Today In Religion

Talks and debates

2010-04-07T17:33:00.004-04:00

According to Sam Harris' bio on TED.com:

Adored by secularists, feared by the pious, Sam Harris' best-selling books argue that religion is ruinous and, worse, stupid -- and that questioning religious faith might just save civilization.

Here's a new talk by Harris, the author of the best-selling The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation.

Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions

A bonus:
Sam Harris and Michael Shermer recently debated Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston on the subject of "Does God have a future?"

Enjoy!
The Nightline Debate

Faith-based hatred

2010-04-07T16:50:00.008-04:00

Science writer Clay Farris Naff wrote a marvelous essay in the Huffington Post, in which he makes a case for his belief that "at this historical moment it is in religion that hatred finds its most powerful and all-consuming expression."

Naff cites these examples of faith-based hatred:

The notorious Westboro Baptist Church, whose members picket funerals of U.S. soldiers because "God hates fags." And God also apparently hates Jews.
Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur have published a new exegesis of the Torah in which the prohibition "Thou Shalt Not Murder" applies only "to a Jew who kills a Jew."
One Muhammad Hussein Yaaqub went on Egyptian TV to assure viewers that "The Jews are our enemies. Allah will annihilate them at our hands."
Apparently, God also hates President Obama, according to preacher Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church.

(By the way, Obama is not the antiChrist. Pat Robertson says so. He says the antiChrist is probably a Jew who lives in Israel today.)

Naff says:

If you suspect, as I do, that religion evolved as a human trait that conferred advantage on groups by increasing solidarity in the competition against other groups, then it's all too easy to see how hatred would become an enduring feature of religion.

The vast majority of conflicts have at its root some kind of religious reason. People have been cherry-picking their respective holy books for reasons to hate, and reasons why our in-group supposedly is superior to all other out-groups.

Think of how peaceful the world would be if, in a triumphant moment of rationalism, we got rid of organized religion. Instead of all kinds of "us-versus-them" reasons to hate, we just follow the universal ethical rule to be kind to all people. Will that day come?

"God hates fags"

2010-04-01T17:46:00.008-04:00

Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, as some of you may know, is the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, the ragtag group of idiots and loons who "protest" at U.S. soldiers funerals. They claim that U.S. soldiers die in Iraq and Afghanistan because the U.S. military tolerates gays and lesbians. So, God is punishing them by killing them.

Michael Smerconish, columnist of the Philadelphia Daily News, sums up one such case: Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder died in combat in Iraq on March 3, 2006. At his funeral, his family had to endure the demented rantings of the Westboro Baptist Church, their placards that said "God Hates the USA," "Fag Troops" and "You're Going to Hell."

Al Snyder, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, sued Phelps and Westboro Baptist. He won a $10.9 million award from a jury that was later reduced by the court to $5 million. Westboro Baptist, of Topeka, Kansas, appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the trial court's verdict. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

In the meantime, Snyder (the father), as the losing party in the federal appellate case, is responsible for $16,510 in legal costs of his opponents. Smerconish has written a column urging his readers to donate money and help Snyder pay these costs.

I am not a lawyer, and I don't know if an exemption to the First Amendment can be made for offensive speech at military funerals. That's a question for the U.S. Supreme Court.

I'm only interested in the tired old saw that religious people are more moral. I came across a video by the BBC about the Phelps family who heads this group. Granted, this is an extreme example. But anyone who believes anything religion tells him, on little or no evidence, is guilty of the same thing. It's only a question of degree. Some people who are religious are upstanding citizens. Some use their religion to justify killing others. People have been cherry-picking their respective holy books to justify anything, good or bad. Why not discard the holy books and just be good to everyone?

This is the video.

By the way, "Reverend" Phelps' estranged son Nate tells his story in an article called "Dad, the hateful preacher." He has a blog. And, "for those of you who suffer or who have suffered the effects of being raised in a fundamentalist environment, please join myself and Brother Richard at our Support group, "Life After Christian Fundamentalism."

Mayhem in the name of God

2010-03-29T17:08:00.003-04:00

Another day. Another slew of reports about mayhem in the name of God.

Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up Monday in twin attacks on the Moscow subway, killing at least 38 and wounding at least 60, according to the Associated Press. The carnage blamed on rebels from the Caucasus region follows the killings of several high-profile Islamic militant leaders there. The rebels receive moral and perhaps financial support from al-Qaeda.
The New York Times reports that 9 members of the Michigan-based Christian militia group were arrested and indicted on sedition and weapons charges linked to an alleged plot. They were reportedly planning to to murder law enforcement officers in hopes of setting off an anti-government uprising.

And, oh, this week is Holy Week. Holy Week for Christians is a perfect time for contrition -- except when you're the Pope. Then you're exempt. Reuters says Pope Benedict (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) is undeterred by the latest pedophile-priest sex abuse scandals. In his sermon on Palm Sunday, he credits faith as helping to lead "toward the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion."

Petty gossip my ass.

According to the Reuters article:

Until the mid-1990s, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger seemed to share a widespread view in the hierarchy that sexual misconduct by priests -- even pedophilia -- could be cured by proper doses of Christian forgiveness and modern therapy.

Pedophilia is a crime. If they weren't priests, they would have been hauled in jail immediately. They can give these criminal priests all the "Christian forgiveness and modern therapy" they need -- but as long as they're locked away in prison and can no longer ruin the lives of children.

Pope Benedict headed an office (before his election as pope) that repeatedly didn't do the right thing when confronted by examples of flagrant sex abuse. In a letter to Irish Catholics, he blamed the Irish bishops for failing to apply church law to stop abusive priests. The Vatican has blamed the media for focusing on the pope. When you're the pope, you can blame everybody else.

British protesters in London are calling for the pope to resign. I don't know about the arcane rules of the Roman Catholic church, but if he were the CEO of a business, and he knew that sex abuse of children was taking place on his company's premises, he would lose his job in a heartbeat.

Nothing honorable about this killing

2010-02-05T20:26:00.005-05:00

I thought Turkey was relatively secular and modern. Evidently I was wrong. Or maybe there are two Turkeys, the secular and modern big-city version, and the deeply religious and impoverished one.

Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives, according to The Guardian. The apparent crime was done in an "honor" killing, carried out as punishment for talking to boys.

Her father and grandfather are said to have been arrested and held in custody pending trial. It is unclear whether they have been charged. The girl's mother was arrested but was later released.
Media reports said the father had told relatives he was unhappy that his daughter – one of nine children – had male friends. The grandfather is said to have beaten her for having relations with the opposite sex.

The murderers killed a girl because she was talking to a boy? Unconscionable. But let's not single out Turkey. The United States also has its version of the Taliban. It's called the Religious Right.

As of this moment, they plan to run a commercial during this Sunday's Super Bowl attacking abortion rights. (As for the group Focus on the Family, who is paying for the ad, I can quote a bumper sticker that I saw once: "Focus on your own damn family.")

The details of the case are blood-curdling. A post-mortem examination showed "large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she had been alive and conscious while being buried." (Italics mine.)

What is it about the ultra-religious of every cultural background that they can justify the oppression of women?

Asian-Americans least religious, more liberal

2010-02-05T17:58:00.008-05:00

Check out this Gallup poll that says Asian Americans are less religious than other racial, ethnic groups:

Generally speaking, Americans who are less religious tend to be more Democratic and more liberal than Americans who are more religious, and Asians seem to follow this pattern. Comparatively, Asian-Americans tend to be less religious than those in other racial or ethnic groups. For example, just over half of Asians say religion is an important part of their daily lives, significantly lower than the percentage of whites, blacks, or Hispanics who say this.

The poll is about Americans' political leanings. Asian-Americans tend to be more Democratic and more liberal than average Americans, and supported Barack Obama over John McCain by a roughly 2-to-1 margin.

Oh, incidentally, Asian-Americans also had the highest levels of education, according to wikipedia. Maybe that partially explains their lack of religiosity?

36 Arguments for the Existence of God

2010-01-23T20:16:00.008-05:00

Philosophy professor Rebecca Goldstein -- a 1996 winner of the MacArthur Award (also known as the "genius" award) who earned her Ph.D. at Princeton-- has written a new novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God -- A Work of Fiction.

From the Publishers Weekly editorial review:

Cass Seltzer, a university professor specializing in the psychology of religion, hits the big time with a bestselling book and an offer to teach at Harvard—quite a step up from his current position at Frankfurter University. While waiting for his girlfriend to return from a conference, Cass receives an unexpected visit from Roz Margolis, whom he dated 20 years earlier and who looks as good now as she ever did. Her secret: dedicating her substantial smarts to unlocking the secrets of immortality. Cass's recent success and Roz's sudden appearance send him into contemplation of the tumultuous events of his past, involving his former mentor, his failed first marriage and a young mathematical prodigy whose talent may go unrealized, culminating in a standing-room-only debate with a formidable opponent where Cass must reconcile his new, unfamiliar life with his experience of himself. Irreverent and witty, Goldstein seamlessly weaves philosophy into this lively and colorful chronicle of intellectual and emotional struggles.

Oh, by the way, she's also married to Harvard and MIT cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker.

In case you haven't had a chance to read her new novel, here's a video of Pinker interviewing Goldstein:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UZGkEn6_u0

I like Rebecca Goldstein. She told Christopher Lydon, host of Open Source from Brown University, that she's

"not very uncomfortable with some of the belittling descriptions of religious people ...
Religion and religious emotion are so much more complicated than that. One of the things that Spinoza taught us, and it's being validated finally in neuroscientific labs, is that emotions and intellect, cognitions and passion, are inextricably bound up with one another. Cognitive states are also emotional states, and emotional states make cognitive claims.."

I know intelligent people, as well as stupid people, who are religious. Goldstein quotes John Locke to Lydon on religious enthusiasm, saying: look, it's not a source of truth. It is powerful and it is ecstatic." I happen to think that most religious apologists' arguments are hogwash, but we can disagree with each other without being disagreeable. I think that if anyone can pull off a book about disagreement that does not preclude reconciliation, Goldstein can.

Grab some popcorn, watch the great debate

2010-01-23T18:38:00.006-05:00

ABC's Nightline will film "Does God Have a Future? A Great Debate".

Date: Sunday, March 14, 2010
Location: Beckman Auditorium, Caltech
Speakers: Deepak Chopra, Jean Houston, Michael Shermer and Sam Harris

From The Skeptic website:

New York Times bestselling author Deepak Chopra is an MD and board-certified Internist and endocrinologist. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and guest lecturer annually at the Update in Internal Medicine CME Course Beth Israel Hospital Boston Harvard Medical School. He directs the educational programs at the Chopra Center for Well Being. Hailed by Time magazine as one of the 100 icons of the century, and credited as "the poet-prophet of alternative medicine," Chopra is the author of more than 55 books that have been translated into 35 languages and sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
Dr. Jean Houston (B.A. from Barnard College, Ph.D. in psychology from the Union Graduate School and a Ph.D in religion from the Graduate Theological Foundation) is a scholar, philosopher and researcher in human capacities, and is one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. A powerful and dynamic speaker, she holds conferences and seminars with social leaders, educational institutions and business organizations worldwide. She is the author of 26 books including A Passion for the Possible, Search for the Beloved, Life Force, The Possible Human, Public Like a Frog, A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story, and Manual of the Peacemaker.
Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University, and the author of The Mind of the Market, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil and Why People Believe Weird Things. Dr. Shermer received his B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University. He has appeared on such shows as The Colbert Report, 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, and Larry King Live.
Dr. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist and the author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. Harris's writing has been published in over 15 languages. He is a Co-Founder and CEO of The Reason Project, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

The Bible, re-interpreted

2010-01-20T18:01:00.004-05:00

Bart Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar and textual critic of early Christianity. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

According to wikipedia,

Ehrman became an Evangelical Christian as a teen. His desire to understand the original words of the Bible led him to the study of ancient languages and to textual criticism, to which he attributes the inspiration for an ongoing critical exploration of the basis of his own religious beliefs, which in turn gradually led to the questioning of his faith in the Bible as the inerrant, unchanging word of God. He now considers himself an agnostic.

He is the author of or has contributed to more than 20 books. Last year, he published another book called Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them).

Here's Ehrman being interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's "Fresh Air".

Part1 of 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HnntlAd2x8

Part 2 of 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoQ54p6j6bc

Part 3 of 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl5K5Vj8Aog

Part 4 of 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRtS81RnU2M

Go to hell, Pat Robertson

2010-01-20T17:03:00.006-05:00

Even though I think the title "reverend" is an empty and bogus title, I wouldn't even apply it to you for fear of besmirching it.

That's how low you've sunk in the eyes of all decent human beings. You are a shameful excuse for a human being. You're senile, stupid and a racist to boot. What comes out of your mouth could charitably be described as oral diarrhea.

The death toll from the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake has exceeded 200,000. In the midst of so much suffering, Pat Robertson had this to say on his show, The 700 Club:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOQrcg9y1iA

Robertson: "Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the Devil said, okay it's a deal."

What he was referring to, allegedly, was the 1791 slave uprising against the French at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French.

Haiti's slave revolt in the 18th century was the first and only successful revolt in the Americas to overthrow oppression. And, as the Haitian ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, pointed out on the Rachel Maddow show, Robertson shows a woeful ignorance of history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A2q60qg0WA

The only responsible response to the disaster in Haiti is to help in any way you can. Donate money, as I and a lot of Americans have done. Go to Haiti to help with rescue efforts, as a lot of Americans have also done. Go to Charity Navigator to give to agencies and NGOs that work to alleviate Haiti's suffering.

Pat Robertson is supposedly something of an "expert" on Hell. Good, because he's going to be in it when he dies.

Praise the Lord, but give your money to me

2009-12-15T22:04:00.009-05:00

Pentecostal evangelist Oral Roberts died Tuesday in Newport Beach, Calif., at 91, from complications from pneumonia.

He's most famous for claiming on television in 1987 that God "would call him home" if viewers did not send him millions of dollars.

The obituary in the New York Times said:

He was the patriarch of the “prosperity gospel,” a theology that promotes the idea that Christians who pray and donate with sufficient fervency will be rewarded with health, wealth and happiness. Mr. Roberts trained and mentored several generations of younger prosperity gospel preachers who now have television and multimedia empires of their own.

The hucksters who implore you on TV to max out your credit card so that God can reward your devotion with wealth, those are the ones whom he trained.

