Link blog: sex, funny, christianity, atheism

[nameandnature]

The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality :: Desiring God

Well known complementarian John Piper explains how God sent a tornado to break the spire of a Lutheran church as a "a gentle but firm" reminder that gay sex is bad. Via a more sensible Christian on Unreasonable Faith.
(tags: church homosexuality sin bible christianity reformed sex gay piper lutheran lolxians)

Boring men?

In response to a Metafilter posting linking to an article about how all men are boring, Mefi user Pastabagel shares their idea of what it would be like if men responded to women asking what was on their minds.
(tags: funny metafilter relationships sex women boring)

Apophatic atheology: an April apologetic

"A great deal of needless offence and rancour, it seems to me, is caused by the unfortunate tendency of certain believers to take the speeches and books of atheism literally."
(tags: religion atheism apophatic funny parody ken-macleod)

Biblical Evidence for Catholicism: Was Skeptical Philosopher David Hume an Atheist?

Some interesting quotes from Hume scholars. Comes from a blog evangelising for Catholicism, so may be strongly filtered evidence, but worth a read, in any case.
(tags: philosophy hume atheism david-hume agnosticism deism religion scepticism)

Nothing New Under The Sun - The biggest problem imo with organized religion

is that it validates the very human impulse to think that we can "make up" for things - rewrite the past, undo what we have done, magic away the reality with something else - that we can fix our misdeeds and harms done by harming ourselves in some way.
(tags: religion atonement psychology morality)

Ireland Archbishop stunned by Dr Rowan Williams' criticism of Catholic Church -Times Online

"The Archbishop of Dublin today said he was "stunned" to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury declare that the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has lost all credibility because of the child abuse scandal." Rowan's peeved at the poaching Pope (and sensibly looking to put some distance between the two churches, by the looks of it).
(tags: catholicism catholic rowan-williams anglican anglicanism religion christianity ireland children abuse)

Comments

[liv]

bellatrys has a habit of saying really interesting things but expressing herself in a way that's hard to understand if you're not already in her brain. But that stuff about using suffering as currency has a lot going for it, and I like the way she's talking both about an aspect of human psychology and the way that organized religion uses that tendency.

The boring men thing I probably shouldn't have even clicked through, because its humour is based on the offensive and stupid idea that men and women can never ever possibly communicate. But the thing that strikes me about it is that it seems to be making a second bizarre assumption, namely that there are any people at all whose unfiltered stream-of-consciousness is constantly interesting (or indeed, coherent). I'm pretty certain that if women went around literally verbalizing every thought that went through their heads, most of it would be irrelevant and boring and not logically connected to previous thoughts. And yes, of course, some of it would be speculation about sexual interactions with random passers-by.

[nameandnature]

bellatrys has a habit of saying really interesting things but expressing herself in a way that's hard to understand if you're not already in her brain.

Yes: I looked at some of the other stuff on her LJ and it was very stream-of-consciousness, though I understood some of it, having read Carpe Jugulum (and in fact, she inspired me to go and read it again).

The boring men thing I probably shouldn't have even clicked through, because its humour is based on the offensive and stupid idea that men and women can never ever possibly communicate

Well, it's a response to an article from a woman saying men are boring, so I think it's tongue in cheek ("I guess Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus! LOL!").

And yes, of course, some of it would be speculation about sexual interactions with random passers-by.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. :-)