tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17475037826139863192012-02-16T17:54:17.557-05:00Richard Holloway wrote in his book <i>Looking in the Distance</i>, that <b>Out There</b> is not a place of neutral agnosticism. It is the place of committed un-knowing. It is a place to search in expectation and hope. <b>Email the author, Michael N. Hull: Bardonia(at)aol.com</b>Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.comBlogger631100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-75554309700449944632011-01-09T16:39:00.009-05:002011-01-14T10:43:28.525-05:00

“Moses did not write the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John did not write the Gospels. The Exodus probably did not happen as described in the Old Testament. The conquest of the Promised Land is probably based on legend. It is hard to know whether Moses ever existed and what, exactly, the historical Jesus taught" – Bart D. EhrmanThe problems

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-53642968480714850522010-04-19T21:31:00.011-05:002010-04-20T09:45:23.115-05:00

“'If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both'. This is the problem of pain, in its simplest form." – C. S. LewisJill Heatherly writes: The Problem of Pain answers the universal question, "Why would an all-loving,

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-13476275699564689412010-03-22T17:11:00.015-05:002010-04-19T21:45:33.955-05:00

“Psalm 19: I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world" – C. S. LewisReflections on the Psalms was published in 1958. Lewis writes about the difficulties he has met or the joys he has gained in reading the Psalms. He points out that the Psalms are poems, intended to be sung, not doctrinal treatises or sermons. Proceeding with his characteristic

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-9578266111465387352008-04-10T20:11:00.009-05:002008-04-13T21:10:48.197-05:00

Orthodox males recite a blessing each morning thanking God “for not making me a woman.”In eSkeptic, Tim Callahan reviewed R. D. Gold’s book entitled Bondage of the Mind: How Old Testament Fundamentalism Shackles the Mind and Enslaves the Spirit and writes:Most of us involved with issues of critical thinking are accustomed to dealing with what we think of as fundamentalism, which implies

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-34980887166850225432008-03-16T13:31:00.006-05:002008-03-16T14:26:06.710-05:00

“The problem of suffering has haunted me for a long time. It was what made me begin to think about religion when I was young, and it was what led me to question my faith when I was older. Ultimately, it was the reason I lost my faith" – Bart D. EhrmanThe vindications of God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of suffering, known as theodicies, are perhaps the most difficult topics

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-64386347637760591532008-03-05T15:34:00.003-05:002008-03-05T16:06:10.785-05:00

“Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities" – C. S. LewisRecently I decided to reread C. S. Lewis's book "The Four Loves" which was published in 1960. While some of the examples have become outdated and are ethno-centric the book still retains a beautiful simplicity which permits one to look at how and why one loves from four distinct perspectives.The English word 'love'

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-77228528286548843182008-02-26T20:08:00.006-05:002008-02-26T20:36:46.266-05:00

“Chase away the demons and they will take the angels with them." – Joni Mitchell, Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter.Eric G. Wilson in a Los Angeles Times opinion article entitled 'The Miracle of Melancholia’ suggests that we are a nation obsessed with being happy, but sometimes feeling bad can do you some good. Wilson writes: In April of 1819, right around the time that he began to

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-52722868228015240262008-02-08T07:42:00.000-05:002008-02-08T08:28:57.409-05:00

“Right, I’m off to get a burqa for the mother-in-law” – British subject Tom HarropIn a series of threads in this blog (A Picture Worth a Thousand Words, London Bridge is Falling Down and Muslim Britain) we have discussed the problem of integrating a growing muslim population into the historical British culture. This photograph, published in The Daily Express, shows Muslim radicals demonstrating

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-12903303067530808112008-01-23T20:27:00.001-05:002011-01-09T16:14:07.597-05:00

"If you were to ask what provides some meaning in life nowadays for a great many people, especially men, you could do worse than reply 'football.' Not many of them perhaps would be willing to admit as much; but sport stands in for all those noble causes--religious faith, national sovereignty, personal honor, ethnic identity--for which, over the centuries, people have been prepared to go to their

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-7043127378496021902008-01-16T07:35:00.000-05:002008-01-17T07:46:42.155-05:00

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them, the starry heavens above and the moral law within” - Immanuel Kant“The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists — that is why they invented hell” – Bertrand Russell Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-70532101635133272842007-12-31T23:05:00.000-05:002008-01-01T08:16:47.548-05:00

"Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony is no more profound than “Eleanor Rigby.” - Anthony TommasiniIn the December 30, 2007 issue of the NY Times Anthony Tommasini has some interesting comments on whether a patience to listen to classical music is alive and well.He writes in part: Reports about the diminishing relevance of classical music to new generations of Americans addled by pop culture keep

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-33577425614343264202007-12-13T16:56:00.001-05:002012-01-19T14:53:53.665-05:00

"Atonement” is an almost classical example of how pointless, how diminishing, the transmutation of literature into film can be" - The New York Times "Atonement” is one of the few adaptations that gives a splendid novel the film it deserves." - The Los Angeles TimesAn article in Wikipedia discusses how: "the word 'atonement' gained widespread use in the sixteenth century after William Tyndale

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-47563133370481142602007-12-05T20:13:00.000-05:002007-12-05T21:17:49.849-05:00

"Religion invents a problem where none exists by describing the wicked as also made in the image of god and the sexually nonconformist as existing in a state of incurable mortal sin that can incidentally cause floods and earthquakes." - Christopher HitchensThe Publisher of Christopher Hitchens' latest book writes:From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-4936026084363597182007-11-24T18:43:00.003-05:002011-01-09T16:19:26.209-05:00

"Atheists have very clearly said that their goal is to go after our children." - Christian, and Domestic Policy Expert Dinesh D'Souza."Theology is not little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed it is ignorance with wings." - Author and atheist Sam Harris"The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be" - Astronomer and TV personality Carl SaganIs Christianity obsolete? Do the

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-14765905558068972032007-11-18T07:58:00.000-05:002007-11-18T08:18:32.125-05:00

"Those who object to capital punishment, and who do so in the name of protecting life, must come to terms with the possibility that the failure to inflict capital punishment will fail to protect life.” - Cass R. Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago and Adrian Vermeule, a law professor at Harvard. In the November 18, 2007 issue of the NY Times Adam Liptak raises the question:

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-61409397124284137142007-11-10T07:06:00.002-05:002009-06-24T12:45:48.101-05:00

"The Mythos of a society provided people with a context that made sense of their day-to-day lives; it directed their attention to the eternal and the universal. Logos was the rational, pragmatic, and scientific thought that enabled men and women to function well in the world. We may have lost the sense of mythos in the West today, but we are very familiar with logos, which is the basis of our

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-87970033326043392922007-10-31T14:57:00.002-05:002011-01-26T14:47:35.359-05:00

"If you empty the world of purpose, make it one of brute fact alone, you empty it of reasons for gratitude, and a sense of gratitude is necessary for both happiness and decency" - Theodore Dalrymple There has been a recent spate of books by atheists Daniel Dennett, A. C. Grayling, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens condemning religion. Books by the Christian authors Alister McGrath and

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-76932569346950118722007-10-23T20:11:00.001-05:002009-06-24T12:53:44.686-05:00

"I don't want to offend anyone, but I think character-wise we're stronger than anyone in baseball. I believe God sends signs, and we're seeing those." - Colorado Rockies CEO Charlie Monfort BP Sports and USA Today have published articles describing the role of Christianity in the ethos of the Colorado Rockies baseball team and their trip to play the Boston Red Sox in the 2007 World Series which

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-15998100850697201032007-10-17T14:57:00.000-05:002007-10-17T15:15:34.135-05:00

""I swear by my life and my love of it I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." - John Galt in Atlas Shrugged. First Things in an October 11, 2007 article by Brian Murray entitled “Who is John Galt? And Does Anyone Care Anymore?” discusses the influence of Ayn Rand on the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of her novel “Atlas Shrugged”. Murray

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-2804806507985011442007-10-07T14:59:00.002-05:002008-02-17T15:07:46.875-05:00

"What is the meaning of it all?" Richard Feynman - American physicist known for expanding the theory of quantum electrodynamics."The universe is just there, and that's all." Bertrand Russell - English philosopher, historian, logician, mathematician, advocate for social reform, pacifist, and prominent Rationalist."It is the very nature of science that leads me to belief in God," John C Lennox - a

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-78246901280465896642007-09-26T14:34:00.001-05:002010-03-22T17:03:04.324-05:00

"I guess I would ask which human beings - where and when - are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate we have today is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take." Michael Griffin NASA Administrator.Robert Royal in First Things examines the position of various religious leaders on the current discussion

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-49588959574467128422007-09-15T17:42:00.000-05:002007-09-18T18:59:49.030-05:00

"You're so sure that your crew's comin' to get you?" - Dan Evans"Sure as God's vengeance, they're comin" - Ben Wade"All a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart" - Ben Wade quoting Proverbs 21:2.Christianity Today recently reviewed the religious and moral aspects of James Mangold's new movie '3:10 to Yuma'. The review states in part:'3:10 To Yuma' is a very modern western.

