The Year of Living Biblically
- Details
- Created on Monday, 15 February 2010 05:19
- Published on Monday, 15 February 2010 05:19
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 3013
The Bible has many contradictions (list here) but also good bits - taking a break from work once a week is good! But what if you lived your life literally as commanded by the bible? Or even as close as humanly possible? One man did. Being Jewish, it was mostly per the old testament although he admits he could not do everything. But he did "stone an adulterer" - with a few small pebbles! You know this is a stunt to sell a book and you are right. The man is A.J. Jacobs and his book is "The Year of Living Biblically". You can also tell that it's a fun thing and that he has a good sense of humour. He's also not even Religious - perhaps agnostic with a belief in the value of sacred things. Whatever that means.
Read more: The Year of Living Biblically
No-one likes random events
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 14 February 2010 05:02
- Published on Sunday, 14 February 2010 05:02
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 2168
People are a product of evolution with a built in a need to ask why. And if you don’t see an immediate answer, you pattern match so that whatever it is that you wonder about, “fits in”. Unfortunately, although we match most patterns exceptionally well, not all pattern matching works. For example, we often choose an investment based on what it did the last 5 years – if it did OK for 5 years it will continue to do OK, right? The answer is “maybe”. We see a pattern of continual growth and decide that this will continue. But we all know that this particular choice is often wrong – in fact advertising for mutual funds must include the disclaimer “Previous performance is not an indicator of future performance”.
It is human nature to believe that if I just tossed a coin and got heads ten times in a row, that the next toss is highly likely to be tails. But it has been proved many times that it will be heads 50% of the time and tails 50% of the time. To believe you can predict the future is based on our experience in other things like “if I don’t eat, I get hungry”, “winter follows summer” etc where the patterns are followed. Cause and effect gives us comfort; we are reassured that there is order in the world; we don’t like basing our decisions on probabilities – we want certainty.
Pastor Joe Boot debates Dr. Clare Rowson – Does God Exist
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 13 February 2010 05:19
- Published on Saturday, 13 February 2010 05:19
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 10375
On January 30, 2010, Rev Joe Boot, Baptist Evangelical pastor from Toronto came to Cobourg to debate Humanist and retired psychiatrist Dr. Clare Rowson from Belleville, Ontario. A video of this event is now available below. It was organized by Jeff Bell from the Cobourg Fellowship Baptist Church which is one of Cobourg's larger and more popular Christian Churches. Jeff wanted to hold a debate but needed an atheist for the opposing side. He called the Cobourg Atheist and I helped recruit Clare from the Quinte Humanist group in Belleville.
Read more: Pastor Joe Boot debates Dr. Clare Rowson – Does God Exist
Canadian Anglican Church facing extinction
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 11 February 2010 05:34
- Published on Thursday, 11 February 2010 05:34
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 1423
The Anglican Church was once the most important Religion in Canada - in Cobourg, St. Peter's is the largest and reportedly the richest congregation. But this is changing - if not in Cobourg, then certainly in the rest of the country. The Globe and Mail says that a report prepared for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, calls Canada a post-Christian society in which Anglicanism is declining faster than any other denomination. It says the church has been "moved to the far margins of public life."
The Globe and Mail reports that: "according to the report, the diocese - 'like most across Canada' - is in crisis. The report repeats, without qualification or question, the results of a controversial study presented to Anglican bishops five years ago that said that at the present rate of decline - a loss of 13,000 members per year - only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061."
A Canadian version of Islam?
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 05:24
- Published on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 05:24
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 2137
In January 2010, Toronto's Emmanuel College launched a new program that will issue a new Canadian Certificate in Muslim Studies. Although it is located on the campus of the University of Toronto, Emmanuel College is part of Victoria University which was originally founded in Cobourg - see more here - but moved from there in 1892. Since it was founded by Methodists, it's not surprising that its main mission is to train ministers for the United Church. The new program is part of their "continuing education program" and is aimed at imams and other Muslim leaders - but is open to anyone. The intent is to allow Muslims in Canada to form their own version of Islam.
Hitchens and Fry clash with Ann Widdecombe
- Details
- Created on Monday, 08 February 2010 17:13
- Published on Monday, 08 February 2010 17:13
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 3644
Both Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry have said that the ten commandments are immoral and bad for the world - but to see some passion from them on this subject, you have to see them interviewed by British M.P. Ann Widdecombe.
Although the interview starts with Hitchens, the best part of the video is the second half with Fry. Even Ann's finishing statement helps underline it with her lame comments about the Ten Commandments being "eternal moral truths". The main point of Hitchens and Fry was that these leave out important things like banning slavery.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Muslim women are abused
- Details
- Created on Tuesday, 09 February 2010 05:38
- Published on Tuesday, 09 February 2010 05:38
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 3897
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in Somalia but eventually moved to Nairobi, Kenya where she was raised as a Muslim. When she was a teenager, her father agreed that she should marry a visiting Canadian Muslim. A wedding ceremony was held that she did not attend, and then a Canadian immigration visa was applied for. Once the visa was granted, she was put on a flight to Canada but at a transit stop in Germany, she boarded a train for Holland where she was granted asylum. She became an activist and published articles critical of Islam with the message that "the basic principles of Islam are incompatible with the basic principles of Liberal democracies" and therefore "immigrants have to make a choice". Because of this, she received many death threats by Muslims but she stayed when she was promised protection and a position as M.P. She then made a film (Submission) with Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh on the plight of Muslim women ( she wrote the screenplay - see the movie on You-Tube here). But to quote Ayaan, he was "slaughtered" and a threat to kill her written on his dead body.
Ayatollah, leave those kids alone
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 07 February 2010 12:18
- Published on Sunday, 07 February 2010 12:18
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 1828
The western world is still trying to understand how such a relatively modern country as Iran can be run by a theocracy yet try to pretend to be a democracy. Their president is a puppet under the control of the Ayatollahs but what they don’t seem to understand is that this is very obvious to the world. The good news is that they have a reasonably good education system with a large number of students. By its very nature, a good education encourages independent thinking so naturally the students rebel against their farcical Government.
The Ayatollahs have had 2 hanged recently and plan to hang some more before Feb 11. See Amnesty International's site.
