Religion
drorzel | April 3, 2006While I managed to correctly re-set the clock yesterday, in the process, I turned my alarm off, so I'm running late. Which means no lengthy science blogging this morning. Even running late, though, I can't pass over Fred Clark's message to the evangelicals who organized an anti-pop-culture rally in San Francisco:
Stop it. Just stop. Stop pissing on trees. Stop "reclaiming America for Christ." Christ already has a kingdom, an upside-down, mustard-seed kingdom without a flag. And while you people are so busy trying to create an alternative kingdom called "Christian America," the prostitutes and…
drorzel | March 22, 2006Writing the previous post about religion reminded me that I never did comment on the two student panels on religious matters that I went to a couple of weeks ago. The details aren't terribly important, but they provide some local anecdotal support for Sean's demographic point.
(Alternate post title: "I Believe the Children Are Our Future")
The two events were panel discussions featuring students talking about "Growing up X in America" where "X" is a religion of your choice. I missed the first two (X="Muslim" and X="Jewish"), because they fell during a hellishly busy part of the term for me,…
drorzel | March 20, 2006To say I'm a lapsed Catholic would be an understatement. I haven't set foot in a church in years, other than for a couple of weddings. I've never cared for parts of the official doctrine, and I think they blew it when they made Giblets Pope. In terms of general attitude toward religion, I'm sort of an apathetic agnostic-- I don't know if there's a God, and I don't much care.
And yet, I make at least some effort to not eat meat on Fridays during Lent. I don't do all that well, because I'm a little absent-minded (I usually forget it's Friday until I'm halfway through a cheeseeburger), but I do…
drorzel | March 17, 2006While chasing links for a religion-in-politics post that may or may not get posted (my opinions on the subject are aggressively moderate, and while I could use the traffic, I don't know that I want the headache), I ran across the swear-to-uphold quote again. PZ cites an unsourced blog post for the story, reproduced in its entirety here:
On Wednesday, March 1st, 2006, in Annapolis at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify.
At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr…
drorzel | February 28, 2006Leonard Pitts has the scoop:
Allow me to share with you an epiphany. I think Fred Phelps is gay.
Not that I'd have any way to know for sure, and not that there's anything wrong with that. But it seems obvious to me that Freddie has spent a little time up on Brokeback Mountain, if you catch my drift. I'm thinking he's secretly into show tunes, interior decorating and man-sized love.
Via Grim Amusements
(Ordinarily, I wouldn't bother passing on this sort of cheap shot, but Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps is such a miserable piece of filth, I'll make an exception.)
drorzel | February 14, 2006In case you've ever found yourself longing for a math/physics version of J.B.S. Haldane, Scott Aaronson ponders the nature of God.
drorzel | February 6, 2006I feel like I ought to say something about the whole Danish cartoon mess, but really-- and this isn't something you'll hear me say often about issues touching on religion-- PZ has it about right. The paper in question has every right to print them, but when you get down to it, the cartoons themselves are pretty terrible. They're badly drawn in a manner that's weirdly typical of European political cartoons (I prefer this sort of thing), and they're gratuitously offensive. Pubishing them was a stupid thing to do.
(Let me note, though, that I find a certain delightful irony in the fact that PZ…