(Image by philippe leroyer via Flickr

Here’s an article exploring the variety of responses of post-baby boomer Jews to their faith and culture.

These young folks seem far less concerned with ‘anti-Semitism’ and less likely to support Israel–more likely to marry out of their faith and far more radical in their responses to their Jewish religion and culture. An interesting article and comparable to how many young Christian folks are currently responding to their faith.     *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -Holocaust Survivors: Mormons-Stop Baptizing Our Dead!

Here’s the transcript of an interview of Richard Dawkins by Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

I thoroughly enjoyed the exchange and found it delightful and enlightening. Well worth reading. 

Related Posts?:

1. -Dawkins: Evolution–”As Incontrovertible a Fact as Any in Science”
2. -“Jesus, The Final Days”

In is new book- The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution- Richard Dawkins now claims that evolution is not a theory but a scientific fact:

“This book is my personal summary of the evidence that the ‘theory’ of evolution is actually a fact – as incontrovertible a fact as any in science.”

Further, he now says that he will not debate a creationist or any supporter of Intelligent Design:

“If a real scientist goes onto a debating platform with a creationist, it gives them a respectability, which I do not think your people have earned.”

In a recent appearance on the Michael Medved radio show, Dawkins said that ‘Intelligent Design’ as just another version of creationism and an idea unworthy of discussion when asked why he wouldn’t debate Intelligent Design proponent Stephen Meyer:

“I will have a discussion with somebody who has a genuinely different scientific point of view,” “[But] I have never come across any kind of creationism, whether you call it intelligent design or not, which has a serious scientific case to put.”

Response: I suppose that he never will come across a creationist with “a serious scientific case to put” either, since he refuses to even enter a discussion with another scientist that may hold creationist views of any type.

At least Dawkins is being totally truthful in his approach to evolution. He accepts it as ‘fact’ and refuses to even consider any alternatives. So many in the scientific community hide behind the ‘theory’ designation but go on and treat evolution as if it were a fact anyway.

It is amazing to me how Dawkins and others have closed the debate and have made infallible ex cathedra statements about evolution even though it can’t possibly be proven.            *Top

Related articles by Zemanta

• Richard Dawkins, ‘Darwin’s Rottweiler,’ in town tonight (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins (guardian.co.uk)
• The world’s most famous atheist (cbc.ca)

Related Posts?:

1. -Faith and/or Evolution?
2. -An Interview: Richard Dawkins on The Hugh Hewitt Show

(Islam symbol via Wikipedia)

Sabri Husibi, a former Muslim who is now an atheist has received ‘death threats’ since the publication of a Tulsa World article last Saturday in which he was critical of Islam. Oh yea, and all religions per se. But it was his comments on Islam and the Koran, as a former Muslim that got him in trouble with some in the Muslim community.

Husibi has an ‘unlisted’ phone number yet received over 30 calls from people who cursed him, called him a traitor, and threatening him in some way or another. Plus he also received angry calls from friends and relatives in Syria who heard about it. According to Sabri, one caller offered his wife $10,000 to leave him and return home to Syria also:

"Someone from Tulsa called my 76-year-old mother in Syria and said, ‘You’re not going to see your son anymore,’ "

What seemed to anger Muslims the most was Husibi’s contention the Quran was written by men and had been changed over the years.

The director of the Oklahoma chapter of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), Razi Hashmi, said that Husibi has a right in this country to say what he wants without being threatened however should not make false statements against the Quran.

Response: “freedom of speech” and ‘freedom of religion’ are two ongoing issues that continue to be difficult for many recent Muslim immigrants to fully appreciate and accept. Particularly when it comes to criticizing Islam in any way which runs against the gain of Muslim culture.

Religious criticism and dialogue is taken for granted in America. However, in many of the Muslim countries and communities that these immigrants came from, criticism and defamation of Islam and the Quran is actually a very serious offence that can even result in death or a jail sentence at the very least.

Care should be taken that the demands for tolerance, respect, and deference towards Islam are not allowed to compromise our freedoms in any way.

Already newspapers are refraining from publishing cartoons that may be offensive to Muslims while anything still goes against Christians and Judaism.

Libraries are beginning to place the Quran on the top shelf as demanded while a Bible might be subjected to graffiti and mutilation in a museum. Crosses can be displayed in urine and called art but a book that is critical of the Quran and the teaching of Muhammad might have a hard time finding a publisher.

Point is, the cultural and religious demands of Islam for exclusive respect should not be allowed to trump our freedoms in any way.       

Related Posts?:

1. -Apostasy Poses a Problem for ‘Moderate’ Western Muslims
2. -Beheadings and Honor Killings part of Islam?

(Image by ?§m? via Flickr)

This continues what we were taking about in the previous post.

According to the UN nearly 90% of the women in Afghanistan suffer from some kind of domestic abuse and so do many of their children. Apparently one the greatest sins that an Afghan woman can be guilty of is being barren. Also, this is a country that seems to excuse rapists and punish the women who are raped?

