Archive for the 'Religion and theology' Category
MichaelW on May 06 2008 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Media, MichaelW's Page, Race, Religion and theology
I haven’t had much time to grace the pages of ASHC lately, but I was skimming through Memeorandum and just couldn’t resist saying something about this little screed:
Wright issue will haunt conservative media elite
By Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor
Now that Sen. Barack Obama has denounced his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, many of his critics, [...]
Lance on Apr 19 2008 | Filed under: Humor, Lance's Page, Music, Religion and theology
Heh, a response to Richard Dawkins and the unbelievers amongst us. Right or wrong, arrogant condescension does not go unpunished.
Hat tip: D.A. Ridgely
addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F04%2F19%2Fbeware-the-believers%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Beware+the+Believers’;
addthis_pub = ”;
Sphere: Related Content
Peg on Feb 23 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, History, Peg's Page, Religion and theology
Please read this, and then pass it on and post it yourself.
We cannot stay silent.
addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F02%2F23%2Fdo-not-stay-silent%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Do+Not+Stay+Silent’;
addthis_pub = ”;
Sphere: Related Content
Lance on Feb 10 2008 | Filed under: Lance's Page, Law, Religion and theology
Ali Eteraz gives his fellow Muslims the rationale for opposing Sharia courts being imported into the west:
14 - Liberal democracy, as is, is perfectly compatible with Islam
You aren’t making your country more Islamic or even earning more reward by going to Sharia arbitration courts. The Mufti of Egypt thinks liberal democracy is compatible with Islam. [...]
ChrisB on Feb 08 2008 | Filed under: Chris' Page, Law, Religion and theology
Well, kinda. After the whole row over the Archbishop of Canterbury’s declaration that Sharia Law in Britain is “unavoidable“, Eugene Volokh notes that it has been allowed in some US court, in a way. It seems some parties entered into a contract that provided for arbitration based off of rules of sharia law, and the [...]
ChrisB on Feb 07 2008 | Filed under: Chris' Page, Media, Religion and theology, Society, Technology
After their success getting the Muhammad cartoons banned, some Muslims have now set their sights on wikipedia. Recently a large group of Muslims have started an email campaign asking wikipedia to remove their images of their holy prophet Muhammad, even going so far as to start an online petition that has received over 80,000 [...]
Peg on Jan 31 2008 | Filed under: Culture, Foreign affairs, Peg's Page, Religion and theology, Society
(Cross posted at What if?)
My liberal friends think I’m a conservative. My conservative friends think I’m a liberal. Frankly - there is truth in the assessment of both groups. Depending upon the issue, you can honestly label me with both.
One issue that continues to gnaw at me is that of equal rights [...]
ChrisB on Jan 24 2008 | Filed under: Chris' Page, Religion and theology, Technology
So making the news today, a group of hackers calling themselves Anonymous, has declared “war” on the Church of Scientology. It started with distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on CoS and CoS sponsored websites, but moved on today to claims that the group had hacked Prolexic, which is a company employed by Scientology to [...]
MichaelW on Dec 26 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Glenn Greenwald's Carnival of Fisking, Media, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology
It shouldn’t surprise me the lengths that Greenwald will go to distort what people say in order to lambaste his enemies, but his Christmas offering really takes the figgy pudding.
Mike Huckabee’s Christmas ad — like everything Huckabee does — provoked all sorts of vehement, angry, un-Christmas-like attacks from Republican pundits. The GOP establishment almost uniformly [...]
MichaelW on Dec 26 2007 | Filed under: Culture, History, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology, Society
Jon Henke posts an interesting history lesson concerning the origins of the well-known abbreviation for Christmas:
Growing up, I sometimes heard - in church and from various religious scolds - that XMas was a secular attempt to “take Christ out of Christmas”, rather than, say, an attempt to save valuable space on signs.
Jon then links to [...]
Lance on Dec 14 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Lance's Page, Religion and theology
McQ discusses Krauthammer’s disgust over the Republican Party and its candidates stooping before those demanding a declaration of religious faith to become President. From Krauthammer:
I’d thought that the limits of professed public piety had already been achieved during the Republican CNN/YouTube debate when some squirrelly looking guy held up a Bible and asked, “Do you [...]
