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The Cult of Kurzweil: Will Robots Save Our Souls?

By Robert M. Geraci

…or perhaps because they are, themselves, true believers, major news media online and in print have rushed to interview Kurzweil and profile his ideas over the past few years. Most recently, Time magazine has labeled the Singularity a “serious hypothesis…an idea that rewards sober, careful evaluation.” Where once Kurzweil was listed among the fringe and suspected of being just a bit off-balance, in the past few years (especially since founding his…

What Was Your Sign?, Pro-War MLK, & Benched for a Headscarf

By Michael J. Altman

…during the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, FOX has rejected a Super Bowl ad from an online store named “Jesus Hates Obama.” Was Mark Twain anti-Christian? Philip Yancey, an Evangelical writer popular among conservative Christians, will speak at the Gay Christian Network’s conference this year. Michael Youseff, a leader on the religious right, declared that the Episcopal Church is not Christian nor is it “Jesus’ church,” because of its stances on gay-rights…

Pornographic War Gazing: Why We Don’t Look Away

By Daniel Martin Varisco

…s scientific revelation that internet pornography might lead to impotence, online sex brings several billions of dollars in profit each year—the pornographic gaze is good for business. The filmmakers and photographers make porn are the equivalent of arms manufacturers in the theater of war. An erect organ on screen shares space, at least in the male mind, with the shooting off of a tomahawk missile. At least in the male mind, war and sex are the p…

Debate Over Mother Earth’s ‘Rights’ Stirs Fears of Pagan Socialism

By Bron Taylor

…d by Ecuador’s constitution for this remarkable document, which I have put online as recent evidence of the emergence of a civil earth religion that is gaining traction globally.) The remarkable language in the Ecuadorian constitution and in Boliva’s new Mother Earth law did not, however, result from indigenous Andean spirituality alone. They were also influenced by a generation of thinking and debate around the world about human responsibilities…

The Scandal of the Cross

By Jeremy Biles

…France a “cité Catholique.” The Guardian reports that Civitas “launched an online petition and mobilized other fundamentalist groups” in opposition to the exhibition of Serrano’s photo; Christian protesters numbering about 1,000 commenced a march through Avignon, ending at the gallery. (Lambert and others at the gallery reported that they had been subject to “extremist harassment” by right-wing Christian groups.) Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre Cattenoz, A…

Pete “Spare Tire” DeGraaf’s Operation Rescue Ties

By Sarah Posner

…plan ahead, don’t we, in life?” adding, “I have spare tire on my car.” His online biography at Shepherds Staff Ministries, where DeGraaf, an Air Force Academy graduate and an ordained pastor, is a “biblical” financial advisor, boasts, “During the Summer of Mercy he served as Executive Director for Hope for the Heartland.” The Summer of Mercy was a six-week abortion clinic blockade, organized by the fringe anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, that…

“I ‘Came Out’ For Marriage Equality”: An Anti-Gay Activist Changes His Mind

By Welton Gaddy

…iage Tour, as powerful messages opposing same-gender marriage proliferated online and with a physical traveling bus tour. When so much of today’s activism is spoken of in terms of war and battle, with a faceless enemy determined to destroy all that’s good, how does one come to see opponents as individual human beings, people of value and worth, deserving of respect and consideration, of empathy and even support? *** I am very grateful that Louis…

Anthony Weiner’s Achilles Penis

By Donna Schaper

…eady fairly popular in the world of the ordinary.) But I so long for a megaphone, like Spitzer had last night, where he opened his show with a one sentence “confession,” saying “I’ve been there,” only to host three men to talk about Congressman Weiner’s Achilles penis. I couldn’t believe he couldn’t find a woman—but apparently only men know about sex. Plus CNN loves his ratings. 2) Maybe he wanted to bump Dominique Strauss Kahn off prime time. The…

Abdul-Rauf’s Latest Park51 Fail

By Hussein Rashid

…e, fully-functional and fully-professional team, and have cleaned up their online presence. In addition, they have controlled their messaging, and the view from New York was that they were making progress in repairing broken relationships. All of this work went on while Abdul-Rauf was silent. Now he starts making statements on something over which he has no control, but over which he exercises a disproportionate impact on in public discourse. He d…

Zen and the Art of the Sex Scandal

By Gary Gach

…n outside help. Much of the story is being documented at a self-appointed, online “Shimano Archive” to a degree of granularity of detail that is, in and of itself, rather remarkable. The situation, on the face of it, provides a point of departure for contemplation. In it, we can see aspects of ourselves, and Buddhism relation to other traditions; as well as key dynamic elements within Buddhism. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, another seminal founder of Zen…