Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Philly.com] With its image of blue sky and fluffy clouds, the rectangle floating lately over I-95 near Allegheny Avenue suggests something dreamy, almost heavenly. At least from a distance. Drivers headed north toward the giant billboard might first discern the words God and Believe and suppose this to be the work of a fundamentalist church. But this is the work of no church. "Don't believe in God?" it asks. "You are not alone." Think of it as a sign of the times. Mounted by a consortium of local atheists, it is an invitation ... Read More

[USA Today] When Joe Fox sends his daughters away to summer camp, he's confident they'll be surrounded by kids who share his family's beliefs and values. Caitlin, 16, and Elizabeth, 10, go to Camp Quest, which in 1996 created a niche getaway for children who are agnostic, atheist, or just not sure what to believe yet. American parents have plenty of summer camp options, from Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to the YMCA to soccer, dance, music and drama camps. Many claim no religious affiliation ... Read More

[Guardian] The strident secularism of Dawkins and Hitchens misses a bigger point. God doesn't have to be great for religion to be worthwhile. Albert Einstein's letter, containing a short rant about God and the Bible, sold recently for 25 times its expected price - thanks, in part, to professional atheist Richard Dawkins being one of the unsuccessful bidders. It's long been said that religion is a racket. Sales figures of other anti-God rants - much longer than Einstein's letter to Eric Gutkind - suggest that atheism may be catching ... Read More

[Yahoo] For decades, Boston University sociologist Peter Berger says, American intellectuals have looked down on evangelicals. Educated people have the notion that evangelicals are "barefoot people of Tobacco Road who, I don't know, sleep with their sisters or something," Berger says. It's time that attitude changed, he says. "That was probably never correct, but it's totally false now and I think the image should be corrected," Berger said in a recent interview. Now, his university's Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs is leading a two-year project that explores ... Read More

[BBC] Believers may be partly responsible for the decline in faith by losing sense of the mystery and treating God as a "fact in the world", he said in a lecture.Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor called for more understanding and appreciation between believers and non-believers. But the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales said that Britain must not become "a God-free zone". The cardinal's lecture at Westminster Cathedral comes after a spate of public clashes over issues such as stem-cell research, gay adoption and faith ... Read More