May 2008
2 posts
“In god we trust; all others bring data.”
– W. Edwards Deming
The luxury of reason
I haven’t been writing here much lately because I don’t see much point in doing so. That probably sounds like any of a number of my earlier rants on nihilism and existentialism, but I think of this less as facing the gaping maw of meaninglessness in our world, and more as a sort of lighthearted futility. I’ve recently come across a couple things that illustrate this well....
April 2008
4 posts
“The fastest-growing faith in the country is no faith at all.”
– A fascinating oxymoron from an article about atheists who crave their own church. From “If God is Dead, Who Gets His House?” New York Magazine.
The "cool" factor and another kind of sacrifice
I stumbled upon an article in the New York Times just now about NYC’s recent shortage of Catholic priests-in-training:An increasingly secular and materialistic culture, reluctance among the young to accept lifelong celibacy, and anger over the church’s handling of sexual abuse scandals have all contributed to the precipitous drop, the officials say. Vocational directors recognize that the...
(Not too) many ways to find God
Something — I’m not sure what — reminded me tonight of a post I wrote here awhile back about how I write more about religion on this blog than about God. I went back and reread that post, and I was pleased to find it (in my opinion) relatively coherent and honest. I reread the follow-up post as well, and, as I suspected, it was rambling and kind of confusing. I feel like there was a nugget...
Social sins and institutional duties
You may have heard the somewhat recent news that the Vatican (to quote CNN) “has listed drugs, pollution and genetic manipulations as well as social and economic injustices as new areas of sinful behavior.” And, while not directly related, BBC reported right around the same time that the Southern Baptist community “said evidence of man-made global warming was...
March 2008
1 post
“Doing something everyone should do shouldn’t make me a saint.”
– Elissa Montanti, in Psychology Today
February 2008
6 posts
What we mean when we say "I was raised Catholic"
The New York Times recently reported on a survey about religious affiliations in the US. I found the results really interesting:If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations. […] The report shows, for example, that every religion is losing and gaining members, but that the Roman Catholic Church “has...
Neo-Gomorrah is going to E-X-P-L-O-D-E
Would you believe that there’s not just one, but two manga versions of the Bible? I can definitely see precedent for throwing some giant robots into the Old Testament — it was the Hebrew people, after all, who brought us the golem — but I am kind of bummed to read this:The Sermon on the Mount did not make the book, though, because there was not enough action to it. Ah. See, for people who...
Revisiting nihilism
I had a conversation with a friend last night about the big question I keep hitting up against on this blog: If there’s no such thing as universal Truth, Morality, or Meaning (note well the capital letters!), then isn’t our existence, by definition, meaningless? And if that’s the case, why don’t we just take our own lives and be done with it? My friend doesn’t see it...
His murky materials
I recently read Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series, curious about the first book and the movie based on it, The Golden Compass. I had heard rumors that Pullman is like C.S. Lewis, but insistent that God must die and religious people are nuts; that fans were disappointed that the (anti-)religious aspects of the book had been toned down for the movie; that this was...
“4.how come we cant speak monkey”
– coolstylinstud, christianforums.com (quoted on Fundies say the darndest things Top 100)
The Dawkins delusion
I was sitting across from someone at the coffee shop yesterday who was reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It reminded me that I have been meaning to read it myself, sort of in the same way that I have been learning more about the beliefs of religious fundamentalists: I disagree with both, but I feel that it’s wise and appropriate to be knowledgeable about their central arguments so...
January 2008
1 post
Zen kōans and contemplation of existential horror
The other day, something inspired me to answer one of those presumably unanswerable Zen kōans. You have probably heard some variation of it: If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Fully aware that I am foolishly disregarding the purpose of asking such questions, I have always figured that the answer of that might as well be, “Yes, and we know...
December 2007
4 posts
“I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:...”
– Huckleberry Finn, deciding to help free a slave rather than do as the church would have him do. By Mark Twain; reminded by Slacktivist.
The spectrum of Christian thinking
I’m not sure how I found it, but I recently stumbled upon a 2006 book review in Slate titled “Jesus Nation.” As the author of the article states, “These two books disagree profoundly about how to approach Jesus, demonstrating that in America, opinion about Christ cannot be summed up as liberal versus conservative.” The authors “both qualify as liberals,”...
“My Jesus would use nunchucks on Osama bin Laden. Or maybe rip his still beating...”
– “How many Christians understand Jesus’ teachings?” The Blog of Lon. (I am more inclined to agree with the quote that follows this one.)
Mormons are here to teach us a lesson
Fred has an interesting discussion going in the comments at Slacktivist on the difficulty in classifying Mormons as Christian (or not). The long and the short of it is that Mormons do consider themselves a type of Christian (the one correct type, in fact), but just about every other branch of Christianity seems to consider Mormons another religion entirely: They have an extra book, they have extra...
November 2007
7 posts
Kicking ass and talking flames
A bunch of sites I read regularly are all excited about this post on (Mad Magazine knockoff) Cracked’s website about the 9 most badass Bible verses. That is because parts of the Bible are actually pretty hilarious, and if you’re inclined enjoy jokes about video games, action movies, and Smokey Bear, these writers have made it even more hilarious. I saw one site link to this with a...
