Tags
abortion, American History, ancient mystery cults, astronomy, atheism, dictionaries, fundamentalism, Islam, lifestyle, Literature, racism, religion, Roman Catholicism, Sarah Palin, synthentic life, theology, universe
Wow, what a lovely day today. Sun is just bursting forth and not a cloud in the sky. It’s warm and not nearly as muggy. The Contrarian is out in the garden weeding. The turkeys have not been able to penetrate the 48″ high fence around the tomatoes and so all is well in the world of produce becoming.
Well, Lee won American Idol, and I can’t say I’m disappointed, though I thought Chrystal is perhaps a bit more talented. As these things go, both will no doubt have fine careers and they deserve it.
Lazy food today, hamburgers and homefries (roasted really), and maybe coleslaw if I feel really energetic.
First off, let me thank Jan from Yearning for God, for e-mailing me this link. It’s an amazing site called visuwords.com. It is a functional dictionary but also a word orgin generator and thesaurus. It builds from the word you choose and developes a neural network. It’s hard to explain by try it and just be amazed. Perfect for students and all writers.
Mary Beard does a nice review of Hugh Bowden’s book, Mystery Cults in the Ancient World. She draws some interesting ties to the reply of some of the Early Church fathers to these cultic practices in Greece and Rome. This comes via 3quarksdaily.
By now you have heard of the “creation” of life synthetically by scientists. An article in the Daily Bruin, examines the ethics of playing God. This also comes from 3quarksdaily.
Sister Margaret was excommunicated for signing off on an abortion at the hospital where she sits on the Ethics board. The moral leader of the world? the Catholic church, strikes again.
Religious Dispatches answers Terry Sanderson’s “scathing” indictment of theology found here, in a piece called Can Atheists Simply Ignore Theology? I always find the comments of equal interest to the piece itself.
Anxious to know how the universe will turn out? I don’t plan on being around (in this form at least) at the time, but there are plenty of scientists who can give you a good idea.
In case u dint git propurly edjukated the uther day by Missy Sarha Paylin on the Crischun origens of our cuntry, then u kan go hear and git a few thengs she missed.
And Sarah’s insanity and whining poor me continues with her self-starting feud with her new neighbor and now Beck is involved threatening Random House. (I cannot make this stuff up!) Is it me or do the Palins sound more and more like the Flintstones/Simpsons–meaning mere caricatures of real people?
I heard this story last night on the news and Salon does a nice job with it. The ugly face of racism in this country just reeks. All because in Manhattan, building a mosque has been approved near “Ground Zero.” It literally makes your stomach turn to hear this hate. This is about race war in the writer’s opinion. Take a look.
Your self-help offering for the day: The 4 Addictions that destroy your dreams. Not what you think. Interesting read.
I brought you into a plentiful land
to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.
– Jeremiah 2:7 (Thanks there PB, and to all of us who have been silent for too long)
Existential Ennui 
The mosque thing had me twisted up as well. To me, what a better way to put away hate for an act, and show compassion to our fellow man.
Sarah Palin just needs to be put away for good.
Glad to hear produce is safe, we put Beans, tomatoes, peppers and zuch’s in last weekend.
Best,
David
Thanks David. Nice post you had up yesterday I believe. I am so impressed by your courage facing all these challenges in life. You are a beacon to the rest of us with our petty complaints I tell ya.
On the creation of artificial life, only a few DEvolutionary steps are needed to create a Teabagger. 😉
hahah…good one Tom
Sherry, more and more to read–while I’d just like to stay at visuwords, clicking away, trying out more words! I started another book, which you may already have read–Karen Armstrong’s “The Case for God.” It would have been good to have along with EFM for the OT, which is all I’ve read so far. Great book.
Quick responses:
Happy for Lee and Mama Sox — at first I thought who won didn’t matter, but last night it occurred to me Crystal’s pretty much ridden above the whole thing anyway; she was in a class all her own. Lee winning seemed right. (I had dinner tonight with a teacher friend, who knows one of Lee’s teachers. He was a “troubled kid”–poor attention span, disruptive, etc. Music was the only thing that captured his imagination. And here he is. Love that!)
The visuwords site is terrific! Thanks for passing that along.
The science stuff reminds me that as long as we continue to use our God-given intelligence for progress, we’ll be stuck with missing links trying to shut us down, which leads to…
Ms. Palin should read the Jefferson Bible, Paine, and Franklin before she speaks; Deism is to Christianity what turpentine is to paint–a clarifier that, if not used carefully, wipes everything away. Of course, Palin is to the Fathers what mud is to diamonds…
The mosque proposal gives me heart, but it’s also understandable why so many would get heartburn over it. Fewer would be outraged if our media did more than give lip-service to upstanding Muslims; of course, news that doesn’t scare us stupid is no longer news we want to use.
And I back Jan’s endorsement of Armstrong’s new book–especially in light of the recent atheist dust-ups. As always, she’s lucid, logical, and refreshing.
And now to catch up on past posts I’ve missed!
Peace,
Tim