Category Archives: Atheist

Former President Obama loved to quote a hopeful statement from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. The quote was so important to the former President that he had it woven into a rug in the Oval Office. The statement is controversial, because it can be used to justify all sorts of ideas (since there are many conceptions of what justice amounts to), as well as a justification for doing nothing (since history is guided in the long term toward justice regardless of what we do). A more basic question to ask about Dr. Kings claim is simply Is it true?

The question is particularly pressing right these days. If the arc of the moral universe tends toward justice, it apparently also stops, reverses on itself, and wanders off in different directions regularly. Here we are, decades later, still wondering when and if equal justice for all citizens, regardless of race, gender sexual orientation, or other irrelevant characteristics will ever arrive. And what will it look like if it does?

A few semesters ago, I spent a couple of mornings with fifteen colleagues at a seminar for honors faculty that occurs at the end of every academic year on my campus. One of my colleagues led the second mornings discussion on Ta-Nehisi CoatesBetween the World and Me. Coates book is written as an extended letter to his son, providing as much insight and wisdom as Coates can muster concerning the challenges of growing up as a black man in this country.

The book has many virtues, but there is one particular feature of it that I keep thinking about long after our discussion. Coates is an unapologetic atheist, cautioning his son frequently against the temptation to see some sort of divine plan behind the suffering of African-Americans over the centuries in this country. He references, for instance, the notion that the horrors of slavery were a necessary step in the direction of slow but inexorable progress toward rights and freedom.

You must struggle to truly remember this past in all its nuance, error, and humanity. You must resist the common urge toward the comforting narrative of divine law, toward fairy tales that imply some irrepressible justice. The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine . . . It is wrong to claim our present circumstanceno matter how improvedas the redemption for the lives of people who never asked for the posthumous, untouchable glory of dying for their children.

It is tempting and so easy to read history as an unfolding story intended to produceus, the various stories differing radically depending on who the us at the center of each story happens to be. Behind the scenes in many of these stories is cosmic and divine intention. But Coates argues that if we stop telling such stories and simply consider what actually has happened and is happening, we have little reason to see progress or to detect a divine plan.

Perhaps struggle is all we have because the god of history is an atheist, and nothing about his world is meant to be. So, you must wake up every morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable, least of all the promise of waking up at all. This is not despair. These are the preferences of the universe itself: Verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope.

Simone Weil, who was no atheist, once wrote that atheism is a purification. Coates point here is an example of Weils observation in action. If we refuse, at least temporarily, to be consoled by comforting stories, we find ourselves in the middle of a reality that shows no preference for any of the things that we claim to love most. Everything can be taken away. Everyone dies. For every apparent step forward there are at least as many equally apparent steps in the other direction. A dose of atheism is something like the ubiquitous bucket challenges of a few years agoit dumps cold water on all of our preconceptions and unsupported hopes.

Despite the stereotypical attitudes of persons of faith toward atheism, a dose of atheism can be clarifying, even purifying as Weil suggests. A godless world is not a meaningless worldbut it is a world in which meaning must be created, not found. Additionally, atheism need not take wonder, beauty, inspiration, or awe out of the equation; indeed, it might open our eyes in a new way to what is right in front of us. Coates writes that

Godless though I am, the fact of being human, the fact of possessing the gift of study, and thus being remarkable among all the matter floating through the cosmos, still awes me.

Perhaps no more than this is needed to establish a foundation for seeking justice, equal rights for all, and equal access to the possible fulfillment of our best hopes and dreams for every individual. The God of history being an atheist does not eliminate the possibility of justice. It does, however, mean that we have no reason to believe that justice will happen because of some divine planit is up to us.

Coates is not an aggressive atheist; there are times when it is clear that he wishes he could resonate with the faith that has been so important to the generations that produced him.

I thought of my own distance from an institution that has, so often, been the only support for our people. I often wonder if in that distance Ive missed something, some notions of cosmic hope, some wisdom beyond my mean physical perception of the world, something beyond the body, that I might have transmitted to you.

I have become convinced over the years that human beings cannot live for long without hope, and find that the strong conviction that there is something more going on than meets the eye is a conviction that not only shapes my life, but is one that I cannot imagine lacking. But this does not make my faith commitment better than Coates atheismit simply means that each of us must find our own ways toward meaning through a reality that very possibly offers little or no meaning to be found. The arc of the moral universe will bend toward justice only if we are committed daily to bending it in that direction.

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Thoughts on Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Does the Arc of the Moral Universe Really Bend Toward Justice? - Patheos

Kirk Cameron was thrust into the Hollywood scene from an early age, landing a leading role in what went on to be one of the most prolific sitcoms of the 1980s. Since then, hes used his celebrity to advance the good.

