jrtom

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/30/news/malaysia.php?page=1

The short version: Muslims in Malaysia are subject to a different set of laws than non-Muslims, so (e.g.) "Muslim" appears on their national IDs. Someone who had been raised as a Muslim tried to have her conversion recognized by the national government...and failed.

This is messed up on a couple of different levels, IMAO.

Those of you who used to read the now more-or-less moribund MMM (Mind, Machines, and Mathematics--your basic AI/cognitive science/philosophy fare) may remember the discussion we had about an article discussing one Swinburne's argument that the probability that the Resurrection of Jesus took place was 0.97.

Without further editorial comment, I present Prospect Magazine's How should we study religion?, which is an episodic discussion between Daniel Dennett and Richard Swinburne on the subject (and some obvious side-paths).

From BoingBoing:

Bibleman: complete with incredibly cheesy costume and everything.

The Amazing Jesus of Nazareth: it starts out being the water-to-wine story, but in the hands of Rowan Atkinson you just know it's not going to end there.

Date To Save: "As you can probably tell, I'm a Christian woman who loves Jesus Christ and cares for all humans, even the wicked. What you probably don't know is that I'm hot." Includes tips for Missionary Dating. (No, really.) Also includes a link to Flirt To Convert, a matchmaking service that allows you to specify whether you want to convert someone or be converted by someone...to a variety of faiths...including atheism.

(Gotta love the Internet, I tell you. It saves me so much time--otherwise I'd have to make stuff like this up. (Not sure if this is a parody or not.))

and to finish off: Show Tunes vs. Fundamentalists: unfortunately, I'm too polite (oversocialized?) to ever do this myself.

I am fortunate enough to know a number of people who are both good at communicating and have interesting things to say. One of those is naudiz, who happens recently to have written some rants on the subject of Christianity and its place in American society. Like the subject line says: whee-ha! Seriously, she should try to sell some of these rants to someone. Or possibly publish them as a book.