Speaking of Dan Savage, here he is behaving badly on Anderson Cooper 360. He has trouble holding his tongue when the opposition’s arguments are so bad. But I’ll forgive him.

Dan Savage on AC360

In case anyone has not gotten the word, a certain McCain insider doesn’t actually exist. The New York Times tells the story about the hoaxer who spread the word that Sarah Palin didn’t know that Africa was a continent.

Only days after California voters overturn a court ruling allowing same-sex marriage, a Connecticut court makes a similar ruling.

Dan Savage, the editorial director of The Stranger, writes in The New York Times that while the success of Prop 8 is disappointing, the Arkansas ballot measure that banned adoption by same-sex couples is terrifying.

Lisa Miller reminds us in Newsweek that while the U.S. is a highly religious country, the white born-again evangelicals who make up the Republican base are only a minority.

Mark Oppenheimer at Slate talks about the probability of the country electing Presidents of other minority groups in the near future. As expected, of the groups considered, atheists come in dead last. He says: “When the lion lies down with the lamb, when the President is a Republican Muslim and the Democratic speaker of the house is a vegan Mormon lesbian, when the Secretary of State is a Jain pacifist from the Green Party, they will all agree on one thing: atheists need not apply.” I appreciate his optimism, but I’m not so sure I like his concluding line: “If [an atheist] ever ran for president, he would need God’s help just as surely as he wouldn’t ask for it.” Excuse me, but haven’t we had about enough of God’s help in the last 8 years?

I think NOVA is one of the best programs on television, and although I would recommend watching the program every Tuesday (or viewing the programs online), I think this Tuesday’s program should be especially interesting. The program is called “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” and the program will present some basic Biblical scholarship to a lay audience (I wish I could say a “popular audience,” but I realize that PBS and NOVA are not exactly popular). I’m not expecting to see anything new, because that’s not really what NOVA does, but it should be interesting nonetheless.

This is how PBS is describing the program:

“In this landmark two-hour special, NOVA takes viewers on a fascinating scientific journey that began 3,000 years ago and continues today. The film presents the latest archeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament.

“This archeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies: Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one God—the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—emerge?”

The program is not out to prove or disprove the authenticity or reliability of the Bible (specifically the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament), but to present the conclusions of Biblical scholars.

Watch a preview of the program here, and read additional information about the program. It will be broadcast on PBS, Channel 9, at 8 PM on Tuesday, November 18, and it will be available here afterward.

Another interesting article. How many 10 commandment statues are floating around in public spaces in the US?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/washington/11sect.html?em

I should have posted this earlier, but I just watched a movie called “God on Trial,” produced jointly by the BBC and a PBS station in Boston. The movie is about a group of Jewish men facing death at Auschwitz who place God on trial for breach of contract. During the trial, they discuss many substantive issues, such as the problem of evil (theodicy) and the nature of God. While the film does not come out in favor of atheism, it also does not shy away from the issues we discuss at the SSU. I don’t know if PBS will run it again (it was on the Sunday night program Masterpiece), and it is not yet available on DVD, but I highly recommend it to everyone as soon as it becomes available.

At atheist meet’s God on a train and has a conversation. It’s not what you would expect at all, definately check it out.

Congratulations Mr. President!

 

Still holding out on California. Maybe, just maybe, people who voted absentee will be more tolerant than those who didn’t.

Just in case you are Catholic and want to know why voting pro-life is the most important thing. My dad forwarded me this link from a real estate blog.  I am not too sure what abortion has to do with real estate, but here it is.  There is also a nice little video at the bottom. 

http://activerain.com/blogsview/768231/Im-Catholic-Confused-And-Concerned

Hope you enjoy it!

Conversations With A Skeptic 3 from Mars Hill College Mission on Vimeo.

This posting does not constitute an endorsement by SSU of the event or its organizers.