Category: Religion

Tyler Cowen reads Frank Tipler’s ridiculous The Physics of Christianity so you and I don’t have to waste our time. ((Hat tip to Chas.)) Choice quote:

I am proposing that the Son and the Father Singularities guided the worlds of the multiverse to concentrate the energy of the particles constituting Jesus in our universe into the Jesus of our universe.

My deepest thanks to Tyler: Vogon poetry is mild stuff by comparison…

Here’s some local News that Chris may be interested in:

Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.
On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.
She does both, she says, because she’s Christian and Muslim.
Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for more than 20 years. Now she’s ready to tell people that, for the last 15 months, she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved.

Joan Bakewell considers the case of the “sacred bull” with TB, and is not encouraged.

Father Jake adapts Don McLean on the subject of this week’s Nigerian takeover of bits of the Episcopal Church:

Now for two hundred years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When Cantaur spoke from the Primates’ floor,
In a cope he borrowed from John Moore
And a voice that left out you and me,
Oh, and while Cantuar was looking down,
Nigeria stole his pointy crown.
The meeting was adjourned;
A harsh verdict was returned.
And while Katharine offered words of grace,
The bishops gathered in one place,
And they said “No!” to Cantuar’s face
The day the Communion died.

So why do I care about this internecine squabble? I guess any time a group of bigots stands up and insists that hating people is more important than accepting (or at least tolerating) them, the world gets a little nastier, a little colder. We should all regret that.

More stuff you can’t make up, this time from Reuters

The Vatican’s official newspaper accused an Italian comedian on Wednesday of “terrorism” for criticizing the Pope and warned his rhetoric could fuel a return to 1970s-style political violence.
…
“This, too, is terrorism. It’s terrorism to launch attacks on the Church,” it said. “It’s terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man.”

Good grief! What kind of things can the comedian – Andrea Rivera – have been saying?

“The Pope says he doesn’t believe in evolution. I agree, in fact the Church has never evolved,” he said.

That’s it? (Pretty much, yes.)

I’ve been trying to write a long piece about the subject of honour killings, culture, and religion, as well as the multiculturalist fools who try to justify or excuse this stuff. But I’m just too angry, and it won’t come together. Just go and read the stories here and here.
Ed made a good point, which I will quote, and then I’ll shut up.

I’m not sure that calling this “multiculturalism” is the right phrase. As Gretchen said in her email to me with this link, it’s more accurate to call it cultural relativism. It’s something I am staunchly opposed to and absolutely willing to fight over. It’s cropped up on this blog a few times in arguments with commenters. The bottom line is that it is absolutely absurd to dismiss such barbarism as just a matter of cultural choices that we are in no position to judge. Bullshit. I will judge it and I will condemn it, loudly and fervently.

P.S. Spot the common element here and here. Hint: it rhymes with “fuss”.

Yahoo! Reports! That! the Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries:

In writings before his election as Pope in 2005, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made it clear he believed the concept of limbo should be abandoned because it was “only a theological hypothesis” and “never a defined truth of faith.”

“Defined truth of faith.” So when it comes to faith, truth is whatever one defines it to be? That way madness lies….

We are frequently told* that Dawkins, Harris et al are at fault for critiquing a crude and simplistic view of religion. Most Christians, we are assured, have far more sophisticated beliefs which “fundamentalist atheists” don’t understand. But then what are we to make of Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, who appears to believe in a literal Noachian flood:

A few fixed points might provide some light.  We know that enormous climate changes have occurred in world history, e.g. the Ice Ages and Noah’s flood, where human causation could only be negligible.

I suppose that he could simply have been carried away by his passion over the subject of his editorial – global warming. After all, he had earlier said:

In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Maybe he gets it from his boss…..
—
* Certainly I am frequently told, in comments on this blog!

From Sara at Orcinus:

I’ve been saying for a long while now that the power to end the Intelligent Design fiasco, firmly and finally and with but a single word, rests in the manicured hands of the chancellors of America’s top universities. The message is short and simple: “Teach what you like, it’s all fine with us. But if you put ID in your science courses, we will not accept those courses as adequate for admission to our campus.”
Making this kind of public statement would be one small step for a university chancellor; and one giant leap for American science education. Somebody, somewhere, needs to set a firm standard. If our universities — which bear responsibility for training our professional scientists, and maintain the labs and faculties responsible for much of our best research — won’t stand up and draw that line, then we really are well and truly lost.
It turns out that we may be in better hands than I’d hoped.

It’s an interesting story – the University of California vs. Calvary Chapel Christian School. No prizes for guessing which side is trying to pass off the products of Bob Jones “University” Press as science textbooks. Perhaps an equally unambiguous statement by UK universities would squelch the incipient ID movement over there, too.

From a letter to The Guardian about the recent protests in London against legislation banning discrimination against homosexuals:

If those Christians protesting outside parliament against the sexual orientation regulations were the exception, why did four out of the five bishops inside parliament vote against the rules?
Andrew Copson
British Humanist Association