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God or the Girl

I am a reality television hound but one new show I won’t be watching when it debuts on A&E on April 16 is a new show called God or the Girl. Here is the official blurp about God or the Girl from the A&E website:

This five-part documentary series follows four young men through the emotionally wrenching final weeks that lead up to the most important decision of their lives – whether to become Catholic priests or not. Traveling with his brother to the Catholic celebration of World Youth Day in Germany, Joe also looks forward to reconnecting with Anna, the love of his life. In Columbus, Dan leads his youth group of high schoolers in protest prayer outside an abortion clinic, sparking a conflict with pro-choice college students. Mike is thrilled to see soul mate and girlfriend Aly, but her visit exacerbates tensions with his mentor, Father Pauselli. And Steve makes a nerve-wracking journey home, finally telling his best friends about his aspirations toward the priesthood.

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Cultural Revulsion

The 2006 midterm elections are our nearest hope for relief from the constrictive conservative religious agenda that is wrenching our freedoms against us and returning us to a time when things were perceived as better and morally old-fashioned.

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One Year Under God

Over the past year, I’ve written about the ridiculous effort to “save” Terri Schiavo‘s body from her dead brain, the ruse of Intelligent Design, and the tragedy of Homeschooling and then recently in The New York Times genius Frank Rich nails every 2005 coffin closed on the open and un-brawly intents of the religious right and other pretenders in two paragraph gems from a jewel of an essay:

An ersatz war on Christmas fits all too snugly into a year that began with the religious right’s (unsuccessful) efforts to destroy the box office and Oscar prospects of Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” and “save” Terri Schiavo and that ended with a federal judge banishing intelligent design from high school biology classes.

In his sweeping 139-page opinion, that judge, John Jones III, put his finger on the hypocrisy of many of those most ostentatiously defending faith from its alleged assailants in America. Referring to the fundamentalists on the Dover, Pa., school board, he wrote that it was “ironic” that those who “so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the intelligent design policy.” That passage fits much of the dishonesty and cynicism perpetrated in the name of religion in America over the past 12 months.

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Vatican Astronomer Rejects Intelligent Design

In my article New Evolution I argued “Intelligent Design” was neither “Intelligent” nor a “Design” and it was in no way Science. I am pleased to report yesterday the Vatican’s chief astronomer, the
Rev. George Coyne, joined me in proclaiming Intelligent Design as a
fraud masquerading as faith:

Intelligent design isn’t science even though it pretends to
be. If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be
taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science.

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I am My Own Whore

This post was originally titled, The Why I Do Not Comment On Other Blogs Manifesto, but it seemed a little precious and pretentious — and I try to save all my pretension and preciousness for the content of my posts and not waste them on the title — so I chose to call this post I am My Own Whore because it has a puckish ring of the ugly truth.

In my post Please Adjust your RSS Feeds, my fellow bloggers and I discussed a discussion that I have had at least 10 times here in the last month and in email and on other blogs when I am asked, sometimes in a roundabout way, but usually in a direct manner: Why don’t you post comments on my blog?

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Why the Right Publisher Matters

Having a good relationship with an editor is important for writers, but before you can get to that personal interaction you, as a professional author, must first choose the right publishing house. Your publisher is the entity that will actually produce and negotiate your writer’s contract and also birth your book into the world.

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New Evolution

The October 7, 2005 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) reported:

The chancellor of the University of Kansas sent an e-mail message to all faculty and staff members last week stating that evolution is the “unifying principle of modern biology” and that there is no contradiction between that view and a belief in God. In an interview he added that opponents of evolution make Kansas seem like an “anti-science state.”

The Chronicle article continued:

The chancellor, Robert E. Hemenway, said the message had
been prompted by a number of professors who asked him to speak out on
the increasingly controversial issue. It also followed recent remarks
by Steve Abrams, chairman of the Kansas Board of Education, that belief
in the Bible and in evolution were not compatible. The Board of
Education, which oversees public schools, has no control over the
university. Even so, Mr. Hemenway was concerned that Mr. Abrams’s
comment contributed to the perception that Kansans don’t value science.

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Indoctrination of Children

A good friend of mine and I had an interesting discussion years ago that still rings within me today. We were talking about the best way to raise and educate children and my friend, a strong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told me he believes in the “indoctrination of children” into a religion.

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Why Bother with Religion?

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

[Author’s Caution: Religion is one of the most touching subjects which an individual may want to approach. Open your eyes as well as your mind while reading this article because it may take more than your attention. It may take your courage as well.]

Surprise, there isn’t a surprise. Don’t we hate that? Yeap, we do. That’s why we get bored about the tedious religious world. Religion becomes boring if you know what you will get, heaven or hell. That’s putting it in its most simple possible result, or at least in a pretty objective manner of approaching the two relevant issues which seem to scare or satisfy the most. That’s pathetic, but a close-naked reality.

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Discovering Miguel de Unamuno

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Miguel de Unamuno is the writer of the masterpiece called San Manuel Bueno, mártir, Saint Manuel Good Martyr; this is one of his best works. The life of Unamuno wasn’t easy since he was always crying out for acceptance in the Spanish world. Unamuno was a native of the Basque Country, and as a consequence this didn’t count in his favor. His language and his demeanor differed greatly with the Spaniards’, people from Spain. Nevertheless, he attended the best universities and studied Spanish as much as any educated Spanish speaking person would have done it in during those years (1865-1936) in the European country of Spain.

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