As for his purported ability to heal, according to the obituary in New York Times: "Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and other religious denominations questioned the authenticity of the healing. In the mid-1950s, in a step that would become familiar, a group of Arizona ministers offered to pay $1,000 to anyone who had been healed by Mr. Roberts and could provide medical proof. They received no response."

Some of the comments to the NYT obituary:

He invested early in the American religion bubble and cashed out a rich man.
I remember him as one of the white evangelical leaders who fought tooth-and-nails against MLK and Civil Rights movement in the 1960s (along with Jerry Falwell).
One of the great American confidence artists. The mullahs of Iran have nothing on him.How many people did he brainwash out of their hard earned money?
One of the greatest flim-flam artists of all time!

Seems like Roberts was in the habit of talking to God or receiving visions from God. He founded Oral Roberts University in 1963, obeying a command from God. (Apparently God had no objection to his self-aggrandizingly naming it after himself. Why didn't God demand that it be named after, say, Jesus?) In 1977, according to Wikipedia, he had a vision from a 900-ft. Jesus to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center and the hospital would be a success. It operated for only eight years before folding.

Also from the wikipedia entry:

Harry McNevin said that in 1988 the ORU Board of Regents "rubber-stamped" the "use of millions in endowment money to buy a Beverly Hills property so that Oral Roberts could have a West Coast office and house." In addition he said a country club membership was purchased for the Robertses' home. The lavish expenses led to McNevin's resignation from the Board.

There's a sucker born every minute, and in the USA there are more charlatans to take advantage of them than in any other country in the planet.

Rick Warren gets his comeuppance

2009-12-11T13:25:00.003-05:00

Uh, Pastor Rick, you know that commandment that says you shouldn't bear false witness?

You just violated it.

Huffington Post explains:

On Thursday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow reviewed Rick Warren's video condemnation of an anti-gay law in Uganda. While she said the statement was "better late than never," she stated that the famous pastor came up a little short.
In his message, Warren claimed to be incredulous that his public opinion on the issue should matter. Maddow showed a clip of Warren saying he never campaigned on the issue of Proposition 8 -- followed immediately by a clip of the pastor telling supporters to vote yes on the gay marriage ban.

Here's the video:

Gotcha.

(By the way, I violently disagreed with Obama choosing Warren to speak at his inauguration. If he had to choose a Christian religious figure, why didn't he go with evangelical Christian and social-justice advocate Jim Wallis instead?)

Rick Warren has sold tens of millions of books selling his "softer" version of Christianity. That means he leavens extreme views about social issues (stem cell research, evolution, same sex marriage, abortion, etc.) with a show of concern about environmentalism and fighting poverty.

See his debate with Sam Harris (author of The End Of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation) in Newsweek, where he:

spoke out in favor of creationism. He also said that brutal dictators such as Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot were all atheists, when questioned on whether religion is beneficial to society. In 2005, during the Terri Schiavo controversy, Warren stated that withholding feeding to Schiavo, a woman in a persistent vegetative state, was "not a right to die issue". He then called Michael Schiavo's decision to remove her feeding tube, "an atrocity worthy of Nazism", and while speculating about Michael's Schiavo's motives, put forward the idea that Schiavo wanted Terri to die because, if she regained consciousness, she might have "something to say that he didn‘t want said."

I saved the best part for last. Here is a video of philosopher Daniel Dennett's secular rebuttal to Rick Warren.

Christmas Carols and blind faith

2009-12-11T13:12:00.003-05:00

But I thought Tea Partiers believed in limited government. Now they want the government to impose the singing of Christmas carols on U.S. schoolchildren? Never mind that many of them, children of U.S. taxpayers, belong to other religions like Judaism, Wicca, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.

Apparently, Merry Hyatt, of the Tea Party movement, wants to crap on the U.S. Constitution. More likely she hasn't read it. (Do these people read anything? I'm afraid to ask.)

The text of the first amendment is as follows:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Read Rachel Weiner's blog entry on it in the Huffington Post.

Not even the cemetery is safe

2009-12-11T11:39:00.004-05:00

From the New York Times comes this disturbing article by Simon Romero about robbers looting graves for human bones. Why are they doing such a gruesome thing?

Accompanying Venezuela’s soaring levels of murders and kidnappings, its cemeteries are the setting for a new kind of crime wave. Grave robbers are looting them for human bones, answering demand from some practitioners of a fast-growing transplanted Cuban religion called Palo that uses the bones in its ceremonies.

Palo, according to wikipedia, on two main pillars: 1. The veneration of the spirits of the ancestors. 2. The belief in natural ("earth") powers.

Apparently, Cubans have been going to Venezuela shortly after Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, according to the Christian Science Monitor. (Or the first wave of Cubans were fleeing the revolution in the early 1960s, according to the New York Times article.) They "provide invaluable aid in areas where Cuba's socialist revolution has made internationally recognized strides, such as health and education." But the influx of Cubans also have led to unintended consequences.

Practitioners here of Palo contend their religion is misunderstood and demonized because of the reports of chaos at the Cementerio del Sur.
They acknowledged the importance in their religion of human bones, which they place in a cauldron called a nganga, along with earth and sticks, and dedicate to a spirit, or mpungu. But paleros, as the religion’s adherents are known, shield many of their practices from outsiders.
“We must take care since it is easy to blame paleros for all the ills of Venezuela,” said Samuel Zambrano, 34, a palero leader.

Every day, it seems, brings further proof of the mayhem that religion brings.

Believers know, just know, that their religion is the best one, and all who don't believe in their religion are doomed. Their holy book, whichever it may be, is the only right one.

There is not one shred of evidence to back up their beliefs, but "you have to have faith." On the other hand, when it comes to something that is backed up by tons of evidence (like evolution), they cast the evidence aside because it's not in their holy book. And for those who believe in creationism (or "intelligent design"), check out this presentation by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, at the 2006 Beyond Belief conference.

Neil deGrasse Tyson on examples of "Stupid Design"

It does not bother them that their holy book is full of examples that the people who wrote their holy book apparently knew less about science than the average fourth-grader today.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

I don't care if people believed weird things so long as they don't force us to believe them as well or obey their religion's teachings. But when they seek to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us, I feel I have to object. And you should, too.

Oy! A rabbi in Montana!

2009-12-07T12:35:00.006-05:00

Montana?

The article, Yes, Miky, There Are Rabbis in Montana by Eric A. Stern, was on the New York Times most-emailed list.

I think the real lead is somewhat buried, so don't stop reading until you get to the end. Montana now has three rabbis -- two in Bozeman and one (LOL) in Whitefish:

They were all at the Capitol on the first night of last year to light a menorah in the ornate Capitol rotunda
The menorah was lighted and Hebrew prayers chanted, while the officer watched from a distance with his dog. He figured he would let it all go down and then move in when the ceremony was done. The dog sat at attention, watching the ceremony with a peculiar expression on its face, a look of intense interest. When the ceremony was over, the officer approached the Hasidic rabbi.
“I’m Officer John Fosket of the Helena Police,” he said. “This is Miky, our security dog. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”
Miky, pronounced Mikey, is in a Diaspora of his own. He was born in an animal shelter in Holland and shipped as a puppy to Israel, where he was trained by the Israeli Defense Forces to sniff out explosives. Then one day, Miky got a plane ticket to America. Rather than spend the standard $20,000 on a bomb dog, the Helena Police Department had shopped around and discovered that it could import a surplus bomb dog from the Israeli forces for the price of the flight. So Miky came to his new home in Helena, to join the police force.
The problem, the officer explained, was that Miky had been trained entirely in Hebrew.

The upshot was the Hasidic rabbi wound up "helping the Montana cop speak Hebrew to his dog. It is good news all around. The officer keeps the Capitol safe, and the Hebrew pooch is feeling more at home hearing his native tongue."

It's a good read. A real feel-good story. I heartily recommend it.

2nd look: "30 Days" episode

2009-12-02T17:02:00.009-05:00

Meditation teacher Jonathan Foust mentioned this episode of "30 Days" in his class recently. You have to give the guy (Dave Stacy) credit for his willingness to be ultimately open-minded. It was a very intense 30 days. He began his journey at West Virginia airport, where he was stopped by security because he was wearing Muslim garb. He had never been discriminated against or profiled before. At the beginning, he felt like a fish out of water. He really had trouble praying the Muslim way. But after 30 days he saw the Muslim-American community of Dearborn as compassionate and good people, and he realized the folly of stereotyping a whole community because of the evil actions of some.

30 Days: Muslims & America

46:26 - 1 year ago

A Christian agrees to uproot his life among his like-minded family and friends and live for 30 Days in a large Muslim community in Dearborn, Michigan. hulu.com

Pardon me while I rant

2009-12-02T15:12:00.003-05:00

Can you be good without a belief in God? I think the more pertinent question is can you be good with a belief in God.

In the Nov. 28, 2009, issue of the Washington Post, Columnist Cal Thomas wrote this in response to the American Humanist Association's new "Godless Holiday" campaign:

Actually, no God, BIG problem, because that would mean this life is all there is and, thus, without purpose or meaning and without hope for anything beyond this life. And if there is no God the very idea of "goodness" becomes relative and subject to change. Even dictators think they are doing "good."
The bigger question is: If one can be "good" without God, why bother? Indulge yourself. Be selfish. Be promiscuous. Cheat on your spouse. Cheat on your taxes. Lie and steal. Hate and destroy your enemies. If there is no God, who is to say anything is bad . . . or good?

Let's examine Thomas's argument, which is not even original in its speciousness. It's a rehash of tired old tripes that every agnostic regularly hears.

1. If a belief in God makes us good, let's examine how belief in God makes for a better society. This is what Pitzer College sociology professor Phil Zuckerman found: "We definitely find much lower concentrations of atheism and secularity in poorer, less developed nations than in the richer industrialized democracies." The following paragraphs contain data shamelessly cribbed from Zuckerman's Atheism, Secularity, and Well-Being: How the Findings of Social Science Counter Negative Stereotypes and Assumptions.

All of Africa is religious, as is also the Middle East (except Israel, where 75% are not religious. Isn't that interesting?). All of Latin America is religious, except for Argentina (39% say religion is unimportant in their lives).

Rates of atheism and secularity are markedly high in Europe, according to Zuckerman. Sweden (up to 85% non-believer) and Denmark consistently rank near the top of the most atheist countries in the world. In North America, 28% of Canadians are secular. Among Americans, the more educated they are, the more likely that they are to be atheist, agnostic or secular.

Would you rather be stuck alone as a stranger in Sweden or in Saudi Arabia? Data have consistently shown that in terms of societal health (which measures education, health care, crime rates, etc.), the more "atheistic" countries are better than more religious ones.

2. If there is no belief in an afterlife or divine punishment, why bother to be good? When was the last time you said to yourself, "I'd better not do this evil thing because I don't want to go to Hell." Be honest. I've never used that reasoning myself, and I was raised Catholic. I don't need a celestial dictator to frighten me into being good. The average Swede or Dane, I'm sure, don't even think of Hell in their daily life, and they have no trouble being for the most part ethical and good people.

3. We're wired by evolution to be good, because it's in our self-interest to cooperate with one another. We are wired by evolution for empathy and altruism. In societies, altruism benefits the giver because when others see someone behaving altruistically, they are more likely to give to that person. Nicholas Wade wrote in an article called "We May Be Born With an Urge to Help" that:

Babies are innately sociable and helpful to others. Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help.

... When infants 18 months old see an unrelated adult whose hands are full and who needs assistance opening a door or picking up a dropped clothespin, they will immediately help ... The helping behavior seems to be innate because it appears so early and before many parents start teaching children the rules of polite behavior. (Underscoring mine.)

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion," President Lincoln said. I agree.

4. If we believe "God" had told us something, it's easier to be evil. Let me tell you a story. Once there were a group of men who, based on what God supposedly told them, flew two planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. Need I say more?

U.S. physicist and Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg sums it up this way: "I think on balance the moral influence of religion has been awful. With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil. But for good people to do evil -- that takes religion."

Everything is O.K. until the apes stand up

2009-11-04T13:06:00.005-05:00

That pesky issue of evolution. Again.

On Nov. 2, 2009, the New York Times published an article called Creationism, Minus a Young Earth, Emerges in the Islamic World.

Apparently, the problem is not evolution, it's human evolution.

For many Muslims, even evolution and the notion that life flourished without the intervening hand of Allah is largely compatible with their religion. What many find unacceptable is human evolution, the idea that humans evolved from primitive primates. The Koran states that Allah created Adam, the first man, separately out of clay.

Pervez A. Hoodbhoy, a prominent atomic physicist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Pakistan, said that when he gave lectures covering the sweep of cosmological history from the Big Bang to the evolution of life on Earth, the audience listened without objection to most of it. “Everything is O.K. until the apes stand up,” Dr. Hoodbhoy said.

What jumped out at me is the notion that "a negative reaction to evolutionary theory could reflect a struggle to retain cultural traditions and values against Western influences," according to Salman Hameed, who convened the two-day conference here at Hampshire College.

That makes sense to me.

The article by Kenneth Chang goes on to say that "in the West, where non-Islamic influences are strongest, Islamic creationism may be stronger in reaction to the outside pressure." For example, "high school students at Islamic schools in and near Toronto were far more doubting of evolution than students in Indonesia or Pakistan."

In other words, the more a minority feels under threat by the majority culture of the Western society, the more it clings to its own culture. The more the minority feels beleaguered, the more it clings to its beliefs. And the more the minority clings to its beliefs (especially beliefs that are wrong), the more potential for conflict with the majority culture.

Ergo, the more tolerant the majority culture is toward minorities, the less minorities feel the need to cling to their own beliefs, etc., etc. And the less the majority culture has to fear from its minorities.

Chew on that, Lou Dobbs.

(Photo by David Jonathan Ross. Photo credit: Darwin's finches on the Islamic symbol in art work used at a conference in Massachusetts about the acceptance of evolution among Muslims.)

How to lose friends and offend everybody

2009-11-04T12:31:00.010-05:00

If you were listening to NPR on Oct. 19, 2009, you may have heard this: A Bitter Rift Divides Atheists

Last month, atheists marked Blasphemy Day at gatherings around the world, and celebrated the freedom to denigrate and insult religion.

Some offered to trade pornography for Bibles. Others de-baptized people with hair dryers. And in Washington, D.C., an art exhibit opened that shows, among other paintings, one entitled Divine Wine, where Jesus, on the cross, has blood flowing from his wound into a wine bottle.

Another, Jesus Paints His Nails, shows an effeminate Jesus after the crucifixion, applying polish to the nails that attach his hands to the cross.

