Category Archives: Religion and theology

What passes for moral clarity

Creating a human embryo for the purpose of experimentation and destruction = Good. Creating a  human embryo for the purpose of creating a born human person = Bad. How does it work that way? Also, some argue that Obama’s statements … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Eugenics, Religion and theology, science, Synova's Page | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Malaysia’s War on Tomboys

Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council issued a warning to human rights groups yesterday that should they criticize its efforts to repress “tomboy behaviour” among Malaysian women, it could result in…further repression. One has to marvel at this sort of thinking. How … Continue reading

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Jason Linkins is a Crazier Guy

Jason Linkins takes exception to my reading his Huffington Post editorial about the silly ‘lipstick’ controversy as a suicide fantasy. He protests in his defense that he didn’t want to shoot himself, he wanted to shoot other people. Wonderful. How … Continue reading

Posted in Around the Web, Election 2008, MikeR's Page, Religion and theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Ruining Ramadan in Egypt

Ramadan always means new soap operas in the Arab world. I learned today it also means not even thinking about masturbation. A small thing to you perhaps, but in a repressive sexual society where the curves of the female figure … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Foreign affairs, Lee's Page, Religion and theology, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn R.I.P.

The impact of this man on the world is not part of the memory of many today. I’ll be breaking out a few of his books this week in his memory. A true Giant has passed away. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, History, Lance's Page, Religion and theology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Unbearable Deification of Obama

Perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of this (unbearably) long campaign season is the rare opportunity to witness deification in process. From Mark Morford, a San Francisco Gate columnist: Is Obama an enlightened being? Spiritual wise ones say: … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Humor, Media, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Exit Trinity. Exit Church.

Well, Mr. Obama has finally quit that ludicrous Chicago institution known as Trinity United Church of Christ. His membership had survived Rev. Wright, but was ultimately done in over the visiting Rev. Michael Pfleger’s bizarre self-hating white guilt trip, and … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Religion and theology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Wright Stuff

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Media, MichaelW's Page, Race, Religion and theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Beware the Believers

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

Posted in Humor, Lance's Page, Music, Religion and theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do Not Stay Silent

Please read this, and then pass it on and post it yourself. We cannot stay silent.

Posted in Foreign affairs, History, Peg's Page, Religion and theology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Talking points for the modern Muslim

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Lance's Page, Law, Religion and theology | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Sharia Law Enforced in Texas!

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Chris' Page, Law, Religion and theology | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Muhammad-pedia Controversy

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Chris' Page, Media, Religion and theology, Society, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 31 Comments

“First They Came for the Gays”

  (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 … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Foreign affairs, Peg's Page, Religion and theology, Society | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

Begun the Scientology War Has

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Chris' Page, Religion and theology, Technology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Grinchwald’s Stocking Stuffer

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 — … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Glenn Greenwald's Carnival of Fisking, Media, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“XMas” Origins

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, History, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology, Society | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

None of your business

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Lance's Page, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

“I don’t like other people telling me what to do.”

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, … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Philosophy, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

Evidence for a deity?- Updated with Video and a link Bleg!

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Humor, Lance's Page, Religion and theology | 24 Comments

Slippery Slope

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 — … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign affairs, Humor, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology, Society | Leave a comment

The Reavers Arrive Amongst the Children

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Notes on the war, Religion and theology | 2 Comments

Shift Happens

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. … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Economics, Education, History, Keith's Page, Religion and theology, Society, Technology | 4 Comments

Ann Coulter is a Nazi

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Keith's Page, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

The Real Culture War

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Foreign affairs, Keith's Page, Religion and theology | 2 Comments

Socialism’s Last Supper

Lee over at Postpolitical has some thoughts on the mural below found in Caracas Venezuela: [tags] Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Jesus, religion, Last Supper, Marx, Castro, socialism, communism [/tags]

Posted in Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page, Religion and theology | 6 Comments

China decides to regulate reincarnation

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

Henry Farrell vs Kos on Jindal

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Lance's Page, Louisiana Politics, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

News Brief, Our Love to Admire Edition

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

Much Ado about Nothing

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page | 8 Comments

All Your Weather Base Are Belong To Us

“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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology | 2 Comments

News Brief, Groove: Heart Edition

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

News Brief, Brave New World Edition

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science | Leave a comment

News Brief, Weekend Blurby Edition

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science | 10 Comments

News Brief, I’ve Seen It All Edition

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science | 11 Comments

Christopher Hitchens: Religion in the White House and Iraq

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Notes on the war, Religion and theology | 2 Comments

News Brief, Pitseleh Edition

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, … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science, Technology | Leave a comment

News Brief, This Is An Alarm Call Edition

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Religion and theology, social science | Leave a comment

News Brief, Mission of Burma Edition

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Libertarianism, Media, Military Matters, Race, Religion and theology, social science | 19 Comments

See, I Told You So

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Religion and theology, social science, The Poet Omar's Page | 23 Comments

Jane and the Flying Imams

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 … Continue reading

Posted in MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

Interesting case of syncretism

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page | 5 Comments

Americans United strangely silent

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page | 10 Comments

Adding fuel to the Climate Change fire

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, … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Environment, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page | 6 Comments

A growing problem

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page | 2 Comments

Dinesh D’Souza and Responsibility

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Culture, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Libertarianism, Religion and theology | 2 Comments

Division and discord within Iran, an opportunity?

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign affairs, History, Lance's Page, Media, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

Religion in Academia

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Education, Lance's Page, Religion and theology, social science | Leave a comment

An interesting take on the Hajj

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Religion and theology, The Poet Omar's Page | Leave a comment

Got Free Will?

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, … Continue reading

Posted in Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology, social science | 3 Comments