God gets a bum rap on just about everything and it’s not fair. Human beings blame God for the many, many deaths, famines, wars, murders, accidents, disease, etc., etc, and this has been the case throughout recorded history. So, let’s look at God from a different perspective.
I’ve had religious experiences where I truly felt the presence of God in my life and I’ve included a link to the most wondrous of those experiences at the end of this post.… [Read more]
It seems that the blogosphere has been abuzz all week with the news of gay NBA player Jason Collins’ coming out story in Sport Illustrated this Monday. The news has largely been met with positive statements from public figures, from the NBA Commissioner, fellow NBA players, and even former and current Presidents. Those on the right have largely kept quiet, or at least, feigned modesty over the whole ordeal.… [Read more]
I’m a HUGE supporter of the separation of church and state. Huge.
But as a public school teacher, that doesn’t mean I can’t teach about religion. It just means I can’t tell my students that one or any religion is the RIGHT religion.
As a high school American literature teacher, it is absolutely impossible for me to teach any of the books in my curriculum without my students having some working knowledge of the Bible.… [Read more]
Due in no small part to the attacks in New York on 9/11, the 2004 Madrid Train Bombings and London’s ‘7/7’ subway bombings in 2005, Muslims, particularly Arab Muslims, have come to personify the threat of backwards, violent, foreign “otherness” for much of the western world. Islamic fundamentalism, both state sponsored and otherwise, is a legitimate concern as there’s no question that the treatment of women, non-Muslims and members of rival sects or ethnic groups in countries governed by Shari’ah law is often problematic.… [Read more]
“This is what happens when you take God out of the classroom.”
I saw this posted on Facebook, Twitter, opinion pages, and online articles all week – and I still don’t understand it. Most people who stated it really didn’t explain what they meant by it.
I inferred that they meant we (The United States) would not see violence in schools if we taught “God” there.… [Read more]
Over the past four days, I have gone through a lot of emotions about the tragedy in Newtown, CT.
My initial reaction was shock, followed by passionate anger and defensiveness at almost every post I saw on social media. I felt that I was suddenly surrounded by callous idiots.
I saw posts about how the mentally ill should put a bullet in their own heads before they hurt someone else.… [Read more]
While Fox Nation is bolstering up its defenses for the War on Christmas, many of us find ourselves wondering whether or not they have anything over which to be so upset. Fox continually reminds us that religion in America is under attack, at constant risk of being extinguished. We are also implored to be mindful of the “reason for the season”, and take in to account the religious underpinnings of the holiday season.… [Read more]
The noble crusader roared north from Florida last Thursday, a stalwart soul anointed by God himself to fight Islam, its 1.5 billion member army the global Devil incarnate – on Canadian soil, in a prime time, public debate with the enemy leadership. Terry Jones, visceral Christian zealot, boss of the hilariously named ‘Dove Ministries’, and conclusive Qur’an burning evidence of why free speech must be treasured above all other personal liberties, headed to Toronto with his noble posse of true believers to slay the Muslim horde, one monosyllable at a time.… [Read more]
There are a lot of reasons to not adhere to a religion: more free time on the weekends, fewer dietary restrictions, less guilt associated with your own existence. As a non-religious person, I am an outsider, and as an outsider I can look at a situation like the attack that occurred in Benghazi, Libya, last Tuesday and see it objectively and without spiritual preconceptions.… [Read more]
For his entire political career, Republican Congressman Todd Akin, US Representative for the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, has injected his religion into his job, working tirelessly to ban all abortions, including when unwanted pregnancy results from forcible rape.
Now, the Congressman is in hot water for referring to rape, an act of extreme violence and domination, as “legitimate rape” in his television interview on KTVI-TV (a Fox affiliate, naturally) a few days ago, as if any rape can be thought of as legitimate.… [Read more]
People do some funny things when they don’t understand what’s going on. In the 1940s, the U.S. built a lot of air strips on tropical islands where the most advanced technology was the fishing net. The inhabitants of these islands thought that the airplanes were almost as miraculous as the cargo they brought. They had no concept of industrial manufacturing, so when they decided that they wanted some of that cargo, the only way they could think to go about it was to imitate the strange behaviors of the people who received the cargo.… [Read more]
Let me start by saying that I think it’s okay if you don’t like gay relationships.
It would bother me to know that you have a problem with them, but there’s nothing I can do about your opinion in that case. Some people are uncomfortable with the concept, and that’s okay. I don’t know what kind of upbringing you had or what kind of culture you’re part of, but if gays just aren’t your thing, that’s perfectly fine with me.… [Read more]
Frank Bruni of the NY Times wrote a piece entitled, “The Divine Miss M,” a scathing dissection of Michele Bachmann’s life, a life which is the antithesis of the “Christianity” she espouses. Wrote Bruni, “. . . [S]he presents herself as a godly woman, humbly devoted to her Christian faith. I’d like to meet that god, and I’d like to understand that Christianity.” Bruni noted Bachmann’s vendetta against Hillary Clinton’s aide, Muslim-born Huma Abedin, and Bachmann’s vengeful mission to spread dissension, lies and hatred toward Muslim Americans. … [Read more]
For those of you who don’t know, I’m an atheist. Yep. I’m one of those godless heathens those hellfire-and-brimstone preachers warned you about. I don’t believe in Jesus – in fact, I don’t believe that Jesus really existed at all. I think Jesus is pretty much a compilation of all the various god myths from all over the planet – they all are pretty much the same: born of a virgin at the winter solstice and all that.… [Read more]
In today’s Encyclical, the Holy Uncle shares Part II of some of the miracles and wonders that survive the rewriting of Sacred Scripture in the new Tea Party Version (TPV) of the Bible.
ENCYCLICAL THE FIFTH, Part II
Well hello there, my children. Thank you, again, for dialing up the pope, or whatever you call it on this Internet thing.… [Read more]
Math and Science have always been two subjects Jewish parents place an emphasis in excellence, however it seems we’re going to have to add Torah. Usually considered to be one of those subjects where you’re not all that troubled if your child doesn’t excel, it’s somewhat akin to P.E. or an elective. But apparently, these days a Rabbinical career can prove to be quite rewarding.… [Read more]
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. – Genesis 2:2
The Shabbat (sabbath) is something all religious Jews strictly observe.… [Read more]
In his fourth encyclical, Pope William I, spiritual head of the Church of Self Actualization, discusses the importance of “Christian Charity” and “Doing Unto Others” as long as there is a “Buck to be Made.”… [Read more]
ENCYCLICAL THE FOURTH
This week, the Holy Uncle, Pope William I, cracks the spine of the newly revealed Word of God as handed to him by an Angel from Heaven. He begins with a discussion of “Christian Charity in these Tea Party Times.… [Read more]
On May 13, 2012 in North Carolina‘s Providence Road Baptist Church, Pastor Charles L. Worley publicly advocated the forced relocation, imprisonment, and subsequent death of gays and lesbians. Apparently not only does pastor Worley believe that a 100-mile-long electrified fence would be adequate to hold the entire gay population, but also that such an act of Christian charity would cause the species known as homo queer-ius to become extinct, due to the hereditary nature of sexual preferences.… [Read more]