It's no wonder that believers were offended. I was offended, and I'm not a believer.

You don't have to defend reason and science by insulting all religious observance. I don't know about your country, but a lot of believers in the United States belong to the "cafeteria" variety. They have mainstream values, they pick and choose what religious tenets they agree with, and they quietly don't obey the rest. (Ever heard of Catholic couples who use birth control? Or Jewish people who eat bacon?) They adhere to various forms of what is known as the Golden Rule ("Don't injure or harm others. Period.") and don't believe that people who don't agree with them should die.

Most people just follow the religion of their parents and their culture. Life is busy and full of obligations, we are all under a lot of stress, and we shouldn't get down on others because it never occurred to them to question their (and their parents') religious and cultural beliefs. They are not stupid. Not everyone has the leisure, education, interest, etc., to question their or their parents' religious beliefs. They're too busy putting food on the table for their families. As long as they obey the Golden Rule and don't impose their views on others, leave them alone.

Just ignore the more benign forms of religion and only reserve your firepower for the more virulent forms. We nonbelievers don't need to create enemies. We can argue that reason and science is on our side, but we don't have to offend potential allies (and believe me, some religious people are potential allies). If you insult people, you will end up in the lonely position of preaching to the choir, because nobody else will listen to you.

To the atheists who say there are no benign forms of religious observance, I beg to disagree. You can believe all you want that a Pink Unicorn created the universe, and it's none of my business as long as your beliefs stay inside your head. Your freedom to act on your beliefs ends at the point where my nose begins. If you try to restrict my freedoms in any way (or influence politics in such a way that will restrict my freedoms), that's another thing altogether.

So, agnostics and atheists, if you do your best to tamp down the anger between believers and non-believers, you can have a civil (and even cordial) conversation. And that's what I call a good start.

(The photo was by Dianna Douglas/NPR)

A "Collision" of beliefs

2009-10-29T17:16:00.003-04:00

Is Christianity good for the world?

Atheist author Christopher Hitchens, author of the book, "God Is Not Great," went on a debating tour last fall with evangelical Christian Pastor Douglas Wilson. They filmed their debates. The result is a documentary called Collision, directed by filmmaker Darren Doane.

“I loved the idea of putting one of the beltway’s most respected public intellectuals together with an ultra-conservative pastor from Idaho that looks like a lumberjack.”

According to the Collision website, Hitchens and Wilson “ended up at the bar laughing, joking, drinking. There were so many things that they had in common”, said Doane. “They agreed on so many things. Except on the existence of God.”

This is the trailer.

Collision opened in the United States on Oct. 27, 2009.

Palin, Dobson and the rest of the evangelicals

2009-10-24T18:53:00.012-04:00

According to journalist Max Blumenthal, the 2008 Republican nominee for president John McCain chose Sarah Palin because he had to placate the Christian right.

"When John McCain won the nomination, he knew that he needed to bring the Christian right around. ... There is no other way that he was going to win the Republican base considering how loathed he was for denouncing Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as agents of intolerance."

And we know how that turned out.

Here's an excerpt from the book. Pulitzer-winning novelist Jane Smiley called Blumenthal's book "terrific, but also, of course, appalling" in a Huffington Post review:

Republican Gomorrah is a frightening book because it is clear to all of us on the outside that the various Republican operatives who surround James Dobson and his ilk have no consciences and will stop at nothing. They invoke the name of God for purposes that shame God absolutely--hurting, destroying, maiming, and damning others who either don't accept their beliefs or don't acknowledge their power and righteousness. Of course that is frightening.

She goes on to say that the book "reminds me of a Scottish novel called The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner by James Hogg, in which, once a man believes he is among the saved, he can commit any sin he wants to and be sure he will go to heaven.

Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now! interviewed Blumenthal about his book, Republican Gomorrah. (The transcript is here.)

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

Blumenthal talks about his book in great detail, chapter by chapter, on fora.tv. I recommend it highly.

Look who was reading Republican Gomorrah? Meghan McCain, the de facto leader of the Republican Party's moderate wing.

Lazy agnostic's guide to evolution, Part 2

2009-10-22T17:25:00.005-04:00

American Freethought has kindly posted the last six chapters of Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.

So, here are the summaries of the 13 chapters of the book. Just scroll down to the bottom.

http://todayinreligion.blogspot.com/2009/10/lazy-agnostics-guide-to-evolution.html

BTW, Richard Dawkins recently appeared on the Colbert Report.
Richard Dawkins on The Colbert Report

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Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

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Political Humor

Michael Moore

Whoa, dude, I'm so confused

2009-10-22T15:04:00.004-04:00

In today's comics, from one of my favorites, Non Sequitur:

The Hijabi in the White House

2009-10-22T14:16:00.005-04:00

As F lorida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson -- a.k.a. the congressman with guts who shot to fame with his "if you get sick, Republicans want you to die quickly" speech -- said the other day:

"I understand what the (President Obama is) doing, and you know, people attack him and he turns the other cheek, just like a good Muslim would do."

He's only joking, of course. Obama has always said he's Christian.

(I, for one, have my doubts. I suspect he's preternaturally calm and unflappable because he's a secret philosophical Buddhist, in the Stephen Batchelor vein. After all, his sister Maya Soetoro -Ng has described herself as a philosophical Buddhist.)

But from NPR comes an October 22, 2009, report sure to drive right wingnuts into a frenzy: Faith-Based Council Produces Muslim Celebrity.

Dalia Mogahed, a Muslim, is one of 25 people President Obama tapped to advise him on faith issues. She may have met the president exactly once, but to Muslims, she's a celebrity — thanks to the headscarf, or hijab, she wears every day.

The Egyptian-born Mogahed is not, repeat not, the Islamic adviser to the president. She has repeatedly denied being so. She is "not there to represent Islam." She's just one of 25 people tapped by Obama to advise him on faith issues.

She's sharing research "we've done on the opinions of Muslims around the world," Mogahed says. Right now, "those opinions have swung sharply in favor of the United States."

So far so good. But scroll down to the comments section of the NPR report and you will see that we are still a country divided by the belief in a common God. (Beware: There are some truly ugly comments.)

I think Obama should dispense with the faith-based council. (Not to mention, if there is any taxpayer funding involved, it would be unconstitutional.) The founding fathers believed in the separation of church and state. Of course, Obama won't, because we as a nation make the mistake of believing that religious faith is a good thing, and he doesn't have the balls to stop paying lip service to religion. But for so long as we continue to enshrine religion in the public arena, the "us versus them" religious infighting among Americans will never end.

Teen dies in exorcism

2009-10-22T11:34:00.004-04:00

An 18-year-old girl died in 2008 in what police are now calling an exorcism rite.

According to the Washington Post, Rayoung Kim was "pummeled and smothered" in her bedroom, in the ancient Korean rite of kut. In Korean culture, a shaman or "mudang" (typically a woman) communicates with spirits to drive out evil. Rayoung Kim was a Centreville High School student who may have had mental health issues, say law enforcement sources quoted by the Washington Post.

The article by Tom Jackman quotes John Goulde, director of the Asian studies program at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va., as saying that some highly educated people use mudangs or shamans, preferring them to modern approaches like psychotherapy.

The shaman can sometimes be connected to a Pentecostal or charismatic church, and "it's a highly emotion-packed form of religion," Goulde said. "It's very cathartic. It makes them feel good and generates support."

What is appalling about such exorcisms is that it is "extremely rare for murder or manslaughter charges to be filed in relation to religious rituals. In the past 10 to 15 years, only a few cases have been prosecuted in the United States."

That also goes for parents -- who are, for example, Christian Scientists or Jehovah's Witnesses -- who refuse medical treatment for their children on religious grounds. I'm with the camp that says parents should be held accountable for harm to their children every time they refuse standard, life-saving medical treatment. If you are an adult and, based on your religion, you refuse medical treatment, that is your business. But people who refuse medical treatment for their minor children should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

As one wag put it:

If their God actually existed, he would send people like this to Hell for murdering their children. ... And to keep them from dragging down the average IQ of Heaven.

Lazy agnostic's guide to evolution

2009-10-17T16:51:00.012-04:00

Now, I have to get something off my chest first. Creationists always say that "evolution is only a theory -- even scientists say that it's a theory."

What is made abundantly clear is that creationists don't know that the word "theory" has a different meaning in science from what it means in ordinary English.

A theory in ordinary English is an educated guess, more or less based on observation. (More like a hypothesis.)
A theory in scientific terms summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. Basically, a theory is an accepted hypothesis. According to Wikipedia, a theory "has no equally acceptable or more acceptable alternative theory, and has survived attempts at falsification."

Yes, but God told me . . .

2009-10-17T15:44:00.014-04:00

If you claim you spoke to God, or you are God, or you're the son of God, there's a fair chance someone would take you to a psych ward and you would probably get heavily medicated.

People who claim to be God are usually dismissed as nuts. People who claim to have spoken to God or have gotten a message from God (Abraham, Saint Paul, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, etc.) or claim they are related to God are maybe either psychotic, delusional or con men. A current example of a huckster is Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, the guy in Bill Maher's movie Religulous who says he's Jesus reincarnated. He's obviously a con man.

Buddha, on the other hand:

never claimed to be God
never claimed to be a relative of God
never claimed to have spoken to God or received a message from God

In fact, he never even mentioned God in his teachings. (His teachings are mostly about how to meditate your way to better mental health. So, I guess you could say that Buddha was the first psychotherapist.)

The reason Buddhism is even classified as a religion is people tend to deify him. But he never claimed to be more than an ordinary man. He never claimed to have magic powers. (See Stephen Batchelor, a former monk and the author of Buddhism Without Beliefs.)

So, was Buddha the only founder of a major religion who wasn't psychotic, delusional or a con man?

What do you think?

Good news: Some priests don't rape little boys

2009-10-17T14:45:00.009-04:00

The Rev. Henry Willenborg, a Roman Catholic priest in Quincy, Ill., in 1987 performing the baptism of his son, Nathan.

Bad news: Some priests choose to commit sexual misconduct with women. In fact, according to a study cited by the article below, 20% of priests have ongoing sexual relationships with women, and 8% to 10% more have occasional heterosexual relationships.

The most e-mailed article in the New York Times today was A Mother, a Sick Son and His Father, the Priest.

It's about a Franciscan priest who fathered a son with an Illinois woman, Pat Bond, who had come to him for marriage counseling. The Franciscans required her to sign a confidentiality agreement, but she's willing to break it now that she and her son are battling cancer.

With little to lose, they are eager to tell their stories: the mother, a once-faithful Catholic who says the church protected a philandering priest and treated her as a legal adversary, and the son, about what it was like to grow up knowing his absentee father was a priest.

It's a compelling read. This is the audio slide show that came with the article.

Update: The Franciscan priest, Rev. Henry Willenborg, has now been suspended by Bishop Peter Christensen, who leads Willenborg's diocese of Superior, Wis. Something that jumped out at me:

The bishop said he had been warned by Father Willenborg’s superiors that The Times would report that Father Willenborg had fathered a son. But he said he decided to suspend the priest after reading accusations in the article that the priest encouraged the woman to have an abortion the first time she became pregnant by him, and had sex with another woman who was young enough to be in high school. (Italics mine.)

Whoa! Willenborg's superiors had warned Bishop Christensen that he had fathered a son (a clear violation of the vow of chastity) and it was evidently not enough to punish the errant priest. It was the suggestion of an abortion (just the suggestion, because Pat Bond didn't go through with it) and a case of statutory rape that did it (because the church is only interested in covering its backside against potential lawsuits). It's another example of self-serving behavior. The Catholic church really needs to be called out in a public forum every time we find reports like this.

(Did the Bible ever mandate celibacy for priests? Or is it just a cockamamie human idea? Because we're getting proof every day that it doesn't work.)

Whom would Jesus threaten?

2009-10-05T16:53:00.005-04:00

Former Reagan White House lawyer Mikey Weinstein is suing a Dallas-based evangelical Christian religious organization and wants Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former U.S. Navy chaplain, to "stop asking Jesus to plunder my fields ... seize my assets, kill me and my family then wipe away our descendants for 10 generations."

According to the Dallas Morning News, the lawsuit also asks the court to stop the defendants – Klingenschmitt and Jim Ammerman, the founder of the Dallas-based Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches – from "encouraging, soliciting, directing, abetting or attempting to induce others to engage in similar conduct."

Weinstein, 54, said his family has received death threats, had a swastika emblazoned on their home in New Mexico, animal carcasses left on their doorstep and feces thrown at the house

A little background: Weinstein, who's Jewish, is a former Air Force officer who founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to battle the evangelical fundementalist right wing efforts to proselytize in the U.S. military.

Klingenschmitt, 41, and Ammerman, 84, have denied the allegations.

There is a 2007 movie called Constantine's Sword that deals with "the mingling of religion and violence, following former Catholic priest James Carroll as he tracks the trail of blood that leads from the Crusades to America's foreign policy in the Middle East." Mikey Weinstein is in this movie. If you don't have the DVD in your local video store, don't despair. It's on youtube.

The full "Constantine's Sword" playlist

Part 1:

New poll: 27% of Americans not religious

2009-10-03T15:26:00.005-04:00

Stop the presses: A new Parade magazine poll now says 27% of Americans said they don’t practice any kind of religion.

As the article says, Americans are separating spirituality from religion, and have become more "moderate and tolerant in ways that would have astonished our grandparents".

20% of respondents said they go to services anywhere from once a month to a few times a year. Combine them with the 50% who rarely or never attend, and an interesting contrast appears. Although 45% of respondents considered themselves religious, 70% of them said they participate in organized religion sporadically or not at all.

Other things that jumped out at me:

69% of Americans believe in God. That doesn't mean the rest are agnostic or atheist. Only 5% of respondents didn’t believe in God, 7% weren’t sure about the existence of God.
12% didn’t believe in an afterlife.
12% of respondents said that their own religion was the only true faith.
Just 7% of respondents said they were attending religious services more often during this recession, and 10% of respondents said they’ve been going less frequently since the recession began.
59% said faith can help solve the world’s problems and offer hope to the suffering, while 41% said religion has too often led to war and suffering.
58% said religion and politics should not mix at all. Just 15% thought religion should be a key factor in political decisions.

The poll involved 1,051 respondents from May 8-12, 2009. The story is called "How Spiritual Are We?" by Christine Wicker and was published in Parade magazine on Oct. 4, 2009. Wicker is the author of the book, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church.

