Faithful folks are struggling to stay faithful between the emboldened atheism of scientist Richard Dawkins, author Christopher Hitchens et al on one side, and the clergy sex abuse crisis on the other.
Both forces appear headed for a showdown when Pope Benedict visits Britain in September where he plans to beatify the 19th-century theologian John Henry Cardinal Newman.
The US Supreme court, by a 5-4 majority, has held that it is okay for the government to use a cross as a “secular” symbol in the context of a war memorial. In that context, the cross is now de-Christianised, according to the majority, so no question of separation of church and state arises.
A Supreme Court case highlights how religious conservatives tend to forget that the separation of church and state protects religion from government — not the other way around.
On a somewhat similar note…
I gotta ask, are they done finding the Ark yet? Come on, these guys have found it like a dozen times by now. Let it go, already. Anyway, here’s another story about the Ark that even more direct. It’s called “Fake Noah’s Ark Found On Mt Ararat.”
In the case of Job, particularly the famous prose prologue to which you refer, we find a strictly mythical God, one who keeps order in the universe by means of a bureaucracy of subordinate governors (the “sons of God,” gods or angels who each rule one country as Jehovah’s lieutenants) and who keeps an eye on things by means of a patrolling security chief, “the Satan” (which was originally no proper name but rather a title, “prosecuting attorney” including sting operations man), who roams the world, keeping files on people whose supposed loyalty to God he questions. Job, for instance. At this point in the evolution of biblical mythology “the Satan” is not yet considered an evil being or an opponent of God. That happens later and only insofar as he has somehow been combined with evil mythic entities including Beelzebul (Mark 3:22-23), Ahriman (Luke 10:19) or Leviathan (Revelation 12:9). In the Old Testament (Zechariah 3:1-5; 1 Chronicles 21:1) he is God’s servant, testing God’s mortal servants. He continues this role even in the New Testament (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 22:31; Revelation 12:10). This is what we see him doing in Job chapters 1 and 3.
I love it when even the Friendly Atheist lays the hammer down.
I have some in-laws that are crazy (dare I say evangelical?) for alternative medicine and supplements. They’re always pushing them on others. So I always pounce on stuff that points out the hypocrisy and anti-science aspects of it.
But that’s fiction, right? Well, not entirely, for it applies precisely to another “theory” that is also a fact: the theory of evolution. Over the past quarter-century, poll after poll has revealed that nearly half of all Americans flatly reject evolution, many clinging to the ancient superstition that the earth was created only 6,000 years ago, complete with all existing species. But as Richard Dawkins shows in his splendid new book, The Greatest Show on Earth, the theory of evolution is supported by at least as much evidence as is the germ theory of disease–heaps of it, and from many areas of biology. So why is it contemptible to reject germ theory but socially acceptable to reject evolutionary theory?
And you thought the title was about some new sex toy. Sheesh.
Ah, good old Conservapedia. It’s been so long since I poked fun at you. Here’s to the good ol’ days. Find out more about Conservapedia’s approach to Dawkins here.