Category: Faith

Canadian Ambivalence Towards Religion

Atheism & Spirituality / Critical Thinking / Faith / ReligionLeave a comment

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A new Angus Reid poll underscores the changing, ambivalent nature of Canadian attitudes towards religion, but there are many things about the poll that concern me and make me question its methodology and whether an inherent bias influenced the results. First of all, what is “religion”? That may seem obvious, but there are conflicting definitions, and often religion is used interchangeably with the terms faith and belief,  although that is incorrect usage and they are, in fact, different. I think it’s important to be clear when asking people about religion exactly what you mean by the word ‘religion’ – and ……… click below for more ↓

Conrad Black: Off the Rails

Atheism & Spirituality / Critical Thinking / Faith / History & Biography / Politics3 Comments

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I generally read Conrad Black‘s columns for their entertainment value, but I also read them for the language. Black is the best tosser of pithy epithets since Spiro Agnew*. And like the former US VP, he’s a pompous git who puffs up his intellectual feathers like a pigeon in heat – that puffery of sound and fury that signifies nothing more than an ego he has to bring along in its own carriage. He is very amusing that way. Now to be clear, I have little respect for Black’s uber-right ideologies. We are at polar opposites of the political spectrum: ……… click below for more ↓

Weaponized Aryan Jesus?

Culture / Faith / Film & Reviews / History & Biography2 Comments

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The term “weaponized Jesus” comes from an article I read on politicsusa.com, from November 2013, titled “The Religious Right With Their Weaponized Jesus Are Not Christians.”  It’s worth a read, if you enjoy the political-religious debate. I eventually traced the phrase back to a 2010 story in Mother Jones. It’s a good description of the way some fundamentalist Americans are taking their religion. But that’s not at issue right now. It’s the guy on the left of the movie still that I want to write about. Someone on my Facebook stream recently posted the picture above and talked about how she ……… click below for more ↓

Hate Crimes Against Non-believers Growing

Atheism & Spirituality / Critical Thinking / Faith / History & BiographyLeave a comment

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We all know about the hate crimes religious believers commit against one another, against people of a different faith. It’s headlines news, almost daily. Protestants against Catholics. Sunnis against Shiites. Muslims against Christians. Hindus against Muslims. Buddhists against Muslims. Christians against pagans. Christians against Jews. Muslims against Jews. Cults against anyone and everyone against cults. Pick a faith and it’s been involved in attacks, intolerance, intimidation, and killing sometime in its history. Even the normally pacifist Buddhists have been. Religions have been fighting with one another since prehistory: their believers have been killing, burning, rampaging and raping one another since ……… click below for more ↓

Camping’s madness carries on

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Critical Thinking / FaithLeave a comment

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6zEUCiyFqg&feature=youtu.be] Harold Camping has been dead for almost a year, but his legacy lives on. Not just in the broken dreams of his deluded followers, but in the many lives he destroyed through his madness. You would have thought that, having predicted the end of the world several times, and been wrong each one, because of the general embarrassment of anyone who gave him even the slightest credence, he would be buried and forgotten, except as a caricature of religious nuttiness. And a scam artist. But no, Camping continues his malice, even after death, like a modern-day Jacob Marley dragging his chains with ……… click below for more ↓

Larry & Jerry’s Inferno

Books & Reviews / Poetry & Lyrics / Religion / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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I had forgotten about this book until recently when I came across a reprint. I read it originally in the late 1970s when I was reading a lot more sci-fi than I do today. (Many years ago, I ran a Toronto computer convention where I invited the authors to be the keynote speakers. I got to spend many hours and a memorable dinner with them.) I finished the reprint only a few days ago and started the sequel, Escape From Hell, shortly after. I was researching Dante of late for something I’ve been slogging at for the past couple of years, when ……… click below for more ↓

A Buddhist Guide for Voters

Buddhism / Collingwood / Faith / Municipal Politics / PoliticsOne Comment

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While it was intended as a general ‘charter of free inquiry,’ the Buddhist Kalama Sutra (or sutta) contains wise words that all voters – especially local voters – should heed during the municipal election campaign. The Kalamas were a people in ancient India. Gotama visited them and stopped in a town called Kesaputta, where he gave a sermon, now referred to as the Kalama Sutra. At first the citizens came to him with a deep problem: how to trust what people were telling them. They had been visited by many religious teachers who all held divergent views. Not unlike candidates for Collingwood council going door ……… click below for more ↓

Taoist Lessons for Politicians

Books & Reviews / Faith / Municipal Politics / Politics / Translations & translatingLeave a comment

