Courtney Stodden Poses as the Easter Bunny, Spreads Some “Erotic” Holiday Cheer

By Brandi Fowler

Rethinking His Religion

I’ve often wondered just what kind of supreme power would exist that creates a human brain and then requires its owner not to use it.  What kind of creator builds a universe full of mystery and demands that it remain unknown?  What kind of creator demands love and at the same time fosters hate and fear. 

My own belief system is the result of years of learning and introspection.  And, by learning I mean the exposure of more questions rather than the search for answers.  So, I’ll write this in the form of inquiry rather than deduction. 

In the beginning there was the word and the word was God.  Does this mean that God was initially a set of laws handed down from generation to generation?  Were these laws nothing more than cognitive constructs designed to keep the masses on the straight and narrow.  If disease is sin then though shalt not?

And God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  If God the word proved ineffective then did God in flesh naturally follow?  Did the life of Jesus provide exemplar acts of love and faith for humanity to emulate and replicate?  Was the creator asking us to not only think correctly but act correctly?

And finally, Christ is risen and they were sore afraid.  Is the third piece of the trinity the actual emotions felt by humanity?  Is the holy trinity actually a human trinity of thoughts, deeds and feelings.?

Life and faith  provide more questions than answers.  Is an unexamined faith worth our devotion?

Read the article At NYT

By Frank Bruni

I MOVED into my freshman-year dorm at the University of North Carolina after many of the other men on the hall. One had already begun decorating. I spotted the poster above his desk right away. It showed a loaf of bread and a chalice of red wine, with these words: “Jesus invites you to a banquet in his honor.”

This man attended Catholic services every Sunday in a jacket and tie, feeling that church deserved such respect. I kept a certain distance from him. I’d arrived at college determined to be honest about my sexual orientation and steer clear of people who might make that uncomfortable or worse. I figured him for one of them.

About two years ago, out of nowhere, he found me. His life, he wanted me to know, had taken interesting turns. He’d gone into medicine, just as he’d always planned. He’d married and had kids. But he’d also strayed from his onetime script. As a doctor, he has spent a part of his time providing abortions.

For some readers his journey will be proof positive of Rick Santorum’s assertion last month that college is too often godless and corrupting. For others, it will be a resounding affirmation of education’s purpose. Continue reading ‘The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living’ »

Santorum has been called the finest mind of the thirteenth century.  If he had his way, he would take us back to the time of witch burning and beheadings.  While this author has his dates a little off, (Massachusetts colonies were established in 1720 making it the 18th century), he is correct in noting that the religious right is once again trying to force their un-holly theocracy into the laws of the land and the lives of the populous.

Theocracy and Its Discontents

Read the article at: NYT

By Timothy Egan

Ah, the founders, those starch-collared English souls planting liberty in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century. For those who didn’t follow rules handed down by God through man, these New World authorities could cut out your tongue, slice off your ears or execute you. O.K., Puritans, wrong role-model founders.

Then let’s look west, beyond the Wasatch Mountains in the 19th century, where Brigham Young built a Mormon empire in which church rule and civil law were one and the same — the press, a military brigade and the courts all controlled by the Seer and Revelator of a homegrown religion. Oops, wrong founders again.

American political bedrock — God’s house and the people’s government guiding separate worlds — wasn’t always in place. Reason ultimately won out. But theocracy certainly had its colonies and its advocates; it might have prevailed but for a few outstanding voices. Continue reading ‘The New Theocracy….Same As The Old Theocracy’ »

The christo-fascist right is setting the Republican platform and it smells like a self righteous  hate parade.

Santorum says Obama agenda not “based on Bible”

Read the article at: Yahoo News

By Samuel P. Jacobs

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum challenged President Barack Obama’s Christian beliefs on Saturday, saying White House policies were motivated by a “different theology.”

A devout Roman Catholic who has risen to the top of Republican polls in recent days, Santorum said the Obama administration had failed to prevent gas prices rising and was using “political science” in the debate about climate change.

Obama’s agenda is “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology,” Santorum told supporters of the conservative Tea Party movement at a Columbus hotel. Continue reading ‘Get Your Freakin Religion Out of My Government’ »

Being ‘Born-Again’ Linked to More Brain Atrophy: Study

Read the article at: Philadelphia Inquirer

By Mary Elizabeth Dallas

WEDNESDAY, May 25 (HealthDay News) — Older adults who say they’ve had a life-changing religious experience are more likely to have a greater decrease in size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain critical to learning and memory, new research finds.

According to the study, people who said they were a “born-again” Protestant or Catholic, or conversely, those who had no religious affiliation, had more hippocampal shrinkage (or “atrophy”) compared to people who identified themselves as Protestants, but not born-again.

The study is published online in PLoS ONE. Continue reading ‘Born Again Brain Dead’ »