b.rox

An Experiment by Mohamed Musthafa / CC BY-ND 2.0
If there is, as you believe, a benevolent Creator who is all-knowing and all-powerful, then surely He wants me to be the best person I can be. Surely he wants me to be true to my heart and my reason. After all, if He exists, then He [...]

Today I celebrate a quarter-century of atheism.
A quarter century? Why yes. Here is an entry from my journal 25 years ago today:

October 28th, 1984 10:58 PM Sunday
God. I used to believe in God. But do I now? I don’t think so. I can’t see any reason to. And if I must accept the existance [sic] [...]

Does this image of the Ten Commandments ring any bells?

Well, if you know me, it should look vaguely familiar. Those are my teeth. It’s a remix by a Flickr user “zeevveez” in Jerusalem which uses a photo I took of my own teeth just over four years ago:

That’s what I love about Creative Commons, the [...]

Dear Aunt Ron,
Thanks for Persephone’s birthday gift. It will probably take her a while to grow into those clothes, but better too big than too small.
I also appreciated the letter you included. Rest assured, I won’t “disown” you for the suggestions you make regarding Persephone’s religious education. In fact I am touched that you took [...]

As I rode my bike to my book club yesterday morning, I wondered idly what name the day might have. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday… surely this Saturday must have a name too?
We had a new visitor to our book circle, a woman named Charlotte. I’d guess her to be somewhere around my mother’s [...]

I’ve gotten in the habit of listening to a certain kind of music on Sunday morning, especially if I get up before Xy, usually with Persephone but sometimes alone. I think of it as sacred music, but I’m not sure if that’s the best way to describe it. The core of my collection in this [...]

One day when I was very young I brought home from Sunday School a page from some sort of activity booklet. I believe it depicted Jesus being tempted by Satan. I cut out the image of Satan and pinned it to the wall of my bedroom. I found a blue foil star somewhere and pinned [...]

Check out my new podcast, Anonymous Informants. I started this to learn more about podcasting, improve my interviewing techniques, and explore some issues that I find interesting. I’ve done two episodes so far, and clearly I’ve got a lot to learn. But that’s the point.

Regarding the current foofaraw being raised over remarks by Obama’s former pastor, Xy made the following observation:

If I could hear preaching like that, I’d go to church more often.

Amen. Indeed, it’s our feeling that the real shame here is not the remarks Wright made. The shame is that Obama feels the need to repudiate them.

A question to all the Christians out there:
How would you like to see non-Christians act with regard to Christmas? How can we be both respectful to you and true to ourselves?
Clearly we can’t celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday, so would you rather we not participate at all? That doesn’t seem quite fair, since [...]

So last night, in his big “religion” speech, Mitt Romney warned of nefarious forces bent on “establishing a new religion in America — the religion of secularism.”
Meanwhile, a new poll reveals more Americans believe in the devil than Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Those results hardly suggest a rising tide of secularism. I’m forced to conclude that [...]

For various reasons I’ve made an effort over the years to eliminate God-talk from my everyday speech. I try not to make casual reference to God. For example, I don’t say “God bless you” or “Thank God.” If I hit my thumb with a hammer I may make a spontaneous exception.
And now I’ve found another [...]

On Thursday, Xy and I went on down to Spanish Plaza, caught the tail end of Dennis Quaid and the Sharks and watched The Big Easy on the big screen. (I wrote about this event in advance, but remember, I am not a marketing tool.) It was fun in a cheesy way. As Chris Martel [...]

Jerry Falwell’s passing today gives me pause to reflect. Twenty-odd years ago I was fascinated by Falwell. I got on his mailing list and joined his organization by sending in a donation of one penny. I got a membership card which I shrink-wrapped and still have today. Believe it: I’m a card-carrying member of the [...]

I’m not the praying type, but all the same I thought I’d pass on this prayer, written by Sr. Loretta McCarthy, SBS.

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us. You who hovered over the waters and brought all into being, grant us the grace to be people of peace and hope during this 2006 [...]

I didn’t do so well on the new BibleDudes Quiz…

Heard at the barbershop today:
The devil’s out on these streets… Kids killing each other… It’s hard… Anybody doesn’t keep themselves prayed up these days is crazy…

Viriler. That’s the word I used as the first play of our first game of Scrabble last night. (It was four-way Scrabble: Xy vs. me vs. MaPó vs. Martin, whom we had over for basil burgers.) Because it cleared my tray, it was worth 70-some points, and of course awed my opponents. A pretty good [...]

Last night we ate dinner in a cave. We woke up this morning in the DeVille Motel in Waynesville, Missouri, perhaps slightly hungover from the previous night’s bout of drinking at a local nightclub. Soon we were touring Onandaga Cave. Shortly thereafter we ate lunch at Homer’s BBQ, a little hole-in-the-wall in Sullivan, Missouri, where [...]

We’ve just about fleshed out the itinerary for our upcoming trip, and I realize now that we’ll be at my parents’ house on Sunday morning.
As a rule, this is something I’ve tried to avoid in recent years, as it brings up the sometimes awkward matter of going to church — or not going to church, [...]