religion
Religion in schools – a personal view
If you haven’t been following this thread, and in particular the comments on the previous post, I just wanted to say a few more words to emphasise that the whole religion is schools thing is not just an academic exercise, but actually has a personal dimension. Read the rest of this entry »
Deck-chairs on the Titanic?
Sort it out guys.
This is pretty embarrassing, isn’t it? Here we have everyone and their dog slugging it out over what words to say at Catholic masses. On the right is a sample of the changes, purportedly as a result of new translations of the bible, mainly relating to how the masses respond to the priest.
Looking at these samples, it’s almost incomprehensible how trivial the proposed changes are. In particular, the ‘Penitential Act’ one is annoying: it basically forces some more groveling by the poor bugger laying their soul bare. Not content to hear someone admit to something being their own fault, it now has to be their own ‘grievous’ fault.
So someone in the Vatican actually sits around dreaming up these changes. I can see the meeting now: “How do we get our flock to be more pathetic and obsequious than they already are? I know, let’s make them say some more really pathetic and obsequious stuff.”
Did you read the Gloria ‘improvements’? The vacuum created by all the sucking up in that one sentence should be enough to enable you to reach escape velocity and get to heaven before you know it.
The last one, the ‘Nicene creed’, seems like just showing off to me. The same person in the Vatican has come up with the idea of making the whole thing more intellectual. How these changes add anything to the experience is bewildering. While the legal industry is moving away from jargon towards ‘clear speak’, it seems Catholicism is going the other way. ‘Consubstantial’. Really?
Whatever the reasons for the changes, if agreement cannot be reached, I suggest that they consult their iPhone app as the authoritative reference – after all, there’s no higher authority and Steve Jobs at Apple, is there?
Forget the earthquakes – the shortage of priests is really biting
Oh dear, it’s all a bit sad. According to a recent report , our country is teetering on the brink of disaster. What is the disaster you ask? Climate change? Earthquake? Famine? Disease? No, it’s a shortage of Catholic priests. You may now run around screaming and waving your hands in the air. I”ll wait. Read the rest of this entry »
Bible-thumpers frothing at the mouth again…
In this piece by Michelle Grattan we hear how outraged various opposition pollies are at the banning of the practice of handing out bibles at citizenship ceremonies. Tasmanian Liberal senator Guy Barnett was quoted as telling the Coalition party room that this was:
”political correctness gone mad. There should be freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”
I beg to differ. I want freedom FROM religion – specifically its unwanted influence on children, its unwanted drain on our taxes, its undue privilege, and especially for its ignorance of reality and reason. Freedom OF religion is fine – by all means once you become a citizen if you want a bible, the works of L. Ron Hubbard, or any equivalent work of fiction, then you should have it, but let’s not thrust one brand of religion at new migrants and pretend that its on the grounds of freedom or equity. Read the rest of this entry »
Technology for sinners
Well, here’s another attempt to tart up religion with science, or at least technology.
The cliché of ‘there’s an app for that’ is now ingrained into our collective psyche, and this development serves only to reinforce that.
It’s a confession app for the iPhone, but I’m not quite sure how it’s really supposed to work. Does it feed you with the right words to ensure the big guy understands you? Or does it replace the priest in the process? It appears that one takes the phone into the confessional to use it, so I guess priests shouldn’t be surprised if his request for the confessor to ‘say a gazillion hail marys…’ is interrupted by the crazy frog song, followed by ‘Sorry father, I’ll just take this’.
Whatever happens, it apparently results in an examination of one’s conscience – something I suspect most people could do without software support.
Next week I’ll be reviewing an app designed to streamline your passage through the Pearly Gates, by ensuring you have the appropriate greeting protocols handy.
I don’t think I’ll ever be needing it though, do you?.
God and earthquakes
What’s the connection between earthquakes and god? I bet your answer is nowhere near what I have in mind.
Musings on the Afterlife
While being chauffeured back to Melbourne from Corryong in Victoria’s north east, where we spent a lovely Christmas with all the family at my daughter’s place, I found myself pondering the afterlife. I think this was brought on by the ‘elephant in the room’ at Christmas lunch, or rather the absence of something in the room – my dear dad who passed away in July.
It would be no surprise to readers of this blog that I don’t believe in the afterlife – at least, not as commonly understood as ‘life after death’ or the ‘hereafter’. Read the rest of this entry »
Lions 1 – Christians 0
It’s a bit embarrassing to see the other side struggle to maintain their dignity in the face of overwhelming odds.
Here we have the pope making it crystal clear to his flock that, yes, there was a big bang, albeit one that god created, by a wave of the hand, or whatever performance art one uses to create universes. He also went on to discuss the role of the bible, relegating its contents to being allegorical, rather than a historical record: Read the rest of this entry »
Meta-blasphemy: More tales from the dark side
Yes, I know. Atheists do bad things too. But not in the name of atheism.
Here’s another case of ‘we’re too sacred for you to criticise us, so why not just kill you’.
This man was killed for supporting the removal of the death penalty for blasphemy against Islam.
So, you can be murdered for blaspheming, or even for just saying that people shouldn’t be murdered for blaspheming. It’s sort of meta-blasphemy. I suppose that means even I could be murdered for saying that someone shouldn’t be murdered for saying that someone shouldn’t be murdered for blaspheming.
The things people do in the name of their imaginary friend.
Quantum Religion and R-Theory
Emboldened by the recent work of Jeremy Begbie, I’ve put my own science-spin on a subject completely orthogonal to science. Religion. And before you accuse me of blasphemy or dis-respect, I simply don’t recognise those beliefs as occupying such a privileged position in society that we can’t make fun of them.
Quantum Religion (QR) is a newly discovered phenomenon which helps us explain the existence of religion in the world. Contrary to the assertions of atheists, religion was not created by people, but is a fundamental entity in the universe, much like matter or energy. It can now be shown that energy, matter and religion are the ancient origin of our current holy trinity. Energy is the father – the source of all; matter is the son, and was born as the universe cooled, and religion is clearly the holy ghost – the spirit which pervades the universe and binds the father and son.
rationalbrain 