Ex-pastor: 10 Things I Hate About Christianity

2009-08-29T14:53:00.006-04:00

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Jason T. Berggren (right), a devout Christian, a former pastor and a former heavy-metal Christian rocker has written a book entitled "10 Things I Hate About Christianity."

Normally I would would find a review and drop this in the book section of the Today In Religion website, but it's just as easy to list the 10 things and be done with it.

Here they are:

1. Faith: “There is no evidence for what we believe. That’s why it’s called faith. God doesn’t appear at the mall with Jesus to buy you sneakers.”

2. Prayer: “You do it, and it feels like it doesn’t accomplish what you want it to accomplish. You wonder: What’s really changed? Sometimes God takes time and asks us to accept no.”

3. The Bible: “So often you read something and wonder, is that trustworthy? Is it helpful? Does everything always have to be so boring and confusing?”

4. Sin: “Am I really so evil or so bad that I have to think of myself as sinful? Of course, we’re all only two or three decisions from ruining our life completely.”

5. Rules: “Why are there so many rules, and do I have to keep them all? There is too much to keep track of.”

6. Love: “It feels too hard to love everyone all the time.”

7. Hell: “Why would a loving God create hell?”

8. Answers: “I don’t always like the answers that Christianity gives. Do I have to accept them?”

9. Church: “Everyone says go to church. But how does that make me a better person?”

10. Christians: “Why are Christians so crazy, annoying and judgmental?”

Dan Harris of ABC News did a news feature on Berggren. (link).
Berggren also has a website (link).

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UFO Religion Founder Sponsors Go Topless Day!

2009-08-21T20:37:00.009-04:00

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Mark this on your calendar! August 23rd is Go Topless Day in several locations around the United States. The event is being sponsored by Rael (formerly the French sports car journalist Claude Vorilhon), who founded Raelism, the largest UFO religion in the world.

I doubt you are really interest in Raelism theology, but here it is anyway.

From Wikipedia:

Followers of the movement believe that Raël, received special knowledge and instruction for mankind from the creators of life on Earth, human-like extraterrestrials called Elohim whose technology enabled them to appear as "angels" or "gods" in the eyes of ancient people. Raëlians believe that previous visitation from Elohim sparked the founding of many major religions humanity knows today.

I have no idea what the above has to do with going topless. Details of the topless event can be found at GoTopless.org.

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Meditation without borders

2009-08-21T09:59:00.004-04:00

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I just finished reading "How God Changes Your Brain." (One of the authors is Dr. Andrew Newberg, associate professor of radiology and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania). I was about to blog about it when I found this Reuters article. Not wanting to wear out my own brain, I am going to quote the Reuters article and then add something of my own.

According to the book, meditation and similar practices (repetitive prayer, or contemplating a benevolent God for example) can change your brain in a positive way. Conversely, you can stimulate the part of your brain involved in such emotions as anger and fear by focusing on a vindictive God. Newberg verified the changes with MRI scans.

From the Reuters article:

"In essence, when you think about the really big questions in life — be they religious, scientific or psychological — your brain is going to grow," says Newberg, head of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania.

"It doesn't matter if you're a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu, or an agnostic or an atheist."

So even if you don't believe in God, it's possible to experience what some religious people are experiencing by following their practices. Sam Harris, an atheist, and Robert Wright, an agnostic, have similar views about meditations as Newberg, who meditates but has never practiced a specific religion (link).

Sam Harris, who is a well-known atheist who's also working on a Ph.D. in neuroscience, touched on this in an article entitled Killing the Buddha. He advocates dropping the religious aspects of Buddhism and saving the good parts.

If the methodology of Buddhism (ethical precepts and meditation) uncovers genuine truths about the mind and the phenomenal world — truths like emptiness, selflessness, and impermanence —these truths are not in the least “Buddhist.” No doubt, most serious practitioners of meditation realize this, but most Buddhists do not.

Robert Wright, the author of "The Evolution of God" and an agnostic wrote a New York Times article entitle Self, Meditating. He describes his experiences at his first week-long silent meditation retreat.

The experience changed the way he looked at the world.

"When I first got there, I didn’t understand why some people were closing their eyes while eating. By the end of the retreat, I was closing mine. The better to focus on the source of my ecstasy. I wasn’t just living in the moment — I was luxuriating in it."

So we have an atheist, an agnostic and someone who has never practiced a specific religion — all enthusiastic about meditation. They each approached the subject from different points of view, but they come to the same conclusion

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Prosperity Gospel Preacher Still Raking It In

2009-08-15T16:13:00.016-04:00

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New York Times (August 15, 2009)

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland (and others) are still preaching the "prosperity gospel" and still taking money from people who can least afford it.

From the New York Times article.

Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the “prosperity gospel” movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message — that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold — is reassuring to many in hard times.

The Copelands' ministry pulls in about $100 million a year. The Times gave one example of a family that is $102,000 in debt and gave the church $2,000 for a new jet and $1,800 to upgrade the ministry's TV equipment.

Much of the money goes to bankroll the Copelands' lavish lifestyle (enormous houses, jets, Rolls Royces, etc.). All of which violate IRS guidelines which require that pastors' compensation be "reasonable".

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, opened an investigating into the Copelands and other prosperity gospel ministers in November 2007 (wikipedia). It's still not finished!

Note to Senator Grassley:
Instead of running around the country ranting and raving about how the proposed health care bill will allow the government to pull the plug on grandma, why don't you wrap up the prosperity ministry investigation. (Youtube)

Here is a CBS News report on Copeland.

Here's a link to a blog I did about Reverend Ike. He was one of the first prosperity gospel ministers, and in my view still the best. The link has a video of Ike in action. You can compare Ike's preaching to Copeland's (below).

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1969

2009-08-12T13:39:00.000-04:00

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There have been a rash of articles celebrating and demonizing the 40th anniversary of the summer of 1969. Here's yet another one. I hope you will find it a little different.

I look at the summer of 1969 as the culmination of several years of social disruption followed by a slow remolding of values in the 1970s and 1980s. If I may get a little "new age," there was a cosmic rip in the social fabric of the country, and something new emerged. A lot of what happened was bad, but a lot of what emerged was pretty good, at least from my point of view.

I think arguably the most disruptive of years during the sixties were 1968 and 1969.

In 1968, American suffered its highest casualties of the Vietnam war (16,592). Sen. Robert F Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King were both assassinated. The King assassination sparked riots in America's cities. Riots also broke out at the August 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

In 1969, the Vietnam war had its second highest American casualty rate (11,616), and demonstrations against the war were on the rise. Hippies were all over the place. There was the Woodstock concert (August 15 to 18, 1969) the Moon Landing (July 20, 1969), Senator Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick (July 18, 1969), the Charles Manson murders (August 9th and 10th) and the Stonewall riots (June 28).

Woodstock is probably what aging hippies remember if they think about 1969, but I think the Stonewall riots probably had a more profound effect on society. Stonewall was a gay bar in New York City whose patrons were routinely busted by New York's finest. That is until June 28, 1969, when the patrons rioted and kick-started the gay rights movement in the United States.

The very best video I could find on Stonewall was made by AARP! I thought that was a little odd until I realized that anyone who was in the bar when the riots broke out would have to be 58-years old or older.

Here's the video:

The most psychotic person that summer was the cult leader Charles Manson, who along with his misfit followers was responsible for the grizzly murder of nine people on August 9th and 10th, including actress Sharon Tate, who was 8-1/2 months pregnant.

Here's a video of Manson in case you're unfamiliar with his charming personality.

And let's not forget Woodstock. It was the rock concert to end all rock concerts. Oscar-winning director Ang Lee has just made a movie about it to called Taking Woodstock. It will be released this summer. Here's the trailer.

The slow unwinding

The 1970s and 1980s began a slow unwinding of some of the excesses of the late sixties as well as a rejection of the conservative attitudes that preceded the sixties. The life of Jayanti Tamm personifies that slow unwinding.

Jayanti Tamm was born in 1970 to two hippie parents who were followers of the guru Sri Chinmoy (right). Ms Tamm not only grew up in a cult, she was declared "the chosen one" by Sri Chinmoy before she was even born.

Being the chosen one in a cult is not a good thing. After spending her youth distributing leaflets declaring the gurus divinity and cleaning the cages of the zoo housed in his Queens, NY, basement, Jayanti split at the age of 25.

Jayanti wrote an August 8th Washington Post op-ed piece about her experience with the whole hippie guru thing. She also wrote a book about it called Cartwheels in a Sari. It's a good example of what can happen when vulnerable people (her parents) fall under the spell of a charismatic charlatan. And there were plenty of both in the late sixties and the seventies.

From the Washington Post article.

By the time the mud had dried at Woodstock, Swami Prabhupada had created the Hare Krishnas and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon had founded the Unification Church -- the Moonies. Communes and ashrams sprouted across America. In the 1960s, the decade now mythic for its anti-conformity, flocks of people conformed to the dictates of self-proclaimed prophets.

So there you have it. The 1960s were a pretty clean break with America's past values. It culminated in the summer of 1969. Out of it emerged the gay rights movement, the women's movement and improvements in race relations that eventually led to an African-American president. It may have also led to a backlash by those nostalgic for "traditional American values" -- the culture wars. The Jerry Falwells, Jimmy Swaggarts, Pat Robertsons and Ted Haggarts of the world didn't develop in a vacuum.

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Demographic time bomb in Israel

2009-08-08T22:11:00.001-04:00

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An August 6, 2009, Los Angeles Times article about tensions between ultra-Orthodox and secular Israelis got me thinking about demographics in Israel. It's a problem now. It is going to be a really, really big problem in the not-too-distant future.

In a nutshell, the LA Times article described problems that arose when ultra-Orthodox Jews moved into an upper-class secular Jewish neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Fights over opening a parking lot on the Sabbath, missionary-like practices directed at secular Jews and other activities led to trouble between the two groups.

This July 16, 2009, MSNBC clip about a riot in Jerusalem will give you an idea of what secular Jews are facing.

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If demographic trends continue (and they will), these conflicts are only going to grow. From the LA Times article:

With birth rates nearly two or three times the national average, Israel's ultra-Orthodox community is expected to grow from 16% of the population to 23% by 2025. That's only 16 years away.

And then there are the Muslims. According to forecasts, the Israeli Muslim Arab population will grow to more than 2,000,000 people, or 24-26% of the population in less than 15 years. (link).

So, in 15 years (or less), half the population of Israel will be made up of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Muslims. Secular Jews (still the largest group) and non-Muslim Arabs (primarily Christians and Druze) will make up the rest. The percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Muslims will keep increasing at a faster and faster pace.

And then there are the Palestinian Territories.

The Palestinian Territories, with more than 4 million people, is ranked 14th in population density (it would have placed much higher than 14th, but the list is topped with "countries" like Macau, Monaco, Hong Kong, Gibraltar, Vatican City, etc. (link) The Gaza Strip has a yearly population growth rate of about 3.35% and the West Bank is about 2.18%.

Israel also is one of the most crowded countries in the world. It ranked 42nd in population density but as with the Palestinian Territories it really should have been much higher.

More ultra-Orthodox Jews and more marginalized Muslim Arabs in a very small and crowded space. It's going to get ugly.

The video below (in two parts) by George Negus of Dateline is a good piece on the ultra-Orthodox community.

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Doonesbury takes on "The Family"

2009-08-03T11:03:00.032-04:00

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On Aug. 3, 2009, Doonesbury began taking on "The Family" -- a secretive Christian network founded in 1935 that counts among its members many U.S. politicians. The house pictured in the Doonesbury cartoon belongs to The Family and is located at 133 C Street SE, Washington, D.C.

August 3rd cartoon
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Bill Moyers interviews Pema Chodron

2009-08-02T18:20:00.006-04:00

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I just discovered this Bill Moyers interview with Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön, author of The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (2002), Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion (2003) and other books.

It's worth listening to.

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Reverend Ike

2009-07-31T09:48:00.006-04:00

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New York Times
Washington Post

Reverend Ike died on July 28 at the age of 74.

He was the man.

The Reverend was one of the first televangelist and preached the prosperity gospel, which teaches God desires material prosperity for those he favors. And his prosperity teachings actually worked! At least for him. He made $1 million a month during his peak in the 1970's when he was on more than 1,700 TV and radio stations.

It was more than enough to pay for his rather extravagant lifestyle.

From the Washington Post:

He owned mansions on the East and West coasts, was partial to designer suits and had a fleet of mink-appointed Rolls-Royces and several yachts. He dropped hints about his bevy of mistresses.

As the collection basket made its way among the movie-house rows of his New York church, he reminded his congregants that the clink of loose change was offensive to his ears, and to God's. The whisper of paper currency is what he delighted to hear.

He also practiced faith healing and targeted the elderly and the poor with his mailings, with a particular emphasis on those of African and Caribbean descent.

Enough writing. If you are considering a career in televangelism check out the video and see how one of the greats does it.

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The Family

2009-07-30T09:30:00.017-04:00

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Wikipedia entry
Secrets of C-Street (The Daily Beast)
Harper's Magazine

I really don't know what to make of this. It's too weird.

The Family is a secretive conservative Christian group. Its membership includes U.S. senators, members of Congress, primarily Republican, as well as high-ranking military leaders.

It is best known for organizing the National Prayer Breakfast, held each year on the first Thursday of February in Washington, D.C.

It's also rather well known for recent sex scandals involving three of its members, Gov. Mark Sanford, Sen. John Ensign and former congressman Chip Pickering.

It's less well known for some of its odd beliefs and attempts to influence foreign governments.

According to the Rachel Maddow video shown below, the group believes:

Powerful men are God's chosen and they are not bound by the same morality and responsibility to others that normal people are ... Hitler and Mao and Osama bin Laden should be studied and considered as models of power and leadership by members of the family.

They want to build a worldwide invisible movement of strong authoritarian leaders linked together in a worldwide spiritual offensive.

Powerful members of the House and Senate are going along with this stuff. It's all very creepy.

The video and the article in the Daily Beast will give you a good idea about what they are about. The Harper's article is older and longer but is also very good. The book, pictured above, is on the July 24, 2009, New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list.

The Family's house on C street in DC

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Losing My Religion

2009-07-27T17:45:00.004-04:00

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This may sound odd coming from someone who blogs about religion: I don't like books about religion.

The scholarly books tend to be dry. The books that try to prove God exists don't prove anything. And I know all the atheist arguments.

I enjoy reading about the history of religion and newspaper articles about religion. I just want the facts.