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-7501058236675620722007-09-04T18:57:00.001-05:002011-01-09T16:32:12.541-05:00

"There are also two kinds of truths: truths of reasoning and truths of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; those of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible" - Gottfried Leibniz "Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many” - Baruch Spinoza. We have

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-75866334324415274942007-08-29T14:41:00.000-05:002007-08-30T20:21:18.789-05:00

"The answer to the question “What is Painting?” is simple and clear. The answer is “Who cares?” - Morgan Meis, an arts collective in New York.The Smart Set from Drexel University is an online publication covering culture and ideas, arts and sciences, global and national affairs. A recent article by Morgan Meis entitled “A Dilettante's Guide to Art” reviews the book “1001 Paintings You Should See

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-90824577202819137892007-08-21T19:13:00.000-05:002007-08-22T06:29:02.698-05:00

"I am not a theologian, and I have not turned into a religious mystic, but I am a practical problem solver. So I'm looking at religion from the perspective of how knowledge about what people believe in can be useful in terms of trying to resolve the most serious disputes." - Madeline AlbrightMark Lilla, professor of the humanities at Columbia University, wrote an essay in the NY times entitled “

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-32132266563568758592007-08-14T20:50:00.000-05:002007-08-14T21:15:58.103-05:00

"How can this make me a better person?" - Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good PeopleIn the August 14, 2007 Science section of the NY Times Jane E. Brody writes about “Thriving After Life’s Bum Rap”.Can getting cancer make you happy? For Betty Rollin, survivor of two breast cancers, there’s no question about it. In her newest book, “Here’s the Bright Side,” Ms. Rollin

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-90484585768858409262007-08-08T13:59:00.000-05:002007-08-08T20:33:05.820-05:00

"God has arrived. I met him on the 5:15 train" - John Maynard Keynes speaking of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Edmonds and Eidinow described a lifetime squabble between Rousseau and Hume in Rousseau's Dog. In this book they deal with a ten-minute spat between two equally illustrious philosophers, Wittgenstein and Popper.On October 25, 1946, in a crowded room in Cambridge, England, Ludwig Wittgenstein and

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-73515800947648502022007-08-03T19:09:00.000-05:002007-08-08T20:35:17.044-05:00

"Rousseau was mad but influential, Hume was sane but had no followers " - Bertrand Russell. "Here begins the work of darkness in which I found myself engulfed" - Rousseau, the Confessions. "No character in human society is more dangerous than that of the fanatic" - HumeRalph Blumenau, a retired teacher living in London, wrote in his review of this book: The authors have earned fame for a hugely

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-14130770645448337562007-07-27T16:27:00.000-05:002007-07-28T06:11:09.201-05:00

"What if we picked the wrong religion? Every week, we're just making God madder and madder!" - Homer Simpson."The Simpsons" movie which opened on July 27, 2007 was reviewed by CNN which stated:After 18 years and 400 episodes of a show that refuses to grow old, "The Simpsons" finally graduates to a movie theater near you. It doesn't take Homer long (about two minutes) to ask the obvious question:

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-32465426035727848932007-07-23T02:45:00.000-05:002007-07-28T06:16:10.656-05:00

"My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price. I understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death - we're all frightened of it." - J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Books.Lisa Jackson writing in Christian Parenting Today discusses the pros and cons of the Harry

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-91612041212026023522007-07-16T01:19:00.000-05:002007-07-16T01:36:07.040-05:00

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother" - Father Theodore Hesburgh, longtime president of the University of Notre Dame.Last Father’s Day my son gave me a gift of Tim Russert’s book Wisdom of Our Fathers the content of which as described by the publisher reads:What does it really mean to be a good father? What did your father tell you, that has stayed

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-67664600685946942962007-07-08T00:49:00.000-05:002007-07-08T01:21:20.208-05:00

"Our dreams have to do with how we internalize the people we love" - Pamela McCarthy, director of counseling services at Smith College.Rebecca Cathcart in the July 3, 2007 issue of The NY Times wrote an article headlined “Winding Through ‘Big Dreams’ Are the Threads of Our Lives” from which the following is excerpted:I was a windowless office when my mother called to say my father had died. It

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-37877904032529642422007-07-02T02:29:00.000-05:002007-07-02T02:47:30.490-05:00

