Jun 30 2007
Had a great week in the wilds of Wyoming with 200 Scouts. I’ll post some pics in a bit. Everyone came back in one piece except yours truly, the victim of a vicious Scout Master vs staff volleyball game. The knee will heal eventually, but the important point is that we crushed them four games in a row.
Jun 22 2007
(HT: 2Blowhards by way of Obscurorant 2.0 )
This would be different from my favorites, or stuff I grew up with. Most of it is seventies stuff, with a few from later, but, ya know, rock ‘n roll’s been going downhill since Buddy Holly died. Here’s da list:
Jun 20 2007
More news of the Religion of Hate. (From FoxNews ):
Reporters Without Borders today condemned a fatwa for “blasphemy” issued by a religious leader against Zubair Kasuri, the editor of English-language fashion magazine Octane and several of his staff.
This came after Octane carried a series of photos in its June edition captioned “Adam and Eve, the bone of contention.”
Cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz said at Friday prayers June 15 “the managers of this magazine deserve to die” and threatened death against the editor, the publisher and other staff of Octane for “blasphemy towards the Hazrat (prophet) Adam”.
Police in Islamabad are also taking action against the magazine.
“We are reporting them to higher authorities so that all copies of the magazines can be seized, the magazine closed and the staff convicted,” said Abdul Jabbar, an officer at the police station in Margala.
The editor of Octane said he had not intended in any way to be disrespectful, the photos were in no way contrary to Islam and regretted the turn the case had taken.
No sense wasting time with silly things like trials…
Jun 20 2007
The following is from George Herbert (1593-1633). Herbert was an English poet and priest. From Wiki :
He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill, and providing food and clothing for those in need. Throughout his life he wrote religious poems characterized by a precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery or conceits that was favored by the metaphysical school of poets.
Of Herbert, Richard Baxter said, “Herbert speaks to God like one that really believeth a God, and whose business in the world is most with God. Heart-work and heaven-work make up his books”. High praise, indeed. As a word geek, I appreciate his use of word decapitation in this piece.
Paradise
I Bless thee, Lord, because I GROW
Among thy trees, which in a ROW
To thee both fruit and order OW.
What open force, or hidden CHARM
Can blast my fruit, or bring me HARM,
While the inclosure is thine ARM.
Inclose me still for fear I START.
Be to me rather sharp and TART,
Then let me want thy hand and ART.
When thou dost greater judgments SPARE,
And with thy knife but prune and PARE,
Ev’n fruitfull trees more fruitful ARE.
Such sharpnes shows the sweetest FREND:
Such cuttings rather heal then REND:
And such beginnings touch their END.
Jun 19 2007
From
ThisIsLondon
:
His famously analytical mind worked out the laws of gravity and unravelled the motion of the planets.
And when it came to predicting the end of the world, Sir Isaac Newton was just as precise.
He believed the Apocalypse would come in 2060 – exactly 1,260 years after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, according to a recently published letter.
Luckily for modern scientists in awe of his achievements, Newton based this figure on religion rather than reasoning.
In a letter from 1704 which has gone on show in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, Newton uses the Bible’s Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the Apocalypse.
The note reveals a deeply spiritual side to a man more usually regarded as a strict rationalist. Newton, known as the founder of modern physics, secured a royal exemption from ordination in the Church of England – something normally expected of academics in his day – so he would not have to follow its teachings.
But he confidently stated in the letter that the Bible proved the world would end in 2060, adding: “It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner.”
Now that’s a bit condescending, innit? We certainly wouldn’t want to equate religion with reasoning, would we?
Jun 19 2007
UPDATE: ‘Pink slip’ is probably too strong a phrase. Following a conversation over the issue at hand, the Pastor and I agreed that we were better off in a church where we could have more freedom to express our views regarding our interpretation and understanding of Genesis 1-3. We were not ‘given the boot,’ but it was clear that the age of the earth was not an issue about which we could agree to disagree.
ORIGINAL POST: Ever gotten the pink slip? From your church? I was just given, by my pastor, ‘the freedom to look for another church.’ To my mind, the issue was nothing earth-shattering, but it did involve a matter of Scriptural interpretation. Unfortunately, he felt it was not an issue over which we could agree to disagree. So, after eight years, we’re church-hunting again. We were deeply attached to the congregation and were deeply involved in the business and administration of the church, so it’s a painful step.
