Search Results for:

best european websites to find cheap airline tickets phone number 1-800-299-7264

Quantum Theology: Our Spooky Interconnectedness

…er words, that in the worst case, theology and science were at war. In the best case, I assumed, they had a rather awkward relationship—something like bad first date. And then I read Catherine Keller’s Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming (Routledge, 2003). What occurred was nothing short of a paradigm shift. What Keller was up to was beyond me—in the very best way. She wasn’t doing apologetics (defending theology from its outside objectors)….

Read More

New Spencer Book Denies Existence of Muhammad

…Muhammad knew that people were making things up and created checks and the best methodology that they could at the time to stop it. Modern scholars are revisiting the existing corpus with new tools and methods.  Why a famous mosque inscription may refer not to Muhammad but, astonishingly, to Jesus. Stumped by this one. No idea what it refers to. How the oldest records referring to a man named Muhammad bear little resemblance to the now-standard Is…

Read More

Hearts and (Versus?) Minds: Bachmann’s Ultrasound Bill

…ng to Bachmann, the goal here is to make sure that the woman has “the very best information with which to make that decision.” (Good thing she’s still about leaving the decision up to the woman, because otherwise she might be disheartened by evidence suggesting that viewing an ultrasound makes little difference in the outcome of that decision.) Yes, that’s the line on ultrasound bills. They give women some sort of necessary information. But why do…

Read More

NOM Claims Victimhood for the Holidays

…ir intolerance of me. For those family members, ignoring them is often the best thing to do. Leave the room when they start in on you. (I told my therapist I thought this was rude, but she reminded me that if I told a family member that I didn’t want to have this conversation and they persisted, it was really the obnoxious family member who was rude and I had every right to walk away after that.) Perhaps the best thing to do this holiday season—if…

Read More

How Are the “Nones” Raising Their Children?

…therefore the individual has a right to choose one, or a combination, that best suits him or her. This is why None parents will not necessarily raise their children to be non-religious. In contrast to churched parents who usually transmit their own religion to their children, None parents insist they want their children to choose for themselves. That means providing options, and parents go about this in many different ways. I describe the five mos…

Read More

Tucson, Like All Tragedy, is for Adults

…District Court Judge John Roll was 63; why not imagine him as the arbiter best suited to give voice to the political meaning of Tucson? Dorothy “Dot” Morris was 76; so was Dorwin Stoddard. Phyllis Scheck was 79. Bill Badger, the man who first wrestled Jared Lee Loughner to the ground even after he had been shot himself, was 74. Even Gifford’s assistant, Gabriel “Gabe” Zimmermann, was 30. This was not a young crowd. But Christina Taylor Green was…

Read More

“My Scientology Movie” Pokes the Hornet’s Nest

…sts. My Scientology Movie is the latest from Louis Theroux, who is perhaps best known for his BBC documentaries about fringe groups like black nationalists and ultra-Zionists. Theroux’s work is ostensibly about investigating and perhaps humanizing extremism. But more often it exemplifies a kind of deadpan eccentricity-tourism associated with another British journo-entertainer, Jon Ronson. Both Ronson and Theroux specialize in pretending to take cr…

Read More

Patriotism and Piety—Not For Conservatives Only

…aring. But it’s lousy strategy. If you want to win, you’ve got to have the best possible intelligence about what the other side is up to. Hierarchy, Loyalty, Sanctity If you listen to most conservatives, you’ll hear them saying one thing over and over: Let’s go to a religious worship service. For decades now, there’s been a clear statistical correlation: the more often you attend those services, the more likely you are to vote Republican. It’s an…

Read More

Doubting Ourselves Through the AZ Shooting

…at that’s what people on “my side” do too. To make it worse, even when the best of our leaders assert that “both sides do it and it needs to stop,” our media culture is so divided that most of us couldn’t come up with examples of our own side “doing it.” I find appalling the way that Sarah Palin talks about “re-loading” in the face of criticism and even more so the target map circulated by her PAC that received so much coverage this past weekend d…

Read More

Reza Aslan’s Viral Fox News Interview Reveals More Than Just Christian Privilege

…ons about Jesus.  A classy, statesman-like takedown of an ethnocentrist at best (a bigot at worst) always sits better with the agreeable audience. The interview also exposed a double-standard—Green interviewed Christian professor Barry Vann about his book, Puritan Islam, without a hint of incredulity. This kind of inconsistency gets “The Daily Show” writers furiously typing. Those on Green’s side could gain satisfaction in the holes poked in Aslan…

Read More