Today’s Our Periodic Pasta:
“What was God doing…for an eternity…before He created the universe ex nihilo? God existed by Himself through an eternity…without needing a universe. Why did He suddenly desire to create the universe?”
-Peter A. Angeles, American philosophy professor
Knowing what kind of god someone believes in tells us a great deal about that person – but nothing whatsoever about the truth or otherwise of the existence of any god at all. (link)
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On Saturday (one day after Harold Camping’s predicted Day of Judgment) one of my Facebook friends posted the following status update:
The world didn’t end. I never thought it would. Remember not to stereotype Christians for this. Most of us are sane and normal.
On the one hand many Christians ostensibly want to distance themselves from the doomsday speak of Harold Camping because it is pure bat-shit lunacy, yet their faith presupposes that Judgment Day will be upon us some day, so why is it considered insane for someone to believe that said Judgment Day is imminent? Is it just because he pin-pointed Judgment Day it to a specific date that Harold Camping is a misrepresentation of the Christian faith? Is it truly accurate on this basis to categorize Harold Camping as a negative stereotype for believers? A survey conducted by Pew Research last year clearly suggests otherwise.
In its survey, Pew found that by the year 2050, 41% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ definitely (23%) or probably (18%) will have returned to earth. (Not 41% of Christians; 41% of all Americans!) Amongst white Evangelical Christians that 41% figure jumps to 58%, and lest Catholics be tempted to boast of their rational immunity to such fundamentalist views, you can see below that nearly one out of three Catholics shares the same view as their Evangelical counterparts.
What Camping predicted would happen on 5/21/2011 most Protestant Christians believe will happen sometime by the year 2050. So no, Harold Camping is not a negative stereotype of Christianity. To the contrary he’s a prototype for its mainstream faith-based and revelation-derived truth claims.
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PZ Myers:
That long-winded charlatan, Deepak Chopra, has scribbled up a whiny criticism of Hitchens’ address in absentia to the American Atheists. Hitchens wrote a wonderful, brave, and inspiring exposition on his mortality, and urged everyone to keep up the gallant fight; Chopra carps and squirms, trying to find an excuse to reject Hitchens’ argument. He fails pathetically…(link)
Lady Gaga — the queer icon and pop sensation — is setting off the Christian right again. In her new song and video, “Judas,” Lady Gaga sings over and over, “I’m in love with Judas,” referring to the reviled disciple who betrays Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Is there anything redemptive, theologically speaking, about this song and video? (link)
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All religions are equally crazy. Some just hide their craziness better than others. (link)
The least religious countries are more democratic, more peaceful, have less corruption, more telephones, do better at science, have less inequality and other problems, and are generally just less dysfunctional. (link)
They forgot the very first failed Christian end-times prediction: ca. 1st century CE (i.e., the original prophecies of Jesus and the apostles). For more, read here.
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