Jewish date: 12 Nisan 5769.
Today’s quasi-holiday: Tartan Day.
Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
- More intolerance: “Muslims attack Christian-owned shops in Egypt”
- “Episcopal minister defrocked after becoming a Muslim”: Yes, more on this story of someone trying to be both a Christian and a Muslim at the same time. Finally we hear what Ann Holmes Redding, the defrockee, was thinking:
Redding said her conversion to Islam was sparked by an interfaith gathering she attended three years ago. During the meeting, an imam demonstrated Muslim chants and meditation to the group. Redding said the beauty of the moment and the imam's humbleness before God stuck with her.
In other words, it was a feeling without any rational or empirical corroboration. While strong religious feelings have their place, treating them as beyond criticism is dangerous. There is no mention of how she deals with obvious contradictions between the two religions, e.g., the Christian belief that Jesus is part of the Trinity and thus God and the contradictory Muslim belief that Jesus is purely human and not divine at all. If anyone has contact information for her (she does not seem to have a Web site), please let me know so I can ask her about how she handles the contradictions.
"It was much more this overwhelming conviction that I needed to surrender to God and this was the form that my surrender needed to take," she recalled. "It wasn't just an episode but .... was a step that I wasn't going to step back from."
Ten days later Redding was saying the shahada -- the Muslim declaration of belief in the oneness of God and acceptance of Mohammad as his prophet.
- “Passover 2009”
- “More Shocking Evidence of CNN's Faulty Hiring Policy”
- “No holds barred: The Rebbe and the remedy for greed”
- “Are some chemicals more dangerous at low doses?”
- “Ice bridge holding Antarctic ice shelf cracks up”
- “Volunteers help salamanders avoid roadway massacre”
Enjoy and share the weirdness.
Aaron
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