"Jesus was the greatest marketing genius to ever live" - David KuoIn the Beliefnet.com blog of June 29, 2007 there is an interesting discussion about ten things churches could learn from the iPod manufacturer, Apple.The blog writer, David Kuo, provided a few suggestions to start off the list and further suggestions were supplied by his readers. The list of suggestions distilled to the following:

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-56055355917469820052007-06-26T03:32:00.000-05:002008-01-15T08:00:55.526-05:00

"Either the Scripture was true and evolution was wrong or evolution was true and I must toss out the Bible. It was there that night that I accepted the Word of God and rejected all that would ever counter it, including evolution. With that, in great sorrow, I tossed into the fire all my dreams and hopes in science" - Kurt Wise, Professor of science and theology and director of the Center for

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-15408226667199029562007-06-22T06:23:00.000-05:002007-06-22T13:56:42.378-05:00

"It's an act of faith" - al-Shaikh, a young British Muslim woman.In several threads in this blog we have discussed the increasing separation between the Muslim residents of Britain and their Christian and Secular counterparts. One recent example has been the debate in Clitheroe over the conversion of a church to a mosque.In the June 22, 2007 issue of the NY Times this issue has become a front

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-25969629940878782582007-06-19T06:45:00.000-05:002007-06-19T07:08:45.559-05:00

"The religious industry simply lacks a reliable stratagem for defeating disbelief in the 21st century." - Gregory Paul & Phil ZuckermanGregory Paul & Phil Zuckerman have a detailed review in Edge–The Third Culture on why the world’s main religions are in decline while secularism and materialism are in the ascendancy. Paul and Zuckerman write in part:Disbelief now rivals the great faiths in

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-38677990885090244212007-06-14T15:43:00.000-05:002007-06-15T06:17:16.748-05:00

"It all started with a big bang didn’t it ?" This guest blog was written by Victor Ince who is a member of the Summerland United Church. Victor grew up in Northern Ireland and recently retired as a Project Manager with the Interior Health Authority in British Columbia, Canada. Victor's reflection on the aphid causes him to ask if anything else is required for unconditional acceptance of an

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-34302943582900138292007-06-11T04:46:00.001-05:002012-01-19T15:12:58.514-05:00

"For six seasons, 'Sopranos' fans have been asking what will happen to Tony. The answer: He is going to hell" - Patton ToddPatton Dodd raises an interesting theological question in a recent article discussing the finale of the TV series “The Sopranos". He writes in part:The opening image the third-to-last episode of "The Sopranos," is a steaming pile of trash. "Sopranos" devotees know that this

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-17023118953992158592007-06-06T20:25:00.000-05:002007-06-06T20:54:57.085-05:00

"It's a very black thing to talk about," - Economist Andrew OswaldIn a June 05, 2007 article in Scientific American JR Minkel asks:If money could buy happiness, how much would it take to bring it back after the death of a partner, child or spouse? Two economists have attached dollar values to deaths by comparing the way that lost loved ones lower scores on happiness surveys with the way that

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-1080714678938382852007-05-31T13:37:00.002-05:002012-01-19T14:48:55.624-05:00

"I firmly believe that each human person, regardless of circumstance, was willed into being and made for a purpose." - Sam Brownback, Republican candidate for President of the U.S.A.In the NY Times edition of May 31, 2007 Sam Brownback, a Republican senator from Kansas who is a candidate for the Presidency of the USA commented on a recent question about evolution that he and other Republican

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-36621892689886047232007-05-26T14:22:00.000-05:002007-05-26T18:07:47.995-05:00

"Is Atheism Just a Rant Against Religion?" - Benedicta Cipolla, Religion News Service Saturday, Washington Post, May 26, 2007Benedicta Cipolla writes: Despite its minority status, atheism has enjoyed the spotlight of late, with several books that feature vehement arguments against religion topping the bestseller lists. But some now say secularists should embrace more than the strident rhetoric

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-76060907046169727182007-05-21T13:48:00.000-05:002007-05-22T06:54:11.781-05:00

"Who says you own Britain anyway? Britain belongs to Allah" - Muslim activist Anjem Choudary who praised the 9/11 attack as "magnificent".In the June 2007 issue of Vainty Fair Christopher Hitchens revisited the neighborhood of his youth, Finsbury Park, London. He writes that it has now become one of the breeding grounds for a new phenomenon - the British jihadist - and he asks how did a nation

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-23260566448393354732007-05-17T07:47:00.002-05:002012-01-19T14:59:23.744-05:00

