I'm always amused that people are constantly finding "the original teachings of Jesus." (Paul, of course, corrupted them.) A few...
There are some things which are so stupid that only the well-educated and intelligent can believe them. Behaviorism: Methodological behaviorism......
Why do some people believe in God and some don't? And, as a person who's encountered phenomena I can't explain...
Recently, while stumping for Barak Obama, Oprah Winfrey complained: We need a President who cares about our relationships with our...
Earlier (much, really) I responded to an atheist named Tommy's various critiques of Rodney Stark's new book Discovering God. Dr....
Even as a somewhat lackluster (purported) follower-of-Jesus, I'm a huge supporter of "the golden rule", which actually harkens back to...
Madison, Wisconsin: The Freedom From Religious Foundation (FFRF) aims to stir up controversy at the Wisconsin State Capitol this holiday...
I have a friend who frequently reminds me not to attribute to bad motives that which can be explained by...
A critical article in The Atlantic (back in 2001), which I'm linking here for posterity. Key points: * Like Science...
In this comment thread Tommy, who strikes me a rather decent guy (and who, like me, can't resist getting a...
I want to apologize for being away from the blog this week: I've been changing residences, and that has left...
Perhaps I should take a hint from the blog title, but I thought I'd write a few words in response...
Is it wrong to believe your beliefs are right, and others are wrong? Really, who doesn't? Via MCJ, a snippet...
Though I sometimes bash the more obnoxious examples of atheists on this blog, I like to give credit where due....
Christians are, in theory, supposed to have a stronger commitment to marriage -- and a greater opposition to divorce --...
Like a huge percentage of this country, I was raised in Christian home, and brought to church on Sundays. When...
Via Libby Purves: The £125,000 sculpture is the work of Norfolk artist Colin Self and shows [a Buddha] with a...
I like Christopher Hitchens. Unable to sleep, I've been listening to a rebroadcast of a debate or interview (variously) between...
We as a nation need to be able to pray. We need to remove the constraints of courts who...
Today at work, amidst conversation about smoothies, hamburgers, and Darwinism, a co-worker asked me if I believed in "an old...
As I tend to do at times, I brought more reading materials on my recent trip than I had time...
Reverend Chuck Currie of the UCC announces a seminar called "Saving Jesus." (Guess Jesus is not strong enough to save...
Atheists usually depict their beliefs as the unavoidable result of learning more about the world. For example, writing in the...
Here, in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution are five religious leaders, allegedly from different religions, giving their idea of "the most dangerous...
Recently, a reader posted this question: Hey Tim. This doesn't have a lot to do with the topic I don't...
Standard Disclaimer: When I talk about "angry atheists" or "anti-theists", I don't mean all atheists, just those who seem to...
I've slept quite badly in recent days, and am incredibly tired. Yet I need to be getting up in about...
In a comment on "Richard Dawkins Dispells Improbabilities", Anthony L. writes: I found your site with a Quixtar Sucks search...
Shannon Barbare makes a few pithy observations about The Secret in yesterday's Denver Post: Where's compassion in "The Secret"? ......
The Right Coast: This [PDF] is an interesting study by Gary A. Tobin and Aryeh K. Weinberg. It surveys the...
No. But definitely fodder for a blog entry! Via CNN: Pastor with 666 tattoo claims to be divine The minister...
In another alliterative article, Consterned Clerics Bash Bishop, Assault African, I noted that a group of liberal English clergy had...
Previously I was first introduced to Gnosticism, believe it or not, by Bertrand Russell, back in the mid-1980s. In his...
Fallacies fascinate me. They're not particularly interesting for what they are (you've seen one ad-homen argument, you've seen 'em all)...
... via Christianity Today. The first: Knesset considers bill outlawing all evangelism Israel currently bans evangelism of minors and offering...
Tonight I got together with friends to watch the "Jesus Tomb" special on the Discovery Channel. Normally, I ignore such...
