We’ve heard them all. Science is a religion. It takes more faith to believe in science (or the big bang, or evolution, or an old earth, or climate change, or…) than it does to believe in God. Today brought another set of comparisons of science to religion and religion to science in a Facebook discussion but from a different angle. Continue reading
North Carolina is proposing an amendment to their state constitution, Amendment One, which would add this new section to Article 14 of the North Carolina Constitution: Continue reading
Those who have ever made use of an online dating website know that part of signing up involves filling out a questionnaire that often includes stating one’s religious preferences. Besides the usual denominational and sectarian choices there is probably also an option for “Spiritual But Not Religious.” Continue reading
It’s been a busy week at the intersection of religion and our bedrooms – a very busy week. The Culture Wars are back it seems. Washington State lawmakers passed a bill allowing same sex marriage. Earlier in the week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California’s Proposition 8 which bans same sex marriage was unconstitutional, upholding a lower court’s ruling, and almost guaranteeing a trip to the Supreme Court. Rick Santorum, has made a platform of social conservatism and believes that the health of our economy and the very future of our country is threatened by the decline of marriage but rabidly opposes gay marriage and contraception. He won all three of the Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota caucuses. Continue reading
© KIK-IRPA, Brussels
I suppose the deathbed question was inevitable and it finally came my way. I will be as painfully honest and thorough as I can in answering it, but I also have plenty to say about the nature of the question itself because I see it often. Continue reading
Sometimes, those we know and love throw us a curve ball so simple, innocent and innocuous on the face, but almost devastating in poignance. They can show up in the strangest of places, at the most unexpected times and perhaps they don’t even realize what they’ve done. I got one yesterday from my friend, Continue reading
Despite how awesome Woody Guthrie’s New Years resolutions from 1943 written in his own hand and with illustrations are, I’ve always been ambivalent about making them for myself. It’s not that I don’t like to set goals, but there’s something arbitrary and artificial about setting New Years resolutions. I admit, there is something to be said for starting with a clean slate. My intentions seem to show up in real time, Continue reading
Those of us who have followed Christopher Hitchens for any length of time knew the time of his death was coming sooner than we would like. ”Followed” is not the right word. We did not “follow” him. Many of us hung on his words; his books, essays, lectures, debates, videos, television appearances, the many works he edited, everything. A new anything by Christopher Hitchens was like waking up on Christmas morning all over again. He has had a profound impact on me and on my thinking. Continue reading
Add yet another false dichotomy and violation of Occam’s Razor to the popular religious discourse. In the article Why Americans Dismiss Sin, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie decries the idea that sin is largely absent from the public dialogue. He lists a number of reasons why he thinks this is the case, concluding that “Our culture pushes us to cast aside responsibility and to find others to blame.” He is pretty firm on this, concluding his article thus: Continue reading
“’See,’ they say, ‘how they love one another,’ for themselves are animated by mutual hatred.”
I’ve been kicking around an idea for some time and I want to kick it around a little in public. The idea is simple, perhaps self-evident, that if there is such a thing as unconditional love then it might best be described as love for love’s sake. Continue reading
