Theists don’t all believe “in the same God”: A demonstration.

It’s time to dispel the notion that theists all believe “in the same God.” Based on my experience, they don’t all believe in the same God.  Yes, they use the same label, “God,” but that label hides the numerous striking and intense disagreements believers have with each other.

From now on, when anyone claims that all believers believe in the same God, I’m going to ask that person to answer this handy list of twenty questions with regard to their God:

  1. Is your God a man or a woman (or something like an XXY or XYY?
  2. Does your God have a son named Jesus?
  3. Is your God a sentient caring being or just a first cause?
  4. Did your God inspire the writings of the Bible?
  5. Does your God deem the Catholic Church the only legitimate church?
  6. Does your God hold that non-believers are unfit for public office?
  7. Did your God provide for an afterlife, a heaven and a hell?
  8. Does your God speak English?
  9. Does your God send gay people to hell
  10. Does your God prefer the Red Sox or the Yankees (or some other team)?
  11. Did your God rig nature to evolve new species without further intervention by Him?
  12. Was your God offended when He saw Janet Jackson’s nipple on TV?
  13. Does your God literally require that any person doing any work on the Sabbath “shall be put to death”? [See Exodus 35:2]
  14. Did your God want Terri Schiavo kept on life support?
  15. Does your God consider an un-implanted
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She can’t have the job because … she’s a girl.

A woman was recently elected as the first Episcopal presiding bishop and it's causing quite a ruckus.  As reported by MSNBC, The situation has been complicated by Sunday’s election of Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first Episcopal presiding bishop — the first woman ever to lead an Anglican…

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Sophie’s Choice II: Stem Cells in the Balance.

For many months, I knew that something horrible was haunting Sophie.  Finally, one quiet night, she broke down and told me all of the details about that awful dilemma she faced several years before, while she was a prisoner in a concentration camp. Sophie had arrived at the camp with…

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U.S. bishops turbo-charge rote prayers

The U.S. Catholic bishops have a lot to be concerned about these days.  The Church has been closing numerous parishes.  Fewer people are going to Mass.  Catholics are struggling with the meaning of ancient Catholic doctrines.

It was with this backdrop that the bishops held their “vigorous debate” over another pressing matter.  After all the dust settled, though, the resolution could finally be announced.  Thanks to the bishops’ effort, freshly tweaked rote prayers can now be uttered at Catholic Mass.  Bishop Donald Trautman declared that these new prayers were “the most significant liturgical action to come before this body for many years.”

  • Instead of saying:  “The Lord be with you” / “And also with you,” Catholics will now say: “The Lord be with you” / “And with your spirit.”
  • At confession, instead of admitting aloud that they have sinned “through my own fault” parishioners will now add “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”
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