A. J. Jacobs‘ book comes out on October 9^th, the same day as Stephen Colbert‘s I Am America (And So Can You!)… That’s either tough competition or *really* entertaining reading for me the following weekend.

Jacobs’ book is called The Year of Living Biblically.

What is it about? Here’s Publishers Weekly:

What would it require for a person to live all the commandments of the Bible for an entire year? That is the question that animates this hilarious, quixotic, thought-provoking memoir from Jacobs… He didn’t just keep the Bible’s better-known moral laws (being honest, tithing to charity and trying to curb his lust), but also the obscure and unfathomable ones: not mixing wool with linen in his clothing; calling the days of the week by their ordinal numbers to avoid voicing the names of pagan gods; trying his hand at a 10-string harp; growing a ZZ Top beard; eating crickets; and paying the babysitter in cash at the end of each work day. (He considered some rules, such as killing magicians, too legally questionable to uphold.)

There are over 700 rules that he follows. Seems a bit over the top? Perhaps, but this is the same guy who, in his last book, tried to read through the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.

Jacobs did an entertaining Newsweek interview as well:

Which is the greater learning tool, the Bible or the encyclopedia?

That’s a tough question. The Bible project was a lot more difficult than the encyclopedia project. The Bible affected every single part of my life, it affected the way I walked, the way I dressed, the way I hugged my wife, the way I ate. The year was the most extreme makeover of my life. In terms of which is the better learning tool, the encyclopedia does contain a lot of biblical passages in the different books, so it might contain most of the Bible in it.

…

What rule was the hardest to follow?

Two kinds of rules were hard. Avoiding sins we commit every day like lying, gossiping and coveting was hard, and then there were the rules that were hard to do in modern life, like stoning adulterers. But I did manage to fulfill that one. What happened was, I was in the park, dressed in my white garb, and this man in his 70s came over and asked what I was doing. I explained I was trying to follow every rule in the Bible as literally as possible, including growing my beard, not mixing fibers, stoning adulterers, and he said, “I’m an adulterer, are you going to stone me?” I said, “Yeah that would be great.” The Bible doesn’t say what size the stones have to be, so I had been carrying around these pebbles in my pocket for just such an occasion. I took the pebbles out of my pocket, and he instantly picked one up and threw it at me, so I decided, an eye for an eye, and I tossed one at him. It did provide an entry for talking to people about capital punishment and the Bible. How could they stone adulterers, what was life like back then, does it apply today. I tried to say to the guy, you shouldn’t sleep with other women, but I don’t know if it sunk in.

(Thanks to Spazeboy for the link!)

Well, this has to be slightly awkward…

There are some times when I feel absolutely delighted to be an atheist hidden among thousands of Christians. This is not one of those times.

The (anonymous) writer is a senior at Wheaton College outside Chicago — the alma mater of Billy Graham, Rob Bell, and our own Mike Clawson.

The name of his her blog is Leaving Eden.

I used to be a very committed Christian. I was in love with God and full of faith, and I loved my first two years in the community of a Christian college. During my junior year I walked away from Christianity and became an atheist. As I finish out my last year at Wheaton, I’m mostly in the closet, constantly surrounded by Christians and Christianism.

The reasons for my rejection of Christianity and acceptance of atheism are manifold, and I will try to cover all of them in this blog at some point. Ultimately, it is a matter of integrity, of truth. I value truth so much that I had to find it, at the cost of comfort, community, relationships, assurance. Atheism and more specifically naturalism is the most truthful truth I’ve found. (To date, that is. Because truth seekers must constantly examine themselves and guard against complacency, no story is over until it’s over.)

“Leaving Eden” captures the quest for truth at the cost of comfort. If the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is available, we should always eat from it, no matter the consequences. If the whole world is there, why should we stay in one corner?

What is it like to be in his her position?

I walked across campus today after a conversation that signaled the end of another friendship. Thinking, this is what it feels like to be alone. It sucks.

Though I’m still in the closet, I’m no longer pretending to be a Christian. That means I don’t take part in a large percentage of what goes on on campus. I can feel people mentally shrinking away from me, even people who were perfectly fine with my questioning of Christianity a year ago.

I can’t imagine being in that situation and having to remain in it for several months. But it’s apparent he’s she’s coming out to his her friends. That’s a good start.

Hopefully, he she knows he she has a huge support group waiting for him her when he she graduates

(via Conversation at the Edge)


[tags]atheist, atheism, Christian, Jesus, God, religion[/tags]

Here are video excerpts of Congressman Pete Stark‘s speech at Harvard last week!

[tags]atheist, atheism, Harvard, Humanist, Chaplaincy, Greg Epstein[/tags]

Rev. Dan at Outchurched tells us all about a Christian magazine called Everyday Woman.

Everyday Woman is a magazine about, I suppose, everyday women… whatever that means. (Are there “ceremonial women” or “special women” that you’re s’posed to drag out for special occasions or something?)

According to Dan, what’s the best part of the magazine?

The logo at the top.

A response to what’s inside, perhaps…?


[tags]atheist, atheism, Christian, magazine, media, Jesus[/tags]

Dan Savage is compiling images of Last Supper parodies:

The list just keeps getting bigger and bigger…


[tags]atheist, atheism, Christian, Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, Jesus, The Simpsons, Sopranos[/tags]

Thanks to The Onion.

The byline reads:

By Bonnie Nordstrum
Polytheist

[tags]atheist, atheism, The Onion, Christian, Jesus[/tags]

A Reasonable Atheist never read much of the Bible growing up. His excuse: he was a Methodist. He’s finally going to read it, though.

But he has a slight dilemma:

Before I start however, I come to an important question. Which version of the Bible to read? There are lots of translations, so it might be difficult to choose. I could go with the most common one, the KJV. I asked an Episcopal friend of mine, and he suggested the New Revised Standard Version, but I’m wary of that, as the NRSV and some other newer translations contain “gender neutral” language, which I feel isn’t a very good way to do a proper translation of the text.

So, what suggestions do you have for him?


[tags]atheist, atheism, Bible, Christianity, Jesus[/tags]

Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak is promoting the city’s growing economy and “pledged more than $11 million in workforce development and economic development strategies in 2008.”

What is included in the plans?

$4.7 million dollars of small business financing tools, including innovative loans with no interest to business owners whose religious beliefs restrict them from receiving traditional interest-based financing.

What’s that again…?

The mayor’s website says this:

The Alternative Financing Program offers profit-based financing to Minneapolis business owners where no interest is paid or collected. The rate of return is based on an up-front profit payment that is added to the front end and amortized over the life of the financing. While this type of financing may be especially attractive to Muslim business owners whose religious beliefs restrict them from receiving traditional interest-based financing, the program is open to all small Minneapolis businesses (neighborhood retail, service or light manufacturing) to purchase equipment and/or make building improvements.

I’ll just quote submitter Bjorn on this one:

If you’re Muslim, you get an interest free loan! There are plenty of banks which are Sharia’a compliant, and can get around the issue of charging or receiving interest, and still do it. So, why is Minneapolis making a special exception?

[tags]atheist, atheism, religion, separation of church and state[/tags]