Clipmarks | Antara's 'religion' clips

Musim father burns Christian daughter alive

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:54:17 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: what can you say?

Muslim father burns Christian daughter alive

Man slices out girl's tongue, ignites her after 'heated debate on religion'

A Saudi Arabian Muslim father cut out his daughter's tongue and lit her on fire upon learning that she had become a Christian.

The child became curious about Jesus Christ after she read Christian material online, the Gulf News reported.

Her father read of her Internet conversation, detached her tongue and burned her to death "following a heated debate on religion," according to an International Christian Concern report.

The father is employed by the muwateen, or Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The muwateen are police tasked by the government with enforcing religious purity. The man has been taken into custody, and his identity has not been released.

Tags: religion, islam, christianity, another dead girl

Obama Blogger sues Bible Publishers

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:11:00 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: lol.....

Clip Source: www.worldnetdaily.com

'Gay' man sues Bible publishers

$70 million for emotional distress because homosexuality cast as sin

Bradley Fowler (RightPundits.com)

A homosexual man who has a blog on Sen. Barack Obama's campaign website is suing two major Christian publishers for violating his constitutional rights and causing emotional pain, because the Bible versions they publish refer to homosexuality as a sin.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, of Canton, Mich., is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and another $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing in lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the Grand Rapids Press reported.

Fowler filed his claim against Grand Rapids-based Zondervan Monday, alleging its Bibles' references to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of "demoralization, chaos and bewilderment," the paper said.

Tags: nutty lawsuits, homosexuality, religion, obama

Debate on Messiah and Origins of Christianity

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:01:09 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: very interesting

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era — in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.

Tags: artifacts, archaeology, religion, christianity, truth

The Devil's Delusion

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:28:00 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: More from the debates

Better to read the whole review...i could only clip a lil bit.

http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/dont-write-off-religion-just-yet/

Clip Source: www.samharris.org

Don’t write off religion just yet

THE DEVIL’S DELUSION

Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions

By David Berlinski

There is actually very little that is new in the so-called new atheism, whose claim to be based on science is as dubious today as it has ever been. A critique of the contemporary assault on religion is therefore much needed, and in The Devil’s Delusion, David Berlinski gives us a polemic that is powerful, erudite and often savagely funny. Berlinski - a mathematician and well-known critic of evolutionary theory, though not a proponent of “intelligent design” - has two targets in his sights: the conventional belief that religious thought is intrinsically superstitious and the materialist philosophy that Dawkins and his fellow “brights” - as members of the atheist community fondly describe themselves - mistakenly identify with science.

Tags: religion, debate, science, reason, www.samharris.org

Fideism

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:37:09 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: I only learned about this "school of thought" recently Just passin on a link

Clip Source: plato.stanford.edu

Fideism

“Fideism” is the name given to that school of thought—to which Tertullian himself is frequently said to have subscribed—which answers that faith is in some sense independent of—if not outright adversarial toward—reason. In contrast to the more rationalistic tradition of natural theology, with its arguments for the existence of God, fideism holds that reason is unnecessary and inappropriate for the exercise and justification of religious belief. The term itself derives from fides, the Latin word for faith, and can be rendered literally as faith-ism. “Fideism” is thus to be understood not as a synonym for “religious belief,” but as denoting a particular philosophical account of faith's appropriate jurisdiction vis-a-vis that of reason.

2.2 The Usual Suspects

2.2.1 Pascal
2.2.2 Kierkegaard
2.2.3 James
2.2.4 Wittgenstein

Tags: faith, reason, religion, philosophy

Does this explain Religion?

Tue, 27 May 2008 14:28:06 GMT

clipped by: Antara

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Religion is a product of evolution, software suggests

God may work in mysterious ways, but a simple computer program may explain how religion evolved

By distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will flourish. However, religion only takes hold if non-believers help believers out – perhaps because they are impressed by their devotion.

"If a person is willing to sacrifice for an abstract god then people feel like they are willing to sacrifice for the community," says James Dow, an evolutionary anthropologist at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, US, who wrote the program – called Evogod (download the code here).

Dow is by no means the first scientist to take a stab at explaining how religion emerged. Theories on the evolution of religion tend toward two camps. One argues that religion is a mental artefact, co-opted from brain functions that evolved for other tasks.

Tags: religion, faith, science, evolution, questions, computers

Neuro-Mysticism

Wed, 14 May 2008 13:21:52 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: I love this kinda material, just fascinating...

Clip Source: www.theness.com

Writing in today’s New York Times, columnist David Brooks discusses the relationship between neuroscience and mysticism - saying that in the future the debate will center around a concept that he calls “neural Buddhism”. He says he is not taking sides, just pointing out that this is where the real debate is going to happen. Well - let the debate begin.

First I want to point out that I read David Brooks regularly because I find his style to be very rational, educated, and thoughtful. He is one of those writers who is worth reading regardless of your political ideology. I particularly enjoy those articles in which he takes a step back and looks at the current political topics of discussion in the context of broader cultural trends. That is indeed what he is attempting to do in this article. Although he is clearly well-read on this topic, I think he has misinterpreted the implications of current neuroscience.

Tags: skeptics, neurscience, mysticism, religion, faith and the future

The Dawn of the Apatheist

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:01:28 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: Article by Jonathan Rauch......food for thought

Clip Source: www.theatlantic.com

The greatest development in modern religion is not a religion at all—it's an attitude best described as "apatheism"

It came to me recently in a blinding vision that I am an apatheist. Well, "blinding vision" may be an overstatement. "Wine-induced haze" might be more strictly accurate. This was after a couple of glasses of Merlot, when someone asked me about my religion. "Atheist," I was about to say, but I stopped myself. "I used to call myself an atheist," I said, "and I still don't believe in God, but the larger truth is that it has been years since I really cared one way or another. I'm"—that was when it hit me—"an ... apatheist!"