In this article (about which I expect to write several more blog entries in the near future) Notre Dame philosophy...
Well, it's that time again: the orthodox-Jesus-is-dead season. This seems to happen several times a year. The traditional Christian view...
One of the better churches I've attended in my life -- probably the best, frankly -- is Grace Church in...
This is precisely the kind of behavior one would wish from a group of people who know their own sin,...
Somewhere back in time, I had the suspicion that I was somehow misunderstanding most the bible's political implications. Since a...
I've noticed there are two different ways the word "faith" is used. First, there's a religious sense, in which many...
We're all born with a built-in ability to do simple logic, and to process data from our environment. But I've...
Reuters: The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call...
Over on her blog, The Littlest Apologist is pondering some deep thoughts about the Christian walk and happiness. This is...
One of the things I find most interesting about many materialistic evolutionists is the way they cannot seem to refrain...
Here's the tone from the "right", as quoted in a Washington Post article: "I grew up in the Episcopal Church....
A friend of mine and I were recently lamenting about what happened with the Christmas tree flap at SEA-TAC airport....
Famous mathematician and atheist Bertrand Russell: There is no reason why the world... should not have always existed. There is...
A while ago, my girlfriend heard Walid Shoebat speak in St. Louis. I've known about Walid since slightly after Sept....
As I've grown older, one of the things I've noticed about "atheism", in the sense of being a reaction to...
Tonight, I spoke on the telephone with a friend of mine. She's a Christian, and had been talking to a...
Today, I'd like to direct my readers to a very important fallacy -- one I often hear repeated on polite...
Recently, an inquisitive commenter asked this question: ... could you give some examples of the "explanatory powers" and "success rates"...
It seems to be deflate-Richard-Dawkins week here at Random Obserations. In this series of articles, my point is not to...
I'm probably going to skewer somebody's pet goat here (subliminal foreshadowing) but Richard Dawkins, frankly, isn't the sharpest tool in...
Lately, Random Observations (thanks primarily to Ryan's doings) has seen a number of parallel debates about Gnosticism; ancient and modern....
At one point in my life, I became convinced that much of what passes for the discipline of "theology" was,...
A while ago, I tried to post a rather simple explanation of the answer to the schoolboy puzzler: "Can God...
Though I've never met him, I'd guess Dr. Wayne Dyer is a probably a nice guy. I have friends who...
Background A few years ago, one cold London December, a friend of mine and I had a day free from...
I have a friend who doesn't like Dr. James Dobson very much, or so I gather from some comments she...
Recently, after a fight with his mother, apparently, Omeed Popal got into his parents' SUV, drove away from his mother...
There has been considerable attention paid lately to the idea that Christianity is "authoritarian". There are two ways to approach...
Increasingly, we live in an upside-down world: much of what we believe is the exact opposite of the truth. I'm...
Some comments from a pastor doing his research on the Gnostic gospels and The DaVinci Code. We had the same...
One: I knew I was a lesbian when I was about five years old and fantasized about my Sunday School...
I don't at all resonate with Amy Welborne's anti-groove regarding Breathe. But I burst out laughing when I found this...
Some people say religions can never change -- but of course, that's not entirely true. All kinds of changes happen...
Via Chris Johnson in Webster Groves (MO), observations on the predominant view and teaching in the top levels of the...
World Mag blog: Amir is a believer who rescued 35 Christian children from slavery in Pakistan, double-crossing a local terrorist...
A while ago, I write a brief piece in which I noted that noted sceptic Michael Shermer's "deconversion" seems to...
A friend of mine wrote this brief account of a discussion she had, which attracted the attention of this rather...
Read. This passage especially struck me: Abortion was a huge killer of women in this period, but Christian women were...
I felt I'd been 'saved' in my early teens. But I noticed that atheists seemed to act as though they...
I read about the Secret Service seizure of "million-dollar" bill tracts: one side looks like currency. The other side has...
Today, in the "People are Sheep" department, The Telegraph reports: Two thirds of Britons who have read Dan Brown's thriller...
