Last week, we discussed evidence of miracles in this thread, entitled, “Atheist Responses to Supernatural Testimony.”
I thought it would be germane to follow up that discussion with a post I wrote recently for the de-conversion blog, where I’m an occasional contributor. Here’s what I wrote over there:
I just finished reading a terrific book called “The Ghost Map,” a nonfiction account of the 1854 cholera epidemic in London. The story follows a scientist and a clergyman whose investigations pinpointed the source of the outbreak that killed hundreds of people within a week. Their work saved untold thousands of lives: Due to them, London never again suffered a cholera epidemic. Read the rest of this news item »
Hullo, everyone! I’m Karen, and I’ll be your guest host here at CatE this week.
Helen’s off enjoying sunny Italy with her extended family, and several other regulars are also on vacation. Meanwhile, I’ll be house sitting. Don’t worry, I’ve promised to vacuum, collect the empties and tidy up the joint before I go.
Helen’s very fortunate to be able to travel abroad. At least, that’s the perspective of someone (me) who was bitten by the travel bug way back when the highlight of my year was the family car trip.
No, things didn’t always go smoothly – to put it mildly. (You’d have to have known my parents to get the full implication of that statement.)
But I could overlook the squabbling, the disastrous “short cuts,” the car fires and breakdowns, and my cranky siblings if I could get out on the road, stare out the window at the wide open spaces and stop at every kitschy tourist trap and junk store along the highway.
But traveling’s just one of my favorite pastimes. I’m also a voracious reader and writer, a horse enthusiast (I ride once or twice a week), biker, compulsive walker, organic gardener, yoga practitioner, political junkie and a pop culture, movie and TV fan.
I didn’t pursue personal interests much while I was a conservative Christian because:
So, here’s your first assignment for the week:
We’re leaving on vacation this morning: we’re going to Italy until August 4th. We’re flying to Rome, where we’ll spend a couple of days as a family, then driving up to Arezzo, where we’ll meet up with extended family and spend a week together in a villa. My brothers’ families, my parents and my uncle and cousin’s families will all be there – we’re a group of 25 in total.
I won’t be posting here while I’m away (there’s a possibility I might post on my personal blog – no guarantees though).
I’m setting up a video that will post here on Friday. Then Karen is hosting CatE next week while I’m away. I’m very pleased she’s able to: Karen is kind, smart and articulate and I always enjoy her insights. Thanks Karen!
Posted in General Conversation | 4 Comments »(I saw this on Julie’s blog)
In a comment on Free Jesus, Stephan wrote:
Posted in Comments from others, General Conversation | 57 Comments »Doreen said “My pain is STILL gone.”
I am waiting for the atheists here to say something other than, “Nice story.” As atheists you must either think there is a natural explanation (which I honestly can’t wait to hear), or you must think she is a liar.
I realize most of you are loathe to be disrespectful, but you have allowed her to put forth some rather concrete testimony of the supernatural without challenging it at all. I have heard many times from atheists that there is no evidence of faith healing. Here you have a first-person account.
Maybe this needs to be a new thread. What do you do when someone presents testimony of the supernatural? Do you try to explain it? Do you call the person a liar? Or, as I suspect, do you simply disregard it as unexplained and ignore it? If so, you are living with the same cognitive dissonance that you decry in Christians.
My son picked up 2 copies of the book at midnight Friday and my children started reading. When I got up they were both lying asleep on their beds, lights on, books at their side.
My son finished the book Saturday afternoon and gave it me to read. I finished it on Sunday (yes I did get some sleep Saturday night).
Overall I was impressed with what JK Rowling achieved in this book, especially given the constraints of a final book in a series, which has to resolve mysteries in a creative, interesting, suspenseful way.
Julie Clawson writes on her blog
I do have to say that after this concluding book all conservative Christians need to make a huge apology to JK Rowling, lift the bans on the books, and give them a place of honor on the spiritual fiction shelf next to the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings (where I’ve kept my set all along…)
I never agreed with Conservative Christian criticism of the book series either. Back in 2001 I wrote about Christian Virtues in the Harry Potter Movie, as a protest against what I was hearing from a number of Christians. (2001 was the year I stopped simply accepting what Christians had taught me and started questioning much of it instead)
I like many of the themes in the series.
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I very much enjoyed being at the Midwest Emergent Gathering last week. I was there for the Thursday night welcome party and for the Friday sessions. I wasn’t able to stay for the Saturday ones. See We did it! (yes you did – and very well!) for Mike Clawson’s detailed write-up of the event, plus links to where other bloggers have written about it.
I think the total attendance was between 150 and 200. That was a size small enough to make it fairly easy to find particular people, yet big enough to have an interesting, diverse attendance.
Almost everyone there was from the Midwest. The gathering was organized by the regional Emergent cohorts, but interestingly a lot of people there had never been to a cohort meeting.
I thought the organizers did a great job. From my perspective it seemed like everything went smoothly. Everything was planned to allow lots of connecting time – I loved that! There were before and after parties and the sessions were timed so there was plenty of chat time in between. After some of the interviews or talks Mike announced that the people who’d just been on mainstage were going to be in a certain room and available to chat with whoever wanted. I thought that was a great idea. There was a board and sheets of paper to create your own workshop and pin it up there to invite people. I went to a created workshop and enjoyed it.
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In honor of what becomes available at midnight tonight…
Posted in Videos | 3 Comments »Someone posted a link to Free Jesus on their MyChurch blog. I had never heard of MyChurch but I signed up in order to post in the comments (I think you have to be a member to do that). So there is also a conversation going on over there.
I’m guessing MyChurch is a Christian online social network along the same lines as MySpace, but specifically adapted to the interests and activities of Christians. It’s a guess since I know very little about MySpace.
My schedule: I’m leading a workshop at the Midwest Emergent Gathering tomorrow, called “Helping Lost People Like You”. I’ll be at that conference tonight and all day tomorrow. If you’re there I’d like to meet you – please come find me and say hi!
Posted in General Conversation | 4 Comments »