Unbelievable Faith

Episode 028 – GongShow.gay

Montana — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Hello there.

We decided that we were long overdue for a Gong Show… so we did one!

We get under the fingernails and discuss the recent posts on the UFaith site. Lots of interesting discussion.

Strong Caution: The post-show content contains a discussion that some may find offensive due to it’s mature nature.

Episode 027 – Capitalism!

Montana — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:26:53 +0000

We get a bit political in this episode and discuss capitalism in North America.

Please enjoy!

Episode 026 – The Theology of Joe Pug’s Hymn 101

Montana — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:19:05 +0000

We dissect the Joe Pug song that we’ve all come to love. You can listen to Hymn 101 on the MySpace page.

Here are the lyrics:

and i’ve come to know the wishlist of my father
i’ve come to know the shipwrecks where he wished
i’ve come to wish aloud
among the over-dressed crowd
come to witness now the sinking of the ship
throwing pennies from the seatop next to it

and i’ve come to roam the forest past the village
with a dozen lazy horses in my cart
i’ve come here to get high
to do more than just get by
i’ve come to test the timber of my heart
oh i’ve come to test the timber of my heart

and i’ve come
to be untroubled in my seeking
and i’ve come
to see that nothing is for naught
i’ve come to reach out blind
to reach forward and behind
for the more I seek the more I’m sought
yeah the more I seek the more I’m sought

and i’ve come to meet the sherriff and his posse
to offer him the broad side of my jaw
i’ve come here to get broke
then maybe bum a smoke
we’ll go drinking two towns over after all
oh we’ll go drinking two towns over after all

and i’ve come to meet the legendary takers
i’ve only come to ask them for a lot
oh they say i come with less
than i should rightfully possess
i say the more i buy the more i’m bought
and the more i’m bought the less i cost

and i’ve come
to take their servants and their surplus
and i’ve come
to take their raincoats and their speed
i’ve come to get my fill
to ransack and spill
i’ve come to take the harvest for the seed
i’ve come to take the harvest for the seed

and i’ve come to know the manger that you sleep in
i’ve come to be the stranger that you keep
i’ve come from down the road
and my footsteps never slowed
and before we met i knew we’d meet
before we met i knew we’d meet

and i’ve come here to ignore your cries and heartaches
i’ve come to closely listen to you sing
i’ve come here to insist
that i leave here with a kiss
i’ve come to say exactly what i mean
and i mean so many things

and you’ve come
to know me stubborn as a butcher
and you’ve come
to know me thankless as a guest
will you recognize my face
when god’s awful grace
strips me of my jacket and my vest
and reveals all the treasure in my chest

Here is a direct link to the MP3.

If you want to cut right to the Joe Pug discussion, it starts at 14:30

Episode 025 – Origins of Humanity

Montana — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:56:59 +0000

This episode is ready for listening.

Where do we come from? Why are there multiple creation myths/stories, and how are they similar/differ?
Does belief in evolution mean you can’t believe in creation?
Is the Earth a test tube created by aliens? If so, what was/is their purpose?
Are we just a simulated world in a videogame?
Why are creation stories so Terra centric?
Why is there such a perceived divide between science and religion?
Is there scientific evidence for both creation and evolution? If so, then who’s right?

We are joined by a special guest, Mike, who added a lot to the conversation especially in the area of Science.

Show Notes:

Babylonian Creation Myth & Genesis Myth — Differences/Similarities — See Lawrence Boadt, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction – pg. 116-118
Interview with Mary Midgley: http://www.sheilaheti.net/midgley.html
Creationist site: http://www.allaboutcreation.org/creation-vs-evolution-n.htm
Darwin on the right: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=darwin-on-the-right
Evolution fact/theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_as_theory_and_fact
Clarifying Christianity: http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/creation.shtml

Give it a listen:

Episode 024 – Souls… What are they good for?

Montana — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:30:42 +0000

Hello!

This episode takes a look at the conept of having a soul.

Does it exist? if so how, why? Is it measurable? Do aliens have them? If so how intelligent/self aware do you have to be to get one. Can an animal have one?

Show Notes:
Dawkins on soul: http://richarddawkins.net/article,1342,Science-of-the-Soul-I-Think-Therefore-I-Am-Is-Losing-Force,Cornelia-Dean
Soul info on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul
Rainbow Bridge: http://www.novareinna.com/bridge/index.html
Zombie Ants http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/photogalleries/zombie-ants/

We had fun making this episode and we hope you enjoy listening to it!

Episode 023 – The State of Religion In A Global Consumer Culture

Montana — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 06:35:39 +0000

Hello,

We are back this week with a somewhat continuation of our last episode.

Key Questions/Points:

Impetus for thinking about this topic: Dan brown follow-up article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/opinion/19douthat.html?_r=1). What has happened to religion in a global consumer culture? Has its prominence wained? Has its prominence grown?

We live in a culture that wishes to consume everything from food, to clothes, to transportation, to sex…and of course, it also consumes religion. Not religion as a political force…not religion as that which can actually create things like political forms of life, or contribute to discussions of ethics, but religion as that which can be simply a product for the masses to integrate into their consumer consciousness.

