Alex’s Heresies - embracing a physical reality

From The Age Online article 4 Nov 2008 a 13 year Somalian girl was stoned to death for being raped.

AN Islamist rebel administration in Somalia has had a girl, 13, stoned to death for adultery after the child’s father reported that three men raped her.

Amnesty International reported that the al-Shabab militia, which controls the southern city of Kismayo, arranged for 50 men to stone Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow in front of about 1000 spectators.

Alex McCullie

From a BBC report:

A Muslim cleric has caused public outrage in Indonesia after marrying a 12-year-old girl. Pujianto Cahyo Widianto married the girl in the central Java city of Semarang, during an unofficial religious ceremony. He reportedly chose her from a pool of 20 girls, before flying to Singapore with his new bride, as well as his first wife. (full report 27 Oct 2008)

Alex McCullie

Here is a postscript (from another web report - different source) with photos plus a stated intention to marry nine and seven year old girls as well.

“…Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

Now this is going to be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, as many evangelicals do. But in a pluralistic democracy, we have no choice. Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality. It involves the compromise, the art of what’s possible. At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It’s the art of the impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God’s edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one’s life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing…”
(Senator Barack Obama - full speech)

This is reassuring rationality from a 21st century US politician. We are so used to hearing that God gave the President the invasion orders.

Alex McCullie

A friend put me onto a Dutch creationist, Johan Huibers, who created a one-fifth size of the mythological Noah’s Ark (from the Hebrew Bible). Like the US creationist museum and glossy books by Islamic creationist, Harun Yahya, creationists love to use PR to convince and persuade rather than boring scientific research like evolutionists. Then they have the nerve to seek to be treated seriously as a genuine ’scientific’ alternative to the theory of evolution. Still there’s enough gullible people in the world to keep these guys in business.

Alex McCullie

Here’s a dated news report that is still funny.

It used to be a simple “stop it or you’ll go blind” injunction. The Roman Catholic Church repackaged this to have a new “inconvenient truth” environmental outcome to strengthen its sinful message (article at the Onion in 2005).

Alex McCullie

According to The Age OnLine article the printed word is no longer enough for God’s message.

Why doesn’t He speak directly to us? God is all-powerful, isn’t He?

Alex McCullie

Here’s another video demonstrating Sarah Palin’s fitness to be the next US Vice President - perhaps not.

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/countdown-palin-wants-help-special-ne

Alex McCullie

Well according to Mary Kenny in a recent inane article The Guardian 24 Oct 2008. This extract will give you a taste of the intellectual depth.

Far from relaxing and enjoying life, most atheists I have encountered are gloomy blighters with a depressing and nihilistic message that there is no purpose to life so where’s the point of anything? They so often fall into the category defined by: “Those that do not have the faith/Will not have the fun.” You only have to attend one of their dreary humanist funerals to see that – I am never going to another of those, just to be made miserable.

Alex McCullie

As part of countering “you don’t know enough about Christianity to criticise” argument I have embarked on studying the Christian Bible, Christian theology and Christian beliefs and practices. Even before starting I had to make a number of decisions and commitments.

Firstly, what am I trying to understand? Is it simply looking at the Bible text for its inconsistencies and appalling moral prescriptions (and there are many in both testaments)? This is a favourite pastime of fellow critics of religion. However I don’t think that moves the argument forward. I believe a more useful approach initially was to familiarise myself with the Bible and associated beliefs in a fairly non-critical way.

At times this becomes difficult when reading some Bible commentary that accepts all the Bible text as absolute truth even when you know that historically the events never happened. An example is the birth of Jesus. All evidence suggests that his birthplace was in Nazareth and not Bethlehem. Luke’s birth story was more about linking Jesus’s birth to Old Testament prophesy than any historical fact. Also I’ve found many of the evangelical style analyses particularly unpalatable to rationally-based secular thinking. There’s only so far that I can “willingly suspend my disbelief”.

How to go about learning more? Reading articles at random does not give a foundation that necessary for subsequent study. So I’ve started with audio lectures from the Teaching Company. Each lecture series is discounted once a year and that’s the time it’s worth buying with transcripts preferably. I’m working through Philosophy of Religion by James Hall now. Each lecture series is produced and delivered by a university professor and provide a good introductory coverage of the subject. My next topics will be Old Testament and New Testament. Again, wait until the series is on special.

Are there any interesting books? There are books by biblical scholars who take a more academic approach to examining the historical Jesus. There are many books. Here’s a good one to start with: Who Is Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan and Richard G Watts. The book is structured along question and answer lines and presents a historical view of Jesus very different from the one from the Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament, for example.

I hope that helps if you want to study the other side.

Alex McCullie

According to news report from Dallas, US, a father killed both of his daughters for dating non-Muslims and the FBI has declared these as honour killings.

Back in January, the girls’ relatives said the father killed them because he felt they disgraced the family by dating non-Muslims and acting too western. (full article on Dallas/Fort Worth Channel 8 website)

Alex McCullie