This was actually written in February, but has been sitting in the database, unpublished and collecting dust, until a friend...
... in homage to Columbo... Upon re-reading an earlier post, I just noticed one more HUGE contradiction in Dan Brown's...
"As I mentioned," Teabing clarified, "the early church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was...
This week newpapers have been busy telling everyone that ancient Gnosticism was, in fact, a form of "Christianity". I'd learned...
The United of Church of Christ (UCC), rather than running a positive ad campaign highlighting what it offers, instead has...
On one hand, I envy Christopher Johnson of Midwest Conservative Journal: whereas Random Observations only covers... well, just about anything...
A lot of people -- both sceptical and believing -- have said that the recent study on the healing power...
Here is an article, on Social Affairs Unit, on 16-year-old British pro-animal-testing activist Laurie Pycroft. On his blog, he lists...
I have great difficulty getting in the head of school officials who issue rules like this: A principal at Karns...
One of the bizarrest things about the whole DaVinci phenomenon is peoples' double-mindedness about the whole thing. In response to...
People seem to think that the burden of proof is on those who think life begins at conception to show...
Anyone who's ever delved a bit into Asian history soon discovers that Western versions of Buddhism are often at odds...
DaVinci affictionados, and many assorted secular and New-Agey types, assert vigorously that central elements portrayed in Dan Brown's The DaVinci...
When I read this quote from World Mag blog: Is it possible to be any more biblical illiterate than Rolling...
When I was younger, I didn't like some of the less popular things Jesus said. I really liked the ones...
I've been having a bit too much fun lately with this web site. The essays there are incredibly arrogant, constantly...
Jeff Jacoby, writing about Abramoff: The worst is that Abramoff is a Jew. Not only a Jew, but an Orthodox...
I really don't know much about Pat Robertson, as a person. But the mainstream media seems to love him, as...
Since France, protecting it's colonial investments, invaded Ivory Coast, it's only fair that the citizens of Ivory Coast should invade...
One of the things which has always bothered me about the bible is the way in which Jesus, after the...
Just a trend I noticed recently... First, there's "Calling All Angels" by Train. Excerpts: I need a sign To let...
Polly Toynbee, ranting in The Guardian about the many sins of Narnia: Children are supposed to fall in love with...
What does much of the US press, the American left, and Korean dictator Kim Il Sung have in common? They...
Naria has brought the daggers out in New York. Perhaps afraid urban liberals might take a bit too deep a...
Reading the European press, you'd get the impression that conservative Christians were the most evil force on earth, casting a...
Glenn Reynolds directs his readers, repeatedly, to the God Hates Shrimp web site, based on the presumably unquestionable logic that...
Happened to be reading some articles over at Sojourners, when I came across this complaint by Bill Moyers: Christianity lost...
Here's a rule for running your community: "If a man won't work, then he won't eat either." Who said...
Keith Burgess-Jackson: Hypocrisy, n. 1. The assumption or postulation of moral standards to which one’s own behavior does not conform;...
... well, not in the way most people think. There's this prevailing belief that good and evil are somehow polar...
Via John Ray and Lost Tooth Society, we get this: James Kaufman, a Wisconsin prison inmate sought permission for an...
If you're going to wreak some serious harm on the world one of the more important things you'll need to...
Seems like I'm stumbling over news about the Anglican chuch each time I turn around. Now it's a short comment...
In a comment at the end of this discussion, "NDB" highlights a distinction I made: Do we honestly think that...
I see peaceful Buddhists are at it Sri Lanka: More than one thousand Buddhist monks... attended a meeting held Tuesday...
I keep seeing Moby referred to as a "devout" and "radical" Christian. I didn't know that, and was interested to...
My impression of Dr. Wayne Dyer is that he's a nice guy, who'd I probably like very much personally should...
I just noticed something interesting -- interesting to me, anyway. Because I am both (a) a Christian and (b) someone...
