(Ir)religiosity

One of the unfortunate side effects of so-called “new” atheism (besides general intransigent arrogance and a lack of intellectual honesty) has been further (false) dichotomization of science and religion and rigid entrenchment into the reductionistic foxholes of scientism and religious fundamentalism.  Positivistic intellectuals like ‘Ditchkins’ and your run-of-the-mill, garden-variety Christianists like, say, Ken Ham or Carl Wieland are ready to hedge their bets on the misguided and myopic supposition that the discourses of science and religion fundamentally and foundationally incompatible.  The irony in all this is that both camps are both partially correct yet completely wrong in asserting complete epistemological superiority.  The similarities of the new atheists and religious fundamentalists has been well documented.  I don’t want to rehash that position except to take note of the core assertion:  that when it comes to matters of exclusivity, intolerance, and arrogance new atheism and religious fundamentalism more similar than they are different, functioning as mirror images of the core logic, shadow-boxers or ships passing in the night, one might say.  Which is why the vitriolic arguments are, at times, just as entertaining as they are tiresome.

This brings me to Jon Stewart’s great interview with Marilynne Robinson last night on The Daily Show promoting her new book Absence of Mind. See the video below after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Matt Scott is starting a new blog consortium and emergent collective.  Open Table Theology will be an place to foster diverse theological conversation and hopefully an outlet for voices — important and interesting voices, to be sure — that might not otherwise be heard amidst the noise of social media.

You can read more of Matt’s thoughts on the project here and here.

The idea is to gather together a diverse group of persons who are interested in creating an participating in open theological conversation about a wide variety of topics.  You don’t have to be a blogger to participate.  You should have to be someone who has something to share.

A new theme/topic will be selecting each month beginning in June.  There’s really no limit to contribution at this point.  Submissions will be posted and hopefully a thoughtful and engaging conversation will be sparked and continue for the duration of the month.

So here’s the deal. These sorts of things only work well if people participate.  We need contributors! If you’re interested stop by and sign up and you will receive and email from Matt with instructions.  If you don’t want to be a steady contributor add the Open Table RSS feed to your feed reader so you can join in the conversation once it gets going.  The more people we have involved the richer and more engaging the conversation will be.  So check it out!