The "On Faith" trainwreck

It's ugly, it's horrible, and it shows all of the worst things one could see coming out in the open, things I really never wanted to see.  But yet I can't look away.  As one car after another goes off the bridge into the gorge, I just can't stop looking.

It's the trainwreck that is the "On Faith" website collaboration between the Washington Post and Newsweek.  I read the Post's website relatively regularly, and they frequently have a link to the latest nonsense off the front page.  I think I would really enjoy a thoughtful and reasoned discussion of religion in the public sphere.  This is anything but.  Imagine walking into the main concourse at JFK airport, on the day before Thanksgiving, during a major snowstorm, setting up a stage and PA system, then announcing, "We'd like to have a reasoned and thoughtful discussion on religion.  So let's kick it off with a few questions: Is Jesus the only possible source of truth in the universe, or a crazed nut who's the result of mass delusion?  Discuss!"  The only thing more embarassing than calling in crackpots like Daniel Dennett to write blurbs is the comments section, which is replete with people claiming to have logically disproven God, followed by the predictable damnations, and praying for souls, and those who are certain that any athiests around must not have heard of Jesus before.

Every time I read this, of course, I think, "What a monumental waste of time and energy!  This is useless!"  And then the next day, I'm back, clicking on it once again.

There's just something about trainwrecks...

Comments

[Celeste Copeland]

I see what you mean - although I don't have the stomach to keep watching that particularly messy accident. I was pleased to see that Katharine Jefferts Schori was one of the panelists, but I found her writing to be rushed and a little flippant, and the comments to her posts just about entirely rubbish. Too bad.