LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY allisburning)

From the recent Richard Dawkins interview on Salon, which you will have heard about - http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/04/30/dawkins/print.html -

On using the word "delusion" to label religion, interviewer asks Dawkins,
"What are its negative connotations?"


"A delusion that encourages belief where there is no evidence is asking for trouble. Disagreements between incompatible beliefs cannot be settled by reasoned argument, because reasoned argument is drummed out of those trained in religion from the cradle. Instead, disagreements are settled by other means which, in extreme cases, inevitably become violent.

Scientists disagree among themselves but they never fight over their disagreements. They argue about evidence or go out and seek new evidence. Much the same is true of philosophers, historians and literary critics."


-- I definitely agree with Dawkins in general, but in the spirit of fairness, does anybody care to offer any counterexamples among scientists, philosophers, historians, and literary critics? (I'm not talking "argue" here, I'm talking "fight", "use physical violence")



-- xposted around

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

My husband just got back from running an errand, and he caught a bit of the Rush Limbaugh show. Apparently Rush said something like, "Democrats are accusing all Republicans of being 'Dominionists.'" Does anyone have any details on this rant? Has he used this word before?

My husband also heard something about Pat Robertson resigning his leadership of a Christian organization (the Christian Coalition?) so he won't distract from the man destined to lead the "true American Christian church" -- George Bush. Does anyone have any details on this?

Edit: The Pat Robertson resignation is apparently old news. I don't see a quote about him calling Bush the head of a "true American church," though. I'll keep looking. It's possible that Rush is accusing "liberals" of making this claim.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

Eighty years after a famed courtroom battle in Tennessee pitted religious beliefs about the origins of life against the theories of British scientist Charles Darwin, Kansas is holding its own hearings on what school children should be taught about how life on Earth began.

The Kansas Board of Education has scheduled six days of courtroom-style hearings to begin on Thursday in the capitol Topeka. More than two dozen witnesses will give testimony and be subject to cross-examination, with the majority expected to argue against teaching evolution...

School board member Sue Gamble, who describes herself as a moderate, said she will not attend the hearings, which she calls "a farce." She said the argument over evolution is part of a larger agenda by Christian conservatives to gradually alter the legal and social landscape in the United States.

"I think it is a desire by a minority... to establish a theocracy, both within Kansas and growing to a national level," Gamble said.

Full Story

(x-posted)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dabroots)

From today's Publishers Weekly Daily newsletter:

Skipping Toward Armageddon: The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire by Michael Standaert, will offer both an exegesis of the book and a criticism of LaHaye's business and personal connections. "The Left Behind books are functioning not just like a Christian John Grisham but as a highly organized effective tool for evangelizing and generating a great deal of money to support a network of organizations that are doing a lot of things the booksellers wouldn't like," says Soft Skull publisher Richard Nash. "We want to be able to let independent bookstores know what is going on behind these books that they're selling." ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just went and checked the 'stats' of this community, and was surprised to find that there are 230 LJ members reading it, and probably a whole bunch of 'anonymous' readers reading it also. Wow. What started as a small side community that I created to scratch a 25-year old 'itch' has become something quite a lot bigger than I expected. (The 'itch' I speak of came from reading Conway and Siegelman's "Holy Terror" in '82. It lit my curiosity, and because I was surrounded by evangelicals in the USAF, I felt I needed to learn about them just for self-defence.)

I want to welcome everyone here, encourage you to read the older posts, and follow the links on the front page. This community serves two purposes: to examine the Dominionist Christian movement and its effect on our government, laws, and leadership, and to serve as a place for 'walkaways' to decompress and tell us about what it was like 'inside'. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here's the first editorial about the Open Center conference I attended this past weekend:

A spiritual olive branch for the far-right faithful
Ellis Henican


May 1, 2005

Chip Berlet isn't the devil. He doesn't even look the part.

He's a big, burly guy in suspenders and a sport shirt who was raised Presbyterian in northern New Jersey. He's spent most of his adult life at the intersection of journalism and community activism - in Colorado, Chicago and Boston. Over the years, he's become one of America's leading experts on the steady rise of conservative Christianity and its growing role in political life. He was onto this long before George W. Bush came into the White House.

These days, Berlet thinks of himself as an organizer, a researcher and a radical left-wing Christian. Yet he counts among his friends quite a few people whom his other friends consider whacked-out right-wing religious zealots.

"Actually," Berlet was saying on Friday afternoon, "I don't like those labels at all, calling people 'religious extremists' or 'radical religious right.' You can't have a conversation when you start that way. I want to talk to these people. I want to engage them. ... I want to have a real discourse about religion and politics."

Welcome to backlash against the latest scary rise of America's Religious Right.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY anarchys_savior)

I heard quite a bit of completely illogical crap at my ex-church. I just wanted to share the hilarity.

The sunday school teacher gets the award for stupidest, most racist comment I've ever heard. He was talking about Snoop Dog(when he had those commercials where he said "wait just a minizzle!") and had this to say about such slang talk(adding -izzle to things). "That's foolishness. No one that uses that kind of foolishness will make it into Heaven." I said something about how it's predominant in African American culture, it's slang and not evil, and he just repeated himself, which leads me to believe he thinks there won't be blacks in Heaven.

In the same lesson, he said, "Anyone who votes for someone that gives rights to gays will burn in Hell." He said Bill Cliton was hellbent and all his supporters were too, because Bill was such a big pro-homo. I wanted to correct him, but I was much too furious.

The most telling though, was when another "youth teacher" told a new convert to "read the book of Leviticus first. It tells you how to live your life."