Losing My Religion by William Lobdell is different. Lobdell is a former religion reporter for The Los Angeles Times. So the writing won't put you to sleep. In a nutshell, he chronicles his journey from not being religious, to being born again, to losing his faith. It is almost a psychological analysis of someone falling into and out of religion.

As I suspect is common in a lot of cases, Lobdell was at a low point in his life when he started going to church on a friend's suggestion. This lead to a born-again experience at an all-men's weekend religious retreat. His belief in Christianity was later re-enforced by fortuitous events in his life that Lobdell attributed to prayer.

Lobdell's fall from grace came because of his profession. About three years into his beat as a religion reporter, the Catholic priest pedophile scandal broke in Los Angeles. The denial, the lies, the cover-ups and the slandering of the victims by the church hierarchy led to Lobdell's crisis of faith. As New York Times reviewer Mark Oppenheimer put it: "School systems and Little Leagues don’t defend molesters as tenaciously as the Catholic Church did." (In an odd twist, Lobdell was studying to convert to Catholicism while covering the scandal).

Lobdell's falling out with Catholicism led him to look at other religions and eventually to a re-evaluation of his deeply held belief in Christianity.

If you don't have time for the book, read his 2007 LA Times article about losing his religion.

If you really, really don't have time listen to his 2007 NPR interview about the article.

If you buy the book (or better yet get it from the library), at least read chapter nine about Mormonism. In looking at things that could be easily disproved about Mormonism (such as DNA evidence that Native Americans really come from Asia, and not from the Middle East as Mormons believe), he came to realize that Mormonism is no odder than traditional Christianity.

Here is William Lobdell's website.

Click here for the full New York Times review of his book.

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Evangelist Tony Alamo convicted

2009-07-24T17:47:00.008-04:00

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CNN July 24, 2009

A jury in Arkansas convicted evangelist Tony Alamo of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex (one girl was nine years old). Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The CNN link and the first video has details about Alamo, the case and the conviction.

To get a feel for what he is like see the second video.

Alamo used the bible to justify his actions. He said polygamy is in the bible and is condoned by God. And that the bible says the legal age to marry is at puberty. I don't think he'll be saying he's sorry at his sentencing.

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Grand Syrian Rabbi caught in NJ sting

2009-07-23T20:22:00.018-04:00

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Rabbi Saul J. Kassin outside federal court in Newark on Thursday.

An international money-laundering scheme has snared 44 people, including three New Jersey mayors (no surprise there), two NJ state assemblymen and five rabbis. One of the rabbis was the grand rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States, Saul Kassin of the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The grand rabbi is dirty! It's shocking, but members of the insular Brooklyn-based Syrian Jewish community have gotten mixed up in shady deals before.

One of the most famous Sy Jews is Eddie Antar, known as Crazy Eddie. In the ’70s, he revolutionized the home electronics business and created an empire, which crashed and burned when he was caught defrauding his investors for almost $100 million dollars.

Another Sy, Solomon Dwek a real estate developer, was caught in a bank fraud scheme involving tens on millions of dollars.

The Sy Jews will expel any Syrian Jew from their community who marries someone other than another Jew. (Converts are only rarely accepted). However, the expulsion rule doesn't necessary apply to people committing crimes.

Crazy Eddie went back to the community after his jail sentence and Solomon Dwek was also taken back into the community while he was on $10 million bond.

Community is everything to this group. From the Sy Empire article:

Chief Rabbi Saul Kassin wrote: “There is nothing more important than our unity.” Every ethnic leader in America talks about unity, but there are precious few willing and able to sacrifice their own children for its sake. (as the rabbi did when he expelled his own daughter for marrying a gentile).

Unfortunately for Rabbi Kassin, Solomon Dwek put himself above the community. Solomon, who was looking at a 30-year sentence, was the one who wore the wire that snared Rabbi Kassin.
NPR report on money laundering

Pictured - homes in the Syrian Jewish
neighborhood of Gravesend, Brooklyn

The Sy Empire (NY Times) Oct 14, 2007
44 are Charged in NJ-focused Inquiry (NY Times) July 23, 2009
Solomon Dwek emerges as cornerstone of N.J. sting (The Star Ledger) July 23, 2009
The man who sank NJ (Forbes) July 23, 2009

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The Neocatechumenal Way

2009-07-19T09:50:00.041-04:00

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Economist July 16, 2009
The Neocatechumenal Way
Jerusalem Post (good article)

The Catholic Church has been bleeding parishioners for years. One of the few bright spots has been Latinos in the Unites States. And now, according to the Economist, even the Latinos are jumping ship. They are defecting to evangelical and charismatic churches.

The Economist list their reasons for the defections. Here is mine. I've never met a Catholic parish priest who could deliver a decent talk. They are all boring!

I think the church hierarchy realized they had a problem years ago. With the shortage of clergy (even though they are boring you still need them), plus the attraction of more lively churches they saw what was coming.

And then along came the Neocatechumenal Way, also know simply as The Way. The Way is a lay-driven organization made up of small, parish-based communities of between 20-50 people. It was started in Madrid, Spain, in 1964 by Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez. (Arguello is a painter. The painting on this page is his). The pope liked what he saw and supported the Way.

Today, there are around 40,000 communities throughout the world, with an estimated 1 million members. The Way is essentially a Vatican-sanctioned evangelical movement within the Catholic Church. They are deeply committed to the New Evangelization, which was first mentioned by Pope John Paul II.

The New Evangelization is a movement within the Catholic Church that has lay members as well as clergy. Their mission is to seek converts and bring non-church going Catholics back into the fold. This is new for Catholicism. Lay Catholics have not been evangelical in the past.

I think the Catholic Church may keep their traditional structure (hierarchical with unmarried male priest at the top) and build up the Neocatechumenal Way (along with other organizations) to counter advances being made by other churches.

There are some who claim The Way is a cult within the Catholic Church and others who claim it is heresy.

My definition of a cult is an organization that is very difficult to leave. And as I understand it, you can walk away from The Way anytime. So I would not classify it as a cult. But that said, I haven't had personal experience with The Way.

As far as the heresy charge goes, if several popes have approved of the Way, I don't see how the heresy charge can stick. The Way does have something called a post-baptism for members who are already Catholic. If I understand it correctly, it's another baptism for adults who have undergone religious instruction. (see reply at bottom)

The Catholics killed thousands of Anabaptists who believed in re-baptizing adults. Re-baptizing adult Catholics would be a major departure from traditional teaching. If anyone knows more about this practice than I do, please post a comment.

Whether the Neocatechumenal Way helps stanch the departure of Catholics from the church is anybody's guess. It hasn't worked to date, but it seems to be the direction the church is taking.

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Another religious TV show bites the dust

2009-07-17T18:12:00.029-04:00

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Newsweek (July 17, 2009)

Why do TV shows with religious themes keep crashing and burning?

The latest to be canceled is Kings on NBC. Next to go is ABC's Eli Stone. Religious people complain that the godless Hollywood moguls ignore them. But when the moguls produce a religion-friendly show, no one watches it. Joan of Arcadia (2 seasons) and The Book of Daniel (1 season) were two other show with short life spans.

Touched by an Angel (9 seasons) and Highway to Heaven (5 seasons) had good runs. Newsweek claims these two were popular because they are the most treacly (that means sweet or saccharine. I looked it up).

Maybe treacly is what religious people want, but they are also partial to blood and gore. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was a sadist's dream movie, and it was wildly popular with Christian audiences.

Newsweek thinks:

There's a notion, mostly borne out, that a religious program can serve only one master. Either it attracts people of faith while repelling the secular, or vice versa. In today's ultra-segmented television landscape, a religiously themed show on network TV has to appeal to the faithful and faithless alike in order to trump the ratings of a Desperate Housewives. And it has to have a cool factor. Television has gotten edgier; a show like Highway to Heaven would be a conspicuous fit in any network lineup.

I think the godless TV moguls should forget about competing against Desperate Housewives. They should shoot for the niche market and try to produce something at a reasonable price. If they want edgy, they could use actual stories from the Old Testament. There is enough blood and sex in the Old Testament to make the Marquis de Sade blush.

I suspect fundamentalist/evangelicals want the real thing -- actual Bible stories set 2,000 years ago or earlier. (One possible exception may be a re-do of Left Behind. It might work as a TV series.)

What Hollywood has been dishing up are shows with Christian moral themes set in modern times. Not good enough, guys! There are millions of people in this country who believe the Bible is the literal word of God. Give it to them and see what happens.

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Best Religion In The World? Not!

2009-07-16T14:37:00.008-04:00

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I think Beliefnet got snookered.

They printed an article entitled: Freedom From Religion: Buddhism Wins Best Religion in the World Award.

It said that a Geneva-based group called the International Coalition for the Advancement of Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) gave the award to the Buddhist Community after a panel of 200 religious leaders from every part of the religious spectrum chose Buddhism.

Criteria included factors such as promoting personal and community peace, increasing compassion and a sense of connection, and encouraging preservation of the natural environment.

I am ashamed to admit I was ready to run with this story without fact-checking it. Fortunately, I read the blog comments before I began typing. Several people claimed it looked like a story from the satirical fake news organization, The Onion. It may or may not be the work of the Onion, but it sure looks like someone has been playing around.

The International Coalition for the Advancement of Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) is not on the Web, and neither is its head, Hans Groehlichen.

That said, I think an award is an interesting idea. Why not come up with an award for the most peaceful religion in the world? It might embarrass the rest of them into behaving better.

I think it would be appropriate to give one to a Western religion and one to an Eastern religion. In the West, I would pick the Quakers. In the East I would have to go with the Jains.

Peace between countries and communities doesn't have much of a place in religion. On a lark, I went to the online Bible at BibleGateway.com and did a keyword search on the word peace. I came up with 247 passages. I didn't read them all but the ones I read were mostly along the line of "peace be with you" and "go in peace." There was nothing about peace between countries or being peaceful to the people in the next town.

I did another search on the word "war" and the good news is there were only 137 entries!

Here is the Beliefnet article, in case the link stops working.

Freedom From Religion: Buddhism Wins Best Religion in the World Award
Wednesday July 15, 2009

In light of the ongoing Freedom From Religion Foundation case, I found this news item interesting.
Linda Moulin | 15.07.2009 | 16:55
Tribune de Geneve

In advance of their annual Leading Figure award to a religious figure who has done the most to advance the cause of humanism and peace, the Geneva-based International Coalition for the Advancement of Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) has chosen to bestow a special award this year on the Buddhist Community. "We typically prefer an under-the-radar approach for the organization, as we try to embody the spirit of modesty found in the greatest traditions," said ICARUS director Hans Groehlichen in a phone conference Monday. "But with organized religion increasingly used as a tool to separate and inflame rather than bring together, we felt we had to take the unusual step of creating a "Best Religion in the World" award and making a bit of a stir, to inspire other religious leaders to see what is possible when you practice compassion."

Groehlichen said the award was voted on by an international roundtable of more than 200 religious leaders from every part of the spiritual spectrum. "It was interesting to note that once we supplied the criteria, many religious leaders voted for Buddhism rather than their own religion," said Groehlichen. "Buddhists actually make up a tiny minority of our membership, so it was fascinating but quite exciting that they won."

Criteria included factors such as promoting personal and community peace, increasing compassion and a sense of connection, and encouraging preservation of the natural environment. Groehlichen continued "The biggest factor for us is that ICARUS was founded by spiritual and religious people to bring the concepts of non-violence to prominence in society. One of the key questions in our voting process was which religion actually practices non-violence."

When presenting the information to the voting members, ICARUS researched each of the 38 religions on the ballot extensively, offering background, philosophy, and the religions role in government and warfare. Jonna Hult, Director of Research for ICARUS said "It wasn't a surprise to me that Buddhism won Best Religion in the World, because we could find literally not one single instance of a war fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other religion that seems to keep a gun in the closet just in case God makes a mistake. We were hard pressed to even find a Buddhist that had ever been in an army. These people practice what they preach to an extent we simply could not document with any other spiritual tradition."

At least one Catholic priest spoke out on behalf of Buddhism. Father Ted O'Shaughnessy said from Belfast, "As much as I love the Catholic Church, it has always bothered me to no end that we preach love in our scripture yet then claim to know God's will when it comes to killing other humans. For that reason, I did have to cast my vote for the Buddhists." And Muslim Cleric Tal Bin Wassad agreed from Pakistan via his translator. "While I am a devout Muslim, I can see how much anger and bloodshed is channeled into religious expression rather than dealt with on a personal level. The Buddhists have that figured out." Bin Wassad, the ICARUS voting member for Pakistan's Muslim community continued, "In fact, some of my best friends are Buddhist." And Rabbi Shmuel Wasserstein said from Jerusalem, "Of course, I love Judaism, and I think it's the greatest religion in the world. But to be honest, I've been practicing Vipassana meditation every day before minyan (daily Jewish prayer) since 1993. So I get it."

Groehlichen said that the plan was for the award to Buddhism for "Best Religion in the World" to be given to leaders from the various lineages in the Buddhist community. However, there was one snag. "Basically we can't find anyone to give it to," said Groehlichen in a followup call late Tuesday. "All the Buddhists we call keep saying they don't want the award." Groehlichen explained the strange behavior, saying "Basically they are all saying they are a philosophical tradition, not a religion. But that doesn't change the fact that with this award we acknowledge their philosophy of personal responsibility and personal transformation to be the best in the world and the most important for the challenges facing every individual and all living beings in the coming centuries."

When asked why the Burmese Buddhist community refused the award, Buddhist monk Bhante Ghurata Hanta said from Burma, "We are grateful for the acknowledgement, but we give this award to all humanity, for Buddha nature lies within each of us." Groehlichen went on to say "We're going to keep calling around until we find a Buddhist who will accept it. We'll let you know when we do."

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Miss Manners' advice for atheists

2009-07-15T15:38:00.010-04:00

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Washington Post (July 15, 2009)

Advice for atheists from Miss Manners? Why not! But before we get to Miss Manners I'm going to give you my advice. What you don't say can't hurt you.

I've never gotten in trouble when I kept my big mouth shut. And trust me, if you are in the wrong crowd, nothing is as inflammatory as religion. Politics, wars, gay rights and gun control (well maybe not gun control) can all be discussed in a calm voice. Not so with religion.

That said, I think Miss Manners hit the nail right on the head. Unfortunately, she is dealing with a rather civilized situation.

I would love to see her answer to this one. What do you do after you have had a couple of beers and told the wrong person sitting next to you that religion is a lot of nonsense. How do you get out of that one, Miss Manners?

In conclusion, I have adopted a "don't ask don't tell" policy -- unless someone still insists on proselytizing after I have told him or her that I'm not interested.

