Strollerderby : God

Kate Gosselin Dreamt Of A Husband and Children - Did You?

Brett Singer — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Christianity Today has an excerpt from Kate Gosselin's book "Multiple Blessings":

"I'll say it again: Like most little girls, I had dreamed of the day when I would meet my husband, have children, and settle down to live a happily-ever-after kind of life."

Is that what "most little girls" dream of? Getting married and having kids? Am I living in some fantasy world where women have moved beyond the notion that this is what they should do? I realize that Kate isn't saying "all little girls" or even "women belong at home in the kitchen." And most of the rest of the excerpt (I didn't read it all) talks about Kate and her faith, which is a different topic. But isn't this notion that little girls dream of getting married (perhaps in a princess gown) and making babies kind of 1950's? Is "today's Christian woman" (the slogan on the website) the same as yesterday's Christian woman? What the heck, Kate?

Oh, and while you're up, could you get me a beer? Thanks babe.

Source: Christianity Today

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World Famous Atheist To Write Children's Book

Brett Singer — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Richard Dawkins hates fairies. That's not a homosexual slur. He also hates "wizards and magic wands and things turning into other things." And he's not sure if children should be exposed to such ideas.

From the New York Times:

Having sufficiently inflamed the passions of his adult readers with “The God Delusion,” his treatise on rationalism and atheism, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins…is writing a book for children. Dr. Dawkins said [the] book that would explore children’s relationships with fairy tales and encourage them to think about the world scientifically rather than mythologically. “I would like to know whether there’s any evidence that bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards and magic wands and things turning into other things — it is unscientific, I think it’s antiscientific…Whether that has a pernicious effect, I don’t know.”

It's important to note that the book does not have a publisher or release date, according to the New York Times. But Dawkins' "The God Delusion" has sold quite well, so if he does pen something along the lines of, "Stop Believing in Wizards You Dopey Kid" or "The Harry Potter Delusion", he'll probably find someone willing to print it.

The blog GBG Atheist News (GBG stands for "god be gone") has a post from 2007 that quotes Dawkins as saying, "i might try to do a children's book about how to think for yourself and how to ask questions about interesting topics and how you might go about answering them, Which might be subversive to religion but i don't think would be explicit about that" (apologies for punctuation; apparently this particular group of atheists don't capitalize the letter "I" and do whatever they feel like doing with commas). Dawkins recently said that Harry Potter and other stories "could have a 'pernicious' effect on children." (dailymail)

Interestingly, there are some people who dislike the Potter books because they feel they are anti-religious -- those who think it promotes witchcraft and/or Satanism and/or other evil things. (Like these fun folks who burned a pile of Potter books.)

Obviously if a child is 14 and still believes firmly that fairies exist, that might be a bit odd. But I think it's a parent's job to dispel any "delusions" before they become problematic. Heck, I believed in Santa Claus for the first few years of my life, and I'm Jewish. I turned out OK.

Source: nytimes
Image: dailymail

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Best of FameCrawler: Week of September 26th

Whit Honea — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:00:00 GMT

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Teaching Evolution as Theory not fact

Brett Singer — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

An article in last week's New York Times discussed a major hot-button issue in schools across the country: evolution vs. creationism, or its offshoot, intelligent design.

It's a long article, and certainly worth reading. I won't try to summarize the whole piece in this post, but the big surprise for me was that it was less about two competing theories/beliefs, or even about science versus religion. It was about a teacher who, in my opinion, has the patience of Job.

That teacher is David Campbell, who teaches Biology in Orange Park, Florida. The story the article tells is not of him fighting with parents, the school board, or local churches. Actually, he's not fighting with anyone. This quote sums up his attitude nicely:

"He scanned the faces of the sophomores in his Biology I class. Many of them, he knew from years of teaching high school in this Jacksonville suburb, had been raised to take the biblical creation story as fact. His gaze rested for a moment on Bryce Haas, a football player who attended the 6 a.m. prayer meetings of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the school gymnasium.

"'If I do this wrong,' Mr. Campbell remembers thinking on that humid spring morning, 'I’ll lose him.'"

His main concern is not "proving" anything one way or the other. It's teaching.

"'Faith is not based on science,' Mr. Campbell said. 'And science is not based on faith. I don’t expect you to ‘believe’ the scientific explanation of evolution that we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks. But I do expect you to understand it.'"

That, to me, is the bottom line. Campbell's students, although they probably don't think so, are incredibly lucky to have him.

image/source: NYTimes

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God Says Dads Can Suck It

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:02:00 GMT

I'm usually pretty quick to get my dander up over any perceived slights or breaches of social decorum, but how does one respond to this?

John Hagee, God's right-hand man, says stay-at-home dads are going straight to hell.