It seems "fundamentalist" has become a vague term for someone whose religious views one doesn't like. From the Christian left,...
I keep hearing that conservative religious people are intolerant, or are fear-based, or don't respect the beliefs of those they...
I've often argued that relativism (and atheism) are often just transitory states, states which simply work to scape people of...
Honestly, I'm not really trying to focus on religion here -- it just keep showing up in the news. And...
Here's something that recently caught my attention. Jesus had just received news that Lazarus, his friend, had died, and was...
Hollywood reflexively gets it wrong. I have no idea what the motives are in this case, but this is odd:...
Even though it's been a very popular phenomenon, I've not written previously about The DaVinci Code. One possible reason is...
While driving Friday night, I happened to catch a few moments of Michael Medved's show, where he was discussing Pope...
Tonight I watched Luther with a friend, the recent major motion picture (now available on DVD) about the life of...
Noted neuroscientist and late-night talk show host Bill Maher: We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I...
As news spreads of the tragic and puzzling shootings in Brookfield, Wisconsin, many will puzzle at what could have motivated a "church-goer" to kill so many of his fellow paritioners...
Just stumbled over this one again -- it's an old question, but it trips a lot of people up, so...
Leftist front group National Council of Churches (NCC) is apparently doing it's best to makes sure young people don't end up improving the world...
A leftist friend of mine asked me this question recently: Let me ask you, if Jesus walked the planet today,...
In the Old Testament, the people of Israel demand that God should give them a king, rather than the prophet Samuel. Modern reflections on an ancient passage.
Chris Wolf: Many Objectivists acknowledge that Man is fallible on the conceptual level, but then seem to promptly forget this...
Well, guess what? It's another installment in our continuing drama: "Protecting homosexual behavior trumps the First Amendment." Be sure to tune in for next week's installment: "Homosexual male church daycare workers mandated by law."
"Positive" atheists make the claim the Nazis mandated school prayer -- and seemingly indict American Christians in doing so. But does the historical evidence support their point?
I have written here and here my thesis that the main "point" or effect of making homosexuality a protected category...
Happened to hear a few moments of today's "Michael Medved" show. The topic was Bush's inauguration, and a caller, "Chuck",...
A number of people have argued that the December 25th date for Christmas has pagan origins. But it looks like...
Saw
Polar Express this afternoon. Technically, not bad. Theologically, far from Christian. Or at least, that's how I saw it.
Andy: "My own flirtation with liberal Christianity began out of a desire for a faith with honesty and intellectual depth....
La Shawn: Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by Dr. Maulana “Ron” Karenga, a former black militant, Marxist and convicted felon....
I originally wrote about this subject much closer to the news itself -- that Flew, a llifelong defender of atheism,...
John Ray: "I am myself an atheist but I am always pleased to deal with Christians. I think that having...
If you've been paying attention, you've heard the flap about the United Church of Christ ad rejected by several TV neworks as being too controversial. It's also contrary to the facts.
John Shelby Spong, perhaps apoplectic that a single orthodox Christian received a tiny bit of positive media coverage, takes it...
I was a U2 fan way back before they were hugely popular. I liked their message of faith and peace in the face of the the Irish conflict. Sadly, Bono seems have gone over to the dark side lately...
The philosophy of liberalism, by which I mean claiming to always be "for the little guy" or underdog, is utterly...
Garrison Keillor: I am now the chairman of a national campaign to pass a constitutional amendment to take the right...
Here in the United States, the time again draws near in which we celebrate Thanksgiving. Frankly, this is one area...
Burgess-Jackson: In my discipline, philosophy, there are as many theists as there are atheists... but if the hypothesis of [theist] stupidity is correct, shouldn’t the ratio be extraordinarily high in a field such as philosophy, which attracts people of such impressive intelligence?
Rest Across the River: No one notices the religious left in American politics because it's primarily a political movement, and...
I'm quite tired of well-meaning Christians trying to sound non-partisan by talking about "economic justice", a term which usually crops...
