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<\/a><\/p>\nThis week\u2019s Quick Takes theme (for as long as I can sustain it) is interfaith dialogue. \u00a0If you\u2019re not a regular reader of this blog, I\u2019d like to invite you to stick around this week to help judge the our first ever\u00a0ideological Turing Test<\/a> (inspired by Bryan Caplan<\/a>). \u00a0This week, a slate of atheists and Christians will all answer questions intended for atheists honestly, or as they expect atheists would answer them. \u00a0It\u2019s up to you to vote and see if you can spot the impostors or if the contestants know the\u00a0arguments\u00a0of the other side well enough to replicate them. \u00a0The next week, the entire group will try and answer questions for Christians, and the pressure will be on the atheist side.<\/p>\n You can look through the contest questions here<\/a> and get a better sense of the set-up. \u00a0I\u2019ll hope you\u2019ll stick with us through the week. \u00a0One last inducement: I\u2019m contributing answers and so is my nice Catholic boyfriend, and we have a side competition on to see which of us is better at writing like the other. \u00a0Game on.<\/p>\n In a different part of the blogosphere, Hemant Mehta the Friendly Atheist<\/a> is partnering with Christian Rachel Held Evan (author of Evolving in Monkey Town<\/a><\/em>) to help foster a little interfaith understanding. \u00a0Rachel is starting a series where she\u2019ll recruit non-Christians to answer the questions of her (primarily) Christian audience. \u00a0I look forward to following this project, and, if you\u2019re Christian, you\u2019re invited to propose questions on her blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n And if you\u2019re Christian and looking for a way to return the favor, may I suggest looking at my Guest Posting<\/a> tab? \u00a0This week, we\u2019ve been having a conversation about what Christians expect the adverse consequences of gay marriage<\/a>\u00a0will be. \u00a0I\u2019m not looking for research prospectuses, and it\u2019s all right if you\u2019re worried about something that you don\u2019t think atheists like me recognize as harm. \u00a0I just want to get a better sense of the premises of the other side, so we can try for a productive conversation.<\/p>\n Well, that\u2019s all the interfaith opportunities I have on tap, so it\u2019s time for the semi-forced transition. \u00a0Interfaith discussion is all about opening doors. \u00a0You know what else is all about opening doors? \u00a0This BBC segment on lockpicking in the Victorian age. \u00a0(h\/t TYWKIWDBI<\/a>)<\/p>\n Due to the poor reviews for Pixar\u2019s Cars 2<\/em>, I have no plans to see it, but I am glad it exists, if only because it produced an amusing reverie at io9<\/a>. \u00a0Their reviewer was captivated by the fact that, in Pixar\u2019s car-centric world the Catholic Church was run by a Popemobile that itself was carried around in a larger, sentient Popemobile.<\/p>\n This detail prompted the reviewer to make a list of the necessary implications of this piece of car-theodicy including:<\/p>\n Car Pope = Car Celibacy<\/strong> Meanwhile, I still don\u2019t have a drivers license.<\/p>\n I almost always enjoy reading Experimental Theology<\/a>, but I especially want to recommend Richard Beck\u2019s recent post about reading through the Beatitudes with the prison bible study<\/a> he leads. \u00a0One of the most shameful things our country does is to put people who have strayed into an environment that makes it all but impossible to live morally or charitably.<\/p>\n Finally, I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve been following the grim news coming out of Syria. \u00a0The government\u2019s crackdowns have been brutal. \u00a0As is sadly often the case, soldiers are trying to put down the revolutionaries by using the tactics of terror, including rape of women protestors or female relatives of male protestors. \u00a0In Syria\u2019s conservative culture, rape victims are often murdered in honor-killings or, at best, cut off from society and prevented from ever having a marriage or a family.<\/p>\n However, a group of young men involved in the protests have pledged to marry the victims of retributive rape<\/a>. \u00a0 \u00a0These men are transcending their time and their culture, and, although their actions cannot fix pervasive sexism and misogyny, it gives me hope that progress is possible.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-7TEF8E3CUJE\/Tg1E6o96VvI\/AAAAAAAABfA\/j3h6EafXRiU\/s320\/Gay-Marriage+just+married.jpg\")
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\nCars can\u2019t sexually reproduce in Cars 2 \u2014 maybe some underground morlocks off-screen build them, remember the Maximum Overdrive paradigm \u2014 but some cars have sworn off sexual intercourse. WRAP YOUR HEAD AROUND THAT.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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