The Pokey Finger of God

At first, I could never understand the True Believers.
My first encounters with them was in Christian churches. My own, initially pedantic, attempts at Bible study repeatedly failed to illuminate the motivations or goals of True Believers. I could never understand just what was so exciting in the faith as I had ever seen it practiced.
Atheists [...]

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Since discovery of PRF Brown’s site[1], I have burned a good many hours both reading and thinking. It’s clear that the “Eusebian Fiction Postulate”[2] has forced me to re-examine what I thought I understood about early church history. I have been relatively pleased, so far, to find that it seems to make more sense, given [...]

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Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of having minority, if not crackpot, opinions about the Bible. They indicated several times that they felt he was not qualified to interpret the Bible. They wailed and gnashed their teeth at the wonton destruction laid bare by Barack’s unauthorized lay-opining. Oh, will the nation ever repair from this grievous wound? Then they changed the subject and repeated the process.

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– from Chris Hedges of Free Press on Alternet
Many of these atheists, like the Christian fundamentalists, support the imperialist projects and preemptive wars of the United States as a necessity in the battle against terrorism and irrational religion. They divide the world into superior and inferior races, those who are enlightened by reason and [...]

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It seems inappropriate for me to blog my armchair ideas about homeless people, because I don’t know anything about homeless people. I’ve always lived and worked in enclosed structures with utilities, and I rarely consider abandoning it all to sleep under a bridge. It’s not a particular area of study or volunteerism for me, so [...]

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A recent religion post contained something of a broad statement. It was a conclusion I had drawn without the benefit of third-party confirmation. What I had said was that the term “Christian” did not just apply to those who followed the “Jesus Movement”, but also those who followed any of a dozen Hellenized, Asian mystery [...]

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Have you lost your capacity for linear thinking or analytical reasoning?
As part of a bit of pleasant wiki-surfing this morning, I paused to consider the idea of ‘post-Christian‘. I’ve heard a couple of people use this term recently and it’s made me curious about what other people think it means.This lead me, through a related [...]

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Despite over 1500 years of political and cultural dominance in the West, it continues to astound me the number of people who insist that Christians in the West today suffer from any sort of minority persecution. The “True Believer Is the Victim” ploy plays as well in Peoria as in LA, so why not make [...]

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There’s yet another war on. Sheesh. I just can’t keep up!
It seems that that another poor, defenseless minority — white, Republican Protestants — are being singled out and attacked by wild nomadic packs of uncontrolled, raging homosexuals. It’s true. I read about it on the Internet.
Now while I might have a few friends who actively [...]

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When I was very young and I was learning about government for the first time, my initial judgment was that our government was carefully contrived to make it as difficult as possible for one person or group to hold power for very long, while simultaneously preventing anything from ever getting done. I recall also making [...]

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