Thats what he explained in the latest episode of the PragerU series Stories of Us.

In a wide-ranging video, the 51-year-old Growing Pains star who began acting at just 14 years old referenced a quote he learned from one of his now-grown daughters. Scrawled on a piece of paper, she wrote: Its the same boiling water that softens potatoes that hardens eggs. It just depends on what youre made of.

So the same difficult challenges and influences of Hollywood that turns some people sour and makes them narcissistic and bitter and joyless and afraid to not fit in, Cameron said, is the same pressure that actually softened my heart and caused me to embrace gratitude and be thankful for the life that I have and want to use a platform and this Hollywood industry to advance the good.

I really think its what youre made of, he continued. And if you dont know what youre made of, dont look to your environment or your industry or other people to give you an identity. There was somebody who made you ask Him. And you can be sure that the ending of the story is gonna be fantastic.

For Cameron, it wasnt until he was in the entertainment business that he became a Christian, revealing he actually defined himself as an atheist until he was around 17 years old.

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Sitting in his sports car after dropping a girl off at an acting class, Cameron recalled pondering the afterlife, wondering if there really was a heaven and a hell and a creator and a plan for eternity.

I knew that if there was a heaven, I wouldnt be going there, he said, noting he had lived life with a self-centered, conceited, Im all that, Im the G.O.A.T., celebrity Mike Seaver guy mentality, never pausing to consider something outside himself.

It was at that point he decided to pray for the first time, asking God: If youre there, would you please show me. Would you forgive me for all the wrong things Ive done and make me the person that You want me to be.

While certainly the most important, coming to Christ wasnt the only way Cameron changed thanks, at least in part, to Hollywood. He was also introduced to his now-wife on the set of Growing Pains.

Cameron said one of his nephews frequently asks him if he took advantage and didnt waste the opportunities he had to go out with so many different girls at the height of his sitcom fame.

The actor said he has reminded his nephew he found something so much better instead.

I found a girl, Cameron said. Shes beautiful on the inside; shes beautiful on the outside. I married her and weve been married for 30 years. You have no idea how much more valuable that is. Ive got six grown children who love God and still ask me my opinions about things, who still love to come home and be with me and my wife, and Im on PragerUs Stories of Us. I mean, the story doesnt really end much better than this.

Beginning at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, you can watch Camerons full Hollywood story in the video above.

***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up forFaithwires daily newsletterand download theCBN News appto stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

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'I Want to Use My Platform to Advance the Good': Kirk Cameron Details Journey from Hollywood to Faith in God - CBN News

At the end of each podcast, Babylon Bee leaders ask guests the same 10 questions, including this stumper: Calvinist or Arminian?

That caught Elon Musk by surprise, and he needed clarification on the difference between Arminian believers and persons from Armenia. After some background on Protestant history, he said: My mind would say determinism and my heart says free will.

Why was the mastermind behind Tesla and SpaceX a man worth $278 billion at the end of 2021 talking to a Christian satire website? The answer: Musk has 69.7 million Twitter followers, and he frequently responds to them, even if its a U.S. senator questioning his taxes.

You know, he engages with our content from time to time, Bee CEO Seth Dillon told Fox News. After email exchanges about a meeting, Musk said: Fly to me, and well do it.

The result was 100-plus minutes of conversation in Austin, Texas, ranging from satire to science and from politics to pop culture. Topics included sustainable energy, superheroes (Musk would choose to be Irony Man), why entrepreneurs are fleeing California, the physics of reusable rockets, cyborgs, how wokeness threatens humor, CNN morality and the future of a planet near an expanding sun.

Musk discussed his journey from South Africa to America, including his days as a manual laborer while struggling to pay student loans. Then he dove into computer coding and online commerce, making millions of dollars that led to Tesla. The rest is history.

On celebrity websites, Musk is often described as an atheist or agnostic. Asked if he prays, Musk once replied: I didnt even pray when I almost died of malaria. But after the success of the first manned Falcon rocket mission, Musk said in his public remarks: You know, Im not very religious, but I prayed for this one.

In the Bee interview, Musk discussed his complex religious background, which included going to Anglican Sunday school, the Church of England, basically. But I was also sent to Hebrew preschool, although Im not Jewish. ... I was singing Hava Nagila one day and Jesus Our Lord the next. Later, he had an existential crisis, read the Bible and other religious classics and concluded: Theres a whole bunch of things in there they didnt teach you in Sunday school.

There was humor in these exchanges, along with serious questions, Bee Editor Kyle Mann, said via email. After all, these podcasts have featured atheists, agnostics, Christians of all stripes and everyone in between.

