Archive for the ‘judaism’ Category

The Book of Genesis by R. Crumb

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Review by John C. Snider © 2009

Underground comics and counterculture icon Robert Crumb is widely praised as a brilliant satirist and is one of the most recognized pop artists of the 20th century.  The seminal–and often misunderstood–creator of such characters as Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and Devil Girl has also been called sick, perverted, racist and misogynistic.

So who better than to illustrate the Book of Genesis?  After all, Richard Dawkins once infamously described the Old Testament God as a “misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”  Crumb’s got nuttin’ on YHWH.

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Are Georgia peaches kosher?

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

My adopted state is in the news twice today for laughable church-state issues.

First up is an AP report (“Is Ga. kosher law kosher?”) that non-Orthodox Jews have their yarmulkes in a bunch over a Georgia law that mandates kosher foods comply with “orthodox Hebrew” rules.  I looked this up on LexisNexus (Title 26, Chapter 2, Article 11 of the Georgia Code) and it’s true–persons who fraudulently present foods as “kosher” can be punished by fine up to $500 and/or six months in jail.  Members of the Conservative branch of Judaism are challenging this law (although why now isn’t clear since the law’s been in place since 1980).

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Magic mushrooms and he were familiar friends

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

I love this guy.  He’s Michael Tenneral, a retired British teacher of Greek and Latin who’s been fairly active on YouTube for a couple of years.  His curmudgeonly (but nonetheless charming) personality really pops through the computer screen, as he kvetches about everything from UK Creationism to the mismanagement of the upcoming London Olympics to how to pour “a good knock-out dose of gin and tonic.”

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Robert Wright takes on the “New Atheists” (including me!), Part Deux

Monday, July 20th, 2009

As I reported last week, Robert Wright (The Evolution of God), whom we interviewed in episode #58 of the podcast, published an essay at Huffington Post titled “Why the ‘New Atheists’ are Right-Wing on Foreign Policy.”  I posted a critique of this essay in which, among other things, I take Wright to task for asserting that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict was not originally a religious conflict.  (I do, to be clear, agree with Wright that the problem is not solely and exclusively religious, but rather an unholy–I use that term advisedly–combination of religion, culture and politics.)

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Podcast #59 – Bill Maher Stand-up Tour

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

David gives us a report on Bill Maher’s stand-up tour; specifically, Maher’s recent appearance at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta.

We also give listeners a heads-up on several upcoming events, including:

Atheist Alliance International 2009 Convention (Oct 2-4 in Los Angeles) featuring Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Brian Keith Dalton (”Mr. Deity”), Lawrence Krauss, Eugenie Scott and more.  (Say “hi” to David Driscoll, since he’ll be in attendance as well.)

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icon for podpress  Podcast #59 - Bill Maher Stand-up Tour [61:58m]: Download (621)
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Robert Wright takes on the “New Atheists”

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Author Robert Wright (The Evolution of God) posted an essay over the weekend at Huffington Post that’s causing quite a stir: “Why the ‘New Atheists’ are Right-Wing on Foreign Policy.”  This is something Wright touched on in the latter half of his interview with us (see podcast #58).

In a nutshell (and I hope I’m fairly summarizing his point), Wright argues that the venomous “religion is all bad and the cause of most of the world’s problems” attitude of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris is a stumbling block to peace in the Middle East.

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Podcast #58 – Robert Wright

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

We interview Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God and one of the founders of the pundit-driven website bloggingheads.tv.  In The Evolution of God, Wright lays out a convincing case that the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are “illusions” shaped by completely natural forces like commerce, warfare and social instability.  At the same time, Wright controversially claims that Western religion’s progressive march (from shamanistic superstition to primitive polytheism to a monotheism which recognizes the value of individual human beings) reveals an inevitable, even divine “higher purpose.”  For more information visit evolutionofgod.net.

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icon for podpress  Podcast #58 - Robert Wright [73:57m]: Download (4047)
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The Evolution of God

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Review by John C. Snider

Did God make man in His image, or was it the other way around?  Despite millennia of religious tradition, most scholars are convinced it was the latter–but exactly how and why man’s conception of God has developed is a matter of hot debate.

The most simplistic model for competition amongst the gods is that whichever god’s followers are the most numerous and/or the most violent wins.  In The Evolution of God, Robert Wright (The Moral Animal, Nonzero) argues for a subtler, more complex model–one that offers a much more hopeful outlook for humanity’s future than, say, the kind of “religion spoils everything” absolutism of Christopher Hitchens.

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Obama’s Cairo Speech

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

I’m pressed for time today, but there’s lots I would like to say about President Obama’s speech in Cairo.  If you missed it, here’s a link to the text of the speech, which includes embedded analysis by a BBC commentator.

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The Good Book

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

If you haven’t read the Bible cover-to-cover at least once, you should.  Sure, it’ll be painful, but it’ll be a real eye-opener.  Short of reading “the Good Book,” check out Slate.com’s David Plotz in conversation with Bloggingheads.tv’s Robert Wright, talking about Plotz’s Good Book, his account of reading the entire Bible for the first time.

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