MichaelW on Dec 05 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Philosophy, Religion and theology
Amen.
One of the reasons I abhor communitarianism (and tend to see my political philosophy as the opposite of that) is because it vests communitarian thinkers with the self appointed power to tell me (and others) what to do. Provided, of course, that they come up with a claim to do so in the name of [...]
Lance on Nov 16 2007 | Filed under: Humor, Lance's Page, Religion and theology
Update: Michael has been talking some smack. He has laid down a challenge. He calls it tits versus snits. His coverage of Reid’s machinations on the war, versus my attention to Salma’s breasts. Which is unfair, he has an Instapundit link. So I am asking Glenn Reynolds to rectify this so we can find out, [...]
MichaelW on Nov 15 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Humor, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology, Society
I guess “man bites dog” is just too normal nowadays:
NEW DELHI - A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death — an act he believes cursed him — a newspaper reported Tuesday.
P. Selvakumar married the [...]
Lance on Nov 13 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Notes on the war, Religion and theology
59 Schoolchildren Killed in Afghan Blast
Aziz Poonawala tells us who we are really talking about:
not to contradict Tariq bhai, but these aren’t even people. They are Reavers, and they will burn in hellfire.
More importantly, it behooves us all to remember who kills the most innocent muslim blood in this world. Not secret Jewish cabals, or [...]
Keith_Indy on Oct 23 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Economics, Education, History, Keith's Page, Religion and theology, Society, Technology
Sometimes information like this makes me sit back and think “whoa” (sounding to much like neo in the matrix.) Not only is this a small world (which we often forget,) but it is becoming an exponentially complex and interconnected one.
glumbert - Shift Happens
The Singularity is Near.
Heck, I read sci-fi, and try to keep up [...]
Keith_Indy on Oct 12 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Keith's Page, Religion and theology
Or at least, according to what Michael Savage implied last night, she is the harbinger of nasty things to come, if all righteous people don’t rhetorically smite her down. So, what is up with Ann Coulter???
PJ Media has a roundup of blogger reaction.
As for me,
Yeah, what Ann Coulter said was outrageous, rude, and [...]
Keith_Indy on Oct 11 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Foreign affairs, Keith's Page, Religion and theology
Doesn’t this sound familiar…
Islamist radicals in Pakistan have attempted to destroy an ancient carving of Buddha by drilling holes in the rock and filling them with dynamite.
The Buddha, in the Swat district of north-west Pakistan, is thought to date from the seventh century AD and was considered the largest in Asia, after the two Bamiyan [...]
Lance on Sep 17 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page, Religion and theology
Lee over at Postpolitical has some thoughts on the mural below found in Caracas Venezuela:
Technorati Tags: Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Jesus, religion, Last Supper, Marx, Castro, socialism, communism
addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2007%2F09%2F17%2Fsocialisms-last-supper%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Socialism%26%238217%3Bs+Last+Supper’;
addthis_pub = [...]
Lance on Aug 23 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Religion and theology
In one of history’s more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important [...]
Lance on Aug 23 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Lance's Page, Louisiana Politics, Religion and theology
Start with Professor Bainbridge, then read this post by Kos and this post by Henry Farrell of Crooked Timber. Compare and ponder who has more influence in the Democratic Party, Kos and the type of people who launched these attacks in Louisiana or people like Henry Farrell. Dishonesty (or lack of reading comprehension, I vote [...]
Joshua Foust on Jul 20 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Religion and theology
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer
Defense
Hans Kristensen, who runs the Strategic Security Blog for FAS, keeps churning out essential reading after essential reading, this time on how Russia is really just playing the same ABM game it played in the Cold War. Because the more things change… SSB, by the way, should be in your RSS reader [...]
The Poet Omar on Jul 12 2007 | Filed under: Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
Boy oh boy! Were the headlines in the media and blogosphere ever more hyperbolic and littered with ignorance than they were today? Actually, they probably have been, but today’s gaggle of garbage certainly has to rank up in the top ten media explosions (or should I say implosions since, as usual, they’ve gotten [...]
MichaelW on Jun 18 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology
“Kyoto, we have a problem.”
