Former Christian missionary challenged to rethink his faith after learning the Piraha’s concept of experiential liminality

I was reminded of Daniel Everett’s book ‘Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes’ after a short discussion with a christian friend about people converting to Christianity.

Everett offers a great example, albeit rare, of a Christian missionary abandoning his faith due his experiences with the Amazonian tribe he was trying to convert. I particularly like this because he used to work for SIL (one of the organizations my father works for).

Check out these links to learn more, I guarantee that the Piraha tribe will fascinate you. I should also warn all you die hard Chomsky fans that some of Everett’s findings in the field of linguistics are challenging notions Chomsky has championed over the years…that said, I’m sure that if you are indeed a fan of Chomsky, it probably has little to do with his views on language and more to do with his political views, so you shouldn’t be upset

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNajfMZGnuo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr3q6Cid1po

Full audio lecture:

http://static.longnow.org/seminars/audio/2009-03-20-everett.mp3

Atheist Comedy

Having trouble with this link, hope it works now. Anyway, I’m sure you’re all familiar with these comics but I simply couldn’t resist posting this as Bill Hicks and David Cross are two of my favorite stand-up comics. After this post, I promise to start contributing more serious material.

Poverty-Stricken Africans Receive Desperately Needed Bibles

After reading Bob’s  Onion post: ‘Heckled Christian Band Knows How Jesus Felt’, I was reminded of another Onion article I read years ago that I think is guaranteed to make you all laugh and cry a little. Sadly, it sounds all too real!

http://www.theonion.com/articles/povertystricken-africans-receive-desperately-neede,1915/

Ricky Gervais: Bible Part 1

I’m sure many of you have already seen this, but on the off chance that you haven’t…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pbEjOH7t0Q

‘Prayer Partners’

Now I know this may seem somewhat inappropriate of me but I simply can’t resist the urge to share this. The ‘prayer email’ I received today (included below) is a perfect example of one of the many reasons Christian missionaries drive me crazy! In an attempt to be somewhat sensitive, I’ve removed the names of the couple responsible for this prayer letter:

Permission Slip

Darryl. The kind of friend Jesus would have