I’m re-reading one of my favorite novels, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, and I thought this exchange between Samuel and his wife embodies some of what I feel when confronted with superstition:
The cooing of pigeons brought memory into the procession. Dessie remembered how her father had said, sitting at the head of the table, [...]
I remembered this quote the other day from an old book I read from when I was a Christian:
If a couple has been married for more than five years, any persistent disharmony in their marriage relationship is usually attributable to the husband’s lack of understanding and applying genuine love. (Gary Smalley, If He Only Knew, [...]
Educated women have fewer children, are wealthier and are less likely to accept fundamentalist extremism. If we want a safer world, we should consider the utility of spending dollars on educating young people as an alternative to troops and weapons.
—Lawrence M. Krauss, “How Women Can Save the Planet“
The most logical answer to why God won’t heal amputees is that either God doesn’t care or doesn’t exist. This would also explain the lack of miraculous healings for people with Lou Gehrig’s diseases, long-term quadriplegics, untreated AIDS patients and those with Parkinson’s disease, mental retardation, Down syndrome, and a host of other maladies.
Christian apologists [...]
I decided it wise to collect some evidence that showed me Christians were measurably different from others…. [But] it was discouragingly easy—though incredibly surprising—to find out that Christians, as a group, acted no differently than anyone else, including atheists. Sometimes they performed a little better; other times a little worse. But the Body of Christ [...]
The Bible has a test for who is a “real” prophet and who is a “false” prophet — real ones can tell the future, and false ones can’t:
You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?” 22If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but [...]
A decade ago, it was virtually impossible to get fired as a priest for molesting children. But as Fr. John Conley found out, it was easy to get fired if you told your bishop you were going to accuse a fellow priest of molestation:
In November 1997, [Fr. John Conley] came home early one evening to [...]
The Roman Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals, after intense prayer and guided by the Holy Spirit, has selected popes for nearly a millennium. Some Holy Fathers have turned out to be saints; others became murderers (Pope John XII), torturers (Pope Urban VI) and adulterers (too many to name).
Less reliance on faith and more, for example, [...]
John C: Anti-no, “I” dont have any credibility either but the difference is that “I”m not... Leviticus Also Said…
Custador: “Matt and Mark record “My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken me?”; John, “It is finished”; and Luke,... Leviticus Also Said…
Daniel Florien: When you have indigestion when you’re reading it, you know it’s true! I’ll Let No Flimsy Fairy Tale Push Me
Mary Lynne: Hmm – I wonder what a “true fairy tale” would be. Is that like jumbo... I’ll Let No Flimsy Fairy Tale Push Me
Antiutopia: John C — Christ himself doesn’t have any credibility with these ignorant morons — do you... Leviticus Also Said…
Uzza: Cool story. It reminds me of Confucius, meeting the mad hermit of Chu, who told him it was... I’ll Let No Flimsy Fairy Tale Push Me
Sunny Day: Custador if you’re waiting for hope, you might want to pack a few extra lunches and update your will.... Leviticus Also Said…