I was tempted, for about a third of a second, to swear off all churches, but instead, we are prayerfully considering where to go from here.
Jun 19 2007
Why is it so hot, and what am I doing in this handbasket?
LifeSite is reporting that the secular humanist Center for Inquiry is considering a proposal that would declare any religious training of children to be child abuse. This would be laughable, but for their growing influence. CFI is officially recognized by the UN as a Non-Governmental Organization, with the all the rights and privileges that brings. I’d ask what the world was coming to, but I think we’ve already established that.
Religious Education by Parents is “Child Abuse” : Center for Inquiry Proposal
States “In one form or another, all religions violate the rights of children.”By Peter J. Smith
NEW YORK, June 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Religious education is a form of child abuse and violates the rights of children, contends a thesis to be considered by secular humanists at the Center for Inquiry’s congress in Beijing this October.
The Center for Inquiry, an organisation recently awarded special consultative status as an NGO at the United Nations (UN) will consider the proposals of Innaiah Narisetti, the chairman of the Center for Inquiry’s India chapter, that portend the next stage in the assault on the rights of parents to educate their children.
Nasiretti called the influence of religion a “severe shortcoming in the global campaign to protect children” and a contributor to child abuse saying, “In one form or another, all religions violate the rights of children.”
“ Such abuse begins with the involuntary involvement of children in religious practices from the time they are born,” says Narisetti. “All religions, through ritual, preaching, and religious texts, seek to bring children into day-to-day religious practice. ”
“This gives holy books and scriptures, as well as those who teach them, an early grip on the developing minds of young people, leaving an indelible impression on them,” said Narisetti, calling Sunday schools, madrassas, or Jewish or Hindu temples, centers of indoctrination for children.
At least they are equal opportunity bigoted atheists.
Jun 18 2007
Two posts from Kathy at Relapsed Catholic on the evil of Islam:
From Stephen Tonsor : “ I look back over thousands of years of history and see so much consummate evil that I am the last one who needs any convincing. I look at Islam from its foundation by Mohammed all the way up to the present time and I see nothing but evil. Evil, that’s right, that’s the term I’d use to describe it. There’s nothing kindly in their nature. Christianity and western society have always been at war with them. Our conflict with that part of the world even predates Islam. It goes back to Alexander and the Persians, even back to the Spartans. It’s always been that part of the world versus civilized society.”
and
From the Big Picture : “ Last night Avi Davis was telling us that we should anchor our accounts in some personal experience. I had to go to Canada, Toronto, to renew my work visa, about 8 months ago. And I went through Minnesota and I stayed with a niece of mine. She came to Canada about 9 years ago from Zimbabwe. She’s married, and she has 4 children. All four children were born in Zimbabwe in southern Africa. She was telling me — she told me this story herself.
“One day in the kitchen, her children were all very excited, because there was a big ice-hockey match, between a Canadian team, and the Sabres, I think, in Buffalo. And they were all very much, of course, for the Canadian team. They were saying, ‘Mama, we are really going, we are really Canadian, we really want the Canadians to win!’
“And she said she brought all the kids into the kitchen, and said, ‘Listen. Don’t you ever forget. You are not Canadians. You are Muslims. ‘ This was their primary identity. And you can imagine the conflicts this must have engendered in the children. What they will be going through in the next few years, I don’t know.
“All Muslims swear allegiance to the ummah, the worldwide Islamic community. So the dangers don’t come, won’t come just from suicide bombers, but ordinary Muslims, who just somehow have been taught, from a very early age, to shun Western values. They’ve been told that the West is a den of iniquity, and who wants to integrate with a sinking ship, as James Baldwin once said. This is a big problem. I think it’s going to be a problem of loyalty, it’s a problem of identity.
“ They have no interest, certainly my niece and her husband, in Canadian history, why they are so happy, what it is that guarantees their freedom. They don’t know anything about the Constitution. They’re just happy to, to profit from it, without having any kind of allegiance, or gratitude, to a system that has grown over a number of years .”
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