religion

Chris Knight's avatar

Here’s something that I’ve been wondering about for awhile now (actually going on three years). Maybe it’s time to let others ponder it too…

We’re told in Genesis 5:1 that “When Adam had lived 130 years…” (as the New International Version words it) that he gave birth to his son Seth. This is the first time in scripture that we are told that a person had lived a certain number of years. A few verses later it says that Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

But are those the years total that Adam lived… or only the years following the Fall, and the entrance of sin into the world?

Because compared to the other antedeluvians, who were born after the Fall, Adam had a fairly equal lifespan. But if the 930 years is the total amount of time that Adam lived, from his creation until death, then Adam ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Indianapolis International Airport is going to install floor sinks by this fall – at the cost of $750 each – for Muslims to wash their feet before praying.

There is certainly a question here about the constitutionality of such a thing. I mean, these are public funds that are being used to support an establishment of religion: a notion that some people in this country have spent their entire lives toward stamping out, sometimes with dedication bordering on paranoia.

So yeah that’s a concern. But what I want to know is: What’s going to happen if a Christian or a Jew uses these same sinks, too?

I suppose it’s possible that someone other than a Muslim could receive an injury to the foot that requires immediate flushing. Would an “infidel” be “desecrating” the Muslims’ floor sink by using it? Are we going to see airport security personnel – i.e. taxpayer-funded ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

This requires a bit of set-up for readers who aren’t in this part of North Carolina/south-central Virginia …

Two or three times a week on Reidsville’s WGSR Star 39 television station, a group of local ministers calling themselves the “Church of Christ” do a series of live broadcasts. The shows have various names, but they’re all pretty much the same: a show starts, the minister runs some old video of a Baptist or Pentecostal or preacher of some other other denomination that they don’t agree with (sometimes it’s video of a debate of that night’s “Church of Christ” guy hashing it out with another pastor). While the video is running that night’s preacher silently stands on the set giving the camera a stern gaze, then he stops the video and begin blasting whoever it is that’s on the “hate list” for the evening.

So these “Church of Christ” guys believe ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Here’s an interesting story via Fox News Channel…

Muslim Brides Undergoing Painful Vaginal Surgery to ‘Re-virginize’ for Wedding Nights

Monday, December 17, 2007

On her wedding night, Aisha Salim will hand her blooded sheets to her in-laws as proof of her virginity, according to a story in The Daily Telegraph of Australia.

But there’s one problem. Being a modern English university graduate, she is far from the traditional untouched Muslim bride.

Like most woman her age, Salim has smoked, drank, had sex and even lived with one of her past boyfriends.

However, if the devout Muslim family of her soon-to-be husband – or even her own family – knew this, she could be murdered.

Aisha has opted to have her virginity surgically restored in a delicate but painful surgery called hymenoplasties — where the hymen is re-created from the already torn tissue, or a new membrane is inserted.

“If

...
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Chris Knight's avatar

This may be one of the most screwball things that I’ve ever read. And I’ve read plenty of screwball in my short time in this world…

There’s a story at the Daily Mail website about women who refuse to get pregnant. Who have gone so far as to choose to be sterilized. Because to them, babies are “not eco friendly”. They have rendered themselves incapable of having babies to “protect the planet”.

So in order to preserve the beauty of the Earth, it now becomes morally righteous to wipe out people who can enjoy and appreciate that beauty. Ooh-kaaaaaay…

I long ago came to distrust Radical Environmentalism (which I capitalize because it really has become a religion as much as Christianity or Buddhism or what have you). Radical Environmentalism is the “observer effect” taken to an ecclesiastical extreme and turned into a weird cult of neo-flagellants. I ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

A man named A.J. Jacobs has spent a full year following all of the rules and commandments of the Bible. What was that like?

After A. J. Jacobs spent a year reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica for his book “The Know-It-All,” he figured he had the yearlong experiment thing down. How much harder could it be to follow every rule in the Bible? Much, much harder, he soon discovered, as he found himself growing his beard, struggling not to curse and asking strangers for permission to stone them for adultery. Jacobs spent the year carrying around a stapled list of the more than 700 rules and prohibitions identified in the Good Book, and also consulted with religious leaders and spent time with the Amish, Hassidic Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Hit here for the rest of the story. Thanks to Kevin Bussey for the find!...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Earlier tonight on WGSR, Richard Moore appeared with Charles Roark and was (among other things) talking about this week’s meeting of the Reidsville City Council. And Richard reported on something that I couldn’t believe that I was hearing, so I e-mailed Richard and he confirmed it…

Reidsville City Council has voted to ban new churches from the downtown area.

Here is what Richard told me…

“Current churches can continue to operate, but no new churches will be allowed in the Central Business District. It was put into law today with a 5-2 vote. I think John Gentry and George Rucker voted against it.”

Richard also tells me that the Reidsville City Council did not debate whether or not this measure to ban churches was constitutional, but the council did discuss the constitutionality of banning pit bulls.

Only in Reidsville.

Let’s review the First Amendment of the United States Constitution:

“Congress

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Chris Knight's avatar

Two stories – both from here in North Carolina – that caught my attention this morning, that illustrate the frustration that I have so often with some who profess to share my faith in Christ…

The first has to do with Good News Independent Baptist Church in Raleigh: its pastor has placed this sign out in front of the church. I could say something about the horrible grammar and spelling (“Christain”?) but that’s not the point. What is troubling is that Rev. Gary Murrell is being a very poor witness for Christ in doing this. Does he seriously believe that this sign is going to convince any Muslim to give up his or her religion and embrace Christianity? Because he’s gravely mistaken if he does. We are supposed to be convincing people of Christ with our love toward them, and not militant hostility. When Murrell does this, he’s really ...

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