Entries tagged with conservative

Entry tags:

UK Government Will Pay For School Bibles Rather Than Teacher Pensions...

First Michael Gove tells the striking teachers that there's no money.

Then he announces that the government can afford to provide every school with a copy of King James Bible (where clearly the language is perfectly suited to schoolchildren *facepalm*) specially published with a foreword from Michael Gove himself! (What a treat!)

"It's a thing of beauty, and it's also an incredibly important historical artefact. It has helped shape and define the English language and is one of the keystones of our shared culture. And it is a work that has had international significance."

The King James Bible is of so much significance that they cannot bear for school children to miss out. Meanwhile, teachers' pensions? Who cares about those, eh?

There just isn't enough facepalm for all this s**t. Jesus f---ing Christ...

Entry tags:

Random Bits!

Wow, a whole load of stuff turned up.

First of all check this out:

Click on image for the Deviant Art account....

Cosplayer shows that it's actually possible to leap about in a Lara Croft outfit:

Click images for the Deviant Art gallery.

Also, here's a cat that looks like Voldemort:

Filmdrunk says:
"A British cat was abandoned when its owners failed to realize how awesome it would be to have a cat that looks like a Harry Potter villain. It’s sad, people can be so shortsighted I mean cruel."
(Via Filmdrunk)
( Even more cool s*** under the cut... )

Entry tags:

More Cunningham Stuff amused

Okay, just thought I'd quickly check whether any of my posts come up when you google "Conor Cunningham". It looks like it's the second page before any of my stuff turns up (but heck, I haven't written much. I've written more on John Milbank and it takes three pages for me to turn up there).

Anyway, I clicked one of the links where they were asking for reviewers for the book. (Not because I want to review it for them, but because it surprised me to see people begging for book reviewers on a blog. Is that normally how this works?) Anyway, the comments were all hilarious....

jridenour said...
Whenever Christians argue that orthodoxy is a third way between fundamentalism and atheism, chances are the argument is b.s.
Saturday, February 19, 2011 4:13:00 AM

Nathaniel Drake Carlson said...
1500 words seems awfully short to do proper justice to this one.
Saturday, February 19, 2011 7:21:00 PM

APS said...
So when is ABC Ethics & Religion just going to change its name to The Daily Red Tory?
Sunday, February 20, 2011 12:53:00 AM

John Milbank expressed support for a movement called "Red Toryism" which basically means "I'm right-wing but I want to be considered left-wing anyway". He then started writing articles for ABC where they're now requesting reviews for Conor Cunningham's book.

A.J. Smith said...
And did they really have to use the same cover as Behe's egregiously bad "Darwin's Black Box" for this?
Sunday, February 20, 2011 2:58:00 AM

Considering that Cunningham is opposed to ID-theory, that's a remarkable oversight on the part of the marketing team.

Entry tags:

John Milbank VS Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Nobody Wins (Re-Edited)

John Milbank was a theology lecturer I came into contact during my degree. His Radical Orthodoxy movement apparently had a major following in academic circles, though there appeared to be very little mainstream knowledge of it. More recently he's been putting forward a number of articles into major news sources. He released a couple of articles in The Guardian's "Comment Is Free" section including one advocating "Red Toryism" (i.e. I want to vote Conservative yet still call myself a lefty) and another (which really infuriated me) advocating a new feminism biased in favour of men *facepalm*

So what's he done now? Well it turns out he's really pleased about certain recent comments by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but he doesn't think she quite kisses Christianity's arse enough. So he's published a new public article. this time on abc.net.

I don't know if John Milbank mistook extracts from Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book "Nomad" for an individual article or whether he is simply treating them that way. In any case the extracts on that website are no longer available, but I was able to find a cached copy of them which you can find in my un-edited post about this along with a copy of John Milbank's reply. Click here for my original un-edited article.

So how does John Milbank's article frustrate me? Let me count the ways....

1. The Enlightenment was Christian...
( Read more... )

2. Christianity is the source of feminism...
( Read more... )

3. TRADITIONAL Christians are NEVER biblical literalists...
( Read more... )

4. Science was nurtured by Christianity and is the direct result of monotheism.

( Read more... )

5. Christians have historically been against forced conversions...
( Read more... )

6. In various theocracies and dictatorships around the world Islam has an unfair privilege. Why don't we give the same unfair privilege to Christianity in the west? (Also, Christians don't get enough opportunities to proselytise. Blah Blah Fatwa Envy Blah Blah...)

( Read more... )

7. Muslims will prefer Christianity if they are properly informed, whereas they tend to choose Islam because they are coerced.

( Read more... )

8. Muslims ought to be apolitical mystics. Christians on the other hand...
( Read more... )

9. Rowan Williams advocated "parallel legal jurisdictions"...

( Read more... )

10. Rowan Williams and Tariq Ramadan are idiots - therefore that whole Christian proselytising scheme...( Read more... )

11. "The lamentably premature collapse of the Western colonial empires."
( Read more... )

Bits I actually agreed with
( Read more... )

Some silly links

( Read more... ) (Cross-posted to atheism)

Entry tags:

What's wrong with state multiculturalism? National Secular Society misses the point.

This is my previous extra-long confused post, re-cut to make more sense and be FAR more readable:

Baroness Warsi and the National Secular Society

The BHA recently criticised comments by two prominent political figures: Tony Blair (for whom I feel no explanation is required) and Baroness Warsi (whose comments can be found here). Baroness Warsi is a Muslim politician in the Conservative party.

The National Secular Society quoted Baroness Warsi's description of "state multiculturalism" where she defines it as follows:

"Firstly, when we as Conservatives talk about multiculturalism we are not talking about the building of temples, or synagogues or mosques in any neighbourhood. For us that is religious pluralism and it is a defining British characteristic that began with the non-conformists.

"For me, state multiculturalism, as I like to define it is forcing Britain’s diverse communities to still define themselves as different, patronisingly special and tempting them to compete against each other for public funds."

The National Secular Society then respond by saying:

"We have been saying this for the past ten years. So far so good."

Sorry, but no it's not bloody good! Why the hell shouldn't religious groups compete for public funds just like everyone else? It's actually in this criticism of "state multiculturalism" that Baroness Warsi's criticism of secularism is most clear and obvious. She doesn't think that religious groups should compete against each other along with all the other stances vying for public attention. Instead she thinks religions should be granted priveledges by default.

Both are united against "state multiculturalism" - whatever the hell that is.

So where did the term 'state multiculturalism' come from?

( Read more... )

Problems with the Conservatives' critique of 'state multiculturalism'
( Read more... )

What should the National Secular Society have praised Baroness Warsi for saying?

( Read more... )

Baroness Warsi's absurd examples of persecution. (The bit the National Secular Society were absolutely right about.)

( Read more... )

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Korn - Killing

Entry tags:

UK Government Will Pay For School Bibles Rather Than Teacher Pensions...

Random Bits!

More Cunningham Stuff *amused*

John Milbank VS Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Nobody Wins (Re-Edited)

What's wrong with state multiculturalism? National Secular Society misses the point.

David Mitchell expresses his feelings about the Tory party.

More Cunningham Stuff amused