Blog Stats
- 2,840,367 readers since June 2008
Recent Comments
- Green on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Green on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Green on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Green on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Green on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Joshx45 on Feminism for Beginners
- Roger lynn mason on Blogging UFOs: What Do You Make of Professor Robert Jacobs’s Bizarre UFO Testimony?
- geoenergymath on On the Far Right, Ann Coulter and Mitt Romney Are Not Conservative Enough!
- John Mack on Would Friedrich Nietzsche have admired Ayn Rand?
- Can We Learn From History? – Critical News Autoblog on Howard Nemerov and Learning from History
- Mathilde on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Manly Man Joe on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Robert Stewart on David Berlinski defends God’s role in the Holocaust: “God did not protect his chosen people…[but] did…smite their enemies, with generations to come in mourning or obsessed by shame.”
- David on Clit Rubbing Bonobos: A Clue to the Evolutionary Origin of Human Homosexuality?
- Philosophers on Evolutionary Psychology - Assignment Ninjas on Feminism for Beginners
Top Posts
- Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Walt Whitman: "To be indeed a God!"
- Clit Rubbing Bonobos: A Clue to the Evolutionary Origin of Human Homosexuality?
- What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Henry James' "The Last of the Valerii": Breaking the Spell of Religion?
- "We Rule You, We Fool You": Classic 1911 Poster Depicting Capitalism Titled "Pyramid of Capitalist System"
- What is an Etiological Narrative? And Might Confusion About Its Nature Be the Source for Fundamentalist Religion?
- Albert Camus: The Absurd, Rebellion, Freedom, Passion, and Solidarity
- The Bhagavad Gita and Socrates vs. Homer and The Iliad
- Will We Play Harps in Heaven? And Will the Playing of Such Harps Constitute Hell? Oh, and Are We Already Playing Those Harps?
-
Recent Posts
Recent Haiku Tweets
- @abrahampiper Yahweh as a frustrated deity, much to be pitied! Abraham Piper's insight here, if thought about as a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 6 months ago
- RT @tbonier: More than 80M votes cast and we're not done yet. Thoughts: - It's too late for an "October surprise" to have a significant imp… 11 months ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: 1. Want to thank @DanielNewman for using his HUGE platform for this work. I want to clarify what this is. In the voter… 1 year ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: Tell me again about how old and feeble Joe Biden is??? twitter.com/ProjectLincoln… 1 year ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: Remember when you had a chance to choose country over party and you chose party @SenatorCollins? Well, @ProjectLincol… 1 year ago
Tag Archives: Judaism
What’s Good About Monotheism, Again? What Part Of It Is Worth Treasuring And Rooting For? And Why, Exactly, Is God Always Gendered Male?
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
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, Christianity, God, Islam, Judaism, middle east, monotheism, theology
5 Comments
The Religion Tree: A Poem
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 here. II. The yellow leaf signals fall, the green leaf, pride before the fall. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Nietzsche, poetry, religion, taoism
Leave a comment
A Film That Appears To Be Worth Seeing
This looks good and has gotten a lot of recent attention and critical acclaim. It has also generated controversy. It opens in New York and Los Angeles May 24, 2013. Directed by Rasha Burshtein, an Orthodox Jewish woman who lives … Continue reading
Which Religion is Best? The Admirable Superhero Criterion
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
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Arjuna, atheism, Buddha, Christianity, God, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, philosophy, religion
9 Comments
Egypt without Jews, Christians, and Pyramids?
Jews have been a part of Egypt and its history for over three thousand years, but Islamic fundamentalism’s steady rise in the country has absurdly driven their numbers literally into the dozens. A new documentary, made by an Egyptian and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged coptic christians, Egypt, fundamentalism, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, the pyramids
Leave a comment
Pushback against Biblical Literalism Directed at Homosexuals
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
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Christianity, civil rights, gays, God, homosexuality, Islam, Judaism, lesbians, the Bible, women's rights
4 Comments
Did God Die In The Holocaust?