Ridiculous Claim of the Episode:

The funamendalists, whether Muslim or Christian, have got one thing right: Religion, at the end of the day, if not enacted politically is, quite simply, a trend…a product…or in other words, a dis-empowered form of an otherwise powerful, political force. Par example: Muslim’s in Canada (mostly the male population) wish to have the right to have Sharia law in Canada as a formal, accepted law. Of course, many Canadians, and many Muslim women are against such a scenario as it is claimed that Sharia law contains within it statutes that suppress women. Now, this is significant, no doubt. What is more, however, notice how the problem isn’t just that the law is oppressive to women, but that it is another law in general. This is a case in which religion wishes to have political force, and where the state wishes that it wouldn’t. If the muslim’s want their own litte mosques and community centres where they can do their private thing, then that’s fine, but don’t get political — don’t assert yourself in issues of law, etc. Does this meant that the state should always deal with matters of law, which are really matters of community life, family, and ethics? Can religion not also have a say? And when it does have a say, does it have to always bow to the religion of the state?

Show Notes:

Rowan Williams – Sharia Law: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1575

Grab the episode here:

Josh Ritter, Escapism, and Heaven meeting Earth

Zac — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:42:17 +0000

Thin Blue Flame

I have recently been listening to Josh Ritter’s Thin Blue Flame (you can listen to it above, I linked it from his site) and can’t help but be struck by its beautiful and haunting exploration of God, the afterlife, and how our perceptions of the afterlife shape our ethics and our politics. Thin Blue Flame is a vision, ala John’s Revelation, that draws the reader/listener in with its compelling and disturbing imagery meant to shake us into a realization of our negative human tendency towards escapist conceptions of the afterlife that in turn negatively affect our ethics. If we, of course as the chosen ones, are escaping to a heavenly dwelling where we, along with God, will simply exist as energy ”mixing with nitrogen in lonely holes where neither Seraphim or raindrops go” then who cares if we spend our earthly time ”bringing justice to the enemies and not the other way around”….enemies defined of course by their lack of adherence to our particular God ordained “laws”, those things that we “loose on earth”. But as the song says, “If what’s loosed on earth will be loosed up on high
It’s a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die”. Who can dispute this when God’s laws explained on earth are often used to justify war against the “enemies” of God.

Throughout the song, there is a counter-appeal (over against the dualism of body-soul) to a heaven that is far more earthly; a heaven that is shaped “like the hips of a girl”; a heaven that is like a city where “the weddings in pollen and the wine bottomless And all wrongs forgotten and all vengeance made right The suffering verbs put to sleep in the night The future descending like a bright chandelier” (See Rev. 21:2 )

What is left of our goodness as created beings if all we can do is wish to escape the home which God has given us? What if redemption is the culmination of creation and not escape. What if heaven is “the world just beginning and the guests in good cheer”?

But, the alternative is to believe that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and thus Thin Blue Flame mourns: “Oh it’s hell to believe there ain’t a hell of a chance”

Throughout the song, there is also the constant refrain: “Only a full house is gonna make it through”. In other words, only a world that is full of created matter — body, earth, wilderness, diversity, — only a world where “heaven is so big there aint no need to look up”, only THAT world is anything worth hoping for in the afterlife. A different, redeemed world to be sure, but a world that can be called a “full house”, not just the emptiness of “a cold dark room”.

What do you think?

Episode 022 – Da Vinci and Demons

Montana — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:43:23 +0000

Thanks for your patience while we took a bit of a summer break.

This episode is all abut the controversy of Dan Brown’s novels/movies, Da Vinci Code plus Angels and Demons.

We talk about Dan Brown the person, try to understand his motives, talk about why Christianity may be the focus for this books, work through the challenges of what society determines as a balance between trying to start meaningful conversation and damaging a religious organization through literary writing.

We have a special guest, Meghan, who joins us and brings some added perspective on the discussion. Thanks Meghan!

Here’s some show notes:

Dan Brown info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Brown
Catholic Church says…: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/facts/fm0035.html
Examining Da Vinici Code: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaccuracies_in_The_Da_Vinci_Code
Satanic Verses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses

Here’s the MPig3:

Episode 021 – Christianity and Ecology

Montana — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:51:14 +0000

Hey! Thanks for tuning in to episode 21. We talk about the concept of being a “Green Christian”. We also discuss the ways the Chrisitian faith has been a stumbling block to ecological concerns? Is this a result of core tenets of the faith, or because of misuse of the Christian name/bad interpretations of Christian texts?

Here’s some show notes:

In Genesis the word till is Hebrew for “serve”.

- Lynn White Jr.: “Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.” The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.

- Faith Movements for Care for the Environment: http://www.greenfaith.org/

- Interesting Jewish Perspectives: http://www.greenfaith.org/spirit/jewish-teachings.html

This episode is 41 minutes., enjoy…

Episode 020 – Previous 19 Episode Review Party

Montana — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:30:09 +0000

Hey, we made it to 20!

To celebrate, the three of us got together and recorded a review episode. We walked through the previous 19 episodes and shared our thoughts. If you are new to this talk show you might find this episode very useful. If you listened to them all, then this episode will be a walk down memory lane.

This episode is one hour and 13 minutes long and contains content that some listeners might find objectional. Sorry, but what can we say, we’re lushes.

We had a blast recording this episode, so we hope you’ll enjoy it too.

Put the needle on the record here: