Tag Archives: monotheism

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

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An Agnostic Interviews an Imam: Kamal Tells a Non-Retaliation Story from His Tradition and Discusses the Prayer Rug

In the below clip, Kamal al Khatib offers an anecdote from the life of Muhammad that illustrates (for him) Islam’s general commitment to non-retaliation. I’ve actually heard the story that Kamal tells from another Muslim. I recall the previous telling of the … Continue reading

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Maybe God Wants to Be Left Alone

Here’s a little double bind to contemplate: if we do not know the will of God, or whether he exists, and yet we nevertheless seek to discover answers to these questions, we might be annoying God. Why? Because God may not like people … Continue reading

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Former NY Times Foreign Reporter, Chris Hedges, Knew the Hamas Leader Recently Killed, and Explains and Contextualizes the Gaza Situation with Admirable Clarity

Chris Hedges begins his article thus: I often visited Nizar Rayan, who was killed Thursday in a targeted assassination by Israel, at his house in the Jabaliya refugee camp when I was in Gaza. The house is now rubble. It … Continue reading

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Women, Gays, and “the desert religions”: Richard Rodriguez Tells Salon.com That He’s Working on a Book about Western Monotheism

Money quote: Well, I’m working right now in the Middle East on monotheistic religions because I’m very worried about the direction of religion. Ever since Sept. 11, when I heard that prayer being spoken at the moment the planes hit … Continue reading

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Creation v. Evolution Metaphor Watch: An Intelligent Design Analogy from Egypt, 13th Century BCE

On papyrus dated to the reign of Pharoah Ramesses II (13th century BCE), is a cycle of poems called The Leiden Hymns. These hymns have a pseudo-monotheistic tone, portraying Amun, the sun god, as first and chief god of the … Continue reading

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Thinking About the First Monotheist: Not Moses, but Akhenaten

In the 14th century BCE, the Egyptian pharoah Akhenaten, father of “King Tut” (Tutankamen), and husband of Nefertiti, seems to have had some profound revelation that there was only one God, and that God’s name was Aten—who manifested himself in the … Continue reading

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