"Religion Poisons Everything. Religion comes to us as infants, perpetuated by pious individuals who pretend to know intimately the mind of God. If you like to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, go ahead, but please don't teach it to my children." - Christopher HitchensAnthony Gottlieb writes in the May 21, 2007 issue of The New Yorker: The terrorist attacks (of 911) were carried out in the

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-67345420009144568402007-05-13T19:34:00.001-05:002008-02-17T15:19:47.769-05:00

"As for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that." - Al Sharpton In the May 13, 2007 issue of the Post Chronicle John W. Lillpop writes that National Review's Katharine Jean Lopez asked Governor Romney, "Will an exposé on Mormon Christmas celebrations hurt you in the primaries?" Governor Romney replied, "This may sound

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-30424251334491784022007-05-06T14:03:00.000-05:002007-05-23T18:46:30.472-05:00

"I seek a Jesus beyond scripture, beyond creeds, beyond doctrines and even beyond religion itself. Only there will our gaze turn toward the mystery of God, the mystery of life, the mystery of love and the mystery of being." - John Shelby Spong Writing from his prison cell in Nazi Germany in 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian, sketched a vision of what he called "Religionless

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-56485899492703211802007-04-28T21:10:00.000-05:002007-05-02T20:49:40.437-05:00

"You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me" Jesus speaking to Judas - The Gospel of JudasThe Gospel of Judas, along with other Gnostic texts, is important in understanding Christianity's genesis. It challenges some of the depictions of the canonical Gospels. When it was published by the National Geographic Society in April 2006, it received extraordinary media

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-64457847430911243842007-04-21T06:19:00.000-05:002007-04-21T14:04:27.193-05:00

For very practical reasons, I favor letting go of sin as the umbrella description for the human problem - Marcus Borg In an interesting series of articles, Byron Barlowe, Editor/Webmaster, Leadership University, writes: According to Barna Research Online, "Four out of every ten adults (40%) attend a church service on a typical Sunday. That figure is a significant decline from the early Nineties,

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-1834574120568408232007-04-19T05:44:00.000-05:002007-04-20T05:53:47.778-05:00

The windy evening caused the small candles that were handed out to extinguish, so students improvised with their cell phones while singing amazing grace.George Washington University's vigil for the students of Virginia Tech - The Daily ColonialCho Seung-Hui, who shot thirty-two people at Virginia Tech, before taking his own life was severely mentally disturbed. Over seventeen months ago it was

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-80384940006158510902007-04-13T13:41:00.000-05:002007-04-14T20:55:44.425-05:00

"The strength of much of conservative Christianity is that it has emphasized personal transformation while the strength of much of liberal Christianity is that it has emphasized political transformation. A politically engaged spirituality affirms both spiritual transformation and political transformation"Marcus Borg - The Heart of Christianity Recently the media in the United States has fixated

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-81264851434923411682007-04-09T16:09:00.000-05:002007-04-09T16:34:52.721-05:00

" Nappy-headed Ho's" - Don Imus referring to the student athletes of Rutgers University’s women’s basketball team during his radio program, simulcast on MSNBC. ABC News reported: Imus made the now infamous remark during his show last Wednesday. The Rutgers team, which includes eight black women, had lost the day before in the NCAA women's championship game. Imus was speaking with producer Bernard

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-71839433073960441492007-04-07T18:58:00.002-05:002012-02-09T08:24:57.863-05:00

"Poi si tornò all’eterna fontana" -"Then she turned back to the Eternal Fountain."- From Paradise, Canto 31, where Dante described Beatrice looking at him for the last time in Paradise: "So I prayed; and as distant as she was, she smiled and gazed at me. Then she turned back to the Eternal Fountain." C. S. Lewis - A Grief Observed A Grief Observed was first published in 1961 and concerns the

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-90156216736042616842007-04-02T11:10:00.000-05:002007-04-07T19:01:33.982-05:00

At St. Mary Magdalene Church, where the first stone was laid in the 12th century, the congregation has dropped to about 90 people on Sunday, and the average age of congregants is 75. Christenings are now rare, and there are only seven weddings booked for the year. - Anglican vicar, Philip DeardenIn an article in the NY times on April 2, 2007 Jane Perlez wrote in part: Clitheroe, England — This

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-74053464684319709402007-03-29T17:27:00.001-05:002007-05-10T18:05:40.155-05:00

