Psychologist Susan K. Perry writes that books like Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn with Linda Washington that make heaven seem appealing can be dangerous. (Alcorn is described on the book jacket as ‘a leading authority on heaven’, which prompts the question of how anyone could earn such a title.) [Read more…]
Reader Norm kindly sent me a copy of the above book and said that he had enjoyed it and I must say that it was a real page-turner. I had intended to write a full review but I came across a good one by Diane Johnson in the New York Review of Books, along with a review of a memoir by Jenna Miscavige Hill (the niece of the current Scientology leader David Miscavige) who defected from the church, that captured much of what I wanted to say so I will just refer you to that review and add some thoughts of my own. [Read more…]
It turns out that the NSA was spying on all Vatican communications too, including those of pope Francis even before he became the pope and was just cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. The report is from an Italian newsmagazine and has not been confirmed but given all that we know about the NSA’s activities, it would not be at all surprising. [Read more…]
YouGov has a new poll that says that only 76% of Americans believe in a god. Why do I say ‘only’ when it is a large majority? Because it really is quite surprising that a quarter of the public in America say they do not believe in a god. Recall that previous polls have put atheists and agnostic in the single digits and that the ‘unaffiliated’ groups at around 20% but the last number may include people who believe in a god but do not belong to any religious denomination. [Read more…]
Via reader Norm, I heard of this story from France where a young woman was subjected to a crucifixion-style exorcism by her former boyfriend and three others, all members of the Seventh Day Adventist church, because they thought she was possessed by the devil. [Read more…]
I have been invited to be on a ‘religious’ panel organized by students at our university to represent the atheist point of view. Now I know of course that atheism is not a religion but we still haven’t found a good umbrella term to cover religion and non-religion and so are stuck with terms like ‘inter-faith’ that misrepresent the nature of atheism. [Read more…]
One problem for believers in heaven (or the afterlife in general) is how people look in that place. Most people die when they are, frankly, not at their best. They are either very old, otherwise decrepit, have had some serious illness that ravaged their bodies or died violently and in the process have been disfigured. [Read more…]
Jeffrey Weiss discussed a recent case where the Greek prime minister was accused of showing insufficient respect for Judaism.
Here’s the setup: During a visit to Israel, Antonis Samaras visited the Holocaust memorial center, Yad Vashem, and laid a wreath. Common activity for visiting heads of state. But he refused to wear a kippah, aka yarmulke, aka Jewish skullcap. That’s not so common. [Read more…]
The scandal over the German bishop Tebartz-van Elst (nicknamed Bishop Bling Bling for his lavish spending on himself) has drawn much-needed attention and ridicule and has resulted in his suspension by pope Francis. But what I was surprised to read was that he is not really such an outlier for Germany. [Read more…]
Remember the stenographer Dianne Reidy who went off on a rant about the Freemasons and Jesus during the vote in the House of Representatives to end the shut down and raise the debt ceiling? I suggested that she had become unglued as a result of being forced to listen day after day to all the inane things that legislators were saying. [Read more…]