Melanie Phillips: God, Truth & Power

In her latest work, Melanie Phillips, repudiates the view that faith and reason are incompatible, demonstrating that in many cases the opposite is true. Her central thesis is that the trivialization of religious belief, rejection of the Judeo-Christian heritage, and postmodernism all combine to erode the foundations upon which Western civilization is based. Ms. Phillips explains that this vacuum has resulted in the emergence of a host of irrational cults and preposterous conspiracy theories-a world in which verifiably false statements are continuously reiterated, while truth and lies, right and wrong, victim and aggressor are reversed; a world which may lead Western civilization to a new antirational dark age.

Tornadoes, Quakes, and the Myth of Karma

An interesting article by Rob Asghar of the Huffington Post on Karma.

They say Karma's a bitch. They're too unkind. Recent floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes reveal her as a coolly indifferent, altogether inscrutable customer.

One wag noted a few years ago that the map of the Confederate slave states is pretty much the same as the map of today's Bible Belt. True. And it doesn't take a lot to see that those maps overlap nicely with a map of major tornado activity in the U.S.

So why exactly does Heaven so happily pummel the region that is God's last, best hope for bringing salvation and good values to His beloved creation?

But I realize that's just a matter of a conservative Christian perspective. A devout Muslim in Iran might say that his country is God's last, best hope to stabilize the world.

But wait: You say Iran represents one of the most seismically unstable regions on the planet? And that it was unstable before women started dressing immodestly?

No wonder even the Bible finds a few candid moments to confess that it wonders sometimes if it's all B.S.

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You're special, but not as you once thought

Anyone who has read the bible knows that the Old Testament it is full of weird and contradictory rules and quotes.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are all more powerful than you. When the LORD your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them, and don't let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters. They will lead your young people away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and he will destroy you. (Deuteronomy 7:1-4 NLT)

However, I have a friend who has read the bible, and yet still remains a follower of the Christian faith because in their particular take on Christianity it states that Jesus died on the cross, not just to forgive us of original sin, but to banish the ways of the old testament and move us into a more enlightened time.

Firstly, I'd argue that they are really just moving the goal posts here, shoehorning some old unacceptable myths to suit their view of what is acceptable.

Secondly, the New Testament, although not quite as evil as the Old, still isn't what a person in the 21st Century should call enlightening or worthy of use as a moral compass.

[In the following parable, Jesus clearly approves of beating slaves even if they didn't know they were doing anything wrong] The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. "But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given." (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

"So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. (From the NIV Bible, Revelation 2:22-23)"

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away an withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:5-6)"

"He [Jesus] said to them, 'Go!' so they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. (Matthew 8:32)"

Why people cannot see, from the abundance of evidence made available to us, that we aren't different from any other species on this planet. Instead we are just one part of this incredible tapestry called life.

Every animal on the planet, including Homo Sapiens, are special in the sense that our ancestors were able to reproduce successfully. In fact, if you have a pet dog or cat, they too are special because every single one of their ancestors were able to reproduce successfully too.

If you go back long enough in your cat's family tree, way past their great great grandparents, past all the species their ancient ancestors were too, back tens of millions of years to some of the first mammalian type creatures on the earth, its there that the line of our "human" ancestral line meets with the ancestral line of your pet cat.

Now to be a part of this incredible family tree called Life on Planet Earth, is pretty special. We can even go further back and see that we are indeed "related" to the reptiles, the fish, and even plants.

I'm not saying we need to go out tree hugging just yet, but if you can understand where you came from, then you can start to feel a great and overwhelming affinity with the natural world, and a great appreciation for the place we all call home.

From this stand point we can built a world based on the principle of what is best for our home and our extended family.

We certainly aren't going to find that from the outdated myths in a 2000 year old book.