"Margaret Starbird is a seeker after truth. She seeks to recover the long-suppressed, and not infrequently emotionally opposed, feminine side of the Christian story. Hers is an exciting narrative probing regions of thought long neglected. Magdalen, the Great Mary, emerges with new power"- John Shelby Spong, Former Episcopal Bishop of Newark, NJ.The controversy surrounding Mary Magdalene's

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-167840882600020102007-03-22T18:15:00.000-05:002007-04-07T20:30:29.797-05:00

"The Jesus Project may be the single most important commitment that the Center for Inquiry and its affiliated organizations — among them the Council for Secular Humanism — will ever make" Council for Secular Humanism, March 22, 2007 The Council for Secular Humanism is North America's leading organization for non-religious people. A not-for-profit association, the Council supports a wide range of

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-14760238578448705252007-03-19T10:18:00.000-05:002008-01-15T08:05:03.208-05:00

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction. Jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic-cleanser; a misogynistic homophobic racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential…." - Richard Dawkins Evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins is not an atheist who sits quietly in the pews. Dubbed

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-71719008491357857932007-03-15T08:31:00.000-05:002007-04-01T18:07:09.712-05:00

"If I look at the mass I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” Mother Teresa.Paul Slovic writes in the March 2007 issue of Foreign Policy that people don’t ignore mass killings because they lack compassion. Rather, it’s the horrific statistics of genocide and mass murder that may paralyze us into inaction. Those hoping that grim numbers alone will spur us to action in places like Darfur

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-28995522903398725712007-03-08T16:36:00.001-05:002010-03-22T17:09:30.541-05:00

"Do not seek to become a Christian, but a Christ"The Gospel of ThomasElaine Pagels commented on ‘The Da Vinci Code’: What is compelling about this book is not its falsehoods but what is true – that some views of Christian history were buried for centuries because leaders of the early Church wanted to present one version of Jesus' life: theirs. Some of the alternative views of who Jesus was and

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-36800926659574050352007-03-05T21:06:00.001-05:002009-06-24T13:09:51.720-05:00

"Will you use your beautiful voice to praise the Lord or change the world?" - William Pitt to William Wilberforce.The movie 'Amazing Grace' has received very favorable reviews. It is the story of William Wilberforce who in 1785 underwent a spiritual encounter which he described as a conversion experience. He was about to leave politics and devote his life to being a Christian clergyman when he

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-58293515528819025082007-03-04T17:00:00.002-05:002008-02-17T15:24:44.852-05:00

"There is only forgiveness, if there is any, where there is the unforgiveable" - Jacques DerridaDerrida's provocative paradox is the epigraph and starting point for Richard Holloway's book subtitled:How Can We Forgive the Unforgiveable?Holloway tackles the complex theme of forgiveness. It is a subject that he explores from both a personal and political perspective but underpinning this

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-78324457418170875482007-02-28T19:51:00.000-05:002007-04-01T18:08:24.145-05:00

"I can resist anything except temptation" Oscar WildeJust what is meant by temptation? Wikipedia suggests that it is a harmful act that looks appealing to an individual. It is usually used to describe acts with negative connotations and as such, tends to lead a person to regret such actions. Temptation also describes the coaxing or inducing a person into committing a negative act. In advertising,

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-8368185639054768172007-02-28T07:20:00.000-05:002007-04-01T18:08:59.240-05:00

The London Times of February 10, 2007 published an article entitled:“Churches must ask why the English Hymnal is out of tune”http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1361831.eceThe article states in part: “In December, the tercentenary of Charles Wesley’s birth will be marked by a series of events around the world. His chief legacy is as arguably the greatest hymn writer in the

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-60187344737106057452007-02-26T22:49:00.000-05:002007-04-01T17:57:29.266-05:00

In his book 'Looking in the Distance' Richard Holloway quotes Nietzsche as saying:"Becoming aims at nothing and achieves nothing."Holloway comments: "The paradox is that, being gifted and afflicted with consciousness, we pay close attention to the universe, even though it is uninterested in us. We are creatures with a passion for discovering the meaning of things who find ourselves in a universe

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-80279384314971824072007-02-26T21:11:00.000-05:002007-04-01T18:09:28.188-05:00

What does it mean to be a Christian?In his book ‘The Heart of Christianity’, Marcus Borg argues that a literal interpretation of the bible leads to an unpersuasive view of Christianity while a metaphorical interpretation leads to a view that satisfies both the head and the heart.One reviewer of Borg’s book wrote: “It was good for me to read this book to get a better understanding of how a liberal

Looking in the Distancenoreply@blogger.com12