Anyway, enough from me, here's her column. You can also link to it above.

Dear Miss Manners:

I am an atheist, and this is occasionally the source of mild social awkwardness. Normally, of course, I do not broadcast my beliefs without solicitation, but occasionally I am asked where I go to church or invited to attend a service at another's church.

I work with a number of civic organizations, including places of worship, so this sort of question or request is usually well-intentioned chitchat from someone with whom I am working on a project.

Somehow, the simple and direct, "I choose not to worship a deity," seems as inappropriate for casual conversation as questions about one's religious beliefs. I would greatly appreciate a simple and direct way to decline such an invitation and nip such questioning in the bud. Occasionally, the question comes as a part of direct proselytizing, which I hope requires no more politeness than a sales solicitation.

The second area is how to respond when passing comments are made that imply a belief in a god, as if one were discussing the weather, such as "He's in a better place now," "The Lord works in mysterious ways" or "I know Jesus will take care of this for me."

I know the speaker is expecting a smile and a nod, but if I consider these beliefs untrue, offensive or ridiculous, how can I respond in a simple way that does not sound strident, open me up to being evangelized or invite the beginning of a theological debate?

Another area of consternation is in expressions of sympathy. Can you recommend a standard replacement for "He/she is in my prayers," for people who do not pray?

Answer
Please keep in mind that the idea here would not be to declare your own convictions, a habit you find objectionable in others, but to deflect the topic without seeming to acquiesce.
Miss Manners suggests separating the proselytizers from those who may be merely repeating figures of speech. Not everyone who says "Bless you" when you sneeze or even "The Lord works in mysterious ways" is voicing a theological conviction.
In any case, the comments of the second group should be treated as if they were good wishes. Similarly, the inquiry about where you go to church should be treated as a casual social question.

"I choose not to worship a deity" is indeed pompous, and also challenging. You need only say casually, "I'm not a churchgoer." Only if this leads to argument need you say -- because you must also be polite to proselytizers -- "It's not something I discuss."

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President Obama meets the Pope

2009-07-10T19:00:00.005-04:00

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July 10, 2009 (NPR)

President Obama met with Pope Benedict today. Obama apparently had an easier time with pope than he has had with bishops and cardinals in the United States.

According to John Allen, longtime Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter despite the contrasts on some basic issues, there is a lot of common ground between Pope Benedict and Obama.

From the above link:

"They're both in favor of expanded health care. ... They're both in favor of immigration reform. They both favor a multilateral approach to foreign policy and, in particular, they both have, in their ways, reached out to the Islamic world," Allen says, referring to the pope's recent visit to the Middle East and the president's speech in Cairo last month.
Benedict's top priority in interfaith relations is promoting an alliance of civilizations with Islam. Vatican officials were impressed with the president's outreach to Muslims.
On all these issues, Allen says, the Vatican believes the pope and president can do business.
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Geneticist Francis Collins to head NIH

2009-07-09T15:42:00.012-04:00

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Washington Post (July 15, 2009) Update!, Update!, Update!
Michael Gerson comments on the appointment Dr Francis Collins to head the NIH. (He thinks it's a good idea.)

New York Times (July 9, 2009)

Dr. Francis Collins has been nominated to head the National Institute of Health. Collins is an accomplished scientist, a proven administrator, articulate and an Evangelical Christian. It's that last one that is going to attract a lot of attention.

His journey from atheism to evangelical Christianity took a pivotal turn in the Cascade Mountains. While hiking, he came across a waterfall that happened to have three frozen streams. The three streams reminded Collins of the trinity, and he surrendered to Jesus (link). It's a little surprising that the man who headed the human genome project would take a leap of faith at the sight of frozen water. But that's what happened. (Bill Maher interviewed Collins for his movie, Religulous.)

In the video, below, Collins explains how his journey to Christianity began. He started to wonder about life and death when he left chemistry and went into medicine.

When I went to medical school the ideas about death and dying which had been rather hypothetical became very real. You can't be in that environment sitting at the bedside of people facing the end of their lives without having it affect you.

A couple of years later, he had his born-again experience in the Cascades. I don't know what's in his head, but it sounds like seeing people die shook him up a bit and maybe got him thinking about the end of his own consciousness. If that's something you're concerned about, you'll eventually end up at religion. There is no other place to go.

One other thing that might draw some questions during his confirmation hearing is that he doesn't believe that homosexuality is hardwired (link).

An area of particularly strong public interest is the genetic basis of homosexuality. Evidence from twin studies does in fact support the conclusion that heritable factors play a role in male homosexuality. However, the likelihood that the identical twin of a homosexual male will also be gay is about 20% (compared with 2-4 percent of males in the general population), indicating that sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations.

It looks like Collins will be the next head of the NIH even if some of his views are not in line with his fellow scientists. I think President Obama managed to throw the religious right a bone and will end up with a competent administrator worth watching.

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Another Pig in a Python

2009-07-09T12:04:00.007-04:00

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It's starting! Another generational pig is making its way through the python.

For the past hundred years, the United States has vacillated between large and small generations. The trend was started with the influx of European immigrants around the beginning of the 20th century and was cemented in place with the Immigration Act of 1924, which restricted immigration.

Another large generation is rolling around. The echo boomers (millennium generation, Gen Y or Gen Next) were born roughly between 1982-1995. Soon they will dominate the social and economic fabric of the United States.

The Pew Research Center has released a survey of their attitudes. They tend to be more liberal, tolerant, more likely to vote Democratic and less religious than previous generations.

From the above link:

One-in-five members of Generation Next say they have no religious affiliation or are atheist or agnostic, nearly double the proportion of young people who said that in the late 1980s. And just 4% of Gen Nexters say people in their generation view becoming more spiritual as their most important goal in life.

This doesn't bode well for organized religion.

The above link has a good synopsis of their other characteristics. I would like to touch on their potential economic impact, which was not covered in the Pew study. True, this has nothing to do with religion but, it is very interesting.

In the past, whenever a large generation reaches their prime working years, there are technological advances and the stock market shoots up.

The below chart shows the progression of the stock market during the past 100 years. As you can see, it doesn't go up in a straight line.

Let's focus on the three most recent large generations, the stock market and innovation.

The GI Generation was the first big one in the 20th century. They were born between 1901-1924 (many were children of immigrants). The stock market shot up between 1946-1965 (19 years) during this time, the youngest person of that generation was 22 and the oldest was 64.* The technological advances included mainframe computers, jets, solid state transistors, etc.

The Boomers were the children of the GI Generation. They were born between 1946 and approximately 1963. The stock market shot up between 1982-2000 (18 years) during this time, the youngest boomer was 19 and the oldest was 54. The major technological advance during that time was Information Technology.

The Echo boomers (Millennium generation) are the children of the boomers. They were born roughly between 1982-1995. If the previous two 18 year bull/bear stock market patterns holds up, the market should remain flat until around 2016 and be strong until 2034. During the bull market, the youngest echo boomer will be 21 and the oldest will be 54. The technological advances of this generation are anybody's guess. Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times thinks it might be energy technology.

There is a fudge factor here. There isn't clear agreement on when a generation begins and ends. However, the long tern stock market trends are pretty clearer. The stock market has been flat since around 2,000 or possibly 1998 depending on how you look at the chart. Therefore, the market has been flat for 9 to 11 years now. Considering the economic mess the country is in, it's not unreasonable to think it might take another five to eight years before the economy and the market pick up again. The Echo boomers might be the engine that pulls the train.

*The working years of the GI Generation are longer than the boomers and echo boomers because the older members of that generation got a late start because of the depression and WWII.

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President Obama and the Church Thing

2009-07-06T17:19:00.002-04:00

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Hallelujah! President Obama has finally chosen a church. Or has he?

Last week, Time Magazine reported that President Obama had finally settled on a church -- Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational military chapel at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs later said not exactly: (The Washington Post)

He (the president) said he and his family will attend chapel services at Camp David when they are at the presidential retreat in Maryland -- which he calls a "wonderful little congregation."

"How we handle church when we're here in D.C. is something that we're still figuring out," he said. "And I think that in the second half of the year, we will have made a decision.

What the press secretary failed to mention is that President Obama rarely sets foot in Camp David. And that Obama has only attended church at Camp David a few times (Politico). Looking at how many Sundays he's been at Camp David, I figure a few is maybe two or three.

The press secretary also said that Obama went the same route as President Bush by choosing Evergreen Chapel (link). Bush might have joined Evergreen but he rarely attended services there or at any other church.

The church going habits of the last half dozen presidents are very interesting.

On the Republican side, Ronald Regan never attended church. Bush senior was an infrequent church goer as was W (link). But both previous Democratic presidents Carter and Clinton regularly attended church. Carter attended First Baptist Church in Washington D.C. while he was President. And Clinton attended a Lutheran Church.

I suspect that Carter was the only real believer in the lot. After he left the presidency he actually taught Sunday school and actively participates in his church.

As far as I can tell, President Obama is following the Republicans as far as church attendance is concerned. He has attended Sunday services as president in DC maybe two times.

He went to the 19th Street Baptist Church in January the week before his inauguration. But not as president.

He went to the National Cathedral on the day he was inaugurated and on his 100th day in office. (Both were on a Wednesday and were sort of required because everyone was looking).

His first trip to a real Sunday church service as president was on Easter Sunday. He took the family to St. John’s Episcopal Church which is near the White House. (I am sorry but Easter doesn't count. He had to go to church on Easter. Again because everyone was watching.) He has attended services at St John's one other time (link).

By my count, President Obama has probably been to Sunday church services four or five times since he assumed office a bit more than six months ago.

Combine that with the juicy fact in Richard Wolffe's new book, Renegade, that President Obama really didn't know about the rantings of Reverend Jeremiah Wright because he rarely attended services at Wright's or any other church unless he was schmoozing people for their votes (see video below).

The president seems to spend his Sundays either at the gym, working, relaxing with his family or playing golf. Which is fine and dandy. If the Republican presidents can play the religion card and not go to church, a Democratic president should be able to do the same thing.

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Stephen Colbert on Cynthia Davis

2009-07-02T13:36:00.009-04:00

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Huffington Post, July 2, 2009

Cynthia Davis, a Missouri state representative and the owner of a Christian bookstore said last week she opposes subsidizing school lunches for low income children during summer months because, "Hunger can be a positive motivator."

Stephen Colbert picks it up from there.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tip/Wag - Cynthia Davis & Fox News

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Jeff Goldblum

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Has President Obama picked a church?

2009-07-02T10:16:00.007-04:00

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Update, Update, Update !!!
Washington Post (July 3, 2009) page 2

Quote from the Post:

On a personal matter, the president said he has not chosen a home church in the Washington area -- and might not choose one particular congregation.

He said he and his family will attend chapel services at Camp David when they are at the presidential retreat in Maryland -- which he calls a "wonderful little congregation."

"How we handle church when we're here in D.C. is something that we're still figuring out," he said. "And I think that in the second half of the year, we will have made a decision."

Today in Religion will try to keep track of how President Obama, "handles church when we're here in D.C." I am willing to bet that when the second half of the year rolls around, he'll come up with another excuse for not picking a church.

Time Magazine (June 29, 2009)
According to Time magazine, President Obama has finally picked a church. It's Evergreen Chapel at Camp David. Evergreen is a non-denominational chapel that serves the Camp David military community. The chapel was President George Bush's primary place of worship.

Considering the Reverend Wright fiasco, it's understandable that it took seven months. I hope he made the right choice.

Evergreen has one big advantage and one disadvantage.

The advantage is Obama will only have to attend when he's at Camp David. The other Sundays he can do something more productive.

The disadvantage is the pastor. I'm not sure about this guy. Lt. Carey H. Cash is a Southern Baptist Navy Chaplain. He's the great grandnephew of Johnny Cash, which is kind of cool but not particularly relevant. He has also written a book, which may set a record for having the world's longest title. It's called: A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God's Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.

More importantly he was quoted as saying, "First we get the military, then we get the nation." (Daily Kos) That doesn't sound very non-denominational to me.

The plot thickens:

CBS News asked the White House if Obama had picked a church. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “There have been no formal decisions about joining a church."

Time magazine is sticking to their story. We'll see how it turns out.

President Obama hasn't had much luck with churches. Hopefully at the end of his second term, he'll grow a pair and tell the world that he's really a rationalist non-believer.

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Is religion dangerous to your health?

2009-07-01T18:20:00.019-04:00

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Time Magazine July 9, 2009 UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE!!!
Time Magazine has finally noticed that the South has a higher percentage of lard asses than any other part of the country. They attribute Southerners' enormous girth to poverty, bad diet and lack of exercise. Maybe they're right. Maybe the fact that the most religious states are also the fattest is just a coincidence. Who knows.

July 1 2009

Could it be that religion is dangerous to your health? Does religion make people more likely to be overweight?

On May 25, I published a blog entitled Religion, Politics and Human Development.

In a nutshell, it showed that people who are more religious and live in states with low life expectancies, literacy rates, education and standard of living tend to vote Republican.

People who are less religious and live in states with higher life expectancies, literacy rates, education levels and standard of living tend to vote Democratic.

Now there seems to be a correlation between religion and body fat! Below is map measuring obesity rates in the states published by the Trust for America's Health. Below the map is a chart listing the most and least religious states.

Most religious states	Least religious states
Mississippi	Vermont
Alabama	New Hampshire
South Carolina	Maine
Tennessee	Massachusetts
Louisiana	Alaska
Arkansas	Washington
Georgia	Oregon
Oklahoma	Rhode Island
Kentucky (tie)	Nevada
Texas (tie)	Connecticut

Only one of the least religious states, Alaska, falls into one of the two fattest categories.

All of the most religious states fall into the two fattest categories.

Those Southern Christians should spend some time in the gym instead of bellying up to the church potluck after Sunday services.

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What happened in June 2009?

2009-06-30T21:59:00.002-04:00

June 30, 2009
St Paul is still making news after all these years. Our blog has the story.

June 28, 2009 (TimesOnline)
Evolutionary biologist and author, Richard Dawkins, has opened a summer camp for atheist children in Britain. All 24 slots have been taken. The first atheist camp was Camp Quest in the USA.

June 27, 2009
Brigham Young University, the Mormon church school where students agree to live a chaste and virtuous life, has lifted its almost three-year policy of blocking YouTube. Go to our blog for this and other exciting BYU/Mormon stories.

June 26, 2009
Agora, a movie about Hypatia, considered to be the first notable woman in mathematics will open this December. She was murdered by a Christian mob in Roman Egypt. More on our blog.

