The God Who Wasn't There

"The movie that has been astounding audiences in theaters around the world is now available on a high-quality, feature-packed DVD.

In this provocative, critically acclaimed documentary, you will discover:

The early founders of Christianity seem wholly unaware of the idea of a human Jesus

The Jesus of the Gospels bears a striking resemblance to other ancient heroes and the figureheads of pagan savior cults

Contemporary Christians are largely ignorant of the origins of their religion

Fundamentalism is as strong today as it ever has been, with an alarming 44% of Americans believing Jesus will return to earth in their lifetimes

And God simply isn't there

The generous bonus materials on the DVD include extended interviews with: Richard Carrier (Sense and Goodness Without God), Alan Dundes (Holy Writ as Oral Lit), Sam Harris (The End of Faith), Robert M. Price (The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man) and many others.

The DVD also includes special audio commentary tracks with Richard Dawkins (A Devil's Chaplain), Earl Doherty (The Jesus Puzzle) and The Raving Atheist (ravingatheist.com)."


Considering it only opened for a week in 5 (?) states, I'd hardly say it astounded "audiences in theaters around the world". Non-christian reviews say it's mostly good and considering there's free US shipping I'm tempted to buy the DVD and the poster (to hang in my room) and have it sent here via vPostUSA the next time I buy something from the US. Most likely stuff from Despair, Inc. Speaking of which, the first 4 demotivators for 2006 are out!

Wishes - When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams come true. Unless it's really a meteorite hurtling to the earth which will destroy all life. Then you're pretty much hosed no matter what you wish for. Unless it's death by meteor.
I think it'd be better as: "Wishing upon a star never solved your dreams. Unless it was to end all life on earth with a meteorite collision.

Inspiration - Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, which is why engineers sometimes smell really bad.

Beauty - If you're attractive enough on the outside, people will forgive you for being irritating to the core.

Effort - Hard work never killed anybody, but it is illegal in some places (photo of Paris)

***

Southern governors declare war on divorce

"The Bible Belt states are topping the national charts in divorce.

In fact, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics, four of the five states with the highest resident divorce rates in the country are in the Deep South, where families pray together but, apparently, can't stay together.

Metropolitan states like Massachusetts and New York, supposed havens of marital dysfunction, actually have comparatively low divorce rates. Instead, marriage is failing in what should be its natural habitat, the land of fire, brimstone and the sky-blue tuxedo....

Marriage as a morally correct panacea for all social and personal ills is the philosophical crux of the marriage movement.The idea here is that if Connie and Dwayne would just tie the knot, they'd raise median incomes, improve life expectancies and virtually eliminate child abuse -- even if Connie is on crystal meth and Dwayne resolves conflicts with a baseball bat....

What young adults need to know, according to Popenoe and Whitehead, is that cohabitation puts couples at increased risk for divorce if they marry. Unfortunately, neither the sociological literature nor Popenoe's own professional colleagues support this position.

For example, professors James Sweet and Larry Bumpass of the University of Wisconsin, who wrote the academic paper that found a correlation between cohabitation and future divorce say that Popenoe and Whitehead have made "selective and inappropriate use" of their findings. Marital therapy researcher Andrew Christensen of UCLA says Popenoe and Whitehad have published "a classic error -- interpreting correlation as causation."

Most important is the simple fact that divorce rates have leveled off even as cohabitation rates have skyrocketed. If the Popenoe and Whitehead conclusion were correct, both cohabitation and divorce numbers would rise together.

To clarify the issue of cohabitation, Christensen cites well-documented sociological literature that proves "there is a huge component of self-selection" for less permanence among cohabitors, meaning that people who choose to live together often don't want permanent romantic arrangements. In fact, a sociological study published in the Journal of Family Issues in 1993 uses empirical evidence to conclude that couples who cohabit in preparation for marriage are no more likely to divorce than those who do not live together before the wedding."