In the 1930s and 40s, a great many Jews in Europe would have exercised their free will in the direction of Adolf Hitler’s head by putting a bullet in it, but God (if He exists) did not give a single Jew … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, God, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Nietzsche, philosophy, the Holocaust
2 Comments
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi Joins Prayer for Destruction of Jews and Their Allies
Um, those allies would include those of us in the United States. __________ And we give them money. (Or, more accurately, we borrow money from the Chinese and then pass it on to the Egyptians.) Especially galling is when the cleric … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged antisemitism, atheism, Egypt, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Mohammad, Muslims
10 Comments
Does God Want You To Be Curious?
In a recent interview, science writer Philip Ball talks about his new book on curiosity, and implicates religion in stifling it: It’s certainly true that the instinct to know more about our environment must go back as far as humanity … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, curiosity, God, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Mohammad, philosophy, science
13 Comments
The Idol of War: Why God is Not an Islamist, an Orthodox Jew, or a Republican Christianist
How does one extract God from the mob? The Catholic contemplative Thomas Merton, in his book New Seeds of Contemplation (originally published in 1962), made the following startling observations about strong hate: Strong hate, the hate that takes joy in hating, is … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, Christianity, God, humanism, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Nietzsche, zionism
12 Comments
NYC Seeks Ban on “Dinosaur” and “Evolution” in Standardized Tests. Sam Wineburg Has a Wonderful Retort.
When CNN reported last week on the fifty words that the New York City Department of Education seeks to ban from its standardized tests, the list was discovered to include “dinosaur” and “evolution.” Fundamentalist Christian, Orthodox Jewish, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged America, atheism, Charles Darwin, creationism, evolution, God, Jesus, Judaism, muhammad, school
5 Comments
A Bit of Advice on Translation from Leon Wieseltier
Leon Wieseltier, annoyed by what he regards as a dreadful translation of the Haggadah, offers an important distinction for would-be translators to consider: All translation is interpretation, since it is a choice among meanings; but translation is not the same … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Israel, Judaism, Leon Wieseltier, life, literature, translation, writing
Leave a comment
The War on Christmas Comes to Israel?
This curious ad comes from the Israeli government. Its purpose is to discourage Israelis from marrying American Jews or moving to America (as either of these might lead to such horrors as Christmas-celebrating grandchildren). Andrew Sullivan sees the ad as … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged America, Bill O'Reilly, Christianity, evangelicals, Fox News, Israel, Judaism, rush limbaugh, the drudge report, the war on christmas
Leave a comment
Let Freedom Sing: Feminism Under Fire in Israel
The intellectual and cultural rot of religious fundamentalism continues its 21st century spread. This is in Haaretz today: Secular and religious cabinet members engaged in a heated discussion over the issue of women’s rights in Israel on Sunday, forcing Prime … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged equality, feminism, freedom, fundamentalism, gay rights, Israel, Judaism, Martin Luther King, orthodoxy, women's rights
Leave a comment
Iran vs. Israel in 2012: Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0?
The Jerusalem Post today quotes Wim Kortenoeven expressing concern over Israel’s ongoing existence should Iran acquire nuclear weapons. Kortenoeven, described by the Post as “a leading expert on the Middle East” and an official of Holland’s Party of Freedom, is … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cuban missile crisis, curtis lemay, Iran, Islam, Israel, jfk, Judaism, World War II
4 Comments
Iranian Cleric Calls Israel a Cornered Cat
The Jerusalem Post today quotes Ayatollah Mahmoud Alavi, a senior cleric in Iran, as saying that Israel (which he calls “the Zionist regime” and “a cornered cat”) “will receive a crushing response from the Islamic Republic” if it tries to take out Iran’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Iran, Islam, Israel, Judaism, nuclear proliferation, peace, Politics, the middle east, war
Leave a comment
2012: Will Iran’s Nuke Program Lead to the End of the World?
Maybe. The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday that Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, . . . believes Israel is closer to utilizing the military option in dealing with Iran’s nuclear program than it is to finding a diplomatic solution to the threat. . … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged earth, Iran, Islam, Israel, Judaism, nuclear weapons, peace, religion, the future, war, world war III
Leave a comment
Baloney Detector
How well does a belief that you currently subscribe to hold up under these 10 questions? Do I have any actual evidence for the thing I say I believe, and what is the extent and quality of that evidence? If … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheist, baloney detector, critical thinking, Hinduism, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Michael Shermer, muhammad, Politics, reason
4 Comments
