The Confessions of A Hedonese

Search This Blog

Elaine Pagels, "Why Religion?"

September 24, 2021

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Comments

Abiogenesis: How Did The Game Start Without Kickoff?

Listening to someone who has a different view is not a waste of time. Otherwise we'd be preaching to the choir of those who already convinced. When it comes to different views on science, theAgora forums have featured speakers from both theistic evolutionist AND YE creationist :D Today, let's take a brief look at the topic of 'abiogenesis' - the idea that living organisms developed naturalistically from nonliving matter. If the game of natural selection that accounts for diverse life forms on earth is to begin without divine intervention, then somehow the first primitive living organisms must have developed from non-living matters. If there is no kickoff, how can the game even get started? (Greg Koukl) Here, scientists have tried for decades to find this 'holy grail' but the results seem to be rather disappointing not for the lack of trying or technological capability. Rather much creative research and advanced molecular biology had been invested through the ye

The Future of Humanity

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant. They will fear the loss of power. We will hear much about treason and disloyalty. Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones. But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing. ~Carl Sa

Mediation the wiser path to take

New Straits Times article by Zainah Anwar IN August 1998, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar University caused a stir in Malaysia when he publicly declared that Islam recognises freedom of religion and Muslims are free to leave Islam as long as they do not harm the religion. Dr Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi believes that there can be no compulsion in Islam. He asked what was the point in forcing those who wanted to leave Islam "to stay as this will only make them hypocrites". "It’s probably Allah’s will to save us from worse harm which these people could have caused if they had remained in Islam," he said. His opinion was supported by many others, including the then minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Abdul Hamid Othman who reiterated that the government had no plans to take any punitive action against those who peacefully changed their religion. As could be expected, the Pas mursyidul am, Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, expressed disbelief. He questioned the accuracy of th

Powered by Blogger