Was there a leader like Jesse Jackson during the American Revolution? Was there an equivalent of Ted Kennedy in ancient Rome? Is there an equivalent to the Marxist revolutionary among primitive peoples?
Are we evolving, morally? Is the banning of slavery an example of such moral evolution? And is the bible one of the main things which has held us back from this moral evolution?
How does the modern Christian relate to a cheap knockoff monster-battle flick? And what would the creator of the universe say about that? My thoughts and musings.
His frequent mentions of Jesus Christ in official speeches demonstrate the President's dangerous religious extremism, and clear inability to grasp the proper separation between church and state.
The Washington Post: When a group of Muslims from other North Ossetian villages decided to offer themselves as hostages in...
but I still think he's wrong... Glenn Reynolds makes an extremely good point about the apparent increase in anti-Islamic sentiments...
Jesse Jackson claims Jesus was a liberal. LaShawn barber points out this is biblical illiteracy -- from a supposed "Reverend" at that. But if you examine the passages closely, you'll see it not only supports LaShawn's contentions, it actually teaches the
opposite of what Jesse says it does...
Was perusing this rebuttal (badly-formatted but well written, scroll down to the debate between Gagnon and Countryman) of a particular...
How often have I heard my left-leaning friends and associate accuse Republicans of cynically manipulating the "religious right" into supporting their platforms?
Vox Day discusses the huge gap between the reality of the Inquisition courts and the popular myth which elevates it...
World Mag Blog: Those of you who aren't AOL subscribers may have missed a very cool story about an Oakland...
Saw "The Jesus Factor" the other night, and, like many others, thought it was a fairly straightforward portrayal. Only a couple negative things have come to light about it...
I only met Charles Todd a few times, but in that few minutes, I saw clearly how a businessman could serve other people and his God through work. I have posted his life philosophy in the hope it could benefit others.
Did Jesus learn from the great Jewish Rabbi Hillel? Did Hillel first articulate the "Golden Rule" most Christians attribute to Jesus?
Just in time for the annual observance of Jesus' death, Peter Jennings tells the stories of Jesus and Paul. Well, not entirely...
At one [Al-Anon] meeting, we had to share something about a higher power. And I said that as a Jew,...
Saturday, I went hiking with a group of friends by the bluffs of the Missouri River. As we were walking...
Frontline apparently pulls a few punches in order to make the New Testament look bad. Sadly, though, they're below the belt, and they're refuting their own words, not those in the bible.
The essence of all pantheism, evolutionism, and modern cosmic religion is really in this proposition: that Nature is our mother....
New York Second Circuit Federal Court Judge Sifton has decided that the US Constitution compels us to oppose Christianity and favor other religions. What version of the Constitution is he reading?
Previously, I've questioned whether Christianity mandates socialism. Today we examine an essay which implies a sincere Christian can't possibly fail to support state redistribution of funds and bans on global trade.
Entertainment Weekly says Mel Gibson is attacking the media, but (apparently) omits any mention of recent media attacks on Mel. Fox News's entertainment correspondant Lisa Bernhart says this is justified, apparently, because Mel Gibson has faith.
Unlike Arundhati Roy, I'm not absolutely convinced that the world would certainly have been a much better place without Los Alamos; nor do I feel the sins of the fathers should be visited upon the sons. But sometimes it's useful to consider her arguments in light of her own apparent standards.
What can we learn from M*A*S*H, the National Prayer Breakfast, Gregg Easterbrook, and Ronald Reagan's 1976 campaign about judging a book by its cover?
Guns and knives in school. Kids having sex in the bathroom. Disrespecting the teacher and failing to show up for...
Sorry: I normally try to keep Random Observations more of a news-channel-like format. But lately, I'm going to be putting...
When I was much, much younger, I attended a Christian conference called "Marketplace" in the Chicago Hilton Towers, along Michigan...
Comments from the Lord of the Rings cast, and myself, about the meaning and applicability of Tolkien's ideas today.
