religion

The Humanist Symposium

January 28, 2008

To my regular readers: Not too long ago, I (and thousands of others) stumbled across an article titled Atheists and Anger, an articulate, well-thought-out piece which I highly recommend. It had the welcome side effect of introducing me to the wonderful writing of Greta Christina. (Whose themes range far beyond atheism and are not for [...]

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Religious Belief vs. Health Care – Tolerating the Intolerable in Italy

October 10, 2007

Britain’s Telegraph carries an opinion piece titled If Muslim doctors are intolerant, let them go, according to which a few young Muslim medical trainees have been allowed to refuse to see female bodies or to treat alcohol-related problems, on religious grounds. Sainsbury’s, a UK grocery chain, allows its checkout staff to refuse to scan alcohol [...]

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Raising a Non-Believer

October 3, 2007

A reader has just written to me: “One was on an essay about “Religion as a Cause of Strife in the World” – you can bet she went to town on that!” this is a comment you wrote on Ross’ India Diary and i have always wanted to ask you why you believe that Ross [...]

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Ramadan

September 18, 2007

Laura, the American who lives in Paraguay, wakes me up to tell me that it’s 4: time to eat. For several weeks she has been going with one Alamdar, a very good photographer, Afghan. Ramadan has recently started and Laura, for solidarity with her new love, has decided to keep him company: "I’m not Muslim, [...]

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Papa Fan: A Satirist for the Modern Papacy

July 10, 2007

Thanks to a tip from Ross, I have for some time been following a very funny fotolog by Francesco Rabaglia, aka Papa Fan (papa is Italian for pope, differentiated from papà – dad – by the stress). It’s hard to see the humor unless you understand Italian well: basically the writer is putting funny captions [...]

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The God Delusion

March 17, 2007

Richard Dawkins is laughing up his sleeve. I wasn’t in any hurry to buy this book. I had already read and admired every other book of Dawkins’, and had read enough in the press to have a good idea of what this book contained, and to know that I would agree with it, as I [...]

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Immigration and Identity in Europe

January 28, 2007

(originally published in 2002) The assassination of Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician, provides food for thought. Fortuyn was “a politician who rejected multiculturalism, called for an end to immigration and excoriated Islam as a ‘backward culture’ for its intolerance of homosexuals, attitude to women and more” and “argue[d] fiercely that immigrants should integrate more wholeheartedly [...]

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Symbols: Getting Hot and Bothered Over Stupid Things

September 16, 2006

Rome, October 2003 Israel, and Italy’s Jewish community, were angry when the Israeli flag was burned during April 25th Liberation Day festivities in Milan. The burners were Italian extreme leftists, who tend to be very pro-Palestine and anti-Israel. Coincidentally, about the same time I received from a reader a reference to Michelle Malkin (a conservative [...]

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Crimes of Opinion

February 23, 2006

Italy’s Laws on Opinions You’re Not Free to State Italian law on “crimes of opinion” has recently (Jan 25th) been revised as follows (excerpted and translated from here): “…Safeguarding of [all] faiths, instead of [just] the state religion [i.e., Catholicism] …Article 404 – (Offenses against a religious faith by means of vilipendio [~insult] or damage [...]

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The Crusading Atheist

February 23, 2006

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” Stephen Henry Roberts (1901-71) Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and many other excellent books, recently did a TV [...]

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The Hundred Years’ War

May 15, 2005

The Strange Religious History of the Straughans shot Mar 6, 2005, 7:29 mins Some of my recent articles have caused some readers to wonder why I have it in for Catholicism. Actually, I am even-handed in my dislike of religion: I don’t like any of them. But, due to family history, I have un dente [...]

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The Papal Funeral Bash

April 16, 2005

I’m not going to say much about this; I wasn’t there, and ignored it as far as possible. The only footage I actually watched was on the Daily Show. But I do have a few items: Early last week, I was riding the bus down to Lecco, at my usual time when it’s full of [...]

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The “Real” Italy

December 20, 2004

^ Of course, some people in Italy actually do sing opera for fun (and/or for a living). To bring people to my site, I hang out in online forums about traveling and living in Italy, answering questions where I usefully can. It’s been an education for me as well, in American attitudes towards Italy. One [...]

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Religion in Italian Schools

January 25, 2004

An agreement was made in 1884 between the Italian Republic and the Vatican, modified by the Lateran Concorde of 1929, and ratified in a new law in 1985, which reads: The Italian Republic, recognizing the value of religious culture, and keeping in mind that the principles of Catholicism are part of the historic patrimony of [...]

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Evolution: How It is Taught in Italian Schools

January 10, 2004

“A new Great Awakening is sweeping the country, with Americans increasingly telling pollsters that they believe in prayer and miracles, while only 28 percent say they believe in evolution.” Nicholas Kristof, NYT, Jan 7, 2003 This shouldn’t be surprising, given that, in some parts of America, public schools are required to teach evolution with disclaimers that it [...]

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Bible Stories

November 7, 2003

When Rossella was still in preschool and I was travelling to the US a lot for work, I brought her with me several times on extended trips, usually while Enrico was also travelling for mathematical research. So Ross experienced daycare in several different places in America, which was good for her English, and gave her [...]

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Very Supertitious: Some Italian Folk Beliefs

November 7, 2003

Most Italians are not very religious, but they can be strangely superstitious. Purple and black are the colors of mourning, so wearing purple is considered bad luck. Bad luck for me – I happen to like wearing purple, but I know that, whenever I do, someone will comment. (Wearing black is okay – black is [...]

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Some Thoughts on Extremism

October 11, 2001

Talking with a friend about the events of September 11th, he mentioned that many devout Muslims, and even Hindus, are offended by some things they see on Western television. My first reaction to this was: “If it bothers them, they don’t have to watch it.” [more]

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Reflections on Machismo: “Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates”

July 28, 2001

Tom Robbins has long been one of my favorite authors; every one of his seven novels is a gem, infused with his uniquely loopy sensibility and style. This novel (Amazon UK | US), published in May, 2000, was eerily timely in its discussion of West vs. East and Muslim vs. Christian, in the context of [...]

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Pope-O-Vision

July 28, 2001

As popes go, John Paul II is certainly one of the best there’s ever been: he is truly upright and deeply religious, and he has tried to use his position to be a force for good in the world. I respect that, even though I’m not Catholic and don’t agree with everything he says. But [...]

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