Few things annoy me more than the modern Lysenkoism of Anthropogenic Global WarmingTM and its rapturous congregation who viciously condemn any who dare challenge their scriptures. Each day it seems that we are bombarded with yet more bald-faced propaganda designed to scare us (and especially our children) into submission to [...]
Joshua Foust on May 25 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology
Defense
An excellent look at so-called blast-resistent vehicles (or “Mine Resistant Ambush Protected” vehicles, or MRAP), though it doesn’t explore the specificities of the newly deployed American MRAP. Still, the idea of a heavily armored truck on stilts is weirdly appealing in an H.R. Giger kind of way. More on the MRAP here.
The Navy is probably [...]
Joshua Foust on May 14 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
Ellen Tauscher wants to create a commission to assess the strategic posture of the U.S. This is a good thing, as I’m not really sure why we need thousands of warheads—the Pentagon’s scare mongering rings hollow considering our success in conventional battle, and I’m not sure how ICBMs would deter suicide [...]
Joshua Foust on May 11 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
It’s funny, these kinds of scare stories about personnel shortages at the country’s spy agencies used to frustrate me. I tried for a long time to get into the CIA, but twice was I unceremoniously declined. The DIA didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me no. But I’ve adopted a [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 30 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
I’ve reread Lt. Col. Yingling’s essay on the failures of the generalship several times at this point. This morning, while I was pondering the flag announcements, which are the lists of people being submitted to have stars attached to their rank (i.e. generals and admirals), it hit me: we have more [...]
Lance on Apr 28 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Notes on the war, Religion and theology
The always worth attention Christopher Hitchens has a brief, but interesting, interview in New York Magazine. Many thanks to Lee Garnett for giving me the pointer.
Some choice bits:
And what if one of your children found God? Would that be a problem?
Not at all. My children, to the extent that they have found religion, have found [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 27 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, Technology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
When START stops, what happens to Prompt Global Strike? Let’s think of this question in the context of Volodiya scrapping arms control accords with Europe.
Rumors that the 15-month extension was a bad joke, and that soldiers are now being told to expect deployments of 16-18 months—for reducing stress, remember.
Secrets=fun. [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 20 2007 | Filed under: Economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Religion and theology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
One of the funnier stories out of the initial invasion of Iraq was the use of dolphins to clear mines from Um-Qasr harbor. It was a miserable failure. Still, the desire to use so-called “Animal Intelligence†remains of huge interest at the Pentagon. Which was why I was tickled pink to [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 18 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Libertarianism, Media, Military Matters, Race, Religion and theology, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
This account of an NSA Recruiting drive wasn’t all that remarkable, except for one bit I had never heard before. “It was mentioned that people who had done a lot of illegal file sharing were turned down and told never to apply again.†Now, how they define “a lot†leaves much [...]
The Poet Omar on Apr 07 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page, social science
I think that this story and the conclusions it references can be filed under the category of, “see, I told you so.” Or perhaps, “tell me something else that I already knew.”
Let’s look at what took the APA such a great amount of time and resources to “objectively determine,”: the media and advertisers [...]
MichaelW on Mar 29 2007 | Filed under: MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology
Last November, right before Thanksgiving, six Muslim cleric were removed from a US Airways flight for “suspicious behavior” in the view of several passengers and crew members. The six have since been dubbed the “Flying Imams.” Although at first the breathless reports suggested that over-sensitive passengers had, perhaps, created a civil rights issue, [...]
The Poet Omar on Feb 25 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
Although I haven’t yet had the opportunity to study this site in detail, I was quite interested in its basic premise : Islam and Libertarianism are not only quite compatible, but actually darn near separated at birth. That’s actually quite close to my thinking on these philosophies and I am thrilled that someone has [...]
The Poet Omar on Feb 16 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
Many people in the US have become aware, some more recently than others, of the antics of alleged separation of church and state group, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. They have formally existed since 1947 and claim to be non-partisan, non-sectarian advocates of the absolute separation of religion from politics. [...]
The Poet Omar on Feb 15 2007 | Filed under: Books, Environment, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
We’ve recently sparked some interesting discussions on climate change and global warming here at ASHC. I’d like to add a little fuel (biodegradable, earth-friendly fuel, of course) to the fire by recommending this article on Dr. David Orrell’s new book, Apollo’s Arrow. Although I have not yet had the opportunity to read Dr. [...]