June 26, 2009
The Alabama Freethought Society has put up a 14x48-foot billboard emblazoned with the John Lennon message: "Imagine No Religion," against a stained-glass window backdrop. The poster is in Talladega County and will stay up for a month.

June 26, 2009
The Stoning of Soraya M (left) opens in theaters today. It's a true story based on a terrible injustice. More on our blog.

June 25, 2009
Our blog has a video of a gay exorcism in an African American church plus commentary.

June 25, 2009 NY Times
Pastor Ken Pagano of the New Bethel Church in Louisville, KY has planned a "bring your guns to church day" this July 4th. The only thing that might stop the event is if he can't get insurance. His current insurance company canceled the church’s policy for July 4 and told him that it would cancel the policy for good at the end of the year. Update, Update, Update!!! It happened. see ABC News

June 23, 2009 Non Sequitur (Only is America is it necessary to include evolution in a religion blog).

June 22, 2009 BBC News
French President Sarkozy attacked the wearing of the burka, calling it "not a sign of religion but a sign of subservience". Some members of parliament want a commission set up to investigate the spread of the burka in France.

June 20, 2009 (5:45 am)
It's the summer solstice and the pagans are partying like it's 1999. See our blog for pictures of this year's celebration at Stonehenge.

June 18, 2009 (Washington Post)
Wittenberg, Germany, the town where Martin Luther started the Reformation, is short of Lutherans. Fewer than one in five people identify themselves as Christians.

June 14, 2009
Koogle, the world's worst search engine is up and running. Hey, but it's kosher! More on our blog.

June 10, 2009 (Washington Post)
An 88-year old white supremacist shot and killed a security

guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington.

June 6, 2009
Alysa Stanton became America's first black female rabbi today. More on our blog.

June 5, 2009 (Gallup)
Sixty-nine percent of Americans are in favor of gay men and lesbians serving in the military. The biggest increase in support came from conservatives and weekly churchgoers.

June 4, 2009 Non Sequitur

June 3, 2009 (Epiphenom)
Peaceful countries have more atheists and fewer regular worshippers. The difference is highly statistically significant. Click on the date for the story.

June 1, 2009 (New York Times)
A man angry about the killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan killed one soldier and wounded another outside a recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Saint Paul -- still making news

2009-06-29T16:17:00.011-04:00

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June 30, 2009

Saint Paul made it into the news two days in a row, which is pretty impressive considering he has been dead for nearly 2,000 years.

Times Online (June 29, 2009)
To your right is the oldest picture of St Paul, according to Vatican archaeologist. The 4th-century portrait was found in the catacombs of St Thecla, not far from the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome (pictured below) where church tradition says St Paul was buried.

The portrait shows St Paul with a high-domed forehead, deep-set eyes and a long pointed beard, confirming the image familiar from later depictions.

New York Times (June 28, 2009)

And the day before that story, archaeologists reported they opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls and carbon-dated bone fragments found inside.

Pope Benedict XVI said the scientists confirmed that the fragments date from the first or second century. The pope hedged his statement a bit by saying the test "seem to conclude” that the bones belong to St Paul.

From the New York Times article.

“This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul,” Benedict said, announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican's Pauline year, in honor of Paul.

It could be true. He has to be buried somewhere.

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Brigham Young University Allows YouTube Access

2009-06-28T11:49:00.016-04:00

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Washington Post, June 28, 2009

No wonder BYU has such a great football team. With all that pent-up sexual energy the players must be explosive on the field.

According to the above Washington Post article:

Brigham Young University, the Mormon church school where students agree to live a chaste and virtuous life, has lifted its almost three-year policy of blocking access to YouTube.

A ban on YouTube?

Apparently, the BYU administration was concerned that students might stumble across porn while perusing YouTube. The ban was lifted because of an increasing amount of educational material on the site.

BYU alum need not worry about the school's declining moral values.

The school's student newspaper refused an ad for the above T-shirt in 2004. (link)

And Chad Hardy, the man who produced the Men on a Mission calendar was excommunicated from the church and was denied his BYU dipoma. The calendar features twelve sexy returning Mormon missionaries posing shirtless. The below video has the Mormon beefcake featured in the 2009 calendar.

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The first woman mathematician in antiquity

2009-06-26T15:17:00.008-04:00

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June 26, 2009

Hypatia of Alexandria, according to Wikipedia, was born between AD 350 and 370 and lived until 415. She was a Greek scholar from Alexandria, Egypt, who is considered the first notable woman in mathematics. She also taught philosophy and astronomy.

She lived in Roman Egypt and was killed by a Christian mob who blamed her for religious turmoil. Says Wikipedia:

The Christian monks stripped her naked and dragged her through the streets to the newly Christianized Caesareum church, where she was brutally killed. Some reports suggest she was flayed with ostraca (potshards) and set ablaze while still alive, though other accounts suggest those actions happened after her death.

The 2009 film, Agora, based on Hypatia's story, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It stars Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella and was directed by Spanish-Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar. It will be released in the United States on December 18, 2009. It's a fascinating study in religious fascism.

The trailer is here:

Interview at Cannes with Alejandro Amenabar and Rachel Weisz.

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Gay Exorcism

2009-06-25T21:53:00.010-04:00

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June 25, 2009

Politics Daily

The Fox News video is an extreme example of the anti-gay sentiment in many African-American churches.

In Washington, DC, African-American pastors are leading the fight to stop the district from passing a law recognizing gay marriages from states where it is legal. According to the Politics Daily article, they are concerned that the next step will be gay marriages in the district.

In California, African-Americans overwhelmingly supported Proposition 8, an amendment to the state Constitution stating that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

ABC News

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The Stoning of Soraya M

2009-06-24T16:10:00.005-04:00

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June 26, 2009

Update Update Update
The Washington Post movie critic didn't like the movie for much the same reason I am not going to see it.

"The Stoning of Suraya M." is a coliseum show with ringside seats.

Wikipedia
beliefnet
movie website

The Stoning of Soraya M opens today. It's based on the novel of the same name. It's a true story about a young Iranian woman who was falsely accused of adultery and stoned to death. The Wikipedia link above has a plot summary.

It sounds like an important and well-made movie. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the runner-up for the Audience Choice Award. That said, I don't think I will see it.

The producers of the film would like people to focus on the hidden martyrs -- women beneath the veil -- rather than the corrupt Islamic authorities. I don't think I could focus on much else besides the stoning. According to what I read, it's a very graphic scene. Soraya is buried up to her waist and stoned to death.

I have come to believe that exposure to extreme violence changes a person. It numbs the soul (or if you don't believe in a soul, it alters your consciousness).

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is another movie I took a pass on. (Gratuitous violence is not my thing.) I get unhealthy violent urges driving on the Beltway in Northern Virginia. I don't need to see stonings and crucifixions.

Here is the trailer.

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Summer Solstice 2009

2009-06-22T09:34:00.012-04:00

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June 20, 2009 (5:45 am) Wikipedia
Mirror.co.uk

This year the summer solstice celebration at Stonehenge, England went off without a hitch. Approximately 35,000 people showed up. They trashed the place but very few people were arrested.

Here are photos and a video from the celebration.

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Kosher search engine

2009-06-20T11:50:00.011-04:00

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June 14, 2009 (The New York Times)

Oy vey!

Israel ultra-Orthodox Jews now have a kosher search engine. It's called Koogle (cute).

This has got to be the worse search engine on the planet. The only thing it has are links to Israeli news and shopping sites. And you can't shop on Saturday because the sites are disabled on that day. Hey, but it's kosher!

Here are links to other stories about Israeli Orthodox Jews. I have to imagine there is a bit of tension between the ultra-Orthodox Israelis and the more secular Israelis.

Oct 6, 2008 (published)
Kosher cell phones are available for ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. The phones can't send or receive text messages, browse the Internet or take photos -- all activities that could potentially involve "inappropriate" behavior.

Oct 4, 2008
Jewish "modesty patrols" are sowing fear in Israel. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.

Feb 24, 2005
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jewish worshipers confronted Natalie Portman and her co-star, Aki Avni, objecting to the couple kissing during the filming of a scene beside Jerusalem's Western Wall.

March 22, 2005 (publication date)
Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel denounce an ultra-Orthodox Israeli scholar and science writer because he doesn't believe the earth is 6,000 years old.

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Bill Maher's "Religulous"

2009-06-16T18:36:00.005-04:00

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Bill Maher's documentary, "Religulous," is now on Google Video.

Religulous, according to its wikipedia page,

is a 2008 American comedy/documentary film written by and starring political comedican Bill Maher and directed by Larry Charles. According to Maher, the title of the film is a portmanteau derived from the words "religion" and "ridiculous"; the documentary examines and satirizes organized religion and religious belief.

Religulous

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America's First Black, Female Rabbi

2009-06-16T10:20:00.009-04:00

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June 6, 2009

Guardian June 15, 2009
Time June 6, 2009

Congratulations to Alysa Stanton, America's first black female rabbi. On June 6 she graduated from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and will become the rabbi at Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, N.C., on Aug. 1.

Stanton arrived at Judaism after sampling a number of different religions.

From the Guardian article:

She was attracted to it she says because Judaism encompasses not just religion but also spiritualism, social justice and community.

The Guardian article also mentioned that at her graduation:

Her adopted daughter Shana was reduced to tears by a group of white Christian protesters outside the temple taunting her and making disparaging remarks.

The article didn't explain why they were protesting. I am not sure if they were upset with Stanton for leaving Christianity and becoming a rabbi or if they were looking for an excuse to disrupt the graduation service. I think it has to be one or the other.

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Holocaust

2009-06-11T17:44:00.013-04:00

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As Michael Burleigh, a leading historian of the Third Reich, has pointed out in a commentary on Singer’s work, eliminating defectives in pre-Nazi Germany was exactly what opened the door to the Holocaust. In his book Confronting the Nazi Past, Burleigh writes, “Singer omits to mention that one of the essential elements of [Nazi] propaganda was the denial of personality to their victims.” He adds that Singer is “displaying remarkable naiveté” when he suggests that the choices that would have to be made in evaluating a prospective defective for elimination would be in trustworthy hands if doctors were in charge. Burleigh notes that the Nazi euthanasia program was led by scientists and psychiatrists, people drawn from the best-educated and most “civilized” ranks of a sophisticated secular medical class not too different from the academic class Singer himself belongs to.

June 12, 2009

At first I thought writing about the Holocaust was a foolish thing to attempt. There are thousands of books on the subject. They range from children's books to scholarly works. Whatever could be said about it has probably already been said by others, many of whom lived through it.

That said, it's a major event in the 20th century and anyone writing a blog about religion can't simply link to a wiki entry about Auschwitz and move on.

Right or wrong, here are my views.

Most of the Holocaust books deal with the event in isolation. The approach I would like to take is to look at the history of religious violence in Europe and tie it into the Holocaust. The Holocaust didn't materialize out of thin air.

Killing the others
Modern Europe is one of the most secular places on the planet. The churches have gone from being at the center of life and power to tourist destinations. Of course it wasn't always that way. The Europeans have been killing Jews, other Christians and Muslims for more than a thousand years.

Two of the bloodiest periods were the Crusades (1096-1270) and an age of Religious Wars (1560-1715).

There were nine Crusaders. The stated objective was to retake the holy land for Christianity. However, the Crusaders didn't confine their zeal for killing to Muslims. They killed about ____ Cathers in southern France (the Catholic Church considered the Cathers heretics). They sacked the Eastern Orthodox city of Constantinople and of course they killed Jews. The Crusaders felt that it didn't make sense to go off and kill Muslims in the holy land while nonbelievers (Jews) remained in the country they were leaving.

Jews were murdered in England ....

Crusades (1096-1270)
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cru1.htm
killing of the Cathars

Anabaptist killing (1520-1530)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll

Europe in the Age of Religious Wars, 1560-1715 (witchcraft, inquisition etc)
http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture6c.html

http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101/TIMELINE/T-WAR.HTM

Spanish (Catholics) killing the Dutch
The French Wars of Religion (Catholics vs Huguenots) 2 to 4 million dead
Thirty Year War 3 to 11.5 million dead

The point of all this is that Europe was a very intolerant place and the Jews were often tolerated for a time before they weren't tolerated.

Did the pogroms become greater?

Did they cut off escape routes?

Start with religious intolerance in Europe. Go after anyone who is different. The others. mention Cathers, Anabaptist, French wars of Religion

Pogroms were local. Jews were able to leave. Some places welcomed them.

http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/gallery/expuls.htm
map of Jewish expulsions.

Holocaust almost all of Europe. Germany's had almost all of Europe. No Jews in Spain.

Jews had escape routes in the past. Local population was more interested in getting rid of them.

WWII no escape routes and Germans wanted them all dead.

They also had the help of many local populations. Guards - many locals and locals helped identify Jews

Questions -- why did the Germans want them all dead verse kicking them out of Europe?

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Marcus Brigstocke on the "great Abrahamic religions"

2009-06-10T20:57:00.007-04:00

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From his wikipedia page: "Marcus Alexander Brigstocke (born 8 May 1973) is an English comedian and satirist who has worked extensively in stand-up comedy, television and radio. He is particularly associated with the 6.30pm comedy slot on BBC Radio 4, having frequently appeared on several of its shows."

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The Mosque in Morgantown

2009-06-10T16:40:00.013-04:00

June 10, 2009

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Asra Nomani was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal when her friend, Daniel Pearl, a fellow WSJ journalist, was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan.

The execution of Pearl and subsequent discovery that the mosque in her hometown of Morgantown, WV, was preaching intolerance changed her from an objective journalist to an activist.

The Mosque in Morgantown, directed by Brittany Huckabee, is a documentary about her attempt to change the practices in her hometown mosque as well as Islam as practiced in America.

I saw a shortened preview of the film followed by a Q&A session with Ms. Nomani, the director and others at Georgetown University on June 9. I'll be watching the full version when it airs beginning June 15 and recommend it to anyone interested in the Muslim community in America.

The part of the film that I saw dealt primarily with Ms. Nomani's attempt to gain equal treatment for women in the mosque. Women can't enter the Morgantown Mosque through the front door, and they are segregated from the men. "When she returns home to West Virginia to raise her son, she believes she sees warning signs at the local mosque: exclusion of women, intolerance toward non-believers, and suspicion of the West," according to the documentary's website.

I found particularly enlightening her interviews with members of the mosque about what she was doing. The more liberal members thought she was going about it the wrong way. The more conservative members basically told her to keep her trap shut and stop causing trouble.