That got a chuckle, but the point was serious. Apatheism—a disinclination to care all that much about one's own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people's—may or may not be something new in the world, but its modern flowering, particularly in ostensibly pious America, is worth getting excited about.

Tags: religion, atheists, faith, who really cares, lol

If God is Dead, Who get His house?

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:57:31 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: By Sean McManus via Sam Harris.org

Clip Source: www.samharris.org

It seems unlikely that many of the 850 or so people at the Society for Ethical Culture on a recent Saturday night believed that God was still extant. But evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and possibly the most famous atheist in the world, was not taking any chances. He gave a PowerPoint presentation driving home that religion does not meet any of the standards of basic scientific inquiry, before casually flicking away a few of His last crutches. Doesn’t God provide people some solace? asked an audience member. “Isn’t that a little childish?” Dawkins replied. “Just because something is comforting doesn’t mean it’s true.” Then someone asked about death, and Dawkins quoted Mark Twain: “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born.”

The room erupted in loud applause. God had definitely left the building—if he were ever here at all.

Tags: atheism, richard dawkins, faith, religion, samharris.org

Finding the Voices of Moderate Islam

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:01:19 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: rest of article :

http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/finding-the-voices-of-moderate-islam/

Clip Source: www.samharris.org

Finding the Voices of Moderate Islam

Jay Tolson
April 02, 2008

John McCain recently reminded Americans that the great strategic challenge facing the West—and, indeed, the civilized world—is extremist Islam. And more important than any martial aspect of that threat, he said, is the ideological struggle between moderate and extremist understandings of Islam.

Yet going on seven years after the attacks that brought America’s attention to the problem, it is hard to say that we as a nation—a government and a people—have gotten any closer to identifying, much less aiding, those voices of Islamic moderation that we hope will ultimately triumph.

Tags: islam, religion, samharris.org

The Ultimate Optical Illusion

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:57:16 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.godisimaginary.com

[Video]

Tags: optical illusion, religion

Your Nose, Your Brain, Your Faith

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:02:56 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: Sam Harris article....very interesting!

Rest of article:

http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/my-nose-my-brain-my-faith/

Clip Source: www.samharris.org

By DAVID VAN BIEMA
Jan. 10, 2008

Your nose is one of the less complicated parts of your body, and yet we credit it with considerable intelligence in the area of truth vs. falsehood. We “sniff out a lie.” We say “something smells fishy.” Now studies suggest that something more than metaphor may be at work here--specifically, brain science. The same research may also shed unexpected light on religious faith.

Believing or disbelieving something is always as much about feeling as fact. Sam Harris, a doctoral candidate at UCLA, wanted to see what that means in physiological terms. To many readers, Harris is best known for his antireligious book The End of Faith. But he is also a neuroscientist. In a study reported in the Annals of Neurology, Harris presented 14 people with 360 statements designed to elicit belief, disbelief or uncertainty. He tracked their brain response with a functional magnetic resonance imager (fMRI) and got some very revealing results.

Tags: sam harris, neuroscience, faith, religion

The Atheists wrong turn

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:03:04 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/atheisms-wrong-turn/

Clip Source: www.samharris.org

In the penultimate chapter of his best-selling book The God Delusion, biologist and world-renowned atheist Richard Dawkins presents his view of religious education, which he explains by way of an anecdote. Following a lecture in Dublin, he recalls, “I was asked what I thought about the widely publicized cases of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland. I replied that, horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long-term psychological damage inflicted by bringing the child up Catholic in the first place.” Lest his readers misunderstand him, or dismiss this rather shocking statement as mere off-the-cuff hyperbole, Dawkins goes on to clarify his position. “I am persuaded,” he explains, “that the phrase ‘child abuse’ is no exaggeration when used to describe what teachers and priests are doing to children whom they encourage to believe in something like the punishment of unshriven mortal sins in an eternal hell.”

Tags: sam harris, richard dawkins, damon linker, atheism, religion

Mind, Matter or God?

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:51:47 GMT

clipped by: Antara

Clip Source: www.samharris.org

Mind, Matter, or God?

By Barry Boyce

Dec 2007 / Jan 2008

As the so-called new atheists go toe-to-toe with religious literalists, where do Buddhists and other contemplative practitioners stand?

Mind, Matter, or God?

« Back

Tags: sam harris, buddhism, religion, dialogue

The Atheist's Dilemma

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:25:58 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: Rest of article at :

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071203/pollitt

Clip Source: www.samharris.org

How likely is it that the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims will wake up one morning and abandon their ancestral faith? Even if you are a ferocious Sam Harris-style atheist who thinks religion is completely stupid--the province of shysters and fools--you have to admit it would be quite astonishing if that view persuaded the devout anytime soon: This Koran, which I thought was dictated to the Prophet by an angel, is totally ridiculous and poorly written to boot! Muhammad, that child molester, most definitely did not fly to heaven and back on a winged horse! What an idiot I was to give these notions a moment’s credibility! There’s no question in my mind that horror at militant Islam and fear of Muslim immigration lie behind at least some of the current vogue for atheism--you don’t make the bestseller list by excoriating the evils of Lutheranism or Buddhism.

Tags: atheism, islam, koran, religion