A NYC man named Thomas Magill jumped from a 40-story building and survived the fall when he crashed through the windshield of a parked car and ended up in the back seat. Even more statistically unlikely than the Magill’s survival is the car-owner’s explanation for the miracle. Guy McCormack is “convinced that the rosary beads he kept inside the Dodge saved Magill’s life.”
Archive for the ‘christianity’ Category
Really? It was the rosary beads?
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Podcast #94 – John W. Loftus (The Christian Delusion)
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
We talk with minister-turned-atheist John W. Loftus, editor of The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, a collection of essays from contributors including Dan Barker, David Eller, Robert Price and Richard Carrier. The Christian Delusion is published by Prometheus Books. You should also check out Loftus’ first book Why I Became an Atheist.
Also mentioned in the podcast: 57th Fighter Group, a WWII-themed restaurant with a view of the runway at Dekalb Peachtree Airport in north metro Atlanta.
Podcast #94 - John W. Loftus (The Christian Delusion) [46:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3234)Liberty, meet Irony
Monday, June 28th, 2010Liberty “University” has announced that Ergun Caner has been forced to step down as dean of Liberty’s seminary. Caner is a Swedish immigrant of Turkish/Swedish extraction who came to the US when he was three and became a Christian as a teenager. He’s made a living since 9/11 touting his “Muslim-turned-preacher” credentials, and of course the evangelicals lapped it up like it was gravy.
The thing is, the details of Caner’s story kept changing, and when problems were pointed out to him he asked websites containing the incriminating material to remove it. Anybody with the brains of a dishrag knows you can’t purge info off the internet–not without a lot of people knowing about it, anyway.
A Liberty committee found that Caner story contained “contradictory statements,” “discrepancies” and “misstatements,” and discovered “problems with dates, names and places.” Hey waitaminnit: didn’t they just describe the Bible??? When did the evangelicals get all historical-critical on us? I find it incredibly rich that the crowd who likes to tout the Swiss-cheese called The Holy Bible as perfect, complete, literal and non-contradictory would quibble about names and dates with the dean of one of their most successful schools.
Alas, it will all blow over soon. Caner will still teach at the school, but will no longer be dean.
Podcast #92 – The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
We discuss the latest novel from Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass), which re-imagines Jesus Christ as twin brothers named “Jesus” and “Christ.” The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is published in hardcover by Canongate and in unabridged audio by Brilliance Audio.
Listen to our discussion of the movie adaptation of The Golden Compass from way back in podcast #3.
Podcast #92 - The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ [35:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2671)Podcast #91 – IT’S ALIVE
Sunday, June 13th, 2010
We talk with Christina L. Graves, a biology student (and prebiotic chemistry researcher) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Christina walks us through the recent announcement by the J. Craig Venter Institute that they have created a self-replicating, synthetic cell. We also discuss the reaction to Venter’s news from religious groups like the Catholic Church, Creation Ministries International, and even the Raelians.
Briefly mentioned: The new Adrien Brody/Sarah Polley film Splice, a sci-fi-horror shocker about genetic engineering gone very very wrong.
Glossary of terms:
Abiogenesis – the theory of how life on Earth could have arisen from inanimate matter.
Prebiotic Chemistry – the field of study involving the spontaneous chemical reactions which may have led to the formation of biomolecules and/or life on early Earth.
Stanley Miller (1930-2007) – an American chemist and biologist who is known for his studies into the origin of life, particularly the Miller-Urey experiment which demonstrated that organic compounds can be created by fairly simple physical processes from inorganic substances.
Atheopath – A neologism, coined by Creation Ministries International’s Jonathan Sarfati and used (as far as we can tell) by no one else, which combines the word “atheist” and the suffix “-path” (”one afflicted by a specified disorder”) to create a word meaning something like “one afflicted by atheism.” Apparently it’s intended to echo scary words like sociopath and psychopath. Perhaps we should coin the counter-term “theopath.”
