Ewan's Corner

Posts Tagged ‘Religion’

(from John D Cook’s blog The Endeavour)

C. S. Lewis wrote that

Faith is holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.

When someone says “I can’t believe it’s Tuesday” he really means that he does believe it’s Tuesday, but it takes effort. His emotions are telling him that it is some other day, but he chooses to accept that it is Tuesday for other reasons.

It takes faith for me to believe that men walked on the moon in 1969. I’m convinced that it happened, but it doesn’t seem true to me. It doesn’t seem plausible that 1960’s technology could have accomplished this, even though I know that it did.

It takes faith for me to believe that Ernest Shackleton and his crew survived their exploration of the Antarctic. I don’t doubt the historical accounts, though they are hard to believe.

It takes faith for me to believe some mathematical theorems even though I have carefully gone through every line of their proofs. I am convinced that these theorems are true though they do not seem true. Other mathematicians have commented on the same experience. For example, Jerry Bona once joked that

The Axiom of Choice is obviously true; the Well Ordering Principle is obviously false; and who can tell about Zorn’s Lemma?

The three statements he mentions are logically equivalent, though the Axiom of Choice is the easiest to believe and the Well Ordering Principle is the hardest to believe.

It takes faith for me to believe in God. At times it doesn’t feel like God exists, though there are reasons to believe that He does. I have found these reasons convincing, and I hold on to my conclusions in spite of my changing moods.

From Ionian Enchantment – the latest version of the African science and skepticism blog-roll, or a list of “those dedicated to science and reason on the African continent”. I am proud to be included. Definitely something thought-provoking for everyone – and quite a few reasons to get vocal and involved, no matter what your viewpoint is on science, pseudo-science, skepticism, religion, homeopathy, maths, vaccines, general woo-woo etc.

The latest Carnival of Africans – the Phoenix Edition – is well worth a read.

• 01 and the universe
• Acinonyx Scepticus
• Amanuensis
• Ambient Normality
• ASSAf Blog
• Botswana Skeptic
• Bomoko and other nonsense words
• Communicating Science, the African Way **new**
• Defollyant’s AntiBlog
• Effortless Incitement
• Ewan’s Corner
• Geekery
• Grumpy Old Man
• Hello Universe, This is Nessie
• Ionian Enchantment
• Limbic Nutrition
• Lenny Says
• McBrolloks **new**
  
• Nathan Bond’s TART Remarks
  
• Orion Spur
  
• Other Things Amanzi
• Pickled Bushman
• Psychohistorian
  
• Reason Check
• Retroid Raving
• Scorched
• Shadows Hide
  
• Stop Danie Krügel
• Subtle Shift in Emphasis
• Synapses
• Tauriq Moosa
  
• The Science Of Sport
• The Skeptic Black Sheep
• The Skeptic Detective
• Turn 2 Reason
• Word of the Blog

Americans vote in their first african-american president (a symbol of tolerance and hope for the world) and in the same moment they ban gay marriage in three states, and even ban same-sex couples from adopting children in Arkansas! One step forward, and four backwards.

The same-sex marriage debate has been going on for some time, but preventing same sex couples from adopting children is a new low – the saddest, most ignorant and intolerant outcome I have ever seen. This from the same state whose state fruit and vegetable are the tomato, home of Bill Clinton and model of racial integration.

These so-called “religious conservatives” are giving Christianity, humanity and religion in general a bad name – time for a refresher course on the top 10 reasons why gay marriage is wrong.

“There is enough of the population that is alarmed at the general breakdown of the family, that has been so inundated with images of homosexual relationships in all of the media,” said Mr. Hunter, who gave the benediction at the Democratic National Convention this year, yet supported the same-sex marriage ban in his state. “It’s almost like it’s obligatory these days to have a homosexual couple in every TV show or every movie.”

*sigh*

* NYT – Bans in 3 States on Gay Marriage

* Flag photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamison/3005985912/ (flag flying at half mast in Castro, San Francisco on Wednesday 5th November 2008).

“The Gallup Poll of the Muslim World is the most comprehensive study ever done of this group – many of the key results counter conventional wisdom”. The CSMonitor has
a brief overview of some of the study results – see also the website for the resulting Gallup Press book “Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think” (John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed) – the site also includes excerpts and summaries of the core data used.

One of the core questions posed by the study – “is Islam to blame for terrorism?” – will hopefully help educate and inform otherwise naive people who are often sucked in by hate-and-ignorance powered sites like “the religion of peace” (I’m not going to do them the favour of linking to their website – Google the name if you want to find it – but be warned, it’s ugly).

First I discover the sad, sad site that is Conservapedia (sad but still funny in many ways thanks in part to its founder Andrew Schlafly, see my previous post) and then I find their articles on homosexuality. Not funny any more – an advertisement of the worst kind for Christianity, not to mention an example of homophobia, bad science, bias and intolerance. Jon Swift says it better than I ever could.

Then I come across a blog entry by one Zsuzsanna in Tempe, Arizona which blows me away – another example of ignorance, malice, religious intolerance and another terrible advertisement for Christianity.

Zsuzsanna attacks local blogger Tertia of So Close fame for using IVF, calling her a monster, inappropriate, vulgar, and a psycho. WTF? In the same breath she extrapolates from this MSNBC (AP quoted) article, thoroughly demonstrating her ignorance of Africa, African people, statistics and Christianity in general.

Tertia’s response (Apparently I am a monster, inappropriate, vulgar and a psycho) is great and happily her blog is showered with mostly sane responses from hundreds of readers, Christians and not. If Zsuzsanna wasn’t already exposed as a grade A nutter, her blogged response makes it very clear.

*sigh*