This chance to pick Elon Musks brain and get his thoughts on God, faith, religion and the Gospel was incredibly humbling, Mann said. You could certainly feel him searching and working through the eternal questions everyone has to encounter at some point: Does God exist, and what do you do with Jesus Christ? Mann said the dialogue continued after the recording stopped.

In the podcast, creative director Ethan Nicolle did ask: To make this church, were wondering if you could do us a quick solid and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

After an awkward pause, and some laughter, Musk took the question seriously.

Theres great wisdom in the teachings of Jesus, and I agree with those teachings. Things like turn the other cheek are very important, as opposed to an eye for an eye. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, said Musk, paraphrasing a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. Musk also quoted Albert Einstein, affirming belief in the God of Spinoza, in which the material universe is seen as an expression of God.

Forgiveness, you know, is important and treating people as you would wish to be treated, Musk added. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Very important. ... But hey, if Jesus is saving people ... I wont stand in his way. Sure, Ill be saved. Why not?

At the very end, Musk described his confusion as a 5-year-old, receiving Holy Communion without understanding what was happening and why. At that stage, he said, he was still asking basic Bible questions, like how Jesus fed the crowd with five loaves and three fish. ... Where did the fish and the bread come from? ... Would you, like, take a bite and the bread would come back to being a full (loaf of) bread? ...

They left out the details. ... Im not saying that I know all the answers.

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TERRY MATTINGLY: Elon Musk, the Babylon Bee and the teaching of Jesus - Victoria Advocate

I have a friend who is always angry at God.

Did someone:

My friends response is, God made a mistake! That person didnt deserve their fate. My friend is an avowed atheist, yet the capricious, malign Divine consumes his attention.

Im not here to say whether God makes mistakes or even whether He exists those questions are way above my pay grade. Instead, I am asking whether believing in an ill-intentioned or incompetent Creator contributes to our ability to cope with lifes inevitable losses.

I have had moments of anger at God. My father died when I was nine years old. I felt that He had struck me a terrible blow, one that I would never be able to comprehend. Over time, I worked through my anger and forgave Him for the loss He had caused me. I coped. After a long time, I flourished. Getting back into a sense of connection with God was part of my healing.

When we believe that God has it in for us, we suffer more than if we bear our tribulations believing that, even if we dont see it in the moment, God has our back. Jewish scholars such as the Malbim, a 19th-centurycommentator, have pointed out that trouble and distress are two different things. We can have a lot of trouble yet feel little distress. In other words, pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.

Nevertheless, being angry at God has benefits. When we are angry, we are engaged. Being mad at God is better than being disengaged completely because it means that we have a path to reconciliation. As 94-year-old Dr. Erika Jacoby, a Holocaust survivor and former psychotherapist, says, If you are angry with God, talk to Him! You cannot have a relationship with someone you do not talk to. Tell God you are angry and see what He says. God is unlikely to talk to us directly, but a thought may cross our minds, a coincidence may comfort us, or we may have a clarifying dream after reaching out. Its worth a try!

Believing in God while believing that he is capricious or incompetent means having the worst of both worlds of atheism and faith. The atheist simply believes that stuff happens. An impersonal fate is bound to seem random and capricious. The believer who thinks that God is real and powerful but screws up from time to time is stuck with an unreliable hand on the tiller of the world.

If we operate on the assumption that God is good despite occasional appearances to the contrary we are relieved of the gut-wrenching bitterness of living in a universe where the main power either does not care or is incapable of doing anything about human suffering. Believing that God is both powerful and good brings us serenity, acceptance, and a willingness to look for the positive in any situation.

But how do we know that our belief in a benevolent God is true? Could we be deceiving ourselves? In the absence of a winged chariot descending from Heaven with angels crooning, God is good!, none of us is sure whether our beliefs are true. But I am a firm believer in acting as if. I can choose to live my life as if God doesnt exist or hates me. On the other hand, I can commit to the perspective in which God is good and has reasons for the events that happen in the world.

In his book Gateway to Happiness, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin wrote, Those who have Emunah (faith) suffer less from misfortune. Lets face it, bad stuff happens. If we believe there is a Creator, its natural to blame Him when things go wrong. However, getting out of connection with the Divine ultimately brings out of connection with ourselves and our ability to act on life.

To a great extent, we cannot control what happens to us. We can, however, control our reactions to what happens. And when what happens is an illness, a loss, or a tragedy, who is the happier person? The one who bellows blame at God, the supposedly all-powerful deity who made a mistake this time?

Or the one who breathes deeply and says, I dont understand it. I dont like it. But I accept that God is good.?

