Virtual tour of the creationism museum in Kentucky.

Blogging the Bible

Over at Slate, David Plotz has completed his blogging the bible series, with his take on 2 Chronicles.

That's it! After 39 books, 929 chapters, more than 600,000 words—and just over a year—I've finally finished reading the Hebrew Bible... I just wanted to read the book and write about what it's like to read it. No essays, no philosophy, no experts.

Since his project focused on the Hebrew bible (he is Jewish), the order may seem a little odd to Christians or those familiar with the King James version of the bible. I've been following this series since the beginning, and it has been entertaining and occasionally enlightening. I highly recommend it.

He's now looking for someone to resume the project with the New Testament. And I'm looking forward to it as well.

NP: "In a Different Place" - Ride

The Armageddon Flowchart. (via kottke via Rebecca Blood)

Limbo in Limbo

Pope Benedict XVI will end the Catholic doctrine of Limbo. As strange as the concept of Limbo sounds to those of us who were reared as protestants (and I imagine it's even weirder for Atheists and adherents of other faiths), it made a certain logical sense that virtuous people who did not have any opportunity to convert were not doomed to an eternity of pain. According to the article:

Limbo is traditionally held to be the place where the souls of children go if they die before they can be baptised and so freed from original sin.

It is also the fate of “holy people” such as the prophet Abraham who lived before the time of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe offered mankind redemption through his death and Resurrection.

I always thought Limbo, based on my knowledge of it from the Inferno, would been a pretty cool place to hang out. Imagine a poker game with Socrates, Abraham, and Caesar.

What's next on the chopping block, Purgatory? (Don't even get me started on how weird that one looks to Protestants.)

NP: "The Avalanche" - Sufjan Stevens

6.6.6

In honor of today's nefarious date, I thought I'd point you to a list of the numbers of the beast.

I wonder what Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are thinking today. Perhaps they are checking the rapture index to see if they need to start looking skyward.

Maybe everyone should just step back and realize that the way we abbreviate our dates have nothing to do with John of Patmos. June 6, 2006 doesn't look nearly nefarious now does it. Heck, if it weren't for calendar reform, it would be June 20 anyway.

Of course, rational thought and religious fundametalists in the pre-millenial dispensational mode don't really go together now do they.

UPDATE: Of course, it's actually National Yo-Yo Day... what could be satanic about that I ask you.

NP: "99th Dream" - Swervedriver

Mapping Religion in America

The Regions of Mind blog has an interesting post with maps dissecting the distribution of religious adherents in America (full larger versions of all these maps). The real surprise isn't that the south is predominently Baptist (well duh), but that Catholics and Lutherans have such large representations, and we hardly hear about them when anyone talks about the religious right.

One more interesting note. On the map of Prebyterianism, the bright spot in the Virginia mountains is where I'm from. This squares very well with my own experience growing up. All those Scots-Irish immigrants that populated that area where Presbyterian after all. I'm more surprised that Presbyterians make up such a small segment overall (relegated to the other category on the main maps).

NP: "2/4" - Clinic

Vatican Supports Science

File this under surprising but welcome news. A Vatican cardinal said yesterday that the faithful should listen to what science has to offer, and warned that religion risks turning into ''fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason. They still remember being on the wrong side of Galileo.

He went on to point out that science in turn should listen to religion on certain things as well, citing the development of nuclear weapons as a chief example. I'm no Catholic, but the whole thing had me nodding my head. (Luckily, stem cells didn't come up in the article.)

As I've said before: Let science be science and religion be religion. Mixing them together, as the current crop of creationists try to do, cheapens both of them.

UPDATE: Found a link that actually worked.

NP: "Something Lost" - Long Pigs

Deconstructing Left Behind

I've been meaning to write about this for awhile, and I suppose there's no time like the present. So, I'm going to take this opportunity to point all y'all over to Slactivist, who has taken on the unenviable task at close reading and deconstructing Left Behind in a regular series.

This series of posts has been going on for a while now, and I admire his dedication for continually making it through such dreck--all the while pointing out how very un-Christian some of the ideas espoused by the authors LaHaye and Jenkins (and presumably their followers) really are.

The series shines a light on some of the ideas that a growing population of professed conservative Christians hold, and we should all be made aware of them. Of course, he does indulge in a fair bit of fun at the expense of the very stilted writing style and weird plot devices found in the book as well.

Go give him a read.

NP: "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!" - Sufjan Stevens

So I Heard a Rumor that There's a New Pope?

That must explain this. Submitted without further comment (Ed. note: Surely that's a first).

NP: Toenut - "Song #1"

Hollywood Liberals* and the Ten Commandments

Living in the south or sort-of south for all of my life, I've becomed accustomed to displays of the Ten Commandments at all sorts of public buildings, usually at courthouses and in schools. I hear about this more in Georgia than I did in Virginia though.

Lately, these have been in the news as someone who has actually read the first amendment to the constitution inevitably decides this violates the establishment clause (read, separation of church and state). I don't have a problem with the Ten Commandments per se (they're a pretty good guide to living a pretty decent life), but I do have a problem with those folks who seem hell bent on retaining them in our public spaces--the beliefs of those residents be damned.

Now, I'm guessing you'll say that there aren't many Buddhists or Muslims in many of these small towns to begin with, so who's going to get offended. Well, last time I counted, there are a lot of different denominations that all claim the ten commandments, not to mention Judaism, and they all could use different translations. So what's the preferred version? The one favored by Southern Baptists? Or by Catholics (OK, I didn't even write that one with a straight face).

The thing is, people like former Judge Roy Moore in Alabama and his organization want to establish their particular brand of fundamentalist, conversative, evangelical religion, even at the expense of some more liberal strains of Christianity such as Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist, and Catholic--again not to mention Judaism.

To a fault, their usual argument (echoed by Justice Scalia no less) is that these commandments are the basis for U.S. law. To that, I say Horsehockey! The basis for U.S. is the consitution. The same constitution that expressly forbids the establishment of a state religion.

So where did these displays come from. I'm sure a lot of them came from well-meaning public servants; others from conservative ideologues; and others from sources less clear.

Now, for my Pual Harvey moment. It seems that many of these were erected along with the marketing push for the Cecil B. DeMille film, The Ten Commandments. And now you know the rest of the story. Stolen shamelessy from Mefi.

*excluding Charlton Heston of course.