Jefferson Bible reveals Founding Father’s view of God, faith - Los Angeles Times
'to summarize his views on Christianity, Thomas Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsistency he could find in the four Gospels… and reassembled the excerpts into what he believed was a more coherent narrative'
(del.icio.us tags: America Christianity ThomasJefferson [...]
Posts tagged with ‘religion’
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6 July 2008 – 11:01 pm
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1 July 2008 – 11:00 pm
Should an atheist proselytize? « de-conversion
Interesting. 'These stories have shown that there are a number of ways of supporting Christians who make steps towards de-conversion, but in almost every single case it appears that the doubt that led to de-conversion came from within the individual.'
(del.icio.us tags: atheism religion )
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11 June 2008 – 10:00 am
What does a de-converted minister do with all their stuff? « de-conversion
A thoughtful and moving post over at de-conversion.
(del.icio.us tags: religion )
Lies, damn lies and religion
8 May 2008 – 5:20 pm
There’s an article in today’s Times about the rapid decline in church attendance in the UK. The particular angle they’ve chosen to take is that within a mere 30 years, the number of people going to mosque every weekend will outnumber those going to church. This is illustrated by a dramatic graph with the Christian [...]
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3 May 2008 – 9:08 am
Moving On Up!
Via Pharyngula: Jack Chick explains evolution. Which is weirdly fascinating.
(del.icio.us tags: comics evolution propaganda religion )
Japanese Matches - Too Cute To Burn
‘It is hard to believe they are real matches and not little edible sugar-candies. Of course that isn’t likely as it wouldn’t go over well with parents, but, on the other hand, [...]
Yay for Blasphemy!
7 March 2008 – 9:39 am
Or, to be more exact, yay for legal blasphemy. We’re not quite there yet, but the House of Lords has voted to abolish the offence of blasphemy in British law.
The current situation, with special legal protection for the Church of England, was obviously ludicrous in a modern multicultural society; but then in a country where [...]
Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
14 January 2008 – 2:19 pm
Tomorrow Steve Jobs gives his keynote presentation at the Macworld Expo. If, as is often suggested, the love of Apple goes beyond mere fandom and reaches the status of a cult: well, this is our Christmas. I guess on that analogy, the World Wide Developer’s Conference must be Easter—closer to the true mysteries of the [...]
‘The Bible’ by Karen Armstrong
19 November 2007 – 9:52 pm
The full title is The Bible: The Biography, which at least clears up any possible implication that Karen Armstrong might be claiming authorship for the actual Bible.
I finished this last week sometime, but I’ve been putting off writing about it, mainly because reading a book by someone who knows vastly more about the subject than [...]
‘40 Days and 40 Nights’ by Matthew Chapman
21 September 2007 – 7:28 am
Full title: 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin®, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania. In other words, it’s about the trial in Dover, Pennsylvania where the school board tried to put Intelligent Design into the biology classes and were found to be in breach of the constitutional separation of church [...]
‘Sacred’ at the British Library
19 September 2007 – 4:03 pm
I went yesterday to see Sacred at the British Library. I nearly missed it; the exhibition closes at the weekend. I’m glad I didn’t, as it was extraordinary.
It’s an exhibition of sacred texts from Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and the selection is seriously impressive. For example, the show includes the Lindisfarne Gospels and a bit [...]
More on the atheism/science malarkey
17 September 2007 – 4:42 pm
At Pharyngula, P.Z. Myers comments on the Jake Young article I linked to earlier. The bit of his post I would pick out is this:
Once again, science is a method. It’s a general set of procedures that rest on skepticism, induction, empiricism, and naturalism. Atheism is a conclusion. We look at the universe using the [...]
Science ≠ Atheism
13 September 2007 – 3:00 pm
There’s a post over at Pure Pedantry about the dangers of presenting science and atheism as equivalent or too closely connected; suggesting, for example, that atheism is the natural or inevitable end result of a scientific mindset.
It’s understandable that they sometimes get run together. There is a connection; it’s not a coincidence that scientists are [...]
‘The Satanic Verses’ by Salman Rushdie
15 August 2007 – 2:10 pm
I bought The Satanic Verses in irritation at all the fuckwits who were complaining about Rushdie getting a knighthood. Not surprisingly perhaps, having bought it as a gesture rather than because of an urgent desire to read it, it ended up at the bottom of my to-read pile. It didn’t help that it has a [...]
‘Elizabeth’ by David Starkey
9 August 2007 – 11:57 am
I’ve just been reading Elizabeth by David Starkey, a book about the early life of Elizabeth I. It covers the very start of her reign, but most of it is about her relationships with Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary Tudor.
It raises the question: when little girls want to be princesses, what kind of princess [...]
Atheist, not agnostic. Honestly.
16 July 2007 – 3:57 pm
Scavella has a post about her religious belief, the general drift of which is entirely reasonable. Obviously I don’t actually agree with it all—no surprise there—but I don’t feel the need to argue with it. I do have a problem with this, though:
I tend to regard agnosticism as more honest, and more politically palatable. [...]
Yay for Salman
23 June 2007 – 3:21 pm
Some of the response to Rushdie’s knighthood has startled me. Take, for example, this letter to the Times:
Sir, Did the genius who recommended Salman Rushdie for a knighthood not realise the offence that it would cause to the Muslim world after The Satanic Verses debacle or was this calculated? And exactly why did he get [...]
Since you ask…
19 June 2007 – 3:48 pm
Rob asks:
I haven’t read Christopher Hitchens’s book – yet another book attempting to discredit religion and argue that there is no God (is anyone bored yet?)
Well, let’s see. A Pakistani government minister has just suggested that Salman Rushdie’s knighthood justifies suicide bombings. A creationist museum has just opened in Kentucky. The Catholic church has just [...]
Evolved belief?
6 March 2007 – 3:07 pm
Scavella asks:
And the real question is why. What evolutionary purpose has this tendency, whose existence, even among the most rational of us, suggests that the search for transcendence may be hard-wired into human beings?
I would need some persuading that religious belief is a specific adaption; i.e. that we have evolved the tendency to believe in [...]
Wow! You are awesome!
3 February 2007 – 8:51 am
You know the Bible 92%!
Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!
Ultimate Bible QuizCreate MySpace Quizzes
This is, obviously, not because [...]