Focused Rambling

Church Signs

Check out these amusing church signs ... I've seen funnier, but they aren't bad.

Sorry you were crucified, here's an egg and a chocolate bunny...

It's Easter, time to try to figure out why we have a holiday surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus that includes candy, eggs, and bunnies. Kari Henley has a piece at The Huffington Post that details some of the historical origins of Easter traditions ...

Same-sex marriage, and the murder of gays in Iraq

Here’s two opposite ends of the spectrum for you, both from today’s New York Times. First, there are many in this country that are celebrating recent legislation in Vermont and Iowa that allows same-sex marriage, and preparing to continue the momentum with legislation in nine other states. Hopefully the efforts of all in the gay and lesbian community are helping to educate people to the basic civil rights element of this debate, rather than the selective interpretations of specific biblical meanings and intents that has been used in the past. Regardless of what the “institution of marriage” has meant to individuals that have entered into it throughout the years, it is a recognized symbol of the love and commitment of two individuals at the end of the day, and any two individuals that wish to express that commitment should be allowed to. Of course, as soon as you read one story that gives you some hope that the world is rational and evolving, you read another from NYT on the “scorn and murder” faced by gay and lesbian Iraqi’s. This includes the recent discovery of the bodies of 25 men and boys in Sadr City that were believed to be gay. I am assuming that the religious leaders quoted in this article are not nearly as strict with other interpretations of Islamic law, unless the Iraqi’s (particularly the Shiites of Sadr City) are going the way of the Taliban and instituting Sharia law.

Post-Christian America

A recent Newsweek article notes that self-identified Christians in this country have fallen 10% since 1990 , down to 76% of Americans. As I've said here before , as more information is accessible to more people, there will be less religious affiliation.

Ron Jeremy versus God (or at least a self-appointed p.r. person for God)

Ron Jeremy will debate Rev. Craig Gross in Kirksville, Missouri on March 27th... Gross has a website for combatting the use and spread of porn through our country. Jeremy is, of course, known for being a well-endowed star of more than 2,000 porn films ... this should be fun!!

New Scientology movie has John Travolta writing letters...

Scientologists, including John Travolta, are going to any extreme to get a new film about Scientology pulled. They are also releasing their own DVD in hopes of stemming any tide that arises from viewing the film. The linked article contains several other links to interesting tidbits about the religion, including the L. Ron Hubbard descriptions of an alien named Xenu that captured a group called the Thetans, and stuffed them in volcanoes on Earth. It is slightly amusing to hear other religious people laugh at some of the crazier stuff in Scientology however, considering most religions contain some of the most unfathomable events possible (Virgin births, people living in whales, 1000-year old folks). Below is a demonstration of Training Routines in Scientology, depicted by a Florida watchdog group...

Tibetan Culture, Religion, and Language "near extinction"...

The Dalai Lama marked the 50th anniversary of the protests that led him into exile with a very pointed speech. The Dalai Lama said that Tibetan culture would be extinct shortly if Chinese military presence did not change its tactics in Tibet, and that hundreds of thousands of Tibetans had been killed following the Cultural Revolution of China. Look here for a picture slide show of the event...

Religi-no...

The number of Americans identifying themselves as non-religious is increasing , and those identifying as Christian specifically are dropping... it's hard to market a flawed product when there is so much information in the world now.

Should non-believers be indifferent to religion?

There is an interesting post and comment thread here that discusses the ways in which non-believers interact with religion. The post also links to a New York Times article from Saturday, in which it is mentioned that Scandinavians are the biggest non-believers of them all. I'm sure it is at some point exhausting on both sides of the belief/non-belief issue to continue discussing things that, at some point, can't really be discussed anymore. There will always be faith and doubt and reason and feeling. But it will always be necessary for those that are most educated on the basic tenets of belief or non-belief to state their case in a rational manner. It's just when it all breaks down into the old "you're blind to the truth" retread that things get tedious. If you have studied and can clearly state the tenets of your belief, then I want to hear it. If you believe in the concepts of religion, but don't even acknowledge some of the obvious difficulties there are in believing wholeheartedly every book, ritual, or policy of a religion, then I probably want to hear less. Regardless, this all does make Scandinavians even more interesting to me...

Picking your morals...

The Obama Administration has made another step into the abortion debate, changing a rule that allowed health care professionals to refrain from giving abortion information or assistance due to their moral beliefs. I am sure that there are many things that a health care professional deals with on a daily basis that run up against their religious beliefs, but if your job calls for you to act in a certain way (giving unbiased care to all who need it) then it's hard to deny care on just one belief. It is a tough issue, and I don't want to belittle the fact that there are some that probably do struggle mightily with this issue... however, abortion is legal, so it's hard to imagine how someone can deny service for a legal activity because they don't like it. Can you deny a drug addict treatment? Or better yet, could you deny an atheist treatment if you found out their beliefs?