MetaFilter posts tagged with religion and faith

Losing my Religion

notsnot — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:21:38 -0800

Deconversion 2.0. A series of Youtube videos detailing the author's separation from his faith. His diction, with...pauses, is a little odd to get used to but worth getting around.

Harvey Cox Says Atheism Won't Last. Here's Why You Should Care What Harvey Cox Thinks...

jefficator — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:21:40 -0800

Harvey Cox, one of the foremost American theologians of the twentieth century, recently retired from Harvard, where he held the oldest tenured professorship in the nation. You've seen him discussed here before for more bovine pursuits. But more importantly, he has argued that atheism is a passing fad; his new book contends it emerges in response to factors that will change the face of faith in the coming generation. Why should you care about an old theologian's last hurrah? His prior predictions have been right.

Premanand will not recant

vanar sena — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:25:41 -0800

Basava Premanand, rationalist and founder of The Indian Skeptic, is dying. Premanand has been dispelling miracles and exposing charlatans for over fifty years, often facing persecution from the entrenched political and popular power of godmen in India. Now, his 79 year old body is shutting down. To counter already spreading rumours that he has recanted and accepted spirituality, he has issued a statement that despite being on his deathbed, he has no intention of finding God.

"Greetings from Idiot America"

zarq — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:20:20 -0800

Charles Pierce, author of the 2005 essay "Greetings from Idiot America" decrying the rise of faith-based anti-intellectualism, has expanded his rant into a full length book: Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free. (via) Previously on MeFi. (link on that post is defunct) Anti-intellectualism has been around for ages, and has not been restricted to the US. But the American cultural divide was thrust further into the national spotlight during the last election cycle. Further reading: Susan Jacoby's book: The Age of American Unreason (interview on left-wing blog Alternet here,) and 1964's Anti-intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter. Pierce appears regularly on NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!, and is a feature writer for Esquire, Slate, The American Prospect and the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, usually on sports. He's also the author of several books, including Hard to Forget: An Alzheimer's Story.

Philosophia Islamica

ageispolis — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:21:17 -0800

Meet the Islamic Philosophers. Arabic philosophy sought to reconcile the science and empiricism of Aristotle, the metaphysics of Neoplatonism, and the revelations of the Holy Qur'an. From the first thoughts of Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, to the 20,000 pages of Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd, the influence of these Muslim polymaths profoundly shaped Western thought. The "Golden Age" of Islamic Philosophy: 1. Al-Kindi (and the Mu'tazili) (c. 801–873 CE) - On First Philosophy. 2. The Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan as-Safa') (10th century). 3. Al-Farabi (“Second Teacher") (~872 - ~950) - The Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. 4. Ibn Sina (~950 - 1037) - Remarks and Admonitions. 5. Omar Khayyam (1048-1123) - The Rubaiyat. 6. Al-Ghazali (1058 - 1111) Tahafut al-falasifah and The Mysteries of the Human Soul. 7. Ibn Tufail (1105 - 1185) - The Improvement of Human Reason. 8. Ibn Rushd (Averroës) (1126 - 1198) On the Incoherence of the Incoherence.

A nation of nonbelievers

0bvious — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:40:35 -0800

"The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." ~ George Washington / "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature." ~ Thomas Jefferson / "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion." ~ Abraham Lincoln / "A just government has no need for the clergy or the church." ~ James Madison / "I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end... where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice." ~ John F. Kennedy / "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers." ~ Barack Obama

radiant and reverent: religious festivals in China and Tibet

madamjujujive — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:52:24 -0800

Armchair travel via three superb audio slide shows by photographer Reinhard Krause:
Monlam, the Tibetan Great Prayer Festival - Aba China
Catholics celebrate Christmas in rural China
Tibetan prayer meeting in Tongren His portfolio is also quite excellent - here a few photos I particularly liked: Window washer Seated women in a park Three cheerleaders Chinese rock band Young Chinese athletes North Korean soldiers exercising North Korean respect

