Tag Archives | religion

Social media and Christianity.

By on April 29, 2012 in General Discussion, Human Behavior

I am not a big Facebook person. I use it mainly to share photographs with far flung family members, but one thing I have noticed in my time spent there, and from talking to others who use the site, is that it has seemed to cause a lot of Christians to come out of the [...]

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Religious Exemptions

By on March 1, 2012 in General Discussion, Human Behavior

I keep seeing conservatives trying to argue that religious-affiliated organizations shouldn’t have to provide contraception coverage in their healthcare plans (or, rather, that their healthcare insurers shouldn’t have to provide it, in light of the Obama compromise).  I think this whole line of argument requires a rather limited view of what religious views would need [...]

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The Most Dangerous Theology On Earth

By on February 21, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics, Science

Rick Santorum has been getting a lot of mileage criticizing Barack Obama’s ‘theology’ of late, but it is really Mr. Santorum who has the most dangerous theology on Earth. Rick Santorum is a dominionist, which means he believes the Earth to be nothing more than a rock that was given to us by some old [...]

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Posthumous Baptisms for Jewish Holocaust Victims

By on February 15, 2012 in General Discussion, Human Behavior

Elie Wiesel has his knickers in a twist about the Mormon practice of posthumously “baptizing” people into the Mormon faith.  Well, specifically, Wiesel apparently thinks there should be a special exception for Jews, or at least Jews who died in the Holocaust.   I understand that Wiesel sees the fate of Jews in the Holocaust [...]

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All this religion stuff – so where’s revrick?

By on February 11, 2012 in General Discussion, Human Behavior

Religious conflict seems to be at the heart of most of the major issues in the world. You hear relatively little about the Arabs or the Iranians (Persians) per se, as compared to Muslims. The Israelis are as much a subject of discussion because they are Jews as because they are Israelis. Jews and Muslims lived [...]

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Exempting Religiously-Affiliated Instittutions from the Law

By on February 7, 2012 in General Discussion, Human Behavior

The culture-warrior issue of the day is whether religiously-affiliated institutions should have to follow the same law as everyone else in covering contraceptives, when contraception is banned by their church.  I’m curious whether anyone here takes the conservative position on that one.   I don’t — but then I’m a bit of a radical on [...]

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Romeny’s Mormonism

By on January 23, 2012 in General Discussion, Human Behavior, Politics

Has anyone seen any exit polling that looks into the question of how much Romney’s Mormonism is hurting his run for the nomination?   Back in late 2007, there was a point when the mainstream media thought McCain was done and that Romney would be the nominee — he had built a powerful 50-state organization, [...]

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Scientifically Illiterate America

By on January 11, 2012 in Human Behavior, Politics, Science

Turns out that the overwhelming majority of America’s Protestant pastors don’t like none of that Darwan ape-man monkee bizness noncents!!   Poll: 7 in 10 pastors reject evolution  

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Why People Distrust Atheists

By on December 1, 2011 in General Discussion, Human Behavior

I thought that Phil (in particular) might find this article from the Science Daily website to be of interest:   Study Explores Distrust of Atheists by Believers ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — Distrust is the central motivating factor behind why religious people dislike atheists, according to a new study led by University of British Columbia [...]

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Debating Religion

By on November 17, 2011 in General Discussion, Human Behavior

Slate has a story about a debate in New York between religious apologists and atheists: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/intelligence_squared/2011/11/the_nov_15_slate_intelligence_squared_u_s_debate_why_the_atheists_triumphed_in_last_night_s_slate_intelligence_squared_u_s_debate_on_the_merits_of_religion_.html It’s well worth a read, but I wanted to comment on just one aspect of it.  The debate “winner” was the atheist side,according to the poll responses of those present.  Both sides of the debate attribute this result largely to [...]

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