Elizabeth Brenner Danziger is the author of four books, including Winning by Letting Go (Harcourt Brace: 1985) and Get to the Point! (Random House: 2001). Her work has appeared in many national magazines. She is the president of Worktalk Communications Consulting. She has four grown children and many grandchildren. She has been living an observant Jewish life for 40 years.

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Does it pay to be angry at God? - The Times of Israel

Amanda Collin returns as Mother in the second season of HBO's original series Raised by Wolves.

We finally have the full trailer for the second season ofRaised by Wolves, the visually striking, occasionally frustrating sci-fi series createdby Aaron Guzikowski, with Ridley Scott serving as executive producer. The series returns to HBO Max on February 3.

(Spoilers for S1 below.)

As I've written previously, the series involves two androids serving as Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim) figures on a strange virgin planet, Kepler-22b(an actual observed extrasolar planet), after Earth has been destroyed by the outbreak of a religious war. They are programmed to incubate, birth, and raise human children to rebuild the population and set up an atheist civilization to keep the human race from going extinct.

The first teaser dropped last month and left us with decidedly mixed feelings. As I observed at the time:

On the one hand, once again, the visuals are amazing, and we're thrilled that the strikingly androgynous Danish actress Amanda Collinis returning to star as Mother. Her extraordinary performance anchored the first season's narrative arc and spooky, otherworldly vibe, and that same moody, disquieting vibe is present in the teaser. On the other hand, we were seriously disappointed in the S1 finale, which has shaken our confidence that S2 will rebound from that fiasco to become the genuinely original and visionary series it initially promised to be.

YouTube/HBO Max

S1 wasn't to everyone's taste, but I found itatmospheric and weird in interesting waysuntil that finale. Mother became pregnant after having virtual sex with her VR creator, "downloading" the required information. Except instead of giving birth to a baby as she'd hoped, Mother literally vomited up a creepy, flying alien sucker-snake (FASS). In my review, Icalled it"a jarring, over-the-top ploy that simply wasn't sufficient payoff for the viewer, and clashed mightily with the original set-up." And just as we feared, the FASS looks to play a significant role in S2.

Per the official synopsis:

Android partners Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), along with their brood of six human children, join a newly formed atheistic colony in Kepler 22 bs mysterious tropical zone. But navigating this strange new society is only the start of their troubles as Mother's "natural child" threatens to drive what little remains of the human race to extinction.

As the trailer opens, Mother and Father have relocated with their children to the atheist colony on the other side of the planet, which seems far more hospitable to their well-being than their original settlement. We get hints of the planet's still-hidden mysteries in the form of a desiccated alien body, as well as a strange skeleton, and we get scenes of what appears to be a gladiator-style combat stadium.Meanwhile, Marcus (Travis Fimmel) has become a zealous devotee of Sol and is intent on converting the children to his way of thinking. "To be worthy of Sol's love, children, you only need faith," he tells them at one point. "And that is one thing that this robot can never take away from us."

Mother and Father are far more than mere robots, of course, even fearing that they might be becoming a little too human the more time they spend on the planet with their brood. Mother's more violent nature will still get a chance to emerge, including her signature sonic scream that reduces human bodies to so much bloody gore.On the whole, we remain hopeful that S2 will be a solid experience. But perhaps that's because the FASS remains largely AWOL from the trailer, apart from one brief glimpse as it curls ominously around a tree, evoking some strong Garden of Eden vibes.

The second season of Raised by Wolves debuts on HBO Max on February 3, 2022.

Listing image by HBO Max

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Raised by Wolves S2 trailer promises another wild, crazy (possibly maddening) ride - Ars Technica

Best known for co-creating and starring in the UK version of The Office and his huge stand up shows, Ricky Gervais is one of Britain's best known comedians.

Hailing from Reading, the 60-year-old's career is still going strong, having recently starred in moving Netflix comedy series After Life, where he plays the lead role of Tony Johnson.

He has been out promoting the third series of the show, appearing on The Graham Norton Show on Friday (Janaury 14), but what else is there to know about the comedian turned actor?

READ MORE: ITV This Morning's Holly Willoughby will only be back for a WEEK as she jets off to film rival show

It might come as a surprise to super fans of Gervais that he has been in a relationship for close to 40 years.

He met best-selling author Jane Fallon while they were both students at the University College London back in the 1980s.

She is the author of eleven novels including Getting Rid of Matthew, Got You Back, Foursome.

Despite now living in a 10.8 million mansion in the capital and owning a lavish riverside house in Buckinghamshire, the pair haven't always lived the high life.

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Appearing as a guest on Loose Women last year, Jane said: "We went through a good few years when we had absolutely no money, and I've talked about this before.

"The brothel we lived above in Kings Cross - I always knew I had a plan to build up a career and I think once you do that it does mean a lot more because you've worked for all of it.