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Those who look down upon this world, will surely take hold and try to change things. So begins verse 29 of the 4th century BCE Chinese classic (Jonathan Star translation*), the Tao Te Ching. That verse suggests that those who feel themselves superior to the world and to others, who feel their actions, thoughts, views and beliefs are above those of others, will attempt to impress their own rule on others. And, as the verse continues, they can only fail in their attempts to control things. Control slips from their fingers.** There’s a lesson here in verse 29, that winds throughout the book. It’s not simply for ……… click below for more ↓

Happiness & Fulfillment

Buddhism / Faith / History & Biography / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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There are ten methods for meditating on the world, begins one scroll in the 1,300-year-old collection of Tang-dynasty sutras from Xian, China, that can lead us to happiness and fulfillment. I realize that sounds like the opening of a New Age piffle book, but the sutras were actually discovered in a cave near a Buddhist monastery, in the far western region of China, in 1900. The scrolls were looted and sold to collectors and academia, and until 1998 were pretty much lost. Now the public can read a few selections from them in the book, The Lost Sutras of Jesus, ……… click below for more ↓

A Compassionate Buddha?

Books & Reviews / Buddhism / Faith / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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There’s a story in Valerie Roebuck’s translation of the Dhammapada (Penguin Classics, 2010, commentary on verse 6, p 115-116) that caught my eye recently, and it made me wonder what the moral or ethical precept was buried in it. And it makes me question what it says about the supposed compassion of the Buddha and his attitude towards animals.* I have not found online the story exactly as Ms. Roebuck tells it**, but I have found many variations on it. It even has its own holiday: Madhu Purnima. In essence the story goes like this: The Buddha is at the Kosambi ……… click below for more ↓

Reading the Dhammapada

Books & Reviews / Buddhism / Faith4 Comments

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One of the most inspirational, moving books in my library is the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings of the Buddha, originally from the Pali canon. I’ve had a version of the Dhammapada in my library since the late 1960s, and read it through many times. It’s good to reread it often. My first copy I recall was Irving Babbit’s edition, published by New Directions press in 1965. It may still be hiding on a bookshelf upstairs for all I know. It’s one of my desert island books. You know: one of the list of 10 books you’d want to have ……… click below for more ↓

Feb. 12: Happy Darwin Day

Atheism & Spirituality / Balderdash & Hoaxes / Critical Thinking / Education & Learning / Science & Technology2 Comments

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February 12 is international Darwin Day, the day when we collectively celebrate science and reason. And, of course, we recognize Charles Darwin’s birthday: February 12, 1809 (the same birthdate as Abraham Lincoln, by the way). If Collingwood made such declarations, I would propose we recognize the day in our municipality. Other Canadian municipalities have done so. Maybe we could raise a flag with Darwin’s face on it outside town hall. Darwin Day was first celebrated in 1995 and has been growing in recognition and popularity ever since. As Darwinday.org tells us the celebration was: …initiated by Dr. Robert (“Bob”) Stephens ……… click below for more ↓

2014 predictions always good for a giggle

Atheism & Spirituality / Balderdash & Hoaxes / Critical ThinkingLeave a comment

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I had barely finished writing my post on the failed 2013 predictions of the self-described “psychics” and “clairvoyants” who are the media darlings du jour, when the sorry lot of charlatans published their latest lot of flim-flammery and codswallop: predictions for 2014. These will, of course, prove as wrong as the predictions for 2013. And 2012. And 2011, And 2010, And 2009. And on and on and on. As usual, the list of “predictions” contains a lot of vague or general statements in which an unidentified “someone” is involved – you’d think that a real clairvoyant would be able to ……… click below for more ↓

Psychics 2013: the silly, the scams, the failed predictions

Atheism & Spirituality / Balderdash & Hoaxes / Media Issues / Pets & Animal Behaviour / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Social Order & DisorderOne Comment

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Action News, an ABC affiliate, ran a late-year story with the headline “Psychics interpret pets’ thoughts.” No, it’s not April Fools’ Day: this was December 26. Yet the reporter treated it seriously; just like it was a real story; actual news, rather than a steaming heap of superstitious dung. That reporters for any media outlet treat would such codswallop as “news” calls into question their ability, their competence and their education. Lorrie The Pet Psychic has been tuning into the thoughts of animals for 18 years, appearing on Oprah after she helped locate a local dog who was blown away ……… click below for more ↓

American belief in evolution is growing: poll

Atheism & Spirituality / Balderdash & Hoaxes / Evolution & Paleontology / Faith / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Religion / Science & Technology / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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A new Harris poll released this month shows that Americans apparently are losing their belief in miracles and gaining it in science. The recent poll showed that American belief in evolution had risen to 47% from its previous poll level of 42%, in 2005. True, it’s not an overwhelming increase, and it’s still less than half the population, but it is an improvement. Belief in creationism dropped 3% during that time, to 36%. Good news, of course, but don’t break out the champagne yet. There’s other data and it’s not all so good. At the same time more Americans are believing ……… click below for more ↓

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