How do you finish being angry?

December 30, 2012 By 21 Comments
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This review of Lawrence Cunningham's The Seven Deadly Sins: A Visitor's Guide is part of the Patheos Book Club, and my copy was free. My college debate group had many aphorisms, one of which was, "All sins are pride."  So I read The Seven Deadly Sins: A Visitor's Guide waiting to see what Cunningham had to say about my sin.  I didn't expect to be caught by his meditation on anger/wrath, which I've always thought of as the most boring sin. Coming from a background of stoicism, I just … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reviews/Recommendations Tagged With: , 21 Comments

This Doesn’t Look Like a Victory to Me

April 26, 2012 By 118 Comments

Over in Patheos's Catholic channel, Thomas McDonald of God and the Machine has run into a couple problem commenters.  Specifically, the kind of atheist who think posting the following in a Christian combox is equivalent to counting coup: The creation story of your own religion involves a man created out of dust who is convinced by his rib-woman wife to eat a magical fruit because a talking snake told her that it would make them like gods. The universe as we know it took much longer than six … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Debate Tactics, Housekeeping Tagged With: , , , , 118 Comments

Though this be Contempt, Yet there is Method in it

March 27, 2012 By 17 Comments
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The Reason Rally didn't have a clear 'ask.' We weren't calling on Congress to pass a particular piece of legislation or demanding a timeline for reform. As a result, news media has a lot of latitude to frame the message of the rally. And most of them took their cue from one of the best known speakers: Richard Dawkins. USA Today's headline was Richard Dawkins to atheist rally: 'Show contempt' for faith.  They didn't include a block quote from him, but offered this summary of his … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Debate Tactics Tagged With: , , 17 Comments