"I had many Saturday jobs I worked in various shops... I was a chamber maid in various hotels. I loved that job! You were on your own and you were poking round in people's stuff, it was great."

Ricky is believed to have a net worth of more than 100 million, while Jane is also a multi-millionaire in her own right.

Despite their long relationship, the pair insist that they will never get married, with Ricky being a strong atheist.

He previously told The Times : "We are married for all intents and purposes, everything's shared and actually our fake marriage has lasted longer than a real one.

"But there's no point in us having an actual ceremony before the eyes of God because there is no God."

He has also ruled out having children, telling the Daily Telegraph : "One good reason I dont want kids is that I don't think I'd sleep at night."

Do you have any stories that you think we should be covering? Get in touch by contacting sam.ormiston@reachplc.com

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Ricky Gervais' relationship with author and why they won't marry - My London

FeaturesBC Pires8 Hrs Ago Frederick Dharmbodh Westmaas recently published his memoirs, Glimpses of a Mystical Misfit. - Mark Lyndersay

AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Frederick Dharmbodh Westmaas and I recently published my memoirs, Glimpses of a Mystical Misfit.

I will turn 76 in March.

Ive worked for six years as a psychiatric nurse in England. But spent the better part of my working life as a sculptor in Trinidad.

I spent two years in my gurus ashram in India.

I was born in a nursing home on a street in the capital city which bears my official name, Frederick.

People do sometimes wonder where I come from but, despite my varied (Dutch, Afghan, African, French Creole and Venezuelan) ancestry, I am Trini, without a doubt.

The boxer Ralph Peterkin said the high point of his career was his victory over Westmust (sic) the Venezuelan in the amateur championships flyweight final in the late 60s.

I now live in DAbadie, the home my father built and left for his children.

From age six to 16 (1950s and early 60s), when the government acquired our property to expand the airport, I lived literally on the banks of the Caroni River, as my father worked as a (control tower) aeradio operator at the airport.

I learnt to swim and mastered the art of river fishing.

From 16 to 28, when I left for England, I moved between Tumpuna Road, Arima, and my maternal grandparents, uncles and aunts in Success Village, Laventille.

My first primary school was St Helena Presbyterian, just across the iconic bridge separating Piarco and St Helena Villages.

In 1962, I was expelled from Hillview College (described in chapter seven of my memoirs).

We were six children, four boys and two girls.

Frederick Dharmbodh Westmaas worked for six years as a psychiatric nurse in England, but spent the better part of his working life as a sculptor in Trinidad. - Mark Lyndersay

Unfortunately, my youngest sibling died last September at 64.

Only my younger brother Jan lives in Trinidad. He was the only Westmaas to see me fight in the ring. And to join in storming Carnival fetes.

Both parents died in my arms, my father at 97 and my mother at 86.

One day my father looked at me lovingly and said, You turned out to be a good boy, after all.

Although I had intense relationships with women in England and India, my love for freedom shaped my destiny to remain single.

Being engaged in a personal search for truth does not constitute belonging to any religion.

As a youngster, I was an atheist. Today I try not to get caught up in beliefs or doubts.

Nevertheless, I believe there are degrees of believing and doubting. To a great degree, I believe in Eternity, which postulates that there is no beginning and no end.

People say they go to the beach, listen to music or even have a drink to relax. I see all this as external relaxation. Real or conscious relaxation is your inward journey to find the source of your tension.

I am inspired to compose a little verse: Let go and let God be/Is a quote I always see/But theres another way/You can be free/Just let go/Of what you dont want to be.

Besides Oshos many books, Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea captured my imagination as a teenager. It mirrored my adventurous life and my love for fishing. The hero Santiagos courage had a great impact on me.

You can say I cut my dancing teeth as an adolescent in the 60s jumping up to the music of steel and brass bands at Carnival fetes I stormed in Trinidad.

As I matured and got into yoga and meditation, the raw, sensuous movements of the Carnival transformed into a more meditative, spontaneous and even ecstatic dance. Like a Sufi dervish in a trance.

With my visual impairment, watching movies is now a thing of the past.

Going back to childhood, the movies Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn still resonate with me. The song Moon River, about the Mississippi, where Tom and Huck had their adventures, still brings back a feeling of nostalgia.

Perhaps I was on the Mississippi in a past life. Or maybe its just a sentimental reflection of my own adventures at a similar age on our own Caroni.

Apart from the deceased Mighty Shadow, whose down-to-earth spirituality I was able to relate to, I like Mungal Patasar. Who blends beautifully the music of the sitar with the national instrument, the steelpan.

With the good and bad experiences and the lessons I had learnt, I felt inspired to write my memoirs, which I could share with others.