Some musing and some clarification on beliefs
I recently stumbled upon an article in the New York Times by Paul Davies about how faith in science is still a type of faith. I realized it sounded pretty similar to what I have been writing around here, such as in The religion vs. science debate is stupid” and “How to make your kids think like you do.” This worried me somewhat because I don’t want to sound like this...
How to make your kids think like you do
I just came across an article on Time’s website about “Sunday School for Atheists.”“When you have kids,” says Julie Willey, a design engineer, “you start to notice that your co-workers or friends have church groups to help teach their kids values and to be able to lean on.” So every week, Willey, who was raised Buddhist and says she has never believed in...
Thoughts on unsuccessful evangelism
I attended a video game convention this past summer where people were handing out all sorts of flyers on the street to attendees on their way in. Mostly they were ads for video games and rival conventions, but one in particular caught my eye for some reason. It was the size of a business card, and it had a bunch of different game controllers on the front, with the text, “You’re in...
This is a good sermon
Remember back in my first post here how I mentioned that a particularly good sermon kickstarted this project for me? Well, I left a note for the reverend in the guestbook following the mass requesting the text of the sermon, and he just got back to me. Not only did he email the attachment, but he also directed me to the church’s website, where the full text of this sermon — “Why bother...
Pray the rosary, pray the rosary, etc.
The other day, I saw a car with two different bumper stickers, each reading, “Pray the rosary.” I find this interesting. I’m sure I’ve seen exhortations to pray, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one (let alone two) as specific as “pray the rosary.” I read these as having roughly the same tone as “go green” or “impeach Bush” —...
What did you give up for Lent?
One year, I went to the campus’s Newman Center for Ash Wednesday mass. This day marks the beginning of Lent, the liturgical season leading up to Easter. The priest told us a pretty good homily. It started with a joke:A priest was out walking one night when he suddenly heard a voice behind him. “Put up your hands, turn around slowly, and hand over your money.” The priest put up...
The religion vs. science debate is stupid
There are only two categories of institutions particularly invested in positioning religion versus science in a two-sided war: Those who believe unquestioningly in their preferred dogma, and journalists. Journalists have a particular conventions in writing that make their job more manageable. These techniques include simplifying complex issues into just two sides, and giving equal attention to...
October 2007
13 posts
“Who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?”
– Matthew 6:27
Wait, another thought about God
A friend of mine wrote to me to say he was interested in how my blog (presumably the previous post) touches upon “how there are many different ways to approach God.” I launched into a largely unintelligible disagreement with him that I must concede was probably unnecessary, as I suspect we agree on such matters far more than we disagree. Still, it seemed like a good opportunity to...
Missing God
Looking back on the posts I have been writing here, I notice that I have been interested in writing about religion, but not very interested in writing about God. In fact, the only times I have felt it necessary to write about God are those times when I have said that certain beliefs in contemporary Christianity having practically nothing to do with God at all. I have a bunch of other things I mean...
“If you listen closely to the dialectic between them you will hear something...”
– American Scientist editor Rosalind Reid on Dr. Homer Jacobson’s retraction of an erroneous article embraced by anti-evolution creationists
Getting good with the Good Book
Some time back, Time ran an article on the case for teaching the Bible in public schools. I think this is a good idea because it worked out so well for me, but I can see how some would be nervous about leaving others in charge of it, like hiding a wondrous scientific discovery for fear it might fall into the wrong hands. I agree with the author, at least, that our nation’s general ignorance...
Literalism, fundamentalism, and exclusionism
I’d like to follow up with the thread from a previous post about “literal” interpretations of the Bible. As I alluded to before, Rob Bell (futuristic Megachurch superpastor) says that our theology needs to be strong enough to stand up to inconsistencies in the Bible. Also, the sermon that got me writing this blog included a straightforward statement that the Bible was not...
The Bible as a rulebook
I came across a Newsweek article recently about A.J. Jacobs, a journalist and author whose schtick seems to be to wade through huge books for his edification and our amusement. He’s got a new book out now, chronicling his year-long experiment of trying to live out a literal interpretation of anything that could be interpreted as a rule in the whole Bible. I phrase his experiment in this way...
“Stop “reclaiming America for Christ.” Christ already has a kingdom, an...”
– “Teen Mania,” Fred Clark
A church that sounds like a Nintendo character...
I just stumbled upon a great interview with Rob Bell over at the Wittenburg Door’s website. I first saw the magazine in a book store a couple years ago and picked it up based on the tagline alone: “The world’s pretty much only religious satire magazine.” Then I bookmarked its site and forgot about it until tonight, browsing around for things I meant to write about when I...
“The ancients knew that God — their greatest, bored skeptic — was there. We know...”
– We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
How they know us
I’m a big fan of Fred Clark’s Slacktivist, a blog about Christianity and politics by a newspaperman near where I live. His posts consistently give me good food for thought and offer counterexamples to what people think of as “Christian.” In a recent post, Fred notes that Christians are supposed to be known by our love, yet we have come to be known by some Christians’...
Some thoughts
I used to pray every night, go to church every week, and read bits of the Bible on occasion. Gradually, I got out of these habits — not so much out of disillusionment or resentment towards religion, just a general slippage, a shifting of focus. And yes, in the time that followed, something about the way I believed changed, too. Sometimes it makes me sad, and yet it also makes me mildly...