Category Archives: Interfaith

religious people need to recommit to and engage with critical thinking

By bananabrain | Published: August 23, 2010
following an unusually thoughtful broadcast last week by richard dawkins (he’s obviously trying to take on board how much his militancy turns people off by some of the pleas he made on behalf of sacred texts as fine language, cultural literacy and so on) i am grappling again with some of the issues raised by [...]
Also posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Christian Evangelical Nutters, Democracy, Exegesis, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Hate Speech, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Islamism, Jewish Extremism | 16 Comments

Is this the “counter-Enlightenment”?

By bananabrain | Published: August 6, 2010
i’ve not posted for a while, mostly because of pressure of work, but there are a number of things which are currently causing me to more or less lose sleep. recently, i gave up posting on pickled politics, partly because of the level of personal animosity i was facing, but mostly just in frustration at my [...]
Also posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Christian Evangelical Nutters, Civil Rights, Democracy, Entryism, European Fascism, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Human Rights, Identity Politics, Islamism, Jewish Extremism, Moral relativism, Multiculturalism, Obscurantism, Sectarianism, Secularism, The Far Left, The Regressive Left, UK Politics | 37 Comments

G!D the “misogynist” and other cyclical lepidopterisms

By bananabrain | Published: May 6, 2010
thanks to the delightful sonia from pickled politics, i ended up in a jolly discussion over at butterflies and wheels on feminism and religion. they seem to have closed the comments for some reason, but i still thought it was an interesting subject and thought i’d continue it here if anyone (like ophelia benson or [...]
Also posted in Blogosphere, Esoterica, Ethics, Exegesis, Feminism, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Jewish Extremism, Moral relativism, Obscurantism, Secularism | 8 Comments

religious idiots round-up

By bananabrain | Published: April 21, 2010
  a woman causing an earthquake yesterday by blatantly showing her elbows and knees well, i expect most of us have probably heard by now that, according to the not-at-all-bonkers iranian regime, that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes. i expect the haitians are buying their chadors as we speak. in the interests of balance, i thought it [...]
Also posted in Esoterica, Farce, Jewish Extremism, Obscurantism | 18 Comments

would it kill me to go along with dawkins and hitchens for once?

By bananabrain | Published: April 12, 2010
as you have probably heard, the hierarchy of the catholic church is coping with plenty of more-than-usually-unpleasant scandal involving the usual suspects: priests, paedophiles, children, cover-ups, pay-offs, not-quite-apologies, denials, denouncings and defrockings which have, for the first time i can remember, started to take on a somewhat apocalyptic tone, that’s apocalyptic in terms of the [...]
Also posted in Activism, Farce, Freedom of Expression, Identity Politics, Lawfare, Obscurantism | 9 Comments

Easter, Passover, Catholics, Protestants: What Are Friends For?

By Guest | Published: April 3, 2010
This is a cross-post by Terry Glavin of ‘Chronicles and Dissent‘ **** Citing “an Irish friend,” the Archbishop of Canterbury, whom we might call the Anglican Pope, slagged off the Catholic Church for its handling of pedophile-priest scandals. But before we’d figured out what His Grace was saying, exactly, along comes Father Raniero Cantalamessa, pastor to Auld [...]
Posted in Interfaith | Leave a comment

seven modest proposals for the british jewish community

By bananabrain | Published: March 16, 2010
the ferocious but charming miriam shaviv over at the jc is blogging a number of “daily proposals to transform the british jewish community” during march. i was discussing this with my redoubtable other half over friday night dinner and we thought the following might be worth submission: 1. transparency at the jewish leadership council ok, we know [...]
Also posted in Activism, Antisemitism, Democracy, Education, Entryism, Environmental, Identity Politics, Israel/Palestine, Jewish Extremism, Misc, Obscurantism, Politics | Tagged , | 6 Comments

the kangaroo court of militant atheism is a toxic, anti-reason fallacy

By bananabrain | Published: March 5, 2010
on a recent visit to the natural history museum, i was struck by the number of hijabs, kippot and crucifixes on display. unfazed by fossils, geological displays of the age of the earth, australopithecine skulls and the marble statue of darwin that gazes enigmatically over the entrance hall, they gamely queued for the dinosaur exhibit, [...]
Also posted in Antisemitism, Freedom of Expression, Hermeneutics, Obscurantism | 63 Comments

“well, they’re a bit extreme, but they do such good work bringing people back to judaism!”

By bananabrain | Published: January 29, 2010
david t from harry’s place forwarded me this cartoon by eli valley, whose satirical strips appear monthly in the leading us jewish magazine “the forward”. on reading it, i didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. on one hand, it’s a caricature of the position of the kiruv (“outreach”) organisations, but on the other hand, once you [...]
Also posted in Entryism, Freedom of Expression, Identity Politics, Jewish Extremism, Obscurantism, Politics, Sectarianism | 57 Comments

a few good rabbis?

By bananabrain | Published: January 18, 2010
for those of you who aren’t aware of it, this has not been a good couple of years for the orthodox, “strictly-”orthodox and ultra-orthodox communities. corruption around kosher slaughterhouses and conversions, sex scandals, money-laundering, drug smuggling, you name it. all the usual justifications are made, of course, all the usual people accept them and all [...]
Also posted in Activism, Education, Ethics, Politics | 3 Comments