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guillaumeb

guillaumeb's Journal
guillaumeb's Journal
May 15, 2018

The 11th Commandment revisited and explained.

The original text was this:

An 11th Commandment is clearly needed.
One specific to the Religion group. One that would reflect the reality of many of the viewpoints and responses here.

The 11th Commandment to read:

Thou shalt not make any positive references to religion, religious beliefs, or theists in this group.




Some very few here resist the implications of that post, choosing instead to claim that I desire a group filled with only positive posts about religion. Unfortunately for these very few, my own posts that are captioned "Bad news" refute such a simplistic analysis.

So what are the implications of the original post?

One is that I have been reading old posts back to 2012, and based on my admittedly limited reading, the same few posters can be observed attacking every positive post about religion, often questioning the motives of the poster.

Much of the attack centers around the good being attacked becasue it is not the perfect. And if one expects perfection, one will inevitably be disappointed.
May 14, 2018

Pope to give Chilean bishops a dressing-down on abuse errors

From the article:

Pope Francis has summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome for a papal dressing-down because of their role in covering up sexual abuse by priests and their “grave omissions” in caring for victims, the Vatican said.
In a harsh statement that set the tone for next week’s meetings, the Vatican on Saturday (May 12) said Francis wanted to discern responsibilities for the crisis and map changes in the Chilean church to prevent these “devastating wounds” from recurring.


To read more:

https://religionnews.com/2018/05/12/pope-to-give-chilean-bishops-a-dressing-down-on-abuse-errors/

Edited to add:
As of 8.30pm on Monday, a number of responses embodying whataboutism and the 11th Commandment.
May 12, 2018

Deism. What it is, and what it is not.

The term was used recently here, and the claim was that deism is merely a placeholder for atheism. So what is deism?


Deism is the belief in a supreme being, who remains unknowable and untouchable. God is viewed as merely the “first cause” and underlying principle of rationality in the universe. Deists believe in a god of nature -- a noninterventionist creator -- who permits the universe to run itself according to natural laws. Like a “clockmaker god” initiating the cosmic process, the universe moves forward, without needing God’s supervision.


https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/deism.htm

Note that I bolded a few terms that refer to a god and a creator, both terms that are familiar.
I could have cited more definitions, but the others that I read are consistent with this one. So given that a deist by definition accepts the existence of a creator deity, I cannot understand how anyone could imagine that deists were or are anything but another type of theist.


Thoughts?
May 11, 2018

Good news: Willow Creek elders apologize for casting doubt on women's allegations.....

From the article:


The highest-ranking elder of northwest suburban Willow Creek Community Church told the congregation Wednesday that elders owe apologies to women who made allegations of misconduct against church founder Bill Hybels....

In a reversal, Orr also apologized for initial statements that called the allegations lies and castigated former senior leaders of the church who called for a more robust investigation.

“We do not believe that the stories were all lies,” she said.


To read more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-willow-creek-hybels-conduct-20180509-story.html
May 11, 2018

Good news: William Barber Takes on Poverty and Race in the Age of Trump

From the article:

Barber and Theoharis met in 2013, at the opening of the Kairos Center, where he was one of the speakers. (The center advocates a grassroots approach to ending poverty, in which poor people are the key elements of leadership.) At the time, he was launching his Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, enlisting a broad-based alliance of Christians, Muslims, Jews, nonbelievers, blacks, Latinos, poor whites, feminists, environmentalists, and others to protest the conservative agenda of the state legislature. Theoharis, an ordained Presbyterian minister, had spent twenty-five years doing organizing and social-justice work among domestic workers and Native Americans, and advocating for the rights of the homeless. The new project is called the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. This time, the demands include federal and state living-wage laws, equity in education, an end to mass incarceration, a single-payer health-care system, and the protection of the right to vote.


To read more:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/william-barber-takes-on-poverty-and-race-in-the-age-of-trump
May 11, 2018

Abide in Darkness: China's War on Religion Stalls Vatican Deal

From the article:

A landmark agreement aimed at healing a nearly 70-year rift between Beijing and the Vatican is in limbo as the Chinese government tightens control over religion.
The Vatican had hoped to clear the biggest hurdle to the deal—intended to bring together China’s state-backed and unauthorized Catholic communities—at a meeting this month, people familiar with the talks said, but it has yet to be scheduled.


To read more:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/abide-in-darkness-chinas-war-on-religion-puts-vatican-deal-in-doubt-1525858496

More intolerance for religion by the non-theists who run China. Please remind me that some intolerance is allowable.
May 10, 2018

Islamic Golden Age-Jewish-Muslim Relations And Its Fall

From the very interesting article:

Was the Islamic golden age an interfaith utopia or a prolonged period of subjugation for the Jews and Christians? Why is this period also called the golden age of Jewish-Muslim relations? The truth is probably in between the two extremes, as I will explain in a moment. And what caused the Islamic golden age to fall, and specifically how did the Jewish-Muslim relationship deteriorate near the end of this golden era?


To read more:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/askamuslim/2018/05/islamic-golden-age-jewish-muslim-relations-and-its-fall/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Muslim&utm_content=49
May 9, 2018

Kenyan Islamic leaders speak out against female genital mutilation

From the article:

Kenyan Islamic leaders are lending support to a national campaign to end female genital mutilation, a practice many in the country wrongly assume is permitted by Islam, they say.


To read more:

https://religionnews.com/2018/05/08/kenyan-islamic-leaders-speak-out-against-female-genital-mutilation/
May 9, 2018

Bad news: Students' survey highlights censorship of Christian college newspapers

From the article:

A group of Christian college students has released a survey that suggests censorship of student publications is not uncommon at American Christian schools, with student editors alleging faculty and administrators wield broad editorial control over campus newspapers and sometimes kill stories before publication.
Administrators at Christian colleges have a legal right to control their schools’ newspapers, and argue they do so to safeguard the values that define their institutions.


To read more:

https://religionnews.com/2018/05/08/students-survey-highlights-censorship-of-christian-college-newspapers/

Censorship is not confined to religious institutions. As Noam Chomsky observed many years ago, there is the informal institutional censorship that exists in the corporate media. But speaking strictly about censorship at schools, stories are everywhere about student papers being censored.
May 8, 2018

Islamic Golden Age- A Brief Review of Contributions to Today's World

From the article:

The last article was a brief overview of the Islamic golden age. This article’s focus is on some of the important contributions from this era, realizing a full review would require writing a multi- volume book. My initial thought was to write about individual scholars but upon further pondering, I decided to sort them under specific fields, although I will mention a few notables here.


To read more:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/askamuslim/2018/05/islamic-golden-age-a-brief-review-of-contributions-to-todays-world/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Muslim&utm_content=49

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Member since: Mon Jan 26, 2015, 06:15 PM
Number of posts: 42,641

About guillaumeb

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