Posted by a Christian on his blog:
Top ten things heard by Christians
On his list:
“We have spent our whole lives trying to protect our children from this kind of secular garbage. We entrust you with our kids and you fill them with this? I can not believe that you would let our son watch this. Sports are vile, aggressive and promote competition among Gods people.
Said to me by a father after his 16-year-old son watched a college football game at my house.
The rest are in his blog entry.
The comments section has more:
After I lost a baby
“Oh well Lord knows that wasn’t a planned pregnancy! So, it’s really good that you lost this baby. God sure knows what He’s doing!”
These are all posted by Christians - which reassuringly shows that at least some Christians realize they are not the smartest or best responses to a situation!
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | 8 Comments »Inspector, lock the door.
I know you’re wondering why I called you all here today. All will be revealed shortly. I have every reason to suspect that the murderer is right here in this room!
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | 4 Comments »
By Siamang
Awhile back, before the current atheist bestsellers and before the phrase “The New Atheists” was coined, I asked “Is something happening?”
Well, if there was any doubt, it has happened. Lots of atheism books, and people are talking about it more and more. I’ve seen a number of commentaries on why this resurgance and what to do about it. Quite a number of the responses rail against the authors of these books as perpetrators of great insult, or of shallow thinkers writing way out of their depth. Some of those criticisms are well-founded. Yet the underlying reasons for atheism remain.
Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, notices this and writes in the Times.
There is a story told about the 1st-century Jewish teacher Yochanan ben Zakkai. A Roman challenged him about a Jewish ritual. Pure superstition, he said. Not so, said the rabbi, and gave him an answer that made sense in terms of his questioner’s beliefs. The Roman went away satisfied. But the rabbi’s disciples said: “You answered him. What will you answer us?”
That is the real question. Atheism does not come from nowhere. Agnosticism and indifference do; people drift, religion ceases to inspire, there are other things to do. Atheism is different. It is a form of protest. Something goes badly wrong in religious life, and people feel moved to write books saying, essentially, “Not in my name”. When that happens, mere apologetics is not enough. When the debate is over, something inside the believer’s soul refuses to stay silent. “You answered him. What will you answer us?”
…
For the great strength of religion is that it creates communities, and its great weakness is that it divides communities. The two go hand in hand. For every “us” there is a “them”, and the stronger the togetherness within, the deeper the estrangement without. What binds also separates. It always did.
The real battle, and it applies to secular and religious alike, is: can we love, not hate, the people not like us?
(My emphasis.)
-Siamang