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Saturday, December 4, 2010

The Venerable Bede

Every now and again I am fortunate enough to come across a blog that is both interesting to read and good fun at the same time. After all, that is what we are after here. Well, in this case it came knocking, by way of adding itself onto What the..?'s followers list. What a pleasure then to bump into the Venerable Bede, who appears to hail from England, and announces without equivocation, the following:
"I dislike popular culture, moral cowardice, Fascism, hypocrisy and car showrooms."
Well, I most heartily agree with him on those sentiments, and I like a man that is upfront like that.

In his most recent effort he took to task the bruhaha over free speech, specifically as it ties in to the Islamic community in England. As a recent great post by blog fav Coco Rico touched on a related subject, it seemed like a good time to drop in on the Venerable Bede.  He was found to be commenting on the apparent spray painting of a Koranic verse passage number on the front doors of a mosque.  The passage referenced instructs Muslims not to befriend Jews and Christians.

"This is apparently the fourth time that the vandals have sprayed references to passages from the Koran urging the slaughter and subjugation of non-Muslims on the exterior of the building. The Mosque's president says the quotes to which they refer are being taken 'out of context'."
The Venerable Bede
to which the Venerable Bede opines:
"So here's the problem. Leaving aside for the moment the obvious criminality of illegal graffiti per se - which is obviously not what is causing such consternation here - can the simple, un-annotated citing of passages from a book that a religion believes to be the sacred word of God somehow constitute hate speech against that same religion?  A tough one to call."
That's good stuff. Read the rest here, and bravo Mr. Bede!

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link -- one doesn't often encounter an atheist on the internet who makes such a conscious effort to be fair (and honest) about "religion."

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  2. Ultimately, he's incoherent with respect to morality and society -- he is an atheist, after all -- but still a pleasure to read.

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  3. Yeah, he's a crack-up. I don't agree with everything he is saying, but that's always the case of course. And for reasons completely unknown to me, he comes out of nowhere and signs up as a follower? That's too funny!

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  4. Yes, I saw that. Congrats on your reach! ;)

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  5. Oh, and you're welcome. You know for what. ;)

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  6. I've been reading Mr Beads' old posts for the past few hours. Thanks again for directing my attention to his blog.

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  7. This guy is very funny. I have to put him on my to-read list!

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  8. I wish I could write like that. Thanks for the compass heading!

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  9. So Darrell, who is the face for the Venerable Bede? That is a theater actor from some time back, is it not?

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  10. Yes, an English actor. The first thing I thought of when I saw the pic was A Christmas Carol. I'm thinking the ghost of Christmas Present, or something, from a movie in the 30s or 40s. That's how the process starts.

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  11. I'll have you know that's my passport photograph.

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  12. You should see my driver's license photo. Or not, actually.

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  13. You did work on that picture with Picassa 3.0, though.

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  14. Hello, Venerable Bede! Delighted to have you drop by. We love your stuff, and will be sure to stop in from time to time to check on how you come along!!

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  15. Mr VB,
    I just noticed that you've decided to follow my little blog. Welcome, and thank you, and I hope you will find it worth following.

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