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Faiths-and-Worldviews

Items on religions, ideologies, philosophies, and other ways people interpret the world

Rome’s Good Because It’s Bad: “Rome, the hit series now in its second season on HBO, is a surprising affirmation of the Western tradition. While it is packed with sex and violence, its (probably unintended) message is that Rome was desperate for Christianity.” (Gerald J. Russello, National Review)

Mon 26 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Gore’s Faith Is Bad Science: “To which the prophet replies, with religious intensity, that all debate should be over. Those scientists with inconvenient views should be defunded and silenced. We should replace scientific inquiry with faith. We should have faith that climate change—‘global warming’—is caused primarily by human activity. And we should have faith that the effects will be catastrophic, with rising oceans flooding great cities and pleasant plains and forests broiled by a searing sun.” Worth a read. While Barone is not alone in suggesting that there is a religious component to climate change advocacy, his reading of the relationship of real faith and science is a bad caricature. (Michael Barone, Town Hall)

Mon 26 Mar 2007 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

Thought for the Day: “There is something spiritual about humour. I think it's the fact that if we can laugh at something, we can't be intimidated by it. It's our refusal to be defined by others. That's why the best humour always comes from persecuted peoples, and why the ability to laugh so often keeps the spirit of freedom alive in totalitarian societies. Humour is the opening of freedom in the prison wall of fate. It's a close relative of hope.” (Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks, BBC Online, March 16, 2007)

Wed 21 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Any shade of politics you like, so long as it’s green: This is an excellent piece demonstrating the power of a coherent worldview to properly appreciate and critique the wider cultural setting; Hume is apparently a Marxist, but I would hope soon to see a similar depth of thinking from a Christian thinker. Bracket, if you must, the argument, and consider the level of critique. “The adoption of these attitudes across the political class represents something far more important than the cynical tax grab which some critics have claimed it all is. The crusade against manmade global warming is underpinned by a much broader loss of faith in our manmade society and its once-proud accomplishments, from industrialised farming to flying the world. You only had to listen to Cameron, supposedly the great white hope of UK politics, sounding off this week about how many species are threatened with extinction ‘because of mankind’s relentless grab for the finite resources of our shared home’ to realise how mainstream mankind-bashing has now become.” (Mick Hume, Spiked Online)

Fri 16 Mar 2007 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

Al Gore’s remission of sin: “While I have my own religious thoughts, I will not disdain any man's search for the transcendent. But a religion should be understood by both its adherents and others for what it is—a religion. The trouble with global-warming believers is that probably most of them delude themselves into thinking they are practicing science—not religion. And yet, the signs of religiousness are readily to be seen. Al Gore and his Hollywood coterie have almost comically manifested one aspect of their new religion in the last few weeks—the sense of sin and the search for remission of such sin.” (Tony Blankley, The Washington Times, March 7, 2007)

Fri 09 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Problem with Mere Christianity: We jettison 'nonessential' theology at our own peril: “However, mere Christianity will disappoint when it becomes a substitute for the Christian faith. At its worst, mere Christianity shifts with the trends of praise music or the latest evangelical celebrity.” Just so. (J. Todd Billings, Christianity Today)

Tue 06 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Fanatical Philosopher: Michel Onfray’s weak case against monotheism. A review. Of many good quotes, let's use this: “Even if all of Onfray’s links between religious texts and violence were supportable, why should we regard atheist or pagan violence as preferable to monotheist violence?” (Benjamin A. Plotinsky, City Journal)

Fri 02 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Western Europe’s America Problem: And it's not about Bush. “America is resented for everything and its opposite: It is at once too prurient and too puritanical; too elitist, yet also too egalitarian; too chaotic, but also too rigid; too secular and too religious; too radical and too conservative. Again, damned if you do, damned if you don't. . . . Fundamentally, the European views about America have little to do with the real America but much to do with Europe. Europe's anti-Americanism has become an essential ingredient in—perhaps even a key mobilizing agent for—the inevitable formation of a common European identity . . .” Perhaps Europeans should consider something more constructive? (Andrei S. Markovits, The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Tue 30 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Charitable Nation, or, Who Really Cares?: ‘What’s interesting to me is that Europeans are uncharitable for the same reason liberal secularists tend to be. In America, as in Europe, the more you think the state should provide for everything, the less you think anybody else should provide anything. As Ralph Nader said in 2000, “A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.” In other words, a “just” society is one where, because the state helps everyone, people aren’t obliged to help anyone.’ Discuss. (Jonah Goldberg, Tribune Media Services)

Thu 18 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Why Apple Makes Me Cry: “I'm a very modern person. I don't have any affiliations to traditional religion, and I don't really feel any national loyalties. I was born in the U.K., but I've lived in cities like London, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Berlin. It's become clear that if I do have a religion, it's a humanist one—a profound reverence for human creativity, for example. And if I do have something like a consistent homeland, it might as well be the Mac OS. Because wherever I am physically, that's where I spend most of my time.” (Momus, Wired News)

Thu 18 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Worth Saving: Essential books for understanding Christianity: Weigel's list is worth attention for seekers and believers alike. (George Weigel, Wall Street Journal)

Mon 08 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

A dangerous obsession: ‘Lofty talk about "social justice" or "fairness" boils down to greatly expanded powers for politicians, since those pretty words have no concrete definition. They are a blank check for creating disparities in power that dwarf disparities in income—and are far more dangerous.’ First in an important five-part series of columns starting December 26, 2006. (Thomas Sowell, Creators Syndicate)

Tue 02 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Dawkins delusion: “While Dawkins can readily identify common features between South Pacific cargo cults and the Christian churches, he seems oblivious to the religious themes of the environmental movement. Just like evangelical Christians, environmentalists preach a ‘repent, the end is nigh’ message.” (Michael Fitzpatrick, Spiked)

Tue 02 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Dogma Without God: Fallen angels assault heaven at Christmas: “Atheists and the unchurched undervalue the extent to which they are getting a free ride on the social strength that religious-based virtue provides. It's one thing to write in a book that we don't need them. But I'd rather not run the real-world experiment of navigating without them.” (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal)

Tue 02 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Are you certain about that?: “Certainty has become code among the intellectual priesthood for people and ideas that can be dismissed out of hand. That's what is so offensive about this fashionable nonsense: It breeds the very closed-mindedness it pretends to fight.” Read it all. (Jonah Goldberg, syndicated column)

Tue 02 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments