Twitter and religion
I’ve just begun using Twitter, almost every day. Politicians, educators, artists, business people, and many others use Twitter for networking and for learning all sorts of new stuff. But religious groups are using it, too. I recently came across “tweet-a-thons”, I suppose you’d call them. Congregations are tweeting the Bible (in Germany) or the Passion (in New York).
A year or so ago, David Poltz blogged his way through the Bible. The posts are now out in book form.
Reading the Bible
I followed a little bit of David Plotz’s blogging the Bible on Slate. Here’s Plotz’s discussion of both the weird and enduring aspects of the Bible. (The clip starts about 20 minutes into the bloggingheads and stops after this segment.)
The Virtues of Godlessness
This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education takes a look at the connection between religious belief and non-belief in a society and that society’s well-being.
Updates to follow
I’m way behind in my blog posts. The semester is nearly half over. It’s hard to believe. Anyway, this is a promise to myself and my class to fill in the blanks, so to speak and update the blog over the weekend. We’re going to be starting on DZ’s book and I want to be able to blog along with the class.
I don’t believe in atheists
I got a new book out of the library. It’s by Chris Hedges and it’s entitled I Don’t Believe in Atheists. I don’t know exactly what Hedges is implying with his title so I look forward to discovering it as I go along.
For me, given all the genuine Christian fundamentalism in the US and the “in your face”, cultural and political evangelical Christianism, or what one might call American religious Fascism, it’s been surprising to witness the renaissance of Atheism. Not to get too Hegelian, but I think these swings are good things. My own sense is that, globally speaking, religion has been on a not so good run lately. C’mon people! Did we really need Al Qaeda? We’ve even had the return of the evolution wars at school board meetings and in the courts.
At any rate, Hedges starts off with an overview of the past few years’ of godtalk and anti-godtalk in the media. Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the philosopher Daniel Dennett, have written books attacking religious belief. Hedges thinks some of the criticisms have been screeds; others have been thoughtful.
He criticizes Hitchens and Harris for their unfair, crude, and intolerant remarks. About Harris’ book (Letter to a Christian Nation), Hedges writes that Harris’
facile attack on a form of religious belief we all hate, his childish simplicity and ignorance of world affairs, as well as his demonization of Muslims, made the book tedious, at its best, and often idiotic and racist. (2)
I watched the CSPAN debate between Harris and Reza Aslan in 2007. I heartily recommend watching the debate on Reason and Religion. (This is just a small clip. Check out the rest on You Tube.) As for Hedges, I’ll have to keep reading to find out where he’s going.
Coffee calls
I know I should finish the James post. But I’m off to go get some Peet’s coffee.
I am running a slight coffee deficit. The Sisters drink Folgers or Safeway’s best. I did bring some Peet’s Las Hermanas (cute, huh? It’s “the sisters” in Spanish), which I make early Thursday before I head out to school. But even though I worked a little Wednesday at a small cafe a block away from the convent, it’s not quite the same as camping out in one’s own, local Peet’s. Starbucks? Never. (Well, if I were desperate, yes, but only an Americano since Starbucks coffee is over-roasted in my not so humble opinion.)
I own lots of fountain pens and I enjoy using them. So Moleskines, not digital bytes, are what I usually take to Peets.
I’ll read and revise my James post while sipping some delicious coffee made with a French press.