"For others its laziness, you're too lazy to work and support your children. I'm talking about men. You call yourself Mr. Mom, God calls you a bum. St. Paul says you are worse than an infidel. Let me look you right in the eye and tell you that Hell is your future home if all you do is sit on your backside and let your wife support you in your life."

While it's true, I do sit around all day while managing a household and chasing after a 2-year-old -- it's especially annoying when my daughter interrupts mah shows -- but I still have to wonder: God doesn't have bigger issues than sending me to hell?

But more importantly, is this what Hagee thinks parents do? Sit on their backsides? I'd love to see the reaction if he said moms are lazy and sit on their backsides all day while their husbands support them. What would Jesus say to that, mother fucker?

They Say: Worrying About Worry Is Bad

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:00:00 GMT

I'm not much of a worrier, mostly because I can't hold on to any piece of information long enough to worry about it. But one writer has tried to find hard evidence that proves that worry is harmful to your health. Did she find it?

Nope. But what she did find is commenters who have all sorts of suggestions about how she can worry less. Some are real doozies.

So what works for you, 'derbiers? Do you worry? How do you stop the worry train once it leaves the station? Yoga? Drugs? Naps?

For me, the cure was a second kid, since I now have no time to stew about much of anything. Your mileage, however, may vary.

Pro-Life Pharmacy won't sell birth control

Brett Singer — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

DMC Pharmacy, can we help you?

Oh, you want birth control pills. I'm sorry, we can't help you with that. No, we don't sell condoms either. How about this pamphlet on the Rhythm Method? Perhaps a new Bible? Hello? Hello, are you there?

The DMC Pharmacy in Chantilly, Virginia, is a Pharmacy with a Point of View. Basically, if you're going to "do it," you should be prepared for the pitter-patter of little feet. That means no condoms, no birth control pills, no morning after pill – nada. Zip. The "family planning" aisle will be filled with rosary beads, Left Behind novels and snacks filled with nothing but high (moral) fiber. (We kid, because we love.)

(Aside #1: I wonder how far the store will take this. Would they sell copies of "The Da Vinci Code"? How about "Hustler"? Jolt Cola?)

(Aside #2: Now, don't go to dmcpharmacy.org if you want to find the pro-life pharmacy. That site is for a different DMC Pharmacy, which is part of the Detroit Medical Center. I'm not sure if they'll sell you a rubber, but my guess is that they will.)

Tom Brejcha from the Thomas More Society is, of course, supportive of the venture. Brejcha is representing another pharmacist who refused to fill a birth control prescription on moral grounds. The Washington Post quotes the attorney as saying, "Every pharmacist has the right to do the same thing." According to the Post, "[The DMC Pharmacy in Chantilly] is one of a small but growing number of drugstores around the country that have become the latest front in a conflict pitting patients' rights against those of health-care workers who assert a 'right of conscience' to refuse to provide care or products that they find objectionable."

Now, we may mock (in good humor) the notion of a pro-life pharmacy. But I think they have a right to keep contraceptives off the shelves; I'm not a lawyer but I'm fairly certain that no private store has a legal obligation to sell any product that they don't want to. Manhattan is filled with drugstores advertising a staff that will help you get your health insurance company to pay for fertility treatments, which is something not typically offered at your local Walgreen's. Different strokes, different folks. I do have a problem with a pharmacist who works at a "regular" pharmacy (you know, the kind of establishment that will burn in eternal hellfire – OK, sorry, mocking again, it's just a joke! Ouch! Watch the lightning!) refusing to fill any prescription, or a health-care worker who goes against the policies of their employer. You are absolutely entitled to your beliefs, but don't you also have to do the job that you were hired for? That's another legal question I don't claim to know the answer to.

Obviously it would be a problem is every store took this attitude. Personally, even though I don't need birth control pills myself, I would gladly avoid a store that took a stance against them. The best way to stop stores like this from proliferating is simply to not shop there.

Source: thefrisky

images: Wikipedia (1, 2), and then futzed with in Photoshop by me

When Boys Attack: 12-Year-Old Saves Mom, Kills Attacker

Cole Gamble — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:00:00 GMT

How does a young man say “I Love You” to his mother? Flowers? Candy? How about fending off her attacker and slaying the man? Yeah, extra points for originality.

When the boy, whose name was not released in this article, heard his mom’s screams, he ran to the kitchen of the boarding house where they live and found a fellow boarder pinning her to the floor and choking her. That’s when the boy picked up a knife…

According to the boy, he kept screaming "stop" at the attacker, all the while swinging the knife. The man would not stop. When police arrived the attacker was still alive and combative, but bleeding heavily. The man later succumbed to his wounds in the hospital.

