Let me be one of millions to tell the other countries of the world, especially those 7 “selected” countries in Trump’s insane, racist, Islamaphobic nonsense ban, that the vast majority of us did not want this, would never have thought of this, and are very ashamed that this goofball was elected President. He is in violation of multiple laws and Continue Reading
In September of 2014, while reading Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate”, I crossed into a life-changing re-focusing of my vocation of trying to help the Church be the Church and provide Communication and Online Community tools, to sharpening and focusing those tools on the task we face in a Climate Crisis. Now, just over two years Continue Reading
This is so STOOOOOPID, the Wheaton and “Some Evangelical Christians” response : “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book,†she posted on Facebook. “And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.†Though the college did not take a position on her wearing the headscarf, some Continue Reading
Yes. One listen to the New Atheist leaders and their constant barrage of pointing to literalist interpretations of the Christian scriptures, and you’ll know what is meant here. “Cringeworthy” is about the size of it. I’ve been “cringing” along with MUslim people of faith for some time now as I see Christians characterizing them in the same way New Atheists Continue Reading
Karen Armstong wrote this: to which Harris has posted a rather rude, incomplete, shallow retort in the style of his usual blanket assertions about the inanities of religion and the superiority of his New Atheism. I am hopeful that Armstrong’s winsome depiction of Islam will shame and enlighten them, as it has me. They will discover that Hassan al-Banna Continue Reading
My reply to Michael Moore’s defense of Bill Maher in the huge discussion that resulted after his show where Sam Harris and Ben Affleck went at it over Islam. (The text of Moore’s post is below my comment) Agree with most of the things in this letter, Michael, as I agree with nearly everything you say and write. I also Continue Reading
Oh my gosh. The comment of the CNN person to the two other CNN people “victims” of @RezaAslan ‘s “anger”. This is what I am referring to: the clip below begins with Reza’s fully deserved “in your face” comment to the TWO CNN people who were repeating the same clueless Islamaphobic talking points continuing to suggest that Islam is the Continue Reading
The Enlightenment philosophers had tried to counter the intolerance and bigotry that they associated with “religion†by promoting the equality of all human beings, together with democracy, human rights, and intellectual and political liberty, modern secular versions of ideals which had been promoted in a religious idiom in the past. – Karen Armstrong in “The Myth of Religious Violence” I Continue Reading
If the wars of religion had been solely motivated by sectarian bigotry, we should not expect to have found Protestants and Catholics fighting on the same side, yet in fact they often did so. via The myth of religious violence | Karen Armstrong | World news | The Guardian. There was as yet no coherent way to divide religious causes Continue Reading
Karen Armstrong is one smart, articulate sociological historian. We need to listen to her. We now take the secular state so much for granted that it is hard for us to appreciate its novelty, since before the modern period, there were no “secular†institutions and no “secular†states in our sense of the word. Their creation required the development of Continue Reading
Yes, Reza, this is a good one. Finally someone who understands that “sacred texts” are not always taken literally. It is something an adolescent can understand, but somehow there are those to whom that simple idea seems lost. You tell them that, they say “sure, I understand that”, and then they are right back at it, quoting and characterizing the Continue Reading
NBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin: Sam Harris & Bill Maher’s Islam Argument “Offensive, Ignorant” via NBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin: Sam Harris & Bill Maher’s Islam Argument Is “Flawed Logic” | Video | RealClearPolitics. I imagine that some will call Ayman on his claim that Maher and Harris were using figures from unverified or savory sources, but they were using Pew Research. But I Continue Reading
the Muslim world is utterly deranged by its religious tribalism. via The Reality of Islam : : Sam Harris. Yeah, Sam, if you want to , for a bit, focus on the cruelties and mass killings of athiestic regimes, is this a result of their atheism? I would say not, and so would you. And yet when it comes to Continue Reading
while the Islamic State is superficially and opportunistically Islamic, it owes at least as much to secular revolutionary ideologies as to its claimed religion, and borrows heavily from Western systems of organization and pop culture as well. via Why The Islamic State Is Not Really Islamic – The Intercept. This is precisely my comeback to the “New Atheists” who display Continue Reading