As regular readers would have guessed by now, I am very fond of Baxter the Wonder Dog. I think it is safe to say that most people either like dogs a lot or are indifferent to them, with only a few actively disliking them. [Read more…]
In the wake of the release of the Pew survey that showed a rapid growth in those who call themselves religiously unaffiliated, the Religion News Service surveyed some religious leaders for their reactions. Many of them focused on the fact that young people are leading the move away from religious institutions. Here are some reactions. [Read more…]
The notable silence by the Republicans on the issue of same-sex marriage during the current election campaign is a sign, if one needed one, of how rapidly sentiment has shifted on this issue. In 2004 opposition to this was very potent and was used to galvanize voters to go to the polls and vote for George W. Bush. Daniel McCarthy argues in The American Conservative that it is one more sign of the retreat of religion in the face of modernity. [Read more…]
The people of Cleveland are huge sports fans. The sports section of the daily paper The Plain Dealer is easily the largest section, not to mention the extra sports supplements that it puts out regularly. Like other newspapers around the nation, the paper has been cutting back on beat reporters and news coverage, except for sports. [Read more…]
I rarely read online reviews of things because it seems strange to be swayed by the opinions of anonymous people whom I did not know in the least and who might have their own agendas or even a vested interest in the product. If I do read a review, it is to see if there are some potential problems that I should look into before purchasing the product. [Read more…]
Taliban gunmen in Pakistan shot a 14-year old girl Malala Yousafzai in the head and neck. Her offense? They claimed that she had ‘promoted secularism’ on the blog or diary she wrote for the BBC starting in 2009 when she was just 11. But all she was doing was chronicling the anxiety and tensions of a child living in a danger zone. She had written under a pen name but her identity was exposed. [Read more…]
In investigating further following my post on Pulpit Freedom Sunday, I was initially dismayed by the possibility that there was a reasonable chance that the US Supreme Court may rule that churches have the right to engage in partisan political activity and support candidates and parties while still retaining their tax exempt status. It seemed like it would be yet another case of privileging religion in public life, allowing them advantages that are denied to non-religious groups. [Read more…]
When my children used to live at home and they heard me talking on the phone, they said they could tell immediately, even when they were little, whether the person at the other end of the line was of Sri Lankan origin or not, even though I was talking in English. They said they could tell from my choice of words and the inflections in my voice even though I was not aware of making any changes in my speech patterns. [Read more…]
A British serviceman, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, talks about his role as part of the US drone program, which was to use satellite imagery to identify targets on the ground. He describes how on one occasion he was about to order a hit on someone whom he thought was planting an explosive device in the ground. At the last minute, a much larger figure appeared on the scene and he realized that the first ‘terrorist’ whose death he had been about to bring about was a child playing in the sand. [Read more…]
A Pew survey released today finds that the number of people who identify themselves as religiously unaffiliated is now 20%, the highest it has ever been and a sharp rise from 15% just five years earlier. [Read more…]