I was reminded of this comic this morning. Originally posted in June 2007 it still holds true today. 
From Kudzu, by Doug Marlette
Religion
Mentoring is my life.
Praying in Public Banned in Paris
This is cross posted from my PLA blog. This post is intended to spur on discussion. The blog posts that our students are required by assignment must be longer and contain their own argument and perspective.
The new law, reported by the Telegraph, is apparently being introduced because thousands of Muslims are praying in the streets, blocking traffic. A devout Muslim is required to pray five times a day. In the US where there is the founding principal of religious freedom such laws restricting religious practice is generally denounced (although remember the outcry about a mosque in NYC “near” Ground Zero?) but France, whose history included being effectively ruled by the Catholic church, maintaining a secular stance has been vigorously pursued by the government.
What do you think about such laws? How would you handle the challenges posed by the changes brought with a massive influx of immigrants with their own traditions, religious and otherwise?
Praying in Paris streets outlawed
Praying in the streets of Paris is against the law starting Friday, after the interior minister warned that police will use force if Muslims, and those of any other faith, disobey the new rule to keep the French capital’s public spaces secular.
By Henry Samuel, Paris
5:56PM BST 15 Sep 2011
Claude Guéant said that ban could later be extended to the rest ofFrance, in particular to the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Marseilles, where “the problem persists”.
He promised the new legislation would be followed to the letter as it “hurts the sensitivities of many of our fellow citizens”.
“My vigilance will be unflinching for the law to be applied. Praying in the street is not dignified for religious practice and violates the principles of secularism, the minister told Le Figaro newspaper.
“All Muslim leaders are in agreement,” he insisted.
More Education does NOT lead to atheism
Interesting since so many state as fact the opposite. A key quote:
Some religious beliefs and practices — including belief in God and regular prayer — increase with years of education, the research found.
“New Atheism Redux” Evolution & Religion…again
Frankly, these debates exhaust me and I have little use or time for wading through the morass of words generated by all combatants. This was a very nice article, however, from Michael Ruse on the Chronicle of Higher Education, an atheist against the New Atheists. A snippet:
Most of all I detest the New Atheism because I think it is playing into the hands of the Religious Right. The way fundamentalism—scientific creationism, creation science, intelligent-design theory—has been kept out of the biology classes of the nation is by drawing a line between science and religion and arguing that it is a violation of the First Amendment to allow religion (scientific creationism, etc.) into the classrooms. If you blur the science-religion distinction, specifically if you mesh evolution and atheism, then I just don’t see how you can continue that strategy. The fundamentalists argue that since the evolutionists’ position has religious implications, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Either you don’t talk about origins at all or—and they prefer this alternative—you allow talk about everyone’s views on origins.
Do they have a point? Well, I’m inclined to think that they do. There is no question but that any reasonable reading of New Atheist material totally meshes evolution and atheism. Look at the best blog of them all—University of Chicago biology professor Jerry Coyne’s Why Evolution is True. It intersperses quite brilliant discussions of evolutionary topics with diatribes against religion, and makes it very clear that these two are connected. If you are for evolution, you cannot legitimately be for or even tolerant of religion. Accomodationism, as he and others refer to the position I take—that you can keep the two separate—is just not a viable option.
Read it all if this is the sort of thing you like: New Atheism Redux – Brainstorm – The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Surprises in the Lords Prayer” Oh my, yes!
Only slightly less annoying, yet far more accurate.
Our dear friend Jim-A-Mighty would label this a “dilettante alert.” Ms. Diana deRegneir admits to an ad hoc learning of religious matters, including the Lord’s Prayer. You too will be “surprised” by what she has found in “the Lords [sic] Prayer.” (I suppose I could stop there, but no, let’s go on.)
However, when I heard the prayer in its original Aramaic I was bitten by curiosity. So here’s what I learned.
The Lord’s Prayer is the accepted universal prayer for all Christians. In the latter part of the second century, Matthew interpreted the instructional passage spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9-13). The Sermon on the Mount is derived largely from the teachings of the Essenes, a Jewish sect in Palestine of which Jesus may have belonged. Thus, the prayer bears a striking resemblance to “The Kadish” found in the Talmud.
Matthew’s translation which most of us were taught in childhood is also admitted by scholars to be inaccurate. The problem of mistranslation arose in part because Matthew was translating into Latin from Greek rather than from Aramaic.
*sigh* It doesn’t get any better folks. I have no energy to deal with this and you all know better, so how about we all just give a wry chuckle, shake our heads, and go have an afternoon cup of tea? If you really must, you can read it all via American Chronicle | Some Surprises in the Lords Prayer.
