[Logic]

A very interesting article I stumbled upon. Thought I'd share it with you guys(and girls)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/17/op...17KRIS.html?th

[pooka]

The world would be a much better place if everyone would just worship naked women.

edit: hot, naked women.

[BRussell]

I saw that this morning. It's interesting because Kristoff has written a series of columns recently about how American liberals aren't sufficiently respectful of religious conservatives. But now he's saying essentially what liberals have been saying about religious conservatives all along.

[zigzag]

I thought this particular passage would catch pooka's eye:

"One might have thought that Jesus would be more of an animal lover."

Seriously, I'm no less troubled by the fact that millions of Christians buy into this fantasy than that millions of Muslins buy into an alternative one. In my own fantasy, Mickey Mantle reappears, puts all the friggin' religious fanatics on a rudderless ship, and buys the rest of us a drink.

Unfortunately, the image of the nice Jesus seems to be getting supplanted by the wrathful Jesus. I blame violent video games.

[itai195]

Wow, that pile of drivel is a best-seller?

Nice Jesus won't win any converts.

[macvillage.net]

Originally posted by BRussell:
I saw that this morning. It's interesting because Kristoff has written a series of columns recently about how American liberals aren't sufficiently respectful of religious conservatives. But now he's saying essentially what liberals have been saying about religious conservatives all along.

well said.

Funnny how the double standard exists. If it were a Jewish author, people would be ranting about how they get away with it 'because they control the media and washington'... But since it's a Christian they get away with it.

Originally posted by zigzag:
Seriously, I'm no less troubled by the fact that millions of Christians buy into this fantasy than that millions of Muslins buy into an alternative one. In my own fantasy, Mickey Mantle reappears, puts all the friggin' religious fanatics on a rudderless ship, and buys the rest of us a drink.

[lil'babykitten]

If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of "Glorious Appearing" and publish it in Saudi Arabia, jubilantly describing a massacre of millions of non-Muslims by God, we would have a fit.

Too true.

Scary times.

[Millennium]

The Left Behind series is little more than a bunch of bad Bible fanfic. They are works of fiction (bad ones at that), and clearly labeled as such. If some sort of Muslim analogue were published, it would probably escape all notice. There is a difference between a novel and a religious tract, a difference which seems to escape this author.

Frankly, I doubt that this author's "Millions of people believe that this series describes God's will" is true either. People are stupid, but not that stupid.

[voyageur]

Sigh. People can be pretty stupid. This kind of book has been around for years, although I hadn't heard of this particular series. When we first married, my husband's fundamentalist Christian sister sent us a book full of this kind of nonsense. I can't remember its name, but it went on about the "yellow peril" and the danger to western nations. When my husband pointed out to her how racist the book was, she had not even noticed. Despite having a college education, it had gone right over her head because her religion had so programmed her to believe this kind of stuff. She and her husband belonged to the Assembly of God, same religion as our dear John Ashcroft.

[BRussell]

I have to admit that I've read the Christ Clone trilogy. It's a bit like the Left Behind series I suppose, but by all accounts it's better written.

I actually started reading it because I thought it was a sci-fi book. Its premise is that they do a Jurassic Park and clone some DNA found in the Shroud of Turin. They think it's going to be a clone of Jesus, but, well I don't want to give it away, but it doesn't turn out quite like they hoped it would.

It's pretty engrossing really, if you just think of it like a scifi book. The interesting thing about turning Revelations into a real-life scenario is that you have to fill in lots of modern detail into the basic structure. That's where I think the Christ Clone idea was pretty interesting - it's a modern scientific method for getting to the second coming and all that.