Papa Palmérino Sorgente, the Pope of Montréal

XMLicious — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:05:27 -0800

Papa Palmérino Sorgente, the Pope of Montréal Here's more photos of him and his art and here he is on YouTube in action and also on Google Video. More photos embedded in Flash in the Made in Montréal page for him. He's a bit dour in those but here he is smiling, straight out of Pixar's Geri's Game. I met this guy in the fall of Y2K while visiting “La Ville Aux Cent Clochers” / “The City of a Hundred Belltowers”. Flatluigi's recent post reminded me of him. He's a cool, talkative, and cheerful, if not entirely there, artiste of the grassroots genre. As you can tell by the frame of that first photo the Bedazzler was made for this man. It was quite confusing to try to carry on a conversation with him in my limited French until I realized that he didn't speak that language. (Or maybe his accent was so heavy I couldn't understand him.) According to the amusing anecdote on this page (in French) Papa Palmérino is a Kosovar. Though elsewhere it shows he emigrated to Canada from Italy. The YT video doesn't really do justice to what it's like being in his little shop, Le Musée de Papa Palmérino, but the Montréal Mirror says it best:

If religious collectibles are your thing, this place may be your little slice of heaven. The place is chock-full of Jesuses--statues big and small, crucifixes, key chains, mugs. Seems Papa is quite the Jesus fan, which makes sense, considering he believes himself to be his brother. Ask him to show you framed photos of himself mounted on a cross (I didn't ask if these were for sale). Papa Palmerino sells a wide variety of other religious doo-dads including rosary beads, candles and rings he claims cure arthritis. Even if the ‘Second Coming’ isn't quite the motif you're going for in decorating your house, this place is worth visiting for the browsing and... uh... conversation.

(Not sure if that's clear, but he actually has photos of himself mock-crucified, loincloth and crown of thorns and everything.) I don't know if he's still truckin' because he was 85 years old in 2003➚. I guess his shop burned down a couple of months after I met him! This person, Jona Pelovska, seems to have made a documentary about him. Her MySpace page says “in post-production.”

... in keeping with the Reform movement's tradition of liberal positions on human sexuality.

amberglow — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 22:00:23 -0800

Official transgender blessings -- Kulanu -- the newly-revised manual for LGBT issues and ceremonies put out by the Union for Reform Judaism (1.5 million US Jews are Reform) now includes 2 blessings (written by a Rabbi now male) for those transitioning and who have completed the change, alongside the already existing same sex marriage liturgy and other documents and procedures. A first? (blessings text inside)

Faith-Based Weight Loss

Chinese Jet Pilot — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:33:01 -0800

Gwen Shamblin's faith-based weight loss program, The Weigh Down Workshop, has been so successful that in 1999 she spun off her own Evangelical church, now found in over 100 cities worldwide. Her weight loss methods are not without controversy, and her church has recently been in the news.

persecution complex? prosecution complex?

amberglow — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:13:18 -0800

The First Freedom Project --new from the Dept of Justice, announced at the Southern Baptist Convention along with a call for their help---specifically and only to protect the religious from discrimination against them. Many are not impressed: The administration has often ignored the importance of the no establishment principle by supporting attempts of governments to endorse a religious message, using tax dollars to fund pervasively religious organizations, allowing religious discrimination in hiring for federally funded projects, ... Legal strategies and actions from groups like the Alliance Defense Fund and ACLJ are now official DOJ policy, it appears. ...In his statement, Gonzales mentioned several cases litigated by ADF and its allies ...

I Love You Kenisha

jonson — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 23:35:41 -0800

I Love You Kenisha. My dear sweet Kenisha, If you find this page, please forgive me for my failure to be a the kind of leader in our marriage and our home that God has called me to be. When ever you decide to come home, I'll be here waiting for you. If I'm 100 years old, and on my death bed, and you haven't come back yet, I'll still be waiting for you!!! I love you with all my heart!!!

guess who comes off as more angry (and more insulting)?

amberglow — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:28:17 -0800

Jewcy asks The Big Question-- Why Are Atheists So Angry? with Sam Harris and Dennis Prager. Email exchanges on the topic--and if you can get past the incredibly loaded and one-sided question, really interesting.

To have and to audit, with thetans and without, till Xenu do us part.

Arcaz Ino — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 19:47:38 -0800

To celebrate Tom Cruise's wedding, ABC News reprints the 1992 Ted Koppel interview with Cruise's best man, and spiritual leader, Religious Technology Center chairman David Miscavige. It was his first and last significant interview, and you can see why.