Despite my failing eyesight, I dismissed the idea of using a recorder. Writing by hand was essential. Using an erasable felt pen on large arborite sheets would work. I couldnt type on a computer keyboard anyway.

My brother Jan typed and edited my work bit by bit.

The entire process lasted more than two years.

Developing cataracts has slowed me down a bit but I have become even more conscious of my inner feelings. And more alert and aware of my surroundings as I move about. Mind you, I am not blind.

I think the average Trinidadian is fairly interested in reading, including autobiographies. I cant see how else we could produce such eminent prize-winning authors and lyrically rich calypsoes as we have.

As I reflect upon BC Pires question about why the wider world would be interested in reading about my life, I am inspired to write these lines: There would be readers in the wider world who would fit in/Eager to find out how the life of a Mystical Misfit has been/A Trini to de Bone, to drama he was prone/Learning to love life, dance and sing/And trusting in the truth of a life within.

For me, the real draw of the book is the search for enlightenment.

A rebellious youngster, I used my fists to fight in and out of the ring. And then used my hand to sculpt as a career, and finally, to write my memoirs.

Add working with psychiatric-ward patients while seeking to unlock the key to my inner self with the aid of an enlightened eastern master and this sounds more like fiction than real life.

My adventures in Trinidad, England and India have the potential to attract a wide audience, I believe.

The best part of writing my memoirs was going within and experiencing past events and feelings in a detached way, viewing everything objectively as a divine play.

The worst part was realising I had forgotten to include some important events and happenings. But I am planning a second edition.

What is a Trini?

I believe names reflect the essence of things. The frequency of the number three is positivity, equality and divine will according to numerology, the science of numbers. The frequency of the number three governs the natural, overall consciousness of Trinidad. Our creativity, fun-loving and forgiving nature reflects the positive side of three.

A Trini (also) loves to spread joy.

The question What does Trinidad and Tobago mean to me? inspires me to respond in verse: My country is that piece of Mother Earth/That nurtured and raised me from birth/ Guiding and protecting me as I went astray/And showing me a different way/With the clay of her body, I expressed my art/In ways that opened up my heart/Helping me to follow a path that made me free to fly/Inwardly in the mystic union of Mother Earth and Father Sky.

Read the full version of this feature on Friday evening at http://www.BCPires.com

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Where the misfit fits in - TT Newsday

I was working as a part-time activity director at a nursing home when Anna approached me, her face shrouded in bewilderment. This morning, she said in a shaky voice, a man on the radio said there are people who dont believe in God. Is that possible?

Anna and her late husband had fled Soviet oppression in the 1920s, finally obtaining a heavily wooded homestead in eastern Alberta. Before we could afford a mule, Anna once told me, I would pull the plow myself. Her social life had been confined to her Ukrainian Pentecostal church. Anna had lived out her 85 years believing that belief in God was universal.

We dont live in Annas world. A recent study found that only 56% of American citizens claim to be religious. That compares to 37% in Canada, 27% in Great Britain and 31% in Australia.

The rapid retreat from organized religion has created a happy hunting ground for New Atheist authors like Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell), Sam Harris (The End of Faith), and the late Christopher Hitchens (God is not Good: How Religion Poisons Everything). If these self-proclaimed Four Horsemen have it right, religious belief isnt just silly; always and everywhere, it has been an unmitigated disaster.

This makes for a wonderful story, and Dawkins, Dennet, Harris and Hitchens have exploited it to the full. It is also, as serious intellectual historians have repeatedly argued, demonstrably false.

In recent years, scores of legitimate scholars religious, atheist and agnostic have pieced together a more accurate and, admittedly, more complex, historical portrait. But these weighty tomes havent enjoyed the commercial success the Four Horsemen have enjoyed.

This makes for a wonderful story, and Dawkins, Dennet, Harris and Hitchens have exploited it to the full. It is also, as serious intellectual historians have repeatedly argued, demonstrably false.

I have spent the past month with three thoughtful responses to Enlightenment mythology: John Dicksons Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History, Tom Hollands Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, and David Bentley Harts Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and its Fashionable Enemies.

Dicksons Saints and Bullies is a humble attempt by an Australian Anglican scholar to reckon with the admittedly spotty resume of the Christian Church. Jesus Christ composed a beautiful melody, Dickson says, which Christians have labored to reproduce. More often than not, we have made a mess of it.

Rejecting Christianity based on the terrible performance of some Christians, Dickson argues, is like dismissing Bach after hearing my feeble attempts to play his Cello Suites. Sometimes Christians play the melody of Jesus well, sometimes poorly, and there are times when we seem to forget about it altogether. Some Christians have lived like saints; others (the bullies) have invented forms of muscular Christianity calibrated for quick results.

