I subscribe to a wonderful electronic newsletter called “This is True“, where a guy by the name of Randy Cassingham collates all the weird and wonderful news from around the world, filters out the junk which cannot be verified, and publishes the rest.
This weeks newsletter features odd stories centred around that festivity that occurs this time of year in many Western nations. What was it again? Oh yes, Christmas. Anyway, this story caught my eye:
YOU THINK YOUR STATE IS WEIRD?
Catalonia, Spain, boasts some of the most …uh… unique Christmas traditions. Nativity scenes there typically don’t just include a manger, but rather the entire town of Bethlehem. That is, in part, to make it harder for the people who delight in finding the caganer — or “pooper”.
The figurine depicts a man or woman, often someone well-known, in the act of defecating, and it’s been a tradition in Catalonian nativity scenes since the 17th century. ”People call from all over the world asking for us to make statues of their local figures,” says a spokesman for Terra I Mar, which makes the figurines.
But despite offering 150 styles of caganers and selling 20,000-25,000 of them each year, there is still “no way we could make everyone happy.” The spokesman notes the traditional farmer is their best-seller, followed this year by a pooping President George W. Bush. The pope is also a popular figure. (Der Speigel) …But the Pope’s easy to find, because he’s always hidden in the woods.
If you want to get a dose of this goodness each week, I highly recommend you subscribe to Randy Cassingham’s newsletter.
BBC News – Row over Indonesia atheist Facebook post Priority is to protect marriage | Herald Sun No Fetus Can Feed Us | Unreasonable Faith Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0 | Video on TED.com
The excellent British broadcaster BBC 4 recently aired a fascinating program called “The Medieval Mind” which explores the philosophy, theology, and predominate thinking of the dark ages. The first episode deals with knowledge and revealed numerous intriguing insights into how the medieval mind determined epistemological truths. Monks, priests, and other godly people were in possession…
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Matt Dillhunty (president of the Atheist Community of Austin, co-host of “Non-Prophets Radio“, and “The Atheist Experience”) recently debated Father Hans Jacobse (an Antiochian Orthodox Priest) at The University of Maryland on 16th November. Full video of the event can be found here (although only 6 of the 9 videos have been posted online as…
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In the book “God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?” by John Lennox he puts forward the example of Aunt Matilda’s cake to illustrate the limited nature of science. The scenario has Aunt Matilda baking a cake and number of scientists are asked to describe it. A nutritionists might tell us about the carbohydrates, fats, sugars,…
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I want a god whose ultimate goals which do not necessitate the creation of mysterious suffering and death. I want a god who doesn’t violate causation by causing things to begin to exist from nothing in the absence of time. I want a god who does not give us “free will” then punishes us for…
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“Atheism 2.0” is a 20 minute TED presentation by Alain de Botton in which he proposes a new approach to evangelising atheism. Alain suggests (apparently without evidence) that we have “secularised badly” and we should sift through the rituals, traditions, and behaviours of religion to identify and adopt their efficient mechanisms. “I have come here…
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Atheists are often told by believers to read the Bible and it will all become clear. Trouble is, many of us have tried that and it doesn’t seem to have helped. Take these verses for example: This does not sound like a great night out to me. “But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master…
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