The Poet Omar on Feb 12 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
This is an interesting look at the dark side of Scientology. For years, we’ve been bombarded with the idea that Scientology is merely a new religion facing massive prejudice by an unenlightened population led by old-guard church leaders who refuse to allow any encroachment on their turf. Well, turns out Scientology is just [...]
Lance on Jan 23 2007 | Filed under: Books, Culture, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Libertarianism, Religion and theology
I haven’t addressed D’Souza’s new book The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, though Robby asked me to long before it was even out. I have meant to, but at this point it seems a bit superfluous. It has been dissected and critiqued so extensively that I can’t imagine as [...]
Lance on Jan 23 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, History, Lance's Page, Media, Religion and theology
I don’t know what to make of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. On one hand he is one of the architects of the Islamic Republic, one time designated heir to Khomeini, a supporter of the seizing of our embassy at the dawn of the Revolution and still claims to believe in the Guardianship of the [...]
Lance on Jan 22 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Education, Lance's Page, Religion and theology, social science
From Robin Hanson’s fascinating blog, Overcoming Bias, I found this:
Last November we learned that the US public believes in God more than college professors, who believe more than professors at elite schools:
Almost a third answered “none” when asked their religion — more than twice the percentage found in the general population. Science professors [...]
The Poet Omar on Jan 05 2007 | Filed under: Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
I was reading several recent posts from Muslims around the world dealing with their experience of the Hajj and its impact on them personally and on life in general. As one who has completed it, I can certainly say that it is a spiritually uplifting experience and that, although difficult and exhausting physically, it [...]
MichaelW on Jan 04 2007 | Filed under: Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology, social science
According to Dennis Overbye you don’t:
Having just lived through another New Year’s Eve, many of you have just resolved to be better, wiser, stronger and richer in the coming months and years. After all, we’re free humans, not slaves, robots or animals doomed to repeat the same boring mistakes over and over again. As William [...]
Keith_Indy on Dec 13 2006 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Keith's Page, Religion and theology
With the hoopla just starting on Christians in the military, see here and here, I was wondering what Muslims and Islamists might think of athiests and others who are not “people of the book.”
Christian military officers who share their faith at work in the Pentagon pose a threat to national security, according to a [...]
Lance on Dec 11 2006 | Filed under: Culture, Humor, Lance's Page, Religion and theology
From an e-mail my brother in law sent me:
The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington Chemistry mid-term.
The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.
Bonus Question: [...]
The Poet Omar on Dec 02 2006 | Filed under: Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
Islam Q and A. I know, gentle readers, you’ve missed it. You’ve beaten your chests and gnashed your teeth. You’ve stared holes into your monitor screens. And now, your wailings and gnashings of teeth can end. Friday Islam Q and A is back.
Honestly, I discontinued this regular post for awhile, [...]
The Poet Omar on Nov 27 2006 | Filed under: Culture, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
Keith sent this very interesting link to Michael awhile back and he forwarded it to me. This is a great example of a moderate Muslim voice trying to offer a little fragment of the positive relationship that Jews and Muslims have enjoyed in the past. Mansur also offers advice for the future and [...]
Lance on Nov 02 2006 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Religion and theology
Abu Hamza al-Mujaher, the man who is at present the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq a few weeks before the anniversary of Sept.11th exhorted his supporters to kill at least one American in the next two weeks “using a sniper rifle, explosive or whatever the battle may require.” Via MEMRI I learned that Aslam [...]
The Poet Omar on Oct 25 2006 | Filed under: Economics, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
***Update*** A point I neglected to mention is that distributism, like Marxism, seems overly concerned with labor and production of concrete goods. It does not adequately address what could broadly be considered the “service sector,” which could be said to include anyone who does not directly produce a concrete product (bankers, financial professionals, [...]
The Poet Omar on Oct 11 2006 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page
Recently, one of our regular readers and commenters, Don, suggested that I post some deconstructions of some of the more popular critics of Islam. I thought that would be a great idea and I may do some detailed rebuttals at a later point. For now, however, please have a look at some others who have [...]