Once again, homosexuality is used as a wedge issue against freedom of speech and religion...
There's a "meme" going around that's just dead wrong, and mighty hard to squash. Today, it rears its head in...
This is so interesting, I can't do any better than simply to "anti-Fisk" the Christianity Today weblog account...
Songwriters can have some pretty twisted views of life and love...
There's a popular "meme" going around about the nature and origins of Christianity. But it flies in the face of the evidence it purportedly cites.
Yet another event reminds me why I'm grateful to live under the US Constitution, and grateful our judges haven't completely "intepreted" it's fundamental rights away just yet...
I'm not Anglican, but it has been instructive to see how the battle between liberals and conservatives has played out...
[Former] Episcopalian Bishop Shelby Spong, with the assistance of a Nevada Bishop of the same church, is making a big...
Sunday at church, I saw something quite depressing. To illustrate a point, a camera crew visited a local university, and...
The bible in Aussie? "There were some drovers camped out in a paddock nearby, keeping an eye on their mob...
On December 15, 1991, William Jefferson Clinton promised that, if elected, he would "absolutely" deny China the coveted "Most Favored Nation" status...
A friend of mine and I were delighted to discover Charity Navigator, which provides some quick stats on about 2,500...
I mentioned in my last post that Charity Navigator rated my local PBS outlet as a one star (of four)...
I've stayed out of the flap over the Gibson's The Passion for an extraordinarily simple reason: Nobody's seen it yet....
Some newspaper articles just deserve a good fisking. Like this one about the ten commandments...
I believe in tolerance, meaning co-existing peacefully with those who have different beliefs than yours. Today, tolerance apparently means you must never disagree with certain selected opinons, or your janitor may be beaten to a pulp!
In my previous post on this subject, I reprinted the story of a group of radio workers who endeavored to...
Dear reader, The following story touched my heart, and I thought it might touch yours as well...
Among others, entertainment moguls like Gene Roddenbury and Stephen Spielberg like to present psychic phenomena as being "scientific", while deriding other (theistic) religious beliefs as "primitive". But what does science have to say about mind-reading? How does it work?
Gene Roddenbury believed in a future free of religious beliefs. Well, not really. Just certain ones he didn't like.
English Anglican priests attempt to beat up a Kenyan bishop but the bishop is rescued by passers-by...
Several humorous stories with an interesting juxaposition between footwear and faith. Indeed, these are the times which try men's soles...
Introduction Recently, there has been some buzz about Dawkin's comment about "bright" being roughly the opposite of theist; a quick...
What is water? It's the stuff that sustains life. We can live weeks without food, but we can only go days without water. And food comes in many varieties, but there is just one kind of water. Or is there?
There are sincere, well-meaning Christians who invoke their faith to argue for "progressive" policies. But does the bible or the example of Jesus lend support to this political goal?
Remember the debate about JFK's Catholicism: you know, will he listen the Church and thus give the Pope executive influence over the U.S.? As far as we know, the Pope never took the bait. But guess who has?
Here's a couple of entries from a Catholic blog. The first quotes an American bishop on the war: Therefore I,...
During a lecture, Nobel prize-winning* physicist Richard Feynman once said, regarding science, ethics, killing, and war......
While pulling an all-nighter this morning, I was watching replayed coverage regarding the return of Elizabeth Smart. Someone on TV...
Apparently, somebody's been accusing Deb of being a moral absolutist. Ah, one of my favorite hot-buttons has now been pushed,...
Yesterday on St. Louis FM talk radio, I heard an interview with a man who wrote a recent book asserting...
A while ago the Insomnomaniac posted insightful comments regarding whether the Christian ethic of love should prevent military intervention. The...
BBC News reports on a tablet found beneath the temple mount mosque. The BBC shows its bias and/or complete cluelessness...
Warning: Minor spoilers. Mel Gibson's character undergoes a paradigm shift (change of mind) based on a "miracle" M. Night Shyamalan...