religion
clock | September 1, 2006The old guy is keeping up with the times, I see, going all high-tech on us.
pharyngula | August 31, 2006The Vatican has a chief exorcist. There is an International Association of Exorcists. They believe Hitler was possessed by a demon and tried a long-distance exorcism. Oh, and Harry Potter is evil.
Adolf Hitler and Russian leader Stalin were possessed by the Devil, the Vatican's chief exorcist has claimed.
Father Gabriele Amorth who is Pope Benedict XVI's 'caster out of demons' made his comments during an interview with Vatican Radio.
Father Amorth said: "Of course the Devil exists and he can not only possess a single person but also groups and entire populations."
Shouldn't people be ashamed…
pharyngula | August 31, 2006Wal-Mart has a policy in place to protect its customers from the obscenity and wickedness that writers put into books, yet they still have a few books on the shelves that are terribly indecent—one must assume that their censors are simply too busy to have read them to determine the unpleasantness of their content. In order to help them become more consistent, I urge everyone to sign the petition asking that one of these unsavory texts be removed immediately.
(via Aaron Kinney)
jrosenhouse | August 31, 2006Have a look at this interesting article, by Samantha Shapiro at Slate, about the decline of conservative Judaism. She writes:
Since 1886, the Jewish Theological Seminary has sought to negotiate a middle ground between Orthodox Judaism, which (to vastly oversimplify) teaches that the Torah and Rabbinic law were authored by God, and Reform Judaism, which sees obedience of Jewish law, or Halakha, as a choice, not a divine mandate. Conservative Judaism, which began as a congregational movement in 1913, attempts to bridge the gap--to affirm the divinity of ancient Jewish law but also to allow…
stcynic | August 31, 2006This one from South Dakota's governor, Michael Rounds. He issued an executive proclamation declaring July 24-30 as a week to pray for rain. A press release accompanying the proclamation said, "We are a strong people and all can provide help in many ways, whether actually fighting the fires, providing assistance to the crews, or joining together in the power of prayer." Well okay, but the ones fighting the fires are the ones actually doing something. I'm reminded of Doug Stanhope's bit about Bush's "national day of prayer" following 9/11:
"You think you're doing something? You're not. You…
pharyngula | August 30, 2006Maybe it would have been more sensible to start with the water-and-wine trick, and later work up to the walking-on-water finale.
A priest has died after trying to demonstrate how Jesus walked on water. Evangelist preacher Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle. But he drowned after walking out to sea from a beach in the capital Libreville in Gabon, west Africa. One eyewitness said: "He told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus. "He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across…
pharyngula | August 30, 2006
Am I some kind of preeevert or something? Because when I see this turtle's plastron, which some say has an image of the Virgin Mary, I see something completely different. When did a featureless tube with a nipple-like bump at the top acquire this peculiar association with virginity, I wonder?
pharyngula | August 29, 2006What a strange story: a woman donates one of her kidneys to another woman in need. Later, the recipient leaves the Christian faith. Now the donor wants her organ back.
Smith was aghast when she heard of the conversion, and she quickly wrote a letter asking Felks to re-convert to Christianity or return the organ, saying it was donated under false pretenses.
"I feel helpless," she says. "Part of my body, my DNA, is stuck inside a person who's going to hell."
There's some freaking weird theology going on here. Does she think her DNA is going to be assumed into the afterlife? Do spirits have DNA…
mikethemadbiologist | August 28, 2006It just gets weirder and weirder with Sen. George "Macaca" Allen (R-VA). It now appears that this wannabee Confederate racist is descended from a distinguished Sephardic Jewish family:
Allen's own African heritage casts a different light on the matter. Though Etty Allen seems not to have dwelled on it during her years in the spotlight as a coach's wife, she comes from the august Sephardic Jewish Lumbroso family. Her father, who was the main importer of wines and liquors in Tunis -- including the Cinzano brand -- was known in France, where he lived after World War II, as part of the family,…
pharyngula | August 28, 2006Pope Ratzi is getting ready to get medieval on the Catholic church—he's meeting this week to prepare to smack down those uppity scientists.
There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his church more closely with the theory of "intelligent design" taught in some US states. Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and nature are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Critics say it is a disguise for creationism.
If this happens, there will be much rejoicing in Seattle. The Discovery Institute hasn't made much headway…
pharyngula | August 28, 2006The Florida Baptist Witness got various candidates for office to answer a few questions. They're bad questions, almost entirely focused on the issues of the religious right, but Katherine Harris clasped them to her bosom and ran with them. It's actually kind of creepy.
The Bible says we are to be salt and light. And salt and light means not just in the church and not just as a teacher or as a pastor or a banker or a lawyer, but in government and we have to have elected officials in government and we have to have the faithful in government and over time, that lie we have been told, the…
jrosenhouse | August 27, 2006David Heddle provides a typical example of the mental gymnastics required to believe that God is all -knowing and all-powerful. He writes:
Many of you know I live in a small town in New Hampshire. In a month or so, the scenery will knock your socks off. Believers will marvel at God's creation, while unbelievers will be left without excuse.
Presumably that means without excuse for rejecting the idea of a loving God.
But then the post takes a grim turn:
I was just be-bopping down the road in my orange Honda Element, listening to demonic classic rock, when I heard a strange ka-thunk.…
mikethemadbiologist | August 24, 2006...and the Christopaths want to kill it anyway. There is a method that could be used to harvest embryonic stem cells that does not harm development of the embryo:
The new technique would be performed on a two-day-old embryo, after the fertilized egg has divided into eight cells, known as blastomeres. In fertility clinics, where the embryo is available outside the woman in the normal course of in vitro fertilization, one of these blastomeres can be removed for diagnostic tests, like for Down syndrome.
The embryo, now with seven cells, can be implanted in the woman if no defect is found. Many…
pharyngula | August 23, 2006Douglas Theobald passed along an interesting collection of quotes from that atheist evolutionist, Adolph Hitler. It's particularly interesting the he outlawed atheist and freethought groups in 1933.
It's a long list of quotes, so I'll tuck it below the fold.
"The anti-Semitism of the new movement (Christian Social movement)
was based on religious ideas instead of racial knowledge."
[Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf", Vol. 1, Chapter 3]
"I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty
Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work."
[Adolph Hitler, Speech,…
razib | August 23, 2006Heater Mac Donald has a lengthy follow up article where she responds to her critics.
pharyngula | August 23, 2006George Coyne, the Vatican astronomer, has been sacked. Red State Rabble and John Wilkins speak out on it.
They cite one source condescendingly claiming that Coyne "appointed himself an expert in evolutionary biology," while Bruce Chapman of the Discovery Institute (speaking of unqualified gits appointing themselves the status of 'expert') calls Coyne an "evangelizing Darwinist," and blames his fall on his radical theology. It seems to me that Coyne was actually a highly qualified scientist who was well-informed about the general principles of science, and who informed the Vatican about the…
clock | August 22, 2006Apparently, there is more to this story than the first news articles revealed. Yes, Mrs. Lambert was fired and the Timothy from the Bible was cited, but only as a stupid cover-up.
clock | August 22, 2006Mr.WD posted the second part of his essay on Postmodern Christianity, focusing this time on the Exodus sermon by Rob Bell.