Below is a short clip from an anti-bullying talk he gave at a high school journalism conference. It is a terrific clip but notice how when he pinpoints how the Bible is the basis for so much of anti-gay bullying, some of the students walk out. They just can’t handle the fact that their beloved holy book has so much hateful stuff in it.
But they cannot avoid the truth forever. They are going to face it over and over again from all sides.
From the 1999 film Dogma. (Thanks to Norm)
There is something richly ironic about casting the late George Carlin, an atheist whose tirades against religion in his comedy routine were legendary, as a Catholic bishop.
Here’s one such performance with some brilliant theological insights. (Language advisory)
Emily Herx was an English teacher at a Catholic school in Indiana who was fired because she and her husband used in-vitro fertilization to get pregnant, which a local church official declared was a “grave, immoral sin”, presumably taking his cue from pope Ratzo who views IVF and other forms of ‘artificial’ procreation as immoral. [Read more…]
TIME magazine publishes an annual list of the 100 most influential people. At a dinner given for this year’s mentions, Stephen Colbert gave a speech that included the following comments aimed at the Catholic church and Cardinal Thomas Dolan who is a smug example of Catholic homophobia and sexism. (Unfortunately I have not been able to find a video of the speech.) [Read more…]
Victor Stenger has had a long career in experimental high-energy physics. He has become a prolific writer on the intersection of science and religion and I have referred to him frequently in past blog posts, especially to material in his 2007 book God: The Failed Hypothesis. Stenger is an unabashed ‘new atheist’ who thinks that science and religion are fundamentally incompatible and does not shy away from saying so bluntly. The title of his latest book (and its subtitle The Incompatibility of Science and Religion) leaves the reader with no doubt as to where he stands. The book was released this month and I have just had the pleasure of reading it. It essentially updates and expands on the arguments of that earlier one. [Read more…]
It looks like the Catholic church has decided to go all in on the issue of birth control.
Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George says that the church is willing to close its hospitals if their insurance companies are required to provide contraceptive services to all employees. [Read more…]
Vanderbilt University has stripped a Christian student group of official recognition because it had a clause that says “Criteria for officer selection will include level and quality of past involvement, personal commitment to Jesus Christ, commitment to the organization, and demonstrated leadership ability.” It was the phrase “personal commitment to Jesus Christ’ that resulted in the plug being pulled. [Read more…]
Was there an actual historical figure that corresponds to the biblical Jesus? The debate on this question has been going on for some time in academic circles but has seen a resurgence with the recent publication of Bart Ehrman’s new book Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth. [Read more…]