The Moral Animal – NYTimes.com

Posted on December 24, 2012 by PaulVK

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/opinion/the-moral-animal.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

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A Rubric for Mapping Social, Cultural and Religious Group Taxonomies

Posted on December 22, 2012 by PaulVK

Part of negotiating our access to diverse groups, better understanding their positions and anticipating their responses is figuring out how they work. The goal is to create a map to analyze how the group things and where the thinking takes them.

Map Their Center Set Values and Commitments

  • What sacred texts do they appeal to or are committed to?
  • What leaders do they identify, esteem and emulate?
  • What values do they cherish and wish to preserve?

Map Their Bounded Set Shibboleths

  • What hot button positions do they ferociously defend?
  • What behaviors get individuals kicked out, shunned, or excluded from the community?
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Her-meneutics on Happiness and Anna Karenina

Posted on December 22, 2012 by PaulVK

Link

 

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Why Bother with the Old Testament

Posted on December 21, 2012 by PaulVK

Haven’t We Evolved Beyond the Bible?

Many people believe the Bible is a liability for Christians and the world. The Bible invites people to give religious sanction violence, prejudice, and tribalism. People should just leave the book behind, like a vestigial structure whose utility was questionable but today is a clear hindrance to our future evolution as a civilization and a species.

Jesus, especially in the canon of popular opinion which rarely bothers to consult the Christian canonical record, seems inclusive (nice to women, quiet about gays, gracious towards social outcasts), non-violent (except towards money changers tables and fig trees), loving (turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, love your enemies) and giving (feeding the 5,000, eat my body, drink my blood).

The Problem of Hebrew God

Those who tend to promote this position most often point to the Old Testament. Here the God of the Hebrews sends an angel to kill the first born of Egypt, sends pestilence to cull the disobedient desert wanderers in their 40 years of generational genocide, commands the annihilation of the inhabitants of Jericho and Canaanites in general, and employs the likes of Assyrians and Babylonians to judge his own people. Clearly this god doesn’t respect human life as much as we like to think we do.

The New Testament Keeps Finding Itself in the Old Continue reading →

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Natural Marriage

Posted on December 21, 2012 by PaulVK

  1. It is interesting how “biology” is the basis here.
  2. It doesn’t ask address the question of economic fairness for same sex couples
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Ross Douthat on The God Within

Posted on December 21, 2012 by PaulVK

My friend Eric mentioned Douthat’s book “Bad Religion” which I had not finished, and then it got mentioned on the McKnight piece I stumbled upon prompting me to read the chapter.

Douthat here sums up the tenets of this faith (pg. 216). Below are some quotes and extrapolations on my part.

  1. All organized religions offer only a partial glimpse of god, light being, etc. The truly spiritual person experiences god through feeling, intuition, experience, not reason or propositional statements. The direct encounter is authentic, statements about it derivative. “Trust your feelings Luke…” 
  2. God is everywhere and in everything, but the surest avenue towards experience god is in your own self or soul. The soul of god is your own soul.
  3. Because god is all encompassing, sin, death and evil are ultimately reconciled, not defeated. “Consciousness is universe” The only hell that exists does so in a terrified mind. In other words evil does not exist, it is just an illusion.
  4. Beatitude is not only constantly available, but universally available. This means that heaven is there for the receiving at any moment, and in every moment, regardless of circumstance.

The entire chapter is excellent. Here are some quotes:  Continue reading →

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Dorothy Sayers on the Greatest Drama Ever Staged

Posted on December 21, 2012 by PaulVK

Wow, this piece moves heaven and earth. 

Read this piece from Dorothy Sayers this morning. It was one of those pieces that when I’m reading it I’m thinking “How could I have been a Christian all these years and never read anything this clear, dramatic and persuasive. It makes me believe all over again.

A couple of teasers: Continue reading →

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Oswald Sanders on Leadership

Posted on December 20, 2012 by PaulVK

“Leaders must draw the best of out of people, and friendship does this far better than prolonged arguments or mere logic.” from J. Oswald Sanders Spiritual Leadership

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Carl Jung Quote on Irritation

Posted on December 20, 2012 by PaulVK

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” Other Jung quotes. 

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Promise and fulfillment

Posted on December 20, 2012 by PaulVK

Again from Jesus Creed

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