Read this shocking story from CNN.

This article really does confirm the realities of life for women in Afghanistan as depicted in the novel by Khaled Hosseini:

-"A Thousand Splendid Suns" –again a book that I highly recommend.

Related Posts?:

1. -“The Stoning of Soraya M.”–Re: The Treatment of Women in Muslim Countries
2. -Afghanistan: 2 Face Death over Translation of Quran

For my complete review of the movie follow this link. 

This is a true story and the movie is incredibly powerful and horrible all at the same time. Soraya was falsely accused of adultery by her husband in order to get her out of the way and marry a wealthy younger woman. The Mullah, the Mayor, and the main witness were all manipulated into supporting the accusation and execution by her evil husband. It isn’t till after the stoning that some begin to question their involvement in the process.

By the way, the portrayal of the stoning itself is far worse than I expected. To add to the horror, Soraya’s own father is chosen to cast the first stone, and worse yet her own children participate.

The movie exposes the lack of rights that women are still subjected to in some Muslim villages in many parts of the Middle East. Unfortunately stoning is also still going on in far too many places in the Muslim world.

While the movie is no longer in the theaters, I highly recommend getting hold of the DVD when it becomes available. It is an experience that you will not soon forget and gives you some insight into life in the Middle East—in this case a rural village in Iran.

For even a greater understanding of the Middle East-particularly of life in Afghanistan, I also highly recommend two books by  Khaled Hosseini:

-"A Thousand Splendid Suns"  and -"The Kite Runner"

*Top

Related Posts?:

1. -The Plight of Women in Afghanistan–Truth is Just as Strange as Fiction in This Case
2. -The Muslim Motivation for Martyrdom?

The case of Rifqa Bary brings to the forefront a continuing problem for moderate Western Muslims. Miss Bary is the 17-year-old runaway who converted to Christianity and fled from her Muslim family because she feared that she would become a victim of Muslim "honor killing".

Apostasy—that is leaving the Muslim faith–poses one of the greatest problems for ‘moderate’ Muslims living in Western countries. Free Western societies do not allow ‘honor killings’ in the name of Islam and ‘family honor’–yet every single authority and sect of Islam demands that ‘apostates’ be dealt with harshly and forced to re-convert or face death.

An Islamist Watch article summarizes the problem:

All major schools of Islamic jurisprudence stipulate that a sane adult male must be put to death for abandoning Islam, though varying interpretations persist on whether females should be killed or merely imprisoned. Many Islamic states outlaw apostasy and seven list it as a capital offense. However, freelancers such as angry relatives present the greatest danger to ex-Muslims, as Sunni and Shiite scholars largely agree that Shari’a empowers individuals to punish converts. This tradition has followed Muslims to the Western world.

The parents of Rifqa claim that their daughter has nothing to fear from them—yet she did run away in fear of her life due to the threats that she reportedly received from her family.

Many will quote in the Koran 2:256: “There is no compulsion in religion”, but herein lies the paradox–Koran 4:89 states:

“They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah’s way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.”

Most hold that the later verse supersedes the former and Muslim scholars are nearly unanimous in their interpretation that 4:89 calls for apostates to be killed.

This leaves moderate Muslims living in Western countries with a dilemma—if they are faithful to their Muslim traditions than ‘honor killings’ are prescribed when a family member leaves Islam. However, if they do follow through then they run afoul of the law in the Western country where they live.            *Top     (Cross-Posted on the Main Page)

Related Posts?:

1. -Beheadings and Honor Killings part of Islam?
2. -Facebook Jihad: Muslims Hack Christian Site

(-Codex Sinaiticus via Wikipedia)

A N.T. Greek scholar has found a fragment of the Codex Sinaiticus hidden underneath the binding of an 18th-century book in an Egyptian monastery.

The Codex Sinaiticus is probably the oldest Greek manuscript of the Bible extant dating from around 350 AD. Recently the Codex was put online to make it more accessible to Bible scholars. The history of Sinaiticus lends credence to this story. When the Codex was originally discovered at Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai (Egypt) the monks were literally using it as scrap paper.

The Codex Sinaiticus is extremely important as one of the major textual references used in producing accurate modern versions of the New Testament. The Codex also contains an early Greek form of the Old Testament called the Septuagint.

(Image by Yukari* via Flickr)

For the small fee of $110, a new business will take care of your pets after the Rapture. They have signed up confessed non-believers to be involved in the ‘service’.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets styles itself as a service that will take care of ‘left behind’ pets when their Christian owners are raptured. The motto on their website is:

  “The next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World”

On their site they have the following caption:

"You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved. But when the Rapture comes what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind."

Response: Wow, how clever! I wonder what they’re going to do with all the $ money? Maybe buy some more anti-God ads on busses?             *Top          (Cross-posted on the Main Page)

A scholarly examination of the last events in the life and resurrection of Jesus. (Read the whole review @  Book Reviews)       *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -"Claiming Christ"
2. -Book Review: “Jesus Interrupted”