Tag Archives: Christianity

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Increasingly Repudiates Nonviolence

Posted on August 5, 2015 by

The Muslim Brotherhood is every bit as dangerous for Egypt as the Nazis were for Germany. And recall that Egypt, like Germany in the 1930s, has a vulnerable minority, readily susceptible to terrorist violence (in Egypt’s case, Coptic Christians make … Continue reading →

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What’s Good About Monotheism, Again? What Part Of It Is Worth Treasuring And Rooting For? And Why, Exactly, Is God Always Gendered Male?

Posted on July 25, 2015 by

Robbed, killed, raped, enslaved–all in the name of God. Ain’t monotheism grand? Is This the End of Christianity in the Middle East? ISIS and other extremist movements across the region are enslaving, killing and uprooting Christians, with no aid in … Continue reading →

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God Shadowed By Emptiness: Thomas Aquinas vs. The Buddhist Nagarjuna

Posted on May 14, 2015 by

Emptiness shadows theism. With regard to Thomas Aquinas’ method for grounding existence in being as opposed to change or emptiness (as the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna did), what I find interesting is how, despite himself, emptiness nevertheless shadows Aquinas’ theism. What … Continue reading →

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Holy Shit! The Atheists Really Are Coming!

Posted on May 12, 2015 by

From 16% to 23% of the American population. That’s how fast the religiously unaffiliated have risen in America over the past eight years. Stunning. The Republican Party and the Internet have ruined Christianity in America. Republicans have politicized religion, and … Continue reading →

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Potency, Act, and the Withdrawal of Grace: Thomas Aquinas on Original Sin

Posted on November 29, 2014 by

Here’s Thomas Aquinas in Summa Contra Gentiles, Book IV, ch. 52: “[We Christians] affirm that man was, from the beginning, so fashioned that as long as his reason was subject to God, not only would his lower powers serve him without … Continue reading →

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Jesus and Ayn Rand

Posted on June 29, 2014 by

What sort of conservatism blends Jesus with Ayn Rand? Oh, that would be contemporary Tea Party conservatism. But why isn’t it more widely noticed that “Christian libertarian” is an oxymoron? I would argue that this has to do with the … Continue reading →

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Atheist Andrew? Is Andrew Sullivan on His Way to Becoming an Ex-Catholic?

Posted on June 6, 2014 by

The grotesque story coming to light of the sexual shaming of single mothers and their children in Tuam in mid-20th century Catholic Ireland–and the septic tank there that was used as the collective and unmarked grave for bastard children–800 of … Continue reading →

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The Center Does Not Hold: Bastard Christianities

Posted on April 6, 2014 by

If his lecture outlining his argument is any indication, Catholic intellectual Joseph Bottum’s new book, An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America (Image 2014), is going to be talked about “far and wee”: The major event … Continue reading →

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Alan Sokal on Faith

Posted on March 29, 2014 by

Physicist Alan Sokal, the famed skewer of postmodernism, in an article at Massimo Pigliucci’s Scientia Salon, gives faith a well deserved towel snap: “Faith” is not in fact a rejection of reason, but simply a lazy acceptance of bad reasons. “Faith” … Continue reading →

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John Stuart Mill on the “Omnipotent Author of Hell” (God)

Posted on March 5, 2014 by

For John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), a good reason to reject Christianity and Islam is hell belief, and in his Autobiography he recalls his father’s strong views on the matter: [H]is aversion to religion, in the sense usually attached to the term, … Continue reading →

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The Religion Tree: A Poem

Posted on September 20, 2013 by

THE RELIGION TREE I. The leaf doesn’t fall far from the tree, and we are all leaves on the same tree, and will take our leave from there. II. The yellow leaf signals fall, the green leaf, pride before the fall. … Continue reading →

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What Apologetics Really Is

Posted on September 12, 2013 by

In psychology, you can change your attitude or you can change your behavior, and it’s always easier to change an attitude than it is to change a behavior. That’s apologetics; what it is really. Apologetics gives the doubting believer heavily … Continue reading →

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Hegel for Beginners

Posted on August 23, 2013 by

Outer v. inner direction. The philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) had a decisive influence on Karl Marx, and he continues to exert influence on intellectual thought today. For this reason, it’s good to know the gist of Hegel’s theorizing … Continue reading →

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The Muslim Brotherhood and Religious Fascism

Posted on August 17, 2013 by

This is being reported by the AP today: Mustafa Hegazy, a political adviser to interim President Adly Mansour, told a press conference Saturday that […] Egyptians took to the streets on June 30 – the day that led to Morsi’s ouster … Continue reading →

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Something Good About Christian Belief

Posted on August 15, 2013 by

One good thing about God belief of the Christian variety (if you can swing it) is that it inoculates you from other forms of irrationality. A nonbeliever in God is more prone to, say, succumbing to the delusions of Marxism … Continue reading →

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Hell Belief

Posted on May 21, 2013 by

Three problems with it: Hell belief is authoritarian. If it is true that most people go to hell, and it is eternal torture over flames to be there, then the only way to save yourself from such a ridiculous fate … Continue reading →

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Which Religion is Best? The Admirable Superhero Criterion

Posted on April 28, 2013 by

There are five major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. They can be judged by any number of criteria. Which one has the most admirable superhero? There are certainly compelling characters in four of the five: Jesus is awesome … Continue reading →

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Pushback against Biblical Literalism Directed at Homosexuals

Posted on April 7, 2013 by

John Corvino provides some pushback to biblical literalists on the subject of homosexuality: __________ And Marc Ambinder recently wrote a moving reflection on how difficult it still is for young gay teens: Since moving to Los Angeles, I’ve met a lot … Continue reading →

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Does Science Refute God? The Intelligence Squared Debate

Posted on December 7, 2012 by

Hot off the grill. This was just posted at YouTube.

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Peak Far Right Watch: Ann Coulter’s Vision for America is Largely Jewless and Looks Like the Republican Party Convention Floor in New York in 2004

Posted on November 17, 2012 by

Peak Far Right is the idea that the night of Barack Obama’s reelection constituted the historic fulcrum upon which the long-term demographic decline of the Republican Party as a white Christian party commenced. In other words, Obama’s reelection was the … Continue reading →

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