Teach the controversy: Russian edition
Thursday, June 10th, 2010We’ve gotten used to hearing that Creationism and Intelligent Design are peculiar to the United States. Other places, especially Europe, not so much.
Unfortunately, that is changing. There’s increasing pressure from religious factions in the United Kingdom, and Australians continue to play the occasional game of whack-a-mole with Creationists.
Now the Russians are feeling the heat. The Russian Orthodox Church has launched its own version of “teach the controversy,” insisting that “several theories” about the origin of life should be taught alongside the Darwinian theory of evolution. Archbishop Hilarion (love the name) decries the “monopoly of Darwinism” in Russian schools. Of course, the good Archbishop does not decry the monopoly of Russian Orthodoxy in his own pulpit, and I’m sure he would shrink at the suggestion that “several theories” of religious belief be taught regularly alongside his own. Good for the goose and all that jazz.
Oh, and if you read the article all the way through, you’ll also find the Russian version of “Russia is a Christian nation.” Enjoy!
Podcast #89 – World Ends – Miss USA is a Muslim
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
OMFG and other exaggerations. The new Miss USA is Rima Fakih, who hails from Dearborn, Michigan by way of Lebanon. According to Ms. Fakih, her family is not terribly pious–apparently they observe both Muslim and Christian holidays, for example. But to hear the conservative blathersphere, you’d think the selection of an Arab-American as one of our foremost icons of cheesecake is either political correctness run amok, or part of some elaborate master plan by Hezbollah to lower Western civilization’s defenses before they come in for the big kill.
Sam Harris puts the Pope in his crosshairs
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010I almost feel sorry for the Pope these days. Okay, not really. Honestly, I would love to be a fly on the wall when Ratzinger reads “Bringing the Vatican to Justice,” the latest essay from Sam Harris. It’s a scathing summary, couched in the bluntest yet most eloquent language possible, of just how scandalous the Catholic church’s cover-up of pedophile priests has been.
Meanwhile, Ratzinger himself is admitting–finally–that the church’s problems are self-inflicted, and not the result of some anti-Catholic conspiracy. “The greatest persecution of the church doesn’t come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church.” The Pope added, “The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice…Forgiveness cannot substitute justice.” Whether justice means BOTH removing abusive priests from their positions AND turning them over to secular authorities for trial remains to be seen.
O’Reilly + Palin + Natl Day of Prayer = My Head Goes All Explody
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010If there’s a better example of chirpy, blithe, willful ignorance than this conversation self-perpetuating feedback loop between Bill O’Reilly and Sarah Palin, I would love to see it. O’Reilly interviewed Palin during the recent May 6th observation of the recently-ruled-unconstitutional National Day of Prayer. Both spout the usual half-baked talking points about this being a Christian Nation, the Founding Fathers based the Constitution on “God and the Ten Commandments,” etc. Behold:
Answering “Seven Questions You Should Ask an Atheist”
Thursday, August 19th, 2010I stumbled, quite by accident, across this blog entry by Tom Elliff (who has been, among other things, president of the SBC Pastors Conference and two-term president of the Southern Baptist Convention). “Seven Questions You Should Ask an Atheist” is apparently Elliff’s idea of playing gotcha with the village atheist. But really, I can’t help but thinking that if this is the best the good reverend can come up with, he isn’t really trying.
Elliff sets up his little pop quiz by mischaracterizing the so-called “New Atheist” movement. According to Elliff, among other things, New Atheism “calls… for absolute intolerance of any belief in God, and the banishment of such belief by every possible means.” Really? “Absolute intolerance”? “Banishment”? “Every possible means”? Is Elliff seriously implying that New Atheists call for outlawing religion, persecuting Christians–even murder? Just about the only thing Elliff gets right is that atheists are increasingly unwilling to stay silent.
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Tags: seven questions you should ask an atheist, tom elliff
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