One elderly woman was concerned that men would be undressing women with their eyes if women were not separated from men in the mosque. I can't see how this could possibly be an issue.

If I wanted to undress a woman with my eyes, a mosque is the last place I would go. Most of the women are covered from head to toe. It would take a lot more imagination than I have to divine what's underneath all that cloth.

All joking aside, the documentary looks like a winner. Check The Mosque in Morgantown website for the exact day and time it's airing in your area. The earliest date on PBS is June 15, 2009. As you would expect from a former Wall Street Journal reporter, the website is very informative. There is also a discussion section if you care to express your thoughts about the documentary.

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Penis Day in Japan

2009-06-06T11:37:00.012-04:00

March 15, 2009

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Honen Matsuri Wikipedia

You have to admire a culture that remembers and honors the old ways. In Japan, every year Shinto priest lead the fertility celebration known as Honen Matsuri.

From the above Wiki link:

The best known of these festivals takes place in the town of Komaki, just north of Nagoya City. The festival's main features are Shinto priests playing musical instruments, a parade of ceremonially garbed participants, all-you-can-drink sake, and a 280 kg (620 pound), 2.5 meter (96 inch)-long wooden phallus. The wooden phallus is carried from a shrine called Shinmei Sha (in even-numbered years) on a large hill or from Kumano-sha Shrine (in odd-numbered years), to a shrine called Tagata Jinja.

A 620-pound penis! Yikes.

Here are some more pictures of the festival:

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Boy chosen by Dalai Lama turns back on Buddhist order

2009-06-02T12:00:00.010-04:00

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May 31, 2009 (Guardian)

Well good for him.

Osel Hita Torres, the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of a deceased spiritual leader has basically told the Tibetan religious community to go pound sand. He isn't interested in being the reincarnation of anyone.

From the above Guardian article.

Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls. Movies were also forbidden – except for a sanctioned screening of The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped child lama with magical powers. "I never felt like that boy," he said.

The only movie he saw as a child was The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy?

I have to confess, I have always been fascinated with this selection process. The Dalai Lama was selected as a child and he certainly is a sharp guy. I figured they must be doing something right.

I was wrong. It's child abuse. If you want to live a monastic life, more power to you, but no child should be separated from his parents and placed into it.

Torres is back in his native country, Spain, studying film. Hopefully, he's also drinking to excess and chasing after lots of women to make up for lost time.

June 3, 2009
Here is a link to a NY Times review of Unmistaken Child, a search for the reincarnation of another dead Tibetan master.

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Catholics and the Supreme Court

2009-06-01T13:58:00.014-04:00

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New York Times (May 30, 2009)

I'm willing to bet Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will make it to the Supreme Court. And when she does, the court will have six Catholics, two Jews and one lonely Protestant.

Does it matter? I don't think so.

President Bush wanted reliable conservative judges. He probably would have loved to stack the court with fundamentalist Christians who graduated from Regent University law school (founded by televangelist Pat Robertson) or some other ultra-conservative university. Many of the lawyers Bush appointed to the Justice Department were from Regent. But I doubt graduates of schools like Regent would qualify for the Supreme Court. (U.S. News & World Report ranks Regent University School of Law as a Tier 4 school, the lowest ranking within the law school category.) So he turned to conservative Catholics who graduated from great law schools.

Sonia Sotomayor was selected by a Democrat. She isn't a church-going Catholic and will more than likely be a bit left of center. From what I have read about her, she tends to be pro-business and a bit liberal on social issues. I think she will be a bit like a slightly liberal version of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

This is about the best appointment Republicans can expect to get from a Democratic president. I'm willing to bet Obama's next Supreme Court appointee will be a flaming liberal activist judge -- the left-wing equivalent of Chief Justice John Roberts -- who will drive Republicans crazy.

We'll see.

Here's another view from the Washington Post.

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What happened in May 2009?

2009-05-31T21:51:00.004-04:00

May 31, 2009
A child chosen by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of a deceased religious leader is all grown up and wants his life back. More on our blog.

May 31, 2009 (New York Times)
George Tiller (right), a Wichita, Kansas doctor who was one of the few doctors in the nation to perform late-term abortions was shot to death in church. The police have a suspect.

May 30, 2009
If Sonia Sotomayor make it to the Supreme Court, the court will have six Catholics, two Jews and one lonely Protestant. More on our blog.

May 28, 2009 (New York Times)
The date links to a video interview with the Dalai Lama. He is discussing autonomy for Tibetans within China.

May 23, 2009
Liberty University, founded by the late Rev Jerry Falwell, will no longer recognize the campus Democratic club because the party's platform goes against the school's moral principles. More on our blog.

May 22, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI has his own website and it's not bad. It needs to be fleshed out a bit, but that will happen in time. It has facebook, iphone, youtube and wikicath sections. Wikicath is an interactive message center. The web address is http://pope2you.net/.

May 22, 2009 (Chicago Tribune)
Chicago joins a growing number of cities with atheist ads on city buses. The campaign was started by an Indiana atheist group. The ad (below) is a bit more in your face than some of the other campaigns, but then again it is Chicago. Link to other campaigns.

May 22, 2009
The Spanish police say they have broken up a human trafficking ring that forced Nigerian women into prostitution by threatening them with voodoo curses. More about voodoo and witchcraft on our blog.

May 22, 2009
Finally a good news story. Religious strife in Nigeria between Christian and Muslims often explodes into violence. But now the leaders of both religions are working together to fight against the spread of malaria. link to story

May 21, 2009 (LA Times)
Rolf McPherson, the leader of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, dies. The church claims to have 8.4 million members in 144 countries. His mother, Aimee Semple McPherson founded the church. She was a charismatic evangelist known for "alter calls" when the sick and infirm surged forward to ask for healing.

May 20, 2009
Irish priests and nuns have been implicated in a massive sex and physical abuse scandal. Tens of thousands of Irish children were victimized over the years. More on our blog.

May 18, 2009
The Bush team is still providing this blog with fun facts. Apparently Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's Iraq war briefs to the president came wrapped in a cover with biblical quotes. More on our blog.

May 18, 2009 Non Sequitur

May 15, 2009 (New York Times)
A 47-million year old primate fossil could be the common ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans.

May 11, 2009
Apple rejected an iphone application that allows a person to insert his or her face in the place of Jesus or other religious figures. What a bunch of fuddy-duddies! Read more on our blog.

May 6, 2009
Forget about it! No way, no how will you be seeing the sexy burqua in the Saudi Arabia beauty contest. Looks don't matter. The winner will be devoted to mom. More on our blog.

May 5, 2009
Father Cutié, known in the Hispanic community as Father Oprah because of the relationship advice he offers on Catholic radio, was photographed embracing a woman at a bar and at the beach. More on our blog.

May 4, 2009
Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated and destroyed to ensure that troops did not breach regulations which forbid proselytizing. Our blog has a video.

Religion, Politics and Human Development

2009-05-25T15:53:00.028-04:00

May 25, 2009

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Thank goodness for graphics. It's about the only way you can cover religion, politics and something called the human development index in a reasonable amount of space.

What is the human development index (HDI) you ask? It's a measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, standard of living and GDP for countries or, in our case, for the states.

The map on the left is what it looks like for the U.S. The darker the green the better the state measures on such things as access to health care, education, income, etc. Yellow is awful.

The map on the right has the states that were won by Obama and McCain in 2008. The blue states were won by Obama. States with whatever that other color is (wishy-washy red? Pepto-Bismol pink?) were won by McCain.

The high HDI states, in which people generally had the better education, income, etc., etc., voted overwhelmingly for Obama. The lower HDI states voted for McCain.

Two states (Texas and Alaska, dark green but voted Republican) were the exception. I'm guessing that the presence of oil skewed their income somewhat higher. (Any thoughts?) Florida is also an exception (light green but voted Democratic), possibly because it has a heavy Hispanic population, and 2/3 of Hispanics voted for Obama.

What exactly is this doing in a blog that deals exclusively with religion?

According to a Gallup Poll done in January, 2009, that measured how important religion is in our daily lives the most and least religious states are:

Most religious states	Least religious states
Mississippi	Vermont
Alabama	New Hampshire
South Carolina	Maine
Tennessee	Massachusetts
Louisiana	Alaska
Arkansas	Washington
Georgia	Oregon
Oklahoma	Rhode Island
Kentucky (tie)	Nevada
Texas (tie)	Connecticut

The human development index, voting patterns and religious beliefs all track very closely.

People who are more religious and live in states with low life expectancies, literacy rates, education and standard of living tend to vote Republican.

People who are less religious and live in states with higher life expectancies, literacy rates, education levels and standard of living tend to vote Democratic.

State by state importance of religion
States won by Obama and McCain
Human Development Index in the U.S.

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witchcraft and voodoo in Africa

2009-05-25T11:43:00.002-04:00

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May 22, 2009

Link to New York Times story.

This voodoo and witchcraft nonsense is out of control in Africa. Thousands of Africans are getting killed or hurt.

Here is a video about witchcraft in the Congo involving children.

And here is link to a NY Times story from a previous blog about albinos in Tanzania being killed by witch doctors for their body parts.

The horrible thing about all this is there isn't any easy fix.

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Liberty University

2009-05-23T20:27:00.012-04:00

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June 23, 2009 New York Times Update! Update! Update!
The student Democratic club can continue as a campus group at Liberty University — unofficially. The new policy also changed the College Republicans from an officially recognized campus group to an unofficial one. The political organizations will not receive university financing but may use the Liberty name and meet in university facilities.

May 23, 2009

Washington Post article

Good grief! Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia will no longer recognize the school's Democratic club because the Democratic party goes against the school's moral principals. It looks like the majority of Americans must be morally corrupt since most Americans are Democrats.

Liberty's founder, Reverend Jerry Falwell, provided this blog with some very entertaining entries before he died in 2007. Here's a sample:

Feb 15, 1999
The Reverend Jerry Falwell, a former spokesman for America's Moral Majority, denounced the children's show, Teletubbies. He said it does not provide a good role model for children because Tinky Winky is gay.

May 17, 1977
“Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.” Reverend Jerry Falwell on Crossfire.

Sept 13, 2001
Rev. Jerry Falwell (with Rev Pat Robertson) blames pagans, abortionist, feminists and gays & lesbians for the 911 attacks.

It looks like his son, Liberty's chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., has his dad's knack for making headlines. I suppose banning the Democratic club shouldn't be surprising. The biology department teaches creationism along with evolution and intelligent design. (link).

Here is a segment about the ban on the Rachel Maddow show.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

May 30, 2009
Here's a link to National Public Radio spot about a Brown University student who spent a semester at Liberty University.

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Witches in the Congo

2009-05-22T22:15:00.005-04:00

May 22, 2009

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http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7658899

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/05/child-witches-h.html

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Early Primate Fossil

2009-05-22T11:41:00.005-04:00

May 15, 2009
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Link to May 15, 2009 Wall Street Journal story
Link to May 16, 2009 New York Times story
Link to Scientific article in PLoS.

OK, so they aren't sure if it's a great, great, great (etc) grandmother of man or a great, great, great (etc) aunt of man. But it looks like it is one or the other. The discovery also seems to point to the adapidae group as being the ancestor of apes and man. Lemurs (left) are adapids.

May 15, 2009
Here's another evolution story. This probably won't change any minds, but hopefully it may cause people who don't believe in evolution to take another look. Our blog links to an NPR story about how man changed dogs as firearms technology evolved. If we can change dogs, why can't mother nature do the same and over time develop new species?

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U.S troops urged to share faith in Afghanistan

2009-05-21T20:55:00.005-04:00

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May 5, 2009

Today In Religion

Talks and debates

Faith-based hatred

"God hates fags"

Mayhem in the name of God

Nothing honorable about this killing

Asian-Americans least religious, more liberal

36 Arguments for the Existence of God

Grab some popcorn, watch the great debate

The Bible, re-interpreted

Go to hell, Pat Robertson

Praise the Lord, but give your money to me

Rick Warren gets his comeuppance

Christmas Carols and blind faith

Not even the cemetery is safe

Oy! A rabbi in Montana!

2nd look: "30 Days" episode

Pardon me while I rant

Everything is O.K. until the apes stand up

How to lose friends and offend everybody

A "Collision" of beliefs

Palin, Dobson and the rest of the evangelicals

Lazy agnostic's guide to evolution, Part 2

Whoa, dude, I'm so confused

The Hijabi in the White House

Teen dies in exorcism

Lazy agnostic's guide to evolution

Yes, but God told me . . .

Good news: Some priests don't rape little boys

Whom would Jesus threaten?

New poll: 27% of Americans not religious

Ex-pastor: 10 Things I Hate About Christianity

UFO Religion Founder Sponsors Go Topless Day!

Meditation without borders

Prosperity Gospel Preacher Still Raking It In

1969

Demographic time bomb in Israel

Doonesbury takes on "The Family"

Bill Moyers interviews Pema Chodron

Reverend Ike

The Family

Losing My Religion

Evangelist Tony Alamo convicted

Grand Syrian Rabbi caught in NJ sting

The Neocatechumenal Way

Another religious TV show bites the dust

Best Religion In The World? Not!

Miss Manners' advice for atheists

President Obama meets the Pope

Geneticist Francis Collins to head NIH

Another Pig in a Python

President Obama and the Church Thing

Stephen Colbert on Cynthia Davis

Has President Obama picked a church?

Is religion dangerous to your health?

What happened in June 2009?

Saint Paul -- still making news

Brigham Young University Allows YouTube Access

The first woman mathematician in antiquity

Gay Exorcism

The Stoning of Soraya M

Summer Solstice 2009

Kosher search engine

Bill Maher's "Religulous"

America's First Black, Female Rabbi

Holocaust

Anabaptist killing (1520-1530)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_tollEurope in the Age of Religious Wars, 1560-1715 (witchcraft, inquisition etc)http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture6c.html

Marcus Brigstocke on the "great Abrahamic religions"

The Mosque in Morgantown

Penis Day in Japan

Boy chosen by Dalai Lama turns back on Buddhist order

Catholics and the Supreme Court

What happened in May 2009?

Religion, Politics and Human Development

witchcraft and voodoo in Africa

Liberty University

Witches in the Congo

Early Primate Fossil

U.S troops urged to share faith in Afghanistan

Anabaptist killing (1520-1530)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll

Europe in the Age of Religious Wars, 1560-1715 (witchcraft, inquisition etc)
http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture6c.html