Category Archives

Archive of posts published in the category: Religion

Should the Religion of a Supreme Court Justice Matter? 

The American Catholics did not look to the government to be the center of their religious mission. This made them less likely to look to the government to enforce their religious codes on others. This was not due to a superior loyalty to a foreign papist monarch, but to a local community cohesion. The Catholics felt stronger about the separation of church and state than the Protestant pietists. Their parochial schools relied less on public education and government support.

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Substitutes for Religion

from The Wall Street Journal,How to Defeat Religious Violence by Jonathan Sacks: What the secularists forgot is that Homo sapiens is the meaning-seeking animal. If there is one thing the great institutions of the modern world do not do, it

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Rhetorical Exibitionism

from George Will at The Washington Post, Francis’ Fact-Free Flamboyance: Francis deplores “compulsive consumerism,” a sin to which the 1.3 billion persons without even electricity can only aspire. He leaves the Vatican to jet around praising subsistence farming, a romance best enjoyed

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Politics as Religion

from David Daley in Salon, Camille Paglia takes on Jon Stewart, Trump, Sanders: “Liberals think of themselves as very open-minded, but that’s simply not true!” excerpt: I’m speaking here as an atheist. I don’t believe there is a God, but

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Someone Else’s Blasphemy

from Sultan Knish, The Importance of Blasphemy: Excerpts: As a deeply religious person, I have no fondness for blasphemy. My religion and its holy books are sacred to me. And I understand perfectly well why a Muslim would not relish

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The Third Commandment

from There Is a ‘Worst Sin’: Evil in God’s Name by Dennis Prager in The National Review When an irreligious person commits evil, it doesn’t bring God and religion into disrepute. But when a religious person commits evil in God’s

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The Pope and Capitalism

Pope Francis offered his judgment on modern capitalism in his 50,000 word address, Evangelii Gaudium: Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and

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What Would Jesus Really Say?

It is interesting to note the response to  the president invoking the name of Jesus to justify higher taxes on the wealthier Americans.  It seems that those who act horrified at the use of Christian references in the political discourse

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The Narcissism of Minor Differences

Bloodlust by Russell Jacoby is a tour of the roots of violence from biblical through modern times.  The essence of the book is that it is not those that are different that pose the greatest threat, but those that are

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Rebelyid on the Cordoba House Mosque

The zoning of the Mosque is an issue for the city.  We may have an opinion, but it is a local zoning issue. We either have religious tolerance or we do not.  We either believe in freedom of religion or

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A Different Standard

When critics of Israel are labeled anti-Semitic, the question arises, “when is criticism of Israel not anti-Semitic?” Alan Dershowitz answered this question as clearly as it can be;  it is anti-Semitic when you hold Israel to a standard that you

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Muslim Diversity

I have to confess that much of the rhetoric from the right on Muslims in America has crossed a line that I find uncomfortable.  Much of this is centered around the controversies of the mosque proposed a few blocks away

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Religion and Economics

Jews not only monopolized money-lending prior to the fourteenth century, when Christian prohibitions against usury broke down.  The dispersion of Jews throughout the know world, east and west, also gave them international advantages in global trade and finance because family

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High Risk Births in Michigan and Uganda

May is a high risk month to have a baby in Michigan and Uganda.  Why? Ramadan. Some parts of Michigan and parts of Uganda have a large Muslim population that fasts during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which runs

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Maimonides Plus One

The great Jewish Philosopher Maimonides lived in Spain, Morocco and Egypt between 1135 and 1205. One of his most popular teachings is the eight levels of charity. The lowest is one who gives unwillingly. Above that is one who gives

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Undermining Charities

Reverend Robert Sirico, a Catholic Priest, is the founder of the Lord Acton Institute; an organization dedicated to teaching free market principles to clergy. The clergy he had encountered most of his life were largely socialist and ignorant of capitalism.

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Faith Based Fallacy

I think that the faith based initiative is a bad idea. It was a bad idea when Bush proposed it and it is no better when Obama proposes it. Is it just a giant suck up to the Christain Right?

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Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark

I just got back from Cincinnati where I went to the Creationist Museum. (Actually it is in Hebron, KY.) I was expecting some hole in the wall attempt to promote the dismissal of evolution. This is a very substantial museum

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The Churches are Empty in Europe

At one of the Panel discussions at AIPAC gulag suvivor, Israeli leader and author Natan Sharansky noted two distinctions that the American and Israeli nations share, that lead them to their phenominal success. One that I have already mentioned is

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