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God vs. Atheism: Um, Are There Maybe Other Choices?

[ Add A Comment ]Posted on September 27, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Is it just possible that science is as much a faith as religion? Or that there’s a place between atheism and biblical literalism?

It’s interesting how theism vs. atheism has become such a hot topic over the past decade or so. It’s such a heated topic for some people that I, for one, am pretty sure I have a couple of friends who aren’t speaking to me because they don’t take the time to understand why I think rigid atheism is as ignorant and dangerous as religious fundamentalism. The WSJ piece Man vs. God – in which Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins take turns discussing their respective beliefs – is one of the most rational discourses I’ve read in a while. As a person who believes in reason and science but who also has a certain sort of belief in a greater consciousness that I find convenient to call “God”, I’m repeatedly befuddled by the two extremes of this debate. If you’re taking a truly rational, scientific point of view, you simply cannot legitimately deny the existence of God, or even Santa Claus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, for that matter. You simply cannot prove empirically that they don’t exist. That doesn’t mean you have to believe in them, it’s just a simple fact that you can’t absolutely deny their existence. And if you’re using science as the basis for your beliefs, you’ll also have to accept the fact that the theory of evolution is just that: A THEORY. On the other hand, if you’re a rabid creationist or some other kind of fundamentalist, you’re kind of in luck, because with your utter lack of reason and magic fairy thinking, ANYTHING is possible. Heck. You might even believe you’re Jesus and get away with it when your concept of reason is that lax. So what do you think? Absolute Atheist? Somewhere in Between? Or Was The Earth Absolutely Created In Seven Days? Take the poll below… Read the rest of this entry »

Does God Really Hate Fags?

[ Add A Comment ]Posted on June 7, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

And in a world in which rape is part of the manufacturing process for cell phones, do we maybe have more pressing issues to discuss?


If I didn’t know better, I
might be inclined to think
this man were gay himself

One of the only things I really want in life is to understand people, and to be understood. I think this is true for many of us. Understanding is a lot like love, and I feel safe in saying, therefore, that all many of us want is to love and be loved. When you have a lot of love and understanding, you usually find some peace, and if you put the three together, you get a great tune like What’s So Funny ’bout Peace Love & Understanding. Lately though, I’ve felt a little frustrated around two topics that come up a lot in social dialogue: God and homosexuality. On the God topic, I get frustrated because I feel like spiritual beliefs are something you share when someone asks you to do so, not something you run around screaming about. I just never see much of anything good happening whenever anybody actively expresses their beliefs about the origin and meaning of human life before it comes up through simpler conversation. And likewise, although I have close friends who pretty much cover all the gender orientations, I don’t really care much whom you want to have sex with unless you and I know each other and it’s somehow germane to the conversation. I’m just tired, really tired, of people telling me whether they believe in God or not when I didn’t ask, and people proclaiming their beliefs on homosexuality, whether they’re hatemongering freaks like Fred Phelps, the bent Baptist behind the “God Hates Fags” movement, or just a friend trying to further their civil rights in an obviously socially immature country. And all of this, it seems to me, has a simple basis: a kind of emotional immaturity that drives people to put the contradictions of life that they can’t accept into polarized perceptions Read the rest of this entry »

Jesus Camp And Why You Should Fear God

[ Add A Comment ]Posted on May 31, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Or, why Jesus Camp will be your favorite new horror film.


Though the lady in this clip speaks in
tongues, her message of “Dubya
stands for WORSHIP” gets through.

Well, if God is the one highlighted in the film Jesus Camp, you should be afraid. Very afraid. I usually find it in poor taste to denigrate the faiths of others (admittedly, I’ve made an exception for Mormons and Scientologists), but in the case of Kids In Ministry International (the organization featured in the film), I don’t see how I can keep my mouth shut. From the opening scenes, in which the rather hefty, third-generation Pentecostal preacher Becky Fischer preaches about fasting while her gut seeks escape from her waistband, to the creepy scene in which a church full of children reaches out their hands and weepingly prays to a life-size cutout of George W. Bush, the rather even-handed documentary calmy reveals a horror of child indocrination into a politicized, bellicose form of Christianity that is only equalled by the stories one hears about the madrassas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. With no voiceover or commentary, the film paints a picture of an overweight, ignorant, and self-righteous group of people convinced that their militant, idioglottic (see Becky Fischer’s bizarre and convoluted rationalization for speaking in tongues) form of Christianity will save the world from itself, and probably within a generation. If you haven’t seen a chilling horror film in a while, Jesus Camp should be on your list. Because of the friend who recommended it to me (thanks a bunch, Sasha!) I think I’ll be having nightmares tonight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sure. But Does God Believe In Christopher Hitchens?

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on January 4, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Would You Trust This Man For Spiritual Guidance? You know that old rule about how you shouldn’t discuss religion, politics, or sex in polite company? Well thank God the Internet is hardly what you’d call polite company, or I wouldn’t have much to talk about. For awhile now, I’ve found myself a little irritated by [...]


Would You Trust This Man
For Spiritual Guidance?

You know that old rule about how you shouldn’t discuss religion, politics, or sex in polite company? Well thank God the Internet is hardly what you’d call polite company, or I wouldn’t have much to talk about. For awhile now, I’ve found myself a little irritated by some of the more rabid atheists in the public eye (at least one of whom seemingly can’t be mentioned without mentioning his excessive drinking). I’ve always been aware that one of the reasons for my joy in goading atheists into a debate was that if they truly held that the foundations of their belief were logic, their side of the argument was doomed at the outset. Agnosticism is one of the predictable results of applying reason to the topic of God, but to attempt to proclaim the absolute non-existence of something is absurd. Much like saying humans have never been to the moon simply because you haven’t. This idea gets summed up nicely in the compelling book Cosmos and Psyche in a few passages where the author points out that in the final attempt to remove all projected beliefs about the universe, one is ironically forced into what is perhaps the Read the rest of this entry »

Inform Thyselves, Faithless Hordes

[ Add A Comment ]Posted on September 20, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Saturday, September 20th, 2008

Actually, you wacky atheists are a minority at 2%. Ha.

Assuming you’re American, this USA Today article points there’s a pretty good chance you don’t know much about the world’s religions. Why not take a look around for a minute? As Stephen Prothero, author of Religious Literacy points out “…more and more of our national and international questions are religiously inflected…”, so, whether you’re religious or not, these issues are affecting your life. Since it’s the holy month of Ramadan, why not start with this gorgeous Boston Globe photo essay called Observing Ramadan. For some interesting facts (bet you atheists didn’t know you’re only about 2% of the world population; the “non-religionists” are kicking your butt at almost 12% ), check out the obligatory Wikipedia page, which has some interesting graphs and breakdowns by country or religion. And, for a quick insight into why people are killing people for God all the time, check out this Islam 101 page, where in a simple and respectful breakdown of core beliefs, the statement pretty quickly gets made that “God says we’re right and you’re wrong”.

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