Relevant Links

Below are links to current stories and articles pertinent to our course focus on God and anti-God.

• Here is Anne Rice on her decision to abandon Christianity....but still follow Christ. The video of the interview is relevent to our present look at religion in its social manifestation, with Ms. Rice's reasons for her decision being exclusively political rather than theological.
• Controversial British Muslim writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the condition of Islam in present-day Britain: some five years on from Brick Lane, that is. And if you have the courage for it, here is her own utterly heartrendering account of how her father treated her.
• The Vanity Fair article by Cristopher Hitchens mentioned in lecture on his present fight with cancer and his appreciation of the many of his Christian adversaries praying for him is online here.
• And à propos lecture's debunking of Dan Brown's treatment of self-harm as a religious phenomenon, here is story, with video, ripped from today's headlines (as they say,) about a Russian man who killed himself slowly and agonisingly with excessive sauna use.

Text of Guest Speaker on Richard Dawkins

Atheists for Rhetoric by Robert Tarzwell, MD.

Kay Perry on Lady Gaga

For the Lady Gaga admirers in the class, the following from the Hufingtonpost previews Kay Perry's upcoming Rolling Stone cover and her comments on blasphemy & L.GG.

She also talks about her religious upbringing and her 'blasphemy' comment about Lady Gaga. "I am sensitive to Russell English celebrity Brand] taking the Lord’s name in vain and to Lady Gaga putting a rosary in her mouth. I think when you put sex and spirituality in the same bottle and shake it up, bad things happen. Yes, I said I kissed a girl. But I didn’t say I kissed a girl while f-ing a crucifix.”

Dawkins & Hitchens Contrasted

From classfellow M.J.:

I thought you might enjoy this opinion article from the New York Times as I think it ties in nicely with our Dawkins - Eagleton essay pair.

A useful comparison between Dawkins & Christopher Hitchens qua atheist.

Islam and Superheroes

From classfellow F.P., this TED video on Islam and superheroes.

Relating to what we have been talking about in class. I have found this video talking about Islam/other religions and superheroes. The beginning of the presentation feels exactly like your lecture. I hope you find it interesting.

I enjoy TED in general, and except for its repetition of the canard about the swasika being a broken crucifix, this was quite good.

• (TED = a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.)