Monthly Archives: January 2012
The Awkward “UnChurched” — a language perspective
This post is inspired by cartoons and comments on David’s Hayward’s excellent blog “NakedPastor“. David is an ex-pastor and an unchurched ‘Christian’ who uses his art to illustrate how he wrestles with being an expat [1]. Religion & languages hauntingly … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Sacrificing Baby Jesus
Here is the Penal Substitutionary Theory of salvation held by most Evangelical Christians: God is perfect Imperfection is called ‘sin’ Therefore God can not tolerate sin God made humans to keep him company But humans, given free will, inevitably sin So … Continue reading
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The Multi-voiced Constitution & Bible
In American politics, there are people who call themselves “Constitutionalists” and I am not one of them. I am glad this country has a constitution and rule of law, but I think the constitution has a major flaw. The constitution … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Attack or Defend Religion
Non-Theists can have very different opinions about theism. I just read the Terry Eagleton’s Guardian review of Alain De Button’s book: Religion for Atheists (which I have not read). Eagleton’s review is well-written, insightful and interesting. Yet sometimes I feel that … Continue reading
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Darwin: No Primordial Monotheism
I have discussed how “religion” is a relatively new concept and when taken for granted (as if it were easily defined) leads to intellectual mistakes. See these posts: Religion does Not Exist Defining Religion I have also discussed how monotheistic, … Continue reading
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Divine Tinkerology
People imagine their god(s) intervening in the world to different degrees. The diagram above illustrates these different “tinkerologies”. Below is a chart gives examples of believers for each type: Degree of Tinker Nickname Type of Believers Never Absentee Atheist, Agnostic Once … Continue reading
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Jesus Heels
My drawing is inspired by the Naked Pastor’s recent cartoon: “Jesus Heels“. When I saw the title of David’s post, I envisioned a Jesus who is far more modern and liberated than most Christians would probably want to imagine their … Continue reading
Filed under Religion
Arguing for a Tiny God
I hope this time my design choices for “size” and “direction” become usefully obvious in my diagram below. The bottom part of the diagram now illustrates why it is important to keep god-definitions clear. When arguing about ‘god’, spelling out … Continue reading
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No Answers? No Problem!
My drawing above was inspired by David Hayward’s recent post called “Unanswered Prayer“. David’s version, below, illustrates a common experience of many who have left Christianity and probably of most people who still call themselves “Christian”. My version shows some … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
How big is your god?
When an agnostic says “I am not sure if there is a god”, she means something very different from a Christian who says “God told me to sell my house and prepare for the apocalypse.” The Christian’s god is much bigger … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Create Your Own Religion
Traditional religions often belittle their break-off sects of “making-up their own religion”. Should that accusation really hurt? Hell, someone made up every religion at sometime — well, unless you believe in revelation, which I don’t. Cris Campbell, a scholar over … Continue reading
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Atheism: Reason vs Emotion
Atheists often wave the banner of “reason” as if they are the only tribe who values reason. Yet many atheists are realizing that they don’t have a monopoly on reason. VJack at “Atheist Revolution” just posted “Irrational Atheist” confessing how … Continue reading
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Freedom from Sin: An Atheist Perspective
“Through Jesus, I am free from the burden of sin.” – a Christian Since we Atheists don’t believe that Jesus was a god nor that he “defeated death”, so we also obviously don’t believe that “Jesus saves us from sin.” … Continue reading
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Our Abode in Hell
Seeing the interconnectedness of otherwise different phenomena can often move me to tears. With all the Christmas shopping that just occurred, I thought of the many people connected by the shared condemnation of the mindless masses: religious fundamentalists, green-meme activists … Continue reading
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Religious Pluralism: True or False?
On New Years Eve, Ce-Lo Green changed John Lennon’s lyrics from “And no religion too” to “And all religion is true”. Green was obviously promoting “religious pluralism”. “Pluralism”, like many abstract terms, has many meanings. And I imagine that the … Continue reading
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Study Religion !
As averse as I am to the use of the term “religion” by both pejorative nonbelievers and defensive believers, I think that a fruitful discussion of religion is advanced significantly by examining attempts to study religion. Tomas Rees at Epiphenom … Continue reading
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My Buddhist Bookshelf
The diagram to the right illustrates a very simple classifications of the flavors of Buddhism in the U.S.A. In my post “Buddhist Contradictions“, I describe how many of us who read about Buddhism often get confused as to the differences … Continue reading
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