is a byproduct of proximate cognitive features which have their ultimate origins in our evolutionary history
My own attitude is one of general hostility toward religious…
oracknows | October 15, 2006While I'm on the topic of tacky design in a Christian website, what about tacky religious art? Everyone knows that He comes in many guises. One in particular that interests me as a surgeon is this one:
As a surgeon, I'd have to hope that Jesus is somehow completely sterile, because he's contaminating the surgical field in the photo above.
But the following is one of my all-time favorites:
I didn't realize that Jesus was such a bad-ass.
(Via Hokum-Balderdash Assay.)
oracknows | October 15, 2006Accept Jesus, Forever Forgiven?
Maybe, but I suspect that even the most devout Christian would doubt whethere even Jesus Himself would see fit to forgive the headache- and seizure-inducing design of the front page of this particular Christian site.
Don't come complaining to me if you need to lie down and take some aspirin after viewing the rather--uh--colorful site at the link above. You have been warned.
Maybe you would find this more soothing instead.
razib | October 14, 2006The New York Times has an article titled Across Europe, Worries on Islam Spread to Center. It is a string of anecdotes and examples which show that criticism of Islam is now becoming acceptable in non-extremist circles. I am frankly pleased by this. Consider:
Whatever the motivations, "the reality is that views on both sides are becoming more extreme," said Imam Wahid Pedersen, a prominent Dane who is a convert to Islam. "It has become politically correct to attack Islam, and this is making it hard for moderates on both sides to remain reasonable." Mr. Pedersen fears that onetime moderates…
mikethemadbiologist | October 14, 2006Apparently, I'm not the only one who sees South Dakota's ban on virtually all abortions as an assault on the First Amendment. By way of feministing comes this flier that Native American women are circulating:
Now if only Democrats weren't so afraid to talk like this.
clock | October 13, 2006Great catch by Radical Russ,Thursday night on Scarborough:
O'DONNELL: Is there anyone on this panel who believes that every Jew on earth is going to burn in hell forever if they do not accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior? Do any of us believe that?
HOLT: But you're attacking Christians. You don't have a reason to attack Christians!
O'DONNELL: Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Because if you do, you're a nut!
HOLT: And you've used the word "nut" probably a hundred times in the last seven-and-a-half minutes, and I don't know why.
SCARBOROUGH: And I will just say that I go to…
mikethemadbiologist | October 13, 2006...it's pretty clear the Republicans don't give a damn about America's children. There's growing evidence that the Republican political establishment doesn't believe in the Christian Right's lunacy. So all the hot air about putting intelligent design creationism into the classroom was crapola to placate the Christopath base. In other words, the Republicans were willing to degrade science education, waste time in the classroom, and divert teachers and scientists from doing their real jobs simply to maintain their grip on power.
Heckuva job, Bushists.
mikethemadbiologist | October 13, 2006
And don't forget TEH GAY!
(from oldamericancentury.org)
Because, you see, some conservatives 'discovered' that TEH GAY KONSPIRACIE is actually a covert op by the Democrats to infiltrate the Republican Party. Really. Even with top-notch pharmaceuticals, I couldn't make this lunacy up. Said lunacy belongs to the rightwing group Accuracy in Media:
The complex nature of the "dirty trick" against the Republicans over the Mark Foley scandal is beginning to emerge. It doesn't involve a George Soros-funded group or emails that had been in the possession of the media or shopped around by…
oracknows | October 12, 2006These days, I tend to detest Michael Moore almost as much as I detest Ann Coulter. However, as they say, a stopped watch is correct twice a day, and occasionally Moore can come up with something that's so spot on funny and appropriate that even I have to give him props. (This used to happen more often several years ago and happens far less often now.) In this case, it's a segment from his old show in which he took on the "Reverend" (and I use the term loosely, given Phelps' vicious and hateful spin on Christianity) Fred Phelps over his picketing of gay funerals. The video below was made well…
mikethemadbiologist | October 12, 2006Or maybe this post should have been titled "Faith-based initiatives = anti-Semitism." (I'll get to that) Keith Olbermann has a story about David Kuo's new book, Tempting Faith. Kuo worked in the Office of Faith Based initiatives in the White House and has impecable evangelical credentials. Essentially, Kuo's book details the White House's cynical use of the 'religious' right, supporting what Tucker Carlson previously claimed.
Watch the whole clip. But this quote jumped out at me:
Kuo says they tried to prove their political value by turning the once-bipartisan faith-based initiatives…
mikethemadbiologist | October 12, 2006I've stayed away from the whole religious organization tax breaks issue, mostly because others have dealt with it. But this NY Times article about the parsonage exemption pisses me off to no end (the parsonage exemption allows workers for religious organizations to deduct the cost of their housing). Here's why: I work for a secular non-profit so I don't get to deduct my rent (with the tax deduction, I would be refunded three months of rent). Quoth the Grey Lady:
He did not address the pastoral poverty argument in his court briefs, but in an interview, he noted that poorly paid inner-city…
clock | October 11, 2006Thus, you should not be blogging if you are a good Christian child. Because blogging promotes thinking!
(Hat-tip: Justin in the comments here)
clock | October 10, 2006Except that getting elected for office is not a right and saying that a Creationist is not to be trusted with governing is not bigotry.
(Hat-tip: Lindsay)
mikethemadbiologist | October 10, 2006You know the wheels are coming off the Republican Wurlitzer when Republicans, as opposed to Democrats, are engaging in public 'soul-searching.' From MSNBC, by way of Atrios:
CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in...
MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that?
CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. They live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has…
mikethemadbiologist | October 9, 2006One of the things about growing up a few decades ago as a Jewish liberal Democrat in Virginia is that I was forced to meet people who were very different from me (this is a good thing). Thus, I always find it astonishing, simply because it is so foreign to my own experience, how some people can have so little actual contact with those who are different from them.
Over at DailyKos, diarist Geiiga describes what happened while she was interviewing her fellow congregants at her Topeka, KS church--the subject was "what do you pray for?" (italics mine):
Yesterday, in the late morning, I was out…
pharyngula | October 8, 2006The NY Times has a long article that is basically a litany of the exemptions and privileges granted to religious organizations. A church-based daycare, for instance, has none of the licensing requirements of a private daycare, and doesn't have to meet any of the standards of a non-religious establishment, nor does it have to worry about civil rights requirements…and it's protected from lawsuits.
The practice of granting churches ever more special rights is accelerating, too, since legislators are always willing to hand over more to the pious frauds. Wouldn't want to be thought disrespectful…
razib | October 8, 2006The Economist has a review of The God Delusion up, and it concludes:
First, Mr Dawkins wants to subvert the mode of transmission between parent and child. He calls a religious upbringing a form of indoctrination and equates it to child abuse. He wants to encourage a change in the Zeitgeist, so that when people hear the words "a Catholic child", or "a Muslim child", they will wince, and ask how a child could already have formed independent opinions on transubstantiation or jihad.
When I reviewed The God Delusion I said that I wasn't really going to address the issue of parent-child…
razib | October 7, 2006Darwin Catholic comments on "The God Gene." More broadly he comments on the quest for a naturalistic model of religiosity.