I remember vividly a story from my childhood about a mother lifting a car off her pinned son. The message seemed to be, “Hey boys, your mama would do anything for you, so stop giving her lip.” Now with this episode of a son’s sacrifice, I think all boys can now say to their moms, “Let’s call it even.”

The story doesn’t end there, though: the boy may still be charged with homicide.

Photo: www.thespoof.com

Girls Dies Because Parents Pray Instead of Getting Treatment

Cole Gamble — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:04:00 GMT

An 11-year-old Wisconsin girl succumbed to a very treatable form of Diabetes when her parents turned to the healing power of prayer rather than medical attention.

For the full report check it here.

I want to be the first to say, this post is not about taking cheap shots. No “Silly Religious Fanatics Gone and Messed Up” here. Perception for better or worse, is our reality and in this parenting couple's reality there was more power in faith than there was in science. What I will say is that we as a people have a problem agreeing upon an objective reality. Faith is a powerful thing and, in it's way, it can change the physical properties of the world. I have no doubt that a severely ill person could do worse for their health than buoy their spirits with the everlasting hope of belief.

However, it all breaks down when we disregard the regular laws of cause and effect that affect us all. Al Gore believes there is an assault on reason. I think there is an assault on reality. If I stand in the path of an oncoming train, no matter how much I pray, prayer will not move that train from my path. God may work in mysterious ways, but he's not a wacky trickster (not usually anyway). And you know what, I wouldn't want to live in a world where there is an almighty power that bails us out whenever we feel like being irresponsible.

If there is a God, I'd like to think he put us here to learn a thing or two, or else I can't figure out what point we have sticking around. As you may have guessed, I myself am not a church-goer but I do have an open mind and I think reality and faith can coexist. Ignoring reality in the name our convictions is tossing aside the greatest teaching tool we have, the world around us. If you believe in God, I hope you agree that He didn't throw this place together half-assed. I don't believe He'd be too insulted if on top of that prayer we doubled checked ~~that evidence for going to war~~ our kid's illness just to make sure someone doesn't get hurt.

This case does remind us that whatever be our faith, we are all citizens of this earth and the same rules apply to all of us.

The Country Goes To Hell In a Handbasket: Devil or Darwin?

Kelly Mills — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:31:00 GMT

Sometimes I read the news and just get, well, depressed. The story about the teacher who was arrested in Sudan for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed was one of those stories that got me all irate and blue. I mean, what is the world coming to? Why, it's like religious fundamentalism has completely swept away the reason and intelligence of a sizeable group of people. And then I had to see this one. Yeah, a poll found that more Americans believe in literal hell and the devil than "believe" in Darwin's theory of evolution. In fact, while 82 percent believe in God and 62 percent believe in the devil, only 42 percent go along with Darwin's theory. Which kind of makes me think the U.S. has evolved into a nation of idiots. Or failed to evolve out of idiocy. Whatever.

Don't think this news matters much? Well, the poll "helps explain many of its political battles which Europeans find bewildering, such as efforts to have 'Intelligent Design' theory--which holds life is too complex to have evolved by chance--taught in schools alongside evolution." I'm on team European on this one. I grew up in a religious household, and of course I've got no problem with anyone believeing in God or gods or the devil and whether or not he plays a mean fiddle. But religious belief is based in faith, and the theory of evolution is, you know, science. We are supposed to appraoch the two differently. They shouldn't be mutually exclusive (and weren't in my house) but I don't really want someone else's faith added to my kid's curriculum at school either. I just start to wonder what would happen if a teacher let a class name a stuffed monkey, "Jesus."

Are Families' Concerns Too Boring to Mention?

Madeline Holler — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:19:00 GMT

So you didn't watch the Republican debate last night? Good! Because it would have been 2+ hours of your life you'll never get back. Babble's Political Nanny did watch, however, and put together a summary of the major "issues" that the GOP presidential candidates tackled (when not verbally tackling each other) over on her blog, including THE ONE question that related in any way to kids and families.

I wonder when any of the candidates -- Republican or Democrat -- are going to talk about issues that are of concern to American families, because so far, they haven't. Are Iowans really only concerned about immigration and God? Is THAT why these appeared to be the only two issues all of the eight Republicans on the stage in Florida were interested in talking about? Am I the only one who thinks Christianity is totally beside the point when it comes to being a national leader?

Anyway, these fake debates are always so disappointing, as is the fact that we're going to have to wait until primaries for states like California and Ohio and Michigan to come up before anybody dares to mention issues weighing on urban families -- things like home foreclosures, environmental stuff, schools, that kind of thing.

What do you want to know from the candidates? How much to you care whether the president believes the Holy Bible is the word of God?