John on September 3, 2010
Stephen Hawking has a new book coming out in which he goes further than before in arguing the universe has no need for God: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,” writes Hawking. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists why we exist. I’m sure there’s more to this quote, but as [...]
John on August 17, 2010
Here’s Harry from back in 2001, just a month after 9/11, offering his support on the Senate floor for moderate Islam: And yet, yesterday Reid’s spokesman announced that the Senator believed the Cordoba Center should be built elsewhere. I guess the only question left is which statement was him pandering and which represents the real Harry Reid?
John on August 6, 2010
Interesting study profiled on faith and stress from Live Science: With two experiments, the researchers showed that when people think about religion and God, their brains respond differently—in a way that lets them take setbacks in stride and react with less distress to anxiety-provoking mistakes. Participants either wrote about religion or did a scrambled word task that included religion and God-related words. Then the researchers recorded their brain activity as [...]
John on July 13, 2010
Ron Rosenbaum wrote a piece on atheism and agnosticism for Slate a couple weeks ago titled An Agnostic Manifesto. His basic argument is that neither religious believers nor “new atheists” make a very convincing case for their beliefs, so it makes more sense to be agnostic. Of course the word agnostic has a particular history. It was coined by T. H. Huxley, a friend of Darwin and one of the [...]
John on June 22, 2010
From the tortured brain of Andrew Sullivan: Does the Pope crap on the tortured souls of hundreds of raped deaf children? This in a post about Sarah Palin (who else).
John on June 8, 2010
This is a video clip I put together with Scott as my narrator. It’s a response to this video by PPSimmons: I’m not convinced that the survey mentioned in the clip was entirely accurate, but even if it double counted the number of people who think Obama may be the anti-Christ, there are still way too many. There is evidence that Christians tend to be less gullible of things like [...]
John on May 28, 2010
Am I surprised that someone on PBS believes this? No. Am I surprised that they would say it? Yeah, a bit. Here’s the transcript: Ayann Hirsi-Ali: Somehow this guy got in his mind that killing other people would be a great thing to do and he would be rewarded for it in the hereafter… Smiley: But Christians do that every single day, in this country. Ali: Do they blow people [...]
John on May 12, 2010
We’ll get there, but it’s not the only thing worth noting in this column. Robert Wright’s first target is Daniel Pipes who wrote something for the Corner a week ago pointing out that the MSM seemed pretty desperate to avoid the obvious conclusion about the Times Square bomber. For proof, Pipes offers quotes from seven major media outlets, several of which say Shahzad’s motives are a mystery. It’s as if, [...]
John on May 11, 2010
Watch as Lars Vilks, the cartoonist who drew this is attacked: He was “head butted” to the ground by someone who lept out of the front row. Two people have been arrested. Listening to the crowd shout “Allahu Ackbar” gives me the creeps.
John on May 6, 2010
From the quivering cowards who censored Mohammed in a bear suit comes a brash new comedy about Jesus: As part of the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers, Comedy Central is set to announce “JC,” a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a regular life in New York City. In the show, God is preoccupied with playing video games while [...]
John on May 1, 2010
I wrote about this story here. The original reporter has gathered some more information on what Ed Young has been doing with his $8 million dollar private jet. Spending a lot of time at his million dollar digs in Miami it turns out, but also travel to numerous other vacation spots. Here’s the report: Here is the response from Ed’s New York public relations firm. You’ll notice that they don’t [...]
John on April 26, 2010
You’ve probably heard about the devastating tornado that ripped through Mississippi. At least 10 people were killed. The stories are tragic, including this one: Sherry Fair rushed to her aunt’s home in the county. She said an hour and a half after the tornado passed, a woman lay dying in a ditch along a dirt road beside the body of her husband. “She was laying there just crying,” a shaken Fair [...]
Tim - t.q.o. on April 3, 2010
Resurrection: Rob Bell from The Work of Rob Bell on Vimeo.
John on March 22, 2010
ABC’s Dan Harris has a disturbing report on child sex slavery in Cambodia: Dan considers the legacy of Pol Pot and its effect on the “moral vacuum” in Cambodia a bit more in this clip: [HT: NewsBusters]
John on March 16, 2010
Glenn Beck says no. Jim Wallis says yes. Amy Sullivan agrees with Wallis and asks “Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Jesus?” So who is right? This is one of those debates within the church that will never be settled. It won’t be settled because the evidence isn’t cut and dry. On the one hand, both the Old and New Testament do talk about justice. James says that true religion is [...]
John on March 5, 2010
Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of the founder of Hamas. I noted a story about his conversion to Christianity just over a year ago. He’s back and still pulling no punches: During his 50-minute interview, for which he arrived with armed security, Yousef took shots at Hamas leaders including political chief Khaled Meshaal. He lashed out at Hamas, saying the organization lives in the Middle Ages. And he hurled [...]
John on March 2, 2010
From the Telegraph: The four-inch long nail is thought to be one of thousands used in crucifixions across the Roman empire. Archaeologists believe it dates from either the first or second century AD. The nail was found last summer in a decorated box in a fort on the tiny isle of Ilheu de Pontinha, just off the coast of Madeira. Pontinha was thought to have been held by the Knights [...]
John on February 19, 2010
His first tour, Everything is Spiritual dealt with science. His next one, The Gods Aren’t Angry dealt with comparative religion. The subject this time is art and suffering. In my opinion this is Rob Bell at his best. One of the great debates surrounding belief in God is the so-called problem of evil. How can a good God permit so much evil? Why doesn’t he stop it? There are answers [...]
John on February 14, 2010
Time had a long but interesting piece on the state of Biblical archaeology, i.e. how well supported are the stories in the Bible: Some of the Bible’s most familiar names, places and events, in fact — the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; King David, the slayer of Goliath; Moses and the Israelites’ flight from bondage in Egypt; Joshua’s conquest of the Promised Land and the gloomy prophecies of Jeremiah — [...]
John on February 9, 2010
I’ve been to Fellowship Church on one occasion and read one of Young’s books a couple years ago. So the latest revelations coming out of Grapevine, Texas are very disappointing: Over the past few weeks, News 8 has been in contact with a number of individuals who were once close to Young at his massive Fellowship Church in Grapevine, disturbed by his direction and treatment of staff. Young recently replaced [...]
