I’ve got another guest post up at Daylight Atheism today about when, if ever, it’s worth it for atheists to take a mocking, contemptuous tone when trying to deconvert Christians. This essay was sparked by the many dissents to my last post at Daylight Atheism urging people to tone down the contempt for Harold Camping. Whom Should We Mock? John Loftus and PZ Myers take an extremely confrontational, contemptuous tone towards Christians, and they’ve caught a lot of flack, both from... Read more
Commencement bore little resemblance to this, but that’s my only complaint I am now a Yale alum (and the hustle and bustle of move out and commencement is to blame for a lack of updates here or at my guestblogging gig at Daylight Atheism. I should have actual content for you all tomorrow (and perhaps some reflections later in the week after seeing The Book of Mormon tonight with my family for a graduation present). In the meantime, I hope I can... Read more
Adam, the admin of Daylight Atheism is on vacation for his anniversary this week, and I’m one of the team of guest bloggers. I’ll update here whenever I post over there for the week, and any substantive comments should be left on Daylight Atheism proper. I’m quite looking forward to the opportunity. (And don’t worry, there will still be follow up on the conversation about hatred and negative emotions soon). So here’s the first post, a take on the widespread... Read more
In the comments thread that spun off of the discussion of whether an atheist could serve as godparent to a Catholic child, plenty of people correctly pointed out that, regardless of Church teaching, plenty of nominally Catholic parents select technically unsuitable godparents. Whether they disobey out of ignorance or intentionally, these actions introduce a certain level of ambiguity about what Catholic traditions look like. Patrick summed up the situation in a comment I’ve excerpted below: Norms arise from how people... Read more
When I wrote about my dilemma on how to deal with an Orthodox Jewish girl trying to keep the Sabbath in “A Duty to Disclose?” earlier this week, I was trying to use the post to build up to a bigger question that I’ve been wrestling with. I felt like I had seriously erred when I behaved spitefully, even though the target of my ire was not aware of my nastiness, and I didn’t believe she would come to any real... Read more
I got into an argument in the comments section of Friendly Atheist’s latest installment of Ask Richard (an atheist advice column). An atheist wrote because his Catholic aunt and uncle had asked him to be the godfather to their child. The letter writer thought they didn’t know he was an atheist and wanted to know if he had an obligation to disclose his beliefs. Richard advised the author to ask the relatives about what role they wanted him to play... Read more
First, a quick clarification: in yesterday’s post about Divine Mystery, I used the phrases ‘Catholic’ and ‘Orthodox’ to refer to two broad approaches to thinking about parts of theology. Both approaches are used in various proportions and contexts in each faith. I didn’t mean to present either approach as a totalizing aspect of either tradition, and I’m sorry for the confusion. [/religion is complicated!] So, on to a different part of the responses to that post. Several readers mentioned that... Read more
This past Sunday, I attended an Orthodox liturgy for the first time, in the company of Miss Tristyn Bloom of Eschatological Psychosis. Tristyn gave me an overview Saturday night, so I’d know what to expect and be able to avoid augmenting my normal church awkwardness, but I still spent a fair amount of time of Google and Wikipedia to cover all my bases. While doing my research, I ran across one article earnestly explaining that the Orthodox don’t believe in... Read more
I ended up in a lot of conversations about forgiveness and whether hatred necessarily warps the character of the person doing the hating after I posted about my reaction to Osama bin Laden’s death and the celebrations that followed. I’d like to do a few posts trying to address why I think its necessary try to offer forgiveness and charity to the people we hate, both for their sake and ours, but, today, I just want to link back to... Read more
–1– I’m up late tonight writing my last college paper ever. After I finish this paper by daybreak, I only have one final between me and graduation. The final this afternoon (delivering an original speech for an Oratory seminar) is a fun last hurrah, but the paper is not quite as exciting: it’s on methods of estimating infection rates for Hepatitis C. I have gotten to write some more-interesting papers in college, though, so the rest of the Quick Takes... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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