Donald Richie : Place for the dead in our living world

Bookreview on Bryan J. Cuevas and Jacqueline I. Stone (eds.), The Buddhist Dead : Practices, Discourses, Representations (Hawaii, 2007), at The Japan Times (15.07.2007) :

Buddhism has, at least in the public mind, monopolized death. In Japan, birth and marriage are usually Shinto sponsored, while Buddhism officiates at the less popular but equally inevitable funeral. Elsewhere, Buddhism may sponsor many a happier ritual, but from Sri Lanka through Tibet and China to Japan, it also holds hegemony over death. So much so that one Japanese lay Buddhist, Chigaku Tanaka, lamented that in the eyes of the laity the Buddhist clergy were little more than undertakers.

The connection between death and Buddhist belief began early — at the funeral of the Buddha himself. His death ritual became the model for many of the Buddhist deaths to follow — something that did not often occur in other religions, Christianity, for example. The funeral was not merely to mark the end of life and a presumed entry into Nirvana; it was also to ritualize the rite of passage during which the dead underwent a significant change of status. At least some of the dead.

Aronson : The New Atheists

Ronald Aronson, referring to Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, reflects on the New Atheists in the U.S. at The Nation (25.06.2007).

Aronson writes : "The success of the New Atheists may, however, reflect something significant among their audience. In the past generation in the United States, atheists, agnostics and secular humanists have been a timid minority--almost voiceless, often on the defensive, routinely derided, both warned against and ignored." -- "Almost voiceless"? Is it true? (not ironically, because I'm ignorant of the American religious scenes)

Well, should I upload the full text?

Isaac Bashevis Singer Comes Back From Dead as the Anti-Theist

By Ron Rosenbaum at The NY Observer (08.01.2007 Issue). Reviews Florence Noiville, Isaac B. Singer : A Life, FSG (October 2006) :

It’s remarkable, however, the way commenters on the new Singer book have failed either to grasp or to articulate the seriousness of Singer’s position, its centrality to him and his work, and the significance it has for the atheism/theism debate.

None has seen fit to give a name to Singer’s Third Position in the debate. So I will: It’s not atheism, not theism, but rather anti-theism, a provocative, profoundly different stance from either of the others. Simply put, contrary to the atheists, Singer believes in a God, but, contrary to the theists, he doesn’t believe in a just, loving or merciful God; he believes in a God who doesn’t deserve worship, a God who deserves our condemnation.