Posts Tagged ‘Religion’
“Open Your Holocrons to the Book of Qui-Gon”
25
Oct
I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this Jedi church video, but I do appreciate the honesty of its tenets. I also like that even if you accepted everything in this video as something people actually believed and had faith in, Jedi-ism would still be significantly less goofy than Scientology. (Via Geeks Are Sexy)
“Open Your Holocrons to the Book of Qui-Gon”
25
Oct
I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this Jedi church video, but I do appreciate the honesty of its tenets. I also like that even if you accepted everything in this video as something people actually believed and had faith in, Jedi-ism would still be significantly less goofy than Scientology. (Via Geeks Are Sexy)
Religion diet may make you obese
25
Mar
NORTHWESTERN (US) — Young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age as young adults with no religious involvement. By tracking participants’ weight gain over time, the study shows that normal weight younger adults with high religious involvement become obese, rather than obese adults becoming more [...]
The Amish Population Boom
29
Jul
Thanks to high birth rates and few people exiting the sect, the Amish population in the United States is surging:
The Amish population — a religious group that limits its member’s access to conveniences like telephones and electric lights — is growing at an estimated 5% a year and now stands at 249,500.
A new Amish settlement is being created at a rate of once every three weeks, the study found. Sixteen were established over the past year alone.
Researchers estimate that 85% of people who are raised Amish stay in the group as adults.
Link via Marginal Revolution | Photo by Flickr user Alotor used under Creative Commons license
Pullman on Censorship and Religion
29
Sep
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy constitutes one of the finest reading experiences for children I’ve ever seen. I read them as an adult, on the advice of a literary colleague, and fell under their spell immediately. They are fantasy books, for sure, but with a strong rational and anti-authority philosophy. And although I don’t think of them as purely anti-religious, if your religion is one with an authoritarian streak then …
In a brief article in The Guardian, Pullman takes on those who would seek to ban his books from library shelves. He points to the futility of such bans, the inevitable increased readership of banned works, and the utterly moronic reasons that some give for requesting bans. But he saves his real vitriol for religion. Pullman’s basic take on religion
My basic objection to religion is not that it isn’t true; I like plenty of things that aren’t true. It’s that religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good.
isn’t precisely the same as my own, since I do disagree with religion because it is false. I also like plenty of things that aren’t true - the works of David Foster Wallace are a timely example - but the things I like that aren’t true don’t claim to be true. But I certainly also agree with the things that drive Pullman nuts
In fact, when it comes to banning books, religion is the worst reason of the lot. Religion, uncontaminated by power, can be the source of a great deal of private solace, artistic inspiration, and moral wisdom. But when it gets its hands on the levers of political or social authority, it goes rotten very quickly indeed. The rank stench of oppression wafts from every authoritarian church, chapel, temple, mosque, or synagogue – from every place of worship where the priests have the power to meddle in the social and intellectual lives of their flocks, from every presidential palace or prime ministerial office where civil leaders have to pander to religious ones.
Well put!