For Dickson, genuine Christian faith flows from the teaching of Jesus, most specifically, the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:27-36 and Matthew 5:38-48) which he calls the most sublime ethical teaching ever given.

In the formative centuries of Christian history, Gregory of Nyssa emerges as a saint (largely for his unrelenting opposition to chattel slavery), while Ambrose of Milan rates as a bully (for arguing that Christians have the right to persecute Jews).

Unfortunately for Dicksons argument, most Christians are neither saints nor bullies. Augustine of Hippo, in Dicksons view, could play the Jesus melody to perfection (love and do what you will), but often butchered the tune (for instance, his willingness to consign unbaptized babies to damnation).

Although the Christian revolution has produced spectacular feats of radical love, Dickson concludes, it has not changed the fundamental thrust of the societies it has touched.

Violence has been a universal part of the human story, he admits. The demand to love ones enemies has not. Division has been a norm. Inherent human dignity has not. Armies, greed and the politics of power have been constants in history. Hospitals, schools and charity for all have not. Bullies are common. Saints are rare.

That said, Dickson sees a discernible movement toward ethical Christianity, a deep appreciation for the Christian moral vision independent of Christian metaphysics. Tom Holland, a British historian with a flair for narrative prose, is Exhibit A.

Hollands Dominion begins with a whirlwind tour of the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empires. The imperial mindset, he insists, had no place for Christian tenets such as love for ones enemies, compassion for the poor or the conviction that people, regardless of race, gender or social status, are all equal in the eyes of God. Empires are built on strength, the submission of the strong to the weak and, when necessary, spectacular displays of cruelty.

In Hollands view, the Apostle Paul resolved this ancient tension by declaring Christ crucified the Savior of the world.

Paul was preaching a deity who recognized no borders, no divisions, Holland explains. Christ, by making himself as nothing, by taking on the very nature of a slave, had plumbed the depths to which only the lowest, the poorest, the most persecuted and abused of mortals were confined. As a consequence, the world stood transformed.

As Paul told the Galatians, There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Still, this revolutionary new understanding of God created an unresolvable tension between the volcano-blast of revolution and the shelter from it provided by tradition. Throughout Christian history, Holland says, settled tradition has lived in an awkward tension with the call for reformatio.

Christians become agents of terror, Holland believes, when they enforce uniformity either by enforcing tradition or pressing for reform. They have put the weak in their shadow; they have brought suffering, and persecution, and slavery in their wake. But, at the same time, the standards by which they stand condemned for this are themselves Christian.

Hollands central insight is borrowed from Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). In Hollands paraphrase: Freethinkers who mock the very idea of a god as a dead thing, a sky fairy, an imaginary friend, still piously hold to taboos and morals that derive from Christianity.

This insight applies equally to the icons of pop culture and ivory-tower academics. Holland draws a devastating contrast between John Lennon and Martin Luther King Jr. Although Lennons Imagine has become the unofficial anthem of contemporary atheism, Holland says, his vision of a brotherhood of man was Christian through-and-through. King, who cast a similar vision, understood its biblical roots. While King was leading his people against police dogs and fire hoses, Holland notes, Lennon was tooling around his estate in a Rolls Royce.

But if, as Holland suggests, we have tossed out the bathwater of Christian metaphysics while retaining the baby of Christian ethics, are we living on borrowed time? Holland sees no reason why not.

As a consequence, post-Christian civilization will always lack the spiritual resources, or the organizing myth, necessary to produce anything like the cultural wonders that sprang up under the sheltering canopy of the religion of the God-man.

Whenever the post-Christian world consciously eschews Christian morality (the Reign of Terror, the Nazi death camps, the Soviet Gulag, Maos Cultural Revolution) the results have always been horrific.

Hart never has suffered fools gladly and, in Atheist Delusions, his critique of the Four Horsemen is utterly brutal. How can men so pitifully ignorant of the Western intellectual tradition Christian theology in particular presume to pontificate on the triumph of reason over faith? Fortunately, Hart says, serious students of intellectual history have largely abandoned the trappings of Enlightenment mythology:

The classical world was not congenial to scientific endeavor; Christian Europe was.

The fruit of classical learning is available to us because it was preserved by Christian monks (especially in the Greek-speaking East).

The Inquisition, although unquestionably horrendous in its earliest phase, emerges late in the Christian story and, when compared to secular regimes of the 20th century, was typically cautious, fair-minded and deliberate.

The wars of religion were driven by the rise of the secular state and human ambition, not religious fanaticism.

Galileos famous conflict with the Renaissance papacy was more a clash of egos than a rejection of science.

Unfortunately, Hart laments, the reading public has displayed a marked preference for the sensational oversimplifications of the Four Horsemen.

Dickson, Holland and Hart distinguish the Jesus story from the world of organized religion. To be honest, Hart admits, my affection for institutional Christianity as a whole is rarely more than tepid; and there are numerous forms of Christian belief and practice for which I would be hard pressed to muster a kind word from the depths of my heart, and the rejection of which by the atheist or skeptic strikes me as perfectly laudable.

Hart isnt even arguing that the Jesus story is true; simply that it is singularly compelling and irreplaceable. Holland, for his part, never asks whether the God-on-the-Cross story is historical. All the same, he finds it unspeakably precious.

This pragmatic approach reminds me of George Macdonalds The Curate of Glaston.

I would live my time believing in a grand thing that ought to be true if it is not, the curate confides to an intimate friend. If these be not truths, then is the loftiest part of our nature a waste. I would rather die forevermore believing as Jesus believed, than live for evermore believing as those who deny him.

If thats the shape of post-Christian Christianity, I will happily sign on.

Alan Beanis executive director of Friends of Justice, an alliance of community members that advocates for criminal justice reform. He lives in Arlington, Texas, and is a member of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

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Suffocation will hit the road this May with Atheist, Soreption, and Contrarian. The tour will be Suffocation's first in nearly three years and is sure to kick every ass within a few miles of each individual venue.

"We are beyond stoked to return to the road with the Forces Of Hostility North American Tour 2022!" said Suffocation guitarist Terrance Hobbs. "Well be joined by our good friends and brothers in Metal Atheist as well as the technical metal powerhouse Soreption and death metallers Contrarian! This will be our first tour back in almost 3 years due to COVID so we are eagerly awaiting the stage and all our fans to blow off some well-awaited steam!"

Get the dates below.

5/26 Brooklyn, NY The Monarch5/27 Baltimore, MD Maryland Deathfest (Suffocation & Atheist only)5/28 Rochester, NY Montage Music Hall5/29 Chicago, IL Reggies5/30 Madison, WI The Crucible5/31 Lawrence, KS Granada Theater6/1 Denver, CO Roxy Theater6/3 San Francisco, CA DNA Lounge6/4 Los Angeles, CA 17206/5 San Diego, CA Brick by Brick6/6 Pomona, CA Glasshouse6/7 Mesa, AZ Nile Theater6/8 Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theater6/9 El Paso, TX Rockhouse Bar & Grill6/10 Austin, TX Come and Take it Live6/11 Dallas, TX Trees6/12 Houston, TX White Oak Music Hall6/13 New Orleans, LA Southport Hall6/14 Tampa, FL The Brass Mug6/15 Jacksonville, FL 1904 Music Hall6/17 Jonesboro, GA Furnace 416/18 Spartanburg, SC Ground Zero6/18 Louisville, KY Diamond Concert Hall6/19 Detroit, MI Sanctuary6/20 Toronto, ON Velvet Lounge

w/ Atheist & Soreption

6/21 Ottawa, ON Mavericks6/22 Montreal, QC LAstral6/23 Quebec, City QC Imperial Bell6/24 Boston, MA Middle East Downstairs6/25 Clifton, NJ Dingbatz

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Former Growing Pains actor Kirk Cameron said he decided to embrace Christianity when he was 17 after being an atheist.

During an interview with PragerU, Cameron explained how he began acting in Hollywood at the age of 14 and quickly became inducted into the society of Hollywood.

"When I was a kid, I would have called myself an atheist until I was about 17 years old," Cameron said.

The actor said he began to wonder at a young age if there was a heaven or hell and figured that "if there was a heaven, I wouldn't be going there because of my attitude and my self-centered, conceded, 'I'm all that, I'm the GOAT,' celebrity Mike Seaver guy."

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Cameron said that as he began to pray, he felt a significant change in his life. He added that a note written by his daughter prompted him to reexamine his rise to fame in Hollywood.

"It's the same boiling water that softens potatoes that hardens eggs. It just depends on what you're made of," the note said.

Cameron explained what the note meant to him, saying, So the same difficult challenges and influences of Hollywood that turn some people sour and make them narcissistic and bitter and joyless and afraid to not fit in is the same pressure that actually softened my heart and caused me to embrace gratitude and be thankful for the life that I have and want to use a platform and this Hollywood industry to advance the good."

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I really think its what youre made of," he added. "And if you dont know what youre made of, dont look to your environment or your industry or other people to give you an identity. There was somebody who made you ask him. And you can be sure that the ending of the story is gonna be fantastic."

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Kirk Cameron details path to Christian faith: 'If there was a heaven, I wouldn't be going there' - Washington Examiner