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Hume on Religion

By on January 4, 2010 5
Buddhist all agitated over lack of redemption

Buddhist all agitated over lack of redemption

Until now my blog has been proudly 100% Tiger-Woods-free, but I can’t resist quoting Brit Hume as he shares with us his vast knowledge of comparative religion:

The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith. He is said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be: “Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”

Yeah! No redemption for sinners in Buddhism! So take that, Ashoka!

In vaguely related news, this paper examines the question of what the other Hume might have known about Buddhism.

The Face of Nyarlathotep

By on January 3, 2010 2

And when he saw that crag he gasped and cried out aloud, and clutched at the jagged rock in awe; for the titan bulge had not stayed as earth’s dawn had shaped it, but gleamed red and stupendous in the sunset with the carved and polished features of a god.

Stern and terrible shone that face that the sunset lit with fire. How vast it was no mind can ever measure, but Carter knew at once that man could never have fashioned it. It was a god chiselled by the hands of the gods, and it looked down haughty and majestic upon the seeker. Rumour had said it was strange and not to be mistaken, and Carter saw that it was indeed so; for those long narrow eyes and long-lobed ears, and that thin nose and pointed chin, all spoke of a race that is not of men but of gods.

So writes Lovecraft in his novel Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath. Given his interest in both Easter Island and ancient Egypt, I suspect he had in mind both the mo’ai of the former and the visage of Akhenaten from the latter.

Akhenaten and mo'ai

Akhenaten and mo'ai

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