Reframing the values debate.

footballrabi — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 08:01:55 -0800

Democrats of Faith. Jesse Lava, co-founder, says the site is attempting "to help reframe the values debate to be beyond wedge-issue politics, beyond fear and division and more focused on justice and the common good."

...the emancipation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from bigotry disguised as religious truth ...

amberglow — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:40:02 -0800

Faith In America asks a simple question: Is using religious teachings to deny equal rights to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people any less wrong than using religious teaching to discriminate against people of color, against equality for women or against people of different cultures wanting to marry? (check their ad campaign too--some great ones) Meanwhile, clueless elected officials like Barack Obama continue to buy into the GOP lies that all people with faith are conservatives/Republicans, and that Democrats are hostile to people with religious beliefs.

The God Delusion

econous — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 01:14:42 -0800

Part One of the Channel4 program where Richard Dawkins challenges faith calling it 'a process of non-thinking'. [~48 mins] Part Two: The Virus of Faith. [~48 mins]

...plainly jinxed by whatever faith he cringes before ...

amberglow — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 12:25:35 -0800

President Jonah --an essay/history lesson/bible lesson/etc by Gore Vidal. ...We have also come to a point in this dark age where there is not only no hero in view but no alternative road unblocked. We are trapped terribly in a now that few foresaw and even fewer can define ...

Is Jesus a solution or an excuse?

0bvious — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 19:34:47 -0800

Faith based prisons... Can Gov. Jeb Bush's new drive to introduce God to the inmates make a difference, or was Jesus 'dying for our sins' not enough already? Is Jesus a solution or an excuse?

"Night has fallen. He has died now. A fly crawls over the still flesh. Of what use is it to me that this man suffered, If I am suffering now?" - Jorge Luis Borges

No, you're wrong! No, YOU'RE wrong!!

JHarris — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 16:30:17 -0800

If You're a Christian, Muslim or Jew - You are Wrong - A rant over at the Huffington Post.
And let's be clear about this, it IS a rant, and a beaut at that. But it's a sentiment that's run through the head of everyone who isn't a member of the three mentioned groups. No one in the mainstream media says things like this, I wonder why?
The post is made. Let the emphatic agreements, and the vicious denials... begin!

Stephen Baldwin is Born Again

matteo — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 08:39:09 -0800

Hardcore Faith. Actor Stephen Baldwin on his skateboarding ministry and why it's OK to call the Lord 'dude.'

The End Of Faith

nofundy — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 13:21:32 -0800

The End Of Faith

A belief is a lever that, once pulled, moves almost everything else in a person’s life. Are you a scientist? A liberal? A racist? These are merely species of belief in action. Your beliefs define your vision of the world; they dictate your behavior; they determine your emotional responses to other human beings. If you doubt this, consider how your experience would suddenly change if you came to believe one of the following propositions: 1. You have only two weeks to live. 2. You’ve just won a lottery prize of one hundred million dollars. 3. Aliens have implanted a receiver in your skull and are manipulating your thoughts.

Follow the Leader

matteo — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 12:47:55 -0800

"I felt like hurting someone before, now I feel like hugging people". Only weeks after professing his belief in Jesus Christ, former Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch was baptized in the Jordan River last Saturday. With “Jesus” tattooed across his knuckles and “Matthew 11:28” along his neck, Welch received full immersion in the historic river, along with 20 other white-robed Christians from a Bakersfield, CA church. Welch said the ritual baptism, “washed away his anger.” "My songs are God saying things to me, him talking to people. He's going to use me to heal people and people are going to be drawn to it, just watch, they will be.” For the latest information (and a free mp3) go to Welch's personal website, http://www.headtochrist.com/

Meaning of Life

andrew cooke — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 17:29:27 -0800

The Meaning of Life according to various rather famous people (Dennett, Fukuyama, etc). I'm watching the Dennett video at the moment and it starts rather weakly, but, by midway through, is rolling along nicely. With topics like "being good without god" and "the anthropic principle" it struck me as relevant to a couple of recent askmefi threads.
Dennett: [pause] i guess i'll say it again, more slowly...
(oh, and the player interface is rather delicate - give it time to load and click play a few times...)

mipmap alfresco

Pretty_Generic — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 14:21:37 -0800

The full wealth of the world's religious knowledge has been collated into the quite extraordinary "God FAQ". A valuable resource indeed. [via b3ta]